Mr. Wrong (A Homespun Romance) (15 page)

“No, Cody.”

Cody was silent for a minute and then his chin wobbled as he wanted to know, “Who loves you if you don’t have a Mummy or a Daddy?”

The break in his voice got through to the two adults.  Taken by surprise Kate didn’t know what to say but Brady stepped into the gap at once, “I do, Cody.  And so do you.”

Cody stared at them trying to assimilate what he’d just heard.

Just as Brady was beginning to relax Cody spoke again.  “Did you put a baby in Miss Katie’s stomach?” he enquired pleasantly.

Brady choked on his food and Kate dived under the table to look for a napkin that wasn’t there.  By the time order was restored, both adult faces had a high color.

“No Cody,” Brady’s voice had a strangled sound.

“Well, Holly said when a Daddy loves a Mummy he.....”

“Cody would you like some ice cream now?”  Kate was on her feet in a desperate attempt to stave off sharing Holly Sarn’s version of the birds and the bees.  The four year old was one of the most precocious youngsters at Wee Folks, with a mother who treated her like a grown up, and the girl insisted on sharing her knowledge with the less well informed.  Kate moved away from the table.  At the very least she was determined to be out of hearing range for the latter half of Cody’s faux pas.

Picking up her plate she almost ran into the house.  On the deck Brady turned to his nephew and said, “Sing that song about Noah’s ark for me, will you?”

As a red herring, it worked.

CHAPTER
7

Kate had her books out when he came down after tucking Cody up and Brady’s heart curled up in pain.  The day together, the shared laughter, the adhesive bond Cody provided were all gone.  And so was the friendly laughing woman he’d ached to hold in his arms all day.  It was as if an invisible sergeant major had yelled, `As you were!’ while he’d been upstairs.

“Exams,” she said briefly, "and I have to do some serious studying to get even a passing grade in Principles and Practice.”

“Would you like some coffee?” 

Anyone can tell you’re desperate Brady.  Why don’t you just go ahead and offer to serve up your heart as well?

Kate looked up surprised and for a minute he thought she would refuse and take away his last excuse for staying on. 

But then she said, “May I have some tea instead?” 

Brady nodded gladly, turning to the stove wondering if Cody had hurt her inadvertently with his innocent questions but not liking to ask.

Kate stared at the paragraph on Maria Montessori in front of her blankly.  Why didn’t Brady just leave?  Taken unawares by Cody’s question, she had been surprised at the pain that had shot through her. 

“If you don’t have a Mommy or a Daddy, who loves you?”  the childish treble sounded clearly in her ears.

Why hadn’t she told him the truth? 

`Nobody loves me Cody, because I won’t let them.’

That the three year old had minded that she had no one to love her had brought her own pain home to Kate.  Where was her theme song now, adopted from a poem she’d come across in her schooldays, `I love nobody, no not I, for nobody loves me’?  She couldn’t bring the same feeling to the words she used to.

Had her father ever loved her?  She doubted it.  She didn’t have a single memory of his affection to hold on to, not a gesture, not a look, not a word.  Had her mother?  Maybe.  Now and then her voice had held a certain softness and she had called her Kate love about half a dozen times in her life.  The love may have been there but it had been buried under the struggle for existence her mother’s life had been, never talked about, never felt.

Were Cody’s words a prod that she had again grown lax, forgotten her roots, her intentions?  Life had a way of reminding her all the time of whom she really was.

“Katie?” 

Her gaze fixed on him, blankly at first, then with dawning recognition and she slowly took the steaming mug of tea from his hands.

“Thank you.”

Brady turned a kitchen chair straddling it, and looked at the books on the kitchen table.  What private devil was torturing her now?  The eyes that had looked at him had hinted at a bottomless well of misery. 

Slowly picking up a book he leafed through it.  It opened automatically apart at a certain page.  Brady saw a white paper there, like a bookmark and before he realized what he was doing, he had scanned it.  It was a list of expenses, the amounts neatly entered against them.  Katie’s budget for May.  The balance according to the figures at the bottom would be exactly twelve dollars.  Which he was sure had been depleted by the picnic Katie had provided today.  Tucked in carefully behind the paper were a few coupons.

The muscles in Brady’s throat constricted but he forced himself to say, “What made you take up teaching Katie?”

“When I was in school,” Kate said slowly still not completely free of the chains of memory, “I used to think life was not worth living.”  She laughed, a jeering sound in the quiet room and Brady flinched at the sound as if she’d struck him.  “People think of teens and adults committing suicide but I was a ten year old who wanted to.  For a long time I thought death would end the pain.  One person guessed how I felt.  A teacher.  She used to keep me after school and let me help her in the room.  Mrs. Hughes sensed I needed that time with her.  She used to talk and talk and talk to me.  She made me believe in myself, made me see that I could mold my own future.  ‘Education’, she always said, ‘education will set you free, Kate’.  It did, and when the time came to choose a career I knew I wanted to be like her, do what she did.”

Brady deliberately took a sip of the scalding tea before asking, “Have you always taught preschool?”

"No.  From the time I got a work permit at sixteen I worked in a grocery store as a bagger, then as a cashier.  When I left school at eighteen I did it full time to support my mother and myself.  When she died, I started taking classes in child development.  I was making good money by then but hated the area I lived in.  When I got the chance to move to Jacaranda Meadows I grabbed it.  The preschool accepted me and I quit the other job.”  Her voice trailed away as Kate realized she had said too much, then picked up, tried for levity, “And that’s the story of my life in a nutshell.  Tune in tomorrow at the same time for the next episode of `Kate in East L.A’.”  The laugh came out as flat as a fallen soufflé.

Brady wasn’t deceived by the smile trembling on her lips.  He knew her too well not to guess the wounds had been raked over by the telling.  His grip tightened on the mug in his hand. 

If only Katie would let him hold her, let the mingling of their tears could anesthetize the wound.  But she was like a prickly hedgehog and he didn’t quite know how to handle her.

So, listening to the promptings of his legal mind, Brady decided to hold his own counsel for the time being.  Finishing his tea he rinsed the mugs out and then let himself out of the house aching for a touch of her lips against his.

“There’s a doggy outside Miss Katie,” Cody said.

He was on a chair helping her dry their breakfast dishes.  Kate joined him at the kitchen window and saw the black dog sniffing hopefully around the bushes.  As they watched, he ran to the end of the drive and then came back.

"Maybe he’s just out for a run,” Kate suggested looking to see if his owner was in sight.

The road stretched empty on either side and Kate wondered if someone had let the dog out by himself.  Her eyes lingered on the jacarandas with pleasure.  They were in full bloom now, bright purple splashes against the sky, the falling blooms appearing like a reflection of their grandeur.

“He’s just out for a run,” echoed Cody, "Let’s watch the Sesame Street now.” 

Mrs. Webb had taped all the shows Cody might want to watch with her.  “Any time you’re tired just put on a show for him.  Don’t let him wear you out.  We don’t normally let him watch too much but it helps in a pinch.”

There was no sign of Brady and Kate told herself she hoped it stayed that way.  Then she hoped she bought the white lie..

“The doggy’s still there, Miss Katie,” Cody had climbed back on the chair after twenty minutes of watching TV Alf, telling her he needed a drink of water.

Kate joined him at the window at the same time as the dog looked up and barked at them.

“Why doesn’t he go home?” demanded Cody.

“Maybe he’s lost.”  He looked thin and his fur had matted with mud at the sides.  He caught Kate’s eye and barked again, ending on a pathetic little howl.

She headed for the garage, Cody close on her heels. 

“Stand back Cody,” she warned as she pressed the button that operated the garaged door opener and the mutt bounded in.

Licking her hand as if he knew her from another birth, his tail wagged nineteen to the dozen, while Kate searched the fur around his neck for a collar and identity tag.  There was nothing.

“Miss Katie can I touch him now?”  As Cody was already having his hand licked there was nothing Kate could do but agree.

The sound of an approaching car made the dog cower closer to the little boy.

“Good morning!”  Brady looked well rested and very, very male in his denim shorts and cut off vest, it’s red color and brevity providing a perfect foil for his thought provoking torso.  Didn’t he ever work at the weekends?

“Who do we have here?  Rin Tin Tin?”

The dog sensing another sympathizer bounded over to him.

“He seems to be lost.”

“No name tag either,”  Brady’s fingers were scratching the dog’s neck.  Sitting on his haunches, the sinewed thighs taut to maintain balance, he looked the epitome of viripotent masculinity.

Cody had gone over to Brady.  Leaning over his shoulder he asked, “Is he lost Uncle Brady?”

“Looks like it, buddy.”

Kate went inside, poured milk into an empty plastic tub that had at some time held whipped cream and crumbled bread into it.

The dog fell on the meal and they watched as he slurped noisily.

“Have you called the humane society?”  Brady asked.

“Not yet,” said Kate knowing it’s what she had to do. 

The animal had no tag.  Had the owner simply abandoned it or was it a runaway?  Without identification the humane society couldn’t find the owner.  All they’d do was board the animal and wait a while for someone to claim it.  Then it would be put to sleep.

“Maybe if we wait a while....” her eyes pleaded with Brady to understand.

“How long has the dog been here?”

“We saw it about nine this morning,” Kate said slowly.

“We have to call the humane society, Katie,” said Brady gently, “maybe the owners are already looking for it.”

He turned to go indoors. 

‘Maybe not’, thought Kate rebelliously.  ‘Maybe he’s just another stray like me.  Maybe nobody gives a damn if he lives or dies.’

The officer that came out from the humane society was pleasant.  Slipping a leash on the dog she put him in the back of her van, thanked them for calling her and said the dog seemed to come from a loving home, in which case his owner would surely be looking for him.

“Would you let us know if someone comes for him, please?”  Kate hated to see the dog go.

“Sure,” the woman entered the Webbs’ telephone number in her cell phone.  Then she was gone.

“He’ll be fine,” Brady said quietly.

Weren’t those the same words people used when they didn’t want to be bothered any more by
something?  A sop to their comfortable consciences?

“Have you ever been to an animal shelter Brady?”  Kate demanded fiercely, “Have you seen the expression in those dogs’ eyes?  Most of them know they’ve been abandoned, know they’re going to be put to sleep, through no fault of their own.”

Turning away without waiting for an answer she went indoors, brushing angrily at the tears on her face.

She fixed lunch without saying a word.

‘Stop doing this to yourself.  Stop seeing a connection between you and the dog.  Stop hearing Cody’s voice going around in your brain, `Who loves you Miss Katie?  Who? Who? Who?’

Cody chattered about the dog and Brady listened as best as he could, his mind preoccupied with Katie’s turmoil.

I know you wanted me to do something more for the dog, Katie mine, but I’m sorry I couldn’t.

“I know what,” he said aloud startling Cody in the middle of his third round of, `I petted the dog,’ story, startling Katie too into looking up at him.  “I know what we can do.  We’ll make some notices about the dog and put them up at all the entrances to Jacaranda Meadows and by the grocery store.  The owner’s sure to see one of them.”

When Katie smiled at him through her tears Brady knew he’d never need to see another rainbow for as long as he lived.

“Yes, please,” she said.

“Yes, please,” echoed an excited Cody, not very sure why his uncle and his teacher were looking at each other like that.  Usually when his Mommy and Daddy did that it ended with him being told to go and play in his room for a while.