Three Alarm Tenant Page 3

  “West.” From that side of town, she reasoned, it would be easy to get a bus home if she needed one. She wanted to be prepared for anything.

  “West.” He went around the front of the truck and climbed in the other side. “There are two out that way.”

  Katherine sighed, biting back frustration. None of his references had mentioned this facet of his personality. “There are? Are you an aficionado of fast food locations?”

  “I did some overtime out there, so I paid attention to what was around in case it caught fire.” He turned to her in the dark cab. “So, which one? The one that’s further away is newer and seems to have better service, but the one that’s closer is quieter. That I did learn from eating too much fast food.” He winked.

  Katherine's breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t remember why his incessant questioning had annoyed her. He sat an arm’s length away. The last time she’d been in this position, she’d leaned over and kissed the driver. She bit her lip and leaned back against the door to check the impulse.

  “I don’t care. Either one.”

  As soon as the words were out she regretted them. She didn’t know how far out this other restaurant was, or if the buses ran there. At worst, she decided she could get a taxi, but she didn’t know how much it would cost. Assuming he would, for some reason, abandon her. Then he certainly wouldn’t get the apartment.

  “So,” Jack said.

  She turned to him. He sat looking at her for a minute. His hair caught the light of the street lamp. A lock of it lay oddly and Katherine had to concentrate on not reaching over to brush it back into place. She smiled tightly.

  He smiled back and involved himself with backing the truck onto the street.

  She sighed and waited. It wasn’t a date, she told herself. They were new friends commiserating about being alone on Valentine’s Day. But if that was the case, why were they sitting in an awkward, first date silence? Katherine shifted and tried to think of something to say before her jaw locked up and she couldn’t say anything at all. “So how was your afternoon in the park with Archer?”

  “Great. He gets pretty wound up when I’m on duty. I work twenty-four hour shifts and he’s cooped up in the apartment the whole time.”

  “Twenty-four hour shifts. That must be difficult.” Katherine folded her hands in her lap before she forgot herself and laid the left on the seat between them where he could lay his over it. As if he would want to.

  “It’s not so bad. We’re really just waiting most of the time.”

  “Waiting?”

  “Waiting for runs. We usually get three or four a shift, but it’s not always an emergency. Occasionally it’s a prank, sometimes it’s only somebody overreacting. Sometimes they decide they don’t need us after all. In between, we do maintenance, physical training, and white board sessions.” He shrugged. “What about you? What do you do? Besides rent an apartment.”

  “I teach high school English.”

  “Oh. I guess I better watch my language.”

  Katherine grimaced. Every time someone asked her what she did, and at least once every parent-teacher conference day, she heard that joke. They never seemed to understand it wasn’t funny after the first dozen times. Of course, she reminded herself, it wasn’t old to them. “Well, I promise not to grade you too hard,” she answered by rote.

  He chuckled, and the sound of it banished any annoyance she'd felt. It went straight to her knees, turning them to rubber and making her glad she was sitting down. “I bet you get that a lot,” he said.

  “Yes.” Katherine hoped she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt. What happened to friends? No one reacts to their friends like this. Maybe Pam was right, and she’d lost all her one-on-one people skills.

  “Well, I promise not to say it again if you promise not to say ‘where’s the fire.’”

  “I think I can manage that.” She opened her purse and started digging through it for Chapstick. Suddenly she felt as if she needed to occupy herself, particularly her hands. Out the window, familiar landscape slid past. It felt reassuring. Traffic seemed light for a Saturday, but then everyone probably had some place to go, and had gone before now.

  “So do you like teaching?” he asked, a little too loud.

  “Sometimes. It has its rewards and its challenges.” She found the tube rolling around in the bottom. Without flipping down the visor, she applied it. It gave her a moment to gather herself. And then he chuckled again.

  “You probably have a bunch of students like I was. Bad kids who sit in the back of the room and don’t finish their homework.”

  “I tend to move them up front and ask them questions. Sometimes they start doing their homework to keep from being humiliated in front of the class, and then sometimes they decide they like knowing the answers and getting good grades. Sometimes they hate me more.” Katherine closed her purse, folded her hands together and wished she’d stayed home tonight. She really didn’t know how to do this anymore, if she’d ever known.

  “Really? My teachers gave up on me most of the time.” He stopped for a traffic light and looked over at her. “As long as I was quiet and didn’t interrupt the kids who were trying, they didn’t care if I fell asleep.”

  “I don’t like to give up on anyone. But then that’s how I ended up here.” Katherine grumbled before she remembered where she was and who she was talking to. Her jaws clicked shut too late. Not only had he heard, but he'd been looking at her when she said it.

  He blinked, a little taken aback. “Well. Seen any good movies lately?” The light changed, and he focused on the road.

  Katherine stared at her hands in her lap. No wonder she never went out, she wasn’t fit company.

  “Seriously, seen any good movies? We have a guy at the station who’s a big movie buff. He’ll watch about anything. Old movies, foreign movies, B movies. It’s kinda neat the stuff he brings in. I think he’s got a deal with the little video store on McKinley so he can rent a bunch of stuff and return it late without having to pay a fee. He brought this one in a couple of weeks ago…”

  Katherine let him babble on about movies, half listening and glad it was dark. Did he think she meant here as in here with him? Should she explain she’d always believed the police force would bail her out if she needed them, and by the time she’d realized they wouldn’t, she’d been in over her head? Would that make her look even more silly and pathetic to someone who lived by the same code? Or would he be able to make her understand why they left her the way they had? Pam never understood why she felt so betrayed, but maybe Jack would. If she only had the courage to ask him. But how much of herself did she want to expose on this first not-date?

  They passed the Wendy’s she knew. Only half the tables were taken, but she suspected fast food wasn’t the dinner of choice for most couples on Valentine’s Day. Last Valentine’s Day, she’d sat at her desk with one light on and the heat turned down as low as she could stand to save a couple of bucks while she added up the state of her debt and graphed her decline into bankruptcy.

  “So.” Jack cleared his throat. “Have you seen any good movies lately?”

  “I don’t see many movies. The last thing I saw was Laurence Olivier in Hamlet when I showed it to the class.” Katherine looked out the windshield at the strip malls on either side of the road. This whole area had expanded since the last time she’d had extra money to shop with. At least she hadn’t blurted out how her DVD player had started eating DVDs nine months ago, and she’d given the TV to the school janitor in trade for some work he’d done because she ran out of cash.

  “Is it any good?”

  “It’s restrained.” Katherine focused on the film, forcing thoughts of strip malls, cops and Jack’s easy smile out of her mind. “Olivier plays Hamlet as a very tightly controlled character. The kids have an easier time with the Mel Gibson version because he plays it more tortured.”

  “Why didn’t you show that version to your class?”

  “I couldn’t get a
copy. The district only has one and somebody else got to it first. Fortunately, I have my own DVD of To Kill a Mockingbird for when my sophomore class gets to that point in the Spring.”

  “I read that in school. It was great.”

  “It’s one of my favorites. I teach it every year.” Katherine looked out her window and noted a bus stop. So buses did run out here. Now the question was, why was she so sure he would strand her?

  “Doesn’t that get boring? Teaching the same book year after year?” Jack flipped on his left turn signal and angled the truck into the turn lane.

  “No, I teach it to a different group of students every year.”

  He turned onto the access road to the Crossroads Plaza. “I don’t read much. I used to read those military mystery novels, but they all started to sound the same after a while. You know, militant nut decides to take over the world and the hero has to find him and stop him before he can succeed. Maybe you can turn me on to a new author or something.”

  “Maybe.” Katherine licked her lips, tasting the cherry Chapstick she’d put on. The phrase ‘turn me on’ caught in her mind and changed context. Turn him on? Certainly. Just say when. Then she realized it sounded as if he were making plans for the future with her. That probably meant he wasn’t going to desert.

  “Here we are. The new Wendy’s.” He turned into the parking lot.

  She surveyed the area. This had been an empty field the last time she came here. Now there were a couple of restaurants and a jewelry store. She felt as if, after years of living in a cave, she’d emerged into a new century. Of course large portions of last summer had been spent in the basement, which was as close to a cave as she ever wanted to get. “I didn’t know there was anything new out here.”

  “It only opened last summer. Nothing but the best for us.”

  “Well, it is Valentine’s Day, I guess beggars can’t be choosers.” She stepped out and took a deep breath. The air smelled like fried chicken and melting snow. A cool breeze caressed her cheeks. Suddenly her stomach growled. Jack stopped at the front fender and stood waiting for her, watching her.

  “It’s still warm. I feel as if something’s terribly wrong if I’m not wading though knee deep snow until April. We’re on parole from winter,” she announced to cover her odd pause. She hurried to the building, hoping the latest blush would fade before he noticed.

  “I know what you mean, this weather has been really weird. Not that I don’t like it, I’m waiting for the blizzards to come back.” He opened the door for her.

  “I hope this doesn’t mean it’s going to be a hundred and ten all summer long. Last year, I spent most of the summer in the basement battling the spiders and working on the foundation. I don’t have another job like that to keep cool this year.” She fought the urge to touch his coat as she passed him. It looked almost too teddy bear soft to resist.

  “What’s wrong with the foundation?” he asked, following her inside, almost on her heels.

  “Nothing now.” Katherine stepped into the queue. She knew what she was going to get. She always got the same thing so she would know how much it cost. “The mortar between the cement blocks had started to rot and I had to scrub it out and replace it. I warn you, the basement is inhabited by giant, fast, black spiders that are almost impossible to kill.”

  “Impossible to kill?”

  She shivered. “Unless you smash them between two hard surfaces like a concrete floor and a big dictionary, they keep running. And they crunch if you step on them.”

  “Maybe I’ll have to get a dictionary.”

  “I don’t think they bite. They’re just scary.” Katherine hugged herself more to keep track of her hands than to secure herself.

  “You really hate those spiders, don’t you?” Jack grinned at her.

  “Well, let’s just say if you hear a lot of screaming and banging from upstairs, assume the spiders have moved in with me.”

  “I’ll protect you.”

  Katherine studied him dispassionately. He looked so good and seemed so nice, why did he have to keep reminding her how inappropriate he was?

  “I knew you would,” she grumbled.

  She stepped up to the counter and ordered. She held out the exact change before the cashier gave her the total. Jack ordered while other employees got her food, and she used the opportunity to study him out of the corner of her eye. He chatted with the cashier who, of course, glowed under his attentions. Then he started digging through his pockets for money. He pulled out a Swiss army knife, a set of keys, a dog whistle, two mangled Band-Aids and a handful of change. Frowning, he patted his other pockets.

  “It’s here some place. I had it when I left the apartment.” He started through his pockets again. “Ah ha. Here it is.” He pulled a battered wallet out of his fleece jacket and, grinning at Katherine and the cashier, sorted through his money.

  Katherine collected her tray. She stopped at the condiment station to survey the seating choices while Jack gathered up his belongings and joined her.

  “So, you have a firm idea on where you want to sit?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes.” After the litany of questions on where to eat, she wasn’t leaving this to debate. She picked up her tray and headed for a corner table by the window.

  He followed, sitting across from her at the two person table. “Good choice. What do total strangers talk about over dinner?”

  Katherine unwrapped her sandwich. “I have no idea. This was your suggestion.”

  “Oh yeah. I forgot. Well, what did you do this afternoon?”

  “I called your references.” She focused on arranging her fries on her sandwich wrapper and getting her straw unwrapped and into her cup. She didn’t want to look up at him, because if she did, he might smile at her, and then she would lose her resolve to not be attracted to him. She felt like a moth telling itself ‘don’t look into the flame, don’t look into the flame.’

  “And they told you I’m a serial killer wanted in seventeen states?” He looked at her for a moment before leaning across the table. “It was a joke.”

  She cocked her head to one side and studied him. He had a faint smile on his face that almost enticed her more than the serious stare he’d been giving her when she showed him the apartment. As she watched, his expression turned a little uncertain, as if he'd realized he’d gone a tad too far. The longer she hesitated, the more uncertain his smile became and even that was endearing. “I know. I was trying to decide if it was funny enough to laugh at.”

  Jack cringed. “Ouch.”

  Katherine smiled. She’d forgotten how it felt to chat. “They were all complimentary. I want to contact your employer before I make any decision.”

  Jack shrugged. “Okay. I’ve worked for the department for twelve years. They know who I am. How long have you been a teacher?” He bit into his burger.

  “Five years. I was engaged for eight.” Katherine bit her tongue. She hadn’t meant to say that. Why wouldn’t Gary stay away?

  He nodded as if she hadn’t answered more than he asked. “Did you always want to be a teacher?”

  “Yes. It’s a very reliable, safe profession. Society will always need teachers.”

  “And it doesn’t involve burning buildings,” he added, dipping a French fry into her ketchup.

  “Most of the time, no. We frown on burning down the school. I think that would result in a lot of detention. Possibly expulsion.” She tried to remain serious and thoughtful, but part of her wanted to giggle over the fact that he’d stolen her ketchup. Pam was right. She had lost her one-on-one people skills.

  He laughed. “I bet. I don’t think I’d mind detention though.”

  “Why?”

  “If I got to stay after school with you.” His molten eyes turned very serious, sending a thrill down her spine.

  Katherine looked down at her fries to hide her blush. “You must want that apartment quite a bit.”

  He shrugged and didn’t answer.

  * * * *


  “That was stupid,” Kevin announced resting one hip against the bathroom counter.

  Jack leaned out from under the sink, wiping off the wrench. “Why?”

  “What were you trying to do? ‘If I got to stay after school with you.’ It looks like a line. It sounds like a line. It must be a duck. Have you ever been subtle in your life?” Kevin shook his head.

  “I like her.”

  “You like her, or you like her apartment?”

  “I like her,” Jack repeated. He’d spent most of last night dwelling on that question. He wanted to believe he loved the apartment and liked the landlady, but he hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night with the bright, airy foyer on his mind.

  Kevin brushed his hand through his dark hair. Jack knew that gesture usually indicated a lecture on the way. “Are you about done there?”

  “I've been done for fifteen minutes. You're the one who wanted to hang out in the bathroom.” Jack closed the tool box. He’d have preferred to have something else to work on, both to avoid the lecture and to keep his mind off Katherine Pelham. “Besides, it couldn’t have been that bad. We had a great time. She's really funny, and really smart. I don’t know. She runs hot and cold, though.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When she found out I worked for the department she closed up, but then she went out with me, and we had a great time.”

  “But, she paid for herself. You didn’t exactly get a date with her.” Kevin walked out of the bathroom. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be trying to date a woman who might end up as your landlord.”

  “Might save time. She’ll already have a key to my place.”

  “Ha ha. What if it ends badly? You’ll be out a girlfriend and a place to live. Your track record isn’t great. Remember Cynthia?”

  Jack shuddered. Cynthia had been fun and a little wild. He hadn’t realized her ‘little wild’ would turn into ‘little crazy’ on such short notice until too late.

  “You still have scars from the ashtray she threw at you.”

  “So I stopped dating smokers.” Jack fingered the crescent shaped scar on his chin.