Indomitable Spirit (7 page)

The compliment must have confused him because his brows knit, then he nodded.

“Thanks.”

“Will I see Jacob and Abby today?”

“Yeah.” He looked toward Malory who was signaling for him to close the door, so he did and she was more than surprised to find she was on the outside of the building and so was he. “If it ain’t too much trouble I’ll come by before they’re done and check your filters on your furnace.”

“That wasn’t part of your list from last night.”

“No, but snow is coming and you need to make sure the kids, and yourself, are comfortable. You can’t afford for the furnace to go down.”

“Right.” She wanted to smile. Oh, she wanted to smile so much. “Jacob will enjoy having you there to see him.”

He stuck his hand in the pockets of his brown Carhartt jacket. “He’s really happy working with you. And if it keeps him from getting into trouble and doing his school work,” he stopped and laughed, “and reading to his little brother after he washes dinner dishes, then I support you.”

Kym batted her eyes quickly hoping the dampness would freeze up before the tears of pride spilled down her cheeks.

“He’s helping at home?”

“More than you could know.”

“I’ll make sure he’s rewarded for his hard work. So far he has the most stripes in the class, and it’s only been a week. At graduation he’ll be earning a medal.”

“He’d like that.”

Kym had an awkward way around this grumpy man. “My grandfather is waiting for his muffin.”

John nodded. “Hey, tell him thanks for teaching my dad those relaxation methods. His doctor says he looks healthier than he has a in a long time.”

Kym wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but she was starting to feel the chill all the way to her bones, so she nodded and walked to her car.

She pulled open the door with her free finger and balanced her coffee and the bag into the car as she slid in behind the steering wheel. When she looked back at the bakery John still stood outside watching her.

She felt her breath stick in her lungs. With a wave she started the car and backed out of the parking lot, aware that he was still watching her.

There were a lot of things she wouldn’t do and get involved with a married man was one of them. He was completely off limits, but her body didn’t seem to understand that.

Malory was laughing when John pushed open the door. Christopher was standing behind her, a cup of coffee in his hand. He hadn’t even seen him walk in.

“Dude, you’re toast.” Chris smiled behind his mug.

“And what does that mean?” John pulled his gloves off and shoved them into his pockets.

“The karate woman. You have eyes for her.”

“Shut up.” He ripped off his coat and hung it on the back of an empty chair. “She’s teaching Jacob and Abby.”

Chris’s expression changed. “You can’t afford two kids in karate.”

“I know that. They worked it out with her. They’re doing work for her in return for classes.”

Malory smiled as she poured a mug of coffee and waddled around the counter to hand it to John. “I think that is very nice.”

“I’m going to head over today and check out the building. It’s old and could use a few repairs.”

That sent Chris into a bout of laughter again as he walked around the counter and sat down at the table where John had hung his coat.

“The kids pimped you out?”

John narrowed his gaze at his old friend. “No. I offered.”

“And you don’t think you’re toast?”

John picked up the coffee mug and sipped. He looked down where Chris sat, grinning up at him. He didn’t like that anyone noticed. Yeah, he knew he was toast.

John spent a few hours working at Malory’s. He was almost done, but he didn’t want to paint until she wasn’t around. Then he headed over to Maggie’s restaurant to fix the garbage disposal. Thankfully she served him lunch. A trip by the store to see what else his sister had for him and he’d be on his way to Kym’s to fix anything he could find to fix.

When he walked through the front door of the store he hadn’t expected Cody and Mason to be there running to greet him. He quickly bent to meet them, as Mason had become crotch-high and had run toward him with full intent to hug him only to have him barreled over more than once.

“What are you two doing here?” He asked, but the both fought for him to pick them up, which he did. “Kelley, where’s Mom?”

His sister just smiled. “Mr. Kym is giving some kind of meditation class over at the senior center and they both wanted to go.”

“Is that so?”

“Uh-huh.” She reached for Cody and pulled him off of John and held him on her hip. “Dad’s doing really well with all the things he’s learning. So she wanted to learn some new stuff too.” She rubbed noses against her nephew and Cody laughed before resting his head on her shoulder.

“I wish I would have known she was going to do that. This isn’t the safest place for these guys.”

Kelley scoffed. “We didn’t have any options growing up and we turned out just fine. Give them a break. You can’t protect them every minute of the day.”

“Yes I can. That’s my job.”

She shook her head. “You worry too much. If you don’t stop you’ll end up like dad.”

He certainly didn’t want that. The last thing he wanted was his kids orphaned and his sister left to raise them.

“Is she coming back before school is out?”

Kelley shrugged. “She didn’t say.”

John looked at the clock on the wall behind his sister. School would be out in twenty more minutes. He walked away, Mason still on his hip. Just like a customer in his own store he looked at all the filters for furnaces he had in stock.

Biting down on his lip he tried to remember what kind of model furnace was in Kym’s building. He reached and grabbed two different sized filters for good measure.

“Write these down.” He walked back toward the counter holding the filters.

“What are you doing with those?”

“Paying off my kids’ karate classes.”

Kelley grinned wide. “No kidding?”

“Listen, just do it.”

Kelley set Cody down on the floor and he migrated to John’s leg. She took out a notebook and wrote down the code for the filters.

“I didn’t know the kids were doing karate,” she said as she put the notebook back under the counter.

“I didn’t either. Seems like they worked it out themselves with Kym.”

“Kym?” Her smiled had grown even wider.

“That’s her name.”

“I know her name. I’ve met her. She’s cute.”

“So?”

“So!” Now Kelley was laughing just as Christopher had been. “You’re still here, John. You’re a living, breathing man. It’s okay to enjoy a woman.”

“She doesn’t even like me.”

“Not too many people do. You’re a crabby old man, and I don’t think you’re all that old.”

Didn’t he know it? His disposition had never been good, but once Abigail had died he’d become, like she said, a crabby old man.

“I’m not looking for a woman. I have my hands full.”

“I’m just saying maybe you could feel it out. I’d be happy to watch these guys if you wanted to take her out to dinner or something.”

His sister’s smile had pursed and now she was planning.

“No. No dinner. No dates. No dating,” he said sternly. “Listen, I want to get these over there. Are they okay here with you?” He nodded to the two boys. One was playing peek-a-boo around his leg with the other which he still held on his hip.

“Nope. My busiest time is right after school. You know that. Mom said watch them until you got here and here you are.”

John growled. “Where’s their stuff?”

With his two bundled munchkins in tow, John parked in the parking lot at Kym’s school, which was already dusting over with the few snowflakes which had begun to fall. He wanted to get it lined for her, but that would have to wait. Once the snow fell in Aspen Creek—it stayed on the ground.

John jumped out of his truck, shut the door, and hurried to the other side to unbuckle the boys.

“You stand right here. Don’t move,” he told them as he walked to the back of the truck to grab the filters. When he came back around to the front the boys were gone. He looked toward the building and there they were, their little runny noses pressed to the window of the school.

He walked toward them and then noticed what had caught their attention.

Kym was in the center of the floor, her uniform on and her hair tied back. There was some kind of contraption in front of her with boards on it. It looked to be about four boards. She looked at them. Held her hand out as if to measure her distance, and then turned her back to the machine.

She took three very long and calculated steps away, then turned.

Her hands came up in defense. Suddenly her body seemed light as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

Then even through the glass on the front of the building and the wind in his ears, he heard her let out what he assumed was a battle cry and run at the boards.

In a fluid motion she jumped, one leg tucked up in front of her, the other leg extended out to the side. She flew through the air and right though those four boards which the contraption held.

“Cool!” both boys exclaimed in unison.

John felt the cold air fill his lungs as he’d gasped in. He’s put his hand through a hollow door once and thought he was pretty cool. Nothing compared to what that woman could do to a helpless stack of wood. And his sister thought it would be wise to date her? Maybe Kelley had a death wish for him.

“I wanna do that,” Mason turned to him and grinned.

“Me too. Me too,” Cody chanted.

Wasn’t going to happen, but they were making a lot of noise about it.

“Boys.” He held up his hand to quiet them. “I have to go inside and fix something for Miss O’Bryne. You need to be quiet.”

Mason nodded and Cody followed suit taking his father’s extended hand. John motioned to Mason to open the door for them and he did, and then stepped behind his father who caught the door with his foot.

Kym turned around as they walked in and her eyes widened.

“You brought a crew with you,” she said as she backed off the floor, bowing, before she turned and walked toward them. “Who are these guys?”

“This is Mason. And this one,” he ran his hand over the thick blonde hair of his youngest son, “is Cody.”

Kim squatted down so that she was eye to eye with Mason. “It sure is nice to meet you, Mason.”

Mason took a step backward toward John’s leg, but Kym didn’t move. “It looks like your dad is here to put new filters in the furnace. Would you boys like to kick some pads with me?”

Mason was quick to nod.

“You don’t have to entertain them. You have a class soon.”

Kym looked up at him and smiled. “You’re right. I do. And these two would be more than welcome to join us for a few minutes.”

She twisted and looked at Cody. Her eyes softened. “Cody, would you like to join me? Yes, ma’am?”

John watched his son process the fact that the woman hadn’t given him a choice. He nodded automatically even though he didn’t move toward her quickly.

Kym smiled wider as she stood. “Looks like we are settled then.” She held her hands out for each boy to take and John was surprised when both of them took her hands and walked with her toward the training floor. He couldn’t hear her words, but he knew she was explaining the process to them as they all three bowed.

He wasn’t sure he liked the fact that the woman had some ancient Asian magic she used on them. The commands, the bowing, the getting exactly what she wanted when she wanted it—that bothered him. Already his two oldest were working for her to take her classes. And now his two youngest were out there following every word she said to them. They didn’t listen to him like that. And, as he walked to the back of the school with filters tucked under his arm, he realized he too had fallen victim to her voodoo with those green eyes.

John gritted his teeth as he made his way to the furnace. Oh, he’d gotten himself into this one. Who was he to offer help out of nowhere? That wasn’t his style. And as he pulled up the door to replace the filter he realized that was just what he’d done. He’d been the one to volunteer. In fact, hadn’t the woman said she didn’t need his help?

And what was all that crap Chris was talking about him being toast? Stupid friends. They didn’t know everything.

John examined the two filters. He took the one that wouldn’t fit and set it against the wall. Then he slid the correct filter into the slot and looked around the back room of the school. The water heater was old. She was going to have to replace that soon, he thought. He’d have Kelley order one up and have it on hand.

He looked at the old windows. They’d been painted shut about a million times. That was a fire code violation. Oh, Marcus Hunt would have a hay day with that.

He could hear Cody’s little voice attempt at making some loud grunt as he kicked a pad and Kym cheered him on. Well if she wanted to babysit them for a few minutes he’d let her. No skin off his nose.

He noticed a screwdriver on the counter and he took it to the window. He could at least break some of the paint seal and see how much damage there was. And why not? She was entertaining the troops. She deserved this. John chuckled to himself as he drug the sharp edge of the screwdriver through the caked on paint. If she wanted to take on kids that weren’t hers, then she should be stuck with them.

The screwdriver dug into the paint, but only managed to make a scratch.

He was going to need something much bigger than a screwdriver. Setting it on the windowsill he pulled a utility knife out of his pocket, opened it, and began making grooves into the paint. Now he was making progress.

Finally, the window had been freed from the captive paint. Wiggling the pane, he managed to get it to budge from the position in which it had been stuck in for years.

“I thought you were just changing out the filters.” Kym’s voice rang in his ears.

She stood in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest and her head cocked to the side.

“Did that. Noticed your windows were sealed shut. That’s a fire code violation. So I got one unstuck. It’ll take some time to get the other four open.”