His Holiday Family. Margaret Daley

for the desk to retrieve a red marker.

       “Sure. I noticed it was a little bare after seeing yours, Jared.”

       “Can I sign yours, too? I’ll let you do mine.”

       Kathleen relaxed back against the chair while the boys wrote their names on Gideon’s cast. As he searched Jared’s cast for a blank space to put his signature, her throat tightened. Lately her two sons hadn’t done anything together without launching into a fight. When Kip finally spotted a place for Gideon to scribble his name, Kathleen lowered her head and blinked away the moisture in her eyes. How could she let something as simple as this get to her?

      Chapter Three

      Later that evening, with darkness beyond the porch light, Kathleen drew in a deep breath of the cool air with a salty tang to it. The Gulf of Mexico was one block away. She could almost hear the waves crashing against the shore. When she got a chance, she loved to run on the beach early in the morning before the town woke up. It had become her haven since she’d come back to Hope.

       Still in her scrubs from work, she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “It’s starting to finally feel like fall some. I’d gotten used to having four seasons in Colorado.”

       Gideon came up behind her and leaned back on the railing. “I’m going to hate seeing October end next week. It’s one of my favorite months. In the middle of football season. Not as oppressively hot as in the summer. But I’ll take that over cold weather any day. I’m a New Orleans native—hot and muggy is what I’m used to.”

       “Jared and Kip won’t like the fact it rarely snows here. When I was growing up in Hope, it only did once. An inch. Shut down the whole town for a day until it melted.”

       “Do they know that?”

       “I’m not telling them.”

       The sound of his chuckle filled the space between them, warming Kathleen. His gaze roamed over her features and for a few seconds wiped all thoughts from her mind, except the man who had shared a dinner with them and entertained her sons with stories about his job. Kip had hung on every word Gideon had said. Even Jared had listened until he couldn’t sit still any longer. He’d lasted fifteen minutes, five minutes longer than usual.

       “Thanks for bringing the pizzas over. You’re a big hit with my sons.”

       “They’re good kids.”

       She opened her mouth to agree with him when she heard a scream then, “Mom!”

       She rushed into the house and hurried down the hallway, Gideon right behind her. Past calamities caused by her sons zipped through her thoughts. Jared ran out of his bedroom with Kip on his heels. Her older son tackled his brother to the floor.

       “You’re dead meat. How many times do I have to tell you not to touch my stuff?” Kip sat on Jared’s chest, pinning his brother’s arms to the carpet with his knees. He raised his hands and balled them.

       “Kip, get off Jared.”

       Kip flashed her a scowl, his fists still hovering over Jared’s face. “He tore up my notebook. I had my homework in it for school tomorrow.”

       Kathleen settled her hand on Kip’s shoulder. “I’ll take it from here.”

       “But, Mom, I’ve got to do my homework over. It’s all torn up. It was hard. I hate math, and now I’ve got to figure it all out again.”

       Gideon stepped into Kip’s line of vision. “You know I’m pretty good with math. I’ll help you while your mom and Jared have a talk.”

       Kip’s eyes grew round. “You will?”

       Gideon nodded.

       “I’ll get my book. There’s paper in the desk in the kitchen.” Kip bounced once on his brother’s stomach, which produced a grunt from Jared, then stood.

       Scrambling to his feet, Jared grimaced, holding his middle. “Mom, did you see him? He hurt me. On purpose.”

       Kathleen waited to answer him until Kip and Gideon disappeared down the hallway, then she whirled to face Jared. “You used your brother’s school notebook to make paper wads?”

       He suddenly found a spot on the floor by his feet extremely interesting. Scuffing his tennis shoe against the carpet, he murmured, “He hadn’t finished his homework. He only had four problems done. He’d told Nana he had done more than he had after school.”

       “That’s not the point. You have to respect your brother’s things.”

       Jared lifted his head. “I want my own room like I had in Colorado. I hate sharing with him. He’s always bothering my stuff. He always has to be first. He always has to have the last word.”

       “That isn’t going to happen anytime soon.”

       “Why did we move here? I hate this place. I miss my friends.” Tears glistening in his eyes, he curled his fingers into tight balls, his face screwed up into a frown.

       “I had to sell our house in Colorado. We needed a place to live. I grew up here, and I thought you all would enjoy it like I did.”

       The frown deepened into a scowl. “You’re a girl. All my friends are back home. Not here.”

       “You’ve got friends. How about Charlie down the street? How about the kids who signed your cast?”

       A teardrop shone on his eyelash then rolled down his cheek. He knuckled it away. “It’s not the same.” He spun on his heel and raced into his room, throwing himself on his bed and burying his face in his pillow.

       After entering, Kathleen sat next to her son and laid her hand on his arm. “Honey, I know this house is small, but it’s all I can afford. One day we’ll get to move to a bigger place.”

       Jared popped back up, his eyes flaring wide in hope. “Back home?”

       “No. We’re staying in Hope. I need my family around me.”

       “They can come visit. I’ll even let Nana have my room when she does and share with Kip.”

       “Honey, that’s not possible.”

       Jared turned his back on her and hugged his pillow to his chest. “You don’t care about what I want. We were fine where we were.”

       Coming to Hope hadn’t been an easy decision. She’d hated asking for help, but she’d had no choice. She’d needed a support system and a means to save money to pay off the debts. “I’ll always care, but we had to move. The cost of living was too high in Colorado.”

       Still facing away from her, he murmured, “Cost of living?”

       “How much it takes to pay for things you need.”

       “I don’t have to have ice cream, and you can forget I want a new bike for Christmas. The one at Nana’s is just fine, even if it’s a girl’s.” He twisted toward her. “And I can wear Kip’s clothes when he can’t anymore. Can we move back?”

       “As much as I appreciate your offers, we still can’t move back to Denver. This is our home now.”

       The frown returned, and he faced away from her. “You never listen to me. Only Kip.”

       “One day you’ll understand there are some things that can’t be changed no matter how much you want otherwise.” Something she had learned painfully the past couple of years. She sat for a few more minutes, but when Jared didn’t say anything else, she pushed to her feet. “You need to apologize to your brother. If you bother his things anymore, you’ll be grounded next time. Understand?”

       “Yeah, you love him more than me.”

       She leaned over and kissed the side of his head. “I love you both the same. Don’t forget to tell your brother you’re sorry.”