* * *
Katie had no idea what had happened to Luke between the time they went upstairs together and the moment he’d slipped out of bed and abandoned her that morning a few days earlier. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t begin to figure out why Luke had placed that call to his attorney.
Over the past few days, though, she had watched in bemusement as Luke seemed to be transformed before her eyes.
She had come home one day to find him tutoring Ginger in math, leading her step by step through a tricky problem with admirable patience. Ginger’s head bobbed in understanding as he explained each step. And when she reached the correct answer to the next problem completely on her own, she beamed at Luke with an expression akin to hero worship.
The next night, unable to sleep, Katie had wandered down to the kitchen at midnight and found Mr. O’Reilly and Luke there ahead of her, huge bowls of ice cream in front of them. She stayed back in the shadows and listened. Mr. O’Reilly was telling Luke all about the time he’d saved a little girl from a blaze in the rat-infested basement of a tenement. Katie had heard the story a dozen times and each time tears had come to her eyes. Luke seemed equally shaken by the near tragedy.
“Dear God,” he murmured. “Maybe we’d better take a look through here tomorrow. Make sure all the alarms are in working order.”
“They are,” the retired fireman assured him. “I see to it myself. Nothing like that’ll happen to Katie, if I’m around to prevent it. That girl is like a daughter to me.” He met Luke’s gaze. “And that boy of yours, he’s a real pistol. Livens the place up. Mrs. Jeffers is looking downright young again, now that she has a little one to do for.”
Luke’s expression turned speculative. “So you’ve noticed what a fine figure of a woman Mrs. Jeffers is.”
Red crept into Mr. O’Reilly’s cheeks. “Now don’t you go getting any ideas. I’m too old to be carrying on.”
Luke’s low laughter warmed Katie’s heart.
“You’re never too old,” he declared.
Pleased more than she could say by the scene she had stumbled on, Katie had slipped away before either of them saw her.
Just this morning she found a stack of neat little printed notices on the table where whoever picked up the mail each day left it for the others. She picked one up and was stunned when she read that the weekly rent was being cut by ten percent. She couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Luke had clearly lost his mind. She’d wanted him to loosen up, but at this rate he would bankrupt her.
With one of the slips in hand, she headed straight down the street to his office. He was leaning back in his fancy new leather chair behind his fancy new mahogany desk, looking pleased as punch about something.
“Are you okay?” she asked straight out.
He grinned. “Better than ever.”
She plucked the little white notice from her purse and shoved it across his desk. “Then maybe you can explain what you were thinking when you did this.”
“The economy’s tight,” he explained without batting an eye. “We have to be competitive.”
“With whom? There’s no place else in town that offers people room and board. And last I heard the manager of the hotel wasn’t tutoring his guests in his spare time.”
Luke shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
“What happened to all that talk about sound fiscal responsibility? Are you trying to bankrupt me?”
“We can afford to absorb a few losses on the boarding house. I have other investments that will more than balance things out.”
Katie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Those are your investments. The boarding house is mine. You promised to get it onto a sound financial footing.”
His expression perfectly bland, he said, “Some things are more important than money.”
Katie regarded him suspiciously. A statement like that sounded like heresy coming from him. “Such as?”
“Family,” he replied quietly.
“Family?” she repeated as if it were a foreign concept. “Luke, what is going on here?”
He leaned forward, his gaze locking with hers. “I have finally figured out what’s important in life,” he said. “Now I intend to do everything in my power to see that I get it.”
If there hadn’t been such a note of grim determination in his voice, Katie might have laughed. She recalled the night she’d hauled everyone back to the boarding house as a way of throwing a gauntlet down in front of her husband. It seemed he’d just returned the challenge.
She still wasn’t certain exactly what was going on in Luke’s head, but she was beginning to grasp one thing. Finally it appeared they were both chasing the same dream.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“We’re going out tonight,” Luke announced when he was finally able to snag Katie for a second during the morning rush at Peg’s Diner.
There was a spark of mischief in his eyes she hadn’t seen since they were teenagers. “Where?”
“You’ll see. Just put on your party clothes and be ready by six.”
“Who’s baby-sitting Robby?”
“Don’t worry. It’s all taken care of.”
“You think of everything,” she said, though her tone wasn’t entirely complimentary.
Ignoring the jibe, he winked at her. “Six o’clock,” he reminded her and headed for the door. He stopped briefly to whisper something to Peg, who laughed and sneaked a quick look in Kate’s direction.
“What the devil were the two of you conspiring about?” Katie asked her aunt.
“We were not conspiring,” Peg said, regarding her indignantly. “Luke was just making a comment about the weather. It’s gonna be another scorcher today.” She fanned herself with a menu as if to emphasize it.
“It’s air-conditioned in here,” Katie reminded her before walking away in disgust. They were up to something. She knew it.
Even so, she was ready promptly at six. Luke joined her a moment later, wearing the same suit he’d worn for their wedding. Before Katie could catch
