To his surprise she hesitated. “How about in a couple of hours? Will you be around after seven?”
“Never can tell when we’ll get a call, but I imagine we will be. Any particular reason you want to wait?”
“Deanna will be home then. I know she wants to come along. I think she has some money she wants to pay you.”
“I told her that there was no rush on that,” he said, feeling unreasonably irritated that Deanna was in such a hurry to pay him back. Since he never liked being indebted to anyone himself, he realized he should be more understanding, but it rankled nonetheless. “It’s only been a couple of weeks. She can’t possibly be on her feet financially already.”
“She isn’t, but you don’t know her,” Ruby said, sounding every bit as exasperated as Sean felt. “She’s got this mile-wide stubborn streak and more pride than any woman ought to have. She won’t rest until she’s paid you back every cent.” She lowered her voice and confided, “Frankly, I think she’s on the verge of collapse from exhaustion. She was already working two jobs. Ever since the fire, she’s added extra hours at the restaurant. Tonight’s her first night off, and she wouldn’t have taken that if I hadn’t called and told Joey he had to insist on it.”
“You called her boss?” Sean asked, not sure whether to be impressed or shocked. “What did you do? Did you have to blackmail him?”
“Pretty much,” she said cheerfully. “I told him if he didn’t let her out of there, I’d come over and tell his customers he was a total creep for making her work all these extra hours when she’s practically asleep on her feet.” She paused. “And I might have mentioned something about spreading the word about a case of food poisoning I had recently.”
Sean grinned at the thought of a vengeful Ruby descending on the hapless Joey. Whoever the poor man was, it was unlikely he would be a match for her.
“What about Kevin?” he asked. “Does Deanna have any time for him these days?”
“Kevin’s okay. He’s with me,” she said, her voice immediately taking on a defensive edge, as if she understood the implied criticism of her friend.
“A boy needs his mom,” Sean said fiercely, perfectly willing to risk Ruby’s wrath to make his own point.
“Yeah, well, he needs a roof over his head, too,” she retorted, switching gears to take her friend’s side. “And Deanna’s determined to give him that. I keep telling her she doesn’t have to make it happen tomorrow, but she won’t hear it.” She hesitated, then added thoughtfully, “Maybe you can get through to her.”
“Damn right I will,” Sean muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing. But if you all come by, I’ll talk to her.”
“We’ll see you in a couple of hours, then,” Ruby said with what sounded like a hint of satisfaction in her voice.
Listening to her, Sean felt his gut tighten. He had his answer for sure now. The woman was matchmaking, no question about it. If he had half a brain in his head, he’d develop a sudden case of the flu and be long gone before they got to the station.
But an image of Kevin Blackwell’s excited expression as he’d crawled up into that fire truck crept into Sean’s head. Add to that the boy’s obvious yearning for a man he could look up to, and Sean knew he wasn’t going anywhere. There were plenty of men in the world who didn’t think twice about disappointing a kid, whether their own or someone else’s, but Sean would never be one of them. He’d lived with way too many disappointments of his own.
Deanna was still irritated by the way Joey had summarily dismissed her just as the dinner hour was getting into full swing. No matter how hard she’d argued that she needed the tips, he’d kept right on shooing her toward the door.
“Wednesdays are always slow,” he’d said, despite the fact that every table was occupied. “How much would you make tonight, anyway?”
“Every little bit helps,” Deanna had countered.
He’d opened the register, pulled out a twenty and slapped it into her hand. “This will make up for some of it, then. You need some sleep. You need to spend some time with your boy.”
Deanna’s gaze had narrowed at that. “You’ve been talking to Ruby, haven’t you?”
“Ruby who?” he’d inquired with completely phony innocence.
“You know perfectly well who I’m talking about,” she’d responded. Joey and Ruby had taken an almost instant dislike to each other years ago. They tried not to let it show in front of Deanna, but it was hard to miss. “Okay, if you and Ruby have actually reached an agreement about something, I know better than to argue with you. I’ll go home. I’ll spend some time with Kevin. I’ll sleep.”
Joey gave a nod of satisfaction. “And tomorrow you’ll be back with a smile on your face for all the customers, so they’ll double their usual tips.”
“If only,” Deanna had muttered. Most of Joey’s customers were senior citizens living on fixed incomes. That was one reason they came for Joey’s early-bird specials in the first place.
Now that she was actually on her way home, Deanna found her feet dragging. Exhaustion clawed at her. She would give just about anything for an hour in the tub, a glass of iced tea and twelve uninterrupted hours of sleep.
Instead she found Ruby and Kevin waiting for her on the front steps.
“You’ve got five minutes to go inside and make yourself beautiful,” Ruby announced.
“Why?”
Kevin bounced up and down in front of her. “We’re going to the fire station to see Sean. He invited us, didn’t he, Ruby?”
Instantly suspicious, Deanna glanced at her friend. “Sean called?”
“Well, the truth is that Kevin called him, but Sean did ask us to come by. I spoke to him myself.”
Deanna sensed a plot, one she wanted no part of. “Then why don’t the two of you go on over there? You don’t need
