Welcome To My Family

What that purpose might be in this instance evaded her. She just knew he’d better not try anything like that after she got her feet safely on the ground, or Mr. CEO of Flintridge would be picking himself up in the next county.

Slater felt the change in her. He knew it was because of that unexpected kiss. Yet if she’d asked point-blank why he’d done it, he couldn’t have explained to save his life. He hated the fact that he’d broken his own rule. But he’d be damned if he’d apologize.

On the ground, Slater found he didn’t trust himself to talk or to touch her until they were both well away from the Mallorys’ property. Once they’d walked some distance he exhaled and placed his hand in what he thought was an impersonal gesture beneath Kathleen’s elbow. He didn’t see her Isuzu, and his car was down the block.

She slapped his hand away. “Hands off, Kowalski, or…”

His grip tightened. “I thought we were going for a drink. You may enjoy hiking in the rain, O’Halloran. I prefer to drive and stay dry.”

Kat hadn’t realized she’d steeled herself for his apology until it didn’t come. And she was at a loss to explain why she felt furious with him for acting so blasé about what had gone on between them upstairs.

“I don’t drink, but if I did, you’d be the last person I’d drink with. I’m going home. To map out a plan to save my pop from sure disaster. I suggest you do the same. Kowalskis may be able to afford an attempt to break the bank in Atlantic City. O’Hallorans can’t.” Leaving him standing in the rain, Kat crossed the street and started jogging in the opposite direction, in spite of the fact that her cold muscles objected.

Slater shivered as rain seeped through his shirt. Where the hell was she going? Hadn’t that father of hers warned her how dangerous it was for a woman to be walking the streets at night? Even in a company town like Flintridge? She’d turned the corner before he realized she meant business. Swearing, he dashed to his car and promptly made a U-turn to go find her.

Pulling alongside Kat midway down the block, Slater rolled down his window. “Enough, O’Halloran. I propose a truce. I don’t want it on my conscience if you get pneumonia, or worse, if you get murdered.”

“Murdered? By whom? I know almost everyone who lives on the Hill.” Kat forced a laugh. Laughing proved to be a mistake. It broke her stride, and the muscles in her right calf seized. She fell instantly to her knees.

Slater was out of his car in a flash. “What happened? Did you trip? I swear, you are the most accident-prone female I’ve ever met.”

That did it! Kat struggled to stand. Only, her leg refused to cooperate. All she could do was fight back angry tears when he picked her up and carried her to his car. She found her voice after he’d stripped off her sneaker and started massaging her foot. “Don’t. It…it’s a charley horse in my calf. Give me a minute. It’ll ease on its own.”

“Where’s your house? I’ll drive you there.”

“My Trooper’s at the grocery store.” Then as pain shot up her leg, she grudgingly relented. “I suppose you could give me a lift there.”

Slater had a sarcastic retort on the tip of his tongue, but curbed it as they passed beneath a street lamp and he saw she was still hurting. Not only that, the welt on her cheek looked red and angry. “I’ll follow you home. You can invite me in for coffee,” he ordered. Then his voice grew gentle, “I’ll tend the scrapes left by that tree.”

Kat caught sight of the clock in his dashboard. “No, you can’t come in,” she said, urgently shaking her head. “It’s nearly ten.”

He smiled. “Do you turn into a pumpkin at ten?”

That brought the first break in tension since their kiss. Kat’s lips curved upward. “My mother’s due home at ten. She hasn’t the foggiest idea I’m out playing Sherlock Holmes. Give me a rain check on the coffee, please?”

Before Slater could say it always rained when she was around, she directed him into the parking lot at the grocery store.

His heart shot into high gear for no reason at all that he could ascertain as she climbed from his car and limped swiftly to her own. Dynamite came in small packages. Damn, but the woman intrigued him.

Slater drifted in behind her vehicle. He followed at a discreet distance as she zigzagged through the dark residential area that made up the Hill’s territory. It was just as well things had worked out the way they had, he thought, nervously rubbing his neck. She was nothing like the women he normally found attractive. For crying out loud! Didn’t he have enough problems in his life without deliberately soliciting more?

So why did he hold his breath until he saw her safely inside a sprawling, well-kept house? And why, all the way home, did he plot strategies that involved joining forces with her to save their two fathers from calamity?

What most haunted Slater after he got home and climbed into bed was that damned kiss. He’d certainly kissed less difficult women. Women who’d grown up in the bosom of his community. The only thing his mother had asked of him, before she slipped into a coma from which she’d never emerged, was that her only son marry a nice woman who’d embrace Polish traditions.

Unable to sleep, Slater rose. He poured himself a stiff shot of brandy, and by the time his father sneaked in through the front door at one-fifteen, Slater sat quietly in one corner of the library, reading a book on Ireland’s customs.

ACROSS TOWN, Kat O’Halloran feigned sleep when her mother peeked in at eleven. Yet she was still awake watching shadows dance on her ceiling when Pop strolled in at one. At 3:00 a.m., for about the hundredth time, Kat plumped her pillow and covered her head. She resented Poseidon’s snoozing so easily at her feet.

“Monday,” she groused, “I’m going to march straight into Slater Kowalski’s office and resign.”

At four o’clock, Kat got up and rubbed more salve on her cuts. “Yes. Resign is the smart thing to do. We’re worlds apart,” she told her ravaged reflection in the mirror. “We have nothing in common.” Kat imagined the furor among her brothers and their wives if she were to date someone from the Ridge. Under the circumstance, resigning was the only choice. No kiss had ever interrupted her sleep before. Nor had any kiss ever left her longing like this. Longing for more of the same…

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