Page 30 of Hearts Like Hers

“No choice. You’ve got me hooked on thatAmericano thing.”

“Then victory is mine.” She pointed at Kateand stood. “Do me a favor and stay here so I can remember you just like this.I’ll let myself out.”

Kate nodded. “Good night, Autumn. You’re agood one, too.”

Autumn looked back at her, naked beneath thatsheet, and memorized the image, forever and always.

When she arrived home in the wee hours of themorning, she didn’t go right to bed. She took a seat at the kitchen table andsorted her mail, too aflutter from that night to settle in. Yes, she had to beup in three and a half hours, and for convenience, maybe should have juststayed with Kate, mere feet from her store. But in doing so, she might haveconfused the message, the one they’d decided on together. Kate would head backto Oregon at some point soon. Plus, Autumn had a lot on her plate already, andfor the first time in a long while, she was happy with her plate. Excited toembark on this journey to parenthood and the whole new life ahead of her. Themost logical course of action would be to make whatever existed between her andKate as simple as possible.

They’d had their fun, and now they’d wiselyshelve it.

As a bonus, she’d still get to see Kate’sbeautiful face in her shop for a little while longer. Maybe they’d even flirthere and there. She smiled. Tonight had been just what she’d needed. As she satat her kitchen table, she felt confident and in control of her own life for thefirst time in far too long.

And maybe a little naughty, too. She gave hershoulders a tiny shake and touched the grin on her lips. A little late nightsexcapade never hurt anyone. This night was most definitely going in the books.

Chapter Seven

“Hi, Jennifer. It’s Lieutenant Carpenter again. Iwas just calling to, uh, check on the Higgins kids. See if there was any updateto their status.” She’d called the Human Services case worker at least twice aweek, and the woman, barely twenty-three and green as hell, had been good aboutkeeping her in the loop, probably bending the rules because of Kate’sconnection to the accident and job affiliation.

“Good news!” Jennifer said. She heard theshuffling of papers through the call. “We have a lead on a temporary placementfor Ren, and we’re working to see if they’ll take Eva, too.”

“Wait. You wouldn’t separate them, though,right? If the people say no to Eva? After all they’ve been through, those guysneed each other.” There was a pause on the line, and Kate paced the length ofher living room as her blood pressure rose. These kids needed a break.Separating them now would be the worst thing possible. She pinched the bridgeof her nose and waited for a response.

“That would be ideal, of course,” Jennifersaid. “But the system isn’t always that easy. Through my sessions with Ren,I’ve learned that the kids haven’t seen their mother in three years, but thatmeans she’s out there somewhere. We’re doing what we can to track her down andsee what her status is.”

“Well, that’s something. Maybe she doesn’tknow about any of this, and who knows how that man treated her when she wasaround?” She ran her fingers through her hair. “We need to find her.”

“We’re working on that.”

Kate nodded. “And Eva, how is her recoveryprogressing?”

Another pause. “Well, she’s made progress butstill has moments of setback. The burns to her lower leg have been slower toheal, which has made her uncomfortable.” Kate closed her eyes, knowing thecaliber of pain that accompanied those kinds of burns. The fire hadn’tdisfigured Eva outright, but she would carry scars on her left sideextremities.

“Will you tell her I’m thinking about her.Ren, too. And, Jennifer?”

“Lieutenant?”

“Do everything you can to keep those kidstogether in the meantime.”

“Working on that, too,” she said.

After hanging up, Kate felt the ever-presentcloud overhead and knew that it would stay there the rest of the day unless shegot herself up and out of the apartment and not thinking about the Higginsfamily. She’d slept in after the amazing night with Autumn, woken up alone, andwandered about the apartment for hours until she’d gathered the resolve to callJennifer and find out what she needed to know.

Forcing herself into self-preservation mode,she hopped in the shower and let the hot water detangle the stress from herlimbs. She smiled. This wasn’t the first time that day she’d been aware of herbody. Waking up after the things Autumn had done to her, she’d stretchedlanguidly and smiled at her mildly sore limbs and sated libido. Everythingstill tingled nicely. She hadn’t had sex in, God, six months now, and Autumnhad offered much more than a welcome back. In fact, she was so many things,that Kate didn’t know where to begin. Funny, quick, and kind, and pretty. Sopretty. Maybe the prettiest woman she’d ever seen, like some sort of movie starwithout the star part. She was just Autumn, which was the highest form ofcompliment Kate could come up with.

It was early evening by the time Kate finallyemerged from the apartment.

“Ms.Pac-Mantournament,” Gia said, as she jogged across the courtyard toIsabel’s door.

Kate passed her a questioning look, becausewhat?

“Don’t just stand there. Follow me.”

Perhaps it was the urgent tone in Gia’s voiceor the inarguable order she’d dealt, but Kate found herself trotting behind Gialike a soldier into battle, a battle she was wildly unprepared for but curiousabout all the same.

“Take that, you little ghost bastards,”Isabel said, from her spot on the floor of her apartment. Her Ms. Pac-Man flewaround the screen gobbling pellets like a piglet in a feed yard. Ms. Pac-Man,Kate noticed, changed direction frequently, and part of Isabel’s process seemedto be flailing herself around on the floor right along with her. She leaneddrastically when Ms. Pac-Man turned in one direction and then leaneddrastically the other when Ms. Pac-Man reversed, all the while hurling filthyinsults at the ghost-looking-things that chased her. Kate took a seat on thecouch, captivated by it all. She’d never seen anything like it.

To Isabel’s credit, it seemed to be working.

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