Page 87 of Second First Kiss

“Just taking notes. Shall we move into the kitchen?”

“Um, well, sure,” she said, all bright and cheery and guilty as hell.

He could see two shadows move between the slats of the pantry door. One was Kat, who leaned against the counter, her right leg shaking with nerves like ants were crawling down it. The other was a smaller and rounder form, who sat at the table.

“Would you mind getting us some coffee, perhaps?” Ms. Woods asked.

“Sure, but wouldn’t you like to see Tessa’s room or her study area? I turned my dad’s old bedroom into a space for Tessa to study and hang out with friends.”

Ms. Woods stopped her scribbles. “So your father isn’t home enough to warrant his own room?”

He watched as Kat ran a hand down her neck. “This is why I am seeking guardianship of Tessa. So she can have the consistency of growing up in her own home, surrounded by family who loves her.”

Ms. Woods made a few more scribbles and Nolan wanted to rip the pen out of her hand and stab her with it. There were so many ways people in authority could handle situations, and this was one of the worst he’d seen. Then again, he’d been the one to bring a bunch of kids to the drunk tank to get intel on a single perp. So who was he to judge?

But Nolan had no idea the scrutiny Kat was under. No one asked other people if they were fit to be parents, and yet Kat was doing her damnedest to give her sister a stable home and was getting reamed for every infraction. He’d asked the same kind of invasive questions on calls, but he’d never been on this side of it. On the emotional and personal side.

“As for the sleepover, it’s with a trustworthy friend. I dropped her off myself.”

“I called your employer and was notified that you are no longer working at Bigfoot’s,” Ms. Woods said.

And here was a bright spot in the story.

“I’m still working at Sierra Vista Lodge.”

“I was told by an anonymous source that you were let go for getting into a fight.”

Anonymous, his ass. It was R. J. or his father. The little prick.

“That’s not the whole story,” Kat insisted.

“You need to be making smarter decisions now.”

“And I’m working in the IT department at the lodge now, and it pays enough so that I don’t have to work at the bar, so I can be around more. Do family dinners every night and things like that.”

Kat was grasping at straws to present what a normal family would look like. He knew what one was because he’d lived it. But it was becoming clear that they’d had very different childhoods. And that broke his heart.

“How do you take your coffee?” Kat asked.

“Oh, none for me. I just figured you’d want some while I take a look around the house.”

Kat straightened. “You want to look at my home? By yourself?”

Hold it together, baby. Act like you have nothing to hide.

“It’s standard. We like to see the home in a natural state without feeling as if we have someone looking over our shoulder. Is that okay with you?”

“Sure.” Kat flapped a noncommittal hand.

The second Ms. Woods left the room Kat’s head dropped to her chest, as if she were scolding herself. Ripping herself a new one because she’d been dealt the worst social worker on the planet. His heart broke for her.

But instead of breaking down, she did the most surprising thing. She walked over to the pantry and rested her forehead against the door and closed her eyes. Lifting her hands, she put her palms flush against the door and wiggled her fingers through the slats. He immediately met her halfway, lacing his fingertips with hers.

They stood like that, silently connecting, until Ms. Woods’s heels clicked on the front room tile and into the kitchen. By the time she walked in, Kat was sitting at the table, drinking her coffee like a boss bitch.

“Find what you needed?”

“I’ll just need your new boss’s name and contact info. We need to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. And again, a letter from Abe would go a long way.”

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