Free Sheltering Hearts by Robyn Carr

I’m not ready for company. I’m cleaning and I look a wreck.”
    Without smiling, he said, “No, you don’t, Dory. You look as good as ever.”
    She just shoved him out the door. “I’ll be cleaned up by five—now, go!”
    When he came back, he brought with him a six-pack of imported beer, nice and cold. “There is no special wine for red beans,” he announced. “I checked with a couple of people and both recommended this.”
    “I can’t remember when I last had a beer,” she said. “Do we have one now? Or does this go with dinner?”
    The kids came screaming out of their bedrooms before he could answer. They practically tackled him, they were so excited. He’d never been inside her house before, had never seen their bedrooms, and they wanted to show him all their stuff. They wanted to play with him as if their mother had invited one of their friends from school for dinner rather than an adult she was looking forward tosharing an evening with, also. But he grinned while one pulled at each hand and said, “It probably goes with the beans, but tell you what—let’s save it for later. After things…you know…quiet down…”
    And she thought, Excellent idea.
    The food was delayed while the kids dominated Clay’s attention. Then over dinner Austin and Sophie talked about everything going on at school, and their excitement over signing up for T-ball and Little League. They even brought up the resource center and how they’d helped their mom with cleaning, painting and moving furniture. “She’s the boss, you know,” Sophie announced proudly.
    “That doesn’t surprise me at all,” he said, just as proudly. Then to Dory he said, “That means I’m going to see you guys around here even less than before. Being the boss carries responsibility. How many jobs is that now?”
    Dory was frozen for a second. “Oh, Clay, I haven’t seen you since that day at the grocery store! Oh, my gosh, so much has happened, and you don’t know any of it! First of all, we had some emergency money in our fund. Mel Sheridan is our CFO—she’s in charge of the money. Her husband, Jack, says we couldn’t have found anyone better. He says prying a nickel out of her is harder than getting a— Oh, I’ll save that. But trust me, it’s colorful. Anyway, she got a plane ticket for that woman we rescued, and she and her baby are safe with her mother in Colorado. And Corsica Rios, the social worker who really started the group, found us a house for an office and center, so we’re kind of moved in and have been fixing up. We spent all week hunting for used furniture and donated paint. We cleaned, weeded and did whatever fixing up was needed—the kids helped, didn’t you, guys?”
    “We did!” Sophie said.
    “I painted a wall,” Austin reported.
    “Oh, and I got fired,” Dory said.
    “What?” Clay asked.
    “Mr. Sills, the manager at the grocery store—he fired me. For leaving my cash drawer unattended to run into the parking lot and get into that situation with Simone and her…her… What do I call him? He isn’t really a boyfriend. Well, the guy they arrested.”
    Clay’s eyes grew dark and angry. “He fired you for that?”
    “He said there were other things, too. He said that was the last straw. But I don’t agree about the other things….”
    “What other things?” Clay ground out the words.
    “He said I missed work too much, which I would dispute. We had a little flu last winter, but the kids are healthy and haven’t been sick much. I had to take a couple of days for our single moms’ conference, but I don’t do that regularly. It’s an annual thing, and I tried to explain how important it is, but—”
    “He fired you?”
    She nodded. “He said I wasn’t reliable, yet I worked all the overtime he’d give me—I always needed the money. I think he’s missing something, to tell you the truth. I was pretty dedicated to that stupid job because I needed it, but I’m not mad, Clay. I think the best