Free Dawn Stewardson by Five Is Enough Page B

especially at night.”
    “Well, even so,” Lauren said, “I really don’t think I’d better stay.”
    Sully breathed a quiet sigh of relief and shot Grace a look that told her to let it go.
    Ignoring him, she glanced back across the table at Lauren, saying, “By the time you got gas and started for home it would be after dark. And you wouldn’t get to the city until the middle of the night.” She turned to Sully again. “She can’t be driving all that way alone in the dark.”
    He gritted his teeth, knowing Grace was right. It really wasn’t safe for a woman to be driving alone at night. Especially not a woman like Lauren Van Slyke.
    Lauren murmured, “No,” though. “Thank you, but I really couldn’t impose. Besides, the cat’s all alone in my apartment.”
    “You said you left lotsa food down,” Billy piped up. “Or maybe you could phone yourc friend across the hall. The one you phoned from your office after you said you’d come here.”
    “Well…I really shouldn’t leave him alone for too long when the apartment’s still a strange place.”
    There was a silence, then Sully heard himself saying, “Most cats don’t really need much attention. We’ve got three here, and you probably haven’t even seen them around.”
    He paused, trying to stop himself before he made things even worse, but for some reason he couldn’t. “So,” he added, “if you don’t get home until tomorrow, the cat will be fine. And Freckles has a room to himself at the moment, so I can use the second bed in there for the night.”
    He glanced at Freckles. “You wouldn’t mind me bunking in there, would you?”
    When the boy shook his head, Sully looked at Lauren again. “That means you can use my bedroom.”
    “Oh, I couldn’t put you out of your own room.”
    He shrugged. “I can hardly have you sharing with Freckles, and there isn’t a spare bed in the cottage.”
    She’d been watching him as he spoke, searching his eyes with her big blue ones as if wanting to be sure he really didn’t mind the idea of her staying. And the strange thing was that all of a sudden he didn’t.
    He wasn’t entirely sure why, except that something in her expression made him doubt she was as self-assured as he’d thought. It was something he often saw in his kids, something that said they weren’t used to being accepted simply for themselves. And it was a look that always made him feel he wanted to help.
    That was ridiculous, though, he realized a second later. Lauren Van Slyke didn’t need any help from him.
    “Well,” she murmured at last, “if you’re really sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble…”
    “Good,” Grace said. “That’s settled, then. Before bedtime, I’ll find a nightgown and robe you can borrow. And what size shoes do you wear?”
    “Six.”
    “Perfect. I’ll give you some flat shoes and jeans for the morning. I’m sure I’ve got things that would fit you. But right now, let’s do as Sully suggested and take our coffee into the other room.”
    Sully glanced at the boys and caught them all giving each other looks. They clearly figured they’d just gotten off the hook, so he said, “We’ll save the rest of our discussions about Billy and Hoops’s trip to Manhattan for tomorrow.”
    He turned and followed the other adults out of the kitchen, feeling five pairs of eyes burning holes in his back.
     

    T HE MINUTE THE DOOR swung closed behind Sully, Billy wheeled around to the others, saying, “I got a plan.”
    “No way,” Hoops told him. “We don’t even know how bad we’re getting punished ’cuz of your last plan.”
    “But it worked, didn’t it? She’s here, isn’t she?”
    “Well…yeah.”
    “Then, listen,” Billy said to all of them. “You still wanna make sure we can stay here, don’t you?”
    They all nodded—even Hoops—just like he knew they would.
    “Okay,” he went on. “Then we gotta all swear to help. Swear we’re gonna do everythin’ we can. Hands,” he