Free Love From the Ashes by Cheryl Persons Page A

great.”
    “Hm…”
    Her voice trailed off and he wondered what she meant by that.  “What?”
    “Nothing.”
    “No; what?”
    “I sense some hesitancy; like maybe there’s more to the story?”
    Thomas played around with his napkin and he bit his lip.  There was more to the story, but he didn’t figure he was letting on.  “You really are insightful; aren’t you?”
    She laughed and shrugged.  “Just a guess.”
    He wasn’t expecting to voice his concerns, but she made it so easy to talk to her.  “The station is requesting that I work more hours.  This, would mean, that I wouldn’t be able to pick up the kids.  Seth has said that he would pick them up, take them to his house, and then go back to the Bed and Breakfast.  However, I hate to have to rely even more on them.  It wouldn’t be right and I would feel badly about that.  Outside of finding another caregiver, I don’t know that I have any more options.  So, we’re stuck with this.  I mean, I suppose they could ride the bus; but…”
    “Hm…”   She spoke, interjecting her thoughts in midsentence.
    He laughed.  “There you go again.”
    “Sorry; I just had a thought.  I don’t know what you would think of it though.  It might be too crazy.”
    “I’m willing to hear anything you have to say.’
    She paused for a moment; he saw the wheels turning in her head.  “What about me?”
    He nearly choked on his coffee.  “You?”
    “I have experience of watching kids; I love kids.  I could go get the two younger ones from Cassie and you could pick them up from my house.  This way you wouldn’t have to rely on Cassie and Seth.”
    He couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not.  He started to laugh, but she didn’t join in.  “I would have to rely on you; how is that better?”  We barely know each other.”
    “I don’t know about that; I seemed to have learned a lot about you and your family this evening.  There’s still plenty of time for me to talk about myself.”
    “Why would you do that?”
    “It’s simple.  I’m a sucker for helping out people and I love kids.  You wouldn’t owe me anything.”  He stared at her; still trying to judge if she was for real.  “Just give it a shot; what do you have to lose?”
    “I suppose it could work out.  We would have a lot of details to discuss.”
    “Of course.”
    “Well…” he sighed as he saw that she wasn’t joking.  “On one condition.  You have to tell me everything about yourself.”  He was so engross ed in his conversation with her; he hadn’t noticed that the food had arrived.  “You may proceed.”  He took a bite of his food and smiled at her; he couldn’t believe he was considering it, but it could work.
    ____________________
    She was reeling at the fact that she had just offered to take care of his kids.  It was scary, but also exciting.  “There really isn’t anything you need to know about me.”
    “I don’t buy that.  I’m about to entrust my kids lives with you.  I need to know that you’re not a serial killer.”
    She laughed.  “I promise you I’m not, but to ease your mind…” she paused for a moment and took a bite of her food.  “I was born and raised in Dallas.  You already know that I have an older brother, but I also had a twin.”
    “Had?”  His interested look helped her to go on.
    “He died when we were 19.”
    “I’m sorry; how?”
    She looked away for a moment.  She hadn’t confided in this much detail to anyone; even Seth.  “Right out of high school he decided that he wanted to go into the Army.  We were all very supportive of him, but I suppose I had a little bit of hostility.”
    “I don’t understand; why hostile?”
    “We were very close, like most twins are.  It was always the plan that one day we would both go to the University and get our teaching degrees.  Our senior year, he decided that he wanted to switch plans.  We found out the weekend he was leaving.  I saw him for