Free The Greatest Gift by Diana Palmer Page B

room and only two kids,” Tammy had argued. “And both of them love having John around to play with. Besides, I heard from a reliable source that Jack left town so there’s no danger that he’s going to track the kids down anytime soon. It’s only for a couple of weeks, until you get some sort of system worked out. So humor me!”
    Mary had, with more gratitude than she could express.
    She picked up John at Tammy’s and went with him to the shelter where Matt was ready to feed information into the computer.
    Two of the shelter workers came right up to take John.
    “Let them,” Bev coaxed when Mary started to protest. “We all love kids, you know that. You just help Matt get that schedule on a disk and we’ll take care of John.”
    “Thanks,” Mary said, smiling.
    She sat down beside Matt at the long table. The computer was an old one, but it seemed to be workable.
    “The one I have in my squad car is older than this,” he pointed out as he opened a file in a word processor. “It’s going to be a piece of cake, getting your schedule fed into this thing. Okay. I’m ready. Let’s see that notebook.”
    She produced it and opened it to the appropriate page.
    He glanced down and his eyes widened. “Good Lord, woman, you call this handwriting? I’m amazed you didn’t fail first grade!”
    She burst out laughing. “You listen here, I got awards for my penmanship in high school!”
    “From doctors, no doubt,” he drawled.
    She gave him a restrained glare. “So I was in a little bit of a hurry when I scribbled these things down,” she confessed finally.
    He chuckled. “Actually, I had a partner whose handwriting was even worse than yours. Every time he wrote out a traffic citation, we got a call from the clerk of court’s office asking us to translate for them.”
    “That makes me feel a little better,” she replied with a laugh.
    It was incredible how often she did that with him. Her blue eyes swept over his rugged, lined face. He put on a good front, but she could see the inner scars he carried. His whole life was there, in those deep lines.
    “Have you ever had to shoot anybody?” she asked involuntarily.
    “Not yet,” he replied. “But I’ve threatened to shoot a few people who robbed banks or abused helpless people.”
    “Good for you,” she said.
    His hands paused over the keyboard and he glanced up at her. “Could you ever date a cop?”
    She was suddenly flustered. “Well…well, I never thought about it.”
    He pursed his lips. “Wow. That puts me in my place.”
    “It does not,” she retorted. “You’re a terrific person. The job wouldn’t bother me, really. I mean, I don’t think it would matter so much if you cared about somebody.” She ground her teeth together. “I can’t put it into words.”
    “Oh, I think you did a pretty good job of expressing yourself,” he drawled, and wiggled his eyebrows.
    She chuckled. “You’re a character, you are.”
    “Takes one to know one. I think you’d better read me that list along with addresses and phone numbers. It will save hours of time trying to read your handwriting.”
    “Hold your breath until you ever get a letter from me,” she teased.
    “I like cards. Funny cards. My birthday is next month,” he hinted. “You could send me one, and I’d put it on my mantel beside the pictures of my mother and father.”
    “I’ll consider it seriously,” she promised.
    “You do that.”
    They joked back and forth as they went through the list and put all the necessary information into the computer. It wasn’t as time-consuming as Mary had thought it would be. She had to admit, she enjoyed Matt’s company. He was a complex person. She really wanted to get to know him. But it was much too soon for anything serious.
    By the time Sunday arrived, Mary was so tired that she almost thought of backing out of Matt’s generous offer to take them all to the movies.
    She had some uncomfortable palpitations, and she felt sick in her