Over the next hour of their visit, while they sipped iced tea and ate cookies, Dee asked about Shayna, about Brogan being a SEAL—because apparently everyone in the area now knew—and she thanked him for helping her.
“Is there anything I can do for you today? I wouldn’t mind at all,” Brogan offered.
Pixie chimed in, saying, “We’d be happy to run errands for you. And Brogan is good at heavy lifting.”
“I’m sure he’s good at a great many things.” Dee winked. “With this young family, though, I’m sure you’ve both got your hands full.”
There was no mistaking her meaning, and Brogan had to grin.
“There is one thing. You said you’d be seeing the young man who lost control of his truck?”
“We’re going there next,” Pixie explained.
“I made a casserole this morning for him and his family, and I have cupcakes. Everything is wrapped up and ready to go, if you wouldn’t mind taking it to them.”
Pixie nodded. “We’d be happy to.”
Brogan hadn’t known there were people like this. People who greeted you in their home, thanked you profusely for doing nothing, and offered gifts to those who had harmed them. Granted, Gunther hadn’t meant to crash his truck. He hadn’tbeen drinking or speeding or driving recklessly. He was just a young man who’d been unable to pay for new tires.
“You’re something else, Ms. Pearson.”
“Call me Dee. We’re friends now.” She smiled at them both. “What a handsome couple you make.” She gestured at the kids. “All that blond hair and those blue eyes. No one will know if they got it from their mama or their daddy.”
Brogan said, “Well …” as he tried to figure out how to get Dee on the right track, but Pixie merely laughed.
He didn’t think it’d be long before Pixie started telling people the kids were actually half siblings. She now seemed pleased when someone mentioned their resemblance to each other.
Dee leaned toward Pixie and whispered loudly, “He’s a good catch.”
“I agree,” Pixie said.
Slyly, proving she knew what she was doing, Dee said, “Of course, any man would be thrilled to have you, too, young lady, as pretty as you are.”
That’s when Brogan felt it was necessary to make a strategic retreat. “If you’re sure there isn’t anything else you need, we should get going.”
Dee began struggling out of her chair, until Brogan stepped forward to help her. In the kitchen, she had him write down his number just in case anything came up. “You won’t mind if I call you?”
“Of course not,” he promised. “I’ll try to help however I can.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t forget that you have those little ones to look after.” She got out the casserole, which had heating instructions taped to the top of the plastic wrap covering it. The cupcakes were ready to go. “I made this for you, too.”
He eyed the covered dish. “What is it?”
“An apple pie. That’s my specialty. I enjoy puttering in the kitchen, but I can only make so much for myself.”
No one had ever given him anything before. Definitely, no one had ever baked him a pie. “Thank you, Dee. Apple pie is my favorite.”
“Perfect.”
He carried the dishes out to the SUV first, then came back in for Pixie, Shayna, and Andy. In the usual course of his day, he wasn’t a demonstrative person, at least not with anyone other than Shayna. But he couldn’t leave without bending down and giving Dee a careful hug.
She embraced him back, then whispered softly, “Thank you.”
He was still thinking about her kindness fifteen minutes later when they arrived at Gunther’s house.
It was a very small but well-kept ranch sitting on a couple of acres. Trees, a stocked pond, a large garden—to Brogan, it looked like paradise. Gunther’s wife, Lily, who had a red nose from her cold, joined Pixie and the kids on the back patio, but she kept her distance because she didn’t want them to catch anything.
Gunther, his five-year old son, Toby, and the dog walked the property with Brogan. The kid talked a mile a minute, telling Brogan how he and his dad were building a fort in one of the bigger trees, and how they liked to fish in the evening. Pretty soon, Toby said, they were going to put in a dock and get a small paddleboat.
