LITMIR.BIZ

      TWO

      Noelle was grateful that after another two hours of driving, Caleb pulled off onto an exit that advertised a motel with a swimming pool.

      The motel was small, but not so small that there weren’t other guests, at least based on the cars in the parking lot. She was berating herself for not taking a chance by going to the police.

      Too late now. She’d agreed to stay with him for Kaitlin’s sake. Her own deep-seeded fears meant nothing compared to keeping the little girl safe from harm.

      Caleb kept her close by his side, as if worried she might try something rash. She found his presence overwhelming. She wasn’t used to being so close to a man, hadn’t dated anyone in years. The three of them walked into the lobby together, and she knew he wanted to give the clerk the impression that they were a family, especially when he’d requested one room with two beds.

      “How’s the water in the pool?” Caleb asked the older man behind the desk as he paid in cash for the room. The guy barely glanced at his driver’s license.

      The guy shrugged. “Probably a bit on the cold side by now,” he said in a disinterested tone. There was a small television behind the desk and his gaze kept straying back toward the baseball game he had on.

      “Thanks,” Caleb said cheerfully.

      “Can we go swimming? Please?” Kaitlin asked.

      “Soon,” he promised, taking the room key and then holding the door open for Noelle and Kaitlin as they made their way back outside. There were two levels of the motel but Noelle noted their room was on the first floor, closest to the outdoor pool.

      The room was nothing special, but it appeared clean enough. Kaitlin disappeared into the bathroom. When the child was out of earshot Noelle turned to Caleb. “Now what?” she asked in a low tone.

      His enigmatic gaze didn’t reveal much. “There must be spare clothes in that backpack that Kaitlin can use to swim in.”

      “There’s one change of clothes, the rest is in her suitcase we left behind. And I don’t have any other clothes and neither do you. She’s too young to swim by herself.”

      “There’s a strip mall a few miles down the street. We’ll stop by tomorrow to pick up a few things,” he said. “And the pool isn’t that deep. At the very least she can dangle her feet in the water.”

      As annoyed as she was with him, she couldn’t help appreciating the way he was trying so hard to make his daughter happy. But at the same time, she also wished he’d simply let them go.

      Was he right in thinking that the person who’d shot at him would use Kaitlin to get to Caleb? Or was that just a handy excuse? She wished she knew.

      Kaitlin came out of the bathroom and jumped up beside her on the bed. “Can we swim now, Noa? Puleeze?”

      Looking down into Kaitlin’s big blue eyes, she couldn’t bear to disappoint the little girl. “Sure, sweetie.”

      “Why does she call you Noa?” Caleb asked, a small frown puckering his brow.

      Did he resent their closeness? It certainly wasn’t her fault he’d been arrested.

      She dug in the backpack for a pair of shorts and a top that Kaitlin could use in lieu of a swimsuit. “Because she couldn’t pronounce my name. Noa was as close as she could get to Noelle.”

      “How is it that you became her foster mother?”

      She had no intention of giving him her life story. Especially since that would include confessing her horrible past along with her more recent failures. Trusting him as much as she had so far had been difficult enough. Under normal circumstances she avoided men, especially macho, dangerous types like Caleb. She forced a casual tone. “I’m your daughter’s preschool teacher and happen to be licensed as a foster parent. I asked for custody and the state agreed.”

      If he was embarrassed that he didn’t recognize her from the preschool, he didn’t show it. She wasn’t necessarily surprised that he hadn’t remembered her, because his wife had been the one who’d come in to drop off and pick up Kaitlin, at least 80 percent of the time. The few times Caleb had come, he hadn’t seemed to notice her.

      She still remembered the last time she’d seen Heather, the day before she’d died. Caleb’s wife had come in late on that Friday, almost twenty minutes past closing. Heather had looked nervous and hadn’t been alone. There had been another man with her, who’d waited impatiently near the doorway.

      It wasn’t until after Heather’s affair had hit the news that she’d understood what she’d seen that evening.

      Tearing her thoughts away from the past, she turned her attention to helping Kaitlin change her clothes into a shorts-and-top set.

      “But this isn’t my swimming suit,” Kaitlin protested with a frown. “My swimming suit has sparkles.”

      “We left your swimming suit at home, remember?” she said patiently. “Do you want to check out the water or not?”

      “I do! I do!” The little girl jumped up and down for emphasis.

      “All right, let’s go.” She ducked into the bathroom, grabbed a towel off the rack and then came back out to take Kaitlin’s hand in hers.

      Caleb silently held the door open once again. A criminal with manners, she thought, fighting a sense of hysteria as they walked over to the pool area. He unlatched the fence, and she was surprised and a bit disappointed to find there weren’t any other guests there.

      Kaitlin ran over to the edge of the pool.

      “Wait for me,” Noelle called out, quickly taking off her sandals. “We have to check the water first.”

      She glanced over at Caleb, surprised to see he was taking off his running shoes, too. He then proceeded to roll his jeans halfway up his calves, which would have looked geeky on anyone else.

      But there was nothing geeky about Caleb. He must have worked out while he was in jail because he was lean and muscular, without an ounce of fat to be seen. His dark hair was short and she wondered if that was by choice. Or if he’d been forced to get it cut.

      Did they have barbers in jail?

      He plopped down on the edge of the pool and put his feet in the water. “Come over and test the water, Katydid.”

      Kaitlin hung back, staying next to Noelle. She urged the little girl over, taking a seat on the edge of the pool next to Caleb, leaving enough room between them for Kaitlin. The little girl sat down and then shrieked when she put her feet in the water. “It’s cold!”

      “Probably because the sun is going down,” Caleb said. “I bet it will be warmer tomorrow. See that plastic cover rolled up over there? They put that on at night, and in the morning the sun shines through the bubbles to warm up the water.”

      Kaitlin kicked her feet, giggling as she splashed the adults. Noelle tensed, but Caleb didn’t yell or tell Kaitlin to stop. In fact, he playfully kicked his feet, too, mimicking his daughter.

      “Can I go in farther, Noa? Can I?” Kaitlin pleaded.

      “You

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