Their laughter followed him down the hall and back to the twins’ room. There was absolutely no reason to beat a dead horse, so he gathered up the candy wrappers, unmuted their movie, and left the room.
He went back to doing laundry and was folding a load of towels in his bedroom when his cell phone rang. It was Carl.
“Hello,” Sam said.
“You called it,” Carl said. “Once I asked Jeff Dooley if he had a neighbor with a wandering dog, he turned about two shades of red and said yes. Then we went back and looked at the video again and we saw the tail you mentioned, and that pretty much ended his fit. He went down the street to talk to his neighbor. And it was him, carrying his dog home. So all is well. Good eye, Chief.”
“Okay then. Just write up the report when you get a chance, and thanks for keeping me in the loop,” Sam said, and hung up.
It was almost time to go get Katie. Knowing he was going to spend at least the next couple of hours with her made this the best day he could remember in a long, long time.
***
Katie had just finished a Zoom meeting with their principal and the teachers at the elementary building. Susan had given them feedback about Back to School Night, and to Katie’s relief, being the new teacher had not garnered any negative comments. So she was riding a high as she went into the living room and saw Sam loading the girls up in the car. Instead of making him drive over to pick her up, she just grabbed her purse and ran out of the house and across the street.
The girls saw her coming and started pointing.
“Daddy! Daddy! There comes Miss Katie.”
He looked up, and the sight of her coming toward him was like sunlight on his face. She brightened everything around her and didn’t even know it.
“Hey. I was going to pick you up,” Sam said.
Katie shook her head. “I’m too far out of your way. The least I can do is meet you.”
Sam grinned and then went back to buckling the girls in.
“Not too tight?” he asked, as he pulled the shoulder strap across Beth’s chest.
“Just right, Daddy,” she said, and reached for Evie’s hand.
Sam saw it. They were linked up, which meant they were ready to go. He turned around and opened the door for Katie.
“Thank you,” she said, leaving a faint aroma of her shampoo with him as she passed by.
She smells like summer, Sam thought. Flowers and strawberries and heat.
He waited until she was seated, then circled the car to get in. Moments later, they were backing out of the driveway and heading uptown.
Sam knew the girls were talking to each other about Katie and wondered if she could hear them. When she looked over at him, her eyes twinkling, he knew she had.
Sam shook his head, speaking softly.
“You have to accept your uniqueness within our little nest. Except for Roxie, who’s always been a fixture in their lives, you are the first female to have penetrated our fortress, which makes you the current topic of conversation today.”
“No complaints. I feel blessed to have been allowed in,” Katie said.
Sam reached across the console and gave her hand a quick squeeze, and when her fingers curled around his, his heart skipped a beat. If this was what Beth and Evie felt like holding hands, then he got it. Everybody needed somebody to belong to. He could only hope that Katie was feeling the same way.
Within minutes, they turned off Main and pulled into the parking lot.
“Looks like we weren’t the only ones intent on pizza today,” Sam said.
The parking lot was nearly full. He found a place to park and they headed inside. It had not occurred to him what a statement they were making by going to eat pizza, but they had just announced to Borden’s Gap that Sam Youngblood was seeing the new teacher.
The sight of them walking in with the girls hand in hand, and Sam’s hand on her back, was way too familial to suit the single females. As for the guys who’d been hitting on her for weeks, it all became painfully clear. It wasn’t that she didn’t like them. She just liked Sam better.
Sam nodded at families as they were taken to their seats, and Katie noticed a few familiar faces from her Back to School Night.
The kids noticed their new teacher and started calling out to her.
“Hi, Miss Katie!”
“Look, Mama! It’s Miss Katie!”
Katie smiled and waved and kept walking.
As soon as they were seated, with menus, the twins piped up.
“Daddy! You know our pizza’s name. You order for us!” Evie said.
“Order for us,” Beth echoed.
“You got it,” Sam said.
“I’ll have some of whatever you’re eating…as long as there are no anchovies on it,” Katie said.
The girls’ chatter ceased.
“What are ant choies?” Evie asked.
Beth stuck out her tongue and pretended to gag. “We don’t eat ants either, Miss Katie.”
“Don’t look at me,” Sam added. “I don’t eat ant choies, either.”
“Then it’s all good,” Katie said.
When Sam threw back his head and laughed, every diner in the room turned to look, all coming to the same conclusion.
Sam was stuck on the teacher. It was a revelation they never thought they’d see.
And then their waitress arrived to take their orders, and Katie realized it was Frieda Tiller, with a bruise on her jaw and an eye turning black.
“Hello, Chief. Hello, Miss Katie. Are you ready to order?”
Sam looked up, saw her face, and frowned.
Frieda sighed. “I’m all right, Chief.” She glanced at the twins and then shrugged. “I fell.”
“With help,” Sam muttered, and then let it go. Frieda had the police department on speed dial. If she wanted help, she knew how to get it.
Frieda took their drink orders, and then their pizza order, and left.
A server came by a few minutes later with drinks and breadsticks, and their meal began.
When the large pepperoni pizza was delivered to their table, the girls clapped their hands. It looked and smelled so good that Katie had to resist the urge to clap, too. Instead, she watched Sam deftly dealing with cutting a big slice in half, then putting a half on each girl’s plate.
Evie frowned. “You gave away half of my slice.”
“No. I gave away half of Beth’s slice,” Sam said.
Beth smiled. “It’s okay, Evie. We share.”