“Yes, it is pretty. It’s your wedding present if you ever get married. You’re the only one still living in an apartment and I thought you could use it. Curtis helped me get it when things started to turn sour for Charles. Poor man, but he made his bed, now he must lie in it.” She sat back in her chair and looked him straight in the eye. “Got any prospects in mind?”
Royce frowned when the first name that popped in his head was Kasey. He’d not known the girl all that long and had only kissed her once…well, twice if you counted when she’d tried to take his tongue off with her teeth. But to his mom he simply answered no. “I don’t think I ever want to tie myself down. It’s hard enough to be single. I can’t imagine what it would be like married with a woman dragging you down all the time.” Royce stood before she could comment. “I have to get some work done if we’re going to have dinner this weekend. Thanks for the house, Mom. I love you for it.”
He was sitting in his office an hour later with the same report in front of him. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking of, but he knew it wasn’t work. Royce looked up when Jesse walked in after a hard knock.
“You know that girl…Officer York, that was hurt the other week?” he asked as a greeting. Royce nodded, almost afraid to know what she’d done now. “Did you know she has a degree in Business Management?”
Royce didn’t, but only shook his head. “Every person who gets out of college now days has some kind of Business degree. What of it?”
“Not a Bachelors, but a Masters degree. And she has another in Law Enforcement. Her minor both times has been another language. One is Spanish and the other is Chinese. She’s a smart cookie.”
Royce was shocked. He didn’t think Kasey was stupid, but to have two Masters Degrees as young as she was couldn’t have been easy. Royce wondered aloud why she worked for them as a security guard and wasn’t running some corporation.
“Don’t know. Her file didn’t say. But I will tell you this, as soon as she gets up and about, I’m going to ask her out.” Jesse stood to leave. “She’s a cutie and Mom likes her.”
Royce didn’t move. He wanted to go after his brother and tell him…tell him what? Leave her alone? Enjoy dating her? Royce didn’t like either thought. He didn’t want to date her and he didn’t want his brother to either. He grabbed up his coat to go and have a few words with Miss York. He didn’t know what, but he was going to talk to her about something. He was halfway to the hospital when his phone rang.
“She’s gone. She checked herself out of the hospital about ten minutes ago,” Abby said. “I went to lunch and when I returned, she’d already done it. Did you know that you can get AMA forms off the Internet? She had them signed and gave them to the head nurse when her uncle showed up to get her.”
“Son of a bitch.”
~~~
Jay watched his niece very carefully. She was upset, that was for sure. But about what, he didn’t know. She was talking to Suzy like she always did, but he could hear the strain in her voice.
They were coloring at the makeshift table when Suzy began to cry. “No, no, no. Suzy want red. Want red. Want red.”
“All right, but you know that you can’t have it until you calm down. I won’t play with you if you can’t behave.” Kasey held the red crayon in her hand just so that Suzy could see it. “You want it, you can’t act like a spoiled baby.”
“Want. Suzy want.” When Suzy stood up and stomped her foot, Jay started to move toward her. She wouldn’t hurt Kasey under normal circumstances, but since she was hurt, it would be bad. But Kasey held her ground.
“I have it and if you want it, you know what you have to do.” Suzy stood there glaring down at her niece.
Jay had been caring for his sister since their parents died nearly ten years ago. Suzy had Down’s syndrome. And at fifty-one years old and nearly two hundred and fifty pounds, she was like a very big eight-year-old with the strength of a grown woman. But she loved Kasey, loved her since the day Leah had brought her home from the hospital. And Kasey had been caring for her aunt since she figured out how to.
“I like red. It’s pretty like the flowers.” Jay had to smile at his sister’s reasoning. “You need to let Suzy color with it. Please.”
There was a knock at the door before Kasey answered. But before he left the room, he saw Kasey hand the coveted crayon over to her. The laughter followed him into the front hall. Peace once again reigned. Well, for now, he thought when he saw who was on his front porch.