Craving a Hero: St. John Sibling Series, book 3 (7 page)

"Just because I'm law enforcement doesn't mean I'm heartless," she grumbled.

He caught up to her, hugged her against his side, and kissed her cheek. "I already figured that out about you, Bright Eyes."

She brushed him off and hurried off ahead of him. "Don't get carried away, St. John."

"You think the grocery store has an ATM?" he called after her.

She shook her head, her braid swishing across her back. "You're going to give them more money, aren't you?"

"Can't help it. I'm a sap for the underdog."

"That's for sure."

"And you love that about me, admit it."

"Don't get a swelled head over it, St. John."

"Oh no. My head's getting so big, I don't think I can carry it. Look, I can't fit it between the trees.

She kept trucking. But her shoulders shook with silent laughter.

Damn, if he didn't like making her laugh.

#

It was more than the beauty of the valley stretching for as far as the eye could see from Angel Point—more even than the natural beauty of the woman sitting across the picnic table from Dane distracting him as he shuffled the playing cards. He'd seen how Kelly had soothed the homeless couple's toddler quiet while the mother and father stowed the groceries he handed out to them from the back of the truck later that afternoon. The little girl may have latched onto him, but there was no denying a nurturer lie beneath the uniform of CO Kelly Jackson.

"You did a nice thing for that family today," he said, setting the card stack in front of her.

"You implying I'm a soft touch, St. John? Because, if you are, I would remind you you're the one who gave them all the cash in your pocket then went to the ATM and got more."

She cut the deck. He turned up an Ace. She grunted, a dissatisfied sound. Because of the card or because he'd given the homeless couple money?

"That wasn't being a soft touch," he said, dealing them each the seven cards required for a cribbage hand. "That was being compassionate."

"Gotta' use compassion judiciously, or the world will take advantage of you," she said, gathering up her cards.

"My sister operates mainly on compassion," he said, picking up his own cards.

"And how's that working for her?" she asked, studying the cards in her hand.

"Quite well, actually."

She raised one eyebrow at him. He palmed his cards and watched her as he elaborated.

"Dixie's been through a lot in the last couple years, what with her husband getting killed in an accident and her father-in-law fighting her for custody of her son to the point she lost her home and means of income. But, because of her compassion, she found a new home and even fell in love again."

She frowned at him. "Must have been hard for you, watching your sister lose her home."

He grimaced, suffering a pang of guilt over that period in his life. "I was still pretty much the stereotypical starving actor back then. My first movie hadn't come out, yet, and I hadn't been paid all that much for it. I'm just now commanding that big salary most people think all us actors get."

She flicked two cards from her hand facedown into his crib for counting later. "You can help her now."

"Except she doesn't need my help now," he said, discarding two cards from his into his crib.

"How do you mean?" she asked, rearranging her cards.

"She's got Sam now."

She glanced at Dane just long enough for him to see the dubious glint in her eye. "The man she fell in love with out of compassion?"

"Compassion wasn't the reason she fell in love with Sam," he said, knowing she was going to jump all over what he was about to tell her. "Dixie invited him into her home because of her compassion."

She folded her cards, braced her forearms to the table edge, and gave him a full on I-told-you-so look. "And you're certain this guy isn't just looking for a roof over his head?"

He chuckled. "You
are
a cynic."

"Comes with the job," she said.

Which seemed to be her excuse for the hardline persona that hid the compassionate woman he knew lurked inside her.

He gave her a consoling smile. "Sam's a trust fund baby. He doesn't need any roof Dixie offers him."

She grunted.

"But I will admit," he added, "until last week, I had my reservations about Sam."

"What happened last week?"

"He showed up at our Fourth of July family reunion and faced the whole family."

This time, her eyebrows slanted an impressed angle. "Walked into the lion's den for her, huh?"

"Yup."

"Brave guy," she said, a hint of wistfulness to her voice.

"He looked terrified." Dane all but chuckled, then he sobered. "But the important thing is he loves my sister enough to fight
for
her…and
on
her behalf."

Both her eyebrows lifted. "
On
her behalf?"

"The short of it is he risked that cushy trust fund of his to make life right for Dixie and her son."

She gave an impressed huff. "Way to go, Sam." Adding as she fanned out her cards, "Not many men would risk everything for the woman they love, become their hero."

He smiled across the table at her. "That's a romantic way of putting what Sam did. I wouldn't have thought you had such idealism in you, Kel."

She shrugged, studying and rearranging her cards. "Heroes are just ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Risking his own security for the woman he loved was extraordinary."

His comment had been meant to prod the romantic he believed lurked deep inside her. He hadn't expected her to come back with such a rational explanation for heroism. There was almost a note of cynicism to her reasoning. Something she got from her family?

"So," he ventured, "is it just you and your little sister?"

Her fingers stilled on her cards. "How do you know I have a younger sister?"

"In the pictures in the cabin. Little blond girl and bigger—"

"Non-blond girl," she cut in and slapped a six of hearts face-up on the table.

Non-blond girl?
Was that an issue?

"Looked like there's more than a few years difference in your ages," he said, unsure if he wasn't walking into his own lion's den.

"She's six years younger than me," she said, adding a clipped, "It's your play."

He flipped a card on top of hers.

She nodded at the discard stack. "You put a seven on my six."

"Yeah, so?" he asked, studying her, more intent on learning what about her sister bothered her than winning at the card game they were playing. He didn't buy for a minute it was
only
a blond vs brunette issue. There was more substance to Kelly than that.

"I could play an eight on your seven, which would give me a three point run."

"I see," he said, momentarily back-shelving his musings. "So, do you have an eight to play?"

"I do indeed." She laid her eight on the pile and moved her peg on the cribbage board three spaces. "Of course," she went on, "I could be setting you up for a nice play if you had a nine. You'd get two points for a go of thirty-one plus a four card run for a total of six points. But I'm gambling you don't have a nine or you'd have played it on my six which would have added up to fifteen and given you two points."

"Guess I missed that play," he said, giving her a sheepish grin as he placed a nine on her eight. "But hey, I'm just learning the game."

She gaped at the card, then at him.

He shrugged. "Beginner's luck."

The next hand, Dane made a play that netted him six more points. Kelly cursed.

He nudged her foot under the table. "I bet you thought I wasn't paying attention when you explained the game."

"Something tells me you pay attention to every game you play," she said, tucking her feet under her bench and out of his reach.

"I pay attention to everything that interests me," he said, holding her gaze until she blinked away. It'd been long enough for him to see she'd gotten his message…that
she
interested him.

They played one more round before running out of cards, counted the points in their hands, and moved their pegs along the cribbage board the appropriate number of spaces. She picked up the played cards and shuffled them into the deck.

"Where is she, your little sister?" he asked, well aware his prodding might well be the equivalent to poking a sleeping bear with a stick.

Her shuffling faltered ever so slightly. "Student nursing in Marquette."

Much as he wanted to find out whether her terse responses to his questions about her sister came of jealousy or something deeper, he sensed he'd pushed as far as he dared go at the moment when she switched the attention to his family. "Yesterday, when you told me about your mother teaching you to cook, it sounded like you weren't the only boy."

"I have three brothers. There's Jake, Roman, and Renn, in addition to me and our little sister Dixie."

"Good size family," she said, dealing the cards. "Is Dixie the youngest?"

"No, Renn's the youngest. Dixie's the second youngest. But all us boys are protective of her."

"Because she's a girl," she stated, as she slapped the deck down on the table for him to cut.

"It's a brother thing," he said in an attempt to explain away whatever made her sensitive about him and his brothers looking out for their sister.

She snorted. "It's because she's a girl."

And another side to CO Kelly makes an appearance. But, was she touchy about protective men or men dominating women?

"We all look out for each other," he tested.

"How's that?" Kelly asked, an edge in her voice suggesting she and her sister didn't share the same kind of closeness he and his siblings did.

"When Dixie turned the first floor of Gran's farmhouse into a restaurant," he explained in answer to her question, "she needed a kitchen that met restaurant code. Roman's a contractor, so he drew up plans for her kitchen." He laughed, memories of his brother momentarily overriding his curiosity over Kelly's and her sister's relationship.

"Actually, Roman's a diehard planner. His latest five-year plan was to get married and start a family; and that's exactly what he did in spite of the fact he fell for a strong-willed woman who had plans of her own."

"As opposed to you, Mr. Impulsive?"

There was a sharpness to her question, almost a rebuke in it. He'd clearly pricked something touchy in her.

"Guilty," he quipped, determined to maintain the humorous tone to their conversation.

She picked up her cards and fanned them out, her tone deceptively neutral. "So Roman planned a restaurant grade kitchen for Dixie. What'd the rest of you do?"

"We bring brawn. We swing hammers."

She looked up from her cards, her pale brown eyes losing their shuttering. "Now I understand the calluses on your hands."

"You noticed those and still thought me as just a pretty face?"

There was a sheepishness in the way she lowered her chin and peeked at him through her eyelashes. "I didn't notice them right away."

"When did you notice them?" he asked, watching her, trying to figure out what she worked so hard to hide from him.

"When you held my chin to apply the sting stop," she said with such candor he forgot what it was he'd been trying to figure out she was hiding. His thoughts turned to the fact she hadn't noticed his calluses when they'd first shaken hands, but instead, when he'd touched her more intimately.

"So, where do you fit into the sibling line-up?" she asked, looking down at her cards.

"Smack dab in the middle," he said, gathering up his own.

Her eyebrow lifted a dubious angle.

"I know what you're thinking," he said. "Stereotypical middle child who always sees the glass half empty, who's always vying for attention. But let me remind you, Dixie is right there in the middle with me."

"But she's the only girl."

"Meaning?"

"It makes a difference."

"You think?"

"Uh, huh."

He shook his head. "I've never thought my brothers or sister got more attention than me."

"Of course you didn't notice," she said, picking at her cards. "You no doubt were very good at hogging the attention."

"I'm not an attention hog," he said, tossing two cards at her for her crib.

She smiled over her cards at him. "No. You just naturally flash your pearly white teeth every time I stop someone to check them out, making sure they recognize Mr. Action Movie Star."

"I can't help it if I have a great smile. It's in the genes. All of us St. Johns' got great smiles. Baby brother Renn is practically a mini-me."

She laughed. "Actually, I suspected you might be the youngest."