Mrs. Miracle 01 - Mrs. Miracle(16)

He should have walked over and introduced himself then and there and been done with it. Instead he’d steered the kids out of the church as fast as he could without being obvious. Later he’d wanted to kick himself. He’d acted like a schoolboy, and all over a woman. One whose name he’d been too shy to ask.

She worked at the travel agency next to the Safeway store, that much he knew. He should, since he frequently invented excuses to stop off at the grocery on his way home from the office. Just on the off chance he might see her. Naturally he tried not to be obvious about it, but he couldn’t help wondering if she’d noticed him.

He’d been out of the dating scene for so long, he wasn’t sure how to go about meeting a woman. Not without someone introducing him. The last time he’d walked up to a woman cold turkey and struck up a conversation, he’d been in high school.

He hadn’t minded making a fool of himself back then, but it bothered the hell out of him now. The fact he was interested said a lot. Perhaps he was ready to meet someone. All he had to figure out was how to go about it.

Following the near panic attack in church that morning, Seth was no longer sure of anything. He’d become so disgusted with himself that the only clear option was to drop the issue entirely. It encouraged him that he found himself attracted to another woman. It was progress, he supposed, but he wasn’t in the place where he felt comfortable seeking her out.

She did intrigue him, however, Seth admitted as he dismantled the bottom of the toaster. Crumbs fell onto his workbench, and he brushed them aside. But there were plenty of attractive women around. If that was what appealed to him, all he had to do was look around the office. There were any number of eligible, good-looking women in search of a meaningful relationship there.

Why her? Why this travel agent?

Why now?

Seth didn’t have the answers to those questions any more than he knew what was wrong with the toaster.

The look in her eyes, he decided. Yes, she was attractive, and even from a distance he could see that her eyes were a pretty shade of blue. Alpine blue, if he were to give the color a name. Deep, dark, intense. It was the intense part that spoke to him. In the fathomless depths he saw her pain. Naturally he could be seeing something that wasn’t there, a reflection off the window, but he didn’t think so. The pain was what he recognized because it was a reflection of his own. Whoever this woman was, whatever had happened in her life, she’d suffered. The same way he’d suffered. He felt her hurt, realized in those brief seconds when their eyes had held that her anguish lay just below the surface the way his did.

Then, too, he could be imagining it all. He wasn’t a psychologist. Nor had he done any counseling. But he’d walked that same rut-filled pathway himself, and he recognized the pitfalls.

So they attended the same church. Great. It was a beginning. It made matters a bit easier. Now all he needed to do was develop a few more of the social graces, like learning to say his name without stuttering or stumbling over his own two feet.

Hey, introducing himself didn’t sound like such a bad idea, if it didn’t take him five years or more. But for now he was content to let matters be. He wasn’t unhappy. His life had meaning. If he wanted to risk his heart again, it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

“Daddy.” Judd stepped inside the garage. “The football game’s going to start.”

“I’ll be inside in just a minute.”

“Okay.” But Judd lingered. Not that it was unusual. His son enjoyed watching him work. Often Seth invented a project that required Judd’s or Jason’s help. Both had already proved themselves to be worthy nail pounders.

“You know what Mrs. Miracle said?”

Seth didn’t have a clue. “What?”

“She said we should take a vacation.”

Seth hesitated. “A vacation?”

“Yup. During spring break. When’s that?”

“March or April.” He’d need to check the school calendar. It was an odd comment for the housekeeper to make, although she’d made a habit of saying some pretty unusual things. Just the other night she’d gotten a chuckle out of him. She’d said something about a woodpecker owing his success to his head and not just his pecker. He chuckled anew.

“Are we going on vacation?”

He had plenty of vacation time due him, and it sounded like a fun thing to do. “I’ll think about it.” He brushed the bread crumbs from his hands and ruffled his son’s hair affectionately. “First let’s go see the Seahawks whop the Broncos.”

“Yeah.” Judd thrust his fist into the air.

Smiling to himself, Seth walked from the garage into the kitchen.

Mrs. Merkle was busy, Jason at her side, helping her prepare dinner—“helping” being the operative word. What he saw set his mouth to watering. The woman cooked like a dream.

“I’m making pie,” Jason proclaimed proudly. “From scratch.”

“Great.” He beamed Mrs. Miracle an appreciative smile. Apple pie was his personal favorite.

The housekeeper skillfully ran the sharp edge of the knife around the Granny Smith apple. The peeling twisted and curled away from the blade like a tight ringlet. “I always said that a good cook starts from scratch and keeps on scratching.”

Seth grinned, acknowledging her wit. “Judd and I are about to watch the football game.”