The nurse, who’d been standing just inside the door, moved to the bedside. “He’s wild,” Bethie whispered, “but he comes from good people.”

Amelia closed her eyes and silently whispered, “I don’t.” Not one of her kin would come if she called.

Chapter 7 - Tuesday’s World

Chapter 7

Tuesday’s World

Tuesday watched the big guy called Ketch fight not to limp as he headed down the stairs of his warehouse apartment. He wasn’t like most men she met. There was a politeness about him. A kindness in the way he moved, as if he didn’t want to frighten her with his size. The mouse and the elephant, she thought.

It had been her experience that big men often pushed their weight around. Not just in bar fights but in the way they handled women as well.

At five feet, four inches tall, she felt small next to Ketch Kincaid. There was a shyness about him, almost like he was new to having a woman close.

Another surprising thing about him. The man acted like he didn’t even notice she was a woman. When she’d changed T-shirts, he’d turned away as if not interested in looking at her body.

They passed through a metal door that opened into a warehouse bay. Supplies were stacked everywhere in order. Four trucks were lined up at the front, all loaded and ready to roll out. Two fire-engine-red pickups were parked by another huge bay door. They were filled with orange cones and yellow barrels for water.

“The Randall brothers handle most of the construction in the valley,” Ketch said as he headed toward one of the pickups. “Dan Randall was my first drill sergeant seven years ago. He told all the guys when we finished our tours and needed a job to come here. He claimed this valley was the best place on earth. Since Clifton also has a college and I knew I had a job waiting, I headed to Texas.”

“What about your family?” she asked as they began unloading cones from one of the pickup beds.

“No family. I was left on a dock wrapped in a worn square of a sailcloth when I was a week old. Someone had written on the box I was in, His name is Ketch Kincaid. Tell him his parents loved him, but we weren’t born with roots.”

“Seriously?”

“That’s what I’ve been told.” Ketch laughed. “I imagine my parents being kids taking off to sail the seven seas.”

“Do you have a love for sailing?”

“No, I get seasick in a pool. That was probably why I was left behind.”

To her surprise, he opened the company pickup door and offered to help her in.

Tuesday grabbed the handle and climbed up without assistance and heard him say, “Good job, kid.”