“Tell me about it.” Clancey stuck out her foot. “They’re a half size too small, but they were the only ones even close to my size, so I make them fit.” She grinned.

The other woman stuck out her own foot. “A size too large,” she chuckled, “but I stuffed newspaper in them!”

They both laughed.

“That was really nice of you,” Clancey told her little brother. They’d found two other shirts that fit him, and they were on the way home with them.

“They were a nice family,” he replied. He sighed. “He said his granddaddy gave him the shirt, and it was new, and some boys beat him up and tore it. Why are other kids so mean?” he asked sadly.

“I wish I knew.”

He looked up at her. “Cal says I have to be less sens...sensi...”

“Sensitive,” she said.

“Yeah. Sensitive. But it makes me mad when they laugh because my stuff is secondhand. I don’t care. Why should they?”

“Because they don’t know any better,” she said simply. “If they had to live like we do, they’d understand.”

“It’s not so bad,” he told her, and he grinned. “We got each other.”

“Yes.” She hugged him close. “We’ve got each other.”

Banks wasn’t in the office the next Monday when she went in to work, and he didn’t show up by lunchtime. She was concerned. He was always on time. In fact, he was always early, like Clancey usually was.

She phoned the other office and spoke to the lieutenant’s assistant. “Have you heard anything about Banks?” she asked quickly.

“Banks? Oh.” She laughed. “Are you worried about him, Clancey?”

“Shame on you!”

“Sorry. He had to go to court this morning,” she said. “Didn’t he tell you?”

“No.” Clancey glowered.

“So you worried.”

“He’s always here on time.”

“So are you,” the other woman pointed out with a chuckle. “Well, he hasn’t been shot or stabbed or carried off by Martians. Feel better?”

“Lots. I’m going to pour my thermos of coffee over his head when he gets here, though, for not telling me he had to be in court.”

“Assault on a peace officer,” she pointed out.

“Spoilsport,” Clancey replied with a laugh. “Thanks. And, uh, don’t mention that I called you, okay?”

“Your guilty secret is safe with me. Cross my heart.”

“Thanks!”

Banks was almost strutting when he walked into the office after lunch. He tossed his Stetson onto a hook on the coat tree and grinned at her.

“So you were worried about me, were you?” he asked.

She went cherry red. “She said she crossed her heart!” she muttered.

“Maria says that when she doesn’t want to promise,” he told her. “If you want her to keep her mouth shut, you have to make her promise.”