As usual, she was hiding all the wrong things. She didn’t want to talk about the fact that her treasures included a baby wristband, swatch of cloth, hair clip and two faux-gold coins given to her mother by her GI father. It made her feel like such a peasant.

“You’re right,” she said. “I’ll explain. Charlie, brush your teeth. I think Winnie will want to see you before you start your first day at a new school.”

“Can I leave my laptop upstairs? Or should I put it in the car?”

“Leave it upstairs,” Blake answered for her. “I’m going to swim, then run, but I should be around when school’s out. You won’t be separated from it any longer than necessary.”

“Thanks,” he said, jumping off his stool.

When he was gone, Lin Su began rinsing his dishes. “Mr.... Um, Blake,” she corrected. “I don’t expect you to understand this, it makes no sense, but when something goes wrong, like our trailer being vandalized like it was, it somehow makes me feel incompetent. Like a failure. As if I’m not capable of taking care of myself and my son. And Winnie is too generous. I guess she can afford to be, which is wonderful for her, especially now as she battles ALS. But just like it makes me feel like a failure when I can’t keep trouble from my door. I don’t like to take handouts.”

“I do understand, as a matter of fact. Your stubborn pride is familiar to me. But there are times—when the need is genuine and certainly not due to laziness or entitlement—you have to go with humility and gratitude, get on your feet and pay it forward. I’ve been there, Lin Su.”

She tilted her head. “You say things like that—that you understand being poor, that you’ve had your own hard times. Someday you’ll tell me what you mean by that.”

“Someday I will,” he said. “We actually have a lot in common even though I don’t have children. One of the things is this—we don’t get along all that well but I think we have a common mission and respect for each other. If I found myself suddenly homeless due to some misfortune I couldn’t control or prevent, you would offer to help me. You’d offer me a place to stay out of the cold and rain, no matter how little space you had to share. So let’s leave it at that. You’re no beggar. You had a bad day—I had extra room.”

We really should get along better than we do, she thought. “I’m very grateful,” she said. “Thank you. And if I get any more humble, I will be an ant.”

He grinned at that. It made him wince.

“You really got pummeled,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said, ducking away from her perusal. “I’m an idiot. Those guys are on meth. That means they have no brains and extraordinary strength. I knew before I chased the first guy what that could mean. I’m going to work on being smarter.”

“Do you get in many fights?” she asked.

“I can’t remember ever provoking one before, but if anyone asks, it was self-defense.” When she began adding dish soap to the water in the sink he stopped her. “Stick them in the dishwasher, Lin Su.”

“Listen,” she said. “I’m looking at a small loft in town today but I haven’t told Charlie. It’s very nice and might not fit my budget—we’ll have to see. I don’t want him to get his hopes up.”

“You can stay here while you need to,” he said. “It really doesn’t disturb me.”

“You said something about a team, a trainer...”

“My coach will be here in a week—there’s plenty of space for her without disrupting you. We’ll be all about business and training. After a week of that, I’m going with my trainer and part of her team to Lake Tahoe where I’ll train for a week at altitude before the race. I’ll be back immediately following the race. By myself.”

“But if I’m still here, where...?”

“There is a guest room beside my room and one downstairs. I have my equipment and an office downstairs. I don’t need the loft. We could disturb you but you couldn’t possibly disturb us.”

“Hopefully this small space in town will work out,” she said.

Charlie, no longer concerned about waking Blake, came pounding down the stairs, jumping the last four and landing with a loud thud. “Ready?” he asked his mother.

Blake smiled at him. She wondered if Blake had any idea how good-looking he was, even with a banged-up face.

“Ready,” she said. “Let’s go.”

* * *

The woman has no idea how exquisite she is, Blake thought. He was used to women who knew how beautiful they were, knew how powerful they were.

Lin Su was proud, gentle, as strong as steel, as soft as a cloud, stubborn as an ox. He’d seen her care for Winnie with tender strength. It was true Winnie wasn’t a large woman, but she was slightly bigger than Lin Su, yet the nurse handled her as if she were weightless. She could be firm with Charlie, and with himself for that matter. Yet he’d seen in her a sweet kindness unlike anything he’d known. And she was breathtaking to look at.

Their rapport was a little edgy, stumbling along, looking for a way to become friends. He could tell they had a great deal in common and maybe that was why they didn’t quite trust each other yet. But even though they weren’t exactly friends, or maybe they were very cautious friends, he was impossibly attracted to her.

Alone in his house, he laughed out loud. He couldn’t have conjured up a more complicated scenario—she worked next door, she had a boatload of secrets she guarded with a kind of stoic tenacity, she didn’t trust him because it looked to her—looked to a lot of people—as though he had it easy. On top of all that, she had a fourteen-year-old son who had health issues and regarded Blake as his champion—a boy who wanted an active and adventurous life despite his limitations. Blake thought Charlie was right to want that. He also thought it was possible. He, with no parenting experience whatsoever, thought Lin Su was too protective. He thought Lin Su would keep Charlie from growing and testing his limits in an effort to keep him safe—polar opposite of what Blake believed was in Charlie’s best interest. That alone would pit Lin Su against him. And, in a way, him against her.

He was pretty sure they’d never work out the kind of easy, affectionate relationship he’d like. He was convinced the passion he fantasized about was out of the question. He just hoped they wouldn’t kill each other and bang up Charlie in the process of discovering what kind of relationship they’d have.