Built to Last (Harlequin Heartwarming) by Janice Kay Johnson Page B

moments when they managed the feat of putting all the letters together.
    She felt some relief when the teacher clapped her hands and called, “Five minutes, everyone! Time to put your work away.”
    The little girl beside Jo whispered, “Thank you,” closed her book and slid off the chair. “I wish you’d come back,” she confided, before scooting back to her desk.
    Jo felt a peculiar squeezing in her chest.
    Emma plopped down on the first-grader-size chair, her knees poking up almost as high as her shoulders. “I don’t remember it being that hard to read.”
    “Me, either,” Jo admitted. “But it must have been.”
    Emma watched the kids bustle around gathering their backpacks and coats, settingtheir chairs on their desks and lining up at the door. “I kind of like doing that. Maybe I could come regularly.”
    “Ginny would love that.”
    Just then, her miniature housemate approached, her daypack slung over her shoulder and Pirate back in his cardboard carrier. “Teacher said I could leave before the bell, since I’m with you,” she said importantly.
    “Cool,” Emma said. “I always liked having an excuse to beat the crowd.”
    Obviously pleased by the moment, Ginny held her head high as they passed the line of students, thanked the teacher and exited into the still empty hall. They had almost reached the outside door when the bell rang and hordes stampeded toward them.
    “Wow. Let’s get out of here,” Jo said, shoving the door open.
    They made it outside in the nick of time. Within minutes, the playground and parking lot were a scene of chaos familiar from her own school days. A long line of yellow school buses waited, as did parents on foot and in cars. Walkers dawdled on the playground, sixth-grade girls murmured in trios and tried to look fifteen while the boys wrestled andwhooped and the teachers and playground aides wielded whistles to induce order.
    Jo shook her head, smiling reluctantly. “I should make Aunt Julia come and listen to first-graders read.”
    The girls’ heads turned. “What?”
    “Never mind. Let’s go home.”
    Pirate rode on Ginny’s lap. Despite being the object of a group rescue, he seemed bent on becoming her cat. Tiny and puzzled by the irritating collar, he must have felt safest in her quiet presence.
    Jo hadn’t been home long when Ryan called. “Hey,” he said. “Long time no see.”
    She’d wondered why he hadn’t called or stopped by the evening before. It had irked her even to be aware of his absence. Couldn’t she get by for a couple of days without seeing him? Aunt Julia would be ashamed of her!
    “Have you been busy?” she asked.
    “Me? I came by Wednesday night. You weren’t home.” It wasn’t quite a question, as if he knew he didn’t have the right to ask this one.
    She wouldn’t have minded if he had asked, Jo realized.
    “I had dinner with my aunt Julia. Shestopped over at SeaTac on her way to Fairbanks. We haven’t seen each other in months.”
    “Ah.” He was quiet for a moment. “I got stuck having dinner with some clients last night.”
    Relieved for reasons she preferred not to examine, Jo teased, “It was that bad? What did they serve, liver and onions?”
    A smile in his voice, he protested, “Hey, I like liver and onions!”
    “No!” She wrinkled her nose. “Really?”
    “Afraid so.”
    Jo sat sideways in an easy chair and hung her legs over the arm. “I always knew there was something strange about you.”
    “I’ll bet you haven’t tried ’em. Why don’t I make them for dinner tonight…”
    “You do that,” she said. “Just be sure to air out your house before you invite anyone over.”
    He laughed. “Okay. I can take a hint. How does Thai sound to you?”
    They agreed he’d pick her up at six, and they would consider a movie later. Tonight was Helen’s turn to cook, and Jo wandered down to the kitchen.
    “Hi,” she said. “I wanted to let you know I won’t be here for dinner.”
    Helen turned from the