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tushy? That kind of lapse could be a big mistake. Maybe even a fatal mistake! Her heart thudded and she spun away from Cameron’s penetrating gaze. Hurrying down the narrow stairway and hit the swinging gymnasium doors with the full force of her fear. The loud thump echoed in the huge, empty room as the doors whooshed open.
    “Years ago, this building housed a prestigious parochial high school.” She walked at a brisk pace up the aisle created by rows of metal bunkbeds. “When they consolidated with another school and moved to a new facility, this building was left standing empty. After a time, several local churches bought the place, converting the upstairs classrooms into offices. The downstairs with its gym, cafeteria, and lockers was set up as the shelter. I want to be very clear about that, you are volunteering at an emergency shelter, not a housing program.”
    “Meaning?” He had stopped and bent slightly to peer at the underside of an upper bunk.
    “Meaning I’m going to need you the most at bedtime.” She realized she’d said it wrong even as the words were leaving the tip of her tongue and yet she had been powerless to reel them back in. “I’m so sorry, that sounded--”
    “Someone will be wanting this, I’m thinkin’, and by the way, don’t apologize. It’s been a long time since anyone needed me…” He reached beneath the bed and retrieved a tattered photograph from the bedsprings and in a few steps stood almost over her, offering it and a soft smile as her murmured, “…especially at bedtime.”
    She drew in the musty odor of the linens, the faint scents of the occupants who had spent the night here only a few hours earlier. She glanced at the photo, somebody’s mom or girlfriend she figured. The fact that he had understood someone who had so little in life would value it enough for him to rescue it told her he was both keenly observant and not unfeeling. The fact that he had confessed to her that he hadn’t been needed at bedtime for a long time?
    Thoughts swirled in her head and she needed to clear them. Her soft-soled shoes slapped against the hard floor as she rushed across the room to push open another swinging door. “Through here, we have the lockers and showers.”
    “I’m sure those are appreciated.” He peered in for an instant just as she released the heavy door and it fell shut.
    “We rent the lockers for a nominal fee to the working homeless. It gives us a little bit of revenue and them a place to store their things while they’re on the job.”
    “Working homeless? How can there be such a thing?”
    Julia smiled at the rhetorical question that Cameron murmured under his breath. Unfeeling was the last word she’d use to describe this man. That did not mean she was safe with him here, though. She led on, steering him back out into the main hallway with a determined stride. “That’s the cafeteria. I’ll show it to you on the way back.”
    As if determined to slow her breakneck progress, Cameron stopped to peek through the small rectangular window in one of the doors she had just given a dismissive wave. “Tis empty.”
    “Trust me, it doesn’t stay empty.” She moved on, unwilling to let him drag the tour on a moment longer than necessary. “Hot meals are a big part of our service.”
    He nodded.
    “Still, I have wondered if we’d do better to cut those out in order to utilize that space as a full-time shelter for women with children.”
    At the end of the hall, she worked the wobbling knob of a heavy, steel door, opening it to reveal a dirty little courtyard and loading dock. “This door is locked at all times except two hours in the morning for deliveries.”
    She let the door fall shut, pivoted on her heel and headed back toward Cameron. Her pulse drummed like the William Tell Overture in her ears as she raced on to wind up the tour and see him on his way. She slipped past Cameron, her mind on getting through this, then on to her real problems. Something