In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(12)

She pulled her truck into the driveway at Theron's ranch and listened to the rest of the song before she got out and headed toward the front door. Tina had her nose pressed to the glass and waved when Kate stepped up on the porch.

"I'm here," Kate yelled, as she opened the door.

"In the kitchen," Fancy hollered back.

Fancy was dressed in jeans and a baggy T-shirt. Not quite five feet tall and with her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, she looked like a kid. It was no wonder Theron hadn't believed she was thirty when she crawled out of that little Camaro the first time they met.

"Hey, your blue eyes are bright. You really didn't upchuck all morning, did you?" Kate said.

"I told you when I called, this is a celebration that the morning sickness is over. Now I can just get fat and cranky," Fancy said.

Tina ran out the back door, slamming it behind her, yelling that she was going to help her daddy.

"I like that," Kate said.

"What? Fat, cranky, or Tina?"

"No, that wooden screen door. These modern-day storm doors don't slam like that. I remember a door like that when we were kids. Remember how Hattie used to threaten us with a switch if we slammed it one more time?" Kate said.

"Oh, yeah!" Fancy finished cutting up a tomato and added it to the salad.

Kate handed her a cucumber, and she sliced it thinly over the top of the lettuce.

"Momma Fanny, Momma Fanny, Sophie is here!" Tina yelled through the screen door.

Sophie just appeared in the kitchen, in all her red-haired glory. She towered above Fancy and topped Kate's five-foot-six by two or three more inches. Sophie's kinky-curly red hair had given her fits in high school, but now that she was a ranching woman, she lived with the curls with a minimum of swearing. That evening she had pulled her hair up in a ponytail that defied the band; some of it lay in ringlets down to her shoulders, the rest crept out to frame her face. Her eyes were the color of dense fog; Kate swore, even as a child, that she'd been kissed by a witch and could see straight into a person's soul.

"So you aren't sick anymore? Hallelujah!" Sophie bent to give Fancy a quick hug.

"No, thank goodness. How's Aunt Maud?"

"Failing. If she makes it through summer, I'll be surprised." Sophie picked up a bunch of green onions and washed them for the salad. "You are living dangerous," she said.

"And I intend to do so. I haven't eaten real food in two months. I'm ready for the good stuff. Steaks. Baked potatoes. Salad with onions. And I even made pecan pies for dessert ... or I made part of them. Dessa rolled the crust for me. I swear I don't know what I'd do without her," Fancy said.

"A daughter, a maid who can cook, a Greek god. I'd say you got it all in one big ball of wax," Sophie said.

"I told Theron after the morning sickness he could let Dessa go, but he says no. He's thinking of hiring her oldest son as foreman for the ranch and putting a trailer somewhere out there on the two sections of land. No more school after this year is finished. I'll be married to a full-time rancher. I never said anything about cows and muddy boots when we were fifteen, so don't give me grief." Fancy shook a spoon at Sophie.

Sophie pointed out the window to the backyard. "Who is that?"

"That would be the good Reverend Marcus Broadwell. But not to worry, darlin'. Tonight he's just plain old Marc. He's hung up his wings and halo for the evening"

"You invited him for Kate, didn't you? No way you'd bring a preacher into the mix for me" Sophie continued to stare at the handsome preacher man.

He was tall and on first appearance rather lanky, but his three-button knit shirt stretched over his biceps. He wore wirerimmed glasses and had a round face and light brown hair combed straight back. Not bad, but a preacher? Fancy was goofy as an outhouse rat if she had matchmaking on her mind.

"He's not for me," Kate said, after a moment's glance out the window.

Then Hart Ducaine rounded the end of the house and joined Theron and Marc at the barbecue grill.

"You said you were only inviting us girls," she stammered and stuttered.

"I did. You didn't ask me who Theron was inviting," Fancy said, blue eyes all wide with innocence.

"You did this on purpose. I never one time pulled something like this when you were running from Theron."

"No, you didn't, but I'm more devious than you are," Fancy giggled.

Kate started for the door. "I'm going home"

"I'll tell him that you are so in love with him you can't be in the same room with him," Fancy threatened.

"Well, at least he's not a preacher. I'll flip you" Sophie pulled a quarter from the pocket of her tight jeans. "Heads, you get Hart. Tails, I don't get the preacher."

"That don't sound fair to me," Kate said.

"It isn't. Five minutes with a preacher and I swear I'll slap the righteousness right out of him." Sophie flipped the coin and slapped it down on the back of her hand. "Heads. Hart is yours and the preacher goes home alone."

"Five minutes with you and he'd spend the night on his knees begging God to forgive him for lusting," Fancy told Sophie.

Kate reached for the salad. "Looks like we are eating on the picnic table. But, girls, Hart is off-limits. I don't want to get hurt again."