In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(20)

"Stephanie called me a sissy," Hart said.

"Why would she do a fool thing like that? You were a hunky football player all through high school. There wasn't anything sissy about you." Kate's temper flared. The woman never did deserve Hart. It didn't matter that she was dead at much too young an age. That was just plain cruel to hurt him like that.

"It was when we broke up. She said I was a big sissy, afraid of what the guys would think of me if I gave her an engagement ring and let her start planning her dream wedding. She said we didn't have to get married until the second year of college. I said no, and she said I was a sissy because I didn't want the guys to rib me about letting her have her way."

He went on. "And then when she wanted us to get back together at the end of the summer, she said I was a sissy because I didn't want to hurt your feelings"

Kate was instantly angry with Stephanie and thought, Okay, lady, be glad you are already sitting on whatever cloud you've been assigned because if you were still walking around in the flesh, I'd be sorely tempted to order a gris-gris bag and put a hex on your sorry hide.

"You going to say anything?" Hart said.

"Not much. Just that I'm sorry I wasted a single minute feeling sorry for her. It's a good thing she's not able to walk through the door, because I'd yank her bald-headed and enjoy doing it. She was a witch when she was young, and..

Hart chuckled. "I unleashed a monster."

"You took the chains off my temper, Jethro Hart Ducaine."

He winced. "Why won't you go out with me?"

"I'm not going there tonight, Hart. Tell me about bull riding."

She checked the clock. It wasn't even eight o'clock. This was turning into the longest stakeout of her life.

He looked at the clock. How could he slow it down and make the night last longer? He'd barely gotten her to talk about herself, and the time was racing.

"Bull riding is bull riding. Stay on eight seconds. Get the most points. Win the prize. Now tell me about your last two years of high school in New Iberia," he said.

"High school in Jeanerette, not New Iberia. I lived out on a sugar plantation. It took thirty minutes by bus every morning to get to school."

"So were you a cheerleader?" He pictured her long legs in a short pleated skirt.

"I was a geek. I studied hard so I could get a good scholarship to LSU. It paid off. I got a four-year ride on academics. Left home at eighteen and moved into the dorm," she said.

"And partied or kept studying?" he asked.

"I studied. It was ninety miles from Jeanerette to Baton Rouge, but I only went home on holiday breaks. Weekends I worked on campus. Summers I went to school. Graduated in three and a half years. Went to work at the New Iberia force right after my twentyfirst birthday. Made detective when I was twentyfive."

"That's the bare bones. Did you miss your family?" he asked.

"Like the devil. I cried every night that first year. I missed Momma's cooking and I missed Daddy's big old booming voice when he came home at night. I still miss Daddy. It's been a year, and sometimes I swear I can hear his footsteps on Momma Lita's porch when the sun goes down and it's time for him to come home."

"Y'all living in your grandma's house?" Hart asked.

"Momma and I are. That's an adjustment. When I got on with the force I rented my own apartment. Momma and I saw each other every week, and that was a treat after months of being apart at college. But when Daddy died, she wanted to come back to Texas to be around her own folks. I was at a bad place in my career, so I came with her. The rest you know."

"Sti 11 bare bones. I got a confession: I looked you up on the Internet and knew you were a Louisiana detective," he said.

"Why did you do that?"

"We broke up, and I went to college the next week. When I came home after the fiasco with Stephanie, I went to your house in Albany. It was empty, and no one knew where you went. Just that you and Sophie and Fancy had all left about the same time. They thought one of you went up to the Panhandle and one south, but no one was sure"

"All goes to show what an impression we made on the classmates. Bet if I'd been asking about Hart Ducaine instead of the other way around, they'd have told me everything about you, including what you ate for supper and what fraternity you pledged. Want to watch television?" She picked up the remote and pushed the power button.

"I'd rather talk," he said.

"We can talk while we watch television," she said. Hopefully, he'd get involved in a show and quit asking questions.

The second channel was a movie with the credits only beginning to roll. When she saw Jennifer Aniston's name she paused. The old sitcom Friends had been her favorite the whole ten seasons it aired, and she still watched anything one of the stars played in.

Picture Perfect was a romantic comedy about a young advertising whiz who was a good girl. A picture had been taken at her friend's wedding of the guy who caught the garter and the girl who caught the bouquet; that being one cute blond-haired fellow and Jennifer. She used the picture to convince her boss that she was engaged so she could get a promotion, and then had to produce the fiance. Two hours later, at ten thirty, the movie ended.

"So who was your Sam, the person you thought you loved, only you didn't?" Hart asked, referring to a character in the movie.