In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(32)

"Are you going to say anything?" she asked.

"The world isn't big enough to run from me." His tone dripped ice.

"Who says you are so important that I'd run from you?"

"You saying you're not?" he asked.

"You started it."

"And I'll finish it. How long did your boss give you to think about it?"

"I wouldn't think that would be a bit of your business," Kate snapped.

"Do you love me, Kate?"

"Mais, are you crazy as the loup-garou?" She reverted back to Cajun.

"This is what Fancy did when she figured out she was in love. She took off for her old stomping grounds. Theron told me all about it when I called their place to see if Fancy knew where you were"

"No," she lied.

"I was hoping you were and then you'd marry me."

"Is that a proposal? Because if it is, it was about as romantic as a cow chip in the punch bowl at a church social," she snapped.

"No, it wasn't a proposal. When I propose to you it will be with enough fanfare you won't have to guess," he said.

"Going to come riding up on a big white horse in all your shining . . " The word escaped her again. Why couldn't she remember the old cliche?

"Shining armor?" He finished the sentence for her.

"Whatever. Are you?"

"If I make up my mind to propose, you won't be able to see who it is for the glare off my shining armor," he said.

"Are we fighting?"

"Could be. Want me to come down there so we can make up?"

"I want you to stay away so I can think," she said.



"Can't think with me in the same town?"

"I didn't say that, and I wouldn't admit it if it were the truth," she said.

"I'm not going to leave you alone," he said.

"Yes, you are."

"Good night, Kate. I'll be in touch tomorrow morning," he said, and hung up before she could say a word.

She looked at the phone as if it were the spawn of a gator and the devil.

"Dat the man, yes?" Maw Maw asked.

Kate nodded.

"The one when you were a girl?"

Kate nodded again.

"Ma is, should've married him then. You'd have big strapping boys by now."

"You are right," Kate sighed.

"'Course I am" Maw Maw nodded slowly, and went back to fishing.





The night air was still warm enough to produce a sheen of sweat after a good fast dance. Kate wore a bright yellow sundress with spaghetti straps. Part of the handkerchief hemline touched the tops of her brown eel cowboy boots. She'd twisted her long dark hair up and gathered it with a wide yellow clip to keep it off her neck. A small silver cross hung barely above the swell of her breasts and matched big, loopy silver earrings that stopped an inch above her bare shoulders.

Maw Maw sat at a long table with other grandmothers, who kept a watchful eye on their kinfolk. The party that night was for a family whose home had burned the week before. Two big galvanized buckets were set on the edges of the stage, where the band kept lively music going. The whole building was an openair pavilion, with the stage on one end, the crowd flowing out against the cars and trucks parked along the perimeter of the park grounds. Children danced with other children and adults when they could talk them into it. Teenagers flirted and disappeared into the shadows for a bit of hanky-panky. It didn't get out of hand, because if a mother or grandmother heard the faintest whisper of a kiss, they weren't above embarrassing a girl or boy. Twenty-and thirtysomething men and women danced and flirted but without the restriction of overprotective parents.

Kate was surprised to realize that there were fewer and fewer her age that weren't sitting on the sidelines with babies or with children almost old enough to be looking at those shadows where they could steal their first kisses.

Zac Verret kept his fiddle whining and the dancers hopping, and winked at her every time he caught her eye. During a break when someone put on an old country music CD, he beat a pathway to her side to ask for a dance.

He held out his hand. "The pretty Kate has come back to the swamp where she belongs. Come and dance with me, yes?" His voice was deep and mesmerizing. His black eyes sparkled with mischief.

She put her hand in his and let him lead her to the dance floor, where he wrapped his arms around her. His body melted against hers like a magnet attracts metal. She could hear his heartbeats as she laid her head on his shoulder and let him lead her around the floor in a two-step.

"Where have you been, chere? Why did you leave?"

"Momma wanted to go home to Texas. I was burned out at my job, so I went with her. Now I don't think I was as burned out as I thought"

"Ah, so Texas doesn't hold your heart like the bayou. Mais, what are you going to do?"

"Think about things."

"About me?" He tilted her chin back to see her eyes better. Such a lovely shade of light brown, almost the same color as her lightly toasted skin.

"Among other things. What have you been doing while I was gone?"

"Making many women happy," he laughed.

"You will never grow up, Zac"