In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(36)

"You know something I don't?" Hart frowned.

Sophie started toward the table and he followed.

"You didn't answer me." A vise clamped down on his heart and squeezed the life's blood from it.

"No, I didn't. I don't know a blessed thing that you don't know. I'm just telling you what I think. You can't solve a thing over a cell phone or by waiting. Get right in her face and tell her how you feel. Don't beat around the bush. Say it, and loud enough the whole county or parish or whatever the hell they have in Louisiana can hear it. Stand on the rooftop. Kate doesn't understand anything but straightforward, and you hurt her bad way back when, so you have to scream really loud"

"She's talking about the shining thing," Fancy said from the end of the table, where she'd sat down after the dance finished.

Theron had gone to get her a glass of tea and another plate of barbecue.

"What?" Hart's brow wrinkled, making the scar ache.

"When we first got back to Texas from the four corners of the US of A, or so it seemed, we talked about our three magic words," Fancy explained.

"I love you?" Marcus asked.

Sophie poked him on the arm. "Don't let Theron hear you saying that."

"You know what I mean. `I love you' is every woman's three magic words. They want to hear it," Marcus said.

"Who died and made you so danged smart?" Sophie asked.

Marcus stuck his nose in the air. "Hard to believe you were ever a preacher's wife."

"Hard to believe a preacher would act like a two-bit womanizer, but he did."

"So if it's not `I love you,' then what were the magic words?" Marcus asked.

Hart kept the laughter inside. Sophie would lead that man a dog's life for sure, and Theron kept throwing them together. "I'd be interested in knowing what they are too," he said.

"Well, mine was `a forever thing,'" said Fancy. "That's what I wanted. Not three words that can change with the wind. I wanted Theron to promise me a forever thing that would last beyond `I love you' and right on through eternity. At first he didn't want to offer such a thing, but he finally came around"

"Took me a while to figure it all out" Theron rejoined them and put a plate of food in front of Fancy, along with a glass of sweet tea. "Burt when I did, I didn't stutter. I took care of it, didn't I, honey?"

She reached up and patted his cheek. "Yes, you did. I got my forever thing and a daughter to boot."

Hart pretended he'd never heard the story before.

"So what's your three magic words, Sophie?" he asked.

"It's `life after wife.' I won't ever marry again unless a man can offer me a life after the marriage. Seems they're all willing to promise a woman the moon and stars and half the sun before the marriage, but afterward they aren't so interested, so I want a life after I become the wife."

"And Kate's?" he asked, his heart almost stopping as he waited.

Both Sophie and Fancy laughed.

"Well?" he asked.

"She wants a knight in shining . . " Fancy paused.

"Armor?" Hart asked.



"No. Whatever." Sophie burst into giggles.

"What?" Marcus asked.

"A knight in shining whatever. She never can remember the word armor," Fancy said.

"For real? But that's more than three magic words," Hart said.

"In shining whatever. Those are her three words. Until someone can give her that, she's not interested"

"What is it? `I love you' is words. `In shining whatever' doesn't make a bit of sense," Hart said.

"You figure it out and take it to her, and maybe she'll listen to you," Sophie said.

Darlene tapped Hart on the shoulder and wiggled her rear end. "This is a fast one, darlin'. Dance with me?"

Hart stood up. "Excuse me, folks"

He danced two with Darlene, one with his mother, and a couple with other women at the party. The whole time, he thought about that "whatever" thing. Understanding Kate was more complex than he'd bargained for. Maybe he'd better try to forget her. How could he produce an "in shining whatever" when he had no idea what it was or where to buy it?

Forgetting Kate would be impossible. She'd been in his subconscious ever since that summer when they were teenagers. He'd measured every woman after that by her yardstick, and they'd all come up short. Now she was within his grasp, and he had no idea how to close the distance between them.

He pondered it all evening. The dance ended at midnight, and then he helped his father and mother take down decorations until two in the morning. By the time he drove home, he'd forgotten all about Darlene in the motel until he saw the sign. It might be a lot easier to forget Kate if he knocked three times.

He pulled into the parking lot and turned off the engine.





Kate stretched the kinks from her back and adjusted the big, wide-brimmed straw hat, then walked on her knees to the next spot in the garden she was weeding. She reached across the tender little green onion plants and pulled up the dandelions and other green shoots that did not belong in Maw Maw's vegetable patch. The potato plants were a couple of inches tall, and the beans were beginning to sprout.