In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(48)

"Still mad at me?" she whispered.

"Never was mad at you," he said stoically.

"You don't lie none so hot, Hart Ducaine," she hissed.

"Darlin', I hold the record for being stupid. You are doing the same thing to me that I did to you back when we were kids. I thought we were both adults now and had gotten past my teenage mistake. Evidently I was wrong," he whispered back to her.

Julietta grabbed Hart's hand and looked up at him. "Since Uncle Bubba is going to marry Kate, I guess you can sit with me for supper."

Hart smiled down at the impish redhaired girl. "Chere, I would love to do just that, but I've done promised Maw Maw Miller I'd sit with her. You want to tell her that you've stolen me away from her?"

Julietta shuddered. "Mais, not me, no? Maw Maw might put a spell on me and turn me into a swamp frog. You go on and sit with her. I'm glad you're goin' to be my aunt, Miss Kate. Are you goin' to wear a white dress to the weddin'? Y'all goin' to live on Uncle Bubba's boat?"

Kate was speechless.

Julietta ran off to find a little friend to sit with.

Hart picked up a disposable plate and filled it to the brim. He tucked plastic cutlery into his shirt pocket and grabbed a can of Coke with the other hand. Kate loaded her plate and followed him to Maw Maw's table.

"I heard tell you'd done give your hand over to Bubba Boudreaux. Why's that, Kate Miller?" Maw Maw shook her red fork at Kate.

"I did no such thing," Kate protested.

"Bring a feller down here from Texas. Make him drive all this way just to see you when you was goin' to marry up with Bubba, yes? That's not Cajun manners, no? You and me will talk later, after this cochon de lait is over."

"Maw Maw, I didn't say yes to Bubba. He didn't even ask me yet. And I didn't bring this Texan all the way down here. He flew, for one thing, and only drove from New Orleans. And I didn't ask him. He came uninvited."

"No sense in you being rude," Maw Maw said.

"She's just giving me a taste of my own medicine, ma'am," Hart said. "Only, when I broke her heart, we were just kids. She's showing me that in her world she's the princess and I'm the outsider. I'll be leaving as soon as I eat"

"Where you goin' this time of night?" Maw Maw shot him a mean look.

"Nearest hotel until morning, and then I'm going home where I belong. Kate has found her world. I need to find mine. I do thank you for a lovely party," Hart said.

Maw Maw threw up her hands. "Eat your food, boy. I'll talk to you too. Kids!"

Kate's heart dropped six feet below ground level and died right then and there. They'd gotten along so well all day long, and now he'd taken offense at a silly family joke. Maybe that was proof positive that she didn't need to be with him. What was it he'd just said? He was the outsider in her world. Well, she'd been the outsider in his, back when he was the glory child of Shackelford County.

Tears dammed up behind her lashes, but she blinked them back. She wasn't going to have black mascara streaks down her face, especially at a gathering where Corrine was. But, by the same token, she couldn't force a bite of food down her throat. She sipped at the sweet tea, and even it was tasteless.

"You not hungry?" Vesta, one of Maw Maw's closest friends, had been watching Kate.

"Just hot from all that dancin'," Kate said quickly, an orangesized lump in her throat. "I'll eat a bunch later when I cool off."

He was going home, and she was staying behind. It wasn't supposed to work like that. He was supposed to stay a week and play poker with her before he left. He was supposed to convince her that her place was in Texas, learning how to be a rancher's wife.

She excused herself by pointing at the house like she had to use the restroom and went straight to her part of the bedroom. When she passed the sheets dividing his share of the room, she caught a whiff of his aftershave but didn't slow down. She retrieved her cell phone from her purse and punched in the familiar numbers.

"Hello." Fancy answered on the second ring.

"It didn't work. He came yesterday, and he's already going home. When Theron came to Florida to see you, you went home with him," Kate said.

"What did you fight about?" Fancy asked.

Kate told her the Corrine story.

Fancy laughed until she got the hiccups. "Too many people. Get the weatherman to send you an ice storm where you have to spend a few days in a cabin together."

"Not possible in Louisiana, darlin'," Kate said sarcastically.

"I guess not in the middle of March, either. You shouldn't have pulled that trick on him. You two are at the fragile stage anyway, and that wasn't very nice."

"You're taking his side. Some friend you are," Kate said.

"I'm calling it like I see it. Think about your history," Fancy told her.

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You don't trust him."

Kate chewed on that for a few seconds.

"Well?" Fancy said.

"I guess I don't. But he didn't succumb to Corrine and her tricks," Kate said defensively.

"You still don't trust him, and he doesn't trust you, either. If you're going to build anything, it has to be on a trust foundation. Go on back out to your party and start making a foundation."