In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(54)

He stormed out the door, slamming both the screen door into the house and the one off the screened porch as loudly as possible. The big black garbage bag waited on the grassy place where Bubba and Claud had tied up their boats. He untied the top and, sure enough, there were two cans of coffee. He removed one can and hid it in a cooler on the porch before he went inside.

A man needed a little bit of leverage when dealing with an alligator.

"Thank you. Now that wasn't so hard, was it? Doesn't even look heavy," she said when he carried it back inside, slung over his shoulder like a bag of chicken feed.

"Where do you want it?"

"Right there is fine. I'll unpack it and put the other things away, then we'll go fishin' for some meat to go with the beans and rice."

He dropped it where he stood and went back out to sit on the porch. He chose the old metal folding chair, mostly because it looked sturdier than the wooden one. He'd done his day's work, so she could cook.

Kidnapped man bring in coffee.

Sassy woman cook breakfast.

A smile tickled the corners of his mouth. He tried to keep it at bay, but it spread until he was chuckling. Maw Maw had sure played a trick on them, and he wasn't so sure, now that he was awake and there was a promise of coffee, that he minded so much. A week should give him and Kate plenty of time to make a lot of decisions.

He didn't smell anything coming from the house when she opened the door. She tossed him a package containing two of those pastries that require a toaster to heat. He felt like he'd been cheated and very justified in hiding his own coffee.

"It ain't bacon and eggs," he said.

"Go find me a hen house and slaughter a hog, and we'll have bacon and eggs," she said.

"I don't remember you being this mean in the morning," he said.

"Well, remember me just like this when you go back to Texas, because this is the real me. Come on. If we're going to have meat, we'll have to fish"

"What are we using for bait, or am I eating it?" he asked.

"We'll dig worms. There's no shortage of them in the swamp. If we don't catch fish, then we'll put the worms in the macaroni and cheese. It's good protein," she said.

He grinned. "Yum, yum"

She shook her finger at him. "Don't be sarcastic with me. This is all your fault." She led the way down the steps and picked up a small shovel stored up under the house beside a rusty old coffee can.

"And, pray tell me, just how is this my fault? It wasn't my crazy relatives who put us out here on something so small we couldn't cuss a cat without getting a hair in our mouth," he said.

"If you hadn't got all heated up over Corrine testing you, then we wouldn't have fought; and if we hadn't had a fight, then you wouldn't have told Maw Maw you were going home"

"I'd say you're lookin' at it all wrong. Give me that shovel. You can't get it deep enough to find worms," he said.

She threw it at him.

He jumped back to keep from being hit in the knees.

She popped a hand on each hip. "How am I looking at it all wrong?"

"If you hadn't let your cousin come on to me and acted like you were . . " He stomped the shovel into the soft earth.

"Like I was what?"

He turned the dirt over, and, sure enough, a dozen earthworms wiggled toward the top. "All high and mighty, in with your relatives."

She produced a rusty soup can from behind her back and gathered worms into it. "That would be the pot calling the kettle black. You wouldn't even take me on a proper date, and you were broken up with Stephanie back then. "

He rolled his eyes and sunk the shovel into another place.

She squatted and got ready to harvest the worms. "Don't you make that face at me. You know I'm right."

He stuck the shovel into the dirt and squatted so close to her, she could feel his warm breath on her face. "You want to know why I didn't ask you to the movies or to the Eagle's Nest for a hamburger? Do you really want to know?"

"Give it to me. I'm a big girl."

"Because I was scared your daddy would beat the devil out of me. You were fifteen, and he was a big man. He'd already told a couple of guys that if he caught them around you, they'd never see the light of day again," Hart said.

She tried to speak, but no words came out. Finally she inhaled deeply and whispered, "Why didn't you tell me that before now?"

"Kinda makes me look like even a worse wuss, don't it? Big old football star scared of your daddy. Really would put brownie points on my side, wouldn't it?"

"I figured it was because you were ashamed of me because I was part Hispanic," she said.

He leaned forward and brushed a kiss across her lips. "Never crossed my mind. Now are we going to fish or fight some more? I'm about hungry enough, I might start eating these worms if we don't catch our dinner pretty soon"





Wen they had a can full of worms, Kate picked up two bamboo poles leaning against the back of the house. Hart put the shovel back and followed her toward the place where the boats docked. It could hardly be called a dock since it was only a two-foot wooden porch out into the water, with a couple of tall posts at the end to tie up a canoe.