The Barefoot Summer(47)

“Would you ever think of leaving your big, fancy job and moving to a place like Bootleg?” Amanda asked.

“I’d never leave my business behind, but if I had a daughter like you have, I might reconsider everything.”

“Never say never,” Jamie quipped.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Amanda was so antsy that she decided to bake again all morning on Thursday. She rationalized making more by saying that she would take two large platters of cookies to the church for the potluck. Gracie was delighted to sit at the table and help stir, mix, and sample the broken ones as they came out of the oven.

“I like cookin’,” Gracie said. “Because I get to eat the mistakes.”

“I like it because it helps keep my hands busy. We’ll have to think of something for lunch for your mama, though, other than cookies.”

“Why?” Gracie giggled.

“How about toasted cheese sandwiches and some noodle soup?”

“Yes!” Gracie pumped her fist in the air. “And cookies and milk for dessert like yesterday.”

“You got it, kiddo! Well, I’ll be . . . danged.” Amanda caught the cussword before it left her mouth.

“What? Another broken one?” Gracie asked.

“No, I think I’m nesting. I cleaned my room this morning and put away all the little boy things that Aunt Ellie brought when she delivered the bed and bassinet.”

“Amanda, why is it a bad thing that my daddy married all of you?”

She fumbled for an answer. “Because it’s against the law.”

“You know what my Mama Rita says? She says that I have to obey her when she tells me something, but what my mama says is the law. Is it like that?”

“A whole lot.” Amanda put the last of the cookies in the oven and checked the clock. It was time to open two cans of soup and get things ready for dinner.

“Then if my mama had told my daddy not to marry you, he wouldn’t have done it?” Gracie asked.

“This is a different kind of law.”

Gracie frowned. “Like the detective that likes Kate a lot. Mama says he’s the law. If he’d told my daddy not to marry you and Kate, then he wouldn’t, right?”

“I don’t know about that, but what makes you think that Waylon likes Kate?” Amanda asked.

“I’m a little kid, but I’m not stupid.” Gracie folded her arms over her chest and huffed. “I can see the way he looks at her. Like Mama looks at chocolate.”

That was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Amanda burst out laughing, and Gracie joined right in.

“Why is that funny?” Gracie asked when they’d both gotten control.

Amanda hugged the child. “I hope my baby grows up to be as smart as you.”

“Mama says it’s my half brother. What’s the other half?”

“Half brother means you have the same daddy but not the same mama,” Amanda explained.

“Does that mean I’m a big sister for real?”

Amanda sure wished that Jamie was there to have this conversation. “It does mean that. Do you want to be a big sister even though you don’t have the same mama as my baby?”

“Heck, yeah, I do.” Gracie grinned with a chocolate chip stuck to her teeth. “I don’t care who the mama or the daddy is as long as it can be my brother.”

“Hello, what’s this about a brother?” Jamie asked as she made her way into the house.

“Amanda’s baby will have my daddy, but Amanda will be the mama. And we’ve got cookies, Mama. Lots and lots of cookies!” Gracie ran to give Jamie a hug.

Jamie grinned. “The simplicity of innocence.”

“We are making noodle soup for dinner, Mama. Tell me about your day,” Gracie said.

Jamie picked up a still-warm cookie. “I want to hear about your day and then I’ll tell you about mine.”

“I wish Kate was here to tell us about hers. I miss her when she’s gone all day.” Gracie sighed.



Driving a tractor, even with the radio blaring loudly, left a lot of time for thinking, and that’s what Kate had been doing all morning. The fact that she’d been selfish with the knowledge in Iris’s letters and will kept circling back to haunt her even when other things took top priority.

She liked this mindless work of plowing a field. She liked being outside in the sunshine and wearing sandals or going barefoot. But what she liked most of all was the freedom in her soul when she smelled the fresh-plowed dirt or looked at a barn full of hay that she’d helped harvest.

Kenny Chesney was belting out “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” when she made the final loop around the field.

“Oh, yes, I do.” She grinned. “And my mother would have me committed for saying that.”

She picked up her phone from the console beside her and poked in the speed-dial number for the lawyer as she drove the tractor back to the barn. They’d located Darcy’s will only to learn she’d left all her earthly possessions to her mother’s church—Hattie’s church. Now it was a matter of getting things legalized and seeing what the church wanted to do with the cabin and the money they’d found in the bank box.

She turned off the engine and slung open the door. It was time—past time, really—to let everyone know about the will and the letters.