The Barefoot Summer(51)

“Then don’t tease me about it. I had my heart set on a big white dress and wedding cake.” Hattie sighed.

“You are full of horse crap.” Victor chuckled and stared straight at Kate. “But wedding cake does sound good. We haven’t had a wedding in Bootleg in years.”

“Get thee behind me, Satan!” Kate made the sign of the cross over her chest. “I’m only here until my vacation time runs out, then I’ve got a company to run.”

“Well, rats!” Victor huffed. “I just knew from the way Waylon was stealing them long looks at you in church that something might be going on.”

“It’s only been two weeks since Conrad died,” Amanda said.

“Oh, honey, that scoundrel died years ago for Kate. Now you might need to wear widow’s weeds a year, but not her,” Hattie said. “Look, I’ve got another fish, and this is a big one. Help me bring him in, Victor. My arthritis has been acting up all day.”

“Well, so has mine, woman, and I’ve got a bite on my line. You are on your own,” Victor said.

Jamie handed her rod and reel off to Amanda and hurried over to Hattie’s side. She deftly slid the grip from the older woman’s hands and worked the reel until she had a nice three-pound catfish lying on the dock. “Now that’s going to taste really good.”

“Would it be a winner in the contest?” Gracie asked.

“It could be, depending on the age category. For yours, Gracie, it would be big enough to get you those tickets to Six Flags you want for sure,” Victor answered as he brought in a smaller bass. “I’ll get what we’ve got cleaned and filleted and put in the ice chest while y’all go on and catch some more.”

“When you get that done, we’ll spread out our picnic and take a break.” Hattie glanced over her shoulder.

“Who are you looking for?” Kate asked.

“Oh, I just mentioned a picnic on the lake and kind of invited Paul and Lisa to join us. He said if he could get away early enough, he just might,” Hattie answered.

“Nothing like sandwiches and beer on a hot summer night,” Victor said.

“Or fried chicken,” Jamie said from the other end of the dock.

“If you fry up a good chicken, I’ll throw Hattie in the lake and marry you instead,” Victor teased.

“Not me.” Jamie shook her head slowly. “I’m never getting involved with another man.”

“Me, either, so don’t ask,” Amanda said with a grimace.

“Guess that leaves me with no one, since we all know Waylon will sweet-talk Kate into becoming a rancher before the end of the summer.” Victor removed a long, thin-bladed knife from a leather sheath on his belt and began cleaning fish.

“Oh, hush,” Kate fussed at him. “We can buy a wedding cake at Walmart and you can eat the whole thing, Victor, but I’m going back to Fort Worth when summer ends.”

Were these people insane? Trying to fix Jamie up with Paul was one thing. She planned to stay in Bootleg if she got a teaching job, and they were both teachers, they had kids the same age, and it was plain that there was chemistry. Kate and Waylon had little if anything in common, and a few hot kisses and a little flirting would not turn her from an oil heiress into a rancher’s wife.

She shuddered at the idea of being anyone’s wife again. Lover, maybe. Wife never.

“You drank of the Bootleg water, my dear,” Victor said.

“And that means?” she asked.

“Anyone who drinks the water in Bootleg ain’t satisfied to live anywhere else,” Hattie answered.

Kate rolled her eyes toward the blue sky. “That’s a crock of horse pucky if I’ve ever heard one. I’m changing the subject. Was there something that any of you wanted to be other than what you are right now?”

“You mean like when we were kids?” Amanda asked.

“Anytime in the past,” Kate answered.

“Well, when I was a little kid, I wanted to be Cinderella, but now that I’m a big girl,” Gracie said, “I want to be a schoolteacher like my mama.”

And if she needed money, an apartment, or anything else to realize her dream, by golly, Kate would take care of it.

Hattie patted Gracie’s shoulder. “You’ll make a wonderful teacher. You were so good at keeping things organized and put back into their proper place in Bible school. I wanted to be in the air force and fly fighter jets. But in my day, women weren’t allowed to do that. I ran the convenience store in Bootleg for fifty years before my husband took sick and we sold it.”

Kate could see someone as sassy as Hattie sitting in the pilot’s seat of a fighter jet. Too bad she’d been born generations too early to get to do what she wanted.

“And you, Victor?” Kate asked.

“My daddy was the bank president, and I was trained up to follow in his footsteps. But once when I was about ten years old, the carnival came to town for the festival and I had the wildest hankering to run away with it and be one of the crew. Those girls in those cute little costumes were pretty amazing to a ten-year-old.” He blushed.

Kate could see him mooning around after the ladies in their skimpy, shiny costumes and wishing that he could be a part of the carnival.

“And what would you be?” she asked.