The Barefoot Summer(63)

He wished that Kate could have ridden up in the driver’s seat all the way to town with him that evening. But after that damned newspaper leak—which had to come from his office—there was no way their names could be linked as anything other than detective and suspect. At least not in public.

“If I had that damned columnist in my crosshairs, I would pull the trigger without blinking,” Waylon declared to the air that evening as he ate alone in his kitchen.

He was flipping through channels on the television when his phone pinged.

The message was from Kate. Princess Gracie has requested your presence at a living room movie showing.

Yes, he wrote back.

The next message said: Her Majesty would like pepperoni pizza, please and thank you.

He grinned as he typed in: Yes, be there in twenty minutes.

As long as he could see Kate and spend time with her, he didn’t care—on the lake, in the house, or out taking a drive in the rain.

He noticed that Jamie’s van was gone when he parked and wondered where she was as he jogged from his truck to the porch, pizza in hand. Before he could knock, Gracie swung the door open.

“Kate says for me to let you in. She’ll be here in a minute. She’s talking to her mama on the phone. Come on in out of the rain and put the pizza on the table,” Gracie said.

“Yes, ma’am. Where’s your mama?” Waylon asked.

While he unloaded the food, Kate walked up behind him.

His well-honed sixth sense, developed on the force, told him that she was there even before she spoke. That wonderful scent that she wore blended with the sweet coconut smell of her hair and the aura that belonged to no other woman in the universe sent his senses reeling.

“Gracie is babysitting us,” Kate said. “Amanda started having pains, so Jamie drove her to the hospital in Wichita Falls so they can monitor her for a few hours to be sure it’s not labor. They figure it’s Braxton-Hicks.”

“Well, then, Gracie, since you are the babysitter, do you think we can have some pizza and bread sticks?” Waylon asked.

Gracie sighed. “I thought you’d never get here. Can we put a quilt on the floor and watch our movie while we eat?”

“We sure can,” Kate answered.

“What are we watching?” Waylon carried the pizza boxes back to the living room. “Will the babysitter let us have a beer with our supper?”

“Of course.” Gracie giggled. “And I’m not really the sitter. Y’all are. Big people can have a beer, but little kids have to drink milk or juice. Can I please have a soda pop?”

Kate nodded. “Pizza does not go with milk or juice. You can have a Coke, but let’s make it one of the caffeine-free ones.”

“I don’t care if it’s got calves in it or not.” Gracie removed the quilt from the back of the sofa and spread it out on the floor. “We are watching Homeward Bound. Mama says it’s a good movie.”

“Isn’t that like twenty years old?” Waylon whispered.

“Twenty-four, to be exact, but you take what you can get at the convenience store rental. We don’t have cable television here at the cabin,” Kate answered.

“Let’s go to the movies, then.” Waylon nodded.

Gracie plopped down in the middle of the quilt and nodded toward the sofa. “You old people can sit there.”

“Ouch!” Waylon winced.

“Painful, isn’t it?” Kate nudged him with her shoulder as she passed.

By the end of the movie, Waylon wanted to marry Kate and adopt Gracie. They were both adorable all through the movie, crying when the cat, Sassy, was nearly killed, giggling at the antics of the young dog, Chance, and worrying about the older big yellow one, Shadow.

Gracie declared that as soon as they moved all their stuff to the cabin, she wanted a cat just like Sassy. Kate had fallen in love with Shadow, and Waylon wondered if she’d ever considered having a big dog.

As the credits rolled, Gracie yawned and crawled up in Kate’s lap. “I wish my mama was home. I’m sleepy and I don’t like going to bed all by myself.”

Kate wrapped both her arms around the little girl. She would have made an amazing mother. Gracie was the child that her husband produced with another woman, and she was humming to her. That took some kind of special person.

The strumming of a guitar playing the first chords of “Girls Like Us” came from the end table.

Waylon chuckled.

“What?” Kate asked. “It’s either Jamie or Amanda.”

He handed her the phone. “Fitting song choice.”

Kate flashed a smile over the top of Gracie’s head and put the phone on speaker. “Hello, Amanda, what’s the news?”

“We are about five minutes from the cabin. I had false labor. Everything is still on schedule and fine. Sorry we’re only calling now—the storm messed with the cell service. Jamie is driving and we just passed the convenience store. See you soon.”

Kate hit the “End” button, and Gracie wiggled out of her embrace, yawned, and stretched. “So we don’t get a baby tonight?”

“That’s right, but your mama will be here real soon,” Waylon said.

“I’m glad.” Gracie yawned again.

“For which one? That the baby isn’t here or that your mama is almost home?” Kate stood up and folded the quilt, picked up the paper plates from the coffee table, and carried them to the trash.