Lady Be Good (Wynette, Texas #2)(66)

She could see Kenny dismissing a fairy-sprite of a little girl dressed in a yellow romper with layers of lace across her bottom. Then he passed over a blond-haired baby of indeterminate sex who was desperately clinging to his or her mother. For a moment, his attention lingered on a set of lively chocolate-colored twins, but they seemed more interested in each other than the event.

Suddenly he stiffened. His eyes narrowed, and she could almost hear the theme from Rocky playing in his brain. He’d found the one man who stood between a Traveler and athletic glory.

The challenger had a single spike of red hair shooting up from a nearly bald head. His body was strong and brawny, clad in plaid overalls and a Tigger T-shirt. His feet were encased in a pair of miniature Nikes that pumped as he struggled to get down. Twenty-five pounds of raw dynamite. This was the man to beat.

The young woman in charge gave the instructions. As Emma sat behind the starting line with Peter on her lap, she cast a wary eye at Kenny. He seemed to be taking this a little too seriously.

After one last look at the spike-haired bruiser in the lane next to Peter, Kenny crouched at the finish line and called down to his baby brother. “You’ve got to stay focused. Make them play your game, Petie. A hundred and ten percent. You’ve got to give it a hundred and ten percent.”

The mother of the little girl in the lacy romper looked at Kenny as if he’d escaped from a lunatic asylum.

Emma sighed and stroked the baby’s soft arm, while she tried to catch Kenny’s eye. But his entire focus, all one hundred and ten percent of it, was on the game.

“Ready. Set. Go.” At the command from the starter, Emma set Peter on the starting line and released him.

With a superb display of finely honed Traveler crawling skills, he shot toward his brother.

Kenny slapped the mat. “That’s right! Faster.”

Peter slowed.

“Pick it up, Petie. Let’s go!”

The baby came to a dead stop. Wrinkled his forehead. Plopped back on his bottom.

Kenny held out his arms. “Come on, Petie! Don’t stop now. You’ve got the lead.”

Peter stuck his fingers in his mouth and looked up at the cheering spectators. Kenny’s knee inched forward across the finish line.

Two lanes over, the baby in the androgynous clothes dropped to the mat and began a lazy sideways scoot.

“Let’s go, Petie! Let’s go!” Kenny slapped the mat again as his other knee crept over the finish line.

Peter’s bottom lip sagged in a pathetic quiver.

The red-haired bruiser let out a howl and darted back to the starting line.

Kenny’s brows shot together. “You’ve got it now, Petie! The big man’s DQed!”

Peter’s eyes filled with tears.

“No, no! Don’t do that!”

The chocolate-colored twins moved into the same lane and rolled on top of each other.

“They’re dropping like flies! You can take it, Petie! Only a little farther.”

Peter’s small chest shook with a sob.

“Shake it off! Shake it off and come to Kenny.” He crept farther into the lane.

Peter let out an earsplitting howl.

“No crying, buddy! Don’t ever let ’em see you cry. Come on! I’m right here.”

Frozen, Peter sat on the mat and sobbed.

The little girl in the lacy yellow romper shot across the finish line to win the race, but Kenny was too busy inching forward on his own hands and knees to notice.

“Don’t quit! Nobody remembers a loser. Come on, Petie! You can’t quit!”

Emma couldn’t take any more. She hurried forward onto the mat and snatched the sobbing little boy up into her arms. “It’s all right, luv. I won’t let that crazy man get you.”

Kenny came out of a trance and looked up. For the first time he seemed to realize where he was.

On his hands and knees.

A third of the way down the lane.

In the middle of a baby race.

Quiet fell over the small crowd. Kenny turned red and shot to his feet. The quiet intensified. Then a grizzled man in a John Deere cap gave Kenny an admiring salute.

“Now, that’s the way you turn a kid into a champion.”





Chapter 15

Kenny couldn’t breathe as the ghosts of his past crashed on top of him. Emma was clutching Petie to her breast. She gazed across the mat and gave Kenny a look that seemed tinged with pity. He couldn’t tolerate it, and he rushed forward.

“Let me have him.”

Petie screamed and gripped Emma’s neck more tightly. “Just give him a minute,” she said.

But he didn’t have a minute. He jerked his wallet from his pocket, thrust it toward her, and grabbed Peter. “Buy yourself something. I’ll be back.”

He quickly left her behind and carried the screaming baby to his car. He could never let her witness this.

Accompanied by the sound of Petie’s earsplitting shrieks coming from the car seat, he jumped behind the wheel and peeled out of the parking lot. “It’s okay, buddy. It’s okay.”

He blinked his eyes and raced toward the edge of town. The baby’s screams didn’t subside. Finally, he found the privacy he needed, a narrow lane that led toward a patch of trees. He parked his car in the exact place he’d hidden his bike when he was a kid coming apart inside.