Twilight at Blueberry Barrens (Sunset Cove #3)(15)
“Yes, Danny called me. Is Luke there with you?”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine. But I’m worried about you out there on that dead-end road alone. You know he’s going to come straight back there. You’re his only real family with our mom in jail too. Where else could he go for help? I think you should come stay with me.”
“I don’t think he’ll show up.” Her confident pronouncement sounded false in her ears. “Besides, the new renter will be right across the road. And I think I’ll be busy with his nieces.” She told Claire about the job interview. “I heard about the woman you found. Danny didn’t say who it was.”
“Her name was Whitney Peece.” Claire’s voice quivered. “She was staying at the hotel for the weekend as part of a bridal party getaway. She went missing last night after going outside a bar in Folly Shoals to get some air. Her friends thought she’d gone back to her room at the hotel because she wasn’t feeling well, and she wasn’t reported missing until this morning when she didn’t come down for breakfast. She was only t-twenty-one.” Claire broke off on a shuddering sob. “It was pretty horrible.”
“Our safe little town isn’t so safe anymore.”
“Danny said there have been some instances of Peeping Toms too. I think he’s worried. Kevin was first at the scene, and he wants Danny to issue a warning to women not to go out alone at night.”
“I’m going to start carrying my handgun, just in case. And I’ll keep my bear spray with me.”
“Luke got me some, and I have it in my purse. I should get a license like you, but guns have always scared me.”
The ferry was nearly at the dock, and Kate had just enough time to get up the hillside steps to the hotel. “Gotta go. Wish me luck on the job interview.”
“I’ll pray it’s as good as it sounds. Call me on the way home.”
“I will.” Kate ended the call and got in line to disembark. She still wasn’t sure how she wanted it to go tonight. The extra money would be helpful, but there were so many problems cropping up right now, she wasn’t sure she had the focus to deal with children.
EIGHT
Kate swiped damp palms on her skirt under the table as she faced Drake. Lordy, but he was handsome. His dark curly hair just begged to have a woman run her fingers through it, and he had that solid muscular build she’d always found attractive. No studious, wiry type for her. She was drawn to strong good looks, and Drake had them in spades with his bulky arms and square jaw. Peeking at his left hand, she saw no faint tan line where a ring might have been either. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have a fiancée in the wings somewhere.
She blew out a breath and squared her shoulders. If she wanted this job, she had to corral her emotions and quit mooning over him. It was so unlike her, and she couldn’t blame her straying thoughts on chemo brain. She eyed the two girls who were both engrossed in iPads.
Before she stopped to think, she reached over and plucked both tablets out of their hands. “It’s bad manners to use those at the table, girls. Before you know it, you’ll be adults, and you need to have at least some idea of how to carry on a conversation.”
Phoebe’s eyes widened and her lower lip protruded. She looked up at her uncle with beseeching blue eyes. “I want to play Angry Birds.”
“And I want my book back.” Emma reached across the table.
Kate moved the iPads out of the way. “What grade are you in, Emma? Tell me about the book you’re reading. I’m still a book nerd myself.”
Emma’s frown eased, but she kept her gaze fixed on her tablet. “A Wrinkle in Time.”
“Oh, that’s my all-time favorite book! I’ve read it at least ten times. How far have you gotten?”
Emma picked up a linen napkin and began to pleat it. “They just got to the planet Camazotz. Meg’s father is trapped there.” Her hazel eyes searched Kate’s face. “It made me wonder if my mom and dad are there, too, instead of in heaven.”
Kate inhaled and shot her gaze to Drake. Their parents were dead? His dark-brown eyes were moist and filled with pain. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and searched for a way to answer the little girl. How well she remembered the feeling of abandonment caused by her own father’s neglect. Emma’s father was dead, but that didn’t change the little girl’s sense of betrayal. Mommies and daddies weren’t supposed to leave their children for any reason. Could she even say Emma’s parents were in heaven? Kate had no idea of their spiritual state, and she didn’t want to misstep.
Drake pulled his niece into a one-armed embrace. “Emma, honey, we talked about heaven, remember? You’ll see your mom and dad again someday.”
Tears pooled in Emma’s eyes, and she jerked away from her uncle. “I want to see them now.”
Kate mouthed I’m sorry.
Drake’s jaw hardened and he shrugged. “So, you must be a strict disciplinarian.”
His tone told her what he thought of that type of behavior, but she tipped her chin up and met the skepticism in his gaze. “Kids need both love and structure. Give one without the other and they have no guidelines to go by. When they are grown and out in the world, it’s like turning a five-year-old loose in a car on a four-lane highway without ever having handled a steering wheel.”