AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I headed back to the couch and assured her, “Okay, I’ve sat on all?—"
“Ruby.”
When I heard my name, goosebumps lifted on my arms and the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I knew that voice. It was the same one I’d heard yesterday at the Pit Stop.
I started to turn when the little girl raced past me. “Daddy! Miss Ruby helped me sit on all the chairs so I could finish my picture.”
The butterflies that had flitted earlier in my stomach had morphed into horses that were galloping across my chest. I lifted my eyes and saw Kane holding his daughter. If I’d thought the police uniform was sexy, seeing him holding his daughter was sexy on steroids.
“Hey.” I lifted my hand and waved awkwardly.
“What are you… Did you come here to see?—”
“Miss Dottie.” I quickly cut him off when I realized he thought I was there for him. “Ray told me that she’s living here now.”
A flash of what looked like disappointment sparked in his eyes, but then it disappeared.
“Ruby, is that you?” I turned and saw Miss Dottie standing at the end of the hallway. Her white hair was cut in a short, stylish bob, which complimented her round face. She wore a baby blue tracksuit that swallowed her five-foot frame. She’d always been petite, but she looked even smaller and more fragile than I remembered her being.
I looked back at Kane and Harper. “It was nice seeing you again. And nice meeting you, Harper.”
“You, too!”
I grabbed my purse and walked down the hall, where Miss Dottie was waiting for me with open arms. When she wrapped them around me, I felt tears fill up in my eyes. I wasn’t sure where the emotion was coming from.
She leaned back and looked up at me as she placed her hands on my cheeks. I closed my eyes and absorbed the soft feel of her palms and the distinct scent of her hand lotion. For the first time in a long time, I felt a sense of peace and safety wash over me.
“My sweet girl, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” I didn’t even know how much until that moment.
“Come on, let’s go to my room. I have cookies, and you can tell me everything.” Miss Dottie threaded her arm through mine and patted my forearm. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
At that moment, so was I.
6
KANE
“Always go the extra mile, it’s never crowded.” ~ Miss Dottie
“Are you sure it was the Miller boys?” Sam spit out a sunflower seed as he leaned on the fence, which was missing boards, and surveyed the damage.
“Those boys are always tramplin’ through my field.” Old Man Pratt shook his fist in the air. “They better hope I don’t catch ’em when I got my shotgun with me.”
Elroy Pratt was a big talker. He’d been threatening to use his shotgun on trespassers since I was in diapers. In the over sixty years that he’d owned the property, he’d yet to pull the trigger, at least not when the barrel was aimed at juveniles.
“Okay, we’ll talk to ’em,” Sam assured him.
Pratt nodded his head as he hooked his thumbs in the straps of his overalls. “You do that. And you tell their mama I don’t want her boys usin’ my field as a shortcut.”
Unfortunately for Pratt, his field was the perfect shortcut between town and the lake. I’d used it more than once in my teen years, and I knew Sam had, too.
“They’re upsetting Bessie and Tux.” He motioned to two of his dozen cows, then pulled a red bandana from his back pocket and wiped his brow.
Bessie, a brown cow, and Tux, a black and white cow, both appeared totally unfazed as they grazed a few yards away. I wasn’t sure exactly how he had come to the conclusion that they were in emotional distress, but I had a feeling these calls were more about him being lonely than anything else.
He’d had us up here the week before because he thought he’d had an intruder. There was nothing missing, no sign of forced entry, but he’d woken up from a nap, found the back screen door open, and been convinced someone had broken into his house.
