AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s ten, for God’s sake. Give him a bre
ak, would ya?”
“I guess you’ve got a point.”
“Good.” Luke wasn’t convinced that the old man was actually listening to reason, but he had no other options. “I’ll let you know how this all turns out.”
“Do. Loretta and I…well, we don’t get along much. Been separated for years. When Dave died we nearly divorced, but we’re hangin’ on by a thread right now, Luke, and that thread is Dave’s son.”
“I’ll call.” Guilt squeezed through Luke’s innards as he replaced the phone. He’d have to talk to Katie again, and this time he couldn’t be distracted as he seemed to forever be whenever she was near. Just the thought of her brought a tightness to his groin and a longing that he didn’t want to scrutinize too closely.
“You’re a fool, Gates,” he muttered and grabbed his hat from a hook near the front door. The excavating foreman was scheduled to meet him at the ranch to discuss the addition to the house, and he had just enough time to get there.
He’d deal with Katie, Josh and Ralph later.
* * *
“Any more information on the Isaac Wells story?” Pat Johnson, Katie’s editor, asked as he paused at her cubicle and leaned against the edge of her desk. He was all of five feet six inches, but he carried himself as if he were a foot taller. With a shock of white hair, round eyeglasses and small features drawn close together, he was far from Hollywood handsome, but his sharp mind, bright eyes and quick wit compensated for his lack of pure physical beauty. Everyone loved him. Including Katie.
“I wish,” she said, but shook her head. “I’ve badgered the police and my brother and a few of Isaac’s associates, all to no end. I’ve even tried contacting whoever sent me the letter through the personal ads in the Review, as well as the local paper in California where the last letter was postmarked. So far, nada.”
“Too bad.” Pat removed his glasses and wiped them clean with a handkerchief from his pocket. “I thought it would be this year’s big story.”
“Me, too.” She offered him a smile. “At least I’d hoped.”
“Well, something could still break.” He slipped his spectacles back on to his nose and patted the edge of her cubicle’s thin walls before moving on.
No one wanted the story more than Katie. Despite the problems and distractions in her life—a new mishmash of a family of half sisters and brothers-in-law, Josh’s attitude toward her, Dave’s death and her fascination with Luke Gates—she was still anxious to solve the Isaac Wells mystery and get the byline.
She forced herself to finish an article on the change in the school district’s curriculum, then accessed the internet and, through cyberspace, found the obituary on David Sorenson of Dallas, Texas. So it was true. Her shoulders sagged a bit. She hadn’t doubted Luke’s word, but seeing Dave’s short life in an even shorter article was strangely sad.
“Great,” she muttered under her breath. It was bad enough that she’d been forced to tell Josh about his father’s death, but now she was trying to get him to call his newfound grandparents, and her negotiations with her son on the subject weren’t going well. Josh was interested, but wary. Tonight, if he didn’t do the deed himself, Katie would call them. She had to. The Sorensons deserved to know their grandson.
She was grateful for the end of the day. At home, she started dinner and turned on the radio. Josh had a ride home from soccer practice, so she threw together potato salad and baked pieces of chicken in herbs. She wasn’t used to the thermostat in the new oven, so she was doubly careful, and as she unpacked what seemed to be an endless number of boxes, she kept an eye on her meal.
The phone jangled just as Bliss, with Mason’s daughter, Dee Dee, pulled into the drive. “Hello?” Katie answered, waving Bliss and the girl inside. Holding the phone to her ear with one hand, she kicked open the screen door.
“Ms. Kinkaid?” a gravelly voice asked.
“Speaking.”
“This is Ralph Sorenson.”
Her heart dropped to the floor, and she leaned against the cupboards for support. As much as she’d tried to bolster her own confidence and had told herself that she wanted to talk to Dave’s parents, now that she was down to it, she was apprehensive. She felt as if all the blood had drained from her body in that one instant. “Hello,” she said, trying to sound calm when she knew that her life was about to shred.
“I don’t know how to say this but straight out. So here goes. I know about the boy. That he’s David’s.”
“I see,” she replied tonelessly as Bliss and Dee Dee rushed into the room.
“This is very awkward for me.”
“Me, too,” Katie said and met the worry in Bliss’s eyes. “I did try to call you once, but when I didn’t get through I’d hoped I could call another time, when Josh was home…”
“Glad to hear it.” He sounded appeased, and she was relieved. “Difficult as all this is, I have to tell you that I’m pleased to know that I have a grandson, especially now that Dave’s gone. It’s comforting to know that a piece of him lives on.”
“Of course,” she replied, her eyes and nose burning.
“But I can’t imagine why you chose to hide him from Dave for ten years. It would have done my boy some good to know that he had a son of his own.”
