AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Great. Where’s Christina?”
“She wouldn’t get up from her nap, so J.D. stayed with her.” Tiffany rolled her palms to the air and winked at her nephew, as if they shared some private joke. “So, I guess it’s just you and Stephen.”
“Too bad,” Stephen said sarcastically. He didn’t seem inclined to hide the fact that he was sick to his back teeth of a sister who was little more than a toddler. “She’s a pain.”
“She is not. You’re lucky to have her.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Stephen,” Tiffany warned, about to say more when her eyes met Luke’s. “You’d think that with all the years that separate them, they’d get along.”
Josh grinned from ear to ear, eager, Luke supposed, to hang out with his older cousin. He opened the door, and Stephen bolted through, followed by his mother, who took over the duties of keeping the screen door from shutting by using her body as a wedge. The boys were already up the stairs. Tiffany smiled at Luke. “Why don’t you come in and keep me company while I wait? I’m sure Katie won’t mind. That way you can tell me what’s happening with the ranch you’re fixing up.”
“You know about that?”
“Katie happened to mention that you were going to open it up to the public and take in guests sometime next spring.”
“That’s the plan,” Luke allowed as the boys, eating red licorice, ran through the kitchen again, grabbed a couple of skateboards that had been propped on the porch and took off toward the front of the house.
“Hey, wait. Where’re you going?” Tiffany asked.
“Just to the store.” Josh was already around the corner.
“Be careful and come right back!” Tiffany yelled; then, when Stephen threw her a look that silently told her he wasn’t a baby anymore, she turned back to Luke. “Moms are really just pains in the neck for teenage boys.”
“Is that right?” He wouldn’t know, of course, since he hadn’t been raised by his own mother, but there was no reason to confide in her. “He’ll grow out of it.”
“I hope.” She sighed, and he saw a glimmer of the worry she’d carried with her as a single mother, a grieving widow. He decided it was a good thing that she’d linked up with J.D. She glanced around the kitchen. “It’s starting to come together, isn’t it?” Shaking her head, she admitted, “I never thought I’d move out of here. Never planned to remarry.” A tiny smile played at the corners of her mouth. “I guess that just goes to show you that you never know what’s around the next corner.”
“Nope.”
“So—” she motioned to a chair “—just for the record, I think a working dude ranch is a great idea. Why don’t you tell me all the details?”
“You sound like your sister.”
“I’m not a reporter, but I’m interested. Besides, it looks like we both have a little time to kill before Katie gets back.” She offered him a b
rilliant smile. “I feel kind of strange about sitting in her house waiting for her, but knowing Katie, she wouldn’t want it any other way.”
She heated coffee on the stove as Luke explained his plans. He was hesitant at first, didn’t know if he wanted his entire life exposed to a woman he barely knew, but Tiffany, like her dynamo of a half sister, was easy to talk to. The difference was that this woman was calm and chuckled softly as she cradled her cup in her hands. Katie, on the other hand, was a bundle of energy and would have dominated the conversation while doing a dozen other things.
Tiffany asked questions, made a few jokes and generally kept the conversation rolling as the minutes ticked by. The boys returned, the wheels of their skateboards grinding on the concrete. Hastily they constructed a jump out of some two-by-fours and plywood, and immediately took to their boards to practice, becoming airborne.
“I hope they don’t break their necks,” Tiffany said, looking worried.
“They’ll be fine.”
“But Josh is still recovering from spraining his ankle.” She started to yell something out the window, thought better of it and held her tongue. “Once a mother, always a mother.”
“I hear it’s a hard habit to break.”
“The hardest.” They laughed and watched the boys through the window, and Luke checked his watch for the dozenth time. He was starting to feel antsy, though he had no reason. His talk with Katie could wait.
“So, I wonder what’s keeping her?” Tiffany finally asked as Luke finished his second cup of coffee. He’d been in the house nearly an hour. “It’s odd that she’d leave Josh alone so long.” She sighed and lifted a shoulder. “Maybe she had to go to the store.” She scraped back her chair, walked to the sink and placed her cup under the faucet. “If Katie doesn’t show up soon, I’ll have to leave her a note.”
“I could take a message,” Luke said automatically, but he was starting to get that same damned feeling of anxiety he’d had before when she lived in the other place and she’d been receiving the crank phone calls. Don’t overreact, he told himself, but found it impossible whenever Katie was concerned. He couldn’t do anything but wait.
The phone jangled, and they both jumped. “It could be Katie,” Tiffany said, glancing to the backyard. “She might be calling Josh to explain why she’s late.”
