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“We have to waylay him! He can’t know what hit him!”
“Maybe we could do a sneak attack, Heather? Like, we could accidentally break a toilet and he’d have to come fix it. Then we could lock them in the bathroom together and not let them out until he asks her on a date!”
Why had she allowed Miss Daisy to come live with her? She already had enough issues with her gram and Miss Alma and Miss Joyce. She should have known that Miss Daisy would join them in their “matchmaking” attempts, although that sounded more like attempted kidnapping than matchmaking.
“That’s brilliant! Now I know why God had you move in with us!”
Move in? Kristen froze. It was true that she had several spare bedrooms in this behemoth of a house, and it was also true that she could use the extra income, since she didn’t have a job other than taking care of her gram, but it was not true that she wanted to be ganged up on by four old ladies who had nothing better to do than to try to set her up with any man who breathed and could walk - or crawl - down the sidewalk in front of her house. Last week they had tried to set her up with a man who was sixty if he was a day.
“Guys. Has it ever occurred to any of you that maybe I’m happy being single?”
She knew that line wouldn’t work, and of course, it didn’t. It only started the conversation about how much better off they were when they were married.
She allowed the chatter to go in one ear and out the other. Really, if she didn’t have to watch her gram to make sure she wasn’t going to “accidentally” lock Kristen in a bathroom some where, she would be perfectly happy. She lived in the best town in the world, right by the most beautiful lake God created, her gram was in good health and so was she. She had enough money to pay her bills and buy groceries, and really, life was good.
As she flipped the last egg out of the skillet, she thought she heard a knock at the door, but she couldn’t be sure with the chatter of the ladies behind her.
Turning the skillet off and moving it off the burner, she left the kitchen without them noticing, and walked to the front door, just to check.
Opening the door she was shocked to see Luke Landry, who could almost be called her nemesis, standing on the porch, one hand in his pocket, one leaning against a big post, his face turned toward the lake like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
“Luke?” she tried not to sound like she hated him. She didn’t, of course. It’s just that her gram had pushed her toward him so forcefully, that he’d started avoiding her rather obviously, to the point where he physically ran away from her if he saw her, and a girl couldn’t help getting a little piqued over something like that.
He startled, and then immediately his eyes flew behind her. “Where’s your gram?” he whispered, like he wasn’t standing on her porch in broad daylight.
“She’s eating a big, strong man for breakfast and you’re probably next. Are you sure it’s safe to stand this close to me?”
Her words didn’t make him relax. More because he was still worried about her gram coming out with a ring and the preacher than he was about getting eaten for breakfast, she was sure, but still.
“Okay, I’ll be quick.” He was still whispering, and he crept closer, like her gram could hear him taking a normal step. “You know Becky, the little girl with no home?”
“Yeah?” She’d loved her time with Becky, even though it had made her long for a husband and children of her own.
“She’s decided who she wants as parents.”
Kristen stared at him with her mouth open. She wasn’t sure if she was more surprised that Becky got to “choose” her parents, and how did that happen, anyway? Or if she was more surprised that it was Luke who was telling her. Or even that anyone thought she needed told.
“Okay?” she finally said, sounding like she was asking all the questions she couldn’t figure out how to ask. “Why are you telling me?”
“Because.” He paused, as though gathering up his nerve. “She chose us.”
~~~
