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“Good. Thank you for understanding.” He reached for her, and she thought he was going to kiss her again. But just before he pulled her close, a little voice interrupted them.
“Hey, you guys didn’t have breakfast without me, didja?”
Kara smiled and stepped easily away from Jimmy to bend down to Tyler. He wasn’t wearing his leg braces, had scooted out to the kitchen on his backside instead.
She scooped him up and rubbed noses while tickling him until he giggled. “I made pancakes. And after that you and I are going to spend the morning together while your dad takes care of some business. How does that sound?”
“Are we going to see the ponies?”
“Nope. Ponies are tomorrow. After PT. Today we’ve got other fun things to do. And my mother will be there and—”
“Gramma Vi?”
“Did she tell you to call her that, Ty?” He nodded. “Well, she only asks people she really likes to call her Gramma Vi.”
“I never had no gramma before. I think it’s cool.”
She set him in his chair and pushed it up close to the table. “The twins are going to be there, too. And your dad’s bringing pizza later.”
“Alllllright!”
Kara took a chair and felt Jimmy’s gaze. She turned to see him standing there, looking from her to Tyler and back again, pensive and deep in thought for a long moment. Then he saw her watching him and seemed to snap out of it. He took a seat and dug into the stack of pancakes.
* * *
Jim came out of the hospital feeling very good about things. Colby was awake, still hurting and a little groggy but much more himself than he had been before. Enough to ID Vinnie as his abductor and the man who gave the order to have him killed. He also gave a good description of the thug who’d shoved his Blazer over Devil’s Drop with him still inside.
What surprised Jim was Colby’s insistence that he would have been killed if not for Ang. She’d felt sorry for him and sliced through the tape on his wrists. It was enough to save his life. He also insisted she was unaware of Vinnie’s plan to have him killed.
Vinnie and Ang were being hunted by every cop in Oklahoma. They’d have to keep their heads down. Any attempt they made to get to him or to Tyler would get them nailed. Colby was under police guard in the hospital, even though as far as anyone knew, he’d died in that fiery crash at Devil’s Drop. It was a load off Jim’s mind. He’d feel better once Vinnie was caught and locked up, but this was a good start.
After he’d seen Colby, he’d spent some time with Wheatly. The chief promised him a job as soon as he was ready, provided it was within the month. He had a slot opening up that would need filling. Jim didn’t intend for it to take that long. Hell, when this notion of accepting the chief’s offer had first occurred to him, he hadn’t intended for the new job to last more than a year. In a year, he’d thought, he would have convinced Kara to leave this town and he could get back to his life in Chicago.
But something had changed inside him when he’d seen Kara with Tyler this morning. It had been changing right along. He loved her. And he loved her family too. It would be wrong for him to expect Kara to leave her mother, her sisters. That was no way to treat a woman who was everything his little guy could ever want or need in mother. A woman who was, even now, making Tyler’s fondest dreams come true. Hell, everything inside him was changing. And when he’d told Kara how happy Tyler was here, happier than he’d ever been, he’d realized it was the truth. And now he didn’t know what the hell his long-term plan was anymore.
Except for one thing. He was going marry Kara Brand. And that plan, he thought, was going well. He didn’t think she would turn him down.
He drove back to downtown Big Falls, and parked the pickup in a public lot that took up space behind the local businesses, hoping it wouldn’t be spotted there. This had to be a surprise, and it wouldn’t take long. He locked the pickup and hurried into the local jewelry store. It was dim and smelled of pine and cinnamon. Glass cases lined three sides, all of them filled with glittering, sparkling things.
“Well, well. Thisisa pleasant surprise,” said a slender salt-and-pepper-haired man with a neat beard and a suit with a bow tie. He came from behind the counter and extended a hand. “Mr. Corona, isn’t it?”
Jim took the hand he offered, surprised. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“No, no, we haven’t met. But you know how small towns are. Everyone knows everything. You’ve been pointed out to me once or twice. I’m Barlow, by the way. Milton Barlow.”
“Well, Mr. Barlow, I hope the small-town gossip mill isn’t going to get wind of the purchase I’m going to make here today. Because it’s a surprise.”
“For Miss Brand?”
Jim lifted his brows. “Wow, everyone around here reallydoesknow everything, don’t they?”
“Rest easy, Mr. Corona. No one will hear about this from me. So what are you in the market for? A tennis bracelet, perhaps? We just got in some earrings that are absolutely—”
“A ring,” Jim told the man. “An engagement ring.”
Milton Barlow’s jaw dropped. He quickly snapped it shut again, clapped his hands together and blinked fast, like he had a rush of tears to blink away. Then he turned and hurried toward the back of the shop, calling, “Follow me.”
Amused and a little puzzled, Jim followed. The man opened a door and ushered him through it into a cozy office. “Now, you just sit here. That way folks who pass on the streets won’t glimpse you through the windows. God knows, that would get the speculation started. When do you plan to ask her?”
