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“Tonight,” Jim said.
“Good. Good. Any longer and I can’t guarantee she won’t hear about it before you do.”
“Well, all due respect, Mr. Barlow, but how am I going to pick out a ring from in here?”
Barlow smiled. It was a big, wonderful smile, accompanied by him clasping his hands under his chin, hunching his shoulders and closing his eyes. “Trust me,” he said. “I know that girl. Kara comes in here, oh, once every three or four months. Makes up some excuse, you know. Buys a gift for one of her sisters or her mother, that dear woman. But she always spends time looking at the diamond rings.”
Jim lifted his brows. “She does? Any particular ring?”
Barlow’s eyes popped open and he nodded hard and fast. “Oh, yes. One particular ring. I’ll show you!” Then he spun around and all but skipped out of the office.
* * *
The door opened and Jimmy came in, pizza boxes stacked in his arms. His eyes, when they met Kara’s, were warm and kind. Then they slid to where his son sat on the floor, braces off, Selene held her hands over his legs, palms down, moving them every now and then.
“It’s okay,” Kara said, moving close to him and keeping her voice low. “He said his legs were hurting him. Selene’s into all sorts of alternative healing.”
He lifted his brows. “What exactly is she doing?”
“Reiki.” She shrugged. “I figured it couldn’t hurt.”
He lifted his brows, tipped his head to one side.
“Hi, kiddo. What do you think? Is it working?”
“It really is! This magic stuff is for real!”
He smiled and Kara read his face. “I know what you’re thinking,” she told him. “Placebo effect.”
He shrugged.
“A few years ago I might have agreed with you, but not now. I’ve seen too much. Selene—she has something.”
“I believe you. To tell you the truth, I don’t care what it is. I’m all for anything that makes him feel better.”
“That’s good,” Selene called. “‘Cause I have a few suggestions I want to run by you. But we’ll save those for another time.”
From the back Vidalia called, “I smell pizza!”
Then she and Maya came out of the store room, Maya wiping her hands on a dish towel, Vi heading straight for a table to begin taking the upturned chairs off it. Jim carried the boxes to the table and set them in the center. Then Selene came over, carrying Tyler in her arms.
Ty sent his father a look and said, “I should put my braces back on.”
“Oh, it can wait until after pizza,” Selene said. “Can’t it, Jim?”
Jim nodded. “Sure. A few minutes longer won’t hurt.”
Selene put Tyler in a chair, and the twins clambered up into the seats on either side of him. Kara went behind the bar to retrieve paper plates and napkins, then turned to find Jim standing behind her.
“Any problems?”
“Not a one,” she said. “Ty’s a doll.”
“Yeah, he’s a con man, too. I can see he’s got the whole crew eating out of his hand.”
“Hey, he did that his first day in town.”
He smiled at her. “And how did your morning go?”
