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“Great. Edie quit modeling, came home and married Wade Armstrong. You remember him? He was a few years ahead of us in school. He owns a garage here in town and another over in Tucker Lake. They bought the big place out on the Falls Road. She opened a photography studio there.”
“How about the others? I don’t remember all the names, but”
“Half the time I don’t remember all the names,” she joked. “There’s Melusine. She’s married, to a private detective name of Alexander Stone, from the city. She’s his partner now. They’re in and out of town all the time, depending on what they’re working on. Maya, she married Caleb Montgomery.”
“The senator’s son?”
She nodded. “They built a place up behind Mom’s. Have three-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. Caleb has a law office just around the comer.” She pointed as she spoke. The wind came careening around a corner, dry and cool with a wintry nip to it that didn’t even resemble the bite of December in Chicago. It played with her hair, though, and pinkened her cheeks.
“Your mom used to own a bar, didn’t she?”
“She prefers ‘saloon,’ and yes, the Ok Corral is still up and running, with a little help from the rest of us. Selene and I still live at the house with Mom.”
“Wow. Unbelievable how things change. Mel settled down. Maya with twins.” He shook his head.
“Dad, you said we could see the waterfall!”
Jim let his son tug his gaze away. “We’re going, we’re going.”
“Go on,” Kara said. “Dinner’s around six, if that’s not too early.”
“It’s just right,” he said.
“You’re welcome, too, of course,” she added to Colby. “Any friend of Jimmy’s... “
“Thanks. That’s real sweet of you.”
She nodded. “So, um, should I tell Mom to set four extra places at the table? Maybe five?”
Jim frowned, and she just looked at him with those big eyes, waiting. And he realized she was asking if he—or Colby—would be bringing a wife along. “Three, Kara. Only three.”
“Oh,” she said. “I thought maybe your wife...”
“I’m—we lost her four years ago.”
He could have kicked himself for blurting it in a way that made it sound as if Angela had died, and he knew from the daggers he was hurling with his eyes that Colby wanted to kick him for it, as well. He was damned if he knew why he’d said it that way. Except that he’d be ashamed to admit to Kara Brand and her family—a family he remembered as being as wholesome as whole milk, if a little scandalous from time to time—that his ex-wife was a drug-addicted prostitute.
“I’m sorry,” she said for the second time in their five-minute conversation. But this time she put a hand on his arm, and he thought the sadness in her eyes was genuine. Especially when she glanced again at his son.
“It’s okay. It’s...okay.”
He was a slug. Now he had her feeling sorry for them when, in fact, Angela’s absence was a blessing. He needed to change the subject. “So we’ll see you at six then.”
“Great. You remember where to find us?”
“I remember,” he said.
“Till dinner, then. Nice meeting you, Colby.” She turned to the truck again. “Bye, Tyler.”
He held up his arms. Smiling, Kara leaned down and accepted the hug his little boy offered. Jim was close enough to see her notice the braces on Tyler’s legs. He saw her frown at them and then hug Ty a little tighter.
“Bye, Kara.”
She straightened, sent Jim a parting smile, then turned and started down the sidewalk. Jim leaned back against the passenger door of the pickup and watched her go. Damn. Who’d have believed little Kara Brand would turn out like that?
She hadn’t gone ten steps when Tyler spoke in a very loud, slightly squeaky voice. “She’s pretty, Dad. And she smells good and she can make cookies. She doesn’t have a pony, but...well, that’s okay. Can she be my new mom?”
He knew Kara had overhead because she tripped, careened sideways and just barely caught herself on the side of someone’s car. Her touch set off a noisy car alarm. She straightened, smoothed her pants and never looked back as she walked the rest of the way to her car.
