The Barefoot Summer Page 11

  “How’d your students do at the spring livestock show this spring? Got any showing during the summer?” Waylon asked Paul.

  “They did real well at the show. Several of the cattle and sheep got ribbons and trophies,” Paul said. “No one is doing anything this summer. I’m kind of glad. What with the fire and all, I’m pretty busy.”

  “Got any guys that’d be willing to do some hay hauling, send them out to my place. Looks like I’ve got a bumper crop coming in,” Waylon said.

  “Maybe. I’ll ask around, and if I find any, I’ll tell them to call you. You going to be in town all week or down in Dallas chasing bad guys?” Paul glanced at Jamie.

  “Back and forth. Got hay to get into the barns, but we’re still looking into leads in the case,” he answered.

  Well, la-di-da, Kate thought. That’s more than you’ve told us. We don’t get even that much when we ask. Until you start telling us something, I won’t share the letters, and believe me, what’s in those could help.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I love potlucks, but I will be so glad to get home and get out of my Sunday clothes,” Amanda said on the way home.

  Potlucks all the time would be a disaster on the waistline. There was no way Kate could eat like that every week and not be the size of a small elephant by the time summer was over.

  “I’m taking tamales next week.” Jamie parked in front of the cabin.

  “When it’s my turn, I’ll get fried chicken from the deli at the convenience store,” Kate offered.

  “Then we get to stay every time?” Gracie asked. “I love it here, Mama. Let’s not ever go home.”

  “Who’s that on the porch with your aunt Ellie?” Kate pointed toward the porch. She was looking forward to a nap or maybe an afternoon with a book down under her willow tree. Hopefully, after a couple of nice to see yous, she could slip away.

  “Our friend Wanda. This is a nice surprise.” Amanda hurried out of the car, kicked off her shoes when she got to the porch, and sat down in a rocking chair beside them.

  A surge of jealousy shot through Kate. Her mother would never just show up unannounced and wait on the porch for her. No more than Kate would do that. That’s what phones were for and why appointments were made.

  But the way that Amanda greeted the two women . . . her hands started moving around as she described the potluck and her day . . . well, Kate envied her that moment.

  “Look, Mama,” Gracie said as she bounded out of the van. “There’s Lisa’s truck! I wish we could really stay here forever.”

  Paul drove up beside Jamie’s van and crawled out of his truck. He threw his cowboy hat into the passenger seat and helped Lisa get free of her seat belt. Gracie grabbed her hand, and together they skipped across the yard and into the house.

  “I’ll be back to get her in an hour. If you need me, here’s my number.” He handed Jamie a piece of paper. “And thanks for letting her come over and play awhile.”

  “Anytime.” Jamie smiled.

  It was evident that Paul did affect Jamie, just like Amanda teased her about. But Kate wasn’t Jamie’s keeper, and she had more pressing things to think about that day than whether or not Paul and Jamie had chemistry.

  “Hello, I’m Kate.” She introduced herself when she reached the porch. She stayed long enough to be polite and then went inside, changed into shorts and a comfortable shirt, and left by the back door. She went a little farther down the shoreline, because she spotted a big weeping willow tree that offered shade. She pushed back the limbs and spread out her quilt, settled in with her Kindle, and chose a book by Heather Burch titled One Lavender Ribbon that had been on her to-be-read pile for a couple of years. The blurb on the back mentioned letters, and of course, that appealed to her right then.

  She read a few pages, yawned, and laid the Kindle aside. She only planned to shut her eyes for a minute, but when she awoke the sun was low on the horizon and Waylon was sitting beside her, his boots off to one side and his knees drawn up with those big arms wrapped around them. She shut her eyes tightly and then snapped them open—no, it wasn’t a dream. He really was sitting there, staring out at the lovely sunset with all the colors in a painter’s palette.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “More like good evening.”

  She propped up on an elbow. “How long have you been here?”

  “An hour or so. I’ve been protecting you from spiders and snakes.” He smiled.

  “And how many did you shoot? Spiders and snakes, I mean?”

  “Not any. I ran them off with my evil stare,” he answered.

  “Well, thank you for that.”

  He turned to face her. “I saw that dirty look you shot my way at dinner. If I had something I could tell you, I would. We really are following leads, but they keep taking us into dead ends. Look at the way the water is reflecting the sunset. Isn’t that beautiful?”

  Kate didn’t give a flying flip about the colors in the water right then. “So is this going to be the case that you don’t solve and everyone will have doubts about me and those other two the rest of our lives?”

  He shook his head, sadness in his eyes. “I hope to hell not. It wouldn’t be fair to my folks to do that.”

  “But your parents have passed away.” She frowned.

  “Yes, but they did not want me to be a policeman. They scrimped and saved my whole life to put me through college and help me become who I am, even though they wanted me to stay on the ranch and run it. I owe it to them to finish on top of the mountain,” he said. “I’m freezing my retirement and quitting the police business at the end of summer.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m tired of the city, of the commute back and forth to the ranch, and this past year I’m liking ranchin’ better than chasin’ bad guys,” he said.

  “I know exactly what you are talking about. My mother is retiring in December. I step up at that time and take over the firm. My dad was a professor and died when I was twenty-nine.” She bit the inside of her lip in frustration at herself for volunteering anything at all.

  “I’m sorry. What happened?” Waylon asked.

  “Heart attack—it was sudden.”

  “I was older, but I don’t expect it hurt any less,” he said. “They’re both gone, and now all I think about is leaving the force and coming home to be a rancher. I waited too long for them to ever see it. Were you close to your dad?”

  “I adored him. He was a gentle soul, a history professor with a specialty in the Civil War.” She’d opened the can of worms and it was impossible to put the lid back on the subject now.

  “So you were vulnerable when Conrad came into your life?” Waylon asked.

  Until that moment, Kate had not realized just what a big part the timing had played in her life. “I guess I was.”

  “Explains a hell of a lot,” Waylon said. “I couldn’t figure out how anyone could con a woman like you.”

  The sun had dropped below the trees, and that magical part of the evening had arrived. Called twilight, it wasn’t yet dark and yet wasn’t still light. Part of Waylon’s face was in shadows, part still clear—his chiseled features defined and sexier than ever.

  She turned to stare at the lake instead of Waylon. “So you think I got conned because I was at a low place in my life?”

  “I imagine that Conrad could spot a woman with a soft spot a mile away. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he stalked you to learn your habits before he introduced himself.”

  Waylon wanted to hug Kate close to him. Yet with this murder case hanging over her head, she was vulnerable again, and he would not be like Conrad, in any sense of the word.

  “Why would he single me out?” Kate asked after a few minutes.

  “You are rich. You are beautiful, and he thought he could make you submit to his will, like Iris. If you’d had children, he would have threatened to take them if you didn’t do what he wanted. I’m surprised he didn’t threaten your mother,” Waylon said. “And besides, you have
gorgeous eyes.”

  “My eyes?” She frowned.

  “Oh, yeah! The eyes are the windows to the soul, so he stepped in and—”

  “And he conned me,” Kate finished for him. “How do I know you aren’t doing the same thing just to get more information from me?”

  His eyes locked with hers. “Because I’m not like that.”

  Finally, she blinked and looked out across the lake. She wanted to believe him. She really did. “Well, I’d sure like it if you solved this case. I don’t want the suspicion of murder hanging over my head the rest of my life.”

  “I’ll still be on it until my paperwork is finished,” Waylon said. “And for your sake, I hope I do get it all tied up with a pretty bow.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes. Twilight had deepened into full dark, the moon providing the only light under the weeping willow tree branches.

  “Did you ever have any regrets about going right into the family business?” he asked.

  To his surprise she nodded. “I was groomed to take over the oil business from the time I was a little girl. Disappointing Mother was not an option. I don’t know what I would have done differently, but it would have been nice to have a choice,” she said.

  “Well, if you’d like to—” He stopped midsentence and pulled his phone from his shirt pocket.

  “Well, shit!” he muttered after he’d listened a few seconds. “Maybe Paul will find some guys willing to help.” Another moment and he rolled his eyes. “Then we’ll be working until midnight and using spotlights to get it all in.”

  He inhaled and let it all out in a whoosh as he shoved the phone back into his pocket. “That’s the foreman of my ranch. He says that three of my summer hired hands have come down with the flu, so I’m really going to be shorthanded for the rest of the week.” He rolled up on his knees and then stood. “If you’d like to see if you’d like the ranching business, I could sure use a hay truck driver. I wouldn’t ask you to throw bales, but anytime you want to come out to the place and drive, I’ll pay you minimum wage.”

  “I might take you up on that.” She smiled.

  He offered her his hand, but she shook her head. “I think I’ll stay here a little longer. I want to think some more before I go back to the cabin.”

  “Thanks for the visit, Kate.”

  “Right back at you.” She smiled.

  Driving a hay truck might be just exactly what Kate needed for a few days to convince her that her job in the city was ideal. She picked up her Kindle and the quilt and was on her way to the cabin when the buzz of conversation on the deck above caught her attention.

  It had been several days since she’d found the letters and sent the will down to her lawyers. She’d hoped to have that part of the thing settled when she told Jamie and Amanda about the letters and let them read them, but there were still no answers to what would or could happen to the cabin. Still, tonight might be the right time to go ahead and tell them.

  “What’s going on here?” Kate asked.

  “We don’t need you to settle our argument,” Jamie said.

  “You don’t even want this cabin, so just butt out,” Amanda said.

  “Life is not fair and we don’t know yet who will wind up with this place. Why do you even want it, anyway?” Kate asked.

  “I like it here, and Victor said there’s an opening at the school for an elementary teacher.” Jamie tipped up her chin a notch. “You’d only sell the place if you inherited it, and like I’ve said, it’ll be Gracie’s since she is his oldest living child.”

  “What if we all inherit equally? I get a third. You each get a third. What then?” Kate asked.

  “God, what a nightmare that would be.” Jamie groaned.

  “You have money and a fancy job in Dallas. Why would you even want this place?” Amanda asked.

  Kate laid the quilt and her Kindle on a table and sat down in a lawn chair. “Arguing about it now isn’t going to solve anything. The property could be tied up in court for years. We should all go home and wait until something is decided.”

  Jamie hiked a hip on the railing. “No, Gracie likes it here. She’s coming out of her shyness more and more. Amanda has a business in Wichita Falls that she’s not going to leave. You have one in Dallas. You do the math.”

  “I’m not leaving,” Amanda said. “I’ve got time and I don’t want to be cooped up in an apartment. I like this fresh air and sunshine, and I’m staying right here until I have to leave.”

  Kate glanced at Jamie.

  Jamie pushed away from the railing. “Like I said, it is amazing how much Gracie has come out of her shell this past week. I want her to have the rest of the summer here.”

  “So we’ll all have to agree to disagree about who’s going to wind up with this property,” Kate said.

  Tonight was definitely not the time to bring out those letters. Everyone needed to have a level head when they found out what was in that will. Hopefully, in the next few days, something would be decided about Darcy’s involvement.

  And maybe the argument is an omen that it’s not the right time, that niggling little voice in her head said.

  I don’t believe in omens or fate. Choices that we make determine our future, not fate or karma, she argued.

  Amanda almost snorted. “Miss Fancy Pants With Money speaks and we’re supposed to bow down and worship her wisdom.”

  The smart-ass statement brought Kate back to reality. “Don’t take it out on me because you are angry at Conrad.”

  “Besides, that’s downright mean,” Jamie said.

  “So now the two smart wives are going to gang up against the one that barely made it through high school,” Amanda smarted off.

  “And now you are getting malicious.” Jamie’s tone said her claws were about to come out. “I’m not looking down on anyone.” She glanced toward Kate. “Or up to anyone, either.”

  “Yeah, right,” Amanda said.

  “Mama Rita says that familiarity breeds contempt. I’ll take care of part of that tomorrow. Gracie and I will be gone all day. Victor offered me a job at the school just for the summer. The secretary quit without notice, so Gracie and I will be spending our days there.”

  “Well, thank you, Jesus.” Amanda raised both arms toward heaven.

  Kate looked from one to the other. Jamie was right. They did need some time apart, and there was no way she was staying in the cabin with Amanda every day. That hay truck job was looking better and better.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Jamie inhaled the familiar scent of what could only be described as school when Victor took her inside Bootleg Elementary that morning—pure vitamins to her heart and soul. He led her down the hallway to the office and pointed at the desk. “Basically, you will answer the phone all morning. Office closes at noon during July and August, and the principal will drop by later today to visit with you. There’s a stack of filing over there, if you don’t mind doing it. The secretary that quit left the files in a mess.”

  “So you haven’t hired a secretary yet, either?” Jamie asked.

  “Haven’t had a single bite on the job. Got someone in mind?”

  Jamie immediately thought of Amanda but shook her head. She damn sure didn’t want to work with that woman after the argument from last night.

  “Don’t y’all keep all this on the computer?” she asked.

  “We do, but these files are a nightmare. She’s put stuff in them that hasn’t been entered, and they need to be organized and then checked with what has already been put in the computer. You want to tackle it?” Victor asked.

  Jamie didn’t even flinch when she looked at the stack of paperwork. “I don’t like to be bored, so yes, sir.”

  Gracie tugged on her arm. “I can help, Mama.”

  “Yes, you can.” Jamie smiled. “You’ll be a big help.”

  Victor winked broadly. “Man, this is the school’s lucky day. We’re getting two secretaries for the price of one.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Ha
ttie says if Gracie gets bored to call and she’ll be glad to keep her for you at no charge.”

  “Thank you,” Jamie said.

  “And now I will leave you to it.” Victor waved as he left the room.

  First things first—Jamie found the teachers’ lounge across a small hallway and made a fresh pot of coffee. The cabinets were empty except for one lonesome little package of cheese crackers, and she earmarked those for Gracie’s midmorning snack. When the coffee was ready, she chose the biggest mug in the dish drainer and filled it. She made a mental note to bring her own tomorrow and to pick up a package of crackers or cookies on the way to work.

  “Hey, Mama, look at that.” Gracie pointed toward a television and a basket of DVDs. “I see Little Mermaid and The Chipmunks and . . .” She went on to name a dozen of her favorite children’s movies and then turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. “And why were you and Amanda and Kate fightin’ last night?”

  “That was big-people stuff,” Jamie answered.

  “Well, I don’t like it,” Gracie said. “I like Kate and I like Amanda and I love you and big people aren’t supposed to act like that.”

  “I will remember that.” Jamie bit back a giggle. “So what’s it going to be? Movie? Barbies? Or looking at books?”

  “Little Mermaid first,” Gracie said.

  Jamie got the movie started, left the door open so she could hear and see Gracie, and went to work. She opened the first of twelve file drawers and shook her head. Lord love a duck! How did these poor people find anything in that mess? Before she could start on the stack of to-be-filed papers, she needed to straighten up what was already filed. Starting at the back of the first drawer, she removed the dark-green folder and carried it to the desk.

  After she’d organized the whole thing by date, she couldn’t decide whether to file to the front or the back. She dug her cell phone from her purse and called her grandmother, who did volunteer work at the health clinic. “Mama Rita, I’ve got a summer job and I need help.” She went on to tell her everything.

  “Put the newest forms to the front. That way they’ll be able to open the file and see exactly what happened recently. And I’m glad you are working at something where Gracie can go with you, but don’t get too comfortable up there,” Mama Rita said.