The Barefoot Summer Page 24

  “No, it’s a girl.”

  “What girl? Who did something to make you cry?” Kate sat down on the end of the chaise lounge.

  If someone had hurt Amanda’s feelings, then they’d better get ready for a fight with Kate. Amanda was naïve, but she was pregnant and her hormones were all out of balance and she sure didn’t need extra stress.

  “The baby is a girl, not a boy, and I wanted a girl. I don’t know anything about boys, and now I feel guilty because I didn’t want a boy.” Amanda blew her nose loudly, tossed the tissue into the trash, and reached for another one. “I’m a mess all over again.”

  “Gracie will be so excited,” Kate said.

  “I know, but I’d made up my mind to love a little boy and to work hard and not let him be like his father, and now I don’t even know how to put it in words.” Amanda dabbed at her eyes. “God answered my prayers and all I can do is cry.”

  Jamie laid a hand on her knee. “That’s what pregnant women do in the last couple of weeks. Don’t feel guilty.”

  “Are they sure it’s a girl?” Kate wanted to do her version of Gracie’s happy dance.

  “She showed us very plainly that she is a girl and she has a lot of hair and she’s gorgeous.” Amanda nodded. “Are you sure all this is normal, Jamie? Did you cry and cook all the time?”

  “I did both and cleaned closets,” Jamie answered.

  “Her name is Rachel,” Amanda said.

  “That’s pretty,” Kate told her.

  Rachel and Gracie. The two names were perfect for a couple of sisters.

  “I’m glad we’re changing our names tomorrow. I want her to be a Hilton from the day she’s born, and I’m not putting a father on her birth certificate.” Amanda tipped her chin up in a determined gesture. “Tell me about your day. No, don’t, or I’ll get all weepy because I couldn’t be there.”

  A phone rang.

  Jamie checked hers and shook her head. Amanda picked hers up from the arm of the lounge and shook her head.

  Kate didn’t recognize the tone or the number, but it was definitely her phone.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “I’m so glad you answered, Mrs. Steele. The judge who will be presiding over the cases of you and two other women and a child has had a family emergency. The only time he can see you will be at eight o’clock in the morning. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, and if you want to reschedule, we can do that. We have a date open four weeks from tomorrow or on out past that,” a woman said.

  Kate glanced at Amanda and made a snap decision. “We will be there. How long will it take in the courthouse?”

  “Fifteen minutes if he agrees. Longer if you have to talk him into it,” the lady answered. “We just learned of the emergency. Sorry I couldn’t give you more time.”

  “It can’t be helped, I’m sure. Have a nice evening,” Kate said.

  “What can’t be helped?” Amanda asked.

  “We’re going to Dallas tonight. Instead of seeing the judge at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon, we’re seeing him at eight in the morning. With the traffic in the downtown area, we’d have to leave a three o’clock in the morning, so we might as well drive down to my house and spend the night there,” Kate said.

  “You’ve got to be joking.” Amanda groaned.

  “I have a perfectly good house! I’ll arrange for a car to take us to and from the courthouse so none of us have to drive. We’ll take my car down there. Just pack a bag and we might even have time for a swim before we go to bed,” Kate said.

  “Are you sure?” Jamie downed the rest of her wine.

  “Very, and pack your bathing suits. Gracie will probably wake up on the way, and I’m sure she’ll love a swim.”

  Amanda smiled for the first time that evening. “Me, too! I love to swim and I’ve got a maternity bathing suit. This will be a real treat. Thank you.”

  “Living in Bootleg is one thing. This will be in the middle of all your neighbors,” Jamie said.

  “So? Are you ashamed to be seen with me?” Kate teased.

  “Hell, no!” Jamie answered. “I was thinking it might run the other way.”

  “Hell, no!” Kate echoed with a grin. “Let’s get ready and go take care of business. I’ll call for takeout food on the way. Y’all decide what you want.”

  “Sounds fine to me,” Amanda said.

  Gracie didn’t wake up until they were on the outskirts of Fort Worth and had barely gotten her eyes open when Kate parked in the garage of a big two-story stone house. “Is this a castle?” she whispered.

  “No, it’s my house,” Kate answered. But hey, if Gracie wanted it to be a castle, then Kate would gladly let her be the princess who lived there.

  Gracie stood in the middle of Kate’s elaborate living room, eyes big as saucers, trying to take in the whole place at once. Where her daughter felt awe, Jamie was more than a little intimidated by the sheer size of the house. She’d realized that Kate came from money and had lived a life way above Jamie’s pay grade as a teacher, but this was surreal.

  “Where do I sleep?” Gracie finally asked.

  “My bedroom is upstairs, along with two others. Y’all can take your pick of whichever one you want,” Kate said. “They are pretty much the same.”

  “Did Conrad sleep in either of them?” Amanda whispered.

  “He liked the master suite on the ground floor,” Kate answered. “We’ll unload all this food in the kitchen and open up the containers.”

  Amanda dropped her suitcase on the floor. “I’m so glad we opted for Chinese. I’ve been craving it for a couple of days.”

  “After we eat, can I see his room?” Jamie whispered.

  “Of course, but why?”

  “Final closure.” Jamie shrugged.

  Kate pointed down the hallway. “It’s the last door on the left. Mother and I cleaned it out before I went to the cabin. Unless she stored other stuff in there, it’s empty.”

  “Thank you,” Jamie said.

  Amanda had already started removing containers and chopsticks from the plastic bags and was setting them on the table when Jamie and Kate arrived in the kitchen. Jamie set the sweet-and-sour chicken in front of Gracie before she went hunting through the boxes for her spicier chicken.

  “When I get done eating, can I explore the castle all by myself?” Gracie asked.

  Jamie glanced at Kate, who nodded. “If it’s okay with your mama, I don’t care if you go on an adventure. Just yell real loud if you get lost so we can send the prince to find you.”

  Gracie giggled. “You’ll have to come find me, Mama. We don’t have a prince in this castle. We didn’t bring Waylon with us.”

  “So you think Waylon is a prince?” Kate asked.

  “Yep, and you are a princess. He’s going to rescue you from this castle and take you to live on the ranch with him.”

  “What makes you think that?” Jamie asked.

  “It’s my story, Mama.” Gracie sighed.

  Jamie didn’t voice it, but she felt as if she’d been admitted to a castle, too.

  “That’s right,” Amanda said. “And I like her story.”

  Gracie finished her food, broke open the fortune cookie, and handed it to Jamie. “Read it to me, Mama.”

  Jamie straightened out the bit of paper and read, “You will find new things in your future.”

  “What does that mean?” Gracie asked.

  Jamie planted a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “It probably means that you will make even more new friends in Bootleg when school starts.”

  Gracie sighed again, this time with more drama. “I thought it meant I’d find a hidden treasure in this castle.”

  Kate ate her last grain of rice and tossed the container in the trash compactor. “It’s not really a castle.”

  “It’s her story,” Amanda reminded them. “Go and find the treasure, darlin’ girl. And bring it back for us to see.”

  “But you only have about thirty minutes, and then it’s bedtime for y
ou, little girl. We have to get up really early and go to the courthouse and you need to be all smiles.” Jamie kissed her on the top of her head.

  Minutes later they heard her opening doors on the second floor.

  “I want to see his room, too,” Amanda said.

  Jamie pushed back her food. “Want to go with me?”

  “Why don’t we all go together?” Kate led the way across the foyer and to the last room on the left. She opened the door and stood back to let them go inside first. “It’s just a room with a nice closet and a big bathroom. I bought this house after we were married because I loved this room and the view of the pool.” She pulled open the drapes to show them the backyard.

  “So this isn’t where you lived before you married him?” Jamie asked.

  “I lived in a small house, not much bigger than the cabin, and I loved the coziness,” she answered. “Do either of you feel anything about this room?”

  Amanda walked over to the sliding doors leading out to the patio. “I don’t want to sleep in here, but it’s just a big empty room.”

  “I’m done.” Jamie turned and left the room.

  “Did it help?” Kate asked.

  Jamie folded her arms over her chest. “It did.”

  “How?” Kate and Amanda followed her back to the kitchen.

  “It wasn’t just me that he couldn’t love. It was any woman. We were all just a game to him. Like a hunter chases down a white-tailed deer. Marrying us was equivalent to shooting us. Now I know it wasn’t because I couldn’t make enough money or wasn’t pretty enough or good enough in bed. It wasn’t me or you or Amanda.” Jamie picked up her suitcase and headed up the stairs. “I’m glad you invited us. It’s really, really over now, or it will be after tomorrow morning.”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” Amanda said.

  “He lived here. He lived in my house, which you were paying for,” Jamie said. “And he lived in your little apartment. Nothing satisfied him or brought him happiness. He craved the hunt.”

  “And look what it finally got him,” Amanda said. “I’m ready to get in that pool and pretend that we are on vacation. What are you going to do with this house after the summer, Kate?”

  “Sell it,” she said without hesitation.

  Amanda awoke with a start the next morning. She scanned the room and tried to figure out what she was doing in a five-star hotel. Then it all came back to her in a flash. She was in Fort Worth. Today she would go to the courthouse to get her maiden name back, putting the final touch on what had happened in the last month.

  She hefted her round body out of the bed and drew the drapes back. Jamie and Gracie were sitting beside the pool having leftover Chinese for breakfast. Amanda dressed in the same outfit she’d worn to the funeral, a pair of black leggings and a flowing black top with a hankie hem that dropped to her thighs. She pulled her red hair up in a twist and secured it with a few bobby pins, applied a minimum of makeup, and repacked her suitcase. She took it with her so she wouldn’t have to climb the stairs again.

  Kate was foraging in the cabinets when she reached the kitchen. “There’s oatmeal but no milk. I’ll take us all out for breakfast as soon as this is over.”

  Amanda shivered. “I’m too nervous to eat anyway. The idea of standing in front of a judge gives me the jitters.”

  “My legal department is sending a lawyer. For the most part, we’ll only have to answer a couple of questions, if that.” Kate threw an arm around Amanda’s shoulders and drew her even closer. “Look at us. Jamie has on her cowboy boots, I’m wearing high heels that are pinching my toes, and you have on your fancy flip-flops.”

  “Just like the day we arrived at the cabin.”

  “And we’d all rather be barefoot out on the porch, wouldn’t we?”

  “Or down by the lake with our toes in the edge of the water.” Amanda smiled.

  “That’s where we’ll go soon as today is over and we do some shopping,” Kate said.

  Amanda took a couple of steps to the side. “I’d like to go to the discount stores and look for things for my baby girl. I don’t have a thing for a girl, not even something frilly to bring her home in.”

  “Of course,” Kate answered. “We can go wherever y’all want, but please let me pay for our food today.”

  “Done.” Amanda would gladly let Kate shell out the money for food, since it would take a chunk out of her bank account to buy baby things.

  Kate glanced at the clock. “The driver will be here in five minutes. If you’ll call Jamie and Gracie in from the pool, I’ll make sure everything is ready for me to lock the doors.”

  “Are you really never coming back here to live, Kate?”

  It was hard to think about owning a place like this and wanting to live in something the size of the cabin. But then on second thought, a huge place like that would be pretty damned lonely.

  “Probably not. I’ll live in a hotel until I find an apartment or small house that I like.”

  “Or maybe you’ll stay in Bootleg?”

  For the first time, Amanda didn’t want any of them to leave the cabin. She felt safe and comfortable with all four of them living together. And besides, she needed Jamie for when the baby came and Kate for her quiet strength.

  “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Right now I have to get us to the courthouse on time,” Kate answered.

  Kate might appear calm on the outside in her cute little business suit and high-heeled shoes, but she was a nervous wreck on the inside. Time for a modicum of closure on the whole marriage thing.

  The courthouse ruling took less than fifteen minutes for all three. They walked in with the same last name and came out with their different maiden names, and just like that, it was finished.

  The firm had sent a seasoned lawyer, Mary Beth O’Bryan, who had made short work of the whole process. “I knew it would be easy. The judge wanted to get out of town and his plane leaves at ten, so he had to get through this in a hurry. Would you mind if I ride with you back to your house? There are a couple of things we need to discuss, and this will save time for both of us. It’s all about Conrad, so I don’t suppose you mind talking in front of the other two?”

  “I’m good with you riding with us and with talking to you in front of them,” Kate answered.

  When they’d settled into the six-passenger van, Mary Beth opened a briefcase and took out a file. The gray-haired woman adjusted her glasses and introduced herself to Jamie and Amanda. “I’m one of the lawyers in the legal department of Kate’s firm. We have notified the church in Bootleg of their windfall found in the bank deposit box and let them know that they will most likely own the cabin where you are staying, though it will have to go through probate. They are not interested in selling it, but they will lease it to any of you on a yearly basis for enough to pay the taxes and insurance on the place. That comes to about four hundred dollars a month, and at the end of the first year they will renegotiate if things aren’t done by then. Their pastor is nearing retirement, maybe in two years, and they are hoping to use the cabin as a parsonage if they hire a new pastor with a family.”

  “We’ll take the lease,” Kate said. “Cut them a check for an entire year’s rent.”

  “And you will be responsible for upkeep and for the utility bills?” Mary Beth asked.

  “Agreed.” Kate nodded.

  “So we’ll split everything three ways?” Amanda asked.

  “How about I pay the rent for the year? Amanda, you take the water bill, and Jamie, you pay for the electricity? If we have a maintenance problem like plumbing or decide to paint the place, we will discuss the split on that then,” Kate said.

  Amanda frowned and shook her head. “That doesn’t seem quite fair. You’d be taking on the biggest chunk.”

  “Let me do this for the first year until y’all get on your feet,” Kate said. “We’ll take it back to the table in a year when we have to renegotiate the lease anyway. Jamie?”

  “Thank you,” she said. “J
ust hand me the electricity bills from now on and I’ll pay them.”

  “Now on to Conrad’s stuff. He didn’t have an apartment or house somewhere else. He had five hundred dollars and change in his personal checking account, and when his outstanding bills and taxes were paid up, he had about that in his business account. Both have been closed. Where do you want the money sent?”

  “Split two ways. One check in Amanda’s name and one in Jamie’s. It’s not much, but it will help with baby expenses and school clothes for Gracie this year,” Kate said.

  “Again, thank you,” Jamie said.

  “Any questions about all that?” Mary Beth asked.

  “My house has both our names on the deed,” Jamie said. “I want to sell it, but what happens now?”

  “Where are you financed?” Mary Beth already had her phone out.

  When Jamie told her, Mary Beth made a phone call, asked a few questions, and smiled when she hung up. “Were you aware that you bought insurance that stated in the event of your death, or his, the house would be paid for in full? You need to send them a copy of the death certificate and they will process the paperwork at that time.”

  “You mean the house is totally paid for now?” Jamie asked.

  “That’s right. Conrad is dead, so it is paid for as soon as they get the death certificate.” Mary Beth nodded.

  “Would you take care of all that for her, please?” Kate was every bit as happy as Jamie with the news.

  “Be glad to. Anything else?”

  “His van?”

  “He still owes ten thousand dollars on it. The police have released it, and it’s at the company parking lot. What do you want to do with it, Kate?”

  “Sell it for enough to pay it off or take a loss on it. I don’t care. I don’t want to see it again,” she answered.

  “Then I think that’s all of it. Other than if you’ve given any thought to your mother’s retirement.”

  “Yes, I have, but I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about it yet. I still have four more weeks, right?”

  “Actually, you have until the last day of this year.” Mary Beth closed the files and put them inside her briefcase. “And here we are, at your house. I’m glad that we’ve gotten everything cleared up and can move forward. I’m sorry that the murder hasn’t been solved and that it’s hanging over your head. Right when you should be taking over the business.” Mary Beth shook her head slowly. “It’s not a good thing.”