“It smells good in here,” Kasey said.
“Tori is an awesome cook. She’s making macaroni and cheese and her famous baked beans. They’re my favorite and I figured it would be a good combination with the hot dogs later. Tori makes the best macaroni and cheese ever.”
As they walked into the kitchen, Tori flung a dish towel over her shoulder. “Only ’cause your momma taught me all of her secrets.”
“Don’t tell her, but you’ve improved that recipe.” Cody ducked playfully behind Tori like he was making sure his momma wasn’t in shouting distance.
Tori’s mouth dropped wide. “Oh, I wouldn’t dare tell her that.”
“I’m good at secrets too,” Jake said.
“We’re going to take a little ride down to the studio,” Cody said. “Tori, will you take Shutterbug down and let her visit with Gibson and Rose?”
“Your dogs?” Kasey asked.
“Yeah. They’re well socialized with other dogs. They’ll be pooped out before it’s time to go to bed.”
“Perfect.” Kasey turned to Tori. “Shutterbug knows all her commands, so don’t let her play dumb on you.”
“No worries. She and I have already become BFFs.”
Tori called Shutterbug and walked out the back door. Cody, Jake, and Kasey went out the front. But instead of taking the red truck, Cody pushed a button on a panel and door number two of the garage slid up to reveal a John Deere Gator Utility Vehicle.
“Mom! It’s a John Deere truck!”
“I had the same expression on my face the first time I saw it,” Cody said.
Kasey shook her head. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
Cody turned to Jake. “More like a souped-up golf cart than a truck, but it sure is fun and goes fast too.”
She helped Jake into the seat and slid in next to him.
“Ready?”
“Yes!” Jake leaned back in the seat and Kasey put her arm across him from her side and Cody did the same. Their eyes locked as they realized their arms had landed, one on top of the other, in the unplanned gesture. She felt a swirl of anticipation at his touch.
I must look like a better playmate for her son than for her at this point. All I’ve done is show her my toys.
He wanted to gun it and he knew Jake would have fun if he did, but caution crept into his mind. He didn’t want to scare her off completely by acting like another kid, so he puttered along at a leisurely pace.
“There’s a fishing pond down at the bottom of the property. Do you like to fish, Jake?”
“Yes, sir. I know how to put a live worm on my hook too.” His face grew serious. “You have to be careful because if you hook your finger you sometimes have to get stitches and a shot. That hurts.”
“Voice of experience?” Cody asked.
“Little incident,” Kasey said. “Probably won’t happen again, though.”
“Not on my watch. I promise I’m more responsible than I look.”
“I’m not worried.”
He sure hoped she meant that.
“We’ll stop here before we go down to the pond.” Cody got out and they followed behind him. “This is the studio.” He opened the door and let them in. A wide soundproof glass window looked into the recording studio from the huge living room.
Jake ran toward the glass and lifted up on tippy-toes to look. “It’s like at the zoo, Mom.”
Kasey laughed. “Yes. I guess it kind of is like that. Only there aren’t animals on the other side of that one.”
“Here you go, buddy.” Cody walked over and lifted him up. “That’s where I make music that goes on the radio.”
“You sing in there?”
“Sure do.”
“And play guitar?” Jake asked.
“Yes. Sometimes piano too.”
“You play piano?” Kasey looked surprised.
“I played piano before I ever played a guitar.”
“I had no idea.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
“Where are the guys?” Kasey poked her head down the hall.
“They’re probably out back on the basketball court. I was hoping they’d be in here laying down some tracks so you could see, but I guess they’re chilling. They need some downtime too. I’ll show you that later.”
They followed Cody back out to the Gator and he drove down a path through a treed area to the pond.
“This is my favorite spot on the property.” Cody surveyed the terrain. The only thing that would be better would be sharing it with her. “When I need time alone, I come here.”
They walked out on the floating dock shaped like a guitar.
“I saw a big one jump.” Jake grabbed his mom’s hand. “Did you see it, Mom?”
“I didn’t, but I heard it splash.”
Jake looked up at Cody. “Can we go fishing?”
“Sure, but if we catch him are we going to release him, or cook him up?”
Jake put his hands on his hips. “We’re going to fry him up.”
“My kind of guy,” Cody said. “We’d better head back up so you two have some time to settle in before dinnertime.” They got back in the Gator and Cody drove back the same way they’d come. “My mom invited us down to her house for dessert after dinner if you’re up to it.”
“I’m never too tired for dessert,” Jake said.
“He gets that from me,” she said. “That sounds nice. I can’t wait to meet her.”
Cody stopped in the kitchen on the way back. Tori had already left for the day but she had everything ready to go on a wheeled cart for him to take to the outdoor kitchen by the pool. Just as he finished unloading the cart, the guys came cruising up on golf carts.
“Now you show up. I just finished toting everything out.”
Pete bailed out of the cart. “We’re known for our good timing.”
“Right,” Cody said. “I think you’re known for good times, not timing.”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s it,” Pete said.
Kasey helped Cody put everything out on the table, then took it upon herself to start setting up a little assembly line for everyone to make their plates.
Cody carried the pot with the hot dogs and a handful of long wooden-handled skewers so they could roast the dogs over the fire pit. “I think we make a pretty good team at this.”
“Me too,” she said.
“Come here, Jake. Let me help you get your hot dog going.” Cody helped Jake get a good skew on the dog. “See there?”
“It’s like putting a worm on a hook,” Jake said. “Except they aren’t wiggly.”
“Never thought of it that way, my man.” Cody looked up at Kasey. “After that thought, I might need extra chili on mine.”
“Yeah, me too.” Her mouth puckered like she’d just eaten a handful of worms.
After a casual poolside dinner with the whole band, Cody loaded Kasey and Jake up in the truck and they rode down to his mom’s house.
The street lights had already come on and even in the shadow of the cab, Kasey looked nervous. He felt a little excited about it himself.
He pulled up in front of his mom’s house and jumped out of the truck. “Hope y’all like homemade peach ice cream, because it’s one of Mom’s specialties.”
“I love ice cream,” Jake said.
Cody knocked twice as he opened the door and hollered, “We’re here.” He led them to the kitchen.
“Hi, Mom.” He walked over and gave her hug. “Good to be home.” He turned and stepped back. “Mom. This is my dear friend, Kasey Phillips, and her little boy, Jake. Kasey and Jake, this is my mom, Denise.”
She tipped her head and smiled wide. “Oh, you two. I feel like I already know you from everything Cody told me about you.”
“Thanks for having us. It’s really nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure is mine. Jake, do you like horses?”
Jake nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ve got the best barn full of horses in the state. I’d l
ove for you to come help me while you’re here. I mean, if you want to.”
“Okay. I can do that. Right, Mom?”
“Sure. It sounds like fun.”
“Do you ride, either of you?”
Kasey nodded. “I do, but Jake hasn’t really been on a horse in a couple of years now. Not since my husband passed. It would be good for him to get back on again.”
“Then it’s settled. We’ll definitely do that this week. How long are you going to be with us?”
“I’ll be heading back before next weekend so Jake doesn’t miss too much kindergarten.”
His mom smiled. “If we don’t do it this time, I promise we will the next time. Who’d like some ice cream?”
“Me,” Jake chimed in.
“Ice cream all the way around.” Cody walked to the other side of the kitchen and got down bowls from a cupboard. “I’ll help you, Mom.”
Kasey watched as Cody helped his mother serve up the ice cream. “What can I do to help?”
His mom gave her shoulder a pat as she walked by and reached around Cody. “Not a thing. I hope you enjoy it though. The peaches are fresh from the trees right here in my backyard.” Cody’s mom snuck a spoonful out of the bowl. “I just love this stuff. It’s Cody’s favorite too.”
He and his mother performed the task of scooping with ease. They barely needed to talk to get the job done. As he scooped ice cream, she set a small bowl of water next to him. Without a word between them, he dunked his scooper into it and tamped the excess water before making the next scoop.
The technique yielded a perfect sphere in a peach color so soft that Kasey wished she had a nightgown that color. Where did that thought come from? I’m not even the silky nightgown kind of girl.
Cody looked up and smiled at her like he’d read her mind. It was easy to see now where he got his good looks. His mother was a beautiful woman. He has her smile and eyes.
Cody’s mom pushed a spoon into the ice cream and handed Jake the first bowl. “Here you go, sweetie.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Jake said.
Once everyone was served they went out on the patio and sat under the huge umbrella with twinkle lights by the pool that sparkled with flickers of turquoise and orange from the tile along the side.
“What’s that light over there?” Jake asked, pointing down the hill.
“That’s my barn,” Cody’s mom answered.
“Do you have goats?”
“Just one old nanny goat. Mostly we have horses.”
“My dad was a goat farmer, but I like horses too.”
Cody took another bite of his ice cream. “When you finish I’ll take you down there if you want.”
“I’m almost done.” Jake seemed to speed up in anticipation of the field trip.
“Don’t eat it too fast,” Cody warned. “You’ll get a brain freeze. Those hurt.”
Jake nodded. “I did that once.”
“Me too.”
Cody’s mom put her spoon down. “Cody, I almost forgot to tell you.” She leaned toward Kasey. “I swear I’d forget my way home if my car didn’t know the way.” She waved a hand in the air. “Anyway, I was down at the pharmacy and I ran into Julie Murphy. Of course, she’d heard all about that mess with Arty Max, and she said that they probably broke some laws talking to you like they did without your lawyer. That’ll probably ruin any case they may try to build against you. Of course, I told her you were innocent so it didn’t matter. Besides, as much as you pay those lawyers of yours they probably know to check all that stuff.”
Kasey felt awkward listening to her talk like this community of people thought money could fix anything. Maybe it could, but that wasn’t comforting. It was kind of a rude awakening, too, not to mention a cruel reminder of the awful circumstances that had brought her here to support Cody. Someone had died, after all. Even Arty Max didn’t deserve to die at the hand of another.
Cody looked embarrassed by his mother’s comments. “The police will figure out what happened, then we can all move on.”
“Well, I just hope it’s soon.”
Cody’s mom turned her attention to Kasey. “I’ll be going into town tomorrow afternoon, so take a look around the kitchen in the morning and see if there’s anything y’all’d like and I’ll pick it up for you.”
“Oh, I’m sure whatever Cody has is fine. We’re pretty flexible.”
“Don’t be all polite. You’ll have more fun if you just go ahead and act like you belong.”
Cody licked the last of his ice cream from the spoon. “I guess maybe I ought to have mentioned that Momma kind of spits out whatever is on her mind without thinking about how it sounds. She’s got no filter. She means well, but…” He leaned across the table and whispered loud enough for them all to hear him. “It’s from limiting her audience to horses.”
“Oh you, stop that.” Denise smacked him with her napkin. “I’m just trying to make her feel welcome.”
“He’s doing a pretty good job of that already,” Kasey said.
“See.” Cody sat straight, and smiled his perfect smile. “You raised me right.”
“Good to know it stuck.” Cody’s mom gave Jake a wink. “What do you think of this guy?”
Jake pointed at Cody. “Him?”
“Yes.”
“Is he your little boy? Like I’m Mom’s?”
“Yes, he is.”
Jake looked as if he was sizing Cody up. “I thought you were a grandma.”
Kasey cringed, and mouthed sorry.
“Not yet, but someday I hope I will be lucky enough to have a grandson or granddaughter.”
“Me and Mom like Cody. He makes Mom smile. I like that.”
Kasey wanted to crawl right under the table. It was true, but still.
Cody must have seen the look on her face because he came to the rescue. “Come on, Jake. Let me take you down to the barn.”
Jake leaped from his chair and they jogged down the slope.
Kasey felt her heart skip a beat, and then do one more flip when Jake reached up and took Cody’s hand and they moved out of sight.
Denise leaned forward and put her hand on Kasey’s. “I know all about what happened. Cody kept me in the loop on all of that. You’ve had quite a time the last year or so, young lady.”
“Yes, ma’am, I have, but it’s okay. We’re doing well.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.”
“So, Mrs. Tuggle, what—”
The woman laughed a loud, raucous laugh. “There is no Mrs. Tuggle. Just call me Denise. Tuggle is his stage name.”
“His? Oh. I never knew. I’m sorry. I just assumed—”
“No worries. Our last name is Hill. I’m Denise Hill.”
Now she felt like an idiot. Not only had she taken a famous singer up on his offer to drop everything and fly on his jet to stay in his mansion on a whim, but she didn’t even know his name? “Please tell me his first name is at least Cody.”
“Yes. His name is Cody.”
Thank God. “How did he come up with the name Cody Tuggle?”
“That’s actually a pretty funny story,” Denise said. “His full name is Cody Allan Hill. I named him after Cody and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. I’ve always had a love for that stuff since I was a little girl. His middle name, Allan, was after my favorite singer, David Allan Coe. Who knew he’d end up even more famous than the guy I named him after?”
“Cody Allan Hill.” Kasey Hill. Stop that. “So, when did the Cody Tuggle stuff come in?”
“It was early in his career and he’d gotten some pretty good attention but when Arty Max signed him, he thought Cody needed an image. A brand. A lot of the big singers have just used their first and middle names as their stage name, but Arty didn’t like the sound of Cody Allan any better than Cody Hill, although Hill hasn’t seemed to hold ol’ Faith Hill back any.”
There’s that filter-free talk. I’m going to like this lady.
“Arty thought Cody needed something more rugge
d. So Cody was trying to come up with something and we were brainstorming. We were sitting at my kitchen table, in fact. I remember it clear as day. We’d gone through a bunch of names and he’d scratched out most of them, or Arty had said they weren’t country enough. So Cody says to me, ‘Mom, I need a real country last name.’ And I tried to think of really country names. First I thought Hatfields, McCoys, and then I thought of the character on the soaps that was more redneck than country and threw out the name Tuggle.”
“Arty liked it?”
“He loved it. He’d have died if he knew where I came up with it. I didn’t tell Cody for years. He knows now, of course.”
“What’s the scoop?”
“The most country, rough-around-the-edges guy I’d ever seen at that point in my life was Billy Clyde Tuggle from All My Children. He was this no-good hick of a man who had a way of making pond scum look pleasant. A true villain. Somehow that name, Tuggle, had the right ring to it. People sure don’t forget it.”
“That’s a funny story. I love it.”
“I bet no one else even knows that story. I’ve never told anyone else… until now.”
“Thanks for sharing it with me. I’ll keep it to myself.” She liked the instant connection she felt with Denise. She was good people. “So Hillcrest, the name of the estate, it’s a play on the family name.”
“Yes. Cody said he felt like when he bought this place it proved he’d reached heights he’d never even dreamed of. Hill. Crest.”
The pride showed in his mother’s face. “My boy has had his troubles, but he’s paid his dues. I’m proud of him.”
“I have to ask: How do you handle all the gossip? As a mother, if people spread those kinds of stories about my son I would come unglued.”
“It was harder in the beginning. I used to get madder than an old wet hen. Mostly because I knew it bothered him too, but you know, at the end of the day both of us had to learn that it doesn’t matter what people think. Besides, me getting all bent out of shape wasn’t hurting anyone but me. I swear I was driving myself crazy trying to buy up all the local copies just to keep my friends from reading them, and that didn’t work, by the way.”
Kasey could picture Denise running from store to store in a trench coat with a scarf over her head carrying stacks of the rags, and burning them in a barrel out back.
Pecan Pie and Deadly Lies (An Adams Grove Novel) Page 16