And she was already exhausted. Thoughts and dreams of Lucas had disturbed her sleep all night. She’d spent more time tossing and turning than sleeping, and now, she felt more tired than she had when she went to bed last night.
She couldn’t remember any other male she’d tried to treat like a “brother” disturbing her sleep quite so much. But then again, she mused, trying to hide a smile, she couldn’t remember another man she’d treated like a “brother” kissing her senseless, either.
“Good morning to you, too,” Lindsey said, giving her a look. “Now, I hate to be the bearer of more bad tidings, but I don’t think your day’s going to get better any time soon, Katie.” Lindsey turned back to her desk and picked up a stack of pink message slips, fanning them out in the air for Katie to see and frown over. “These are all for you. From your mother,” Lindsey said pointedly, eyeing Katie over the rim of her thick glasses. “Your mother is on a rip-roaring tear about something. And apparently you’re at the heart of it.”
“I know, I know,” Katie admitted with a sigh, heading toward her office to dump her stuff. “I think Patience told her I was being rude to the police chief last night.”
Fascinated, Lindsey followed Katie into her office. “Now why on earth would that woman tell your mother something like that?” she demanded with a scowl.
“Because that’s what we told her—Patience, I mean,” Katie absently explained as she dug through the piles of papers and folders on her desk to find what she needed for her meeting with Lucas this morning.
“Well, for goodness sake why on earth—who’s we?” Lindsey asked abruptly, her brows rising in surprise as she caught that last phrase.
“Lucas and I.” Smiling at the memory, Katie tucked her notes and files into her arm and looked at Lindsey, then sighed. “We went out for pizza last night. And no, don’t look like that. It wasn’t a date—”
“Uh-huh.”
“No, really,” Katie insisted with a grin, realizing she was probably going to have to explain this more than once today. Maybe she ought to just print her explanation on the front page of this week’s newspaper, that way she could be sure everyone in town read it. “Lucas is Rusty’s Buddy—you know, the Buddy for a Boy program?”
“Uh-huh,” Lindsey said with a slow nod, suspicion still clouding her eyes. “I understand all about the Buddy program, Katie. I wrote the blasted article for your uncle explaining it in the newspaper. But what I don’t understand is what the Buddy program and you and Lucas going out for pizza—together,” she added with a great deal more emphasis than necessary, “has to do with one another. And then of course why anyone would tell Patience Pettibone anything is beyond me.”
“Lucas is Rusty’s buddy,” Katie explained patiently. “Lucas invited Rusty for pizza and they invited me to come along.” Katie shrugged, trying to dismiss the significance of last night. “It was a way for them to get to know one another and yet allow me to be there as a buffer.”
“A buffer, huh?” Lindsey repeated shrewdly. “Okay, got it,” she said with a nod. “If that’s the official story you’re going with, well, hell, I can repeat it just as good as you can.” She turned and headed back to her own desk, muttering under her breath. “It wasn’t a date. You were merely a buffer.” Lindsey was almost to her desk before she stopped abruptly. “Wait a minute,” she said, whirling around to face Katie again as she tried to sneak toward the front door to make her escape. “What does you being a buffer for Rusty have to do with you being rude to the police chief?” Lindsey demanded, planting her hands on her hips. “And why on earth would you tell Patience—the Paul Revere of Cooper’s Cove—about it?”
Katie sighed. “I wasn’t really rude to the chief, but we figured if we didn’t tell Patience something, by this morning she’d have spread it all over town that Lucas and I were seen at the pizza parlor. Together.”
Confused, Lindsey scratched her head. “But you were with Lucas at the pizza parlor, weren’t you?”
“Well, yes,” Katie admitted, biting her lip and glancing at the clock again. “But it wasn’t a date, remember?”
“Oh, yeah, it was that buffer thing,” Lindsey said with another knowing nod. “Now I get it. Not,” she added with a scowl, making Katie laugh again.
“It’s really a long story, Lindsey, and if I don’t leave now, I’m going to be late for my morning meeting with the chief.” She waved a sheaf of folders and papers at Lindsey. “Remember, the street closings for the Halloween carnival? My ‘Police Beat’ column for next week? And the special safety letter from the chief for the Halloween issue?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Lindsey said with a wave of her hand. “I’m the one who briefed you yesterday, remember?” Her brows drew together. “But what am I supposed to tell your mother when she calls back for the…uh…” She quickly counted the message slips. “Tenth time?”
“Tell her I’m out doing an interview and I’ll call her later. I need to talk to her anyway.”
“You’re a brave woman, Katherine,” Lindsey said with a slow shake of her head, pushing up her thick glasses. It was no secret that Lindsey was a tad intimidated by Katie’s mother, not to mention Katie’s supposedly psychic Aunt Gracie.
Ever since her mother had read Lindsey’s astrology charts fifteen years ago and accurately predicted a tornado that would hit just outside of town, narrowly missing Lindsey’s house, which Katie’s mother had insisted Lindsey evacuate before there was even the thought or threat of a tornado, Lindsey had tried to steer clear of Louella simply because Katie’s mother’s astrological predictions and Katie’s Aunt Gracie’s psychic predictions totally spooked Lindsey.
Ten years ago when Katie’s aunt had charged into the newspaper office, demanding Lindsey call off her wedding to Frankie Flannigan, the fire chief’s “bad boy” brother, or else get her heart broken, Lindsey had been furious and appalled, until the next week when her fiancé had run off with another woman.
Since then all this “new-age stuff,” as Lindsey referred to it, was far too much for her Midwestern practical self. She was convinced Lady Louella and Gracie had some kind of special powers, powers that scared the dickens out of her.
It never failed to amuse Katie that Lindsey, someone who was so levelheaded and practical on every other issue, could be spooked by her mother. Or her sweet, unusual little aunt.
“I’ll tell her, but I’m warning you, Katie, your mama better not put any strange curse on me. Her sister, neither,” Lindsey warned with a shake of her finger.
Katie laughed. “Don’t worry, Lindsey. Mama’s saving all her curses for the mayor.”
“Thank the Lord,” Lindsey said with a relieved sigh, making Katie laugh again as she headed toward the door again. “Not that the man doesn’t deserve it,” she mumbled as an afterthought.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Katie pushed open the door, then said over her shoulder. “Oh, and do me a favor, Lindsey? Call Mr. Hensen at the butcher shop and ask him if he can grind a sirloin steak for me. Tell him I’ll need about two pounds and to grind it twice. I’ll pick it up on my way home. I might be late, so tell him I’ll just ring his back door when I get there.” She gave Lindsey a weak smile. “Rusty wants burgers on the grill, tonight.”
“Two pounds worth, huh?” Lindsey said, pretending to be intensely interested in the messages in her hand. “Say hi to the chief for me,” she added with a smile as Katie sailed out the door. “Sure hope he likes ground sirloin burgers.”
Lucas was just hanging up the phone when his administrative assistant waved Katie through to his office.
She hesitated in the doorway for a moment, and just looked at him. He was just so gorgeous, she thought with a dreamy sigh. And she had to admit she sure liked looking at him. Kissing him wasn’t bad, either, she mused, thinking about last night.
Today he was dressed in immaculately pressed jeans, boots and a Cooper’s Cove police department khaki uniform shirt. All members of the department were required to wear th
e shirt to let the public know they were police officers. He had a shoulder holster with a weapon that she was pretty sure he’d never even have to remove, at least not in this town.
Katie couldn’t help but wonder if that dull brown shirt looked as good on everyone as it did on Lucas, with his broad shoulders and slender hips.
“Hi,” she said with a smile, suddenly feeling nervous and a bit tongue-tied, simply because she was all but ogling the man again.
His grin matched hers. “Hi yourself. Come on in,” he said. “I know we have a meeting this morning, but I might have to cut it short, I’m afraid.” His smile was apologetic. “I have a luncheon date.”
Katie could almost feel the smile freeze on her face as her stomach dropped.
“A lunch date,” she repeated dully. Nodding, she headed toward the chair opposite his desk. “How lovely,” she said, her voice slightly strained as she dropped into the chair like a stone.
There was no reason on earth for her to be jealous, she scolded herself, recognizing the flash of hot fire burning in her gut for exactly what it was. Lucas was a single, eligible man in a town where single men were generally over sixty and cranky.
A young, gorgeous eligible man was a rare commodity. So of course he’d date. He’d no doubt have his pick of any single female in town.
So why was she so surprised?
More importantly, why on earth was she jealous?
It was utterly ridiculous, she told herself as she pretended to flip through her notes and files, fearing her strained emotions might show on her face. She had no claim on Lucas, and didn’t want one, she reminded herself.
She was a perfectly happy, content single mom with more than enough responsibilities to keep her going. She certainly didn’t need a man to complicate her life or her son’s.
“Maybe we’d better get started,” Katie said, pulling free last year’s list of street closings and leaning forward in her chair to hand it to Lucas. “This needs to be updated,” she informed him. “It’s the list of all the streets that will be closed for the Halloween carnival next month. I need you to look it over and update it so we can print it for the next four weeks until the carnival. I’m sorry, Lucas, but I’ll need that back by end of day tomorrow.”
Looking at the article, Lucas nodded absently. “Will do. I take it the Halloween carnival is a big deal around here?”
Katie laughed. “Every holiday around here is a big deal, but especially the Halloween carnival and the Christmas festival. They’re like the granddaddies of all carnivals for this town. We have food vendors, games of chance, carnival rides, clowns, and my mom and my aunt set up their own little ‘New Age’ booth where they read palms, tell fortunes and horoscopes. And almost every business in town either sponsors a booth or sets up their own. All proceeds go toward afterschool programs, which is why everyone tries to pitch in and do their share.”
“You don’t really believe in all that, do you?” Lucas asked, looking up at her with a smile. “The astrology and psychic stuff I mean?”
“I guess I don’t disbelieve it,” she admitted with a smile. “I’ve been living with my mom and aunt and their…talents, so to speak, for my whole life. Truthfully, I don’t even pay much attention to it anymore.” Katie frowned suddenly. “Unless my Aunt Gracie does something or says something totally off the wall or out of the blue.” Katie shook her head and laughed. “That tends to spook me. And she has been known to do that. Sometimes she ‘gets things,’ but not all at one time. She always says it’s like a television picture going in and out, and then getting blurry. And unfortunately, Aunt Gracie has a tendency to blurt things out before she gets the ‘whole picture,’ so to speak, and that can be a bit disconcerting.”
“I imagine it would.” A man could really lose himself in that face of hers, Lucas mused, trying to listen to Katie’s words and not get lost in her beauty.
This morning that hair of hers, that gorgeous silky hair that made him itch to slide his hands through, was in a bit of disarray and looked as if it were about to tumble off its perch atop her head. Why she didn’t just pull out the pins and let it free was a mystery. Her hair was one of her most attractive features. Along with her eyes, her lips, her face. Lucas sighed. And of course that gorgeous, ultra-sexy body that today was clothed in her usual crisp, pressed jeans and white blouse.
“One morning shortly after I got married, I opened the front door to get the morning newspaper and found Aunt Gracie standing on the front porch in her nightgown, barefoot,” Kate said.
“Was she hurt?” Lucas asked with a frown, grateful he’d managed to follow the conversation, even though just being near Katie distracted all rational thought.
Katie shook her head. “No. She wasn’t hurt, but I was running in a marathon that day. Aunt Gracie refused to come in the house, refused to go home, refused to do anything until I promised her I wouldn’t run that day. She just kept saying it would jostle the boy and make him mad.”
“The boy?” Lucas repeated with a confused frown.
“Yep. The boy.”
“And you thought…what? That she’d gone round the bend?” Lucas asked with a warm smile, and Katie nodded.
“Right. It just didn’t make any sense to me and I didn’t know what boy she was talking about, but I couldn’t run, not when she was so upset about it.” Katie shrugged. “I kind of dismissed it until the following week—when I fainted dead away in the butcher shop while shopping for dinner. I scared poor Mr. Hensen half to death. Thankfully, Dr. Robsen was having lunch in the diner and someone ran to get him. By the time I came to, I was looking up at half the town, who were grinning like loons because Dr. Robsen had told everyone his diagnosis before I’d even woken up.” She laughed at the memory. “Aunt Gracie really got a kick out of that and told Dr. Robsen he was a little late, that she’d already told me I was expecting a baby boy the week before, which was news to me. But I guess in her own roundabout way Aunt Gracie did tell me I was expecting a boy. I just didn’t connect the dots.”
“Ahh,” Lucas said in acknowledgment. “That’s the boy she was talking about?”
“Yeah, turned out it was Rusty,” Katie admitted with a chuckle. “But let’s just say Aunt Gracie’s version was subject to interpretation, or maybe translation is a better word. Anyway, she couldn’t understand why I was so surprised at the news since she thought she’d already told me, but since I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about at the time…” Katie’s voice trailed off and she shrugged. “I don’t do…gibberish very well I’m afraid. So since then, like I said, I don’t necessarily believe, but I don’t disbelieve in it, either.”
“I’ll make sure to remember that.”
Aware that he was pressed for time, Katie pulled another folder loose from the pile on her lap. “These are copies of the weekly ‘Police Beat’ column the newspaper runs. Every week I meet with the police chief and we discuss any crimes or problems from the prior week.”
“I can’t imagine there’s enough crime in town to warrant one column, let alone a year’s worth.” The worst crime he’d encountered since he’d taken over was old Mrs. Hennighan forgetting which house was hers and wandering into others.
Or the local teens making a pathetic attempt to drag race down the measly two-block area that comprised Main Street.
But he hardly thought that was worthy of being written up in the newspaper.
“It’s not just to report crimes, Lucas. The column is also a tool for you to speak directly to all the residents on a somewhat personal level. I think it will help bridge the gap as you get to know people. Believe it or not, just from reading that column, people will form an opinion of you and feel as if they already know you whether they do or not.”
He nodded. “Okay, but what kinds of things go in this ‘Police Beat’ column?”
Katie thought about it for a moment. “Well, last spring for example, the last week of school, during finals, the police chief wrote an article explaining it was the last week of
school and finals were in progress, which meant students wouldn’t be coming and going at the usual times, so drivers should be particularly aware that children could be coming out or going into the school all during the day. And possibly riding their bikes, skateboards, or even just on foot, so he wanted every driver to pay particular attention while in the school zone.”
“That’s an excellent idea, Katie,” Lucas said, nodding his head. “I think a friendly reminder that cars and drivers have to share the road with others can’t be repeated too often.” He opened the folder. “Let me review some of the articles and let you know when I come up with an idea for next week’s column, unless you already have something in mind?” he asked, glancing up at her.
“Please, I have enough trouble coming up with ideas for my own columns, let alone others. Feel free to write about anything you want.”
“Will do. Now when do you need this article?”
“I’m afraid I’ll need it no later than a week from today.” She leaned forward, then hesitated, wanting to be helpful, but not intrusive. “Lucas, sometimes if someone hasn’t had much experience writing they sort of go brain-dead when they start, especially knowing they need a certain number of words in a certain period of time.”
“Now you are scaring me,” Lucas said with a laugh.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” She paused for a moment. “I guess the best advice I can give you is to merely write in the same conversational tone you talk in. Keep it friendly and informal—informational, but not preachy.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to write this?” he asked, and she held up her hands.
“No, thanks. I’ve got enough on my plate right now.” She pulled one more file loose from her pile. “Now, there’s just one more thing and then I’ll let you get back to work.” She glanced up at him and felt her heart tumble over at the way he was looking at her. “I do a column every week called ‘Getting to Know You.’ It’s probably the most personal and popular column in town. Each week I interview a resident of the town and ask questions that maybe no one has ever thought of asking. It’s a way for the town to get to really know more about their citizens and a way for the citizens to sort of connect with the community.” She hesitated for a moment, gathering her courage. Considering the reaction she’d gotten the first night they’d met, when he’d learned she was a reporter and accused her of snooping, she had no idea how he’d react to an official request for an interview. “I was wondering if you’d give me an interview for next week’s column? Since you’re new in town I thought it would be a fabulous way for everyone in town to get to know you.”
About the Boy Page 8