The Barefoot Summer

by Carolyn Brown

  “And I got four,” Hattie called. “We’ll have enough for a fish fry before the sun sets.”

  “Hey, Hattie and Victor. We haven’t seen you two in a while.” Kate set her bags beside the picnic basket over toward one side and sat down in the only empty chair left.

  “Been busy with the festival planning board,” Victor said.

  “We hit a snag and had to make arrangements for a different kind of carnival, so we’ve both been up to our eyeballs in finding another one. Long as we have a Ferris wheel, I’m happy.” Hattie watched the red-and-white fishing bobble dance out there in the water. “I hear you’ve taken on a job with Waylon. How’s that going?”

  “I drove a hay wagon on Tuesday, took Wednesday off because of the rain, and then went in today. It’s quite a change from what I’m used to doing,” Kate answered. “Waylon has police things to do tomorrow in Dallas instead.”

  “Here.” Victor handed her a fishing rod and reel. “I baited the hook for you. Reel it in easy if your cork goes under.”

  Kate had never been fishing in her entire life, but she held the rod and watched the red-and-white ball at the end of the line. “How many fish would it take for us to have a fish fry?”

  “Ten if they are good size,” Hattie answered. “When we get enough, I’ll make hush puppies and baked beans. Victor, you can bring your famous coleslaw.”

  “Hattie makes the best fried catfish in the whole universe,” Victor said. “I’d marry her just to get the recipe.”

  “You old coot.” Hattie giggled. “No woman in her right mind would marry you. I don’t know how Lorraine put up with you all those years.”

  “Love, darlin’.” His grin erased a few of the wrinkles lining his face. “She loved me, and truth be told, I’d never remarry, not even for your damned old recipe.”

  “Then don’t tease me about it. I had my heart set on a big white dress and wedding cake.” Hattie sighed.

  “You are full of horse crap.” Victor chuckled and stared straight at Kate. “But wedding cake does sound good. We haven’t had a wedding in Bootleg in years.”

  “Get thee behind me, Satan!” Kate made the sign of the cross over her chest. “I’m only here until my vacation time runs out, then I’ve got a company to run.”

  “Well, rats!” Victor huffed. “I just knew from the way Waylon was stealing them long looks at you in church that something might be going on.”

  “It’s only been two weeks since Conrad died,” Amanda said.

  “Oh, honey, that scoundrel died years ago for Kate. Now you might need to wear widow’s weeds a year, but not her,” Hattie said. “Look, I’ve got another fish, and this is a big one. Help me bring him in, Victor. My arthritis has been acting up all day.”

  “Well, so has mine, woman, and I’ve got a bite on my line. You are on your own,” Victor said.

  Jamie handed her rod and reel off to Amanda and hurried over to Hattie’s side. She deftly slid the grip from the older woman’s hands and worked the reel until she had a nice three-pound catfish lying on the dock. “Now that’s going to taste really good.”

  “Would it be a winner in the contest?” Gracie asked.

  “It could be, depending on the age category. For yours, Gracie, it would be big enough to get you those tickets to Six Flags you want for sure,” Victor answered as he brought in a smaller bass. “I’ll get what we’ve got cleaned and filleted and put in the ice chest while y’all go on and catch some more.”

  “When you get that done, we’ll spread out our picnic and take a break.” Hattie glanced over her shoulder.

  “Who are you looking for?” Kate asked.

  “Oh, I just mentioned a picnic on the lake and kind of invited Paul and Lisa to join us. He said if he could get away early enough, he just might,” Hattie answered.

  “Nothing like sandwiches and beer on a hot summer night,” Victor said.

  “Or fried chicken,” Jamie said from the other end of the dock.

  “If you fry up a good chicken, I’ll throw Hattie in the lake and marry you instead,” Victor teased.

  “Not me.” Jamie shook her head slowly. “I’m never getting involved with another man.”

  “Me, either, so don’t ask,” Amanda said with a grimace.

  “Guess that leaves me with no one, since we all know Waylon will sweet-talk Kate into becoming a rancher before the end of the summer.” Victor removed a long, thin-bladed knife from a leather sheath on his belt and began cleaning fish.

  “Oh, hush,” Kate fussed at him. “We can buy a wedding cake at Walmart and you can eat the whole thing, Victor, but I’m going back to Fort Worth when summer ends.”

  Were these people insane? Trying to fix Jamie up with Paul was one thing. She planned to stay in Bootleg if she got a teaching job, and they were both teachers, they had kids the same age, and it was plain that there was chemistry. Kate and Waylon had little if anything in common, and a few hot kisses and a little flirting would not turn her from an oil heiress into a rancher’s wife.

  She shuddered at the idea of being anyone’s wife again. Lover, maybe. Wife never.

  “You drank of the Bootleg water, my dear,” Victor said.

  “And that means?” she asked.

  “Anyone who drinks the water in Bootleg ain’t satisfied to live anywhere else,” Hattie answered.

  Kate rolled her eyes toward the blue sky. “That’s a crock of horse pucky if I’ve ever heard one. I’m changing the subject. Was there something that any of you wanted to be other than what you are right now?”

  “You mean like when we were kids?” Amanda asked.

  “Anytime in the past,” Kate answered.

  “Well, when I was a little kid, I wanted to be Cinderella, but now that I’m a big girl,” Gracie said, “I want to be a schoolteacher like my mama.”

  And if she needed money, an apartment, or anything else to realize her dream, by golly, Kate would take care of it.

  Hattie patted Gracie’s shoulder. “You’ll make a wonderful teacher. You were so good at keeping things organized and put back into their proper place in Bible school. I wanted to be in the air force and fly fighter jets. But in my day, women weren’t allowed to do that. I ran the convenience store in Bootleg for fifty years before my husband took sick and we sold it.”

  Kate could see someone as sassy as Hattie sitting in the pilot’s seat of a fighter jet. Too bad she’d been born generations too early to get to do what she wanted.

  “And you, Victor?” Kate asked.

  “My daddy was the bank president, and I was trained up to follow in his footsteps. But once when I was about ten years old, the carnival came to town for the festival and I had the wildest hankering to run away with it and be one of the crew. Those girls in those cute little costumes were pretty amazing to a ten-year-old.” He blushed.

  Kate could see him mooning around after the ladies in their skimpy, shiny costumes and wishing that he could be a part of the carnival.

  “And what would you be?” she asked.

  “At the time a tightrope walker.” He grinned.

  “Lord help my soul!” Hattie gasped. “When you were ten, you were like a long-legged newborn colt.”

  “But it sure looked exciting,” Victor said.

  Was the excitement surrounding everything in Bootleg what had gotten a firm hold on Kate’s heart and soul? If so, it would end and be nothing but a memory after she got back home in a few weeks—much like Victor’s excited idea of joining the carnival. Kate was an oil woman, born, bred, and raised to work in that field. Could she ever be anything else?

  Jamie reeled in a fish about the size of the one Victor had caught. “I wanted to be a teacher from the time I was a little girl.”

  Kate had no trouble believing that. Jamie was one of those people who had tunnel vision. It’s a good thing that she didn’t find out about Conrad before he was dead, or that one-track mind-set might have landed her smack in jail for life.

  “I’ve worked in lots of pl
aces since high school.” Amanda reeled in her line and laid her rod and reel on the dock. “Convenience store, auto supply business, lumber yard, retail clothing, banking, and now my little discount-clothing place. But as a child, I only wanted to be a mother. I guess I’m finally getting my wish. What about you, Kate?”

  Kate kept her eye on the bobble dancing out there on the gentle lake waves. “I’m like Victor. I was raised to take over for my mother in the family business, and I suppose it’s too late now to think about anything else.”

  “It’s never too late to change,” Hattie said. “When we sold the store, I didn’t think I would ever get used to staying at home every day, but I did, and before long, it was the best job I ever had. I get to be more involved with the church and the festival, and I get to go fishing when I want. So don’t ever think that you can’t change your mind.”

  Even at forty-four years old?

  “So if I want to run away with the carnival in a couple of weeks, no one will shoot me?” Kate teased.

  “I wouldn’t shoot you, but I’d rather you stayed here in Bootleg,” Victor said.

  “My mother would drop graveyard dead if I even mentioned such a thing,” Kate said softly.

  “Naw, she wouldn’t.” Victor chuckled. “She might rant and rave for a while, though if she came to visit you here, she’d understand. And she might even taste the water here and be willing to join us.”

  “Well, I think the water tastes terrible, but I like it here,” Gracie said. “I talked to Snugglies last night and he said he wouldn’t mind if we lived here forever.”

  “Who is Snugglies?” Victor asked.

  “He’s my teddy bear, and I tell him everything,” Gracie said.

  “Well, then, I guess he’s very important,” Hattie said.

  “Oh, yes. He’s almost as important as my mama,” Gracie told her and then started singing. “Come on, little fishies, eat the worm on my hook.”

  Before she could sing the line the fourth time, something took the cork under the surface. “Come help me, Mama,” she squealed.

  “I can’t,” Jamie shouted. “I’ve got a bite, too.”

  Kate laid her fishing pole to the side and hurried over to Gracie’s side. Putting her arms around the little girl’s shoulders, she gently held the rod steady and helped her turn the handle on the reel. Victor looked like he was about to dance a jig right there on the rough wood platform when they brought in another nice-size catfish. With those moves, maybe he could have mastered the tightrope.

  “Would you look at this, Hattie? We’re going to have a feast,” he yelled.

  “I’m not hard of hearing!” She tapped her ears. “But take a look at Jamie’s fish. It’s almost as big as Gracie’s! Your singing worked, child. You really might snag the biggest fish at the festival.”

  “I’ll get these two cleaned up while y’all get out the picnic,” Victor said.

  “Kate, do you really think my song helped?” Gracie eyed her seriously. “Or are they just tellin’ me that to get my hopes up about them tickets?”

  Kate hugged the child to her. Would her daughter have looked like Gracie? Or would she have had blonde hair and blue eyes?

  Gracie wiggled out of her embrace. “You smell like a hay barn.”

  “And how would you know what a hay barn smells like?” Kate asked.

  “My friend in Dallas, her grandpa lives on a ranch and we went there for rodeo day. It made me sneeze. Mama said it was raggy weed.”

  “Ragweed.” Jamie smiled.

  “Then if you ever went to Waylon’s ranch, do you think the hay will make you sneeze?” Kate asked, thinking that she might take her out there some Sunday afternoon just to see the animals and play for a while. Surely Waylon wouldn’t mind.

  Kate picked up her sacks of food and carried them to the quilt that Hattie was busy smoothing out on the grass.

  “No, ma’am,” Gracie said quickly. “I’m not sneezing right now and I smelled hay on you. And if I go to Waylon’s, I’m going to ride a horse.”

  “And who told you that?” Jamie asked.

  “Waylon is a cowboy even if he is a cop. And I bet he’s got a horse and I’m going to ask him if I can ride it.” Gracie plopped down on the quilt.

  “Hey, fishermen and ladies.” Paul waved as he started down the grassy slope with his daughter.

  “Lisa!” Gracie squealed and took off up the hill to meet her little friend.

  Hattie waved. “Come on down and join us. There’s plenty of food. The kids can even fish some more if they can be still. They might rather run up and down the shoreline and play.”

  “Kate!” Gracie ran back holding Lisa’s hand. “We are starving. Can we have a burrito while we wait?”

  “Of course you can. There’s fried cheese sticks, too.” Kate removed two from the sack and handed them to the girls.

  “Thank you, Miss Kate,” Lisa said.

  “You’re welcome.” Kate wanted to smother both of them with hugs.

  “Thank you.” Gracie said with a big smile. “Let’s go sit by the water and eat them.”

  Kate loved the sight of them sitting on the grass, talking with food in their mouths, because they were so excited to see each other. She’d had acquaintances in her life, but she could never remember a time when she was that carefree, even as a child.

  Paul sat down on the edge of the quilt. “Jamie, how’s your first week going? I’ve been meanin’ to stop by the office and welcome you proper, but I couldn’t get away from the ag barn.”

  “Busy,” Jamie answered. “I’m cleaning the file cabinets and reorganizing, getting things ready for school to start.”

  “I heard that you might be interested in the elementary opening,” he said.

  “Haven’t made up my mind, but I’m thinkin’ about it,” she said.

  “Well, Lisa will be over the moon if you decide to stay in Bootleg.”

  “So will Gracie.” Jamie smiled, her pulse kicking in a little extra beat when the summer breeze wafted the scent of his shaving lotion her way.

  “I’m confused,” Amanda said. “Here we are, three women who were all married to the same man, and Bootleg is taking us in and acting like we are sisters. Is there something wrong with all you people or with us? Aren’t small towns supposed to be all cliquish and gossipy?”

  “Oh, we are both of those things.” Hattie set out a platter of chicken salad sandwiches and a relish plate. “But Iris wouldn’t want us to treat y’all badly. But I got to admit we are all glad that one particular man got what he deserved.”

  Victor opened his mouth to say something before he snapped it shut and whispered out the side, “He is Gracie’s daddy, so we need to be nice, Hattie.”

  And therein would probably be a big problem with any kind of relationship between her and Paul. He, like the rest of Bootleg, despised Conrad, and Gracie was Conrad’s daughter. Not that Jamie was entertaining notions of the chemistry between them leading to anything. No, sir! It was far too early in this thing for her to—she felt crimson flooding her cheeks . . . again.

  Hattie sighed. “She’s such a lovely child that I forget that she’s his.”

  “It’s easy to do,” Kate said.

  “Well, let’s get on with our picnic. We don’t need to talk about rubbish. What’s been going on at the ag barn?” Victor asked.

  “Not much, but I hear that the office is getting a thorough straightening.” He winked at Jamie and turned to face Victor.

  Her heart tossed in an extra beat and she couldn’t have wiped the smile off her face—not even by sucking on a lemon.

  Not many days turned out to be almost perfect, but for Kate that one had. Even with the threat of nothing at all good coming from the information that she’d given Waylon, she still felt good about the day. She’d gotten part of the load off her chest, and now all she had to do was tell Amanda and Jamie. Down deep inside, she hoped neither of them asked exactly how long she’d known about all this. Maybe they’d be so excited or b
ummed out about the will business that they wouldn’t even think about the timing.

  Jamie had started reading Pipsie, Nature Detective to Gracie on the deck that evening, but she’d fallen asleep in her mother’s lap before the second page was finished. It was another of those moments when Kate wished she’d had a daughter but then realized if she had, the child would be thirteen now and in those “I know everything” years and certainly wouldn’t want Kate to read a children’s book to her.

  Jamie carried her into the house, returned with a bottle of beer, and got comfortable by sitting in one chair and propping her legs up in another. She set the bottle on the table between her and Kate. “You still smell like hay.”

  “Well, I haven’t had a bath yet. That’s next on my agenda. You still smell faintly of fish,” Kate said.

  “So.” Amanda laid a hand on her stomach. “I hope I can be as good a mother with this baby as you are with Gracie and as Paul is with Lisa.”

  “You will be as good as both of them, but I’ve got something serious to talk to y’all about now,” Kate said.

  “More serious than kissing the detective who’s trying to hang us out to dry?” Jamie asked.

  “Yes, it is more serious. And I hadn’t kissed a man in thirteen years,” Kate said.

  “Good God almighty!” Amanda’s voice got higher with each syllable until it completely squeaked out at the end. “You mean you were faithful to Conrad?”

  “Not by choice, more by workload. I lost the baby and found out what a horrible person he was all the same week. After that I buried myself in my job. Now back to this other thing. I found a whole pack of letters hidden in my bedroom. They were up under the dresser, addressed to Iris’s daughter, Darcy. I read them, and believe me, they will open your eyes. I’ve given all the information to Waylon. He’s asked us not to tell anyone, not your aunt, Amanda, or your grandmother, Jamie, or my mother, either. It has to be a secret so that it doesn’t interfere with the investigation,” Kate said.

  “Oh, I love secrets,” Amanda said. “Will it help us to figure out who gets this cabin?”

  “Probably not, but we won’t have to move out anytime soon. It’s likely that the church will own it when everything is settled,” she answered as she headed down the hallway and returned with her suitcase.