Kelly considered that. “You know, Eduardo, I think the real reason is because most people can’t cook as well as you and Larry. But they still want to eat tasty food, so they go out to restaurants, including this one.”
“Flattery will get you an even bigger burger.” Larry laughed from his spot at the grill.
Kelly laughed again. “You guys are bad. I’m gonna have to run an extra mile every morning to keep these burgers from showing up on my hips . . . or elsewhere.”
Jennifer walked back to the counter then. “Boy, Candace wasn’t kidding. Everybody’s extra hungry today,” she said, placing several order slips on the counter.
“I’m gonna need three orders of OJ,” Bridget said, scanning the order slips.
“I’ll get it,” Larry said, as he picked up three glasses near the counter. “By the way, Bridget, how’d you like that practice range outside Severance?”
Kelly walked over toward the counter, empty coffee mug in hand. “What kind of practice range?” she asked, curious. “We’ve got target archers as well as hunters in Northern Colorado.”
“There’s a small pistol and rifle range just east of Severance,” Larry said as he poured orange juice into the three glasses. “My brother took me a couple of years ago when he bought a new hunting rifle. We go deer hunting east of Severance every year on a friend’s private land. There’s a lot of antelope and deer out there in the fall.”
“It’s all right,” Bridget said, loading the juice glasses on a small tray. “I’m not very good though.”
“Nobody is when they start,” Larry said, returning to the grill. “Don’t worry. You’ll get better. Plus, that nine millimeter is a bigger gun than most women buy. If you want more training, I have friends who are certified instructors,” Larry said, his busy spatula flipping sandwiches and burgers with ease.
Kelly noticed Eduardo glance toward Bridget briefly, then his attention returned to the grill.
“I . . . I gave it to my brother. He collects guns,” Bridget said.
“Really? Let me know how he likes it,” Larry said.
Kelly noticed Jennifer watching Bridget balance the three large juices on her tray as she walked into the main part of the café.
“Don’t worry,” Kelly said quietly to Jennifer. “I’ve watched her ever since she started working here, and Bridget appears to know what she’s doing. If it was me, I would have dropped breakfast on someone’s head by now.”
“It wasn’t that. I just thought I remembered Bridget saying she was an only child. No brothers and sisters. Pete was filling out an insurance form for her, that’s why he asked.” Jennifer shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe her folks adopted someone.”
Another memory arose in the back of Kelly’s mind. She’d heard of the hunting in the Severance area before.
“I vaguely remember someone telling me about the bird hunting out near Severance in the fall. Duck and geese, as I recall.”
“You’re right,” Larry said, his face brightening with a smile. “Have you ever had roast goose, Kelly?”
Kelly laughed softly as another distant memory surfaced. “As a matter of fact, I have, but the hostess chose to prepare a goose that her husband shot from one of those bird blinds outside Severance.” She laughed harder as more memories returned. “The poor lady prepared it using a famous chef’s recipe, but none of us knew that those chefs use domestic farmyard raised geese who just waddle around eating grain and getting fatter and fatter, and they’re very tender when cooked. Whereas the goose her husband brought home was what we could call a ‘working’ goose. By that, I mean he wasn’t waddling anywhere. He was flying over the grasslands and landing on Northern Colorado lakes and gleaning grain from the farm fields outside town, and those geese are too busy surviving to get fat, which meant that meat was tough and stringy.” She made a face. “I’m afraid I haven’t had the urge to sample goose after that.”
Larry spoke up. “Eduardo, sometime during the fall holidays we should make a really great roast goose recipe. Show Kelly how it’s done, and we’ll make sure we use one of those fat waddling lazy geese.”
“Larry, if you and Eduardo cook it, I’ll show up.” Kelly joined in their laughter again.
The next morning
Kelly stood in the playground and watched Jack and Molly swing on the jungle gym bars. At four years old, Kelly could see Jack was gaining physical prowess every day. Stretching his limits. Swinging from one metal bar to another. Five-year-old Molly was matching Jack swing for swing. Jack’s preschool friend Ben, however, was cautiously swinging on the lower bars, his swings more tentative.
“Look, Mommy, look!” Jack called out as he took a big swing, let go of one bar, then reached out for another metal bar that was a few inches away.
Kelly held her breath watching her son momentarily defy gravity. Then, Jack grabbed the other bar and took another swing. Whew, she breathed.
Meanwhile, Molly repeated Jack’s maneuver and easily swung from bar to bar. At a year older, Molly’s arms were a little longer than Jack’s, and she was also an inch taller. A fact that Miss Molly kept reminding Jack and everyone else in hearing range of. For his part, Jack acted nonchalant about the approximate inch height difference and simply continued to engage in whatever physical activity he and his playground friends were enjoying.
Megan returned from retrieving her travel coffee mug. “What death-defying jungle gym moves did I miss?”
“Oh, just Jack’s leap from one jungle gym bar to another while I held my breath, mind you,” Kelly said. “He landed safely, as did Miss Molly, who naturally copied the maneuver.”
Megan closed her eyes for a second. “Good Lord. Glad I missed it.” She took a long drink from her travel mug.
“One of the other moms at preschool warned all of us mothers to let our kids ‘stretch their limits,’ as she referred to it. I laughed to myself. Clearly, she didn’t have kids like ours.”
“Oh yeah,” Megan agreed. “I watch other kindergarten moms stand around the jungle gym, and some of them are basket cases, I swear.” She took another drink of coffee.
This time Kelly laughed out loud. “I know what you mean. There’s one of those mothers at Jack’s preschool, and she’s constantly standing beside the jungle gym yelling instructions to her son. ‘Be careful, Robert! No swinging! Grab a lower bar!’ And, of course, poor Robert manages to fall every time, which only confirms Scared Mom in her Overcautious Mode.”
“I know. Marty and I decided early on to let Molly explore, even if she gave us mini heart attacks. He’s convinced it builds confidence.”
“And he’s right,” Kelly agreed with a nod. “Steve and I believe the same thing. Meanwhile, we’ll just have to mend the bruises, cuts, and scrapes.”
Just then, Kelly’s cell phone sounded with a text message coming in. Kelly pulled her phone from her summer white shorts pocket and clicked on the new text message. It was from Cassie.
“Will you be at home tomorrow afternoon? I want to show off some of my new outfits. Jennifer is taking me shopping this morning.”
Kelly immediately replied: “Yes, I’ll be at the house. Jack will be playing in the backyard, so come on over.”
A smiley face emoticon appeared as Cassie’s reply. Kelly wondered how future generations would communicate a hundred years from now and decided she didn’t want to know.
Later that afternoon
Kelly glanced up at the lacy clouds above. They had already changed from the puffy white clouds of the morning and were now darkening. Dark gray now. From her comfortable spot in the empty patio garden café, Kelly figured she had maybe half an hour before those clouds turned threatening. It was June, and springtime showers were a regular occurrence now.
The noise of a truck engine sounded, and Kelly turned to see Burt’s truck pull into the driveway. Kelly clicked on the spreadsheet file on her laptop to save her
intricate accounting updates.
“Hey there, Kelly,” Burt greeted as he walked through the now-empty café garden patio.
“Hey, Burt,” Kelly greeted him with a smile. “Pull up a chair and catch me up on the latest news. Or gossip. Whichever is more interesting.”
Burt pulled out a wrought-iron patio chair and settled into it. “Ah, that feels good. I’ve been running errands for Mimi all day. No lie. From this morning until now.”
“Hey, it’s keeping you young, Burt,” Kelly teased.
“Riiiiiight,” Burt said with a laugh. “I don’t have any gossip, I’m afraid, just some boring routine police business. I called Dan this morning to see if he and the department had learned anything new regarding Julie’s death.”
“And have they?” Kelly asked, curious.
“Nope,” Burt said, shaking his head. “They’ve officially concluded that Julie did shoot herself in the head. So it’s an official suicide, despite our personal beliefs and/or opinions.”
“It’s hard to deny the obvious,” Kelly observed.
“Yes,” Burt agreed. “Regardless of our own convictions that Julie couldn’t kill herself and the child inside her by committing suicide.” He shook his head sadly.
Kelly hated to see Burt go into those dark memories again. Both he and Mimi had dwelled on them long enough. Time to move on.
A recent memory surfaced in her mind, and Kelly brought it up. “By the way, Burt, I think you mentioned that Julie used a nine-millimeter handgun, right?”
Burt glanced over at her. “Yes, why do you ask?”
“No special reason. We were talking about handguns in the café this morning. The new waitress Bridget bought a handgun for her brother. Apparently, the new grill cook Larry saw it, and he mentioned that it was a nine millimeter and told Bridget about the firing range outside Severance.”
Burt’s quizzical eyebrows raised at Kelly’s comments. “You’re talking about café waitress Bridget?”
“Well, I wasn’t, but grill cook Larry must know a lot about guns, because he asked Bridget how her brother liked the nine millimeter pistol she gave him. She told us she’d given the pistol to her brother.”
“A nine millimeter pistol is a lot of gun. Did she mention that she and her brother were taking firearms classes?”
“Larry asked her that and offered to suggest instructors for her. Bridget didn’t mention any instructors and said she’d already given the gun to her brother. She said he collects guns.”
Burt raised one curious eyebrow. “So Bridget bought a nine millimeter handgun for her brother. I wonder why her brother didn’t buy the handgun himself. Most men I know wouldn’t send their sister out to buy a gun. That makes me doubly curious. I just may have a little chat with Bridget when she comes to work tomorrow.”
Kelly watched Burt tuck his small notebook into his pocket as he rose from the chair. Kelly decided she would get to the café earlier than usual tomorrow. She didn’t want to miss that conversation. Maybe she could make a point to treat herself to one of Pete’s Wicked Breakfasts. Any excuse would do.
Suddenly, that memory fragment in the back of Kelly’s mind came into focus. “Oh yes, Burt. Jennifer mentioned that Bridget told Pete she was an only child. He was filling out insurance forms for café employees.”
One of Burt’s eyebrows quirked up again. “That’s strange. I’ll remember to ask her about that, too. See you tomorrow, Kelly,” he said, as he turned to walk away.
Eighteen
“Mind if I join you, Kelly-girl?” Jayleen’s voice came from behind her.
Kelly glanced over her shoulder to see Colorado cowgirl Jayleen walking from the corridor into the café alcove where Kelly sat.
“Hey, Jayleen. Those dark afternoon clouds chased me inside. They look like they could open up any minute.” Kelly saved her accounting spreadsheets and pushed her laptop to the side.
“You’ve learned to read that Colorado sky pretty well since you appeared on Mimi’s doorstep years ago.”
Kelly grinned at her old friend’s description. “I guess I did show up out of nowhere, didn’t I?”
“You sure did, and our lives haven’t been the same since.” Jayleen chuckled.
Kelly laughed. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
“Oh, definitely a good thing, Kelly-girl. Mimi and Burt probably wouldn’t be together, and Curt and I wouldn’t, either. We both met through knowing you, and Steve . . . he probably would have married one of those girls that were chasing him years ago. Once he met you, though, Steve wasn’t gonna settle for them. Curt still remembers when he first met you and Steve after the Estes Park Wool Market up in the mountains years ago. He swears he called you Barbie and Stevie.” She let out a cackle.
Kelly joined her friend’s laughter. So many memories danced from the back of her mind, flitting across the stage.
“You’re right, Jayleen. All our lives are different now, and I think it’s a good kind of different. I certainly didn’t have the same kind of friends or connections back in Washington, DC, when I was working in that corporate CPA firm. When I came here, I met all of you folks and I found a family.”
“Better stop that reminiscing, Kelly-girl. You’re making me misty,” Jayleen teased. “I’m gonna change the subject to the kids and their upcoming wedding celebration. Curt and I talked with Mimi and Burt, and we wanted to have Pete take care of all the food. But, we want Pete to enjoy being a guest, so we haven’t decided how to handle it.”
Kelly thought about that, and an idea popped up immediately. “I’ve got it. We can see if Eduardo and Larry could grill steaks and seafood. That way they’re contributing to the occasion in a special way with their yummy food.”
“That’s a great idea, Kelly!” Jayleen exclaimed. “That way Pete can be a guest and relax like everyone else.”
Another idea came to Kelly. “You know, Jayleen, Cassie and Eric aren’t going to want a fancy celebration. It took a lot of convincing for them to let us plan a wedding. They were ready to go find a minister and do a Kelly-and-Steve-style wedding. Short and simple.”
“And that’s what it will be. Kelly-Steve style. Nothing fancy . . . except the food.” Jayleen grinned. “Everybody will love grilled steaks and seafood.”
“Better include a pot of Pete’s Three-Bean Vegan Chili,” Kelly added. “That way all the guests will be happy. Including Carl. I’ll make sure to take some home to him.”
At that, Jayleen threw back her head and let out one of her famous hearty laughs. It was so infectious, Kelly had to join in.
The next day
Kelly glanced through the café window into the garden. Sunshine bathed the garden patio. Colorado clouds had lightened up before any rain fell. Typical early summer Colorado weather, she thought with a smile. It can change in an instant.
She closed her laptop, slid it into her large briefcase bag, grabbed her newly refilled coffee mug, and headed out the back door of the café into the patio garden. Choosing her favorite half-sunny, half-shady table, Kelly set up her laptop and files once again. She wasn’t about to miss working outside on a gorgeous summer day.
Kelly had just returned to her ever-present accounting spreadsheets when she noticed Burt come down the back stairs into the garden. She was about to beckon him over, when Burt headed in another direction. He walked toward Bridget, the waitress, and paused as she took a table’s order, then approached her by the patio fountain.
Intrigued, Kelly watched as Burt pointed toward an empty patio table at the edge of the garden. Bridget nodded then returned to the café, while Burt settled at that table. Kelly went back to her accounting spreadsheets with one eye. She was also watching for Bridget to reappear from the café.
After a couple of minutes, Bridget returned to the garden and joined Burt at the table. At this point, Kelly abandoned all pretense of paying attent
ion to the numbers filling the laptop screen. Instead, she focused on watching the conversation between Bridget and Burt.
Burt leaned back into the café chair in a pose Kelly had witnessed for a decade. He entwined his fingers and had his hands in his lap. Kelly recognized that as Burt’s “relaxed questioning” mode. Burt smiled once or twice as he talked to Bridget.
Bridget, however, sat bolt upright, and she did not appear the slightest bit relaxed. Kelly immediately reminded herself not to draw any conclusions from posture and appearance. Many people became nervous in the presence of police officials, whether uniformed or not. It could be caused by early experiences or a family’s warnings or a person’s feelings about police or law officers in general.
At that point, Burt leaned forward and placed his folded arms on the café table. His smile had disappeared. Bridget, meanwhile, leaned a little farther away, but still sat bolt upright.
Burt took out his notebook from his inner jacket pocket and scribbled in it. Then he glanced over at Bridget again and smiled his usual familiar Burt smile. He gave Bridget a nod, and she seemed to spring from the chair and immediately walked back into the café.
Kelly’s curiosity was on overload. She was about to wave at Burt in an attempt to catch his attention, when Burt turned her way and gave her a smile. Then he walked over to her table.
“I can tell you’re dying to ask me questions, right?” he said in a teasing voice.
“You bet,” Kelly said, gesturing for him to sit.
Burt sank into the black wrought-iron patio chair across the table from Kelly and took out his small notepad. He flipped through it for a minute. “It was a very interesting interview, I’ll say that,” Burt said as he looked over at Kelly. “Bridget acted nervous as a cat the entire time I asked her questions.”
“I noticed she was sitting ramrod straight the whole time,” Kelly ventured.
“I noticed that, too. I have to say, she certainly acted as if she had something to hide. But that reaction might be because she’s had previous bad experiences with police or other law officers. It’s hard to tell, and I’ve learned never to make assumptions about people’s behavior. People are complex.”
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