Chapter Five
Kitty told herself that no one could possibly have noticed a random dance on a crowded dance floor in the middle of such a big wedding. Surely everyone would have been too busy celebrating to pay attention to anything she was doing with Finn.
But she learned otherwise early the next morning when she was up and in the kitchen in their rambling old house and her sister Indy walked in.
Indy always looked as if she’d had a fight to the death while sleeping and had probably lost. Her hair was a mess.
And because it was summer, she was wearing sleep shorts and a tank top with lupines on them.
Though it was also Montana in the mountains, so she had a flannel thrown on over the little sleep set and cozy socks on her feet.
She looked completely bedraggled, as usual.
Kitty tied the sash of her light summer robe tighter around her waist, then fixed Indy a cup of the coffee that she’d brewed already. She added the cream that Indy liked in a big splash, then handed her sister the mug without comment.
They both stood there at the counter, gazing back out at the hills that rose up steeply behind the old house, coffee in their hands and the June morning outside looking bright and sweet already.
The rest of the afternoon had gone nicely yesterday, Kitty found herself thinking, and a lot of the wedding reception had bled on over into the restaurant’s late opening to the public for the usual evening service.
Kitty hadn’t even had time to change. She had to jump right in, so she’d run around in the kitchen in her pretty dress, much to the delight of her friends.
They had been at the wedding because they, too, were a part of the community.
Esther Wayne, Juliet Cross, and Sara Jane Stark had all been dressed up too as they sat at the counter and ordered appetizers to wash down too much wedding champagne.
They talked a lot about the book that they were reading for the next book club gathering of the Cowboy Point Bluestocking Society Book Club, of which Kitty was currently the leader because it was her turn this year.
This meant that she got to pick the books if there were disagreements.
They all bought their books from honorary member Rosie Stark Carey’s book trailer each month—a big upgrade from having to order them from outside Cowboy Point, they all agreed—and discussed them over wine and enough cheese for an army at rotating members’ houses.
Neither Esther, who ran a murder podcast and could find a mystery in her own closet if she wanted to, Sara Jane, who was a librarian who could connect anything to anything else with a quick search, or Juliet, who hid her own steel beneath a whole lot of sweetness, mentioned Finn Patrick. Or any dancing of any kind.
Kitty had gone to bed thinking she was in the clear.
Though as she’d laid there, staring at her ceiling, she kept thinking about the things that Finn had said. She knew he was right. This was something that she wanted to hard launch to the whole town with as little pushback as possible, so there was no point being missish about it now.
She couldn’t understand why it was that Finn got to her the way he did. Why she couldn’t seem to maintain her usual practicality and clear sense of purpose where that man was involved.
Everything about him bothered her.
She’d had a hard time drifting off to sleep with all that in her head. All that being Finn Patrick pressing his lips between her eyebrows, something that should have been about as interesting as a sweet kiss good night from someone’s grandmother.
But it had been… not like that at all.
Kitty had figured that the real commentary would start tonight, after she escaped from the restaurant on a Saturday night and what was already the summer high season so that she could very publicly go on a date with Finn Patrick. She was ready for that.
She told herself she had to be ready for that, because it was happening. It needed to happen.
And when she stopped daydreaming about Finn Patrick’s astoundingly wide chest, it wasn’t because she got hold of her wayward imagination. It was only because she became aware of the way that Indy was studying her.
“So,” her youngest sister said, and drew out that single syllable for so long it became suggestive. “Since when do you slow dance with strange men?”
“Have you not met Finn Patrick?” Kitty asked, keeping her voice steady. Calm. Because that was how it should have been. That was how she wanted to be about all of this—calm, centered, and focused.
It should not have been the effort that it was.
“Nice try,” Indy said, and took another pull from her coffee.
For a moment, they stared at each other in the quiet of the kitchen.
It was Saturday morning. It was early, but Flannery had been up before dawn because today was the opening day of the Farm & Craft Market that ran all through summer and often right up into fall, too. And Flannery was the one who put the whole thing together.
Summer in Montana was a delight. Kitty could feel everyone in town vibrating a little bit differently because of the flowers on the hills, the endless blue sky up above, and sweet summer afternoons that actually got hot, even this high up.
Some days she could feel the excitement on the breeze like the scent of lavender as the days stayed long and sunny and carried on well into what was normally night.
Normally, Kitty would not have said another word.
No matter how many times Indy tried to get under her skin, or convince her to comment on something she didn’t want to talk about, she would remain an unyielding wall.
It not only kept her from having to discuss things she didn’t feel like talking about, it drove her sister up the wall, too. Win/win.
But she thought a bit about the things that Finn had said last night. That people were going to have to see them together. That they were going to have to believe that there was some kind of relationship here, so maybe that meant they had to believe that there had been a secret relationship first.
Kitty could not, for the life of her, understand why anyone would bother having a secret relationship in the first place. She was no expert, but as far as she could tell, the ways that people conducted their relationships made no sense. All they seem to do is complicate them needlessly.
Though here she was, standing in her kitchen, doing that right now.
She decided to stop being as idiotic as everyone else always was, and cleared her throat.
“I’m going to go to Crowded Table tonight,” she said. Abruptly.
Indy blinked. “To visit? Or to actually have dinner?” She considered. “Who are you going with?”
“Finn—” And she almost called him Finn Patrick because that was what she called him in her head, but that wasn’t what a person who was dating—or secretly dating—another person would say. Surely not. “Finn and I are going.”
“In the middle of the dinner service?” Indy asked, but there was that overly mocking sound in her voice, which Kitty knew meant that her sister was teasing her. “Surely not. The world would end!”
“Very funny.” Kitty frowned at her coffee. “Though I will point out that every time I’ve ever gone anywhere, something does happen, doesn’t it?”
She expected Indy to say something snarky back, the way she always did. But instead, her sister reached over and put her hand on Kitty’s arm.
“You know that we’re not kids anymore, right?
” Indy asked. “We run a successful restaurant. Life is good. I almost got up from a dead sleep and murdered Flannery for making so much noise this morning, but other than that? This is domestic bliss.” Kitty was frowning at her.
Indy smiled. “You don’t have to hold on so hard, is what I’m saying, Kitty. Really, you don’t.”
Kitty was so taken aback by that she didn’t know what to say.
Indy clearly understood that, because she kept going. “Tell me more about going out to dinner with Finn Patrick, of all people.”
“Why do you say of all people?”
“He’s just so hot,” Indy said with an appreciative laugh. Kitty must have made a face, because her sister squeezed her arm, then laughed again. “I don’t mean it like that. I just mean that he’s… Kind of formidable, isn’t he?”
“I don’t think that’s the word I would use,” Kitty replied. Maybe a little grouchily, because yes, Finn was hot. That was an objective fact.
Of course that was something everyone noticed. It wasn’t a secret.
But Indy was pouring herself another cup of coffee, seemingly unaware that Kitty was seething. Or close to seething, Kitty corrected herself. She did not seethe over men.
“You know what I mean,” Indy was saying. “He smiles a lot more than Tennessee Lisle ever does, but I don’t know. It’s like they give off the same vibe. Intense. Very, very intense, but I guess you must like that.”
When she turned back from the coffee maker, she had a speculative sort of look on her face that effectively stopped Kitty’s automatic argument before it started. “But I can’t remember the last time you dated anyone.”
She had to remind herself that she wanted to sell the relationship, not deny it.
“There’s just something about Finn,” Kitty said brightly.
This was not untrue. She still didn’t know what that thing was. Or why it bothered her so much. Or why, despite that, she now couldn’t think of anyone else she would even consider asking to take on this role.
“I don’t know. He just…” But she couldn’t think of anything to say.
And the longer she couldn’t think of what to say, the more she felt her face getting hotter and hotter, when there was nothing worse than blushing like that in front of someone else. Especially when that someone else was her entirely too perceptive sister, who was staring at her in amazement.
“Oh,” Indy said after a moment. “Okay.”
She sounded surprised. Amazed, even. Maybe thrilled, too.
“It’s not a big deal,” Kitty said, almost desperately, but Indy was shaking her head.