Chapter 4
Knox had just gotten the table set for two when the phone rang and Lottie burst through the door at the same time. He ignored the phone when he saw the expression on her face—pure fear.
“What’s the matter? Are you all right?” he asked.
“Don’t answer that call,” she panted. “Please, don’t answer it.”
“Why?” Knox asked.
“I’ll explain when I catch my breath,” she said. “It’s Bernie, and I need to tell you first.”
A cold chill chased down Knox’s backbone. “Is everything all right in Spanish Fort?”
“Yes,” Lottie said with a nod. “She called me”—she took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh—“to invite me to come to the Paradise with you for the weekend.”
“And you ran all the way here to tell me that?” Knox asked.
“I told her we were dating,” she blurted out. “I didn’t want her to call and blindside you.”
Once a cat is out of the bag, putting it back in is a tough job without getting clawed in the process. “So,” he asked, “are you going?”
“I didn’t give her an answer, but…” She slid into the booth and took a long drink of tea.
“But what? Either you are going, or you aren’t.”
“Shouldn’t you be the one to ask me since we are dating?” she fired back.
Knox carried a basket of warm bread to the table. “Okay, then. If you aren’t going home for Easter, would you like to go with me to Spanish Fort?”
She stood up and refilled her tea glass while he brought the rest of the food to the table. “Bernie and your relatives will be able to see right through our deception.”
“Did Jack?” Knox asked and motioned for her to sit down.
“No, but this is your family. They know you well enough to know when you are faking it, don’t they?”
“If we were in a restaurant, this is where I would pull out a chair for you, but since all we have is a booth…” he said.
She slid into the booth. “Well?”
He passed the shrimp scampi over to her.
“If we can fool this crew, we can do the same with my family. And I’ve got a confession.
I bragged that I would get a fake girlfriend so that Aunt Bernie wouldn’t set me up with a blind date every weekend.
I even told Tripp that I would leave every few weeks and spend a weekend somewhere to keep the ruse going. ”
“Why?” Lottie asked.
“If you could have seen some of the dates that Aunt Bernie sent Brodie and Tripp on, you would understand.” He chuckled.
“Tell me about them,” she said.
“One of the best stories is when she set Brodie up with this woman to have dessert and coffee at my sister Tertia’s café.
Brodie had been at war with his neighbor, Audrey, over his farm.
She wanted to buy it because her family had owned it at one time.
He wasn’t selling for any amount of money.
Anyway, to try to make a long story short, we had a tornado that wiped out our house.
And the same storm landed a potbellied pig on the place.
That critter got loose and tore up Audrey’s aunt’s flower beds.
She got ahold of the animal and marched into the café with it.
She set it on the table where Brodie and his date were. ”
Lottie shook her head and eyed Knox, disbelief written all over her face. “Are you serious? What happened? Does he still have the pig?”
“Pansy is still on the farm and has a brood of babies now. What happened is that pig upset tea on the woman, and she left in a huff. I could probably get you one of those piglets. It could be trained to the litter pan that Prissy uses, and we could take it for walks in the evening like Brodie does with Pansy,” he teased.
“Oh, and my brother married Audrey. That’s the wedding where I met you. ”
“Forget the pig and buy me a candy bar or a rose.” She grinned. “I’ve got a cat, and that’s enough. Changing the subject here. This would be a fantastic dish to serve for Uncle Jack’s retirement party.”
“So, you like it?”
“Love it,” she answered. “Even more than Eddie’s spaghetti. That’s what they’re having in the rec hall tonight.”
“Is that a compliment?” Knox asked.
“A really big one,” she answered. “I try to get him to make it once a week, but he says it’s only good for a small crowd. If he doubles and triples the recipe, it’s not the same.”
Knox finished off his plate of food and cleared both empty plates. “Now, for dessert.”
“I’m way too full for anything else. Let’s take a walk around part of the lake and then come back for cheesecake,” Lottie suggested.
“That would be a good way to keep up appearances, wouldn’t it?”
“Yep, and walk off some calories at the same time. You cooked, so I’ll do the dishes,” she said.
“The dishes can wait. Let’s go, darlin’.” He opened the door and held out a hand. “Don’t you just love the smell of apple blossoms blooming in the spring?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Does that sound too mushy?”
Lottie stood up, put her hand in his, and together they left the trailer.
“Not at all,” she answered out the corner of her mouth and then raised her voice.
“It’s a shame that they had to cut down so many apple trees for the houses, but I am glad they saved a few.
Aunt Mandy and my mama will probably make lots of pies, and maybe even some of Mama’s famous apple butter when the apples ripen. ”
“Mmmm…” Knox said. “Biscuits fresh out of the oven, slathered in apple butter.”
“Or waffles,” Lottie added as they passed by the rec house.
Knox sniffed the air. “I smell spaghetti. If I had any room left, I would go in there and beg a plateful.”
“It is every bit as good as it smells, but the shrimp was better.”
“Well, thank you, darlin’,” he said. “Maybe someday I’ll serve it to you in bed.”
“In your dreams,” she smarted off.
“Hey, now,” he protested, “those are fightin’ words. My dreams are classified and…”
“And I’m not on the need-to-know basis, so I can’t be read in, right?”
“That’s what the file says, but if you were to let me cook breakfast for you…” He let the sentence hang.
“You can make breakfast for me every morning,” she said. “I’ll gladly come to your trailer before work and eat your cooking.”
“You are a prickly woman, Miss Charlotte Johnston.”
She nudged him on the shoulder. “Don’t you forget it.”
Knox sat down on the grassy bank next to the water and pulled her down beside him. “That is too beautiful for just a passing glance. We should sit here for a few minutes and admire it.”
* * *
For a split second, Lottie thought he was pretending to flirt with her, but then she realized that he was looking at the full moon’s reflection in the lake.
The water rippled toward the shore, making the sight seem more like a slow-motion video than a picture.
A few apple blossoms danced on the gentle waves, giving the whole scene even more life.
“This reminds me of a calendar on the kitchen wall at my mama’s house,” she finally said.
“Thomas Kinkade?” Knox asked.
“Yes. Mama likes his paintings,” she answered. “I’ve always thought that they don’t depict real life.”
“My mother had a couple of his originals,” Knox said. “She told me that there are two sides to life. One is dark, and one is light. Kinkade chose to see the light.”
“I can believe that, but if we won’t appreciate the light if there aren’t a few dark moments,” Lottie said.
“We’re getting into a deep conversation for a fake relationship,” Knox said.
“How about for a plain old friendship?”
She felt a presence behind them before Jack spoke and hoped that he hadn’t heard the last couple of comments.
“I smell Stetson,” she said with half a giggle.
“That’s apple blossoms, not cologne, and you are changing the subject,” Knox said.
Jack sat down on the other side of Knox and groaned.
“Nope. It’s my shaving lotion. I just took a shower and shaved.
Now that I’ve made up my mind to retire, my knees are wanting this project to be done with sooner rather than later.
Our house in Bandera sold today. The timing is perfect.
By the time the paperwork is finished, we should be ready to move into the first cabin. ”
“That’s great, Uncle Jack, but I’m not ready for this,” Lottie said.
“You can come see us and your folks anytime you want,” Jack said.
“And think how special it is to all your family that you helped build our retirement homes. Before things get all weepy, I’m going to continue my walk.
” He groaned again when he stood up. “Y’all enjoy sitting out here under that lovers’ moon.
Did you know that in some circles it’s called the pink moon or the awakening moon? ”
“Are you trying to get us to bite on a late April Fool’s joke?” Lottie asked.
“I am not,” Jack answered. “Look at it in the water. It’s pink, and the other name was given to it because right now winter is over, and spring is waking up. It’s a fine time for new relationships like you kids have, and new beginnings like me and Mandy are going to have. See y’all in the morning.”
“We’ll be there,” Lottie said past the lump in her throat.
“Are you about to cry?” Knox asked.
“Maybe,” she answered. “The job won’t be the same without Uncle Jack.”
Knox scooted closer to her and draped an arm around her shoulders. “Change happens to us all. I thought I would never adjust after we lost our mother, but the move to Spanish Fort was the best thing that could have happened.”
“Why?” Her voice quavered.
“I’m not sure if I can explain it. The closest I could get would be that everything seemed dark without her, but all three of us found a glimmer of light when Brodie bought the farm and we started over.
We were able to chase our dreams—at least Tripp and Brodie were.
I’ve always loved working in construction, and the sisters had plenty to keep me busy. ”
“Tripp hasn’t always had a leather shop?” Lottie asked.
Knox gently squeezed her shoulder. “Nope. Tripp was the CEO of my father’s oil company. When Brodie joined the military, Tripp felt duty bound to get into the family business. I was the rebel who went into construction from the beginning.”
“How did Brodie go from being in the service to…”
“Organic farming?” Knox finished the sentence for her.
“Mother was always piddling around in her garden or flower beds. I guess he got a love for it there. When we drove to the Paradise to meet Joe Clay, Brodie’s biological father, he found a small farm for sale and bought it on the spot.
Then when the whole Paradise family adopted us, it seemed like an omen that a farm just like he wanted was close by.
Tripp and I agreed to help for a few months. ”
Lottie gasped.
“What?” Knox asked. “Do you see a snake or something?”
“No, but I see a Callahan,” she whispered.
He was one of those multimillionaires that her mother talked about, and that was why she had been called a gold digger.
She couldn’t believe she had brazenly asked him to be her fake boyfriend.
But then, in her defense, nothing at that fairly simple wedding said that the family were rich folks.
Even Mary Jane, who had more than a twenty-year writing career of bestselling books, didn’t act all hoity-toity.
“And that means?” Knox asked.
“I am not a gold digger. I am not after your money by starting a fake relationship to make you fall in love with me. Why are you doing such a manual job when you are rich, anyway?”
“I like what I’m doing. It makes me happy, and honey, if I thought you were angling to get your name on my bank account, I wouldn’t be sitting here beside you.” He chuckled. “Let’s talk about something else. Did you stay in Aunt Bernie’s trailer or the Paradise when you were in Spanish Fort?”
“I stayed in my trailer, but the Paradise is more like a small hotel than a house,” she answered. “Bernie told me that the house started off as a brothel back when Spanish Fort was a booming town that got a lot of trade during the days when cattle were run from Texas up to Dodge City.”
“Yep, and the whole family is working to get the place off the ghost town register,” Knox said.
Lord have mercy! She had trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that he was a rich man.
“Why did you agree to do this with me?” she asked.
“It suits both of our needs. You don’t want to deal with the unmarried men. I don’t want to put up with Aunt Bernie and her matchmaking.”
Her emotional moment at the idea of Jack leaving had passed, but she couldn’t make herself scoot away. Sitting there with him in the moonlight was both comforting and exciting—even though she didn’t want to admit the latter.
“That said and understood,” he said, “the Paradise is kind of like a hotel, and you really ought to come around and see it at Christmastime.”
“Bernie showed me pictures,” Lottie said. “I bet it’s the best-decorated place in the county.”
“Yes, it is, and the whole town of Spanish Fort looks like something out of a Hallmark movie during the holiday,” Knox replied and stood up.
He extended a hand to her, and she took it. She was surprised that the sparks didn’t catch the floating apple blossoms on fire, but Knox didn’t even seem to notice. He kept her hand in his, creating even more heat all the way back to his trailer.
She vowed that she would not let their relationship be any more than a passing fanciful fake one.