Chapter 1 #2
“I do. Meggie might cry; she’s been sort of touchy lately with the tears all the time, but I think she’ll be happy for us.
Don’t make her cry while I’m around. Her tears drive me crazy, and I want to just kill someone for making her do that.
” Both Gleason and Raphael agreed with him about making her cry.
“Kinsey just looks foolish all the time, and I want to make fun of him. I don’t.
He’s been lifting weights, and he’s looking better than he ever has in the way of fitness.
The doctor told him that had he not been in as good a shape as he’d been in, he might still be recovering from that accident.
I was lucky that he tossed me under the dash, or I might still be hurting, too.
His ankle is giving him the most fits. He has to use a cane still. ”
“I saw him this morning, and he was still using the cane. I hate to think about the accident. The way he looked and the truck looked afterwards. They said that had we been in a newer truck, one or both of us would have died.” He shuddered when thinking about how lucky they’d been.
“I’m just glad that we made it out alive.
And for the most part, unharmed like we could have been. ”
“We all are.” He thought about Rosie when he saw a cruiser go by.
She’d asked him out the other week, and he’d had to turn her down.
He’d had this function that he was required to go to about donations for the new school.
He didn’t know what to think about donations when they had tax money coming in from the sales of the land they’d sold.
But it had been boring, and the food tasted stale like it had been cooked in the army of all things and brought to the dinner.
He declined a date with her in order to be served stale food and boring company, and he’d regretted it ever since.
What he should have done was take her with him.
He would have at least had fun at the thing.
Rosie Donaldson and his brothers had gone to school together.
She had been a couple of years younger than him, but they still were in some classes together in high school.
She’d been so smart in school that he figured that she’d be married with about ten kids by now.
So when she went to the police academy and finished at the top of her class, he’d not been surprised at all.
What did surprise him was that she stayed in their little town and became the chief of police.
No one had done a better job than she was doing for their town.
After leaving his brothers in order to get back to his house to see what was going on, he thought about her all the way to the police station.
By the time he ended up there, he didn’t know what he was going to say, but he knew that if he didn’t ask her out, his head would explode.
Seeing that she was in her office, she smiled at him and asked him what she could do for him.
“I was wondering if we could have dinner Friday night. I have one of those functions to go to, and I thought that if we ate before we had to be there, the food would be better.” She burst out laughing, and he felt his face heat up.
“I knew I was going to mess that up. I’m sorry.
Would you go with me to this thing I have to go to on Friday?
We don’t have to call it a date if you’d rather not. I’m sorry for—”
“I’d love to have dinner with you Friday night.
But I’m going to the same function with Ara.
He asked me this morning.” He wanted to cry.
He’d finally worked up the nerve to ask her out, and she was dating his brother.
Perhaps he could pound in his head so he couldn’t go.
While that had merit, he wouldn’t do that to his own brother.
“How about Saturday night? I don’t have any plans, and I’d love to have dinner with you.
I’ve had a crush on you since we’ve been in school together. ”
“Really?” She said that it might have started when he’d been in fifth grade and she in third.
“That’s a long time. And yes, Saturday night sounds perfect.
” They worked out the time he was going to pick her up, and she was agreeable to that.
He nearly laughed out loud that it had taken him so long to get around to asking her out.
“I should have taken you with me the other week. The thing was boring, and the food was terrible. But I sat through it all.”
“I heard from the ladies who are friends with my mom how you were the hit of the night.” His face heated up again, and he told her that he didn’t know about that. “Mom said that the women were all over you. Made me sort of jealous about them.”
“There was no need for that. They were all about twice my age, and while friendly enough, they were only talking about how I’d been part of selling the farm that we did.
I think they were hoping I’d fund the entire school building, and that was it.
I don’t think that I’d ever be able to live it down if I were to do that. ”
~*~
Rosie had had so much fun at the charity ball last night.
The men, both of them, were hanging out with her until Ara took her home.
He’d been so sweet that when he’d kissed her on the cheek, telling her that he didn’t feel right kissing her goodnight because of Wylie, she found herself falling a bit in love with the younger man.
So tonight was her and Wylie’s night to go out.
She was so excited that she had to calm herself down several times before she could figure out what to wear.
The dress she’d worn last night had been a last-minute decision, and she was glad that she’d gone with it.
But tonight was special in that she was going with someone she’d been half in love with since she’d been just a little girl.
“Where are you going?” Surprised to see her mother at her door, she told her she was trying to decide what to wear.
“Well, I think you should wear that black dress that you bought for vacation a couple of years ago. Knowing you the way that I do, you probably still have it hanging in your closet with the tags on it. Wear it and have some fun.”
“It’s a little too risky, don’t you think? I mean, it’s backless and not much more material in the front. It’s just dinner. I’m not trying to seduce him.” Her mom asked her why not. “Mother! It’s our first date.”
“I’m just pointing out that you’ve been in love with him forever, and this might be the only time you get to go out with him.
Why not risk it all and go all out for it?
” She had thought about the dress several times and always came up with the same thing.
She’d not been trying to get laid by him.
She just wanted a nice dinner with a good man.
“It might do you some good to go out with him now that he’s wealthy.
I’m not saying that you could take him to the cleaners, but you’ll have to admit, he can afford to take you just about anywhere you want to go. ”
“Now you sound like Candace at the bank. She said that she wanted to get knocked up by one of the Pennington men so that he’d build her a nice home that she could live in with all his money.
” Mom called her shameful. “I don’t want to be one of those women who only see dollar signs when they go out with them.
They’re a nice group of men who just happen to be rich right now. ”
“You’re right. I was wrong in telling you to wear something sexy.
But if anyone deserves to be happy with a wealthy man, it’s you.
You’ve given up so much for your dad and me to have a retirement home that I don’t know what I’d do without you.
” She said that she had the money and she could do it.
“But to pay off the house for us was more than I ever expected you to do. You’re the best daughter there ever was. ”
“Thanks, Mom. But I learned to be the best because I had the best parents in the world. You and Dad helped me get through college, and I’m forever going to be grateful to you.
” She decided to heed her mother’s advice and have some fun tonight.
Even if she didn’t wear the little black dress, she had other dresses that made her feel good about herself.
“I think I’m going to wear the blue one.
If he’s more dressed up than that, then I can always change. What do you think?”
“I think you have a brilliant mind and I’m proud of you.
” After her mom went to the living room, she got dressed.
The blue dress wasn’t nearly as revealing as the black one, but it fit her like a glove.
And she felt pretty wearing it. When she heard the doorbell ring, she asked her mom to get it, and when she came to tell her that he had on a suit with a lovely blue tie that matched her dress perfectly.
“Bring your cape with it. It’s supposed to rain tonight, and you don’t want to catch your death by getting a cold someplace you can’t take medicine. ”
She told her she would, but didn’t understand the part about medicine.
Her mother had grown up with her grandparents around all the time, and she had picked up some of the strangest things to say.
She’d hear herself saying the same things at times and wondered if people thought she was odd.
Rosie shook her head at the nonsense in her head and picked up her blue shoes.
She wasn’t going down the stairs with them on where she might fall.
She wanted to have fun, and being in the emergency department didn’t sound all that pleasurable.
“I’ll just be a minute.” He was staring at her like he’d never seen her before. “We’re still on for tonight, correct?”