CHAPTER 10
Ali had been going a mile a minute since she woke up to Kade McKnight’s signature breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, and hash browns, but now she stopped midway through restocking the ice chest to take a breath and soak in her surroundings.
The sun was shining. There was music playing. Everyone was laughing, talking, and eating. Some of the kids were playing kickball and there was a makeshift dance floor on the deck. Doris Weathersby—whose claim to fame was that she was one of the original Rockettes when they were formed in her hometown of St. Louis—was cutting a rug with young Dr. Hanover. Ali had to admit, Chris had some serious moves for a veterinarian.
And most importantly, she felt her brother smiling down on them all.
Today’s a good day, Ali silently told Patrick.
There hadn’t been a lot of good days over the last year and a half. Actually, come to think of it, there might not have been any good days since Patrick died. There’d been days that weren’t excruciatingly painful. There’d been days where she hadn’t been as terrified as other days. There’d been days when she didn’t feel quite as overwhelmed as other days. But there were no days, that she could think of, where the boys were happy. Where she was happy.
Her eyes naturally drifted to the man responsible for making this happy day. Kade was holding court at the barbeque, cooking up another round of hamburgers and hot dogs. He’d done all the heavy lifting today. The grocery shopping, the cooking, even the setting up. She’d tried to help set up the folding chairs but he’d stopped her and called the boys over. The three of them set up the chairs and their card tables, while she looked on.
She appreciated the help, but she told herself that this might not last. That it was too good to be true and she couldn’t depend on it. She believed that Kade did indeed intend to stay in town, but he’d hated growing up in Whisper Lake. Sure, a big part of that was because of his home life. But also he’d been restless in this small community. And what if he did stay, but was miserable?
As selfless and honorable as his intentions were, she wasn’t sure she trusted the follow through. Plus, even if he did, she knew better than most that life, and death, threw curve balls.
Ali watched, captivated, as Kade laughed at something Ethan had said and her entire body felt it. Her pulse quickened as a burst of arousal rocked her center and then spread out through her limbs in tiny aftershocks. His laughter was as smooth and sexy as a John Coltrane sax solo. His smile had enough wattage to light up Times Square. And his eyes…those eyes should be nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle because it was so easy to get lost in them.
The man oozed sex-appeal, charisma, and magnetism. Plain and simple. No argument. It was a scientific fact. The earth was round. The human head weighs eight pounds (at least according to the Jerry Maguire kid). And Kade McKnight oozed sex-appeal, charisma, and magnetism.
Scared she might start drooling, Ali forced herself to look away from the sexiest man on the planet and glued her eyes to the boys and their friends. They’d abandoned their kickball game and were running around with the dog. The dog was the breakout star of the impromptu birthday barbeque. He’d greeted each and every person with sloppy kisses and a goofy grin and had been entertaining the guests with his fun-loving personality and his impressive tricks.
“Over here, Dumbass, over here!” Ricky yelled, waving his arms before throwing the ball to the dog who jumped in the air and turned in a full circle to catch it.
Some of the adults watching from the deck broke out in applause at the impressive play and the pup clearly loved all the attention.
It was official, everyone loved Dumbass and Dumbass loved everyone.
“Do you really think that’s an appropriate name?” Chrissy Caldwell asked as she bent down, lifted the lid of the ice chest, and grabbed a bottle of water.
Well…almost everyone.
“No. I don’t,” Ali answered honestly. “But that’s the name he came with and he loves it.”
They’d tried a handful of other names, but so far even with adding incentives when they called him, he had no reaction to any of them. But the second one of them said “Dumbass” he’d come bounding over with barely restrained enthusiasm. He seemed to wear the name with pride and dignity.
“Allison, he’s a dog.” Chrissy spoke to Ali in the same voice you’d use to explain to a child why they couldn’t have ice cream for dinner. “He doesn’t understand the word that you use. You could call him anything with a happy tone and he’d respond.”
Chrissy Caldwell was the girl in class that always sat in the front row and whose arm sprung up when the teacher asked a question. Any question. She had an answer for everything.
“Thanks for the tip.” Ali plastered a friendly smile on her face.
“Watch. Call him over,” she instructed.
Ali liked Chrissy, she really did. But she just had a prickly way about her. It wasn’t that she thought she was better than everyone else, it was just that she thought she knew better than everyone else.
“Dumbass,” Ali said with zero emotion.
The dog bounded toward them, happy as could be, tongue hanging halfway down to the ground. He skidded to a stop directly in front of Ali, plopped down on his rear end and looked up at her with sheer, unadulterated adoration.
“Okay, watch,” Chrissy instructed briskly before clapping her hands and chirping, “Rufus.”
Dumbass continued staring up at Ali.
“Buddy!”
He glanced over distractedly.
“Buddy!” she repeated with even more excitement.
He instantly lost interest and turned his attention back to Ali.
“Rocky!”
He wasn’t even looking at her.
“Bear!”
He yawned, still focused on Ali.
“Duke!” her voice was so high-pitched Ali was worried she was going to shatter the window beside them.
“Sampson!”
Finally, mercifully, the boys called the dog back over to them and he ran away happily.
Chrissy regrouped without a moment’s hesitation. “I think the problem was that he’s not familiar with me. I’m sure if you work with him to find a more appropriate alternative to—”
“Chrissy, dear!” Mrs. D approached the women while leaning heavily on her walking cane. “I think I heard your daughter calling for you in the bouncy castle. She sounded upset.”
Chrissy was off, her invisible Supermom cape flapping in the breeze as she called out, “Tamara! Mommy’s coming!”
“Is she okay?”
“No. Definitely not.” Mrs. D shook her head and Ali reached to grab her phone in case they needed to call an ambulance. Kade had ordered the bouncy house to entertain the younger kids since this was a party for all ages. If he’d run it past her she would’ve told him that those things were inflatable injuries-waiting-to-happen.
Before Ali unlocked the screen, Mrs. D continued, “She’s the epitome of not okay. That woman is wound tighter than a minister’s wife’s girdle.”
“I’m talking about Tamara.”
“Oh,” Mrs. D shrugged, appearing wholly unconcerned. “I’m sure she’s fine. I hadn’t heard a peep out of her. I was just saving you from more dog training lessons.”
A grin pulled at Ali’s mouth as she shook her head. “You scared Chrissy.”
“Eh,” Mrs. D huffed dismissively. “It’s probably the most excitement that woman’s had in a decade. She’s a sweet girl but she needs to remove the stick from her ass.”
Ali chuckled.
“So, this is quite a shindig.” Mrs. D scanned the backyard. “I thought the boys didn’t want a party?”
It was still mindboggling to Ali that the Needlepoint Mafia knew so much. Ali often wondered if the women had everyone’s houses bugged.
“They changed their minds, I guess. Teenagers.” Ali didn’t feel the need to fill Mrs. D in on the details of their change of heart. Chances were she’d find out on her own anyway.
“Well, I’m glad they did.” Her hand covered Ali’s. She gave her a little squeeze and Ali was once again blown away by how cold Mrs. D’s hands always were. It was in the mid-nineties and her hands were like human icicles. “Now, why haven’t I heard back from you about tomorrow night’s meeting?”
“Tomorrow night?” Knitting club wasn’t until Tuesday, so she had no idea what Mrs. D was talking about.
“Yes. Didn’t you get my email?”
Mrs. D had a tendency of writing emails and then forgetting to send them. It was an issue that was well documented but if anyone brought it up she blamed the computer or the recipient.
“I didn’t see it, I’m sorry.”
“It must’ve gone to spam. Well, who needs computers when you can talk in person? I’m calling a small council dinner meeting to go over the advertising budget for the upcoming season. Be at Santino’s at seven. Sharp.”
Since retiring as a teacher, Mrs. D had formed The Whisper Lake Tourist Association. All of the small business owners were members and Ali had been treasurer for the last year. Mrs. D had insisted that to get over Patrick’s death she needed to “keep busy” so she’d appointed her to the post without her knowledge or consent. Mrs. D liked to say that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission…not that Ali had ever heard her ask for either.
“Santino’s?” Aside from Stone Castle, Santino’s was the swankiest restaurant in Whisper Lake.
“Yes. Seven.” The woman lifted her cane and pointed it at Ali as she emphasized, “Sharp.”
“But don’t you normally eat at four?” Ali was confused as to why she’d schedule a dinner so late on a Sunday night.
“Don’t sass me, young lady.” Mrs. D set her cane down and walked away.
She wasn’t. She was just asking a question, but she knew pointing that out would be sassing her, so she let it go.
The heat of the sun beat down on her as Ali went back to filling the ice chest. Before she shut the lid, she grabbed two pieces of ice and held them to the back of her neck. Just then, the wooden gate that led to the backyard opened. She looked up and saw Jess breeze through looking like a tattooed, nose-ringed vintage pinup girl. Her friend’s sleeveless white shirt with black polka dots was tied in a knot above her high-waisted denim shorts, and she had a bandana tied around her hair that was black with white polka dots. Her red lipstick complimented the outfit and Jess’s sun-kissed skin.
“Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. Mrs. Clayborn wouldn’t stop yapping about her son being engaged to—,” she stopped and her jaw dropped open as she took in the scene in Ali’s backyard. “Holy hot tabasco.”
Ali’s eyes followed Jess’s over to Kade and Ethan. Keaton had joined them and the three men were all shirtless due to an impromptu Slip N’ Slide competition that had broken out.
“That’s a whole lot of man meat.”
“Yes it is.” Ali agreed, only having eyes for one slab that had her mouth watering like a cartoon wolf seeing a steak.
The trio of man-meat men were all animatedly discussing something that Ali would bet dollars to donuts had to do with MMA. They were talking with their hands and demonstrating different moves. It was a blur of muscles, tattoos, and hotness.
“Damn.” Jess stood motionless, as if moving would somehow make it all go away. “You could charge admission. This is as hot as the Magic Mike show I saw in Vegas.”
Ricky and the dog ran up to them, interrupting their viewing pleasure.
“Can Ryder stay the night?” he asked.
“Sure. If it’s okay with his mom.” That was one parenting trick Ali had learned the hard way. The parental approval caveat.
“Thanks!” Satisfied with that answer, Ricky went back to his friends but Dumbass remained at Ali’s feet.
“Who brought a dog to the barbeque?” Jess, an avid dog lover, had just noticed Dumbass, which was another testament to just how hot the Man Meat Show had been.
“Kade.”
“Kade has a dog?” Jess lifted her oversized sunglasses and set them atop her glossy black hair, revealing her perfectly applied wing-tip eyeliner.
“It’s his dad’s, or was his dad’s. The poor baby was tied up in the sun.”
“Fucking George,” Jess bit out through clenched teeth before she bent down and rubbed the pup’s head. He took that as an invitation to lick Jess’s entire face.
“Actually, George was doing the best he could, it was just too much with his health issues.” Everyone in Whisper Lake knew that George was gravely ill since he collapsed outside The Snack Shack last summer.
“What’s your name, handsome boy?” She asked the dog directly before shooting a look up at Ali. “He is a boy, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he’s a boy.” Ali smiled down at the mutt and Jess did the same. “That’s Dumbass.”
Jess’s head whipped back up to look at her friend.
“George named him,” Ali explained.
“Fucking George,” Jess repeated, this time with affection.
“Dumbass, come here!” KJ called out and the dog sprinted toward the twins and their friends, jumping up at the last second and almost knocking KJ over. All of the boys burst out laughing.
“Wow. The twins look like they love him. Is Kade taking it with him when he leaves?”
“He’s not leaving.” It was the first time Ali had said the words out loud and it caused her heart to jump.
Jess’s perfectly arched left eyebrow rose in silent question.
“Come on,” Ali threaded her arm through Jess’s, “help me get some chips.”
Ali had been dying to talk to her best friend all day, but she’d known that Saturday was Jess’s busiest day of the week. And Ali had been busy with the barbeque, anyway. But now that it was in full swing, it was the perfect time to sneak away to download everything that had transpired since she’d left Jess sixteen hours ago.
The sliding glass door off the deck that always stuck, now glided easily when Ali gently tugged at the handle, taking her by surprise.
Kade.
He must’ve fixed it while she’d been taking a shower. He’d seen her fighting with it all morning. It seemed like every time she turned around she discovered something else he’d fixed. First it was the dryer, then the loose railing on the stairs, the light in the pantry, and now the back door.
It was unnerving and amazing at the same time.
I never touch anything I don’t know I can fix, she heard Kade’s voice in her head and her hormones did a jig.
Damn. It got her every time.
As soon as the girls were inside and the door shut behind them, Jess turned to her friend.
“Talk,” she demanded.
“When I got home last night, Kade was waiting up for me. He said we needed to talk.”
Ali did a quick glance around, even though she was fairly certain that no one else was in the house. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “He told me that after Patrick’s funeral he went on a three-month bender and then checked himself into rehab. He said that once he got out, he wanted to have at least one full year sober before he came back. He didn’t want to be like his dad or my mom and put the boys through the same things we’d gone through. He wanted to make sure that he could be the man that Patrick thought he was and that I deserved.”
Jess’s jaw was hanging like it was on a hinge and her eyes were wide as saucers. “He said that? The man that Patrick thought he was and the man that you deserved?”
“Yep.”
“Damn.” Jess looked just as shocked as Ali had been.
“I know.”
“You know what this means?” Her friend asked somberly.
“What?” Ali’s breath caught as she waited to hear what this meant, cause she sure as shit didn’t know.
“Looks like Kade is well on his way to earning his title back. McKnight-in-Shining-Armor rides again!”
They both devolved into laughter but in the back of Ali’s mind there was a little nagging voice telling her that there was no such thing as a knight in shining armor. Kade might be riding in on a white horse now, but everyone left. Even if they didn’t want to. First her granddad when she was a little girl, her mom when she was a pre-teen, and then Patrick.
Her granddad’s death had been hard on her because she loved him so much. Her mom’s death had been scary because she was placed in foster care. Her brother’s death had devastated her because he’d been her whole life. She wasn’t sure she could survive losing someone else she loved and depended on. Which meant, she couldn’t love or depend on Kade…no matter how tempting it was.