“Would you ever go back to him?”
“Would ‘absolutely not’ be too strong a response?”
He chuckled. “What about the baby?”
She shook her head but kept cutting. “I’m doing the baby a favor, believe me.”
“It was that bad, huh?”
“I should’ve come home a long time ago. Then I wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“Aren’t you excited about having a child?”
Katie plugged in her electric razor and started trimming his neckline and sideburns. “In some ways,” she said. If she wasn’t excited, it was only because she felt such a tremendous desperation, felt such responsibility to make the right choice for her child. If things were different, if she and Andy could’ve made a life together, she’d be thrilled to have a baby. It wasn’t as though she was sixteen—she was twenty-five.
She turned off the razor and set it aside. “Do you know if…if Josh and Rebecca have had any luck…you know, getting pregnant?”
He seemed taken aback by her change of topic. “Not yet. I think they’re planning to try some alternatives.”
She removed the cape from around his neck and shook the hair onto the floor, where she could sweep it up. If Josh and Rebecca were looking into alternatives, adoption was definitely one of those…. “Do you think they might be interested in adopting my baby, Mike?” she asked softly.
Mike held her gaze for several seconds. “Are you serious, Kate?”
“I haven’t made any firm decisions, but I’m definitely considering it.” She swallowed against the lump that suddenly threatened to choke her and resisted the impulse to put a protective hand over her belly. “I just have so little to give this baby. And they…” Her voice failed her. She covered her face so he wouldn’t see the tears filling her eyes.
Standing, he pulled her hands away and tilted her chin up so she had to look at him. “Katie, it won’t always be this bad.”
“I believe that, Mike. I’m really going to do well at my new business. If only I can get through the here and now….”
“You’ll get through it. Give yourself time and keep plodding along. Things will improve.”
“I only have a few more months before the baby arrives.”
“Then accept some help. You can always repay folks later. I admire your independence, but I don’t want to see you make a decision you may regret for the rest of your life.”
Frustrated by her emotion, she wiped away her tears. “I knew there was a reason I had a crush on you,” she said with a short laugh to lighten the mood.
He didn’t look the least bit surprised by her confession and, no doubt, he wasn’t. He couldn’t have missed the way she’d followed him around like a lovesick puppy for so many years.
With a grin, he retrieved his wallet to pay her, but she shook her head.
“No, I won’t accept your money.”
“Katie—”
“I need to feel I still have something to contribute to the world around me. I know that sounds crazy, but there it is.”
She could tell he didn’t want to take no for an answer, but he finally put his money away. “Can I buy you dinner Friday night, then?” he asked.
“You let me move in here on a trade. You’re lending me a car—”
“And you’re going to design me the best damn Web site on the Internet, remember? Don’t undervalue your services. Besides, it’s only dinner.”
She smiled. She knew Mike well enough to realize he wasn’t offering her anything more than friendship—but a friend happened to be exactly what she needed at the moment. “Sounds like fun,” she said.
AS SOON AS MIKE LEFT, Katie decided to go to bed. There wasn’t anything on television, she didn’t want to look at her baby books because she felt like crying every time she did, and she couldn’t help wondering what Booker was doing. Was he with Ashleigh? Was he at the Honky Tonk? It was Saturday night. He could be either place….
Rolling over in bed, she glanced at the keys Mike had given her, fighting the temptation to get up and drive through town, just to see if she could spot Booker’s truck. She’d told herself when she accepted Mike’s pickup that she’d only use it in case of emergency, but the longer she lay awake staring at the ceiling, the more of an emergency finding Booker seemed to be.
She wasn’t going to town, she decided. For her, Booker was trouble.
But when she closed her eyes, she remembered there were other sides of Booker that were far from trouble—for anyone. He’d given Delbert a home, a job, friendship. He’d gone to jail trying to protect him. He’d taken her in, even though she’d walked out on him two years ago….
She stared at the simple white phone next to her bed. She could call the farmhouse under the guise of looking for something she thought she’d left behind, just to see where he was or, better yet, hear his voice.
No! She fought with the covers twisted around her legs until she straightened them out, then ordered herself to sleep. But a minute later she sat up, grabbed the phone and called Booker.
“Hi, Katie.”
Delbert had answered. Katie smiled, feeling even more melancholy. “Hi, Delbert. How are you?”
“Not good, Katie.”
Katie blinked in surprise. Delbert was almost always happy—at least he acted as if he was. “What’s wrong?”
“Booker burned dinner. He threw it in the garbage, Katie. In the garbage. The whole dinner. And the pan. It’s all gone.”
“It must have been ruined, Delbert. Did you get something else to eat?”
“We went to the diner.”
“That’s good.”
“Booker’s angry, Katie. I know he’s angry.”
“Why?”
“Because you left us. He doesn’t like it. I know.”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with me,” she said.
There was a long pause. “So he’s angry at me?”
Judging by the sound of Delbert’s voice, this was an even worse thought.
“No, of course not! Booker never gets angry at you.”
“Yeah. Booker’s my friend. But he…he won’t talk, Katie. And he keeps stomping around and stomping around. And he won’t talk. And he keeps stomping around.”
“Let me speak to him,” she said.
She heard a sorrowful sigh. “I can’t. He’s gone.”