A Family of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #3)(42)
Author: Brenda Novak

“You okay?” Mike said, watching her with a concerned expression.

She cast a surreptitious glance out the window toward Booker’s shop. The garage doors were rolled up and the lights were on in his office. She’d taken note of that the moment they drove up. But she hadn’t spotted him on the way in, and now she was sitting at too much of an angle to see more than a small section of his property. “I’m fine.”

“I guess you’ve heard about Booker,” he said, following her gaze when it returned, almost involuntarily, to the window.

Katie’s eyes went immediately to Mike’s face. “What do you mean?”

“He had his hearing on Friday for that fight with the Smalls.”

“I didn’t know.” Except for her association with Mike, she’d been completely out of circulation. “How’d it go?”

Mike stirred some more cream into his coffee. “He was fined $500 and, ‘in light of his turbulent past,’ the court mandated he attend anger management classes once a week in Boise.”

“How do you know all this?” Katie asked.

“Rebecca told me when I called to invite her and Josh to breakfast this morning.”

“Did anything happen to the Smalls?”

“No. They weren’t even cited.”

“That’s so unfair.” She shoved the sweetener packets away. “Booker didn’t start that fight. He was only trying to protect Delbert.”

“I believe that.”

Katie hadn’t expected Mike’s support. “You do?”

“I don’t really know Booker. Most people don’t. He’s not particularly trusting. But Rebecca would do anything for him. And I can tell you care about him, too. He must be a decent guy.”

“He is.”

Mike slid the menu the hostess had given him off to the side. “I remember seeing you and Booker around town quite often a few years ago. I thought you two were an item.”

“I guess we were,” she said.

“What happened?”

Katie wasn’t sure how to explain. She’d gone over the past again and again, wondering how she’d fallen so far from where she’d always wanted to be. But even now it wasn’t easy to separate the “should haves” from the “shouldn’t haves.” Her love life at that time had been complicated. “When I met Booker, my parents and just about everyone in town warned me to stay away from him, but I still had such a crush on you. I wasn’t worried about falling in love.”

He tipped back his hat and grinned at his part in the story, and she chuckled briefly before continuing. “Anyway, I dated Booker sort of halfheartedly at first. But then things started to get serious. When I realized how much I was beginning to care for him, I thought I had to do something about it. I was losing my heart to an ex-con who’d never made me a single promise about anything.” Katie paused as Taylor Simpson, one of the waitresses at the diner, set glasses of water in front of them before bustling off again. “Then Andy moved in with his cousins for the summer.”

“But Andy’s the exact opposite of Booker,” Mike said.

“I think that’s what attracted me. I was also trying to start a singles club for the elderly over at the Elks Club, and Andy jumped right in and helped me. He was far more gregarious and demonstrative than Booker. He had a degree in communications and he was a fantastic salesman. Once he pitched in, we had no trouble raising the money we needed to refurbish the dance floor.”

Mike took a sip of water. “So did you quit seeing Booker?”

“Yes. I spent more and more time with Andy. He seemed so safe, you know? So close to the family man I’d been looking for—much more like you,” she said with a wry smile.

“Only he didn’t treat you like a little sister.”

“Definitely not. Before long, Andy was telling me he loved me and wanted to marry me. And he painted such an idyllic picture of heading to the big city for a few years before starting a family that I bought in to the whole thing.”

“You’d think your parents would’ve been relieved you got away from Booker. But from what I’ve heard, they didn’t like Andy much better.”

“No. They’d heard his aunt and uncle grumbling about how lazy he was and that always bothered them. They wanted to know why, if he had a degree, he was living off his family and wasting time in Dundee instead of beginning a career. But Andy was free-spirited and fun-loving, and I didn’t find it so hard to believe he’d take a break after graduating from college.”

“How did Booker react when you broke off with him?”

The baby kicked her, and Katie gazed down at her belly, marveling at how much bigger she’d gotten in the past two weeks. “He didn’t say much.” He’d just stared at her with those dark, inscrutable eyes, and a muscle had twitched in his cheek. Katie knew she’d never forget how he’d looked in that moment.

“I guess it hurt that he seemed to let me go so easily. After that, I poured all my time and energy into Andy,” she said. “Then to my surprise, Booker showed up just after Hatty died and asked me to marry him.”

Mike sat back. “No kidding? I never pegged Booker as the marrying kind.”

“Most people would agree with you.”

“What did you say?”

“I told him I’d already made my decision to leave with Andy.” She frowned and opened the menu, even though she already knew everything Jerry’s served. “Ironic how it all worked out, don’t you think? I was probably the only virgin to graduate in my senior class, yet I come home unmarried and pregnant. Andy, Mr. Smooth, turns into a crackhead. And Booker, who doesn’t even have a high school diploma, becomes a successful businessman.”

“I should’ve swept you off your feet and saved you from both of them,” Mike said.

“Except you didn’t love me,” she murmured, laughing.

A smile quirked his lips. “I’ve always cared about you.”

“That’s different.”

The bell sounded over the door, and Mike waved to get Josh and Rebecca’s attention as they came in. Josh guided his wife to their booth, but Rebecca barely looked up. She was too busy saying something to Josh about a robbery.

“What was that?” Mike asked when they were close enough.

“Mrs. Willoughby was robbed last night,” Rebecca said.