A Family of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #3)(43)
Author: Brenda Novak

The ice in Mike’s water clinked as he set his glass down. “Old Mrs. Willoughby? The lady who lives just a couple miles from us?”

“Someone broke into her house wearing a nylon stocking over his head,” Josh explained.

“And he flashed her and nearly scared her half to death,” Rebecca added.

Rebecca slid into the booth next to Katie while Josh sat by his brother. “He also waved a hunting rifle in her face and cleaned out her jewelry box,” he told them. “Hi, Katie.”

“Hi, Josh,” Katie said. “Do they know who’s responsible for the robbery?”

“Slinkerhoff’s nephew has been accused of the other robberies in town,” he said.

Katie remembered Mary saying something about that the day they saw each other at Jerry’s.

“He’s been out on bail for several weeks, so I’m sure they’re checking his whereabouts. But at this point, Chief Clanahan is saying they don’t know much.”

“How would you like to identify someone’s pecker in a lineup?” Rebecca said, her lip curling in disgust.

“Did it have any identifying characteristics?” Mike asked, obviously joking.

“If he’d flashed me, there’d be a few scars,” Rebecca muttered.

Always high-spirited, Rebecca was more dramatic than most women. But Katie had always liked her. She had a big heart to go with her temperamental nature. Katie knew she’d be as good a mother as she was a friend.

“Mrs. Willoughby only lives a couple of miles from the ranch?” Katie said. She hadn’t had any qualms about living alone before. But the knowledge that there was an exhibitionist thief on the loose in their small community made her nervous.

“You know my grandfather’s house next door?” Mike asked.

“Next door” to the ranch was actually several acres away, but Katie knew the place Mike was talking about. To the Hill family’s extreme embarrassment, thirteen years ago his grandfather, Morris Caldwell, had divorced Mike’s grandmother and married Red, a known prostitute who was half his age and had three small children. It had created quite a scandal. He’d adopted her kids and finished raising them, but Red got tired of waiting for Morris to die so she could inherit his money and property and tried to poison him. He’d survived and divorced her just before he died of natural causes. In the end, she didn’t get a cent, but he kept her kids in his will. Casey and Reed, the two boys, had eventually sold their property to Josh and Mike and moved out of state. Lucky, the only girl, inherited the house but, even though Red had died shortly after, Lucky wouldn’t sell. She lived out of state, too; Katie wasn’t sure where. But the house had sat vacant for so long and was falling into such disrepair, it had developed a spooky reputation among the children and teenagers of Dundee.

“It’s the big Victorian, right?”

“That’s the one. Mrs. Willoughby lives in a mobile home on a corner of the property,” Mike told her.

“That is close,” Katie said. “You don’t think the thief could be one of your cowboys, do you?”

“No,” Josh said. “I’ve worked with most of those boys before, and I can’t see any of them scaring an old lady, let alone robbing her.”

Taylor came by to take their orders. Rebecca and Josh decided on a stack of pancakes each and a skillet of potatoes, eggs, onions and bacon. Mike ordered eggs Benedict and Katie chose the cheapest thing on the menu—two eggs any style with two strips of bacon and a piece of toast.

Rebecca’s eyes dropped to Katie’s belly the moment the waitress left. “How’s the pregnancy coming along?”

Katie rubbed the spot where the baby liked to kick. Recently she’d been having a lot of backaches that felt disturbingly like the premature labor pains she’d experienced in San Francisco. They hadn’t developed into anything, so she figured they came from spending so much time sitting at her computer. “Fine.”

Rebecca’s face reflected envy—Rebecca’s face always revealed whatever she was thinking or feeling.

Katie said “Fine,” as Mike and Josh both started talking at once, in an obvious attempt to distract Rebecca.

She scowled at them. “I’m okay.”

Katie opened her mouth to bring up the possible adoption. She thought now might be a good time. But she couldn’t do it. Instead she said, “Rebecca, I was hoping you’d be able to meet us here today because…because I wanted to ask if you’d be my coach during the delivery.”

Rebecca’s jaw dropped, and Josh and Mike looked alarmed—until a smile crept over her face. “You mean you want me to go to classes with you and help you breathe right and all that?”

Katie nodded. “Classes start next Wednesday. But they’re in Boise. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine.”

“Great.” Katie shot Mike a glance that said she wasn’t willing to go any further today, and he gave her a subtle nod to let her know he understood.

“I would’ve been your coach,” he said, acting hurt.

“You were next on my list,” she told him, then realized Rebecca was watching her intensely. “What?”

“Booker’s in love with you. You know that, don’t you?”

Katie was too shocked to speak. This was the last thing she’d expected to hear.

Josh shifted uncomfortably in his seat and ducked his head to catch his wife’s eye. “Do you think that’s information Booker would want you to share, Beck?”

“I want him to be happy,” Rebecca stated as bluntly as she stated everything else. “I want them both to be happy. Anyway, I’m not betraying a confidence. Booker’s never told me he loves her. I just know in my heart that he does.”

“You must be mistaken,” Katie said. “He’s seeing Ashleigh Evans.”

Rebecca grimaced and shook her head. “I can’t figure out how he got involved with Ashleigh. She was coming on to him long before you showed up, and he might’ve been friendly, but he didn’t show the slightest inclination to take her up on anything more.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that in the last few weeks he’s taken her up on plenty.”

Rebecca propped her chin in her palm and stared at Katie. “Unless you stake some sort of claim on Booker, he has no reason not to see other women.”

Katie knew she had no right to be angry with Booker over Ashleigh. But that didn’t change the fact that she hurt whenever she imagined them together. “Andy cheated on me so many times. I just…I can’t—”