Luck of the Draw (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 1) (33 page)

Kate concentrated on repositioning Liam’s napkin on his lap. “I happen to like tea. And I’m driving home after this.”

“Fine. Fine. I was just making a point. No need to be snippy.”

Kate rolled her eyes then let out a sigh of relief when she spied Nana approaching the table.

“Sorry I’m late.” Nana winked at Kate. “Happy early birthday.”

“Thanks.”

“Hello, Mom,” murmured Kate’s mother.

“June,” her father acknowledged crisply.

Just like one big happy family.
Kate took another sip of water. She half-listened as her parents filled Nana in on a recent fundraiser her mother had attended, the new décor at her father’s office...

“Mommy. Mommy!” Liam tugged at her sleeve and Kate felt a jolt of annoyance, not at her son, but at the fact that no one was actually talking to either one of them by this point.

“Mommy!” Liam demanded again.

“What?”

“Happy buthday!”

Closing her eyes
—in part to blot out her father’s frown at being interrupted but mostly to hold onto the sweetness of the moment a few seconds longer—Kate let her mouth curve into a smile. It didn’t matter that he was a few weeks early. It didn’t matter that he was currently squeezing a butter pat in his little fist just to feel it squish. What mattered was the heartfelt sincerity stuffed into those two words.

Kate wrapped her arm around his shoulders and gave him an affectionate squeeze. “Thank you, Pumpkin. I’m sure it
will
be a happy birthday. You know why?”

He shook his head then turned enthralled attention to the yellow ooze in his palm.

Kate kissed his head. “Because I have you.” She pulled a roll from the bread basket and pried it open. “Here, let’s make good use of that butter.”

Liam proceeded to smear his palm enthusiastically over the soft bread, took a bite and grinned.

Her mother frowned but not so much—Kate was sure to note—to cause permanent wrinkles. “Perhaps you ought to take Liam to wash before he gets grease stains on the linens.”

Kate let Liam finish his roll then took him to the bathroom.

As she lathered Liam’s hands in the ladies’ room and watched him try to pop the tiny bubbles floating in the air, it struck her that her parents never seemed truly happy. Her mother was always fretting, her father, seemed simply... resigned.

Have I been just like them?
she wondered with no small bit of alarm.
Have I moved through life trying to smooth the highs and lows into the same familiar blandness?
Is that why Randy’s unpredictable, firebrand personality was so attractive?

Dad complained about his staff, Ma seemed ceaselessly taxed by  ‘crises’ and yet neither seemed willing nor able to break free of it... to do what? What
would
they do? What was their passion?

What’s mine?

If Randy had moved up to sales manager, if we had stayed together, stayed in Connecticut, in thirty years would I have looked just like them?

Kate shuddered and bustled Liam out the door.

“Kate, I was just saying I ran into Rita Smith last week.” Her mother sipped her Bordeaux as Kate tried desperately to picture the woman in question. “She said if you wanted to retain a position for Liam at ABC Learning Center next fall, you’ll need to act fast.”

“You mean the Nazi Preschool?” Kate blurted, aghast.

Her mother pursed her lips. “Rita’s daughter has already retained positions for the twins.”

“What’s this ‘retained a position’ garbage?” Nana asked, buttering a roll. “Are these kids joining a law firm or entering preschool?”

“It’s very prestigious. I put Liam on the waitlist as soon as he was born. ”

“I told you I think they’re too rigid,” said Kate.

“That’s not what Randy thought,” her mother said. “He thought it an excellent idea.”

“Right. And he always exercised good judgment,” Nana sniffed. “Sorry, Katie.”

“It’s okay, Nana.”

“Anyway,” her mother continued, “I told her I’d pass the word.”

“Consider your duty fulfilled,” Kate replied, pretending to focus on dunking her teabag. They couldn’t help who they were. They couldn’t change it.

But she could.

“I’ve been thinking,” Kate said, setting down her spoon. Her heart felt light in her chest, but not in a bad way. “I think we should move.”

Conversation came to an abrupt halt as everyone turned toward her. Liam slurped his milk.

“Liam and I. I don’t know where we’ll live or what I’ll do, but I think it’s time to leave Connecticut.”

“
Leave Connecticut?”
her mother cried, as if Kate had just declared she planned to rocket to the moon/have a sex change/shave her head and live with the gypsies. Her mother took a fortifying sip of her wine. “
Why?
”

“We
—I—need to start fresh somewhere new,” Kate said.

“What about your job at Spencer Academy?”

Kate set her tea in its saucer, feeling slightly light-headed. “I’m quitting.”

“You’re what?
Edward, talk to her!”

“Don’t make any rash decisions,” her father advised. “You’re still in mourning.”

“I know it sounds rash, but there’s nothing keeping me there. It’s time.”

“What about your family?” her mother asked, her injured tone causing Kate pangs of guilt. “Sandy already misses playing with Liam. What will she do if you move?”

“I’d still be near family if I moved to Sugar Falls.”

“Move
here?
You can’t be serious.”

“And why not?” Nana asked, coming to Kate’s defense. “I think it an excellent idea. I planned to sell the house in Connecticut, anyway.”

“Since when? You haven’t mentioned it before,” Kate’s mother demanded.

“Since this evening.” Nana patted Kate’s arm. “Not out from under you, Katie. But soon. You’re right. It’s time. I wasn’t ready to give it up right after your grandfather died. But now... my home is here. And if you don’t need it anymore…”

“This is all well and good, Katherine,” her father began, “but where will you live here? More importantly, how will you get by? You have a career in Connecticut, or have you forgotten?”

A
career?
Kate tried not to laugh. Her father had always minimized the importance of her ‘job’ in the past. Now, suddenly it was a career she couldn’t leave?

“Your father’s right. What will you do?” her mother gasped in dismay, as if Kate had just announced she were pregnant or something.

Hmm.
Better save that bit of news for another time.

“Maybe Mrs. Pearson will rent the cottage for a while. I’ll figure it out. But it’s time I took the next step in life. It’s time I found my passion.”

“Your what?”

“Her passion, Anne. Her passion,” Nana reiterated. “Something you’d know precious little about.”

“You’re making a mistake,” her father prophesized grandly. “You have responsibilities, Katherine. A son to consider. We’d never let you starve, but...”

But, if you had to bail me out, it would be on your terms, not mine
, she finished silently. Was she crazy to think she could pull together an income, a home
and
be independent and happy? Maybe she was. But as she looked at her mother and father, as she pictured what her life would be like in ten or twenty years if she stayed with the status quo, she knew she couldn’t
not
try.

Kate met Nana’s gaze over Liam’s head, gratefully absorbed the encouraging smile she met there. “Maybe I am making a mistake,” she finally agreed. “But I don’t think so.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
____________________

“O
FFER HER A JOB,”
R
uth
P
earson ordered as she set the plate of spaghetti and meatballs in front of her grandson. It was his favorite, or at least, one of his favorites. God bless him, Jim had never been a picky eater.

“A what?”

“A job. Employment. You must have
something
she can do. Filing? Typing? Cleaning?” Ruth smiled as she spooned sauce over another heaping plate. She and the ladies had quickly decided that if Kate were to move to town, she’d need an income, and what more happy situation than if she were working—day in and day out—next to her future husband?

Okay. Fine. It wasn’t a
given
Jim and Kate would get together, but it was
possible,
wasn’t it? Plus, there’d been the sign in the cards. And other signs as well. Maybe her eyesight wasn’t what it used to be, but Ruth could spot goo-goo eyes in young people a mile away.

Call her heavy-handed and interfering, but she was too old to wait around for opportunity to knock without holding the door open a wee bit.

“Why would I offer Kate a job?” Jim wanted to know.

“She needs to work doesn’t she?”

“Doesn’t she have a job?” This from Carter as he helped himself to more meatballs and sauce and relieved Ruth of the plate.

“In Connecticut, yes. But she’s moving, and I thought
—”

“Watch out,” mumbled Carter around a mouthful of meatball.

Ruth sent him a withering glance, “—she’ll need an income.”

“Kate’s moving where? To Sugar Falls?” Jim asked.

Ruth pursed her lips. “Perhaps it’s not my place to say. I thought she might have mentioned it to you already.”

“Why would you think that?”

Jim was eyeing her suspiciously. Lord, she wasn’t good at this whole
subtle
thing. “Didn’t you go to the fireworks together?”

Jim spoke to his plate. “Not a great opportunity for conversation what with all the explosives overhead, Grams.”

“Well, now you know. So, do you have anything for her, or not?”

“I don’t think she’d appreciate a hand-out. What is she even qualified to do?”

“
Qualified?
” Okay, now he was annoying her.

“Is she organized?” Carter asked. “Because we could use help in the office. It wouldn’t be full-time, but it would be something.”

“Great,” Jim said. “Problem solved. She can work for Carter and Dad.”

Ruth paled. This was not at all what she and the ladies had planned. “Work for
you
?” she said as she watched Carter mound more meatballs on his plate.

“Sure. You know I hate dealing with paperwork, and now that
Pops wants to reduce his hours, he’d prefer not to be stuck inside either. If she needs a job, I bet we could work something out. Should I ask her?”

“Oh, well...”

“Sounds like a good solution,” Jim cut in helpfully, if a bit sullenly.

“Yes, well...”

“Terrific. I’ll give her a call,” said Carter.

“Sorry I’m late. I got hung up.” Grace breezed in the side door and peered into a saucepan. “
Ugh.
Grams, didn’t you make any sauce without dead cow in it?”

“It’s in the fridge. You were so late, I thought you weren’t coming.”

“And miss your homemade sauce? Not a chance.” Grace kissed her on the cheek and waved at the boys. “Did I miss anything?”

“Grams is helping Kate get a job,” said Carter.

“Really? Why?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” grumbled Jim into his spaghetti. “Has anyone bothered to ask Kate about this?”

Ruth pursed her lips and busied herself pouring sauce into a pan to reheat it. “I would think you’d want to help her.”

“Sure. If she
wanted
help.”

“Trouble in paradise?” Grace cooed as she spooned salad into a bowl. She peered at the dressing label intently
—as if they’d puree dead animals and stuff them in Italian dressing for heaven’s sake.

Jim pushed his chair back with a hard scrape. “Back off, Grace.”

“Aw, come on, you know I’m just ribbing you.”

“I know what you’re doing. You’re all trying to set me up. Well, it’s not going to work, so butt out.”

“Don’t you like her?” asked Ruth.

“Of course I like her!” Jim snapped. “You might want to first find out if she feels the same way!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake—” Ruth began.

“Thanks for dinner, Grams.” Jim brought his plate of food to the sink, half-eaten. “I gotta go.”

“Jim—” Grace tried.

The screen door slammed behind him.

“I think you’ve got him on the line, Grams,” chuckled Carter. “Just reel him in, nice and slow.”

“Very funny.” Ruth frowned at the door. “But now’s not the time for jokes. Jim’s clearly upset.”

“I don’t know why.”

“Don’t you?” Grace demanded.