Never Stopped Loving You (23 page)

“Maybe five more minutes.”

She pulled in a deep breath. “I’d like that.”

She tucked her knees up and let out a breath that relaxed her whole body. He wasn’t even sure how she was able to fold herself up like that, but he liked her this way. Soft, relaxed. Easy. Still deep inside her and connected.

She turned and pressed a kiss to the center of his chest. “I’m forcing myself to get up here.”

He rubbed her thighs. “I like hearing you say that.”

“I like being here.”

She pushed off and dressed while he cleaned up. It was almost over. He walked with her downstairs and while he could, he grabbed her hand and interlaced their fingers. Something so small, so simple. He hadn’t been able to do that an hour ago.

The house was dark, the only noise coming from the dishwasher. The walk from upstairs to the back door was way too short.

She stopped him at the door and looked up. “About tomorrow.”

He rubbed her arm. “It’ll be fine. I understand why you want to keep us quiet, so while people are here like that, we’ll go on like normal.”

She winced. “You sure you’re okay with that? I feel like I’m trying to hide you.”

“Well, you are.” He laughed. “But it’s okay. I get it. After a couple months people will either accept you or not and we can be more public then.”

He dropped a kiss on her forehead and opened the door. She tiptoed across the grass to her and Whitney’s tent, and he let himself in the larger boys’ tent that his parents had always used.

Tate was on his back, playing a game or something on his phone and pointed at the kids where they were thankfully asleep.

Wade nodded and settled in his spot, hands behind his head. He felt good.

“How is the nose?”

Wade smiled up at the poles crossing and holding the tent up. “Fine.”

Really, really fine.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Mom! Dad!” Dustin yelled and ran for them.

Tasha wrapped her arms around him and Patrick ruffled his hair. Before he could get another word out, Gabe repeated him, yelling, running, hugging. The whole nine yards. Kara leaned back against the counter with her coffee and smiled as she sipped.

Tasha squatted to Gabe’s level. “Did y’all have fun?”

“Yeah!” Dustin yelled in her face, causing Tasha to lean back a bit, not that he noticed. He kept on. “I made a touchdown and Kara broke Wade’s nose!”

“
What?
”

But Gabe was jumping now. “And I made marshmallow cadogs!”

Kara chuckled. “Kabobs.”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Cadogs.”

Tasha looked up. “But what happened to Wade?”

“It was so cool, Mom. He tackled Kara, but she tossed me the ball before he could get it. No wait, first Tate caught the ball and I tried tackling him, but he was too big. Kara stripped him of the ball and ran for it. Wade was gonna tackle her. But she tossed me the ball right before he hit her. I made a touchdown and Kara punched Wade in the face. And Kara made us pancakes this morning! From flour!”

Tasha blinked. “Is he okay?”

Wade picked then to come back inside after taking a walk through the fields before the Saturday-morning crowd arrived. A little dark blue and yellowy-purple tinted across the bridge of his nose, but thankfully nothing else. She’d breathed a big sigh of relief this morning. Not that the mark was going to be easier to explain, but it was better than two big black eyes like she’d pictured. “Fine. It’s only a bloody nose. Did I hear someone say pancakes? Special flour pancakes?”

“Yeah!” Gabe ran back to the table. “And look! They’re so big.”

Tasha came around the corner, looked at the mixing bowl and the big stack of pancakes. “You’re making me look bad, but if you made enough for us, I’m okay with that.”

Kara laughed. “Help yourself. I threw some sausage links on the grill. Let me go get them.”

“Sausage too?” Patrick pulled down a plate. “Can she move in with us?”

Tasha’s smile went ear to ear. “I love that idea! She can sleep in your spot. I bet she doesn’t snore.”

“Hey, now.”

Kara shook her head and laughed and she slipped out the back door for the gas grill a few feet away. The sausage steamed, sizzled and was caramelized, looking brown all over. She pulled it off and returned inside as everyone sat around the table. “Did y’all have a good time last night?”

“Wonderful.” Tasha poured hot syrup over her stack. “We did dinner and a movie. Lord, we hadn’t done that in years.”

Patrick smiled at her. “We should do this every weekend.”

Wade laughed and pointed to his face. “I’ll pass.”

Kara joined them at the table. “We did have a lot of fun, though. Not including Wade’s face.”

Whitney stumbled through the doorway, eyes heavy, face pale. “
Uhn.
”

Tasha laughed. “What happened to you?”

Whitney made it to the refrigerator and pulled out a ginger ale. “Too many marshmallows.”

Kara buttered her pancakes. “The marshmallow kabob was for her.”

“Not that, I don’t think. I was fine after that. Even did dishes. I think it was the whole entire bag of cinnamon ones I ate in the tent while waiting on you to get done with Wade’s nose.” Whitney dropped in a chair, looked at the food on the table and her cheeks puffed out, face paled a little more and she sipped her drink. “Good Lord.”

Tasha’s brows were up before Kara even had a chance to think. “How long did it bleed for?”

Tate was grinning. “About two hours, wouldn’t you say, Whitney?”

Whitney managed a small laugh. “Oh, um. Yeah. Thereabouts.”

Kara stared at her plate, worked on her butter, then syrup, then eating. She didn’t look up, not once. No, ma’am.

Patrick’s voice finally broke the silence. “Heck, Tasha, from the way it sounds, I think you should punch me in the nose.”

Dustin piped up. “Can I do it?”

“Eat your pancakes,” Patrick said, all humor lost in his voice while the rest of the table chuckled.

Kara finished up and started clearing plates and putting dishes away before the Saturday crowd got there in an hour. She just got the dishes unloaded when Tasha was at her side, helping with cleanup. “Sounds like an eventful night.”

“It was. We had a lot of fun. Reminded me of some good memories.” And made for some great new ones.

“Uh-huh. Well, since Whitney looks like she’s about to puke and Patrick really hates talking to guys about their relationships unless he’s hard-pressed, you’re going to have to give me details on what happened.”

Kara laughed. “We’re going slow.”

“You were already going slow.”

“Okay, we’re going a step faster. We’re going to see where it goes, but keep it quiet. Take our time. If it doesn’t work out, then maybe we can pull back out without a lot of hurt feelings and gossip.”

Tasha nodded. “Good plan. It’s something. How long are y’all going to keep it quiet?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to jump into something fast, and risk my name and my past ruining the Chester name when people find out we’re involved.” She bit her lip. “I didn’t tell Wade that last part. He thinks I just want to improve my reputation, which is true too.”

“My lips are sealed, but I think I can help with the reputation part. When I catch some of them old windbags here today, I’m going to drag them to you one by one to get the jam direct.”

“I’m not sure that’s going to help.”

“Sure it will. You’ll win them over. They’ll see through Maddy and her crew’s lies and start buying jam from you. It’ll be one big happy icebreaker. Otherwise they’ll forever come to me for your crack jelly.”

She laughed and shrugged. Sure. Why not? It was better than nothing. They got the rest of the kitchen cleaned up, Whitney thankfully gained some color in her cheeks after eating a dry pancake and the boys were out front greeting the first early arrivers to pick from the fields.

Tasha and Whitney headed out front because Wade and Patrick usually managed to find themselves in the fields pretty quick, leaving the front empty and the boys running loose.

Kara put on a fresh pot of coffee, left out the filters and grounds for others to refill and put the rest of last night’s cookies in the center of the kitchen table with a small stack of napkins. She double-checked the downstairs bathroom to make sure it was cleaned, closed extra doors through the house and stepped out in the morning sunshine.

As she jogged down the steps, she was reminded all over again of the special touch Chester House could have for people. It was more than a place to pick a few fruits and vegetables. Regulars showed up like lunch dates and sat in the chairs in the shade. Dustin already had a small game of football going with a couple other kids who’d popped in. Meanwhile, Gabe and another kid were on their hands and knees digging through a pack of clovers.

Kara took her spot by the front and prepared to greet Mrs. Marabel. “Good morning. That is a pretty blue shirt.”

The woman nodded and faced Whitney right off. “You look a little pale around the gills, honey.”

Whitney smiled. “We camped out last night with Patrick and Tasha’s kids. Afraid I had a few too many marshmallows.”

Mrs. Marabel laughed as she traded money for a basket. “I’ve done that a time or two in my day. Get you some ginger ale and some crackers or a little bread.”

“Already on it.” Whitney nudged Kara. “Kara made us all homemade pancakes this morning and I ate one plain. If not for that, I probably wouldn’t be on my feet right now.”

“
Mmm-hmm.
” And she headed off to the field.

Whitney shook her head. “Man, some of these old biddies should be on a game show for holding grudges.”

Kara winced. “Yeah.” She glanced to Whitney. “She caught me in the grocery store parking lot on a windy night while I was wearing a short skirt. The sacker helping her dropped her eggs and bruised her tomatoes.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Yeah.”

Whitney flicked her hands up. “You can’t help the wind.”

“No, but it was a white skirt and I had on a nude-colored thong.”

“Oh my God.” Whitney chuckled. “She thought you didn’t have on panties?”

Kara nodded. “Yep. Middle of the parking lot and she is yelling at me for not having panties on. I didn’t know what else to do so I pulled the strap of my thong out the top of my skirt to show her I was wearing a pair.”

Whitney laughed and wrapped her arms across her stomach. “That is frickin’ hilarious.”

Kara chuckled. “Not so much at the time, but yeah, funny now. But I think she looks at me and sees Mom and thinks of Sue and the mark on her head.”

And that was pretty much the gist of the afternoon. Kara put her best smile forward and got very little in return from the people who she wanted it from the most. All their attention focused to Whitney at her side. Or when Tasha was there, on her.

Kara rolled her shoulders back and packed up the greeting area while Whitney was busy inside on the kitchen. Kara was going to pay for Whitney cleaning by making more rainbow cupcakes, but it was worth the bargain to bake cookies in a clean kitchen rather than having to clean up behind the mess the others left behind.

She locked the money box, looked up and stopped as Tasha was waving at her, with Mrs. Opal at her side. Looked like Tasha finally found someone to round up to buy jelly direct.

“Hey, girl! Do you have some jam made up already?”

Kara nodded and answered even though Tasha already knew the answer. “Sure do.”

“Great! Mrs. Opal was just telling me she was going to stop by Monday for another jar of the jam and I told her why wait! That stuff is too good to wait for.” Tasha was all but pushing Mrs. Opal toward her, but Kara forced a smile on her face.

Mrs. Opal came in closer and straightened her shirt. “I don’t mind waiting. I’m not going to finish the jar I have tonight anyway.”

“Kara, are we going out for drinks after today?” Whitney stood on the porch, yelling across the yard.

The smile on her face fell. A lot. A whole lot. She tried pushing it back in place and hoped it looked as real as the others. “Can’t. I have baking to do tonight for the kids tomorrow.”

She turned to Mrs. Opal. “I really don’t mind going to get you a jar.”

She shifted her weight through her feet. “Well, I guess. Since I’m here.”

“Give me one minute.” She headed for the house, resisting the urge to run. She wanted to, but running in flip-flops and her sundress wouldn’t earn her any points. When it came to Mrs. Opal, Kara needed all she could get. If anyone could get her a good reputation going again, it was that woman. Wade crossed her path as she headed for the house.

Warmth flooded through her entire body at seeing him. It would be pure luck if every person who’d come to the farm today didn’t read on her forehead that she was having sex with Wade. ’Cause seriously, he was being adorable when he walked by with his big grin and occasional secret winks when no one else was watching.

She took the porch steps two at a time and Whitney walked beside her. “I’m so sorry. I looked and didn’t see any cars.”

“It’s okay. She doesn’t seem any more uptight than usual. Let me grab some jam for her real quick. And if you’re up for drinking in, I’m totally on board for that!”

“You got it!”

She swung through house, to Whitney’s office where she’d started storing some of the canned items. She grabbed a jar of strawberries, started toward the front and ran back to the kitchen instead for one of her cranberry-oatmeal-walnut cookies they’d had last night. She tossed it in a clear bag, tied a silver twist around it and ran back through the house, only slowing down once she reached the front door.

Thankfully Mrs. Opal hadn’t left as soon as Kara turned her back. She probably had Whitney and Tasha talking to her to thank for that. She passed over the jar and the cookie and maintained her smile. “Whitney mentioned to me earlier you were asking about another cranberry cookie?”

“Oh.” Mrs. Opal turned the bag over in her hands. “I...was.”

Kara kept smiling through it. Kill ’em with kindness, according to her grandma. She’d do it. “I had some put back, but I’ll be making more tonight anyway.”

There was a long silence and then Tasha perked up. “Isn’t it neat? They’re going to start having cookies or cupcakes for all the kids who come on Sunday afternoon. It’s going to be so cute. All those darling little kids in their Sunday best and rubber boots picking through the garden and getting a cookie.”

Whitney laughed. “You just love the idea because you’re getting the leftover cookies and cupcakes for your store!”

Kara breathed a silent breath of relief. Thank goodness for good friends. “It’s going to be fun. I remember Jana doing it and I loved it.”

Mrs. Opal just smiled. “I’ll mention it to my daughter. She has two little girls.”

“Happy to have them out.”

Mrs. Opal nodded and started off, but she turned back. “Whitney mentioned you did the rainbow cupcakes last weekend?”

“Yes, ma’am. They’re really simple, just a little time-consuming. Would you like my recipe?”

“It’s the frosting I was curious about. I have a white cake I like, but...” She glanced around and leaned closer. “But Marabel Booth has a better frosting and she won’t share her recipe and I liked that one better.”

And Kara’s smile was finally real. “I’ll be happy to give it to you. It was Jana Chester’s. She taught me how to make it.”

Mrs. Opal started toward the house and Kara fell in step beside her. “I miss Jana. I sure do wish she would visit sometime.”

“I do too. Very sweet woman.”