by Mae Nunn
“Oh.” Jacqueline seemed a little surprised. “Okay. You have something going on tomorrow?”
“We have a workday down at the church. I’m cooking breakfast.”
“Really?” She smiled, eyes gleaming.
“And why does that amuse you, Ms. Aimes?”
“I, well.” She raised a finger and touched her pillowy lips. “You’re just full of surprises, boss.”
“Next time I’ll cook you dinner.” The words were out of his mouth before he could retrieve them. Embarrassed, he started toward the back door, but she stopped him.
Jacqueline’s eyes flickered with delight. “The front door will be closer to your truck. I’ll just get your coat.”
CHAPTER SIX
MAC PULLED UP at Star Stables, where Joiner was supposed to meet him, at six o’clock sharp. He waved to Buster, Stella’s father, who was already feeding his goats. At six ten, Mac squinted his eyes and spotted a dot that had to be Joiner sitting on a bigger black dot that had to be Pistol. They were kicking up dust across the frosty acreage that separated the stables, which were located near Buster Scout’s ranch house, and the north forty, the parcel of land he had given Stella and Joiner for building their house.
When Joiner jumped into the truck at six fifteen, after handing Pistol off to Buster, he apologized. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Rough night?”
“Stella’s having those pains again. We don’t know if they are Braxton Hicks contractions or what.”
“Braxton what?”
“Braxton Hicks. They’re contractions that get you ready for the real contractions when the baby comes.”
“I see.” Mac suppressed a smile. Joiner was a long way from the playboy polo player he’d been in college. A long way for the better.
“Only thing is, the pain’s not really in the right place for Braxton Hicks. It’s more right here.” Joiner pointed to the area right under his sternum.
“Did you call the doctor?”
“Yes. We called and got the doctor on call, of course, since it’s not during office hours, and she told Stella to take two Tylenol and two Benadryl and lie down.”
“What time was that?”
“Five fifteen.”
“So Stella did? Did it help?”
“At six o’clock, she was finally getting some relief. I couldn’t leave till then. Guess I should have called you.”
“Of course, I understand.” Mac nodded. “You don’t even have to go. Hunt, Cullen and I could handle it.”
“I know, but Stella wanted me to. Said she was fine and just going to sleep.” Joiner looked at his phone. “She’ll call if it starts hurting again. The doctor said if it did, to head into Labor and Delivery.”
“Good grief!” Mac said. “She’s not thinking Stella might deliver, I hope. Surely, not this early.”
“No. I don’t think so. It’s so they could monitor her where they have all of the right equipment.”
The parking lot of Grace Baptist Church was empty except for Cullen’s Subaru station wagon and Hunt’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Douglas, a guy who always volunteered to help the brothers with breakfast, pulled up about the same time as Mac and Joiner. Mac inwardly cringed. As if reading his mind, Joiner chuckled and punched Mac’s arm. The well-meaning Douglas, with his perpetual sneezing, was the ultimate challenge to Mac’s germophobic tendencies.
“Brotha chothas!” Hunt called from the kitchen as Mac stepped through the fellowship hall door. Hunt, ever the Cowboy Chef, waved a spatula high in the air to greet them.
“The king with his scepter is already ruling the kitchen.” Cullen grasped Mac’s arm and then Joiner’s. Patting Douglas on the back, he offered them all rubber gloves.
Douglas took his, wiping his nose with his hand before putting them on. A cold sweat broke out across Mac’s forehead. He wiped it with a handkerchief and then headed to the sink to wash his hands.
“What’s that mean? Chothas?” Douglas asked.
“It’s a corruption of the language,” Joiner explained, washing his hands, as well. “A twin thing.”
Cullen interjected, “When Hunt and I were two, or so the story goes, Alma tried to get us to sleep in separate beds, but we both cried. Hunt told Alma, ‘But we can’t sleep apart. We need we’s chother.’”
“Oh!” Douglas exclaimed. “Like each other. I get it.” He laughed from deep in his belly. “That’s cute.”
“I’ve always been cute.” Hunt winked. The rest of the brothers groaned, rolling their eyes.
Each one took up his usual station in the church breakfast assembly line: Cullen cooked the bacon and sausage, Joiner made pancakes, and Mac rolled out homemade biscuits. While Hunt used his considerable skills on maple-cinnamon rolls, they all worked to keep Douglas contained to the fruit cutting. By seven thirty, when church members began to filter in, the coffee was on and the table spread. It was a delicious-smelling feast.
The brothers ate last, at a table with Sarah and her girls, as well as Gillian, Hunt’s wife. Both women were dressed in work clothes. As there was no call from Stella, they took that as a sign she was resting peacefully and decided not to bother her. Pastor Craig assigned the Temples to painting the youth wing, since Sarah’s girls were both in Youth, and the family worked through the morning making white Sunday school classes a more hip red, yellow and green.
When it was time to leave, about noon, Mac offered to treat everyone to pizza. The girls clapped their hands. Joiner said, “Could we pick it up and take it out to the house?”
“Great idea,” said Gillian. “I wanted to check on Stella myself.”
Sarah nodded. “Why don’t you guys pick up the pizza and we’ll go get fruit drinks for everyone?”
“Good deal.” Mac motioned for Cullen to jump in with him and Joiner while the women all piled into the station wagon with Sarah. “See you at Joiner’s in a few minutes.” He had a flickering thought of what it would be like to have Jacqueline there with him—like the others had their wives. But that was jumping the gun.
When everyone arrived, they found Stella on the couch in flannel pajamas and wrapped in a white terry-cloth robe. Propped on a pile of pillows, she looked tired, her swollen feet spilling out of her slippers. “I feel much better,” she declared. “That doctor’s instructions were the ticket. I’ve had a good rest.”
“Want some pizza?” Joiner smoothed her hair back from her head. “We got the kind you like just in case.”
Mac shared a look with Cullen and Hunt—a look that was somewhere between admiration for Joiner and a desire to make fun of him. For now, admiration won out.
Sarah and Gillian distributed pieces of pizza on paper plates while the girls passed out napkins along with everyone’s respective drink. They scattered around Joiner and Stella’s giant great room, sitting as near Stella as they could, some on the floor, some on the hearth of the fireplace, and some in chairs and the love seat nearby.
“Call Buster,” Mac said. “We’ve got plenty.”
“I already did,” Joiner said between bites. “He’s on his way.”
“So, exactly how many weeks along are you, Aunt Stella?” Meg asked, pulling out her phone.
“Thirty-two.” Stella patted her bulging belly.
“Baby weighs around four pounds,” Meg read off her screen. “Lungs and digestive system will develop to full maturity in the next few weeks.”
“We definitely need this little girl to stay in there awhile longer.” Stella rubbed her tummy. “I’ll admit I was getting worried in the wee hours of this morning.”
“I’m so glad what the doctor suggested worked and the pains have stopped,” Sarah said.
“What doctor? What pains?” Buster Scout burst through the door and wobbled on bowed legs to the couch where Stella lounged.
>
Stella smiled at him with tired eyes. “Hey, Pops.” She patted one of his gnarled hands. “Nothing to worry about. I was having some pains earlier, but they’re gone now.”
Buster scowled at Joiner with bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“We didn’t want to worry you.”
“‘We didn’t want to worry you!’’’ Buster mimicked Joiner in a high-pitched voice.
“Really, Pops.” Joiner put his hand on Buster’s shoulder and walked with him into the kitchen, showing the older man the pizza. Mac followed them and poured Buster a drink of soda.
“Thanks for taking care of Pistol for me this morning,” Joiner said.
“You’re welcome. That why you were ridin’ hell for leather?”
“Well, yes. I waited till she wasn’t having pains—or I wouldn’t have gone to the breakfast.”
“And here I figured you two was just honeymoonin’ and lost track of time.” Buster winked at Mac. Mac cleared his throat while Joiner reddened. Buster, a retired bronc rider, could not be further from their real father in appearance and manner. And yet with his heart of gold, he’d become like another father to Joiner. Mac was grateful.
As he stood in the doorway between kitchen and great room, observing the gathering of his people—his brothers’ easy banter, their wives’ concern and care for one another, how this closeness was already manifesting in the next generation—Jacqueline’s words from the night before came back to him. It was a big deal. This family network, the life he had with his brothers and the security it meant for all of them. Not everybody had that. Regardless of whom and what he had lost in his life, Jacqueline was right. Mac knew where he belonged. He resolved to play it safer—focus his efforts more on his family—rather than chasing whatever passing feelings he had for her. The Temple family was here to stay. And as bad as he might like it to be different, Jacqueline had made it clear she was just passing through.
CHAPTER SEVEN
JACQUELINE WOKE UP to the sound of meowing. After finding her glasses on the bedside table, she checked the clock. Six thirty-five. Almost time to get up, anyway. The sun was just rising, and an orangey-pink light streamed through her window. Where was that meowing coming from?
She followed the sound to the front room. Opening the door and stepping onto the front porch, she spotted a tiny calico kitten peering at her and howling as loud as its little lungs could muster. “Oh, you poor baby! Where did you come from?”
Jacqueline picked up the kitten and stroked its soft fur. She looked around and saw no one else, and no other signs of another cat. An icy wind blew open her robe and she wrapped it more tightly around herself, cuddling the kitten. We can’t stay out here, she thought. She took the kitten inside and warmed up some milk.
By the time Jacqueline was dressed for work, the saucer of milk was empty and the kitten curled, purring loudly, on the blanket she put down in the corner of the laundry room. “You be good today,” she told the kitten. “I’ll try to check on you at lunch.”
* * *
SHE BEAT MAC to the office and used her key to let herself in. She went through the “sacraments of puttering,” as Ella called it, turning up the heat, making coffee, flicking on all of the lights and computers. Soon Mac’s truck rumbled into the parking lot. At the sound, her heart rate quickened just a bit and she checked her appearance in the foyer mirror before settling behind her desk to seem more nonchalant than she felt. Why did her boss have to be so handsome? But you are not complaining, her inner voice reminded her. She smiled to herself.
“Good morning, Jacqueline,” Mac said as he stepped through the door. His glasses were fogged. He cleaned the lenses with a handkerchief and then replaced them on his nose. “Nice to see a smile this early.”
“Good morning.” She grinned, unable to help herself.
Mac removed his coat and cowboy hat, and placed them on the rack in the foyer. Eyes the color of dark, sweet honey glistened from the cold, and his hair, brown with natural gold highlights, was a bit crushed by his hat. He ruffled it with his hands to an unkempt perfection. This was uncharacteristic of him, but she liked it.
“I need a haircut,” he said, glancing in the mirror. “How was your weekend?”
He took the mail from the counter but didn’t look at it yet. Instead he studied her. He was waiting for her answer.
“It was good. Uneventful except for this morning, when I found a cat on my doorstep. Cutest thing ever. I’ll need to go check on her at lunch.”
“You left it in your house?” Mac’s face showed signs of horror.
“Well, I was going to bring her here but decided against it.”
“Good decision.” He thumped the mail with his hand.
“And of course I put her in my house. She’s an itty-bitty kitten. You don’t think I’d leave her outside to freeze?”
“Bleeding heart.” Mac scrunched up his nose. “Cats are so...nasty.”
She blinked in astonishment. “How can you say that? Have you no heart?”
“I have a need to be in control. Especially when it comes to hygiene and my surroundings. And cat hair, cat food, cat smells, cat, well, you know...bodily functions...pretty much everything about a cat contradicts that.”
Jacqueline rolled her eyes. “Come with me at lunch and meet her. We’ll see if you can say that to her face.”
“I have no problem with that. You’re on.”
* * *
AT NOON JACQUELINE popped her head into Mac’s office. “I’m going to check on the kitty.”
He jerked his head up from the paperwork he was studying, looked at her and then the clock on his desk and back to her. “It’s already noon!”
“I know. You don’t have to go. Want me to pick you up something?”
“I’m going.” He rose from his chair. “Someone has to confront this furry mass of germs before it’s too late.”
Jacqueline shook her head at him. “Famous last words.”
He helped her into her black trench coat and then slid on his own. Donning his hat, he turned the sign on the door from Open to Closed. Then he held the door for her and locked it behind them.
“I’ll drive,” Jacqueline offered.
Mac squeezed his tall frame into the Prius and she laughed. She had the feeling lack of legroom was far less disconcerting to him than not being in control, and she exulted in it. She revved the engine and Mac glanced at her sideways. What did it say about her that she enjoyed torturing him?
“I don’t have anything good for lunch at home.”
“That’s okay because I couldn’t eat with a cat, anyway.”
“Drive-through somewhere?”
“Let’s go to Suzie Q’s for burgers.”
“I didn’t know that place was still around.”
“Same location as always.”
“Sounds good.”
She pulled through the drive at the old-fashioned burger joint and ordered the brown-bag special: two burgers, two fries and two shakes. Mac tried to pay, but Jacqueline wouldn’t let him. She footed the twelve-dollar bill.
“I haven’t consumed this many calories in a day in I don’t know when. And here I am scarfing them all in one meal!” she said, eating a fry as they drove away.
“The shakes are probably over-the-top.” Mac stuck a straw in her banana shake and another in his peanut butter one. They both took a big sip. “But they’re so good, aren’t they?”
“Yes. I’d forgotten how good they are.” Jacqueline took another swig. “Joiner bought me a few of these in high school.”
“Did you guys ever—?”
“No, no, no.” Jacqueline half smiled. “I mean, I would have dated him. But he was way out of my league.”
Mac almost choked on his burger, but quickly re
covered.
“I was the biggest nerd ever, Mac.”
“I remember you being pretty nerdy.”
“Thanks.” She threw a fry at him, which he caught and ate.
“Keep your eyes on the road.”
“Joiner was nice to me. I think he was a closet nerd. We had that creative writing class together. He wrote beautiful poetry.”
“I’ll have to ask him about that.”
“No, you don’t. How’s he doing, anyway?”
Mac finished his burger and folded the wrapper in his hands. “He’s good. Married a great girl, Stella, and they’re about to have their first baby.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m really happy for him.”
“Me, too.”
Jacqueline pulled into the driveway of her house. She took a couple of more bites of her burger and then wrapped it up. Mac got out of the Prius and appeared on her side, opening the driver’s door.
“You’re quite a gentleman,” she said with appreciation. “I’m not used to that since I left Texas.”
“That’s why you should stay in Texas.” Mac grinned. “One reason, anyway.”
He followed her to the side door again and inside the house. The minute they stepped inside, they heard meowing.
“She’s in the laundry room—just straight through here.”
They crossed the kitchen and opened the laundry room door. Mac smelled it before he saw it—a tiny rope of cat poop. He backed away.
“Oh my goodness! Yuck!” Cringing, Jacqueline looked into Mac’s green face as he scrambled for the door.
“Have to get air!” he squeaked, and burst back outside.
Jacqueline cleaned up the mess with bleach, erasing every trace of the smell. Scooping up the kitty, she found Mac sitting on the stoop just outside the door.
“She’s just a baby,” Jacqueline said, holding the kitty in her lap and petting her head. The kitty began to purr.
“She’s an assassin.” Mac scowled at the tiny animal. “I almost threw up.”
