Winter Dreams

by Robyn Neeley

Casey’s heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know, Joe. Who’s Sunny Cansler?”

  “Some bleached blond from Houston. I saw her with him at the rodeo last year. Someone said they were getting married.”

  Casey struggled to beat back the roaring blackness that threatened to close in on her. “Maybe so. Better her than me.”

  Joe laughed. “Say, what’s this I hear about law school?”

  After living five years in big cities where people took no particular interest in her, Casey had forgotten the swiftness with which news spread in small rural communities.

  “Well, Joe, I’ve decided Merrick Johnson has the right idea. In order to be a truly patriotic American, I need to sue the pants off as many of my fellow citizens as possible.”

  “No kidding.” Joe regarded her with respect. “Pop always said you were smarter than he was when it came to the business end of the restaurant.”

  She became conscious that Joe’s attention had riveted on something behind her and knew Kalin stood in the door.

  “In fact, I have a whole new goal in life,” she added. “Outdoing Kalin McBryde in law school.”

  Chapter 4

  Casey made no attempt to speak as she started back to the table, followed closely by Kalin.

  “Slow down,” he said. “In case you’re worried, I’m not marrying Sunny Cansler. She’s an old family friend.”

  His voice rode a fine line between sarcasm and laughter, and he grasped her arm and pulled her to a halt before she could reach the dining room.

  “I’m not worried,” she said in much the same tone he had used. “In fact, I was prepared to offer you my congratulations.”

  That gave her a fair idea of how long he had been standing there listening before Joe noticed his presence.

  “You’re too kind. What did Joe want?”

  “He wanted to ask my advice on something. Bonnie is waiting.” Her heart began to pound erratically, and she tried to withdraw her arm from his hold.

  He tightened his clasp. “Casey, I want to talk to you.”

  She met his intense gaze for a fraction of a second in the dimly lit hallway. “Bonnie is waiting.” She jerked her arm free with a desperate motion. “Some other time, maybe.”

  “Tonight, then.” He made no attempt to argue with her and followed her across the dining room.

  “I told you, Kalin, I’m busy. I don’t have time to run around the way I did when I was a teenager.”

  She wasn’t ready to deal with him yet. Maybe she never would be. She couldn’t even tell if her speeding pulses were due to fear or to other emotions she feared naming.

  “You never had time to run around then,” Kalin said.

  Casey steeled herself. Kalin had said plenty during the time they had dated about her habit of working almost every night. He was about to discover that some habits never changed. As for her plans for a simpler life, managing Cap’n Bob’s would be a far lesser headache than the big French restaurant she had managed in New York, no matter how bad off it might be.

  With Kalin present, Casey and Bonnie talked only of the changes in Winnie and gossiped about the various members of their high school class. Kalin contributed occasionally, but mostly he sat watching Casey’s animated face as she described the various hilarious incidents befalling a student in culinary school.

  She turned her head to beam her most impersonal smile in Kalin’s direction. “Remember that moon watch you gave me for Christmas five years ago?”

  Kalin’s eyes were riveted on her face. “Yes.”

  “Well, I really loved that watch, but I hadn’t been there three months before it died an unnatural death in a stock pot when we were learning to make pot-au-feu.” She pulled back her sleeve and showed Bonnie her watch. “Now I buy ten-dollar watches that I don’t mind losing. I can’t count the amount of jewelry that went into the various culinary masterpieces we created.”

  Bonnie laughed and capped her story with a tale of what happened to the jewelry of beauticians.

  Kalin stared at Casey with painful intensity.

  All in all, Casey could only be glad when the lunch ended.

  Kalin insisted on picking up the bill, even though both women protested that he had eaten nothing, and escorted them out to the parking lot.

  Casey pointed to the rear of the building. “Look at that pickup of Joe’s. I wonder where he got the money to buy it if the restaurant is in the kind of trouble I think it’s in?”

  “The payments are probably what put the restaurant in the hole,” Kalin said.

  Casey agreed and listed in her mind where she’d start that afternoon. “That redfish we had was really tilapia. If the menu says redfish, what’s on the menu had better be redfish, or there should be a reason given why it isn’t.”

  “You’ve suddenly developed a militant look. Is this what you learned in cooking school?” Kalin watched her with delight.

  “Cooking school merely developed my latent abilities. I was always the managing type, I’m afraid.”

  Bonnie started to laugh. “She was. Do you remember how she talked you into stealing a big chunk of that man from Beaumont’s rice contest entry?”

  “I’ll never forget it as long as I live,” Kalin said, grinning. “I found out later he was a karate teacher. If I had known that when he was holding me by the collar … ”

  “Is he really?” Casey asked, diverted enough to look directly at Kalin. “Well, I’ll be. Is he still cooking?”

  “He won Grand Champion again last year,” Kalin said. “You know, Casey, if you enter this year, you could beat him. He’s been Grand or Reserve Champion five years in a row.”

  Casey savored the temptation, but said regretfully, “I’m sure I’d be disqualified, now that I’m a professional chef. That man had to be a genius to come up with that bombe.”

  “He always wins or places in most of the other cooking contests around here,” Kalin said. “Don’t you think it’s your duty to do something about it?”

  Casey stared into space. “The newspaper did an article on his cheesecake baking years ago. I’ll have to find it.”

  “Does this mean you’re thinking about staying in Winnie?” Bonnie demanded.

  “It depends on how Granny does.” Casey turned toward her car. “I’d better get back to the hospital and tell her about the sermon. Come on, Bonnie. She’ll love seeing you.”

  “I’ll pick you up at seven tonight,” Kalin said. “So don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Casey unlocked her car door. “I already told you, I can’t go anywhere. I’m very busy right now, what with the LSAT and all.”

  Bonnie got in the passenger side of Casey’s car, pretending she noticed nothing unusual.

  “Then you’ll just have to make time.” Kalin prevented her from slamming the car door by placing his hand inside on the headrest. “I have a few things to discuss with you.”

  She avoided answering him by staring frostily at a spot on his left shoulder that appeared to fascinate her, waited until he removed his hand, then slammed the door, and started the car.

  “See you tonight,” Kalin said, and stepped back.

  Bonnie said nothing until they were on the highway heading for the Winnie Medical Center. “He’s liable to follow us to the hospital. He’s determined to have his say, and if you want to know what I think — ”

  “I don’t.” Casey concentrated on the road.

  “ — you may as well hear what he has to say,” Bonnie finished. “Where is he picking you up?”

  “He isn’t,” Casey said. “I’m not going.”

  “Joe offered you a job,” Bonnie guessed. “I figured as much. Give you a job, and you’ll find a way to work yourself to death. And it’s common knowledge Joe would like to get the heck out of this place and go on the rodeo cir
cuit.”

  “He should. He’s almost ruined Cap’n Bob’s. It’ll take everything I know to bring it back.”

  Bonnie rolled her eyes. “It sounds like a lifetime proposition to me. Maybe you ought to buy the place. You’d do a heck of a lot better with it than Joe.”

  Casey tried to look as though the idea hadn’t already occurred to her. She had enough problems right now, what with trying to rest up and simplify her life.

  This was all Kalin’s fault. She needed a job as an excuse to avoid him, and if she wound up buying her own restaurant, she could blame that on him, too.

  She stopped at the main stoplight in town and glanced at Bonnie. The satisfied expression on Bonnie’s face told its own story, and Casey wondered if she was really that transparent.

  She hadn’t been home a day, and already she was making plans to stay.

  • • •

  Casey spent the afternoon delegating tasks and stirring the Cap’n Bob’s staff into action.

  She perched on a stepladder, scrubbing down the Louisiana bayou mural with paper towels and a bottle of cleaning spray. She wore old jeans and a red sweatshirt, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, from which several locks escaped.

  Cap’n Bob’s was noticeably thin of customers, so Casey put the employees to work doing small cleaning chores. The two waitresses applied cleaner to the windows, and the cook scraped his grill as if a Marine drill sergeant stood over him.

  Joe Kerns was invisible, as Casey had shown the kindness not to hand him a bottle of cleaner. She had, however, looked around his office critically and suggested that he sort through his newspapers, as one or two of them looked like throwaways.

  “It’s seven o’clock, Casey Gray, and you’re through here for the evening,” Kalin said.

  Casey, unaware of his approach, started violently and felt the stepladder rock beneath her feet. The next moment she was lifted off it by two strong hands that closed around her waist like clamps.

  “On the contrary,” she returned, glaring as well as she could with her hands full of paper towels and cleaner and her feet dangling at least a foot off the floor. “I’ve just gotten started.”

  Kalin set her down and took the spray and towels out of her hands. He deposited them on a nearby table.

  “You have to eat, and I’d be willing to bet you haven’t had a bite since lunch,” he said. “Get your coat.”

  He wore dark slacks, a camel sport jacket, and a red tie — indications of his plans for the evening.

  Casey backed off. He looked masculine and determined, besides making her feel weak simply by being Kalin.

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Are you sure you want to have this conversation here? With all the help standing around listening?”

  “Why not? Call it chapter two in the ongoing saga. What’s a little five-year delay?”

  Casey wondered if she had flipped out. After all her resolve never to mention their public breakup again, here she stood, dredging it up and issuing a direct challenge.

  He smiled at her. “You can either walk out with me like a lady, or you can get hauled out like the little heifer you are. Your choice.”

  When Kalin smiled like that, he meant exactly what he said. Casey wouldn’t put it past him to haul her out over his shoulder. And she was hungry, she reminded herself.

  “All right. Let me get my jacket.”

  She wasn’t surprised when he walked with her to the desk where she had stashed her coat. She went to the kitchen window and told the cook she would be back in an hour.

  “It will be more like two or three hours,” Kalin said over her shoulder.

  Casey decided to save her energy for the ordeal ahead. No doubt Kalin would love for her to contradict him in front of the employees.

  “That’s right. Throw your weight around,” she said in acid tones.

  “I gave you fair warning.” He shoved open the doors and guided her into the cool, damp darkness of the evening.

  The only light in the dark parking lot came from the two bulbs over the entrance to Cap’n Bob’s. The two large arc lights that were supposed to light the parking lot needed replacing. Casey made a mental note of that fact.

  “Stop thinking about this stupid restaurant.” Kalin opened the door of his SUV for her. “Tonight, you’re going to think about me for a change.”

  She held on to her temper with supreme difficulty. This was not a moment to let him know she was inches away from screaming at him. “All right, Kalin. What do you want to say that you haven’t already said?”

  The overhead light in Kalin’s SUV illuminated his face, and he held her fixed with his steady, outdoorsman’s gaze.

  “Apparently I’d better say it all again,” he said with quiet determination. “I don’t think any of it took.”

  Casey braced herself. Kalin McBryde was the type of man who liked to be sure you thoroughly understood his position. Maybe he wanted to be certain she knew where she stood in his estimation.

  Too bad she no longer cared to know.

  “Oh, it took all right. You don’t see me casting myself at your feet, do you?” She gave him her best glare. “You know what Granny always said: ‘Don’t trouble trouble, when trouble’s not troubling you.’”

  At that, Kalin smiled. “Are you saying you’re trouble?”

  “Are you sure you want to find out?”

  “Sit down, Casey.”

  “I’m sure you’ll understand when I say I’d rather not.”

  “Sit down, Casey.” He moved closer, crowding her back against the seat. “You don’t want me to steal a kiss, do you?”

  She sat, fuming.

  “And if you’d like to try casting yourself at my feet, I’m prepared,” he added in suggestive tones.

  She gathered herself to rise. “Don’t hold your breath.”

  Kalin placed a hand on her shoulder. “Would it help if I cast myself at your feet?”

  “Don’t you dare,” she yelled.

  It was too late. Kalin dropped to his knees on the shell-covered parking lot and assumed the pose of a young man presenting his beloved with an engagement ring.

  “Oh, gorgeous female — ouch. Try to restrain your passion until I finish. Please deign to spend a few moments in my company and allow me to spend a few dollars of my hard-earned money buying you dinner — ouch. Casey Gray, if you kick me one more time, I’ll steal more than a kiss.”

  “Then get up from there.” She grasped a handful of his crisp dark hair and tugged. “How did you know I was here?”

  “Trade secret.” Kalin rose and pretended to favor his leg where she’d kicked him.

  “You called Bonnie,” she accused. “The traitor.”

  “I’m going to shut the door and come around.” He grinned at her. “Perhaps I should warn you that any movement on your part to escape will be met with my famous flying tackle.”

  This triggered memories of playing football with Kalin and being tumbled to the thick grass beneath him, where he held her still and kissed her. She closed her eyes.

  Kalin slid in beside her and shut his own door. The overhead light went off, and Casey counted her blessings. At least she didn’t have to face him in the light.

  “What is it you want to talk about?”

  “Don’t rush me,” Kalin said.

  She heard the smile in his voice. “Do you mind if I take a nap while you prepare?”

  “Surely I’m not that boring.” He paused. “Let me begin with a question. What is it I said five years ago that makes you think you can no longer look me in the eye?”

  She winced inwardly. “I didn’t know I couldn’t.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Casey. It’s on a par with those neutral little cards and notes I’ve gotten from you for
the last five years. You hope I’ll be satisfied and go away and leave you alone. How does it feel to find out I’m still on your case?”

  “Awful. I can’t begin to describe it.”

  Kalin chuckled. He laid one arm along the back of the seat and tugged a lock of her hair that had escaped her ponytail. “Look, I’ve already told you how sorry I am about all that nonsense I said to you five years ago. Maybe it will help if I also tell you it didn’t take me long to learn that a man is damned lucky if he finds a woman who responds to him physically the way you did to me.”

  “I won’t ask where you learned that.” Casey wondered if it was possible for her face to glow in the dark.

  “Good.” Kalin chuckled once more. “I’d hate to have to tell you.” His voice grew serious. “I was already ashamed of the way I’d treated you when you begged me not to break off our relationship. There were other ways I could have handled it without losing my temper in public and deliberately saying things I knew would hurt you. Believe it or not, I don’t like my memories of that time any better than you like yours.”

  She believed that. Kalin had never liked hurting people and was always quick to apologize if he thought he had.

  “What I also don’t like,” he continued inexorably, “is that you obviously still have trouble dealing with those memories.”

  Casey twisted her hands together in her lap. Kalin would sit there all night if necessary, until he felt satisfied.

  “Well, it isn’t easy for me to come home knowing that everyone in town remembered what a wonderful scene I’d created. I figured Merrick’s party would give us both a chance to get it behind us.” Her voice took on an aggrieved tone. “But instead of behaving with restraint and dignity, you had to make a show of dragging me off to dance in the dark.”

  Kalin broke into laughter. “As you may recall, restraint and dignity have never been on my list of virtues.”

  “I know,” she grumbled. “So now that you’ve given everyone in town something good to talk about, how about backing off?”

  “What is it you think I’m up to, darling? Are you afraid I want to take up where I left off five years ago?”