“Kat!” Kat looked up to see Grace Danvers moving toward her, a bright smile on her face. “I haven’t seen you in ages! How are you?”
Grace was a pretty, young woman, recently turned twenty-four, and her once-long blonde hair was now in a bob that reached right below her chin. Despite her stylish haircut, though, she still wore her usual skirts and peasant tops, a smudge of flour on her cheek.
Kat hugged her close. “It has been too long,” she admitted as she sat down at a nearby booth. “How are you, though?”
Grace beamed. She thrust out her hand, and Kat couldn’t help but gasp as she saw the ring sparkling on her finger.
“Oh, Grace,” she said, gazing at the bright sapphire ring. “It’s gorgeous. When did Jaime ask you?”
“Just yesterday. I had no idea he was going to do it, the jerk. I was so surprised I couldn’t think of anything to say, and he just about had a heart attack.” Grace handed Kat a menu. “I mean, we’d talked about getting engaged, but I didn’t expect it to happen for a while yet.”
“I’m so happy for you.” And Kat was, although her heart squeezed with a bite of jealousy all the same. She’d seen how Grace and Jaime had almost lost each other, and seeing them happy and in love now made her glad that she’d helped them in a small way. After Jaime had been accused of stealing from the vineyard, Kat had assisted Grace with discovering—and finding real evidence of—the actual culprit. And now the two of them would be getting married.
“But what about you?” Grace asked, scooting into the seat opposite her. At Kat’s look, Grace waved a hand. “No one’s around, and Trudy’s in the kitchen.”
Kat hesitated. She couldn’t very well tell Grace about kissing her brother, could she? And she didn’t want to talk about the game or the emails. “Everything’s good. Just been working, you know. The daily grind.”
“You still like teaching?”
“For the most part. Sometimes it can be difficult, but the kids are sweet. I think it helps that I’m not teaching middle school or high school. Teenagers are kind of terrifying.”
Grace smiled. “Seriously. I remember what I was like at thirteen and shudder.”
“I think we all do.” Kat shrugged, not sure what else to tell Grace. “Otherwise it’s been pretty uneventful.”
Okay, that was a lie. A big ole fat lie.
Grace traced something on the table. “I heard about Emma, about what you did,” she said quietly. “I hope you know how grateful we all are. I know Gavin can’t thank you enough.”
A flush of pleasure filled Kat. “It wasn’t anything, really. I did what anyone else would do.” She bit the inside of her cheek now, wondering if she was overstepping her bounds. But Grace was more…receptive than the other members of the Danvers family. “Is Emma…do you know what’s going on? She’s quiet and shy as usual in my class. Almost too quiet, if I’m being honest.”
Grace let out a long sigh. “I wish I could tell you, but Gavin is so protective of her, even when it comes to the rest of the family. I saw her yesterday, and she seemed like you described her. But I still worry. About them both. They’ve gone through so much…” She rubbed her forehead, suddenly looking older than twenty-four. “I just hope they can figure things out, you know?”
Kat did know. She’d thought about Emma ever since she’d discovered her in that closet, and more and more, she wondered if the girl had some kind of illness that couldn’t just be classified as being homesick or missing her mother. Kat wasn’t an expert, and she wasn’t a psychiatrist, but she’d dealt with anxiety and had a panic attack more than once in her life, and she couldn’t help but think Emma was suffering something similar.
“Has Gavin taken her to anyone?” Kat couldn’t help but ask.
“Not recently, no. He and Emma had a bad experience with a therapist last year, and I think it’s scared my brother away since.”
Someone called Grace’s name, and the girl popped up out of the booth like a jack-in-the-box. “Gotta run. But Kat,” she said as she touched her arm, “I feel like if anyone could get through to my brother, it would be you.”
Kat’s eyebrows rose to her hairline. “Me?”
“Yes, you. I may be a bit of an airhead, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Kat, he’s smiled at you. He doesn’t smile at anyone. Well, except Emma, although not as much recently since he’s been so worried about her.”
“I don’t think I’m the best person…” Kat trailed off, not sure how to explain.
“Just, don’t take my brother’s aloofness as him not caring, okay? He’s a hard nut to crack, but I swear, when you do crack it, it’ll be worth it.” Someone called Grace’s name again, and she called back an “I’m coming!” before snagging the menu and running into the back, leaving Kat to try to figure out how she felt about all this.
In times of emotional distress, Kat generally preferred to lay things out in a logical order. She was a computer programmer; everything in life had its own kind of code, she reasoned. She snagged a piece of paper from her purse and began scribbling on it.
What I do know, she wrote at the top.
I’m attracted to Gavin
Proof: I want(ed) him to kiss me
He’s attracted to me.
Proof: He want(ed) to kiss me
I like him as a person
Proof: I like talking to him. I want to know more about him. I can’t stop thinking about him, etc.
He likes me as a person.
Proof: He likes talking to me (debatable: he doesn’t talk much in general). He wants to know more about me (debatable: he hasn’t
