Robby grinned, his smile so exactly like Luke’s that Katie’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t tell from Luke’s expression if he was laughing at his own mistake or was simply pleased to see Robby being welcomed so warmly.
“Will you be my grandma?” Robby asked Mrs. Jeffers. “My real grandmas died.”
“I would be honored to be your grandma,” Mrs. Jeffers said, looking pleased as punch.
“You smell nice, like flowers,” Robby announced.
Mrs. Jeffers, whose own grandchildren lived on the West Coast, beamed at Katie. “Dear, I do believe this is going to work out rather well.”
The others nodded in agreement. Katie wished she were half so certain.
As the meeting at the Clover Street Boarding House ended with one of Mr. O’Reilly’s fresh fruit cobblers being dished up and served to everyone, Luke gave Ginger a suspicious wink that had Katie crossing the room in a flash.
“Thanks for letting me know,” he said as Katie joined them.
She was just in time to overhear him and guess that he was referring to tonight’s meeting. If that hadn’t confirmed her earlier suspicion, Ginger’s blushing cheeks would have.
“It was no big deal. I just figured if you were going to be living here, you should be a part of it,” Ginger said, evading Katie’s gaze. “See you. I’ve got studying to do.”
“My, my, another conquest,” Katie observed, unable to curb her irritation with Luke’s intrusion into her meeting. “What did you do to win her over? Offer to buy her a new car? Maybe pay her way through college?”
Luke, blast him, refused to rise to the taunt. He grinned at her indignant tone. “You’re the only one around here I’m buying off, Katie. Swear to God.”
Swear to God. Those were the words Luke had always used to convince her that he was being totally honest. He tended to use them loosely, which somewhat dimmed their ability to reassure.
“Buying off?” she repeated lightly. “I made a legitimate business deal. That’s all.”
His grin remained unrepentant. “Then you must be afraid you’re losing your grip around here. Is that what’s made you so cranky and suspicious all of a sudden?” he inquired in that lazy, amused tone that set Katie’s teeth on edge.
Before she could reply, he gestured to Mrs. Jeffers. “Hey, darlin’, would you mind keeping an eye on Robby for a bit? I’d like to take Katie for a walk. She needs to cool off.”
Given the fact that it was still ninety degrees outside, Katie assumed the remark had to do with her temper, not the temperature.
Mrs. Jeffers, who’d apparently missed Luke’s true meaning or assumed it was some lover’s ruse to get Katie alone, beamed. “You two young people go right ahead. Robby and I will play a game of checkers until you get back. He tells me he’s world-champion caliber.”
Luke brushed a kiss on the woman’s weathered cheek, then whispered, “I hear you’re the champ of the boarding house. Go easy on him.”
Katie watched the teasing exchange with her irritation mounting by unreasonable leaps and bounds. “Trying to rub salt in the wound?” she inquired when he’d propelled her outside.
“What wound would that be?”
“That you can take over here anytime you want. You’re obviously trying to win over Mrs. Jeffers. And you already have Ginger reporting every move I make to you.” She paused on the front steps and frowned at him. “How did you get her to spill the beans about tonight’s meeting, anyway?”
“I ran into her at the library. We got to talking. She mentioned the meeting. It was hardly a sinister, premeditated act of treason.”
Katie sniffed. “That depends on your point of view, I suppose. Just in case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you that we made a deal. You’re not supposed to interfere with my tenants.”
He regarded her with amusement. “What interference? I’m just being friendly. If we’re all going to be living together, we need to get along, isn’t that right?”
Thoroughly exasperated, Katie couldn’t think of a single way to fault that logic. “I suppose,” she said grudgingly. “I just want it on the record that I don’t like what you did tonight.”
“Showing up?”
“Taking over.”
“Katie, I did not take over,” he said reasonably. “Come on. Let’s walk.”
She followed him without argument, still seething over what had happened earlier, even though she suspected she might be overreacting just the teensiest bit. She blamed it on nerves over the wedding that was less than twenty-four hours away.
The truth was, though, if she didn’t take a firm stand now, the next thing she knew Luke would be running her boarding house and she would be doing...what? She had no idea what she would do if she lost control of the boarding house.
Starting up that business, buying the old McAllister place and making a go of it had been the only thing that had saved her sanity after Luke had left town.
“You did, you know,” she accused.
He regarded her as if he’d forgotten the argument. “Did what?”
“Take over.”
“Katie, I barely said two words.”
“But those were the only words they listened to,” she grumbled.
“Sweetheart...”
The endearment grated. “I am not your sweetheart. I’m your business partner.”
“Okay, partner. It was only natural that they want to know where I stand. I’m marrying you. I’m moving in. I’m an unknown quantity, someone who could disrupt their lives. They wanted to hear straight from me what my role is going to be. What did you expect me to do?”
“You could have deferred to me,” she said. “Maybe reminded them that it’s still my boarding house, that you’re only a silent partner, that you have other, more important fish to fry.” Struck by an unexpected thought, she regarded him worriedly. “You do, don’t you? You haven’t retired
