Luke scowled at her. “Weren’t you the one who used to tell me repeatedly that I was too lenient, that I gave Tommy the benefit of the doubt too often?”
“That was then. This is now.”
“What’s the difference? Tommy hasn’t changed.”
“Maybe he has, maybe he hasn’t. You won’t know for sure until you’ve spent some time with him.”
“I can’t risk letting him around Robby.”
“Then spend time with him away from the house. Take him fishing. Give him a job. Whatever it takes for you to get to know him again. Judge for yourself what his real motive is.”
“I know...”
Katie shook her head. “You’re reacting with all the pain and anger you felt when he ran off six years ago and left you to deal with Betty Sue.”
“It’s not just what happened back then. He’s threatening to take my son.”
“But you may be able to stop him.”
“Exactly. In court.”
Katie shook her head. “Maybe just by giving him his family back.”
“I can’t take that risk,” Luke said with an edge of desperation in his voice as his gaze sought out his son who was pedaling his bike like crazy while Mrs. Jeffers struggled to keep up with him.
“You can’t not take it,” Katie countered.
“I married you to keep Tommy out of our lives. Now you want me to welcome him back,” he said, running his fingers through his hair in a gesture of frustration. “What the hell went wrong?”
Katie ignored the pain that sliced through her at his blunt assessment of his reason for marrying her. Forcing a grin, she shrugged. “Hey, if you misjudged me, maybe you’ve misjudged Tommy, too.”
She watched as he struggled to accept her challenge. A part of her wished he would ignore her pleas. Because if it turned out she was wrong about his brother, she knew without a doubt that she would lose Luke for the second time in her life. This time she wasn’t sure she would ever recover.
CHAPTER NINE
The next morning Katie figured that as long as she was back in Clover anyway and wide awake, she might as well go in for her regular shift at Peg’s Diner. Despite Luke’s promised bailout of the boarding house, she wanted to contribute as much as possible to the upkeep. She was determined that Luke not mistake for one minute that it was her business.
Peg was still checking the setups of napkins, salt, pepper and sugar on all the tables when Katie unlocked the diner’s front door just past dawn. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee scented the air. Katie headed straight for the pot and poured herself a cup before Peg could even manage to snap her mouth shut.
“And just what do you think you’re doing in here?” Peg inquired, facing her down, eyes blazing.
“Unless you’ve fired me, I work here.”
“You’re on your honeymoon.”
Katie shrugged. “We’re home. I figured I might as well get back into my regular routine.”
Just then the sound of another key being turned in the front door had Katie spinning around. She turned just in time to see Ginger catch sight of her and freeze, her expression uncertain. Katie stared at her teenaged boarder.
“What are you doing here?”
Ginger regarded Katie with dismay, then turned to Peg. “You didn’t tell her?”
“Tell me what?” Katie demanded.
Peg sighed heavily. “Well, the truth of it is that I hired Ginger to take your place.”
“You mean while I was out of town,” Katie said slowly, looking from one to the other. Both women looked guilty as sin. She began to get the idea that she was not going to like any further elaboration they offered.
“Not exactly,” Peg admitted. “Actually, I figured now that you’re married and have Robby and all, you’d be too busy to be carrying a full load here the way you were doing before.”
“So you fired me?” Katie said incredulously. “Without even talking to me about it?”
“I didn’t fire you,” Peg insisted.
“Just replaced me.”
“I cut back on your hours,” she countered.
“How far back?” Katie challenged. “You know this place can’t afford to keep two waitresses on the payroll besides you.” She glanced at Ginger’s crestfallen expression. “Ginger, would you mind leaving me alone with my aunt for a minute?”
“Sure, Katie. I’ll help Sonny in the kitchen.” She rushed through the swinging door to the back as if she couldn’t get away from the tension-filled atmosphere fast enough.
“You’re not telling me everything, are you?” Katie demanded. “You wouldn’t do something like this all on your own. I’m practically your own flesh and blood, for goodness’ sakes. You wouldn’t just toss me out on my rear end without someone putting you up to it.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Peg replied, looking everywhere but into Katie’s eyes. Her hand was shaking so badly, she’d spilled more salt all over the table, than she’d gotten into the shaker.
Katie recognized all the signs indicating the depth of her aunt’s distress. Normally Peg was as steady-handed and direct as any person on the face of the earth. “Peg, you are my aunt and I love you, but you are a pitiful liar. This was Luke’s idea, wasn’t it?”
Finally Peg’s gaze clashed directly with hers. “Well, for once, I agreed with him,” she said with a touch of defiance. “You were working yourself to death before. It’ll only be worse now, if you try to keep doing everything.”
Indignation and outrage boiled over inside Katie. “If I want to work myself to death, it’s my decision,” she practically shouted. Forcing herself to lower her voice, she said, “Dammit, I like being busy. I like working with you. I like talking to the customers.”
Peg’s determined expression faltered. “I had no idea it would even matter to you,” she said. “If I had...well, I have no idea what I would have done. Luke was very persuasive.”
“Did he offer to pay Ginger’s salary?” Katie inquired irritably.
Peg
