Obviously she and Luke were not going out for a romantic dinner, Katie decided with some disappointment just as Peg turned up wearing her best dress, the one she usually saved for holidays and weddings.
“Everybody ready?” Luke asked cheerfully.
Katie planted her feet and regarded him warily. “What’s this all about? And where is Robby?”
“Robby is with Lucy and Max. Now stop asking so many questions or you’ll spoil the surprise.”
“I really hate surprises,” she muttered.
“Since when?” Peg asked, urging her toward the door. “From the time you were a little, bitty thing, you loved surprises.”
“Not anymore,” she declared right before her mouth went slack with shock.
Outside, a long, sleek limousine was parked at the curb. Half the neighborhood was standing around gawking at it. Her boarders strolled down the sidewalk as regally as any royalty on earth. Even Ginger managed to act as if this were an everyday occurrence. Katie had no choice but to go along or spoil everyone else’s good time, but her suspicious instincts were working overtime.
An hour later as they headed north along the coast, she began to get an inkling of where they were headed at least. There were some wonderful seafood restaurants between Clover and Myrtle Beach. Unfortunately the limo sped past most of them.
Just as she was about to demand answers to all the questions reeling in her head, the limo pulled off the road. Katie peered around at the large, unfamiliar, indistinctive parking lot, then glanced up at the marquee. A smile broke across her face as she read, Appearing Tonight Only, Country Singer Tom Cassidy.
She threw her arms around Luke’s neck and kissed him. “You did it! You helped him get a job singing.”
Luke shook his head. “As much as I’d like to take the credit, I can’t. He did it himself. I just made a couple of calls. The club’s owners wouldn’t have brought him in if he hadn’t performed well at the audition.”
“Have you heard him sing?” She thought of the night in her backyard, “I mean really sing, not just fooling around.”
“A little at the office one day,” he admitted, reminding her of the time she’d called and overheard Tommy’s guitar in the background. “It sounded good to me, but I’m tone deaf.”
“That’s true enough,” Katie agreed, but she couldn’t seem to stop grinning at him. The fact that he had taken a chance on Tommy, had offered him this shot, it had to mean that the two of them were finally making their peace.
The management of the small restaurant had clearly been expecting them. A special table had been set up near the stage, and they were ushered there with a maximum of fuss. Katie could see that Luke had gone out of his way to see that the others all felt as if they were as special tonight as Tommy. He was as attentive to Mrs. Jeffers as he was to Peg. He teased Ginger and joked with Mr. O’Reilly.
He treated them all like family, Katie thought with a sense of astonishment. A warm feeling of contentment stole through her at the realization.
And when Tommy finally came out to sing, there was no mistaking the pride shining in Luke’s eyes. He reached for Katie’s hand and clung to it. His foot tapped to the faster rhythms and his eyes shimmered with unshed tears, when Tommy’s voice caressed the notes of the more emotional love-gone-wrong songs.
When the mellow tones and words of heartache ended, applause erupted with an enthusiasm that would have rivaled any Garth Brooks concert, albeit the crowd was much smaller. Luke stared around him at the rest of the audience with an unmistakable mix of amazement and delight.
“He was good, wasn’t he?” he asked Katie, a grin spreading across his face.
“Fantastic,” she confirmed. “Offhand, I’d say your brother has what it takes to make it.”
A moment later Tommy emerged from the shadows and walked hesitantly toward them, stopping along the way to accept congratulations from others in the audience. His gaze, though, never left his big brother. When he was only a few feet away, Luke rose and went to meet him.
Katie couldn’t hear what was said, but she had no trouble at all guessing what it meant when Luke opened his arms and embraced his brother. Tears clung to her lashes and spilled down her cheeks as she watched them.
Suddenly she felt a slight tug on her arm and turned to look into Ginger’s awestruck eyes. “Would you introduce me?” she pleaded. “He is totally awesome!”
Tommy? Awesome? Katie barely hid her grin. Then she took another look at her brother-in-law and realized that she’d been right when she’d told Luke that Tommy’s brooding good looks would appeal to women. He’d dressed in black, from his cowboy hat down to his boots. The attire did wicked things to his blue eyes, which seemed brighter and more alive tonight than at any other time Katie could recall.
Katie slid over to the chair Luke had vacated and gestured to Tommy to sit in hers. When she introduced him to Ginger, the teenager’s face turned bright red for a second before she gathered her composure. To Katie’s astonishment, Tommy seemed equally dumbstruck. She thanked heaven that Ginger’s eighteenth birthday was less than a week away. She got the distinct impression that Tommy would be coming to call.
Before she could start worrying about what kind of influence Tommy might be on Ginger or how Luke would feel about him hanging around the boarding house, Luke reached out and tugged her onto the tiny dance floor. His arms came around her and she nestled against his chest.
“Happy?” he asked.
“Very.” She looked up at him. “You must be
