East of Easy Read online

  Let me give you my address and number,” Cheryl said, balancing the baby on one hip while leaning in the opposite direction to dig one-handed into her overstuffed purse.

  Kate reached out, offering to hold TJ while Cheryl fumbled for pen and paper. The baby held out his pudgy hands, stubby little fingers snapping open and closed in the universal “take me” gesture. When Kate lifted him, he curled perfectly into the crook of her arm, nuzzling his face against the side of her neck. He smelled fresh and sweet in the way only babies and bakeries can, triggering maternal yearnings Kate never knew she had.

  As soon as Cheryl finished scribbling her address and phone number, Kate handed the baby back. His softness was too tempting and she couldn’t afford to add one more desire to the list of things she couldn’t have.

  Kate tucked the address into her purse as they said their goodbyes, already looking forward to an evening of home cooking and hospitality. Winding through the department store aisles, she picked up a coffee grinder, fresh roasted beans and a mug. Delicate bone china was fine for tea, but coffee deserved a sturdy mug.

  Kate’s step was lighter as she finished her shopping and she didn’t feel quite so alone in the town she no longer called home. At least there was one person who smiled and offered a hand in welcome.

  *

  Max felt like he’d been rode hard and put away wet. No matter how long he worked, there were still too many chores and not enough hands on the ranch to help out. At this rate, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep the ranch going.

  But that was the least of his problems. The work couldn’t take his mind off Kate. He kept going over their encounter in his mind, but it didn’t make sense. Why was she so angry with him?

  Her accusations had left him speechless. She’d claimed he’d taken advantage of her once before, that she wasn’t that young, foolish girl anymore. Then she’d stormed off in a cloud of dust and anger, leaving him for the second time in his life. He couldn’t help but wonder just who had taken advantage of whom.

  He remembered the last time she’d run out on him. They’d been dating seven months, and things were getting serious. It had been a week before the prom and they’d gone to the drive-in. He’d snuck a six-pack into the cooler that night and drank five cans to Kitty’s one. The rest of his memory was a little hazy, but things had gotten hot and heavy in the backseat. He remembered wanting her so badly that he thought he’d explode. They’d argued. She’d pushed him away. He’d tried to make up, but his mind hadn’t been working right and he’d said all the wrong things. But jeez, she had to know he wouldn’t have forced himself on her. Didn’t she?

  He never did get the chance to prove it. She’d stormed out of his car, angry and in tears. At first he’d just sat there, sure she’d cool off and come back. But she hadn’t. He’d waited, but eventually the beer got the best of him and he’d ended up sleeping off the alcohol alone in the backseat. When he came to, the drive-in was clearing out and there was no sign of Kate.

  The next day he’d heard she’d gone home with Ed Tate. If it had been anyone else, Max probably would have just blown it off. But Ed Tate? That hurt his pride more than anything. He’d waited for Kate to call and apologize for dumping him for Ed, but she hadn’t. A week had gone by. Maybe if he’d called, things would have been different.

  Stubborn, that’s what he was.

  Next thing he knew, Kate had stood him up for the prom. Max had stayed home rather than watch her dancing with some other guy—especially Ed Tate. But Sue had told him that Kate had been seen the next morning sneaking out of some seedy motel with Tate. So much for keeping her virginity. She’d made him the laughing stock of high school after that…the only boy who hadn’t gotten a piece of the action. He’d tried to ignore the rumors, tried not to believe them, but it seemed every guy in the locker room had a story to tell about Kitty Feathers.

  Most of all, he remembered Ed Tate’s smug smile afterward, the way he’d looked at Max as if he’d finally succeeded in getting something Max didn’t have first. Then the months when Kate wouldn’t answer his calls and the snickering and gossip grew and spread until he thought he was the only man left in town who hadn’t slept with Kitty Feathers. She’d taken his love and thrown it back in his face. And all the time he was left wondering how she could have changed so completely and quickly.

  And yet he’d still hoped she’d come to her senses and they’d manage to straighten things out. But before he knew it, she was gone, changing her plans to attend Arizona State with him and running off to New York City. When had she decided that? And still he’d held onto the possibility that she’d come back home after college. She hadn’t.

  Not until now. And now she was back with a chip on her shoulder, acting like she was the injured party, when she’d been the one to dump him and strut around town like some little—

  Sue brought him a cup of coffee, interrupting his thoughts. She placed the mug on the table and sat across from him. “So, you never said what Kate Feathers wanted.”

  Max blew on the steaming coffee then took a deep swallow. She wanted to tear a strip off my backside, that’s what she wanted. But Max didn’t say that out loud. “Something about Lillian’s will.”

  Sue’s eyes lit up. “Lillian always said she’d leave something to the ranch someday. I thought it was just idle talk.”

  “Guess not.”

  Sue ran one hand up and down her arm. “Did she say how much?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Max said, setting his mug on the table. “I’m not taking it.”

  “Max!”

  “We’re doing just fine without it,” he said.

  “That’s not true and you know it. Every day we fall deeper and deeper in debt. If we keep going the way we are, we’ll lose the ranch by the end of the year. What about Bobby? And the other kids?”

  That took some of the wind out of Max’s sails. His pride was one thing, but he couldn’t let the kids down. Not after all the good they’d done here.

  “Lillian believed in what we’re doing,” Sue insisted. “She would have wanted the money to be used to keep the ranch going, to keep the kids in therapy.”

  “I’ll find another way.” If he had to work around the clock to keep the ranch running, he would. But he’d be damned if he’d take one red cent from Kate Feathers.

  Chapter Seven

  Kate balanced the bags from the department store in her arms and fiddled with the lock on the front door. The key was stuck. Knowing her mother, Kate figured Lillian probably hadn’t used it in years. No one locked their doors in Easy County.

  She jiggled the key, one bag slipping dangerously as she tried to unlock the door.

  “Need a hand?”

  Kate turned, and Ed Tate took a bag from her arms before it could slide from her grasp.

  “Thanks,” she muttered, finally getting the key to turn in the lock.

  She opened the door and Ed followed her inside. She turned to retrieve the bag but he shook his head.

  “I’ve got it,” he said. “Just tell me where you want it.”

  “Put it on the counter there,” Kate said, hoping he wouldn’t hang around too long. She had a pounding headache and wanted a cup of coffee so bad she could taste it, but didn’t dare attempt to unwrap her newly purchased coffeemaker. Ed might take that as an unspoken invitation.

  She dropped the rest of her bags on the couch and turned to face him. “Thanks for helping, but I’m a little pressed for time.”

  He didn’t take the hint, instead leaning back against her mother’s roll-top desk and settling in for what seemed to be a long chat. “It’s good to see you again, Kate. Sorry it had to be under such tragic circumstances.”

  Kate nodded. Maybe if she just heard him out he’d get to the point and leave that much sooner.

  “We had some good times back then.”

  She hoped he wasn’t going to get all nostalgic. She wasn’t in the mood for a trip down memory lane.

  “Have you thought a
ny more about the reunion? My offer still stands.” He winked, as if offering her the moon and the stars and just waiting for her to leap at the opportunity.

  “I really don’t think so,” Kate said. “I’m just here long enough to get my mother’s things in order and hold down the fort until Jeff and Sally return from their honeymoon.”

  Ed’s smile vanished. His eyes became cold, sending a shiver down Kate’s spine. Her annoyance turned to alarm at finding herself alone with him. Suddenly she didn’t feel so safe.

  “Funny,” he said. “Despite our family’s differences, there’s always been a connection.”

  Kate blinked, not sure what he was talking about at first.

  “I mean, Jeff and Sally getting married. Who’d have thought there’d be a Tate-Feathers union someday? Of course, that’s not the first time…”

  Kate knew what he was getting at. The day Kate’s father left and ran off with Ginny Tate it had seemed as if their whole world had fallen apart. But Lillian had worked hard to keep their little family together and held her head up high.

  Jebediah Feathers had married Ginny Tate and for a few months, Ed had actually been her stepbrother. He was right. Despite the long-standing feud, there’d always been some strange connection between the two families. Now that Jeff and Sally were married, Ed was her brother-in-law. But if the look in his eyes was any indication, he wanted the connection to be even stronger. Kate shuddered. That was the last thing she wanted.

  Ed watched her, as if reading her thoughts, a look of animal cunning on his face. “You know,” he said finally, “I always thought maybe you and I would be the ones to put an end to the feud once and for all.”

  He waited for her response. She wasn’t sure what to say, so she made a joke instead. “Not gonna happen,” she said. “Who would take me seriously if my name was Kate Tate?”

  Ed didn’t even crack a smile. She should have known better than to try to appeal to his nonexistent sense of humor.

  Kate took a deep breath and changed the subject. “There’s no more feud,” she said, inching farther away from him. “Jeff and Sally are married, Lillian’s gone, I’m going back to New York and what happened with my father and your mother was a long time ago. It’s over.”

  Ed watched her carefully. Then, as if coming to a decision, he straightened. “Not quite over,” he said.

  Again Kate noticed the chill in his eyes. She was glad she hadn’t come right out and rejected him directly. There was no telling what he was capable of if pushed too far.

  “I’m afraid I have some bad news,” he said.

  Kate rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, trying to push away the headache that had settled there. She wasn’t sure she could take any more bad news. Not today, not ever. She just wanted to get back to her quiet, solitary life without all of this small-town intrigue. She wanted to get as far away from Easy as she could.

  She took a deep breath then let it out slowly. “What bad news?”

  Ed looked away, then back again. “It’s about your mother’s estate.”

  Kate shook her head. Did he know about her mother leaving a third of her estate to Max? And why should that concern him? She knew that Ed and Max had always been competitive, but had hoped they’d outgrown that boyhood rivalry by now.

  Ed cleared his throat. “I hate to bring this nasty business up at a time like this,” he said, not looking the least bit unhappy about it, “but when your father died, he left everything he had to my mother.”

  Kate nodded. If she recalled correctly, her father hadn’t had much at the time other than the clothes on his back. They’d struggled to make ends meet, and if Lillian hadn’t opened the Tea and Crumpet Shop on that run-down piece of property…

  Kate blinked, comprehension coming slowly. The property.

  As if sensing the understanding she’d come to, Ed nodded. “Your father’s name was on the title to that property.”

  “No,” Kate said, refusing to believe what she was hearing.

  Ed nodded. “I’m afraid so. And as his legal heir, the property reverted to my mother on his death.”

  “But that was years ago,” Kate argued. “It wasn’t worth a plugged nickel back then. My mother built the shop and turned it into a thriving business. If your mother had any claim to it, why didn’t she come forward sooner? Why now?”

  “Well, contrary to what your family always thought,” Ed explained, “my mother is a tender-hearted person. She felt bad enough falling in love with Jebediah and leaving you kids without a father. She didn’t want to take the food out of your mouths as well by claiming her rightful ownership of the property.”

  That was a load of bull and they both knew it. Kate felt her fury mounting. Her mother’s body wasn’t even cold and the vultures were circling, picking away bits and pieces of everything she’d worked so hard for. First Max and now the Tates.

  “So let me get this straight,” Kate said, her voice tight with anger. “Out of the goodness of her heart, Ginny Tate let my mother build a successful business on this property. And in all these years she didn’t so much as whisper a word about claiming her share until now? Is that right?”

  “Like I said, my mother is a compassionate person. She wanted to leave Lillian with some dignity.”

  Kate snorted. That was as far from the truth as humanly possible.

  “But now,” Ed continued, “with Sally and Jeff married… Well, she just figures it would be best to keep the business in the family. We can all work together as co-owners of the Tea and Crumpet Shop.”

  “Over my dead body,” Kate snarled.

  “Now, Kate, I assure you it’s all legal—”

  Before he could finish the sentence, he jerked forward and howled. He pulled his hand away from where it had been resting on her mother’s desk. The cup she’d left there began rocking at the sudden motion, clattering in its saucer.

  Ed held up his finger. “What the hell? Something bit me!”

  Kate looked from his hand to Lillian’s cup, a strange and sudden thought coming to her. Hadn’t the cup seemed to thrum in her hands when she’d held it? What had Madame Zostra said when she’d looked into it? That her mother was trying to tell her something. And now…

  She shook her head. No, that wasn’t possible. Her mother hadn’t come back to haunt her in a teacup.

  “Let me see,” Kate said, inspecting Ed’s finger. There was a tiny puncture wound and a single drop of blood hovering at the tip of his finger. He might have leaned against something sharp—maybe a pin or the edge of a letter opener. Kate looked around the desk, ignoring the teacup. There was no sign of anything sharp on the desk.

  Then she heard a soft mewl. “Sophie?” She knelt and called the cat, who slunk around the side of the desk, her back arched and tail bristling. Sophie gave Ed Tate a wide berth and leaped into Kate’s arms.

  “It was just the cat,” Kate said, feeling relieved and a little silly for letting thoughts of supernatural events enter her mind. “You must have scared her.”

  Ed narrowed his eyes. “Has that thing had rabies shots?” He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around his finger.

  Kate had all she could do to keep from laughing. What a big baby. Maybe she should offer to call an ambulance or wrap a tourniquet around his finger. “Sophie has had all her shots, I assure you. You’ll live.”

  Kate turned her back and carried Sophie into the kitchen. The cat trembled in her arms. “It’s okay, baby. Everything’s okay.” If only Kate could believe that. It seemed as if the whole world was crumbling around her. She hated the thought of spoiling Jeff’s honeymoon, but she needed to talk to him. She couldn’t handle all of this on her own.

  She’d almost forgotten Ed was still in the house, so when he came up behind her, she nearly jumped right out of her skin.

  “There’s still a chance we can make this a real family affair,” he whispered close to her ear.

  Kate felt trapped. His smarmy voice made her skin crawl. She turne
d, holding the cat between them like a shield. Ed backed off when the cat hissed.

  Kate knew she should back off as well, but she was tired of being pushed around and she had a headache and she was sick of being stuck in this town with people like Ed Tate Jr. who still thought she was nothing more than an easy score.

  “Look,” she said, pressing a palm against his chest. “I thought I made it clear to you a long time ago that I’m not interested.” Her voice rose shrilly. “I wasn’t interested then and I’m not interested now. I have no intention of going to the reunion, and if I did you’d be the last person on earth I’d go with. Is that clear?”

  Ed took another step back, as if she’d slapped him.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just been a rotten day and I’ve had nothing but bad news.” She shook her head and sighed, already regretting her outburst.

  The fury in Ed’s eyes was nothing compared to the chill in his voice as he turned away. “I’ll be back with the paperwork,” he said finally. “Once we clear up this outstanding lien on the property, you can be on your way back to New York City…”

  Kate caught the rest of his muttered threat as he stormed out the door.

  “…or to hell for all I care.”

  Kate knew she’d made an enemy but didn’t care. If it meant not having to fend off any more of his unwanted advances, it was worth it. When she was sure Ed had driven away, she closed the door and locked it. She stood there a moment, resting her head on the cool wooden panel.

  Who could she turn to? Certainly not Max. She wasn’t even sure if she could reach her brother on the cruise ship. She’d have to handle this all by herself. She blinked away tears of frustration. How much worse could things get?

  Slowly she became aware of a soft, faraway sound. Music. She lifted her head and listened, wondering where it was coming from. Less than a week away from New York and already she’d grown accustomed to the peaceful quiet of Arizona. Back in her apartment she wouldn’t even have noticed the soft tune over the hum of traffic and street sounds. But here the break in the silence couldn’t be ignored.