“Sweetheart, you must be having an awful day if you’re hitting the Jameson before noon.”
“I feel a celebration is in order, but mostly I just need a fuckin’ shot to calm my nerves.”
Carolyn’s head came up so fast her glasses slid off her nose and bounced against her chest, caught by the chain. “Kimi? Ah, why are you breaking into my liquor cabinet when I know there’s booze at your place?”
Kimi scowled and knocked back a shot.
“Are you and Cal fighting?”
“You know Cal and I don’t fight.”
“Which would explain why you’re so upset and why you’re sucking down my whiskey.”
She exhaled a long, slow breath. “Dammit, I need a cigarette.”
“You quit smoking thirty-some years ago. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I’m a grandma.”
Now she pinpointed the source of her sister’s agitation: her son. “Did Kane just spring this ‘you’re gonna be a grandma’ thing on you?”
Kimi shook her head. “That’s where it’s screwed up. It’s not Kane. It’s Kade. And it’s not ‘I’m gonna be a grandma’; it’s I am a grandma. To a baby girl. I saw her today, Caro. A beautiful, perfect three-month-old girl with dark hair and the second I saw those blue eyes I knew she was a McKay.”
“Where’d you see her?”
“In Sundance, but I guess they live outside of Moorcroft.”
Confused, Carolyn said, “They? Who is the mama?”
“Skylar Ellison. She owns Sky Blue, that all-natural beauty product place. Her sister is that tattoo artist India from India’s Ink. Anyway, Skylar is the one who broke Kade’s heart last year and why he volunteered to leave. He had no idea she was pregnant. Since this is Kade, I believe him because no way would he walk away from a woman carryin’ his child even if she stomped on his damn heart. No way. So I just stormed into the house and blew the whole thing about him bein’ a daddy. Now he’s on his way into town to deal with her and meet his baby girl.”
“Kimi, that’s a good thing. Kade will happily own up to his responsibilities. You know that.” She squeezed her sister’s hand. “A baby girl! How fun will that be?”
Kimi smiled. “Damn straight it’ll be fun. We need to go shopping. Wait.” She patted her face. “Do I look like a grandma? Lord, do I look as old as you?”
“Nice, Kimi, real nice. Trying to be supportive and you crack age jokes.” She smirked. “Since Kade’s baby mama makes wrinkle cream maybe she’ll give you a good deal on it by the bucket.”
“Oh, hush. You know you look good, way better than me. Which ain’t fair. You should have ten times more frown lines and gray hair since you had three times as many kids as me.”
“I feel it most days.” She leaned back in her chair. “Does Cal know?”
She shook her head. “I came straight here. I figured after Kade talked to Skylar and saw his daughter, he’d call and let me know the details.”
“Think Cal will be shocked?”
“Yeah. ’Cause like you said, I’d see Kane in this situation long before Kade.”
Carolyn helped herself to a shot glass and filled hers and Kimi’s with whiskey. Then she held her glass up for a toast. “Congrats.”
They both knocked back their shots.
Kimi cocked her head. “And…?”
“And what?”
“I know you were gonna say something else.”
Carolyn grinned. “Like father like son, huh?”
“Oh, piss off.”
“But it’s true,” Carolyn said. “You and Cal went on what? Five dates and then you were pregnant?”
“Something like that. But there’d been a spark between us since the first time we met before you married Carson.” She wagged her finger in Carolyn’s face. “Although Cal swears he wasn’t a monk pining for me, he claims he was waitin’ for me to grow up and come back here.”
After their mother’s death, and after Kimi had graduated from St. Mary’s, she’d sworn she wasn’t returning to Wyoming. She worked in Alaska for a few years, until she finally got homesick. By that time Carolyn and Carson had two boys and no room for an extra houseguest so Kimi ended up staying with Cal. She’d pretty much moved in with him and had never left.
While at first Carolyn had been worried because Cal seemed to have a revolving door to his bedroom, she realized Cal really did worship her little sister. Oddly enough, so did Jed McKay. He had no issue with Cal and Kimi’s hurry-up wedding. And after Jed’s second heart attack, Kimi was the one who suggested he live with her and Cal and the twins.