Love’s Sweet Revenge(127)

Lloyd glanced at Jake and slowly nodded. He suddenly grinned, looking over at Evie. “Well now, actually…” He scanned the room. “I could tell all of you some very interesting stories from back in Oklahoma—”

“Lloyd Harkner, be serious!” Evie chided. “I used to sock you when I was little, and I’ll do it again.”

“Well, there was Dixie’s place, and—”

“Lloyd!”

“—then there was that fight in the tavern in Guthrie when Pa busted that whiskey bottle and shoved it—”

“Oh, I really will sock you!” Evie held up a fist.

The boys giggled.

“Do it, Mommy!” Little Jake told her.

“I’m just trying to be honest,” Lloyd teased.

Randy knew exactly what Lloyd was doing. He always knew when his father was falling into a bad place. Katie was sitting on Lloyd’s lap, and he suddenly rose, picking her up with him. “Boys, I think your grandpa needs to think about something else. Things are getting way too heavy in here.”

Katie pouted. “Are you talking about me?”

“Well, whatever is in this belly of yours isn’t any lightweight,” he teased.

“She’s got a baby in there, just like Mommy does,” Little Jake spouted with a giggle.

Everyone broke into laughter, and Randy loved her son for quickly changing the subject.

“What’s yours gonna be, Mommy?” Little Jake asked her. “A boy or a girl?”

“I just hope whatever I have, he or she minds me better than you do sometimes, Little Jake—and better than your Uncle Lloyd, who I can beat up.”

“Hey, I never socked you back because Pa would have taken away every privilege I ever had and probably would have made me write down ‘I will not hit my sister’ about a thousand times.”

“Well, speaking of babies, I am having a boy,” Katie declared, wrapping her arms around Lloyd’s neck and resting her head on his shoulder. “I just know it.”

Jake turned to tamp out what was left of his cigarette. “I think it’s time for pie and coffee,” he announced.

“Sounds good to me,” Lloyd answered. He kissed Katie and set her back down in the chair they’d shared. “I’m still hungry.” He leaned down and whispered something in Katie’s ear, and Katie shoved at him, her face turning a soft pink.

“Can’t you two keep your hands off each other?” Brian joked.

“You’re one to talk,” Lloyd shot back. “You didn’t get my sister pregnant just by holding her hand.”

Evie let out a little screech and covered her face while everybody else broke into uncontrolled laughter.

“I’d like to remind you, Lloyd, that Evie was pregnant first last time, and she was first again this time,” Brian answered, “so I might ask you—who is the better man?”

That brought little screams of embarrassment and laughter from the three women. For Brian to make that kind of remark was highly unusual. Lloyd covered his eyes and groaned. “Brian Stewart, I sure didn’t see that coming. Not from you!”

“You two be careful, or Katie and I will start comparing notes,” Evie told both men.

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” Lloyd put up his hands. “Enough!”

Everyone quieted a moment until Lloyd threw in a last jab. “You should notice, Brian, that as soon as we found out about Evie, it didn’t take us any time at all to catch up. When I set my mind to something, I get it done.”

Katie turned beet red and bent over to hide her face, and Little Jake looked puzzled, not sure what they were laughing about.

Randy loved all of them for what they were doing. She watched Little Jake run up to his grandfather and hug him around the middle while Lloyd escorted Katie to the dining table, and Randy told everyone to sit down for pie and coffee. Evie started helping her mother cut the pie.

“I love you, Grampa,” Little Jake told him. “I’ll always take care of Mommy and Grandma.” He leaned his head back to look up at Jake. “But I’ll be a big, grown man then, ’cause you’re gonna live a real long time.”

Jake knelt down, wincing from the pain in his hip that often flared up from an old bullet wound suffered in the shoot-out in California. “I hope you’re right, Little Jake. Right now, let’s go have some of Grandma’s apple pie. Nobody makes it better, do they?”

“Nope! I always have three pieces!”

“Three! That’s a lot of pie.” Jake picked the boy up and carried him to the table, plunking him into a chair. He walked around the table to Randy, reaching around her from behind. He wrapped a hand around hers and bent close as she cut into another pie. “Have I told you lately how much I love you?”