Million Dollar Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #5)(10)

"What?" Casey said.

"His plane just touched down."

"Bury the lead, will you?" Kaia's youngest sister, Aria said. At five-seven, Aria was the tallest of the four Alzate sisters. She'd just graduated from Texas Tech and was back home for the summer.

Someone, Kaia wasn't sure whom, but she suspected it was Ridge's stepmother, Vivi, said, "Baa baa black sheep has finally returned."

"How does he look?" Tara, Kaia's next-to-the-oldest sister asked. "Still handsome as ever?" Tara was a nurse who worked at Cupid General Hospital in obstetrics.

"Where can I put this?" Kaia asked, wishing she hadn't brought up Ridge's name, and shot Casey a get-me-out-of-this look.

Before Casey could answer, a toothy toddler in blue jean shorts and cowboy boots tackled her around the knees. Kaia grunted at the exuberant impact and ruffled the kid's hair.

"KiKi!" squealed the toddler, who happened to be Casey's three-year-old nephew, Atticus, and the ring bearer at the wedding. He had a thing for Kaia, probably because she usually had an animal or two with her for him to play with.

"Kitty kitty?" he asked, cocking his little head to one side.

"No kitty," she told him. "Not today."

"I'll take that," said Lynne, Casey's older sister and Atticus's mother, and took the unwieldy wedding gift off her hands, leaving Kaia free to swing Atticus onto her hip, lift his shirt and blow a raspberry against his round little belly.

Atticus shrieked with joy and planted a wet kiss on the end of her nose.

Mom leaned over to pinch Atticus's cheek. "When are one of you girls going to cooperate and give me one of these?"

Simultaneously, all three of Kaia's sisters, Ember, Tara, and Aria, rolled their eyes.

"Hey," Kaia said. "Don't look at me. Ember and Tara are first in line."

"Go ahead." Tara groaned. "Throw us under the bus just because we were born before you."

"I might be the oldest," Ember said. She was the only sister who'd taken after Mom's Irish side of the family, and her flame-red hair matched her name. "But clearly you're more maternal. Go for it, Kaia."



       
         
       
        

"I would love to have one of these someday." Kaia tickled Atticus making him giggle like the Pillsbury Doughboy. "But first things first. Gotta finish up vet school, and oh yeah, find a husband."

"You don't need a husband to get one of those," Aria said. "All you need is a visit to a sperm-"

"The Song of the Soul Mate," Granny Blue Alzate interrupted, her voice wrapped with the earthy tones of her Comanche ancestry.

Granny Blue sat at the kitchen table chopping up mise en place for the omelet buffet. She was petite, eighty-three, and sharp as a hawk. Her dark eyes, deep-set into a wrinkled face, missed nothing and she did not put up with bullshit. But it was just as easy to earn her smile as her rebuke.

"Need a hand, Granny?" Kaia asked, passing Atticus to Lynne, who'd come back into the room. She bopped over to the kitchen sink, washed her hands, plunked down beside her grandmother, and started julienning red bell peppers.

"I have a question, Mrs. Alzate," Casey said.

"Please, you're part of the family now." She slid pieces of diced ham from a cutting board into a small bowl. "Call me Granny Blue."

"Granny Blue." Casey smiled an I've-got-the-world-on-a-string smile. "What is this Song of the Soul Mate stuff?"

Granny Blue shot Kaia a glance that said, how do you explain the inexplicable?

Kaia shrugged. She had no idea. She'd never experienced it. Didn't know if she believed in the legend.

"It's something that happens to the women in our family when they fall in love," Granny Blue explained.

Casey took the chair across the table from Granny Blue, leaned in. "Tell me more."

"Anyone want a Bloody Mary?" Aria interrupted from where she was standing beside the Vitamix.

"Me! Me!" Tara and Ember waved wildly. Kaia raised a hand as high as her shoulder.

"Not now." Mom frowned. "Those are for brunch. We don't want you girls half-in-the-bag for the rehearsal."

"Why not?" Aria said. "Being half-in-the-bag is what makes it fun."

"Father Dubanowski will be there." With a stern finger, Mom waggled for Aria to put the pitcher down.

"He's Episcopalian-he drinks."

"About this soul mate thing . . ." Casey leaned forward, propped her elbows on the table, and sank her chin into her upturned palms, getting closer to Granny Blue.