“If I was with that man, the last thing I would do is fall asleep.” Amanda sipped her coffee. “Go. Have your shower. I’m preparing Emma’s cinnamon oatmeal. How long is the hunk staying, and is he married, engaged or involved?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Mmm, mmm, mmm,” Amanda muttered as she returned to the kitchen. “That is one fine man.”
When Holly emerged from the shower, Amanda had already dressed Emma and was helping her eat breakfast. Holly paused to kiss the baby good-morning and gave Amanda a grateful hug before she left the house.
A quick peek around the corner of the clinic to the front parking area showed no cars in the lot. After entering the building, she put on some coffee, turned on the computer and scrolled through the appointments for the day. There were eleven scheduled and none was serious: annual vaccinations, a horse for pregnancy confirmation and a pig that limped. Probably stepped on a nail or cut its hoof in some way and it had become infected. Not a biggie. But hogs took everything to the extreme. One touch in an area they didn’t want you to touch and they would scream. And scream. And scream. And they were loud. The town should find a way to use them for storm warnings. Everyone in the county would hear it.
She poured a cup of coffee and headed back outside to the far end of the building where there were four pipe-and-cable pens. Inside two of the pens were two mares that were due to be picked up today. They were recovering from founder brought on by too much spring grass. Some horses could handle it. Some couldn’t. But both mares were looking good, back on their feed and ready to go home. And with no boarders scheduled, the clinic would be closed.
It was shaping up to be a perfect weekend. She could make it to the Kite Festival and enjoy the afternoon with Emma. And then Sunday maybe she and Chance could go riding. Just as she stepped back inside the building, the little bell over the front door chimed and she welcomed the first appointment of the day.
Following the curving road through the trees, Holly slowed the truck as she neared the parking area for the Calico Springs County Lake. It wasn’t a huge lake, but covering several hundred acres, it was big enough for skiing and fishing tournaments. Its ever-growing popularity attracted families from Dallas on summer holiday. They had recently added more camping grounds and additional shower facilities. She found a parking spot and hopped down from the truck. Kites in every shape, size and color filled the sky. Amanda said they would be near the B section of the campgrounds and Holly headed in that direction.
A lot of the people brought their own food. Ice chests and containers of various sizes filled every available space on the picnic tables and lined the brightly colored quilts that had been spread out over the green grass. The aroma of hickory and mesquite wood filled the air as people grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. There was face painting, and vendors sold an array of food and sweet temptations along with lemonade, souvenirs and, of course, hundreds of kites and plenty of cords of string to fly them.
Holly caught sight of Emma as Amanda knelt before her holding a pink kite. Jogging over to them, Holly swung Emma into her arms, giving her a big kiss that made her giggle. Emma pointed to the colorful paper birdies in the sky and couldn’t contain a squeal of excitement before Holly put her down. Taking her hand, they made their way through the crowd toward a grassy knoll that bordered the lake. Amanda held a pink kite and a spool of string while Holly attempted to tell Emma what they were going to do with it. The baby’s eyes were wide as she sucked on her first finger and looked at the sky.
“Kite,” Emma said, pointing to the object in Amanda’s hands.
“Yeah. That’s right.” Holly grinned. “It’s a pink kite, isn’t it?”
“Pekite.”
“Are we going to fly it up in the sky?” She pointed up at all the other kites, bobbing and twirling on the breeze.
“Fye!” And Emma pointed up, mimicking Holly’s actions.
“Okay, you guys ready for the launch?” Amanda asked as she held the kite over her head and let out some string. “Here we go.”
With near perfection, the kite caught the wind and took off, rising as fast as Amanda could let out the string. Emma laughed and pointed to the kite. “Pekite.”
“Are you ready?” Amanda asked.
“Ready for what?”
“Blake Lufkin just spotted you.” She nodded her head in a direction just behind Holly. “Yep. Here he comes.”
Holly closed her eyes. Why wouldn’t the man take no and just find someone else? “Wonder what he wants now.”
“If I had a guess it would be that he’s going to ask you to go to the rodeo. Isn’t that coming up in a few weeks?”
Holly shook her head. “I’ve got to work. They’re setting up a tent for me next to Doc Hardy.”
“I wouldn’t tell Blake or you’ll have company all night.”
“Pekite.” Emma pointed to the water. Holly looked in that direction and saw the kite floating precariously close to the lake’s surface.
“Uh-oh,” Amanda said to Emma before running hard in the opposite direction. The kite hesitated, dipping even lower before a gust of wind sent it soaring again. Amanda returned to where Holly stood, still laughing.
“I want to go back to the couch, the air-conditioning and the TV,” Amanda said. “Too much exercise for this girl. Oh. Here he comes. Think I’m gonna go and find something cool to drink.” She shoved the cord of string toward Holly’s hands.
“No. Amanda, pull the kite in. We’re all leaving.” Crap.
“Hey, Holly,” Blake said in his annoying nasal tone as he stepped up next to her.
“Hi, Blake.” Holly forced a smile at the cowboy. “How are you today?”
“Good, thanks. I just got off work. Thought I might find you here.”
Holly nodded. He might be a nice guy, but there was nothing appealing about him. Over the past few months, it had started to become a problem. He would show up at the clinic, materialize in the aisle of the grocery store, even come walking into the dry cleaners, offering to carry her clothes. Every time he’d asked her out, she’d turned him down. There was nothing about him that she wanted to know better. She thought by now he would have taken the hint.
“Pekite,” Emma told the strange man and pointed up.
“Yeah. That’s a fine kite.” He grinned at Emma. “Here, let me take that string for you, Amanda.”
“No. Really. That’s okay.” She gripped the cardboard a little harder. “We were just leaving.”
“Then, let me reel it in for you.”
Holly switched the baby to her other arm and watched as Blake took over the honor of official kite reeler and waited for the inevitable question to come. Amanda made her escape.
Where was Chance when she needed him?
If someone had told him to go fly a kite with even a small degree of seriousness, Chance would have thought they were crazy. He’d honestly never seen a sight like this. Kites everywhere. The vividly colored paper contraptions with long tails flying against the stark blue sky, all reflected in the serene surface of the water, were such a contrast to what he’d become used to for over a decade, he couldn’t quite get his head around it. There was color everywhere. It was like waking in the Land of Oz.
He’d been told in town that Derek Brown, a longtime friend, would be out at the lake. Chance decided to track him down, wondering at the same time if he would know him if he saw him. They’d told him to look for a silver Ford truck with spurs hanging from the rearview mirror. It would most likely have a boat trailer attached. Or a red fishing boat, if the crappie weren’t biting. The guy who’d given these directions had failed to mention the Kite Festival.
As Chance made his way through the maze of erratically parked cars and trucks, he kept his eyes out for anyone who looked somewhat like Derek.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” A voice behind him sounded very familiar.
Turning, Chance looked into Derek’s familiar face as he stepped from behind a tree. He hadn’t changed. Not one damned bit.
“How’re you doing, my man?” He pulled Chance to him in a manly hug of friendship. After a couple of slaps on the back, Derek stepped back and just looked at his old friend.
“When did you get in?”
“Yesterday.”
“I’m sure sorry about your father.”
“Thanks.”
“So how long are you here?”
“I’m not really sure. Maybe a month.”
As they continued to talk and catch up on what had transpired since the last time they had been together, a flashing motion a few yards behind Derek caught Chance’s eye. A woman’s long blond hair had come lose from its stretch band and she was struggling to hold it back with one hand while holding her baby in the other. It was a small family: a man trying to reel in a kite, a baby laughing in the arms of its mother.
Nothing unusual. Except the mother looked a lot like Holly.
Chance refocused on Derek, nodded at what he was saying—something about his eldest son—then gazed again at the couple. The woman had turned and was pointing up to the kite, her face now clearly in Chance’s field of vision. It was Holly. Who was the guy? More important, whose baby was she holding? They looked like the typical happy family. Holly hadn’t said anything about being married. In fact she said she didn’t have a boyfriend. So who was flying her kite? About then she looked in his direction and made eye contact.