The Magnolia Cafe(48)

“Mom, I’m okay.” Katherine tried to argue with their mother.

“Kat, you’ve been up all night. You got burned for goodness sakes. Go home. I’ve got this.” She should have been here when it happened. Maybe she could have prevented Kat from being hurt. Anyway, it was her responsibility.

Keely watched her mother and Kat leave, then looked around the cafe. It was hard to believe that just yesterday she’d been away, free, having the time of her life. Now the real world had a death grip on her, punishing her for thinking she could escape, if only for a few days.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN





“Natalie, we have to talk.” Hunt had waited patiently for his sister to get the boys to bed.

“What about?” His sister dropped onto the sofa and picked up her knitting.

“About Kevin. His secret.”

“I’d rather not talk about that again. I’m sorry you ever found that note. Kevin wanted the secret kept. He’d be mortified to know you found out.” She set her knitting back down, a look of concern creased her face.

Hunt sat down on the sofa beside his sister and took her hand. “But I need to tell someone. It’s important.”

“You promised you’d keep the secret.”

“I know. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t so important.”

“Who do you want to tell?” Natalie grabbed a throw pillow and held it close.

Hunt sat up straight. “I… I can’t tell you.”

Natalie looked at him in amazement. “You want to break your promise to me? Go against Kevin’s wishes and you can’t tell me why?”

Hunt’s heart plummeted. The way Natalie made it sound, he was a scoundrel for even asking. But if he couldn’t tell Keely, she was going to go on the rest of her life blaming herself.

“I can’t explain, but someone needs to know.”

“I can’t bear to have anyone think badly of Kevin now that he’s… gone.” Natalie’s voice was choked with tears. “He tried so hard to make things right. To help the Grangers. He was so young when it happened. You know, he even paid off some of Katherine’s rehab bills. They never knew anything except that they had an anonymous donor.”

Natalie jumped up, the pillow falling to the floor. “And I can’t have the boys hearing about it. What if someone lets something slip? They are too young to understand.” She turned to face him. “I just can’t let you tell anyone.”

“Natalie, it’s so… important.”

“I can’t believe you’d even ask me this. I don’t know what to say to you, Hunt. But, no. I have to respect Kevin’s wishes.”

“Kevin would probably want you to tell if he knew what I know.”

“Hunt, you’re talking in circles. No. I can’t. You can’t. Just, no.” Natalie turned and slowly walked away and he heard her steps on the stairs.

Hunt reached down and scooped up the pillow Natalie had dropped on the floor. He could understand Natalie’s point, and Kevin’s secret wasn’t his to tell. Keely’s guilt wasn’t his to tell. He closed his eyes and took a long deep breath. How was he going to fix this mess?

~ * ~

Hunt wiped the sweat from his brow and wished for the bazillionth time the garage got some kind of cross breeze. He’d finished up the tabletops for the patio and he was attaching legs to each one, carefully making sure the tables were level.

He was racing against time to get everything ready for Keely’s grand opening of the patio. Nothing was turning out as planned. He hadn’t gotten enough matching pavers and had been unable to locate any more halfway through the project, so he’d gone with an alternating pattern around the edge. Keely said it was fine, but he chastised himself for not figuring out a better way, or even pulling the old pavers and alternating the whole patio. But there hadn’t been time.

Then, the inspectors were all over the electrician since the fire. Justifiably so, he could grudgingly admit, but it caused even more delays. Plus, it hung in the air that the electrical problems had occurred after he’d started working on the patio. He racked his brain trying to think if he’d done anything that could have caused it. He couldn’t think of anything, but he still felt like the inspector, and possibly Keely, thought it was coincidental that the electrical fire started after he’d begun work on the patio.

Working in the quiet garage was giving him too much time to think. He stood upright, placed a hand on his lower back and arched, stretching to work out the kinks.

Natalie walked into the garage carrying a huge glass of tea. “Thought you could use this. And a peace offering. You still mad at me from last night? For asking you not to tell Kevin’s secret?”