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“Sounds good. But no lists were in the file.”
She grinned sheepishly. “Right. I took the list home to work on in the evenings. I’ll get your half to you.”
He was marveling again that Julia didn’t have more dates to fill her evenings when she snapped her fingers.
“I know. I’m going to a picnic at Central Park with my sister, Charity, and her family. Why don’t you join us? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. I could give you the list then.”
“I don’t know.” He wasn’t even sure why he hesitated when he had to admit he’d been looking forward to seeing her.
Still, as tempting as spending an afternoon with Julia sounded, there was something about her invitation that appealed to him more. Julia had mentioned the word that had meant little to him in the past but had become so critical now: family. He wasn’t ready to face his judgmental brother again, and he hadn’t gotten up the guts up to visit his parents since his release, but he still liked the idea of sharing time with somebody’s family.
“I guess that sounds all right,” he answered.
“Oh, good. It’s going to be fun.”
“Your sister’s family? Does that include her mother?”
At first she looked surprised, but then she must have remembered that she’d shared the story because she shook her head. “I’m sure she was invited, but she tends to decline when I’m invited, too.”
“Her loss.”
She smiled at that, but sadness lingered in her eyes until she perked up again. “I hope you like cold fried chicken, German potato salad and apple pie. Charity’s an amazing cook.”
“What about you?”
“If you like boiled water, I’m your cook, but otherwise you might want to consider takeout. I usually survive on frozen dinners and canned soup.”
“Nobody can be everything, I guess.” He said it as a joke, but he was serious. A Julia Sims who was also a twenty-first-century Julia Child in the kitchen might be too much for Milford, Michigan, to handle—in his part of town, anyway. He didn’t mention that or the fact that once upon a time he’d been more than competent with a sautе pan and spatula.
Fidgeting, she tilted her head to the side. “So, we’ll meet you there tomorrow at about noon?”
“Need me to bring anything?”
“Just yourself.”
“I’ll be there. I’m looking forward to it.”
He smiled at her, and she smiled back for several seconds before looking away shyly.
“I’d better get going. See you tomorrow.” With a wave, she started for the door.
Kyle studied her as she left. Why had Julia come to the church in the first place? If she’d come for her committee work, she hadn’t brought anything, and she hadn’t taken anything with her. He didn’t mind the idea that she might have come just to invite him to the picnic. It was a kind, Christian gesture for her to include him. It also beat a Saturday afternoon of him sitting around his apartment wishing he had cable.
Anyway, there was something to be said for fun, food and family on a sunny afternoon. Though he realized it was unwise, he couldn’t resist imagining himself slipping away with Julia for a romantic walk along the river. And maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for him to become involved with a woman right now. He was looking forward to tomorrow, all right. He couldn’t wait.
“Would you stop fidgeting?”
At her sister’s voice, Julia looked up from her hands that were indeed fidgeting. In fact, the wrestling match of her wringing hands had become downright painful.
“What do you mean?” Julia asked, but couldn’t keep a straight face.
Charity frowned at her, but her expression didn’t stick, either. She slipped onto the picnic table bench across from her younger sister. “Don’t worry. He’ll be here. Nobody skips my fried chicken.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Nodding, Charity glanced over Julia’s shoulder to the parking lot. “I wondered about your plan. It’ll probably be fine, though. He’ll appreciate the effort.”
Charity’s uncomfortable expression suggested she wasn’t as confident as her words. Julia tried not to let her sister’s unease shake her confidence, not when she knew she was doing the right thing.
Rick called out to his wife from the blanket just outside the park shelter. “Hey, Charity, take a look at this.”
Both women looked up in time to see ten-month-old Grace take an unsteady step toward her daddy. The tiny golden ponytail on top of her head bounced with the effort of this new skill, but her eyes shone with excitement. The next three steps came in a rush before she landed on her diaper-padded behind. With a wail, the baby held out her arms for her mother.
“When it’s playtime, she wants Daddy, but when something hurts, it’s all Mommy,” Charity said, already off the bench and gathering her child in her arms.
“She just knows which of us gives softer hugs.” Rick grinned as he leaned down to wipe a tear from his daughter’s tiny pink cheek.
Charity glanced toward the parking lot again. “Oh, he’s here.”
Swallowing, Julia looked over her shoulder to determine which he had arrived first. Kyle had climbed out of his car and was reaching back inside it for something.
Julia took a deep breath to steady her nerves, but it didn’t help. Somehow this didn’t seem as good an idea as when she’d come up with it yesterday, and not just the surprise part, either. She’d hoped to develop some immunity to Kyle by now. She’d kept her distance for a whole week, figuring time and space would help her put her thoughts about him into perspective. Kyle was the kind of man she should be willing to reach out to as he tried to repair his life, but he wasn’t the type she could ever see socially. Unfortunately, his past did make a difference.
So why, if she realized he was a poor choice for her, couldn’t she stop these feelings of attraction she felt whenever she was around him? Even now as she watched him bend to pull several shopping bags from his car, she couldn’t help noticing how his polo shirt stretched across his shoulder.
The shirt’s deep green color would bring out the flecks of green in his hazel eyes. She wished she didn’t know that.
Glancing to the side, Julia discovered that Charity had come to stand beside her and now balanced Grace on her hip. Julia could only imagine what she’d seen because that knowing smile Charity wore was something only a sister could love.
Julia couldn’t meet her sister’s gaze. “I told him he didn’t need to bring anything.”
“That’s what I told you, too, and look at how well you listened.”
The bags of bakery goods from where she’d pillaged the local Kroger’s spoke for themselves, but still Julia explained, “I just didn’t want us to run out of food.”
Kyle started in their direction, his saunter confident and un-hurried. Julia liked seeing this self-assured side of him, so unapologetically male.
“That’s unlikely.”
“What’s unlikely?” With effort, Julia drew her attention back to her sister.
“Like you said. That we’d run out of food.” Charity indicated with a tilt of her head the picnic table they’d commandeered and then loaded with enough picnic fare to feed a small army—or at least a start-up militia.
“Oh. Right.”
Kyle had reached the edge of the parking lot, so Julia waved to make sure he’d seen them. His smile was so warm that she felt rooted in place by it with no thought of anything but staring back at him.
“Hi, there,” he said when he reached her.
“Hi.”
Kyle looked at the shopping bags dangling from his hands. “I didn’t want to show up empty-handed.”
“Thanks. Here, let me get those.” Rick stepped forward and relieved him of the bags, setting them on the picnic table bench.
Julia cleared her throat. “You met my sister and her husband at church, right?”
“Not formally.”
Charity jutted out her hand. “Well, let’s fix that. I’m Charity McKinley.” She paused to grip his hand. “That’s my husband, Rick.”
The two men shook hands, and then Rick indicated the baby his wife held. “And this little mess-maker is Grace.”
Kyle studied Grace, who was giving him a stranger once-over. “She looks clean to me.”
“Give her a few minutes,” Charity said with a chuckle. “We tried to introduce ourselves at church on Sunday, but you were gone so fast. You must have been in a hurry.”
The side of his mouth lifted. “Something like that.”
Charity and Rick exchanged a look, but neither said more. Grateful that they didn’t, Julia flitted a look toward the parking lot. Maybe her other guests had decided not to come, after all, and maybe that was just as well. Charity had suggested it might be too soon, and she was probably right.
Rick lifted Grace from his wife’s arms and swung her around until she giggled. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I hate to see all of this food go to waste.”
“Go to waste? Are you kidding?” Kyle gave her a look of pure incredulity with a touch of mirth. “We can’t let that happen, now can we?”
“So let the food frenzy begin,” Julia returned.
Julia could feel herself relaxing for the first time since she’d pulled into the lot of Central Park. Now she would get the chance to enjoy the afternoon—the sunny day, the breeze off the Huron River, the swings inside the playground. Even the company.
She couldn’t help grinning as she watched Kyle, paper plate already in his hand, examine the spread Charity had laid out for them. He fit in so well with her family. He laughed with Rick as if they were old pals. Charity liked Kyle, too, if the way she followed him around the table and plied him with food was any indication. Even Grace had bestowed on him one of her precious smiles, from the safety of her mother’s arms.
She could get used to this, even if she and Kyle were only friends. Even if she would have to keep reminding herself that the rest of the day.
“Hey, Julia,” Rick said in a stage whisper from the corner of the shelter. He mouthed the words “He’s here.”
This time she didn’t even have to look to know which he her brother-in-law was talking about, but she glanced in the direction he indicated, anyway. Her stomach tensed as she caught sight of Brett carrying a covered casserole dish in one arm and a basket of something else in the other. Behind him, Tricia carried Anna, the couple’s seven-month-old baby, her nearly bald head protected by a colorful sun bonnet. Taking up the rear were Lani, Rusty Jr. and Max, Tricia’s children with her late first husband.
Brett grinned when he saw Julia. Max waved, causing him to drop the lawn chair he carried. The family laughed as Lani helped her little brother reclaim his load.
Julia knew the instant Brett recognized Kyle because his laughter died and his smile disappeared. He stopped so quickly that Tricia bumped into the basket he carried and then looked up at him, surprised.
Swallowing with difficulty, Julia glanced sidelong at Kyle. He stood frozen in place, his jaw ticking as if he was clenching and unclenching his teeth. Shock and fury clashed in eyes that he trained on his brother. He let the plate in his hand drop to the table.
The children ran up behind their stepfather and then stopped, looking back and forth between the two men. Julia started to do the same thing, but when she looked back at Kyle, he had turned those angry eyes on her.
“Julia, would you mind telling me what Trooper Lancaster is doing here?”
Chapter Five
Kyle posed the question, but he didn’t bother waiting for the answer. He had a pretty good idea what it was, anyway, and he didn’t want to hear it. He’d only felt set up like this one other time, and he’d had a nice orange jumpsuit and a cell of his own for that one.
But he couldn’t think about that, not now when his brother was standing there, looking as furious to see him as Kyle was to be broadsided by Julia’s meddling. His own anger propelled him toward Brett.
“What are you doing here?” he asked from between gritted teeth.
“Same as you. I was tricked.”
Brett looked different out of uniform—less intimidating—though even in jeans and a T-shirt he still had a rigid bearing.
“No other reason to be within thirty feet of the family embarrassment,” Kyle chided.
Brett shook his head. “Let’s not go into that again.”
“Why not? Because your family’s here to see it? The family you haven’t even bothered to introduce to me though I’ve been in Milford two weeks.”
He stopped and turned to the woman and children standing next to his brother. “Oh, hi, guys, I’m Uncle Kyle.”
No one responded, but Tricia’s three children stared up at him, wide-eyed. The youngest boy’s mouth hung agape. Ashamed, Kyle was grateful that at least he hadn’t referred to himself as Uncle Kyle the Jailbird or something. These kids couldn’t help who their stepfather was, so he shouldn’t have involved them.
Brett stepped forward, putting himself between his family and his younger brother. “You haven’t been beating down my door to see me, either.”
“Why would I? You think I need this abuse?”
“Well, wouldn’t want you to have to put up with any criticism after the perfect life you’ve led. A real example. Just the person I want around my kids.”
“Can’t you see—forget it. You’ll never change.”
“That’s a laugh, coming from you.”
Kyle fisted his hands at his sides, bitterness welling within him. He could have told Brett that he wasn’t the same man who went into prison three years before, that he’d become someone that just maybe even Brett could respect, but now he was too angry to try.
“Glad I could entertain you.”
“Buddy, your antics stopped being funny years ago.”
“Enough.” Tricia stepped in front of her husband, her presence surprisingly commanding despite her petite size. She raised a hand to stop the conversation. “You two have to stop this.”
“Don’t worry. I’m done,” Brett said with a frown. He looked past Kyle to the Sims sisters. “I’m sorry about this. Thank you for inviting us, but I think we’d better leave.”
He stepped to the table, lowered the dishes his family had brought for the picnic and then, lifting the baby from Tricia’s arms, ushered his family to their car. The children kept peeking back, but they didn’t ask questions.
“That didn’t go well,” Julia said as she watched their car pull back out onto Main Street.
“Ya think!” The words came out louder than he planned, but Kyle didn’t care. What she’d done was wrong, and she needed to know it. He closed the distance between them. “What were you thinking inviting Trooper Lancaster here?”
Julia stared at the ground. “I just thought if I got the two of you together—”
“That we’d start up again in front of my brother’s whole family? I’d never even met those people before. Well, I hope you got the show you were looking for.” He gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw ached.
