Courtship In Granite Ridge. Barbara McCauley

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      “You mean my decision to buy a husband,” she said, wanting to make sure she understood him. Only she didn’t understand him.

      “You gotta admit, Kase, it is a little crazy.”

      Crazy? He was talking to her about crazy? She looked at the package of meat in her hand. Did he really think that she wanted to buy a husband, like she might a pound of hamburger? Where in the world did he get such an idea?

      “This advertisement,” she asked carefully, “exactly where did you see it?”

      “It doesn’t matter where I saw it,” he said firmly. “I just thought that maybe you needed someone, a friend. With your parents gone, and you being divorced and having a family...” His voice trailed off, and he shifted anxiously.

      Family. Her sons. Kasey suddenly realized they’d been awfully quiet for awfully long. She glanced at the kitchen door and saw two little heads duck away, then heard the sound of footsteps heading up the stairs.

      If this day got any stranger, she’d be in the twilight zone.

      Maybe she was in the twilight zone. She remembered the looks she’d gotten in town, the snickers, the way Mildred had treated her when Steven had wanted to say hello.

      The way her sons had acted with Slater.

      Could it be...was it possible?

      “Excuse me for a minute, will you?” She shoved the hamburger at Slater. “I’ll be right back.”

      “But—”

      She ignored him and headed straight for her sons’ bedroom. She had the strangest—and most horrible—feeling that they knew something she didn’t.

      She found them putting their clothes away, exactly as she’d told them to do. That cinched it. If they were actually doing as she’d asked, without being told three times, there was no doubt they were up to something.

      They glanced at her when she entered the room, but continued unpacking with the same attention they might give a video game.

      “Hey, Mom.” Cody pulled a stack of baseball cards out of his suitcase and shuffled them nervously. “Is Mr. Slater still here?”

      “As a matter of fact, he is.” She closed the door quietly behind her, then leaned back against it They’d break, she knew, and based on the tension in the room, it wouldn’t be long.

      “Is he gonna stay?” Troy asked, then bit his bottom lip when Cody shot him a vicious look.

      “Stay?” Kasey repeated. “Would there be a reason why he might stay?”

      “He’s your friend, isn’t he?” Cody dropped the baseball cards into a big box along with all the other cards in his collection, then glanced at his mother, his look hopeful.

      “A friend I haven’t seen in ten years,” Kasey said. “And now, suddenly, here he is, telling me the most amazing story about an ad in a newspaper. Something about a husband.”

      The boys looked at each other, then Cody hurriedly turned his attention back to unpacking his suitcase. Troy carefully studied one of the rocks he’d collected on the trip.

      “The funny thing is,” Kasey went on, “I don’t seem to remember placing an ad in any newspaper for a husband. I mean, I could have forgotten, being so busy with the trip and all, but I don’t think so.” She moved closer to her sons and stood over them, arms folded. “What do you boys think?”

      Cody grabbed a handful of dirty socks and started for the dresser. Kasey stepped around him, then pointed to his bed. “Sit.” She looked at Troy. “You, too.”

      Eyes downcast, both boys sat.

      Arms folded, she stood over her sons. “You want to tell me something?”

      Cody sighed. “We were gonna tell ya, really, but we sorta forgot.”

      “You forgot?”

      “Yeah,” Troy agreed. “We forgot.”

      She raised one brow. “Tell me exactly what you forgot”

      Cody looked at Troy, then slumped his shoulders in defeat. “Well, you know when we were on vacation, after you bought Miss Lucy from Mr. Murdock, and Troy and me were playing checkers?”

      “Cody was cheating,” Troy piped in.

      “Was not.” Cody scowled at his brother. “You just don’t know how to play.”

      “Do, too.” Troy screwed up his face. “Mom taught me.”

      “That’s enough.” She remembered now. They’d been arguing over the game then, as well. “Go on, Cody.”

      Cody threw Troy one last look, then turned back to his mother. “Well, when we asked you to play, too, you said you would, as soon as you finished what you were doing and we asked you what you were doing and you said you were writing an ad and we asked you what for and you said you were looking for a horse husband for Miss Lucy.”

      It took a moment for Cody’s rush of words to pull together. The hotel room in Dallas. Cody and Troy had been asking her questions about the ad and Miss Lucy. She hadn’t quite been ready to explain the process of hiring a studhorse, and somehow the term “horse husband” just sort of popped out. In any case, she still wasn’t quite connecting the dots here. “And?”

      “Well, Troy and me, well, me really, ’cause Troy don’t read so good yet—”

      “So well,” Kasey corrected out of habit.

      “Yeah, so we were looking at one of the newspapers you brought along on the trip, you know, the Granite Ridge Gazette, and there was a place you can buy and sell things, so that’s what we did.”

      “What did you do?” she asked, breath held.

      “You know, we wrote an ad for you.”

      Oh, dear Lord, they didn’t...

      Cody’s grin was as wide as it was proud. “Filled it out and mailed it, all by ourselves. We were going to surprise you.”

      She stared at her sons, unable to speak. Surprise her? That was the understatement of the century.

      Knees weak, Kasey sank slowly onto the bed opposite her sons and closed her eyes. It would certainly explain the bizarre way everyone had treated her in town, Slater showing up, all the mail and phone messages—

      Oh, no...that must be why she had so many calls. They were for stud services and potential husbands. She nearly choked at the juxtaposition of the two.

      Her eyes flew open. “Cody,” she asked slowly, “exactly what did this ad say?”

      “Not much.” He reached behind him into his suitcase, then pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to her. “It don’t cost as much if you don’t use a lotta words. Troy and me saved some money you gave us from the video arcade.”

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