Tie the Knot in Good Hope (A Good Hope Novel Book 7) Read online

  When she turned back to him, her blue eyes were watchful. “To what do I owe this honor?”

  Not exactly the response he’d hoped for. Especially when he was so wholly glad to see her. “Ah, you, ah, you asked me to come.”

  He nearly groaned aloud. He sounded like some awkward teenager.

  “I told you I had plans for tonight.” She spoke slowly and distinctly, as if he was someone who had difficulty understanding.

  He frowned. “You told Gladys your sister’s car wouldn’t start.”

  She offered a grudging nod of agreement. “Gladys thought it might be the battery.”

  “I replaced the battery last winter.”

  “Why are we talking about the car?” Lindsay puffed out her cheeks, then exhaled. “I want to know why you’re here.”

  “The car is why I’m here.” Well, part of the reason, anyway, and the only reason he’d own. Owen felt his frustration surge. Couldn’t she look a little happy to see him? “Gladys said you wanted me to come over and check what’s wrong with it.”

  “Where would she get that idea?”

  “From you.”

  Lindsay shook her head. “Not from me.”

  Owen blew out a breath. “Are you telling me you and Gladys never discussed Cassie being without wheels?”

  Lindsay started to shake her head again, then stopped. A look of chagrin crossed her face. “I did say I took Cassie to her job because her car wouldn’t start. Gladys may have mentioned something about having you look at it.”

  A smile tugged at the corners of Owen’s lips. Now they were getting somewhere. “And?”

  “I may have given her the impression that would be a good idea.” Lindsay stepped to the side as Axl barreled past her and flung himself at Owen.

  “The mystery is solved.” Owen swung the child up and gave a good-natured chuckle. “I don’t think either of us is surprised that Gladys Bertholf played a starring role in this drama.”

  “I’m sorry you came all the way out here for nothing.” Lindsay’s voice held genuine regret.

  Owen went from amused to confused in seconds. “Did someone already fix the car?”

  “No.” Lindsay glanced around, as if hoping to find the answer she sought in the shabby furniture and thrift-store lamps. “But I don’t know that Cass has the money for repairs. And right now, I don’t have any extra to lend her.”

  Lindsay’s cheeks pinked with the admission.

  “Cassie is practically family.” Owen waved a dismissive hand. “I won’t charge her.”

  “She’s not your family,” Lindsay protested.

  “Cassie is my daughter’s aunt.” Owen swung Axl down to the floor.

  When Lindsay opened her mouth, Owen held up a hand. “Just give me the keys and let me take a quick look.”

  Lindsay hesitated, then moved to a hook screwed into the side of a kitchen cabinet. Slipping the keyring off of the hook, she crossed to him. “Promise you won’t do any major repairs before Cassie gets home.”

  Owen curled his fingers around the keys she placed in his outstretched hand and smiled. “Hey, I’m a mechanic, not a miracle worker.”

  Seventeen

  “Are you sure you can’t sit for five?” Lindsay glanced around the dining area of the Daily Grind. For the first time since she’d arrived, there was no one waiting at the front counter.

  Cassie’s gaze did the same sweep. Though she glanced longingly at the empty chair, she blew out a breath. “I better not.”

  Lindsay took a sip of her very excellent decaf vanilla latte. “Is Ryder that strict?”

  “I don’t think he’d mind. He’s a good guy.” Still, Cassie remained standing. “This job might not seem like much, but I like it. Ryder has given me more responsibility, and I want to be worthy of his trust.”

  “I understand.” Lindsay smiled at her sister. “It’s just nice to spend time with you.”

  “It’s very nice, especially without Axl throwing foam cars or pitching a fit about something.” Cassie chuckled, then sobered. “I wish Owen could have come with you this morning.”

  “He’s working.” Even if he hadn’t been, Lindsay wasn’t sure she’d have invited him.

  When she’d picked up Cassie from work last night, in Cassie’s car, her sister had been speechless. Though Lindsay had repeated what Owen told her, that a loose battery cable had taken two minutes to tighten, Cassie wanted to repay them both. She’d issued an invitation for them to stop in at the Daily Grind for a coffee and doughnut, her treat.

  “Well, be sure and tell him my offer has no expiration date.” Cassie turned to a couple who’d gotten up to leave at a nearby table. “Thanks. Come back and see us again soon.”

  “We will.” The woman slipped an arm through her boyfriend’s arm, an easy gesture that spoke of comfortable intimacy.

  Lindsay’s heart burned with envy.

  The couple hadn’t even walked out the door when Cassie was clearing their table. “I forgot to mention that Mom and Len stopped in last night.”

  Lindsay started to say she was surprised the two were still together, but stopped herself. Nothing about her mother really surprised her.

  “Really?” Lindsay set down her cup. “Anything interesting going on with them?”

  “She tried to pump me about you and Ethan Shaw.” Cassie’s gaze turned curious. “Doesn’t she know you’re with Owen?”

  “You know Mom.” Lindsay chuckled. “She has high aspirations for us.”

  “Not for me. Not anymore.” Cassie’s smile faded, and for a second, a haunted look filled her eyes. “I heard Krew is coming back for homecoming.”

  Cassie’s expression gave no indication what she was feeling, but Lindsay had a good idea. “I’m surprised she brought him up. She hasn’t mentioned him in years.”

  “It was Len who brought him up.” Cassie twisted the dishrag around her finger. “Not Mom.”

  “How do you feel about him being back in Good Hope?”

  Cassie’s face remained carefully blank. “It doesn’t matter to me. Mom was always the one who insisted he was Dakota’s father. She saw his money-making potential and went with it.”

  “You liked him.”

  Cassie’s blue eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know him.”

  The words were cold enough to cut glass.

  “What I meant was, most of the girls in this town were half in love with him.” Lindsay kept her voice light. “Heck, I was only in seventh grade and I thought he was hot.”

  Lindsay was rewarded with a reluctant smile. There was more she could say, but nothing would be served by trying to get Cassie to admit she’d crushed on the football star who’d been a senior when she was a lowly freshman.

  But Lindsay remembered the way her sister’s eyes had followed Krew when she thought no one was looking. It had been a puppy-love kind of thing. Sweet and innocent. A couple of months later, everything had changed for her sister. Cassie never had a chance to be a teenager before she was propelled feetfirst into motherhood.

  The bells over the door jingled.

  Cassie shifted her gaze. “Duty calls.”

  The relief in her sister’s voice told Lindsay that while she hadn’t intended to make her sister uncomfortable, that’s exactly what she’d done.

  Lindsay shifted her gaze to the door, curious to see if she knew the latest customer.

  Dan strolled in, looking very unministerlike in jeans and a caramel-colored sweater. Tousled and windblown, his normally carefully arranged hair went in a dozen directions.

  Cassie’s smile widened when she saw him. Seconds later, she was laughing at something he said.

  Lindsay pushed back her chair, intending to make a quick exit, when a light brushing of butterfly wings deep in her lower abdomen stopped her cold.

  She dropped her hand to her belly. The doctor had told her to expect movement sometime in the next month. She’d never thought it would be this soon.

  Remaining absolutely still, Lindsay willed it to happ
en again.

  “Do you mind if I join you?”

  The question was like a splash of cold water. Lindsay jerked her head up to find Dan standing beside the table, a cherry Danish in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other.

  “Please.” When her voice came out raspy, Lindsay cleared her throat and tried again. “I’d like that.”

  Dan pulled out a chair and took a seat. “Beautiful day.”

  “I love this time of year. I don’t know if I could live somewhere without a change of seasons.” Lindsay figured they could talk about the weather for a few minutes, then she’d make her excuses and head home.

  “You and I were dating this time last year.” Dan’s hazel eyes, the same color as Owen’s but somehow profoundly different, studied her. “I heard you and Owen are back together.”

  Lindsay hesitated. What did she say to that? Was there a special place in hell for those who lied to a minister?

  “We’ve been spending time together.” The truth, Lindsay told herself. She’d seen a lot of Owen over the last three weeks, the past week excluded.

  “I’m glad.” He forked off a bite of Danish and brought it to his mouth.

  “You are?” When they’d been together, Dan had been jealous of her friendship with Owen. Which was all it had been at the time. “Why?”

  “You’re good together.” Dan took a long sip of coffee and studied her over the rim of the cup. Then he smiled, a slow, easy smile that reminded her why she’d once been attracted to him. “You and Owen are a far better match than you and I ever were.”

  What did she say to that? Thankfully, she was spared the need to respond when Katie Ruth burst into the shop. The pretty blonde’s gaze frantically searched the dining area.

  When she spotted Dan, relief flooded her face. Then she saw Lindsay and stopped midstep. For a second, Lindsay saw herself featured in the e-newsletter for the second time in as many weeks. Only, this time she’d be linked to her former fiancé.

  After only a momentary hesitation, Katie Ruth was on the move, crossing the dining area to Dan in long, purposeful strides. “Why aren’t you answering your cell?”

  The blonde shot a censuring look at Lindsay as if she was to blame.

  Lindsay lifted her hands, palms up. If Katie Ruth thought she and Dan were having some intimate tête–à–tête, she was dead wrong.

  With puzzlement furrowing his brow, Dan slipped his phone from his pocket. A second later, he shook his head in disgust. “It’s dead. I must have forgotten to charge it last night.”

  He looked up, meeting Katie Ruth’s gaze. “Is there a problem?”

  “Please.” Lindsay gestured to an empty chair. “Join us.”

  Lindsay winced when a startled look skittered across the blonde’s face. The last thing she wanted to do was give the false impression there was anything more than friendship and respect between her and Dan.

  “Thanks. I can’t stay.” Katie Ruth leaned forward, pressing her palms against the table as she lowered her voice. “I was at the church helping Marnie in the office when the call came in. There’s been an accident out on Highway 42 and Wieker Cliff Drive. It’s a bad one.”

  “That road leads to the barn where the haunted house will be held,” Lindsay offered.

  Katie Ruth pressed her lips together for a second before expelling a ragged breath. Only then did Lindsay remember that Katie Ruth was not only active in YMCA youth programs, she headed the youth programs at First Christian. These were kids she probably knew.

  “Apparently, two cars filled with teenagers collided.” Katie Ruth swallowed, then cleared her throat. “From what I understand, one slammed into the back of the other without braking.”

  Dan’s gaze sharpened. “Injuries?”

  “Multiple.” Worry filled Katie Ruth’s vivid blue eyes.

  “Any…fatalities?” Lindsay didn’t remember speaking, but the voice was hers.

  “I don’t know.” Katie Ruth lifted her hands, let them drop. “Several ambulances are on their way to the scene now.”

  Dan pushed to his feet. “Have the parents been notified?”

  “Marnie just said the deputy who called thinks you need to be there.”

  “Thanks for finding me, Katie Ruth.” Dan’s hand touched the woman’s arm. “You went above and beyond.”

  A touch of pink colored the woman’s cheeks.

  “My car is out front,” Katie Ruth told the minister as they headed to the door.

  Two cars filled with teenagers.

  Lindsay thought of her nephews. How many times had she seen Braxton and K.T. riding around town with their friends, packed like sardines into one old car or another?

  Trying to appear casual, Lindsay strolled to the counter.

  “What had Dan and Katie Ruth rushing off?” Cassie asked.

  Lindsay followed Cassie’s gaze, and together they watched Katie Ruth’s SUV jerk backward out of the parking spot. Then, with a squeal of tires, it shot like a rocket down the street.

  “Something about Dan being needed…somewhere.” Lindsay waved an airy hand and fought to keep a nonchalant expression.

  “I hope no one is hurt.” The genuine caring in Cassie’s voice had Lindsay’s heart twisting.

  “I need to get going, too.” Lindsay paused as if a question had just popped into her head. “Are Braxton and K.T. watching Axl today?”

  “K.T. is home with him.” Cassie shrugged. “Braxton is hanging with friends. I think they were going to check out the progress on the haunted house.”

  A ball of ice formed in the pit of Lindsay’s stomach.

  “Why?” Cassie asked curiously.

  “No reason.” Somehow, Lindsay managed a smile. “Thanks for the latte.”

  Lindsay cursed her decision to walk to the coffee shop this morning. Thankfully, she didn’t live far. Once she was out of Cassie’s sight, she began to jog. She’d made it a couple of blocks when a familiar red truck pulled to the curb.

  Owen rolled down his window and leaned out. “Need a running partner?”

  Without answering, Lindsay opened the door and slid into the passenger seat. “I need you to take me to Wieker Cliff Drive and Highway 42.”

  Even before she finished speaking, he’d put the truck in gear and they were on the move.

  “What’s going on there?” His voice was low and soothing.

  Lindsay swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. “I think Braxton was in an accident.”

  With sirens blaring, the ambulance came up fast behind them. Lindsay’s heart gave a solid thump as Owen wheeled the truck to the side of the road and stopped.

  Only when the vehicle disappeared from sight, did he pull back onto the highway. Though Owen didn’t speed, he pushed the limit.

  They’d just passed Gibraltar Bluff Road when a police cruiser, positioned across the southbound lane of the highway, forced them to stop. Lindsay recognized the deputy, but couldn’t recall his name.

  “We’ve got an accident up ahead.” The young man wore mirrored sunglasses and a grave expression. “Until the scene is cleared, the road is closed. You need to turn around.”

  Unfastening her seat belt, Lindsay leaned across Owen. “Can you tell me if my nephew Braxton Lohmeier is one of the injured?”

  “Are you the boy’s guardian?”

  Before Lindsay could respond, the radio pinned to the deputy’s left shoulder squawked. He lifted a finger and listened. “Copy that.”

  Lindsay waited impatiently until the man’s attention returned to her. “My sister is his mother, but—”

  “If her son is one of the injured, she’ll be notified.” The deputy made an impatient, sweeping motion with his hand. “You need to turn this truck around. Now.”

  Owen obligingly slipped the truck into gear just as Lindsay shoved open her door.

  The second her feet hit the asphalt, she bolted. She’d spotted Cade up ahead, clipboard in hand.

  “Ma’am. Stop. You can’t go—”

  Lindsay ignored
the deputy’s shout and aimed for where the sheriff stood, engrossed in a conversation with Bob Tidball.

  Though her attention remained on Cade, Bob was impossible to ignore. A redwood among normal mortals, the man towered over the sheriff. Over the years, the muscle Bob had developed as a semipro linebacker had given way to a Santa Claus softness. The only difference between him and Saint Nick was the absence of white hair and a beard. The belly was definitely there, and Lindsay could vouch that it jiggled when he laughed.

  The coroner wasn’t laughing now.

  For a second, Lindsay’s knees grew weak. She stumbled, but caught herself and continued on. Behind her, she heard Owen call her name. But what had Lindsay’s heart picking up speed was the sound of the deputy’s footsteps growing closer.

  By the time she reached Cade, her breath came in ragged pants. She leaned over, putting her hands on her thighs, fighting for breath.

  “Lindsay.” Cade placed a hand on her shoulder, concern deepening his voice. “What’s wrong?”

  The question had barely left his lips when Owen and the deputy skidded to a stop beside them.

  “I’m sorry, Sheriff.” The deputy cast a censuring look in Lindsay’s direction. “I made it clear she needed to go back to town. Instead, she took off running.”

  “It’s okay, Aaron.” Cade waved away the deputy’s obvious distress. “Lindsay is a friend.”

  The sheriff turned to Owen, who had moved to Lindsay’s side. Unlike her, Owen didn’t appear the least bit winded. “What’s going on?”

  “We—” Owen began.

  Lindsay pushed herself upright and found her voice. “Braxton. Is he injured?”

  Cade’s gaze sharpened.

  Lindsay knew he could easily cite some kind of confidentiality statute, but she prayed he wouldn’t go that route.

  After several long seconds, Cade lifted the clipboard. He scanned the list of names. When he lowered his hands, the gaze that met hers was strong and steady. “Braxton isn’t on the list.”

  “Meaning?” Owen asked.

  “He wasn’t in either car.”

  Lindsay blinked away the tears suddenly clouding her vision. “You’re positive?”

  “Yes.” Before Cade could say more, Bob cleared his throat.