Love Under Two Honchos (26 page)

Two of Kelsey’s waitresses, Michelle and Ginny, saw to distributing the glasses of sweet tea and soda. Bernice Benedict had pitched in, laughing at something her husband Caleb said as she set down bowls of chips and salsa for the hungry. Tracy Jessop, Kelsey’s sous-chef, came out of the kitchen bearing a tray filled will all sorts of delicious looking desserts.

Penelope brought her attention back to the one Benedict she’d known for so long. She’d reasoned, and she’d thought, and she’d come to the conclusion that she’d been brought here solely so that she would meet the two men who most resembled her dream lovers, the men she knew now had been destined to be her mates. For Kate to have done that, she must have been reasonably certain Penelope would fall for them. In her mind, there was only one way she would know that. She decided to ask, anyway.

“How did you know?” She wasn’t surprised when she didn’t have to elaborate.

Kate’s smile softened. “I don’t want you to think ill of Eloise.”

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“I couldn’t. Not ever. Grandma Wright took me in without a second thought, and raised me as if it was the most natural thing in the world for her to do. I could never hate her.” Penelope would never forget that gift of acceptance. Her grandmother’s generosity really had saved her.

“You have to understand. She blamed herself for the way Chloe turned out.” Kate said.

Penelope noticed Kate hadn’t referred to the woman who’d borne her as her mother. “She shouldn’t have. I find it hard to believe that Grandma was anything but a good mother to her. People make their own choices in this life. The only one to blame for Chloe’s choices is Chloe.”

“Yes, I agree. But when you’re a mother,” Kate stopped, and shook her head. “I should say, for
most
of us who become mothers, the sense of responsibility for all your children endure, and how they eventually turn out, runs very deep.”

Penelope couldn’t help but place a hand over her abdomen. “I think I can understand that.”

“Eloise made it a habit to look through your room, and to read your diary, so she’d know all she could about what was going on in your life.”

“Ah.” Penelope had written about her dream lovers there, in her diary. A part of her felt ticked. Apparently, she’d had little privacy.

The rest of her—the part of her filling with maternal instincts—could understand the action.

“She told me about what you’d written down, about your dreams.

She was frantic, of course, given the way Chloe had behaved. I told Eloise that such fantasies for young women coming into their own were normal. I even suggested to her that all the stories I’d told you likely had been responsible for your dreams in the first place.”

“But you recognized your grandsons in what I wrote.”

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“Well, let’s just say I took advantage of the situation. I don’t believe in any of that woo-woo mumbo-jumbo. I do, however, believe in timing and propinquity.”

“Here you go, ladies, sweet tea.”

Penelope sat back as Ginny Rose, one of Kelsey’s waitresses, set some glasses on the table. Penelope passed the glasses around to her men, and her soon-to-be in-laws

“Where’s that new grandson of mine?” Kate asked Ginny.

Penelope knew she meant Ginny’s son, Benny. She’d met the child briefly on her last visit to the restaurant, and could say without hesitation the little imp had stolen her heart, too.

Ginny Rose blushed. “I thought Steven was going to pick him up from school and bring him here, but apparently he handed him over to Adam Kendall. Benny loves visiting the Sheriff’s office.”

Her tone suggested the idea was the strangest thing Ginny had ever heard.

“Don’t you fret, sweetheart. All little boys go through a stage where they want to be lawmen,” Kate said. “Your Benny’s in excellent hands with Adam. A more gentle soul I’ve never known.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll bring over some nibbles for y’all.”

Kate sighed. Penelope watched the older woman’s gaze follow Ginny. “So much sorrow in one so young,” she whispered.

Penelope had heard some of Ginny’s story. She also knew from Kelsey that Ginny had been seeing a counsellor, working on her self esteem, and after nearly six months living in Lusty Texas was finally beginning to relax around almost everyone.

Penelope couldn’t judge the woman. There was, she knew, a world of difference between actions taken selfishly, and those taken selflessly.

The door opened, and a group of loud, rowdy men entered.

Penelope grinned when she recognized the Kendalls. Well, she recognized three out of the four of them, as well as their pint-sized sidekick.

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In the midst of those big, strapping men, soaking up the male attention, little Benny Rose grinned from ear to ear.

Adam set him down, and he ran straight to his mother.

“Mom, guess what? Adam showed me how to fingerprint a perp!”

Ginny’s eyes went wide, her gaze shooting straight to Adam.

Lusty’s Sheriff met her gaze head-on without saying a word, and after just a moment, Ginny blushed, and looked down.

“I was the perp being fingerprinted,” the man Penelope didn’t recognize said. “So don’t you worry there, Ginny Rose.”

“That’s their brother, Jake,” Grandma Kate said to Penelope.

“Jordan’s been tied up in contract negotiations for his construction company these last few days, else he’d be here too.” Then she smiled at Penelope. “Really, it won’t take all that long to learn who everyone is.”

Just then Henry and Morgan descended on her from opposite directions. “I can’t believe you’d choose these two nerd-boys over me!” Henry’s tone teased, and Penelope couldn’t help but smile. He bent down and kissed her left cheek.

“What can I say? I did see them first,” she replied.

“Ah, well, you know what they say,” Morgan said. “Timing is everything.”

“Hey, Grandma Kate, maybe you should see about finding a woman for these two fly boys, here,” Joshua said, “since you did such an excellent job finding Penelope for Alex and me.”

Penelope laughed when Morgan shot his brother, Henry, a disgusted look, which he followed up with a punch in the arm. “Now see what you’ve done? You and that glib tongue of yours are always getting us in trouble.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Jake said from the next table, where he’d settled down beside Matthew. “Since the two of you will both be mustering out soon, you’re going to need something to keep you busy. I think a wife is just the ticket.”

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“Thanks, but no thanks.” Morgan stepped closer, leaned down, and planted a noisy kiss on Penelope’s other cheek. “Congratulations.

Or maybe I should offer my condolences, since you’ve chosen to take on these two geeks.”

“I’m a geek, too, so it’s all very good,” she said.

Morgan stepped back and looked at Grandma Kate. “I mean it, Kate. You don’t need to trouble yourself over Henry and me. We’ll find a wife when the time comes.”

“You say that as if the right woman is going to just fall right out of the sky,” Kate said primly.

“Well now, since I’m a pilot, I happen to know the best things in life can come at you from out of the sky.”

“Morgan Kendall, you’re a cheeky pup.”

Penelope wondered about the tone, and if the older woman’s feelings had just been hurt.

But behind Kate’s bifocals, Penelope saw the light of challenge in the older woman’s eyes. She sat and watched as Kate looked at Morgan and Henry, and then Jake and Adam. She recognized a look of cool calculation when she saw one. Then her glance went to Ginny Rose, and Penelope wondered at the thoughts running through the elderly woman’s mind. She would swear she could see the wheels turning.

“Hey, Grandma Kate, when are you taking off next?” Matthew asked. “What’s it going to be? Another cruise? Or maybe an African safari?”

It seemed in that moment that all eyes turned to the family’s matriarch.

“Oh, I’m staying around Lusty for a while, yet. I have a lot of work to do.”

A sudden hush settled on the assembled revellers. Then, softly at first, the sound of laughter—rich, poignant and satisfied, rippled through the room. Those Kendalls, Benedicts, and Jessops not yet
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married, however, each wore expressions of varying degrees of shock and horror.

Penelope laughed and threw her arms around Grandma Kate. “Oh, Grandma Kate, I’m so glad you’re staying. And I’m so glad you’re my grandmother now, too,” she said.

“So am I, sweetheart.” Grandma Kate hugged her back. “So am I.”

THE END

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• LOVE UNDER TWO HONCHOS
  
• THE END