Bluegrass State of Mind (18 page)

Kenna first saw Violet Fae head toward
her coming from the kitchen. Lily Rae converged from the front door
area and Daisy Mae closed in from behind her. It was a well-planned
attack, she thought as they surrounded her before she could reach
Paige.

“
About time we got you
alone. We thought he was never going to leave your side,” Daisy
complained. “We wanted a chance to talk to you. Alone.”

Kenna managed to suppress an eye roll
as Daisy turned to Violet for part two of the
confrontation.

“
We know Will is a good
young man, and you have been seeing him for a while now. Well, we
wanted to give you our approval.”

This time Kenna skipped eye roll and
went straight for open mouth.

The group looked toward Lily. “You
see, we know you don’t have any family to look out for you. Well,”
Lily gestured towards her sisters, “we kinda feel responsible for
you. We know that from your neck of the woods, you probably don’t
care much for approval from anyone. But down here, family is
important and approval from them clears the path towards a happy
relationship. When things are going well, you will have us to share
those times with. When things get hard, you’ll have us to lean
on.”

Kenna felt her eyes start to tear up
and turned to look away for a second to stop herself from crying.
She saw the Rose sisters eyes were similarly affected, their
wrinkled eyes filled with love for a practical stranger. Kenna took
a deep breath and turned back toward the sisters. She didn’t say a
word. She didn’t need to. Instead, she just opened her arms and the
elderly sisters filled them.

Kenna pulled back from the group hug
when she heard the tinkle of the bell over the door and heard the
collective gasp of the crowd. Knowing only two people could elicit
such a response, Kenna said a quick prayer that it was Mo and not
Whitney.

The partygoers moved aside allowing Mo
and Ahmed to walk directly to Kenna. Taking a quick glance around
the room, she saw heads leaning together and hands rising to cover
mouths as the gossip and speculation spread like wildfire. She
caught the scowl on Will’s face right before Mo made it to her
side. Determined to show Mo and Ahmed that these folk were good
people, she refused to let go of the Rose sisters and pushed them
forward.

Raising her voice to courtroom level,
she met Mo’s hesitant eyes. “Mo, Ahmed, I am so happy you could
make it tonight! This party wouldn’t be complete without two of my
best friends here to share it with me.” Giving the sisters a nudge,
she started introductions, “Mo, Ahmed, these are the famous Rose
sisters. I am staying at Lily Rae’s bed and breakfast. And Daisy
Mae and Violet Fae own and operate this cafe. Ladies, this is
Mohtadi Ali Rahman and his chief of security, Ahmed. They were
generous enough to give me a wonderful study break and have
promised to be one of my first clients now that I can legally
practice.”

Mo and Ahmed gave identical bows of
their heads to show their respect to the elderly trio, “Ladies,
believe me, this is entirely my pleasure. My cook from France came
in to the cafe when we first moved in. He had your bread pudding
with bourbon sauce and has been trying to recreate it ever since.
Please, do me the favor of calling me Mo. So much easier and less
formal. In my life, I have had too much formality. I enjoy being
able to, how do you say it, let my hair down.”

The ladies gave each other a look.
Through wordless communication only seventy years of being sisters
could form, turned in perfect unison and smiled. Kenna felt some of
the tension leave the room as the obvious acceptance of the Rose
sisters was won.

“
Well, young man, you
should just send your cook over to visit me. I would be glad to
show him how to make it. Is your cook a single man?” Violet asked
looking eager all of the sudden.

Mo chuckled, “Yes, Madam, he is. You
must excuse the French, they are a paranoid lot. I am afraid he
would never have presumed you would share such a treasure so
freely. I thank you.”

Impatiently waiting for him to finish
his conversation with her sister, Daisy jumped in as soon as
possible, “More importantly than your cook, are you
single?”

“
To my parent's despair, I
am.”

Kenna looked away from the group when
she sensed Will approaching. Will came to stand behind her, placing
a hand on her hip, his fingers applying subtle pressure that sent a
suggestive blush up her neck and to her cheeks.

“
In fact, I tried my
hardest to win Kenna’s hand, but am content with losing her to
someone who has such obvious feelings for her.” She noticed the
slightest tilt of Mo’s head in Will’s direction and felt Will relax
behind her. “Luckily, I am blessed with her friendship in its
place.”

Kenna felt Will shift behind her as
she saw him extend his hand to Mo. "Will Ashton, it's nice to
finally meet you." Mo took Will's hand and shook it. Kenna knew
this was the closest Will would get to changing his beliefs toward
Mo. It wasn't what she had hoped for, but at least his estimation
of Mo had not gone down. This meant she still had some time to
change his mind.

Miss Lily cut into her strategic
planning and reached out to grab Mo's arm. Before Kenna could
blink, Ahmed had moved directly in front of Mo to protect him from
the attacking little old lady. Just as quickly, she saw Ahmed
realize Lily was just reaching to take Mo's arm and wasn't a
potential threat. At the same time, the sisters sucked in an air of
protest. Ahmed took Miss Lily's hand and brought it to his
lips.

"I just had to introduce myself to the
wonderful lady taking such good care of our McKenna. She had told
us so much about your wonderful establishment." He looked Lily
right in the eye and let loose with a full smile. This elicited
another gasp from the ladies for a totally different reason. When
Ahmed smiled, it tended to cause women to faint on the spot. And
being in the South, Kenna was sure the women would swoon with grace
and elegance.

For the first time in a month and a
half of being with Lily, it was the first time she had seen her
blush. Good manners soon took over and Miss Lily got herself under
control, "Well, shut my mouth, aren't you sweeter than apple pie!
And are you single too?" Not even waiting for Ahmed to answer, she
placed her hand in the crook of his arm and reached around with the
other arm and placed it in Mo's arm, "Well boys, we'd better do
something about that. Let me introduce you to some of my friends."
With that, the Rose sisters took Mo and Ahmed away to break ground
and start the process of building them up in the
community.

Later that night as Will walked her
back to the bed and breakfast, Kenna couldn't help but feel
slightly at peace. She knew it wouldn't last though. Her thoughts
turned back to the cold night just a couple of months ago when her
boss had called her in the New York apartment. Now she realized it
was a ploy to find out her location. She shivered, despite the warm
spring night. Will mistook the shiver and put his arm around her as
they walked up the hill. She knew she should stop right now and
tell Will all about what happened and why she here. But every time
she talked herself into it, she couldn't force her mouth open.
There really was no good reason to remain silent on the issue, but
she just couldn't stir up the courage. Maybe it was because she
still hadn't worked it all out in her mind yet. Or maybe it was the
fact that she was used to being on her own and taking care of her
own problems. Either way, her mouth stayed shut as they walked up
the stairs and onto the porch. Her secret would stay another day -
hell, who was she kidding, at least a week.

Not wanting the darkness to creep in
and flood the happy memories of tonight, she did the one thing she
knew would push them back into her mind. She looked up at Will, who
was quietly looking down at her. Despite not knowing what she was
contemplating, he knew he didn't need to fill the quiet with
worthless chatter. She ran a finger over his masculine jaw line.
Her finger glided over the stubble as she reached his chin and
moved up to trace her finger gently over his lips. He opened his
mouth and gently sucked her finger into his mouth. His darkening
eyes never leaving hers. His tongue swirled over her finger as he
sucked on it.

Kenna placed her other hand on his
stomach and traced the muscles running down to the waistband of his
jeans. Her fingertips sliding under the waistband as he forcibly
removed her finger from his mouth and replaced it with her
lips.

This time he wasn't gentle. He hauled
her up against him so that she was standing on her toes, his hands
kneading her ass as his tongue plunged into her mouth. Her breasts
were smashed against his chest and yet she couldn't get close
enough to him. Kenna hooked her leg around his waist and tangled
her hands in his short hair trying to pull him closer. The apex of
her thighs rode the hard denim clad length of his erection. As she
moved up and down it, he used his hands on her ass to pull her
tighter against him. She couldn't hear the moan coming from him,
but she felt the rumble in his chest and knew she was echoing
it.

Will removed one hand from her bottom
and she about jumped out of her skin in anticipation as she felt
him move his hand to her stomach and slide it upwards to her
breasts. He was going so slow that the anticipation had her
shaking. His thumb brushed the underside of her breast and she
sucked in a breath and held it waiting for him to explore further.
A flood of light hit her eyes just as he was moving to cup her
breast. And suddenly, she was hit with something cold and
wet.

Sputtering, she and Will jumped apart.
"Oh dear. I didn't know you two were out here. I was just emptying
this flower vase. Well, since you're home my dear, lets get you
inside and get you dried off. It looks plenty warm out there. But
we don't want to take a chance of you catching a cold, now do we
William?"

Will shook his head as droplets of
water went flying, "No Ma'am." He smiled and gave her a wink.
"Goodnight, Kenna."

Before she had a chance to tell Will
goodnight Lily had ushered her in the house, while clucking like a
mother hen the whole way.

Chapter Ten

Kenna arrived at the Courthouse twenty
minutes early for her first day of work. She had woken up that
morning hot and sweaty from reliving last nights make out session
with Will and decided to get a jump start on her first day. She had
on her most professional outfit; a black Versace fitted suit with a
white silk shirt underneath. She had on killer, four inch Chanel
heels that made her legs look as if they went on for miles. Which,
for any woman, justified the six hundred bucks she had spent on
them last year. Sexy shoes also made up for the fact that it was
hard to tell a group of male attorneys from a group of morticians.
Apparently, when men founded the legal system, it was necessary to
be somber to be taken seriously. The only way they thought they
could do so nowadays was to dress in dark suits and look serious.
One of these days, she swore she'd go to court in her scarlet red
Versace suit just to see what would happen.

Just this past Friday, she had stood
in the Kentucky Supreme Court and swore, "To support the
Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this
Commonwealth, and be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of
Kentucky so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will
faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of
attorney according to law; and I do further solemnly swear that
since the adoption of the present Constitution, I, being a citizen
of this State, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within
this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge
to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in
carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus
offending, so help me God."

She did get a chuckle out of swearing
to have not participated in a duel, but something about the
language fit this Southern state where men were still gentlemen and
old ladies with brooms guarded women's virtue.

She gave the Courthouse one last look
and started up the stairs. She went up to the fourth floor and
stood in the security line.

"Miss Mason, come on through. You
don't have to wait in line. You're not carrying a weapon are you?"
A Deputy Sheriff asked.

He was dressed in the standard brown
uniform. He was tall and lanky. She guessed he could be around
forty. The two deputies working the security line looked to be
retired, twice. But were much more pleasant than she was used to.
They also seemed to know most of the people making their way
through.

"Thank you, Deputy," she said as she
cut around the line.

"Noodle, Ma'am," responded the
Deputy.

She stopped and could feel her brows
drawing together. "Noodle? Oh, you're Deputy Noodle? I have heard
about you. Can I ask? Is Noodle your actual name?"

"Heavens no, it's Eugene
Miller."

"Where in the world did Noodle come
from?"

He moved beside her and walked her
through the waiting area and toward a set of double doors.
"Everyone on the force has nicknames. The Sheriff is Red. My
partner is Dinky. And there's Biggy... the list goes on and on. I
got mine because I like to noodle." They had stopped in front of
the closed double doors that went into the courtroom.