In the Eye of the Storm (4 page)

Kate was quiet for a moment. “I hate you.”

Kylie smiled. “I love you too. Now admit you were wrong so we can go to the flea market. We’ll take my jeep.”

Frowning, Kate looked up at Beau, those mutinous brown eyes of hers still smoldering. “I may have been at fault too.”

He raised a brow. “
May have
?”

“Okay! I hit your damned truck! I’m sorry! You want me to pay for the damage?”

“That was since that first night on her front porch. She he waspayment enough,” he said smugly, and turned to Trey. “Get me the yellow pages and we’ll go to the junkyard to find a new door.”

“How was your date with Wick?” Richard wanted to know.

Kate’s expression soured again.

“Richard—” Kylie cautioned carefully.

“He said you were bitchy with him,” Richard added, nonplussed. “What gives?”

Irritated, Kate yanked her purse up her arm. “Your friend is gay, Richard. And he’s a jerk.”

Richard looked surprised.

Now interested, Beau folded his arms over his chest and watched the two of them.

“Wick isn’t gay.”

“For God’s sake, Richard, he is!”

“Kate—” Kylie began, now shooting her a warning look.

“Agh!” Kate exclaimed, apparently losing her patience with everything. “The guy was an octopus. His hands were everywhere, and not in a good way. He was like a high school virgin making out on prom night. I was damn near trapped in the front seat of his VW Beetle—and it’s not vintage, incidentally. It’s candy apple red, with pink, fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror.” She scowled again. “He clearly has very little experience with women. Not only that, he smelled bad.”

Beau couldn’t help but grin at this. So that’s why she’d been so pissed the night before; she’d been coming home from a bad date.

“He is
not
gay,” Richard said emphatically, looking at Beau and Trey for help. Trey remained silent. Beau didn’t have that kind of self-control.

“Dude, the guy’s name is Wick and he drives a VW Beetle with pink dice hanging from the mirror.”

Trey snorted and got another elbow to the ribs from Kylie.

“I don’t want to ever hear the word
Wick
around me again,” Kate snapped, looking at Richard closely. “Do you hear me? And don’t have him over when I’m around.”

“Well, if you feel that strongly about it,” Richard began.

“I do!&#ast fit for a

3

The flea market was a madhouse of course. Kate should have figure to make him feel better. bu” K0d that would be the case. Nothing else was going her way today. She looked over at Kylie, who was loading some sweet rolls into a paper bag.

“Why didn’t you tell me Trey’s brother was here?”

Kylie shrugged. “I didn’t really think it was important. I didn’t know you two had already had a run-in, pardon the pun.” Kylie couldn’t hide her grin.

“Ha ha,” Kate snapped. “He’s a jerk.” She momentarily chastised herself for not recognizing Beau Callahan for who he was the minute she’d set her eyes on him. He and Trey practically looked like twins, for goodness sake. It had been ridiculous for her to argue that fact.

“He isn’t a jerk, Kate. Beau’s a nice guy.”

Kate snorted. The only thing about Beau Callahan that was
nice
was the way he looked. His Native American features, along with his short dark hair and deep coffee colored eyes, likely made most women swoon. He had the tall, dark and handsome thing going for him. But in Kate’s opinion, that was it.

“You admitted you may very well have caused the accident. Why are you still mad at him? He’s going to fix your door.”

“He did that to make me look bad.” Kate tossed a loaf of French bread into a bag for herself. “I’ve seen his type before.”

“He really isn’t a bad guy. You two got off on the wrong foot, that’s all.”

“Well it doesn’t really matter anyway. By the way, I’m never speaking to Richard again.”

“Why? What did he do?”

“You don’t think bringing Wick up at the most inappropriate time possible was a little rude? How clueless is Richard? Maybe he isn’t gay after all.” Kate slammed some delicious looking cookies into a bag too. She figured she might as well drown her sorrows in sweets and carbs. It wasn’t like she had a man around to notice if she put on a few pounds.

Kylie grinned. “He just asked you how the date was.”

“He’d already talked to Wick, who obviously told him I was a bitch! He knew the answer he was going to get from me. The jerk did it to embarrass me in front of your Neanderthal brother-in-law. He probably has the hots for him.”

“Kate, you’re way off base with both Beau and Richard.” Kylie shook her head, though she was obviously still amused. “If you get to know Beau, you’ll see he’s a nice guy.”

Kate continued to pout. “Well I know Richard and I think he’s an ass.” She didn’t really. In fact, she loved Richard. He was always there for her, no matter what. Unfortunately, he was also aggravating as hell. He knew her better than she knew herself and most of the time that fact annoyed her to no end.

“Why don’t you come for dinner tonight? Then you can give Beau another chance and make up with Richard. I’ll even get your favorite kind of wine. My treat,” Kylie offered.

Kate thought that over. “I wouldn’t mind the wine anyway.”

“Lighten up. We have something to celebrate.” Kylie laid a hand over her still fairly flat stomach and Kate felt herself softening. She was happy for her friend and the fact that she was pregnant. She’d made it through the first trimester and that was a big deal. Not r group activities.”

“We’re going to plan the nursery out as soon as we figure out if it’s a boy or a girl,” Kylie went on. “I can’t wait.”

“So you want to know, huh?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think Trey does as much as I do. I’m not much for surprises.”

“Me either. When the time comes, I will be knowing if I need blue or pink.” They paid for their bakery items and then continued through the market. A bit later, they stumbled upon a booth of baby clothes and of course they had to stop and look. Kate felt a little sad as she stared at the tiny rompers. She’d always figured she’d have a child by the time she was thirty. Instead, she didn’t even have a husband and she’d be turning thirty in a few months.
Yay for me,
she thought to herself.

“I just love little girl stuff.” Kylie’s voice sounded a little strange and Kate looked at her, closely. She could see the nervousness there. It was obvious her friend was still a little gun-shy about being pregnant.

“You’ve passed the first trimester. You’re going to be fine.” She reached over and squeezed Kylie’s hand. “I know you are.”

“I hope so,” Kylie said, taking a deep breath. “I just don’t think I can go through another miscarriage. Trey doesn’t act like it, but I know he’s worried too. Whenever I look at things for the baby, he tells me to hold off for a while. He says it’s because we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but I think it’s because he’s afraid I’m going to miscarry again.”

Seeing the sadness in Kylie’s eyes was Kate’s undoing. “Men don’t get it, Kylie. They are practical creatures. He probably thinks you’re supposed to wait until the baby is born to buy things for it or nothing will fit it right.”

Kylie smiled halfway. “You think so?”

“I do,” Kate assured her. She had a feeling Trey likely
was
concerned about the possibility of a second miscarriage. But she also knew that he was concerned because of how much it would hurt Kylie if she had to go through that kind of pain a second time. Regardless, she didn’t want to see her friend unhappy during what should be a very happy time in her life.

“Let’s go look for that wine,” Kylie suggested, evidently trying to change the subject.

“You go ahead. I’ll be right with you. If I’m coming to dinner, I think I’ll grab another loaf of bread. You can never have too many carbs.” She waited as Kylie walked off to look at the wine selection, a few booths away. She turned to the woman behind the small table. “Give me something pink and something blue and wrap it up nice, will you?” If Trey Callahan had to be a man, she supposed she would have to be the good woman behind him—
temporarily.

Beau wiped some grease from his hands and stood back to admire his handiwork. He had managed to find a salvageable door to make him feel better. U just for Kate’s SUV at Sonny’s Wrecking Yard, only twenty miles away. After stopping at the auto parts store and picking up what he would need to fix the door, he’d come back to Trey’s and gotten to work. His brother was still sleeping so he tackled the task of removing the old door on his own. Now the new one was in place. No paint job was needed, which saved some time. Black was a popular color for Explorers the same year as Kate’s.

“Wow, you did that fast,” Trey said, coming through the front door, two beers in his hands. He had showered and shaved and changed into jeans and a T-shirt.

“You look rested up,” Beau commented, taking a beer.

“Pulling all-nighters suck.” Trey leaned against his truck and watched as Beau cleaned up his tools. “So, are you going to tell me what the Glock’s for?”

Beau stiffened. He hadn’t counted on his brother coming across the gun so fast.

“When I came in this morning, I took a look in the guest room to confirm it was you visiting.” Trey took a draw off his beer bottle. “It looked like you were keeping that gun real handy.”

“I always sleep with my gun nearby,” Beau answered, knowing Trey wasn’t going to buy it.

“Since when? You never even used to have a gun. At least not one like that.”

Beau sat down on Kate’s bumper, taking a long swig of his beer. “I run into a lot of nuts, Trey. It’s just a precautionary measure.”

“In your house?” Trey asked, raising a brow.

Shit.
Trey was too smart to snow. He was a cop and he had cop instincts. “I had a couple incidents a few months back. Unruly fan. It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Dude, you’re sleeping with your gun.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a little on edge. I get my privacy invaded a lot.”

“Even here? Nobody knows where you’re at, right?”

“Not yet.” Beau frowned. “I’m sure your neighbor has already told everyone he knows. Like he said, everyone knows Beau Callahan.” Beau knew he sounded cynical and that would only make Trey more suspicious. He was right.

“I’ll talk to Richard about that. But I still want to know what’s up.” Trey finished his beer and dangled the empty bottle between his fingers. “I have access to every law enforcement agency in this country. It won’t take much for me to find any reports or incidents if there are any. I have to say, that kind of work can be annoying and tedious though. Could you do me a favor and save me the trouble?”

“I’ve had a break-in or two,” Beau relented. “The police are investigating.”

“A break-in or two. What does that mean? There’s a big difference between one and two when you’re talking burglaries.”

“Four,” Beau finally said.

Trey swore.

“Look, it’s a guy who’s obviously upset that I haven’t batted well the last two seasons. He’s just an overzealous fan.”

“So what are you doing to deal with this besides carrying?”

“Nothing, Trey. The cops are working the tra since that first night on her front porchan just il.”

“Trail. You mean he’s hit you up on the road too?”

“Once. Right after you came to see me when you and Kylie were split up. There was a run-in at Arlington too. Some of my stuff was stolen from the locker room but nobody was hurt.” Beau finished his beer and avoided his brother’s gaze. He knew Trey was pissed now.

“Hell, Beau, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you had enough problems of your own. I knew you and Kylie were trying to work things out. You needed time for yourself. You can’t take care of the whole freaking world.” Beau stood up and tossed his bottle into an empty plastic bag.

“You’re my brother, damn it! I would have been there.”

“I didn’t need you to be there. I’ve never been anywhere near this guy. The only thing he’s ever hurt is my stuff.”

Trey swore again.

“Listen, I don’t want you making a big deal out of this to Dusty. He’s already pissed that I haven’t seen Lucas yet. I don’t want to worry Mamaw or Mama.”

“Sounds to me like they have reason to worry.”

“I’m in the public eye, Trey. This kind of thing goes along with the territory.”

Sighing, Trey tossed his beer bottle into the bag with Beau’s and folded his arms over his chest. “So when were you going to tell me about all this? I mean I’m assuming that’s why you didn’t come to the wedding. You didn’t think I warranted knowing the truth then?”

“I didn’t want screw things up for Kylie. I know she’s had it rough. I wanted you guys to have a nice wedding.” Beau figured telling the truth was his best course of action at this point. There wasn’t much of anything left to hide. “Besides,” he added. “I haven’t been going home much since all this started going on. I don’t want Dusty and Faye to freak out. They’ve got Lucas to worry about. And I didn’t want to worry Mama and Mamaw.”

“We take care of our own, Beau. You know how this works, freak out or not.” Trey frowned. “What are the chances that this guy tailed you here?”

Beau had thought about that repeatedly since he’d shown up at their house. He answered Trey honestly. “Slim, but possible. I was pretty careful. I took off in the middle of the night from a friend’s house in Texas where my truck was. I can’t be absolutely sure though, you should know that. If you want me to leave, I’ll understand. I didn’t know Kylie was pregnant when I decided to come here.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” Trey answered, thoughtfully. “I’m probably the best person you can be with at this point. Be careful about keeping that gun out though. Kylie’s gonna start asking questions if you don’t. I don’t want to upset her right now.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking real clearly last night.”

“You should know that Kylie was pregnant once before.” Trey met his brother’s gaze solemnly. “She was on the pill but missed one or two I guess. Anyway, she had a miscarriage shortly before the wedding.”

Beau leaned back against the truck and grimaced. “Damn, I’m sorry, man.” a breakfast fit for a king.aldi