Part 3 (1/2)
”I promise.”
”No matter what happens with Reid?”
”No matter what happens.” Kate pulled back from the hug. ”Speaking of stuff happening, anything I need to know about from the meeting?”
”We're working on getting you freed up for this vacation you want so badly.”
Kate got up to leave. ”I'll leave it in your capable hands, then.” At the door, she turned back to face her sister. ”Try to enjoy the downtime, will you?”
”Only if you do, too.”
”Oh, I will.”
The next day, Kate drove her Jeep out to Buddy and Taylor's house, planning to crash Sunday dinner. The crisp autumn day reminded her of home. While nothing could top a New England fall, Tennessee was no slouch when it came to foliage and clear blue skies.
She'd lived here so long now it felt like home, but her heart would always belong to the house on the coast where her mother and stepfather still lived with their sons, Max and Nick.
Her cellphone rang, and Kate put it on speaker to take the call.
”Hey, it's me,” her sister Maggie said.
”Hey, Mags, what's up?”
”I heard you were back on drugs, so I figured I'd better check on you.”
”You know me, a different day, a different fix. Where'd you hear it this time?”
”On the radio at lunchtime. The DJs were talking about you like they know you. You're really okay, though, right?”
”I'm fine. I went back to work too soon after the pneumonia and pa.s.sed out on stage. Anything else you hear is pure fiction.”
”I know that-everyone who knows you knows that. Are you feeling better now?”
”Better every day. It's good to be home.”
”Have you talked to Dad?”
”Not in a week or so, why?”
”You'll love this. The boys are letting everyone know that they want to be called John and Rob now that they're in fifth grade. Apparently, Johnny and Robby are baby names.”
As her hair blew in the breeze, Kate let out a ringing laugh. ”That's awesome. Thanks for letting me know. I'd hate to get in trouble the next time I call home.”
”No kidding. Those two are a piece of work. They're playing in a big baseball tournament this weekend on the Cape. Dad, Andi, Mom, Aidan and all the O'Malleys are there watching them. Dad said they got the biggest turnout of all the kids on either team-including the home team.”
Kate loved that her parents continued to share a warm friends.h.i.+p even though they were long divorced. ”Can't you picture Grammy O'Malley in the middle of it, bossing everyone around?”
”Totally.” The mother of their stepfather, Aidan, was an adored extra grandmother to the Harrington girls. ”How's work?”
”Interesting this week. I'm signing for a deaf juror in a murder trial. Gruesome business. I'll have nightmares for weeks.”
”Ugh, that sounds awful.”
”It's a paycheck. How's Jill?”
”You won't believe it, but I finally got her out of her suit and into jeans. Don't look now, but I think she's actually taking a vacation.”
”Shut the front door! How'd you manage that?”
”It wasn't easy, but I convinced her we both need a break-her as much as me. She works way too hard. I worry all the time that she's sacrificing her life to run mine.”
”She loves every minute of running your life, and you know it.”
”She does seem to love the job, but I want her to have her own life, too.”
”You know Jill-she doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do.”
”True.”
”Well, I'd better get back to the Texas Chain-Saw Murder trial.”
”Oh my G.o.d, they used a chain saw?”
”Hacksaw.”
”Are you kidding me?”
”Yes,” Maggie said, laughing. ”It was a run-of-the-mill stabbing.”
”That's sick. You're spending too much time in courtrooms.”
”Seriously.”
”Hey, Maggie, do you get time off at Christmas?”
”A week. Why?”
”Will you plan to spend it here with me? I'll send you a ticket.”
”I'd love to.”
”Great. I'll talk to you soon.”
”Love you. Later.”
Talking to her younger sister always left Kate smiling. Maggie was the same ball of energy she'd always been, zipping from one topic or task to another without so much as a pause in between. Kate wouldn't change a thing about her, and the idea of spending a whole week with her baby sister filled her with joy.
Taking the break from work had been the right thing to do. It had been so long since she'd felt anything other than exhausted, she thought, as she pulled into the driveway at Buddy and Taylor's two-story brick Colonial in Rutherford County. As Kate walked to the door, the wind whipped off the lake behind the house.