Which means I’ll just have to enjoy being Uncle Noah to TJ’s and Jake’s kids.
“I agree with you there,” Kate says. “Some people treat trust like it’s something they don’t have to earn or nurture. If they break it, it’s not a big deal. Only it is.…”
A strange feeling gnaws inside me that there is more to those words than she’s saying, but since I don’t want to discuss Samantha, I leave it alone.
We’re quiet for a few more minutes. Country music plays on the speakers. It’s a comfortable silence. Kate doesn’t seem to be the kind of woman who chatters nonstop because she can’t handle the quiet.
The main part of town has thinned out, with houses now spaced farther apart, as we drive along the main road to the ranch.
“So have you lived in Copper Creek your entire life?” Kate asks.
“No. I left when I was nineteen.”
“You did? Where did you go?”
“All over the place at first. Doing odd jobs. Whatever I could. Eventually, I ended up in Seattle.”
“So you’re a big city boy, too.” It’s not a question, but at the same time it feels as though it is.
“I’m not sure if you could say I’m a big city boy. I’ve been to LA. It doesn’t hold any appeal to me. I prefer living in Copper Creek. Seattle is smaller—but not small enough that everyone is in your business.”
She laughs. “Unlike here?”
“Yes, that is the one downside to living in a small town, as you know from meeting Grandma Meg and Tilly.”
“Grandma Meg? She said the town’s sheriff is her grandson. But if he’s the brother-in-law of your brother, how does that make her your grandmother?”
“Meg isn’t my biological grandmother. She and my real grandmother were best friends. Grandma Meg and her husband, Bert, were like grandparents to my brothers and me. So when my grandmother died, Grandma Meg naturally took over her role and none of us thought anything of it.”
“You’re lucky.”
“How so?”
“I really like Meg. She seems like she’d be a lot of fun as a grandmother. Which means your own biological grandmother was a lot of fun, too.”
“Yes, she was.” She was the opposite of my grandfather.
“Fun isn’t in the dictionary when it comes tomygrandmothers,” Kate says. “They’re all about being a proper young lady. No running in the house. No fidgeting. No climbing trees. No wearing short skirts. No cussing. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do those things—other than the cussing. I just did my best not to get caught, so I didn’t have to stick around for a lecture.”
I laugh at the image now in my head. “I’m sure Grandma Meg had the no-cursing rule for Austin and Violet. Austin just chose to ignore it. But she definitely didn’t have those other rules for Violet. The girl could climb a tree like nobody’s business. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Grandma Meg has climbed a tree or two in her day.”
Kate giggles. “I can see that. It didn’t help that I was born into money. My family has a reputation to uphold that has been with us for many generations.”
My head briefly turns to her. “So how wealthy are you? Are we talking Rose-on-the-Titanic, old-money wealthy?” My eyes return to the road.
I knew she had money, but I just assumed it was a more recent thing. Like maybe her father is the CEO of some high-tech company.
“I’m not sure what I think of that analogy. She let the love of her life die in the end. I can tell you if a man loved me that way, I wouldn’t let him freeze to death in the ocean.”
“You’re avoiding the question.”
“Clearly I learn from the best.”
I turn back to her in time to see the smirk on her face directed at me, and I laugh. “Apparently you do.”
“Yes, I come from old money. Fortunately, times have changed and I don’t need a man in order to survive. There are still expectations placed on me, like there were for Rose, but they aren’t the same.”
“So no slumming with a guy from the wrong side of the tracks?”
