Homecoming at Hickory Ridge
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“What do you mean?” Julia asked, but couldn’t keep a straight face.
Charity frowned at her, but her expression didn’t stick, either. She slipped onto the picnic table bench across from her younger sister. “Don’t worry. He’ll be here. Nobody skips my fried chicken.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Nodding, Charity glanced over Julia’s shoulder to the parking lot. “I wondered about your plan. It’ll probably be fine, though. He’ll appreciate the effort.”
Charity’s uncomfortable expression suggested she wasn’t as confident as her words. Julia tried not to let her sister’s unease shake her confidence, not when she knew she was doing the right thing.
Rick called out to his wife from the blanket just outside the park shelter. “Hey, Charity, take a look at this.”
Both women looked up in time to see ten-month-old Grace take an unsteady step toward her daddy. The tiny golden ponytail on top of her head bounced with the effort of this new skill, but her eyes shone with excitement. The next three steps came in a rush before she landed on her diaper-padded behind. With a wail, the baby held out her arms for her mother.
“When it’s playtime, she wants Daddy, but when something hurts, it’s all Mommy,” Charity said, already off the bench and gathering her child in her arms.
“She just knows which of us gives softer hugs.” Rick grinned as he leaned down to wipe a tear from his daughter’s tiny pink cheek.
Charity glanced toward the parking lot again. “Oh, he’s here.”
Swallowing, Julia looked over her shoulder to determine which he had arrived first. Kyle had climbed out of his car and was reaching back inside it for something.
Julia took a deep breath to steady her nerves, but it didn’t help. Somehow this didn’t seem as good an idea as when she’d come up with it yesterday, and not just the surprise part, either. She’d hoped to develop some immunity to Kyle by now. She’d kept her distance for a whole week, figuring time and space would help her put her thoughts about him into perspective. Kyle was the kind of man she should be willing to reach out to as he tried to repair his life, but he wasn’t the type she could ever see socially. Unfortunately, his past did make a difference.
So why, if she realized he was a poor choice for her, couldn’t she stop these feelings of attraction she felt whenever she was around him? Even now as she watched him bend to pull several shopping bags from his car, she couldn’t help noticing how his polo shirt stretched across his shoulder.
The shirt’s deep green color would bring out the flecks of green in his hazel eyes. She wished she didn’t know that.
Glancing to the side, Julia discovered that Charity had come to stand beside her and now balanced Grace on her hip. Julia could only imagine what she’d seen because that knowing smile Charity wore was something only a sister could love.
Julia couldn’t meet her sister’s gaze. “I told him he didn’t need to bring anything.”
“That’s what I told you, too, and look at how well you listened.”
The bags of bakery goods from where she’d pillaged the local Kroger’s spoke for themselves, but still Julia explained, “I just didn’t want us to run out of food.”
Kyle started in their direction, his saunter confident and un-hurried. Julia liked seeing this self-assured side of him, so unapologetically male.
“That’s unlikely.”
“What’s unlikely?” With effort, Julia drew her attention back to her sister.
“Like you said. That we’d run out of food.” Charity indicated with a tilt of her head the picnic table they’d commandeered and then loaded with enough picnic fare to feed a small army—or at least a start-up militia.
“Oh. Right.”
Kyle had reached the edge of the parking lot, so Julia waved to make sure he’d seen them. His smile was so warm that she felt rooted in place by it with no thought of anything but staring back at him.
“Hi, there,” he said when he reached her.
“Hi.”
Kyle looked at the shopping bags dangling from his hands. “I didn’t want to show up empty-handed.”
“Thanks. Here, let me get those.” Rick stepped forward and relieved him of the bags, setting them on the picnic table bench.
Julia cleared her throat. “You met my sister and her husband at church, right?”
“Not formally.”
Charity jutted out her hand. “Well, let’s fix that. I’m Charity McKinley.” She paused to grip his hand. “That’s my husband, Rick.”
The two men shook hands, and then Rick indicated the baby his wife held. “And this little mess-maker is Grace.”
Kyle studied Grace, who was giving him a stranger once-over. “She looks clean to me.”
“Give her a few minutes,” Charity said with a chuckle. “We tried to introduce ourselves at church on Sunday, but you were gone so fast. You must have been in a hurry.”
The side of his mouth lifted. “Something like that.”
Charity and Rick exchanged a look, but neither said more. Grateful that they didn’t, Julia flitted a look toward the parking lot. Maybe her other guests had decided not to come, after all, and maybe that was just as well. Charity had suggested it might be too soon, and she was probably right.
Rick lifted Grace from his wife’s arms and swung her around until she giggled. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I hate to see all of this food go to waste.”
“Go to waste? Are you kidding?” Kyle gave her a look of pure incredulity with a touch of mirth. “We can’t let that happen, now can we?”
“So let the food frenzy begin,” Julia returned.
Julia could feel herself relaxing for the first time since she’d pulled into the lot of Central Park. Now she would get the chance to enjoy the afternoon—the sunny day, the breeze off the Huron River, the swings inside the playground. Even the company.
She couldn’t help grinning as she watched Kyle, paper plate already in his hand, examine the spread Charity had laid out for them. He fit in so well with her family. He laughed with Rick as if they were old pals. Charity liked Kyle, too, if the way she followed him around the table and plied him with food was any indication. Even Grace had bestowed on him one of her precious smiles, from the safety of her mother’s arms.
She could get used to this, even if she and Kyle were only friends. Even if she would have to keep reminding herself that the rest of the day.