“I think I’ll email Tayla to say that I’ll be in the office on Monday.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
“How do we get Aunt Sara to agree with us?”
“Easy. We just stop participating. And we start today. It’s Saturday, so we’ll do other things, like wash my new truck.”
“Answer emails,” she said. “And I need to look at new listings so I’m ready to go to work on Monday morning.”
“Good idea. I might even make myself take care of the company’s finances.”
“You don’t have a secretary?”
“She’s on maternity leave.”
“Yours?”
He grinned. “There’s my Kate back. Jokes about everything. Come on, let’s get you fed.”
“But I just ate ten thousand calories.”
“By this time tomorrow you’ll be six sizes bigger, so what’s a few bites more?”
“You are so not funny.” She followed him into the kitchen.
TWENTY-TWO
Sara returned just as Kate was finishing the huge sandwich Jack had made for her. After they listened to Sara say that she and Heather had been visiting people at the hospital, they told her they wanted to stop investigating the murders. They were done.
Kate was standing close to Jack and almost reached for his hand to hold. Like brothers and sisters standing up to authority.
“Cool,” Sara said. “We can spend the weekend catching up with our real lives. Who wants to hit the gym?”
“Red, here, does,” Jack said. “She’s eaten so many calories this morning that I’m sure she’s gained ten pounds. I tried to stop her but I couldn’t.”
“Needed the energy. I was exhausted from throwing you out of my bedroom.”
Jack gave a chuckle.
“Great idea,” Sara said. “I’ll drive your new truck.”
“You can’t reach the pedals,” Jack called over his shoulder as he headed toward his room. “I bet I can get ready to go before you two can.”
“You win!” Sara and Kate said in unison. They laughed; Jack groaned. As it was, they beat him because he had three work calls.
Kate was impressed with the beautiful LA Fitness on University. After Sara signed her in as a guest, they went to the machines. Lifting weights was new to Kate but Jack was a patient teacher, and working out together came easily to them. While Jack took his turn, Sara and Kate talked about clothes and made plans for places to go. A couple of times they had to wait for Jack when people he knew came over to ask about his leg.
After an hour with the weights, they went to the basketball court. Jack pulled hand pads out of his big gym bag, and Sara gave Kate a set of red leather boxing gloves.
“I can’t possibly do that.” She backed away.
They didn’t listen to her. Within minutes, Jack had her in gel protectors, then into the sixteen-ounce gloves.
Because of his cast, he had to back up against the wall to keep from falling as Sara hit the pads he held.
He spent a few minutes giving Kate basic instructions about twisting and using her body to power a hit, then held up his pads. She was timid, barely tapping, until Jack started softly saying names to her. Evan. Mrs. Ellerbee. Cheryl. Verna. Dan.
On the last punch, Kate hit so hard that Jack stepped aside, removed his pad and shook his hand. “Got some anger in you, girl.”