Amazing Gracie by Sherryl Woods Page B

Jessie warned in an undertone. “Bobby Ray’s okay in his own way, but there’s bad blood between him and Kevin.”

    “So I gathered. How come?”
    “It’s a family thing.”
    “But I’d be willing to bet that you know every detail.”
    “Well, of course I do,” Jessie agreed. “Doesn’t mean I’d tell a stranger.”
    Gracie sighed. “How long will it take me to stop being an outsider around here?”
    “Hard to say. Could be tomorrow. Could be you won’t live that long. Folks are fickle about acceptance. There’s no telling what’ll turn the tide. I can’t say if it matters, but I think you’re going to do okay, as long as you don’t push too hard. Take it a little slow. And whatever you do, don’t antagonize Kevin. People around here think that man hung the moon.”
    “Because he was a high school basketball star?”
    “Because he’s a decent kind of guy who’ll come through for you in a pinch.”
    “You said something like that before, Jessie. What did Kevin do for you?”
    “He came through for me, when no one else would. That’s the long and short of it. And I’m not the only one. If you’re looking for an example of someone who lives by the Golden Rule, you don’t need to look any further than Kevin.”
    “Yet there’s bad blood between him and his cousin. Why is that?”
    “You’ll have to ask Kevin or Bobby Ray about that. It’s their business,” Jessie said with finality and moved off to greet two customers who’d just come in.
    Gracie struggled to grasp the distinction between spreading news of her activities far and wide and sharing a few insights into some apparently long-standing family feud in the Daniels clan. She didn’t quite get it, but it wasclear that Jessie had said as much as she intended to on the subject.
    Back outside, Gracie debated the wisdom of going to the county courthouse in Montross to check property records. Bobby Ray had told her she’d be wasting her time, but the warning might have been totally self-serving. Or not.
    It was such a beautiful day, too beautiful to spend indoors, looking through musty old records or even computerized ones if the county was up-to-date. The air was soft and warm, the sky a clear and brilliant blue. Maybe she should just go on back home and admire her new garden.
    When she opted for the latter, she blamed it on Kevin’s sorry influence and made a hasty detour to the bookstore to pick up those cookbooks she’d concluded she needed. She might spend the day lazing around in her own backyard, but the time wouldn’t be totally wasted. She could choose recipes for the bed-and-breakfast. Simple recipes.
    Two hours later, she was up to her elbows in broken eggs and flour. The kitchen looked as if a particularly nasty tornado had ripped through. Her version of the basic little souffle she’d seen made a thousand times in the Worldwide kitchens was burnt to a crisp and had fallen in the middle. There were five others just like it in the garbage.
    “Maybe you ought to switch to scrambled eggs,” Kevin suggested.
    Gracie glanced up from the mess and glared at him. “Where did you come from?” He was lounging in the doorway as naturally as if he belonged in her kitchen. She hadn’t heard him or his car.

    “I knocked on the front door. Obviously you were distracted by the explosion.” He grinned. “That is what happened here, isn’t it? Something blew up?”
    “Go to hell.”
    His grin broadened. “People only resort to cursing when they can’t think of anything more creative to say.”
    Before she could think of a few dozen creative ways to tell him to get lost, he moved into the room and began moving pots and pans and bowls into the sink and running hot water over them.
    “Sit,” he instructed.
    Gracie sat, because she was too exhausted to do anything else. She wanted to weep, but Kevin’s presence kept her from indulging in a good cry.
    “Exactly what were you trying to accomplish here?” he inquired as he