Lace & Lassos by Cheyenne McCray

missed him, how much she’d loved him.
    “Maybe this is where he put the papers,” Wayne said as he rubbed her shoulders. “I’ll bet it is.”
    She’d been so overwhelmed by her father’s note that the thought hadn’t occurred to her. She smiled up at Wayne. “That would be so great.”
    “Does it say anywhere on the note what the box number is?” he asked.
    “Doesn’t look like it.” She started to remove the key by pulling away the tape. The tape seemed older, as if it had been around for years. “Where did you find this?”
    “It was at the bottom of the file drawer,” he said, “Beneath the hanging file folders.”
    “I can’t believe I missed it.” The paper tore a little as she removed the rest of the tape from over the key. When she picked up the key she squinted at the paper. “A number is on the paper.”
    “Must be the box number.” Wayne leaned over her shoulder. “We can go to Sierra Vista in the morning and check it out.
    “That’s great.” She scooted the chair back and picked up the key and letter as she stood. “I’ll put this in my purse. How about dinner now?”
    “The smell is about to kill me,” he said. “I’m starving.”
    “I’ll get everything ready,” she said.
    He nodded. “While you do that, I’ll put these other papers away and be there in a few minutes.”
    Feeling immeasurably lighter, she went to the living room and stuffed the letter and key into her purse.
    She returned to the kitchen and checked the casserole that was just starting to turn brown on the top. She grabbed a pair of hot pads and drew it out of the oven then set it on a trivet on the counter.
    After she set the hot pads beside the casserole dish, she took out a packaged salad and put it into a bowl and chose a couple of bottles of salad dressing from out of the fridge. That would have to do for greens with dinner. Once she was finished putting plates on the table and silverware, along with the salad and casserole, she headed to the study.
    “Dinner is ready.” She pushed hair from her face that had escaped from her ponytail and looked at Wayne. “Come and get it.”
    “Smells incredible.” He put his hand at her waist as they walked from the study toward the kitchen. She smiled and rested her head on his upper arm.
    When they were seated at the table, Wayne served each a helping of casserole and salad. Kaitlyn realized she’d forgotten something to drink, so she got up and took two more cans of Pepsi out of the fridge.
    “These are our fancy glasses for tonight,” she said and they popped the tabs on the cans.
    “Great casserole,” he said in between bites. He seemed solely focused on eating rather than talking for the moment.
    “That was amazing,” he said after wolfing down three plates of casserole and salad, along with another can of Pepsi.
    She’d managed to eat part of her first and only helping. The knot of anxiety that had been inside of her for days hadn’t helped her appetite.
    “Are you okay?” He gestured to her plate. “You’ve hardly eaten anything.” He gave her a critical look. “You look a little like you don’t get enough to eat.”
    “Over the past few years I just haven’t been able to eat a lot when I’ve been keyed up or upset, which has been a good deal of the time.” She shrugged. “I think today at lunch was the first time in a long time that I actually finished a meal.”
    “And now?” he asked. “We found the key to a safe deposit box. That’s great news.”
    She nodded. “Terrific news. It’s just the whole thing with Harold, what he said about me not being blood family, and how things have been going…it’s all really been getting to me.”
    “I understand.” He reached across the table and rested his hand on her forearm and squeezed. “Things are going to turn around once we get to that safe deposit box. We know that there has to be some kind of record somewhere about the house and land, and I’ll bet it’s in that bank,”