“Dad! Open up!” the voice outside yelled. “We’re freezing out here!”
Leslie.
And she’d said “we,” which mean that she had brought along Shelby Lynn—who’d been known as “Shelly” since she was in diapers. Shelby felt a smile crack open his face and he quickened his steps, reaching the door and undoing the locks in record time.
He flung the door open and stepped aside as his daughter burst inside like a cyclone, her arms full of child and grocery bags.
“Oh my god, you’d think it was the dead of winter,” Leslie moaned sarcastically. She practically dropped the child as she headed for the kitchen and set the paper sacks on the counter.
“Yeah, it’s a real cold snap,” Shelby answered, giving a token response before turning his entire attention to his granddaughter. “And how are you today, Shelly?”
“Good,” the little girl replied primly. “I got new shoes and so mommy had to carry me.”
“I didn’t have to,” Leslie broke in. “You demanded that I carry you so you wouldn’t get them dirty.”
Shelby got down on one knee so he could examine the treasured footwear more closely. They were pink with white lace bows on the side and fastened with a single strap over the top.
“Shoes fit for a queen,” Shelby pronounced.
“I’m not a queen, Papa,” Shelly corrected. “I’m a princess.”
“Oh, sorry. Why don’t you want to be a queen?”
“Because queens are old.”
“Hey, watch it, Junior,” came another voice.
Shelby turned to see Katherine walking in from the bedroom, tying her flowered robe as she walked, her feet predictably cased in her pink bunny slippers. Shelby hoisted himself to his feet with an almost imperceptible groan, went to Katherine, and gave her a kiss on the lips.
“My queen never ages,” he said. He gave a deep bow and then made a show of hurting his back.
“But apparently my king does,” Katherine said, laughing.
“In some ways yes, and in some ways no,” Shelby shot back, raising one eyebrow suggestively.
Leslie noticed the look and screwed up her face. “Dad, that’s just gross.”
“Why, because I’m old?”
“No, because you’re my dad, and therefore S-E-Xless,” she said, spelling the word for the protection of her daughter.
Shelby laughed. “Look, you didn’t just show up on the planet, you know.”
“True,” Leslie said evenly, changing her tack deftly. “And neither did Shelby Lynn.”
Now it was time for Shelby to cringe. “Okay, okay. You’ve made your point.” Then he leaned toward Katherine and said in a stage whisper, “You and me. Later.”
“Dad!”
Katherine shooed him away and headed for the kitchen. “Before anyone does anything, I need some coffee.”
“Can I have some toffee?” Shelly asked, as she did every time she was at the cabin in the morning.
“No,” everyone said in unison, as they did every time she asked.
“You don’t need any more energy, my little tumbleweed,” Shelby said. “In fact, why don’t you give me some of yours? I’ll get my jumper cables from the garage and hook one end to you and the other end to me.”
Shelly’s eyes grew wide. “Mommy!”
“Papa’s just being silly again,” Leslie soothed, shooting Shelby a stern, mother bear look. “And speaking of being silly, it looks like he forgot to put away his loud, scary gun again.” She cocked her head toward the .357 hanging from the peg on the wall.
Shelby huffed. “How was I supposed to know you were coming over this morning?”
“Because I told you last week that I had the day off and was planning to bring Shelly over to play.”
“Last week!” Shelby walked to the gun and removed it from the peg. “You can’t expect me to remember stuff for that long. You know if you have any scheduling concerns you need to talk to Kay. She’s my day planner.” He headed toward the bedroom where he kept the main gun safe.
“While you’re in there, put on some pants,” Katherine said. “No one wants to see your hairy legs this early in the morning.”
Shelby bit back a reply about “some other hairy things,” and continued on his way. Normally, he would feel riled up were anyone to tell him what to do with or where to keep his firearms, but with little Shelby Lynn around, he felt as if he couldn’t be too careful. The thought of her getting hold of one of his guns ... well, no. To hell with that.
He put in the combination to the safe and pulled open the door. Then he placed the revolver on one of the padded shelves, hung the shoulder holster from a hook at the back, and then closed the door. He rattled the handle to make sure it had locked and then grabbed a pair of pants from the floor where he’d dropped them the night before. He pulled them on. Then he returned to the main room where Katherine and Leslie were talking across the counter, their voices low. Katherine saw him returning and gave a tiny cough, which effectively ended the conversation.
Shelby frowned in suspicion. “What’s going on out here?”
“Nothing,” Katherine said. “Just women chatting.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” Shelby said. “I’m gone for all of thirty seconds and already you’re plotting something devious.”
Kay smiled sweetly. “We’d never plot, dear. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Lies,” Shelby growled. “And the estrogen is getting way too thick in here. I think I’ll head over the Mack’s place.”
To his surprise, neither woman protested, which lent credibility to his suspicions that they had been talking about him.
“Fine,” he said, grabbing his coat off the same rack where his precious gun had been mere moments before. “I’m going.”
“Bye,” they chorused. Even little Shelly got in on the act, giving Papa her best open and closed hand bye-bye wave.
“Not you too!” he sighed.
Shelby left the house, groping in his coat pocket and feeling relieved when he found his keys inside. It would have been annoying to have to go back inside the cabin to get them. Those women were up to something and Shelby had a sneaking suspicion what it was.
Kay had been dropping more and more obvious hints about moving in together and Leslie, for all her theatrics whenever the topic of his love life came up, had become Katherine’s staunch ally on the matter. Shelby suspected it had less to do with his happiness and everything to do with the fact that having Katherine around on a constant basis would help “keep him in line” in terms of his diet, sleeping habits, and general health. At least, that’s what he assumed Leslie believed.
And she might just be right, he thought. Which was one reason why he’d been avoiding the whole moving in together issue. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to spend more time with Katherine, and he had to admit that the idea of having her around—and available—all the time was appealing. She was an amazing woman, and they complimented each other nicely. But Shelby had also been a bachelor for a long time and gotten mired deeply in his own ways. He wasn’t sure he wanted to introduce someone who might try to change him in any way.
Having her a part of his life, but not right in the middle of everything, had worked out well up until this point. But Shelby was getting the sense that things were changing, coming to a head, so to speak, and that something would have to be done soon. He could almost feel Katherine getting restless, and he knew she wouldn’t be happy with the status quo forever. And there was certainly no one else on the horizon. Hadn’t been since his last serious love, Carly Gilmour had left Serenity with Shelby’s blessing and support. And he wouldn’t be seeing her again. A decision would have to be made soon.