Oklahoma Reunion by Tina Radcliffe

Author:Tina Radcliffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Kait finished applying the first coat of gray paint to the porch railing just as the postman parked his truck at the curb and walked up the drive.

“Morning, ma’am.”

She raised her brush in a salute of acknowledgment.

“You must be the new resident.” He glanced down at the mail in his hand.

Wiping her hands on a rag, she accepted the proffered junk mail. “That’s me. Resident.”

“Done a lot of work on the place,” the carrier said, with a quick glance around.

“Yes,” she agreed. A lot of work.

“I always thought all this place needed was a little sprucing up. Why, with those holly bushes trimmed back you can really see the house. Looks mighty nice.”

“Thanks.” Pride welled inside Kait. The place was returning to its former glory. Molly was right. Her grandmother would have been pleased.

The mail carrier nodded toward the sign on the lawn. “So you’re fixin’ to sell the place, huh?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I live back East.”

“Tough market. But that’s a fine house. Needs some work but still a fine house.”

Kait nodded.

“Are you by chance kin to Jack Field?”

Kait stiffened. “Jack was my father.”

The man jerked back in surprise. He looked her up and down. “Naw. Really? You don’t look much like him.”

“I guess I look like my mother. She was part Native American.”

“Guess so.” He scratched his head and adjusted his mailbag. “Funny—Jack never mentioned he had a daughter.”

“So you knew my father?” Kait blinked, as much surprised as she was eager for any news to connect her father and the last years of his life.

The carrier gave a quick shrug. “As well as I know all my customers. I’ve had this particular route for about a year and a half. Your father would always offer me a glass of tea. To tell you the truth, I looked forward to yammering with Old Jack.”

Yammering? She couldn’t even remember a full conversation with her father, much less yammering. Were they talking about the same Jack Field? She hadn’t even heard a pleasant word from her father since her mother died. The most she’d gotten from him in the final months before she’d left town were a grunt and a few terse, angry epithets she preferred to forget.

“I never did believe those stories about him.” The postman cocked his head. “Jack was sober the entire time I knew him. Quit drinking about eighteen months before he passed. Told me more than once that he was a new man. None of my business, but he told me his liver was failing.”

Kait stared ahead, regret and confusion swirling through her mind. It was as though he was talking about a stranger. She wasn’t going to refute his words. There was at least some comfort in knowing that her father had apparently had some sort of epiphany in the months before his death. Had the man her mother fell in love with, the gentle father of her childhood, returned?

Finally the postman frowned and shook his head. “My condolences for your loss, ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

“Well, I’ve got to keep moving.

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