The Rules of Engagement by Peggy Webb

Author:Peggy Webb [Webb, Peggy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peggy Webb

Chapter 7

The day after the political rally Kate went around the house smiling for no reason at all. Twice she caught herself laughing aloud, and once, while she was outside weeding the flower bed, she even found herself singing to Queen Victoria, Jane’s pet chicken. The hen merely blinked her yellow eyes and ignored the whole performance.

Kate looked up and squinted at the sun. “I must be crazy,” she said aloud. “Singing to a chicken.”

She tried to concentrate on the weeds, but she kept pulling up petunias by mistake.

“I must be thinking about the campaign,” she told the cat, who had nowhere to go since the beauty shop was closed for the day. The cat switched his tail and gave Kate a disdainful look, as if to say he knew she was lying.

Kate sat back on her heels to inspect the disaster she'd made of the flower bed. Six red petunias were wilting in the sun and another was gasping for breath in her grubby hand. She put the poor dying flower back into the ground and patted the earth around it.

“I must apologize,” she said to the flower. “I have nothing against you personally. It’s just that I look down at you and I keep seeing Ben.”

“Why don’t you try looking up?”

Kate released the flower as if it had bitten her. She tipped back to look up and fell flat on her bottom.

“Stop laughing, Ben. You nearly scared me out of my wits.”

“Jumpy this morning?”

“Crazy this morning. I’ve been talking to Queen Victoria.”

“Considering that she’s been dead so long, that’s quite a feat.”

“Queen Victoria is a pet chicken, not a monarch.”

“I see,” Ben said, but he didn’t. “Here. Let me help you up.” He extended his hand.

Kate ignored it. “You got me into this mess in the first place. I wish you would go away and gather some grand mafia worms.”

“Catalpa worms.” He squatted beside her. “You look delicious, even with dirt on your face.” Smiling, he wiped a smudge off her cheek.

Kate sat very still, loving the feel of his hands on her face and not knowing what to do about it. Should she chalk it up to lust and forget about it? No, she decided. Ben wouldn’t believe that. Even she didn’t believe that anymore. Not after last night. Should she take him inside and taste all of him, bit by bit, starting with his wonderful hands and working her way down his gorgeous legs to his toes? And what would that accomplish? It would simply verify her suspicion that everything she did, even running for mayor, was designed to put her into close contact with Ben Adams.

She couldn’t just sit here all day. She idly rubbed some dirt off her leg. She knew that Ben was watching her. What was he thinking? As if he had read her mind, he caressed her cheek.

“Tell me, Katie mine, do you plan to sit in the dirt all day or shall we get on with this weeding?” He looked at the pile of wilted petunias.

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