Page 19 of Promises on the Mountain

"You should leave, Kay," April straightens up in my arms. "Go home, find a good grief counselor, move on. But don't contact me again."

Kay sweeps the crowd that's gathered outside the little cafe.

"You heard my fiancée," I gently push April aside so I can take a step toward the unwanted guest, "it's time for you to leave."

"What are you going to do?" She scoffs as I move forward, "throw me out?"

My head swings toward the door, a grin stretching across my face before I turn back to Kay.

"I've never put my hands on a woman and I'm not going to start with you," I assure her, "but my grandmother doesn't have the same moral code I do."

With that said, Gran marches all four foot eleven of herself across the room and grabs hold of the younger woman's arm.

It's hard not to laugh at the look on the girl's face when she discovers that my grandmother is deceptively strong for her size and age.

"You heard that, didn'tcha, Hawk?" Gran crows at the local deputy who has joined the crowd and moved up front. "Get a good look at her, she's not welcome back here and if you catch her bothering my granddaughter again, I expect you to shoot her."

There's a combination of cheers and laughter from the audience and maybe Kay was expecting our local law man to step up in her defense. Instead, Hawkins tips his hat with a low dip of his head and a smile toward Gran as the whole town stands by and lets an eighty-year-old woman forcibly drag a girl in her early twenties to her car, telling her a few choice words along the way.

The crowd waits till the stranger's car has backed out of the lot and disappeared around the curve that leads out of town.

Drama over, the crowd from the Brick and Porter envelope the deputy and Terra Diaz, pulling the town's newest celebrity couple into the pizza place in a cacophony of congratulations and what-the-hells.

"You okay, baby?" I pull April into my arms, kissing the top of her head and then catching her lips with mine when she turns her face up to me.

"Thank you," she tells me, her pretty face shining at me like I'm a goddamn hero.

She looks down at the broken glass still littering the floor and sighs, "I need to sweep that up before I can go."

I'm about to jump on the task for her when I hear a labored sigh from the doorway.

"Oh Mable! Thank you so much, I'm so sorry you got dragged into all that," April gushes, side-stepping broken glass to go hug gran while I retrieve the broom and dustpan out of the back closet.

"It's no problem, sweetie," I hear Gran telling her while I sweep up the mess. "I'm sorry about your shop. Did she break anything important? I can have the deputy track down her information if you need to press charges."

"No, Mable, she just broke a few of the vases."

"Raine? Could you help me get back to the office, sweetheart?" Gran calls at me as I finish dumping the broken glass.

"Just give me a minute with the boy and then I'll let you have him back." I hear Gran saying to April as I rejoin them at the door.

"Lock up, baby, I'll be right back. Gotta get you home so we can finish what we started." I whisper in April's ear and then let Gran take hold of my arm as she pretends to be too frail to walk back to the museum on her own.

"I take it April and that girl have some history between them." Gran makes the observation with a pat against my arm.

"Yeah, April had already told me about her. I don't think she expected her to show up here though."

"Well, that was a good speech you gave her."

Gran lets go of my arm as soon as we reach the door of the museum.

"Hopefully she's the type that's smart enough to know good advice when she gets it."

Bending low so I can kiss Gran's cheek, she pats mine with a soft smile.

"Better go get your girl, Raine." I get a soft kiss on the cheek in return for the one I gave her.

"I'm proud of you."

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