Page 5 of Renewal After Dark

Duke shifted his attention to McKenzie and Jax. “Are you guys ready?”

“I think so.”

He took the portable crib from her and carried it out to his truck.

McKenzie followed him out and thanked him for holding the door for her so she could get Jax settled in the car seat Tiffany had loaned her.

His truck smelled like it had been freshly cleaned. Had he done that for her, too? So what if he had? It’s just that it had been such a long time since anyone had done anything nice for her, other than the Taylors, of course, that the smallest act of kindness felt huge to her.

Tiffany waved them off from the back porch.

Jax gurgled and played with his toes as Duke navigated winding island roads.

“He’s awfully cute,” Duke said with a chuckle.

“He’s obsessed with his toes.”

“I suppose babies like to chew on them while they can still reach them.”

“True.”

“Rosemary would’ve been crazy about him.”

“I know. I so wish she could’ve met him.”

“I’m sure she’s still around here somewhere, keeping an eye on things.”

“I’d like to think so.”

“Were you always close to her?”

“Very. She lived next door to us when I was growing up. I spent more time at her house than at mine. She taught me to cook and sew. She bought me my first glue gun and taught me how to make every kind of craft. We were best friends.”

“I can picture all that. She tried to teach me how to cook, but I never made it much past the basics.”

“Was she exasperated with you?”

“Highly.”

McKenzie laughed at the way he said that. “She wasn’t known for her patience. She’d often say, ‘MK, I taught you better than that!’”

“MK?”

“Yes, she gave me that nickname when I was a baby and never called me anything else.”

“I remember you as a teenager.”

Surprised, she looked over at him. “You do? We met before last week?”

He looked as stunned as she felt. “Once. She invited me to come to her house on the mainland for Christmas one year, and I remember meeting a granddaughter named MK.”

“I’m trying to remember meeting you. She was always inviting people to holidays and stuff.”

“I have a photo from that Christmas. I’ll show you.”

McKenzie wondered how old he was but didn’t want to ask. If she had to guess, she’d say late-thirties, which would make him at least ten years older than her twenty-six. Not that it mattered… She was just curious.

He took a left turn into a dirt driveway that led to a shingled two-story saltbox-style house with a two-story garage to the left side. The driveway circled around a firepit with lights strung above it.

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