Read Online About the Boy by Sharon De Vita - Free Book Online Page B

“So what’s that got to do with hand-holding?”
    Lucas’s smile remained firmly in place. “Well, Katie and I aren’t exactly holding hands,” he clarified, giving Patience his most sincere smile. “We’re actually just having a friendly argument that maybe you can help us solve.”
    “Argument?” Katie repeated weakly, wondering what Lucas was up to this time. Then she remembered the way he’d handled the gossip in the diner at lunch this morning and tried to relax a bit.
    “Yes, Katie,” Lucas said with a reassuring smile. “Patience strikes me as a modern woman, let’s see what she has to say about this. I think she can help us settle this once and for all.”
    Patience grinned. “You want my help. Well, it’s about dang time someone in this town appreciates me. Now, push over, Chief,” Patience said, getting into their booth and bumping Lucas’s hip with her own ample one as she squeezed in beside him. “If I’m going to be helping you and settling things, then I need to rest my old, weary bones.” Chuckling again, she patted her hair. “I think better when I’m sitting, anyway.” She smoothed down her black top. “Okay, now what’s the problem, here?”
    “Well, Patience,” Lucas began, still covering Katie’s hand, “I say since I invited Rusty for a get-aquatinted pizza, and of course I invited his mom so Rusty wouldn’t feel awkward—”
    “’Course, that’s understandable,” Patience said with a bob of her head. “Boys that age feel awkward ’bout just about everything,” she said, leaning across the table as if speaking only to Katie. “Nothing strange about that.”
    “Well, now I say it’s only polite to let me pay and leave the tip since I did the inviting.” Lucas turned toward Katie again and flashed her a wink. “But Katie here is insisting that I let her pay her share.” He lifted their linked hands, and showed Patience the tip money he’d laid down on the table before she’d arrived. “See, she’s trying to push this money off on me, to pay for her share. And I say since I did the inviting, I should pay. Now, as a modern woman, what do you think?”
    “Sugar, have you gone daft?” Patience demanded of Katie. “When a handsome man offers to buy you a meal, you accept, sugar. You don’t argue with him.”
    “But…but…”
    “But nothing, sugar, take it from me,” Patience said with a sharp wave of a bejeweled finger. “You may be a modern woman and all, but Katie, you’ve got to let a man be a man. ” She wiggled her brows knowingly. “Know what I mean? And trust me, girl, you’re not getting any younger and if a handsome, available man like the chief here offers to buy you a pizza, even if it’s just so he can get to know your boy, you accept and be done with it.” Patience shrugged her shoulders. “Who knows, maybe someday he might even show some interest in you. I mean I doubt it since you’re such a skinny little thing, and men like a woman that’s got some solid meat on her bones.” Grinning, she ran a hand down her ample figure. “Like me. But like I said, sugar, you surely ain’t getting any younger. And a woman could do a lot worse. Trust me, that comes from experience,” Patience added with another chuckle that had her slapping the table at her own humor. “Now, you just stop being so blasted stubborn, Katherine.” She drew back, her eyebrows drawing together again. “Why, what would your mama say if she knew you were being downright rude to the new police chief, after he’d been so nice to your boy?”
    “But I…I…”
    “I know what you’re gonna say, sugar,” Patience snapped, waving away whatever protest she thought Katie was going to make. “You’re gonna say you don’t want him thinking or getting the wrong idea. Hell, he’s a man, sugar, let him think or get any idea he wants.” She winked. “The day a mere man can outthink us hasn’t come down the pike yet.” Patting her head again, she stood up,