Read Online Wife Wanted in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad - Free Book Online Page B

“Katrina Britton, meet Mrs. Hargrove-Nelson. We call her Edith. She’ll help you with the boys. “
    “He’s right,” Edith said with a soft smile. “I’m home all day so just bring the boys by when you’re ready. I have the oven going for the cookies so I’ll be there.”
    Conrad could see Katrina relax. “Thank you.”
    “I could even take them with me now if you’d like. I have some toys they might like to play with.”
    “What kind of toys?” Ryan asked.
    “There’s no need for them to be out in the rain,” Conrad said to Katrina. “They won’t care about seeing that sign anyway.”
    Katrina nodded. “I guess if the boys want to go—”
    The boys nodded and shyly gave Katrina a hug when she opened her arms to them. Then she patted them on their heads and let them go.
    “There’s no one in town better to keep an eye on them,” Conrad said as they watched the boys walk away with his aunt and uncle.
    “It does make sense,” Katrina agreed, her voice loweven though there was no one around them any longer. “I don’t really want them there when I talk to the sheriff anyway.”
    “Yeah, well, let’s go then,” Conrad said.
    He had been going to show her the sign first, but maybe they should just go ahead and see what the sheriff had to say. That way, when she saw the sign, she could devote her full attention to it.
    “I hope you’re not disappointed,” he said as they walked back out on the café porch. “It’s just a sign.”
    “I don’t care what it looks like. I’m going to make it work,” she said. “I have to.”
    Which only made him more nervous. He wished now that he’d given more than ten dollars to the cause when the teenagers in town had taken up a collection to place a bench by the sign. He suspected they only wanted it so they’d have someplace to sit and hold hands in summer. Well, he figured they couldn’t get into very much trouble doing that since someone could come down the road at any time.
    They had the bench on order, but no one had received it yet so there was nothing around the sign but mud and dried grass. And a few small boulders someone had hauled over for sitting. The last he heard no one had painted the signpost again, either. Every winter, it seemed to get a little more chipped. He liked the weathered look of the sign, but a photographer might not.
    He wondered what it would take to get everyone to agree to put a new coat of paint on the signpost. It might be an odd attraction for a town, but the people here hadtaken that old metal post to their hearts and they were particular about anything that was done to it. If he understood love, he might understand about the post, he told himself. Right now, though, he felt clueless.

Chapter Five
    A fter they stepped out of the café, Katrina took a minute to stand in the shelter of the porch. More dark clouds had moved in and cold rain was being blown around by the wind. She could see Edith and Charley Nelson walking with the boys down the street, all four of them with their heads down. Then she saw Charley stop and pick up Zach so he could ride on his shoulders. No one seemed to mind all the mud.
    Her nephews would do fine with the older couple. Besides, it would only be for a couple of hours. By then, if all went well, she and the boys would be driving back to Leanne’s place with nothing more than a good story to tell.
    She patted the small pocket on the side of her jacket. She missed having her cell phone with her. She hadn’t been able to give a number to the Nelsons. Of course, they would both know to call the gas station if they hadany problems with the boys. “Your aunt has your number. Right?”
    Conrad looked over at her. “My phone number? Sure.”
    He was standing at the edge of the porch, waiting for her. When he left the gas station earlier, he’d put on a buffalo plaid jacket. She just now noticed he’d turned up the corduroy collar and it made him look like a lumberjack.
    “You okay?” he