“The conductor escorted me off the stage and called a cab, personally! I don’t blame him. Actually, he’s very sweet, and he was worried about me.” She sat down carefully in the seat opposite him and folded her hands on the table. “So I have a vacation.” She tried a smile, but it wobbled on her face. “I’m not sure I know what to do with a vacation.”

Dave covered her hands with his and gave them a squeeze. “You’ll figure it out. You’ll have time to do more practicing. And you can sit in the audience once in a while and get a different perspective.” He grinned. “You can go to bingo every night with Elsie.”

The coffee was ready, but she didn’t want to move. Her hands felt good under his. This was exactly what she needed. Support, comfort, and warmth. David Dodd wasn’t stingy with his emotions. And he knew how to grin and tease her out of a funk. He might not be the perfect marriage prospect, but she doubted she’d ever find a better friend. She mustered up a reasonable amount of bravado. “Bingo with Elsie doesn’t sound half-bad. And you know what else? I’m going to hang a bird feeder on my dogwood tree!”

“That’s pretty radical.”

“What the hell, I may as well go all out on this vacation thing.”

He wanted to propose a real vacation to her. A trip to the Bahamas or a week in the Florida Keys, but he knew she wasn’t ready for that— yet. So he poured out two cups of coffee, helped himself to a cookie, and tried not to smile too broadly. The image of Kate knocking over an entire row of music stands was enough to set him off howling, and the idea of her on forced vacation had his heart skipping beats.

Katie Finn, he thought to himself, you don’t stand a chance.

Chapter 9

Elsie looked at Kate and shook her head. “Pitiful,” she said. “You’ve been on vacation for three days, and already you’re blimping out.”

Kate dropped the stick from her Fudgsicle into the empty potato chip bag and sighed. “I’m not blimping out. Besides, how could you tell? All I ever wear are these sweats. You can’t tell if someone’s blimping out in sweats.”

“You got a double chin.”

“Water retention.”

Elsie grunted. “Too much salt from all them chips you eat.”

Kate pinched her chin between her thumb and forefinger and decided it didn’t feel fat. Elsie was exaggerating. So she ate a few chips. Big deal.

“And them game shows you watch all day are gonna rot your mind. Don’t you have anything better to do than to watch game shows? Why don’t you play your cello? Look at it… it’s got dust on it.”