And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry Read Free Book Online

would be discussed another day and time. They
     talked about the store and a late shipment, about Charlie’s possible job promotion
     and the never-ending rain, until Rowan burst through the back screen door.
    “Ladies, what are you doing? The party is inside.” He swept his hand toward the house.
    “We’re catching up,” Kate said.
    “Oh, because you don’t see each other every day all day?” He smiled and took Kate’s
     hand. “Come on, girl. Becky pulled out Brian’s Cotton-Eyed Joe CD and you know what that does for Larson.”
    Kate groaned. “I’m really not sure I can see his version of clogging tonight.”
    Rowan took her hand to lead her inside as the back door opened and a man walked outside,
     barely missing Kate with the swinging door. “Whoa,” he said. “Sorry.”
    “It’s okay,” Kate said, taking a step back. “You missed me.”
    “Katie? Katie Vaughn?” he asked.
    “Hayes?”
    “Yep, in the flesh.” The guy smiled.
    Kate hugged him. “I thought you’d moved out West. Montana, right?”
    Hayes nodded. He was tall, a shadow of beard on his chin. “Yep. I’m home for Mama’s
     birthday, and Larson dragged me to his party.”
    “It’s really good to see you,” Kate said, and then introduced him to Rowan.
    “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard lots about you,” Hayes said. “Welcome to town.”
    Rowan laughed. “Been here a few years.”
    “Well, welcome anyway. Guess I’d follow cute Katie anywhere too.” Hayes turned to
     Kate then. “You see much of the old gang?”
    “Not really,” she said. “Just Larson and Norah.”
    Hayes turned and saw Norah, laughing. “Hey, you,” he said, and hugged Norah, picking
     her up and putting her gently down. “How you doing?”
    “Great.”
    “Hey,” Hayes said, holding his cold beer against his forehead. “Either of you ever
     see Jack Adams? I thought about him the other day and couldn’t find him on Facebook
     or anywhere else. No one seems to know what happened to him.”
    Norah looked to Kate and then broke the silence, “Last I heard he was in Alabama somewhere.”
    “Guess he stayed there after he moved.” Hayes took a long swallow of beer.
    Rowan pulled at Kate’s hand and she took the hint. “Nice seeing you, Hayes, she said.”
    “You too, darling.”
    Rowan and Kate entered the living room the same way Kate imagined one might enter
     a furnace: eyes closed, breath held. The evening passed in a heat-haze. They finally
     left, hugging friends and then walking outside along the cracked sidewalk. Before
     they reached Rowan’s car a block away, he stopped.
    The rain had quit, but the leaves dripped onto Kate’s hair and arms, a welcome coolness.
     A gas streetlight a few feet away cast a glow, causing the Spanish moss to appear
     as downward curling smoke.
    “Gorgeous night. Finally,” she said.
    “It is,” Rowan said. “Did you have fun?”
    “Sure. It was nice seeing a lot of people I haven’t seen in a while.”
    “I wasn’t too fond of your high school buddy, Hayes.”
    Kate laughed. “Why? He’s totally harmless.”
    “Calling you Cute Katie and implying I followed you, and then asking about your high
     school boyfriend. Kinda weird, I thought.”
    Kate started walking again, making sure Rowan could hear her voice without seeing
     her face. “That’s silly.”
    “I knew that’s what you’d say.”
    Kate stopped and turned on the sidewalk, wanting to wipe the conversation clean, remove
     it from the air as surely as the rain had cleared the pollen. “Did you see Jimmy asleep
     on the hammock?” She laughed and took Rowan’s hand, squeezing it. “I almost wish I
     could see Larson’s face in the morning when he finds him out there in the back yard.”
    Rowan laughed, and leftover rain dripped off the water-drenched leaves into his hair.
     His quick slip into laughter made her heart unfold toward him, and she pulled him
     into a kiss. “Take me home,” she said. And he did.
    He walked her