Taking a Shot by Catherine Gayle Read Free Book Online

Well, if you get bored, call Burnzie,” I said. Keith Burns didn’t believe in boredom. He always had something going on. Granted, probably not the sorts of things that would interest Kally, but still. I hated to see the guy alone, knowing what I did about how his wife died. It had been all over the news—the mainstream news, too, not just the hockey news. She’d had a flat tire on the highway and had been hit by an eighteen-wheeler while she was trying to change it.
    He’d been gone with the team on a road trip. I hadn’t ever talked to him about it. I didn’t know how to bring it up, or if it would be stupid or rude of me to try to get him to talk. But everyone knew.
    “I doubt I’ll need to do that,” Kally said, grinning.
    I could never tell if his smiles were real or if he was just trying to pretend he was okay. How long does it take to get over something like that? I hoped I didn’t have to learn anytime soon. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”
    “Get out of here. Go get Katie, and don’t worry about me.” He swallowed a big swig of water. “I can look after myself.”
    I didn’t have time to argue with him unless I wanted to be late picking up Katie. Considering all the threats Webs had issued lately, I didn’t think that would be a good idea.
    I pulled into their driveway about five minutes early.
    Luke Weber—Katie’s younger brother—opened the door. “You’d better come in and help or you’ll never get out of here. Mom’s fussing over her.”
    As soon as I stepped into the foyer, I could hear the commotion.
    “This one looks so pretty with the color of the dress, though,” Laura said.
    “But it’s flannel ,” Dani Weber—the youngest of the Weber siblings—said. You could almost hear a horrified shudder in her voice.
    “Exactly. It’s flannel,” Laura countered. “Which will keep her head warm.”
    “I’m not wearing a flannel scarf with this dress.”
    “You could just stay home and not have to worry about what scarf to wear,” Webs put in hopefully.
    “She’s going,” Laura and Dani said at the same time.
    “Not in a scarf that doesn’t look right,” Katie said. “I’d rather go with nothing on my head at all.”
    “But you’ll get cold,” Laura argued.
    Luke glanced over at me, his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline almost comically. “See what I mean?”
    He led me into the living room, where dozens of scarves of every color and fabric imaginable were draped over all the furniture. Laura must have started shopping for them the same day they got the diagnosis. Katie stood in the middle of the mess wearing an ice-blue dress that made her look like a princess. She even had on gloves, those long satiny ones that went up higher than her elbows. It was like she’d stepped right out of a fairy tale.
    She looked up and saw me then. And she smiled.
    My tongue got thick and dry. No one had caused that sort of reaction in me in a long time—no one but Katie. I cleared my throat. “You look beautiful.”
    She gave a tiny shake of her head, and she blushed. “Do you mind? If I don’t wear a scarf tonight? I haven’t found a wig I like yet, and I just…” Her eyes fell down to the flannel scarf in her hand.
    “I don’t mind whatever you do. You’ll always be beautiful to me.”
    Webs shot me a go-to-hell look and grunted, and I was sure he was about to spout off another threat, but Laura’s eyes turned soft and misty before he could. “But if you get cold…” she said.
    “We’ll take a scarf with us,” I said, and I felt the weight of Katie’s gaze fall on me. “And a sweater. Just in case.” She had those gloves going up her arms, but her shoulders were bare. I didn’t know how warm that dress was, but it didn’t look anywhere close to as warm as my tux, and it was cool out tonight.
    Katie nodded. “Just in case.”
    After a little more hemming and hawing, Laura finally relented and agreed to let us go as long as we took a warm scarf and sweater