The Surprise Princess by Patricia McLinn Read Free Book Online Page A

added quickly, “How about some of your cake, Andy? I’m starving.”
    “If you came here only to eat me out of house and home, you can turn around and leave.” The fond smile lighting her face belied the words. “You did enough of that as a teenager.”
    “Of course I did. Why else would I come?”
    “Ignore him, Katie.” The woman led them through a compact dining room to a pentagon-shaped space with open doors revealing a bedroom, a smaller room that appeared to be another shrine to Brad, an old-fashioned bathroom, and, finally, a kitchen to their right. “I do, however, happen to have a ring cake—”
    “Vanilla with almonds and lots of icing?”
    “—and I can offer you some tea.”
    “Milk,” Brad said, opening the fridge. “As cold as you can make it.” “That sounds wonderful, Mrs. Spencer,” Katie said.
    “Please, call me Andy. All of Brad’s friends do. Come through to the porch. There’s still some sun. Can’t miss any opportunity for sun during our winters.”
    She settled them at a small table centered on windows at the end of the addition. She and Katie sat beside the windows facing each other, with Brad pulling up a chair at right angles. His grandmother poured Brad’s milk into a tall white pitcher and the tea steeped in a deep blue pot. The cake had pride of place on a raised dish in the center of the table.
    Talk ranged from Andy’s garden waiting for spring under the snow to Brad’s youthful weeding assignments to the delicious cake to Brad’s teenage appetite to the current season to Brad’s playing days to the future prospects of this year’s players to the accomplishments of Brad’s teammates. Brad introduced the topics about current affairs, his grandmother segued to his past, then he would switch to a new discussion.
    With a second wedge of cake on his plate, Brad reached for the milk pitcher. Under the table, Katie felt his leg shift. She’d kept her legs tucked back, but her caution did no good now as the side of his leg brushed against her knees.
    “Sorry, Katie.” With his right hand around the pitcher, he reached his left under the table and spanned her leg above her knee, holding it in place when she would have retracted it. “You have position. Call that foul on me.”
    “Foul?” His grandmother asked.
    “Basketball talk,” he said easily.
    At some level Katie noted the older woman had known – she’d shown a thorough familiarity with basketball. But that level was way, way, way back. Most of her was occupied with sparks along her nerves
whooshing
to wildfire status under his touch.
    “No, uh, no problem.”
    “There.” He leaned back, pitcher in hand. His leg moved away. More slowly, he removed his hand. “All set.”
    “Have another slice,” Andy urged her as Brad dug into his.
    “It’s delicious, but no thank you.”
    “Katie’s got to save her appetite for the swank restaurant we’re going to,” he said.
    His grandmother cocked her head. “The concession stand?”
    “No.” His mock indignation was perfect. “A burger joint near the school. Best burgers in the Chicago metro area.”
    “Bradford—” His grandmother’s grin undermined her remonstration.
    Katie said, “To know if it’s the best, I’d have to test all the other burgers.”
    Apparently delighted, he said, “That’s my plan. Got to admit it’s good for the budget.”
    “But not the arteries.”
    As their chuckles faded, Andy said, “Brad, I need you to do something for me.”
    “Sure. What do you need?”
    “Shoveling.”
    His eyes narrowed. “The service did the walk and it looked fine.”
    “They don’t do the back.”
    “That’s because you said you didn’t need the back shoveled, refused to let me pay for it, and insisted it be removed from the contract.”
    “No need for it in the contract. But the walk to the garage needs to be shoveled today. You go on now. I’m going to pour Katie more tea and we’re going to talk.”
    “You don’t have anything