LEGEND Read online

  “Yes! Cooking classes. Poor people need self-esteem just as much as rich people! Not all the people on welfare are bums who are too lazy to work. Think how much better they would feel if they knew how to cook a simple, nutritious meal for their children. And the women could learn a skill that might get them off welfare.”

  For a moment Jane could only stare at her friend. Never had she seen Kady show passion. Oh, everyone knew she loved cooking, and she treated those knives of hers as though they were her children, but Kady had never been the type of person to fight for a cause. If there was a protest going on, Kady would probably say, “I’ll make lunch,” then disappear into the nearest kitchen.

  “Something’s happened to you,” Jane said softly.

  “No it hasn’t,” Kady snapped.

  “It’s Gregory, isn’t it?”

  “Gregory is just fine. Why does every woman assume that the cause of every other woman’s problem is a man?”

  “History?”

  When Kady smiled, Jane clutched her hand. “I’ve known you all your life and you’ve never been a crusader. You’ve always been content to stand in the background and let others walk all over you.”

  Gasping, Kady snatched her hand away. “That’s a horrible thing to say. I do not allow people to walk over me.”

  “Ha! That mother-in-law of yours—”

  At that Kady straightened her back. “I think this has gone far enough. I think I’d like to leave now.”

  Jane leaned toward her friend. “I don’t mean to offend you. I want to help you and—”

  Kady’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “I’d like to remind you that you are not my therapist nor are you my business manager. If you want to help me then keep your nose out of my business. Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes, of course,” Jane said just as stiffly. “I do indeed think it is time for me to go home.”

  Kady didn’t answer that remark but made her way out of the restaurant, took a left, and went to the parking garage to her car, Jane behind her. They drove back to Onions in silence.

  What is wrong with me? Kady wondered, not for the first time. Everything seemed to bother her. In the three and a half weeks since she’d returned from Legend, it was as though her whole life had changed. Mrs. Norman now got on her nerves so much she could hardly stand to see the woman walk into the room.

  Kady tried not to think this way, but it was as though her time in Legend had ruined her life. Things that she had once liked, she no longer did. It seemed that instead of accepting what was, now she was asking how things could be different—and did she want them to be different? In just a few weeks she had gone from being content to wanting . . .

  And that was the real problem. She didn’t know what it was that she really wanted, and not knowing was making her crazy. She’d told Jane she wanted to start cooking classes, and maybe she did, but that wasn’t all of it. There was something deeper that she wanted, and she had no idea what it was.

  For one thing, her recurring dreams of the Arabian man were beginning to bother her. In the past the dreams had been a curiosity, but now there was an urgency to them that haunted her even in the daytime. His eyes were asking something of her; maybe even pleading with her.

  It had been easy to figure out that the dark man had something to do with Legend; his appearance at the opening in the rock had shown her that. And while she had been in Legend she’d not had the dreams. Also, in her heart she knew her dream man bore a resemblance to Cole. That night with the eagles she’d realized how much alike the two of them were. He was connected with Cole and Ruth, and with all the people she wanted to put out of her mind, so she tried to tell the veiled man to get away from her. She wanted nothing further to do with going back in time and halfway falling in love with a man who never grew past age nine. Kady knew that all she really wanted was a home and a couple of kids, and at thirty years old she knew she couldn’t wait much longer. She didn’t have the time or inclination to dabble in time travel or whatever it would take to find out why some man kept appearing in her dreams.

  But if she knew what she wanted in life, why did she feel so restless? Everything with Gregory was perfect. He was everything a woman could want in a man: kind, courteous, even-tempered. She had everything: a home, the restaurant, Virginia was lovely. Her life was perfect, but she knew that if she didn’t behave herself and stop finding fault in every little thing that happened, she was going to lose it all.

  In the long run, what did it matter that Gregory rarely made love to her? In the weeks since she’d returned from Legend, they’d had one very brief tryst in her bed in her apartment. And what did it matter that when Kady reached for him afterward, he’d rolled out of bed and pulled on his clothes? There was a great deal more to life than sex!

  But Kady kept thinking that she’d never noticed Gregory’s lack of sexual interest in her before because she’d had no one to compare him to. Maybe she hadn’t actually gone to bed with Cole, but she kept remembering the way Cole looked at her. It had felt good to tease with him, to giggle and have him chase her about the room. Even without consummation, when he’d looked at her, he’d made her feel beautiful and, oh, so very desirable.

  But Gregory made her feel secure. Secure was good, wasn’t it? So what if he didn’t tease her or nibble her neck and try to make her forget cooking and go to bed with him? Gregory loved her so much that he’d asked her to marry him. What better proof of his love did she need than that? Besides, what else did she have that he could want? It wasn’t as though she were a great heiress and he was after her money, so he had to have asked her to marry him out of love. Right?

  But in spite of all of Kady’s attempts at reason, yesterday she had turned on Gregory, almost in anger, and said, “Why do you want to marry me?”

  Gregory had smiled. “Is this one of those trick questions where no matter what I say, I’ll be wrong? I want to marry you because I love you.”

  This should have been enough for her, but Kady persisted. “Yes, but I need logical reasons. Reasons other than that I can cook.”

  “I think you will be easy to live with.”

  Kady had tried to hide her horror. What woman wanted to be “easy to live with”? “That’s good,” she said. “What else?”

  “You are quiet and undemanding and . . . and, what can I say? You don’t ask a lot from a man, and I like that.”

  “But what if I were to ask a great deal from you?”

  “Such as?” He was in the restaurant office, looking at a stack of papers, and he wasn’t really paying attention to her questions—which further annoyed Kady.

  “I’d like to be half owner of Onions, and I’d like to have my name on the deed to the house you bought. I’d also like to have my own accountant go over the books to the restaurant and see how much it is making, and I’d like to share in the profits.”

  For a moment, Gregory looked up at her, his eyes wide, then he threw back his head and laughed. “Kady, my dear, for a moment there you sounded just like that dreadful friend of yours, Jane.” Smiling, shaking his head, he looked back down at his papers. “If you want to buy anything, just let me or Mother know and we’ll make sure you have the funds. I think running the kitchen is more than enough for you to handle. You don’t need to start trying to become a bookkeeper as well.” Still highly amused, he looked up at her. “Stick to frying eggs, and I’ll handle the rest of it.”

  At that moment Kady knew that she had a choice, she could either start a blazing argument or let it die. If she started a fight, she knew she’d have to stick to her guns, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that. Why did she want to be part owner in the restaurant anyway? Was it just because Jane and Cole had made her believe she should be a part owner? What happened to her own convictions that she would be half owner of the restaurant when she was married to Gregory?

  Quietly, she had left Gregory’s office and cooked dinner that night just as always. But today, she had been restless to the point of being angry.