Stranger in the Moonlight Read online

  “Right. That is Joe Layton and my mother,” Travis said and his voice lowered. “Speaking of sworn enemies . . .”

  “Your mother and Mrs. Pendergast,” Kim said as she collapsed back against the seat. “I have a suggestion. Just a little one, but I think you should consider it. How about if we leave here right now and go straight back to Edilean? Mrs. Pendergast can send our clothes to us. Or we can shop for new ones. What do you think?”

  “I like the way you deal with a situation,” Travis said as he started the engine.

  But Joe Layton put his big body in front of the car.

  “How about some race driving techniques?” Kim asked. “You could go around him.”

  “He’s too big; he’d hurt the car. Let’s get out on your side and make a run through the forest. Maybe we can escape.”

  Joe was too fast for them. He was standing by Travis’s door, and his hand snaked inside to remove the keys from the ignition. “Come on, you two cowards. Get out and join the party.” He opened Travis’s door.

  Travis squeezed Kim’s hand and rolled his eyes skyward. “Give me strength.”

  Kim got out of her side of the car and stood back to look at Lucy, the pretty little woman who came to stand behind Joe. He was so big that she could disappear behind him.

  Kim was curious to see this woman who’d so successfully hidden from her for four years. As Lucy came forward to stand on tiptoe to hug her son, Kim knew she would have done just that. Every minute of those weeks she’d spent with Travis when they were children was so burned in her mind that Lucy’s face was there also. If Kim had seen her in Edilean, she would have done what Lucy feared and told everyone she knew. Lucy was the connection to Travis, the way to find him, and Kim would have thought only of that, not of any consequences.

  Lucy’s eyes met Kim’s and there was apology there—from both women.

  “Kim,” Lucy began as she stood before her. “I never meant—”

  “It’s okay,” Kim said. “I’m sure Mom told you I’d blab, and I would have. I so much wanted to find Travis that I would have sold my own mother into white slavery.”

  “From what I’ve heard she could have handled it,” Lucy said, and the two women laughed together.

  “It’s all right between you and Travis now?” Lucy asked softly. Travis and Joe were a few feet away.

  “Very, very all right. And what about you and Mr. Layton?”

  Lucy gave a sigh that came from her heart. “It’s nice to be loved, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, wonderful,” Kim said. “Would it be impolite of me to ask what’s happening with the divorce?”

  Lucy gave a quick look at Joe and Travis, and leaned forward, her voice a whisper as she took Kim’s hand in her own. “Randall has agreed to a peaceful divorce. No fighting. A fair deal. I told him I don’t want Travis to have to so much as appear in court. I want you two to have all the time together that you deserve.”

  Kim couldn’t help the tears of joy that came to her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Lucy smiled, and the two women’s hands just seemed to cling to one another.

  “Hey, you two!” Travis called. “I’m hungry. Let’s see what Dad sent us to eat.”

  Penny was still with the firefighters, and in spite of his professed hunger, Travis went to her.

  Travis greeted the firefighters, told them that if they needed anything to let him know. They all wanted to shake the hand of the son of the man who’d just bought them a new engine.

  It took Travis a while before he could make his way to Penny. “What’s Dad up to now?” he asked. “It’s nice he’s contributing to the Janes Creek Fire Department but what’s in it for him?”

  “I did it,” Penny said. Her eyes were on the road, not on Travis.

  “You bought a fire engine?”

  “I ordered it. Your dad paid for it,” she said and stopped, as though that was all the information she was going to give.

  “Penny?” he asked.

  When they could hear a car coming down the road, she seemed to stop breathing. The car drove past and Penny let out her breath.

  “What is going on?!” Travis demanded.

  Penny, her eyes never leaving the road, handed him her cell phone. “Look at my text from Russell.”

  “Oh,” Travis said as he read it. “He asked his girlfriend to marry him? Must be catching. I hope he used one of those rings I offered Kim. He—”

  “Russell doesn’t have a steady girlfriend.”

  “But he said he’s going to marry the mother of a kid who likes fire engines. Who is she?”

  Penny turned to look at Travis in silence.

  It took him a few moments to get what she wasn’t saying. “He just met this woman?”

  “I think so,” Penny said as she rubbed her hands together in nervous agitation. “Oh, Russell,” she said under her breath, “what have you done?”

  For the first time ever, Travis put his arm around Penny’s shoulders. She had always been the one who remained calm through everything. When Travis and his father were at each other’s throats, it was Penny’s sensible comments, her refusal to let any crisis perturb her, that quieted everyone.

  But now she was the one who needed a calm presence.

  “Your mother will hate me even more,” Penny said, her old self showing, but she leaned her head against Travis’s chest for a moment.

  He glanced over her head to see Joe and Kim and his mother sitting on the checkered cloth. They’d opened the cooler and taken out lemonade and glasses, and lots of cheese and crackers. Maybe the waiters were missing, but the food looked to be top-notch.

  “My mother has eyes only for Joe, and when she sees Russell I think she’ll like him.”

  Penny stepped out of Travis’s embrace. “I hope so, but then he does look a lot like you. If there’s one thing your mother loves, it’s you.”

  Travis smiled. “Joe said Dad was going to give the divorce without a big court battle. Do you think he will?”

  “I know he was quite taken with young Kim.”

  Travis couldn’t help a grimace. “Bastard! Sneaking around like that! He knew where Mom was all these years. When I think of the trouble I went to in hiding from him I could—” He looked at Penny. “How do you know he liked Kim?”

  “I talked to him. I showed her a photo of your father and she turned white. I knew she’d seen him somewhere.”

  Travis nodded. “She came into the diner looking like she’d seen a ghost.”

  “But she told you the story of how he pretended to be a caretaker?”

  “Only after some persuasion.”

  “Good,” Penny said. “Don’t keep secrets from each other. Your father and I never—I mean . . .”

  “I know what you mean. His life has always been more with you than with my mother.”

  Penny turned to look at Lucy and Joe sitting so close together on the cloth. “I’ve always disliked your mother. Not from something based on fact, but from what I assumed I knew about her. The old Travis family name made me think she lived in a world of garden parties and teacups. And I thought she’d like gentlemen who carried lace hankies.”

  Joe Layton was as far from being a stereotypical “gentleman” as was possible.

  “I’m sure Russ will be here soon, so maybe now’s a good time to brave it out with a face-to-face with my mother.”

  “Did she bring any weapons?” Penny asked.

  “Only a couple of machetes,” Travis joked, but when Penny took a step back, he laughed. “Come on, Kim and I will protect you.”

  Travis stayed close to Penny as they walked toward the picnic area and his eyes begged his mother not to attack. But then, he realized that wasn’t fair. After all, Penny had had a child by Lucy’s husband. On the other hand, it wasn’t as though a happy marriage had been broken up. The truth was that Travis was so glad to have a brother that he didn’t really care about anything else.

  As Travis sat down between his mother and Kim, he