Read Lost in Tennessee for Free Online

didn’t mean the things he said.”
    “It doesn’t matter. The project is only a few days behind schedule. I can make that up. It will come in on budget and be the show place of the county. I don’t need my father’s approval. Just his money.” Maybe if she said it often enough, she would believe it.
    “Don’t say that. You know he loves you. He’s just worried.” Newspaper rustled. Sunday morning. Tom would be sitting on the couch reading.
    Most Sundays, Kate sat across the room in her favorite chair, sharing the newspaper sections with him. Though they spoke every day, she missed him and the little habits they shared as cousins, roommates, and business partners.
    Kate walked the length of the room, then the width, not speaking until she returned to her starting point. Tom never understood the double standard Kate lived under. If she didn’t perform as well as the boys, her father dismissed it as girls not being as capable as boys. If she out shined them, her father chastised her for showing off. Tom made excuses for her father and didn’t understand that by doing so, he enabled her father’s attitudes.
    “He would never have said those things to you. He never would have said them to me if I were a boy. Look, that’s not why I called. I’ve had car trouble.”
    “Where are you?” His voice tightened.
    “I’m at an inn—”
    “What’s it called? I’ll come get you.”
    “It’s called Elderberry Farm, and you are not driving down from Michigan to get me. I got a bad flat, no big deal. A mechanic is bringing me a spare tire. What I need is a recipe. I want to make dinner for Butch to thank him for his help.”
    “Butch?”
    Kate rolled her eyes at the wealth of suspicion poured into the name. “He runs the inn.”
    “Why do you need to thank him? Aren’t you paying him?”
    “He’s gone out of his way to help me with the car. I thought I would do something nice.”
    Tom paused before answering. “You’re not there alone with some strange man, are you? Haven’t you seen Psycho ?”
    Kate couldn’t admit she liked Butch. Statements like that would bring her cousin down to Tennessee in a state that would make the Tasmanian Devil look calm. She had been a little girl when Tom, older by four years, had appointed himself her guardian. There were plenty of times when having a headstrong guy like Tom on her side worked in her favor. For the times that didn’t, Kate learned that discretion, along with exaggeration and avoidance, could get her to her desired end. “Jeez, Tom. Give me a little credit. Butch is older, he’s going through a divorce, and he’s nothing to look at.” Kate crossed her fingers behind her back to cover her fib. “Now, are you going to give me a recipe or not?”
    “Fine, but if you really want to show your thanks, take him to a restaurant. I say that as someone who not only loves you but has eaten your cooking.”
    “Oh, you’re so funny. Just wait until the next time you bring a woman home. I’m breaking out the baby pictures.” Kate sat on the chair and scribbled Tom’s recipe for chicken parmesan on a scrap of paper she found in her purse. A shadow fell over her. She looked up into Butch’s flat stomach. Her eyes followed the hair from the tapered hips to the trim waist to the defined chest and finally settled on a very bitable mouth. Kate moistened her lower lip, wondering what he tasted like.
    Tom barked in her ear. “Kate? Are you still there?”
    Kate flinched. “Yeah, I’m here.”
    “Bake it at three hundred fifty degrees until the cheese is browned and bubbly. Do you have it?”
    Kate looked into Butch’s eyes. They laughed at her as he pulled on a navy blue T-shirt. He had seen her reaction to him, and now he laughed at her. She gave him her meanest glare, the one that made her cousins run. Instead of retreating in fear, Butch reached out and touched his index finger to the tip of her nose. The friendly gesture left her with her mouth hanging