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“Everything’s all right.”
    Both boys were still frowning.
    “Of course it is,” Conrad added with enough confidence that the boys relaxed.
     
    The sky was spitting rain by the time Conrad grabbed his jacket and got everyone ready to go over to the café. Uncle Charley had already gone ahead and the sheriff was sitting outside in his car filling out paperwork. The lawman hadn’t gotten an answer when he called the number on the back of that receipt. Conrad figured the man couldn’t finish his report until he at least talked to Leanne and Walker, though.
    Conrad put the Closed sign on his door.
    “What if someone needs you?” Katrina asked when she saw what he’d done. “You can’t just close your business in the middle of the day. You’re the only gas station here.”
    He shrugged. “The pumps work with a credit card. And everyone knows to look for me at the café if they really need help and I’m not around here.”
    Katrina shook her head. “This isn’t how it’s done in Los Angeles.”
    “I expect not,” Conrad agreed as he opened the door. So that’s where she lived.
    Conrad took a deep breath when he stepped outside. The air smelled of damp earth and the sky was dark gray. There’d be no more sunshine today. He had only one umbrella so he turned and gave that to Katrina. Little boys never minded rain.
    “My mom says we can’t walk in the mud unless she says it is okay,” Ryan announced after he stepped out the door. The tin roof of Conrad’s shop covered the concrete slab around the gas pumps, too, but the area beyond that was getting wet.
    “Walk on the road,” Conrad said. Katrina and the youngest boy had come out behind Ryan and waited on the slab. “There’s no mud on the asphalt.”
    “Maybe we could go off the road a little,” Ryan suggested hopefully as he stepped to the edge of the pavement. “I can carry my shoes so they won’t get dirty. I see a worm out there.”
    Katrina turned around. “You don’t want to get the floor of the café all muddy when we go to breakfast.”
    Conrad laughed. What boy that age was worried about a floor? “That worm is long gone. Besides, you’ll have to keep your feet and your shoes clean if you want your aunt to take your picture. Your clothes, too.”
    “Oh,” Ryan said with a nod. “I guess so.”
    Conrad kept his hand on the boy’s shoulder as he led the way to the café. “People don’t really take that manypictures around here. We’re too close to the Black Hills, I guess. They get more striking pictures there.”
    “Are we going there, Aunt Kat-rr—” Ryan gave up on the name and just looked up at her. The boy seemed anxious and Conrad watched him carefully as he continued. “You’re still going to take our pictures, aren’t you?”
    Conrad relaxed. The boy just wanted his quarters. He was greedy, not afraid.
    “I hope so, sweetie,” Katrina said softly as she guided Zach down the street.
    She held the umbrella over her head, but the rain slanted in sideways and Conrad could see that her hair was getting damp. He hoped her black jacket didn’t get too wet. Her jeans would survive a soaking, but the leather looked imported. She had probably gotten it at Rodeo Drive down in Beverly Hills. He was getting ready to caution her to be careful of the rain, when she stepped over a crack in the asphalt in her high heels and he forgot all about the weather.
    He almost had to stop and catch his breath again. The sight of those black patent leather straps wrapped around her delicate ankles made him think of the grand Hollywood movie stars of old like Marilyn Monroe. Those shoes of Katrina’s were all steam and sizzle. He hoped that none of the ranch hands from the Elkton place were at the café. They’d see those shoes as an invitation to flirt shamelessly. She even had her toenails painted a deep red. He’d never seen feet look so pretty in the rain.
    “I have some boots you can borrow,” he said.
    Katrina turned around, a