Buzzkill (Pecan Bayou Series) Read Online Free PDF

“Lenny and I both belong to the same
shooting range. I go down every Monday night sure as clockwork to do some
target practice. For years I arrived there at 6 o’clock to use the first shooting
lane. I like that one because there’s only noise on one side. Then, last year I
would get there at six and Lenny would be there already shooting in the first
lane. Lenny figured out my schedule and he was getting there at 5:45. So I
started coming at 5:30, but darn it if next week if he didn’t show up at 5:15.
I think he didn’t care as much about shooting as getting the hell in front of
me. When I confronted him, you know what he said?”
    “What?” I asked.
    “This is my
lane. Move on, dough boy.”
    I wondered if
using Lenny Stokes was just asking for trouble. I opened my planning notebook
and made a note: “Find Baskets of Bluebonnets phone number.”
    As we exited the
bakery feeling slightly fleeced, we drove back into Pecan Bayou to get a cup of
coffee to wash down all the cake we’d consumed. The boys were bouncing off the
backseat from their combined sugar highs. We would soon become a family of
four, and I wondered if Leo felt as overwhelmed as I did at the prospect.
    As I stirred my
latte I looked over at Leo. He drummed at the table with his fingers and looked
out the window at the chilly winter day, lost in thought. We had so many
decisions to finalize in the next few weeks, one of which was where the four of
us would live. I just assumed that Leo would move here to Pecan Bayou with my
family and into my house.
    I had my family
here, a family that had held me together for the last ten years. Leo picked up
the edge of his napkin with his fingers and played with it, then he turned his
gaze to me and cleared his throat.
    “Betsy,” he
reached into his coat pocket. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to share
with you.” I felt a slight panic chill the warmth the coffee had produced. Was
this his long-concealed criminal record? That couldn’t be right – my dad had
done a background check on Leo the first month he knew him. Could it be a
confidential medical record? Was he dying, or worse, was he in debt? He pulled
a piece of folded piece of paper out of the pocket of his black suede jacket
and flattened it out on the table in front of me.
    “This,” he said,
“is a house I’ve found for us.” I looked at a picture of a beautiful two-story
tan brick home with cathedral ceilings and plenty of square feet. It was enough
room for all of us to live in style.
    “My God, Leo.
It’s beautiful,” I said, reading the particulars of the listing. My eye glanced
at the price. “Can we afford this?”
    “Well, we won’t
be buying it outright,” he said, “but yes, I did some figuring on my salary,
and it’s in our price range.”
    “How much do you
make?”
    “I love it that
you’re just getting around to asking me that. I make enough so that if you
didn’t want to work, you wouldn’t have to.”
    I felt a little
panic hit. “You do want me to work, don’t you? You aren’t someone who feels a
woman’s place is in the home?”
    “I do feel the
woman’s place is in the home, if that’s what she wants. If she wants to go out
and knock over the Dallas market with her incredibly useful column on Helpful
Hints, then I’ll support her in that as well.”
    I sipped at my
coffee and looked at the house. Zach put his head on my shoulder as he perused
the brochure.
    “Cool, Mom. It
has a pool,” he said.
    It was twice as
big as my house. Leo had picked out a family home. The kind of place we could
settle into and raise a family, our boys and maybe more to come. Who could turn
down a beautiful house like this one?
    “What about my
family here in Pecan Bayou?”
    Leo took hold of
my hand and rubbed his thumb along the back of it. “I know your family is very
important to you and Zach. That’s been the hardest part of all of this. I love
you both and I want you to be happy. I also want to be able to