Autumn Leaves Read online

  Pansie entwined her fingers with Skye’s and tugged her along. “Come see my favorite place, Mama. Let’s have an adventure.”

  Skye matched her strides with those of her daughter, and soon they were winding their way down a path that seemed to head toward the edge of the property. All at once, they stepped into a clearing where a lovely little gazebo sat beside a lake with ducks swimming in the distance.

  “Isn’t it pretty? Like a princess’s castle. Did you know there are fireflies, and one time there were all these lights and candles, and I had to be real quiet and wait for Grammy to say she loved Grandpa Trey, only she wouldn’t say it so I had to help her.”

  “It’s beautiful, Pansie girl. And that’s quite a story.” She looked down at her daughter and grinned. “Come tell me all about this place.”

  As the little girl chattered on about weddings and engagements and fireflies, Skye made herself comfortable and tried hard to memorize every detail of this moment.

  How long she sat under the shade of the gazebo with her daughter happily chatting in her lap, Skye couldn’t say. Too soon, Sessa and Bonnie Sue arrived with Dr. Dalton.

  “We hate to interrupt,” Sessa said, “but this little girl has ballet lessons in half an hour, and I don’t think she’ll be welcomed at her grandma’s studio if she smells like a horse stall.”

  Pansie whimpered and clung to Skye. “I want to stay here.”

  Skye turned the little girl toward her. “I’m not going anywhere,” she told her daughter. “You and I will have plenty of time together, but right now you need to listen to your grandmother and do what she says.”

  Sessa mouthed a silent thank you. “Want a ride back to the house?” she asked as Pansie climbed into her lap in the golf cart.

  “Thank you, but I’ll walk.”

  “And I’ll walk with her,” Nate said as he stepped into the clearing. He waited until the others had left to join her. “Before we go back, I’ve got some things to say to you. Some things I need you to know about me.” He nodded to the gazebo. “Can we sit?”

  “Okay.”

  She took her seat under the gazebo, and he sat beside her. “It isn’t fair that I’ve read your secrets and you haven’t heard about mine.” He shrugged. “I didn’t dig for them, I need you to know that. See, there was a file at the office. Apparently my grandmother had you investigated, although she didn’t want to know what was in the file other than where you worked so she could find you. I should add that I was the one hired to do the investigation, although I didn’t know at the time that my grandmother was the client.”

  “Your grandmother?” Skye shook her head. “Bonnie Sue?”

  “Yeah, step-grandmother, technically, but she prefers to ignore that part.”

  Skye was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Nate was related to Bonnie Sue when he reached over to grasp her hand in his. “I flat-out asked her why she had you investigated, and she said it was because she wanted me to know who you were. Can you fathom it?”

  “I guess, but why?”

  “Oh, that’s the best part.” He grinned. “She’s got this crazy idea that the two of us belong together. And she said she’s always known there was more to your absence than you not wanting to be there.”

  “I see.”

  “Want to know what I think?”

  She met his gaze. “Sure.”

  “I think she’s right.” He paused to lift her hand to his lips. “About us belonging together.”

  Skye smiled. She wanted to believe him. Desperately. And in time, she hoped she would.

  “And I think she knew that if I knew your secrets, maybe I’d tell you mine. See, I’ve done some stupid things. Really stupid.”

  She remained silent and let him talk as he told the story of a friendship with Ross Chambers that went all the way back to childhood. “I told you about him daring me to ride a bronc, but I didn’t tell you about the time he dared me to drive a getaway car for him.”

  At her soft intake of breath, Nate nodded. “Yeah. It was stupid. If I’d told him no, he might still be alive today.”

  “So that was you.”

  “Who ratted on him? Yeah.”

  “No,” she said firmly as she moved to stand in front of him. “It was you who testified and had Dr. Dalton’s murder conviction overturned.”

  He nodded. “It wasn’t right, the doctor being in prison when he acted in self-defense. He was mentoring Ross, and then Ross showed up intending to rob him. I couldn’t let him sit in jail when he was innocent.”

  “And no one knows who testified,” she said. “The records were sealed.”

  “That would be thanks to the lawyer my father hired. Unfortunately, my admission that I drove get-away for what turned out to be a murder scene didn’t exactly set well with SMU Law School. I got kicked out.”

  “Oh Nate, I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged. “It was my own dumb fault.”

  “Surely once you testified and the charges were dropped—they were dropped, right? I think I remember that much from the trial coverage.” He nodded, and she continued. “Then they would have allowed you back.”

  “Yes,” he said slowly, “they would have. But by then I’d had enough of the legal system to last a lifetime.”

  “So now you work as a bail bondsman? That’s pretty close to still being in the legal system, don’t you think?”

  He shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “Do you think you’ll ever go back?”

  Nate shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about that, and no. I don’t want to be a lawyer. It’s just not who I am. But I’ve got other plans.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I’m going to the police academy. I’m excited about it.” He paused. “Stan? Not so much. He says he’s losing his best employee. Sully agrees.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know them.”

  Nate smiled. “I’ll introduce you someday.” He wrapped his arms around Skye. “I want to be in your life, Skye Hudson. I don’t want you to leave.”

  “I’m home, Nate. I don’t think I’ve ever said that before.” She paused. “Please don’t let me run.”

  “No more running and no more Autumn,” he said as he bent down to kiss her beneath the shade of the gazebo. “Only Skye.”

  Chapter Ten

  September meeting of the Pies, Books & Jesus Book Club

  Location: Bonnie Sue Easley’s home in Sugar Pine, Texas

  Pies: One surprise pie cake made by Skye Hudson and Pansie Chambers, with Sessa Dalton’s help

  Book title: THORN IN MY HEART by Liz Curtis Higgs

  “I heard they’re getting married.”

  “Vonnette, you heard no such thing,” Bonnie Sue said. “You’re just stirring up trouble. Now stop it.”

  “No,” she insisted. “You know what’s said in the beauty shop is true. Always is. Well, when Jared delivered my UPS packages the other day, he let slip that Nate had been accepted to the police academy. Said he was going to keep living in Sugar Pine and was planning on putting down roots here.” She allowed her gaze to sweep the room where the dozen or so book club members had gathered. She finally looked at Bonnie Sue again. “To me that means your grandson is going to marry that girl. Now I want to know what you think about that.”

  “Well, if it’s true, and I don’t know that it is, then I am thrilled.” She paused to lean close to Vonnette. “You treat her good, you hear? Or you’ll answer to me.”

  “This girl abandoned your great-granddaughter, and we’re supposed to just forget that?” Vonette asked.

  “Excuse me, ladies.”

  Nate stood at the door with a cake carrier in his hands. “Where should I put this?”

  “In the kitchen,” Bonnie Sue told him.

  “Hey Nate, honey,” Vonnette called. “Would you come out here a minute?” When he complied, minus the cake carrier, she continued. “You know I’m not one for gossip . . .” Half the women in the room burst out in laughter wh
ile the other half shook their heads.

  “Yes ma’am,” Nate said.

  “Well, anyway, I’m just going to go right to the source here and ask you what your intentions are for that girl you’ve been seeing.”

  Nate looked at Vonnette like she’d lost her mind, and it was all Bonnie Sue could do not to clap. “I intend to love her, Miss Vonnette.”

  “Is that so?” she pressed. “Despite the fact she abandoned her child to let Sessa raise?” Several women murmured in agreement.

  At this, Sessa rose and was about to protest, but Bonnie Sue waved her away. Better to let Nate handle Vonnette and the ladies of the PB&J Book Club.

  “Miss Vonnette”—he turned to look at the rest of the people gathered there—”ladies, if you knew half of the things she’s done—”

  “Oh, we know what she’s done,” Vonnette said. “I’ve watched my friend have to help raise that little girl—”

  “I had the privilege,” Bonnie Sue corrected.

  “Still . . .” Vonnette insisted. “Where was she while that girl was growing up?”

  “In John Sealy Hospital learning to speak and walk again.”

  Well, that shut those ladies up. “Might as well start at the beginning,” Bonnie Sue said.

  “Every doctor she saw told her to abort that child, because having her would kill her. But she didn’t. She chose what was best for Pansie. Then when she proved those doctors right and almost died in childbirth, they set up plans to put Pansie in foster care. Did you all know Skye grew up in foster care? No, I didn’t think so. She wasn’t going to let her girl endure what she did.”

  He paused and looked to Bonnie Sue, who’d come to stand beside him. “Tell them the rest, Nate.”

  “So she checked herself out of the hospital and got on a bus to Sugar Pine, where she delivered that girl to Sessa. You all know that, but I bet you don’t know she nearly died on the way back.”

  A hush fell over the room. “She had a stroke. It took eighteen months for her to fully recover. When she could manage it, she came here and found Pansie was in a stable home.”

  Sessa stepped beside Nate. “So she left her with me because that was best for Pansie, How many of you could have made such a brave choice for your child, not once but over and over?”

  When no one spoke, Nate continued. “I love her, and I won’t allow a negative word to be spoken in my presence, is that clear?”

  A room full of yesses rang out.

  “All right. She’s going to be here soon, so I’m going to slip out. You ladies behave.”

  “Can’t guarantee it,” Bonnie Sue said to try and lighten the mood. “We’re talking about men in kilts again this month.”

  Nate groaned as he made good on his escape. A few minutes later, Skye knocked on the door.

  “All right,” Bonnie Sue said. “Not one negative word. Promise?”

  They all did, so she opened the door and welcomed Skye in. True to their promises, the ladies of the PB&J Book Club welcomed Skye into their midst. And even when they found out she’d baked a cake instead of a pie, no one complained.

  Not out loud, anyway.

  When it came time to serve dessert, Sky brought the cake into the room and set it on the table. “I know this is the Pies, Books & Jesus Book Club,” she said. “So you all might be wondering why I baked a cake.”

  “No, of course not,” Vonnette managed, although Bonnie Sue knew good and well it was killing her to say that. “Though that is a very tall cake.”

  A few others murmured an agreement. The rest just kept quiet.

  “I know your group usually requires four pies, so I made this special for you.” She cut the cake in half and then turned it around for everyone to see. There, inside four different layers of cake, were four different pies.

  Whole pies baked right into that cake.

  “Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until you look inside,” Bonnie Sue said.

  “That’s right, Nana,” Nate said as he walked back into the room in a kilt.

  “What in the world?” Bonnie Sue said.

  He shrugged. “I made a promise, and I’m going to keep it.” The handsome surfer turned man-in-kilt dropped to one knee. “Skye, I can’t imagine my life without you and your daughter in it. I told you I’d put on a kilt if that made you feel special and romanced, and that’s exactly what I aim to do.” He paused to lean in her direction. “Is it working?”

  “Yes, it’s working,” Bonnie Sue answered for her. “Now kiss her!”

  He waited for Skye’s whispered echo, “It’s working.”

  Then he did.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for visiting the Pies, Books & Jesus Book Club. Is this your first trip to Sugar Pine, Texas? If so, do check out the ladies in their debut story, Firefly Summer, where you’ll meet Bonnie Sue, Sessa Lee, and the rest of the strong and sassy Southern women who make up the best little book club in Texas, and look for more tales releasing soon.

  And speaking of sassy southern women, I draw heavily on the woman I know to bring the characters of the PB&J Book Club to life. Most of the ladies are combinations of real people, but one is based on someone very dear to me. If you read the dedication, you know that Bonnie Sue is based on the real Bonnie Sue, my mama.

  At this writing, Mom just celebrated reaching the milestone of turning 85 years young. She’s still blonde and sassy, and thanks to cataract surgery a few years ago, she no longer wears those gold-rimmed glasses her alter-ego in the PB&J novels wears. She’s also the one who instilled in me a love of reading that eventually became a love of writing. I’m sure she didn’t expect when she drove me and my siblings to our weekly trip to the library that one day a book—or rather several books—about her would be sitting on the shelves.

  So thank you, Mom, for being a reader. And thank you, readers, for picking up my story—this labor of love—and spending time within its pages. The next adventures of the Pies, Books & Jesus Book Club a Christmas short story called Waiting on a Christmas Hero and a full length novel about Sessa’s best friend Coco and her football player ex-husband called Spring Fling, will be coming soon. Stay tuned to see what kind of trouble Bonnie Sue and the ladies of the best little book club in Texas get into next!

  In the meantime, bless your hearts!

  With love!

  Kathleen Y’Barbo

  Bestselling author Kathleen Y’Barbo is a multiple Carol Award and RITA nominee and bestselling author of more than one hundred books with over two million copies of her books in print in the US and abroad. A tenth-generation Texan and certified paralegal, she is a member of the Texas Bar Association Paralegal Division, Texas A&M Association of Former Students and the Texas A&M Women Former Students (Aggie Women), Texas Historical Society, Novelists Inc., and American Christian Fiction Writers. She would also be a member of the Daughters of the American Republic, Daughters of the Republic of Texas and a few others if she would just remember to fill out the paperwork that Great Aunt Mary Beth has sent her more than once.

  When she’s not spinning modern day tales about her wacky Southern relatives, Kathleen inserts an ancestor or two into her historical and mystery novels as well. Recent book releases include bestselling The Pirate Bride set in 1700s New Orleans and Galveston, its sequel The Alamo Bride set in 1836 Texas, which feature a few well-placed folks from history and a family tale of adventure on the high seas and on the coast of Texas. She also writes (mostly) relative-free cozy mystery novels for Guideposts Books.

  Kathleen and her hero in combat boots husband have their own surprise love story that unfolded on social media a few years back. They make their home just north of Houston, Texas and are the parents and in-laws of a blended family of Texans, Okies, and one very adorable Londoner.

  To find out more about Kathleen or connect with her through social media, check out her website at www.kathleenybarbo.com.