"Not much."
"It's a shame your mama can't be here, too. But at least she's having a good time in Charleston with her new friend."
Her friend. Bo. Kirstie's stomach felt funny, and she hadn't even eaten a doughnut yet.
"Yeah, she is." She held out her hand. "Wanna go for a walk and talk about my daddy?"
"I like your new friend." Sister Nic held an unsmoked cigarette between two fingers with reverence.
Sitting on the stone bench by a trickling water fountain, Bo studied Paige over by the garden entrance with his cell phone. They would leave for lunch as soon as she finished checking up on Kirstie. "I figured you would. She's a nice lady."
Nice? What a namby-pamby word for an awesome lady.
Just looking at that cell phone against her ear made him think of tossing it out the window, which made him think of what came after. And how exciting it would be to peel that khaki skirt and white T-shirt off her later. Then, holy hell, he really needed to quit thinking or he might scorch this garden faster than when he'd poured too much fertilizer on the lawn.
"She obviously cares for her little girl."
He glanced away from Paige and back at the aging nun who'd bandaged his knees far longer than his own mother. They couldn't look any more different, Sister Mary Nic checking in at five feet tall when wearing those clunky nun shoes. She weighed all of eighty pounds soaking wet and could scare the crap out of a roomful of elementary hellions with just a look.
But when she smiled her approval with eyes as dark as her skin, the world was right and he could conquer anything. Which made him wonder what he hoped to accomplish by bringing Paige here? Approval? Maybe. But more than that he needed direction from Sister on what to do next.
"Paige is a good mom." He knew well what a gift that could be for a child. "No surprise Kirstie's a great kid with lots of grit. She's got these big brown eyes behind her glasses that just get to you even when she's cranky or puking on my boots."
He let his eyes linger on Paige while the memories from the air show rolled over him.
Seemed like forever ago.
Birds chirped in the magnolias and dogwoods shrouding the garden in privacy. An itch started right between his eyes, as if he'd been targeted by a certain Super Nun's laser look.
Bo snapped his attention off Paige and back to Sister Nic. "Don't go there, Sister."
"Go where?" She brought the cigarette to her nose, but still didn't light it. She must be quitting—again.
"You know what I mean. I realize I'm your best hope for grandbabies but Paige and I are not..." But they were. "She's not..." But she could be. "Hell, I've only known the woman a couple of weeks."
And thought about her nonstop for a year since the first time she'd walked into a police station and into his life. An unforgettable woman.
"She's better than those bimbos you brought around before. And watch your language, please."
"Sure. Sorry. And I don't date bimbos." He felt sixteen again, caught behind the adjoining all-girls' school trying to cop a feel up a junior's uniform blouse. He always had been a breast man.
Sister Nic trailed her fingers through the fountain—and flicked water in his face. "What would you call the others, then, the gigglers who fawned all over you?"
"Hannah was smart." He swiped the droplets off his forehead. "She's a biochemist researcher at the medical university, for crying out loud."
"And you chased her off with that bad attitude when you were recovering from surgery."
Score one for Sister Nic. He'd been an ass to a really nice lady during his recovery.
"Who? A charmer like me?"
She placed her cigarette carefully on her lap, a white slash along her dark robes. "You were a pain in the tookus after you returned from wherever it was you went and never told me about—but I found out, anyway."
What? "You found out—"
"I have my sources, but that's beside the point."
Says who? Somebody was going to pay for worrying her, but he'd deal with that person