Free Stargazing (The Walker Family Book 2) by Bernadette Marie Page B

can go somewhere else if you’d like,” he offered.
    “This is fine. We’ll just get it and walk around.”
    They stood in line and ordered. Unlike yesterday, no one noticed or recognized either one of them. That helped put him at ease.
    Bethany ordered a scoop of mint chocolate chip in a cone. He winced. What a horrible flavor. He’d stick with good old vanilla.
    They took their cones and headed back in the direction of the restaurant.
    “This is really good,” she said biting into the cold scoop. Watching her made his front teeth hurt.
    “It is. Brings back memories of Friday nights at my house. My dad had a thing for ice cream. That was until the doctor told him to cut it out.”
    “I didn’t have this with my mom,” she said as she licked a drip from her finger. “She was always too worried about her figure.”
    “Your mom—Violet Waterbury?”
    Her lips tightened. “Yes.”
    “I suppose the lifestyle in Hollywood is different. You don’t hear of a lot of people being raised there.”
    She shrugged. “There’s a lot of us. The focus isn’t on family values though. At least mine wasn’t. I certainly didn’t have what my cousins did here.”
    “You weren’t raised around them?”
    She shook her head and took another bite from her scoop of ice cream. “No. My dad didn’t marry my mom. My sisters are from one of his wives and my brothers from another. It’s kind of messed up.”
    “It’s not messed up. Just different from what I had. I sat with all of you tonight. I’d have thought you were a tight-knit family.”
    “I think we will be—in time.”
    “How long have you been here?”
    “Few months. I came out after my grandfather died.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    She tossed her hair back again. “I didn’t know him really. I’d met him a few times.”
    “So why come?”
    “I needed a family,” her voice dipped as she said it and he knew he was tumbling into territory he needed to tread lightly through. And since he was better at digging holes than treading around him, he decided he’d better come up with a detour for the conversation.
    “I saw you the other day coming out of a bridal store,” he said licking a drip of his ice cream that threatened to roll over his thumb.
    “You did?” She stopped walking. “I thought you said you saw me at the coffee shop.”
    Kent pressed his lips together realizing he might have stepped right into that hole he’d dug. “I did.” He wasn’t going to tell her he drove after her to find her. “I happened to be at the barber shop across the street.”
    She nodded slowly. “Pearl owns a bridal shop. We were looking at dresses for Susan.”
    “That must have been it,” he said trying to not seem as grateful as he was for the fact that she wasn’t the bride. Of course, she wouldn’t have been walking and eating ice cream with him if she were. “And did she find one? A dress?”
    Bethany smiled and the apples of her cheeks lifted toward her soft eyes. “She did. It’s beautiful. Eric is going to be toast when he sees her walking down the aisle.” She licked the sides of her dwindling ice cream scoop.
    “They’ve been together a long time, haven’t they? They had a rhythm.”
    She looked at him and a crease formed between her brows. “A rhythm?”
    “Yeah, you know when two people are just, well, perfect for each other. They anticipate the other’s words or movements. They could talk without saying a word. Little gestures between them mean a whole lot more to them than to anyone who might have caught it. Rhythm.”
    The smile slowly faded. “I’ve never noticed that.”
    He shrugged. “I notice that kind of stuff all the time, but it’s what I do.”
    “Right. And no, they haven’t been together long. Eric has known Susan as long as I have. They met at my grandfather’s funeral.”
    Now he knew his forehead was creased. “He picked her up at his grandfather’s funeral?”
    That eased the tension a bit. “She catered it. But I