Wife Wanted in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad Page B

what he has to do.”
    “Well, you would know him better than I do,” she said. And with that she used her fork to spear a piece of melon.
     
    Conrad watched Katrina as she finished the last of her food. He looked over and saw that the boys were done, too.
    “Let’s get out of here.” He put down three ten-dollar bills on the table. Linda would have a good tip. “I’ll take you down to that sign you want to see and we’ll see about getting you set up to take your picture.”
    “The lighting is not good enough to take the pictures now. I’ll have to take them tomorrow if it’s not cloudy. Come on, boys,” she added as she looked over at them. “Let’s get your coats back on.”
    Conrad noticed that her face was getting a little more color to it.
    “You can at least see the sign, though,” he said. “And I can stop on the way out and ask Tracy if she knows any young women that fit what you need. She cuts hair so she might know of some blondes.”
    “Is that the woman who’s been looking at us?” Katrina asked as she pulled Zach’s red coat over his arms. Ryan seemed to be managing his own.
    Conrad wondered how she could tell who had been looking at them. He knew everyone was keeping an eye on their table.
    “She likes you,” Katrina said matter-of-factly as she stood and took her jacket off the back of her chair.
    “Well, I always tip her when she cuts my hair.” Conrad stood up.
    Katrina looked at him skeptically and smiledsoftly. “I don’t think it’s your hair that is troubling her right now.”
    Conrad knew he shouldn’t, but he turned around so he could look back and see what Katrina was talking about. He swiveled back. “She’s not even looking at me.”
    “Not now,” Katrina agreed as she put her jacket on. “But she was looking. I don’t think she likes me very much.”
    “She doesn’t even know you. Why would she—”
    Katrina gave him a look that shot right through him. Then she nodded. “She’s jealous all right.”
    Conrad was speechless. “No—”
    Katrina shrugged. “Suit yourself then. But I recognize that stare.”
    She gathered up the boys and walked toward the door. Conrad followed behind them. He told himself it wasn’t because he liked to watch Katrina walk. Although he did wonder how she swayed the way she did.
    “We’ll wait for you on the porch,” she said when she opened the door.
    Leave it to Katrina to cut out when he could use some moral support. It was up to him to ask the favor of Tracy.
    “Good seeing you here,” he greeted Tracy as heartily as he could. “Your hair’s looking good.”
    “It’s the same cut as always.”
    “I was hoping you might be able to help me out,” he said. He couldn’t stand to inch his way up on this.
    “Oh?”
    “My—” He stopped in a panic. He should have thought this through. “My customer,” he continued.“She’s trying to get a business started as a photographer and she wants to take a picture of a local couple looking at the heart sign down the road. She needs a young blonde woman, pretty and expressive, to be one of the models in the shot. It’s supposed to be romantic and I thought you might know someone who—”
    Tracy was silent.
    Conrad forced himself not to fidget.
    “Who’s the man?” Tracy finally asked.
    “What—” Conrad started. “What man?”
    Tracy looked at him like he was slow. “The man that’s going to be in the picture with this blonde you want me to find. Any woman’s going to want to know who the man is if she’s going to be taking some romantic picture with him.”
    “That makes sense. I didn’t hear her mention the man. But I’ll go ask.”
    Conrad fled the café. He wasn’t cut out to be a negotiator.
    “Well, what’d she say?” Katrina asked when he burst out of the café. She was standing quietly on the other side of the porch with the boys. The air was chilly and they all had their hands in their pockets.
    “She wants to know who the man is that’s going