Nice Shot (John Luke Robertson Book 2)

Chapter 15

"What if she doesn't want to see me? Or she doesn't know me? She'll think I'm a stranger! I should've visited sooner, but I didn't know. If only I would've tried to figure this all out sooner," I rest my hand against the glass of the door. I can't just knock. I should've called first.
"Kaysie, come on. This is your niece. It's not your fault you don't know her." John Luke stands beside me with his arm around my waist. Taking in a deep breath, I knock twice on the door and wait. Bouncing on my toes, I nervously fidget with the ends of my hair. Before I can turn back and escape the situation, the door opens to reveal Scooter with my niece on his hip. He smiles.
"Kaysie, hey. I'm glad you came by. Come on in," he opens the door and allows us inside. "My mom is sleeping upstairs." I nod, glancing at the little girl on his hip. "Kaysie, meet your aunt Kaysie."
"Hi," she sheepishly smiles. "We have the same name."
"Yeah, we do. Pretty awesome name, right?" I chuckle softly. She giggles.
"Wanna play hide and seek?" She asks me, her big eyes begging. She looks so much like my sister with little details of Scooter.
"I'd love to," I state, watching as she jumps off her father's hip and runs away.
"Count to twenty!" She calls as she barrels down the hallway. "Then y'all come find me!"
I turn to face Scooter as he watches her run away with a smile. He faces me once again.
"I really appreciate you coming to meet her. I've been telling her about you since she was born, and she's been asking to meet you," he explains, folding his arms across his chest. He notices John Luke and holds his hand out. "We got off on the wrong foot, man. I'm sorry about that."
"It's fine, man." My boyfriend shake's Scooter's hand and smiles,shrugging off the first encounter we had with the father of my sister's baby.
"We should probably go find her," I gesture to the way little Kaysie ran off to.
"Yeah," Scooter grins. "She'll probably be under the sink in the kitchen." I smile, starting off towards the living room.
"Where do you think Kaysie is?" I ask, loud enough for her to hear as I trek through the living and dining rooms.
"I don't know. Did she go right or left?" John Luke questions, playing along. A giggle sounds from the kitchen.
"Did you hear that?" I whisper loudly.
"It was probably a mouse," Scooter pipes in. Biting my lip, I slowly walk through the threshold and into the kitchen.
"Kaysie?" I sing, moving chairs around. "Hm. I don't think she's in here." I hear a giggle again and pull open the cabinet doors. "There she is!" She laughs, falling out of the cabinets and running away again.
**
After three more rounds of hide and seek, Scooter sets the dinner table and served up lasagna.
"Mom!" He yells, hoping to wake his mother up. "I have someone else I'd like for you to meet, too. She's been on a business trip for a few weeks but today is her first day back, and she's been jet lagged. Let me go get her." He disappears into his bedroom and walks out a few minutes later with a tall, tan, and slim young woman. Her dirty blonde hair is slightly frizzy from lying down and her green eyes are halfway closed as she tiredly stumbles. "Kaysie, this is my fiancé Kelsey Mae Green. Kelsey, this is little Kay's aunt."
Her eyes widen and she speeds up her pacing.
"Hi! Wow. It's so good to finally meet you! Kaysie has told me all about you!" She reaches in for a hug and I pat her back.
"Thanks. It's nice to meet you, too," I say. Before anyone could say anything else, another voice enters the conversation.
"You all sound like a bunch of animals down here, making all that noise," an older woman's voice states. Scooter's mom. I recognize her from the videos and pictures Scooter showed me. "Oh." She notices me. "Kaysie, right?"
"Yeah, hi. It's nice to meet you, ma'am," I shake her hand as she nods and takes a seat.
"You too. Let's eat."
**
After dinner, Scooter calls my name.
"Would you come with me to put Kaysie to bed?" He questions. I nod, pushing my plate back and grabbing my niece's hand. We follow Scooter into little Kaysie's bedroom. It's green with a blue sheeted bed and multiple posters of skateboards and Galaxy patters on the wall.
"Wow."
"Isn't it cool? Daddy did it," Kaysie gushes, grabbing a pair of pants and a shirt from her dresser. She begins to change while I look around her room. It's clean, like really clean. There are a thousand skateboards, video games, card games, board games, toy cards, and baseballs nearly places on shelves.
"She's never been into girly things," Scooter says, picking up a Barbie doll that has its hair chopped off of the disconnected head and muddy plastic legs. He chuckles.
"I was the same way. Hailey on the other hand? She loved everything pink," I smile.
"Yeah, I remember she would always get the pink bubblegum slushies at 7-11 just because they were pink." Scooter smiles softly at the memory. I feel tears brimming so I stop the conversation and turn towards my niece who has pulled the covers up to her chin.
"Will you tell me a story about Mommy?" She asks us, her bottom lip poking out. I chew the inside of my cheek. Can I even make it through one without breaking down?
"Um," I take a seat in the chair pushed under the desk and flip it around. "Well, there was this one time, your mama was fifteen. She brought your daddy home to meet her daddy. My daddy. Now, your daddy was so excited to take mommy out that when he was closing the car door, he caught mommy's dress in it. Then, he tried to get it out but he ended up ripping it." Kaysie giggles, looking at her father for a second as Scooter blushes. "So Mommy just hopped out of the car and tore the rest of her dress so it was the same length all the way around. He took her to dinner and then brought her home. She and I talked about him all night. She saved the dress forever and ever. It's still packed in a box in my closet. She used to retell the story to all of her friends."
Kaysie is softly snoring by the end. I tuck her in and Scooter plants a kiss on her forehead before walking quietly out of the room.
"I guess we should get going soon," I whisper as we head back to the kitchen.
"I'm really glad y'all came by. You're welcome whenever- you and John Luke."
"Thanks. I had fun. You've raised her really well," I pull John Luke up from the table. "I'll load the dishwasher and-"
"Oh, no. Please. Let me! It's late. Y'all should get going," Scooter's mom stands and grabs the plates.
"But come back soon, okay? We could chat more," Kelsey states hugging us bother before walking us to the door. We wave goodbye and load up in the truck.
**
"Kaysie, you just got back from seeing your niece, and you're trying to solve a murder?" JL sits back on my bed as I scroll through my sister's Facebook page.
"It made me think. I really need to find out who it is," I state, passing through all of the 'I miss you' and 'we are praying' posts.
"Kaysie-"
"Stop. I'm going to find out who murdered my sister."
^^^^^^
So, who do you guys think murdered Hailey? Scooter? Clara? Kelsey? Someone totally different? Comment and let me know!