2 Maid in the Shade (29 page)

“Don’t be
ridiculous; it isn’t a one bedroom house. Take the room across from mine. Sheets are clean.”

“Can I charge my phone
?”

“Sure there’s a dock over there,” he nodded toward the counter. “I have one in my room too.”

I placed the phone on the dock and patted Mosey, scratching him behind the ears. “I’m going to bed okay?” Jared nodded.

I
went into the guest room casting a furtive back at Jared’s room. I slipped off my clothes wearily and grabbed a tank top and some Duke boxer shorts out of the grocery bag.

I
pulled down the covers then went into the bathroom in the hall and brushed my teeth. It was going to be a long night of staring at the ceiling, I imagined. But between Mosey and Jared I felt oddly safe. As soon as I slipped under the sheets I was out.

I
woke up in Jared’s bed. He had slept on his side. One of his tanned arms was slung across me. I started to lift it so I could slip out to my own bed.

Suddenly
I was pulled back so that he was curled around me. He whispered into the nape of my neck. “Rest a little longer. No sex, so no monkey business from you. I’m turning over a new leaf, saving myself for marriage.” He was rock hard against me. “All evidence to the contrary,” I smiled sleepily and drifted away again locked firmly in his arms.

W
hen daylight was starting to fill the room I was jolted awake. I puzzled over how I had ended up here.

J
ared was in the adjoining bathroom brushing his teeth. He came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. I closed my eyes as soon as the doorknob had begun to turn and just peered through lowered lashes. He padded softly over to his dresser and pulled out some boxers and let the towel fall away from him. I gasped and he turned toward me grinning.

“Tell the truth, you miss this,” he laughed, not the least bit embarrassed.

I shrugged. “Meh.”

He
laughed.

I
jumped up and went to the guest bath and brushed my teeth and walked back to the guest room. I felt a little light headed as all the events of the week came crashing down on me. I fell back over onto the down mattress in exhaustion. Jared walked into my room in his boxers since I had left the door open. He flung himself down on the bed beside me.

“
I’ve decided to relent a little,” he stated firmly. “I’m willing to kiss you, but that’s it.”

I
laughed. “How did I end up in your bed without waking up?”

“Oh,
” he said, “you were sort of talking in your sleep. You sounded scared in your dreams, so I came and got you.”

“Very sweet of you. Did it help
?”

“Yep
,” he said “you were quiet the rest of the night.”

“Well I appreciate it
. Can I wash the sheets for you before I go?”

“
This is too early for you to go home. I think it’s unwise.”

“I’
ll go let Mosey out and we’ll talk,” I said.

“I already
let him out. You know, I like having you here and Lucy wanted you to wait until she gets the tub replaced, it’s supposed to be a surprise.”

“
You are not good at keeping secrets are you? But that’s great, I do love my baths and it was going to be impossible to get back in that one now.”

“So,
a couple of days?”

“If you promise not to let it hamper your work, or your social life
just tell me if you have a date and I will make myself scarce.”

“
Actually you are my job right now. I’m being paid to guard you. Bud suggested it and he is delighted I agreed so we aren’t in a hotel spending county money. After we talked last night he decided it should be someone you were comfortable with. See that’s the nice thing about a small town, they think of things like that.”

“I think
Harlan would be that considerate.”

“Well you have him wrapped around your little finger.”

“Trust me, no one has Harlan wrapped around a little finger.”

“For someone who is as self-aware as you claim to be, you are completely oblivious to the impact you have on other people.
When you go home we’ll have someone assigned 24/7 outside your place; hopefully until they catch the guy. So it’s me here earning my salary hanging out with you, or you get three shifts of different officers in SkyHaven.”

“I’m assuming no one can force that on me. But for the next night or two, o
kay, if you aren’t just being polite.”

He
laughed. “This is exactly where I want to be and who I want to be with. And I’m being paid for it. I told you I wanted you to get to know me better.”

“W
ell, you’ve certainly had a steep learning curve when it comes to me, but why haven’t I heard from Lucy? Or Mona and Jackson?”

“I shut off your phone,
” he said without apology. “Now they’re filling up my voicemail so I invited them here tonight for a bonfire. If that’s okay? They don’t know anything except what was found at your place. Everyone in town knows about that,” he shrugged.

“You mean no one has connected that to the
Charlotte suicide yet.” I said it matter-of-factly.

“Here in town only
Bud and I know. The tubs are the only tie-in. Although I’m sure some smart reporter will see a connection, and probably soon,” he said, carefully gazing at the ceiling.

“I’m stunned. I really thought it would ALL be out by now.”

The sheriff is a good man and,” Jared swung over on top of me, holding himself above me so that we were not quite touching as our gazes held. “I’m a good man.”

“I see that, I’ve always seen that,” I said, reaching for him.

He rolled away over on his back. “No means no,” he said firmly, and for some reason despite all the darkness that should have followed that pronouncement, we both cracked up laughing.

Tweet: “Old Southern saying
:
When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars.”

Chapter 2
1

I
hadn’t brought clothes for horseback riding but I had brought my boots, Jared had started my limited laundry and brought me an old pair of his Levis and a shirt from his teenage years.

“Sentimental much
?” I asked.

“
Mom kept trying to get me to go through the stuff I left at home before college and finally last spring she just loaded up her Ford and left it all on my porch.”

“Would I like your m
other?”

“You would. S
he already likes you from everything she’s heard.”

“Yikes
, I cannot imagine what kind of picture town gossip has created.”

W
e walked into the barn and he began to harness a beautiful red quarter horse, so I took the black mare and followed suit. We rode up a trail behind the house then through a meadow that led us to a river.

“You know? Every p
iece of property I love has bodies of water. Are they that prolific or is it just the people I like love them too?”

“So you love my place
?” He grinned, “Who else is on water?”

“Well, I have a
pond; Ben’s family home is on a lake although they call it a pond. SkyHaven itself has six ponds in the neighborhood... And yes, of course I love your place, how could anyone not love it?”

“Lots of people would pref
er being closer to the city, or having more modern conveniences in their homes,” he replied.

“I guess lots of people aren’t like us,
” I said as we rounded a bend and headed back.

“There’s not anyone like you.”

I rolled my eyes. “A fact which makes most people fervently happy.”

“Time to get a firm grip on
Denali there,” he said, indicating my mare.

I
quickly obeyed.

“I have no idea why they always do this at this particular juncture,” he continued.

“Do what?” I asked, and just then the horses broke into a gallop. It was exhilarating. They were neck and neck for a while; Jared’s horse pulled ahead and won the race back to the barn.

A
fter we got the horses brushed, watered and fed we headed back to the house. I pulled off his jeans along with my boots as soon as we walked in the door. He raised an eyebrow and I shrugged, squeezing past him to put the jeans in the laundry. The shirt covered me as amply as many of the club dresses I had worn in college.

I
checked my clothes in the dryer and found a couple that were just damp. I grabbed them and restarted the dryer and headed to the shower. I came back out running my fingers through my wet curly mass of hair to keep it from going haywire and went to the kitchen to find caffeine. I could hear the water running from Jared’s room and he came out wearing clean jeans and boots, his shirt clutched in one hand.

“What
?” he asked innocently then stretched lazily.

G
ood God. I turned away to keep from gaping and filled two glasses with sweet tea I found in an old Hull pitcher. 

I
turned around toward him and gave him an unabashed stare. “So is this “No shirt Thursday?” I began to unbutton my own shirt and he stilled. Watching me.

W
hen I reached the fourth button I spotted a calendar on the fridge. I stopped and walked over and peered at it. “Ah, I shrugged, “Perhaps you better get dressed, there is nothing on here about a no shirt Thursday.”

He
laughed and pulled a t-shirt on as I rebuttoned my top.

W
e made sandwiches then argued briefly about my being left alone while he drove to town to grab a few items for tonight. I was seated on the front porch reading when I saw from a distance a car beginning to wend its way toward the house. It was a black sedan.

I
hopped up and ran into the kitchen and grabbed a paring knife and stuck it in my back pocket. I leaned against the counter watching carefully as two men in suits approached the house. They knocked on the door politely and I slipped outside to talk to them.

“Miss Gallen
?” I nodded. “Took us some time to track you down, do you have any objection to answering some questions?”

“I guess I’ll know that when I hear
them.” I studied their faces recognizing one from Ben’s condo the night before. I shrugged, “Come on in.”

T
hey had just gotten past my relationship with Ben when I brought up the call from Irinia. I told them what she had said and offered them Elizabeth’s number, but they already had it.

“And you have no more specifics about Ben’s work? Did he leave anything with you at all, a laptop, or papers
? If we knew what they were looking for we might have some idea of who broke in.”

“Is Ben in some kind of trouble
? If so, I’d rather not talk anymore without an attorney unless you tell me more about what you’re looking for or where he is.”

T
heir replies were interrupted by the loud sound of a truck racing toward the house, followed by Jared throwing open the screen door and rushing into the den. The younger man reached inside his jacket before getting a slight shake of the head from the other man.

J
ared stood there panting as I introduced them. “Gentlemen this is Deputy Helder and Jared this is Mr. Wilson and Mr. Scott, they have business cards and everything so I’m guessing they are who they claim to be; FBI officials looking for a reason Ben’s condo was tossed,” I said this with just a hint of sarcasm and the older man smiled slightly.

I
looked at them and continued “The reason I was hard to locate was that I had my own intruder—completely unrelated, and the deputy was kind enough to let me bunk here until the trouble has passed.”

T
hey nodded. “We got all that from the chief of police in Charlotte,” the older man Wilson said. “Ben’s place was… invaded?” He seemed to test the word and nodded, “right after he left town. We think they didn’t find what they wanted; we are still hoping you might have it.”

“
I guess you’ll get everything you need from Ben when he returns then. Gentlemen, to be perfectly candid, if it’s something that would cause someone to break in a place to get it? Ben would never put me in that kind of danger. And I think I’m glad I don’t have it. If it was in Ben’s possession then he should be the one to hand it over. Now, if you have nothing else to share about him, I can’t help you.”

T
hey left their cards with me and Jared politely showed them out.

“When I saw that car I damn near had a heart attack,” Jared said.

“That fact did not escape my observation,” I smiled. “Ben has a lot of splainin’ to do doesn’t he? Now let me help you get the groceries.”

I
headed toward the door and Jared snatched the paring knife from my back pocket. “Damn woman,” he said shaking his head, “you slay
me.”

J
ared had the meat marinating and the bonfire started while I stacked and folded my clothes and put his in the wash. Following his careful instructions as he worked on the vegetables I made a pasta salad.

J
ared asked if I minded listening to the news and the first report was of a young woman who hadn’t been seen for three days. Her image flashed up on the screen, young, blonde, happy, last seen leaving the power company where she worked. Jared and I looked at each other and he reached over for the remote and turned it off.

“I’m guessing that one is dead,” I said somberly
. “That would probably be…in my bath?”

“Yeah,” he said, “that’s what they think.”

“You figured I had already known there would be another, the eye…”

“I did, I’m sorry.”

“You know, it’s so stupid of me, I wasn’t thinking that, about where it came from. I wasn’t thinking enough about these girls. If it’s the same guy, I’m responsible. If I hadn’t been so weak.”

J
ared turned me around to face him. “I’m not going to enumerate all the things you’ve been able to survive, and even defeat, from the time you were a kid. If I do I’ll just,” he stopped and his voice choked.

S
uddenly we heard Jackson’s jeep approach and within minutes we were outside and they were spilling out hugging me, and hauling coolers out of the back. For their sake I did my best to stay engaged while we ate and talked and played music. Finally we were all seated around the fire, conversation exhausted.

“
Well,” I said, “you are all my best friends and I don’t know how much you know about everything that’s going on. I think Lucy knows everything except maybe the last bit, so I am going to burden Jared with the responsibility of telling everything while I take the trash.”

“Everything
?” Jared asked.

“All of it.” I said firmly. “A
nd then I will come back out and it might be uncomfortable for a while but I don’t see any way around that.”

I
stayed inside straightening up for what I considered a decent interval, and returned to the bonfire and took a seat. I looked at them carefully. Mona’s makeup was streaked, Jackson was staring at his boots and wiping his eyes, Jared was studying me cautiously as though I might disintegrate.

L
ucy was biting her lower lip, I caught her eye and she smiled and winked at me.

M
ona looked at me sadly, “Honey I wished I had known you were having such a tough row to mow.”

“Hoe,” Jackson and Lucy said automatically.

“Which one of us you calling a ho?” Mona demanded angrily. “Gretchen is staying here for safety reasons, and it’s been so long for me I put on my best perfume before I see my gynecologist!”

“Neither one of you,” Lucy
interrupted in while Jackson was saying “Mona we weren’t calling Gretchen or you a ho!”

She held up her hand. “Okay, I thought you were talking to us. Sorry.” She turned to Jared and patted his knee. “They didn’t mean it like it came out honey pot. You are a bit of a ho, bless your heart, but I always say you gotta lead with your strengths.”

E
veryone was laughing and Mona beamed at us.

W
hen they left their hugs were a little tighter than normal, but aside from that I suspected we would make it through this dark passage.