All That Matters (11 page)

Buddy Lee’s heart skidded into his ribs at the thought of someone messing with his car. The Mustang had a custom-made cover to protect it from scratches or dust. He never forgot to put the cover on after he’d finished working on it. Never. In fact, he clearly remembered checking it twice before he left the shop. An eerie chill fanned the hairs on the back of his neck.

“Where was the cover when you got there, Scooter?”

“On the workbench by the door,” came the reply. “Never thought you’d forget something important like that.”

Buddy Lee sucked in air between his teeth. “I didn’t.”

“You mean...?”

“Yeah. Somebody else was in the shop and took that cover off. Are you positive you checked everything?” If someone wanted to mess with his car, how did they get in without breaking a lock or a window?

“Hey, did you check that little window in the back? The one over the....”

“Yep, I looked there first,” Scooter said. “I tell you, B.L., if I were you, I’d high-tail it home right away. Things might look innocent enough, but the whole town’s
buzzin
’ about the way you two took off right before Faith was supposed to get hitched to Royce. You
ain’t
exactly
numero
uno
on the popularity list around here.”

“Hell, that’s nothing new.” He lowered his voice, just in case Faith was listening. The phone was an old-fashioned one, not cordless, so he had to stay close to the built-in desk.
 
He was surprised modern technology hadn’t checked in at this fancy, la-de-
da
resort yet. He turned his back to the patio where she was having breakfast.

“Have you seen Royce around?” He kept his voice as low as he dared. His friend’s hearing was less than perfect, though Buddy Lee suspected it was more selective than defective.

Static over the phone lines made Scooter’s voice sound like gravel rattling around in a tin can. “Not since
th’other
night when he gassed up at the station. But Faith’s daddy showed up at the shop right after the sheriff got there.
 
He was mad enough to chew nails.”

Buddy Lee could just imagine his new father-in-law’s rage at finding the shop security broken. That alarm system was one of the requirements for his low mortgage rate. Damn.

“Listen, Scooter, would you stick around the shop the rest of the day?
 
Sort of keep an eye on things ‘til I get there?”

“...to work,” was all Buddy Lee could make out over the static-garbled connection. Then the buzz of a broken connection hummed in his ear.

He cradled the receiver, sat on the edge of the bed and dropped his head into his hands. If this wasn’t the biggest mess he’d ever landed in, he hoped he didn’t live to see a bigger one. Convincing Faith they needed to go home today instead of tomorrow was going to take some doing. And some cash to change the plane tickets—if they could even get a flight out on such short notice. Why did everything revolve around money? And why did he never seem to have enough? He could almost understand his father’s frustration and reason for the robberies that had landed him in prison.

Whoa, Walker, don’t go there.
He pulled his thoughts away from that direction. Nothing justified that sort of action, not even living on the edge of poverty. Hadn’t he vowed a long time ago never to let himself sink that low in life? He may be Boyd’s boy, but he didn’t have to turn out like him. No way.

Thankfully, he was his mother’s boy, too, and Jewel Walker had given him a code of decency to live by. He wouldn’t shame her memory. Ever.

Before he could change his mind, he picked up the phone again and asked the front desk to connect him with the airport.
 
Faith wasn’t the only one who could take charge of things. This time, he was making the decision, provided the airline would cooperate, of course.

“I
can’t believe you told them it was a medical emergency,” she said as their rickety taxi pulled up in front of the unloading zone of a small local airport. “How did you find out about this airline? I’ve never heard of it.”

Buddy Lee helped her out of the vehicle, then grabbed the bags after the wizened driver unloaded them.

“When the concierge found out our regular airline didn’t have another flight out today, he suggested this one. I think his uncle owns it or something. And I told him about your...um, condition,” he said, avoiding her eyes.

He counted out the fare to the driver, then followed Faith up a winding gravel path to a
quonset
hut
 
Hecho
en Mexico
was painted in blinding neon yellow over the entrance.

Faith hesitated at the door “Do you think it’s safe?”

Buddy Lee pointed to the sign. “Well, I don’t know if that means the building or the airplane was made in Mexico, but this is our only choice if we want to get home today. We’ll be fine.”
 
He held the door open for her and hoped she didn’t hear the anxiety in his voice. He crossed his fingers, just in case.

He had glimpsed a diminutive single-engine aircraft on the runway when they’d bounced up the gravel drive. With bright yellow and purple flowers painted on its side, the plane looked like a huge hibiscus blossom poised for flight.
Hoo
-boy! He hoped this wouldn’t turn out to be a colossal mistake.

Once inside the small plane he held his breath, and Faith’s hand, as they taxied down a runway no wider than a sidewalk. Miraculously, the plane was airborne in a matter of minutes.

The pilot, who’d introduced himself earlier as Carlos, leveled off when he reached their cruising altitude and headed toward the Texas border. Relief washed over Buddy Lee with knee-weakening force.

They were half an hour into their trip when Faith asked about Customs. Carlos assured them the flight was legal and there would be no problem crossing into the States.

Oh, terrific. That possibility hadn’t even entered Buddy Lee’s mind. True to the pilot’s word, they proceeded to Granite City, passing through Customs without a hitch.

Faith only became queasy once during the flight, and he was thankful he’d grabbed the left-over crackers from their room and stuck them in his pocket. Between those and the bottled water Carlos provided, Buddy Lee managed to avoid total disaster until he got his wife home safe and sound.

T
hey’d been home all of twenty minutes and Buddy Lee was already convinced that only in the loosest sense of the word could his humble living quarters be classified as
home
to someone like Faith Morgan. Faith
Walker
, he quickly amended in his mind.
 
How weird did that sound?

He watched his brand-new wife as she sat at his kitchen table nibbling a piece of cheese and more crackers. Fatigue left dark purple shadows beneath her eyes. Eyes that no longer sparkled, but held the lost look of someone too tired to do more than barely acknowledge the surroundings. She was exhausted, and he knew he should make her lie down and rest. Some husband he was turning out to be. He wasn’t doing a very good job taking care of her.

They’d come straight to Liberty after retrieving his truck from the airport parking garage, not even stopping to pick up groceries. He was beginning to think that meals were going to present a
helluva
problem unless he could find some of those TV dinners in the freezer.

“Listen, um, Faith, why don’t you try to take a nap while I check with Scooter about things at the shop? I won’t be gone long. I’ll stop by the grocery store, too. I think Pac ‘n Sac is open on Sundays. When I get back we’ll eat and talk about finding a doctor for you. Okay?”

“That sounds wonderful, Buddy Lee. I didn’t realize I was so tired.” The smile she offered him turned into a yawn and she lifted her shoulders as if to apologize.

When she reached for his hand, the trusting look in those liquid green eyes nearly undid him. His body heat spiked like a hot-wired engine.

For a flash-fire second, all he could think about was falling into bed with her and lavishing her with plenty of TLC—enough to erase all that sadness in her eyes and more than enough to leave them both wildly satisfied. The effort to suppress that urge took the very last fragment of his self-restraint.

He checked to make sure she was resting quietly before he bolted out of the house, hell-bent on locating Scooter. With his life spinning out of control, he desperately needed to find the command switch.

What the heck could’ve triggered the shop’s security alarm?
he wondered as he sped toward town. His own suspicions about that tied a knot in his gut. If his Mustang was damaged, by damn, somebody’s head was gonna roll.

Faith kept her eyes closed until she heard the door slam and the truck growl out of the driveway. If she hadn’t been so wiped out, she would’ve begged to go along, but for some silly reason, all she wanted to do was sleep. And being in Buddy Lee’s bed again created such a deliciously secure feeling, she opted for staying right where she was, in a snug cocoon.

She'd had some other unidentifiable feelings roaming around inside her since they’d returned home, and if her eyelids hadn’t been so heavy, she might’ve tried sorting them out. Maybe later. Right now, the shelter of Buddy Lee’s bed was all she needed.

So why did the shelter of his arms suddenly seem so appealing? And why did the memory of that shared kiss cause such heat low in her belly?

Granted, she knew all about the unpredictable mood swings of expectant mothers, but that didn’t explain the way her heartbeat elevated when Buddy Lee was around. After all, she was barely pregnant.

The strange part was she’d begun to notice things about him that she’d never been aware of before. His brawny good-looks, for one thing. Okay, so he’d always had a bad-boy kind of appeal as a teen. She’d taken that for granted and ignored the jealous remarks of some of the girls in school. She’d never seen him in any role other than a reliable friend. Someone who liked her in spite of her daddy’s money and treated her as if she were ordinary. Their relationship had always been more like brother and sister. Until now.

She punched the pillow and flopped over onto her side. Even with her eyes closed tight, the image of her brand-new husband stayed with her.

She remembered his genuine concern during her first bout of morning sickness at the resort. How he’d slept on the sofa, insisting she needed the comfort of the entire bed. What she’d thought was lack of interest on his part was truly kindness and compassion. Buddy Lee was a good man.

And that was just the beginning of her problem.

B
uddy Lee paced the perimeter of the tiny shop office.
 
He’d completed his own examination of the work area and found no clues, but he still wasn’t convinced the wind had been the culprit that had set off the damned alarm. How weird was that?
 
Especially after Scooter told him it hadn’t been particularly windy last night.

The fact that his friend had found his beloved Mustang uncovered freaked him out. He was absolutely certain he’d left it carefully covered. Absolutely.

“Buddy Lee, I swear nothin’ is missing.” Scooter waved his hand in the air to include the whole building. “We done checked
ever’thing
. We went over the whole place. There wasn’t no signs of B and E at all.”

“I believe you, Scoot, but something tripped the alarm and that makes me suspicious as hell.” Buddy Lee pulled out a dog-eared file folder from a battered metal cabinet, flipped it open and thumbed through several yellow invoices. Nothing missing there, either. He jammed it back in the drawer. Hell fire! This didn’t make a lick of sense.

Scooter shuffled behind him as he headed for the back of the repair shop where the Mustang was stored.

He examined the car again, inch by shiny inch. Nothing appeared wrong, yet his gut instinct told him someone had messed with it. That cover didn’t just fall off by itself. He aimed to get to the bottom of this whole dilemma or die trying. Well, maybe not
die.
He didn’t figure that would help matters. Not with Faith waiting for him to take care of her and her baby.

If worry could make a man feel the weight of the world on his shoulders, he definitely was carrying more than his share. He’d bet the farm on that—if he had a farm. All he needed right them was for Faith’s daddy to show up, blowing steam out of both ears. He wondered briefly about his own good sense.

The shop door banged shut, and he glanced up at the sound.
 
Well, hell, why not just whack him right here and now?

Lionel Morgan stood there, at least two feet taller than Buddy Lee remembered and looking angrier than a bear with a sore paw. The deputy sheriff was with him, too.

Deputy Elroy Pike was a man of few words and even less patience.
 
“Walker, Mr. Morgan here thought maybe you could shed some light on what happened last night. Something I might have missed. Anything you think I should know?”

By the scowl on his face, Elroy wasn’t too thrilled at having to perform a re-run on the investigation. He was also smart enough not to disagree with someone as influential as Lionel Morgan. He just happened to be married to Lionel’s niece.
 
Buddy Lee shook his head. “Sorry, Pike, but I’m as puzzled as you are. Nothing’s missing, far as I can tell.” He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like a good idea not to mention the question about the car cover. At least just then. He’d decided earlier to keep quiet about Faith’s rough encounter with Royce.
 
It would be up to her to bring those details to the lawman’s attention.