Black Flame (17 page)

A small, unsettling feeling sprouted in the back of Jimmy’s head. Like a tension headache, but different. It was an unfamiliar sensation, but as Matthew continued to talk, it grew stronger.

“And it’s not like she’s very deep, either,” he said. “After a couple days of her fashion magazines and pop music, I wouldn’t blame you for wanting a stiff drink.”

“I actually find her…quite fascinating,” Jimmy mumbled.

But Matthew didn’t appear to have heard. “And the way she dresses. It was bad enough when we were in high school, remember that? But at least then she kind of blended in with all the other pompon girls. Now she’s completely over the top. Man, when I went back to Arkansas with Jayne a few months back, she showed up for the big family dinner with a pink streak in her hair and a sweater that shed glitter wherever she went. I thought her mom was going to lose it.”

More hearty laughter. The headachy feeling was bringing with it a buzzing fury, making it hard for Jimmy to hear, but Matthew plowed right on in a loud voice.

“She’s cute, I’ll give you that, but she needs to grow up before anyone’s going to take her seriously. She can’t hold down a job to save her life. Did you know, in the last couple of months she’s been fired twice—once from a restaurant job and once from a beauty salon? Got to give her credit for diversity!”

“Brow bar,” Jimmy muttered.

“’Scuse me?”

“It was a brow bar.”

“What was? What kind of bar? You’re losing me here, pal.”

“The second job she lost,” Jimmy said, getting the words out from behind gritted teeth. “She was employed to style women’s eyebrows. It wasn’t her fault that the wax heating implement overheated.”

Matthew goggled at him, his jaw hanging open. “You sure seem to know a lot about her,” he said. “It must have been worse than I thought. Just the two of you, and her gabbing on and on. You couldn’t peel her off you, huh?”

Jimmy felt his hands clench into fists. Matthew was one of his best friends, but the way he was talking about Deneen, it was clear that he didn’t know her at all. Not the way Jimmy did. And it was making him feel very upset.

The two women had finally stopped hugging and talking and crying, and were coming toward them, arm in arm, beaming.

“Quick, talk about something else,” Matthew muttered under his breath. “Or the ditzy princess might actually catch on that we’re talking about her.”

The quivering, relentless pain behind Jimmy’s eyes burst in an explosion of rage. His clenched fist came up out of nowhere and connected with Matthew’s jaw—and his friend went down.

“Don’t worry, Cal probably knows these guys,” Jayne said—but Deneen thought she sounded pretty worried herself. “He’ll get it all straightened out.”

“I don’t think Jimmy would do very well in jail,” Deneen said.

“No kidding.”

The sisters rested in the comfortable seating area in the lobby of the hospital while two police officers conferred with Matthew. Jimmy stood a few feet away, glowering and rubbing his fist.

“I just can’t understand what made him do that,” Jayne said, for the third time. “Jimmy is the gentlest guy I know.”

Deneen had a sinking feeling that she might know something about it. Not about why he hit Matthew—on that score she was as mystified as Jayne—but about why he had a short trigger right now. “He, uh, had kind of a…well, you know he doesn’t like holidays, right?”

Jayne turned to look at her with interest, and Deneen winced. That sisterly intuition—it was a dangerous thing to get in the path of. “No, I didn’t know that. How do
you
know that?”

“Well, I’ve been cooped up with him for the last two days,” Deneen said defensively. “Cal had to work and Zane got stuck out by the rig, so it was mostly just me and him until Christmas dinner. And we did the holiday brunch together, so we were…you know, talking.”

“Talking, eh?”

Deneen didn’t like the change in her sister’s expression. There was a reason Jayne was universally acknowledged to be the bright one in Red Fork; she’d inherited their mother’s determination and their father’s analytical sense. And since they were small, Deneen had had very little luck ever keeping anything from Jayne.

But that needed to change. After all, she was an adult now, too, and entitled to her own life—something that had been weighing on her mind. “Yes. Talking,” she said, a little sharply.

“Well, excuse me,” Jayne said, and instantly the inquisitiveness was replaced by a slightly wounded tone.

That was the thing with sisters: they could set each other off with a single word. Deneen and Jayne knew each other as well as any two people could.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just—” Deneen shrugged, the adrenaline of the last few hours having drained away and left her exhausted. “Look, this has been a weird Christmas. First there was the whole getting fired thing, and Mom and Dad just assuming it was my fault. Then I wanted to do something really nice for your engagement. And one of these days I’m going to learn to plan better, but I just thought a surprise would be so much fun. Plus, you know, I kind of wanted to get away from the family Christmas.”

“Aunt Ida and her creepy stories,” Jayne said, shuddering. “I can totally understand that.”

“Right? But then I get up here and I couldn’t get you on the phone and then this, this
guy
shows up to pick me up at the airport and it takes me a minute to recognize him because, holy cow, have you seen the way he’s bulked up since high school? And he wasn’t exactly a hundred-pound weakling then.”

“Jimmy does take his workout routine pretty seriously,” Jayne agreed.

“But he was so—the way he is. Why use a simple word when you can use five syllables, right? And we just kept misunderstanding each other.”

“Aw, poor Neener,” Jayne said, putting her arm around her sister. “Now that I think about it, I can’t imagine two people less suited for each other. It must have been horrible.”

Deneen bit her lip. As explanations went, she wasn’t doing a very good job with this one.

Part of her wanted to tell her sister everything. About Jimmy kissing her. About her kissing him. That was twice now, one for each of them, and she had to admit—just looking across the lobby where he was pacing like a tiger in a cage, his thick black glasses obscuring the frustration in his eyes—that she’d do it again in a minute.

And part of her wanted to admit that she didn’t know what came next, and that she couldn’t bear the thought of getting back on a plane and returning to Arkansas. To the room in her parents’ house that hadn’t changed much since she and Jayne were little. To the stupid jobs that were never quite right for her. And worst of all, to the expectations of everyone she’d ever known, that she would never measure up to her sister.

But it wasn’t Jayne’s fault. Deneen rested her head on her big sister’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Even now, after the accident and the stitches and all, Jayne was still taking care of her. Jayne had always defended her. Always believed in her. Sure, Jayne maybe thought she was a little flighty, but she loved her that way.

A sister knows.

“It wasn’t that bad,” she said quietly.

“What wasn’t that bad? Oh, you mean having to put up with Jimmy?”

“The thing is…I wasn’t exactly putting up with him. I mean, it was kind of nice.”

“Well, sure, I bet you made Christmas dinner fun for everyone. And the brunch, too—I bet Jimmy was really grateful to have you there. You’re a good sport, Deneen—you always make the best of everything. That’s why everyone loves to be around you.”

Deneen smiled, her eyes still closed. That was what was so great about Jayne. She always saw the best in her.

If she admitted to her sister that she was kind of, sort of, falling for Jimmy, Jayne wouldn’t laugh at her. She’d be shocked as all get out, but she’d take Deneen seriously.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to get it out there. Maybe it would actually help, to talk about it, to try to make sense of it.

“Listen, Jaynie—”

“We get to take him home.”

Deneen opened her eyes and stood up. Matthew was standing there, his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. The police officers were walking out the door of the hospital.

“You make it sound like he’s a stray puppy,” Jayne laughed, getting up. She hugged Jimmy, and he seemed to relax a little as he hugged her back. As far as Deneen could see, he hadn’t done any lasting damage to Matthew. “Just don’t hit my fiancé any more, okay, Bruiser?”

“I don’t anticipate harming him in the future,” Jimmy said, looking extremely embarrassed. “That was a highly unexpected event. I am, of course, very sorry.”

“Yeah, you said that already,” Matthew said, punching him lightly in the arm. “Of course, you could show me just how sorry you are by taking dish duty this week if you want.”

“I’m starving,” Jayne said suddenly. “I could eat a side of beef.”

“Half an hour ago, you said you were never eating again,” Matthew said jokingly, but a look of concern passed over his face and he put his arm around Jayne.

“Yeah, well.” Jayne looked up at Deneen shyly from beneath her long eyelashes and smiled. “That was just when I thought I was going to throw up. But I feel better now and…since I’m eating for two and all…”

It took a moment for Deneen’s brain to catch up. Eating for two. The nausea. The fright she’d had when the accident happened. The big news she wanted to share in person—

“You’re pregnant?” Deneen shrieked. She flung herself at her sister and danced her in a circle, joy bubbling freely from her heart. “Oh, I can’t believe it, you’re going to have a baby! I’m going to be an aunt! I’m going to be the
best
Auntie ever!”

“I’m going to be a dad,” Matthew said in a mock wounded tone. “You can hug me too, you know.”

Jimmy hugged him—hard, judging from the “oof” that came from Matthew. “Congratulations!”

“Things are going to get interesting around the old bunkhouse,” Jayne said when Deneen finally let go of her.

“We’re actually thinking of talking to Mimi about buying the farmhouse.”

“That’s a great idea!” Deneen said. “That place is adorable. Oh my gosh, with some fresh paint and cute curtains and a few flowerboxes—”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Jayne said, laughing. “I don’t have your crafty skills.”

“Yeah, well.” Some of the joy went out of Deneen’s voice. It was so tempting—she could just say, “Well, maybe I’ll be here to help,” or “the two of us could fix it up in no time.”

But there was no “two of us.” She wasn’t going to be here as her sister’s stomach swelled, as she and Matthew made a new life for their little family. She’d be back in Arkansas, doing heaven knows what.

But that wasn’t a thought for now. This was her sister’s moment. Hers and Matthew’s.

“Let’s get going,” she said gamely, fixing her smile firmly on her face. “It’ll be a little tight in the truck, but I’ll sit in the jump seat with Matthew. You can have the passenger seat, since you’re preggers.”

“That’s awesome,” Jayne said. “Just think of all the ways everyone is going to have to be nice to me for the next eight months!”

As she and Matthew walked toward the doors, hand in hand, Deneen and Jimmy followed. Jimmy didn’t touch her. He didn’t look at her. It was as though they were strangers all over again.

When they got back to the ranch, Jimmy dropped off his passengers—all three of them had spent most of the drive asleep. Pausing only to change into his snow gear, he headed for the woods.

He would have preferred a mountain—perhaps one with a near-vertical incline—but the land around Conway was more of the gently-rolling-hills variety. Hiking in the snow, however, would provide a reasonable workout. He just had to get away from the ranch—at least, as long as Deneen was there.

By late afternoon, he’d sufficiently raised his core body temperature that he was able to remove a couple of layers of outerwear, stuffing them into his backpack. He ate an apple and a protein bar that he’d packed.

He needed all his focus to process what had happened that morning. First, there was the kiss in the truck. Deneen had initiated contact, he was almost positive.
Almost
, because his memories were proving unreliable. Which was cause for grave concern. From one standpoint, he could recall minutia about every occasion when he was in Deneen’s presence: what her smile looked like, how she smelled, the sound of her laugh, the way she walked. He could remember the curve of her buttocks and breasts, naturally, but also insignificant details like the way her eyelashes fluttered when she was about to kiss him, or the fact that her hands were approximately two-thirds the size of his, so that he could fold them completely in his own.

None of this was particularly upsetting. It was the fact that other areas of his cognitive reasoning appeared to be suffering. For instance, he’d rinsed off his shaving cream this morning before realizing he’d only shaved half of his face. He’d started the coffee pot without adding any coffee. And he wasn’t sure exactly where the half hour he’d spent staring into space last night had gone.

But most alarming of all was the fact that he’d hit Matthew. Hard, too—hard enough that he could still feel it in his knuckles and Matthew was going to be black and blue for a while. He wasn’t sure how he would explain it to Zane and Cal. Or make it up to Matthew. For reasons Jimmy couldn’t fathom, Matthew had acted like it was no big deal.

But what if it happened again? What if Matthew (or whomever he hit next time) rightly refused to overlook his act of violence? Jimmy couldn’t imagine life without his friends. He’d been a solitary child with only one living relative, and after his mother died, he would have been lost without the friendship of Matthew, Zane, Cal, and Chase. Now, he was lucky to count Regina and Jayne and Roan among his friends as well.

Jimmy paused and noted that he had walked approximately three miles, judging from the angle of the sun and the terrain. The wind was picking up, and dark clouds were gathering. The storm that had been forecast for that evening appeared to be coming more quickly than expected. He ought to turn around, but he wasn’t done thinking. Just a little longer, and then perhaps he would be sufficiently tired by the walk back that he would be able to sleep easily tonight.