Jackrabbit Junction Jitters (49 page)

Kate’s throat stung. He didn’t even care, the bastard.

“The time seemed right.” Her voice creaked, dang it.

Butch nodded, staring at her like he was evaluating her as a
Botox candidate.

More long, empty seconds passed.

Then he cleared his throat. “Well, I should be going.”

“Right. Me, too.”

“Take care, Kate. I’m going to miss you.”

Her heart twisting, Kate watched Butch climb into his truck
and drive off with a wave in her direction.

A sledgehammer to her gut would have hurt less.

His truck crossed the highway and rolled into The Shaft’s
lot, parking in the usual spot. Sunshine glinted off his side mirror as he
stepped out onto the gravel.

A dust devil swirled to life on the highway separating them,
snatching up a couple of plastic bags and a paper cup from the ditch, twirling
them faster and faster.

Something inside of Kate snapped.

She couldn’t go on like this, all sappy and sad. Enough was
enough. Butch liked her. She liked him. One of them needed to do something
about it.

Yanking open her door, she slid into the driver’s seat,
keyed her Volvo to life, and shifted into gear. Her tires squealed as she
peeled out of Biddy’s parking lot.

His arms loaded with the buns and bread, Butch had almost
reached The Shaft’s front door when she cranked her steering wheel and slid
into The Shaft’s parking lot.

Before she could chicken out, Kate punched the gas, sending
gravel airborne. She gritted her teeth, pushed back against her seat, and aimed
for the back of his pickup.

Metal screeched and crunched as she plowed into his truck, her
new airbag going off in her face.

She turned off the engine. Steam billowed from under her
hood.

Shoving open her door, she stepped out under the cobalt sky
and wiped her damp palms on her shorts. A walk around front to assess the
damage revealed the tailgate sticking out from her radiator. She’d torn the
whole sucker free. Damn.

For the first time today, she smiled.

“What the hell!” Butch yelled.

She watched him stride across the lot, the buns and bread in
a heap by the door.

He paused to gawk at his rumpled, scraped bumper. When he
turned on her, his neck glowed as red as Deborah’s fancy boots. “You did that
on purpose!”

“Yes, I did.” Kate crossed her arms over her chest.

Was it just her or did those yellow poppies lining the ditch
seem brighter, dancing in the breeze with more gusto than usual?

“Are you insane, woman?” Butch was still yelling.

“I have my moments.” She took a deep breath, soaking up the homey
scent of sun-baked earth.

He marched around to the front of her Volvo and the chunk of
metal piercing her grill. “Look what you did to my tailgate!”

She walked over next to him, shaking her head at her hissing
radiator. “Hmmm. And to think my insurance company dropped me after that last
accident.”

“What!?”

“It looks like I’m going to need to wait tables or help Jess
in your greenhouse to pay this off. What’s your starting wage?”

“My starting wage …” He peered down at her, his eyes narrowing.
“Ahhh. I get it now. You’re a real professional, Kate Morgan, but it’s not
going to work.”

“Of course it will.” She played dumb, fluttering her
eyelashes a little. “I used to be a waitress in college.”

He growled. “You know I’m talking about you and me.”

“How can you be sure unless you give us a chance?” She
inched closer, licking her lips for extra measure.

He glanced down at her mouth for a split second. “You’re
heading home tomorrow.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere now, am I?”

“You don’t like Jackrabbit Junction.”

“It’s growing on me.” She captured his hand.

“I won’t wear those fancy, designer clothes.” He tried to
tug free, but Kate held tight, drawing him toward her.

“You don’t have to wear any clothes at all as far as I’m
concerned.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “What about teaching school?”

“I’ve been thinking about finding a new career.”

She wrapped his arm around her and trailed her fingernails
down his T-shirt, scraping his chest. His muscles flinched under her touch.

“Really?” His voice sounded low and husky, the anger
slipping away.

She squinted up at him. His blue eyes bored into hers,
measuring, questioning, hesitating.

“What other objections do you have for me, Butch?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Think on this,” she whispered and pulled his mouth down to
hers.

He tasted salty, smelled woodsy, and lit a fire inside her
that scorched her inside and out. Her hands snuck under his T-shirt, palms
rubbing over his damp skin.

He groaned and teased her tongue with his, making her quiver
and mold her body tighter against his, leaving her tied up and twisted, hungry
for more.

With a gasp for breath, he broke contact, and then trailed
his mouth along her jaw.

“Does that mean you’re done objecting?” She dragged her
nails down his back.

“Christ, Kate.” His breath came in soft huffs, matching
hers. “You’ve been driving me crazy since you crashed into my pickup—the first
time.”

“You sure haven’t acted like it.” She shuddered as his teeth
nipped her collarbone.

“Come into my office and I’ll try harder.” His hands spanned
her hips, his body offering promises of its own.

Cravings rippled through her. “Is that a guarantee?”

“Only if you swear to stop playing demolition derby with my
truck.”

She directed his mouth back to hers.

“Deal.” Her lips brushed his as she spoke. “I want you,
Butch.”

“Damn, you are such a crazy, hot mess.”

He crushed her mouth under his, making her head spin. She
wrapped her arms around his neck, hanging on as he bent her backwards.

When he came up for air, he smiled down at her. “I’m glad
you’re sticking around.”

The blast of a horn made Kate look around. She pulled away
from Butch, shielding her eyes, and gazed across the road.

Mac’s pickup sat idling in front of the Creekside Supply
Store. Claire hung part-way out the passenger-side window, a huge grin plastered
on her black-and-blue face.

“Mom is gonna kick your ass when she finds out what you’ve
done!” she yelled loud enough for the whole damned valley to hear.

Kate stuck out her tongue at Claire, then turned her back on
the world and grabbed Butch’s hand. “Let’s go inside and finish this.”

“Oh, we’re just getting started, Kate.”

After a wave to Claire, he led Kate out of the heat and into
the fire.

* * *

“Hey, Mac.” Ruby stood at the kitchen sink, up to her elbows
in sudsy water, washing the dishes from Jess’s birthday dinner. “I thought you
were playing Euchre.”

“Jess is sitting in for me,” he explained.

Grabbing a clean dishtowel from the drawer, he started
drying plates. The kitchen still smelled like chocolate. The sight of the
carved-up birthday cake with fudge frosting called to him, but he had something
to clear up first.

“I need to talk to you, Ruby.”

“Uh, oh.” Ruby’s smile didn’t hide the flicker of worry
behind her green eyes. “That sounds serious, darlin’.”

Mac didn’t smile back. No need to sugarcoat the truth. Ruby
liked her bad news straight, without sweetener.

“The Lucky Monk is worthless,” he told her.

Ruby paused in mid-scrub. Lines wrinkled her forehead. “You
mean there’s no more copper in it?”

“No, it’s rich with minerals.”

“Honey, you’re not makin’ any sense.”

He decided to skip all of the finer details for now. “There’s
a burial chamber in it.”

“Burial chamber? Are you talking about the room where you
found that old miner?”

Shaking his head, he grabbed another wet dish. “Further
back. I found an ancient burial chamber—possibly from the late B.C. or early
A.D. era. It’s full of graves.”

Ruby dropped her sponge. “Really? In my mine?”

“There’s no way the state will let you dig up there now. The
site needs to be thoroughly studied.”

“Have you reported it already?”

“I didn’t have to. Sheriff Harrison and his men had to go
into the chamber to collect Richard’s body.” Earlier in the day, Jess had given
Ruby the low-down on Monday’s excitement. “The sheriff has to let the state
know.”

“Of course.” She fished her sponge from the suds. “I mean,
if there are ancient bodies up there, then the state should be involved, right?”

The cake plate she scrubbed on didn’t merit the extra
attention she was giving it.

Mac grasped her wrist and gently pulled the plate from her
grip before she broke it in half. “It probably has great historical
significance.”

Sighing, she threw the sponge back in the water and stared
down at her hands. “I know. I’m just tired of having Harley use his own money
to put out my little fires. It’s just an old mine, but it was
my
mine.
Something I could have sold.”

“Just because you can’t extract the minerals from it doesn’t
mean you can’t make a profit on this.”

He handed her the damp towel and nudged her aside, plunging
his hands in the warm water. “Who knows? This could bring you even more
business in the future. Archaeology-related tourism is becoming more and more
popular.”

Ruby walked around him, grabbed a wet glass from the dish
rack, and started to towel it dry. The grin she shot him was cockeyed. “Claire’s
optimism is rubbing off on you.”

“No comment.” Ruby didn’t know the half of it when it came
to Claire’s influence.

His aunt chuckled.

Then again, maybe she did.

Rinsing a plate, he returned to his previous train of
thought. “You should probably contact the university in Tucson and give the
anthropology department a heads-up. I have a feeling this is going to be a big
deal.”

“Okay.” She paused, her lips pursed. “It’s kind of exciting,
you know. And to think, Joe had been sittin’ on this for years and never knew
it.”

Mac grimaced, hating that he had to burst another of her
bubbles. “Joe did know about it, Ruby. He tried to hide it by walling off the
tunnel and then causing that cave-in to seal off that section of the mine.”

Joe must have taken the sandal from the dead miner’s hand
around that time, unknowingly leaving behind a piece of the braided rope. He
was probably going to see what kind of price it would fetch on the black
market. Whether he nabbed the mummified hand, stick figure, and bag from the
skeleton or the burial chamber would probably never be answered.

Two red spots formed on her cheeks. “Of course he did.”

The dish she had in her hands clattered louder than
necessary on the stack of dry plates. “I should’ve known the bastard had
tainted this, too.”

She didn’t know the half of it. Claire and Mac had agreed
that Joe’s lewd photo collection didn’t need to become public information and
hid them before Sheriff Harrison and his crew got to them.

“Hey, Mom.” Jess slid into the kitchen in the new pair of
fuzzy pink slippers Claire had given her for her birthday. “Dad’s on the phone.
He wants to talk to you.”

“He is? I didn’t even hear the phone ring.”

“Oh, I called him. You know how he always forgets to call on
my birthday.”

Ruby’s lips thinned. “He forgets, right.”

She dropped a kiss on Jess’s forehead as she left the
kitchen.

“Aren’t you in the middle of a card game?” Mac asked Jess as
he rinsed the last plate.

“Chester had to go to the bathroom.” Jess shoved the stack
of plates her mom had dried onto a shelf in the cupboard. “And Manny went
outside with Harley to smoke a cigar.”

“Why’d they go outside?”

“Claire’s mom refused to finish the game if they didn’t.”

Ah, good old Deborah. Mac dried his hands on the damp towel.
He couldn’t wait to wave goodbye to Claire’s mother.

Unfortunately, with Kate’s car out of commission again, his
plan to take the rest of the week off so he could stay and take care of Claire
had backfired. He was counting the days until Sunday, when they’d return to
Tucson together.

“Jess.” Claire stood in the doorway. “The boys are back and
waiting for you.”

“Cool.” Jess bounced toward the doorway.

“Hey.” Claire caught Jess by the arm as she passed. “Did you
put the money back?” she asked in a low voice.

Jess’s ponytail bobbed. “I did what you said and put it
exactly where she’d hidden it. Mom won’t know I touched it.”

“Good.” Claire let Jess’s arm go. “Now go kick your new stepsister’s
butt. I hate it when Mom gloats.”

Giggling, Jess zipped into the rec room.

Claire joined Mac, leaning her hip against the counter. “I’ll
have to tell Ruby she needs to find a new hiding place.”

“Are you going to let her know Jess almost hopped a bus to
Ohio?” Mac grabbed a Coke from the fridge and offered it to her.

“Not if I can help it.” She stared at the can like it had
been sprayed with DDT. “I’d rather have a Corona.”

“Doc said no alcohol until you’re off the meds.”

“Fine, spoilsport.” But her grin was flirty as she cracked
open the can. “So, what do you have that will take the edge off another evening
with my mother?”

“Oh, I can think of a thing or two.” He let his gaze linger
on her baby blue,
Zombies Love Girls with BIG Brainnnsssss
T-shirt. “If
you feel up to it.”