Midnight Kiss (16 page)

Five pairs of eyes turned in the direction the arrow had come from. Harold stood poised with another arrow ready. Two of the shocking-pink feathers in his headband were bent, and his war paint looked suspiciously like eye shadow.

Herman was the first to find his voice. “Indians!”

Not only had Thane lost his voice, he was positive he had lost his mind as well. He glanced between the astonished faces of his distinguished guests and the Maybelline Warrior. “Harold, you could have poked someone’s eye out with that thing.”

Harold lowered the bow, held his hand palm out, and grunted, “How.”

“By shooting it into someone’s eye,” Thane muttered.

“Gee, Doc, don’t you know Injun?” Harold asked.

“No, and neither do you.
How
is not an Indian expression.” He glanced down the hall as a war cry erupted from somewhere in the home. “How many Indians are there, Harold?”

“There were eight, until the Pilgrims blasted poor Ned full of buckshot.”

Thane shuddered. He smiled painfully at the delegation. “Gentlemen, why don’t we locate our director, Mr. Baker? I’m sure you’re anxious to begin your tour.”

Bemused, the coalition watched as Herman slipped down the hall and Harold strutted over to the goat. “There you are, Trigger, I was wondering where you ran off to.”

The three men glanced at one another as Harold entered the teepee. Bob cleared his throat. “Lead the way, Doctor Clayborne.”

Thane stopped at the nurse’s station. “Evelyn, have you seen Mr. Baker?”

“He’s in the game room handling the uprising.”

Thane bit his lip. He refused to ask the obvious. Maybe if he acted as if there were nothing out of order, the coalition wouldn’t notice. He turned back to the waiting men and froze. Behind them was a turkey strutting down the hall.

“Doctor?”

Thane blinked and forced a smile as the bird disappeared into one of the male residents’ rooms. He hadn’t seen that, had he? “This way, gentlemen.”

A loud cry of triumph echoed down the hall, followed by a shrill scream. Thane’s group stood motionless as three victorious Indians in wheelchairs rolled their way down the hall waving a gray wig. Hatchets were wielded and whoops of jubilation bounced off the walls.

Thane had stepped in front of the war party, intending to put an end to the commotion, when he spotted Cora hobbling down the corridor brandishing her cane. “I’ve been scalped!” She cried. Her thin white hair, tightly shoved under a fine net, glistened under the lights.

Thane grabbed the wig from Russell and growled, “I’ll deal with you three later.” He handed Cora back her hair, asking, “Are you all right?”

Cora placed the wig on top of her head. “Never better, Doc.” She glared at the sheepishly departing Indians and shouted, “Where in the hell is John Wayne when you need him?”

Thane watched Cora storm back down the hall with her wig on backward and knew their chance at the number-one spot was going with her. A small chuckle escaped his lips. All this time he had thought Autumn would cause the downfall of Maple Leaf. He had been wrong. Maple Leaf was crashing on its own. Autumn was in her shop, blissfully unaware of the crash.

He might as well go all the way and have the inspection team witness everything. “Gentlemen, this way, please.”

Thane led the way down the hall. He smiled at Nurse Harris, who was guarding the double doors into the game room. “Hi, Nancy. Guarding the inmates?”

She chuckled and moved to the side. “You could say that.”

“This is Bob Wilson, Mark Hartman, and Doctor Leonard Griffin. They’re from the VCRP.”

She jumped back in front of Thane and blocked the doors. “You can’t go in there.”

“There’s nothing in there that could shock us further.”

“Please, Doc, why don’t you take these gentlemen” --she smiled sweetly-- “down to Mr. Baker’s office and get them some coffee?”

Thane chuckled at her determination. If Maple Leaf was going to bomb on the VCRP list, he wanted it to bomb first-class. No other nursing home in Virginia could claim that an Indian uprising had kept them from the number-one slot. “It’s okay, Nancy. I take full responsibility.” He pushed open the doors and ushered the coalition into madness.

A young nurse with eyes as big as saucers was standing on a chair, mumbling. A group of male residents, wielding hatchets, broomsticks, and bow and arrows were standing protectively in front of a cluster of female residents. Two ladies were sitting with their feet propped up stringing beads, and a nurse was passing out cookies and juice.

A thunderous commotion was going on in the back of the room. Thane spotted the director on his hands and knees looking under a table. Someone else was on the other side, and two orderlies were bent over giving advice.

“This way! No, not that way, this way!”

“Watch out!”

Thane and the coalition walked over to inspect what was happening. “What is it?”

Ada, who was half-blind, sat at the next table crumbling her cookie into little pieces. “It’s a cat.” She dug through the pile of crumbs looking for something. “All this fuss over a little kitten.” Finding nothing of interest in the pile, she started to mash another cookie. “Babies. All of them are babies.”

Thane looked at Paddy, who was sadly shaking his head at Ada. It wasn’t a cat, and an elephant wouldn’t fit under the table. So that left at least a hundred other possibilities. Prepared for anything, Thane bent down and glanced under the table.

Shock resounded through his body. The green eyes of the woman he loved anxiously stared back at him as she straddled a two-foot-long iguana. What was Autumn doing here? Understanding dawned slowly as he gaped at Autumn and then glared at her ugly companion. She had done exactly what he had feared she would. Singlehandedly she had toppled the sterling reputation of Maple Leaf.

Autumn heard the bell chime over the door and continued to sand the biggest piece of furniture in her shop-- a massive oak rolltop desk. Hours of back-breaking work had kept the tears at bay, but now they threatened to spill at the thought that it was probably Thane who had just entered.

Thane pushed aside the curtain and wrinkled his nose at the smell of paint stripper. She really should be in a ventilated place when working with chemicals. He leaned against the jamb and watched the way she attacked the desk with a crinkled piece of sandpaper. Her hair was tied back, and she had replaced the blue sweater she had on at the home with an old flannel shirt. “You left the home in a sure-fire hurry.”

She kept her gaze trained on the desk. “Didn’t see any reason to hang around.”

Thane winced. He deserved the coldness in her voice. He had been stunned to discover Autumn at Maple Leaf and in the middle of the chaos. By the time he had come to his senses and realized she wouldn’t have initiated what was now being referred to as the Great Uprising, she was gone. “You missed the best parts.”

“It got better?”

“Turned out Hartman, one of the members of the coalition, had had a pet iguana when he was a kid. He was crazy about our friend Shelby.” He anxiously shifted his weight. “Lillian wrapped Doctor Griffin around her little finger. He spent two hours with the ladies showing them how to thread the beads so that it made an authentic Indian pattern.”

“That’s nice.”

“Wilson gathered up a handful of braves and went searching for the missing turkeys.” He frowned at her and closed the distance separating them. “Dammit, Autumn, aren’t you going to say anything?”

She raised her head. “It’s over, Thane.”

“Over? What do you mean over?”

“Us. You know, our fling.”

“Fling!” Thane roared.

Autumn flinched. “Okay, our affair.”

“Who in the hell are you kidding? What we had wasn’t an affair or a fling.”

“What would you call it?” Autumn asked.

Thane tried to calm his rapidly building panic. “It
is
the beginning of a relationship.”

“
Was
, Thane,
was
.” Afraid to see his expression, she looked down at the desk.

He started to pace. “You’re willing to call it quits just because for three minutes I thought you brought a lizard into the home?”

It would have been so easy to lie, to lay the blame at his door. “No.” A coward she might be, but she was an honest coward. “I realized love, respect, and responsibilities go hand-in-hand.”

Thane stopped in his tracks. “You think I don’t respect you?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “No, Thane. It’s me who’s lacking in those departments.”

Hurt, he cupped her chin and looked into her face. “You don’t respect me?”

“Lord, no.” She gently grazed his cheek with the back of her fingers. “You’re wonderful, kind, talented, and a magnificent lover.”

He captured her hand and held it against his jaw. “I’m not liking the sound of this.”

Autumn moved back a step. “I’m not the woman you want.”

“How do you know what I want?”

“I might not know what you want, but I know what you deserve.” She took another step backward. “You deserve a woman who’s loving, settled, knows her own mind, is brave and strong enough to handle her responsibilities.” She took another step and held back the curtain for him. “I’m not that woman, Thane.”

He didn’t move a muscle. Somewhere in the past month he had missed something terribly important. Autumn was all those things she said she wasn’t-- and more. She was going to be the woman who would stand by him for the rest of his life.

Autumn felt her resolve begin to crumble. If he didn’t walk out of her life within five seconds, she was going to throw herself into his arms and make his life miserable. “Please, leave and don’t make it any harder than it already is.”

Thane ran his options through his mind. He could refuse to leave and push her to the breaking point, which she seemed about to reach. Or he could retreat for the time being, and try to put the pieces together. He was not a betting man, but he knew he was holding two aces. First was Paddy. He was at Maple Leaf and couldn’t be moved without a doctor’s release. Second, and more important, he knew Autumn loved him. He didn’t understand what she was doing, but he never doubted her love. “Okay, I’ll leave.” He walked over to her. “But I’m coming back.”

He cupped her face between his palms and hungrily gazed at her mouth. “I love you, Autumn O’Neil.” He bent his head and kissed her. He broke away and walked out of the shop when he felt her heated response.

Autumn stared at the empty door and allowed the tears to fall. He was gone. She had done it. She had purposely pushed the man she loved out of her life before he found out the truth. That afternoon when Thane knelt and looked under the table, his eyes had held disgust, and she knew that look would be repeated when he found out she was a coward. If she wasn’t worth the name O’Neil, how would she ever measure up to the name Clayborne?

#

Two days later Autumn was busy rearranging baby items, when the bell over the shop door softly tinkled. She glanced up, half hoping, half dreading it would be Thane. She chuckled as a six-foot white rabbit blissfully walked into her shop carrying a large wicker basket. Thane had to be behind this latest visitor.

The day before, a delivery boy had dropped off a brightly wrapped box in the morning. Inside had been an authentic grass hula skirt, with a card that bore just one wore:
Practice
. Then the previous evening, at two minutes before closing, a clown waltzed into the shop. Without saying a word, he proceeded to blow up oddly shaped balloons, then twisted them together. He finally handed her a balloon turkey and a card with the words
Missing you
.

Autumn stood up and walked to where the rabbit was curiously looking around. “May I help you?”

The pink-nosed rabbit handed her the basket and bowed.

She gazed at the expensive rose-colored linen napkin covering the contents. “Is this for me?”

The bunny nodded and headed out the door.

Autumn placed the basket on the counter and watched as the rabbit skipped down the sidewalk out of sight. She carefully lifted the napkin and cried out with delight. Dozens of bright orange carrots filled the large basket. They weren’t run-of- the-mill carrots, packaged by the pound, that she could buy in the grocery store. These were top-quality, long, perfectly shaped beauties. Thane had sent her gourmet carrots. She saw the slip of white card nestled among the vegetables and pulled it out.
First-class carrots for my first-class lady.

She wiped the tears forming in her eyes. She refused to cry again. The waterworks hadn’t stopped since he’d walked out of the shop Monday night. At the rate she was going, she’d be dehydrated by the time her family arrived the following day. Thane wasn’t playing fair. He was supposed to walk away, thankful for his near escape, not send her sentimental gifts that any other woman wouldn’t understand.

Autumn glanced at her watch. It was after three, and she had a list of things to do a mile long. Food shopping for eighteen people wasn’t going to be easy.

#

Delicious smells of roasting turkey filled the kitchen. The television was blaring a football game, and kids were running through every room in the house. These were the same sounds and smells of every heartwarming Thanksgiving from Autumn’s past. These were also the cause of the headache that had been pounding in her brain like a tom-tom since her family had arrived only two hours before.

“Are you all right, dear?”

Autumn washed down two extra-strength aspirins with a glass of water. “Just a little headache, Mom.”

“You look piqued. Have you been sleeping all right?”

“I’m fine, honestly.” Silently asking for help, she glanced at her sister-in-law Sharon.

The petite auburn-haired woman came to her rescue. “She
is
probably tired. I bet she was up all night stuffing the bird and getting it ready for the oven.” Autumn and her three sisters-in-law had an agreement to defend each other from her mother’s constant-- and nerve-racking-- mothering.