The Comforts of Home (23 page)

Tyler walked downstairs and noticed she’d put his tray beside his desk. Gril ed chicken atop a salad and chocolate pie she’d made with a sugar substitute. He’d told her he liked to eat light at night and, unfortunately, she’d believed him.

He flipped on his computer and started his meal with his dessert. When he noticed there was no e-mail from Kate, he ate the rest of the pie and tried to think of something to say to his Kate that would encourage her to answer back.

Final y, he simply wrote,

I miss you, Kate. Wish you were here for me to talk to.

Ty.

As he finished his dinner, he gave up waiting for her to reply and turned on the news. If Kate didn’t e-mail him, they obviously wouldn’t be chatting either. He wondered if she missed it as dearly as he did. He told himself she was probably working or maybe in flight somewhere she couldn’t talk about. He told himself anything to keep from admitting that she might just have forgotten to check in with him.

A rapid pounding on the front door startled him out of his chair. They had no funerals pending, so he’d locked the door earlier than usual. Now, someone seemed very impatient to get in, and no one was ever in a hurry to get into a funeral home.

Tyler rushed to the door. As he twisted the lock, he was almost knocked down by a man pushing his way in. The bul of a man tumbled to his knees, suddenly disoriented. He was rough looking, as if he belonged more in a bar than a formal foyer. His clothes were dirty and his hair hadn’t been washed in days, maybe weeks.

“May I help you?” Tyler asked out of habit.

“I’m here to get Autumn Smith. I’m taking her back where she belongs.” He puffed up like a rooster as he stood. “And nobody, including you, old man, is going to stop me.”

Tyler was taken off-guard by the stranger’s manner and by being cal ed an old man. “What makes you think she’s here?” he asked, stal ing for time while he tried to figure out what to do. No one had ever stormed the gates before.

“I found out her car had been impounded and they said she was in the hospital. The cop didn’t want to tel me where the hospital was until he found out I was her husband.” The man looked around as if trying to figure out what planet he was on. “One of the nurses at the hospital said she was working here.” The rooster glared at Tyler.

“What kind of a place is this anyway?”

“It’s a funeral home,” Tyler said. “And I’m the owner.”

“Wel , you don’t own Autumn. She lives with me and it’s time for her to come back where she belongs.”

“I wasn’t aware she had anywhere to go. She never mentioned a husband.” Tyler tried to stay calm, but the man looked like he belonged on a WANTED poster. His hands were fisted and blood pumped rapidly in the veins of his neck. Tyler wouldn’t have been surprised if he snorted like a bul and charged forward. “I would think if she wanted to live with you, she would have cal ed you to come get her.” Tyler felt like he was trying to reason with a post.

The stranger made a move toward Tyler. “I’m through talking.”

Tyler jumped backward, hitting his leg hard against the hal way table and knocking a lamp over. The hundred-year-old glass shade shattered into tiny diamonds over the polished redwood floor.

“Autumn!” the man yel ed. “You’d better get your butt out here before somebody gets hurt!”

Autumn appeared from the hal way leading to the kitchen. She looked frightened, but she carried a broom like a weapon.

“There you are, bitch!” He forgot Tyler and took a step toward her.

“I’m not going back with you, Leland.” Her voice shook as she raised the broom. “You are not my husband. You just moved into my place and started ordering me around like I was some dog you found on the street.”

“That’s bul . We were sleeping together. If you didn’t have me, you’d have nobody!” he screamed. “Your own family kicked you out!”

She shook her head. “You raped me the first night we met. Thanks to you, I was so drunk I didn’t even fight, and the second time when I said no, you hit me. After that I was too scared to fight and too dumb to run. But I’m not scared now. I don’t want to go back.” She swung the broom. “Do you hear me? I’m not going back.”

Tyler pressed against the wal , trying to choose his time.

His hand brushed over the hal way phone no one ever used.

Slipping the receiver off, he dialed 911, then moved to where he thought he could dive in front of this stranger if he got any closer to Autumn. Tyler had no hope he’d win in a fight, but maybe he could give Autumn time to run.

Leland smirked. “That was no rape. I just like it a little rough and you played along. I told you I’d let you keep that bastard you’re carrying.” He took a jab at her, hitting her hard in the stomach. “If you carry it ful term.” Tyler reacted. He jumped at the man, knocking him to the ground. On his side, Leland couldn’t swing, and Tyler managed to get off two blows before the bul made it to his knees and grabbed Tyler around the neck.

As Tyler fought for air, he heard the fire truck bel ringing and a police siren. Both were only two blocks away and must have reacted at once to his 911 cal .

Leland heard them also because he dropped Tyler and tried to stand. “Come on!” he shouted at Autumn. “We’re getting out of here. I came looking for you, not trouble with the law.”

“No.” Autumn swung the broom at Leland, connecting with a loud
thud
across his back. Once. Twice, before the broom cracked and splintered.

Tyler gulped for air, then charged hard, as he’d always thought he would if he had to fight for his life. He caught the bul around his knees and pushed his whole body weight forward.

Leland wavered as if in a strong wind and toppled forward, leaving a head-sized dent in the paneling.

Tyler wasn’t sure in what order everything happened after that. It seemed to avalanche over him al at once. Two firemen, Wil ie Davis and Brandon Biggs, he thought, shoved their hands beneath his arms and picked Tyler up as if he weighed nothing. They must have carried him to a chair in the parlor, but he didn’t remember much about that part. Suddenly they were working on him like he was a dummy at first-aid training.

He could hear a deputy reading Leland his rights.

When Tyler turned his head enough to look, he saw Deputy Phil Gentry sitting on the bul of a man as he cuffed him. The EMT named Charlie bumped his way inside and yel ed, “Do we have a real emergency, or are these two just ice-skating again?”

Phil told him to shut up and see about Autumn.

Tyler didn’t see Autumn at first, and for a moment he thought she’d done what he’d hoped she would do and run, but then he saw her bushel of hair at his knee. She was kneeling beside his chair crying.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Wright. I’m so sorry.”

Tyler felt like every spot on his body hurt. Besides his throat, and the leg that hit the table, he had scrapes al over him. But he managed to ignore al that and say calmly, “This wasn’t your fault. Let the EMT check you out. Don’t worry about this; right now we need to worry about the baby.”

“Baby?” both the firemen said at once.

Tyler looked at both the young firemen. In the few years they’d been volunteering, a few kitchen or grass fires were al they’d probably handled. “The intruder”—he felt no need to say anything about Autumn’s personal situation—“hit her hard in the stomach.”

Autumn looked up at both. “He would have kil ed me,” she said with tears streaming down her face, “if Mr. Wright hadn’t stopped him.”

Deputy Gentry stood, pul ing Leland to his feet. He pointed with his head toward the firemen. “Do you think you two can help Charlie get her and Mr. Wright to the hospital?

I’ve got my hands ful with this one. Any man who’d hit a pregnant woman is going to get our special cel .” He shoved Leland along. “Sorry I haven’t had time to clean it since the drunk threw up in it last night.” Tyler wanted to say he didn’t need to go to any hospital, but he was fighting to keep the room from spinning.

Wil ie knelt beside Autumn and asked her if she’d like him to carry her to the ambulance. He promised her it would be easier on her than trying to ride on Charlie’s gurney.

Brandon Biggs helped Tyler stand, but didn’t offer to carry him. Phil shoved the handcuffed intruder out the door, tel ing him how much he hoped the guy would try to run.

Autumn slipped her hand into Tyler’s for just a second and whispered, “Thank you.” Then she let the firemen carry her.

Two hours later they were back in the Wright Funeral Home kitchen. Tyler had enough painkil ers in him not to feel anything. They’d x-rayed him al over. Dr. Spencer told him simply, “The good news is you’l live. The bad news is you’re going to feel like hel tomorrow.” Then, the very proper young doctor grinned and added, “Heroes often do, I understand.”

He’d frowned at her, wondering what she meant. He wasn’t a hero. If the firemen and deputy hadn’t arrived, it would have been only a matter of minutes before Leland stepped over Tyler’s body and took off with Autumn.

About the time he was beginning to think Dr. Spencer was al right, she’d added, “Mr. Wright, I suggest you take off a little weight. The next time you get in a fight, you might be in here with a heart attack.”

Next time
, he thought. He’d lived forty years without getting into a fight. What were the chances he’d get in another one? But he’d told her, “I’l do that.” Now, over a homemade chocolate-pecan pie, he was trying to come up with a weight-loss plan.

The two young firemen were eating and talking to Autumn as if Tyler were invisible.

“Autumn, you real y need to learn self-defense,” Wil ie said. “Then you wouldn’t have to take any crap off some ex-boyfriend.”

“Yeah,” Brandon said. “Wil ie and me would be happy to come over and teach you.”

“I couldn’t ask for your time.” Autumn almost glowed beneath their attention.

Wil ie downed another bite. “You could pay us back in food. I’ve never tasted a pie this good. I’ve been living at the fire station for three years eating my own cooking, and it’s bad.”

“Believe him, Autumn.” Brandon added, “Trust me. It’s real y bad. You’d probably be saving his life by having him skip a few meals he’s cooked.”

Autumn smiled. “Wel , self-defense couldn’t hurt, I guess, and the doc said I need regular exercise.”

“Seems like a real y good deal,” Brandon encouraged.

“You feed us some evening and we’l give you a lesson.

Even a woman your weight could throw a man my size if you know a few tricks.”

Autumn looked at Tyler, and he nodded slightly. It seemed like a good idea right now to have two more men close. None of his staff would have been of any help even if they’d been here. For the price of a few meals, he’d like to have these boys around.

He saw that Little Lady was sleeping in her dog bed.

When he clicked his fingers, she rushed over and waited for a treat. “Where were you, Lady, while the fight was going on?”

Wil ie laughed. “Maybe she’s a lover and not a fighter.”

“Yeah, like you.” Brandon poked Wil ie in the shoulder.

When Brandon poked him back, Wil ie and the hundred-year-old chair Tyler’s grandmother had brought over from Italy toppled.

Everyone laughed, including Tyler. Maybe it was time for a change, he decided. Might as wel start with the furnishings.

Before he had a chance to slip Little Lady a treat, Autumn dropped a bite of something from her fingers. Little Lady instantly snapped it up. For a woman who wanted nothing to do with the dog, she was acting as if sometime this week the two had formed a truce.

REAGAN WATCHED NOAH SITTING OUT IN THE

YARD IN one of Uncle Jeremiah’s ancient lawn chairs.

Everyone else had wandered back into the house for supper after watching the sun set, but Noah remained alone in the dark.

Jeremiah stood beside her, leaning heavily on a cane.

“Winter’s about over. I imagine we’l be getting into spring tornadoes before long. They say men half a world away run with the bul s through the streets. Out here on the plains we do the same thing every spring, only with twisters.” She smiled at him. He always pointed out the downside to every season. “You’d think you would be able to predict the weather after watching it for ninety years.”

“Not true. I didn’t start watching until I was in my twenties. Give me a few more years to study it. I’m already as good as those guys on TV.”