The Heart Heist (15 page)

"Y'see, ya gotta know Kerrin." Matt obviously sensed he was losing his catch. "Damn it, you haven't spent nearly your whole life with her. I
know
how she behaves whenever she likes a guy. Hell, don't take my word for it. Ask anyone in town. Everyone knows what she does."

Gary's hook went unnoticed in the water.

Matt took his silence for willingness to listen. "The minute she gets attracted to someone, she starts ignoring him. I know it doesn't make sense, but since when did Kerrin make sense? That's what she does. She
has
been ignoring you, hasn't she?"

Frowning, Gary let his leader drift downstream. This was true -- but it didn't mean anything. He knew why Kerrin was ignoring him. He'd taken raw advantage of her with his kiss and she didn't care to repeat the experience. Perfectly understandable. He shook his head.

"All right. Take yesterday. What a coincidence that Kerrin had to come out and look for her glasses just when you happened to be in the living room."

Gary's leader floated further downstream. "Big deal."

Matt heaved a deep sigh. "I was hoping you weren't going to be as stupid as she is. But okay -- I'll make a bet with you."

Gary glanced at him suspiciously. "What kind of bet?"

Matt's expression turned superior. "My mom is supposed to come pick me up from your new house later this afternoon, right?"

"Right."

"Well, how much you wanta bet Kerrin will be the one to end up coming with the car? With some really great excuse, of course. Naturally she won't have time to come inside," Matt went on knowledgeably. "You'll see. She'll spend about two seconds saying hi to you and then she'll be on her way back to the car. Ignoring you -- but not really ignoring you. Making sure she gets a chance to see you." He shrugged and made a lazy cast with his line. "You'll see."

Gary watched as Matt's lazy cast fell softly into the water. "Fine," he said, "It's a bet."

Matt's lazy cast caught the first bite of the day. With a stifled exclamation, Matt reeled in the fish while it twisted and fought. A minute later he held the silver trout in his hands.

He grinned at Gary. "Whoever loses," he said, "cleans the fish."

CHAPTER NINE

The house sat on the last street of town. It was known as the "Wilson's," even though the Wilsons had moved away over thirty years ago. Beyond it, hay fields stretched toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. A small house, only one bedroom, it was traditionally rented by one of the itinerant teachers who passed through town.

As Kerrin parked her car under a shady sycamore out front, she wondered what had made Gary break down under Marge Hellman's tireless barrage and rent the place. Marge, the lone realtor in town, had all the determination of the desperate, but Gary was a hard sell.

Automatically, Kerrin checked the time as she went up the front walk. It had been silly, she'd told her mother, not to let Kerrin make the run into town to pick up Matt. She had to drop by her office anyway. Kerrin was working on the curriculum for the coming school year, a project that always took longer than she'd expected. It was her own fault for bad planning if she had to work a few hours on a Saturday.

She walked up the porch steps and, after a brief hesitation, knocked on the front door. Her stomach did one of its slow dives. She hoped it would be Matt who opened the door.

It was Gary.

He took one look at her and a strange expression chased across his face; very strange under the circumstances. It was shock. Kerrin took a half step back, rather surprised, herself. "Um, is Matt ready to go?" she asked.

Gary hesitated, then opened the door wider and gestured with a tilt of his head. "I don't know. Why don't you come in?"

"Oh no." With this hasty denial, Kerrin gave her watch a worried glance. "If you'd just fetch him, um, I could be on my way." The man was just so...
male
.

A small half smile curved Gary's mouth, causing Kerrin's stomach to go through some interesting antics. Then, before she could think of a way to cut the whole interaction short, his hand somehow got hold of her own. He gently pulled. "Come on in."

Kerrin had no choice but to step over the threshold.

He closed the door behind her and only then let go of her hand. With that electrical connection severed, Kerrin was able to take in her surroundings. She'd seen it all before: the mismatched furniture that came with the little house, dating from three different decades, and the fading curtains over the windows. But somehow this afternoon the living room of the little house looked different; smaller, more interesting.

Gary knocked on the swing door of the kitchen. "Matt, your sister's here."

There was the sound of something dropping to the floor.

"Oh dear." Kerrin hoped her brother wasn't creating a mess in Gary's kitchen. The next moment Matt wheeled into the door opening. He glanced toward his sister, then swung his gaze in Gary's direction. The two men exchanged a very odd look. A big smile took over Matt's face.

"The fish," he told Gary, making a grand gesture toward the kitchen, "await your pleasure."

"Oh no," Gary said.

"Oh yes."

"You caught some fish?" Kerrin asked.

"Three by me. One by Gary," Matt answered. "A big one."

Gary gave Kerrin a hopeful look. "Wanta see it?"

"Well -- "

"Come on." Looping an arm around her shoulders, Gary directed Kerrin toward the kitchen. Matt scooted out of their way.

"Oh, but I -- " His arm around her -- so
male
again. Meanwhile, in the kitchen four fish lay prone on the white laminate counter. One of them was perhaps an inch longer than the others. Gary's 'big' fish. "That's very nice, Gary. Very...big."

Gary let go of Kerrin and picked up a knife. He held it handle forward toward Kerrin. Automatically, she accepted the instrument. "What's this for?"

Leaning over to check that Matt was in the living room, Gary turned back to Kerrin. His expression was woeful. "You're going to clean them."

"I'm -- what? Oh no." Kerrin tried to hand the knife back to him. "How do I get stuck with this job? If you don't want to clean them you shouldn't catch them."

Gary held his hands out to either side, refusing to accept the knife. "Please, Kerrin. For one thing, I don't know how."

"So why doesn't Matt do it? They're mostly his fish."

Gary appeared abashed. "I lost a bet."

"A bet?" Kerrin shook her head. Men. Or maybe she should say, 'boys.' "I guess you shouldn't have made that bet, then, hey?"

"Apparently not." His dark eyes suddenly had dancing red tints in them. "At the time it seemed like a sure thing. Come on, Kerrin." Taking her by the shoulders, he positioned her directly in front of the fish.

Tingles went down her arms from his touch. "Oh, all right, Gary, I'll do the first one. To show you how. But you have to do the rest."

"It's a deal."

But it was clear after Kerrin made the first incision that Gary wasn't going to be cleaning any fish. From his position watching over her shoulder, he gave a muffled groan and turned aside.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Gary, you couldn't possibly be that squeamish," Kerrin exclaimed.

"Mmm." Gary went to the other end of the kitchen and dropped into a wood chair with chipped white paint. "I know it doesn't make any sense. Once it's filleted I'll eat the thing with pleasure."

Kerrin looked at the knife in her hand and wondered if Gary's reaction had anything to do with the reason he'd felt so protective of Elaine. Christ, how did a man who got physically ill at the sight of a fish being cleaned survive in the atmosphere of a prison?

"Oh, speaking of eating," Kerrin remembered. She bent over her task. "My parents want to know if you can come over to dinner some time next week."

"Me?" Gary sounded nonplussed.

"You. You are the town's only working teacher at the moment. Matt's in your class and I'm your boss. So I guess it makes sense to them to make some kind of friendly, social overture." Kerrin dumped the fish intestines into the garbage. "But don't worry, I'll make your apologies."

Gary sat silent a moment, watching Kerrin. "You don't want me to come?"

Kerrin's face warmed. "I didn't say that. You're the one who said you didn't want to come."

"Did I? I don't remember doing that." Gary turned so that his legs had room to sprawl in Kerrin's direction. He tipped his head. "Do you want me to come?"

"You can do whatever you want."

"That's not what I asked. I asked if you wanted me to come. Can you answer that question?"

Could she
? Yes or no. It should be as simple as that. Kerrin bent further over the next fish, pursing her lips to control her expression.

Meanwhile Gary rose from his seat at the table. The air temperature seemed to rise about a hundred degrees as he stalked toward her. The surface of her skin rippled as he came to a stop by her side. With one hand, he reached out and took her chin. He turned her head so that she had to look at him; she had to meet those dark brown eyes.

"Can you answer the question?"

Kerrin swallowed. All of the blood in her body seemed to have lodged below her throat, preventing her from breathing. She had the sensation of perching on the topmost curve of a high and wild rollercoaster.

"Uh, wh -- what question?"

He smiled. Those mobile lips of his curved in a way that totally enchanted her. "Good enough. Tell your parents I'll be there."

He didn't let go of her chin, though, and the air grew heavy around them. Gary's lashes lowered and Kerrin knew he was studying her mouth. That knowledge made her knees do their famous marshmallow act. Memory of his previous kiss outweighed any apprehension.

The doorbell rang.

"That'll be Elaine," Gary announced, quickly stepping back. There was a flush under the tanned skin of his face.

"Elaine?" Kerrin quickly shoved aside a peculiar mix of relief and disappointment. "What's she doing here?"

He paused by the door, leaning on the jamb. "I'm hiring her to do my housecleaning and laundry. If that meets with the principal's approval?"

Kerrin stared at him. So that's why he'd rented the house, as a vehicle for the job she'd suggested he give Elaine. Suddenly everything she knew about this man added up in a calculation that made perfect, crystal-clear sense.

"It does," she replied hoarsely.

With a curt nod, Gary pushed out through the door. Kerrin continued to stare, however, at the place he'd just been. The reflected aura of her astounding revelation hovered there.

No, Kerrin thought. No, it wasn't possible. But she could swear she still saw the shadow of it, a knight's sharp-tipped sword, right there in the vinyl tile of Gary's kitchen floor.

~~~

Matt could have killed whoever rang the doorbell. Just when Gary was finally getting a chance to be alone with his sister in the kitchen. Cursing softly, he wheeled swiftly for the door, abandoning his perusal of a very interesting book he'd found by Gary's telephone. It was just a local telephone directory, but there'd been two highly peculiar aspects about it.

For one thing it was stamped: Property of WawaNeemah Hotel. Over that a second rubber stamp announced: PAID. Gary had apparently
paid
for a stupid telephone directory from the hotel.

The other thing about the book that was strange was far more disturbing. In red ink Gary had started making notations beside every name in the book. The notations were either a "No" or a question mark. Some question marks were crossed out with "No" written beside them.

Curious, Matt had turned to find his own family name in the book. He found two large "No"s and two regular-sized question marks. Four notations. Four people living at that phone number. Gary was making some kind of survey of every single person who lived in Freedom. Matt had just been pondering the possible reasons for such a study when the doorbell had rung.

Now he reached up for the handle and swung the door open. A tall, slightly built girl stood on the porch. Her gray eyes widened considerably when she beheld Matt.

"Elaine?" Matt frowned. "What are you doing here?"

She took a step back, hugging her arms around her waist in a strange, self-protective manner. "Matt, wh -- what are
you
doing here?"

"I was just about to leave." Matt hoped his imminent departure avoided having to explain that he'd been socializing with the teacher.

Elaine straightened her shoulders a bit. "Well, Gary asked me to come help clean up. Nobody's lived here for at least six months."

"And you are? I mean, helping him?"

"It's a job, Matt."

Just as Matt was trying to assimilate this unexpected information, Gary came striding out of the kitchen. There was a wide, friendly smile on his face as he approached. "Elaine, come on in. You know Matt, of course."

Elaine and Matt shared a glance and both muttered appropriate noises in the affirmative. Matt watched Gary put a hand on Elaine's shoulder to guide her into the house. He saw the way Elaine's awkward stance relaxed under Gary's strong, brown hand.

"I thought we would start in the kitchen," Gary was telling Elaine, "but I've got Kerrin in there doing a rather delicate operation on some fish."

"Ms. Horton's here?" Elaine's glance went briefly, unreadably, toward Matt.

"Yes, but she won't get in your way. In the meantime, maybe we better start in the back with the bedrooms, huh? And remember, you let me do all the heavy stuff."

"Fine, Gary." Her voice was soft and submissive.

Gary threw Matt a grin. "It's terribly demeaning to the male ego for a woman to show she has any muscles. Right, Matt?"

Matt, with his elbows propped on the arms of his chair, folded his hands across his middle and frowned. "Right."

Elaine threw Matt another swift look. She was figuring, no doubt, that Matt wouldn't be in the business of lifting anything for a woman, or even for himself. He had a sudden fantasy of Elaine watching in astonishment as he bench-pressed two hundred.