Like she told him to, he parked the pickup at the beginning of the drive. Maybe she didnt want it getting stuck in the mud, or maybe shed planned to park it in one of the little barns scattered around the house. Only, hed kept it so long she must have gone on to bed. He was too tired to care as he cut the engine and climbed out.
If he had a pen, he would have left a thank-you note. Hed probably run her battery down using the headlights as his only light source, and the drivers seat was muddy, not to mention the bed where hed climbed in and out of the truck several times.
Half the papers she had scattered across her front seat were now floating on the lake. Hed tried to collect them, but his efforts looked more like a first-grade art project than anything she might want to read.
Hed apologize for that also, he decided.
He was too tired to even bother trying to scrape off the mud tonight. Hed say he was sorry, or better yet offer to pay for a wash tomorrow, but tonight hed promised to bring the old piece of junk back and he had. The ten minutes hed said he wanted to borrow it had turned into three or four hours. She probably needed it in the morning to do whatever she did for a living.
From the way she was dressed hed guess it wasnt farming. Wool skirt six inches too long to be fashionable, navy blazer a bit too big for her tiny frame, and shoes practical but so ugly he wouldnt suggest even giving them away. No clue what her job was, but one thing was obvious, she was making herself look older.
He grinned, thinking of how shed ordered him to ride in the back. She could be the role model for the kind of woman he hated being around. Bossy, quick-tempered, superstitious, and short. But, he had to admit, she was kind of cute for an elf.
He decided to walk up to the house and leave the keys. No lights were on at her place or in the yard, but his eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
Hed just put the keys on the porch where shed stacked the boxes.
Bad luck found him about the time he was within twenty feet of her house. The rain started again. The slow steady plopping around him sounded like a thousand tiny drummers. Hed been soaked for so long, Blade barely noticed he was dripping as he walked. Maybe this slow drizzle would wash the pickup off a little. If it didnt, his only neighbor probably wouldnt be speaking to him come dawn.
Ten feet from the house he saw the shadow of a woman appear on the porch. The watery moon didnt show her clearly at first and he thought it was Dakota. Small build, hair tied back away from her face, a crochet shawl wrapped around her shoulders. He almost yelled a greeting, but something wasnt right.
The woman let the shawl slip. She wore a white nightgown that gave the impression that she was floating.
Blade frowned. No wonder people around here believed in curses and spirits. Hed only been here one night and hed already seen two.
He moved a few feet closer and the woman took shape. She was taller than he remembered Dakota being, and so thin she reminded him of a willow swaying in the night breeze. Only she was flesh and blood.
He studied her. She wasnt Dakota. He could see that now, but the resemblance was there. A sister, maybe. This woman was a few years older and beautiful in a no-makeup, freshly scrubbed kind of way.
Six feet away. Five. The wet grass silenced his steps. She was looking right at him. Even in the night he couldnt understand why he didnt startle her.
Blade stopped. He wasnt sure what to do. He didnt want to frighten her, but if she hadnt seen him yet, one word would surely do just that.
She closed her eyes and leaned her face out so the gentle rain could tap against her skin. Then she smiled and he knew...she was blind. She might not have seen him, but he had the feeling she observed more than most. She saw the night, the softness of the rain, the caress of the damp wind, the silent world after a storm. Tapping her fingers along the porch railing, she moved inside and disappeared as though shed been nothing more than a vision, a will-o-the-wisp, impossible to catch.
Blade couldnt move. He felt like hed seen a ghost, though his life had always been ordered by reason and logic. This whole part of the country made him feel like hed stepped into another world, or maybe another dimension. He was the outsider here, and yet he didnt feel as out of place as he thought he would. Somehow, deep down, a part of him belonged here. Blade dropped the pickup keys on the porch.
There was a kind of magic in the air. Dakota had spoken of a curse. In an isolated place like this, he could almost feel the past whispering as he walked around the house that looked like its walls were a foot thick. Before he reached the open field between his land and Dakotas house, he passed a small place built low, almost into the earth. Smoke circled from the chimney, but no light shone from the windows. An old, white rocker on the porch moved gently in time to the wind.
He slowed his steps, not wanting to wake whoever lived in the little cabin. Twenty feet later he passed a huge winter garden now sleeping. Further on he spotted a shed made of roughly cut boards near a stand of low trees.
When he turned the corner to the barns side door, he caught a flicker of light.
Slowly, drawn like a moth, he moved toward the light and slipped through the opening into silent, warm air.
From the looks of it, most of the barn was used for storage. Farm tools, an old wagon, a tractor, all looked abandoned. Leftovers, too valuable to toss, too worthless to sell.
One corner near the back reminded him of a mad scientists study. Drawings of houses and floor plans were nailed to the wallsome old and curling at the edges, some new and more detailed than the originals.
Blade was so interested in the plans, he almost didnt notice a woman sleeping in a multicolored blanket between the sides of an old wingback chair. She looked tiny, with only her face left uncovered and the rope of a dark braid spilling over the blanket. The old leather office chair seemed to be holding her, cuddling her in its arms.
Obviously, shed been working at the bench of a desk. These were her plans, her drawings on the wall. Hed studied enough blueprints in his investigations to know what he was looking at. Not office buildings or compounds, but homes. Big beautiful homes where every inch of space was put to use, every detail refined.
He clicked Save on the laptop and powered her computer down. Hed bet Dakota had to be at work in a few hours and guessed shed sleep better somewhere else.
Another brightly colored blanket was spread out on a mound of hay near the door. He was too tired to worry about what might be wrong with picking up a sleeping woman he barely knew. For once, Blade didnt weigh his actions. He simply lifted her in his arms and carried her to the makeshift bed.
A big yellow cat complained when Blade shoved him off the blanket and knelt as he carefully laid her down. Dakota wiggled slightly, settling back into sleep.
He knew he should leave, but he didnt have the energy to stand. Hed been up for two days and had spent most of the night digging in the mud. Exhausted, he almost didnt notice that he was also wet and muddy. He wasnt sure he had enough energy left to walk the mile back to his place. Not in the dark. Not in the rain.
Blade leaned back. Hed just rest a few minutes. It was warm and dry in here. Hed be long gone by dawn.
His head gently bumped her shoulder as he closed his eyes and breathed in. Before he exhaled, he was sound asleep.
Blade leaned back. Hed just rest a few minutes. It was warm and dry in here. Hed be long gone by dawn.
His head gently bumped her shoulder as he closed his eyes and breathed in. Before he exhaled, he was sound asleep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LAUREN WATCHED THE SUN coming up over the small lake community a few miles from Crossroads where shed grown up. The light seemed to fight its way between the clouds in no more hurry to start the day than she was.
Rain had charged in waves during the night, making staying out at the fire site or sleeping impossible. The fact there had been a fire on the Collins ranch bothered her, but the possibility that Lucas would get involved worried her more. Reid and Lucas had never been friends and after Reid fired Lucass father, she was afraid they might be well on their way to becoming enemies.
Maybe that was why shed come here to her fathers house last night. She needed to feel safe. Here, just as she had in childhood, all seemed right and fair with the world.
She had her own place above the small office she rented in town, but this house on the lake, Pops house, would always feel more like home. Sometimes she just needed to be here, if only for one night.
Since her father had remarried a few years ago, laughter and music always seemed to echo in the small rooms where shed grown up. It had always been a safe place, but now it was a happy place, as well.
Last night she needed to feel as if she belonged somewhere. Her father had gone to the fire, and his bride was in Nashville for a few weeks recording songs shed written in the lake house. Lauren could come home and no one would notice.
She admired her stepmother, Brandi. Shed followed her dream to be a singer, but shed been smart enough to find Laurens father to marry. Shed proved to Lauren that a woman could have both.
Memories circled round, reminding Lauren of dreams shed lost or given up without ever seeing how far they might take her. She hadnt been brave like Brandi. Shed always been afraid to try.
The trouble with burying dreams is it leaves you hollow, she decided. But sometimes hollow is better than broken. Shed never been brave enough to risk losing. A brave sheriffs daughter afraid to try.
Walking out onto the deck Pop had painted blue when they moved in over twenty years ago and never remembered to repaint, Lauren stared into the pale light, wishing she could feel its warmth. The whole world seemed cold and silent as darkness still held to the shadows of the empty house.
Brandi had hated leaving Pop, but hed insisted she go. He had no doubt she loved him, but she loved music too.
They couldnt seem to get enough of each other. Lauren had the feeling, thanks to Brandis income from songwriting and performing, that they could afford the biggest place in town, but they were happy here. The little lake house. The home Laurens mother had always called the tiny house and often complained about, even though shed never lived in it. When Laurens mother left her dad and Crossroads, shed left Lauren too.
Footsteps sounded on the boat dock just beyond the deck. Lauren turned and watched Tim stumbling up to the steps. His bad leg never seemed to take steps without a struggle.
Tim OGrady had kept his parents old cabin on the lake as a vacation home, but he rarely dropped by. Tim had become a drifter in many ways. He traveled, lectured some, said he was doing research in cities all over the world. He told her about all the places hed visited in long blogs he kept online, but she sensed he made up the people he said he met. Never any pictures of people, only places.
In her online newspaper, Lauren did a weekly post of Tims travels and book deals. He didnt know or care that hundreds followed his career.
He smiled as he stepped into the yellow light of the one deck lamp. I figured youd be over here at your dads place, L.
You heard about the fires at Reids ranch? She wrapped her sweater around herself and moved closer. Fire department probably woke up half the town heading out a few hours ago.
I knew before then. When the volunteer firemen started getting calls on their cells, half the bar cleared out. Fire at the Bar W is big news. I dropped by the sheriffs office to see what was going on, but Pearly didnt know much and didnt seem to appreciate me calling 9-1-1 to ask questions.
He grinned. Wish your pops wife would have been there taking calls like she sometimes does. She is one beautiful woman, but she barely talks to me, either. Mind telling me how a guy like your dad landed someone as classy as her?
I have the feeling Pop asks himself that every day. Shes grand. She makes him take a vacation twice a year and insists they eat right. When they married, I stopped worrying about him and passed the job to her.
They sat down on a bench that faced the lake. Tim took her hand as if he wanted to hold on to something familiar, something real. I feel out of the loop. There was a time I knew everyone in town. I knew about every call that came into the county offices. Hanging out at the sheriffs office gave me ideas for my first three books. I thought I was in the center of the world back then.
Pop will be home soon. Hell fill me in, then Ill tell you everything. Lauren patted his shoulder, knowing how he loved details. Tim saw life, his and everyone elses, as simply an ongoing story. Pearly told me two hay storage barns on the Collinses place went up. Both total losses. Since it was stormy last night, lightning could have set one but not likely two.
Agreed. Somethings going on out there. Tim finished her thought.
Something? Lauren echoed.
Anyone could have set them out of anger. Tim thought out loud. Plenty of people hate the Collins family. I know I do. Reid has a lot of good-time buddies, but hes made his share of enemies too.
I know. Besides you hating him, theres about thirty cowboys who lost their jobs yesterday. Lucass dad might even be suspected. He was the Bar W foreman forever. I cant believe he was just kicked off land hed worked for thirty years.
Tim shook his head. Dont seem much like the cowboy way to set a fire. I wouldnt put it past Reid to set them himself. Maybe collecting insurance money is faster than selling hay. Or maybe Lucas went a step further than taking a swing at Reid. Ive never seen him so angry. He may be a lawyer, but that swing last night was personal. Reid hurt his family. I wouldnt be surprised...
It wasnt Lucas. She interrupted Tims rant.
Oh, yeah? You havent seen the guy in years and you think you know him?
Tims words came fast, almost angry. L, you always put him on a pedestal. Lucas the Great.
I know he didnt set the fires because I was with him. We were on Kirkland land only a mile away. We saw the first one flame up and before we could call it in, another one went up.
Tim stood up so fast she jumped. Of course you were, L. Lying about seeing Lucas hit Reid is one thing, but giving him an alibi is another. One lie too many, maybe. How many times do you have to pay the guy back for saving you that night at the Gypsy House? He caught you. Kept you from falling. It was instinct. You dont owe him anything.
No. I was with him. I found him out looking at the stars like I said I would. Im not covering for him. Im just telling the truth.