Rachel knelt, and Dex’s objection reached her ears just as she opened the box. She gasped and stood back up.
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s Agatha’s knitting.” She was so shocked that the words barely came out of her mouth. She stared up at Dex. “Who could have done this? It wasn’t here when I arrived, and I was the last one of us here.”
“What the hell?” Dex took her place next to the box and opened the lid. “Crap. This doesn’t make any sense.” He handed her the keys to the house and picked up the box. Without being told she unlocked the door and they went back inside.
Rachel turned on the lights and then opened the lid and looked inside. The box was large, and Rachel was shocked to see many different skeins of yarn, what looked to be an afghan, and two sets of needles.
“Do you think Mrs. Perkins—I mean Theresa—brought it over?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t think so,” he said. “It’s close to nine. Something tells me she’s either fallen asleep in front of the TV, or is already in bed. Tomorrow morning we ask her if she’s seen someone poking around the house. We should stay here, just in case whoever did this comes back.”
“It is a good idea to stay, but it’s not like whoever did this was trying to break in,” she said.
“We don’t know that.” Dex picked up a skein of yarn. “Someone had this at their house, or in their car, and our vehicles were parked outside. They knew we were here. Why didn’t they knock and offer it?”
“Good question,” she said. “You’re right, we stay and see if someone comes back. Shall we find a deck of cards? Or a board game? Something tells me it’s going to be a long night.”
In the end they cuddled on the couch and watched TV. Rachel dozed off a few times, but every time she woke it was to see that Dex was still awake.
“We should go use the bed,” she said.
“We can’t see car lights from back there,” he said. “I want to be ready if whoever it was comes back.”
But when she woke the next morning Dex was asleep. After she disentangled herself from his arms she opened the front door to find an empty porch. She wondered if the person who had left the box had other things to bring back.
And if he, or she, did, if they could catch them in the act.
Chapter 9
Dex went out for donuts, sausage rolls, and coffee the next morning. When they were done eating he made a ‘perimeter sweep’ to see if any other boxes had been left, or if anything else looked out of place. It would be easier to find things out of order in the light, he’d explained.
“I didn’t find a thing,” he said when he came back inside. “I don’t understand why someone would leave the box of knitting on the front step and not ring the bell, or say a word to us.”
“Me either,” Rachel said. “It’s hard to believe they wouldn’t try to contact us. They had to have known we were inside.”
“I think we should go next door and talk with Mrs. ‘Please call me Theresa’ Perkins,” Dex said. “I think she knows more than what she’s telling.”
“You could be right,” Rachel said. “I’ll take her the leftover donuts. Maybe sugar will jog her memory.”
“You may know more about food than you let on,” Dex said with a chuckle.
“Food yes, cooking no,” Rachel said. “They are two different things.”
She closed the box the donuts had come in, and the two of them went next door.
“Come in, come in,” Mrs. Perkins said with a grin. “I do love donuts, and I have a fresh pot of coffee that we can enjoy with them.”
Once they were settled at the kitchen table, Dex got right to the point, which didn’t surprise Rachel.
“Have you seen anyone around the house, besides us?”
Mrs. Perkins looked shocked. “Not a soul, not even the mailman.”
Rachel bit into her donut to hide a smile. It was very telling that the neighbor had noticed the mailman was no longer making visits to Agatha’s house. She lifted her gaze to Dex’s. He winked at her and she knew he was thinking the same thing. No matter how much she might say she wasn’t, Mrs. Person kept track of the comings and goings in the area.
“Did Agatha have a lot of visitors?” Dex asked.
“Well, sometimes her domino friends would come over, and of course there were the two of you,” Mrs. Perkins said. She took a drink from her coffee mug, and kept her gaze trained on the donut box.
Dex opened his mouth, but Rachel held up a finger. “Mrs. Perkins, I understand if you don’t want to, even in death, spill Agatha’s secrets, but something tells me she wouldn’t mind if you told us what you know.”
For a moment, Rachel thought she was going to stick with her story about not knowing anything. But then she sighed and said, “She had a lover.”
Dex reeled back, his eyes wide open in obvious shock, and Rachel put her hand on his knee.
“Are you sure?” Rachel asked.
“He would come over sometimes and the three of us would enjoy a meal together,” Mrs. Perkins said. “His name is Charles Trent. He was out of town for the holidays, visiting his daughter in Houston, and I didn’t know how to get hold of him. I think he’s back now, though.”
“He was at the memorial service,” Rachel said. “Do you know how we can get hold of him?”
“He goes to the senior center,” Mrs. Perkins said. “I do sometimes, but not very often. I prefer to sit here and read.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Perkins,” Dex said.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Mrs. Perkins replied. “Agatha asked me to keep it to myself. She was afraid the two of you wouldn’t approve.”
“Thank you for telling us now,” Rachel said.
“What’s going to happen to the house?” Mrs. Perkins asked.
“We’ll clear it out and sell it,” Dex said. “I already have a house, and so does Rachel.”
Rachel wondered if he would tell Mrs. Perkins that they were getting married, but when he didn’t elaborate she really wasn’t surprised. Mrs. Perkins had kept Agatha’s secret, but that didn’t mean she would do the same for them.
“Thanks for letting us know,” Rachel said. “I hope you have a great day.”
“The same to you both,” Mrs. Perkins said. “If I can do anything for you let me know. I hope I get a decent neighbor.”
“I hope so too,” Rachel said.
After they’d returned to Agatha’s house, Rachel sat down on the couch. “Agatha had a lover. It puts a whole new perspective on her life.”
Dex sat down next to her. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell us. I mean I can see why she didn’t say anything about her son, but if she was enjoying herself now I wish she had let us know. I can’t tell you the number of times I thought about her sitting here alone.”
“Obviously not,” Rachel said with a laugh. “And it sort of makes sense about the knitting, too. If she’d spent time with him at his house, she might have forgotten it there. And if he were out of town, he might have returned it last night, after he returned.”
“I want to meet him,” Dex said. “I want to see the man that Agatha was…”
“Screwing?” Rachel supplied.
“I wonder if she was in love with him,” he said. “I wonder how long it was going on. I wonder if he knows about Agatha’s child. If she met him at the senior center then we need to go there and try to find him.”
“We don’t have a clue what he looks like,” she said.
“We can ask the domino ladies,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking about selling Agatha’s things. Shouldn’t we ask them if someone wants something? Don’t you do that for friends?”
“I think that is a wonderful gesture,” she said. “I mean look at the afghans on these chairs. There are so many of them. There might be potholders, or scarves, or any number of things. She was always knitting.”
“Always,” Dex said. He took her hand and squeezed it. “Sometimes I wonder how I’m
going to live without her.”
“I thought the same thing when my father died,” she said. “It sounds terrible to say but you learn to live with it. I remember the good times, and try to forget the bad. And I am comforted by knowing that I do believe I will see him again. And we will see Agatha, too.”
She kissed his cheek. “As trite as it sounds, life goes on. It’s so hard at first, but it gets better with time. I won’t use the word easier, because that’s not true. But you grow accustomed to it. And it helps when you have people you love near you.”
Dex put his lips on hers. The kiss was sweet, and gentle. “Thank you for being with me.”
“I can say the same thing,” she said. “I loved Agatha like she was my own aunt.”
He put his forehead on hers and they sat that way for a while, their hands joined, and, she knew, their hearts and minds joined as one, too.
“I really want to go to the senior center, but I have to go out to the Gap and help Tommy with something,” he said. “I want you to come with me. Then we can come back to town and go to the center in the early afternoon.”
“I’m going to stay here and finish packing up the clothes, and then I’m going to take them to the women’s shelter. We can go to the senior center after that, when you’re back.”
“After what happened last night, I don’t want you staying here alone,” he said.
“Don’t be silly.” She put her head on his shoulders. “No one broke in. Someone came by and left something. There was no danger.”
“I don’t care,” he said. “We don’t know this Charles Trent guy. What if he decides he wants something out of the house? What if he left something here and decides he wants it back?”
“Dex, this is a man that Agatha had a relationship with.” Rachel clicked her tongue as she tried to gather her thoughts. “I don’t think she would be involved with someone who would push their way inside and hurt me.”
“Grrr… sometimes you make too much sense. I don’t like the idea of you staying here alone.
Rachel laughed. “Then consider this as me being disobedient. You can redden my ass some other time. It will give you something to look forward to while you’re cleaning up after your buffalo.”
“My bison,” he corrected.
“Six of one, half a dozen of the other.” She winked at him, and when he narrowed his eyes her clit twitched. Was she weird that his disapproval made her hot? Something told her she was, but she liked it that way.
He leaned into her and whispered, “Bison.” She could feel his hot breath, and her body reacted even more. If this kept going the way it was, his rule—if it could be called that—about not having sex was going to be broken as quickly as they had put it into place.
Dex stood suddenly, and she watched with interest as he undid his belt and pulled it from the loops. He took off the buckle, which was large and silver, and tossed it on the sofa next to her. It was a sight she would never get tired of seeing. Still, she wasn’t sure this was the place for a spanking, neither a fun one, nor a punishment one.
He doubled the belt up and pointed it at her.
“Say bison, or go into the spare bedroom, bare your ass and bend over the bed.”
She could tell by the tone of his voice that this was a fun spanking. Something told her he wouldn’t be going to Buffalo Gap this morning, and she wouldn’t be packing up clothes as quickly as she’d hoped.
For a moment she didn’t move. The tension ramped up, and she wanted nothing more than to submit to him, to feel the leather against her ass. Except there was the nagging fact they were in Agatha’s house.
“Maybe we should go to the loft,” she said.
“Maybe you should do as I say,” he countered.
Rachel stood and walked toward him. At the last minute she swerved and strode around him, going toward the bedroom. Once there she undid her jeans and dropped them to her knees. Then she bent so that she could grasp the railing on the daybed.
She heard Dex come down the hall and into the room, but she didn’t look behind to see him.
“Panties, too,” he said. “I want to see your bare ass.”
“Wishes and wants don’t always come true,” she said.
“Do it, or I’ll rip them off,” he said.
She knew he would, because he’d done it before, and it had been incredible.
In the blink of an eye, Rachel decided she didn’t want to play the perfect spankee. She pushed her jeans all the way off, moved to the middle of the bed, sat down and yawned.
“You’d better get to ripping,” she said. “Because I’m not going to follow your instructions anymore today.”
“Have it your way,” he said. He dropped the belt and advanced on her so fast that Rachel was stunned. She hadn’t thought he would actually do it. She was certain he would play the game out a little more. But he was on top of her now, and when he yanked on her panties they ripped and the material bit into her skin.
He flipped her to the side, sat down on the bed and had her over his knee before she even had a chance to fight back.
Dex smacked her ass, not too hard at first, but then it changed, and he hit her butt harder and harder with the palm of his hand. She struggled against him, but not too hard, because she was truthfully enjoying every smack. But as much fun as it was, she also knew she had to play the game to make it even more fun.
“Brute! Asshole! Jerk!” She kicked out, hoping at some point that she would connect with him, to make him mad, and possibly make him pick up the belt and use it on her. At first her plan didn’t work, but then, her foot connected with his shin and he cried out in pain, using a word she wasn’t used to hearing him say.
He tossed her aside as if she weighed nothing, and stood. The belt was in his hands just as quickly, and she was back over his knee. He slapped the leather against her already bruised behind over and over. Rachel rocked back and forth, rubbing herself against his thigh, getting just enough friction on her clit that she thought she might come.
But she didn’t. Dex continued to spank her, and then suddenly he stopped. He leaned back, and he was sure his back had hit the frame of the daybed. His labored breathing filled the air, and she dumped herself off his lap and onto the floor.
When her hand snaked around to her behind she found her flesh was hot, and when she moved, she ached.
“That was unexpected,” she said.
“Yeah, but sometimes we need the unexpected.” He sat up and offered her his hand. She took it and stood, and when he turned her around she heard him groan.
“Damn, wait here and lie down on the bed, ass up.”
He left the room and when he returned she turned her head to see he had lotion in his hand. He knelt beside the bed and poured some of the cold cream onto her burning buttocks.
“Oh, ouch,” she said, her face scrunching up in pain as he started to rub the lotion into her body.
“Funny, you take a spanking without sputtering a word, but when I start rubbing lotion into your skin you complain.”
“It just hurts a little,” she said.
He rubbed her buttocks, and thighs. When she moved her legs just a little, hoping he would put his hand between her legs, he didn’t.
“We have things to do,” he said. “Tonight, after we eat and we’re alone at the Gap, we’ll have good, hot sex. Your ass will still sting, and I’ll give you a few more swats to help things along.”
“You’re a brute,” she said. “But it sounds like a great plan. What do we do now?”
“Well, I call Tommy and let him know I’m going to miss our work plan today. Then we do the clothes, take them to the shelter, and go to the senior center and talk with Charles Trent. I really want to meet the man Agatha was having a relationship with.”
* * *
The volunteer at the shelter was thrilled with the amount of clothing they dropped off. She said thank you repeatedly as she wrote out a tax receipt for them. “Of course I’m very sorry for your loss,” she said as she
handed the sheet of paper to Dex.
“I feel like we have one task down, and a million more to go,” Dex said as he drove toward the senior center.
“What do you think the attorney wants?” she asked.
“It has to be about a will,” Dex said. “There wasn’t one among Agatha’s papers, but I can’t imagine her not leaving one.”
“I wonder if it’s just the two of us going, or if others have been invited,” she said.
“I guess we’ll find out on Monday,” he said. “And then after that?”
“After that I become Mrs. Dexter Bales,” she said. She put her hand to her stomach and cleared her throat.
“You’re not going to be sick at the thought, are you?” he asked.
“No, I’m just a little nervous about it,” she said. “It’s a lot of change. Aren’t you nervous?”
“Excited,” he said.
“You’re going to have to clear out drawers to make room for my clothes.” She wiggled a finger at him. “And, part of the closet, too.”
“I don’t have a lot of clothes,” he said. “That shouldn’t be a problem. We can do it tonight, after dinner.”
“Dinner?” Her eyes widened. “Oh, that’s right, Carrie is making lasagna tonight. She’s probably in the kitchen right now, whipping it all up.”
“You’re going to have to get over whatever it is that is between the two of you,” he said as he turned into the senior center parking lot. He pulled into a space and made to open the door.
“Wait,” Rachel said.
“Yes?”
“Don’t be rude to this man, okay?”
“Why would I be rude to him?”
Rachel put her hand on his arm. “I think you’re upset about Agatha having a—friend. Be nice to him, okay? We have to remember that we lost Agatha, and so did he.”
“I guess,” he said.
“Don’t.” She leaned over, wincing as she moved, and then kissed him. “It’s unbecoming.”
“Does your ass hurt so much that it makes you wince when you move?”
Getting Caught in the Rain Page 11