The Decorator Who Knew Too Much

by Diane Vallere

  The Jeep bumped along the narrow road, occasionally swaying from side to side thanks to the uneven terrain. Hudson handed me the sheet of paper. “I recognize where we’re at. Emma and Jimmy’s house should be just up the street.”

  “Great. I’m pretty sure Mortiboy’s sedative is wearing off. If we don’t get there soon, I’m afraid he’s going to start plotting revenge against me for keeping him in his cat carrier while Rocky has his freedom.”

  As if he understood me, Mortiboy let out a long, low meow. Rocky turned around to investigate and the howl was followed up with a hiss. Hudson reached his right hand around behind his seat and stuck his fingers into the grate of the carrier. “Hey, little fella, hang on. We’ll be there in a sec.” He glanced behind my seat at the cat carrier just as a dirty SUV rounded the corner, coming right toward us.

  I yelled. Hudson hit the brakes and pulled the steering wheel to the right. The SUV careened toward us. The Jeep swerved, but not fast enough. The front of the SUV clipped the Jeep. The wheels caught on a snarl of upended tree roots along the side of the road. The Jeep tilted to the left and then fell like a wounded dinosaur. I clutched Rocky to my chest. A cloud of dirt filled the air around us. The SUV backed away from us and drove off.

  I undid my seatbelt and climbed out of the car. Rocky crawled across Hudson and hopped in circles in the middle of the road. I grabbed the end of his leash so he couldn’t run away and stooped down by Hudson’s head.

  The heat and dust filled my lungs. I waved my hand through the air to see the damage. Hudson lay very still. A streak of blood ran across his forehead. Seconds after being hit, we were stranded on the side of the road.

  TWO

  “Help!” I hollered. “Somebody, help!” I stooped down next to Hudson. “Talk to me,” I said. “Say something. Anything.”

  He opened his eyes and reached his hand out toward me. “I’m okay.” He bent down and tried the seatbelt release. It was jammed. “I need you to go to Emma’s house and get Jimmy. It’s about two hundred feet up the road. He can help.” He coughed.

  “You couldn’t keep the car from tipping. He’s not going to be able to lift it.”

  “He’s got a chain on his truck.”

  I moved Mortiboy’s cage to a safe spot by the front wheels of the Jeep. “I don’t want to leave you,” I said. “What if another car comes along? They aren’t going to know you’re inside the car. You could get hit—or worse.”

  “This isn’t a busy street. You’ll be back before anybody else comes along.”

  “I’m not taking any chances,” I said. I yanked my suitcase out of the back of the Jeep, flipped it open, and pulled out my orange floral bathing suit. I set the suitcase in the middle of the street and knotted the bathing suit to the handle. If nothing else, it would get someone to slow down. I leaned down and kissed Hudson’s forehead. “I’m taking Rocky. We’ll be back before you realize we left.”

  Hudson was right about the directions. Around the corner, past several Dracaena plants, was a long driveway. A metallic mint-green convertible sat in front of the garage. I went to the front door and rang the bell. Hudson’s sister, Emma, answered.

  “Madison! I didn’t hear you and Hudson pull up.” She started to hug me, but I stopped her with my outstretched hand.

  “Is Jimmy here?” I asked.

  She looked taken aback. “He’s not back from the store.”

  “I’m sorry to be so brusque, but this is an emergency. Somebody ran us off the road. The Jeep tipped and Hudson is trapped inside.”

  “Is he hurt?”

  “He’s okay for now. I’m going back before anybody else drives along that road. It’s right up there at that narrow turn. Is there anybody else who can help us?”

  “It’s just me and Heather.” Next to Emma, a small blonde girl stood in a pink T-shirt and jean shorts. Her knees were covered with brush burns that came from tomboyish behavior. Emma turned to the girl. “Heather, keep looking for your bunny. I’m going with Madison.”

  “What about Rocky?” Heather asked.

  “He can stay here with you,” I said. Emma reached into a mother-of-pearl bowl next to the door and pulled out a set of keys while I looped Rocky’s leash over the metal end of the banister. “I’ll be right back,” I told him.

  Emma pulled the door shut. I ran toward the convertible and jumped in the passenger side. The car roared to life. She backed out of the drive and then drove toward the hairpin turn. When we reached the accident scene, the Jeep was upright and Hudson was sitting on the back, scratching Mortiboy’s ears. A man I didn’t know sat next to Hudson. The man eased himself down and approached Emma’s car.

  “Where’d you come from?” Emma asked. She left her giant car parked in the middle of the road and climbed out. I followed suit.

  “I wasn’t far. Came around that turn and saw a suitcase in the middle of the road. Good thinking,” he said to me. “You must be Madison.” He approached me and held out his hand. “Jimmy McKenna,” he said. “Emma’s husband.”

  “Good thing you came along when you did,” I said. “The SUV that hit us must have known what was going to happen. He took off like he was afraid of getting caught.”

  Jimmy looked down the road. “It was an SUV? I don’t think anybody on this road owns one.”

  “It wasn’t an SUV,” Hudson said. “It was a truck. A black truck.”

  “It was a dirty SUV,” I said. “But other than that, I can’t tell you very much. It happened so fast and as soon as Hudson hit the brakes, the dirt made a cloud around us.”

  “Those dirt clouds travel fast. You want to make money fast? Open a car wash in the desert.” Jimmy turned to Hudson. “You sure you’re okay, man?”

  “I’m okay. The Jeep’s a little worse for wear though.”

  “That Jeep has seen more action than that. You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital and get looked at?”

  “I’m fine,” Hudson said. He adopted a slight southern dialect. “I got my girl and my cat. Reckon I don’t need much more than that, now do I?”

  “I reckon you don’t,” Jimmy said. “How ’bout you and Madison follow Emma to the house? I’ll bring up the rear to make sure you’re safe.”

  I looked back and forth between the two men’s faces. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought Hudson and Jimmy were related, not Hudson and Emma. They acted like friends who’d known each other forever. Emma was lucky they got along. I glanced in her direction and smiled, but she didn’t notice. She was busy looking down the street behind us. One by one we climbed into our cars and started the short procession back to their house. This time Emma pulled her convertible into the garage, leaving room in the driveway for the Jeep and the truck. Emma opened the door to the house and ran out. I untied Rocky’s leash from the bannister. He nipped everybody’s ankles and then ran inside, hopping around Hudson’s niece, Heather. She squealed and ran inside the house with Rocky on her heels.

  It sure wasn’t like Monday night around my place.

  Hours later, Emma, Jimmy, and I sat around the backyard enjoying dinner on the grill. Heather chased Rocky around the backyard, her long blonde hair flying behind her at the same angle as Rocky’s long fur. Past the edge of the property line, a large construction crane was silhouetted against an orange sky. A white sign announced new luxury condos under construction. Hudson, who had picked up a nice layer of dirt from being pinned under the Jeep, had gone directly to the shower when we arrived. He joined the rest of us right about when Jimmy was finishing with the first round of burgers.

  “Huds, I’m curious. Did you see the driver of this black truck?” Jimmy asked. I could tell from the look on his face that he was poking friendly fun at us. “Madison here says the driver was a tall redhead with a beard.”

  “And he had a hook for a hand and a peg leg too,” I said, playing along.

  “So it wa
s a man,” Jimmy said.

  “I think so. Hudson, did you see him?”

  “Not really,” he said. “It happened so fast and it was right after Mortiboy started crying.”

  “Well, if nobody saw him then there’s nothing to report,” Emma said. She stood over a line of paper plates that each held an open hamburger bun and a short stack of lettuce, onion, and tomato.

  “I still don’t like it,” Jimmy said. “This is our neighborhood. If somebody is tearing up these streets, then it might be worse the next time.” He pulled each patty off the grill and slid it onto a bun. “You know what I need to do? Tomorrow, remind me to put up a sign by that hairpin turn. Can’t hurt, right? Remind people to slow down.”

  “Whoever it was will probably never even come back this way,” Emma said. “Now for a more important subject. Who wants ketchup?”

  After dinner and a thorough rehashing of Hudson’s brush with death, I declared myself a victim of jetlag. The two-hour time difference wasn’t extreme, but I was used to getting up between five and six to swim each morning. Coupled with the events of the day and a steady stream of yawns every fifteen minutes, I knew it was time to retire. Emma led me into the house and showed me the layout.

  “Sorry to turn into a pumpkin so early,” I said. “It’s only nine. You would think an adult could handle a two-hour time change.”

  “It’s been a big day for all of us,” she said. “I’m glad you were the one to call it a night instead of me.”

  “Did you find her rabbit?”

  “What?”

  “Heather’s rabbit. She was looking for it when I came to the door.”

  Emma sighed and shook her head. “I thought Heather forgot about that stuffed rabbit months ago. I haven’t seen her with it in ages. But she got it into her head that she wanted him to say hello to you and Hudson when you got here so we’ve been looking all over this place trying to find it.”

  I smiled. “She had that rabbit with her the first night I met you two. It’s kind of sweet that she wanted him to say hello to us.”

  “Sweet? Maybe. A pain in the butt now that I have no idea where she put him? Absolutely. I told her to see if she left it next door and that led to the slumber party—small miracle.” She tipped her head toward the backyard where the men had stayed behind. “Those two could go on all night and usually I’m the party pooper.” She led me down a hallway to a pretty guest bedroom made up in shades of lilac, aqua, and white. Rocky was curled up on the middle of the coverlet next to my tasseled straw hat. My suitcase sat on the floor next to the bed. Hudson’s luggage was lined up against the wall. “Hudson knows where we keep everything, but if there’s something you need and he doesn’t know, don’t hesitate to ask.” She surprised me with a sisterly hug. “I’m really happy we’ll get to spend some time together,” she said, and then left.

  I took advantage of my alone time to shower and change into peony pink cotton PJs trimmed with white eyelet. I did some light unpacking, mostly to keep the wrinkles from my cotton dresses, and then set up a makeshift corner for Rocky (just in case). I suspected he’d stay exactly where he was, at least until Mortiboy staked the center of the bed out for himself like he did on the occasional nights that Hudson and I watched TV from the comfort of his bedroom.

  After hanging up my dresses, I returned to the bathroom to set out my ibuprofen, vitamins, and supplements. A few years back I’d torn the ligaments in my knee, and despite months of physical therapy, I was left with chronic pain. I tried to keep my intake on an as-needed basis, but the plane ride and the heat had done a number on me. I took eight hundred milligrams of the anti-inflammatory and followed with a chewable antacid and calcium supplement.

  The only other pills that I’d brought were to help me wind down at the end of the day. My regular doctor had prescribed me a sedative, but relying on drugs to get through the night wasn’t a road I wanted to travel. It was also the reason I had yet to stay over at Hudson’s house. In so many ways, I felt I could tell Hudson anything, but years of independence had left me protective of what I viewed as my faults. While our relationship had progressed beyond the PG-13 rating, I’d always found a way to politely decline his invitations to spend the night.

  “Madison?” Hudson called.

  “In here,” I answered.

  Moments later, I heard him enter the bedroom.

  “I don’t want to blow our first night of romance, but I have to ask: are you as tired as I am?”

  I tucked the bottle of sleeping pills into the bottom of my overnight kit and opened the door. “If it’s possible, I might be more tired than you.”

  “Then our timing is spot on.” He turned down the covers on my side. “You okay with the sleeping arrangements?”

  “Sure,” I said. “Are you?”

  He stepped away from the bed and put his arms around me. “Truth? I already knew Emma and Jimmy only had one guest bedroom. The sleeping arrangements were half the reason I took the job.”

  I wish I could say I fell into a blissful sleep and woke up the next morning. The falling asleep part turned out to be true, but unfortunately for anybody in a five-mile radius, I woke up screaming.

  THREE

  “Madison, wake up. I’m right here.” Hudson’s voice was a new addition to the nightmares. I felt a hand on my arm and I shook it off as if I were fighting off an attacker. “Ow,” he said.

  The line between my dream and reality widened and I woke up. I was sweaty and the sheets were tangled. Hudson sat next to me, one hand covering his eye, the other hovering by my shoulder.

  “Did I hit you?” I asked.

  “Not hard.” He moved his hand away from his face and I saw a small red welt on his cheek.

  “I’m sorry.” I pushed the sheets away from my body to cool down. There was a knock on the door. The clock on the nightstand said 3:37.

  Hudson stood up and went to the door. Jimmy was on the other side. “Is everything okay in here?”

  Even though the question had been directed to Hudson, I answered. “I’m sorry I woke you. I had a nightmare. The accident—and the unfamiliar bed—I think it played tricks with my subconscious. Did I scare you?”

  “Don’t worry about me. Can I bring you anything? Water? Brandy?”

  I thought of the pills in my overnight kit. If I took one now, I’d be back asleep shortly after four. “I’ll be fine,” I said to both of them. Hudson said something to Jimmy, who nodded and eased the bedroom door shut behind him.

  I slipped out of bed and into the bathroom and swallowed a pill. When I returned, Hudson lay on his side, his head propped on his fist. “How long have you been having nightmares?” he asked gently.

  “A couple of months. I thought they’d fade, but they haven’t. I don’t know how to make them stop.”

  “Time is the only way to control them,” he said. He reached out and ran his hand back and forth over my hand. “You need time to heal. What you went through—anybody would have nightmares after that.”

  “It’s been five months.”

  “You have to be patient.” He pulled back the covers and I slid between the sheets. He extended one arm and I nestled against him.

  “It’s late,” I said. “Or early. But I’d like to try to get more sleep before we have to get up.” The pill took effect, granting me thick dreamless peace until the sun was up.

  The next morning, I found Emma alone in the kitchen. “The boys went on ahead to the job site,” she said. “They took Jimmy’s truck. Hudson said you’re familiar with the Jeep, but if you’d rather not drive it, you can borrow my bike. It’s only a couple of miles and it might be fun for Rocky to ride in the basket.”

  “That does sound like fun,” I said. “But I wasn’t planning on taking Rocky with me to the job site.”

  Emma poured me a cup of coffee from a sleek chrome electric pot. We chatted briefly about this
and that, the kind of small talk you engage in when there’s an elephant in the room and nobody wants to acknowledge it.

  Finally, Emma said, “Did something happen last night that I should know about?”

  “Nightmare. Remember those abductions in Dallas? You were there visiting Hudson, but you left because he thought it was too dangerous for you to stay.” She nodded at the memory. “That’s when they started.”

  She sipped from a white mug lined in pink glaze. “Does Hudson know about them? He must if you’ve ever spent the night with him.”

  “I haven’t—we haven’t—I mean, we have, but—I told him about the nightmares last night.”

  She set her mug down and dropped into the chair across from me. “That’s a pretty big bombshell for your first full night together.”

  “Emma, I’m forty-eight years old and my last relationship ended badly. I thought I’d put all of these worries behind me.”

  “Do you wish you had? You and my brother had a perfectly good working relationship. I know you make him happy, but do you wish things had stayed like that?”

  It was a personal question, made even more so because it came from Hudson’s sister. Emma had been nothing but friendly to me since I’d first met her, long before Hudson and I changed the nature of our relationship.

  Hudson and I had met when he answered my ad for a handyman. The last thing I’d been looking for was a romance, which had been the main reason I’d chosen to only see him as a colleague. Over the course of time, there had been other reasons too. A few of them were still pretty valid. But after a couple of life-threatening experiences over the past few years, I’d come to view my future differently. As in, I chose to have one rather than not.

  I added some milk to my coffee and took a sip before answering. “I wish a lot of things had turned out differently, but not Hudson. Everything that happened led me here. Life’s too short. That’s the main thing I learned from what happened back home. Other than that, wishing doesn’t seem to accomplish a whole heck of a lot.”