* * *
SCOUT STABILIZED her weight in the fork of the giant oak growing behind her parent’s house. If she could just get a better footing, she could launch herself to the porch roof. Her house keys were locked inside the house. She never imagined she would need them. Fortunately her bedroom window was open. It would only take a minute to get out of this dress and then she’d—
“Scout?”
Scout screamed, startled. She twisted in her perch. “Ryder. What are you doing here?” His face was turned up to hers and Scout met gray-green eyes as familiar to her as her own.
“Your mother asked me to go after you.” He gripped a lower branch and pulled himself up toward her.
“No, go away. I don’t want you here.” Scout prepared to jump to the porch roof and discovered she couldn’t. She was stuck in the fork. She was thirteen the last time she’d climbed this tree and obviously smaller. The voluminous folds of the wedding gown weren’t helping. Scout squirmed to free herself before Ryder could reach her.
“Let me help you. Believe it or not, I’m not here to make you feel worse. I’m sorry the wedding didn’t go off.”
“The wedding is going to go off, Ryder. Everything is just fine. I don’t need any help. So if you don’t mind, just leave me alone.”
Ryder was gasping for breath. “Whew. This is harder than I remember. Are you stuck?”
“No!” Scout rocked her hips trying to free herself of the branches. “I didn’t ask for your help. I didn’t ask you to the wedding. You are free to go. Tell my mother you did your best but you know what Scout is like—flighty, irresponsible and selfish.”
“I’m sorry I said that. I was wrong. Stop squirming. You’ll pitch yourself right out of the tree if you struggle too hard.”
Ryder steadily pulled himself through the leafy branches, making his way toward her. He rescues a woman like he does everything, Scout thought sourly. Methodically. Conserving his energy. Go the distance, get the job done. Always the self-controlled sensible one.
“I don’t need you here. I know what I’m doing.” Scout heard the grievance in her voice.
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“Go away! Toddle back to my mother and turn in your report. You can commiserate with her over what a flake I turned out to be. Just get out!”
Ryder laughed; a low chuckle that sent little shivers of delight through Scout in spite of her fury. “I can’t do that, Scout. Why bother fighting me on this?”
“Oh you always know what’s best, don’t you? You always have to have the last word. It’s the truth and nothing but the truth for Ranger Ryder Dean.”
“Would you rather I lied to you at Christmas?”
“Yes, goddamn it! But you didn’t and now it’s over. I don’t have anything to say to you and you have nothing to say to me. Good-bye!” Scout lifted her foot to his head and pushed.
“Stop that! Are you trying to get us killed?” He grabbed her ankle and squeezed it hard. “If I go, you go too. I’ll do it, I swear to God, Scout. Now, stop screwing around. I’ll push you from behind and you jump to the porch roof. What do you have against doors anyway?”
“I left my key inside the house. I didn’t think I’d need it today of all days. You can understand why I’d rather be alone right now. This has been a very distressing day.”
“What did the note say?” Ryder positioned himself beneath Scout’s rear and pushed.
It felt terribly intimate to feel Ryder’s hands on her bottom, even through the fabric of the gown. “What do you think it said? He jilted me, left me at the altar. The note said he was sorry.” She reddened when she felt his fingers squeeze her flesh as he tried to better a grip.
Ryder grunted and pushed as hard as his precarious position would allow. “You were never a very good liar.”
Scout was abruptly freed and jettisoned forward, grabbing hold of a branch before tumbling out of the tree. “Oh thank you, Ranger Dean,” she cooed breathlessly. “That was so much less dangerous than if I’d just handled the problem myself. Now get lost. I’ve got things to do.” Scout scampered to the porch roof and pitched headlong into her open bedroom window.
Ryder swung himself easily after her and dove through the window before she could close it. “Not so fast. Lydia asked me to make sure you’re okay and I can’t leave until I know that you are. What did the note from Noel really say?”
Scout yanked the wedding veil from her head. “What do you care? I don’t hear from you for six months and all of a sudden you think you can barge into my life demanding answers! I have to get out of this dress now and I’d like some privacy.”
“If you’ve been jilted where are you going in such a hurry?”
Scout opened her mouth and closed it again. “Get out!” she screamed in frustration.
A slow grin crept over Ryan’s face. He flopped to the bed like he used to do when he was twelve. His long body sprawled over the floral bedspread as he tucked his hands under his head. “Now, I know for certain something’s up. I’m not leaving until you tell me what it is.”
She tried to stare him down, wracking her brain for a way to get rid of him. Scout had a dozen ploys to avoid doing something she didn’t want to do and Ryder knew every one of them. “Ryder, I promise I’ll tell you everything, but I really do have to get out of this dress first.”
“I’ve seen you in your underwear before.”
“Oh yes, I forgot. I’m the brother you never had.”
Ryder swung his legs off the bed. “Here, I’ll undo your buttons while you tell me what’s going on.” His fingers brushed the skin between her shoulder blades and she shivered. “Cold?”
“No.” Her voice sounded hoarse to her ear.
“Noel didn’t jilt you, Scout. Where is he?”
She twisted to look at him. “How do you know he didn’t jilt me?”
“You would’ve scorched his character for half an hour in front of the whole congregation if he’d jilted you. Your temper always gets the better of you in embarrassing situations. What happened, Scout?”
His fingers worked the tiny pearl buttons, unfastening each one. The heavy beaded bodice fell away from her chest. Scout pressed it against her body with one hand. In the other was the balled up note. Ryder reached over her shoulder, down the length of her bare arm, and gently pried open her fingers.
Scout held her breath as he read. Its message was burned into her brain.
I need your help. Take Beech road to the fork and turn right. Watch for a yellow flag and then follow the trail to the hunting cabin. Scout, come alone. My life is at stake.
“Now you know as much as I do.” Scout allowed the dress to fall to the floor. A mound of white and silk and tulle and broken dreams.
Ryder made a little choked sound behind her.
Scout turned and looked at Ryder. He couldn’t meet her eyes. His face was sweaty.
“What’s wrong with you?” she said.
When he finally did look at her, his eyes held an expression she’d seen before and never wanted to see again. All it meant was that he had a libido. Big deal.
“Nothing,” Ryder mumbled. I just never expected to see you of all people in garters and a corset.”
“If you had left the room when I asked you to, you wouldn’t be seeing me in one now.” Scout kicked off her white pumps and snapped the stockings free of the garters. “This was for Noel’s benefit. I made the mistake of telling Mom he had a thing for Victoria Secret.” She propped a leg on the edge of the bed and rolled a stocking down.
Scout caught Ryder watching her in the mirror over the table.
“You don’t wear the key anymore?”
Scout’s hand flew to her neck and then she remembered. “I took it off. It’s in my bag. I wanted to believe that key meant something,” she said airily, rolling down the second stocking. “But I finally realized that what I wanted wasn’t real. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I just wanted to walk down the aisle free of the past. You know?”
Ryder nodded.
Scout wondered if he really did understand; his expression was unreadable. She opened the top drawer of the dresser. “I’ll wear it again after I’ve found Noel and we’re married.”
Ryder’s face clouded. “After you’ve found Noel?” He waved the note. “Scout, you’re going to the police with this.”
“Whatever you say, Ranger Dean,” she muttered, rummaging in the drawer for clothes.
Ryder grabbed her wrist making her gasp.
“Let go of me,” she said stonily.
“This isn’t a joke. You can’t do what Noel says. You don’t know why he wrote that note or what you’ll be walking in to. Anything could happen.”
Scout wrenched free of his grip. “Well, that’s my problem, not yours.” She grabbed the first tee shirt she saw and pulled it over her head. Scout fumbled with the hooks of the corset, trying to undress under her clothes like she used to in gym class.
“We’ll go to Sheriff McIntyre with the note. He’ll make sure Noel gets back okay.” Ryder crossed his arms over his chest. “This is not open for discussion.”
It was one thing for Ryder to treat like a child; it was another to be half-dressed when he did it. Her tee shirt was bunched around her neck, the corset was half opened. Scout had a tiny hate on for him for this latest humiliation. Noel was her responsibility. What he asked her to do as his bride was none of Ryder’s business. “Go to Sheriff McIntyre if you want to. Take the note with you, I don’t care. I have to get dressed and if you won’t leave, then I will.” Scout grabbed a pair of shorts from the open drawer and tried to push past him to the door. It was like trying to move a small mountain.
Ryder caught her wrists, pinning them behind her in a bear hug. Heat whipped through her, staining her skin a pale pink. The shock of the contact disturbed her terribly. She felt like crying and being kissed by him at the same time. Did he think she was made of stone to do this to her?
“Exercise some common sense for once in your life. You don’t know what’s happened to Noel. He’s obviously in some kind of trouble but—”
“There is no but about it. Noel needs my help. And every minute you keep me here debating what I should do or shouldn’t do or my general lack of common sense, he is out there, waiting for me to help him.” Shaking, Scout twisted free of his arms. The corset twisted with her body, bunching under her breasts.
“Turn around,” Ryder ordered. She obeyed reluctantly. His fingers moved down the back of the corset, unfastening the hooks. “I don’t understand why it is you he’s asked to help him. What are you expected to do when you get to the hunting cabin?”
“I don’t know. Maybe something happened to one of his clients. He’s an accountant. There could be money involved. I don’t know what I can do, but he came to me because he can trust me. That’s what a relationship is all about.” Scout squirmed as Ryder’s hands reached the small of her back. “Are you almost done?”
“Where’s your bra?”
“What?”
“This thing is like a bra, right? So you’ll have to put something else on under your tee shirt.”
“Forget it. I don’t have time to hunt one down. I don’t need a bra anyway.”
“I beg to differ.”
Scout twisted, frowning. “Just get this off me.”
“Okay.”
The last hook released and the corset gave way with a spring. Scout fumbled, dropping the lace contraption to the floor as she scrambled to find the armholes of the tee shirt. She was naked with her back to him. He couldn’t see her humiliation and rage. Shaking, Scout stuffed her arms into the shirt and pulled it down. “This is my wedding day, Ryder. No one was supposed to see me naked on this day but Noel. You make me feel ashamed of myself.”
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I didn’t look if it makes you feel better.”
Scout yanked the shorts on over her hips and fastened them, wishing it did make her feel better that he didn’t see her naked because it should. She wanted it to, for Noel’s sake. But the truth was she was a little disappointed. To go through the rest of her life knowing Ryder was the one man she wouldn’t mind seeing her naked, and when the moment came he’d closed his eyes.
Still, he’d come closer than any other man. The embarrassment would probably kill her if anyone found out Scout Rutherford was still a virgin. No one knew, not Noel, not even her mother—especially not her mother; Lydia would be appalled. Scout didn’t set out to be a virgin at twenty-five. It just sort of happened. She liked the guys she dated in university, just not enough to sleep with them. And when she came home there were the long hours she had to put in at the store, and Ryder Dean and the key and the hope it gave her. When she met Noel and he said he wanted to wait, she thought, well, she’d come this far and she did want to get pregnant right away. And that’s how you come to be the oldest virgin in Mandrake Falls.
“Let’s just forget about us for a moment and think about Noel,” Scout said. “I have to get to him, to see if he’s all right. If I can see him, I’ll feel better. Try to understand, Ryder. It’s not something I can explain, but I feel it in my chest. Just let me go and I promise you, it will all work out.”
“How much do you know about Noel?”
She gritted her teeth. “I know he loves me, he wants to marry me and father my children. He’s loyal and honest and he’s never hurt me. He’s a good man and he’s in some kind of trouble. That’s what I know about him.”
She dropped to her knees on the pretense of looking for her sneakers. Ryder was the only man she’d ever known who could drive her to the point of tears.
Ryder sighed and watched Scout crawling around on the floor. In search of her shoes no doubt. She never left anything where she could find it in a hurry. She was practically under the bed looking for them. Ryder noticed for the first time how faded the rose pattern on the carpet was. He could remember when the colors of the roses and leaves had leapt up from the floor. He and Scout used to pretend they were in the Red Queen’s garden like Alice in Wonderland when they played on this carpet. When did Scout’s bedroom rug become so drab and old? Maybe that’s what had happened to them after all these years. The wear and tear of seventeen years was telling on their friendship. Maybe they had faded too.
“Scout. I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”
She leaned back on her knees and looked up at him. Her eyes were shining like they did when she was about to cry. Scout’s eyes were always beautiful; the color of rain-washed pebbles. He couldn’t let her just fade out of his life like the roses on the bedroom rug. He needed her too much. “You have to let me help you. I care about you, and Noel, if he’s who you want, so no more fighting. Tell me everything so I can help you get him back safe and sound.”
Scout shook her head, bewildered. “I don’t understand any of this. I don’t know what could have happened.” Her voice garbled. “The note, his disappearance, it’s completely out of character. Noel is very ordinary.”
“Okay. We’ll follow the instructions in the note and take it one step at a time.”
She emerged from under the bed holding a white sneaker. “I appreciate you wanting to help but the first instruction in the note is that I come alone.”
Ryder set his jaw. “Scout either I go with you or I go to the police. What’s it going to be?”
Chapter Six: The Groom
THE OLD Ford truck rocked and heaved over the abandoned logging road. Scout shot a glance at Ryder. “If your being here gets Noel killed, I’ll never forgive you.”
“If your being Noel’s girlfriend has put you in danger, I’ll kill Noel myself.”
She eyed the dull green shirt he was wearing and the blue jeans that hugged the long muscles in his thighs. “I can’t believe you talked me into stopping at your house so you could change your clothes.”
“I’m not skulking about in the bush wearing my only good suit.”
“The detour delayed us though.” She worried her lip. “What if the
y think I’m not coming?”
Ryder looked at her curiously. “Who are they? Scout, have you told me everything you know about Noel?”
“He said his life was at stake. I’m assuming more than one person is holding him captive.”
“What makes you think that?”
“If he could’ve got to the wedding, he would have. Maybe it’s something connected to his work. Some knowledge he has that they’re trying to get out of him. He would have told me eventually. Noel and I didn’t have secrets from each other.”
Ryder’s jaw tightened perceptibly. “Did you tell him about me?”
He was annoyed; Scout recognized the signs. She turned her eyes away from him and watched the forest grow thicker and darker outside the pickup’s window. “There was nothing to tell. You were my friend from childhood.”
Ryder nodded and Scout noted that he gripped the steering wheel harder than was necessary. She was determined not to discuss the marriage proposal she made at Christmas. There were good reasons to let it go, forget about it, let it sink into the past, but mainly she didn’t want to hear Ryder apologize for saying what he did—but not for meaning it. Because he meant it. Every word.
“Was that the yellow flag?”
Scout snapped her head around and swore. “It’s back there! Stop the truck.”
“Okay, okay!” Ryder threw the truck in reverse. “Calm down. No dare devil stunts and no heroics. We’ll take this one step at a time and stay close to me.”
Ryder looked grim as he slowed the pickup down to maneuver it through the trees. A clearing was visible directly ahead. “There it is. The cabin.”
Scout tensed and gripped the door handle waiting for Ryder to bring the truck to a stop.
He caught her arm. “Remember what I said? We do this together or we go to the sheriff.”
“I know, I know. I’ll be careful.” She flung herself from the pick-up before he could stop her, assuming a half-crouch position in the underbrush. Scout moved crab-like through the brush like she had seen soldiers do in old war movies.
The Jilting: Summer (Mandrake Falls Series Romance Book 1) Page 5