by Cathie Linz
“He sure does,” Hunter confirmed with a slow smile. “Although I’ve got to say that he’s starting to get a little nervous about that prediction. And how about your folks? Your dad still making those Gypsy weather forecasts that amazed the entire neighborhood?”
“You bet. He’s more accurate than any of the weathermen on TV.”
“I remember one time he took Michael and me fishing up in Wisconsin and tried to teach us how to ‘tickle’ trout. Neither one of us managed to catch on, though.”
Groaning at his obvious pun, Gaylynn crumpled up her paper napkin and tossed it at him.
Hunter merely grinned and ducked before continuing his story. “Your dad caught something like half a dozen trout. And I’ll never forget the way he left one hanging in the tree nearby before we left.”
“To bring good luck and ensure there would be good fishing at that site the next time,” Gaylynn explained.
“That’s right. You know, I’ve got to tell you, I was always envious of the way you guys got to open your Christmas presents early on Christmas Eve. And if I remember right, you got extra presents even earlier than that.”
Gaylynn nodded. “Left in our shoes on Saint Nicholas’s Day.”
“We had some good times in those days.”
“Yeah, we did,” she agreed softly. When she’d been a child, the world had been her oyster. She’d been the only girl in her family, with one older and one younger brother. Their protective presence had seen her through life’s rough spots. Until now. This was one rough patch she was going to have to make it through on her own. She didn’t want them knowing how weak she was; she didn’t want to disappoint them.
If Hunter saw how spooked she was, he’d tell them.
Spooked. That reminded her to ask Hunter about the feline family. “Listen, I meant to ask you before if you know someone who might have lost a Siamese cat and her two kittens. I saw them in the woods earlier today and gave them some food.”
Hunter shook his head. “Haven’t heard of anyone in this area missing their cat. Chances are they are strays.”
“They need looking after.”
So do you, Hunter wanted to say. Gaylynn had shoved more pasta around her dish than she’d actually eaten. Did she think he wouldn’t notice? Did she think he was buying her restless cheerfulness as the real thing? If so, she had a lot to learn.
“You never did tell me why you decided to come to Michael’s cabin,” he prompted her.
“I already told you, I needed a vacation.”
“So you’re on spring break from school?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what exactly?”
“You’re nosy, you know that?”
“Hey, I’ll have you know that my interrogation techniques have been honed to a fine art. You might as well tell me all your secrets now,” he stated with a lazy grin as he helped her stack the dirty dishes on the table. “I’ll get them out of you sooner or later.”
“Oh, no, Officer Davis.” She gasped mockingly, putting one hand to her heart. “Not your dreaded tickling routine!” Hunter might not have learned how to tickle trout but he’d excelled at tickling her in their childhood days. “Anything but that!”
“So you’re willing to confess now?”
“You’ve got me.” She sighed, putting a dramatic hand to her forehead. “I’m an escaped felon, wanted by the city of Chicago for two overdue parking notices. I’ll give myself up peaceably,” she added, holding both her hands out to him. “Cuff me now and take me away.”
“Don’t tempt me,” he muttered, disturbed by the sudden sexy image of her wearing handcuffs and little else. What was wrong with him? She was Michael’s kid sister, for heaven’s sake!
“Then stop making such a big deal about this,” she said in exasperation. “I needed some time off from my teaching position so I took a vacation. End of story.”
“How long are you staying?”
“I’m not sure.”
“When is your vacation up? Wait a minute, now that I think about it, teachers can’t just up and take vacation during the school term.”
“Bravo, Sherlock.”
“Which means you’re what.on some kind of leave or something?”
“That’s right.”
“A medical leave?”
His persistence was irritating her. “That’s none of your business,” she said, taking the dishes from him and transferring them to the stainless-steel sink.
Hunter followed her into the open L-shaped kitchen to say, “Meaning I’m right.”
“No, meaning it’s none of your business,” she stated. “Look, I’ve been teaching for seven years in a stressful situation. It’s not surprising that I got burned out. End of story.”
“Someone like you doesn’t get burn out.”
“What do you mean ‘someone like me’?” she demanded.
“You’ve got too much determination to burn out. Besides, you’re too damn stubborn to give up.”
“What makes you think you know anything about me? You haven’t even seen me in ten years.”
“I’ve kept track of what you’ve been doing. Michael would brag about you in his Christmas cards, saying that you insisted on teaching where you were needed and could make the most difference, despite the fact that he and the rest of your family didn’t approve of you working in such a bad part of the city.”
Having said that, he reached around her to put a dish in the sink. She felt his body heat against her back, felt his arm brush her breast and she jumped as if hit by lightning.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, confused by her startled-cat routine. “Why did you jerk away from me like that?” Then, as one possible explanation hit him, his expression turned serious, bordering almost on alarmed. “Oh, my God. Were you sexually assaulted?”
Three
“Don’t be ridiculous. I was not sexually assaulted. Just because I’m a little jumpy doesn’t mean that anything like that happened to me!” Gaylynn said.
“And even if it had, you wouldn’t tell me, would you?” Hunter retorted.
“If you think that, then why ask me in the first place?”
“Because I’m trying to figure out how I can help you.”
His words were like tiny arrows piercing her pride.
Lifting her chin, Gaylynn stated, “I don’t need you to help me. I’m not one of those injured baby birds you used to take in when we were kids.”
“I’m still pretty good at mending broken wings,” he murmured, coming so close behind her that his breath stirred her hair and awakened silent yearnings.
Hunter was pretty good at plenty of things, not least of which was making Gaylynn feel like a young girl on her first date—filled with anticipation of what could be.
Curtly reminding herself that she was no young girl, Gaylynn squelched her wistful thoughts before they took further flight. “I’m sure the birds around here are glad to hear that you’re good at mending their broken wings,” she replied dryly. “But I don’t have wings and I don’t need your help.”
Gently brushing her shoulder blades with his fingertips, Hunter softly said, “Remember how Michael told you that these would grow into angel’s wings when you got older?”
“I was a gullible kid,” she admitted.
“And now? Are you still gullible now?”
“Sometimes,” she replied, stepping away from the magnetic temptation of his touch. “After all, I let you come over and badger me tonight, didn’t I?”
“You forgot to mention the delicious meal I made. Tomorrow night, you can cook.”
“Hey, I didn’t come to the mountains to cook,” she protested.
“Why did you come here?”
But she was on to his tactics now. “I’ve already answered that question several times. Maybe you need to get your hearing tested,” she mockingly suggested. “How old are you now? Almost forty?”
Hunter did not look amused. “I’m thirty-five and you damn well know it.”
> His arrogant assumption that she would know his age irritated her. “Forgive me if I’ve been too busy living life to recall all the details of yours.”
“Yeah, I heard about you living life, traipsing all over the globe.”
She relaxed. This was something she felt more comfortable talking about. “That’s right. During my summer breaks I used to travel a lot,” she reminisced fondly. “I’ve been elephant-trekking in Thailand, slept on the beach in Morocco, shopped in Singapore, gotten rained on in England’s Lake District and visited the rain forest in Costa Rica.”
“You used to be a globe-trotter?”
“Yeah, well, now I stick a little closer to home.”
“Any reason for that?”
“Finances, and the fact that although I’ve seen a lot of the world there are still plenty of places right here in America that I haven’t seen yet. The Blue Ridge Mountains, for cexanmple. This is my first time down here.”
“Then you’ll have to be sure and drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We could do that this weekend. I’m off-duty-”
“I don’t need to go anywhere else,” she interrupted him. “I can see mountains from here.”
“There are even more spectacular views to be seen.”
“I’ll be fine right here.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you’re hiding away up here.”
That was exactly what she planned on doing, and she didn’t aim on having Hunter get in her way, regardss of how sexy she might still find him. His shaggy hair had just a touch of gray at the temples while his piercing green eyes reflected an interrogating intensity. She could easily picture Hunter as the embodiment of a gray wolf. He was certainly a natural born predator, trained to go after what he wanted and to get what he went after. She had to remind herself that all he wanted from her was the truth, but even that was too much for her to give him right now.
Seeing she wasn’t about to unload her innermost thoughts to him, Hunter chose a more nonthreatening topic. “So how’s the rest of your family doing?”
“Fine. Dylan flew in for the wedding.” If her rolling-stone younger brother hadn’t planned on flying out the morning after the reception, Gaylynn might have put off coming down to the mountains for a day or two. She hadn’t seen Dylan in a year.
“So what’s he been up to lately? Has he taken over your globe-trotting ways?”
“He pretty much sticks to the western United States, but he certainly doesn’t stay in one place very long. He been working the rodeo circuit out there as a saddle bronc rider. He’s even won a couple of championships. And did you hear that Michael and Brett have adopted a baby girl, Hope? She’s adorable. Smart, too. Naturally I’m her favorite aunt.”
“Naturally. Did she tell you that?”
“She’s not actually talking a lot yet. She’s a little over nine months old and is just about ready to walk on her own. I brought a picture of her.” Gaylynn retrieved a pocket-size photo album from her purse.
“You brought a photo?” Hunter said dryly. “Looks more like an entire book full to me.”
“Yes, but see how adorable she is?” Gaylynn’s expressive voice reflected her excitement as she showed him a series of pictures. “Isn’t she the cutest baby you ever saw?”
Hunter nodded accordingly. “I’m surprised you left her behind. They grow fast at that age, don’t they?”
“Yeah, they do,” she agreed wistfully.
“You know, I expected you to have a family of your own by now.”
“I could say the same about you.”
“Being a cop is hard on family life. I moved down here in the first place because my wife, Tricia, had a hard time with my being on the force in Chicago. I thought it would be easier on her if I worked for the county sheriffs department down here. The danger involved with the job is certainly less here in a rural area than it was in the city.”
“But there is still danger?”
He just shrugged. “Life is dangerous. But it wasn’t just the danger that torpedoed and sunk my marriage, it was the fact that my ex-wife hated living here. Said she was going crazy in this backwater hole-in-the-wall. Last I heard, she’d moved back up to Chicago and married a plumber.”
“Sounds to me like you’re well rid of her. You never did have the best taste in women,” she told him bluntly. “Remember that redheaded bimbo you went steady with in high school? Sindy spelled with an S.”
“I wasn’t dating her for her spelling skills.”
“That was obvious.”
“I’m surprised you remember her.”
“A chest like that is hard to forget. I was convinced she stuffed her bras with helium balloons. That was the only memorable thing about her. But I’m sure you’ve forgotten a lot about the old days.”
“I didn’t forget you.”
“Yeah, right. I treasured all the cards and letters you sent me over the years,” she said mockingly.
This time his shrug was just a tinge self-conscious. “You know I’m no good about things like that.”
He’d been married by then, so Gaylynn hadn’t expected to hear from him. Hadn’t wanted to hear from him. She’d wanted to forget him, and she’d succeeded for the most part.
Okay, so maybe a tiny part of her had compared all the men she’d dated with Hunter, and none of the city guys had quite stacked up when compared to Hunter’s rugged strength. But she hadn’t been unhappy with her life. Far from it.
And then her life had crumbled like a butter cookie, leaving her crumbs instead of substance.
Her sudden yawn scattered her dark thoughts.
“I guess that’s my signal to go and let you get some sleep,” Hunter noted wryly.
“Sorry,” she muttered, belatedly putting one hand to her mouth. “It’s not the company. I’m just tired.”
“I can see that.”
“Thanks for stopping by tonight, but I’ll be fine. Really.”
“I know you will,” Hunter told her. What he didn’t tell her was that the reason he knew she’d be fine was because he planned on sticking around and making sure she stayed that way.
That night Gaylynn’s dreams were spun around a wolf blending into the woods surrounding the cabin. A wolf with Hunter’s leaf green eyes. She was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, complete with red cape and hood. She woke up at the part where the wolf was in bed, seductively coaxing her to join him.
“In your dreams,” she muttered as she got out of bed and headed for the shower. No way would Hunter try and coax her into bed, unless she was sick…and then his intentions wouldn’t be romantic but practical.
The shower helped to clear the cobwebs from her mind. There was a nip in the air this morning, so she tugged on an aqua-colored sweater over top of her white T-shirt. Her jeans still had dirt marks on the knees, so she opted for a pair of black denims. There was no washer in the cabin, so she’d have to see if there was a Laundromat in town.
After the kitties finished the last of her canned tuna fish, Gaylynn bit the bullet and made a long list of things to stock up on. She didn’t want to be making the twenty-minute trip down the mountain any more often than was absolutely necessary. Not because she was intimidated by the rather harrowing drive on the narrow gravel road. Even the equally narrow one-way bridge that forded what the nearby sign proclaimed to be the Bitty River didn’t bother her—despite the fact that the chipped cement on the corners attested to the fact that more than one run-in had already occurred on that bridge. No, she didn’t want to be making the trip very often because she just didn’t feel like mingling with civilization yet.
As Gaylynn pulled in front of the compact building that housed “The Pit Stop Filling Station—Flling You And Your Car,” she realized that this might not quite qualify as civilization, per se.
The building was brick and resembled the filling stations of the forties. The pumps still had round glass tops, and a sign over the door advertised the virtues of a motor product that hadn’t been made in at leas
t a quarter of a century.
In front of and across half the open threshold lay some sort of animal—large and lumpy and an auburn color—forming an unusual oversize and bumpy welcome mat. On closer inspection, she realized the animal was a bloodhound.
“He don’t bite and neither do I,” a voice boomed from inside. “Dog’s lazier than a hibernating bear. That ain’t his name a’course. His last name’s Regard. First name is Bo. Which makes him Bo Regard. Just step on over him.”
Gaylynn did, rather gingerly. The bloodhound responded by lifting its head, all of an inch, before letting it drop again with a muffled thump. “You’ve got a big dog there.”
“Oh, he don’t belong to us. He just comes visiting every day. Must be my scintillating conversation skills. Yer a sight forsore eyes.”
Startled, Gaylynn said, “Excuse me?”
“Now, don’t you mind him none,” an older woman stated as she stepped out from behind the counter. “Floyd here says that to every woman under the age of a hundred who walks through that door. My name’s Bessie. Bessie Twitty. And that grumpy-looking, talkative man over there is my husband, Floyd. And you must be the sister of Hunter’s friend. From up north, aren’t you?”
Gaylynn nodded, not even stopping to wonder how Bessie knew who she was already. “From Chicago.”
Bessie grimaced, making her wizened face look even more wrinkled. “I hate cities.”
“You never been in one,” Floyd retorted.
“Have so. I been up to Knoxville one time. Didn’t care for it atall.” Bessie said the words together, as if they were one.
“And my eyes are sore,” Floyd declared. “That’s why I have Bessie doing my post-office chores.”
“Did you come in to get some stamps for postcards?” Bessie asked Gaylynn. “We don’t get many tourists in these parts, so I don’t have much call for postcard stamps.”
“Unless it’s Ma Battle entering one of those doggone contests of hers,” Floyd inserted.
“I do declare that woman gets more mail than everyone else in town put together,” Bessie said. “How many postcard stamps will you be needing, then? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name, dear.”