Firefly Run

by Trish Milburn

  ****

  CHAPTER TEN

  The weekend flew by in a blur. The coming and going of guests kept Shelly so busy she didn’t have time to think about stalkers or disturbing attractions. Chris virtually lived in the van all weekend, taking rafters to the Y for dropoff and picking them up at one of the three takeout points downriver. She put Reed in charge of the bike rentals, maintenance and answering the phone when she had to clean and restock the cabins. Even so, she was never out of his sight. They ate snacks on the run, and each night she collapsed into bed so tired she barely had time to consider Reed sleeping just beyond her bedroom door.

  Only when the final weekenders left late Sunday afternoon did she have enough time to sink into one of the rocking chairs on the office porch. Exhaustion tugged at all her muscles as she rocked gently back and forth, enjoying the cool breeze drifting down from the pines. She inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of coming rain on the air.

  With the busy weekend over, she welcomed it. They still had guests, but there were plenty of things nearby to do on rainy days. And as much as she enjoyed the warmth of sunny weather, she loved the scent of the forest after a long, soaking rain. There was nothing like that damp, woodsy smell and the sound of raindrops dripping from the trees onto the forest floor below.

  And she hoped rain would keep Eddie at bay as well, even though she knew nothing short of death would stop him for long.

  "Is your whole summer like this?" Reed propped himself against one of the porch posts with an outstretched arm.

  Her eyes lingered on the length of that muscled arm for a moment before she answered. "The weekends will be like that through August. During the week, it’s steady but not as frantic."

  "If I hadn’t come here, would you have had to hire more help?"

  Shelly nodded. "Probably another college student."

  "Good summer job." He surveyed their surroundings as if he wished he’d had such a job during his years of study.

  She chuckled. "I think Chris would work here if I didn’t pay him. He’s a river rat and a nature nut. He and his family have been coming here since he was barely old enough to see out of the raft. He hates it when I tease him about how cute he was as a toddler."

  "There’s a story I’m sure he’ll want you sharing with his girlfriend."

  "I don’t have to. His mother takes care of that for me."

  A few seconds of quiet descended before Reed spoke again.

  "You look as tired as I feel. How about I take you out to dinner? I hear Luigi’s has the best pizza in the county. Is it still open?"

  "Yeah, Lou stays open until all the church-goers have their dinner and go home."

  "Up for Italian?"

  "I’m up for anything I don’t have to cook. Let me go change."

  "Ah, don’t worry about it. You look fine."

  "You just said I looked exhausted."

  "And you think different clothes will change that?"

  "Good point."

  He drove them to Luigi’s in the rental car they still hadn’t managed to return. When they entered the restaurant, a momentary hush came over the diners. Shelly fancied she could see the gears working in their heads, trying to figure out just how friendly the pair of them were.

  As if they just as collectively realized they were gaping, the diners resumed their various conversations. Some of her neighbors greeted her and Reed before they turned back to their tablemates.

  She scanned the room for an open table and found the only one behind Marianne and her mother. For a moment, she thought she saw bitterness on Marianne’s pretty face, and Shelly didn’t have to think too hard why. Reed was dining out with her and not Marianne.

  They exchanged a few hellos and other pleasantries as they passed Marianne’s table and had only been seated at their own a few moments when Marianne stood, followed by her mother, paid the bill and left. Despite her own tender feelings toward Reed, Shelly felt like a heel who’d stolen another woman’s boyfriend.

  "I think I’ve ruined Marianne’s evening," she said so low no one beyond Reed could hear.

  "I don’t think it was you."

  Lou Rankin, wearing his customary stained apron, pushed through the crowd toward their table. "Hey, Shelly. Bet you were covered up in rafters this weekend."

  "You got that right." She smiled at the man who always reminded her of a heavier Mr. Clean. "Lou Rankin, I’d like you to meet a good friend of mine, Reed Tanner." She nodded toward Reed.

  Lou stuck out his meaty hand. "You must be the Texas boy I’ve been hearing about."

  Shelly stifled a chuckle at Reed being referred to as a boy.

  Reed took Lou’s hand in a firm shake. "That would be me."

  "Well, how you liking our neck of the woods?"

  "It’s pretty country."

  It was the first time Shelly had heard Reed say he liked the area, and pride in her home swelled within her. That Reed liked it too meant a great deal to her.

  "Yes, mighty pretty." Lou winked and nudged Shelly on the shoulder. "Just like the company you’re keeping."

  Reed glanced across the table at her. "I have to agree there."

  Warmth shot to her cheeks, not to mention other parts of her body. She kept her gaze on the red-and-white checked tablecloth as Lou took their orders.

  "That’s the Lou in Luigi?" Reed asked when the older man headed back toward the kitchen.

  The story behind the name made Shelly smile, alleviating the lingering awkwardness. "Yeah. Lou was in the Navy and spent a lot of time in Italy. When he came back here, he was convinced he’d sell more pizzas and lasagna if the place sounded Italian." She glanced toward the kitchen, where the top half of the balding, paunchy Lou could be seen through the pickup window. "He figured he could sound the part even though he couldn’t look it."

  "You have some interesting neighbors," Reed said.

  "Yeah. How do you like being the talk of the town?"

  He shrugged. "I think there’s bound to be something more interesting to talk about."

  If that topic existed, it eluded Shelly. An awkward silence descended between them, making her want to wring her hands. She’d never had trouble talking to Reed before. Why now? She focused on the early years of their friendship, trying to remember conversations she could resurrect and adapt to the present.

  They started to speak at the same time, bringing smiles to both their faces.

  "You first," Reed said as he leaned back in his chair.

  "I was just wondering how, outside of the obvious current situation, work has been."

  Reed crossed his arms. "Nothing new, really, just more of it."

  "Do you have a partner?"

  His arms and shoulders stiffened, but she refused to back down. She didn’t want to tiptoe around any topic that might bring up memories of Troy. She’d faced the torturous pain and lived, so could he.

  "Not a permanent one. I train new detectives, but when we don’t have anyone in training, I work alone."

  "Your choice?"

  He looked into her eyes. "Yes. They tried to assign me a new partner as soon as possible, said it would help me ‘heal’, but I threatened to quit if they forced someone on me."

  "Oh, Reed." She looked at him with understanding and concern. "You can’t hide from it forever."

  He ignored her statement, instead launching into his own line of questioning. She let him, realizing the middle of a crowded restaurant wasn’t the best place to have such a touchy conversation.

  "How about you?" he asked. "Do you miss working at the preserve?"

  She nodded. "Sometimes. I mean, there are more species in my back yard here, but I don’t get to teach people about them."

  "Why not?"

  "When I came back, I wasn’t in any shape to do anything beyond breathing, and now I’m too busy. I’ve thought about volunteering in the park, but I don’t seem to ever have the time."

  "Why not do some programs for your guests? If they’ve come here, they must like nature."
/>
  She considered the idea, wondered why she hadn’t thought of it herself. "That’s not a half bad suggestion, Detective Tanner."

  "Glad to be of service."

  Their hot, cheesy pizza arrived, and when Reed took the first bite, he ummmed his appreciation, his reaction sending little prickles of awareness across Shelly’s skin. What sounds would he utter in the middle of making love? The thought caused her to choke on her own slice of pizza.

  "You okay?" he asked.

  She nodded but couldn’t meet his gaze. Her face felt like it might combust. The sight of Reed eating did something to her she couldn’t describe. It was his lips. She’d never noticed how incredibly sensual his lips were. Shelly kept her gaze downward until she regained some semblance of control over her hormones.

  Reed polished off his last piece of pizza. "This might be the best pizza I’ve ever had, and I’ve eaten plenty of pizzas."

  "Told you. It’s like Linda’s bakery, one taste and you’re suddenly looking for a house so you don’t have to leave."

  "I understand the temptation."

  For a moment, she wished he’d find another, more human reason to stay. No, that wasn’t a good idea. "When do you have to go back?"

  "What?"

  "To Dallas. When do you have to go back?"

  "When you’re safe."

  "You have no way of knowing when that will be. You can’t stay here indefinitely. They’ll want you back to work on cases that are actually in your jurisdiction. How did you get them to agree to this?"

  "This isn’t exactly official business. I’m on vacation."

  "Some way to waste your vacation days."

  "I wasn’t using them anyway, and I wouldn’t say I’m wasting them. They wanted me to take some leave after the trial, but I didn’t. I told the chief I’ve decided to take it now." He paused so long she risked looking at him. "It is good to see you again, Shelly."

  She offered a nervous smile. "You, too."

  Reed refused to allow her to pay for even half the dinner, a fact that evidently brought Lou some type of pleasure because he smiled and nodded as if all was right with the world. While Reed went to the register to pay the bill, movement outside the front window drew Shelly’s attention. She’d swear she saw a man’s face, one eerily familiar, but when she looked no one was there. Geez, she had to stop freaking herself out. Jumping at shadows wasn’t any way to live.

  She’d agreed to tell Reed about anything out of the ordinary, but she figured figments of her imagination didn’t count so she said nothing when he returned to the table and then followed her out the door.

  "Stop at Harry’s," she said as they pulled out of the parking lot that served Luigi’s and the tiny telephone company office next door. "I’ll grab some dessert."

  As Reed pulled into a spot in front of the Grab ’n’ Go, he said, "I think I’m worried that you’re getting dessert at a place that sells fishing bait."

  "What, you’ve never had a chocolate-covered night crawler?" At Reed’s look of disgust, she laughed. "Don’t worry. They do sell ice cream out here in the boonies."

  When she returned to the car with two pints of ice cream, plain chocolate for her and mint chocolate chip for him, he eyed first the ice cream then her.

  "You remembered what I liked," he said as if he couldn’t believe it.

  "Of course I did. I seem to recall teasing you more than once about liking a girly flavor of ice cream."

  "Oh, yeah. I think I probably owe you a payback or two for that."

  "Oooh, I’m trembling."

  Shelly stared out at the approaching night while Reed drove back to her place. Their familiar teasing had lifted her spirits, harkening back to a time when life had presented nothing more troubling than rush hour traffic.

  When they reached her cabin, Shelly retrieved two spoons and motioned for Reed to follow her.

  "Where are we going?"

  "We don’t have movie theaters here, but we’ve got something better, a show you won’t see anywhere else in the country."

  "I don’t think we should go out in the woods at night."

  Shelly glanced at the dark forest and couldn’t suppress a shiver. "I figure if Eddie wants to get me, cabin walls and a security light aren’t going to stop him." She led Reed to the old log at the edge of the cliff among one of the thicker stands of pines. She sat and patted the log beside her. He sat and accepted the pint of ice cream she held out to him.

  After taking the first bite, he scanned the rapidly darkening vista in front of them. "I don’t see anything."

  "You will, just wait."

  He glanced over at her. "What’s the big mystery?"

  "I’m going to show you how Firefly Run, both that stretch of river below us and our business, got their names."

  "I’m guessing it has something to do with fireflies."

  "How very deductive of you. Just hush and wait."

  "Yes, ma’am."

  When he quieted, Reed gradually relaxed. Night overtook the last of the twilight, and crickets began to chirp somewhere in the forest surrounding them. A soft breeze rustled the pines and the leaves of the various hardwood trees. He closed his eyes and breathed in the smell of thick forest and the sound of the river below them tripping over the thousands of smooth stones lining its bed.

  He could get used to this, the absence of screeching tires, gunshots and people screaming at the top of their lungs. No wonder Shelly had never wanted to go back to Dallas.

  He opened his eyes to find the night had deepened even more. A few fireflies began to awaken and blink among the trees. Gradually, more joined them, shining their tiny lights closer together. Reed held his breath as if all the blinking was leading to something spectacular, like the end of a fireworks display. It came when the entire hillside lit up with thousands of lights, like strands of Christmas bulbs.

  "How did they do that?"

  They flashed again, illuminating the night in unison, holding for a few seconds then going dark together. He looked over at Shelly. The stars provided enough ambient light for him to see the smile on her face.

  "They’re synchronous fireflies." She turned her attention back toward the light show on the opposite side of the river. "They only exist in a few spots around the world."

  "How do they know when to blink?"

  "I don’t know, but it makes you wonder. It’s almost like they have a collective mind or something in the atmosphere tells them when to blink."

  Reed watched, nearly open-mouthed, as the fireflies continued their dance of light, blanketing the hillside in a greenish-white glow. "That’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it."

  "When I was a kid, I would sit here for hours and watch them. Sean and I were convinced it was some kind of magic spell a witch in the woods had cast on ordinary lightning bugs to get them to blink at the same time. We figured it helped the witch find her way at night."

  "Seems as likely as any other explanation." Shelly was right. This show was better than a movie.

  "The first summer after I came home, I ventured out here one night when I couldn’t sleep. I ended up crying because I realized Troy had never seen the fireflies. We were never here at the right time of year."

  Bracing himself for the shock of touching her, Reed wrapped his arm around Shelly’s shoulders and pulled her closer. She leaned her head against his shoulder as if it were natural.

  "I’m so sorry you had to go through that hell," he said, his brain burning with memories and guilt.

  "It’s not your fault."

  Reed closed his eyes, pressed the lids together hard. Shelly must have detected the change in him because she lifted her head.

  "What’s wrong?" she asked.

  "Nothing."

  She scooted closer to him and lifted a hand to his cheek. His gaze captured hers, then drifted down to her lips. Dear God, she was beautiful in the magical glow of the starlight. His chest tightened, making it difficult to breathe. Her fingers trailed across his cheek.

/>   "You don’t have to hold it inside," she said. "I’m here."

  "You’re the last person I need to be dumping my burden on."

  "That’s where you’re wrong. I’m the only person who could possibly understand."

  The truth of her assertion tempted him. So did those lips of hers. Something changed in her eyes when their gazes met again. Either a longing that mirrored his own was swirling inside her or his was reflecting back at him. He couldn’t stop the spark of awareness when her hand cupped his cheek.

  "Don’t," he said, his voice a strained whisper.

  "Why not?"

  "It’s not right."

  But she didn’t stop. Instead, her hand slid up his temple and into his hair. "Please, Reed."

  He couldn’t refuse. Ravenous for a taste of her, for something that would tell him they were both alive, he dipped his mouth to hers. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him, needing to feel, taste and smell her. The dam that had been holding his loneliness at bay for two long years gave way, catching both him and Shelly in the resulting flood.

  Reed expected her to pull away, but she didn’t. Instead, she moved against him, urging him to deepen the kiss. He should hold back, but Lord help him he couldn’t. Her lips parted, inviting him in. Taking the invitation, he tasted her more fully. The taste of chocolate and some indefinable flavor he suspected was uniquely Shelly sent his head spinning. His heart rammed hard against his ribcage as her hands roamed across his back. The crazy thought that she was the witch of the wood casting a spell on him sailed through his mind.

  Her moan of pleasure enflamed him, making him kiss her even more deeply. He hardened so quickly it made him gasp into her mouth, and he fought the need to pull her off the log onto the ground and find his way inside her.