“Don’t scream and spoil the moment. It’s only 11:00 a.m. I’m not ready to get up yet.”
She swallowed hard. They were lying side by side. “I must have had a terrible nightmare.”
“Yes. You asked me not to leave you.”
“I’m sorry you had to come to my rescue again.”
“I’m not. When I told you I’d stay right here, you went back to sleep and have been peaceful ever since.”
She moistened her lips. “Uncle David wants me to see a doctor. I guess I’d better if I’m going to keep dreaming about Pete.”
Something flickered in the recesses of his eyes. “Tell me about him.”
“Pete? There’s very little to tell. He worked as a technician at the radio station. He was two years younger than I am. I knew it had taken a long time for him to work up the courage to ask me out. When he finally did, I couldn’t turn him down. I didn’t think one date could hurt.”
Rick made a sound in his throat. “My brother and I have always had the philosophy that we leave this earth when it’s our time to go. It was the only thing that helped me get through my mother’s death.”
“Uncle David feels the same way you do. He has a strong belief in the hereafter.”
“What about you?”
“I believe the Jarretts are all together somewhere, and that they’re happy.”
“Then why not Pete?”
Her chest heaved. “That’s a good question.” Her eyes stung with tears. “Maybe it’s because he went alone.”
“He had to have relatives who’d gone before him. Have you ever thought that your family has been watching over you, and they were there to greet him?”
She stared at Rick. “That’s a wonderful thought.” Her voice trembled.
He nodded. “My mother died with her two best friends. I like to think of the three of them waking up together on the other side.”
“I would love to have met her. Pam happened to see a picture of her in her wedding dress.”
“I know the one,” Rick murmured. “Dad kept it in the study on his desk.”
“My cousin said she was the most beautiful natural-blond woman she’s ever seen in her life. Tall and statuesque with eyes like sapphires.”
“You have the same color eyes.”
His comment trapped the breath in her lungs. A moment passed before she forced herself to sit up and reach for her crutches.
“Where’s the fire?”
Without looking at him, she said, “If I’m hungry, you must be starving.”
“Frankly, food’s the last thing on my mind. It’s been nice to lie here and talk.”
Too nice, Audra’s heart cried. I could make it a habit. A minute, by hour, by week, by month, by year, by lifetime habit!
“When am I going to hear about the man who hurt you?”
She got to her feet. “You don’t really want to know. It’s not important anymore.”
“Then you shouldn’t have a problem telling me about him.”
“What happened, Rick? Did I say something about Boris during my nightmare?”
“No,” he murmured. “Boris wasn’t the name of the man you were begging God to save.”
“Good.”
The minute she said it, they both smiled.
“I’d been at the Paris Conservatory for a year and a half taking master’s harp classes. Then came spring and it was time to perform. That’s when I met Boris. He was a gifted young conductor. For a season we lived and loved in a world of culture and music. We did concerts together in Strasbourg, Lyon, Dijon. Everywhere we went, we were treated to soirees after our performances.
“It was flattering to be asked to play in front of private groups of music lovers and critics. I’d never known such a high, and all because Boris was there giving his nod of approval. That’s the trouble when you’re a naive little gal from Texas. I believed he was proud of me. When the season came to an end, so did our relationship. He found reasons why I couldn’t join him in the south of France to meet his family after all. A mutual friend who’d been on tour with us set me straight. He told me Boris was jealous of me. I couldn’t comprehend it.”
Rick moved off the bed. “You’re a musical prodigy, Audra. No doubt Boris was a very good conductor. But he wasn’t secure enough within himself to watch you receive the acclaim over a lifetime of being married to a brilliant musician.”
“It took a year for me to understand that.”
He came closer. “Remember the film Amadeus?”
She smiled. “It was wonderful.”
“I agree. Mediocrity versus genius. Solieri was so jealous of Mozart, it drove him mad.”
Audra cocked her head. “How many drivers have been jealous of you?”
He pursed his lips. “One or two.”
“At least they weren’t female.”
“No.”
“So, now that it’s true-confession time, let’s hear about the mystery woman in Lucky Hawkins’s past. The one who turned you into a bachelor.”
“There’ve been three.”
Somehow Audra hadn’t been expecting that kind of blunt honesty.
“Did they all hate what you do for a living?”
“No.”
Obviously there was something wrong with Audra.
“At the age of twenty-two, I met Gina, who was the daughter of a wealthy Italian industrialist. I was a guest at their villa in San Marino for a while. We lived our version of what you lived with Boris. There was just one problem. When I had to go to work, she pouted, and we ended up fighting all the time.”
Audra would have been twenty back then, a student at the university in Austin.
“So when did a wiser, older Lucky Hawkins fall in love again?”
His eyes smiled. “Three years later I wasn’t any wiser. I fell for the sister of a racer on one of the German teams. We’d become good friends on the circuit and I was invited to spend some time at his parents’ summer home in Heidelberg. Elke was there with her girlfriends. It was a continual party. When Eric and I had to leave for the track, she’d come and watch. But as time went on, she’d beg me not to go.
“One morning I asked her what she was going to do all day while I was gone. She said she had no idea. Probably sleep some more, then do shopping until I returned. I asked her again in all seriousness. Didn’t she have something important to do with her life? Something she was excited about? That’s when she got angry, and I could see history repeating itself.”
“Two down, one to go,” Audra quipped.
After a pause, “Natalie lives in Phoenix where I train for Mayada. I met her while we were both doing laundry in the apartment complex where I lived. She’d graduated from college in resort management and was in charge of the sales department of a hotel there. We were in a relationship when I made the decision to leave racing and go home to help my father run the business.”
Audra frowned. “How come she didn’t join you in Colorado?”
His face held a pensive expression. “Because I didn’t ask her.”
“Why?”
“She had many needs I couldn’t fill. I disappointed her time after time. The thought of trying to make her happy in a marriage when I knew it wasn’t possible kept me from proposing. Nate said it best when I asked him about the girl he’d left behind in Holland after he’d resigned his commission. ‘It just didn’t feel right.’”
“And I thought my love life was complicated,” Audra muttered. “Come on. Bring your battle-weary body into the kitchen while I fix us lunch.”
Rick followed her out of the room. For some reason, what she’d just said caused him to look like an excited little boy. “What song are you writing in your head now?”
He asked the question while she was poking around in the fridge for the ham and cheese.
She shut the door, trying not to smile. “Do you mean ‘Battle-Weary Warrior,’ or ‘It Never Felt Right’?”
His rich laughter filled the kitchen. She loved it. “Admit you�
��ve got a song halfway composed already. How does it go? Come on. Sing it for me.”
He’d anticipated her next move and put the bread on the counter in front of her, trapping her so she couldn’t take another step.
“Mind you, it’s only a rough draft,” she teased.
“I knew it,” he whispered.
It never felt right,
In broad daylight,
It never felt right,
In the dead of night.
It never felt right,
In the middle of the day,
There wasn’t any reason,
For me to stay.
It was better I left,
Before things fell apart,
I’d rather hurt her now,
Than one day break her heart.
By walking away,
We’re both set free,
We’ve only got one shot
At living happily.
So I’ll do it again,
If that’s the way it has to be,
I’m giving fair warning,
To everyone in sight,
I’ll be long gone by tonight,
If it doesn’t feel right.
In the next breath Rick cupped her chin with his free hand. “Your battle-weary warrior’s not going anywhere, and this feels right.”
His head descended and he covered her mouth with his own.
Audra’s moan of pleasure filled the air.
She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t wanted him to kiss her.
It did feel right.
She tightened her fingers on the handles of her crutches so she wouldn’t throw her arms around his neck and cause more damage. That didn’t seem to present any problem to the man whose strong male body molded to hers while he kissed the very daylights out of her.
“Audra?”
“Rick?”
“We rang the buzzer and knocked. Anybody home? We’ve brought barbecued ribs.”
CHAPTER TEN
RICK SAW HIS FATHER out of the corner of his eye and tore his lips from Audra’s.
There was only one difference between this moment and the one in the Hawkinses’ kitchen in March. His father didn’t go back outside and announce his entrance the way Rick had done. He just kept coming, setting the ribs down on the counter.
Pam was right behind him, holding a large bowl of something he suspected would taste delicious. The Jarrett women could cook like nobody in this world.
Rick shielded Audra as best he could while she fought to recover by filling a pitcher with water at the sink. As soon as her red blush started to fade, he turned to face his father, who stood there with his hands on his hips in that familiar stance of his.
“It looks like you two are managing to get along fine.” His deadpan expression didn’t fool Rick.
“We were almost ready to send for you and Pam. As you can see, we’re down to a couple of ounces of cheese and a few slices of ham. Those ribs are making my mouth water. How about you, Audra?”
“Pam knows how much I love them,” came a tiny voice. It didn’t sound at all like the one belonging to the woman who’d been singing to him moments ago. “Will you stay and eat lunch with us?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” his father drawled.
With her back to everyone, Audra said, “Why don’t you put the food on the table.”
“I’ll get the silverware,” Rick volunteered. His dad found the plates. Pam got the glasses down from the shelf.
The domestic scene took him back years, to a happy time when he and Nate were still in high school and the kitchen was the place where the family would congregate. Everyone had their little jobs. His mom hummed while she stirred the gravy. His dad stood there telling him and Nate something funny that had happened at the store. Then their parents would ask them about their school day. Nate always aced his exams. Rick’s grades left something to be desired.
After dinner he’d head for the garage, a place he’d taken over to support his racing mania. To his parents’ credit, they never complained.
He could picture the house at Copper Mountain nestled in the pines, with the snow piled high and Eagle’s Nest Mountain looming behind it.
By anyone else’s standards, it was simply an older two-story house. Nothing special. But it was home to him. A place of contentment and peace.
For a few minutes the atmosphere in this kitchen brought back those heartwarming feelings.
“Rick?” Pam prodded. “Do you want potato salad?”
“Please, and lots of it.”
Soon everyone was served and they tucked in.
“We’ve got some news,” his dad began.
“So do we,” Rick said. “You go first.”
His father gave him a searching glance. “Does it have to do with the boys?”
“No. We had a visitor yesterday.”
“Who?”
“Audra will tell you what happened.”
After Audra explained about Hal Torney, Pam said, “I’m sorry we weren’t home to show him around, but we had a meeting in town with George Cutler, an attorney Uncle David’s lawyer referred us to.”
Clint nodded. “He’s coming out to the ranch tomorrow morning to talk to you two about the details of the boys’ break-in. He’ll take formal depositions.”
“We’ll be ready.”
“After Pam and I returned from Austin yesterday, we rode over to the Tilson place to make sure everything went all right when the boys transferred the horses to be boarded. It seems the Tilsons’ fourteen-year-old granddaughter Amy happened to be in the barn when your cousins arrived.
“They didn’t know she was visiting, or that she’d just come in from riding and was currying her horse. She overheard them talking about making me sorry for the day I ever set foot on Jarrett property. After they left, Amy told her grandpa.”
Rick grimaced. “When Mr. Cutler leaves here, he needs to have a chat with the Tilsons.”
“That’s his plan. I phoned him from Mervin Tilson’s study. He’ll take a statement from Amy.”
“What about Tom’s threat that your bed-and-breakfast guests can’t ride past the creek?” Rick questioned.
“I’ve already thought of a way around that,” Audra interjected. “While we were out at the hangar yesterday, an idea came to me. The creek runs through the whole property, so I’m going to take the thirty acres closest to the main house and barn. They’ll include a portion of the bluebonnets. We’ll just move the fencing to the border between my property and the boys’. Let them have the other ninety acres that take in the rest of the bluebonnets. It’s perfectly fair to everyone.
“When Mr. Cutler comes, I’ll ask him to talk to Uncle David’s attorney so the land can be surveyed and recorded in my name. That way your guests can ride all over my property and never have to deal with the boys.”
Rick had to admit her plan was brilliant.
“You don’t have to do that for us, Audra.”
“Pam, I’m going to be living in Austin. Most of the time I won’t even be out here. Part of the attraction of your bed-and-breakfast is the taste of ranch life on the back of a horse. The bluebonnets are a tremendous draw in the spring. So, no more discussion.”
Pam got out of her chair to hug her cousin.
“Like I’ve told you before, you’re one in a million, sweetheart,” Clint said in a tremulous voice.
Rick had the strongest hunch David Jarrett had known his little Audra would make everything right in the end. Deep in contemplation, he barely noticed that the man next to him had gotten to his feet.
“I’m going out to the truck and bring in the groceries. We bought some doughnuts for dessert. They’re your favorite. Raised, with chocolate icing.”
“NATE?”
“Dad, I was just about to call you.”
“I figured you’d be home from work by now.”
“Your timing’s perfect. I’m pulling into the driveway. How’s our one-armed bandit?”
“Doing b
etter than a man with two.”
Nate smiled. “You had a reason for saying that. What is it?”
What Nate heard next made him so happy he couldn’t wait to tell Laurel.
“It appears Audra is recovering from her broken heart. This is great news, Dad.”
“It looked like it from my vantage point. They had no idea Pam and I had to go back to the living room and come down the hall again to announce we were there.”
Rick had been forced to do the same thing when he’d walked in on their father and Pam in March, but this situation was entirely different. Nate had been so worried about his brother’s recent state of mind, this kind of news couldn’t be more welcome.
“I can tell you this much. Rick’s not the same depressed person I met on the road to the ranch in the middle of the night last week. That man has disappeared.”
“Let’s hope it’s for good.”
“This is a day-at-a-time kind of thing.”
“It’s providential their injuries will keep them under the same roof for another three weeks anyway.”
“We can hope.”
“Why do you say that?”
“David’s moving into his condo this Saturday. Audra’s not going to let him stay there alone.”
“A lot can happen in three more days, if you know what I mean.”
“I do.”
“What’s the latest on Pam’s cousins?”
Nate listened while his father told him he’d hired an attorney. The news that Audra was going to take legal steps so her property would be available for the bed-and-breakfast revealed a lot about her character. All of it impressive.
“Everything sounds good, Dad, but do me a favor?”
“What’s that?”
“Fly high and watch your tail.”
“I’ll be careful. Talk to you tomorrow. Give the women in your life a hug from me.”
He could see Laurel and Becky at the front door of the house waiting for him. Something told him he would never get over the wonder of coming home to them every night. “That’s going to happen in about thirty seconds. Give everyone there my best.”
“Will do.”
IN ANTICIPATION of Mr. Cutler’s visit in the morning, Audra dusted and vacuumed the living room. Satisfied with the result, she only had one more project to accomplish before bed.
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