Castor and Pollox perked up at the scent of meat, so he made sure the ground beef stayed out of their reach. “Not for you,” Rock said, placing the formed patties in the refrigerator.
About an hour before his guests were due to arrive, he prepped the fixings and grilled the burgers outside. He wrapped the cooked patties in foil and kept them warm in the oven. He put ice in the tea glasses and milk in the brightly colored plastic kid cups he’d purchased and stowed the whole lot in the ancient fridge.
He made a pass through the house with a prehistoric vacuum cleaner and called it good. With the meal ready and the house clean, all that remained was to get cleaned up. He shaved and donned a clean shirt with minutes to spare.
Jeanie, her kids, and her mom arrived promptly at six. The kids were wide-eyed at the antiques in Lytham House. Even though the sun blazed outside, the old-fashioned fringed lamps were no match for the long shadows in the shaded house.
“Are your dogs here? Are there ghosts in this old place?” Nathaniel’s voice quivered.
“The dogs are upstairs while we eat dinner. I’ll bring them down afterward. As for ghosts, I haven’t seen any,” Rock said as he guided his guests to the dining room. “I hope you brought your appetite.”
“Sure smells good in here,” Jeanie said. “What do you think, Nathaniel?”
“Hambuggas!” The boy squealed and jumped for joy. His sister followed his lead, and the noise level ramped higher and higher.
“Easy,” Jeanie warned, catching Nathaniel in her arms, while her mom corralled little Sable. The tot blinked at him with those big brown eyes, and Rock’s heart stuttered. How could anyone walk away from such a wonderful family? Munro had his priorities ass-backward.
“Fiestaware.” Jeanie flipped over the bright plate and read the brand name. “I never ate at Miss Veronica’s house, but people said she had four complete sets of dishes.”
“She does. The other choices are blue Oriental designs, pink rose buds, and gold-rimmed china. If you’d prefer another pattern I can switch, no problem.”
Jeanie set the plate down. “These are perfect for us.”
“If you’ll take your seats, I’ll bring everything out.” He paused before heading into the kitchen for drinks. “Iced tea for the adults and milk for the kids?”
“Wow. I like this restaurant.” Jeanie grinned. “Seriously, I can’t believe you have everything ready. You must have worked all afternoon on this.”
He smiled. “I’m trying to make a good impression. Is it working?”
“Absolutely.”
During the meal, Jeanie’s mom’s gaze landed on Rock more times than not. He understood. Terry Sue Deal was checking him out. Jeanie held Sable while she ate. Four-year-old Nathaniel kept things light, wiggling on his throne of Rock’s fishing magazines. Rock made a mental note to acquire a kid chair for the next time. His burgers disappeared fast, and the cake was a huge hit.
After dinner, Jeanie helped him carry the dishes to the kitchen. “Today go all right at the shop?” he asked.
She nodded. “I filled my flower orders using what we’d salvaged and what I had in the greenhouse. My customers never knew the difference. Thanks again for helping me set the shop to rights yesterday.”
“You’re welcome.” He stacked dishes in the sink for rinsing. “No sign of shady critters lurking about?”
“I haven’t seen any,” she said, paraphrasing his earlier line about ghosts.
He tried not to laugh outright. Failed. To his delight, she laughed with him. “Ya got me. That was an awful line the first time around, even worse the second.”
She patted his good arm. “Thank you for this carefree evening. I haven’t had a home cooked meal prepared by someone other than me or my mom in a very long time.”
They were alone, and she felt grateful. The perfect storm. He faced her and managed a few eyebrow waggles. “I believe in show don’t tell when it comes to appreciation.”
She laughed at his hopeful expression, then planted a chaste kiss on his lips. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He anchored her to his waist with his good arm. The strawberry scent from her hair swirled through him, making him feel sixteen again.
He kissed her. She tasted like strawberries and chocolate, and he couldn’t get enough of her. He lengthened the kiss, cradling her body like precious china.
Lost in sensation, he wobbled at an unexpected assault on his knees.
“Me hug, too,” Sable said.
With a laugh, Jeanie scooped up her daughter. Sable threw her arms around her mother’s neck, and Rock hugged them both. For a moment, he made believe this was his family. He pretended he wasn’t alone in the world. Nice.
“What about me?” Nathaniel said from the doorway, both dogs flanking him.
“Come on over,” Rock said. “There’s room for one more.”
He squatted to scoop up the child, but the little boy’s lip jutted out. “I don’t want you. I want my mom.”
The rejection stung. Rock sobered. What was he thinking? He couldn’t step into Avery Munro’s shoes.
Life didn’t work that way.
“I’ve got a hug for you,” Terry Sue said to her grandson. She gathered him in her arms, tickling him, and his peals of joy soon filled the kitchen.
“Would you like to play with the dogs?” Rock asked, hoping to draw out the evening.
“It’s late. We need to get these munchkins home and ready for bed,” Jeanie said. “How about a rain check?”
His spirits lifted. A rain check implied she enjoyed his company. “I’d like that.”
Jeanie and Terry Sue gathered up the children and their belongings. Nathaniel squirmed to get down. “Me first,” the boy said, running to open the front door.
Terry Sue hung back and spoke softly to Rock. “You need to watch your step.”
He didn’t think she meant his footing. “I enjoy Jeanie’s company, and she seems to enjoy mine.”
“This is bigger than the two of you. My grandchildren are involved. You hurt any of them, and you’ll answer to me. You hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Rock said respectfully, holding the door open for her.
He caught Jeanie’s eye after she’d loaded the kids in their car seats. “Call me when you get home.”
The van drove away and even though he had the dogs for company, the difference between having Jeanie’s family in his house and being alone was like night and day. He’d been chasing sunken treasure for years, but now he realized adventure might not be the key to happiness.
When he’d found those Victorian sovereigns in that little wooden chest, his future as a treasure hunter had looked golden, but the find had only brought him trouble and sorrow. He’d nearly died and was lucky to have only a few broken bones. Had he learned his lesson?
No. He’d come south chasing after those prizes like a shark on a scent trail. And now he’d drawn a woman with kids into the mix. Those kids, they were special. He didn’t know how Munro walked away from any of them. And Jeanie, the way she reacted to him made him feel like he’d invented sunrise.
He should stay away from her. That would be the safe thing to do. The hostiles wouldn’t involve them if they weren’t associated with him. He snorted. Hostiles. He wasn’t in the military any longer, and he couldn’t prove someone was after him. His boat explosion could have been one of Tarpley’s messes, and this burglary might be unrelated to the prior incident.
Except his gut told him they must be related. Someone wanted him out of the way, and they wanted his coins. He wanted the coins back. They were his loan collateral. If he didn’t recover them by month’s end, he would have to surrender his family journal and all future options to the Clarissa’s bounty to his investor. Finding his coins would solve his financial problem and leave him the option for another treasure hunt.
But it wouldn’t fix the hole in his heart.
Chapter 19
Relaxed and content after dinner at Rock’s place, Jeanie pu
lled up to her darkened house. Her good mood fled in an instant as the hair on her arms snapped to attention. “That’s odd. Didn’t we leave the porch light on?”
Nathaniel rocked in his car seat, arching his back against the restraints, kicking his bare feet. “Out. I wanna get out.”
“Gimme a minute,” Jeanie said. Her insides felt lead-balloon heavy, and her head swirled with disturbing thoughts. More trouble? Surely not. This was Mossy Bog. Nothing ever happened here.
Well, nothing used to happen here.
Trouble had found her friends Roxie and Laurie Ann. With her shop burglary in the forefront of her mind, Jeanie trusted her instincts that something was different.
“Mom, wait here with the kids. I may have forgotten to turn the light on, but I want to make sure, just in case.”
“Should we call someone?” her mom asked.
“Not until I check the house.” She caught her mom’s worried gaze. “Lock the van once I get out. If something happens, drive the kids away from here. Fast.”
Her mom paled. “I will.”
Jeanie eased from the vehicle, her heart in her throat. She approached the house cautiously, hoping she was wrong. About ten feet from the steps, she halted. The front door sagged open in the dark house. The door frame was splintered. Something fell inside the house.
Get out of here.
She whirled and fled to the van. “Don’t ask,” she told her mom as she slammed the gear lever into reverse, backed out of the drive, and floored the accelerator. “Find my phone. Call 911.”
“I wanna go home. Want my giraffe. Want night-night,” Nathaniel demanded.
“Nigh-nigh,” Sable echoed.
There would be no regular bedtime ritual tonight. Someone had been in her house. If she and the kids had been home when the intruder arrived, no telling what would have happened. A shudder ripped through her, jerking her grip on the steering wheel.
She needed a place of safety.
“Where are we going?” her mom said, rifling through the bag and glancing over her shoulder.
“To Rock’s place.”
“What’s going on, Jeanie?” her mother shrilled. “What are you mixed up in?”
“I wish I knew.”
“I wanna go home,” Nathaniel wailed.
“Shhh,” Jeanie said. “You’ll upset your sister.”
Too late. Sable added her warbling voice to his.
Jeanie’s head pounded as the noise intensified. Her hands trembled. Two more turns. That’s all it was to Rock’s house. He’d help her through this terrible night.
“I’m dialing the cops,” her mom said.
She glanced over at her mom’s white-knuckled grip on the phone and her chalky white face. Her mom didn’t deserve this. None of them did.
“I’ll do it,” Jeanie said, reaching for the phone.
“Tell me what’s going on,” her mom managed.
“I don’t know. First the shop. Now the house. I don’t have anything valuable, except for you and the kids. Whatever they want, I wish they’d just take it and leave us alone.”
She halted at Rock’s picket fence on the town square. The emergency operator answered. “My name is Jeanie Munro, and someone’s in my house.”
Chapter 20
The dogs alerted Rock as a vehicle stopped short in front of his house. “What the hell?” he muttered, as adrenaline surged into his bloodstream.
Rock glided into his darkened bedroom at the front of the house. He grabbed the pistol he’d moved from the nightstand to the top shelf of his closet when he’d invited Jeanie and the kids over. Checked the load. Crept to the window.
Would he finally confront his faceless enemy? Could he fire his weapon at a civilian?
Steeling his nerves, he peered between the slats in the blinds into the murky twilight.
Jeanie’s white delivery van.
Her mother was wrangling the kids out of their car seats, while Jeanie talked animatedly on the phone.
Something had happened or she wouldn’t be here.
He tucked the gun in the waistband of his pants, covered it with his shirt, and hurried outside, signaling the dogs to heel. “What’s wrong?”
“Another break-in,” Terry Sue said, handing him Sable. “She’s on the phone with the police. I hope you don’t mind us barging in. Jeanie wanted to come here.”
“I don’t mind. Let’s get everyone inside.” He motioned for the dogs to circle on patrol and return.
“Someone is in my house. Right now. I heard them,” Jeanie said.
Her wavering voice arrowed through the dew-thickened air into his heart. Sable cried softly in his neck. Raindrop-sized tears flowed down Nathaniel’s face as he repeated he wanted to go home. Terry Sue looked on the verge of tears herself.
Questions boiled through Rock’s head, but he needed to get the kids safely inside first.
He scanned the town square again. No visible threat at the moment, but those blooming azalea bushes could be shielding someone from view.
Guilt stabbed at him. Jeanie and her kids didn’t need more trouble. If he’d brought misfortune south, he damn well needed to come clean with her. To tell her everything.
Sable’s arms stole around his neck, and her breath warmed his throat. Such a sweet innocent. He’d traveled the world over and seen some really rough things, but there was one thing he’d never understood. How anyone could deliberately hurt a child.
Terry Sue hoisted Nathaniel on her hip and followed Rock inside. He settled the trio on the living room sofa and hurried back for Jeanie, who stood beside the van.
“They want me to stay on the line,” she said when he approached.
“Come inside the house,” he said. The dogs circled back. His perimeter was secure. One thing was going his way.
“I hope Laurie Ann’s on duty tonight,” Jeanie said. “She knows my place as well as I do. If anything’s missing, she’ll notice right away.”
He latched the gate behind them, motioned the dogs to patrol the yard, and placed his hand in the small of Jeanie’s back to guide her up the steps. “How do you want to play this?”
“I’m not playing anything. My home is being burglarized. Someone is going through my things. Tearing up my house. Touching my kids’ toys.”
She stumbled on the first step. He steadied her with his weak arm, ignoring the twinge of pain in the newly mended bone. “Shh. It’s going to be all right.”
“I want to know why this is happening to me.”
“So do I,” he gritted out.
She jerked away from him, and he regretted his intensity. Geez, Mackenzie. Way make her feel safe.
Inside, all eyes were on him.
Think.
The kids were full.
They probably needed baths or something.
TV, maybe, to wind down for the day. “Why don’t all of you pile up in my bed and watch TV? I’ll slip over to Jeanie’s place and see what the police have to say.”
Jeanie nodded. “Good idea, except I’m going with you.”
His protective instincts surged. “You’ll be safer at Lytham House with the dogs outside.”
Her chin came up. Jeanie met his level gaze. “I’ll be safe once this creep is behind bars.”
The woman had grit, he’d give her that. He faced her mom. “I’ll lock the door behind us. No one can get in this house with the dogs in the yard. You’re safe here.”
Terry Sue nodded. “Thanks. I’ve never been so frightened in my life. This sort of thing has never happened to us before.”
God willing, it never would again. “You need anything from the kitchen or a blanket or something, make yourself at home. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Terry Sue gave Jeanie a long hug. “Be careful.”
“We will.” Jeanie hugged each of the kids.
Outside in his big black truck, she fumbled with the seat belt. “I don’t know what this is all about, but this has to stop. My kids are everything to me.”
Rock unclenched his jaw. “We’ll figure it out.”
Chapter 21
Jeanie couldn’t stop trembling inside.
Someone was after her.
Why?
She had no assets to speak of. No connections to a wealthy family. No secrets worth any amount of money or trouble.
“Why is this happening?” she asked, her voice breaking as she spoke.
Rock accelerated onto the highway, the blinker clicking loudly in the silent truck. His headlights illuminated a narrow path in the gathering gloom. “I don’t know.”
“Things happen for a reason,” she insisted, irritated he seemed so level-headed about the matter. The dull roar in her head intensified. She glanced up, and her familiar stars were obscured by clouds. Her mother had taught her the stars’ names and how to navigate by the stars. Fat lot of good that did her now. Her home had been invaded.
He kept his eyes on the empty road. “I’m sorry this is happening to you.”
Unaccountably, his sympathy upset her more than his previous calm. She blinked back tears. “Sorry? Sorry is for when you’ve hurt someone’s feelings. Sorry is for when you make a mistake. Why are you sorry about my burglaries?”
“I understand what you’re going through.”
She rubbed her pounding temples. “I can’t do this.”
“This?”
Her hands gestured in jerky movements. “I don’t know what to do. I used up all my courage when Avery left. Those kids are everything to me.”
“You’re doing fine.”
She snorted, her emotions swinging like a kid on a rope. “Fine? I’m a disaster. Worse, I dragged you into my problem.”
“I’m glad to help. I want to help.”
She studied him, blood thundering in her ears. “Why? Because we kissed?”
“Because you’re right. You don’t deserve this. Nobody does, but life isn’t fair. Some people get free passes while the rest of us pay full freight.”
The freight part confused her, but the rest made sense. She tried to slow her breathing, but her lungs wouldn’t cooperate. “I apologize. I needed to vent, and you were handy.”
He shrugged. “I can take it.”
Rough Waters Page 7