Betting the Rainbow (Harmony)

by Thomas, Jodi

  Kieran nodded toward him and continued, “Jones was just talking to the sheriff about what happened.”

  The farmer stood as if blocking his boys from a lynch mob. “It was just an accident. My sons were shooting at the hogs. They didn’t know Austin was behind the herd. It was too dark and he was dressed in black. It was just an accident.”

  “Sounder,” Ronny said. “The word for a group of hogs is a sounder.”

  Everyone looked at her as if knowing the right word were far stranger than accidentally mistaking a man for a pig.

  Ronny did not bother to tell them that she’d been working crosswords since she was ten. It might just add fuel to her nutcase file. Instead she asked, “Any word on Austin? Is he going to make it?”

  All the men nodded, but none looked convinced.

  “He’s been in surgery almost an hour,” Kieran said. “We should know something soon. The bullet went in deep, but the doc said it didn’t look like it hit bone.”

  Ronny sat down on a chair covered in vinyl. She looked down at her sweatpants and realized she’d seen homeless people dressed better.

  When Abby offered to go get everyone coffee, Ronny jumped up, wanting to help. Maybe on the way they’d pass a ladies’ room and she could at least wash her hands and shoes. Walking around in wet tennis shoes was better than in muddy ones.

  Three doors to the left they found a room with machines lining the walls. Abby dug in her purse until she found enough change.

  At the break room door a cluster of gray-haired volunteers passed Ronny. She thought she recognized one as a woman her mother served on the church bereavement committee with years ago.

  When Ronny and Abby returned to the waiting room, Dr. Addison Turner had joined them.

  The doctor gave Ronny a warm hug before repeating what she’d just told everyone. Austin had lost a lot of blood, but the bullet passed almost through his leg to the back side, so they retrieved it there and didn’t have to dig through already torn flesh.

  “He’s going to be fine,” the doctor reassured them. “I plan to keep him only one night unless there are complications. He’ll be all right. You all can go home and get some rest.”

  Ronny had known the young doctor before Addison married Tinch Turner. She’d cared for Marty along with doctors who had been brought in from Oklahoma City. They’d been professional and kind to her, but Addison had become more, she’d become a friend.

  “Thanks.” Ronny managed a smile for her now.

  Addison touched her shoulder. “We’re all glad you’re back, Ronny. We’ve all missed you. Mr. Donavan put up your postcards in the post office so everyone in town kept up with your travels. You’ve been places most of the people in Harmony will never see.”

  Ronny didn’t want to visit. She needed to get to Austin. “Can we see Austin? His house is next to mine at the lake.” Too much detail, Ronny thought.

  “Of course, a short visit. Ladies first.” Her gaze turned to the two boys looking like they were waiting for their own hanging. “The sheriff wants to talk to everyone else in the room about what happened. She says if any of you try to leave before she gets in here, I’m to shoot you.” Addison showed no hint of kidding when she added, “I’d hate to have to dig another bullet out tonight.”

  Not one man moved.

  Ronny ran out of the waiting room. The Delaney sisters were right behind her.

  When they reached the door to recovery, Dusti held her sister back. “Why don’t you go in first, Ronny? He’s probably had enough excitement tonight. All of us might be too much company.”

  Abby stared at her sister for a moment, then stuttered, “Right, go in, Ronny. We’ll wait out here for you. Dusti’s right. He’s been through a real shock. Too much company wouldn’t be good for him.”

  When Ronny slipped into the room and rounded the curtain, she was surprised to see Austin sitting up in bed. He was bare to the waist with a sheet and light blanket covering his bottom half. There was a scrape along his forehead, but for a man just shot, he looked great.

  He smiled at her, a smile that looked as if he were a little drunk. “Hi.” His eyes drifted closed.

  “Hi,” she answered, noticing the IV in his hand. “You all right?”

  “Fine,” he said, obviously feeling no pain. “And you?”

  She moved closer. “I’m a mess. Dressed in the dark and got mud all over my shoes. They’ll probably kick me out of this place any minute.”

  “Me too.” He grinned. “Nurse has gone to get help. Says I have to wear one of them gowns. Never wore a gown in my life and don’t plan on starting now.”

  “What are you wearing?”

  “Nothing but a bandage. Hog shot me in the leg.”

  Ronny couldn’t resist brushing his hair back from his forehead. He really was a handsome man when he wasn’t frowning at her. He felt warm and very much alive. “You sleeping here tonight?”

  “Yeah, Doc’s orders.” He shook his head slightly, as if fighting sleep. “You want to sleep with me? I wouldn’t mind, you know. There’s enough room.”

  “Not tonight.” She laughed. “Just rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She touched his arm, needing to know he was all right.

  “Okay,” he said, already half asleep. “Don’t let that nurse put one of those gowns on me while I’m asleep, would you?”

  “Sure,” she said, but he was already out.

  Ronny walked the Delaney sisters to the emergency room door and told them she was staying to watch over Austin.

  Neither sister looked surprised. Abby fished in her purse and handed Ronny all the change she had left for coffee and snacks. Dusti gave her the work jacket from their pickup. It was patched and old, but clean.

  As Ronny waved them good-bye, she thought she saw a car slow on the road just beyond the streetlights.

  Without waiting, she turned and went back into the hospital. She’d spent the night in LaGuardia when a flight was late leaving New York. She’d waited in 100-degree heat on an old bus in the mountains of Colombia. She’d been locked out of her hotel in a dark side street in Amsterdam. She could spend the night in Harmony’s hospital.

  She had survival skills.

  Chapter 19

  DELANEY FARM

  AS ABBY PULLED UP TO THE BARN, DUSTI’S CELL CHIMED. “Hello,” she said as she checked the time. Eleven fifteen P.M. Far too late for a call.

  “Dusti, lass,” came through with a hint of a Scottish accent. “Since I know you haven’t had time to be in bed yet, would you do me a favor?”

  “What do you need, Kieran?” She could think of a few suggestions. A home-cooked meal? A date? Her body?

  “I need a ride,” he said, without knowing he was shattering the beginning to a great fantasy. “I could call my grandmother, but it would probably frighten her to death. I rode in with the ambulance. My rental car is parked across Rainbow Lane where we saddled up just before dark.”

  “I’ll come get you, but you have to buy me a beer at Buffalo’s.” Since he’d destroyed one dream, she might as well work on another. “It’s been a long day and I want you to explain a few more poker terms.”

  “One beer for taxi service, lass. And I’ll explain anything you want me to explain to you.”

  His deep voice set off another moonlight dream. Dusti couldn’t help but sigh. He was getting to her. She didn’t know how much of this “playing hard to get” she could take from a man who stared at her now and then like he wanted her more than air.

  Abby rolled her eyes and climbed out of the pickup. “I know you want me to go along to keep your pants on, but I think I’ll call it a night. I have to get up with the chickens.”

  Dusti never laughed at her sister’s old joke. “I won’t be late and I’ve no intention of taking my pants off. The guy won’t even kiss me, so I doubt I’ll get into any trouble.”

  �
��Too bad.” Abby headed to the house. “One of us should be having some fun.”

  As Dusti turned the truck toward town, she glanced back at her sister. Abby had been quiet since they’d left the hospital, and Dusti knew why. The visit reminded Abby what she should be doing with her life. Not raising chickens, not running a tiny farm. She should have been the nurse who met them at the hospital door, but instead, she was still one semester away. From the looks of things, she always would be.

  Dusti fought down tears. The night air blew strands of her midnight hair free from her ponytail, but she barely noticed. Somehow she had to learn to play poker. She had to win the buy-in to the Vegas tournament, and from there she had to stay in long enough to show in the money. Even tenth place would be enough for Abby to go back to school.

  And to do that, she reasoned, she had to stay clear of Kieran.

  Dusti told herself she could wait for her sister to finish school; she’d waited before. If she ran the ranch and took care of her mother, she could run it alone while Abby went back to college. Then, maybe in a few years with the salary Abby would make as a nurse, Dusti would have her shot. She’d buy a good camera and go to a fancy school for six months. Then, who knows, she might open a shop in Harmony and do weddings.

  Reality threatened to crush her dreams. Who would run the farm if Abby worked and Dusti went to school? How would they pay for a shop in town?

  She’d worry about that later. Right now she had to concentrate on step one.

  By the time she reached the hospital, she decided she’d do whatever she had to do to learn, and her only chance was the Scot. He was odds down the player picked to win. All she had to do was find his weak spot. Be able to read him, or better yet fool him into thinking he could read her.

  She saw his big frame shove away from the side wall near the emergency room and walk toward her. For the first time, he seemed tired, bone tired. Maybe a drink wasn’t a good idea, or maybe it would be the perfect time to ask questions until he let a secret slip.

  A tiny bit of her said she wasn’t playing fair. She was using him, but it couldn’t be helped.

  “Thanks for picking me up,” he said as he slid into the passenger seat. “I could have ridden home with the farmer, but I have a feeling he’ll be lecturing his sons for another decade or so.”

  “Is the sheriff filing charges?”

  Kieran shook his head. “They were on their land. It was night. Everyone knew the shooting was just an accident. Unless Austin wants to press charges, there’ll be no more said about it.”

  Dusti didn’t know what to say. If someone shot her, she’d want to press charges.

  Kieran continued, “When we rode up, the boys had found Austin and were both terrified. I’ll be surprised if either one ever picks up a rifle again. The game warden made them help carry him out. Both got blood on them.”

  Dusti drove the pickup toward the bar. “Austin has to take some of the blame. He was wearing black.”

  Kieran stretched his legs, pushing against the floorboard as if he could extend it a few inches. “There’s enough blame to spread around. One of us should have been with the boys, or with Austin. They shouldn’t have been alone. I’ve hunted game before. I knew the rules.”

  “But the good news is he’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, and the bad news is the warden said from the size of the sows they had to be three, maybe four years old. They’ve had a hundred or more piglets by now, and he thinks they’re somewhere back behind the lake where no one has ever cut a road, much less settled.”

  “Who owns the land?” Dusti knew exactly where Delaney land stopped.

  “No one seems to know. Jones said it’s been sold several times over the years. He thinks an investment company out of Dallas might have bought it, planning to look for oil. Corporations bought up a lot of land in the seventies.”

  They bumped their way into the potholed parking lot of Buffalo’s Bar and Grill.

  “One drink is all we’ll have time for.” She switched off the engine. “Harley closes at midnight on weeknights.”

  As they stepped into the empty bar, Kieran whispered, “I can see why.” Their footsteps echoed off the paneled walls.

  Harley was washing up as he watched the news on a little TV by the cash register. He didn’t look too happy to see them, but then he never looked happy to see anyone.

  “Two beers.” Kieran ordered with a smile.

  Harley slid the drinks across the bar and took the money without saying a word or offering change.

  They moved to one of the booths and Harley went back to his work.

  “Friendly, isn’t he?”

  “I’m used to him.” Dusti leaned back in the booth. “Tell me the secrets of how to win at poker. We don’t have much time left.” She couldn’t resist bumping her knee against his.

  “Pay attention,” Kieran said. “Don’t drink. Don’t talk more than you have to. Watch how the others play. One way or another they all tell you what they’re holding.”

  “Not me. Good hand or bad, when we practice, I keep a straight face.”

  He grinned. “You lift one eyebrow slightly when you have a good hand and you lick your lips when you’re bluffing.”

  She shook her head. “It couldn’t be that easy.”

  “Funny thing, ’tis. Every time you had a good hand, you played with your chips before it was your turn to check or raise. In a real game every person at the table would have known you weren’t going to fold.”

  “And you? What are your tells?”

  He winked. “I have none. At least none you’ll have time enough to learn, but if you watch, you’ll see players take a drink when they’re excited, or move up in their chairs slightly, or blink more, or rub their hands, or a hundred other things. People are creatures of habit. They’re predictable. You’re not just playing cards. You’re playing the other players when you play Texas Hold’em.”

  They talked until Harley blinked the lights. Kieran told her she should play only good starting cards, and they went through all the sets of two that would be considered good.

  “An ace and a king might look great, but remember all it takes is a pair of twos to beat them.”

  Dusti stored away every point he made, picturing the hands he described in her mind as if she were taking pictures.

  Kieran was explaining the river card when Harley blinked the lights again. The Scot took her hand and walked her to the door. Though she tried to concentrate on everything he’d told her, she had to admit that she liked the feel of her hand in his and the way he moved.

  Every light in the place went out as the door closed, even the three outside lights of the parking lot.

  “I guess we overstayed our welcome,” she said, feeling her way along the railing.

  When he stopped at the bottom of the stairs, she bumped into him. Standing one step higher than he was, she was almost the same height, but it was so dark she felt him near more than saw him.

  “You can’t see me now,” she whispered. “You won’t know if I’m bluffing or telling the truth.”

  Kieran slid his hand slowly along her arm until his fingers rested on her throat. “My dad used to tell me, after his divorce from my mother, that a man can always tell when a pretty lass is lying. He said her lips will be moving.”

  “Your mom must have hurt him really bad.”

  “She did. Almost killed him when she left him. After twelve years of traveling everywhere with him, she up and left him for a Frenchman who owned a little winery they’d stopped at once. They’d only stayed a day, but Mom must have decided she liked the farmer more than she did Dad.

  “I think the part about it being a Frenchman bothered Dad more than the leaving. For months he went around claiming he hated farmers, wine, and Frenchmen, not necessarily in that order.”

  “What happened after she left? Who’d
you go with?”

  They fought it out in the courts and she got me for the summers. I don’t know if she was the one who won or lost that battle. Anyway, it didn’t matter; her Frenchman didn’t want me around, so I was always shipped here to my grandmother’s as soon as I finished boarding school every spring. Which was fine. I loved my mom, but it wasn’t worth staying with her and putting up with her new husband. He used to make fun of everything I said. I spent a week once with them over Christmas break and didn’t say a single word. I’m not sure anyone noticed.”

  “So where did you feel like you grew up?”

  “Dad never seemed to completely unpack anywhere. He’d be based in London one year and New York the next. By the time I was fourteen I was in boarding schools. When I went to college I decided to unpack in New York, so I guess if I had to pick a place to call home, ’twould be there.” He moved a little closer to her and she felt his words against her cheek. “Funny thing is, when people in Manhattan ask me where I’m from, I often say Harmony, Texas. My roots are as much here as in Scotland. I’ve always thought of home as a person, not so much a place.”

  Dusti knew she should step away. Her eyes had adjusted enough that she could make out the outline of her pickup now, but she liked the nearness of this man. She liked the way Kieran talked, flavoring words until you felt you were traveling around the world in his conversations.

  Shifting, she pressed her side against his chest. He was a man who liked women and was comfortable with them close, even if he did seem shy. He’d talked to her more in the darkness than he’d ever talked.

  He was so close she could feel his words moving the air, but he didn’t lean in to kiss her. She’d done everything but put up a neon sign inviting him in for a taste, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  She asked him more about poker just to keep him talking, but she wasn’t paying near as much attention to his advice as she was the movement of his hand along her side. He was touching her in a very friendly way; maybe there was hope yet.

  When his fingers brushed the side of her breast, it occurred to her that maybe this man wasn’t so much shy as quiet.