Luke and Jag were surprised to learn that Jenna had a photographic memory, but they accepted it readily enough. After donning latex gloves they entered the master bedroom and inspected it carefully, taking particular care with those items Jenna had said were moved or different from what they should have been.
They were both furious when they, too, concluded that it looked like her prenatal vitamins had been tampered with. They packed up the vitamins, collected the powder from the bathroom, and dusted everything for prints. Then they examined the entire room for anything that looked remotely suspicious but they found nothing else.
After they were finished in the house they interrogated every hand on the ranch but not one of them remembered seeing anyone around the house or any strangers on the property. Unfortunately, it was October, which meant shorter days, and there wasn’t any reason for the hands to be wandering around after dark near the house.
By the time everyone left it was after midnight and Cole and Dillon were both exhausted. They crawled into bed on either side of Jenna, both of them placing one palm over their babies, relaxing as they felt an occasional thump or kick.
“What are we going to do about the bedroom?” Cole asked in a whisper. “I think we need to get a new mattress for sure, but should we replace all the furniture?”
“I think we need to strip the room, Cole,” Dillon replied. “Carpeting too. Whoever’s doing this knows she’s allergic to bee venom, so we can’t take any chances. We can keep the furniture, but in addition to the mattress, we need to replace the pillows and bedding. We have to have someone go through every item of clothing we own, too. Jenna’s especially. I’ll never feel like she’s completely safe otherwise.”
“Agreed. If this had to happen, I’m glad it happened before we did the nursery.”
“Yeah, me too,” Dillon said, then smiled. “She was pretty cute tonight, wasn’t she?”
“You mean distracting us with nursery decorating talk?” Dillon nodded. “Yeah, she was. We gotta figure out who’s doing this, Dillon. I asked Jag tonight if he’d be willing to look into this for us since Luke couldn’t get far with his official inquiries.”
“Good,” Dillon said. “Did he accept the job?”
“He did, but he wants to ask Jenna some questions. I told him we’d talk to her about it. If she doesn’t want to do it, I hope she’ll at least give us the okay to fill him in on what happened.”
“I think she will.” Dillon thought a moment. “She’s more relaxed now than she was. I think she feels safe now, like she said. Or at least safer.”
“Yeah, I think so too. But we still have to do a better job of keeping her safe.”
“I know,” Dillon said. “Which reminds me. Luke and Jag inspected every window and door and couldn’t find any sign that the house was broken into.”
“Damn,” Cole said. “Someone must have a key.”
“Problem is, aside from Peter, and Mrs. Hannigan, we’ve never given anyone else a key and I know it wasn’t either of them.”
“Then someone must’ve got hold of one and made a copy.” His eyes widened. “What about Lyssa?”
“I don’t know,” Dillon said doubtfully. “She’s certainly mean enough, but she’s not sober enough.”
“She wouldn’t have to be sober to get someone else to do something like this for her,” Cole said.
“True,” Dillon said. “But she’d have to have money for that.”
“Not necessarily,” Cole said. Dillon nodded in the dark. Sex and drugs were often a bigger incentive than money. “And she was here for two months. She could’ve gotten hold of our keys and had a copy made without us knowing. It’s not like we locked up much until we brought Jenna home.”
“You’re right,” Dillon said. “But I have a hard time seeing her doing this, Cole. What would be the point? It’s not like she cares about us or anything.”
“She’s messed up, Dillon. I don’t know how her mind works and I don’t want to know. I just want to know if it’s her or not.”
“So do I,” Dillon agreed. “I’ll call Luke in the morning, give him what information we have on Lyssa. Then I’ll call Jag. I want him to have a crew refit all the windows and doors with new locks. It’s past time to put in that alarm system we’ve been talking about, too. We should have done that after the shooting.”
“Maybe, but we had no reason to think the shooter could gain access to the house, Dillon. I’ll make some calls too. I want that room stripped and put back together again as soon as possible.”
“I hate this, Cole,” Dillon said suddenly, his voice throbbing with frustration as he looked down at Jenna’s peaceful face. “This person has violated our home, and damn near killed the woman we love and our children four times now. We have to put a stop to this.”
“I know, I hate it too. I wanna cover Jenna in bubble wrap and put her in my pocket.”
“Yeah, but it would drive her crazy.”
“I know, but her being in danger drives me crazy.” They fell silent for a few moments. “By the way, not that I’m complaining but what was that hug about earlier?”
“I think she was afraid for us,” Dillon said. “She gave me a hug too, when I got her out of the Denali.”
“Between that, and her decision to set up a nursery here, I’m thinking she cares about us more than she’s ready to admit.”
“Yeah, I think so too,” Dillon said. “But we need to stay patient and let her come to it on her own.”
“I know,” Cole said. “I get that now. I’m just real happy about it.”
“Yeah, so am I.”
Chapter 14
During breakfast the next morning Cole and Dillon told Jenna what their plans were for stripping the master bedroom and upgrading the security on the house. When they were finished they waited for her response, both armed with good arguments for their decisions. So, when Jenna only sighed softly, then nodded in agreement, it surprised them.
“That was a lot easier than we thought it would be,” Dillon said.
She frowned at him, then shrugged, conceding his point. “Not long ago I’d have resisted the waste of time, effort, and money. But over the past few weeks someone has tried to kill me and our unborn children a few too many times. They’ve tried bees, a bomb, bullets and, we’re all assuming, poison. I don’t know what they might try next, but I do know that I don’t intend to risk my life or the lives of our babies for the sake of frugality.”
“That’s good to hear, baby, cause neither do we,” Cole said. “Why don’t you have another cup of decaf and finish your toast while we go make some phone calls. We’ll be back in about ten minutes, and then we’ll go check out the nursery.”
“Sounds good to me.” Less than ten minutes later they were back which didn’t surprise her. They always returned whenever they said they would. “How’d it go?”
“Perfectly,” Cole said, picking her up. “Everything is arranged.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes, really,” Dillon said with a grin as they headed back down the hall. “The new locks and security system will be complete in two days, and the master bedroom will be finished in five days.”
“I’m impressed,” Jenna said. Cole stopped and waited for Dillon to open the door, then they entered. “Wow,” she said, taking in the big arched window with a view of the gently rolling grass covered hills, and the closet lined with shelves. “This is a beautiful room.”
“We’re glad you like it, baby,” Cole said thickly.
“Cole?” Jenna asked, frowning in concern. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing’s the matter,” he said. “We’ve been waiting more than ten years for this day. I’m just real happy it’s here at last.” Jenna didn’t know what to say to that so she just smiled and looked around the room again.
“Any ideas?” Dillon asked.
“I’d really like to put a window seat there, under that big window. Maybe a toy box with cushions on top or something l
ike that.”
“Great idea,” Cole said. “Too bad we didn’t think of that when we designed it. We could have had the window set out a couple of feet with a built in window seat.”
“We could have that done,” Dillon said. “It might take a while though.”
“No, please don’t,” Jenna said, trying not to laugh. “It’s too much work for no good reason.” She looked around again. “This room is twice the size of the bedroom I was gonna use in my apartment which is great because I’d really love to have a rocking chair, and a couple of chairs for you guys, too. There’s certainly room enough in here for them. Other than that, I don’t know. It’s a bit overwhelming to have a bare room to decorate and furnish.”
“No stressing,” Cole said firmly. “This is gonna be fun.”
“Fun?”
“Sure,” he said. “You get to pick whatever you want, no limitations, no budget, no questions asked. How can that not be fun?”
Jenna laughed. “Okay, fun it is. Let’s go fire up a computer and look at nurseries, see if we can find anything we like.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Dillon said. A few minutes later she was on one of the living room sofas between Cole and Dillon with a tray over her lap that held Dillon’s laptop. She went to her favorite search engine and searched for nursery decor. They were all a little surprised by the number of results they got.
After thirty minutes of looking at images that ranged from pastel rooms with fabric draped furniture, to garishly bright rooms with giant cartoon animals on the walls, they all started to blur together. Finally Jenna leaned back and sighed.
“What’re you thinking, baby?” Cole asked.
“I’m thinking how glad I am we did this because it gives us a really good idea of all the things we don’t want.”
Cole and Dillon exchanged smiles. “You didn’t see anything you liked?” Dillon asked.
“No,” she replied shortly. “Did you?”
“Well, I don’t know,” he said with a thoughtful frown. “That bassinet that hangs from the ceiling with the veil thing over it covered with shiny gold butterflies was interesting.” Jenna looked at him like he’d lost his mind. Before she could say anything, Cole spoke up.
“Don’t you think that was a tad frilly, Dillon? I thought the crib in the shape of a train in bright yellow and red was nice. I liked the big smile painted on the headboard. It was real cheerful.”
“For our son,” Dillon agreed. “What about our daughter?”
“The green one with the big teddy bear head mounted on the headboard, and the legs sticking out the back of the footboard,” Cole said definitively.
Jenna tried really hard to hold it in, but she just couldn’t. She laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes. “If I didn’t already know you two have good taste I’d be very worried right now,” she said when she could breathe again.
“You saying you don’t believe we like those things?” Cole asked, trying to look wounded.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” Jenna said. “I’m sitting in your house, remember? I know better.”
“She’s got us there, Cole,” Dillon said. “I gotta admit, angel, I’m surprised we didn’t see a single thing we liked after looking at all those pictures.”
“Yeah, me too,” she agreed. “All those fussy fabrics, ribbons, and bows belong in a wedding, not a nursery. And I don’t want a room that looks like the inside of a kid’s pizza parlor, either. I guess we’ll have to keep looking, or come up with our own ideas.”
“You’ll find what you want, baby,” Cole said. “Let’s take a break from that and look at other things. Like high chairs and…well, I don’t know. Whatever you have on that list you told us about.”
“All right,” Jenna agreed, sitting up to tap on the laptop keyboard again. “If I email the list to one of you will you print it out for me?”
“Sure,” Cole and Dillon both said at the same time, causing her to smile. She loved when they did that.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll do that later. In the meantime, since we won’t need high chairs until the babies are old enough to actually sit up on their own, we can wait on those. So, what’ll it be? Car seats or carriers?”
An hour later Jenna was exhausted, but they’d actually chosen several items from her list and they were all feeling good about that. Once Jenna was asleep, Dillon went into the office with the laptop and, with an enormous sense of satisfaction and happiness, placed orders for the things they’d chosen. It wasn’t a lot, but it was a start.
***
On the day Susie was due to arrive in Sparx Jenna insisted on being there to welcome her. Jag’s people had finished the new locks and alarm system on the house the day before, and Peter agreed to stay in the house to keep an eye on the people coming and going as they worked to get the master bedroom finished. Mrs. Hannigan came in early to help since Peter couldn’t be in the bedroom and watch the rest of the house at the same time.
Jenna was grateful to them both because she wanted time to pack up the remainder of her personal belongings before Susie arrived. Aside from the stock in the shop, and the furniture and housewares in the apartment, she hadn’t accumulated much since arriving in Sparx, and the majority of her things were already at the ranch. All that was left was some toiletries from the bathroom, her non-maternity clothes, and a few other items which, altogether, only filled four cartons.
Cole and Dillon hadn’t thought much of her decision to clear her personal items out of the master suite. She really didn’t own very much so they assumed she needed the few things she had. It wasn’t until Jenna asked them to help her change the bedding on the bed in the master bedroom that they began to wonder. After a couple of uncertain minutes, Cole finally decided to just ask.
“Jenna, will Susie be using this room?”
“Well, yeah,” she said hesitantly. “I told her she could use the master suite since there’s no reason to let it go to waste. It’s no hardship for me to empty it out. My personal belongings barely filled four boxes. Since we’re setting the nursery up at the ranch I’m obviously going to be there for…well…a while.” She bit her lip and looked at them uncertainly. “Did I presume too much?”
“Not at all,” Dillon said. “We’re doing our best not to push you, Jenna, and we’ll keep on not pushing for as long as you need us to. But make no mistake about it. We love you, we want you to live at the ranch with us, bring the babies home with us, marry us, make more babies with us, all of that and more. We want you in every way for the rest of our lives and that will never, ever change. It’s not even possible for you to presume too much. Okay?”
“Okay, thank you,” she said, visibly relaxing.
“I’m glad that’s settled,” Cole said, trying to keep the grin off his face. “Where’s the clean bedding?”
Once the bed was changed they carried her down to the shop and helped her put together gift baskets for Mrs. Hannigan and Peter to thank them for helping out. After that Jenna was exhausted so they carried her back upstairs and laid her on the sofa for a long nap. By the time the moving truck arrived with Susie close behind it in her little car, Jenna was awake and they’d eaten the lunch they’d brought with them.
Hank and Jack met the truck and directed the movers around to the alley, while Meg took Susie upstairs to the apartment to see Jenna. After introductions Meg hugged Jenna and headed back to the diner to work.
A statuesque woman with short light brown hair and dark blue eyes, Susie had an open, friendly smile, but there was something watchful and wary about her that didn’t escape anyone’s notice. She hugged Jenna for a long moment, then sat beside her on the sofa.
“Jenna, this apartment is gorgeous,” she said. “You sure you want me to stay here? You could rent it out.”
“Of course I want you to stay here,” Jenna said. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”
“I thought you weren’t supposed to be walking.”
“She’s not,” Cole said, “that’s wh
at we’re here for.”
Susie returned Cole’s smile but it looked a little forced, Jenna noted. Cole picked her up and carried her across the living room, down the hall, and into the master bedroom with Susie behind them while Dillon went to talk to the movers.
“This is the master, obviously,” Jenna said to Susie as they entered. “We put clean bedding on the bed this morning, and emptied the last of my things out, so it’s all yours.”
“Jenna, are you sure?” Susie asked again as she looked around.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jenna said. “If I need a place to stay in town, I’ll bunk on the sofa or something. Otherwise, why let this sit here and not be used? Oh, and wait till you see the bathroom.”
Susie grinned and stepped into the bathroom, then let out a little squeal. “A Jacuzzi, wow,” she said, coming back out. “You’re right, I’ll stay here.”
Jenna laughed, then Cole took her up the hall.
“There’s two empty bedrooms, the laundry room, and the other bath,” Jenna said, waving toward the doors. “Feel free to store boxes or furniture in the bedrooms if you want. There’s some food in the kitchen, but not a lot and the fridge is empty. You’ll wanna do some shopping down at Flo’s, and of course the diner is just across the street.”
“This is so beautiful, Jenna,” Susie said after getting a good look around. “I really and truly appreciate you letting me stay here.”
“I really and truly appreciate you coming here, Susie,” Jenna said. “You ready to see the shop?”
“The movers would like to know where to put things,” Dillon said, joining them in the kitchen.
“Um, I don’t know,” Susie said uncertainly.
“What do you have?” Jenna asked.
“A few bits of furniture, not much. A bed, a nightstand and a dresser. My clothes, some boxes of books and personal items, some kitchen stuff, and my candle making supplies. That’s about it.”
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