by Sandra Brown
“Well,” she said around a mirthless laugh, “because somebody is coming past my house every night, and that’s creepy.”
“I ask again, why would I do that?”
“I can’t come up with a single reason.”
“Then why have you singled me out as a suspect?”
“Because before we had exchanged two sentences yesterday, you treated me with hostility.”
“I wasn’t hostile. Inhospitable, maybe.”
“Why?”
“Not many people just show up at my house.” Especially not Joe Maxwell’s kid. Joe Maxwell’s kid all grown up and…and filled out.
“I had called.”
“Not to say that you were coming. And when you got there, you admitted that I was your last resort.”
“Which should have made you want to win me over.”
“Not my style.”
“You’ve made that apparent.” She studied him, her brow furrowed. “What did you do in the military?”
“How’d you know about that?”
“The man I called for a reference told me. He said you fought in the Middle East.”
“That’s right.”
“What branch of the service?”
“Army. Special Forces.”
“What was your specialty?”
“Killing the enemy.”
She took a swift breath. “I see.”
“No, you don’t. And if I tried to describe the warfare I engaged in, it would scare the living daylights out of you.” Realizing that his heavy-handed tone was probably doing that already, he modulated it. “I apologize for yesterday. Sometimes I come across as rude when I don’t mean to be.” She gave him a look, and he added, “Okay, and sometimes I mean to be.
“But you don’t have to be afraid of me. I’m not the creep driving past every night. If I was, and up to no good, why haven’t I attacked you in the hour I’ve been here?”
When she failed to respond, he became annoyed. “Look, if you can’t get past this, I don’t want to work for you. I’m not going to sign on to do the project and then be constantly on guard for fear of spooking you.”
“Like slamming a door.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Sorry about that. I reacted too quick. Comes from soldiering in a war zone when your ass could get capped at any second.”
He took a wider stance and was about to say that he was over having to defend himself, but reasoned that belligerence would only increase her apprehension. He needed her to hire him so he could keep an eye on her. He needed to act as a buffer between her and Rusty, at least until Rusty backed off the notion that she had stacks of stolen cash lying around.
He changed tactics. “I can do the job. There’s a lot here to work with, and the job would be a welcome change from mending sagging porches and getting closet doors to hang straight. So? What’s it to be?”
She looked down at the floor. He stared at the crown of her head while she deliberated for what seemed like ages.
When she raised her head, she said, “I’ll sleep on it.”
That pissed him off. He figured she was now being either coy or stubborn.
“You’ve got until noon tomorrow to let me know.” He reached for the doorknob, then halted, and with exaggerated slowness, turned it gently and pulled open the door.
Looking piqued, she asked, “What happens at noon?”
“I start accepting the jobs I’ve put on hold.”
She gave a curt nod.
Straddling the threshold, he reached into his back pocket for his wallet and took a business card from it, passing it to her. “Sometimes I don’t hear the shop phone. Call the second number. That’s my cell. It’ll vibrate.”
He stepped out onto the porch and slid on his sunglasses.
“Ledge?”
He came back around and saw that she had read his name aloud off the business card. Looking up at him, she said, “Until now, I didn’t know what the ell stood for.”
“Ledge Burnet? Where did you dredge up that name?”
“I met him yesterday.”
“How did that come about?”
“I went in search of him at his place of business.”
“The pool hall?”
“Pool hall?”
Lisa laughed shortly. “Let’s back up and start over.”
After seeing Ledge Burnet off, Arden had replayed his visit in her mind several times and concluded that, although fear might have been an overreaction on her part, she did have reason to be leery of him.
He’d lied about learning through the grapevine that she had moved here from Houston. The only person who knew that was the OB to whom she had been referred by her doctor in Houston. His practice wasn’t even in Penton, but in the nearest larger city of Marshall. Neither he nor anyone on his staff would have disclosed patient information.
Someone else was Ledge Burnet’s informant. But who? And why would he be reluctant to identify him or her?
Then there was the matter of the door locks. He’d paid a lot of attention to their insufficiency.
That sudden move when he’d slammed the door behind her had been startling, but even when he was sitting perfectly still, his sheer physicality was intimidating.
On the flip side, she couldn’t think of a reason why he would be cruising nightly past her house. It had seemed to trouble him that someone had been. When he’d started his pickup truck as he’d left, the rumble of its engine wasn’t the one she heard each night.
Nevertheless, before awarding him the job, she wanted more information, and she had no one else to ask about him except Lisa. She’d needed to check in with her sister anyway. They hadn’t spoken for several days.
“If you’re talking about the boy I’m thinking of,” Lisa said, “he was riffraff.”
Boy? He was definitely no longer a boy. She also thought Lisa’s terminology was a bit over the top. “He said that he was beneath your notice.”
“I knew who he was, but only because of his reputation,” Lisa said. “His bad reputation. I think he was incarcerated at least once.”
“He must have turned things around at some point. He served in the military for years.”
“So he’s reformed and living in Penton?”
He was living in Penton. Arden wasn’t certain that he’d undergone a reformation. “What was that about a pool hall?”
“You should remember the place. We had to drive past it to get to Mabel’s.”
The family’s Friday night tradition had been having dinner at Mabel’s on the Lake. “All-you-can-eat catfish for twelve ninety-nine,” Arden murmured. “Mabel lost money on Dad. He could pack it away.”
Lisa laughed again. “We had some good times.”
Then their mother had been killed, and all that had changed.
After a short lull, Lisa said, “Anyway, Ledge Burnet. That beer joint that looks like it’s growing up out of the lake? It belongs to Ledge’s uncle. Or at least it did. It may have collapsed by now.”
“Burnet’s Bar and Billiards!” Arden exclaimed with sudden recollection. “He’s that Burnet?”
“He and his uncle lived on the premises.”
“Just the two of them? What about his parents?”
“God knows. I never heard mention of them. Only him and his uncle and that bar. Not exactly a healthy environment for a boy to grow up in, which I guess explains his brushes with the law.”
“He has his own business now.” Arden fingered the white business card with his name and contact information printed in a no-nonsense font in bold black ink. No flourishing logo. Nothing gimmicky. No frills. Very much like the man.
“What kind of business?”
Lisa’s question pulled her from musing over what the right kind of physique could do for a plain white shirt and blue jeans. “Uh, he’s a contractor. Of sorts.”
“Of what sort?”
“Carpentry. Home repairs.” She minimized the scope of the job, needing to work up to suggesting a c
omplete renovation. “He works alone.”
“You interviewed this former jailbird to do repairs on our house?”
“I didn’t know he was a former jailbird when I interviewed him.”
“Well, now that I’ve told you—”
“He told me. He was very straightforward about it.” Less straightforward about how he knew her recent history.
“He sounds like a glorified handyman,” Lisa said, “and he can’t be the only one in Penton.”
“No, but he’s affordable, and he comes highly recommended.”
That was a stretch. She’d obtained only one reference. She didn’t know just how affordable he was because she hadn’t yet seen his estimate. One could wonder then why she was trying to sell Lisa on him when she wasn’t sold herself.
“Arden,” Lisa said in the manner that always preceded a lament. “Please pack up and leave there. Tonight.”
“We’ve been over this. A thousand times.”
“I’ve done as you asked. I backed away and cut you some slack. I’ve tried to be understanding and supportive of your insistence on staying there. If that’s what you thought would make you happy, I wanted it to work out for you.”
“I feel a ‘however’ coming.”
“However, I’m afraid it will be—”
“Another venture doomed to failure.”
“The prospects aren’t looking good. For chrissake, you’re hiring a convict.”
“I haven’t decided on him.”
“What repairs are we talking about? How extensive will they be?”
“Update the plumbing. Replace some light fixtures. He’s going to come back to me with options, so nothing’s been decided yet.”
Lisa hesitated, then said quietly, “I could alleviate your having to decide anything.”
“That sounds like a veiled threat.”
“You could think of it that way, or you could think of it as my providing a safety net to prevent you from making another bad decision.”
“Out with it, Lisa.”
“The house is half mine. Plumbing, rewiring require city inspections. I don’t wish to become ensnared in civic red tape in that crappy town.”
It was as though Ledge had forecast that Lisa might take this position. “For twenty years you’ve ignored this house, but now that I’ve taken an interest in it, you’re up in arms.”
Lisa sighed. “You’re right. Never mind my personal aversion to that place. How costly will these repairs be?”
“I’ve received estimates that were over budget. Burnet hasn’t submitted his yet.”
“What was your budget?”
“That’s my business.”
“Are you dipping into your trust fund from Wallace? Or is your married boyfriend helping you financially?”
Arden saw red. “I’m hanging up now, Lisa, before we say things we’ll regret.”
“Hold on. I’m sorry. That was totally uncalled for.” She paused and took a breath. “I promise not to be so testy, if you’ll not be so hasty.”
“As I said, nothing’s been decided yet. I told Mr. Burnet that I would sleep on it and let him know tomorrow.”
“Do you really think he’s reputable?”
“He hasn’t given me a reason to think otherwise.”
“I’ve given you several.”
“You would judge him today based on what he did as a teenager? You, we, of all people should know how it feels to be looked upon with prejudgment and suspicion.”
“True, but I would feel better if I knew about his present standing in the community. Is he a stable and upstanding member of the community? Is he a member of the Chamber of Commerce? Is he married? Does he have a family?”
Arden didn’t have the answers to those questions.
Lisa was ahead of her. “I’ll see what I can find out about his current status.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.”
“I’ll be discreet. In the meantime, please promise me that you won’t sign a contract with him, or make a down payment, or do anything that will commit you. Not until we’ve had another chance to discuss it. I don’t want you to make another mistake.”
“If you’re referring to my baby, Lisa, she wasn’t a mistake.”
“I didn’t mean—”
But Arden hung up, too angry to listen to any more.
It was a lively place. Happy hour was in full swing. Brooks & Dunn were pumping through the speakers. There was noisy activity at all the billiards tables. Several men were clustered in front of a large-screen TV, watching a baseball game. At a table running along the far wall, a group of senior ladies, wearing feather boas and gaudy tiaras, were having a giggly, grand time.
Arden had to wait for several minutes before a barstool became free. She quickly claimed it. The bartender acknowledged her with a jerk of his chin as he filled two mugs with tapped beer. He swapped a few words with the couple he served, then made his way down the bar to her.
“Hi, there.” With a magician’s smooth skill, he removed the last patron’s glass and swiped the bar clean with a white towel. “First time in?”
“How did you know?”
“Because I’ve never seen you before, and I would remember. Welcome. My name’s Don.”
“A pleasure.” She didn’t give him her name, but she shook the hand he extended.
He slid a cardboard coaster in front of her. “What can I get you?”
She looked over at the table of ladies, who were laughing so hard, several were dabbing tears from their eyes. “Birthday party?” she asked.
He grinned. “Bachelorette party. The one with the spangles on her blouse is the bride. She’s getting married on Saturday.”
Arden laughed. “First marriage?”
“Second. She and the groom have known each other since they were kids. Married, had families, lost their mates a year apart. Found new love.”
“That’s certainly something to celebrate. Pour me a glass of the same wine.”
He winked. “I’ll pour you a better one.”
He removed a bottle of wine from the refrigerator under the back bar and showed her the label. Although she didn’t recognize it, she nodded approval. He poured enough for her to sample. “Light, crisp and very good,” she said. “Thank you.”
He filled her glass, but, after checking to see that he wasn’t needed by another customer, he stayed. “Are you with the naturalists group?”
She shook her head.
“There’s a two-day symposium on ecosystems and conservation going on over at the civic center. I thought maybe you might be in town for that.”
“No.”
“You live here or roundabouts?”
“I’ve been here for a few months. I’ve considered making it permanent.”
“I hope you do, and that you become a regular customer.”
“It looks as though you don’t lack for—”
She spotted the framed photograph on the back bar, and it stopped her cold. The bartender turned his head, then came back around. “If it was enlarged it would look like a movie poster, wouldn’t it?”
“A Mad Max movie.”
He chuckled. “That’s the owner’s nephew. Without all the gear, he looks only a little ferocious. In fact, ladies of all ages pine after him.”
Arden took a sip of wine. “What does his wife think of that?”
“He’s never married. Soldiered for a long time, then when he got home, there were other things to see to. Top off that glass?”
“No, I’m fine, thank you.”
“Let me know when you need another.” He excused himself to attend two men in angler hats who’d just come in. He called them by name and asked if they’d had any luck on the lake.
Well, she’d had one of Lisa’s questions about Ledge answered. Although Lisa had probably learned Ledge Burnet’s marital status before she had.
“Excuse me?”
Arden turned. One of the ladies from the bachelorette party was standing behind her, smil
ing tentatively. “Ms. Maxwell? I thought it was you.”
Arden regarded her for several moments before recognition dawned. Gray hair. A blue-and-white-striped shirt. Pleasant face and kind eyes. “You’re the lady who helped me in the store.”
“I wasn’t sure you would remember me.” She smiled and stuck out her hand. “Lois Miller.”
Arden shook her hand, then clasped it between hers. “I remember how extremely kind you were that day.”
“I didn’t learn who you were until after.” She paused as though about to say more before thinking better of it. Arden was relieved she didn’t bring up her family or her return to Penton.
“I’m glad you came over and introduced yourself, Mrs. Miller. I’ve regretted not knowing how to contact you so I could thank you.”
“I was so sorry to hear about your baby. I wish there was something I could have done to—”
“There was nothing to be done. It couldn’t have been prevented. Your presence of mind and kindness were very helpful.”
“Oh, I didn’t do anything. Not like that young woman who calmed you down with deep breathing.”
“She was dressed in yoga clothes. I would like to thank her, too. Do you know who she is?”
“No. I’m sorry, I don’t.” She looked remorseful, then her face brightened, and she motioned to the picture on the back bar. “Ledge was the only person there I recognized.”
Arden’s insides went into a free fall. Stunned, she divided a look between the photograph and the well-meaning woman’s smiling face. “Ledge?” said huskily.
“Ledge Burnet. The soldier in the picture. This is his uncle Henry’s place.”
“Yes. The bar…bartender told me who he is.” She swallowed dryly. “He was in the store that day? Are you sure?”
The older woman gave Arden an odd look. “Well, yes, honey. I can’t claim to be closely acquainted with Ledge, but he’s hard to mistake. And he was right there the whole time. It was him holding you till the paramedics arrived.”
He was there? Holding her?
“I thought for sure you would remember him.”
Absently, Arden shook her head. “No.” Holding her?
“Well, with what you were going through, that’s understandable.” She reflected a moment. “He was ready to throttle a man who took your picture on his cell phone. After they wheeled you out, Ledge bore down on him, dropped a few f-bombs, and threatened to stuff his phone where the sun don’t shine. He hung around, too, with several of us, waiting till we got word. Again, I’m very sorry.”