Moonlight Warrior

by Janet Chapman

  “I’d be uncomfortable leaving Mom alone all evening.”

  “Daar will be with her.”

  Eve shot him a crooked smile. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but Father Daar is older than God. He can barely watch himself.”

  “I have something I wish to discuss with you, and dinner would be…” He stopped, then suddenly blew out a breath. “Here’s the thing. For the last four months, my sort-of sister-in-law has been after me to go on an actual date with a woman.”

  “As opposed to with a man?”

  He scowled.

  Eve smiled and folded her hands in her lap. “Sorry. So why is your sort-of sister-in-law bugging you to go on an date?”

  “Because it’s…been a few years for me.”

  At first she thought he was using the worst come-on line on the planet, but he looked so uncomfortable, she began to rethink that. There was also the fact that her heart wasn’t just beating a little faster, it was practically racing at the prospect of spending an evening alone with him. Hell, she should accept if only to put them both out of their misery.

  It would certainly make Maddy deliriously happy.

  And there was the added bonus of pissing off Susan.

  “Exactly how many years?”

  “I’ve lost count.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “So can I call Camry and tell her I have a date tomorrow evening? Because I’m fairly sure that if she doesn’t hear from me soon, she’ll show up in Midnight Bay without warning.”

  “Camry?”

  “Camry MacKeage. My brother is married to her sister.”

  “Okay,” she said, feeling quite empowered by her decision not to let Parker turn her into a victim. “You can tell your sort-of sister-in-law you’ve got a date. That is, if Maddy can watch Mom tomorrow night.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. So what is it you wish to discuss with me over dinner?”

  “Our living arrangement.”

  Damn. He was getting tired of sleeping under the stars and was going to kick them out. “Is it about to change?”

  “Not if you accept my offer of employment.”

  Eve pretty near fell off her stool. “You’re offering me a job?”

  “It’s really no more than what you’ve been doing, with a few added duties.”

  Now there was a word she loved to hear from a man. “What sort of duties?”

  “I would appreciate it if you could wash my and Daar’s clothes when you wash your own. And if you could pack us a lunch before you leave in the morning, it would certainly make my day easier. It seems I just get working on something and have to stop to cook lunch. Small duties like that. It shouldn’t take up much of your time.”

  “You’re offering me a job as your housekeeper?”

  He stiffened. “It’s honest work.”

  “I didn’t mean to imply that it wasn’t. You just surprised me, is all.”

  “It’s my intention to make An Tèarmann into a working farm again, and I could use some help.”

  “An Tèarmann?”

  “It’s Gaelic for ‘the Sanctuary.’”

  “An Tèarmann,” she repeated, trying it out. “I like that. What kind of working farm? As in chickens and pigs and cows, or timber cutting?”

  His eyes started gleaming again. “As in horses. And I’ll probably get some chickens and a milk cow. Can ye make butter?”

  “Nope, I can’t say that I can.” Eve slipped off the stool and walked around the counter. “Maybe Camry could teach me, when she pops in to check on you.”

  He chuckled at that. “I doubt Camry has ever seen a butter churn. She’s a scientist for NASA. So will you accept my offer?”

  “To be your housekeeper? I need some time to think about it, Mr. Gregor.”

  “Are ye going to call me Mr. Gregor on our date tomorrow evening?” he asked, his eyes crinkled with amusement.

  “I suppose that would depend on whether or not you’re my boss tomorrow evening.”

  He touched her arm, all traces of amusement gone. “I just want to be your date tomorrow night, Eve,” he said softly. “It seems like a hundred years since I’ve enjoyed the company of a beautiful woman.”

  Oh God, she hated it when men said things like that. She always got weak in the knees and was tempted to throw herself at them. Instead of foisting this handsome giant on unsuspecting women, Camry MacKeage should have plastered a warning label on his chest.

  “Okay, Kenzie, a simple date it is.”

  She wasn’t sure, but she thought he let out a sigh of relief as he looked around the store. “Where’s Mabel?”

  “She’s at the library. I was just going to call over there and check on her. She’s been gone three hours, although that’s not unusual for her. Get Mom anywhere near books, and she loses all track of time.”

  “I have the same problem,” he said, heading toward the door. “Point me to the library, and I’ll go check on her. If Mabel is game, I’ll take her to lunch before I bring her back here. Which way?” he asked, looking down the sidewalk.

  Eve stepped onto the sidewalk beside him and pointed toward the center of town. “See that gray granite building? That’s the library.”

  “And a good place for lunch?”

  “The Port of Call has great seafood,” she said, pointing to the restaurant next to the bank. “Mom loves their clams.”

  “Then that’s where I’ll take her. Can we bring ye back something?”

  “No, I packed us each a sandwich. I’ll just eat both.” She touched his arm. “Thank you for taking Mom to lunch. It’s been months since she’s eaten out.”

  His gaze dropped to her hand on his arm, then back at her. “I believe that’s what friends do for each other, and Mabel and I became friends the day I arrived in Midnight Bay.”

  Eve watched him walk away, not moving until he scaled the library steps two at a time and disappeared inside. She finally walked back into her store, trying to decide if agreeing to go out with him had been wise, or if she had just added one more item to her list of problems.

  At least Maddy would have to stop bugging her about having an affair with him. Because if she took him up on his job offer, she couldn’t very well sleep with her boss, now could she?

  Chapter Seven

  “Are teachers required to be prudes?” Maddy asked, rocketing her compact SUV around a sharp curve. “Hell-o? This is the twenty-first century. Of course you can sleep with your boss. Women have been doing it since we lived in caves.” She guided them through an S-turn, then accelerated out of it at what seemed like Mach One. “I thought the whole point of woman’s lib was to make sleeping with the boss a sociably acceptable form of courtship.”

  “I am not a prude.”

  Maddy glanced over at Eve, her expression downright scary. “So help me God, if you come home tomorrow night and you’re still wearing your panties, I swear I’ll never speak to you again.”

  Eve braced herself as another curve raced toward them. “When was the last time you got laid, anyway? You’re showing signs of excessive estrogen buildup.”

  “Excessive estrogen buildup?” Maddy repeated with a throaty chuckle. “Is that what they call it in Boston?”

  “That’s the technical term for ‘the hornies.’ So when was your last date?”

  Maddy brought them to an abrupt halt at an intersection, turned left, and shot off again. “We’re not discussing my love life; we’re discussing yours, and that sexy man you just bought that push-up bra for. If it really has been years for the poor guy, then it’s your duty to jump his sex-starved bones.”

  “There’s that wonderful word again. Should I perform this particular duty before or after dinner?”

  “After, of course,” Maddy said with another laugh. “You’ll need the fuel. Kenzie Gregor is definitely an all-nighter kind of guy. Maybe Sarah and I should bring our pajamas when we babysit Mabel.”

  “God, you’re scary. Look out!” Eve shouted, bracing her hands on
the dash when she spotted something huge in the road.

  Maddy slammed on the brakes and all four wheels locked, causing the SUV to go into a tire-screeching skid. They hit the soft shoulder of the road and the truck bounced into the ditch, the front bumper plowing into the gravel bank and plunging them into darkness. The engine clanked to a stop, enveloping them in eerie black silence.

  “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Maddy shouted, beating the steering wheel with her fist.

  “The ABS brakes didn’t work.” Eve rubbed her forehead. “And why in hell didn’t the air bags go off?”

  “Because this piece of shit is ten years old, and half the idiot lights on the dash have been blinking for the last six months.”

  “Why didn’t you get it serviced?”

  “Do you have any idea what it costs to even talk to a mechanic? I’ve been trying to save up enough money to get new brakes. Are you okay?”

  “I’m not bleeding and everything works, so I must be. You?”

  Maddy gave a humorless laugh that ended in a sniffle. “I hurt my hand when I beat on the steering wheel. What was that in the road? A bear?”

  “Too big. It must have been a moose.”

  “Um, did it seem to you like it…flew off?” Maddy whispered into the darkness.

  “Moose can’t fly.”

  “It had wings.”

  “Those had to be antlers.”

  “Moose don’t have antlers this time of year. So, what do we do now? That thing might still be out there. What if it’s what ate that bear?”

  “It was a moose,” Eve insisted.

  “Okay then, you get out and walk to the nearest house.”

  “Where’s your cell phone?”

  “They cut off my service yesterday. I can’t get it back until I cough up a hundred and forty bucks. Where’s yours?”

  “In storage in Ellsworth. I canceled my Boston service and didn’t replace it. We could just sit here until someone comes along, though that might not be until the fishermen head out in the morning. Why did you take the back way from Oak Harbor?”

  Maddy blew out a sigh. “Because I wanted to stay off the main road. My inspection sticker ran out and I can’t get a new one until I get new brakes.”

  “Well, we can’t sit here all night. How about if on the count of three, we both open our doors and get out?”

  “We can’t see a damn thing when the moon goes behind the clouds. One minute we’re surrounded by creepy shadows, and the next minute it’s pitch black.”

  “Maybe the truck will start and we can back out. Or is the four-wheel drive broken, too?”

  Maddy turned the key and the starter whined. The engine coughed and clanked but didn’t sputter to life.

  She continued trying until Eve reached over and grabbed her hand. “We’re going to have to walk.”

  “But what if that beast is still out there?” Maddy whispered. “It ate a bear, Eve.”

  “We saw a moose. It had giant antlers, and it leapt into the woods. That’s what you’re going to tell the sheriff when you report the accident, and that’s what you’re going to tell the insurance company when you file your claim.”

  “I can’t report this to anyone. My insurance ran out two months ago, which means if the sheriff gets involved, I’ll get a huge fine for not having an inspection sticker or insurance.” Maddy buried her face in her hands. “God, I’m screwed. I am so damn tired of holding everything together. Between Rick and Mom always butting heads, and Sarah needing attention, and work, sometimes I just want to walk into the woods where no one can hear me and scream.”

  Eve unfastened her seat belt and hugged her friend. “I know what you mean. I tell you what. We’ll get out, scream as loud as we can, and we’ll keep screaming the whole way to the nearest house. It’ll be cathartic, and also scare the bejeezus out of whatever that animal was. On the count of three, okay?”

  “Okay. One, two, three.”

  Eve opened her door and scrambled up the ditch to the back of the truck to meet Maddy—who wasn’t there. She stumbled to the driver’s side and banged on the window. “Get out!”

  “I can’t. My door won’t open.”

  Eve kept her glare firmly locked on Maddy, afraid of what she might see in the shadows if she looked around. “Then get out my side.”

  As Maddy crawled across to the other door, Eve scrambled back up the ditch and around to the other side. “Do you have a flashlight?” she asked as Maddy got out.

  “My dad always said that you shouldn’t walk the woods at night with a light. It attracts animals.”

  “I am so going to kill you.”

  Maddy gave a somewhat hysterical laugh. “Then you’d be out here all alone. Okay, let’s scream, so that thing will be more afraid of us than we are of it. One, two, three!”

  Eve screamed at the top of her lungs, only to be rendered deaf when Maddy screamed even louder.

  “God, that felt good,” Maddy said when they both stopped screaming. “Let’s do it again. Wait!” She crawled back in the truck to rummage around in the backseat. “Yes!” she cried as she backed out. “I couldn’t remember if I still had this or not.” She shoved a tall bottle at Eve. “It’s spiced rum. Take a drink.”

  “Straight? You don’t have any soda we can mix with it?”

  “Just take a swallow. It’ll calm your nerves for our walk.”

  Eve twisted off the cap, took a large swig, and immediately started coughing.

  Maddy grabbed the bottle from her and did the same. “Holy shit, that’s strong,” she said with a gasp. She took another swig and shoved the bottle back at Eve. “If we drink enough, we won’t care if that was a lion we almost hit.”

  “Lions don’t fly, either,” Eve said, taking another gulp, which actually went down a bit smoother this time.

  “So you’re admitting it flew away?”

  Eve stepped onto the road and took another swallow before handing the bottle to Maddy. “We’re not telling anyone what we saw. Not that anyone would believe us, anyway. It had to have been a hairless moose that forgot to shed its antlers last winter.”

  Maddy linked her arm through Eve’s. “Okay. That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it. Which way do we walk?”

  “That way,” Eve said, pointing toward the way they’d been heading. “I don’t remember seeing any houses for the last couple of miles. But let’s get our purses first—I have a canister of Mace in mine.”

  “You carry Mace?” Maddy said in surprise, following Eve down to the truck.

  “People frown on schoolteachers carrying handguns,” she said, reaching inside and grabbing both their purses, as well as the fancy shopping bag she’d gotten in Oak Harbor. She’d be damned if she was leaving her new bra behind after using the last of her cash to buy it. She handed Maddy’s purse to her in exchange for the bottle. “In fact, Massachusetts frowns on anyone carrying a gun.”

  Maddy giggled. “I can’t imagine why. Let’s scream again.”

  “One, two, three,” Eve blurted in a rush.

  They both screamed loud enough to wake the dead, and long enough that their voices cracked.

  “Okay, now I’m ready,” Maddy said, looping her arm through Eve’s again and heading down the road. “Are you going to hog that bottle all night, or—What’s that!” she screamed, dragging Eve to the side of the road.

  The faint outline of a small furry creature waddled through the shadows a hundred yards up the road. It stepped into the moonlight, and Eve saw two distinctive white stripes running down its back and up its large fluffy tail.

  “It’s a skunk,” she whispered. “Maybe screaming is like having a flashlight, and it attracts animals, too. Let’s just walk quietly.” She took a swig of the spiced rum and handed the bottle to Maddy. “I’m all screamed out, anyway. I think that last one broke a vocal cord.”

  “The rum will heal it.”

  They fell silent after that, walking together arm in arm, taking turns drinking from the bottle. Fifteen minutes later,
Maddy started humming softly.

  “Are you humming that song from the Wizard of Oz?”

  “Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my,” Maddy whispered with a giggle. “I can’t help it. It seems appropriate.”

  Now the song was stuck in Eve’s head. “When was your last date?” she asked to distract herself.

  “Does going to a bar in Ellsworth last November and getting so drunk that I picked up a guy count?”

  “Did you sleep with him?”

  Maddy took another drink of the rum. “I am such a slut.”

  Eve hugged her to her side when she stumbled. “You’re not a slut, you’re just lonely. Did you ever see him again?”

  “He called me the next day and I met him for dinner a few days after that, but the guy couldn’t have been twenty! He must have used his brother’s ID to get in the bar. I nearly died when he sat down across from me in the restaurant. That’s when I swore I’d never, ever drink again,” she declared, lifting the bottle to her lips.

  Eve found that hilariously funny. They both started laughing so hard, Maddy stumbled and Eve nearly fell trying to grab her.

  “The bottle!” Maddy shouted. “Don’t let it fall!”

  Eve saved the rum and her friend. “I am a hero!” she cried, lifting the bottle in victory. “I saved you both! See, we don’t need a man to ride in and rescue us. We’re rescuing ourselves!”

  “But Kenzie is sooo cute. Won’t you sleep with him anyway? Please? For me? I’ll be in your debt for life!”

  Eve started them weaving down the road again. “Why don’t you sleep with him? You’re beautiful and smart and horny, and you’re gainfully employed. You should go after Kenzie yourself.”

  “But you’re beautifuler and smarter and hornier than I am,” Maddy proclaimed, waving the hand that held her purse and accidently smacking Eve. “And you’re gamely employed now, too. Tomorrow night you’re going to officially become Kenzie Gregor’s housekeeper.” She snickered. “And the job comes with a very full benefits package, I happened to notice the other day.”