“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “Val says I’m overreacting.”
“Val’s right. But then again when is your wife wrong?” Kendra teased, and the Sheriff chuckled. “Look, give the boy a chance. Get to know him. Talk to him about it all. And I don’t mean as the Sheriff or even as Joanie’s dad, but as another man who loves her. I think you’ll realize that he’s good for her and you have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not sure I can accept him yet,” he said, and Kendra knew that this was hard for the man. Joanie was the apple of his eye, and everyone knew how excited the Sheriff was about the prospect that she’d be able to make something of herself. Something much more than the Sheriff had dreamed of for her life.
“Tell you what,” she said as she reached forward for his hand, “how about you let him fix that lock of yours?”
“What lock?” he asked in confusion.
“The one in the jail. Ask Mark to fix it for you, and while he’s doing so take some time to talk to the boy. I think it might be easier to accept him than you think,” she said with another pat on his arm as she saw Betsy waving at her, then got herself up to serve food to the other customers. “Think about it,” she added before walking to the counter.
“What’s going on with Bobby?” Betsy asked.
“Worried about Mark and Joanie.”
“When ain’t he?” she said with a smile.
“Ah, but this time he was looking for advice,” Kendra said with a wide smile and watched as Betsy’s eyebrows rose.
“Well, that’s progress.”
“With any luck that jail door might be fixed before we know it,” Kendra said with a wink, and Betsy laughed.
“And you think you ain’t no good with relationships,” Betsy said with a shake of her head, and Kendra’s smile fell. Betsy noticed but instead of saying anything just pushed two plates towards her, “Jim and Curly.”
“Thanks,” she said as she picked them up and headed towards the table with the two men seated at it. “Here you go, boys,” she said with a smile and then headed off to the newcomer’s table where he was sitting and watching her.
“Morning, Kendra,” he said, and Kendra just nodded at him while getting out her pad and pencil.
“What can I get ya, Nick?” she asked and waited for his order.
“You always this busy in the morning?” he asked as he glanced about, and Kendra nodded.
“Farming country means hearty appetites.”
“I would have thought that they’d be better off eating at home.”
“Granville’s kinda different in that regards,” she explained. “All the houses are set up near the town center, the land radiates out from there instead of having the home set up in the middle of the land.”
“That seems kinda strange,” he mused, and Kendra shrugged.
“Good for business though,” she said. “So what do you want this morning then?”
“I wouldn’t mind trying some of those famous blueberry pancakes of Betsy’s that everyone keeps recommending.”
“Bacon with them?”
“Not this morning. I’m still pretty full from dinner last night. And that amazing pie she was serving.”
“Ah, you liked the Mississippi Mud Pie then?” she asked in amusement.
“That woman is an angel when it comes to baking. I mean her pies are usually amazing but this was stunning. I’ll have to snag her recipe for my mom,” he said in amusement, and Kendra’s smile widened.
“You might not want to do that,” she confided.
“Oh?” he asked with a raised brow. “Why not?”
“Because any pies that Betsy makes with chocolate are truly hideous,” she said with a smile.
“What? No they’re not.”
“Oh, trust me. They are,” Kendra said before turning around and heading back to the woman in question before handing over Nick’s order.
“What did you say to confuse that man so much?” Betsy said with a smile.
“Just informing him of your ineptitude when it comes to chocolate products,” Kendra said with a smile.
“He thought I made the pie last night then,” Betsy surmised and laughed as Kendra’s smile widened. “I take it that you didn’t inform him that it was your handiwork?”
“Where would be the fun in that? Let’s see him puzzle it all out, shall we?” Kendra said before grabbing up the coffee-pots again and heading back to mingle with the customers.
“Mapiya!” a booming voice said, and she snapped her head up to see a man in the doorway. Putting the pots down, she ran to greet him, flinging herself at him, and into his solid embrace.
“Falling Eagle,” she said as she clung onto the older man. “What brings you into town?” she asked as she moved back to look over him. “You haven’t aged a day,” she declared.
“Well, you have,” he said bluntly, and she smiled more widely at him. “You’re not getting any younger. Time to marry,” he declared, and Kendra just laughed at him while shaking her head.
“Why are you in town? Especially at this time?”
“To see you, Mapiya,” he said as he looked down at her in earnest. “You haven’t been to see me,” he reprimanded with a frown, and Kendra smiled at him.
“The wind hasn’t blown me over your way yet, Falling Eagle.”
“The wind never blows you, Mapiya, you make your own way in the world. Stubborn. That’s what you are.”
“Most definitely. As stubborn as a mule,” another voice said from the side, and Kendra looked over at the handsome young man there before flinging herself at him as well.
Mitchell watched the scene taking place in the doorway of the diner and felt a pang of unease at the sight. This was going to complicate matters. Kendra clearly had strong bonds in this small community. People who cared for her deeply.
He’d seen her interactions with the rest of the patrons, and as much as he’d figured out that she’d been travelling for a year, apparently that didn’t matter to these folk. They hadn’t forgotten her. They’d been genuinely happy to see her. You wouldn’t even guess that she’d spent the past twelve months backpacking across Europe. It was as though she’d never been away.
When Mitchell had first found out where Kendra was heading, he hadn’t realized that the place had become her home, the people her family. He was starting to though. She wasn’t as alone as he’d thought he’d find her. Which meant that things weren’t going to be so straightforward and clean cut.
Especially not with the new man on the scene.
Watching the Native American grabbing tightly onto Kendra, Mitchell realized that things were most definitely complicated. He’d been banking on ingratiating himself to the woman, getting her to trust him and rely on him. If another man was about, then that job was going to be considerably harder.
Suddenly Mitchell remembered the conversation that had occurred the night he’d arrived. This must be the pair that they’d been talking about. Falling Eagle and Growling Bear. The man who wanted to marry Kendra and his father who wanted his son to marry her as well.
Taking in the display and the people there, he realized that it was true. The younger man clearly held Kendra in some sort of affection, the admiration in his eyes was undeniable. Mitchell also thought back to Kendra’s comment on the situation, the fact that she thought that Growling Bear could do better than her, or rather that he couldn’t do any worse.
He hadn’t thought much of her comments before, but he thought he understood now. She respected the man, enough to think that he should be with someone better than her. Mitchell wasn’t sure when Kendra’s confidence had been so affected, whether it had been growing up poor with a single mom and not much to their name, or whether the unexpected knowledge about her parents had changed her self-belief, but she clearly didn’t have a particularly high opinion of herself.
As the trio in the doorway continued to smile and talk to each other Mitchell looked over at where Betsy was taking in the scene with a s
mile on her face. Clearly the woman thought that Kendra was in the right place with the other men, and Mitchell knew he had another problem ahead of him. He wouldn’t be getting any help from Betsy’s quarters.
Not knowing where to go from here, he sat back and tried to think over his options. He needed to get to know Kendra, needed to make sure that she trusted him. Needed to be able to bend her to his way of thinking.
Which meant that he needed to become a part of her life. A very big part of her life. With a tingle of anticipation and a squelch of his conscience shouting at him, Mitchell made his decision. He was going to pursue Kendra Wilcox. He was going to pursue her and then finish this job. Simple.
Chapter Four
“You’re still here then?” the feminine voice asked down at him, and Mitchell smiled up at Kendra as she stood to the side of his table.
“Looks that way, doesn’t it?” he replied, and she narrowed her eyes at him.
“I still don’t understand why,” she said with a hand on her hip as she cocked her head to take him in. “There really isn’t anything here to lull in tourists.”
“I wouldn’t say that. I’d say Betsy’s Mississippi Mud Pie’s a pretty good reason,” he said with a smile, and she smiled back as a twinkle entered her eyes.
“Betsy’s mud pie would poison any tourists. If Walter doesn’t get them first,” she said in amusement.
“I don’t understand what you have against her pie. It’s delicious,” he said with a frown and couldn’t understand the sparkle in her eye as she just shrugged.
“If you say so. But that doesn’t explain why you’re still here,” she said as she finally got out her order pad.
“For lunch,” he said in reply. He’d been here a week now and wasn’t any closer to his goals.
“Uh huh. Which’ll be?”
“Just give me the special,” he replied as he took her in. “Do you ever have a day off?” he asked, and she looked at him cautiously.
“What for?” she asked.
“To have some time to yourself. Do what you want. Get out and about on your own,” he explained and watched as she stiffened before shrugging nonchalantly.
“Like I said. There isn’t really anything to do ‘round these parts so there really wouldn’t be any need to, now would there?” she said with a smile before moving to head off.
“We could find something to do,” he shouted out at her, and she stopped in her tracks before turning back around to address him.
“Listen, Nick, I have no idea what’s going on here, but I think you may have the wrong idea about me,” she said seriously, and he waited to hear what she meant by that. “I know I woke up on your couch once before, which obviously meant that I willingly went back to your place with you that night,” she said in a whisper down at him. “But that isn’t me, okay? I don’t go back to guy’s places. Not guys I do know and especially not ones that I don’t. I’d had a rough day that day, that was all. So if you think there’s likely to be a repeat performance, it’s not going to happen. So you’d be better off just heading off to wherever your next stop is and finding easier prey there,” she finished, and Mitchell looked at her with wide eyes.
When she went to move away again he snagged her wrist and pulled her towards him gently.
“That’s what you think this is about?” he asked with a furrowed brow and watched as she wrapped her arms around herself before shrugging.
“What is it about then?”
“I happened to be in the area,” he said, with only a pang at deceiving her. “When I saw you again I thought it would be nice to spend some time together. I enjoyed our time together that day. Strange, I know, but there was something about you that stuck in my head. I’d like to get to know you better. Not so that I can sleep with you, but so that I can see if there’s a reason that I didn’t forget you. I promise that I’m not going to try to seduce you, okay?”
“I still don’t understand. You didn’t even recognize me at first.”
“You look kinda different, it’s been two years, and I honestly didn’t expect to find you in a little town in the middle of nowhere where I happened to be passing through,” he said, feeling an even bigger pang at the many lies he’d just told her.
Sighing, she looked around herself before focusing on him and saying, “Look, Nick, that time wasn’t exactly the best for me, and I don’t really want to be constantly reminded of it.”
“I won’t bring it up again,” he hastily said. “We can pretend that we’ve just met. Two strangers who want a chance to get to know each other,” he tried before sticking out his hand towards her. “Hi, my name’s Nick Clifton, it’s nice to meet you. And you are?”
When he saw a slight twitch of her lips he felt a small measure of relief. “Kendra Wilcox,” she replied while putting her own hand out and shaking his.
“Now, Kendra. Would you by any chance have any time free to spend with a lonely stranger?” he tried with a smile and watched as she blushed slightly before shaking her head at his antics.
“Maybe,” she said with a shrug and a teasing glint in her eye, and Mitchell smiled widely at her while feeling a frisson of excitement. He had a feeling that that excitement wasn’t just because he was getting somewhere with his job but brushed it aside. If he started to think of this as real, he’d be in danger of not completing his mission.
If he started to care for Kendra more than he did, he wouldn’t be effective, and those pangs of guilt would start to interfere. No, he needed to make sure that he kept emotions out of all of this. He needed to do what he was hired to. That was all.
Walking away from Nick, Kendra noticed Betsy watching her with curiosity.
“What was that about?” the older woman asked with a smile.
Shrugging, Kendra replied, “Nick asked me out.”
“You said yes?” Betsy asked.
“I said ‘maybe’.”
“What do you wanna do though?” Betsy asked, and Kendra thought over that. Shooting a glance over her shoulder at the man there, she shrugged.
“I’m not sure. I’m not even sure that I’m ready for anything with somebody,” she confessed, and Betsy squeezed her hand softly.
“If you’re interested, then maybe’s that’s your inner self telling you that you are ready, Kenny.”
“You think? You think I should give it a go?”
“It’s not like he’s asking you to marry him, right? Just to go out on a date. Go, have fun, see what happens. Why not?” she said with a shrug of her own.
“I’m scared, Bets,” Kendra confessed quietly to the other woman.
“Of?”
“Falling for somebody,” she said, and Betsy’s eyebrows rose.
“It seems a mite early to be worried about that, you ain’t even had a date yet.”
“There’s something about him,” Kendra confided. “I don’t know what it is. But there’s something that I feel drawn to. I can’t explain it. And it scares me. I mean look at my mom, Bets. She’s been in love for over twenty years with the same man. She fell in love and ruined her life by doing so.”
“No, Kenny, your mom ruined her life because she let the man go, not because she loved him. Love didn’t turn her into a single penniless mother who was kicked out of her house by her parents when they found out, it was her own decisions and actions which did that.”
“She loved him so much that she put us in that situation,” Kendra said in defense of her mother, surprising herself at the words. She’d been angry at her mom for the past two years but she was starting to see things from her perspective for once.
“Not everybody who falls in love has their life destroyed by it, Kenny,” Betsy consoled.
“But what if I’m just like her? I don’t really know how to love properly, Bets. I don’t know how to do relationships. Bloody hell,” she said as she cradled herself with her arms around herself. “Is it even fair to be with someone when I have a daily struggle with myself?” she asked with sad eyes.
“Go out once. See what happens. Leave the doubts behind and see how things go. For all you know the whole date’ll be a bust and you won’t ever want to see each other again.”
“Or I fall in love and something happens, sending me back into that comforting bottle again.”
“Stop it,” Betsy said harshly, and Kendra looked up at the older woman. “Go. Have fun. See what happens. Give yourself a chance at life, Kenny. But before you do that, serve our customers,” she said with a smile, and Kendra smiled at the uplifting woman as she pushed over a plate of food.
With a smile, Kendra headed over to one of the other tables to get back on with work. She could think about Nick and what it all meant later on. Right now she had other things to concentrate on.
* * *
“Thought any more about my question?” Mitchell asked as Kendra came back with his bill for him to pay.
“Which question?” she teased, and he smiled widely at her.
“Oh, you are making me work for this, aren’t you?” he replied, and she smiled back at him.
“Don’t they say the reward is sweeter when you work harder for it?”
“Am I getting a reward?” he asked with a raised brow.
“Not sure I’d classify it as such, but sure, you want to do something then I can get tomorrow night off,” she said as she scooped up his money.
“Tomorrow night, huh?” he said as she went to turn, and she looked over her shoulder at him. “Where do I pick you up?”
“Upstairs,” she said with a smile. “There’s an outside staircase that leads to my door. If you want to do something, be around by seven,” she said with another shrug, and Mitchell smiled while shaking his head at her. She was something else.
Shaking away the thought, he concentrated on his grand scheme. He knew that it would take more than one date to get Kendra softened up enough to listen to him, which meant that he’d need to make sure that he impressed her enough that she’d go out with him again.
Masks and Lies Page 4