The flippant grin formed over his mouth again. “I was flattered, honey, but she’s way too young for me.”
“That wouldn’t stop some men,” she said, putting the papers in the bag. “My father’s wife is only eight years older than me.”
“Really? Lucky guy.” He grabbed the bag from her hand without her consent and stepped back to allow her to pass. “My father’s wife is my mother.”
“My parents got a divorce when I was sixteen.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Bitterness filled her chest. “Don’t be, Adam, it was the best thing to happen to them. All they did was fight.”
Silence followed them out the door of the classroom, only to be broken up later by a series of loudly whispered words and riotous laughter. Jen ignored the males standing near the front entrance, ignored the cowboy’s pointed glance at her face.
A black Ford truck blocked her steps a moment later, and she stopped at the unopened door of the vehicle. She sensed Adam’s interest rather than saw it, yet she sensed his unease over the whole situation too.
Looking back to him, she stared at his lowered cowboy hat. He hadn’t bothered to take it off this time. She liked it on him. “You must be wondering what those boys were…joking about.”
“I guessed,” he said. “I just can’t understand why you would let them degrade you like that. You should report them to the…whoever takes care of that kind of thing here.”
“It wouldn’t do any good.”
“And why in the hell wouldn’t it?” he asked hotly. “Isn’t it the job of the administrative staff to keep their teacher from being abused?”
She jerked against the side of the truck at his angry tone. “I’m all right, Adam. I only have to put up with the bullshit until December, then I’ll be free of the school.”
“I don’t understand you.”
Placing her hand on his arm, she caressed her fingers over his cloth-covered bicep. Female giggling forced her hand away from him, turning her to the opening door of the truck. She didn’t say a word as he threw her bag into the cab and waited for her to slide in behind it. He closed the door and trotted to the opposite side, starting the car and spinning the wheel as he raced out of the parking lot.
Jen smiled. “I appreciate your concern, Adam, but getting in an accident won’t do either of us any good.”
He glared at her before easing up on the gas. A moment later he pulled into the lot of a little diner at the end of the street and lowered his head to the steering wheel. The cowboy hat sank low on his forehead, hiding all but the curve of his cheek and his strong chin from her view.
“Adam?”
As she watched, a smile started to form around his fierce frown and he got out of the vehicle with an easy grace, walking around to open her door. “Well, are you going to eat with me or what?”
“Yes.” She swung her legs out but before she could stand he crouched in front of her. “Hey!”
One of his hands reached up to grip the side of the door, his other hand curving softly around her shivering neck muscles. “If I promise to be a good boy and not get all riled up, will you tell me what’s going on?”
“It’s nothing,” she said, trembling at his nearness. “It’s just a big misunderstanding that got out of hand.”
“Are the accusations true?”
Her temper jerked her back straight and she clasped her fingers into a fist. “Are you asking me if I’ve had sex with one of my male students?”
He moved his hand from her neck and eased back with his arms lifted in the air in a defensive gesture. “Sorry, that came out the wrong way.”
Jen pushed at his awkwardly angled body, covering her mouth as he fell backward onto his perfect tight butt, into a wet pile of plowed snow. She stood from the car and frowned at his grinning face. “Stop laughing. I hear enough of that from my colleagues and students. I don’t need it from you too.”
“Sorry.” The grin widened. “I’m truly sorry.”
“Bullshit!”
His gruff laughter sang out in the parking lot.
A couple stepped out of the diner and stared at the two of them, turning from Adam’s horizontal body to Jen’s fiercely straight one. The woman smiled in her direction and nodded before following her guy to a car a few spots away from them. Jen could hear her soft laughter in the brisk October wind blowing across the unblocked space.
“Oh, get up.” She offered Adam her hand, fighting a rush of heat flowing up her arm when he grabbed it and stood up with an easy grace. “You look like an idiot sitting in that pile of snow.”
“You pushed me, Jen.” His grin was back again. “I owe you one.”
“Don’t even think of pushing me into a snow bank.”
He stared at her while brushing off the seat of his jeans. “But I’m wondering if you’ll know when I’m about ready to do it?”
“What do you mean?” A disquieting emotion leaped into her. Did he already sense the extent of her abilities? “How could I know what you’re going to do before you actually do it? I guess if you stare a certain way or act guilty I might be leery of you, but other than that, how would I know?”
“You seem to know things that I’m thinking.” Uneasiness softened his voice. “You seem to be able to read my thoughts.”
“Some men are easy to read, Adam,” she said with a smile. “When it comes to your physical needs, you read like a billboard.”
“I do?”
“Yes.” She allowed her look to linger on his puzzled face for a long moment. She knew she was flirting, and she sensed it was a dangerous thing to do with this cowboy. “But when it comes to sex all men are easy for me to read.”
“Oh, really.” His look brought her mind back to the reality of her situation. “You think I’m thinking about sex, do you?”
Time to stop this now before it went any further. “I’m hungry, Adam, and I need to be back at the college by noon.”
“Doesn’t give us a lot of time, does it?” A glimmer of desire smoldered in his dark eyes, in the leer forming around the kissable fullness of his mouth. “Can you guess what I’m thinking now, lady?”
“It doesn’t take a psychic to read you, cowboy.”
* * * *
“So you picked this David guy up at a bar?” Adam leaned into the table, pushing his empty plate away from him. The college professor was proving to be more interesting by the minute. “I picked up a few questionable women in my younger days.”
“Yeah,” she said lightly, “in your younger days. And you’re a male.”
“So what if I’m a male?”
Her green eyes shined bright in the harsh light of the old diner as Adam stared into them. “A lot of people still frown on women who go to bars to find men.”
“Who?”
“College deans,” she said. “Parents of college students. The majority of the people I used to call my friends.”
Self-righteous bastards. “So this guy you got involved with, who is he? Didn’t you just tell me he only joined the staff of the college a year ago? Why would they take his word over yours?”
“I’m not a well-known authority on American history.” She sighed. “I haven’t written three well-received books on early America, and I don’t have people from newspapers and television seeking my expertise. I’m just a lowly history professor, teaching in a small liberal arts college with an ill grandfather and a dysfunctional family.”
“Don’t forget about Winter Creek.”
She smiled at him. “Yeah, and Winter Creek. I love that place.”
Leaning back in his chair, he turned and stared out the window next to their table, remembering a time he’d loved that town just as much but in a completely different way. “My brothers and I used to go to the town with our girlfriends when we were in high school. We’d ride our horses to the area and spend the night camping in one of the old buildings. My dad would get so mad at us, telling us the place wasn’t safe. But we loved it.”
&n
bsp; “You used to go there?”
A soft smile lifted the harsh corners of her mouth. She was finally relaxing, he realized. He suddenly wanted to touch his lips to her sweet looking mouth, like he’d done at the saloon a few days ago.
“Stop doing that, Adam.”
He had to be careful around her. She did warn him about being able to read sexual thoughts. And she was psychic after all. He still had a hard time believing that. “I can’t help it.”
She glanced down at her half-filled plate, grabbing the fork to push at her carrots.
“I was thinking about our kiss at the saloon.”
“You need to stop thinking about it,” she said without looking up at him. “It can’t happen again.”
“Why?”
“I made a promise to my grandfather.”
“I’m not like David.” He leaned forward and looked at her lowered face. He wanted to reach out and lift her face so he could see her eyes, but he kept his hands on top of the table. “I’m not going to broadcast our relationship to the entire world.”
She lifted her gaze to him now. Shame darkened the green of her eyes, mixed with a hint of sadness and lust, a dash of fear. This was one complicated lady he was getting involved with here. “At the end of this semester I’ll be free of my obligation to the school.”
“And you’ll stay in Winter Creek then?”
“Yes.” She glanced back down at her plate. “I’ll be staying in the RV during the season and with Barb and Rose in Helena the rest of the year.”
“You’re not going to teach anymore?” What a shame if she gave up something she seemed so good at, just because of vindictive rumors. “You shouldn’t allow anyone to stop you from doing what you love to do.”
“Sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to.”
“I watched you teaching this morning. You really had your students’ attention,” he added truthfully. “It’ll be such a waste for you to give it up.”
“That’s kind of you to say, Adam.”
“I aim to please.”
And pleasing her was something he desperately wanted to do.
Damn, what was wrong with him lately?
Chapter 7
Peaceful silence greeted Jen when she pulled into the parking lot of Winter Creek the next morning, a quietness that didn’t quite reach her interior. She should have never promised Adam she would go with him to his summer pasture. Yesterday, after they’d returned to the college, she almost told him she couldn’t go. She’d started regretting her decision the second she’d made it. How was she ever going to get through the ride up in those hills on that horse?
She hated horses.
And their lunch date only reinforced why she should stay as far away from the man as possible.
For more reasons than just the obvious one, Jen sensed.
The time she’d spent with him yesterday still lingered in her mind. Did she really tell him about her abilities? She’d never told any man—any person—about her sixth sense with such ease. Not even Barb or Rose, who she considered her closest and dearest friends. So what had made her tell Adam?
Shaking the question away, she stepped out of her car.
“Good morning, Jen.”
She jerked up at the soft greeting, twisting to face the blonde woman behind her. “You shouldn’t move around so quietly, Rose. You scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m sorry.” Rose stepped back a few feet from her. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Why did this woman always look so frightened? Another mystery, Jen thought. “You didn’t upset me. I was just startled for a moment. It was my own fault.”
“You jumped so high in the air.” Rose grinned softly. “I didn’t think anyone could jump that high.”
“Basketball players probably do.”
“Yes, but you’re not a basketball player.”
Jen nodded before walking with her to the newly installed gate. “Oh, Jack and the guys got the entry gate built.”
“They finished it yesterday.” Rose stopped at the gate, placing her small hand against the dark wood. “You should see what they’ve done inside the town. All of the buildings have been repaired and painted, even the school house-church.”
“Wow.”
Rose waved her hands around the painted town. “The kids did most of the work. They did a nice job.”
Jen turned to the center of the street and walked down it. The fresh white paint brightened up the early morning hour. An assortment of darker colored words indicating the names of different businesses on the front of the rough styled buildings brought a contrast to the boring whiteness of the town. “This is nice. And signs are up in front of all the businesses. But how did all this painting get done so soon? I didn’t think Jack could get it finished until next week.”
“I’m not really sure.” Rose looked down at her feet, a guilty look fighting with her usual sadness. “Barb thinks it might have something to do with some cows. I’m not sure what she’s talking about though.”
“Cows?” What in the world did Adam’s cattle have to do with finishing the painting of the town a week early? It wasn’t like Jack to change his schedule. “I’m supposed to go up this afternoon to the Craine’s summer pasture. They have a herd they want to move past the town.”
“I know. Barb mentioned it to me,” Rose said. “William and Jack were talking about some survey involving the cows yesterday.”
“What survey?”
“I think it has something to do with Winter Creek’s website.” Rose stopped at her freshly painted schoolhouse. Jen smelled the sharpness of the paint lingering in the uncommon warmth of the air, mixed with the scent of Rose’s expensive perfume. “Every week William asks the visitors to the site a different question.”
“Which we, as a group, vote on ahead of time,” Jen said, “and I don’t remember questions involving animals of any kind.”
“It’s only what I heard.”
What did an opinion poll have to do with getting the town painted a week early? It didn’t make any sense.
“I’ll see you later, Jen.”
Jen waved, not really paying attention to her withdrawal from the scene. The woman disappeared quickly into the double doors leading into her one room schoolhouse, which served as a church on Sundays, as quietly as she’d appeared near her car. Before Jen could turn around, Rose opened the door and looked out. “Oh, Jen, I was meaning to ask you if you were staying in Winter Creek this weekend or going back to town.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Barb and I were thinking about getting a couple bottles of wine tonight.” Her voice lowered as she added, “Just the three of us, if you want to join us. It’ll be fun.”
“I didn’t think you drank.”
Her eyes clouded over with unshed tears.
“Rose, what’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing,” she said, moving to close the door again. “Just a horrible relationship I can’t seem to…” Rose slammed the door on the rest of her statement.
Jen placed her foot on the lowest step, with the intention of following her friend. Instead a sudden sharp pain sent her mind spinning from her control. Weakness, unease, and terror filled her as shadowy images began to form around her, sinking her to the bottom step. Heavy fear weighed down her heart, a fear so intense and violent it forced her head to her knees.
No, this can’t be happening again.
Crashing sounds filled the air; rough unpainted wood, beams and corral post clamored to the ground as the livery stable imploded upon itself, long pieces of splintered wood falling into the horse corral. Running people, male and female, cowboys and college students, moved to the collapsed building on the east end of town. Out of the mass of people a firm, muscled arm reached out to grab the reins of one of the escaping horses while an older man yelled to a group of newly arriving cowboys and raced into the far end of the building.
A hand gripped her upper ar
m, shaking her lightly. “What’s wrong with you? You’re scaring me.”
A large man walked into the unstable structure, only a moment before it tumbled down all around him.
She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t.
Two sets of fingers tightened hard around her upper arms, shaking her with a bit more force than before, calling out her name. One of the hands left her arm, and tapped her lightly on the face. “You need to wake up, Jen.”
A soft hand cupped the chilled skin of her cheek as the vague images of her vision started to fade into the foggy atmosphere around her. Rose bent over her, dread widening her blue eyes. A second woman soon appeared.
Another set of hands yanked harder at her arms this time, shaking her upper body violently. When one of those hands released her arm to strike her on her cheek, the foggy vision fled from her mind completely. The collapsed structure, milling people, and escaped horses were gone.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
“Oh, you hurt her,” Rose said.
“I didn’t hit her hard.” Barb didn’t seem convinced of her statement. “Jen, I had to hit you. You were acting so out of it.”
“Something bad is going to happen here.”
“What?” Barb sat beside Jen, taking her frozen hands into her warm ones. Rose stood trembling like a small child during a thundering storm. “You’re freezing.”
“At the livery stable,” Jen added, replaying the vision in her mind. She needed to hold on to this vision, she sensed. It was important she explain it to her friends. “Something bad is going to happen involving the stable.”
“How can you know?” Rose asked, staring at her with still frightened eyes. “No one can see into the future.”
“Jen can,” Barb said simply. “She’s psychic. But I never knew her to have visions.”
“Normally I don’t.” Jen looked from one friend to the other, settling her sights on Barb. Only a sense of her vision stayed with her now, a vague sense of trouble about to happen in Winter Creek, a lingering fear someone may be hurt. But who? And when? “Now I don’t even remember what I saw.”
Forgotten Memories Page 7