Devil in Disguise

by Heather Huffman

  To redeem herself, Rachel determined to plant the best damned shade garden Neena Russell had ever seen. By the end of that day, she was drenched in sweat and had dirt smeared across her face, but she was able to stand back and admire her creation. She’d also reached a certain peace when it came to the subject of Conrad. She might not be able to say how things would work, exactly, but she accepted the simple fact that she still loved him.

  It was obvious to the rest of the world that she’d never stopped. Maybe it was time to risk shattering what was left of her pride and heart to see where it led her. If he rejected her, at least it would be a sudden death instead of the excruciatingly slow one she was currently experiencing.

  The next morning, Rachel’s muscles screamed in protest as she rose from the bed. She consoled herself with the fact that her black eye was fading fast. She must have done okay on the garden too, because Neena turned her loose with a mountain of mulch to be spread and instructions to water the plants thoroughly.

  She was so immersed in her task that it took her completely by surprise when tires crunched the gravel of Neena and Charlie’s driveway. Rachel looked up with a start, her heart leaping with joy even as she groaned in dismay. Conrad got out of the truck and strolled over to her, a devilish grin on his face. She wasn’t sure she was ready to see him just yet.

  “The story about the shiner finally made it to me through the grapevine. I came as soon as I heard. I have to admit, I’m a little sad it’s almost gone already.”

  “You drove six hours to see a black eye?” She wiped the sweat off her brow, and his grin deepened. She knew without checking that she’d just smeared dirt across her forehead.

  “I seem to recall you laughing at me when my sister clocked me in her sleep,” he reminded her.

  “But that was a spontaneous laugh. This is totally premeditated. The two are very different creatures.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Everyone knows the difference.”

  “Would I be redeemed at all if I admitted that I really came because I missed you, all of you?”

  Rachel wanted to shout that he would have come a lot closer to redemption if he hadn’t amended his question, but instead she smiled. “Consider yourself forgiven. I think your sister’s in the kitchen. She and Gabrielle are teaching Julia how to make jewelry.”

  She couldn’t quite read the look in his eyes. She thought she saw disappointment but couldn’t fathom what she’d done wrong. He was the one who’d made a point of saying it wasn’t just her he’d been missing.

  She finished her gardening in solitude, much of the joy gone from the task. When she cleaned up after herself, she stomped the dirt off her shoes and let herself into the kitchen, making a beeline for the refrigerator, intent on pouring herself a glass of iced tea.

  Even through the refrigerator door, she could feel the weight of his gaze. Telling herself she was imagining it, Rachel peeked over the fridge door, her eyes locking with his. Maybe she was simply seeing what she wanted to see, but his eyes told her he’d spent their time apart thinking about her too. There was such yearning in them, such promise, it made her want to crawl in his lap and hide from the world in his arms.

  Her cheeks heated up, so she took a little longer than necessary replacing the pitcher of tea, hoping it would cool her off. She couldn’t keep up with Conrad Langston’s mood swings.

  “You know, I think I might need another shower,” Rachel announced to no one in particular.

  “After that, you should actually spend some time relaxing. You’ve worked like a dog for days,” Neena suggested.

  Rachel merely nodded and smiled at the suggestion. “Julia, I love the bracelet you’re working on.”

  “This is kind of fun.” Julia flushed at the compliment.

  “You’re good at it.” Gabrielle glanced over at Julia’s work. “Uncle Conrad taught me how to make jewelry.”

  “I’d forgotten that.” Rachel didn’t know why she said it, or why the look on Conrad’s face made her blush again. She excused herself to head upstairs, glad for a reason to be alone for a while.

  By the time she was out of the shower and dressed, Neena and Julia had taken the baby, Janey, on a walk together. Rosemary was sleeping again. Charlie had gone in to work. Gabrielle was leading Benjamin around the yard on his pinto Chincoteague pony. Cara had gone to the neighbor’s to play. The chickens were scouring the yard for treats. It was a wholly peaceful scene, and Rachel took that as her cue to relax in the hammock in the shade. The next thing she knew, Julia was waking her for lunch.

  “Isn’t this place amazing?” Julia asked as Rachel groggily sat up.

  “It is. It might get boring at some point.” Rachel rubbed her eyes.

  “Maybe. That’s hard to imagine, though. I feel safe here. Like this is real and everything before was a bad dream.”

  “You are safe now,” Rachel promised, registering for the first time that her sister was wearing a new cowgirl hat. “Hey, cute hat. You are rocking the cowgirl look these days.”

  “Thanks. Neena said she’d start teaching me about the horses, if you don’t mind.”

  “Do you think you’re ready for something like that?”

  “Not to ride or anything,” Julia quickly reassured her. “She just thought they’d be good for me. She says a good horse can heal the soul.”

  “I can’t imagine standing in the way of that.” Rachel’s expression softened. Her sister’s face was losing its haunted look. Coming to Neena’s had been the right decision. “You know, I’m thinking about going back with Conrad when he leaves again. Would you be okay with that? I haven’t mentioned it to him yet, so it’s okay if you’re not ready.”

  “No.” Julia shook her head. “At some point, I’m going to have to sleep alone in a bed again. Might as well start soon.”

  “I can find somewhere else to bunk tonight if you want me to,” Rachel offered, standing to stretch.

  “I said soon. Not tonight,” Julia was quick to remind her.

  “Not tonight,” Rachel agreed, wrapping an arm around her sister’s waist.

  The two wandered inside to help themselves to a sandwich. They were alone in the kitchen; the entire house was eerily quiet.

  “He’s not here.” Julia answered the question Rachel had yet to voice. “He’s at the neighbor’s. Apparently it isn’t safe for him to go to the grocery store, but they have a vegetable stand or something.”

  “The Torres family.” Rachel remembered them fondly and wondered how they were doing. “Where’s Neena?”

  “Delivering jam and coffee orders. She took her kids with her. Mom’s listening to her Springsteen CD. It’s pretty much just us.”

  “You should have gotten me up sooner.”

  “I know you didn’t get much sleep last night. I figured I owed you a couple of hours.”

  “Thank you,” Rachel conceded. “Do you have any plans after lunch?”

  Julia shook her head.

  Rachel racked her brain for something to do. Back home, she’d have taken Julia shopping or to the movies. Here, not so much. She did remember Conrad taking her on a picnic near a river not far from here once. “Have you ever been fishing?”

  Julia almost laughed. “Have you ever been fishing?”

  “No,” Rachel admitted. “But how hard can it be?”

  “I’ll try if you will.” Julia shrugged.

  Armed with a plan, Rachel scribbled out a note letting the others know where they were going. Then the sisters went to root through Charlie’s shed in search of fishing poles. Rachel also grabbed what appeared to be a tackle box, judging from the smell of the thing.

  With all of the cars gone, they were left with little choice but to walk. Rachel seemed to recall it was within walking distance, though she did have to stand at the end of the driveway looking both ways for several minutes before choosing a direction to venture forth in.

  It was farther away than her memory served, but the exercise felt good, and Rachel was ridi
culously proud of herself for remembering how to find what she knew to be Neena’s favorite fishing hole.

  They didn’t catch any fish. Rachel wasn’t entirely sure they ever even baited their hooks correctly or with anything a fish would be remotely interested in. Still, there was something peaceful about being there that appealed to both women. Both were content to be in the wilderness with nothing but the sounds of nature all around them. Other than a brief run-in with a game warden, who scolded them for not having a fishing license, they called their excursion a success, heading home when their stomachs told them it was nearing dinner.

  Back at Neena and Charlie’s, the sisters put the poles and box back in the shed before following their noses toward the smell of gumbo simmering on the stove.

  “You didn’t catch us dinner?” Neena teased as they washed their hands.

  “You are so much meaner than you look,” Rachel tossed right back at her.

  “She didn’t catch dinner, but she did catch something: the game warden gave her his phone number,” Julia informed them.

  “Yeah, I’m apparently a pretty hot fisherwoman.”

  Julia smirked. “I’m sure it had nothing to do with how you were throwing yourself at him.”

  “I wasn’t throwing myself at him, just flirting a little.”

  “You were flirting with Miles Greenville? Oh, babe. That’s just wrong.” Conrad shook his head in disgust.

  “I’m sorry, desperate times call for desperate measures.” Rachel was indignant. “Did you know you’re supposed to have a license to fish?”

  “Crazy, right?” Neena said.

  “Everywhere requires you to have a permit,” Charlie reminded them.

  “We didn’t worry about that on the reservation,” Neena shrugged.

  “I’ve never fished before,” Rachel shrugged.

  Conrad looked at Charlie and shrugged. “I’m not in this.”

  “Well, at least you stayed to sort it out,” Charlie sighed. “Neena here ditched me with a stringer of illegal fish when Miles caught her.”

  “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” she quoted Rachel’s earlier statement.

  “Dinner smells amazing.” Rachel deftly changed the subject.

  “I thought it seemed a little hot outside for gumbo, but Neena insisted.” Conrad offered them each a bowl apologetically.

  “It’s never too hot for your gumbo.” Rachel eagerly accepted the offering, looking for a place to settle with her prize. Finding all the chairs taken, she headed back outside to the hammock with her bowl and a glass of sweet tea.

  “So you really like my gumbo?” Conrad followed her outside to settle on the hammock beside her.

  “It’s just one of the many things I love about you.” Once she said it, she wondered if it was the smartest sentence she could have uttered, but the words were out there, and there was no taking them back.

  “Why do you say things like that?” There was pain in his voice.

  “Because it’s the truth,” Rachel admitted impulsively. “I have a hard time not speaking truth; it gets me into trouble sometimes.”

  “I remember.” Conrad laughed ruefully, growing quiet for a moment, as if in thought. “Remember that guy, the one in the bar in Tupelo?”

  Rachel humored his little diversion. “With the steel testicles hanging from his truck?”

  “That’s the one.” Conrad laughed harder.

  “No. I don’t remember him.”

  “Cute. You got into it with him, and I was positive that fiasco was going to end one of two ways: I’d be in the hospital or I’d be in jail.”

  “The man asked me why I was wasting time on television instead of being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.”

  “Oh, so you do remember.”

  “Testicles on his truck, Conrad.” Rachel still couldn’t fathom why anyone would do that.

  “Why were we even in Tupelo?”

  “I don’t know, maybe I was doing an exposé on stupid trends.”

  “No, it was the Elvis festival.” Conrad brightened once he’d reclaimed the memory.

  “That was fun. Not the brawl, but the rest of it.” Rachel sighed and leaned back against her pillows, testing the gumbo with the tip of her tongue to see if it had cooled enough to eat.

  “That was fun,” he echoed, watching her sample the gumbo like it was an act of seduction.

  Suddenly, she felt like it was. Or rather, the way his eyes caressed her every movement had become the act of seduction.

  “What are you trying to do?” he asked.

  “I’m eating gumbo,” she answered warily.

  “No.” He took her gumbo and set it on the table beside the hammock, along with his. “What are you doing to me?”

  “Nothing. What are you doing to me?” Her breath caught as he placed his arms on either side of her, his mouth tantalizingly close.

  “I’m just trying to keep up.”

  “Me too.” She drank in a deep breath, heady from his nearness.

  “I’m trying not to get hurt again.”

  “Me too.” She sighed, pulled toward him by an inner magnet.

  “You turned me down, remember?”

  “Ask again.” Their lips brushed as she spoke.

  He growled low in his throat. “You’re mixing up love and gratitude.”

  “Did I call you before or after the abduction? The first time.” She pulled back so she could look him in the eye.

  He stopped, searching her face for what seemed to be an eternity.

  He shook his head sadly. “There are so many things messed up about my life right now.”

  Rachel closed her eyes in frustration. Part of her wanted to let it go, to grab her bowl of gumbo and go eat in peace. Still she found herself asking the question, “Is there a rule somewhere that everything has to be perfect in a person’s life before they can fall in love? If so, then the earth’s population should plummet any time now.”

  He paused again, considering her words.

  “Fine.” A smile tugged the corner of his mouth. “Rachel, will you marry me?”

  “Seriously?” She giggled. It was a nervous response. She’d done the same thing when she was fourteen and received her first kiss. But Conrad didn’t know that, and the incredulous look on his face made her giggle all the harder.

  “Really? You goad me into proposing and then laugh at me? You really are the devil in disguise.”

  “No, baby, no.” She took his face in her hands and urged him to look at her. “I’m just in shock. Ten hours ago I was certain I’d lost you forever. It just seemed ridiculously simple, that’s all.”

  “I come with a lot of baggage. There will be nothing simple about this.”

  “Simple is overrated.”

  “You never answered,” he reminded her.

  “Of course I’ll marry you. Right now if you want.”

  “We’d need a preacher. And a license.”

  “Charlie’s a judge now. He can do it.”

  “And the license?”

  “Details, schmetails.” She giggled again, wrapping her legs around him as she pulled him back with her on the hammock. His rich laughter mingled with hers as he peppered her face and neck with kisses.

  Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew they still had evil and sadness in their lives that must be dealt with. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that she belonged in the city and he in the country.

  But right now, in this moment, all she really cared about was the joy running through her veins. She was back in his arms, and she planned to stay there no matter what life threw at them.

  Unfortunately, the first thing life threw at them was Rosemary Phelps, coming to reprimand her daughter for making out in broad daylight while her sister was still in such a fragile state.

  Rachel took in a deep breath, mentally rolling up her sleeves in preparation for the fight. Conrad must have understood the murderous intent in Rachel’s expression because he quickly jumped in to expl
ain. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Phelps. I couldn’t contain myself. Rachel finally agreed to marry me.”

  “You chose now to propose?” Rosemary put her hands on her hips and eyeballed Conrad. “Rachel, I’m not so sure you want this one.”

  “Ouch.” Conrad winced, biting his lip to keep from laughing.

  “I kind of goaded him into it.” Rachel stepped in front of the proverbial bullet for Conrad.

  Rosemary gladly redirected her chide. “Honey, nobody likes a desperate woman.”

  “Lucky for me, Conrad does.” Rachel buried her face in Conrad’s shoulder to stifle her own giggle.

  “Sometimes I just don’t know what to do with you.” Rosemary shook her head and left, undoubtedly making a beeline for the kitchen.

  “You know she’s going to tell everyone else, don’t you?” Rachel asked, peering up at him.

  “I’m okay with that.”

  “Me too.” Rachel realized she had no desire to go through the ritual of telling people. She just wanted to wrap herself in a little cocoon with Conrad, a world for just the two of them. “Is it wrong — for us to be happy right now, I mean?”

  “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with moving forward with life. I’m not sure there’s a point wallowing in the bad stuff, and something tells me Julia will be all for this. But I say we let her decide. If she wants us to wait for a big wedding later, then we’ll wait.”

  “You’re right. Let’s see what Julia thinks.” Rachel thought that sounded like the most reasonable course of action. She wanted to talk to her sister alone that night.

  That was all the conversation they got in before being swarmed by family. Everyone was talking at once. Neena was thrilled but confused. Charlie was happy for them. The girls were delighted and in love with the idea of love. Everyone had something to say except Julia, who hung back, surveying the scene.

  Rachel clung to Conrad, completely overwhelmed. Being on television was one thing. She hated being the center of attention like this and wished they’d all go back to their gumbo. Besides, hers was getting cold, and Conrad made amazing gumbo.