by Mary Brady
Delanna Fairbanks strode into the kitchen.
“Mother? What are you doing here again and where’s Kyle?”
“Chill, Abby. He’s in the car.” Her mother crossed the small kitchen without comment, and stopped abruptly to toss a brown paper bag on the table between Abby and Reed. “Nobody even blinks when I do it.”
“Mother, what are you talking about?”
Delanna leaned toward her daughter and plucked at the seam on the shoulder of Abby’s shirt. Then she walked out the back door.
“What the heck?” Abby put her hand on her shoulder. “Oh, my God!”
“What?” Reed was at her side in a flash.
“Oh, my God!”
“Abby?”
“I’m so sorry. I am so sorry.” Her horror turned to laughter.
Reed smiled. “Abby?”
Abby grabbed the shoulder of her pink shirt and showed him the stitched seam that should have been on the inside and then lifted the tail to show him the white polka dots that were. “Mother flicked me on the shoulder earlier before you came down. She was trying to tell me I had my shirt on inside out. Oh, my God!”
“Now what?”
Abby grabbed the bag, almost afraid to peek inside, but she did.
Tootsie Rolls?
“No doubt about it, my mother’s crazy.” To prove it, Abby dumped out the candy onto the tabletop.
The candy scattered and so did several brands of colorfully packaged condoms.
CHAPTER TEN
“MOTHER!” SHE CALLED, but Delanna was already in her car and pulling out onto the street.
Abby scooped frantically at the colorful pile, trying to shove the contents back in the bag. The more she grabbed the more they squirted between her fingers and flew in impossible directions.
She didn’t ask herself how her mother could have done a thing like this. It was exactly the type of thing her mother would do.
Reed was polite enough to keep his chortling at a low pitch as he leaned down and picked up some of the escapees that had fallen to the floor. “Ecstasy and skin, spelled s-k-y-n. They’re trendy at the drugstore in St. Adelbert.”
Abby looked in horror to see him holding up the pair of condoms.
“Give me those.” She made a grab, but he closed his fist.
“If only I’d had some of these with me earlier…but who would have thought I’d need them on a trip hunting for my brother.”
“It’s oddly reassuring to know you don’t keep a supply at the ready,” she said as she continued to recapture contraceptives.
“Oh, I always keep Tootsie Rolls in my shaving kit, just in case.” He opened his hand and then he looked at the objects on his palm and then at her. With a grin, he pocketed the condoms and the Tootsie Rolls. “I almost didn’t come down here because I thought we might have been getting into something we’d regret. But I came…no, wait, I didn’t and that’s why I’m here.”
She gave him a sham shocked look.
He shrugged. “Hey, I’m a guy.”
“I’m not a guy.” She looked at him slyly as she dropped what she thought was the last of the condoms and candy into the bag and rolled the top down tightly. “And I might feel the same way.”
He snapped up another stray condom and moved toward her.
“However…” She raised her hand.
He took hold of her hand, put the condom in it, and pressed the palm flat against his chest. “However. I don’t think I like that word anymore.”
“However,” she said more firmly. “If we have sex right now, my mother will know.”
“She brought condoms, so I think she gives us her blessing to be adults. Besides, if we don’t have sex right now, what will she think?”
Abby hesitated for a moment. She wanted to protest, but the truth was the truth. “She’d think we’re having sex right now.”
He let a slow smile cross his face. “So if a couple is given condoms and they don’t have sex, did they really not have sex?”
“If a tree falls in the forest…”
“Do you want to be…a tree?” He brushed his lips over hers.
“Mmm.” A flood of yearning swiftly filled her and nearly overcame her sense of reason.
“Do you want me to leave?” He put his arms around her and she pressed close to him.
“You mean make like a tree?” She reveled in the feeling of his arms around her. She didn’t ever want him to leave.
“Trees are a little too sedentary for what comes into my mind when I have my arms around you, but I could just go back to the apartment.”
“No, I don’t want you to go back to the apartment.” Then she closed her hand around the condom and looked directly into his eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever been very good at the woman-man thing.”
“Because you’ve been busy?”
“Yeah, busy.” Busy with making bad choices of men in her life. Busy trying to hold men at bay so she wouldn’t turn out like her mother. Busy trying to be respected by the people around her. Busy with a misguided but lovable sister and with a boy who had her by the heartstrings long before he was born.
“How long have you felt responsible for the people around you?” Reed’s voice broke into her thoughts.
“Forever.” She cringed at how wistful her voice sounded.
“So you haven’t taken much time for yourself.”
She shook her head.
“How long has it been since you could just let go and be whimsical, be Abby?”
“Since, well, since Lena announced she was pregnant with Kyle. No, that’s not true. I didn’t do whimsical very well before that, either.”
He stared at her for a moment, then he let go of her and stepped out onto the porch. From there he looked at the sky.
Then he took off for the apartment.
Great, Abby thought, now I can make ’em just up and run away. She tossed the condom up in the air and caught it. Then she put it in the bag with the others. It’s too bad, Mom, really too bad, she thought.
She wiped away the ubiquitous water spots from the kitchen faucet and hung the towel on the oven door handle. Then she straightened the towel, twice, and then she was satisfied. Before she had time to clean more or to pick on herself any longer, Reed returned, took her hand and pulled her out the door.
He didn’t say anything as he dragged her across the lawn toward the garage apartment, but instead of starting up the stairs, he veered away and headed toward his car.
When they were seated inside and he had fastened the seat belt snuggly around her, she asked, “Where are we going?”
He didn’t answer.
“You know even the diner in St. Adelbert is closed this time of night.”
He turned to her. “One of the many things I’ve learned since I arrived in the Wild West is there is often a night show.”
He backed the car away from the garage door and drove down the street heading toward the edge of town.
Night show. They weren’t very far away from town when she realized he was taking her away from the light shed of the town to see the stars. It had been a long time since she had sat in the utter darkness and watched the night sky.
When they were a few miles out of town, he turned into a pullout in the road. As he did, a car passed spilling light all over the place.
She knew a better place.
“Reed, go just a little farther. There’s a road into the mountains away from the headlights of the cars. There aren’t a lot of people out here, but it’s a sure thing that when you want dark, they will all get in their cars and drive by with their high beams on.”
“As you wish.”
She guided him to an old, rutted road.
“We should have brought my SUV,” she said as they bounced slowly along.
“It’s a rental.”
They both laughed.
“Pull over there.”
He stopped, shut the car off and leaped out. She scrambled to get her seat belt unfastened, but before she c
ould get out of the car, he opened her door, reached in and picked her up. Another second later, she was perched on the warm hood of the car and he climbed up beside her.
“A most cooperative sky.” He pointed up and sure enough the clouds had broken. Stars by the billions blinked in and out in the black velvet canopy. Dazzling.
“We’re a little early, but if I’m remembering correctly…”
“What are you remembering?”
He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her back to lean on the windshield.
In near perfect darkness, they sat surrounded by the gentle scratching and rustling of nature’s night and their own quiet breathing. Stars twinkled overhead and the waxing crescent moon hung low, partially obscured by the mountains to the west.
“I won’t ever be tired of this,” Abby said after a long silence. Reed’s arm tightened around her. It was such a good feeling, one to be cherished, but not acted on right now.
Eventually, the moon dropped behind the jagged horizon, taking its light with it. More stars twinkled and the few remaining clouds continued to separate and seemed to move in opposite directions until they nearly cleared the sky. Had he known the moon would hide away leaving behind the starriest of skies?
Suddenly a bright streak of light flashed, there and gone so quickly Abby had to rethink it to really believe the meteor had been there. “The Perseids. Not bad at all for a man from the city.”
He nudged her shoulder. “You Montana people take such luxuries for granted.”
“We do.” A large white streak split the sky with showers of sparkles falling from the main strip of light. “Oh, yes, thank you.”
They watched with an occasional oh or wow.
“Do you suppose they’re watching the sky?” Abby asked.
“Jesse and Lena? Yes, I think they are.”
“Me, too. I don’t dare let myself think anything else.”
“Lena and Jesse are two of the luckiest people I know. They found you to worry about them.”
“I don’t know how lucky that makes them. I wish they were both here right now. They could do some explaining.”
Tell him. Tell him.
He pulled her against him and kissed her temple with a long, lingering kiss. Then he pressed his lips to the little spot in front of her ear.
“You’re not watching the meteors,” she said instead.
“Hmm. No, I’m not, but city guys get easily distracted.” He moved his mouth down to the bottom of her ear and then down her neck.
“Another meteor,” Abby said and tried not to scrunch her shoulder as Reed nuzzled a ticklish spot on her neck.
“I saw it.”
“You did not.”
“I thought I did.”
“It must be oxygen deprivation.” She pushed at his shoulder and he turned away to lean against the windshield.
“Whatever it is, I like it.” He pulled her close to his side where they sat waiting for hot and dangerous things to pass overhead.
Hot and dangerous. A feeling of giddy aliveness flooded Abby. Reed Maxwell was hot and dangerous. Dangerous to her sanity and her happiness and she wanted him.
Her body hummed with the excitement of being so close to him and she savored every nuance, mentally licked up every crumb. Almost afraid to move lest she break the mood, she sucked in shallow breaths while she riveted her eyes to the night sky.
Reed shifted slightly to kiss her on the mouth. That was better. Kissing him was so much better than thinking about anything else. He coaxed until she opened her lips and darted her tongue out to dance with his. He sat up farther and leaned over her. He put his hand on her knee. Slowly, he slid his palm up her thigh until he cupped her and massaged her until she moaned and covered his hand with hers to stop him.
He pulled his hand away and sat up beside her. “Call me crazy, Abby, but I want you. I know I don’t have much to offer a Montana woman, but I have me, here and now.”
She looked up to see a meteor wink over his shoulder. “I can’t.” Not when she hadn’t been totally honest with him, told him her suspicions about Kyle and Jesse. And when she did…
She wasn’t sure in how many ways she could let her heart break and still find her way back to sanity.
He rolled off the hood and onto his feet. When she slid off the hood, he hugged her quickly and stepped away. Then he opened the car door and she slid in knowing she was most likely ending something that could have been the best thing in her life.
THE NEXT MORNING, LOUD pounding woke Reed. He stumbled out of the bedroom to see a FedEx driver on the landing. When Reed opened the door, the man held out an envelope. Reed almost wanted to refuse it. What was inside could cause turmoil in many lives.
As soon as he bid the driver goodbye, his phone burped the ring tone of a call from his mother. He tossed the envelope on the kitchen table and went to get the phone.
Their conversation was their usual. He told her nothing because he had nothing absolute to tell her and he walked while he talked. This time he had the envelope on the kitchen table to draw his attention from time to time.
“Is that it? Is that all you’re going to tell me? Is that everything?” His mother’s shrill voice reached out of his mobile phone and drilled straight into his brain.
If he gripped the handset any harder, it was going to implode. His mother meant well, as well as she was capable of anyway.
“Yes, Mother. I am telling you what I know.”
“Reed Maxwell, I need to know everything.”
“You do know everything,” he said, and thought, Everything I know for sure. He shot a longing glance at the FedEx envelope sitting across the room on the kitchen table.
Since his mother hadn’t mentioned Denny’s visit to the house, his partner must have pulled off a miracle, sneaked in, got the photo from the housekeeper, and got away without Mother seeing him. Denny was good at everything he did, very good.
“Just because I’m thousands of miles away…” Thousands of miles? Reed needed to get his mother tactfully off the phone, if he…
“Reed? Reed?” His mother repeated his name impatiently. “I think I need to come out there.”
“We did this already, Mother. The state of Montana is not ready for you.”
“Oh, yes, I forgot.”
The FedEx envelope called to him. Now if there was a miracle inside, his life might get easier…if Jesse and Kyle looked nothing alike. A picture of Abby bloomed inside his head, the feel of her lips on his…
“I need to go now, Mother.”
“I don’t know. You seem so far away and every time I hang up, I’m afraid I’ll never hear from you again.”
“I will be coming home, Mother. You know I will. I’ll call you.”
“I suppose I could let you go.”
He picked up the FedEx envelope and put it down again. If he opened it and found what he thought he might find, news, he might have to lie to his mother and not just hedge. The last thing he wanted to give her was false hope.
When he had something concrete, he’d give it to her.
“That would be good, Mother. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, dear. Have a good day and call me soon. I think…”
“I love you, Mother.” He shut down the call with only a wisp of remorse because he knew she wasn’t really finished talking. She never was.
Instead of sitting down at the table, he continued to pace.
Instead of opening the envelope…
He thought about the softness of Abby’s lips, the springtime smell of her creamy skin and curling dark hair, the feel of her body against his. She seemed so honest and so unencumbered by the rules of the games played between the women and men who jockeyed for position in his world.
He stopped and looked at the envelope. It could contain all the answers he needed. It could prove Abby Fairbanks was as she seemed, a devoted aunt and loving sister with no big secrets.
It could also provide evidence she was putting up a fantastic facade of innocen
ce. She could be filled with as much deceit and avarice as those in his part of the stratosphere. But if Abby Fairbanks didn’t have her feet on the ground, then who did?
If she was hiding Kyle’s parentage, so much for not wanting anything from him. She would want him to leave this little piece of Montana and never look back.
If you leave me a contact number she had said when he’d first arrived in St. Adelbert. In the parlance of his world, that often meant get out, don’t call or write.
He thought of the clear, honest look in those light brown eyes. Was she a good deceiver?
Or was he full of it and ready to jump to conclusions all over the place because he needed to placate his mother?
He finally forced himself to sit in the chair. He’d fire anyone who worked for him who showed this much indecision, including himself. He wondered if the situation, the location, or the woman was helping to make him too crazy to think straight.
The information inside the envelope might give his mother a reason to come out of herself, give her a reason to enjoy what life she had left. It could also destroy Abby’s already precarious world.
The contents might also adversely affect the sister in the war zone, a sister that Abby so carefully protected.
He couldn’t think about Abby or her sister now. The child would probably adapt. He and his brother had managed after all.
Disgusted with his own procrastination, he picked up the envelope, snapped off the opening strip.
Inside was a note and picture of Jesse and him as young children.
“I thought you might want the real thing and not a copy if you were going to make decisions based on the photo.” It was signed, “Good luck, Denny.”
He looked at the picture. Reed’s hair had always been dark and less curly than Jesse’s. Jesse’s hair was blond and curled around his ears. They had been posed by a professional photographer with a pair of large toy bears, and the well-meaning photographer had colored their cheeks too rosy. They looked suitably goofy for their age and grinning because they were too young to know how hard the world could kick a couple of kids.