by Tina Leonard
Cody’s jaw dropped at the warning. “What in hell are you talking about?”
“Well, this is confidential between me and you. ’Cause Mary made me a promise she was gonna stay outta trouble from then on. I believe she’s kept her word.”
Cody nodded abruptly.
Sloan took a hunting knife out of his drawer and began shaving the corner of the desk. “I found her and three little buddies punch-drunk one day down on my property.”
“When?” Cody’s eyes narrowed. Annie kept a good eye on Mary. The child wasn’t allowed to run wild.
“One day when they were cutting school. They’d gotten ahold of some disgusting mint liquor—and to this day they won’t tell me where they got it—and they were throwing rocks through the apple trees at my horses. Too drunk to hit ’em, but still, I don’t know that would have continued to be the case if I hadn’t discovered what they were up to.”
“Damn it! I’ll thrash her myself!” Cody jumped to his feet, his temper soaring to the red line.
“Hold on, man. Take your seat back.” Sloan stood to shove him back down in his chair, something Cody wouldn’t have tolerated if he wasn’t practically blind in one eye from rage and quite aware that this man had done him and his family a hell of a favor. “You ain’t thrashing no one, because this is between me and those little ladies. To be honest, I believe they were more than sorry once they started puking their guts.” Sloan pointed the wide-edged knife at him for emphasis. “You don’t know sorry until you’ve sat with four wailing little girls whose stomachs won’t stay down. Gawd almighty. If I hadn’t served in the military, I mighta been throwing up with ’em.”
Cody sat stone-still, though his hands trembled. “You shouldn’t have let her off.”
“It’s my business, Cody, not yours.”
“Still. I owe you.”
Sloan sent him a sardonic look. “Shut the hell up, Cody, and get your ass off that chair. Somebody else needs to bend my ear.”
He glanced over his shoulder and saw elderly Widow Baker hovering outside. Getting up stiffly, he said, “Mary will pay you back for the harm she has caused you.”
Sloan stood. “She has. She’s done what I asked. My only reason in telling you is so that you understand what I mean about Stormy Nixon. She couldn’t have stirred up trouble if it wasn’t already a problem. And I have your word that this will be kept between the three of us.” He jerked his head once toward the door. “Be seeing ya.”
Cody tipped his hat to Widow Baker, but strode to his truck feeling as if he was going to be ill. His little ladybug, punch-drunk and throwing rocks. Crossing highways and running away. When had everything started changing—and why hadn’t he noticed?
It occurred to him, though he didn’t like it a bit, that maybe it was damn fortunate that Stormy Nixon had blown into town. Otherwise, who knew where Mary might have run to?
Zach and Annie gazed at Mary, who looked down at her shoes. They were her parents, but they had no idea what she was going through. She barely had any friends, and to make matters worse, her mom was having a baby. It would be too humiliating for her mother to come pick her up at school holding a baby carrier.
What if her mother carried the baby like a papoose? Mary cringed inside. Sometimes women used those sack things to carry their babies. She closed her eyes and wished to be anywhere but here. If her mother used one of those awful baby carriers, her friends were going to start up with the Indian jokes again. Mary didn’t think she could bear it.
“Do you understand how much you frightened us?” Her mother stared at her. Zach rubbed her mom’s back in comforting circles.
“Yeah.” She did, but she wouldn’t have had to try to run away if they knew what she was going through.
“I don’t think you do understand!” Annie stood, stalking about the kitchen.
Mary knew she should be sorry for upsetting her mother; she was a little sorry for that. “I do understand, Mom! But you just treat me like such a baby! I’ve tried and tried to tell you, but you just don’t listen!”
“Tell us again. We want to work this out.”
Zach sounded reasonable, but Mary knew whose side he was on. After all, her mother was carrying his child, his very own flesh and blood. Well, she’d been here first. “I need to do things for myself. I want to stay out later with my friends. I don’t want to wear pink ribbons to school. I want to try out for that part in Stormy’s movie!”
“We’re just not sure, honey.” Annie’s eyes filled with worry. “I was all for you trying out at first, but I didn’t know it was a horror movie—”
“I know. I know. And you’re afraid there will be blood.” Mary couldn’t believe how dumb they thought she was. “Mom, I wouldn’t be afraid of red paint! I mean, how much of a baby do you think I am?”
“Mary.” Zach reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. “When I first met you, do you remember your mother cut her finger making dinner?”
“Yeah.” Mary didn’t want to think about that.
“Well, I wasn’t around when your father…died, but you were, and it was very frightening for you. We know you’re not a child anymore, but some things are always scary to people, even to adults. And I remember how afraid you were when your mother cut her finger. You thought she was going to die like your father did.” He squeezed her hand as he squeezed her mother’s shoulder, so that the three of them formed a circle. “We still just want to protect you a little bit.”
“I know, Zach, but I want to grow up. If I get scared, then I’ll have to deal with it myself, and that’s the choice I want to make.”
“Well. We’ll think about it some more.” Annie took a deep breath and stepped away from the two of them. “For now, however, you made a poor choice in deciding to run away in the night and cross a dangerous highway. I’m going to ground you until next week, when you go to stay with Grandma and Uncle Cody.” She gave her daughter a stare that was heavy and serious. “Mary, I’m counting on you not to give Uncle Cody any trouble.”
“See! You’re talking to me like a baby again!”
“Well,” Annie snapped, “when you act like one, I have to treat you like one.” She strode from the room.
Mary’s jaw dropped. Zach slowly turned away and walked over to get something out of the refrigerator. She let out a sigh of disgust and left the house, making extra sure she slammed the door on her way out. There was nothing to do around this old place but feed the fish in the pond, unless they’d grounded her from doing that, too. All her friends were probably at the cow catch this afternoon, trying to catch cows by the tail to see who would win the college scholarship money. Lots of the girls were trying out to be Miss Desperado, the queen of the county fair. Of course, she couldn’t do any of that stuff, because her mother didn’t have time to take her into town.
And Mary wouldn’t win anyway because nobody liked her, and nobody would vote for her.
Cody unloaded several calves for the cow catch, unconsciously keeping an eye out for Stormy to turn up at the festivities. No doubt she’d never seen a cow catch and would find all the teenagers running around trying to tie a rope around the nose of a bawling, frightened calf to drag it over to the judge a hilarious sight. Of course, she thought a swim in the pool at two a.m. was great fun. If he had Stormy pegged right, she’d either jump into the ring and have a hand at catching a calf herself, or she’d give him grief for letting the poor little critters be treated that way. Danged female. Turning her nose up at the way folks in Desperado ran their business.
Turning her nose up at the way he did business. “Go on,” he told a calf, giving it a tiny slap to send it running into a stall.
Annie’s truck pulled into a parking space and he rose to see where she was headed.
“Cody!”
He waved her over. “Hey, Annie.”
She walked up beside him and glanced at his truck. “Are you finished, or can I help?”
“Nope. I’m all done.” He looked her over from her jeans, which
still fit snug, up to her glowing complexion. “Feeling all right?”
“The morning sickness is bothering me in the worst way, but it passes. Sometimes.” She looked away for a second, then turned back. “I’m going to talk to Stormy.”
“Why are you telling me?” He made himself sound gruff, but his stomach tightened at hearing her name.
“Because I thought you’d want to know.”
He straightened and gave her his most disinterested look. “Reckon whoever wants to talk to her can. That’s what she’s here for.”
Annie sat down on a concrete block. “I was awfully hard on her last night.”
Propping his boot on the bottom of a metal rail, he said, “I’m sure she wouldn’t be in the business she’s in if she wasn’t used to a little tough talk.”
“I thought you said her job wasn’t hard.” She shot him a teasing smile.
“Get back on your subject, Annie Aguillar Rayez.”
“I’m going to accept her offer. She can film The Devil’s Own on my land.”
Cody’s boot slid off the rail. “Why?”
“Because…well, because. I just think it’ll be all right.”
“All right? Isn’t there a difference between something being all right, and something you really want to do? I know very well you don’t care any more about a movie, particularly a horror movie, than I do.”
“No. I don’t. I don’t even have cable on my TV. I’m too busy to watch TV or go to movies, but Mary’s hit a bad patch, and I think this movie thing might…” she stared at the calves he’d penned, “…might make her feel part of something.”
“Does it have to be on your property to do that?”
“No. But there aren’t any other alternatives, for one thing, and this way I can at least be on the set every day and keep my eye on her.”
“And if she doesn’t get the part? Then you’re stuck with a bunch of city folk tearing up your land.”
“I have a funny feeling Mary will get a part of some kind. She’s danged determined about this.” Annie gave him a wry smile. “Stormy has made a huge impression on her.”
“Yeah, well.” Crazy purple-haired woman had made an impression on a lot of folks, it seemed. Right now, she was off running around with Wrong-Way Higgins—and Cody’d never seen a man look more smitten than that one. “Don’t know if it’s a good impression. Hey, what about your restaurant? How are you going to have time to run a restaurant and be on a movie set all the time and have a baby?”
Annie shook her head. “My permit’s been turned down.”
“What?”
“The reason wasn’t very clear. Zach’s going to look into it. Something about there being a lack of money in the city coffers to fix the street in front of my restaurant site. And no money to fix the power lines around it. And it wasn’t a fire-safe location. There were a ton of reasons.” She looked at him sadly.
“By damn there were.” He smelled an ugly rat in this mess. Zach could check into the legal aspects of the situation if he liked, but Cody knew that to find a rat, he needed to go straight to the source of the nest—the mayor’s wooden bench.
“Maybe it’s for the best. I should be spending time with my daughter right now. I think she’s worried about how the new baby is going to affect her.”
“Yeah, she’s worrying about herself a lot these days.” Cody took her arm and led her toward the exit. “I don’t think Stormy’s come back yet, but you can leave a message at the desk for her to call you.”
“Keeping an eye on her, are you, Cody?” Annie’s voice turned teasing again. He could feel the tips of his ears turn red.
“No,” he lied. “Just wasn’t sure if her heading out with Wrong-Way was a good idea or not.”
“I see.” She reached up and tugged at his braid. “You know, Cody, it wouldn’t hurt you any to take a girl out every once in a while.”
“It would hurt me to take that one out. Go on.” He opened the door of her truck so she could get in.
Annie grinned at him. “I sure do appreciate you looking out for Mary last night. I’ve instructed her not to give you even a whisper of trouble while we’re gone.”
“Hmm.” After talking to Sloan, he wasn’t sure what he’d gotten himself into. “Are you sure you’ve thought this situation over? About the movie set?”
The smile slipped from her face. “I’ve thought about it, Cody. I don’t like it. I don’t like a lot of things lately, but if it will help my little girl, how can I say no?”
He pondered that as she drove away. Something was wrong with the whole scenario, but at the moment he couldn’t figure out what was bothering him. Teenager or not, he wasn’t completely sure that what Mary needed wasn’t a whipping. If he caught her throwing rocks at horses, a whipping would be the minimum he’d recommend to Annie.
Tate’s truck pulled past him, and he nodded Cody’s way. The grin on Tate’s face made him grit his teeth. He couldn’t see Stormy, but no doubt that grin told the story. Tate had gotten what he wanted.
Annie was too late. Mary wasn’t going to get her movie.
And Cody wouldn’t have to look at Stormy Nixon anymore. The thought should have been a relief, but the pain in his gut said otherwise.
Five minutes later, he saw Annie’s truck and flagged her down. “Catch her?”
“No, she wasn’t in. I left a message.”
“Thought I saw her come in a bit ago with Tate.”
“You sure are noticing her comings and goings.”
“Well, I wouldn’t except that darn Tate was wearing a grin the size of a quarter moon.”
“I see. Well, anyway, I’ve got to get on home. I’ve grounded Mary and Zach’s watching her, so no doubt he’s ready for a break.” She smiled and waved as she put the truck in gear. “Maybe you oughta take Stormy to the calf catch tonight, Cody,” she called as she drove off.
“Maybe I ought not.” He grabbed his gear and took it out to throw in the back of his truck. Thirty minutes later, he saw Tate leaving the vicinity at a faster speed than when he’d come into town. Maybe Stormy’d stuck the spurs to his backside.
“Naw. He’s just hurrying off to tell the Shiloh bunch they got themselves a deal.” Still, he wandered around the square, all the while glancing through the crowd for Stormy.
After the calf catch, she still hadn’t put in an appearance. Twenty teenagers were grinning and wearing cow manure and straw as they proudly accepted their prizes, but Stormy wasn’t there to pick on him about the poor little calves being dragged by their tails. He was sure he would’ve gotten an earful.
No doubt she had an appointment with some other city mayor, as she’d said she was on an urgent deadline to find a location—if she and Tate hadn’t come to terms. However, she just might be sitting in her room, feeling lonely. That would be no way to treat a visitor to their town.
Cody set his hat on his head and decided it was his duty to pay a call on Miss Stormy Nixon.
Chapter Six
Stormy didn’t answer his knock on her hotel room door. Nor had she answered when he’d rung her room. But, dang it, her rental car was in the parking lot. He’d glanced at the pool but she wasn’t there. “Stormy?” he called. “It’s Cody.”
He heard rustling inside. She opened the door a crack. “Oh, Cody. I thought Tate had come back.”
His stomach curdled at Stormy’s flushed face. If Tate had done anything to her, he’d put a hurt on him he wouldn’t forget. “Are you all right?”
She barely nodded. Her hair was disheveled, her upper lip perspiring a bit. And by golly, for a woman with skin she so proudly called alabaster, she was damn white right now.
Pushing her hair back with trembling fingers, she said, “Actually, I’m dying. But there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“My God, Stormy! Let me in.” He was afraid she was going to faint.
“No, Cody. Please. I just want to be alone. Oh, no!”
She slammed the door. He heard another door inside h
er room slam shut. The bathroom. Pushing his hat back on his head, he frowned. Not that he considered Stormy attractive, but she certainly hadn’t looked right. Something was dead wrong.
A second later, he heard a moan. Briefly considering his options—he could go away or he could risk taking one of those high-heeled shoes of hers in the head if she flung it at him—he decided to make sure she was all right. He barely opened the door, which she had neglected to lock, and poked his head around it.
“Stormy?” he whispered, thinking maybe she’d gone to sleep. Like a horizontal line she lay across the bed, unmoving.
Very slowly, she turned her head to squint at him out of eyes that suffered. “I don’t want you to see me like this,” she said on a breath.
“Jeez. If you’re sick, Stormy, let’s not worry about me seeing you. What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t know.” She closed her eyes.
He took that to mean she wasn’t in any condition to bean him with a shoe. A very bad sign. Closing the door behind him, he strode to the bed and stared down at her. “Can I get you a glass of water? Aspirin?” He didn’t know what was ailing her, which made him feel helpless. It was hard to see her feeling so poorly.
She started to shake her head, but suddenly jackknifed to a standing position and raced to the bathroom. He could hear her being violently ill on the other side of the door.
“Damnation,” he said to himself. What could be making her so ill?
A second later, she only made it back to the bed because he leapt to his feet and helped her the rest of the way.
“Cody, I’ve never been this sick,” she said on a groan. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
He helped her lie down. Without speaking, he got a cool washcloth and laid it on her forehead. “Close your eyes,” he instructed. Quickly, he tried to organize the thoughts swirling in his mind. Mary had thrown up from drinking mint liquor. He didn’t smell liquor on Stormy.