Abigail laughed.
I stared at her in disbelief. Had I imagined that hot ‘take me now’ look just a minute ago?
“What’s so funny?”
“Just drive on to the pizza parlor because we’re not blowing off your family.”
“We’ll just tell them we changed our minds.”
“Your nephew spotted my underwear in the tree, and he and Tank spent nearly an hour retrieving it this morning. If we don’t show up they are going to know exactly why, so, no, we’re not going back for an hour of uninterrupted sex in your Mama’s basement.”
“I guess it’s my fault for throwing them into the tree.”
“Yes, it is.”
I was sorry we weren’t going back to the house, but I wasn’t sorry for losing her underwear. I hadn’t packed any bras for her, so I knew the one she was wearing was the only one she had. Studying her shirt and contained breasts beneath it, I wished Daniel hadn’t had such keen eyesight.
I tried again, dropping my voice. “How about us going to Sachel Lake? I hear they have a very nice bed and breakfast. We can hole up there for the rest of the weekend.”
“Pizza parlor, Scott Thomas, and step on it. I’m hungry for food.”
I started the car and headed toward Westcott Avenue, but I wasn’t giving up. We beat the family there, and the waitress showed us to a large corner booth. Abigail slid onto the bench, and I followed.
She gave me a curious glance when I scooted next to her, our thighs touching. I wasted no time, moving my hand to her leg and up her thigh. My thumb found the seam of her pants, and I stroked up and down that seam. Leaning into her, I brought my lips to her ear.
“Go with me to Sachel Lake after lunch.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
Abigail took my hand, slid away several inches, and clasped my hand in between us. She didn’t want me playing with her lap? No problem. I didn’t mind her playing with mine. I turned her hand over in mine and placed it on my crotch, giving her no doubt about who was tempting whom.
I heard commotion and watched the ill-timed arrival of my family, Mom holding Burpzilla, Daniel running full force, Tank and MeMe bringing up the rear. Abigail snatched her hand away. Reaching us first, Daniel dove toward the bench, knocked the table, and turned over my drink. As ice water soaked my pants, I sucked in a breath.
Yep, that helped.
****
Later at the house, we gathered on Mom’s big front porch. I hadn’t brought up Sachel Lake again because even with wet pants, lunch had been fun. I liked my family. I enjoyed watching the kids and the ease of sitting and eating with people who cared about me. After the meal it seemed so natural to gather at Mom’s. Daniel challenged me to a game of checkers, and being only seven, the kid was pretty good. It was one of those lazy days that for a while fools you into thinking how incredibly good and at peace the world is. And Abigail was right there with me. She and Amanda had made friends again, and the toddler had one of Abigail’s fingers in each of her fists trying her hardest to walk toward MeMe. Tank was showing Mom how to use the laptop they had bought her for her birthday as he fussed at her for not even turning it on in the month she had had it.
“I don’t know why you bought me one anyway. What do I need a laptop for?” Mom asked as Tank showed her again how the touchpad worked.
“For times just like these. You want to check email, but you don’t want to go inside to do it,” he returned.
“I’ll have to go inside to get the laptop, won’t I? I certainly can’t keep it out here.”
“No, you shouldn’t keep it on the porch. However, you can work on the computer without being tied to the desk. Say, you’re watching Amanda, and you want to check the weather or something.”
“I can’t play on the computer while I’m watching Amanda.”
“Sure, you can, because you’ll have the laptop.”
I looked over at my sister. “Do you leave this guy alone with your kids?”
“Yeah, but I take his laptop with me, or else I’m liable to find them in the road while he’s playing Fantasy Football.”
“Okay, Uncle Scotty,” Daniel declared, “Crown me.”
****
Those were the sweetest moments. I cradled Abigail at my side the next morning while we lay in bed. I knew the second she awoke because her breathing changed, a deep breath, a yawn, and a body stretch. We hadn’t spoken yet, just a sleepy smile as she gazed at me. Under the covers, her arm tightened around my chest, and her fingers trailed to my stomach.
“Scotty? Abby? Breakfast.” Mom called from down the stairs.
Abigail snickered.
“Will she come get us if we don’t go up there?” Abigail’s hand dipped lower.
“Yes.”
“We should get up then.” She removed her hand and sat up stretching again.
I sat up, too, and pulled her back against me brushing aside her hair and kissing the nape of her neck. “Let’s go to Sachel Lake after breakfast. We could stay in bed until breakfast tomorrow.”
She held my hands which at that moment were covering her breasts, removed them, and turned to face me.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
In the dim room, I considered this woman before me. I knew myself well enough to realize I couldn’t have a rational conversation with her—and me—naked. Why waste the opportunity? “Let’s talk later. We’ve got about five minutes before we get the second warning and another three before she comes down here.” I reached for her, but she caught my hand in hers.
“I’ll go with you to Satchel Lake today, but after that, I’m going to Clavania in the morning.”
I pulled my hand away, pushed the covers back, and slid from the bed. “No.” Going to my suitcase, I pulled out underwear and a pair of jeans.
“I can’t keep missing work. They’re going to fire me for good this time.”
I slipped on the clothes. I walked in the bathroom briefly and came back into the bedroom to open a dresser drawer. I pulled out a T-shirt Mom kept there from when I was in high school. By this time, Abigail had gotten out of bed as well and covered herself with a towel.
“Your job is secure.”
From the mirror, her eyes narrowed at me. Her spine straightened, her shoulders back, and one hand held that towel to her chest. “What did you do? Send Special Agent Travers in to beat up poor Dale Potter? No wonder that man was willing to give me a freakin’ executive parking space.”
I turned to face her, struggling to keep my voice even, calm. “Nobody beat him up. We just encouraged him to…reconsider your termination.”
She hit her forehead and made a frustrated sound. “Strong arm tactics. Shame on you.”
“No duress. Nothing like that. Dale Potter knows you’re a good employee.”
“A good employee who knows she needs to get back to work. I have bills to pay, plants to water. I need to get back to my life.”
“They haven’t caught whoever threatened you. You’re not leaving until they at least have a lead.”
“Which may be never, Scott.” She was adamant.
“With the ATF and police working together? They’ll find the perp, and you can go then.”
“I can’t wait for something that may not happen. I can’t keep letting those bullies run my life. I’m going home.” She walked toward the bathroom, but I blocked her.
“No. You’re not.” Absolutely not.
“I am.” She refused to meet my eyes, her chin stubbornly set.
“You’re not leaving.”
“I am, and you can’t stop me.” If she had been yelling at me, I could have taken it, but she was composed. She had made up her mind, her stubborn, idiotic mind that was going to get herself killed.
“I can’t lose you. I love you!”
Who was more shocked by my admission? Abigail’s surprised expression mirrored my own astonishment.
“Dammit,” I ground out. Turning on my heel, I grabbed her key off the dresser and st
alked out the door.
Let’s see how far she gets without her car.
Chapter Thirteen
Abigail
He loves me.
I sat down on the bed, still clutching the towel to me and hearing Scott slam the back door as he left with my car key.
He loves me, and he isn’t happy about it.
What was I supposed to do? I needed to get back home. I couldn’t leave my life in limbo in Clavania while I shacked up with Scott in his mom’s basement.
I stood back up and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
I did love him. Of course, I did. I owed him my life. I owed him everything. Without a doubt, he had my heart, too. I had spent too much time and energy searching for him not to love him when I found him. And especially when I found out how much of a hero he was, noble and brave and selfless. But things weren’t settled. Lola had told me months ago I should offer him the kind of help he needed. I still thought that help was a home. I was too much of a distraction for him to get to know his family again and make a home for himself, and I knew it. I didn’t care so much about going back to work, but I did have a life in Clavania. And, until Scott worked things out with his family, that’s where I was going to stay.
I finished getting ready trying to figure out what to do about Scott. When was he coming back? What should I say to him when he did?
Slow footsteps on the stairs alerted me that Mrs. McIntyre was coming to see why we hadn’t made it up for breakfast. She stood at the door as I closed my suitcase.
“Are you leaving today?”
“Well,” I sighed and looked at her. “It depends on whether Scott brings my car back or not.”
“Yes. I saw him tear out of here. I thought you might have been with him.”
“Now, that would have been rude. Leaving without saying goodbye.”
“Your mama raised you better than that, huh? Obviously, Scott’s mother didn’t.”
I laughed, put my arm around her, and we walked back upstairs.
“I’m sure you did your best. Is the offer for breakfast still open?”
“Of course.”
We sat across from each other and ate scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. “Scott doesn’t want me to leave, but I think it’s time.”
“You have to get back to work?”
“Yes.”
“You two didn’t talk about how long you’d be here?”
I contemplated how to tell Mrs. McIntyre that her son had, for all intents and purposes, kidnapped me to keep me safe. Neither one of us had disclosed why Scott had brought me here. Because of our sleeping arrangements, they had assumed I was his girlfriend. I guess I was his girlfriend. I smiled liking the sound of that.
He loves me.
“I appreciate your hospitality, Mrs. McIntyre—”
“Please call me Emily,” she interrupted.
“Emily,” I continued. “But it isn’t really…er…respectable. This arrangement, I mean. I know Scott has been away a long time, and, well, I think I need to get out of the picture and let him find his place here again.”
“Is your place not in the picture?” Her kind eyes met mine.
I looked down at my empty plate. “Do you know that cliché about if you love something set it free?”
“Is that the one where you let it go, and if it comes back then it belongs to you? Or is it the one where if it doesn’t come back, you hunt it down and kill it? I’ve heard both.”
Wow. I really loved this woman’s sense of humor.
I returned her smile that she was giving me. “The first one, though the second one has some merit, too, but not in this case.”
“Okay.”
“I looked for Scott a long time. He’s so duty-bound, that he’s kept me close to him to protect me, but I want to be a big girl here and let him go. I think leaving today is the right thing to do.”
“It’s hard to do that when he’s got your car.”
“Yeah. I think that’s what he’s counting on.”
Emily stood up and collected our plates. I picked up the glasses, and we carried them to the sink. She ran water over them and wiped her hands on a dish towel.
“Come here. I want to show you something.”
I followed her into the living room. She reached under the coffee table and pulled a box from underneath toward her. Opening it, she pulled out two red trophy ribbons and handed them to me.
Both badges in the middle read, ‘Honorable mention.’
“Look on the back,” Emily suggested.
I did so. One had Sarah McIntyre’s name on it, with the statement ‘For finishing the race.’ The other had Scott’s name on it, with the statement, ‘For finishing her race.’
What did it mean? I looked at Emily and waited.
“The summer before Sarah and Scott’s senior year, Sarah was in the state finals for track. The coach had said she was headed to the Olympics. We were all there that day, so proud of her. On the last lap she tripped and fell. She struggled to get up, but she had broken her ankle. To this day, I don’t know how she could have done it. It was a really bad break, but she was determined. She started crawling to the finish line. My heavens, I could hardly stand to watch it. But then there was Scott. He picked her up, both of them with tears streaming down their faces, and he walked her to the finish line. It was almost half of the track, close to two hundred meters. He kept telling her, ‘We’re going to finish this race.’ Even from where we were sitting I could hear him. It was one of those terrible and terrific moments. At the school assembly that year, Sarah’s track team presented her and Scotty with the ribbons.”
“Sarah was never the same after that. It took several operations to repair the damage to her foot. She couldn’t run any more. And even though Scotty did the best brotherly thing that day, the most loving thing, it wasn’t enough. She started going out with the wrong crowd, and by the following June she was gone. My husband died in July.”
“Scott said it was a bad year for your family.”
“Yes, it was. But I still had Scott and MeMe. My older son Andy and his wife had their little boy, my first grandchild Andrew, so that helped. It reminded me that life goes on. Andrew has his grandpa’s eyes, as well as having his name. That was a gift in those difficult months.”
She was quiet for a few moments. I wasn’t quite sure what to say. I stared at the ribbons in my hands.
Honorable Mention.
I’d say so.
“I agree that Scotty is duty-bound, but don’t sell yourself short. I think you’re more than a responsibility to him.”
I hoped so, but how could I know? The dummy walked out on me. Correction. The dummy stalked out on me.
“I’m telling you all this because Scott, in a lot of ways, is still trying to make things okay by what he does in his work. He’s never been able to accept that sometimes no matter what we do, we can’t save the other person.”
She had hit the nail on the head, and she didn’t even know that he had been in that fire in Clavania.
“I think I’ll try to call him.”
And say what? I didn’t know.
I went downstairs to get my cell phone and left a message on his voice mail.
“Scott Thomas, you have one minute to call me back, or I’m calling the cops and reporting my car stolen.”
He didn’t call me back in the allotted time frame. Man. I hated it when people called my bluff.
Maybe I’d give him a few more minutes and report it borrowed with a possible miscommunication.
How could he just drop that bomb of loving me and leave like that?
****
Scott still hadn’t shown up after an hour. I called him two more times but only got his voice mail. If Emily wasn’t so sweet, I would have called the cops on her son, but I knew she’d probably be the one who would have to bail him out. I sat in her kitchen with her, and we drank coffee while I ruminated on him loving me and stealing my car.
“I tell you what.” Emily
stood up, walked to the counter, and brought her purse to the table. “It’s time for me to get to church. You drop me off and take my car back to Clavania.”
I watched her pull her key off her key ring. “I can’t take your car.”
“Yes. Take it. When you’re ready to swap, I’ll send Scott down for it. How does that sound?”
“I can’t take your car.”
“Nonsense. I’ll just borrow yours, and you’ll borrow mine. And Scott will have to get his own.”
She smiled at me while she shouldered her purse. “Come on, then. Give me a hug and go get your stuff. If I don’t get there by nine, I miss the news in town.”
I took Emily’s car, a Fusion, still wondering about the wisdom of it. What would Scott do when he found out I had gone anyway and in his Mom’s car? I was nearly to the Georgia line when blue lights flashed in the rear view mirror. I looked at the dashboard to check my speed. No. So what was the problem? I slowed and pulled onto the shoulder of the road thinking maybe the guy just wanted to get by.
No such luck. He parked behind me.
I reached into my purse and pulled out my license. Emily had shown me in the church parking lot where in the glove box she kept her insurance card and her car registration. I pulled those out in case I needed them. Rolling down the window, I waited for the state trooper to approach.
He did so.
“Is there a problem?” I tried to give him my best ‘I’m so innocent’ look.
“We’ll see. Is this your vehicle?”
“No. I borrowed it from a friend.”
“Hmm.” He looked at my license.
Oh, boy. That didn’t sound good. “Here.” I handed him the papers. “She showed me where the insurance and registration are. Do you need these?” Should I pop the trunk so he’d know I hadn’t stuffed Emily back there?
“Ms. Benton, stay where you are.” He strode back to his car.
If Scott McIntyre has reported his mother’s car stolen, I’d kill him.
I watched the dashboard clock and the man in the police car behind me. How long did it take to contact the DMV to make sure I wasn’t an escaped convict? After twenty minutes, I walked back to the police cruiser hoping the cars doing eighty on the interstate wouldn’t veer over too far and squash me.
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