by Linda Bleser
Her lips parted. He drew her exhalation in, capturing her soul and returning his own in one sweet, combined breath. And it all fell away. Ten years of loneliness, ten years of resentment, all whisked away with one sweet kiss. It was like a rebirth.
And then it was over.
But still he couldn’t let go. Her face was soft and sweet and shy, exactly the way he’d held her in his memory all these years. He drew her head to his shoulder, not trusting his legs to hold him.
“Kitty,” he whispered.
She didn’t correct him this time. Kate was the woman who lived far away. Kitty was the girl she’d left behind. His girl. She’d always be his girl.
She just didn’t know it yet.
Kate was the first to break away. There were a hundred reasons she shouldn’t be kissing Max Connors. Right now she couldn’t think of a single one. She took one step back. Max took one step forward. The air seemed to sizzle between them. He held her gaze then reached out and toyed with a lock of her hair. He trailed a fingertip downward along the curve of her jaw, his touch soft and seductive. The curve of his lips held her mesmerized and despite her best intentions she wanted to kiss him again.
“Max.” She placed her hands against his chest, intending to put distance between them. His heartbeat pulsed strong and steady against her palm. Heat radiated from his body, searing her soul. She was torn between wanting to pull him closer and wanting to push him away. But even as she cautioned herself that she couldn’t risk falling in love with Max again, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she’d never stopped loving him to begin with. All the distance in the world couldn’t alter that.
“I have to get home,” she said, breaking the spell.
“You are home.”
The words resonated deep inside her. Home. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog from her brain. “I mean…who knows what Nellie’s brewing up in the kitchen?”
Max dropped his hand to his side. “I’ll take you back. Now that the electricity is fixed, we’ll have the shop open in no time. Then you can have some privacy again.” There was no mistaking the intent behind his smile.
Privacy. Kate shivered. The thought of spending time alone with Max was both enticing and dangerous. This time when she stepped away, he didn’t close the gap. It was as if he sensed she needed a little distance.
On the drive back, they kept the conversation on safe subjects, but even their casual small talk was buried under the weight of all that was still left unsaid. Max wasn’t a man to give up easily, and Kate knew they’d have to face those unspoken subjects eventually.
“Where’s Bobby’s father?” she asked, desperately trying to fill the silence with something other than longing.
Max shrugged. “He couldn’t handle being a rancher. Guess he couldn’t handle being a father either.” Max made a snort of disgust. “One day he drove into town for some supplies and never came back. None of us have seen him since.”
Max glanced at Kate, his expression unreadable. “Guess you might say it’s the Connors curse. The people we love have a habit of running away.”
Kate turned. She couldn’t bear to see the hurt in his eyes. They drove the rest of the way in silence, each harboring their own personal regrets. Max dropped her off at her front door. He made no move to come inside, and Kate didn’t invite him in.
After dropping Kate off, Max went searching for Ed Tate. He was frustrated with the way things had ended with Kate and strung up tighter than a barbed wire fence. He was in the mood for a fight and Ed Tate had a bull’s-eye smack dab in the middle of his forehead.
The deputy’s car was parked in front of the sheriff’s office, so he knew Tate was on duty. Max had no intention of letting that stop him.
Tate was sitting at his desk, talking on the telephone. Max caught the tail end of the conversation.
“If I go down, you’re going with me,” Tate growled into the receiver. “And I’m not—” He looked up and noticed Max standing in the doorway. Slick as a rattler in a mudslide, his expression changed. His look of surprise was replaced by a phony politician smile.
He gestured to Max to take a seat then returned to his phone conversation. Max remained standing. He could see that Tate enjoyed keeping him waiting, proving it didn’t take much to make a little man feel big.
Finally Ed hung up the phone, tipped his chair back and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked secretly amused by Max’s arrival. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Max was in no mood to play games. “I wouldn’t call it pleasure,” he said. “More like unfinished business.”
Tate raised an eyebrow. “If you’ve got something to say, Connors, just say it. I’m a busy man.”
Max snorted. “Oh, you’ve been busy all right.” He held up his hand before Tate could spout some officious bull. “Kate and I have been talking and it looks to me like you’re the one who spread all those rumors about her.” Max narrowed his eyes, daring Tate to deny it. “And from what Kate told me, none of them were true.”
“Well, that’s her word against the whole town then, ain’t it?” The front legs of Tate’s chair slammed down on the floor as he jerked forward. “Innocent people don’t leave skid marks hightailing their way out of town, do they?”
“You ran her out of town!”
“You still believe that little—”
“Don’t say it,” Max warned.
Tate stood and faced Max. He wasn’t smiling now. His voice was low and menacing. “Are you threatening me?”
They stood eye to eye, separated only by the metal desk between them. Sunlight winked off the badge on Tate’s chest. “You might not want to go digging too deep,” he warned. “You never know what skeletons you might dig up.”
Max leaned forward, palms flat on the surface of the desk. Rage coiled inside him like a snake poised to strike. His voice was a low growl. “Stay away from Kate Feathers. We both know you’re using her to get back at me.” His eyes narrowed. “You want a fight, Tate? Take off the badge you’re hiding behind and we’ll have it out man to man. Just name the time and place. But if you try to get to me by hurting Kate, I’ll have you drawn and quartered.” Max reached out and tapped his finger against the center of the shiny star for emphasis. “Badge or no badge.”
Tate spluttered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about the trumped-up code violation. I’m talking about your cockamamie stunt to take over Lillian’s shop. And I’m talking about anything else you’ve cooked up in that puny little brain of yours.”
Tate opened his mouth to argue, but before he could get a word out, Max held up his hand and stopped him. “I’ve put a lock on the breaker box. Looks as if those wires that accidentally came loose are secure now. See that the inspector is aware of it so that Kate can open the shop tomorrow.” Max leaned back, straightening on his side of the desk. “Consider this your first and only warning, Tate.”
“You can’t threaten me!” Tate stepped around the desk, facing Max. “You think you’re the Golden Boy, don’t you?” he sneered, looking like the spiteful little boy Max remembered. “You always got everything you wanted—the girls, the awards, the medals. Mr. All-American Hero. Well, who’s on top now? I’m wearing a badge and you’re saddled with a run-down ranch that can’t even make ends meet.”
“And you’re still second best,” Max shot back. “Face it. You weren’t good enough then, and you’re not good enough now.”
Max watched Tate’s jaw clench and continued goading him. “I know what you did, the lies you spread. And even after you made Kate think I was to blame, she still didn’t want you. That must have really pissed you off, huh? After all that, you still weren’t good enough. You still couldn’t compete with me, could you?”
Tate’s hands curled into fists.
“Still second best,” Max taunted. “That’s why you hate me so much, isn’t it? Because you know you’ll always be second best.”
Tate made a low, gr
owling sound deep in his throat. His body tensed and a flush rose to his cheeks.
Max braced himself and waited for Tate to throw the first punch. That’s all he needed—one good opening.
Sheriff Jackson cleared his throat from the doorway, breaking the standoff. “Problem in here?”
Max turned, composing his face in an innocent expression. “No problem, Sheriff. Deputy Tate and I were just clearing up a little misunderstanding about an electrical code problem.” Max threw an arm around Tate’s shoulder. “Deputy Tate has promised to straighten it out immediately. Isn’t that right Ed?”
Tate pursed his lips as Max’s fingers dug into his shoulder. “All taken care of,” he said gruffly.
Sheriff Jackson stared from one to the other then nodded and walked away.
Max turned back to Tate, speaking low enough so no one else could overhear. “If you pull another stunt like the last one,” he said, “I’ll see that you lose that badge you’re so fond of. Trust me.”
Then he turned and walked out of Tate’s office, nodding to a suspicious Sheriff Jackson on his way out the front door.
*
With the last “customer” out the door and the final dish washed and stacked, Kate and Nellie plopped down on the sofa and put their feet up.
“Thank God blueberry week is over,” Nellie said with a sigh of relief.
Had it only been a week? Kate felt as if she’d been back in Easy for months now. And she still had another week to go before Jeff came home and took over. Then she could get back to her real life.
Except New York didn’t seem so much like her real life anymore. She had friends there, but they were all people she worked with. Would anyone even miss her if she didn’t come back? Or would the social waters close up around her absence, like a pond around a sunken pebble.
No matter how much she tried to deny it, Kate knew her roots would always be here in Easy, Arizona.
“So,” Nellie said. “Where was Max heading off to in such a big hurry? His tires were squealing like a stuck pig.”
Just the sound of Max’s name made Kate smile. She could still feel the imprint of his kiss on her lips. But her smile quickly faded. “I think he’s going after Ed Tate.”
Nellie nodded. “It’s about time someone did. Ed Tate was a mean, nasty little boy and growing up hasn’t changed him much. I tell ya, no one was more surprised than me when he passed the deputy sheriff’s exam. I think even Ginny Tate blinked twice when he told her the news.”
“How long ago was that?” Kate asked.
Nellie pursed her lips and thought about it. “Oh, I’d say about four years ago. It was just before Sheriff Jackson was elected. He pretty much inherited Tate and was none too happy about it.”
“So why does Sheriff Jackson keep him around?”
“Tate’s sneaky,” Nellie confided, as if it were a secret known only to a chosen few. “There are rumors swirling around him, but nothing anyone can prove.” She leaned close and whispered conspiratorially. “But I happen to know Sheriff Jackson’s just waiting for Tate to make one wrong move, then…” Nellie made a slicing motion across her throat. “He’s outta here.”
As much as Kate relished the thought, it didn’t stop her from worrying about Max. No matter what people around these parts thought of Ed Tate, going after an officer of the law wasn’t a good idea.
Nellie tipped her head. “Do you hear that?”
“Hmm?”
Nellie stood up. “I must have left the radio on.”
Then Kate heard it too. The unmistakable sound of Roy Orbison’s singing drifting in from the kitchen. She followed Nellie, trying to place the song.
“You hear it too, right?” Kate needed proof that she wasn’t crazy.
“Oh yes, I hear it.” Nellie tiptoed to the counter, sneaking up on the cup sitting there. “That you, Lilly?” she asked.
The cup went right on singing.
Kate tipped her head. She knew it was Orbison but couldn’t place the title. “What’s that song? I don’t recognize it.”
Nellie stood up straight and turned toward Kate. “It’s called ‘Coming Home’.”
Kate felt a strange sensation in her chest, as if she’d been smacked with a pillow. “Coming home,” she whispered, feeling a shiver walk up and down her spine. It was almost as if the song was echoing her thoughts of only moments ago—an acoustic affirmation. There was no denying the feeling of coming home, a feeling that was magnified when she was with Max.
Kate reached out and turned the cup upside down in its saucer, muffling the song. It was one thing for her mother to haunt the teacup if she was going to be helpful, but Kate would be damned if she was going to let Lillian run her life from the other side. Whether she stayed or not was her decision alone, not a choice based on the vocal stylings of a teacup.
Nellie lifted the cup and peeked beneath it. For a moment the volume rose, then hushed again as Nellie let the cup fall back with a clatter onto the saucer.
“I’ll be damned,” she said, shaking her head. “Ain’t that just like Lilly?”
Yeah, Kate thought. Bossy even beyond the grave. “It doesn’t necessarily prove anything,” she argued. “There could be some physical explanation for it. I’ve heard of people picking up radio stations in their fillings.”
Nellie arched an eyebrow. “Let’s just assume for a minute that your mother’s trying to tell us something.”
“And she can only use Roy Orbison songs? Wouldn’t that limit her ability to communicate?”
Nellie shrugged and raised her eyes heavenward. “Who knows what kind of rules there are up there?”
“I don’t know,” Kate said. “Even hauntings should make some kind of sense.”
The cup finally stopped singing, as if not wanting to interrupt their conversation.
“Oh, it makes sense,” Nellie replied. “You know your mother loved Roy Orbison.” She chuckled. “I remember when Lilly and Anne Connors came back from seeing Roy Orbison in concert…oh, about 1976 I think it was. The two of them were all ga-ga over him and played Roy Orbison songs nonstop, day and night.”
“Anne Connors? Max’s mother?”
“Yes, they were the best of friends, don’t you remember?”
Vaguely. But Kate had been too young to care about the adults, and Max had lost his mother when they were…Kate tried to remember. It was just around the time her father and mother had split up. The two events were tied together in her memory, so that means she would have been about ten or so.
Funny, she’d forgotten how close her mother and Max’s mother had been. But now that she thought back, they’d done everything together. No wonder she and Max had grown up so close. They’d probably shared a crib at one point as their mothers had visited and giggled like schoolgirls.
Then everything had changed. Her father had left and they’d had to struggle to survive. Now that she thought about it, Kate remembered Max’s mother being at the house a lot back then, offering sympathy and support to Lillian. So she must have died shortly after that.
“Anne Connors,” Kate muttered. “It’s a clue.”
And just like that the cup answered, the decibel level increasing dramatically so that three specific words of the chorus could be heard clearly even though the cup was upside down.
Kate shook her head.
Nellie nodded. “Hear that? Roy says ‘you’ve got it’.”
“Got what?”
“Your answer.” Nellie’s head bobbed up and down with excitement. “Anne Connors. It’s a clue, just like you said.” She pointed to the cup. “See? Lilly confirmed it.”
“No, Roy Orbison confirmed it.”
“Same thing,” Nellie said, raising her eyes heavenward again and sighing wistfully. “You think they’re together up there?”
“God help Roy Orbison if they are,” Kate muttered. She turned to leave the kitchen, nearly tripping over the cat. She bent down and picked Sophie up, murmuring softly. “Don’t worry Sophie—you’ve got eight
more lives before having to deal with Mom again.”
Chapter Fourteen
Max stood on the porch step staring at Kate’s door. What was he doing here? The kiss they’d shared at the shop earlier was still fresh in his memory. Too fresh and too sweet to ignore. Kate still made his heart sing. If anything the magic was more powerful than he remembered, and he knew it would be even harder to forget this time if she chose to turn her back and leave him behind.
He should just walk away right now, before it went further than a kiss. Because he knew if he did more than kiss her, he’d never let her go again. If he had to hog-tie her to the hitching post he would, but once he had her—really had her—he’d never find the strength to let her out of his sight again.
He stood on the threshold, paralyzed with indecision. He didn’t want to go but was afraid to stay. As his mind argued the logic of leaving, his hand lifted and knocked on the door.
And then she was there in the doorway, as if she’d been waiting for him all along. The light from inside bathed her in a golden aura. Her eyes were wide and misty, her lips looking full and invitingly soft. Again his body responded before his mind could resist the temptation of her smile. He reached out and pulled her close, clutching her tight to his chest. His heart pounded, as if awakening from a deep, dreamless slumber.
He whispered her name as if it was the only word in the universe, the only name he’d ever spoken. He buried his face in the sweet fragrance of her hair, fitting her body to his as if they’d never been apart. She had to know how right this was. She had to feel it too.
She wrapped her arms around him in an embrace that stole his heart. He’d never felt anything so soft and yielding as her body pressed against his, had never ached for anyone as much as he ached for her.
He swooped down, claiming her lips, his arms tightening possessively around her. Her lips parted beneath his and nothing else mattered. He didn’t care that they were highlighted in the doorway, kissing like hungry teenagers for all the world to see. All that mattered was the taste, the smell, the feel of her.