by Susanna Carr
* * *
SHE WAS GOOD. Travis watched Christine closely. She was selling this little innocent small-town girl routine. For a moment he believed it. He wanted Christine to be exactly what he first thought—a mix of sweet and spice.
Was it possible that she could just be a hardworking woman who hadn’t had a chance to go after her dreams? And that emerald could bring in enough money that she could leave this tiny town and live out her craziest, most expensive fantasies?
He wished Christine wasn’t the thief, but he had to face facts. She was the only person who could have stolen the emerald. His suspicions were confirmed when she hid from him. Only a guilty person would panic.
She’d recovered quickly. It made him wonder how often she found herself confronted by the victim of her crimes. She said she was hiding because of how she was dressed? That made no sense. She was beautiful and sensual and no clothes could hide that.
“Oh, great. I just saw my neighbor walk by,” she muttered. “She doesn’t come to the bank on Mondays. She must have heard about your public display of affection in the lobby.”
“You were with me every step of the way,” he said with deep satisfaction. This woman who was way out of his league put him on her bucket list. Her Vegas to-do list. He couldn’t help but smile.
“Hello, Rhonda,” Christine said. Travis watched Christine give a friendly wave at a young woman with a pixie cut and a long, flowing dress. “Looks like it’s going to storm today.”
“Good morning, Christine,” Rhonda called back as she strolled to the bank’s main entrance. “I see you brought a souvenir back from Vegas.”
Christine slumped against the tree trunk and groaned. “Do you see what you started?” she asked Travis.
“And that’s when I’m on my best behavior,” Travis replied. It was time for her to figure out how much trouble he could cause.
“They are going to think that I’ve lost my mind.” She covered her face with her hands. “They won’t believe it was a phase and I’m too young to be having a midlife crisis.”
“They’ll think it was a knee-jerk response to how Darrell broke up with you.” That would explain her Vegas weekend. He was beginning to think this was Christine’s motive for taking the emerald. She was probably regretting taking the gem and didn’t know what to do to fix the situation. That sounded more like the Christine he knew.
Christine’s shoulders went rigid and her hands slowly dragged down her cheeks as she stared at him. “How did you know about that?”
He shrugged. “I heard things.”
She spread her arms out wide. “You’ve only been in town for five minutes!”
“I met Darrell the moment I drove past the welcome sign.” How could someone with Christine’s wild streak be attracted to such a bland guy? “Really, Christine? What were you thinking?”
“And you think I’m better matched with you? Remember that the woman you met in Vegas was the fake me. The pretend Christine.”
Travis didn’t think so. He believed that he’d seen the real Christine in Vegas. The pretend one was standing before him now. “I’ll soon find out.”
Christine narrowed her eyes. “How are you going to do that?”
“I saw a bed-and-breakfast just off Main Street. I’m going to reserve a room.” He suspected the place would be frilly and floral. It was going to be torture.
“You’re staying there?” Christine started to shake her head. “You’re going to hate it. The woman who runs it has so many rules. You’re going to get kicked out before you unpack.”
“Where else can I stay? Unless you’re inviting me to your place,” he teased.
Her eyelashes fluttered and she bit her bottom lip. “It’s a mess.”
Travis’s stomach clenched when he saw the sparkle in Christine’s eyes. She was considering having him stay? He thought he was the only one who wanted to continue what they had started. “I like messy.”
“It’s small,” she warned him.
“Sounds cozy.” Maybe too cozy. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to prowl around like a caged animal. Was that what Christine was counting on?
“People will talk.” She glanced around the parking lot.
“They’re already talking,” he pointed out. “You could deny we’re involved, but no one would believe you.”
Christine lowered her gaze and he knew she wasn’t going to invite him. Something was holding her back. Was the emerald in her home?
“I’m sorry, Travis. I can’t have you stay at my place. Not yet.”
“It’s okay. I understand.” He pressed his hands against the tree trunk and leaned into her. Travis brushed his mouth against her lips. He did it again and again. He ached to hold Christine until he could feel her heart beating against him. Until their breathing became one.
Christine clasped her hands against his jaw and claimed his lips. She thrust her tongue into his mouth and explored him. He tasted her passion and her need. Her groan reverberated deep in her chest. Desire flared between them, burning bright, as the kiss grew stronger. Harder.
He pulled away before he got in too deep, but he couldn’t break the connection. Their lips clung as his forehead rested against hers.
“Why’d you stop?” she whispered.
“If I don’t stop now I’ll take you against this tree.” Christine Pearson wanted him. The seduction in Vegas hadn’t been faked. He should be thrilled, but it just added another problem for him. This woman had stolen his friend’s emerald and was lying about it, but he still couldn’t keep his hands off her.
Christine suddenly ducked under his arm. Her movements were jerky and she didn’t look at him. “I have to go back to work.”
He reached for her hand and stopped her. “Stay with me,” he urged.
“Travis, this is a really bad idea.”
She was right. It was a bad idea. He didn’t know why he felt this way or why he needed to hold on to her. There was something about Christine that he couldn’t get enough of.
“I’m going to be honest. I’m not interested in a relationship,” she said. “There are so many things I want to do and I need to make up for lost time.”
“Then let me help you. Look at what you did in Vegas.”
“Thanks, but I can’t,” she said with a smile. “I went to Vegas because I couldn’t do those things here.”
“Christine, you can do anything you want here. You just have to be smart about it.”
She hesitated and then shook her head as if to clear his advice from her mind. “You’re a bad influence.”
“I’ll show you everything I know,” he promised. It could be fun. Addicting. He needed to be very careful or the student would overpower the master.
“Okay, fine. I would love to see how your mind works.”
A chill swept through him. “What are you talking about?”
“You offered and I accepted,” she said as she walked back to the bank. “Ready or not, I’m going to find out everything about you.”
10
“THE PEOPLE IN Cedar Valley sure like to walk,” Travis said as he took a sip from his beer bottle and leaned back on Christine’s porch swing. It creaked as it gently moved back and forth. He gave a nod to a young couple in bright yellow raincoats as they strolled hand in hand down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. The two looked like they belonged in a sappy romantic musical. “I didn’t see anyone when I first arrived and now I feel like I’ve seen the whole town strolling down your street.”
“You are the talk of Cedar Valley,” Christine said, sitting next to him. She had changed out of the brown dress and wore a thin red blouse and dark jeans. Her hair was loose and fell past her shoulders, but his gaze kept going to her bare feet. He hadn’t expected her to go barefoot in front of him. It felt like an act of trust, b
ut he knew he was reading too much into it.
“Why are people talking about me?” he asked. “I didn’t do anything. Yet.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She waved at the couple and they waved back. “They want to see what you look like. If we weren’t sitting out on my porch, they would find an excuse to ring my front door.”
“And here I thought we were sitting here because you wanted to show me off,” he teased. He was surprised that she had invited him to her house, but he didn’t get past the front door.
He had to find a way to get into the house. He needed a chance to discover where she was hiding the emerald. Unless she had it in a safe-deposit box. His stomach twisted with dread at that possibility. He would never get it back if that was the case.
He looked around the screened-in porch again. It was vibrant but relaxing. He could stay here for hours. “This is your favorite spot at home, isn’t it?”
She gave him a sharp look. “How did you know that?”
“It’s you.” From the small glimpse he had of her home, it had minimal furnishings and very few trinkets or pictures. The porch, however, was an explosion of color from the hunter-green floor to the printed throw pillows. There were plants in the corner and a shelf that held books and a stereo system.
“My parents never used the porch so I claimed it for myself. I wasn’t stuck inside, but I wasn’t out in the wild, either. It was a compromise.”
“Do you have your bucket list here?” he asked, glancing at the shelf. He didn’t see a box or a container that would store paper. Or an emerald. Chances were the stolen gem was where she kept her valuables. That bucket list was important to her. The emerald would be near it.
“You are obsessed with that list!” Christine said. “I swear there is one.”
He reached over and splayed his hand on her denim-covered leg. “Then tell me one thing on the list you don’t want people to know about.”
She scoffed at his suggestion. “Why would I tell you that?”
“I want to know what you wanted when you were eighteen that you don’t want now.”
“There are actually a lot of things on that list that I don’t think I’ll do,” she said as she gave him a thoughtful look. “I wanted to build my dream home. That was number twelve. It was going to be glamorous and in a big city. I had always felt cramped in this house and my dream home would have been a showcase for all the things I picked up on my travels.”
Travis couldn’t picture Christine in a big city, but she was someone who had souvenirs and scrapbooks. “And now?”
“I want to stay here. I’m lucky I don’t have a mortgage and I want to spend my time and money on something else. But it’s more than that. I always felt safe here. I can’t replace that.”
Her comment reminded him of his grandmother. The woman only felt safe at home until it got to the point that she couldn’t leave the house. “You wouldn’t sell it so you could go on a big adventure?”
“No. I need to know this is here for me. This is my home base. There were times when I struggled to keep it for my mother and me. I’m glad I fought through those moments.” She took a sip of her beer and sighed. “What about you?”
He frowned. “What about me?”
“What did you want at eighteen?”
“I didn’t want to turn out like my grandmother.” The words slipped from his mouth before he thought about it. He winced. Why did he tell her that? That was something he would never admit, even to himself.
“I don’t understand,” Christine said softly.
“My grandmother raised me,” Travis explained tersely. “She had a lot of phobias that got in the way of living. By the time I was a teenager, she wouldn’t leave the house. Fear ruled her life and I didn’t want to live like that.”
The silence stretched between them as the porch swing creaked back and forth. Travis clenched his teeth. Why didn’t he say something else? Why didn’t he lie?
“What do you want now?” she asked.
He was thirty-one now but his goal had never changed. He had heard stories about his grandmother when she was younger. She hadn’t been adventurous, but she’d been active, always joining clubs and activities. He’ll never know what triggered the change in her, but he worried that he carried the same trait deep inside him. He could enjoy a moment, like sharing Christine’s favorite spot in the world, but he would force himself to move on.
“What I want now,” he said gruffly, “is to read your infamous bucket list.”
She gave a start of surprise and chuckled. “Fine, Travis. I’ll show you my list. But no laughing, do you understand?”
“Agreed.” He didn’t feel like laughing. He didn’t mean to share something personal with Christine. He didn’t know why he felt the need to expose his greatest fear. The one that he had struggled to overcome for years.
“I’ll be right back.” She got off the porch swing and headed for the door.
Travis didn’t say anything as he watched her leave. He listened carefully as she walked through the small house. When he heard her climb the stairs, he knew Christine probably kept her most valuable items in her bedroom or closet.
His cell phone rang and Travis jumped at the harsh sound in the eerie silence. He grabbed it from his pocket and saw it was Aaron calling. Travis wanted to ignore the call, but he knew he owed it to his friend to stay in contact.
“Aaron?” Travis said quietly. “I can’t talk right now.”
“Did you find her?” his friend asked.
“Yes,” Travis said. “I’m at her house and I think I know where the emerald is.”
“You think?” Aaron gave a huff of exasperation. “The longer it’s not in our possession, the more likely that I’ll lose this emerald forever.”
“I’m taking care of it.” He glanced at the door. Christine was going to come back shortly, and he didn’t want her to overhear his conversation.
“Why don’t you just confront her?”
“I was ready to, but my instincts...”
“Instincts?” Aaron repeated. “Forget your instincts. Let’s just go with my plan and call the cops.”
“No.” He knew getting the police involved was the best option, but he didn’t want to do that to Christine. She’d grabbed the emerald on a whim or out of opportunity. Undoubtedly, she had no idea what it was worth. “You will have your lucky charm back by the end of the week. I promise.”
“I don’t like this, Travis. How do we know she’s not working for Hoffmann? He left immediately after the game. That emerald could be long gone.”
Travis looked around Christine’s porch and front lawn. “I can honestly say that she’s not an internationally wanted jewel thief.” He heard Christine walk down the stairs. “I have to go. I’ll call you when I know more.”
“Travis!” Aaron said.
Travis disconnected the call and turned off his phone, not wanting any more interruptions. He slid the phone back into his pocket as Christine stepped onto the porch. She held a sheaf of papers that were yellowed and wrinkled with age.
“Here you go. I’m not sure what you’re going to find in this list,” Christine said with a hint of uncertainty. She thrust it toward him and he accepted it. He glanced at the faded print and knew she was trusting him with something deeply personal.
“Are you kidding?” he said as he gestured her to sit next to him on the creaky porch swing. “In this list is our next adventure.”
* * *
THE STORM SWEPT IN later that night. Christine leaned against the column of her front porch and watched the jagged fork of lightning in the dark sky. She heard the patter of rain on the roof tiles and felt a sprinkle of raindrops on her skin. She was protected from the ferocious and wild elements but she yearned for a closer look.
She’d survived having Travis look
at her list of dreams. He didn’t laugh or roll his eyes at some of the fanciful items. He wanted to know the reasons behind the goal and what had the greatest meaning to her. He understood what drove her and she felt Travis knew her better than anyone.
“I should have known you’d like storms.”
Christine froze when she heard Travis’s voice right behind her. She refused to follow the urge to look at him. “Do you like them?” she asked.
“Always have.” He was standing close, his chest grazing her back. “When I was younger, I wanted to harness the lightning. Never figured out how to do it.”
“We don’t get storms around here too often.” Christine rubbed her bare arms to ward off the sudden chill. “It’s usually peaceful and quiet.”
“You should make the most of the lightning,” he whispered in her ear, making Christine shiver.
“I am not running outside,” she said over the crack of thunder. “Knowing my luck, I’d get hurt.”
Travis rested his hands on her shoulders as the lightning flashed, illuminating the sky. “Have you ever made love in the rain?”
“No.” Don’t even think about it. What he’s suggesting is forbidden. Christine pressed her lips together as the thoughts swirled around her mind. She shouldn’t consider the possibility. Someone would see them and she would have to take care of the mess long after Travis left town.
“Have you chased a storm?” Travis asked.
The roar of thunder matched the thrill coursing through her veins. She shouldn’t make love to Travis again. She could fall fast and hard for this man and he wasn’t looking for any kind of commitment. But she might never have another chance to experience the magic they shared.
“There are many things I haven’t done,” she said as she rested her hand on the porch column. “I want to stand in the eye of the storm, but I’m staying here.”
“Why?”
“Because I can have a taste of danger.” She finally turned around and looked at him. She saw the stark need in his eyes and knew it mirrored her own. “And still stay in my comfort zone.”