If You Ever Tell

by Carlene Thompson

  “What do you mean, Teresa?”

  Mac pushed the scooped neckline of her dress farther to the right and lightly, teasingly kissed her collarbone. A wave of heat flooded through Teri, but she still made herself say, “I want what we used to have—love.”

  “We can’t have what we used to have.” Mac stopped kissing her and looked penetratingly into her eyes, his own intense, seductive, and sincere. “We can have something better than we used to have, Teri. It can be better because we’re both older, we’ve both experienced more of life, and we’re both more certain of what we want.”

  “And what do we both want?” Teresa asked, clinging to him, feeling the warmth of perspiration beginning to cover her entire body, causing her arms to encircle Mac’s neck and to hold on tightly. She felt like she wanted to cling to him forever, never to let go of his strength, his goodness, his charm, and his overpowering sensuality.

  “We both want love, Teri,” he said, barely above a whisper.

  Teresa felt the last of her defenses crumbling away. No amount of effort could have made her lie to him now. Bending back her head to receive his deep kiss on her lips, she said softly, “Yes. Oh yes, Mac. I want love.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  1

  THE NEXT DAY, MAC had returned Teresa and Sierra to their home and was installing new locks on the doors when Carmen arrived. Teresa braced herself, feeling that anyone who looked at her could tell she’d spent a passionate night with Mac. Carmen seemed distracted, though. Teresa was glad her friend had her engagement announcement to think about, instead of focusing her attention on Teri and Mac.

  Together she and Carmen carried in a German chocolate cake, a pineapple upside-down cake, cupcakes, and a tray of petits fours. Carmen had also brought two bottles of a good champagne along with juice and soft drinks.

  “Carmen, you’ve brought enough food to feed twenty people.” Teresa laughed.

  “I’m hoping everyone is in the mood for a real party.”

  Teresa studied Carmen closely. She looked trim and tailored in her slim jeans and a creamy knit top that played up her slim waist and beautiful shoulder-length brown hair, but her complexion was pale, and faint mauve shadows lay beneath her eyes. She probably hadn’t slept well last night, and Teresa couldn’t blame her. This upcoming marriage was terribly important to Carmen, and she would be facing an adversary wielding a weapon more powerful than a gun—the love and demands of a possessive daughter.

  Teresa abruptly enclosed Carmen in her arms. “Calm down, Carmen,” she said softly. “Don’t expect Sharon to be whooping with joy tonight. At best, she’ll say nothing. At worst, she’ll say something nasty. But if Gabe truly loves you, which I’m sure he does, he’ll insist Sharon accept you as his wife.”

  Some of the worry left Carmen’s eyes for a moment and she smiled. “Could you give me that pep talk again before we make the announcement?”

  “I’ll give it to you all day long, with the exception of the time I have to spend talking to the sheriff.”

  “I forgot about that!” Carmen exclaimed. “Do you want me to go with you?”

  “Thanks, but no. I want to face this on my own and not hide behind anyone.”

  Later in the afternoon, when Teresa returned from her meeting with the sheriff, she wished she hadn’t pretended to be so strong and gone alone. The sheriff had made her repeat the sequence of events the night of Gus’s murder three times. He’d demanded to know why she hadn’t reported earlier the stranger who had left the night-light at her front door or what appeared to be the same person who had run in front of her car less than an hour before she’d found Gus in the horse’s stall.

  Although Teresa had answered all of the sheriff’s questions truthfully, her answers sounded hollow and evasive to her own ears. She’d walked into his office confidently, with her shoulders back and her head held high. She left feeling like the frightened, slumping teenager he’d interrogated again and again eight years ago.

  “I see the interview didn’t go well,” Mac said when she arrived home. “Did he get out the blinding light and the rubber hose?”

  “Just short of it. If I’d made myself available for questioning yesterday, it wouldn’t have been so bad. By avoiding him I made things worse.”

  Mac kissed her forehead. “Well, at least you faced him. It’s over.”

  “For today. They still have no idea who killed Gus. If Roscoe Byrnes is telling the truth about not killing Dad and Wendy, they have no idea who murdered them, either, leaving me as the prime suspect. Again,” Teresa said in despair. “Now another person has been murdered right under my nose.”

  “What motive does the sheriff think you could have had for murdering Gus Gibbs?”

  “I believe he just thinks I’m crazy. A homicidal maniac.”

  Mac frowned. “A homicidal maniac that waits eight years between murders? One that stays at the scene of her murders so she can be caught? Sorry, honey, but I’m not buying it.”

  “You’re not the sheriff.”

  “And you’re not under arrest, are you?” Teresa shook her head. “So stop looking so scared.”

  “I’m not sure I can.”

  “You have to for Daniel’s sake. Tonight is the fireworks display, remember? What will he think if his aunt appears looking like she’s facing the guillotine?”

  Teresa groaned. “I forgot about that in the midst of my panic attack. You’re right. I have to get hold of myself.”

  “Of course I’m right. I’m always right.” Mac’s eyes twinkled and he kissed her again, then wrapped his arm around her. “You didn’t even notice when you came in. Kent’s moving men arrived with the grandfather clock from your house and the lamp. I told them to put the lamp in your bedroom. I didn’t know where you wanted the clock, so I had them place it right over there. If you don’t like it, we can move it later.”

  Teresa rose and walked to the clock. It looked so much bigger in her house than in her former home—big but still beautiful with its intricate carving and the moon phase face. Mac had not wound the clock. It sat as if frozen in time, no hands moving, no pendulum swinging, no chimes ringing.

  “Do you want to set it now?” Mac asked.

  “No. I think I’ll wait awhile. Maybe until tomorrow,” Teresa said. Maybe tomorrow, when the memory of the sheriff’s penetrating gray eyes and hard, relentless voice was not so fresh in her mind, when it had not stirred up painful recollections of this beautiful clock that had sat for years in the nightmare house on Mourning Dove Lane.

  “Okay,” Mac said offhandedly, although she was certain he understood her reluctance to get the clock going. “Josh’s friends came and fed the horses, but I’m sure you’d like to go down and see for yourself that they’re okay. I’ll go with you. Then I have to pick up Mom—she wants to go to the concert and fireworks display—and you have to get ready to go to Kent’s. I’ll only be leaving you alone here for a couple of hours while it’s still light outside.”

  “I will be fine,” Teresa assured him. “I have a ferocious guard dog, a cordless phone I can carry around with me, pepper spray, and I’ll stick a meat cleaver in my belt if you want.”

  Mac tilted his head and grinned. “I’ll let you slide on the meat cleaver. If you bring it, I guarantee the sheriff will arrest you!”

  2

  “We didn’t think you’d ever get here, Aunt Teri,” Daniel cried as he stood in the doorway of his home. We’ve been waitin’ and waitin’!”

  “I think I’m right on time,” Teresa answered, glancing at her watch.

  Sharon appeared behind her son. “You are. He’s been ready to go for an hour. We can’t convince him the fireworks won’t begin until after dark.”

  As Teresa stepped into the house, she remembered that the last time she’d spoken with her sister-in-law, Sharon had been full of anger with her for telling Kent she’d taken Daniel away early from his riding lesson. Sharon had seemed to think Teresa was deliberately trying to cause trouble between herself an
d her husband. Teri had almost dreaded coming to the house and enduring Sharon’s residual ire, but instead the woman looked welcoming, her smile warm. Teresa wondered if she’d been forgiven or Sharon was merely acting, not wanting to incur further trouble with Kent by being cold to his sister.

  “I saw your dad’s car in the driveway,” Teresa said.

  “He’s been here for twenty minutes,” Sharon said, ushering Teresa into the house. “I think he’s as anxious as Daniel to see the fireworks. Either that or something else has him nearly pacing the floor.” Oh dear, Teresa thought. Gabriel O’Brien was as nervous about the wedding announcement as Carmen. “Dad, Teri’s here!” Sharon called as if announcing that the life of the party had just arrived.

  “Teri! Teresa! Well, don’t you look fine!” Gabe boomed, enfolding her in a bear hug. In all the years Teresa had known him, Gabriel had never hugged her. “Pretty as a picture. You and Sharon will put every girl in Point Pleasant to shame. Yes, indeed!”

  Kent and Sharon were both looking askance at the big, handsome man with the unusually high color and loud voice. Teresa wished she could tell him to tone down, to act more naturally, but she didn’t have a chance with two sets of eyes on her. Even Daniel gave his grandfather a puzzled glance.

  “So nice to see you, Gabe,” Teresa said. “It’s been ages.”

  “Ages. Yes, ages! Let’s see—was it Christmas?”

  “Yes, right here at Kent and Sharon’s party. We both drank too much eggnog and did that unforgettable duet of ‘Good King Wenceslas.’” Dear God, Teri thought, someone please save us from this ridiculous display. “Were we too awful, Sharon?”

  “I’ve heard worse.” Sharon’s smile seemed plastered into place. “You two seem in a very good mood.”

  “It’s Fourth of July,” Daniel piped up. “They’re excited about fireworks.”

  “And the concert,” Kent intervened. “We’re going to hear the concert first.”

  Daniel’s smile wavered and he looked worriedly at his grandfather and Teresa. “Are you two gonna sing ‘King Wen’slas’?”

  At that, everyone burst into laughter and the tension broke. Teresa could have kissed her nephew, although she dreaded the next few hours. By midnight, Sharon won’t be laughing anymore, she thought dolefully. Please don’t let this evening turn into a disaster, for Carmen’s sake. Gabe seemed to have heard Teresa’s silent plea, because when no one was looking, he moved closer to her, took her hand, and squeezed it.

  Daniel did not allow any dawdling, and within ten minutes they headed downtown—Kent, Sharon, and Gabe in one car, Daniel insisting on riding with Aunt Teri. Teresa was perplexed by his insistence on being alone with her until the little boy asked anxiously, “How’s Caesar? Does he miss me too much?”

  “Oh, he misses you a lot,” Teri said. “He had such a good time with you on Monday.”

  “Was he mad ’cause Mommy made me leave early?”

  Teresa knew she had to phrase her answer carefully. “No, Daniel, he understood, because a lot of kids only stay for half an hour when it’s their first lesson. You see, when you ride a horse, you use muscles in your legs that you don’t use when you’re just walking or running, so it’s good to start out slowly so you don’t get sore legs. Caesar certainly wouldn’t want you to get sore legs from riding him. He’d be afraid you’d never come back.”

  “But I didn’t get sore legs,” Daniel told her fervently. “I didn’t!”

  “So it’s a good thing your mommy took you home a little early.”

  “I guess, but I wanted to stay and Daddy got mad about it. They had a fight. I wasn’t s’posed to be listenin’, but I did anyway. They fight a lot.”

  Teri caught herself before she asked, About what? She mustn’t question Daniel about his parents’ marriage. It would be an intrusion. Also, Daniel would tell Kent and Sharon, and Sharon would blow up again. “All couples have arguments,” Teresa said blithely. “It’s nothing to worry about, Daniel. But back to Caesar, he’s been spending a lot of time in the barn this week with his girlfriend Cleopatra. All the horses are getting a vacation for the Fourth of July, so he’ll be extra glad to see you when you come back to ride him.”

  Teresa thought they’d gotten an early start, but when they reached downtown Point Pleasant, she saw streets already full of people wandering from one concession stand to another, standing in groups talking, eddying toward Riverfront Park, built on the West Virginia bank of the Ohio River. She was glad she and Kent had agreed that if they got separated, they would meet on the twelve graceful steps leading up to the post office.

  After finally finding a parking spot, Teri took Daniel’s hand firmly in her own and they made a game of rushing through the crowd to meet the family at the appointed spot. They arrived to find Kent lolling against the brass railings of the steps while Sharon paced the sidewalk. “Teri, for God’s sake, where have you been!” she pounced as soon as Teresa and Daniel drew near her.

  “I had trouble finding a parking place, Sharon.” Teresa looked up two steps at her brother, who rolled his eyes. Gabe stood beside him anxiously scanning the crowd. Teri knew Gabe was looking for Carmen. “Daniel says he’d like a cup of Kool-Aid before we get our seats at the concert.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about him drinking Kool-Aid from a concession stand,” Sharon said fretfully. “You never know how sanitary these places are. Daniel, wouldn’t you rather wait until we get home to drink something?”

  “Mommy, that’ll be hours and hours! This afternoon Daddy said I could get Kool-Aid.”

  Kent joined them and Daniel slipped his hand from Teri’s to his father’s. “I’m sure they don’t serve poisoned Kool-Aid here,” Kent said to Sharon.

  “I didn’t say it was poisoned; I just said it was unsanitary—” Sharon gave up when Kent turned his back on her and began marching Daniel over to a concession stand.

  Gabe had joined them and Teri looked at him almost desperately. “Quite a crowd, isn’t it, Gabriel?”

  He nodded. “Beautiful weather. Not too hot, not too humid.”

  “So I win my bet,” Teresa told Sharon. “You owe me ten dollars.”

  “What?” Sharon asked irritably.

  “On Sunday I said we’d have great weather for the Fourth and you said we wouldn’t. We bet on it. Remember?”

  Sharon looked at her in surprise. “Oh! Oh, of course.” She began fishing in her colorful straw tote bag. “I know my wallet’s in here somewhere.”

  “Sharon, I was kidding,” Teresa laughed. “Save all that money for Daniel’s college fund!”

  “College. Oh my, all too soon he’ll be leaving us,” Sharon said sadly. “I hope he doesn’t choose somewhere too far away—”

  “Sharon, the boy is seven,” Gabe said lightly. “You’ve got lots of time before you have to worry about him going away to college!”

  “Hi, everyone!” Carmen seemed to have appeared out of thin air, her smile wide, her voice a trifle high-pitched. But she looked beautiful and far younger than her years in well-cut designer jeans and a flowing top of intermingled pink and peach. Long gold earrings dangled gaily beneath her silky hair. “Is everybody having fun?”

  “Oh, just tons of fun,” Teresa said wryly. “We’re mourning over Daniel leaving for college.” Sharon shot her a murderous glance and Teri reminded herself she needed to keep everyone as calm and happy as possible. This certainly wasn’t the time for sarcasm. “I’m teasing you, Sharon. I didn’t mean to be offensive.”

  Sharon gave Teri a slightly placated look, which distracted her from noticing the furtive smile Gabe tossed Carmen. Honestly, Teri thought, Gabe and Carmen are acting like they’re fourteen. I can’t believe they’re so afraid of what Sharon thinks.

  But they were, Teresa told herself sternly. At least Gabe cared mightily what his daughter thought, and all of Carmen’s future happiness seemed to rest with Gabe.

  Carmen was attempting to make small talk with Sharon when Mac sauntered up with his mother, Emma, in tow. �
��Well, fancy meeting you here!” he said, tongue in cheek. “Mom, you remember Teresa, don’t you?”

  Emma MacKenzie looked at her son as if he’d lost his mind. “Jedediah Abraham, I told you she’s come by to visit me. Don’t you listen to me?”

  “Yeah, Jedediah, don’t you listen?” Teri asked, grinning as Mac’s color heightened. “How are you, Emma?”

  “Fine, just fine,” the woman said enthusiastically, although she had shadows under her eyes and her smile was wan. “I’ve been looking forward to this. It was so nice of Jedediah to bring me instead of one of his young lady friends.”

  Teri raised her eyebrow at Mac and his color rose even more. “Mom, I don’t have young lady friends anymore.” Emma looked at him quizzically. “I’ll explain later.”

  “Now she probably thinks you’re gay,” Teresa muttered to Mac as Emma continued to look at her son in bewilderment.

  Kent approached them, scowling. “Oh great, the gang’s all here. Mac,” Kent said curtly.

  “Kent,” Mac returned. “How’s business?”

  “Fine. Yours?”

  “Great.”

  “Good.”

  Teresa closed her eyes briefly. They sounded like two cavemen grunting at each other. This was going to be one long evening, she thought with a silent groan. “Well, let’s get our seats for the concert before they’re all gone,” she said, heading determinedly for the entrance to Riverfront Park just past the post office. “I, for one, can’t wait to hear the music.”

  Once they were all seated in the stadium-like arena, Teresa felt her tension begin to ebb. Evening was falling, turning the sky to beautiful shades of amethyst and cobalt streaked with the deep tangerine of a sinking sun. The Ohio River flowed calm and sparkling beyond the stadium.

  Teresa felt her muscles begin to loosen as she listened to the sounds of soft rock performed by a local musician with a guitar he played beautifully and a voice she could listen to all night. Every year she looked forward to hearing him and she’d never understood why he didn’t go professional. Everyone seemed to relax—everyone except Carmen, who sat beside Teresa nervously drumming her fingers on her thigh. Once Teri reached over and covered the woman’s hand. Carmen tossed her a fleeting smile, held still for nearly three minutes, then began drumming her fingers again.