Secrets of the Highlander
Page 6
“Maybe because Wayne Ferris didn’t exist until five years ago?” Cam said. “You knew him what, six weeks? Did he ever talk about his childhood?”
“Not much, now that you mention it. He had this way of always turning the conversation back to me.”
Cam rolled her eyes. “Every woman’s dream guy, and you fell for him hook, line, and sinker.”
“I do know he was raised by his grandfather,” Meg defended. “Or maybe his great-grandfather? His parents were killed in a car accident when he was nine. I think he was in it, because he’s got burn scars on his hands, but I could never get him to talk about it. I do remember him saying something about inheriting the house in Medicine Lake.”
Megan noticed the headlights of a fast-moving sled racing back to shore. “Jack Stone sure likes his new snowmobile,” she said, “He’s been out riding again.”
“Good. Come on,” Camry said, leading Megan to the counter. “It’s time you got Wayne Ferris out of your head once and for all.” She picked up the pie she’d baked and shoved it in Megan’s hands. “We are going over to Jack Stone’s house right now, and you’re asking him out.”
Megan shoved the pie back at her. “No.”
“Yes, you are,” Camry said. Then she sighed. “Okay, you don’t have to ask him out. But we’re going over there to introduce ourselves. You really need to see that nice guys still exist, Meg.”
“We don’t know that Jack Stone is a nice guy.”
“Chelsea liked him.”
Megan rolled her eyes. “She only saw him walking to his cruiser. For all we know, he’s a womanizing, chest-beating caveman who thinks women should stay at home, barefoot and pregnant.”
Camry laughed as she put on her coat and boots. “Then he should love your belly.” She walked over and took the pie while giving Megan a critical inspection. “When was the last time you had a haircut?”
“Never mind my hair,” Meg said, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. Dammit, when Camry got like this, the only way to shut her up was to play along to make her think she’d won. “Okay, I’ll go. But I’m not asking him out, and we’re telling him you made the pie.”
“But if he knows I baked it, that’ll defeat its purpose.”
“Not if he gets food poisoning, it won’t.”
“Fine, then,” Camry said, storming out the door. “If he really is as cute as Chelsea said, I’ll ask him out.”
Chapter Six
Jack was just stepping in the shower when he heard a knock on his kitchen door. He didn’t know anyone well enough who would drop by for a beer, and he was off duty; Simon needed to quit running to him with inane questions.
The knock sounded again, a bit louder.
With a growl of defeat, Jack wrapped a towel around his waist and strode out to the kitchen. “Dammit, Pratt, you better be here to tell me you caught the bastards.”
But as the door swung fully open, Jack found himself staring into the startled, bright green eyes of a woman holding a pie. He also saw Megan MacKeage as still as a stone slightly behind her, her complexion pale in the porch light.
“W-Wayne?” Megan whispered.
“Shit,” Jack growled at the exact same time.
“Wayne?” echoed the woman in front.
“Megan, sweetheart,” Jack said, stepping outside. He slipped on the ice-glazed snow covering the porch, and grabbed the railing to keep from falling.
Megan stepped back, turned, and bolted into the night.
“Dammit, no! Megan! Don’t run!” Jack shouted, taking a better grip on his towel to go after her.
But the other woman grabbed his arm. “Wayne Ferris?” She drew back and hurled her pie directly at his face. “You no-good, rotten bastard! You stay away from my sister!” She turned and ran after Megan—but first snatched the towel off his hips, tossing it in the snowbank as she disappeared into the darkness.
The attack sent Jack flailing backward, and he landed on his naked ass on the snowy porch. Scrambling to his feet with a curse, he stumbled into the house and slammed the door so hard, the windows rattled. Groping for something to wipe his eyes, he found a shirt hanging on the peg. “Dammit to hell! Four months of waiting and planning, and she walks up and knocks on my door! And what do you do? You stand there like a mindless idiot and curse at her!”
Talk about being caught off guard. He knew she was five months pregnant, but actually seeing her rounded little belly pushing out past her jacket had still been a hell of a shock. Jack strode back to the bathroom, stepped into the shower, and scrubbed his hands over his face and through his hair to wash away the pie. He hung his head with a snort.
Recklessness obviously ran in the family; Megan’s sister certainly spoke her mind and backed it up with whatever weapon she had handy. She was a quick thinker, too, snatching his towel so he wouldn’t pursue them.
Megan had acted just as recklessly during their stay on the tundra. Once he’d had to stop her from heading into a fistfight between two rugged and nearly out-of-control young men. Armed with only a hiking stick, she hadn’t seemed to realize that stick wouldn’t have fazed the combatants, much less have protected her. It was as if she didn’t even notice their size; she had simply been determined to box in their ears.
Having spent the last two weeks in Pine Creek, Jack was beginning to understand why Megan didn’t equate size with danger. He hadn’t met one MacKeage or MacBain male under six feet tall. And their women walked around like they didn’t have a fear in the world. Of course, what woman wouldn’t feel safe and secure being shadowed by a Sasquatch of a husband?
Jack shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. Her utterly fearless approach to life was the first thing that had attracted him to Megan. She was passion personified. Megan brought an energy to her work that was almost spiritual in the way she interacted with the students, the animals they were counting, and the environment she was determined to protect.
He’d been caught completely off guard when she had suddenly turned that amazing energy on him. Megan had cranked her smile to full wattage and asked if she could buy him dinner as thanks for intervening in the student battle. He’d felt as if he were being trampled by a herd of caribou.
Reeling from her smile—not to mention her startling, vivid green eyes focused directly on him—he had stammered out something inane, like it would be his pleasure. So they’d walked to the mess tent, and she had cheekily told him to pick out whatever he desired from the food provided by the university sponsoring the study. From that moment on, that herd of caribou had taken up residence in Jack’s gut, turned his mind to mush, and infused every fiber of his being with hope.
Until the real reason he was there had suddenly reared its ugly head.
Camry leaned against the inside of Megan’s front door and fought to catch her breath. “Oh my God. That was Wayne?” she gasped. “What’s he doing at Stone’s house?” She slapped a hand to her chest. “Oh my God, he is Jack Stone!”
“He can’t be.” Megan leaned against the counter, breathing equally hard and hugging her belly. “Wayne’s a biologist, not a law officer. There must be some other reason he’s at Jack Stone’s house.”
Camry pushed away from the door, walking to Megan and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “If Jack was there, he’d have answered the door. The man who greeted us was obviously just getting in the shower,” she pointed out, leading her sister over to the couch.
“Not in front of the window,” Megan said, taking a steadying breath. “The chair in the corner. Turn out some of these lights, will you?”
Cam settled her sister in the chair by the woodstove, then snapped off the overhead lights, leaving on only a table lamp by the window and one over the sink. “I’ll reheat your cocoa,” she said, grabbing the mug and putting it in the microwave. She turned to look at Megan, who was silent, her complexion ashen. “Do you suppose Mom was right?” she asked. “That Wayne is here because he does want you back?”
Megan shook her head.
The microwave dinged and Cam pulled out the mug and gave the cocoa a stir. She carried it over to Megan but had to wrap her sister’s fingers around it. “Don’t get all crazy on me, sis,” she said, hunching down to look her in the eye. “He can’t make you do anything you don’t want to.”
“But why is he here?”
Cam walked back to the counter and started digging in her purse for her cell phone. “Who knows? Maybe…” She shrugged, unable to come up with a plausible answer.
“Who are you calling?”
“Mom and Dad.”
“No! We can’t call them!”
Cam stopped pushing buttons and looked at her sister. “We have to, Meg. They need to know about this.”
“No, they don’t,” Megan said, standing up. “Dad will rush over here, drag Wayne out of that house, and…and…”
“And beat him to a bloody pulp?” Cam finished. “You’re right. I’ll call Robbie, then.”
“Same problem,” Megan said, taking the phone and dropping it back in Cam’s purse.
Camry was glad to see the color coming back in her sister’s cheeks. “So we’re just going to sit here with the lights out?” she asked, looking toward the stark, black windows.
“If Wayne is Jack, he’s been in Pine Creek over a week,” Meg pointed out. “And he hasn’t tried contacting me in all that time. Tonight was a fluke. We obviously surprised him.”
Cam sat down on the edge of the hearth. “What are the chances you’d buy a house three doors down from your ex-boyfriend?”
“Slim to none,” Meg said. She sucked in a shuddering breath. “What am I going to do?”
Camry snorted. “There’s not much you can do. It’s a free country. The man has a right to be here.”
“But if Wayne and Jack Stone are the same person, I have to tell someone! He’s a biologist posing as our chief of police.”
“Maybe he also has a degree in law enforcement.”
“And two names?”
Cam went back to the coffee table. “Let’s Google Jack Stone and see what we come up with.”
Megan came over and sat down beside her. “Look for a site that might have his picture.” Her cheeks suddenly flushed. “He certainly looked different tonight. His hair’s a lot shorter, he shaved his beard, and he wasn’t wearing glasses.”
Cam started typing. “Are you sure that was Wayne, and not someone who just looks like him? Maybe a brother?”
“It was Wayne. And he definitely knew who I was.”
“That’s right, he called you sweetheart.” Cam scrolled down the list Google had come up with, and clicked on one of the sites. “Hmm, the plot thickens,” she said dramatically, hoping to ease the tension. “There’s no more here than we found on Wayne Ferris. What do you make of this site? It’s an ad, and it’s sort of cryptic.” She gasped. “Wait, I know what this is. Some guys at work were showing me sites put up by soldiers for hire. Jack Stone is a mercenary!”
Megan was shaking her head before Cam could finish. “That couldn’t be Wayne. I told you, he’s not rough and tough and…and…” She sighed. “You picked the wrong site. There isn’t even a picture.”
Camry clicked back to the Google list, but Meg reached out and shut off the computer. “I’ve had enough for one day.” She dropped her head back against the couch. “I’ll deal with Wayne, or Jack, or whoever the hell he is, tomorrow.”
“Then let’s go to Gù Brath, in case he decides he wants to talk to you.”
Meg shook her head. “You were right. I have been acting like a wimp for the last four months, and I am utterly disgusted with myself.” She cradled her belly in her hands. “What kind of example have I been setting for my baby?”
“It’s not born yet, Meg,” Cam said, patting her niece or nephew. “It doesn’t know you’ve been a wimp.”
“It knows I’ve been crying for the last four months.” She stood up with determination. “We’re going to stay right here and figure out what I’m going to do about this.” Her eyes snapped with resolve. “It was a hell of a shock seeing him tonight, but it certainly didn’t kill me. I’ve been such an idiot, letting him have that kind of power over me.” She headed for the door. “We are marching right back to that house, and I’m giving that jerk a piece of my mind!”
“Wait!” Cam yelped, chasing after her and catching her sleeve. “You need to think this through, Meg. I know you’re angry he beat you to the punch, but maybe this isn’t the best time to confront him.”
“What are you talking about? Beat me to what punch?”
Camry crossed her arms under her breasts. “You told me you intended to go to Canada and throw the fact that you’ve gotten on with your life in Wayne’s face—but he beat you to the punch by showing up here first. I agree that you should confront him, but not tonight. He…ah…he’s probably not in the mood to have anything else…ah…thrown in his face right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I threw the pie at him. Hit him square in the face.”
Megan blinked, then suddenly laughed. “Oh, I wish I’d seen that. No, I wished I’d done that.”
“Then you’ll love it that I swiped his towel and threw it in the snowbank.”
“You what!” Megan laughed even harder.
“I was afraid he’d chase after us. I didn’t see anything, though; I was too busy running for my life.”
Megan sighed, then shook her head. “Okay, so tonight isn’t the best time to confront him. But I don’t care that he beat me to the punch, because I’m going to have the last word—right before I send him packing.”
Megan walked into the Pine Creek Art Gallery, smiling as she headed toward the counter.
Winter was dusting a picture on the back wall. “What are you doing here?” she asked in surprise.
“I’m reporting to work. I still have a job, don’t I?”
Winter eyed her suspiciously. “You look different. Sort of excited. Or maybe eager is more like it.” She wrinkled her brow. “And you just got a new job. What about your watershed project?”
Megan took off her coat and carried it into the back office. “It’ll take two months for me to design the survey, and I can do that in the evening.”
Winter followed, obviously still suspicious. “I thought you weren’t speaking to me.”
“Really? Since when?”
“Since I didn’t tell you about Kenzie.”
“Ah, that. How is our ancient warrior, anyway? I haven’t seen him around lately.”
Winter shrugged. “No one’s seen Kenzie since he went to live with Father Daar.”
“Maybe they’ve killed each other already.”
Winter eyed her closely again. “So what are you really doing here this morning?”
“I’m really going to work for you. Cam is driving me crazy. Somebody needs to tell her that she’s not an interior decorator. You should see the curtains she bought for my living room windows—they’re heavy red velvet! I left her to put them up by herself.”
“Speaking of which, when is she going back to Florida?”
“She said something about not going back until the end of the month.”
“But that’s four weeks away! She’ll lose her position at NASA.”
Megan shrugged. “Talk to Mom. She knows what it’s like to be stuck in the middle of a project and keep hitting a brick wall, no matter what you try. Cam said she needs to give her left brain a rest for a few weeks. I think she’s really just too damn nosy to leave right now.”
“Nosy about what?”
“Can you keep a secret?” Megan slapped her forehead dramatically. “What am I saying? You kept Kenzie a secret from me since Thanksgiving.”
“Are you going to keep making me apologize for that?”
“You bet I am. Okay, listen up: Jack Sto
ne is actually Wayne Ferris.”
“What!”
“Wayne is here. Camry and I met him last night, when we took him a pie. Wayne Ferris answered the door.”
“Oh my God.” Winter groped behind her for a chair, then sat down and stared at Megan, her expression horrified. “What did you do?”
“I ran. Cam threw the pie in his face.”
Winter didn’t laugh. “I’m still confused. You’re saying Wayne Ferris and Jack Stone are the same man?”
“That’s what we figure. Why else would Wayne be answering Jack’s door—wearing only a towel, late at night?”
“But what’s he doing here?”
“Who knows? Cam said it can’t be to make amends, because he wouldn’t have taken a job if that were the case. He would have walked up to Gù Brath, knocked on the door, and dropped to his knees to beg my forgiveness.”
“And are you going to forgive him?”
Megan shook her head.
“Then is there any particular reason you’re so chipper the morning after finding out he’s in town?”
“Sure is,” Megan said, going back into the gallery. “For the first time in months, I’m free.”
“Free?” Winter echoed, following her. “The father of your baby—the man who broke your heart—all of a sudden shows back up in your life, and that makes you free?”
Megan walked to the door and flipped the sign to Open. “When I was hiding in shock in my kitchen last night, it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t dropped dead at the sight of him. You know how mad I get at myself for being scared of something? Well, for the last four months I had built Wayne up to be this scary, fire-breathing dragon. And last night I was reminded that he’s only a man.” She shrugged. “I’ve done more damage to myself than he ever could.”
Winter gaped at her, utterly speechless for once.
“So,” Megan said, rubbing her hands together. “Do you want me to continue dusting or should I start filling out the yearly inventory sheets?”
“Do Mom and Dad know he’s here?”
“No, and I don’t want you telling them, either. I’ll tell them once I find out what he wants.”