Deadly Sweet Dreams

by Connie Shelton

  “I don’t know …” He seemed to be formulating his thoughts. “I wonder if he’d have some advice on how to get someone to stop harassing you.”

  She let a long moment go by. “Someone’s harassing you?”

  His head waggled back and forth a little and he wouldn’t quite meet her eyes.

  “Danny, is it Lila?”

  His glance shot upward. “How do you—?”

  “I wasn’t sure whether to bring this up. I was at Walmart earlier, getting a gift bag, and I saw you in the same area. There was a young woman talking to you and, well, you said her name.” No way was she going to admit she’d spied at his phone screen the night before. “I would have said hello, but the conversation seemed kind of … intense.”

  His mouth twisted into nearly a smile. “Yeah—intense is a good word.”

  From the other room, excited kid shouts. Time to open the gifts.

  “Do you need to—?” he asked.

  “No problem. She won’t miss me for a short while. We can talk, if you’d like.”

  “It’s just that Lila got way too serious, way too soon. She wants to get married. I feel like I barely know her.”

  “You haven’t been in town long. Did you just meet her here?”

  “Oh, no. She’s from San Antonio. Well, actually, that’s where we met. She grew up in Nuevo Laredo. Anyway, she just kind of latched on to my set of friends and started hanging out with us, and before I knew it she’s telling everyone I’m her boyfriend.”

  Sam busied herself putting things in the fridge and wiping the countertop. He seemed more comfortable talking when she wasn’t making a lot of eye contact.

  “Did you know her very long there?”

  “A few months. She’s really pretty, super hot, and, um …”

  “You’re a guy. You kind of succumbed to her charms.”

  “Well, yeah. So, I guess we did sort of become a couple. Then she starts sending me these texts, all times of day and night. ‘We gotta plan the wedding’ and that kind of stuff. So, I was all, like, what! And I told her no, we gotta take things slower. And she just doesn’t let up.”

  “Had you actually proposed?”

  “No!” He stared toward the window again. “Well, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure not. There was one night when we all got pretty wasted. I might have said something, but I don’t remember it. I seriously do not think I would have asked her.”

  Poor guy.

  “Did you move here to get away from her? I mean, to give yourself a little breathing space?”

  “Yeah, actually, that’s exactly why. I even changed my phone number, but now she’s got my new number and tracked me down. I don’t even know how she did that.”

  “You didn’t tell her you were in Taos?”

  “I didn’t even say I’d left Texas, just that I’d got a job out of town and needed to take some time.”

  “Part of what she said this morning—sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear. It was about getting together to talk. Maybe that’s your chance to tell her what you’re feeling.”

  Again, his gaze went to the floor. “I’m not sure I can …”

  “I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out if you explain to her what you want.”

  He looked skeptical.

  Cheers and laughter came from the other room.

  “I guess I’d better take these sandwiches out and then make an appearance for the gift opening. Join us?”

  He nodded, but his situation was clearly still weighing on him.

  Chapter 5

  Sam and Beau spent a leisurely Sunday with waffles and fruit for brunch, pitching in together to give the furniture and rugs a once-over cleaning, then settling in with books to read near the fire with both dogs curled at their feet. When she stood near the French doors at the back of the house, looking toward the barn, she saw Danny’s truck was gone and she wondered if he’d stayed with his plan to get together with Lila and talk things out. But then the kettle whistled in the kitchen and she became distracted with mugs and chocolate and whipped cream.

  Monday morning Beau was up early, announcing that he and Danny were moving half a barn full of hay bales, shifting them around to make room for a pair of early spring calves that would need indoor space for their first few weeks. He buttoned a buffalo-checked flannel shirt over his thermal undershirt, and added a light fleece over that.

  “Don’t forget, Evan and Riki invited us over for an early supper at their place,” he informed Sam. “I assume you girls already talked about it the other day at Kelly’s?”

  They hadn’t. Somehow, Sam and Riki hadn’t quite ended up in the same conversation at any point during that busy afternoon. But she said she would call and firm up the details. It turned out the little dinner party was to include Scott, Kelly and Ana, as well.

  Arriving at Evan and Riki’s place was like coming home. In fact, it was home, the same small house where Sam had raised Kelly, the very place Kelly and Scott had lived for a year before they moved into the Victorian. When the Richards’ rented the house, Riki made the point that it would probably be short-term. Once they started a family, they would need bigger quarters. But there’d been no pregnancy yet, a subject that could either get testy or sad if brought up. Sam normally avoided it.

  As always with this group, the easy friendships were so close that the conversation picked right up wherever it had last left off. And tonight the topic began with Ana’s birthday party.

  “I love the gifts Uncle Danny gave me,” she said, a chicken leg in one hand that was looming dangerously near Kelly’s hair. “A purple purse, purple socks, a purple headband, three purple markers … I hope purple keeps being my favorite color for awhile.”

  The adults laughed. “Good thing it is,” Evan said, “’cause I saw a plate of cookies on the counter with purple icing on them.”

  “I hope the rest of us don’t begin to hate purple before she reaches the end of this phase,” Kelly said.

  “I do not have phases,” Ana insisted. “I have preferences.” She sat back, looking smug. “Daddy, I want that to be one of my spelling words this week. Preferences.”

  Scott smiled ruefully. “See what my day is like?”

  Kelly elbowed him.

  “Mommy, I found a weird spelling book yesterday,” Ana said. “It has funny letters and I asked Daddy but he said he can’t read it.”

  Sam and Kelly both inhaled.

  Scott shrugged. “I don’t know where it came from. It seemed vaguely familiar but it’s not one of mine. Leather cover that looks real old. Pages are kind of like parchment.”

  Sam spoke up. “Oh, that’s where I left that old thing. Remind me and I’ll take it back home with me.” She’d never been great at bluffing, and with two law enforcement men at the table—could she pull off the fib?

  But Beau was busy adding more coleslaw to his plate, and Evan seemed distracted by the buzzing of his phone in his hip pocket. He took a look at the screen and stood up.

  “Yeah, Dixie?” he answered, walking toward the bedroom.

  Beau perked up at the name of his dispatcher. His former dispatcher.

  Sam patted his hand and asked for the coleslaw.

  “Sorry, everybody, I gotta run,” Evan said. “Bad traffic pileup. I’ll probably be late.”

  Riki placed two extra pieces of the fried chicken in a sandwich bag. “In case you feel hungry later.” She followed him to the back door as he put on his heavy uniform jacket and hat. “I love you,” she called out.

  Sam watched Beau’s expression, but there was no hint that he’d love to be leaving the dinner table to take an emergency call.

  “And now we know the real reason I can’t seem to get pregnant,” Riki announced as she came back. “My darling husband is never home.”

  Kelly reached up and snagged her friend’s hand, giving a sympathetic squeeze.

  “Sorry, that wasn’t polite of me,” Riki said, forcing her smile to brighten. “What more do we need from the kitchen
?”

  “Cookies!” Ana announced. She had finished her chicken and most of the fries.

  “You shall have some, my darling,” Riki told her, “as soon as everyone is finished. And there is ice cream to go along with them.”

  Beau and Scott perked up at that news.

  Sam’s mind went back to the leather-bound book Ana had found. The book of magic, with its rune-like characters, had come into Kelly’s possession near the time of Beau’s shooting. It held the full story of the three carved boxes, the powers of each, and the implications of the boxes’ combined power. Had Kelly recently been reading the book again?

  The day of their cornflower experiment Sam had put the book on a high attic shelf. She caught her daughter’s eye, but Kelly gave a slight shake of her head.

  One thing for certain, the book was not something that should fall into the hands of a child, even one as precocious as Ana. Especially not one like Ana.

  Chapter 6

  Kelly tossed her purse into the car and then buckled Anastasia into her car seat in the back. Their appointment was in ten minutes, and somehow the morning had gotten away from her. One of those where the toast burned, Scott was harried because of his book deadline, Ana had been uncharacteristically indecisive about what to wear, and Kelly’s hair wouldn’t behave.

  “Why did I think a second cup of coffee would be a good idea?” she muttered as she inserted her key and cranked the engine.

  “Coffee is good, Mama. You like it.”

  Kelly rolled her eyes at the rearview mirror. Never say anything out loud that you don’t want repeated back to you, not around this kid. They arrived at the pediatrician’s office with one minute to spare.

  Sam was already in the waiting room. “I signed you in already. The place was teeming with kids, all sniffling and coughing.”

  “Anastasia Porter,” called the receptionist.

  Kelly grabbed her daughter’s hand and led her to follow the woman. “Don’t touch anything,” she murmured under her breath.

  While Ana sat on the exam table, swinging her legs and looking at the colorful charts on the walls, Kelly and Sam finalized their plans for lunch.

  “Beau and Danny were working in the barn when I left,” Sam said. “Something about repairing the feed bin. Anyway, I have all afternoon if we decide to add some shopping to our day.”

  “Might be fun. Scott gets kind of testy when he’s working on deadline, so the more we can stay out of his hair the better.”

  The doctor, a short woman with gray hair in a severe cut, stepped in just then. Ana giggled when the woman smiled, more because of her large teeth than out of any friendly reaction. The exam went quickly and everyone bore the immunization stoically.

  “I’d say you’re in the peak of health for a four-year-old,” the doctor said, giving Ana a hand down from the table.

  “I’m one,” Ana said with pride.

  But the woman was busy tapping notes on her tablet. Sam met Ana’s eye and shrugged. Kelly paused to handle the billing and the three of them headed toward Kelly’s car.

  “Mama, that doctor doesn’t even know about my birthday,” Ana said as Sam strapped her into her car seat. “She didn’t even listen when I told her.”

  Yeah, well, get used to it. “I’m sure she was just busy making sure she wrote all nice things about you on your chart, honey.”

  “So, I’m thinking lunch at the Bent Street Café as a special treat and then we’ll see if we’re in the mood to check out the shops,” Kelly said. “It’s close enough that it’s easy to bring you back to your car, Mom.”

  “Perfect.” Sam settled into her seat and mentioned the bean soup, which was her favorite at the street-side café.

  They walked in to the crowded, popular spot and a hostess showed them to the one empty table. Ana spotted a familiar face first.

  “Uncle Danny!” she shouted, running toward him.

  The dark-haired girl sitting with him seemed momentarily surprised. She wore skinny jeans, a tailored white shirt, coffee-colored blazer, and boots that must have cost a pretty penny.

  Danny stood and greeted Ana with a smile, then looked toward Kelly and Sam. “Hey, ladies! Um, don’t worry, Sam, I didn’t leave Beau in the lurch. We nearly finished the bin, and he sent me to town for some more nails. And … I ran into Lila over at Randel Hardware.”

  He introduced everyone. “I did call Beau to let him know I’d be delayed a while.”

  Sam gave him a warm smile. “No need to apologize, Danny. I’m sure he’s fine with it.”

  “A guy’s gotta spend some time with his fiancée,” said Lila. “I mean, we’ve had, like, no time together in the past couple weeks.”

  Kelly glanced toward Sam. I thought he was going to break it off? Sam lifted one shoulder in a tiny shrug.

  “Well, we’ll let you two get back to your lunch,” Kelly said.

  Their spot was two tables down the way from the couple’s, too far to converse with them, but near enough to overhear bits, especially when the table between them vacated and no one immediately moved to take it.

  Kelly helped Ana decide and they placed their orders, studiously avoiding eye contact with Danny and Lila. The conversation they’d interrupted seemed to have picked up where it left off.

  “Danny, sweetheart, you’re being so dramatic. I don’t understand why you ran off like that.” Lila talked with her beautifully manicured hands, waving and gesturing.

  “Lila, I—”

  “Seriously, you know you can always talk to me.” Her voice went all tea-and-sympathy. “Why just leave? We can work out anything. But, honey, you have to answer my calls and texts. We can’t talk if you won’t pick up.”

  “I told you …” His voice dropped lower and Kelly lost the drift when the server arrived with their food.

  She cut Ana’s grilled cheese sandwich into quarters and then concentrated on her own bean soup. It seemed Danny and Lila were nearly finished eating anyway; he was pulling out his wallet and making definite signs of leaving the restaurant. Two women took the table between, and their flurry of activity cut off the view toward the younger couple. By the time Kelly could see past them, Danny and Lila were out the door and walking toward the street.

  “So,” she said, leaning toward Sam. “Do we honestly believe Lila just happened to be at the hardware store at the very moment Danny went there?”

  “She doesn’t look to me like a very hardware type of girl.”

  “Exactly. I wonder if she’s been watching for his truck. Does she know where your place is, or that he’s living out there?”

  Sam shrugged. “No idea. He might have told her.”

  “Maybe. Or she might be doing her research.”

  “His mother has family here, remember? Lila could have had the information before she ever left San Antonio.” Sam’s soup bowl was empty and she set her spoon aside. “I don’t know what to think. She’s definitely beautiful and seemed very polite toward us. I have to keep in mind that my ideas about her are filtered through what Danny has said about her. I don’t know much at all, firsthand.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know … it’s subtle, but there was a lot of pressure on him in that little scrap of conversation just now.”

  Ana was beginning to squirm in her chair, so they paid their check and left. On the way back to where Sam’s car waited at the doctor’s parking lot, Sam brought up the subject again.

  “I guess the one thing that puzzles me is why a girl like Lila has latched onto a guy like Danny. I mean, I see her as the prom queen, the beauty pageant contestant, and he’s just a simple rancher. Don’t get me wrong—he’s as nice as can be, polite. That kid was raised with manners. But wouldn’t Lila be after bigger fish?”

  Kelly chewed at her lower lip for a moment. “Yeah, interesting. I suppose every high school has a Lila—the girl with the perfect hair, the perfect makeup. Like you said, the prom queen. Maybe Danny was skinny and pimply in school but sort of morphed into this muscled guy with a tiny wais
t, chiseled features and fantastic smile?” She glanced at her passenger. “Oh come on, Mom. The guy’s a hunk now. I’m totally in love with my husband, but I’m not blind.”

  Sam laughed and sneaked a peek toward the back seat, where Ana had drifted off to sleep in her car seat.

  Chapter 7

  Sam folded the warm towels from the dryer, taking in the scent and savoring the late afternoon sun on the fields outside. Part of the deal with the furnished lodging for Danny Flores was the perk that Sam supplied clean sheets and towels each week, and it was a task she didn’t mind doing.

  Apparently, he’d driven straight back from town after lunch. His truck had been beside the casita when she arrived home. She set his towel and washcloth on top of the already folded sheets and picked up the small stack. She didn’t bother with a jacket as the afternoon had turned warm and the small guesthouse was merely twenty yards away.

  She tapped at the door, got no response, and tried the handle. As she’d guessed, Danny and Beau must still be working in the barn. She set the stack of clean laundry on the bed and glanced around. A water-filled cereal bowl and spoon sat in the sink, and a coffee cup was rinsed and turned upside down on the drain board. No dirty clothes strewn about, no food wrappers or other trash that might be enticing to mice. They’d lucked out with their hired help and the housing arrangement.

  She turned to go and that’s when she spotted his cell phone on the tiny dinette table.

  Hmm …

  Almost on auto-pilot, her hand reached for it.

  Stop it—this is personal.

  But he did ask my advice about dealing with this girl. And I’m just gathering facts.

  Sam! Drop it!

  She looked out the window above the table, which faced the barn. Neither of the men was in sight.

  One quick look. Just to get an idea if he’s succeeded in getting through to Lila. Maybe he won’t need my help anymore.

  Yeah, right. You’re just dying of curiosity.

  She pressed the button and the screen lit up. It probably has a password, and that’s when I’m stopping.