Sweet Talk

by Jackie Merritt

  “Probably getting that tree off of Reed’s vehicle.” Jinni went to the window and stood next to her sister. “Jim said he’d be able to move the tree with the winch on his truck.” She grinned. “Isn’t this fun? I didn’t even know what a winch was before today.”

  “A condition that was hardly life-threatening,” Val drawled. “Sometimes ignorance is bliss.”

  Jinni turned her head to look at her sister. “You’re not happy this morning. Did Reed put you on the spot last night?”

  “Jinni, please, I don’t want to talk about him…. Oh, my gosh, they moved the tree!”

  Jinni looked out the window again. “So they did. Now they’ll be able to move the wreckage of Reed’s SUV out of the way so you can get yours back on the road. The wind was horrible in town, but apparently it was worse out here. Val, do you realize that if Reed hadn’t parked exactly where he had the top of that tree would have hit the cabin?”

  Val was so distraught over everything that had happened since Reed showed up last night that she wished everyone would go back to town and leave her alone. They wouldn’t, she knew, and she had tons of food to load into her vehicle, and the water pipes to drain, and the electricity to turn off, and…damn! Her whole weekend had been blown to hell by that high-velocity blizzard!

  Jinni left the window to get more coffee and noticed the cell phone on the counter. “It didn’t work out here, just as you said. I had hoped it would, and I tried to get you at least a dozen times after the storm broke.”

  Val hated the resentment she felt toward everyone for being such busybodies, but she especially hated feeling that way toward Jinni, who had gone so far out of her way to nurse Val during her cancer scare. But she was far, far from being a child, and it was really no one else’s business if she visited her cabin without alerting the entire population of Rumor. And yes, that fallen tree could have knocked a hole in her cabin, but maybe it wouldn’t have. Who really knew which way a tree would fall in a high wind?

  “So, what happened?” Jinni asked after a sip of her fresh coffee. “Reed just knocked on the door, or what? You must have been thrown for a loop, but was it a nice surprise?”

  “I would hardly call Reed Kingsley’s unwanted and completely unnecessary concern for my safety a nice surprise,” Val said sharply. Then something inside her wilted. She was taking the anger she felt for her own disgusting behavior out on Jinni. How could she?

  “Jinni, I’m sorry,” she said in a quieter vein. “I’m upset, but nothing that happened was your doing. Sometimes I’m such an ingrate I can hardly believe myself. After all you did for me during the past couple of months, I should be kissing your feet, not yelling at you.”

  Jinni cocked her eyebrow. “Neither you nor I are the kind of people to kiss other people’s feet, so forget that notion. And you haven’t been yelling. Besides, I sort of understand why you’re upset this morning.” Jinni’s blue eyes contained a diamondlike twinkle when she turned them on Val. “Maybe upset isn’t the best word for the shock of discovering that you’re still full of vim and vigor toward the opposite sex, given the right setting and opportunity, but it will do for the moment.”

  Val was staring at her sister with her mouth open. Closing it, she cleared her throat and asked, “What on earth are you, uh, inferring?”

  “Inferring? I’m saying it straight out, sweetie. It’s completely obvious what took place in this cozy cabin last night, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Now, show us a smile and stop acting as though you committed some unpardonable sin.”

  Val’s eyes burned and she feared a sudden deluge of tears, but then the door opened and the three men came in. She said hello to Tag and Jim, then retreated to the fireplace while Reed gave them coffee. Jinni followed her to the fire and whispered, “He’s very handsome, Val, and he’s especially nice. I would love to see you and Reed become a committed couple.”

  Val made no response. She couldn’t.

  In all honesty she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to discuss last night with her inquisitive and well-meaning sister.

  It took almost two hours to load Val’s SUV with everything she’d brought with her and then winterize the cabin. Everyone helped, and Val saw some of Reed’s things being stuffed into the back of her vehicle, when his belongings should have been stowed in Tag’s.

  But she wasn’t doing much talking, and decided to let it go. Certainly she felt none of the merriment the rest of the group seemed to be enjoying. The men, especially, were so jovial about carrying boxes and suitcases out to the vehicles that she wondered if Reed had told them how easily he had scored last night. The thought made her wince, and she realized she might be doing a lot of that in the coming days.

  Reed wasn’t feeling nearly as cheerful as he let on. Val was withdrawn again, barely speaking, and she worried him. For one thing, he couldn’t catch her eye, even when he spoke directly to her. And when she was forced to reply to him, she made it short and quick.

  Val’s resentment grew with every trip out to her SUV. She wished everyone, even Jinni, would climb back into his or her own vehicle—taking Reed along, of course—and go back to town. She was being forced to leave, and she couldn’t be happy and smile about it to save her soul.

  Finally, everything was ready. The water pipes had been drained, the electricity turned off, and Val waited for everyone else to leave so she could lock up. Jim went out first, then Tag Kingsley.

  Jinni said, “Val, do you want to drive in front of me or behind me?”

  “Behind. You go along. I’ll be out as soon as I lock up.” Jim had asked for the keys to her SUV, and it was idling and warming up out in the road.

  Jinni began walking out. “I won’t start driving until you’re behind the wheel,” she said as she went through the door. She sent Reed a little smile, which Val didn’t miss.

  Reed was the last one inside. “May I ride with you?” he asked.

  “Uh…I need to, uh, do some thinking.” Val looked at everything but him. “I’d like to be alone.”

  “Jinni would like to see us together. I would like to see us together. In fact, I doubt that there’s a soul anywhere who wouldn’t like to see us together.”

  “You’re very sure of yourself. Maybe a little too sure.”

  “That’s not true. Not this morning, anyhow. Val, we need to talk, and the trip to town would be the perfect opportunity to do so. I don’t know what changed with the light of day, but something did and I’m scared to death to give it a name. We need to talk about it.”

  “I…can’t. Please, everyone’s waiting. We have to go. You first, so I can check everything one last time, then lock up.”

  “Why won’t you look at me?” She stood there gazing through the front window, and he took a long, troubled breath and gave up. “Okay, fine. I’ll see you in town.” He went to the door and left.

  Val wanted to throw herself on the bed and cry. She did not love Reed Kingsley, she told herself. She didn’t even like him…much. Jinni might think his good looks mattered, but they didn’t matter to Val. Neither did that sanctimonious air of rushing to everyone’s rescue that he wore like a banner. Who in hell did he think he was? She hadn’t needed rescue! And he’d saved her from nothing twice now!

  Gritting her teeth, Val wrapped her long red scarf around her neck until it covered the lower portion of her face. Slapping dark sunglasses on her eyes, she went outside, pulled the door shut behind her and put the key in the lock.

  The drive to town was pure agony. She stayed about four car lengths behind Jinni’s vehicle and hated that Tag and Reed were right behind her. Jim and his big truck led the parade, and the whole thing frustrated Val so much that she couldn’t hold back tears no matter how hard she tried.

  About halfway to Rumor she began thinking about the passion between her and Reed and more tears fell. She knew she’d been much too hard on him this morning, blaming him for her fall from grace, or whatever one called what she’d done after so many years of contented celiba
cy.

  But that was what made her so angry. She had been content, and Reed had taken that away from her. Why shouldn’t she hate him?

  She didn’t hate him, though, and admitting that was probably the most disturbing element of the entire debacle that had taken place last night and this morning.

  She probably would never really enjoy going to her cabin again, she thought with a fresh burst of tears. “Damn him,” she whispered.

  And there was one more side to this whole degrading affair, one she hadn’t let herself think about until now. Even if she had developed serious feelings for Reed last night, which she hadn’t, she would never let herself become a burden to a man. And in spite of the doctors’ optimism, she worried the cancer could come back.

  So Reed had no chance at all of becoming important to her.

  She simply would not allow it.

  And maybe someday he would thank her for it.

  Chapter Twelve

  The closer the four-vehicle cavalcade got to Rumor, the less snow was on the ground. At the edge of town Val saw about three inches of the white stuff and nary a fallen tree. She viewed the calm wintry day of bright sunshine and clear blue sky with a rather cynical eye. Obviously the storm had been much less severe at Rumor’s elevation than in the mountains, which was three thousand feet higher.

  Val saw Jim turn off and figured he was taking his big truck home and would return in his pickup. Next she saw Tag make a turn, which made sense, as Reed would want to get his mangled SUV back to town—or to some mechanic—and that required a tow truck. Maybe the Kingsleys owned one and the brothers were headed to the Kingsley Ranch, she mused.

  But at least Reed wasn’t following her home. In fact, no one was following her; Jinni was still in the lead, and it was soon apparent that she intended to hold that position all the way to Val’s house.

  Val suddenly felt like the most ungrateful person alive. Did she even deserve a sister as wonderful as Jinni? When she’d been scared to death about the cancer diagnosis, and Jinni had rushed to her side, she’d been more than grateful, but she had changed since then. And it didn’t appear that she’d changed for the better.

  “I’m still grateful for Jinni,” she whispered brokenly. “I just wanted a weekend alone at the cabin.”

  It made sense, of course. She was thirty-five years old and, according to her doctors, cancer-free and healthy. Jinni, apparently, couldn’t quite let go of her role as caregiver and morale booster. In short, she still worried about Val, and maybe she always would.

  Sighing again, Val pulled into her driveway. Jinni had parked to the side to give Val plenty of room to drive into her garage. Instead, Val parked next to her sister’s car. The two of them were getting out of their vehicles when Estelle, wearing a wool cardigan, came outside.

  “I’m so glad you’re home, safe and sound,” the older woman exclaimed. Val couldn’t muster a real smile to save her soul, but Estelle didn’t notice, immediately turning to Jinni.

  “Max phoned about an hour ago. He asked that you call his cell phone the minute you got back.”

  “He did?” Jinni looked first surprised, then concerned. “Something must be wrong.” She ran ahead to the house. “I’ll call him right away.”

  “Would you like some help unloading your things?” Estelle asked Val.

  “I’m going to leave everything right where it is for now. Maybe Jim will unload for me when he gets here. He turned off and I figured he was taking his big truck home.”

  “Sounds right to me. He’ll probably be along in the pickup any minute. Well, let’s go in. The sun is brighter than a new penny but it’s not throwing a whole lot of heat.” They walked together and Estelle asked, “Are you feeling all right, honey? You look a little peaked.”

  Val flushed. She’d gotten precious little sleep last night, but there was no way she could explain that to anyone. A painful twinge hit her. She had actually told Reed about her past, including that one terrible day, the memory of which still disrupted her sleep far too often. What in God’s name had come over her?

  “I’m fine, Estelle,” she said, and marveled that she could speak so evenly when her emotions were in shambles and running wild throughout her system. She had worked so hard in Rumor to lead a private life, and in one fell swoop, in one ridiculous night, she had destroyed her squeaky clean reputation, opened her legs to a man she wasn’t even sure she liked and then, this morning, been rude to her sister. Val wished she could go to bed and hide under the covers for a month. Maybe by then things would be back to bearable.

  Jinni was still on the phone, standing in the kitchen when they went in, and Estelle whispered to Val, “Would you like some nice hot tea, honey?”

  “Estelle, a cup of hot tea just might cure me.”

  “Of what, hon?”

  “You’d never believe it,” Val mumbled. “I might be coming down with a bug or something,” she added quickly, when she saw Estelle’s bright eyes scrutinizing her.

  Her friend nodded. “You look it.”

  I look exactly like the fool I am. “I’m going to take a shower and put on some clean clothes, Estelle, so give me about ten minutes on that tea, okay?”

  “Of course.”

  Jinni said into the phone, “I’ll see you then, Max,” and she hung up. “Well,” she exclaimed with her gaze shifting from Val to Estelle and back again. “Seems we have a mystery on our hands.”

  “What kind of mystery?” Val asked.

  “An elderly man was found wandering the streets during the worst of the blizzard…around three in the morning, Max said. He was half-frozen and terribly disoriented. A deputy took him to the clinic and Max said he was examined and put to bed. They are trying to find out who he is, because he keeps mumbling things about the fire.”

  “The fire! Well, my word, surely he hasn’t been wandering the streets since then!” Estelle exclaimed.

  “One would think not, but no one seems to know his identity, least of all him.”

  “He has amnesia?”

  “That’s still undetermined. But since he keeps mentioning the fire, the sheriff called Max, thinking, I suppose, that if anyone should hear anything new about the day it started—if the old guy knows anything new, of course—it would be the Cantrells. Anyhow, the doctors at the clinic said the old guy isn’t dangerously ill or anything, so they’re not planning to have him transported to one of the area’s hospitals. Max said it’s still a possibility, though, and everyone involved, especially Guy’s defense lawyers, are shaken up and demanding to talk to the man before he’s moved anywhere.”

  “Max said no one recognizes him?” Estelle was frowning.

  “That’s what he said, yes. Apparently the old guy has a long beard and hair, and his clothes were pretty much worn out. Plus they weren’t nearly heavy enough to keep him warm in a blizzard.”

  “And there’s no sign of a strange car parked somewhere in town? I mean, how’d he get to Rumor?”

  “I suppose he could have hitched a ride with someone.”

  “There weren’t very many ‘someones’ out driving around last night,” Estelle said dryly.

  Jinni nodded. “I know. So does Max…and the sheriff. They’re both at the clinic, incidentally, waiting for whatever happens next, I guess. Anyhow, like I said, Rumor has a mystery on its hands.” She looked at Val. “Are you going to faint?”

  Val blinked. “Of course not. Why would you ask me that?”

  “Probably because you’re white as a sheet. Estelle, is she pale or is my imagination running amok?”

  “I already told her she looked peaked,” Estelle said.

  Val threw up her hands. “I’m hitting the shower. You two figure out who that poor old man is while I’m under water so hot that I’ll come out of it looking pink as a boiled lobster. Maybe then you’ll stop discussing the color of my skin.”

  “Ha-ha,” Jinni said drolly. Val vanished and Jinni turned to Estelle. “I’m going to leave and check on Michael. Max said he talked
about visiting his uncle Guy today, which is fine, but Max has been tied up with the lawyers and hasn’t seen his son since early this morning. Anyhow, I told him I’d make sure Michael was all right.”

  “I never would have figured Max Cantrell for a worrywart,” Estelle said.

  “And you probably would have been right, but he told me himself that he and Michael are much closer than they used to be. I love both of them, and they love each other. That makes me very happy, Estelle.”

  “Oh, Jinni.” Estelle put her arms around her and hugged her. “I’m so glad you found what every good woman deserves—a loving husband.”

  “Me, too, Estelle.” Smiling, she started for the door. Before going through it, though, she looked at Estelle one more time. “My situation is just about perfect, but Val’s isn’t. I wish she had what I do.”

  “A loving husband,” Estelle murmured. “I don’t think she wants what you have, Jinni.”

  “Yes, she does. She just doesn’t know it yet. Tell her I’ll be back later.”

  “Will do.”

  Jinni hurried out.

  Val began trembling when she undressed. She couldn’t stop thinking about last night, with the biggest, most disturbing, most frightening question being why she’d told Reed about the day that had come very close to destroying her. For years and years, ever since it had happened, she’d not talked about it to anyone other than professionals.

  But she had also told Reed about her promiscuity. Did you think hearing what a naughty girl you’d been would turn him off?

  In truth, all the sordid facts of her past had seemed to make him like her more. What kind of man was he that he could learn such disgusting things about a woman and still like her? Still want her?

  Val knew how deeply shaken she was over this. She could feel it in her stomach and see the proof of it in her unsteady hands. Last night had been a serious jolt that she might never get over. The rhythmic jabs of pain that came with remembering that Reed Kingsley now knew all of her secrets was close to unbearable.