Sweet Talk

by Jackie Merritt

  Val checked her appointment book and saw two clients scheduled for the day. She phoned each of them and rescheduled for another time. Neither objected and in fact seemed relieved. No one looked forward to driving in weather like this.

  Val wasn’t looking forward to it, either, but Jim and Estelle might be stuck in a drift between their house and town, and she couldn’t stand around and do nothing. She was bundled up and on her way to the door when the phone rang.

  She rushed back to her office to answer it. “Animal Hospital,” she said breathlessly.

  “Val, it’s Jim. Listen, I’m calling from the Whitehorn Hospital. Estelle was sick all night. Doctors here say it’s a bad case of the flu and they want to keep her here for the day at the very least. I have to stay with her. Are you all right?”

  Relief of enormous proportions flooded Val’s system. She loosened her jacket and sat in the chair at her desk. “I am perfectly all right, and you are not to worry about me for one more second. But call me later in the day and let me know how Estelle is doing, would you?”

  “Sure will. Is it snowing there? It’s a whiteout here, Val, bad as I’ve ever seen.”

  “It hasn’t reached that stage here yet, but it’s really coming down, make no mistake. If this keeps up, we’ll have a foot of new snow by nightfall. Jim, thanks for calling. I was…getting worried.”

  “I’ll call again this afternoon. ’Bye for now.”

  “Goodbye, Jim.” Val put down the phone and sat there thinking of Estelle in the hospital and Jim remaining by her side through thick and thin. After forty years of marriage their love and respect for each other was so obvious that it was almost a tangible thing. How lucky they were.

  And how unlucky I am.

  The heavy snowfall was definitely impeding business. MonMart, normally so busy that the checkout stands were continuously in use, had only a handful of customers wandering the aisles. Reed watched the first floor from an upstairs window for a while, then decided to go to the fire station. He went to his office to get into his down-filled jacket, his hat and gloves.

  Russell stuck his head in. “I’m thinking of leaving, too. Might as well spend the day with my family. There’s sure not much going on around here.”

  “My sentiments exactly. Say hello to Susannah for me.”

  “There’s always paperwork,” Russell said, frowning slightly. “But it’s a great day to build a snowman. Little Mei would like that.”

  Reed grinned. “And so would Suzy and Russell. Have fun, bro. See you later.”

  Jinni was already driving in the rapidly deepening snow, which didn’t scare her in the least. She was a good driver—at least she’d always believed she was—and she’d grown up in New York, so she’d cut her teeth driving in weather like this. To be honest, she saw the falling snow as beautiful and felt that it made Rumor look like one of those adorable towns in the Swiss Alps, which she had visited on four different occasions. Someday, when all this business with Guy was behind them, she hoped to entice her wonderful, sexy, handsome husband into doing some traveling.

  She also had a party to plan, she recalled with a rise of excitement as she stopped at the corner of Main and Logan Streets—her and Max’s wedding shindig, which they had agreed to put off until after Guy’s trial. Jinni wanted something extra special for that particular party, and she had made numerous lists of favorite caterers, menus, dress and accessory designers and possible places in which to hold a knock-’em-dead celebration for several hundred people.

  A car was slowly slipping and sliding on Main from the east, and Jinni waited for it to finally reach Logan and go on past her so she could make a right and drive to the Family Clinic. Instead, it turned—or tried to turn—onto Logan, and plowed straight into the back half of her SUV!

  “You moron!” she shrieked while climbing out.

  But then an elderly man stumbled from his car and Jinni’s temper cooled so fast she felt more dizzy than furious.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked with genuine concern.

  “No, ma’am, but your car sure is. Are you all right?”

  And so it went until Reed, who had seen the accident while pulling into the fire department’s parking lot, jumped out of his rig to run across the intersection.

  “Jinni, hello. And Mr. Hodges. Either one of you injured?”

  “I’m right as rain, not even a bruise. It was all my fault, Reed,” Mr. Hodges said forlornly. “There’s ice under all that snow and I shouldn’t have been driving today.”

  “I’m fine, too,” Jinni said. “It wasn’t a serious bang because I was stopped and Mr. Hodges here was barely moving. His car sort of slid into mine. Should we call the sheriff?”

  “I don’t think so. Not for a fender bender with no injuries. We can deal with it ourselves.” Reed got the whole thing organized, with the names of insurance companies exchanged, and the three of them were about to go their separate ways when Jinni glanced across the street to her sister’s place.

  “What in the world is she doing outside shoveling snow again? It’s too much for her!” she exclaimed.

  Reed turned in time to catch a glimpse of Val and a snow shovel disappearing around the north corner of her building.

  “Where’s Jim?” Jinni demanded of no one in particular. “He should be doing that shoveling, not her.”

  Reed wanted to cross over to Val’s place and offer assistance so badly that he had to force himself to mind his own business.

  But then Jinni asked, “Reed, are you terribly busy right now?”

  “Not especially. Why?”

  “Well, I’m on my way to the clinic.” She explained in brief terms what was happening there. “So, even with a dent in the back door of my rig, I’d really like to be on my way. What I was wondering is this— If you’re really not busy, would you please go over to Val’s and find out why she’s shoveling snow again? She has Jim Worth working for her, and why isn’t he outside doing that hard work instead of her?” Jinni frowned and added, “Oh, maybe I should just go over there myself.”

  “Jinni, you’ve got a particularly heavy load today and I’m free as the breeze. You go to the clinic, and I’ll walk over to Val’s and find out what’s going on.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Well, if you’re absolutely positive. I hate burdening someone else with my responsibilities, but I do seem especially overloaded today. Not that Val would appreciate my considering her a responsibility, but if sisters and brothers don’t watch out for each other, who will?”

  “You couldn’t be more right.” Reed watched Mr. Hodges drive away, then looked back at Jinni Fairchild-Cantrell, who positively glowed in a faux fur, leopard-print jacket, matching boots and hat, and chocolate-brown slacks. A stunning woman with more style than anyone else in Rumor—with the possible exception of his own mother—Jinni had a vivacious personality and a smile that could melt the polar cap. She was perfect for Max Cantrell, Reed thought, and then depressed himself by thinking that Jinni’s sister, Val, might not be quite the clotheshorse her sister was, but she was perfect for him.

  He looked away, squinting through the dense snowfall. He wouldn’t be breaking his mind-his-own-business vow by seeing Val, because he was really only helping out Jinni.

  And so he turned back to Val’s sister once more and this time smiled at her. “You skedaddle—cautiously, of course—and I’ll check on Val. It would be my pleasure, and please don’t think of it as an imposition. Say hello to Max for me and give him my best. He already knows I’m rooting for the Cantrell family, but if events permit, tell him again, all right?”

  “I’ll do that, Reed, and thank you.” Jinni climbed into her SUV and drove away. When she was positive that Reed could no longer see her face, she smiled and said, “Thank you, Mr. Hodges. I never would have thought of inciting a car accident to get Reed and Val together one more time, but what took place couldn’t have been more perfect. After all, what’s a little d
ent compared to Val’s happiness?”

  Reed trudged through the snow to Val’s corner. Thinking of coming face-to-face with her in a minute or two quickened his heartbeat. He could stack vows to stay away from her from the earth to the clouds and still get giddy as a schoolboy when an opportunity to actually talk to her presented itself. He could tell himself a million times that he had to cut her out of his life, and then get all overheated from envisioning himself standing before her.

  He swore softly, cursing his weakness for someone who didn’t give a damn about him, as he managed to find the curb, completely concealed under a small mountain of snow. The town was inundated; Reed could hear the plows at work somewhere off in the distance. But when snow fell in this quantity, Rumor’s two snowplows had an uphill battle to keep even the main streets open for traffic.

  He finally reached the driveway and parking strip at the side of the Animal Hospital and swore again when he saw it had recently been shoveled clean. It was a large area and Jinni was right, he thought. Where was Jim Worth on a day like today?

  Reed tried the side door of the building, which was locked, then pushed the button that announced callers to whoever might be inside. There was no response, and he decided Val was either shoveling on the other side of the building or she had called it a day and gone to her house.

  He followed the sidewalk around the corner, glared at the snow-free walk between the Animal Hospital and Val’s house, then trudged on. Knowing Val, she might slam the door in his face. Knowing her, she might not even open the door to begin with.

  Still, even while knowing he was asking for another icy shoulder from the woman who would cause him restless nights for a long time to come, when he reached the back door of Val’s house, he knocked smartly, as though he had every right to be there.

  Val was standing under a hot shower. She’d not only exhausted herself with all that snow shoveling, she had practically frozen off her fanny. It hadn’t seemed that cold when she first went outside, and she had actually enjoyed the sensation and sight of snow falling on her and everything around her.

  She shouldn’t have forced herself to finish the job, she knew now. She’d overdone it, overtaxed her strength, abused and overused her bank of energy, which still wasn’t back to the level she had enjoyed before her chemo treatments.

  At least she was warming up. All she’d been able to think about during the final few minutes of the task she’d set for herself this morning was a hot shower, and it was indeed working the exact magic her icy body needed.

  Finally warmed clear through, she flipped off the shower lever, stepped out onto a bath mat and wrapped a big soft towel around herself. Her hair was dripping and she used a smaller towel to fashion a turban around it. With a third towel she patted her face, arms and legs dry, then began applying the moisturizers she always used after a bath or shower.

  Reed had knocked three times and then he tried the doorknob. Surprised to find the door unlocked, he’d stuck his head in and called, “Val? Val, are you home?”

  She had to be inside, he told himself, then, in the next heartbeat, scared the tar out of himself by wondering if something was wrong. Had she collapsed? That question destroyed any concern connected with trespassing, or going where he wasn’t wanted, and he stepped in and shut the door behind him.

  Val wasn’t in the kitchen, he soon discovered, nor the living room. He had started down the hall leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms when he heard a shower running.

  Of course! Reed gave a massive sigh of relief. She’d come in cold and was warming up in the shower. Very sensible.

  For a moment he stood there and pondered his next move. Should he leave quietly? She would never know he’d been there, would she?

  That idea didn’t set right. Maybe something perverse in his system needed another putdown, or maybe he needed to see her rosy and dewy from her shower.

  An idea struck him, and without pausing to think it over, he headed for the kitchen and put a teakettle of water on the stove. Smiling a bit, thinking she might appreciate a cup of hot tea, even if it did come from him, he took off his heavy outdoor clothes—including his boots, which left him puttering around in his woolen socks—and hung everything in the laundry room.

  Val, not hurrying with the application of her array of moisturizers, suddenly stopped. Her heart was in her throat. She’d heard something, a noise, a sound that shouldn’t be in her house! It wasn’t Estelle or Jim, but it could be Jinni. They were the only people who had keys, but if Jinni had let herself in she would have searched the house until she found Val, even if she’d still been in the shower. Jinni wasn’t a bit bashful, and whoever was making noises at the other end of the house wasn’t her!

  “Oh God,” Val whispered, almost too terrified to breathe. She always kept her doors locked, and surely she’d thrown the dead bolt when she came inside a short time ago.

  Or had she? She couldn’t remember for certain, and it sent her into a tailspin. Someone was in the house! There! Another noise!

  She was wearing towels! Oh, my God, she thought wildly, and forced herself from the bathroom to her bedroom, where she grabbed clothes and then, nearly dizzy from fear, decided that she didn’t have time to get dressed and opted for a pink knit bathrobe instead. Tossing the towels into the bathroom, not caring where they landed, she stuck her feet into a pair of slippers, nervously pushed her wet hair back from her face and tiptoed to the telephone. She had almost finished dialing the sheriff’s number when she wondered again if Jinni was her unannounced visitor. She didn’t want the sheriff to come roaring to the rescue if this was a false alarm.

  The sounds were coming from the kitchen, Val finally realized, and whoever was in there wasn’t doing anything to conceal his or her presence. It had to be Jinni.

  Feeling somewhat relieved, Val left her bedroom and walked through the house toward the kitchen. At practically the same moment that she reached the doorway, Reed walked past it.

  The only thing Val saw was a man, and she screeched loudly enough to wake the dead. Reed jumped a foot and let out a yell because he hadn’t expected anyone to shriek at him, and the last thing he saw was Val making tracks, running toward her bedroom as fast as her legs would carry her.

  He got his bearings in record time and ran after her, shouting, “Val! Val, calm down, it’s only me, Reed!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Val trembled so severely that her legs gave out and she started sinking. Reed managed to scoop her into his arms before she hit the floor. Holding her, he moved to the bed, but instead of laying her on it, he sat down and cradled her on his lap.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he repeated hoarsely. Never in a million years would he intentionally frighten anyone, and to think he’d caused Val such anguish nearly killed him.

  A sense of safety overrode the objections that would ordinarily have driven Val to anger over his audacity. She didn’t even need to ask questions to know what had happened. Obviously he’d come to her door. He’d probably knocked and she hadn’t heard him because of the shower. Then he’d tried the door and found it unlocked. He’d known—or guessed correctly—that she was inside, and knowing his penchant for taking care of the weak-minded—one of which she definitely had become—he had walked in to once again save her from herself.

  Then, of course, he’d caught on that she was in the shower and had instead veered to the kitchen to do something superhuman to save mankind in there.

  Okay, so you have him figured out. What about you? How about working on Val Fairchild now? You’re sitting on his lap and his arms are around you, in case you haven’t noticed.

  She’d noticed. She’d noticed plenty. His warmth saturated her flesh; his strength made hers unnecessary, and since she had so little at the moment, she gladly relied on his. And then there were all the little prickles and tingles of awareness here and there in her body that were easily recognizable and should be eradicated at once.

  Only she didn’t want to annihilate the
best feelings she’d had since the night at the cabin. In truth, the emotions she’d devised on her own lately were very poor substitutes for those flaring within her at the moment, even though she knew in her soul how combustible the situation really was.

  She glanced up and realized how intently Reed was gazing at her. And could she possibly look worse? Her damp, uncombed hair was probably sticking up in twenty different directions. Her face was completely devoid of makeup. Her ancient old pink robe was at least two sizes too big.

  And still she saw his incredible green eyes as pools of adoration and desire. How could he want a woman who looked like this?

  “Are you feeling better?” he asked, his voice deep and gravelly.

  “I’m not frightened now, if that’s what you mean.”

  “I walked in. I shouldn’t have.”

  “Please stop apologizing.” Without intent or design she snuggled closer to his wide, warm chest. It felt so good. He felt so good. And she felt safe.

  Reed’s heart nearly stopped. This was amazing. He truly hadn’t anticipated anything this wonderful occurring when he’d agreed to check on Val.

  His arms tightened around the woman he loved. He dipped his head and pressed his lips to her forehead just as the kettle in the kitchen let out an ear-piercing whistle.

  “I forgot the tea.” He was so unnerved that he cursed himself for a half-wit. She was on his lap, in his arms, right where he wanted her, and a stupid interruption like this one could ruin everything.

  Val crawled from his lap to the bed. “Would you mind turning off the burner?”

  Reed got up and ran from one end of the house to the other. He switched off the burner, moved the teakettle and ran back to Val’s bedroom. She had succeeded in surprising him again, he saw at once, as she had gotten under the covers and was now lying with one arm crooked over her eyes.

  Wondering how best to get her communicating again, he approached the bed and gingerly sat on it. She could, after all, rise up without warning and blast him to kingdom come. He wanted desperately to have her back where she’d been before the interruption.