The Stranger in Her Bed

by Janet Chapman

  The lake was active. Snowmobilers zoomed past out on the cove, some occasionally coming close enough to wave to her. Several more fishermen were set up a quarter mile away, nestled against one of the islands dotting this part of the lake. Anna had her cell phone sitting on her lap, and was studying the truck section of a statewide classified ad magazine.

  She hated shopping for a truck, especially a used one. Hers had been ten years old, but it had been reliable. Buying a used one was a gamble that could quickly turn into a disaster. Then there was the problem of finding a way to go see it, register it, not to mention paying the sales and excise taxes. It wasn't something she was looking forward to, considering the size of her bank account.

  A snowmobile approached from the lake and pulled up beside hers, parked just a few yards away. A man got off and removed his helmet, and Anna smiled when she saw who it was.

  "Hi, Daniel," she said, closing her magazine. "Out looking for bad guys?"

  The game warden shot her a boyish grin. "Hello, Anna. And no, I'm just pretending to work today." His eyes suddenly widened. "What happened to you?" he asked, only to turn red in the face. "I'm sorry. It's just that… well, did you have an accident?"

  "I totaled my truck four days ago." She held up the magazine. "And now I'm looking for another one."

  He sat down on the cooler beside her lawn chair. "Too bad." He nodded in her direction. "That's quite a bump on your forehead. You okay?"

  "Yeah. I'm just sore."

  Bear lumbered over and shoved his nose under Daniel's hand. Daniel dutifully began to scratch Bear's chin. "Hello, old boy. You helping Anna catch fish?"

  For answer, Bear closed his eyes and basked in the massage Daniel was giving his ears.

  "We got three," Anna said. "All legal. Want to see them?"

  "Salmon or trout?" he asked, looking around the snow for her catch.

  "Two salmon, one lake trout," she told him, pointing at the cooler he was sitting on.

  He stood up and opened it and looked at her catch. "Mmmm. They should be good eating."

  "You're welcome to stay for supper. I've got canned fiddleheads to go with them."

  His expression was wistful. "Sounds tempting."

  "I make a mean wild rice pilaf," she added.

  He shook his head, though he licked his lips.

  "Oh, come on," she urged. "I know you don't get to fish often, since you're too busy protecting them. When was the last time you had salmon and fiddleheads?"

  "Too long."

  "Then it's settled. You help me pull in my traps, and I'll cook you supper."

  He hesitated only a moment before he stood up. "I shouldn't be doing this. I don't even have a fishing license," he said, going over to the nearest trap and pulling it up.

  "Doesn't the state give you a free one?"

  He grinned at her. "Nope. They make us buy one, like everyone else. I just haven't gotten around to it yet this year."

  Anna pushed herself out of her lawn chair and shook her head. "Daniel Reed, you need to get a life."

  He pointed at the kite flying above them. "Like you? You're fishing out here all alone, flying a kite."

  Anna lifted her chin. "I'm recovering from my accident."

  He was about to respond but suddenly straightened as he looked toward shore. "You've got company."

  Anna followed his line of sight, groaned, and headed for another one of her traps. "It's nobody. Just my new tenant."

  "Hey, that's Ethan Knight."

  She stopped and looked at Daniel. "You know him?"

  "Of course. I know his whole family." He looked from Ethan to her. "I heard the Knights bought Loon Cove Lumber. You say he's your new tenant?"

  "He rents one of my cabins." Anna reached down and pulled up her trap, tossed the bait on the ice for the birds, then began winding in the line.

  "You got a license to fish these waters, Reed?" Ethan asked as he walked over.

  "Hello, Ethan." Daniel glanced at the sun, then back at Ethan. "You sneak out of work early, or did you get fired again?"

  Anna looked up just in time to see Ethan's glare, which he turned on her before looking back at their mutual friend. "I sent everyone home. Half that blasted mill is either broken or lost," he said with a growl in his voice.

  Daniel looked surprised. "But I thought Bishop ran a tight operation."

  "He did," Ethan said, walking past Daniel, not stopping until he was standing over Anna's fishing hole. "But it seems to have gone down the tubes suddenly. Any idea why, Segee?"

  She looked up at his scowling face and gave him a bright smile. "Not a clue, Knight," she said, moving to step past him.

  He grabbed her jacket sleeve and slowly turned her back to face him. Yup, he definitely was angry.

  "You're going to work tomorrow, lady, and you're going to get my mill running smoothly again. Understand?"

  She looked down at his hand on her sleeve and then back at him. "What makes you think I can fix it?"

  "You can fix it because you're the problem."

  "Me? I haven't been near Loon Cove Lumber for three days."

  "Which is why all the men are working so hard to make sure you come back. They're sabotaging my mill, and you're going to make them stop."

  "I'm still too sore to work."

  "I'll fire every damn last one of them," he threatened. "And you can explain to their families why Easter dinner will be canned beans this year."

  "You can't legally do that. Besides, you'd be bankrupt within the month. It takes years to assemble a crew that good."

  "Hey, are you two going to argue all day? I'm hungry," Daniel said, picking up another trap.

  Ethan's glare moved to his friend. "What's your belly got to do with it? If you're hungry, then go home."

  Anna would swear Daniel Reed suddenly stood a little taller and that his chest puffed out a few inches. "Anna invited me to dinner. She's cooking salmon and fiddleheads."

  "Is she, now?" Ethan said softly.

  Anna looked him right in the eye. "I thought it would be nice to have a meal with pleasant conversation for once. Growls, grunts, and complaints are not good for my digestion."

  "Just how many fish did you catch, while recuperating?"

  "Enough for two," she answered. "Now that your cabin is fit to live in, you're on your own. Meals were not included in your lease."

  Just then a gust of wind sent Anna's kite spiraling into a violent downward arc. All three of them ducked to avoid being struck, and Bear started barking. Ethan reached up and grabbed the string, and Anna watched, amazed, as he skillfully subdued the huge box kite. He slowly worked his way down the string until he came to the stick she'd wedged in the ice, kicked it free, and began unwinding more string.

  "You didn't have enough string let out," he told her, his eyes trained on the suddenly obedient kite. "A beauty like this needs to fly high, to catch the steadier winds."

  He was acting like a kid with a new toy. He played with the kite, sending it into a graceful dance, making it dip and soar and then arch skyward before slowly working it back to earth.

  Anna heard Daniel chuckle and realized her mouth was hanging open. She closed it with a snap and headed for her snowmobile, put the cooler on the tow sled, packed up her chair and Bear's bed, motioned for Bear to come over, then helped the dog climb up in front of her.

  "When you guys are done playing, you can finish pulling my traps. I'm going home to start supper," she told them, not at all sure they even heard her.

  Daniel was still chuckling and Ethan was actually talking to her kite now, his voice soft and coaxing. Anna's belly tightened again. She started up her snowmobile and gave it some gas, then headed for shore.

  * * *

  Ethan turned at the sound of a snowmobile leaving and saw Daniel Reed packing up her fishing traps.

  Reed had gotten himself invited to Anna's table tonight, for what he surely intended to be the first of many such dinners. Ethan dismantled the kite and put it in the fishing pac
k.

  "I'll tell Anna you got a call and can't make dinner tonight," he said, once Daniel had straightened with the pack basket. Ethan took it from him and hefted it over his shoulder. "I'll give her your regrets."

  Daniel's eyes narrowed to slits. "Oh, no you don't. You're not running me off. I found her first."

  Ethan grinned. "Not exactly. I'm already living with her, and possession is nine-tenths of the law."

  Daniel took a step closer. "Dammit, you Knights can't claim every pretty woman around here. I'm not backing off, Ethan. Anna Segee is fair game."

  Ethan settled his weight back on his hips and contemplated his friend. "You don't have time to date. You work around the clock and you live a good thirty miles from here. Besides, you're old enough to be her father."

  "I'm only three years older than you are."

  Ethan started walking toward Daniel's snowmobile. "So if I'm too old for her, that makes you way out of the ballpark," he said, holding out Daniel's helmet to him.

  "What in hell are you talking about? Anna's twenty-nine."

  Ethan stilled. "She's what?" He shook his head. "She can't be a day over twenty-two, Reed. She looks like she just got out of school last year."

  "She's twenty-nine," he told Ethan. "Her birth date's on her fishing license. That was the first thing I checked when I came across her fishing out here in January." Daniel thumped his chest. "Which means I saw her first."

  Anna was twenty-nine? That meant she was around the same age as Samuel Fox's granddaughter, Abigail. He looked back at Daniel. "Don't make me get nasty," Ethan warned. "Be the gentleman and bow out. We've been friends too long not to be civilized about this."

  Daniel snorted. "There isn't a civilized bone in your body when it comes to women, and there's not a damn thing you can do or say that will make me back off."

  Ethan lifted a brow. "I could always ask your boss why the state had to repair both your and my sister-in-law's trucks, when the accident was obviously Sarah's fault."

  Daniel's scowled. "You wouldn't do that. You'd be causing trouble for Sarah."

  "But more for you, for taking the blame for the accident."

  "A gentleman would let Anna decide whom she wants to have dinner with," Daniel said.

  "Yes. A gentleman probably would."

  "Dammit! It's salmon and fiddleheads! Do you know how often I get asked to a home-cooked dinner by a beautiful woman?"

  Ethan repositioned Anna's pack on his shoulder. "This beautiful woman is going to be more trouble than you have time to deal with, my friend. I'll give her your regrets, and you can have the next pretty woman that comes along."

  Daniel climbed onto his snowmobile and drove his helmet down on his head. "The way my luck is running, your brother Paul will beat me to her." He shot Ethan one last disgruntled look before speeding out of the cove in a cloud of snow. Ethan watched until the sled disappeared behind an island, then started walking to shore, whistling the whole way.

  * * *

  Anna heard the stamping of heavy boots on the porch, and shoved the salmon under the broiler, then went to the living room to greet her guest. The door opened and Ethan walked in carrying her basket of fishing equipment, closing the door behind him.

  Anna opened it back up. She looked around the porch, then out at the lake, but didn't see Daniel. She went back inside, where Ethan's jacket was now hanging on the peg by the door.

  "Where'd you find the fiddleheads?" he asked as he peered down into the steaming pot on the stove. He opened the oven door and looked inside. "You only cooked one of the fish," he said, turning to face her.

  "Where's Daniel?"

  "He got called away. Trouble down the lake or something."

  "What kind of trouble?"

  Ethan shrugged. "I don't know. But he sends his regrets." He turned back to the stove and looked under the cover of another pot. "Are those black specks wild rice?" He looked over at her and frowned. "If you know how to cook, how come I got stuck doing it all week?"

  Anna walked up to the stove, took the cover out of his hand, and slammed it back on the pot. "Because I was recuperating. And what you're having for supper depends on what you bought for groceries." She went to the table and removed one place setting.

  "Hey, you've got enough for two. I'll eat Daniel's share."

  She turned to face him. "I am not feeding you anymore, Mr. Knight. You're eating me out of house and home."

  "You were going to feed Reed."

  "That's different."

  "How?"

  Anna took a calming breath. "Daniel Reed is one of the nice guys, and I've been wanting to invite him to dinner for the last couple of months."

  "What do you mean, 'one of the nice guys'?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

  "Nice," she repeated. "Safe, steady as a rock— not full of himself."

  "Daniel Reed is a confirmed bachelor."

  "Only because he hasn't met the right woman yet."

  "And you think you're the right woman?"

  Anna lifted her chin. "I didn't say that. All I said was that I think he's a nice guy."

  He snorted. "Well, good luck trying to date him. Reed doesn't even have the time to fix up that shanty he calls home, much less go on dates." Ethan leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "So that's what you're looking for? A safe, shy, steady-as-a-rock man?"

  Anna crossed her arms under her breasts. "Yes. I only date nice, sensitive men."

  Ethan snorted again. "Don't let Reed's shy facade fool you. Beneath his lazy smile beats the heart of a predator. Why do you think he's a game warden? He loves a good hunt better than most."

  "You chased him off, didn't you?"

  Ethan was suddenly all innocence. "He got called away."

  "Yeah, right."

  "Tell me more about your 'dream guy.' What other qualifications must this paragon of manhood possess?"

  "Well, for one thing," she said, getting out a dinner plate again when she realized she wasn't going to get rid of Ethan short of shooting him, "he won't be a woodsman."

  "What's wrong with loggers?"

  "In a word? Neanderthals." She grabbed a fork and knife from a drawer. "I haven't met one yet who's man enough to accept a woman as his equal. Most loggers, when they're not busy beating their chests, are giving me orders as if I were a witless child."

  "Probably because you look— and act— like a child," he muttered, straightening to his full height.

  Anna turned and opened the oven and pulled out the salmon, hiding her smile. Lord, she hadn't had this much fun in ages. It was so easy to push Ethan's buttons. He was getting so riled up, she could see the cords in his neck bunching.

  "I'm going to date a man whose job tells me he's open to my opinions, ideas, and dreams."

  He followed her to the table. "Your opinions?" he echoed. "There is no such man."

  She finally let her smile escape. "Maybe there's a doctor or veterinarian I can cook for." She headed back to the stove, drained the fiddleheads, and put them in a bowl. "A veterinarian would have to be a sensitive man to work with animals." She looked over at the chickadees on the shelf, happily munching their seed. "And he wouldn't mind my pets." She turned back to Ethan and widened her grin. "Isn't there an unattached veterinarian in Greenville? Dr. Knox?"

  The cords in Ethan's neck bunched again, and a small twitch appeared in his right cheek. "Knox wouldn't know what to do with a woman if one shoved her chest in his face," he growled, following her back to the counter.

  Anna hid her smile again. "I'll have to see if that's true. It's about time Bear went in for a checkup."

  She was suddenly spun around by hands of steel, and brought face to face with eyes of snapping ice. "You're not asking Knox out. Or any other man, for that matter."

  She'd done it now. She'd uncovered the beast, and he was looking at her as if he intended to have her for lunch.

  The hands on her shoulders moved to her back, wrapping her in a strong, unbreakable band of muscle. Et
han kissed her full on the mouth, taking possession as if it were his God-given right.

  Anna's belly started to cartwheel. Her heart stopped beating and started again with such force, it took her breath away.

  He was relentless in his assault, determined to soothe the ego she'd soundly battered. She'd asked for this, although for the life of her, she didn't know why.