Keith hadn’t needed the first invitation, let alone a second; he just needed time to absorb every detail of the moment. He had an idea that once he joined her in the sensuous bubbles, everything except Bonnie was going to escape him.
If the past months had been hell, this night was heaven.
LONNA LET HERSELF IN, and without even bothering to turn on the light, made her way through the darkened house to the bedroom she’d been using for more decades than she could remember. She barely got out of her clothes before she fell onto the comforter. She knew she should eat—and she would. It wasn’t sensible to skip meals at any age, and certainly not when she was having to make do with a seventy-six-year-old body.
So she’d eat. Right after she took a nap.
Despite her willing, weary bones, her mind didn’t cooperate as readily as she’d decided it should. Instead of finding the respite she needed as her eyes drifted shut, she saw images of the day, of the past several days and weeks and months, playing themselves out in her mind. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the next days and weeks and months, either. There was so much to do.
Breakfast for Grace. Dorothy’s care schedule—creating and managing it, as well as fulfilling her own duties on it. The library board. City council meetings to attend to make sure the voices of the people were heard above the ruckus of the Smith family—Shelter Valley’s well-to-do mayoral family, who served more as a tradition than because they had anything of value to contribute to the town’s governance. Then there was the welfare assignment at church and Shelter Valley’s long-range-planning committee. And today, a day she’d been planning to spend at least partially at home to get caught up on her computer work, she’d had a cancellation on Dorothy’s bath and evening meal and had to fill in herself.
Lonna didn’t pay much attention to the tightness in her belly as pictures continued to appear in her mind, moving from one to the next in quick succession. She wasn’t one to worry much about her health. She was just tired.
But determined. And with enough strength to move mountains. As soon as she had a rest. And then a meal.
The tightness moved to her chest, and as it slowly dissipated, she finally relaxed enough to sleep.
BONNIE HAD a pretty good understanding of the divine plan for sexual intimacy. Besides procreation, of course. It was a bond that two people shared only with each other, something that drew them closer. A way to communicate more deeply than words.
A way of gluing together a relationship that might be straining in other areas.
Like a hero from a historical romance novel, Keith gave her no mercy in the Jacuzzi that night. There was more talk. Kisses that would have been pornographic had they not been alone. Touching and teasing that was driving them both wild.
Wild enough to forget where their passion might lead? This wasn’t a safe time for her. She’d known that when she’d planned this night of healing.
And she’d been praying all day that she’d have the faith to be with her husband and accept whatever consequences might result. She adored children.
She wanted this marriage.
Falling back against her husband’s chest, helpless, she gave herself up completely to the water—to him.
When she was trembling and weak with need, he turned her around on his lap, positioning her.
The wave of tremors that had begun low in her abdomen disappeared. Instantly. Without warning.
Replaced by panic. If she got pregnant, her choices would be even more limited!
The woman who needed to be more than she was went into survival mode.
It was all she could think about. All that motivated her.
“Wait!” she cried in a voice she could neither stop nor control. Fumbling, she reached for the shoe she’d removed at the edge of the pool, dug her fingers into the toe, and when she came up empty, reached frantically for the other shoe.
Only when her fingers encountered the small packet she’d placed there—just in case—did she calm down enough to realize where she was and what she was doing.
But it was too late to stop. To remember.
“You want me to wear a condom.” Keith’s voice was colder than she’d ever heard it.
She couldn’t look at him. Holding it out to him she said, “Please.”
Without another word he took the packet. She heard it rip. Felt movement in the water as he sheathed himself, and then, with her knees on the seat of the tub, her weight braced on the tub’s edge, she helped him as he gently entered her.
He was behind her where she couldn’t see him, his hands on her hips, so, other than at her midsection, she was separate from him. He didn’t say a word. With the water bubbling around them, she couldn’t even hear him breathe.
It didn’t take long. It couldn’t, after all the hours of buildup she’d subjected him to. When he was done, Keith quietly left the tub, and her, and went in to take a shower.
CHAPTER SIX
BONNIE STOOD in the shower alone, water sluicing over her sensitized body. The suite had a bathroom as big as her bedroom back home. Too big for one person. But as lonely as she felt there, she wasn’t in a hurry to get out.
She’d long since soaped, shaved, washed hair that wasn’t dirty, let the warm water flow over muscles that had already been massaged in the Jacuzzi, and still she stood there.
Were they going to stay the night?
Was he even out there waiting for her? He wouldn’t have left her stranded, but he could’ve called a cab or walked somewhere or…
“Bonnie?”
He was right outside the shower curtain.
“Yes?”
“Greg just called.” His voice was soft, serious, full of bad news.
Oh, God. Tearing open the shower curtain, she stared at her fully dressed husband, her fingers dripping water all over his leather shoes as she clutched his arm. “What happened? Katie?”
He shook his head. “It’s not Katie.”
Thank God. Thank you, God. Bonnie grabbed a towel, did a haphazard job of drying off. “Is it Ryan?” she asked. “Or Beth?”
Keith shook his head. “No one’s hurt, Bon. It’s Little Spirits. There’s been another fire….”
SHERIFF GREG RICHARDS stared at the smoking embers, wrestling with a mixture of anger and perplexity. And fear. While the fire hadn’t been as easily contained as the first one and the damage was more extensive, the craft room in which it had burned was far enough away from the rest of the day care to allow for business as usual on Monday.
The fire appeared to have been started by a toy rocket with a lit fuse, sent through the window. There just wasn’t enough of it left to know for sure. Fire Chief Martin had made those assumptions from the break in the glass and the pieces he’d been able to put together.
“Makes that first fire look like more than the prank we assumed,” Greg said, moving out of the way as a couple of volunteer firemen pulled hose through the room and out the window through which they’d entered.
“Or one hell of a coincidence,” the fire chief said, his face dark with a day’s worth of stubble and dirty sweat. “And you know how much I believe in coincidence.”
About as much as Greg. In other words, not at all.
Greg took one last walk around the burned-out room, hoping to uncover some relevant information.
Had the first fire been more than a prank?
Who would do this to his sister? Bonnie was the sweetest, most giving person imaginable. She’d been serving the people of Shelter Valley her entire life, loving their children as her own. Why would someone want to hurt her?
After a quick goodbye to the Kachina County fire chief, who was supervising his men as they partitioned off the room with yellow caution tape, he headed out to his cruiser. Bonnie and Keith should be back soon. He was meeting them at their house.
What a fool he’d been to blithely shrug off that first fire as random teenage vandalism. He’d tried to find the culprits of course, but hadn’t really expected to
. Every generation of Shelter Valley boys pulled pranks. Came with the territory: the limitations of small-town life; the need for testing limits—and for creating a bit of the excitement that didn’t happen naturally in a place like Shelter Valley.
But twice in one place wasn’t random. And the ante had been upped. From supply closet to classroom. He didn’t even want to consider what could be next. This time he was going to get answers.
HE’D HAD A COUPLE of hours to calm down. Maybe the crisis helped, but Keith was no longer seething with hurt and frustration by the time he and Bonnie were sitting with Greg at their kitchen table late Saturday night.
Or maybe it was the coffee Bonnie had made for them. After the wine and the hot tub, caffeine was in order. And his wife made great coffee, using just the right quantity of beans, freshly ground, and adding a pinch of cocoa.
“Think, Bon,” Greg was saying, his forearms on the table as he leaned toward his sister. Since he’d been called from an evening at home, Greg was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, instead of a uniform, but his stature was no less imposing. “There’s got to be something. Some parent who thought his kid got a bum rap. Even a kid on a waiting list who inadvertently got overlooked?”
Bonnie shook her head, her riot of curls the only lively thing about her. She could’ve been made from cardboard, sitting there so calmly. “There is no waiting list. I find room.”
“How about someone who tried to pick up a kid without authorization?”
“In Shelter Valley?”
“It could happen.”
“I have no idea who did this, Greg.”
Nor did she seem driven to find out. It wasn’t like her.
“So what aren’t you telling me?”
Keith watched brother and sister, envying them their easy closeness that was apparent even while they were at odds. How had he and Bonnie lost that?
“I’m telling you everything I know.”
“I know what you’re telling me,” Greg persisted, his lips tight. “What I need to know is what you aren’t saying.” He spoke like someone who wasn’t going to settle for less.
They’d come through a lot together, Greg and Bonnie—the death of their mother, their father’s carjacking, brain damage and ultimate death, Greg’s love for a woman who turned out to be a fugitive.
“It has nothing to do with the fires.”
The cloud of doom that had been hovering over Keith for months descended without warning. “What is it, Bon?” he had to ask.
Green eyes unusually evasive, she looked quickly from one man to the other. “Mike Diamond wants me to relocate.”
Greg sat up. “Since when?”
“About a month.”
“Before the first fire.”
“Mike Diamond is a responsible businessman. I’m sure he doesn’t go around tossing books of matches and toy rockets.”
“Why does he want you to move?” Keith asked, when what he wanted to demand was why she hadn’t told him. A whole month and she hadn’t said a word!
His attempt at understanding and support was vying with an anger that was relatively new to him.
“He has a buyer for the strip, but it’s a developer who has an anti-day-care clause. He says they’re disruptive to other tenants and force him to rent to less-desirable people.”
Greg turned to Keith. “You didn’t know about this, either?”
Keith forced a brief shake of the head.
Greg frowned, facing his sister. “Why didn’t you say something?”
She shrugged and Keith’s anger escalated. How could she be so nonchalant about something so serious? Why hadn’t she mentioned such a critical issue, discussed it with him? Six months ago she would have.
“Because I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Since when do you make all your decisions alone?” The words exploded from Keith.
With eyes that pleaded, and apologized, she looked at him. “I don’t,” she said softly. She glanced quickly at Greg and back, then continued, “I’d fully planned to speak with you before I did anything. I was just taking some time to think about my career plan, to reassess.”
“Think about it how? You’ve done exactly what you set out to do.”
He wished they were alone.
“Thinking about the big picture.”
“In terms of relocating?” Why did everything she say these days seem like a threat to him?
She shook her head. “I’m not moving.”
“Then you’ve made a decision.” Without him.
“I guess.”
Damn her.
“YOU SHOULD’VE SEEN IT, babe,” Greg said just after midnight. “They were like strangers sitting there….”
Beth had waited for him to come home and, in spite of the cool March weather, they were sitting outside by their pool.
“Shock from the fire?” Beth suggested, hoping. She’d been worried about Bonnie since their talk the previous week.
She snuggled into her sweatshirt and slid a foot across her lounger to rest against Greg’s calf.
“I don’t think so.” He leaned to one side, flipping the switch to illuminate the water in front of them.
The pool was where they’d had their first kiss. And it was where they usually ended up for the talks that turned out to be difficult. Beth had a feeling this was going to be one of them.
“Are you worried about the fire?” she asked her husband.
“I’m concerned. So are they, but this is more than that.”
“You said she told you guys about Diamond.”
“Yeah.” Greg glanced at her. “You didn’t seem surprised to hear it.”
Beth wondered how much of what she knew—and surmised—she should tell Greg. She and her sister-in-law had grown closer than most sisters during the past months while Beth struggled to recover from the horrors of mental manipulation and physical abuse that had finally driven her to break the law in an attempt to save both her own life and that of her small son.
She owed Bonnie some loyalty, but Beth had learned the hard way that keeping secrets from Greg was not a good idea.
“Do you think Diamond is behind the fires?” She turned her head to look at the man who had given her back her life.
“No.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t make much sense for a man to damage property he’s trying to sell.”
“You don’t think Bonnie has anything to do with them, do you?”
“Of course not. But something’s up with her.”
Beth’s guess that this wasn’t going to be a quiet unwinding before bed was obviously correct. She looked at the baby monitor on the sill behind them, making sure the light was glowing.
“She’s talked to you, hasn’t she?” Greg asked softly.
“Yeah.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“Not in the way you mean.”
His grin held more warm affection than humor. “How do I mean?”
“With the law, someone blackmailing her, her health.”
“So what kind of trouble is she in?”
The night air was quiet.
“She needs more out of life than she’s getting,” Beth finally said.
“What in the hell is that supposed to mean? Keith isn’t good enough for her anymore?”
“Of course he is,” Beth said, hating this. “She’s just…feeling the pull of a world in trouble, and she’s bothered by her inability to do much about it. She feels that in the big picture, she’s insignificant. She needs to make a difference.”
“You’re telling me my sister suddenly thinks she has to save the world?”
“No.” Beth studied the sedate ripples in the pool.
“She’s got a great life,” Greg said, his frustration evident. “A husband she loves who loves her back. A healthy, beautiful daughter. A successful career, doing exactly what she always wanted to do.”
“But she’s capable of doing a lot more than she’s doing and she knows that.” Beth’s heart went
out to Bonnie. Her sister-in-law was caught—needing to save her marriage, the life she’d built, and save herself, as well.
Because without one, the other meant nothing.
“The day care practically runs itself at this point. Katie’s going to grow up and have a life of her own. Keith’s got the station. Bonnie plays a supporting role in all of that, as she should. But she needs something else, too.”
“Sounds to me like a midlife crisis.”
Anger flared in Beth. And quickly died. “It’s so much more than that, Greg.” She tried to help him understand, not only for Bonnie’s sake, but for hers. “These needs Bonnie’s describing are almost identical to the way I felt at the time James and Peter approached me about Sterling Silver. I ended up in hell because I was so desperate to escape the feeling that I was unworthy of the life I’d been given. I’d begun to feel like my life was a waste.”
“Bonnie’s life is not a waste. Hell, she holds this family together!”
“I know that.”
“So she’s going to throw it all in the toilet? Leave Keith, Shelter Valley and go make some huge difference for people who don’t give a damn about her?”
“No. She has no intention of leaving Keith. She loves him as much as she always has.”
“Then why hasn’t she talked to him about this?”
“You don’t understand her. Why do you think he would?”
“I’m not saying he will, but she’s his wife. He has a right to know what she’s thinking. Feeling. I’d sure as hell want to.”
“For one thing, she doesn’t want to hurt him. And she knows that as soon as she tells him she’s dissatisfied with her life, he’s going to be crushed.”
“Like he wasn’t disturbed tonight when he found out she’d known about Diamond for an entire month and hadn’t told him?”
“I think she’s also afraid that if she tells him she’s feeling so discontented, it might jeopardize her marriage, which is the last thing she wants. Just like you, he’d assume this means she wants to leave, go out and immediately change everything in her life. He’ll be trying to solve things, and that just might push her into something she doesn’t want.”
Born in the Valley Page 7
