Grave Risk

by Hannah Alexander

  “Oh, I get it. You weren’t going to beg me to take the ring back. That would have hurt your pride.” Why was she suddenly enjoying this? Maybe because she was realizing that they really had a good relationship once. She was capable of it.

  “Especially after what I’d just said to you. I kept thinking I would be able to talk to you about it, that since we did truly love one another, we would eventually work it out. But then, you refused even to talk to me after that.”

  She turned and faced him with her hands on her hips. “Rex Fairfield, don’t you dare try to convince me I’m the one who actually broke our engagement.”

  “I won’t.”

  “But you just said—”

  “I’m simply saying we weren’t exactly skillful communicators back then. There was a problem I believe we could have dealt with it much better had we behaved with maturity instead of blind emotion. If we were to have that same fight today, I believe the results would have been drastically different.”

  “How’s that?”

  Again, his gaze drifted to her mouth. He leaned toward her, but before he could kiss her again, she stepped back. “Hold it. You’re saying people should rely on physical touch instead of words to work out their problems?”

  He followed her. “No, I’m saying the results would have been different. We would have talked about our feelings instead of sulking like a couple of spoiled children. And then—” He reached for her shoulders and drew her forward.

  His mouth covered hers—lips touched in such a perfect, sweet pairing. Her eyes closed, and her heart kept beating, though her breathing seemed to encounter a barrier.

  His arms drew her closer, until she leaned against him, and she couldn’t tell if it was because she had suddenly grown so weak she needed him to hold her up or if she couldn’t bear not to have that nearness.

  When he drew back this time, she felt as if she’d suddenly lost a lifeline.

  “Ever hear the old saw about those who don’t learn from their mistakes?” he asked, still looking at her mouth as if…as if he wanted more. “They’re doomed to repeat them.”

  “Well, I haven’t repeated that mistake,” she said.

  “Haven’t you? You should be happily settled with a family. Instead, you’re still living your life for everyone but yourself.”

  “Look, I know I’ve always—”

  “You don’t have to explain yourself, Jill. I’ve spent enough time in Hideaway to discover some old puzzle pieces I wish I’d found a long time ago. I’ve learned more in this past week than I ever knew before.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like what you’ve had to deal with, the pain you must feel when people misunderstand you. The fact that you don’t always get the respect from others that you so very much deserve.”

  “You’re listening to the gossip about me.” She suddenly felt chilled.

  “Relax. It wasn’t told as gossip, but simply as a way to help me understand why you’ve been grumpy lately.”

  She glared. All those wonderful, sweet, languorous feelings suddenly vanished. “Grumpy!”

  Fawn had stitched the final row of seed pearls onto the front of Karah Lee’s wedding dress when she saw Rex’s stepson, Tyler, walking along the shoreline of the lake, skipping rocks across the surface of the water. Or trying to.

  Would he be offended if she showed him how to do it? “Hi,” she called through the open window.

  He turned and looked up at her, and she saw a familiar grin. He had a smile like his stepfather’s—it took over his whole face. “Hi.”

  “Sorry, I’ve used up most of the flat rocks along this part of the shoreline. There are some good ones farther along, past the church.”

  He glanced where she pointed, then his gaze drifted toward the crowd dispersing from the cemetery at the far end of the churchyard.

  Fawn tenderly placed the dress on its padded satin hanger and hung it in her closet. When she joined Tyler at the water’s edge a moment later, he was still staring toward the road.

  She glanced in the same direction, then smiled when she saw Jill and Rex walking side by side. “Aha. Just what I was hoping for.” They appeared to be arguing at the moment. Jill loved to argue.

  “Who’s she?” Tyler asked.

  “The love of your stepfather’s life, even if neither of them knows it yet.”

  Tyler watched them, eyes narrowing.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Fawn asked.

  “They’ve got a thing going?”

  “No.”

  “Then what are you talking about?”

  “They were engaged a lot of years ago. Long before you and I were even born.”

  “You mean they’ve kept in touch all this time?”

  “Nope, they’ve just discovered each other again. What’s wrong with you? You think he should still have a thing about your mother?”

  He scowled. “He’s not crazy. No man in his right mind would have a thing for my mother.”

  “Ouch. I hope you don’t say things like that to her. If I’d said that to my mother, she’d have knocked my teeth out.”

  That earned his complete attention. “Your mother hits you?”

  “When I lived with her. I live with my foster mother now.” She found a flat stone and picked it up, curled her right forefinger around it, crouched toward the water, and flung the stone across the surface. It skipped fifteen—sixteen—seventeen times.

  “Your stepdad’s friend’s name is Jill Cooper,” she said as she searched for another stone. “You want to know what I think your stepdad’s doing here in Hideaway? I think he’s looking for something he and Jill lost a lifetime ago.”

  She skipped the next stone far out into the lake, then turned to enjoy Tyler’s admiration. Instead, he was watching the couple up on the hill. Jill had her hands on her hips, glaring at Rex, who was grinning at her.

  “Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want me here,” Tyler said.

  “That’s silly. He’s always talking about his stepsons. He obviously wants to do the right thing, and he wants you to do it, too.”

  “He doesn’t know what it’s like at home.”

  “He was married to your mother for how many years? And you think he doesn’t know?” Fawn snorted.

  He ignored the jibe. “I’m not going back to Kansas City. If he doesn’t want me here, I can get a job in Branson at one of the shows.”

  “What do you think Rex would say about it?”

  “He doesn’t want to cause trouble. He’s afraid any blowup with my mother will only traumatize my brother and me.”

  “Well, if you have as good a relationship with Rex as it seems, I think he’d love it if you lived with him. Look at me and my foster mom Karah Lee. She’s getting married in just a couple of weeks, and her fiancé doesn’t act like I’m going to be in the way. Jill likes kids, too. She tries to mother the whole community.”

  “But Rex moves from hospital to hospital now that he and my mom are divorced.”

  “My foster mother overheard him saying he missed treating patients. Folks around here are already grumbling because there’s no male doctor at the clinic. Lots of the older men still won’t go to a woman for treatment. If Rex were to settle here, he’d have a stable home for you and your brother. Maybe you could both move in with him.”

  Tyler’s attention once more focused up the hill toward Rex, his blue eyes filled with speculation.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Rex knew he shouldn’t have laughed while Jill was still in fight mode, but he couldn’t help himself. She hadn’t been this outspoken twenty-two years ago. Maybe if she had, they would have been able to talk things out.

  “You did what you had to do,” he said gently, taking her arm.

  Though she continued to glare at him, she allowed him to guide her farther from the cemetery. “Don’t patronize me.”

  “I’m not. I can see a lot of things now that I couldn’t then. I was too caught up in my own busy schedule and too arrogant t
o believe you had good reasons to spend so little time with me when I did have time off. I’d like to think we aren’t the same people we were then, and that’s a good thing.”

  “But some things haven’t changed,” she said.

  “In reference to what?” he asked.

  “I’ll never be…normal.”

  Rex turned to look at her, and his heart went tender. “Do you know what normal is?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

  “Explain it to me.”

  She strolled a few more steps, her newly shaped, dark brows drawn together in contemplation. “Normal is someone who doesn’t have a compulsion or an obsession that makes people look at them strangely.”

  “Oh, so I should be more interested in someone who suffers from depression or bipolar disorder, is that what you’re trying to tell me? Or perhaps someone with a psychosis, who hears voices that aren’t there?”

  “Now you’re being silly.”

  “No, I’m not,” he said. “I recently read that some ridiculously high percentage of the population is affected by some kind of emotional or mental illness. Fifty or sixty percent. My ex-wife, for instance, can’t remain in a monogamous relationship. You’d be amazed by the number of women I’ve met who struggle with depression. Men, too, for that matter, but I’ve met more men who have unmanageable aggressive tendencies.”

  “And yet, the majority of people in this country are capable of having a good relationship with someone of the opposite sex,” she said.

  “You’re sure about that? My experience has been the opposite. That could be because my own marriage was so much less than perfect that I tend to pick up on marital misery without much difficulty.”

  “Okay, I get your point.”

  “You sure?” Rex asked. “Because I could go on. I don’t think there’s a lot of normal out there, and I’m not sure I’d like what normal is supposed to be.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to set you off on a tangent.”

  “Of course you did. You wanted to divert the attention from yourself. You wanted to dismiss yourself from the human race. You think you should be some castoff just because your mind doesn’t always function the way the rest of the world thinks. But you know what? I don’t really care about the rest of the world. I like the way you are. I always have.”

  Her steps slowed, and he could almost hear the alarm sounding in her head. Time to back off.

  Jill glanced toward the lake as they passed by the bed and breakfast. “Who’s that with Fawn down at the shore?”

  He glanced in that direction and smiled. “That’s Tyler, my stepson.”

  “Smart kid. He’s already found the prettiest girl in Hideaway to hang out with. Shouldn’t you go spend some time with him before he has to go back home?”

  “Why don’t you come with me?”

  “Because you need to spend some quality time with him alone.”

  “He’s probably smelled the food in the dining room by now,” Rex said. “He’s bound to enjoy Bertie’s black walnut waffles and maple syrup. She said she was going to open back up after the funeral. It’ll probably be another community dinner day like we had after Edith’s funeral. I overheard the church ladies sharing casserole recipes.”

  “Why don’t you go enjoy a plate with him?” Jill suggested.

  “Why are you trying so hard to get rid of me? You said yourself that you don’t have to be at work today. You won’t join us?”

  “That boy needs your undivided attention right now.”

  “He needs to go home to his mother.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t.”

  “You don’t know the situation.”

  “He may have his reasons for coming here. Respect them. And find out what they are.”

  “Has it occurred to you that our roles seem to be reversed?” he asked. “This time it’s me who has family obligations interrupting our time together.”

  “Notice that I’m being mature and encouraging you to spend time with your family—not that this is the same thing at all.”

  “I’m walking you home.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “We’re sure someone was in your home Sunday without your permission, and maybe more than once. I think I should go with you.”

  “There’s no one there now. Remember, I’m living in the equivalent of Fort Knox. Anyone steps foot in my house without my permission, alarms will ring all over town. Half of Hideaway will probably show up to see the excitement. You aren’t responsible for me and your stepson needs you.”

  “It won’t take long for—”

  She turned and pressed her fingers against his chest. “I have a date with a jar of the most deliciously scented honey almond cream from my sister’s spa that I picked up from Sheena just yesterday, and I’m due this break. Now go. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Frustrated, Rex watched Jill walk away. Their conversation hadn’t gone as well as he’d expected. Although, in many ways, it had gone better than he had hoped.

  In spite of his strong compulsion to walk her home, he knew she was right. Tyler needed him now. Margret would, too, when she received Tyler’s note, although her need would be more for someone to blame than for another adult with whom she could commiserate.

  Had Jill felt this way when they’d been engaged? Like a rope in a tug-of-war?

  Tyler was no longer down at the lakeside with Fawn. Instead, when Rex reached his suite, the boy was talking on the telephone in low tones.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to make you cry, but you can’t keep us away from Dad…. To us, he’s Dad.”

  Tyler turned and saw Rex standing in the doorway. The kid shrugged and held out his hand in a gesture of helplessness.

  Rex reached for the phone, but Tyler shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mom, but I can’t take it anymore. Until you can start treating me like a sixteen-year-old and not an eleven-year-old, and until you can agree to regular visiting hours for Jason and me with Dad, I’ll be with Dad. If you want to take it to court, bring it on. I’ll be glad to tell a roomful of people what you’ve been like to live with these past three years.”

  Rex’s jaw dropped.

  Tyler snickered and held the phone out to him. Rex took the receiver and braced himself. But what he heard wasn’t a screaming Margret, it was a dial tone.

  “Gotcha, Dad.”

  Rex gave him a mock glare as he hung up the phone. “You sure did.”

  “That was just a practice run.”

  “Maybe you should change your tactics a little. Remember, legally, you’re a runaway.”

  “So maybe the police will take me away and put me in a boys’ ranch like the one across the lake?”

  “There’s no telling what they’ll do with an incorrigible kid like you.” But Rex was only half-serious. Tyler had never been incorrigible. He had a sweet nature, avoided conflict as much as possible and had a strong sense of justice. That’s what he was acting on now.

  “It’s what I’m going to tell her, though,” the kid said. “A sixteen-year-old is allowed to choose in court who he wants to live with.”

  “That’s when his natural parents are involved.”

  “I don’t think she’ll be willing to drag this through the court system,” Tyler said. “She’ll lighten up when she realizes how serious I am about seeing my dad.”

  Again, Rex was deeply touched. He was also torn between doing the right thing by making sure Tyler didn’t get away with this, and celebrating the fact that this fantastic kid was willing to fight to see his old stepdad.

  “Tyler, I never wanted to make you a pawn between your mother and me.”

  “That’s not what’s happening. I’m just telling it to her like it is. Fawn said something about food downstairs. I’m starved.”

  “Then let’s go eat. We can discuss your mother afterward.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Fawn found Blaze at the clinic on the computer barely thirty minutes after she’d seen ever
yone leaving the cemetery.

  He glanced up at her, then back at the computer monitor. “I can’t believe you didn’t go to the funeral.”

  “I told you—”

  “I know, I know, Cecil told you not to go. But he didn’t know he was going to die Saturday. How do you think he’d have felt if he’d known you not only used his funeral as an excuse to skip school, but to hang around flirting with strange teenagers down by the lake instead of honoring an old man’s memory? He’d be crushed.”

  She grinned at him. “He’d understand. You saw me with Tyler?”

  “Who’s he?”

  “The strange teenager is Rex’s stepson.”

  The information didn’t seem to improve Blaze’s mood.

  “You’re jealous,” she said.

  “I disapprove. There’s a difference.”

  “Sure there is.” She glanced at the files beside the computer. “Got any filing for me to do? Papers to push? Things like that?”

  “Plenty. We’re set to reopen in an hour, and everything’s behind schedule here.”

  She took the stack of files he handed her. Since she had done office work at the clinic several times in the past when they needed help, she was cleared to handle patient files. She left him to his work and carried the stack into the filing room.

  She had them alphabetically sorted when she heard the irritating squeak of the front door opening—no one had oiled those hinges yet. It drove the doctors crazy, but Jill liked the fact that it served to announce new arrivals when they were shorthanded.

  “Blaze Farmer.”

  Her movements stilled as she tried to identify that deep voice.

  There was a long pause, then, “Yeah?” There was no missing the thread of caution in that one-word reply.

  She nearly dropped the folder in her hand. Austin Barlow.

  “Cheyenne told me you would be here,” Austin said.

  “You came to see me?” Blaze asked, the thread tightening.

  There was a heavy sigh. “It’s something I should’ve done days ago.”

  “But why—”

  “No, make that two years ago. Fact is, if I’d behaved the way a man should behave, I’d never have done what I did to you.”