Just Pretending

by Myrna Mackenzie

  David watched her as she spoke. Her face was aglow with true satisfaction. She clearly loved her work. He wondered how she’d look if she felt that same kind of enthusiasm for a man, then shook his head at his own nonsense. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t go down that road. But he was just about to ask her about her work in Miami when the radio came to life.

  “Fifty-two. Domestic in progress at the Sadine place. Neighbors report suspect was yelling and shooting his gun into the trees. When the ammo gave out, he dropped it. No other known weapons. Both parties are in the living room. Entry should be no problem.”

  “Copy that. Fifty-two en route,” Gretchen said, spinning out onto the road. Her voice was tight and hard and she spared David a glance after she’d asked the dispatcher for details. “You ever get involved in a domestic?”

  “Not in my line.”

  “Ugly stuff,” she said. “I did a lot of that in Miami. Not much around here, but it happens. Wayne Sadine doesn’t get drunk often, but when he does, he likes to hit. He doesn’t care who, but if his wife doesn’t get out of his way, sometimes she’s the one his fists make contact with.”

  The words came out sharp and clipped. David felt the muscles tighten in his jaw. He remembered Wayne and he also remembered the tiny woman he’d married.

  But when they reached the small, crooked house, Gretchen exited the car like an Amazon intent on eating Wayne Sadine’s liver for lunch.

  The house was silent. She knocked, then turned the knob as a yell and a slap sounded inside.

  Wayne turned and roared as David pushed in front of Gretchen, ready to take the brunt of any blows, but Gretchen was having none of his interference.

  “Wayne, you’re drunk,” she said.

  “It’s my own house.”

  “Peggy’s house, too. What happened, Peg?”

  It was obvious he had hit her, but the woman stood silent.

  “Peggy?” Gretchen said gently.

  “You know what will happen if you take him in.”

  “I know we can keep him until morning. He’s drunk, he’s disorderly, and not only did he hit you, but he was out in the road earlier firing a weapon. The neighbors called in the complaint and they’re not going to back down. At least he’ll be sober by morning. At least he’ll know he can’t just keep doing this and getting away with it.”

  But of course, David knew, the man could get away with it if Peggy didn’t walk away from him, and it was just as clear looking at her that she was much too scared to do that.

  “Come on, Peg,” he said gently. “Let me take you over to the Big Sky for the night. You remember my mother—don’t you?—when your mother used to work there. She always liked you. Said you had pretty strawberry hair.”

  “Don’t touch my wife,” Wayne roared, and David felt a prickle at the back of his neck. He whirled just in time to see Wayne hurtling his way and Gretchen crouching and kicking her leg up right into Wayne’s path. The man fell like a tree that had been neatly sawed in two.

  David stared down at the slender woman who had saved his back. He automatically reached to scoop her up, then changed course and gave her his hand for an assist when he realized what he was doing. No way would Gretchen appreciate being treated as if she were a delicate flower, nor should she be treated that way. The woman had just acted with a speed, an agility and a courage and decisiveness that many big brawny men could never have matched.

  Grasping her narrow hand, David gave a tug, bringing her back to her feet. He managed to stop himself from pulling her to him, but he knew that the look he gave her was fierce and tight and appreciative.

  She stared at him, sucked in a long deep breath, then turned her attention to Peggy.

  “I’ll read Wayne his rights and give him a bed for the night when he wakes up,” she promised the woman, brushing her disheveled hair back from her brow. “Could I talk you into pressing charges?”

  Peggy shook her head. “I know it’s cowardly, but I—I just don’t think I can do that.”

  Gretchen opened her mouth, then shut it again. Clearly she and Peggy had walked this path before.

  “About the Big Sky,” David began, holding out his hand to Peggy.

  “No, I couldn’t. Your mother wouldn’t even know I was coming.”

  He tilted his lips up slightly. “We’ll call her,” he whispered conspiratorially. “She’ll rush around getting ready for you and be pleased as can be that she’s going to get a chance to visit with you. Since your mother passed away, she hasn’t had a chance to talk to you.”

  “Oh, I don’t think—”

  But some of the hesitation had drained away from her eyes.

  “Don’t think. Let me call.”

  And so they stayed. David heated water and Gretchen made tea while they brought Wayne around, then read him his rights.

  Edward and Yvette drove up just at that moment.

  “David, love,” Yvette said. “I’m glad you called. And, Gretchen, I hear you decked him. Good for you. I hope he has a knot on his head to match the ones he must have been born with. Imagine beating on my poor little Peggy. Come here, sweet heart. We’re getting you back to the Big Sky and into a nice crisp nightgown and a big feather bed.”

  David’s mother bustled around like a mother hen. David gave Gretchen a knowing look and took charge of Wayne.

  “Hit him again, dear, if you need to. I don’t want him getting anywhere near Gretchen with those fists” were his mother’s last words as she and her husband pulled away with Peggy in tow.

  He and Gretchen watched them drive away, then led a limping Wayne to their own car. David turned to Gretchen as they clicked the door shut behind the man.

  “That was an impressive kick back there, lady. You get to put those moves to use a lot back in Miami?”

  He could see by the flash in Gretchen’s eyes and the sag in her shoulders that the overly long day was taking its toll on her. She was both charged up and tremendously tired.

  “He was going for your back, Hannon. He had a bottle poised over your head,” she said with a sigh. “I didn’t have time to think.”

  “I know,” he said quietly. “I could have twisted away, but not with Peggy standing right behind me. Thank goodness for those long, delicious, and very talented legs of yours, Officer Neal. Now, should we get this mess in the back seat into town and a jail cell?”

  “Good idea,” she agreed. “Almost as good as handing Peggy into your mother’s care. That was generous and sweet of both of you.”

  “My mother is a very generous woman, Gretchen, and with her children grown, she misses taking care of people—except for my father, of course. The B and B helps, but most of her visitors are just passing through. She hasn’t gotten to put those deep-seated nurturing skills to use nearly enough to suit herself lately. I’m hoping it will be good for both her and Peggy.”

  And with that, he gently disentangled the keys from Gretchen’s fingers. “You watch Wayne,” he said, not wanting her to know that he needed to coddle her a little now that the adrenaline was draining out of her.

  She chuckled. “Very smooth, David. I can see that you’re used to taking care of the women in your life, but I’m an officer. I can handle stress and fatigue.”

  “Mmm, I know that. But why should you have to now that you have a partner to share that stress and fatigue with you? Go on, now. I’ll let you be the strong one again tomorrow. For now, just watch Wayne.”

  Hours later when all the paperwork had been done and Gretchen had gone home, David kicked his feet up on the desk and leaned back in his chair. He was glad his mother had come for Peggy. She’d done so much worrying about his aunt Celeste lately that having Peggy around would be a comfort and a distraction for her and hopefully would be a brief respite for Peggy, as well.

  He’d wished to relieve some of the stress and tension his family was going through by helping to bring a hasty end to this case, but it was clear nothing hasty was going to happen here. Raven and Jeremiah were both dead a
nd Storm seemed to have vanished into the past, as well. The mystery was still a mystery and David chafed at his inability to break through the mist that surrounded it. As for this current situation with Peggy, well, it was a help of sorts. His mother was quite simply never happier than when she could bustle around helping a young person find a way in the world. It would be a distraction for her.

  But what about him?

  David groaned and ran his hands over his eyes, trying to dislodge the picture of Gretchen throwing herself in front of Wayne today, that long elegant leg shooting up to catch him just beneath the chin.

  How could a man resist that?

  “Resist,” he ordered himself. The lady has her life set just the way she likes it and so do you. All those hot thoughts coursing through you are nothing more than that. Ticklish desires. Fantasies. Just like the ones he’d had as a kid. Of playing football back in the days when his body wouldn’t allow him to do much of anything he’d wanted it to do. He’d learned early on that he was a kid who wasn’t going to be able to run with the pack. He was going to have to go his own route, forge his own trails. And it didn’t matter that things had changed once he’d grown healthier and he’d become much taller and stronger than anyone would ever have believed. Some things just shouldn’t be approached. Things that added complications to an already complicated situation. Such as touching Gretchen.

  The ringing of the phone sent his fretful thoughts flying. “Hannon,” he said as he snagged the receiver and brought it to his ear.

  “David, how’s it going?”

  “Sascha? What are you up to, buddy?”

  “A guy can’t check up on his best friend? His friend who hasn’t even called to say hello?”

  David smiled to himself.

  “Depends on the reason why he’s checking up. The last time I saw you, you told me you were living in Bridget Nelson’s bed. I thought I might be interrupting something important if I called.”

  “Good point,” his friend said with a deep chuckle. “But right now the lady’s asleep and I’ve been hearing rumors about what’s going on in White horn.”

  “Rumors?”

  “Hey, news travels fast. If you can’t find info in the Bureau, where can you find it? I hear you’ve paired up with a career detective. A lady. A very by-the-book lady.”

  “Gretchen’s very talented,” David said with a lazy smile. “Anything more you want to know about her?”

  “She succumb to your charms yet like almost all the other women I’ve met?”

  “Sasch?”

  “Uh-oh. I hear ‘back off’ in your voice.”

  “Very good. I knew we were friends for a reason. You know when to butt out.”

  “You never used to get so upset when I asked about your current lady.”

  Sascha was right and David was pretty sure he knew the reason. The reason was that Gretchen was not his current lady and wasn’t going to be his lady at all.

  “She that special, David? You know what I’ve told you about getting in too deep. Take it from a man who knows way too much about what can go wrong when that happens. And you should know. You were the one who kept me alive when I was going through my divorce.”

  David felt a frown forming between his eyes. He did remember just how broken his friend had been. He and Sascha Fitzgibbons were a lot alike. Men with warm families, but essentially men who trod their own road. Alone. It was the truth. It was why he’d never even told Sascha that sometimes late at night when he was tired, he wished he were different, wished he had the ability to try for a lasting and permanent connection. He didn’t. Women were his for the taking much of the time, but once taken, he seemed to tire quickly. Knowing that about himself, he tried not to get too close to any one woman. Not close enough to burn her, anyway.

  “David, you’re not falling for this Gretchen, are you? You’ve only known her a week.”

  A long, tired sigh slipped through David’s lips.

  “It’s not like that, Sasch. Gretchen is simply a very good detective and a very nice lady.”

  Silence, then a low whistle.

  “And there’s nothing more to say than that, Sasch. You got that? I don’t want any rumors flying around the office about Gretchen, okay? She doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”

  “I hear anything, David, the guy who says it will be eating the carpeting on the floor.”

  David laughed. Sascha was the biggest pussycat he knew. A giant of a man and as gentle as they came. He hated hurting people. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t fight with the best of them, but he very rarely needed to.

  “Thanks, Sascha, and thank you for worrying about me, but I’m all right. I’m technically on leave, but I’ve still got a case or two going, some stuff I can look into while I’m out here. I owe it to Phil to get something done since he was generous enough to turn his head for me on this thing.”

  “Oh. Well then. You’re working. You’re fine.”

  “I’m fine,” David agreed with a laugh. Sascha thought that the Bureau was life itself and, for the most part, so did he. It was just another reason the two of them got along so well.

  “I’m fine,” he repeated for his friend’s sake. “You can go back to the beautiful Bridget.”

  “Bridget. Isn’t that a luminous name, David?”

  “It’s a beautiful name, Sasch,” he agreed as they ended their conversation and hung up.

  But it wasn’t the name “Bridget” that was on his mind as he glanced out the window later and watched the moon climb through the sky. There was another lady on his mind, and try as hard as he could, he couldn’t get her out of his thoughts.

  Gretchen was trudging down the street with Goliath, the heavy leaves of the trees dripping shadows onto the sidewalk glowing in the moon light. It had been a long day and the extra paperwork involved in arresting Wayne had made the day even longer. Not that she regretted the arrest. Peggy might not be able to pull away from the man she’d married and who abused her, but at least she would know that there were people who cared, that if she ever did feel she could make the break, there would be those who would help her.

  The thought conjured up a sudden vision of intense green eyes. David had taken Peggy under his wing as if she were a wounded child. He had treated his mother with warmth and solicitousness when she had arrived. And he had insisted on driving when he’d known she was still reacting to the inevitable fatigue that followed the keyed-up moments detectives faced as a part of their daily regimen. He was the kind of man who looked for signs of need in a woman and he responded to those needs. He took care of people, was most likely used to having women falling all over him and relying on him. It was probably what had helped make him as an agent, that urge to make a difference. And yet, his very warmth was what made him dangerous to her, especially when she was tired. It would be so easy to press close into that warmth and snuggle close.

  “Not the right thing to do, Neal,” she whispered, catching Goliath’s attention and smiling at him to urge him onward. When she dated, she always dated men out of her field, men who had barriers as high as her own. A little fun was all she wanted from a man. Not warmth, not someone who responded to her needs. That meant ties, sticky connections, the danger of getting in and not being able to get out, and she always made sure she knew where the door was when she went into a room or into a relationship. No way did she ever want to become the kind of woman who would trail a man around the country and give up most of the things she held dear. That had been her mother, and her mother had been an old and used-up woman long before physical age had taken its toll. That life wasn’t for her. The single life held way too many charms and benefits to ever give it up.

  That thought was sailing through her head as she neared a small blue cottage and Goliath began pulling on his leash. He barked softly, then whimpered when Gretchen ordered him to be quiet.

  “I know,” she said sympathetically. “That little Pomeranian with the twitchy tail lives here, doesn’t she? But we’ve got to
be careful, Goliath, you and I. Your lady love has an owner who’s very particular about whom her pet associates with. It isn’t easy, this relationship stuff, is it? Even if you just want to keep things easy and light, things have a nasty way of mixing themselves up. Let’s go home, shall we?”

  And so they turned toward the home that Gretchen still loved knowing was hers alone. A sense of warmth, of letting go and giving in to the sleepiness that had been waiting at the backs of her eyes for hours kicked in, and Gretchen knew why. She was heading back to her sanctuary. She’d picked out every stick of furniture in her tiny neat house, she hadn’t had to make concessions for anyone. There she could do whatever she wanted, say whatever she wanted, live just as she and she alone wanted. It was her idea of heaven, her house, and they were almost back to heaven when she and Goliath ran into David.

  Looking up into his dark smiling eyes, she should have been irritated at having her plans interrupted.

  Gretchen smiled back. “Lost, rich boy?”

  His chuckle slid in and caressed her senses in the most dangerous of ways.

  He slowly shook his head.

  “Not nearly lost,” he confessed. “I saw Goliath’s white coat bobbing down the street and I thought I’d stop and say hi,” he said, bending to greet the dog.

  “Hi,” she said. “But what are you doing so far from home this late, David? Were you at the office working?”

  “For a while. Mostly, though, I thought I’d come fill you in on Peggy’s progress. I know how you feel about this town and being the caretaker of the inhabitants here. My mother’s made Peggy an offer. Help finding a job to get her on her feet and independent and in the meanwhile, room and board and all the time she needs to think her life through. A chance to be away from Wayne for a bit and get her world together in a safe environment if she wants it. Peg’s considering it.”

  He fell into step beside her as they rounded the corner and headed up the walkway to her place. “I’m glad,” she said, and her voice floated softly on the whisper of a breeze that lifted the pale tendrils of her hair, a breeze that smelled of summertime grass recently clipped and flowers. “Would you like to come in?” she asked, wondering where those oh so dangerous words had come from.