Radio Rose (Change of Heart Cowboys Book 1)

by Stephanie Berget

  She cut him off. “This has Lillian’s size nines printed all over it. Was she in the kitchen last night?”

  When he sat there without moving, she grabbed his shirt and shook him until his brains rattled. Actually, the only part of him that moved was his shirt, but her intent was clear. “Are you going to give up again, or are you going to help me prove she set us up?”

  -#-

  While Adam’s world fell apart, he’d watched Rose pace around the living room waving her arms and ranting like a crazy woman. He’d been ready to walk away, but when she started shaking him like a rag doll, his mind kicked back into gear.

  He wasn't giving up. In fact, he felt like smiling. Rose accused Lillian of everything under the sun, but his mind was stuck on a lone word she’d uttered—the word us. She thought of them as a pair, a couple, or just partners. Whichever way it was, she was back on his side.

  “Lillian was in the kitchen last night.”

  Rose froze mid-stride with her hands in the air. Her head turned slowly until she was looking straight at him. “You’re sure?”

  "She congratulated Mara and Gramma. They mentioned it, because Lillian had never spoken to them before, except to order them around." Adam walked over to her and wrapped her in his arms. Anger flowed through her body. He held her closer and took it into his own.

  “Together we can stop her,” he murmured just before he lowered his mouth to hers.

  Without hesitation, she melted against him.

  Adam grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway toward the back of the house.

  “Um, are you sure we have time for this now?” Rose asked, confusion and anticipation coloring her cheeks.

  “Get dressed,” he said as he gave her a gentle nudge toward the door. “We've got to get back to the restaurant and talk to everyone who worked last night. Maybe they saw something.”

  Rose went farther than that. After she’d pulled on her clothes, she called the rainbow girls, Red, Sonja, and even Eddie, and they agreed to meet at the steakhouse within an hour. If there was power in numbers, she was gathering all she could find.

  Adam and Rose were the first to arrive, but the others soon followed. When everyone was seated, Adam explained what had happened.

  “Did any of you see Lillian in the kitchen last night?” he asked.

  “Around nine, she complimented me on the success of the restaurant,” Gramma said. “I was too busy to give her more than a minute.”

  “She talked to you in the kitchen, right?” Rose asked.

  “I’m the cook. Where else would I be?”

  “She was standing by the door to the pantry,” Jonas said. “When I asked her to move so I could get more mayonnaise, she gave me a dirty look.” He shrugged. “I said please.” He tried to keep a straight face, but a chuckle escaped.

  The sound was contagious. When the laughter slowed, several others told of their Lillian sightings.

  “She told me she was checking on things for Adam so I didn’t question her presence,” Mara said.

  That hit him like a ton of bricks. How could he be so dense? Rose was right as usual. He hadn't asked Lillian to check on anything for him, in fact he'd told her to stay away.

  “The problem is we can't prove she planted the bugs. No one saw her,” Rose said.

  “Thanks for your help,” Adam said. “I've arranged for exterminators to be here this evening, and I'll call each of you as soon as we get a clean bill of health. Hopefully, we’ll be able to open the day after tomorrow.” Several of the waitresses gave him a hug as they prepared to leave, and the servers shook his hand.

  Jonas lumbered up to Adam. He’d had his reservations when he’d hired the big man, but Jonas was turning into a top-notch employee. “Hang in there, dude. Karma always wins out.” He thumped Adam on the back hard enough to make him stumble then smiled and gave a thumbs up before wandering toward the kitchen door.

  Adam wasn't totally sure about this karma thing, but if it would bring him some luck, he was all for it.

  As the employees left, Adam, Rose and all of the managers settled in for their own meeting.

  “Here’s the deal. If Lillian is desperate enough to plant roaches in the restaurant then she might do something to one of the other businesses. Red and Tyler have agreed to take turns staying at the garage.”

  “Between the DJs and Eddie, someone is always at the radio station,” Rose added.

  “Our main worries are the motel and flower shop.” Adam looked from one to the other. “Everyone needs to keep an eye out for Lillian. Other than that there isn't much we can do.”

  “I can ask my fiancé to stay with us until this is over,” Mickie said. “Nobody will mess with David.”

  “We won’t be alone, but what are we going to do about Sonja?” Stevie asked.

  The tiny woman stood and rapped her knuckles on the tabletop. “Don’t you worry about Sonja. I have my little gun for protection, and I’m not afraid of anyone. My Elvin taught me to shoot during the war.”

  “How long has it been since you shot your gun, Sonja?” Adam asked.

  She put her finger beside her nose and thought and thought and thought. “I think it was 1956 that Elvin took me to the woods. We shot pheasants for supper. They were very, very good.”

  “How big is your little gun?” Rose asked.

  “About this big,” Sonja said and held her hand a few inches higher than the top of her head.

  Adam looked from Rose to Sonja and back. “How about if I take your gun and have it cleaned for you? In the meantime, we’ll see if Jonas will come by and keep watch on your store.”

  “Dat is a good idea. Would he want to sleep in the little room in the back?” she asked.

  “We’ll ask him on our way out.” As Adam shifted his gaze to Rose, he mouthed, a little gun?

  She shuddered.

  Adam and Rose walked Sonja home. From under her bed, she pulled out a Dumoulin, double barrel, 12-gauge shotgun that hadn’t been fired in at least fifty years. It was a beautiful gun, but Adam wasn’t sure if it would shoot an attacker or blow up in Sonja’s face.

  He made sure it was unloaded then tucked it under his arm.

  Disaster averted, for the next few minutes at least.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rose accepted Irwin’s invitation for Wednesday afternoon to watch part of an all-day marathon of the original Star Trek. It had been their habit to get together about once a month to watch something mindless on the TV, but she'd been too busy with Adam to see much of her friend lately. As she walked down the hallway to his apartment, she worried he was alone too often, much like she had been before she’d run into Adam.

  Rose was determined to keep up with their television dates whenever she could, and today gave Adam time to catch up on paper work.

  Before her finger touched the bell, Irwin opened the door, as if he'd been standing on the other side waiting for her to arrive. Cans of Orange Crush were on ice and a large bowl of Skittles sat in the center of the living room table.

  "How are you?" he asked in his usual greeting. Rose hadn't intended to tell him about the problems with the restaurant. This was going to be a day away from her worries. But when she opened her mouth to say everything’s fine, her problems poured out.

  “Lillian planted roaches in the steakhouse then called the inspector, and we had to close. It’s costing Adam the rest of his money to have the exterminators come clean the whole building. I don’t know how long we’ll be shut down.”

  Irwin listened without moving. One of the nicest things about having Irwin as a friend was that he was the world's greatest listener.

  When she’d finally run down, he handed her the bowl of candy. “Help yourself.”

  Rose reached for a handful, picking out and eating the orange ones first.

  "You know, when I was a boy, I loved to play with bugs,” he said. He punched a button on the remote, and Star Wars flickered on the screen.

  Dear Irwin. He could be one of
those people who were scary smart in one part of their lives, but in the rest clueless as a newborn. As she watched Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock fill Irwin’s giant flat screen TV, she relaxed. Irwin’s presence always had a calming effect on her. They discussed the probability of humans ever traveling in space and meeting other species while they watched Scotty beam people up.

  “I’m a lot more open minded than I used to be about outer space and aliens,” Rose admitted. That seemed to make Irwin happy.

  “You never know, Rose. For centuries, people didn’t believe in quarks and now we know they’re everywhere.” Irwin gave her a rare smile, giggled then turned his attention back to the television.

  An afternoon with her friend was just what Rose needed before another show. Thoughts of the restaurant kept pulling at her attention on the drive to the station. It could take up to six long days for the health inspector to give his okay to reopen the restaurant. It was the one depressing spot out of all the work they’d done.

  She was glad when she reached the station. Working would take her mind off their troubles. The audience for Radio Rose just kept getting bigger and better. The empathy and compassion she felt for her callers attracted more and more listeners to her program. Her ratings were up, and she was selling more time to advertisers each week.

  Not that it made much difference.

  With the Steakhouse losing a week's worth of revenue, there was little chance of making a profit this month, and the deadline loomed like a pro linebacker.

  At the end of her show, Rose said her goodbyes to Irwin and put one foot in front of the other until she made it to her car. All she wanted was her bed, and she sped home soon after she signed off.

  The only light in the house was a small lamp on the table by the front door. Assuming Adam must already be asleep, she crept to her room. After slipping into bed, she fell asleep in minutes.

  Rose sat bolt upright in bed. The dream was as clear as if she’d watched it on television. "He does make sense! He does!" She ran to Adam’s room, crawled across the bed and shook him until he sat up.

  Rubbing his eyes, he squinted at her. "What are you doing awake?”

  “I just figured out what Irwin was trying to tell me. He’s not the most talkative person around, you know. He’s kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, just a jumble until you get a certain amount put together, and then his words make sense. Get dressed.” She ran down the hall to her room and grabbed the first things she could find, a pink, cropped T-shirt, black and white checked shorts and her cowboy boots.

  Spies didn’t need to be fashionistas.

  Parked half a block from the mansion, they waited, eating their way through two bags of sunflower seeds, a box of powdered sugar donuts and a thermos of coffee. The boredom paid off when they saw two boys come out and start shooting hoops in the driveway of Lillian’s neighbor.

  Adam climbed out of Miss Cool and casually started a conversation with the boys. Rose saw them shake their heads several times to Adam's questions, but when he pulled out his wallet, and the cash appeared, he got answers. He shook hands with the avaricious little buggers and came back to the car.

  "Well?” she asked.

  "They’re the bug wranglers. Lillian gave them permission to fish in the pond behind the house in exchange for the insects. Just how did Irwin figure out that Lillian got the boys to do her dirty work?”

  “Irwin didn’t say much of anything. He told me he liked to play with bugs when he was a boy. I didn’t think anything about it at the time. I mean who cares if Irwin played with insects?” Rose turned sideways in the seat, pulling one leg beneath the other knee. “The thing that kept bothering me was Lillian catching bugs. Like you said, she’s not the type. Last night I woke up and put two and two together. Boys and bugs not Lillian and bugs. Not that the knowledge will do us any good, but at least we know she’s more dangerous than we thought.”

  Adam arranged for a meeting at the restaurant with the inspector. He had the two boys from Lillian's neighborhood with him to tell their story. Several of the employees testified they’d seen Lillian in the kitchen by the pantry on the night before the discovery of the roaches.

  After the inspector finished making notes in his book, he looked at Adam. “There isn’t anything official I can do about Ms. Keeler without concrete proof. I have made a note about suspicious activity here, but I’d suggest you invest in a security system.” He packed up his bag and turned to Adam. “The exterminators are done, and my inspection came out clean. You have permission to reopen. Good luck.”

  They’d only lost three days of business, but with the short amount of time they had left, three days might well be more than they had to spare.

  With the steakhouse crisis under control as well as it could be, Adam dropped in to see what was happening at the motel.

  Stevie was manning the front desk. “Hey partner, good to see you. How’s Rose?”

  “Rose is Rose. If I'm not careful, she'll have me believing in her aliens and spaceships. Tell me things are going great here. I really need to hear some good news right about now.”

  As he talked, she opened the walkway in the counter and motioned him back to their living area. When he entered the homey room, Stevie motioned to a chair. “We’re doing better than we ever expected. How’s that for good news.”

  The first thing Adam noticed about the man sitting on the couch was his striking black hair and light blue eyes. Seated in the chair next to him was a brunette woman, elegant in cream slacks and a sky blue sweater.

  As he entered the room, the man stood.

  “Adam, this is David Walker, Mickie's boyfriend and the best carpet layer in Tullyville. He's also the only one we can afford.”

  Adam stepped forward and held out his hand. “David, meet Adam Cameron, our hero, and the new owner of the motel.”

  “It's nice to meet you, sir,” David said, holding out his hand.

  Sir? The guy couldn’t be but a year of two younger than Adam. Guess being the boss got a person a show of respect if nothing else. Adam shook hands with the man he'd only heard of until now.

  “Good to meet you, David. The girls have told me a lot about you.”

  “You’ve been a life saver for the motel,” David said. “After living here their whole lives, Stevie and Mickie hated the thought of losing it.” He looked at Stevie and smiled. “Our plan had been to build onto the last room and make an apartment for when Mickie and I get married. That was before Mr. Howell bought them out. We’ve put our plans on hold until this is settled.”

  Great, more added pressure. Another reason he couldn’t let this project fail. Adam mustered up a smile. “We’ll have to figure out how to make this work then, won't we?”

  “Adam, I’d like to introduce you to Laurie Lipton, one of our guests,” Stevie said, turning to the woman in the chair. “Laurie, as you heard, this is Adam Cameron.”

  The brunette stood with the grace of a dancer and extended her hand. “So nice to meet you.” Her voice was deep and soft.

  Adam took her hand and shook it. “Nice to m–”

  Stevie interrupted him by yelling toward the other room. “Mickie hurry up, David’s tired of waiting.” She put her hand on Adam’s shoulder and smiled. “Sorry. She's always late. I'd go out with him instead, but he can tell the difference, always could. He's about the only one except for Mom who knows which of us is which.”

  Mickie entered the room and wrapped her arm around David’s waist. They made a striking pair, David with his Celtic good looks and Mickie with her fluorescent hair and green eyes.

  Adam looked from Stevie to David. “How do you do it? If their hair wasn't different, I wouldn't know one from the other.”

  “Mickie is prettier,” he said, then without missing a beat. “But Stevie’s the organized one.”

  Stevie stuck out her tongue at David, but he just smiled and shrugged.

  “You’ve been asked this question before, haven’t you?” Adam asked, shifting his gaze from David to Ste
vie. A flash of emotion crossed her face an instant before she pasted on a smile. Was that desire . . . or longing? Maybe not. The look disappeared so quickly, he wasn’t sure it had been there at all.

  “That’s me, the organized one,” Stevie said as she grinned at David, the tone of her voice good-natured.

  “At least you aren’t called the pretty one. I’m organized, too,” Mickie punched David’s arm in mock irritation then turned to her sister.

  David’s laugh echoed around the office. “I can’t win with these two.”

  The girls moved so that one stood on each side of him. “We make a good team,” Stevie said.

  Mickie nodded in agreement then said, “Did you come here for our sparkling personalities or to find out how the motel was doing?”

  “Both.” Adam looked at the three people standing before him. Friendship and love were palpable in the room. And trust.

  “All the rooms are full,” Mickie said.

  “And we’re booked for the next month,” Stevie added.

  Adam’s smile became even wider. Happiness filled his chest. These girls were going to be able to keep their motel and the lives they loved.

  “Even better than that,” Stevie continued. “I talked to Sonja. Well, I listened to Sonja. She’s had her best week ever.”

  Adam looked from one to the other. “That’s the best news I’ve had in a long time.” A few months ago, if he’d seen them in the street with their wild hair, sporting silver rings in their eyebrows, he’d have dismissed them as kooks. That narrow-minded attitude was a legacy from his grandfather that he’d try harder to control in the future.

  “She's over the moon with excitement,” Mickie said.

  “I’m stopping by later to check out her books and see how close she is to getting into the black. If we could get her shop to break even then all I'd have to worry about was the restaurant.” He looked around the room. It was nice to have everybody pulling together. All of the owners wanted this to work as badly as he did.

  “I think you’re going to be surprised at how well the flower shop is doing,” Mickie said. “Sonja’s making bunches of money at her private appearances.”