“Hello.”
Her hushed tone carried to him, but because of the rain he couldn’t make out anything more as her footsteps receded toward the back bedroom—but it wasn’t because he didn’t try. Politically incorrect maybe, but then he’d never been accused of being a PC kind of guy. He’d seen Melody’s strained expression and heard the less than enthusiastic way she’d said hello. It had to be the same caller.
He tried to remember if he’d ever seen her with any of the local cowboys, but he didn’t think so. But his first thought was that maybe he and even the fellas down at the diner had missed something—maybe she did have a love life…and maybe there was trouble in paradise.
Again, none of his business.
Picking up the journal in front of him, he flipped it open and started reading—more like he stared at the pages. The man in him, the tried-and-true cowboy, was only thinking about the tears in her eyes earlier and the look on her face just now when the phone rang.
He was a fixer. A man of action. Sitting here doing nothing was just not cuttin’ it for him. But the woman would think he was crazy if he stormed in there and took over her phone call…
Chapter Four
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Melody said and prayed she looked fine. She certainly didn’t feel fine. She felt like such a failure. She’d just managed to tell her brother once more that he needed to get help or she couldn’t send him the money…but she knew she wouldn’t hold out much longer. The conversation had been horrible. She took a deep breath. Feeling Seth watching her closely, she was determined to appear normal. He’d already seen her crying and would think he had a basket case living out here.
“So, I see you’ve started reading,” she said, not only trying to change the subject but needing very much something else to focus on. The way he was studying her, with eyes that said he saw more than she was comfortable with him seeing, made her all the more determined to appear natural. It was a trait she’d learned growing up when Ty was making home life horrible and her parents expected her to act in public as if everything was just fine.
It was only that Seth looked concerned for her, and it touched her.
But she wasn’t used to dragging her family matters out into the open. The fact that he’d seen tears in her eyes earlier couldn’t be helped, but she didn’t have to explain herself—not that it wouldn’t be nice to have someone to talk to sometimes.
No—she was crazy to even consider talking to Seth. Shoving everything aside, she resumed reading where she’d left off and felt relief when Seth did the same.
“So, tell me why you suddenly got this idea to do all this research,” he said a heartbeat later.
She looked up. “I’m a history buff, as I’m sure you’ve figured out,” she said, grateful for the question. “And I’ve been teaching Texas history for the last three years. That combined with the fact that I didn’t have anything to do for the summer…I came up with this idea to do research. I mean, I was living where all this unrecovered treasure is supposed to be buried. Of course, I had no idea this treasure—” she swept her hand to indicate the house “—was sitting out here until I started researching Hill Country stage stops.” Melody was surprised how easy it was to talk to Seth. She was still a little uncomfortable around him, but the fact that he’d come here today interested in her work had gone a long way in easing that tension. Odd, though, since he’d seen her tears.
“So that’s when you called my brother,” Seth said, his voice a low drawl.
“No. Technically I called you. And believe me it took more guts than—” What was she saying? Her thoughts were crazy.
“Guts, huh? So you thought I was a bully before I drove out here and acted like one.”
“No.” How could she tell him she didn’t want to call because he was Seth Turner? The man was “sweet” as her students would say. Not “sweet” as in nice, but “sweet” as in “sweet to look at.” On the other hand, with his dark hair, lean angular features and smolderingly intense eyes, “sweet” might not be the right term. The small scar at his temple only added a bit of danger.
“No?” He raised a brow.
Was he upset? “I didn’t know you were a bully—” Oh, what was she saying? “Oh, goodness, that’s not what I meant.”
His eyes crinkled, and he started to chuckle. Which made her laugh because he was laughing and suddenly everything seemed surreal and unbelievable. She, Melody Chandler, was sharing this moment with Seth Turner…and she liked him. There was just no way not to. “I meant I’m just shy. Okay. Calling you up took guts.”
“Oh, it did, did it?” He leaned back in his chair, hooking a arm over the back of the chair.
He looked totally relaxed and completely wonderful. Her mouth went dry. “For me,” she croaked. “Because it was me being assertive.”
“Now that I can believe.” His gaze settled on her fingers where she was unconsciously still rubbing the leather corner of the journal.
Melody’s insides went soft—er when he looked at her with a flirtatious light in his eyes…no, phooey. That was total nonsense on her part. If the look could happen to be misconstrued as flirtatious, it was simply out of total sympathy. The man knew she’d been having some kind of trouble; he was just too much of a gentleman to be nosy! She was getting sympathy smiles. Humiliating, yes, but today she was taking diversion any way she could get it!
Seth was getting off course a bit. He was here to study history, not Melody. “So you’ve shelved your own research for now and are zeroing in on these?”
“I’m doing both—Jane’s journals could hold the clues I need in my research. My main interest is with all these millions of dollars supposedly hidden across Texas. I mean, the very idea is startling. But when you think about how easy it would be for someone to have come across hidden money years ago and it never got accounted for—I can’t help but feel that the amount is off base. Especially where Sam Bass is concerned—the outlaw’s fame has just been stretched to the hilt.”
“And why is that?” Seth asked, holding back on telling her again that her interest in the money was where their problems began. But she mystified him. Again, talking about the treasure, she was blossoming right before his very eyes.
She sat up straight, energy flowing from her. “Accounts of his success and failure don’t match up. And since many of his escapades happened in this area of Texas, I thought it would be fun to try and match some of the fiction with fact. That’s why I’m so excited about these journals. I’ve realized that they may hold the key. If indeed he did rob one of these stagecoaches, if Jane wrote about it, then it very well could be a story that could expose new light on one of the questionable stories.”
The fire was back. He found himself almost caught up in her enthusiasm. “Going through the journals might get in the way. Might slow you down if there doesn’t happen to be anything like that in them.”
“Oh, no! No. They’re remarkable. Actually, I can’t stop reading them. They’re fascinating. And did you know that someone in your family started studying them? I found a couple of notes between the pages.”
“I know my mom and all the grandmothers have read them.”
“If so, I just don’t understand. I mean, Jane has a beautiful way with words. I would think they would have realized the value of what you have here and would want to share these…” Her voice trailed off and her gaze sharpened as she searched his. He looked away—the classic sign that he was hiding something.
“Ahh,” she said. “I get it. You aren’t the first male Turner who didn’t want outsiders getting their eyes on these!”
He looked back at her unapologetically. “My dad and grandfathers shared my love of the peaceful life. My mom and grandmothers understood.”
“That’s just wrong.”
“To you. Not to me and my family.”
She frowned. “You make me want to read the journals as quickly as possible with all this secrecy. What is in these journals that y
’all don’t want to get out?”
It was his turn to frown.
She tapped the table with her index finger, thinking. “It couldn’t be a horrible family secret in them because if there was, then the women of the family would have had a problem with showing them, too.”
He kept his mouth shut. She scooted to the edge of her seat, looking like a cat about to pounce as she tried to come up with her own answers. Her eyes were alive, and he could see her mind working double-time. He’d already mentioned his grandpa Oakley’s love of a good campfire tale to her. Watching her, he found himself almost tempted to tell her about granddad’s favorite of all tall tales. But that was suicide—
“What is it that you’re not telling me?”
Her point-blank question caused a knee-jerk laugh from him. “Woman, where did you come from?”
Her heart-shaped mouth curved up on one side and, like she’d been doing, she surprised him with a quick comeback. “Katy, Texas.”
He grinned—couldn’t help it. “You know what I mean. Here I thought you were a mouse of a woman, and you’re really a tiger when you find something you want.”
Her smile faded instantly and her vibrant violet eyes dulled—instantly he knew he’d said something wrong.
“Hold on, I’m sorry,” he said. “That didn’t come out right.”
She took a deep breath and picked up a pair of dark-purple reading glasses. “No need to apologize,” she said, settling the glasses firmly in place like a barrier between them. “We all have more than one side to us.”
There was a chill in her words as she blinked accusingly at him from behind her glasses. He was a jerk, she said without words—but he heard her loud and clear.
The man called her a mouse!
The comment stung so badly that Melody couldn’t look at him and looked instead to the journal. So she was shy. So she didn’t stand up for herself very well…something she’d actually done yesterday with him and on the phone with Ty just now, too, after a fashion. Still, that didn’t matter—the cowboy needed better manners. A man didn’t go around calling a woman a mouse…even if he was complimenting her in a strange sort of way. Nobody had to tell her she was a mouse! She knew it better than anyone.
The clock in the room ticked the seconds by as she pretended to study the journal in front of her. She had found herself enjoying the banter. It was so totally not her that it had been refreshing. And it had been such a welcome distraction from her troubles with Ty.
So much so that she’d almost forgotten that no way in the world was Seth Turner flirting with her…and she hadn’t been flirting with him either. Had she? How embarrassing.
She blinked and stared at the page harder. Why didn’t he just go home and let her work? She’d had a bad morning, her equilibrium was off, obviously—that explained her uncharacteristic behavior where Seth was concerned. But now would be a perfect time for him to leave.
Only now, she seemed to have reverted back to mousehood and didn’t feel comfortable asking him to go.
But she was going to. She was going to make herself or else. “You—”
“You know,” he said at the same time. “Sorry, you go ahead.”
“No. That’s okay. You go.”
“I’m expecting a load of cattle to be delivered, so I’m going to go and get out of your hair. I didn’t mean to insult you. I’ve enjoyed this talk.”
He stood and she did, too. “You didn’t hurt my feelings. Really. It has been a bit of a stressful day for me. Sorry if I acted badly.” It was true, and there was no pretending that he didn’t know something was going on with the phone.
“You don’t have any reason to apologize. Look,” he said, but halted as if he’d lost his train of thought as he stared at her.
And why not, because she was crazy. His simple denial that she didn’t have anything to apologize for had her blinking hard against tears and there was no way he couldn’t tell it! He probably thought something was mentally wrong with her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded but couldn’t look at him. He touched her arm, and she couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath from his unexpected touch. Her gaze flew as sharply to meet his. “You are welcome to stop by anytime,” she blurted and stepped away.
“Thanks,” he said, turned on his boot and was gone.
Melody followed him to the door and watched as he jogged through the rain that was turning from a light downpour into a torrential mess…Melody actually welcomed the storm.
She closed the front door and went to the kitchen and started cooking brownies. There were many things in life she couldn’t understand or control but brownies she knew.
Chapter Five
Seth hadn’t lied about cattle arriving. “Hey, Dan,” he shouted over the thunder. “Sorry I’m late.” He’d pulled his oilskin duster from beneath the seat and tugged it on as he stomped through the water washing across the rock drive. Dan, his good friend and neighbor, hauled cattle for a living—he was also the local horseshoer and raised his own herd, too.
“No problem,” he said. He’d backed his large hauler up to the corral and was opening the gate. “You know I don’t actually need you out here in this. No sense both of us getting soaked.”
“I know.” Seth tugged his collar up against the driving rain and stood out of the way. Dan knew what he was doing and often when he arrived from a long haul unloaded by himself. But there was always the chance that something could go wrong, and it didn’t take but one slipup and even the most experienced of cowboys could get slammed or stomped. “How’s Ashby feeling?” Seth asked. The cattle began unloading, and Dan came to stand beside him.
“She’s the happiest pregnant woman I’ve ever seen. Even when she was throwing her guts up the woman was smiling.” He chuckled. “She wanted a baby so bad even being so sick isn’t fazing her. Beats all I ever saw. She’s special. You need to find you a good woman. I’m telling you, especially on a night like tonight…” he didn’t finish but his happy expression said everything that needed to be said.
“I guess I’ll just have to settle for a hot cup of coffee and the news.”
“Man, you gotta get a life.”
“I thought you were saying I needed a wife.”
“Hey, bro. It’s the same thing.”
“We aren’t all as lucky in love as you, my man.”
Dan hiked a dark brow and let all his pearly whites shine through the rain. “Now didn’t you learn nothin’ from watching me chase that poor woman down until she had no choice but to agree to marry my sorry hide? Luck had nothing to do with it. Oh, no. It was pure, hard-nosed determination on my part, and the good Lord taking pity on me, that got that little woman to give me the time of day, much less to marry me.”
“Yeah, I know that’s the truth.” Seth chuckled.
Dan headed off to pull the gate closed behind the herd. The cocky cowboy was one of the best-natured and most good-hearted cowboys Seth had ever met. And he spoke the truth about how hard he’d worked to get his wife to even give him a second glance. Seth wondered how that would feel. He dated. He even thought he was serious a time or two, but in the end things just fizzled and he’d been okay with that by that point. He hadn’t had a date in six months. Maybe that was why he’d suddenly gotten this unexpected attraction to his new tenant.
Melody had slept amazingly well. Storms always seemed to work like a lullaby for her. For as long as she could remember, her last thought before she went to bed at night was of Ty. And her first waking thought was of him. She said her prayer for him automatically as she climbed out of bed and headed for her morning coffee. It was a new day. If she continued saying no to the money he asked for, he very well could be evicted. She knew he’d been lying to her for several months, and the money she’d believed he was using to pay his rent and utilities had actually gone to pay for his drug habit.
He was ruled by his addictions and didn’t care an ounce if she went into debt to pay for his drug habit so
long as he still got his fix. She’d been horrified when her parents had been killed in the car accident. That had been compounded by her discovery that they’d died deeply in debt from money they’d borrowed against their home and credit cards. And all the money had gone to fund Ty’s lifestyle.
Enough!
She finished her coffee and headed to get ready for the day. She was throwing herself into her work today. To say she’d been distracted the day before was an understatement. Today, hopefully, there would be none of that.
She was disappointed by noon when she’d found nothing about stagecoach robberies in the three journals she was reading. As fascinating as the writing was, she was disappointed as she went back to the chest. She was on her knees reaching into the chest for the last two journals when a board inside the very back corner of the closet caught her attention. It was crooked slightly, and from where she was sitting on the floor it looked like it wasn’t nailed. Abandoning the chest, she scooted inside the closet and ran her fingers over the board. It moved.
But didn’t come out of its slot. Curious, she went to the kitchen and got a butter knife. Returning to the closet she dropped to her knees and inserted the tip of the knife into the crack and pried. Instantly the short board popped from the wall, exposing a small space between the closet wall and the kitchen wall behind it. And inside the cavity was a leather-bound journal.
Seth was coming out of his barn carrying a chainsaw when Melody’s car came careening dangerously over his cattle guard.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, hurrying to the car and yanking open the door.
She stumbled out in an instant clutching one of the journals against her. “Y-you aren’t going to believe this! I found a map!”
Seth caught her as she almost tripped over her feet. Her face was lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Her eyes glowed, and her smile was so explosive that Seth didn’t catch what she was saying at first. “A what?”
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