RAINBOW’S END: FOUR-IN-ONE COLLECTION

by Valerie Comer, Annalisa Daughety, Nicole O’Dell

  When he turned back to the kitchen, Dale sat leaning against the table, head in his arms. “You okay, man?”

  Didn’t look like it. Dale’s shoulders shook as he choked out, “Why did God let Debbie die?”

  Like Kirk was the God expert in this family. That had been Debbie’s thing. He’d thought it was also his brother’s, until a few days ago. If only Dale could have this conversation with Lyssa. She went to church. She could probably help him.

  “I shouldn’t have moved here. I’ve left everything of her behind.”

  Which had been the point, to give Dale a fresh start. “It’ll be okay. It takes time.”

  “I just want her back. What did I do to make God hate me?”

  Whoa. Once Kirk would have said God was just a figment of folks’ imaginations. After Debbie, he wasn’t so sure. And Lyssa. “Hate‘s a mighty strong word.”

  “I loved her. We had so many plans. She wanted to travel, and I was too busy. She wanted to have kids years ago, and I just wasn’t ready until it was too late.”

  “You have to let go.” Kirk pulled the container of beef patties out of the fridge. “We all have regrets, but it’s best not to dwell on them.” At least not sink oneself into them, not that he truly understood the depths of his brother’s despair. He’d only begun to woo Lyssa when the lid had snapped on his fingers. Thanks to Dale.

  “You?” Dale’s harsh laugh echoed around the apartment. “What have you done that you regretted?”

  He didn’t want to go there. Kirk gave his head a quick shake to clear it. “Trust me, there’s been plenty.” He strode out to the barbecue, slapped the patties on, and headed back into the kitchen.

  Dale narrowed his gaze at Kirk. “You were Mom’s golden boy.”

  “Good grief, don’t drag up ancient history. Get the condiments and rolls out, please. Have you seen the long-handled spatula?”

  “Third drawer.” “Thanks.”

  Dale followed him to the balcony. “Seriously. What did you ever do that you regretted more than a day or two?”

  The burgers weren’t ready to flip. Kirk studied Dale leaning against the doorjamb. Could either of them handle this discussion? He took a deep breath. “I’m not so proud of the way I’ve poked fun of people’s beliefs.” Dale snorted. “Get real.”

  “I am.”

  “Debbie was really into that religion thing. She believed right down to her toenails.”

  Kirk nodded and checked the meat again. Lyssa hadn’t seemed to want to talk about her faith when he’d tried to steer the conversation there. Didn’t mean she wasn’t as into it as Debbie had been. Did it?

  “You never hassled her. Man, you never hassled me either, when I went to church with her.”

  True. Kirk hadn’t been an equal-opportunity troublemaker. “I didn’t want to wreck what you guys had. Besides, Debbie was for real.” Maybe those students in humanities had been real, too. Who knew?

  “Yeah, she was. God should’ve left her alone. Left us alone. At least if He cared about me, He would have. I was thinking seriously about that stuff and then whap!” Dale thwacked the glass door. “The end.”

  Kirk flipped the burgers. “Debbie wasn’t bitter.” The joy she’d had even in the midst of cancer had done a lot to challenge his views on Christianity. She’d had strength from within, even as her body faded.

  Dale pulled away from the jamb. “She left the bitterness for me.”

  Kirk glanced at his brother. “I don’t think it’s one of those things where somebody has to take the role.” He took a deep breath. “Have you tried reaching for her peace instead of rejecting it?” If Dale figured out how to do that, maybe he could help Kirk. They could both use peace with God.

  Silence hung between them for a moment. “Since when are you the expert? Good thing I saved you from yourself with that church girl. Next thing I’d know, you’d be preaching on street corners like that bozo in Jefferson City.”

  “You saved me? Good one, Dale. You found happiness with a Christian. Why couldn’t I? What gives you the right to blast my chances to smithereens?”

  Dale leaned closer. “Because I own controlling shares in the business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for your input. Just don’t try to run things.”

  “That had nothing to do with it. Just because you lost Debbie doesn’t mean I shouldn’t fall in love.” Because that’s what he’d been doing. Falling for a girl with gorgeous eyes. “Not trying to hurt you, man, but don’t interfere with my life.” If only Lyssa would pick up his calls.

  “Don’t burn the burgers. I’ll go set the table.” Dale stormed back inside.

  Chapter 8

  Kirk glanced out the front window of Communication Location for the hundredth time since they’d unlocked the doors at nine o’clock. Balloons and streamers fluttered from a sandwich board on the sidewalk announcing the grand opening. Inside, dozens of customers milled around the shop, examining the merchandise and indulging in doughnuts and coffee.

  His throat caught. A woman stood with her back to him, her brown hair swinging across her shoulders as she turned over a package of headphones. Could that be Lyssa? Kirk rounded the end of the counter.

  “Excuse me, can you answer some questions about these GPS units?”

  Kirk glanced at the group in front of him then back at the woman. He bit back a sigh. “Sure. What do you want to know?” Business before pleasure.

  “Colton here wants to know why this one costs so much more than the other one,” the younger man said.

  The young woman with the two guys rolled her eyes and stepped back, caressing the camera hanging around her neck.

  She was cute, but not like Lyssa. Kirk glanced at the woman across the store, still with her back to him.

  These guys looked like an easy upsell, especially with the coupon, and Kirk needed to prove to Dale that throwing in their lot with the church program had been a good idea. He turned to the task of explaining the merits of the two units the guys had set on the counter. A few minutes later he closed the deal on the more expensive one, and the girl raised her camera to record the moment.

  “Oh, come on, Reagan. Do you have to take photos of everything?” the younger man complained, leading the way out the door.

  Kirk headed across the store just as the brown-haired woman turned. He ground to a halt.

  Definitely not Lyssa. But she knew their grand opening began today. She’d come, wouldn’t she? Just to check things out? No guarantees, of course. Not after all those phone calls she hadn’t picked up. Didn’t she think she owed him some sort of explanation after the chemistry they’d shared? She’d felt it, too. Her eyes had revealed her emotions, even while she pulled away from him.

  The woman approached the counter, headphones in hand, and Dale stepped in to ring her purchase through.

  A fresh breeze wafted across the small community park next to the church, making the muggy June Saturday bearable. Lyssa stood under a hickory tree beside the registration table. Genius of Noah to run the launch outside. People of all ages streamed into the area they’d cordoned off, from elderly men to groups of teens to families with small kids.

  And Kirk.

  She tried to drag her gaze away but didn’t manage before he saw her. What was he doing here? Lyssa focused on straightening bags of trail mix on the table, willing him to walk on by.

  “Lyssa?”

  He hadn’t gone past. But—to be fair—he also hadn’t followed through pulling the sponsorship. He’d talked his brother into staying the course for whatever reason. Jeannie kept telling Lyssa what a close call she’d had, that he’d let his true colors show through for just long enough to remind her of them.

  His grin faltered. “I’m sorry I missed you the other day.”

  The other day? That had been over a week ago. Of course he’d called since, but she’d resisted the impulse to accept his calls, instead listening to his recorded voice after each one. Not that she could explain it to him. She lifted a shoulder noncommitt
ally. “All’s well that ends well.”

  Lyssa tried to look past him, maybe reel somebody else in with her eyes. Someone who might want questions answered about the hunt, for example. Even a kid searching for his parents would be a nice change. But no one showed any signs of interest in her as they chatted in little groups of their own, carrying collapsible lawn chairs and drifting closer to the bandstand where Noah tested his equipment.

  “We had a good opening week.”

  Lyssa’s eyes flew back to meet Kirk’s. “That’s nice.”

  He stepped closer. “I’m really sorry about what happened. My brother has had some difficulty adjusting to his wife’s death. He—I can’t predict how he’s going to react to things these days.” His blue eyes bored into hers.

  “I’m sorry, too.” Sorry she’d trusted him, for starters. “It was simply too late to do anything about it.” Too late to do anything about her heart, too. It pounded erratically whenever Kirk was near. She’d get over it, though. She had to. “I convinced him of that.”

  Lyssa managed some sort of smile. “I appreciate it. I hope the treasure hunt draws a lot of people into the store so he’ll be happy with the results.”

  “So far, I’d say that’s happening. I see quite a few people here who picked up brochures from Communication Location.” He poked his chin toward a table right at the park gate. “And I’m ready to do more business this afternoon when the kickoff closes.”

  “That’s awesome.” Too bad she couldn’t get any enthusiasm into her voice. “Oh, look. I think Noah’s about ready to open the rally.” She turned away from Kirk and pretended to focus on the bandstand, but her whole body seemed magnetically drawn to him. Good thing the table stood between them, or she might make a fool of herself.

  “Welcome to Rainbow’s End Treasure Hunt!” Noah’s voice boomed across the sound system. “Find a place to set your chair, and let’s get started.”

  There must have been a few hundred people milling around the small park. Even though they’d planned for this many, Lyssa hadn’t believed it would happen. But maybe they hadn’t planned for enough. Maybe she’d run out of registration packets. Maybe—

  “Lyssa? I’m sorry this thing with my brother came between us when we’d just started to connect with each other. Can we talk over dinner, maybe tonight?”

  She lurched around to face Kirk. Opened her mouth and closed it again. Anything she said now could be setting herself up for further pain. Better not to give any hope—for him or for herself.

  “I don’t think so. It’s best to leave things the way they are.” Lyssa tried to stare him down, like she didn’t care, but she felt as if any second she’d dissolve in tears or throw herself into his arms. She clenched the table’s plastic edge to prevent that from happening then turned her back to him. Hopefully, he couldn’t see her tremble.

  “You just plug the handheld into your computer with the USB connection, like this.” Kirk lifted his own GPS unit and fitted the cord into it. Good thing he’d come to the rally prepared. Also a good thing the church’s wi-fi stretched this far.

  He glanced at Lyssa across the stream of people leaving the park. Her hands flew as she talked to someone; then she smiled brightly and passed over a brochure.

  Once, briefly, Kirk had been privy to that smile. His heart sank. Not anymore, and he barely knew what he’d done wrong. This couldn’t all be about Dale and the sponsorship.

  Lyssa’s gaze met his. Time suspended for a second or two. Then she hitched her shoulder slightly, turned away from Kirk, and reengaged the African American gal beside her.

  “Then what?” the young woman in front of him asked.

  Right, he was helping these two gals. They looked so much alike they must be sisters, even though one was dressed for the trail and the other for the outlet mall. “Okay, so it’s plugged in. Then you need to log into the website—if you haven’t created an account, you’ll need one. Free and easy. Then enter our zip code, and scout through the resulting caches until you find one or several you’d like to try for.” Kirk glanced at the woman in front of him. “With me so far?”

  She nodded, focused on the laptop screen, but her sister hung back.

  He shot a glance at Lyssa, but she was busy.

  Back to his demonstration. “Now, if you have a paid membership on the website instead of a free one, you click here to transfer the information to your handheld.” He waited for the download to complete then removed the unit from the cord. “If you go with the free membership, you can see all the waypoints online but will need to enter them into your unit manually. It’s not that big a deal.”

  “Good. Madison and I want to make sure we like treasure hunting before committing more money to it.”

  Madison rolled her eyes and fiddled with her purse strap.

  Kirk bit back a grin. The amount of the membership was peanuts compared to the unit they’d bought from him the day before. “Now, when you’re out on the trail, you’ll have the lats and longs of your position—you know what those are, don’t you?”

  The sporty sister nodded. “Latitude and longitude. Those imaginary lines they draw around globes in school. Remember, Maddie?”

  Madison hitched a shoulder.

  Close enough. “Right. So you have those, plus the coordinates of the cache’s location. Your unit will let you know when you’re getting close.”

  “Oh, that sounds cool.” The girl grinned at him. “And then you find the treasure.”

  Kirk laughed. “Not quite that easy.” He tilted the unit for her to see the poem Lyssa had written for the first cache he’d found … with a lot of help from her. “Here’s an example of a clue to help you find a cache once you’re out there.”

  She frowned. “Is that supposed to make sense?”

  Kirk couldn’t help shooting a look across the park, but Lyssa wasn’t watching him. “It does when you’re at the correct coordinates.” “Okaaaay.”

  Kirk handed her a brochure. “This gives you the details of how to log on to the Rainbow’s End website and what to do at each cache so it will count for the treasure hunt. Good luck to you.”

  “Thanks! We’ll have a lot of fun with this. Won’t we, Maddie?” The girl grabbed her sister’s arm and hauled her away, waving the GPS unit around.

  Best wishes to those two.

  The crowd had thinned out by that time. Lyssa finished up with a middle-aged man while her dark-skinned friend stacked brochures into a carton. The girl said something to Lyssa, and then her gaze passed Lyssa and landed on Kirk. She froze for an instant before turning her back.

  Kirk frowned. Lyssa must have said something about him to her friend to make her swivel away, but what? The staring-at-a-train-wreck look on the woman’s face bothered him. He’d seen that expression before. Seen her before.

  Where?

  “You’re right, it’s him,” Jeannie hissed under her breath.

  Lyssa refused to look up. He’d caught her eye too many times today already for her comfort. “Like I would lie.”

  “Yeah, sorry.” Jeannie popped the cardboard tabs shut on the box. “Still, I hoped you were wrong. After all, you went on a date with the guy.”

  More than one, if she counted the hikes. “Look, can we just get out of here? Noah’s team will get the tables and chairs later.

  If he’d quit staring at that brunette over there. Good grief.”

  Jeannie didn’t spare a glance for Noah. “Professor Kennedy is packing up to leave, too. If we go now, we can’t avoid him.”

  He wasn’t very avoidable at the best of times. “Kirk.”

  “Kirk?”

  Lyssa gave her head a shake. “He’s not Professor Kennedy. Not here. Not now.”

  Jeannie narrowed her eyes. “You’d better remember him as the obnoxious professor who hung you out to dry this past week, not the cute romantic guy you had no business going out with, or you’ll be in trouble.”

  Too late.

  “Lys, you’re sure he doesn’t know who y
ou are?” “Not a chance.”

  “Uh oh,” Jeannie muttered, so low Lyssa barely heard her. She glanced up.

  Kirk stood mere inches from her elbow, looking from her to Jeannie and back again.

  Kirk shifted the briefcase to his left hand and held out his right. “Hi, I’m Kirk Kennedy, but I’ve a feeling we’ve already met.” He kept his focus on Lyssa’s friend, but the awareness of Lyssa right there nearly did him in. His mind reeled from overhearing that statement of her friend’s. Know Lyssa from where?

  “Jeannie Dawson. Nice to meet you,” the girl said crisply then turned a shoulder toward him. “Ready to go, Lys?”

  Kirk dropped his hand back to his side.

  Lyssa glanced from her friend to Kirk, biting her lip. She picked up a canvas bag full of trail mix packages and her ever-present pocket folder, hugging it close.

  Was his smile as frozen as it felt to him? “Lyssa? Can we talk a minute?”

  Jeannie wedged the box against her right hip and tucked her left arm through Lyssa’s.

  “Here, let me carry that.” Without waiting for a response, Kirk plucked the box from Jeannie. “Where are you parked?” At least he’d bought a bit of time. Maybe time to figure out what had gone wrong and how he could make things right.

  Jeannie humphed, but Lyssa pointed at the parking lot. “Far end.”

  Didn’t look like Lyssa’s friend was going to give them privacy, and if Kirk’s sharpening memories of his first year of teaching were accurate, he might finally have a clue why. He fell into step beside Lyssa, only to discover Jeannie had swapped spots with her. Should he openly challenge her friend’s obvious ploy? But he’d been here with Jeannie before, or somewhere similar. She hadn’t backed down then.

  And she wasn’t going to start today. “So, Professor Kennedy from Lincoln University. What brings you to Osage Beach?”

  His hunch of where he’d seen her had been correct, but that didn’t mean he needed to be as hostile as she was. Besides, she had a right to ask. “Helping my brother open a business.”