Southern Secrets

by Shelley Stringer

  Everett cleared his throat impatiently, bringing me back to our conversation.

  “John decided that we looked so happy yesterday, he collected Brie after the reception, flew to Vegas, and got married. Ty called us this afternoon to tell us, and to let us know he and Constance are babysitting Beau. Banton tried to call John, but all he got back was a text that said “Busy…”

  “Bebe, you just made my day. I’ve got to do some thinking and plotting, so bye for now…oh, and take care of those babies! Tell lover-boy to kiss the baby-bump for me!”

  “I will. Love you Ev…Bye.” I flipped my cell shut as Banton held the door to the garage open for me.

  Chapter Four

  “So how did Everett take the news?” Banton asked, pulling out of the garage and down the driveway.

  “As you would expect. He’s ticked off, and he’s already plotting. He said I made his day with my phone call.”

  “Ev’s a funny guy. There’s no telling what he’ll do now. Probably have some sort of welcome home party to surprise them with.”

  “Oh, and he said to be sure and tell you to kiss the baby-bump for him.”

  “I’ll be sure to take care of that one.” He reached over and placed his hand on my abdomen.

  “Shouldn’t there be snow piled everywhere? How did we get out of the driveway?” I asked, looking around in the darkness.

  “Snow shovels. I heard the maintenance crew this afternoon while we were napping.”

  “I want to talk to you about that.” I turned in my seat and looked at his profile in the dark.

  “What, about the snow?” He smiled over at me.

  “The sleep thing. You can’t always watch over me while I sleep. The stress is beginning to show on your face – dark circles under your eyes. The way we wrap around each other in sleep, you’ll wake if I even twitch. You have to sleep, Banton.”

  “Okay, okay. I promise. Besides, you haven’t had a bad dream since Christmas Eve. I’ve been afraid to say anything, but maybe he’s given up,” he said, squeezing my hand as he rounded a curve in the road.

  “Or maybe, I’m so happy…he can’t even enter my dreams anymore. I can hope!” I leaned over and kissed his cheek.

  “Shit, watch out…” He yelled, pressing his brakes and swerving around something large in the bend of the road. I grabbed the armrests and braced for an impact. He instinctively threw his arm across me as he righted the car, passing the massive object. I could make out a mangle of antlers and hair through the blur of snow.

  “Someone hit a large buck.” He let out the breath he’d been holding and began to relax his hold on the steering wheel. “Chandler, are you all right?” he asked, slowing the car down to a crawl.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Gosh, I’m glad you were driving, I would have flipped us for sure.” I rubbed his arm as he glanced in his rear-view mirror.

  “Be sure to remind me to have them report it when we get to the restaurant. We don’t want someone else to hit it.”

  “I hope that wasn’t our deer,” I lamented, glancing back.

  “What do you mean our deer?”

  “While you were sleeping today after I got breakfast ready, I was looking out the windows at the view of the mountains. A huge buck came into the clearing and just stood there as if he was staring at me. Then he smelled something and bolted back into the tree line. I don’t know what startled him, but he was beautiful. He came right up to the deck. I’ve never seen one up close before.”

  “It probably wasn’t the same deer. They are everywhere up here. Maybe we’ll see ours again.” He smiled reassuringly, raising our clasped hands to place a kiss on the back of mine.

  After we’d dined on rare steaks, we walked slowly down the main street in town and did a little window shopping.

  “We’ll come back another day. You’ll want to get something to remember our trip…maybe a fur rug?” He asked as we passed a mountain gear-type store with sheepskin rugs in the front window.

  “Now, I might just take you up on that one.”

  I paused to kiss him.

  “So what do you want to do tomorrow?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ve got the feeling you’re not going to let me ski,” I answered disappointedly, trying my best pout. Tracing his thumb across my bottom lip, he shook his head, his dimple deepening.

  “Well, I’ve been thinking. Have you ever skied before?” he asked, taking my hand and led me back toward the car.

  “A few times – ski trips with church groups in high school. And I went with Constance and her family once.”

  “Well then, if you promise me to be careful I will take you on the bunny slopes only. We’ll see how it goes.” He playfully swatted my rear as he helped me into the car.

  While I was waiting for him to walk back around to his side, I noticed a man walking toward us on the sidewalk. He walked with an animalistic, stalking gait, seeming highly agitated. When he got almost even with our car, he darted between two stores down an alley.

  “Did you see that man?” I asked.

  “No, what man?”

  “He’s gone now. He was just walking kind of strangely and then he disappeared between those buildings. It’s funny, but he reminded me of something, the way he moved.”

  “Is something wrong? Andie?” Banton waved his hand in front of my face to get my attention.

  “No. I guess it was nothing. Let’s go,” I replied as he pulled back into traffic.

  * * *

  “How come there is always a mysterious fire going? I haven’t seen you build one yet,” I observed, wandering around the massive living room.

  “Cleaning crew. I text them instructions, and tell them when to come so they don’t disturb us.”

  “That’s convenient. So, what do you want to do now?”

  “Andie, will you be all right for just a minute? I want to go back up the road and check something,” he said, gazing out the front window.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, I just want to check on something, that’s all. Will you be all right alone?” he asked, pulling me to him and kissing the top of my head.

  “Sure. Don’t be too long, though. I noticed the hot tub out on the deck, and it’s on and everything.”

  “You won’t even know I’m gone.” He grabbed his parka and opened the door. “Lock this behind me.”

  I turned the bolt on the door and watched him stride up the road away from the cabin. I wondered where he could possibly be going, and then it dawned on me--the deer had been moved over to the side of the road when we’d made our trip back. It couldn’t have been more than a quarter mile up the road. It was just male curiosity, I was sure.

  I decided to go and see if Everett had packed any swimsuits for me in anticipation of a hot tub in the middle of all this snow. I hoped so; it was one thing to undress in front of Banton in the dark, under the covers or the firelight. It was something else entirely to go skinny-dipping with him, with the deck all lit up. I decided the grey lingerie I put on under my dress would do if I didn’t have a bathing suit. I rummaged through my suitcase in our bedroom, and finally found what I was looking for. It was T-I-N-Y. The word tiny would have covered me better. I slipped out of my clothes, pulled the top on, and then went to look at it in the bathroom mirror. It was white crochet and left nothing to the imagination. The top did have underwire and fit me like my push-up bra. The top is flattering, I thought. The bottoms, however, dipped so low in the front I thought I would have to shave what I had left of the neverlands. I blushed when I thought about the little waxing session Everett had insisted on. The attendant who helped me had waxed everything but what she called a “landing strip.”

  I stared at the bottom half of the bikini as I held it up in the mirror. It had tiny strings across my hipbones and then met in the back – I had thong underwear that covered more. Everett thought I’d wear this? The thought was embarrassing. Now I wish I’d waxed everything.

  After I’d slipped the bottoms on, I cont
emplated the non-existent swimsuit, turning to look at it in the back. This was something I’d have to pack away after this trip, because one more month of pregnancy and this strip of fabric would get lost.

  The sound of footsteps on the front deck hurried me.

  “Show time!” I said, pulling a white satin robe from the closet to cover myself. I bounded down the stairs to find the room empty. Banton hadn’t come in yet. I figured he was still stamping snow off his boots outside. Flipping the lock on the door, I swung it open.

  “Banton?” I called out into the darkness. The air outside was freezing, and he was nowhere in sight. I slammed the door hurriedly and flipped the lock back. Then I heard a noise in the kitchen.

  “Banton! Are you in there?” He must have come on in the house without my hearing him, I thought. I rounded the corner by the back of the stairs to go into the kitchen. A movement reflected in the windows across the back of the room caught my attention. I turned, but no one was in the room. I was alone. The inevitable chill bumps formed on my arms.

  I walked around the kitchen looking to see what could have possibly made the noise I heard, but I found nothing out of the ordinary. Then I heard a loud “snap, pop!” behind me. I whirled as a large log fell into the fireplace, sending a shower of cinders up the chimney.

  I relaxed. That must have been what I heard the first time, but I could have sworn I heard his boots on the front porch. I wandered back over to the sofa and sat down and put my feet up under me. Picking the remote up off the coffee table, I flipped on the massive flat screen TV hanging over the fireplace. Maybe if the TV’s on I’ll quit hearing noises, I thought, flipping through channels. I checked my watch-- he’d been gone for thirty minutes, and I began to worry. I settled on a Discovery channel special about mysterious animals in the Ozarks. Staring at the screen for several minutes, I realized I had no idea what I was watching, I wasn’t paying attention. I glanced back at the front door, and the hair stood up on the back of my neck…someone was behind me.

  A quick look around, and my eyes zeroed in on a man with a ski-mask on the back deck, his face pressed against the glass. He glared at me with intensely green eyes. It took a minute for my eyes to focus, to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. A flashback to the bathroom incident back home made my heart stop. It would do no good to scream, no one would hear. I calmly looked at the back door; the deadbolt was locked. I stood up from the sofa, and deliberately grabbed my cell phone, about to dial nine-one-one. When I looked back at the window after I’d dialed, he was no longer there. I whirled around at the sound of boots on the front porch.

  “Go Away! I’m calling the police!” I screamed at the door, just as I heard the connection on the phone. The dispatcher answered, “Nine-one-one Emergency…”

  “Yes. This is Chandler Col…Gastaneau,” I corrected myself. “We are guests in the ridgeline cabin just north of the resort. There is an intruder outside my cabin, can you send someone?”

  “Yes, stay on the line with me please,” I could hear her dispatching someone in the background. My heart pounded so hard my chest ached. Watching the front door, I could hear keys and the latch turning, and Banton burst through the door.

  “Chandler, are you all right… I could hear you screaming!” He rushed over to me while I shakily dropped the cell phone on the floor.

  “Mrs. Gastaneau, are you all right? Hello…Mrs. Gastaneau?” I could hear the dispatcher on the speaker of my phone as Banton embraced me tightly, kissing me on top of the head. He knelt to retrieve my phone, and then handed it to me.

  I watched his face as I spoke.

  “Yes, I’m fine. My husband is here now.”

  “Was it him, or do we still need to dispatch someone?” she asked, thinking Banton had been the one who had frightened me.

  “No, please send someone. There was someone on the back deck, looking at me through the windows. He had on a ski mask, and…”

  Banton slid me to the side, hurrying into the kitchen area to look out on the deck.

  I continued to explain to the operator. “When he saw me pick up the phone, he must have bolted…”

  “Okay, a deputy is on the way. He should be there any minute. Please stay on the line with me until he arrives.”

  “All right, thank you,” I answered, moving closer to Banton. He turned and pulled me into his arms.

  “I’m sorry, I should have never left you alone…” he murmured. He held me for several minutes as we gazed out the back windows, his cheek against the top of my head. A knock at the door interrupted him and he went to let the officer in. I let the dispatcher know the officer was there, and then hung the phone up.

  “Thank you, officer, for getting here so quickly. I’d gone up the road to look at the dead deer we’d passed at dinner, and while I was gone someone was on our back deck, and scared my wife,” he explained, escorting him into the living room.

  “I’m Officer Davis, Steve Davis,” he introduced himself to Banton, and shook his hand. “Can you describe him, Miss?” he asked, flipping a pad open to write on.

  “He was about six-foot tall, slender, he had on a ski mask…,” I shuddered. Banton rubbed his hands up and down my arms, comforting me as he stood behind me.

  “Anything else?” Officer Davis asked, glancing up at me.

  “He had on dark cover-alls--work cover-alls, I think. That’s it.”

  He flipped his pad shut, walking over to the back door. Banton followed him out onto the deck. The two of them walked around the side of the cabin, visiting with two other officers who had just arrived. After searching the area thoroughly around the deck and the tree line beyond, Officer Davis and Banton came back inside. As I watched them, I could see car headlights in the trees; someone was driving through the woods up the side road beyond the cabin.

  “There was some mischief at the resort after it closed tonight,” Officer Davis was speaking as they came back into the house. “…about a quarter mile down the main road from here. We have patrols out everywhere now, so you shouldn’t have any more trouble tonight. I’ll alert the other patrols and they will be on the lookout. If you see anything else just call us, Mr. Gastaneau.”

  “Thanks, Officer. I appreciate it.”

  “Mrs. Gastaneau, I hope you’re all right. You take care now.”

  Banton followed him and then shut the door and turned the dead-bolt. Turning, he crossed the living room to where I stood in front of the fireplace.

  “I’m so sorry I left you alone.”

  “Why did you go back to look at the deer? We saw where they’d moved it out of the road,” I began.

  “Something just bothered me about the way it looked. For such a massive animal to be brought down right on the road,” he shook his head. “If a car had hit it, it would have staggered away or torn the car up. A tractor-trailer rig or large truck had to have brought that animal down, but it wasn’t torn up…”

  “So what are you getting at?” I asked, afraid of his answer.

  “Oh, nothing. I was just curious. It was too dark anyway, and I didn’t take a good flashlight. I could have waited and looked in the morning.” He shrugged, and then hugged me to him. I could tell he was holding something back; there was more to the story. He pulled me back to look at me.

  “Um, I…I didn’t tell you everything before,” I confessed as he played with a lock of my hair.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The man on the deck. I…I think he had…he might have been an Orco. I wasn’t sure, but I think his eyes glowed through the mask,” I whispered.

  “What!” He pulled away from me, and then pushed around me to look out the patio doors again. “Why didn’t you tell me, before now?” He was yelling at me, and my eyes began to mist up. He’d never yelled at me before.

  “I wasn’t…I’m not completely sure. It happened so fast, and it was dark…and I couldn’t tell the deputy anything about Orcos,” I stammered, watching while he racked his fingers through his hair.

 
He paced back across the living room, and over to check the front door again. “Why didn’t you tell me immediately?” He yelled at me, his eyes darkening.

  I began to cry. “I’m sorry; I just hated to say anything unless I was sure. I was going to tell you, I just couldn’t say anything in front of Officer Davis.” I sat down on the sofa and pulled my knees up to my chest, putting my face against them. The silence in the room was deafening as he paced back toward the fireplace. After a few moments I looked up, and as he glanced at my face his expression softened. He strode back toward the kitchen, and then upstairs – I could hear him checking and re-checking all of the doors and windows. He came back downstairs, and I heard a beep when he armed the keypad to the alarm system. Then he closed the door and crossed the room, pulling me up from the sofa into his arms.

  “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I’m not mad at you. This just confirms my suspicions. I’m sorry…Shhh. I should never yell at you. I still have trouble with anger and over-reaction since the bite, you know.” He pulled me back to look at my tear-stained face. “Sweetheart, you have to tell me details like that. Immediately. No secrets, remember? Especially where your safety is concerned.” He pulled me back against his chest, holding me tightly. I could tell he was truly sorry for yelling. I began to relax against him, and then I began to get a little irritated. Turnabout was fair play, after all.

  “And were you being completely truthful with me, about the deer?” I asked, pulling away to question him.

  “Um, well,” he stammered.

  “I thought so.” I raised an eyebrow.

  “I just didn’t want to upset you till I was sure, that’s all.”

  “Touché,” I replied smugly.

  “So, do I get to see what’s under that robe?” he changed the subject quickly, grinning at me.

  “Well, I did have the hot-tub in mind, but now,” I glanced out the back windows at the well-lit back deck. I could still see car-lights on the road up the mountain.