Chance of a Lifetime

by Jodi Thomas

  “Nothing,” she said as she walked out the front door.

  Border followed. “Sorry.”

  She shook his hand. “Don’t say anything to anyone about this, would you?”

  “You got it. I’ll just say you wanted to take me home, but I wasn’t interested. No one will believe it, but it’ll stop any more questions. Because they’ll figure I’m delusional.”

  “Thanks. You did a good job.”

  He grinned. “I’ll be happy to watch your body anytime.”

  She stepped into the darkness and headed toward the Land Rover. In a strange way, Rick had been right. Border Biggs was just like his grandma. Willing to help.

  A few minutes later, when she picked up Rick at the fire station, she almost wished she were back with the tattooed kid. Rick’s mood had gone from being bothered to being enraged.

  “Want to talk about it?” she asked after he’d sat silent most of the way home.

  “No,” he answered.

  “What’s the matter?” She’d never been able to let a sleeping dog lie.

  “You mean other than being stalked by the village idiot?”

  “Yeah, other than than.” She parked the Land Rover in the garage and waited for his answer.

  Finally, as she knew he would, he exploded. “For starters, I have no money and hate my job. Someone trashed my apartment and torched my car. Then, as if my life’s not bad enough, someone tried to kill me…again!”

  Trace stared directly in front of her. “Look on the bright side, Matheson, the wings were good tonight.”

  He shot out of the car and was halfway to the porch before she caught up. Her long legs had no problem matching his stride. “I’m glad you find my life so funny, Marshal.”

  “Marshal?”

  “Don’t waste your breath denying it. Gabe told Alex, and she told Hank you weren’t just friends with his buddy Denver—you worked with him. You’re a federal marshal.”

  “I’m on vacation,” she answered, knowing it was a weak response. She should have been up front with him from the first, but he was so set against having anyone watching over him. Trace had thought it would be easier to lie, and now Rick would probably never trust her again. “I’m sorry.” She had to try to clear this mess up or he’d be yelling at her from now on. “I screwed up. I should have told you.” When he still didn’t look at her, she continued, “You might as well know it all. I’m not on vacation. I’m on leave after a shooting.”

  “And you’re not Martha Q’s niece?”

  She shook her head. “I met her once when I came through here on my way to Dallas. She’s a hoot. I wouldn’t mind having her in my family, but no, I’m not related to her. It was just a way to set me up in the house so I could keep an eye on you.”

  Some of the anger flowed out of him with one long frosty breath.

  They were on the porch. He turned his back to her to unlock the door. As they stepped into the hallway, he finally looked at her. “No, I’m the one who’s messed up. I’m the one who has the hots for a woman who’s being paid to watch over me. You, Marshal Adams, are a liar, but I’m the fool. At this rate, even an idiot should be able to put me out of my misery. What I don’t understand is why someone like me isn’t easy to bump off.”

  “You’ve got the hots for me?”

  Rick swore. “Is that the only part of the conversation you heard?” He moved down the hallway. “Well, don’t worry about it. Something about knowing you’re probably wearing a badge on your underwear calms me down considerably. Maybe if I just take a few thousand aspirin and go to bed, I’ll wake up in a few weeks and find out this nightmare is over.”

  “I’m not,” she answered as she followed him down the hall.

  “You’re not what?”

  “I’m not wearing a badge on my underwear. I don’t wear underwear.”

  Rick turned the knob to his room and used his head to knock it open. “Kill me now.”

  She laughed but didn’t step in behind him. “Get some sleep, Matheson. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Chapter 24

  FRIDAY

  EMILY SAT AT HER DESK IN THE BACK OF THE LIBRARY staring out at the long line of elms winding their way along the back of the property. She’d texted Tannon several times yesterday asking about his mother, and he’d finally answered back this morning that he was heading to Amarillo as soon as he could get out of the office. He said he’d gotten back to Harmony too late yesterday to call.

  The note hadn’t been friendly. Maybe he really was busy. Maybe he was having second thoughts about being friends. Neither one of them was really the friend type.

  Emily stood and walked the library. She was nervous about the town council meeting this afternoon. Thinking about what Tannon was doing helped distract her from work. He must have driven home late last night and then was planning to leave as soon as he could to return to the hospital. Maybe his mother was worse, maybe even dying, and he didn’t want to worry her with what he must think of as his problem.

  “You’re missing your ten o’clock break,” the children’s librarian said as she passed. “Too cold to go out even to run over to the bakery, I guess?”

  For Darla, the world under eighty degrees was always too cold. She’d been the librarian in the children’s section for so long she’d seen generations pass through. Now and then she’d call a little boy by his father’s name. She could read every book in the youth section without even glancing at the words and must have dated Dr. Suess for all she knew about the man.

  “I was just leaving,” Emily said as she hurried toward her coat. She didn’t want to go to the bakery. The sisters would have far too many questions about Tannon buying her desserts on Wednesday. So, instead, she climbed in her car and drove over to Tannon’s office. His big pickup was still in the first parking slot, telling Emily that he hadn’t left town yet.

  On impulse, she pulled into the visitor’s parking space beside him and grabbed the book she’d been reading from her bag. If he didn’t have time to talk to her, he’d have to tell her to her face; otherwise, she planned to at least check on his mother’s condition.

  The same sharply dressed receptionist was at the long front desk. This time she didn’t stand when Emily walked in, she just stared.

  “May I help you?” Her voice was professional, but not friendly.

  Emily suddenly felt out of place. “I thought…I thought…”

  She took a deep breath while the receptionist looked bored. “I’d like to see Tannon for a moment, if it’s not a problem.”

  The receptionist folded her thin arms over the flat chest. “I’m sorry, but Mr. Parker is very busy just now.”

  “Oh.” Emily hadn’t thought she’d have to fight to see Tannon. She’d only meant to wish him well with his mother.

  The phone on the long desk buzzed.

  “Yes, Mr. Parker.” The receptionist turned away, ignoring Emily. “Yes, Mr. Parker. I’ll have the file loaded.” She listened for several seconds before adding, “I’ll see that it’s taken care of.” As she turned to reach for her pen, she noticed Emily. “Oh, there is a woman here who wanted to speak to you. I told her you were busy, but I’ll set up a tentative time with her for the first of next week.”

  The receptionist raised her gaze as she covered the receiver. “Your name, miss?”

  “Emily,” she whispered, wondering if she shouldn’t have given an alias. This situation was probably only embarrassing Tannon.

  The receptionist repeated the name, then stared for a moment before lowering the phone. “He’ll be right down, miss. He asked me to tell you to meet him at the elevator.” She looked like a woman repeating government secrets.

  With one long manicured finger, the model pointed at the steel door in the small lobby just beyond the office’s glass wall.

  Emily made it three steps before the door opened and Tannon stepped out. With his long legs, he was at her side before she thought to move. He took her arm gently and tugged her toward the e
levator, but his stare and words were for the receptionist. “Don’t ever keep Miss Tomlinson waiting again.”

  Emily was surprised at the hard edge to his tone. She’d never seen this side of Tannon.

  He must have sensed it too, because he added, “She’s an old friend. If she comes to see me, send her straight through to wherever I am.”

  “Yes, Mr. Parker,” the receptionist answered.

  Without a word they stepped on the elevator. When Emily turned, the entire office staff was staring at her as the doors closed.

  “I came to—” she started just as Tannon said, “I’m glad you—”

  They both laughed shattering the tension.

  “You first,” she said.

  “I heard from the hospital. Mom has an infection. She’s back in ICU. I’m glad you came. You can help me pack. It looks like I’m going to have to stay a few days.” He nodded once. “Now you.”

  “I thought I’d bring her a book. I knew you’d be on your way soon.” She held the book up as if for proof. “But I guess now she won’t be needing it today.”

  The elevator opened into his living room. “Oh my,” she said staring into the big room with glass walls and a high ceiling. “This is where you live?”

  “You like it?” He tugged her into the mass of leather furniture and stainless steel. Everywhere there was color, he’d used earthy browns and deep greens just as she had in her apartment.

  “It’s beautiful.” She smiled guessing that her opinion mattered. “It’s like something I’ve seen pictures of in magazines.” To the right, a six-foot-high glass flower arrangement adorned with tiny white lights sat in the center of a table big enough to seat ten, and to the left a kitchen, which looked like it should belong in a restaurant, framed one corner of the big room.

  Tannon smiled. “That’s how I planned it. I saw this picture and told the builder to make it look like the picture. I can see in every direction, but the glass is tinted so no one can see in. I don’t like the feeling of being closed in.”

  “Everyone must love coming up here.” Emily turned in a circle. “So much space.”

  “No one, including my mom, has ever been up here before now.”

  She stopped. “Really?”

  “Really.” He lowered his head. “I must sound pretty pathetic, but I’ve never invited anyone here. The cleaning staff comes in once a week to change the sheets and dust. That’s it.”

  Emily wasn’t sure she wanted to think too much about why he’d asked her up. “And I’m here,” she announced, “to help you pack.”

  “Right,” he agreed, and pointed her toward the bedroom. “I don’t know how long I’ll be there this time. I may be sleeping in the waiting room if she gets any worse. I know it won’t help but I need to be near.”

  She walked into a bedroom that exactly matched the color scheme of the rest of the apartment. In an odd way, the room felt welcoming to her, almost as if she’d helped to design it.

  Clothes were tossed across the bed where he’d pitched them toward the open suitcase in a hurry.

  As if she were working a puzzle, she walked around the bed, looking at his clothes. So far the only things in his bag were white socks and white underwear. The clothes hanging in his open closet looked exactly like the ones on the bed. Pressed long-sleeved shirts with his initials on the cuff, creased boot-cut jeans and tan dress slacks, western-cut sports jackets and leather coats.

  “I see the problem,” she said as he watched her. “What you need is something casual and you don’t have anything casual. Nothing for sitting around the hospital.”

  “I’m not wearing the Hawaiian shirt.”

  She spotted it in the very back of the closet.

  “What about short sleeves?”

  “I don’t wear short sleeves. If it gets hot, I just roll the sleeves up.”

  “What do you wear on your day off or at night relaxing? Old jeans, jogging pants, a jersey?”

  “I don’t take days off and most nights I work until time to go to bed. The little time I spend watching the news is hardly worth a wardrobe change.”

  “What do you sleep in?”

  “Nothing,” he answered with a slow smile. “What do you sleep in, Emily?”

  She couldn’t believe she blushed as if they were seventeen again, learning that special kind of teasing that pushes the line.

  “While you help me, how about a drink?” His smile said he loved teasing her, but his words let her off the hook.

  “No, thanks, unless you have diet root beer?”

  He disappeared and came back with a cold bottle. “I just happened to have one,” he said as he handed it to her.

  She’d picked out a few things and after one sip, went back to folding clothes. “I figured out you could take off your shirts if you have to sleep at the hospital and just sleep in a T-shirt.”

  He stuffed a shaving kit into his suitcase as she asked, “Don’t you ever wear any color of underwear besides white?”

  He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she added, “Never mind. Forget I asked.”

  They were both laughing a few minutes later when they stepped out of the elevator. He carried his suitcase and coat. She held her root beer.

  The receptionist didn’t say a word as she handed him his briefcase, but her nod to Emily was polite and questioning.

  Tannon looped his coat over Emily’s arm and took the case. “Walk with me to my car, would you, Emily?”

  “Of course.” She had no doubt the entire office staff watched her leave the building.

  After Tannon dropped his bags in his truck, he turned around and opened her car door. “Thanks for the help. I’ll call when I can, but you’ve got a busy day what with the town council meeting this afternoon and the writers’ group tonight.”

  She’d almost forgotten about both. “I’ll tell you all about them after you let me know how your mother is.” She moved around to step into her car, but his hand covered hers atop the car door.

  When she looked up, he met her stare. “I wish I could be here with you tonight. We could go over to the diner and talk after your meeting. I’m needed here in case your volunteer escapes.”

  “And I wish I could go with you,” she answered honestly. “If your mom’s not better tomorrow, I’ll drive up after work and sit with her a while.”

  He nodded but didn’t let go of her hand. “I wish this were one of those times I could kiss you good-bye,” he whispered, glancing at the busy street behind them and the wall of glass in front of them.

  She understood. He must be feeling very much alone. He might be a powerful man, but inside he was still an only son whose mother might be dying. “I’ll be there tomorrow,” she whispered. She made a mental note to find someone to cover her hours.

  “I’ll be waiting,” he answered, and stepped away.

  Emily almost laughed aloud when she was safe inside her car. They sounded like a knight and his lady saying good-bye before battle, not two people standing in a busy parking lot. Tannon and she were barely friends. She was obviously reading far too much into what he said.

  As she drove back to the library, she decided that had been her problem. She lived her own life in her head as if it were fiction finding plots and quests. All her days were ordinary days with little of matter ever happening, yet she thought of them as adventures. Tonight, in her moment journal, she might write more than a few words. She might try a scene, a love scene with passionate kisses and touches that set fire to her thoughts as well as her skin.

  By the time she made it back to her office, she’d pushed her wild thoughts aside so she could concentrate on the writers’ meeting at seven. Martha Q Patterson was out of town, so there wouldn’t be as many in attendance tonight, and Tannon wouldn’t be waiting downstairs for her when it was over.

  Arranging the chairs in the alcove, she walked back to her office depressed. The writers’ group wouldn’t be nearly so much fun knowing she’d have no one to share the stories with
later. She wanted to be with Tannon, not just writing about him in her journal. For the first time, she wanted a real moment and not just one in her thoughts.

  The phone rang.

  “Hello, Harmony County Library.” She tried to push her cloud aside.

  “Emily.” Tannon’s low voice drew her. “I forgot to ask if I could call you at nine thirty tonight. That’ll give you time to get home and put on that sexy fuzzy pink robe and set out your supper. I want to hear all about the writers’ meeting. We’ll talk while you eat. It won’t be as good as chili fries at the diner, but it’ll do.”

  “It’s a date.” She smiled, wondering if he was thinking the same thing she’d been thinking.

  “And, honey, don’t worry about the town council. They can’t eat you.”

  “Thanks for pointing out the bright side.” She laughed, realizing she’d forgotten about that.

  He took a long breath and added, “Got to go. Talk to you tonight.”

  He was gone before she had a chance to say good-bye.

  For a few minutes, she just stared at the phone. She and Tannon Parker might just be becoming real friends again. He’d even called her honey, like they were close. In an odd way, it felt good to have him for a friend again after all these years. Anger has a way of fading and forgiveness felt right. They’d never talked about it. He’d never explained where he’d been, but Emily knew deep down that if he’d been there, he would have helped.

  It felt right to have him in her life.

  Maybe she was just letting her imagination run away again. After all, he probably called every woman he knew “friend.” No, she decided. He wasn’t the type. He was probably just kidding her; after all he’d called her fuzzy robe “sexy.”

  She shrugged. She was no more his honey than her robe was sexy, but it did feel good to have someone kid her.

  Chapter 25

  TRACE ADAMS PACED BACK AND FORTH IN FRONT OF THE long windows overlooking the courthouse. Rick Matheson’s office was far too small, but the long wall of windows almost made the little space bearable. “This place is nothing but a fishbowl. How do you stand it here?”