“I think while Leone was here. I heard a noise then, but couldn’t check it out, so I don’t know who did it.”
“It’s good you left the note on the door.”
“I was going to call the sheriff.” She reached for the note. “But there’s no reason—”
“Leave it!” He grabbed her shoulders, made her face him. “You need to step back from this.”
He expected her to agree. She didn’t. “I can’t do that.”
“Why can’t you?”
“For the same reason you can’t. Though your mother hides her grief, I felt it. It travels on her every breath.”
He wanted to hold her. She didn’t deserve trouble from anyone. He didn’t have to know her for a long time to sense that this woman with her generous heart could be hurt easily.
“She needs to know who killed her sister. She needs closure.”
He’d been willing to see a psychic for the same reasons. The authorities had hit a dead end. He’d been willing to try anything, even a clairvoyant, for his mother’s sake. “Leone Burton wouldn’t do this.”
“No, she wouldn’t.” No uncertainty colored her voice. “I’d never think of her as the culprit. She might see me as the wrong kind, but I view her as classy, too cultured for such antics.”
Magnanimous. He doubted he’d have such kind thoughts about someone hell-bent on destroying his livelihood. “Why aren’t you scared?”
“Aren’t I?”
Colby didn’t respond to her smile. “You need to tell Sheriff Reingard about this note.”
“I thought so, too. But what can he do about it? I’m not being threatened, not really. No one broke in.”
He wouldn’t play along with her so reasonable, so calm act. “How would you know, since you don’t have a lock? Tessa, you need to report this.”
“I will.” She tore the note off the door, then closed it. “I’ll be all right now.”
Clearly she didn’t want to lean on him, on anyone, too much. He wondered who’d taught her that lesson.
The bell above the door rang, and three middle-aged women all talking at the same time ambled in.
When Tessa started forward to greet the women, he spoke to her back. “Call the sheriff,” he insisted. In passing, he let his fingers brush her hand. She glanced from him to the women. “And call if you need me.”
Colby cursed his stupidity later. He should have asked her out to dinner. At eight that evening, he stood in his kitchen and stirred the spaghetti sauce in the pot on his stove. He wanted to spend more time with her, get to know her. He couldn’t say why. They belonged to different worlds. Hell, he ran hot and cold about her. One moment he thought that she might have the sixth sense, and the next moment, a pragmatic streak within him resisted clairvoyance. All he knew with certainty was that he wanted to be with her.
“Smells great.” Garrett lounged in the kitchen doorway. He wouldn’t knock. He considered other rooms off-limits, in case Colby had a female guest, but not the kitchen. “What are you cooking?”
“Spaghetti.” Colby liked puttering around, chopping vegetables, making an omelette, cooking stew or chili. He didn’t cook anything fancy but could put together enough to keep from starving.
“Always liked spaghetti.”
“Stay,” he said, though Garrett was already sitting at the table. Colby grabbed another plate and napkin, then opened a drawer for silverware and stretched to set them on the table.
“That stud horse is working out fine.” Garrett removed his hat and dropped it onto an adjacent chair. “I’ve got two foals coming in.”
“Good.” Colby spooned the sauce into a bowl. He hadn’t had the same success with his mare. Wasn’t it Tessa who’d said Ladyfair was pregnant? So much for psychic powers.
“Hey! Should I go on talking to myself or do you want to join in?”
Colby snapped himself from private thoughts. Setting the bowl on the table, he straddled a chair across from Garrett. He’d rather be staring at the lovely Tessa Madison.
“Are you making any progress in finding out who your aunt was seeing?”
Colby spooned sauce over the spaghetti noodles. “None.”
“What about the psychic?”
He shrugged, not willing to discuss Tessa, and tore a portion of bread from a long, crusty loaf. “She hasn’t been much help.”
“You didn’t think she would be, if I remember right. But who cares? Right? She’s great to look at.”
“She hasn’t given me any new information.” His friend was quiet, too quiet. With no choice, Colby looked up. “Go ahead. What do you want to say?”
Not bashful, Garrett prodded. “Are you seeing her now?”
“Why would you think I am?”
“You went home with her from Joe’s Bar the other night.” He hunched forward, setting forearms on the table. “You saw her today.” A trace of humor slid into his voice. “Be careful, or Moms,” he said, using his nickname for Colby’s mother, “will be planning the wedding.”
No wedding, Colby thought firmly. He’d nearly gotten married once. Once was enough. He no longer was sure he wanted to make that commitment to any woman. “Come on. Grab your plate. There’s a game on.”
By the fifth inning, Garrett had finished dinner and was devouring a bowl of popcorn.
Leaving him in the study, Colby returned to the kitchen to check his mail. He tossed two bills and an advertising flyer from a Whitehorn supermarket on the counter. With half an ear, he listened to the baseball game while he punched the phone number for Harriet’s Boston neighbor. Harriet had kept to herself in Rumor. He doubted she’d acted differently while living in Boston. She’d been an aloof, distant woman who was slow to make friends. Still, he hoped this neighbor had penetrated Harriet’s steely demeanor.
Typical of his day, he hit another dead end. No one answered his call. Cussing, he swung around in time to see the team’s star pitcher strike out three in a row.
“You’re missing a good game,” Garrett informed him between mouthfuls of popcorn.
What he was really missing was a certain woman. He moseyed away from Garrett and the distraction of the television to step onto the back porch. He wanted to call Tessa. He wanted to hear her voice. The thought sounded dumb even to him. He wasn’t easily infatuated or smitten. When he’d been on the rodeo circuit, he used to laugh when he heard about a guy acting stupid about a woman. Colby liked women, respected them. But he didn’t believe in acting the fool about one.
Tessa stood on the back porch, let the hot breeze blow through her hair. Closing her eyes, she tried to empty her mind, hoped for an image. Nothing.
She shivered with a chill, though perspiration drenched her back. She was more scared than she wanted to admit to anyone. She’d never been threatened before. In less than twenty-four hours, someone had followed her, phoned her and left her fretting over a silence, sent her dead flowers, and now this message to mind her own business. Someone wanted her to stop. But who? Why couldn’t she see the person?
She moved toward a step, then pulled back with the sound of the ringing phone. Before she allowed even a trace of panic to grab hold, praying she’d hear a voice, she lunged for the receiver and offered a sharp hello.
“What are you doing?”
Tessa clutched the phone tighter with the sound of Colby’s voice. Her life was suddenly so complicated, she realized as her heart fluttered. “Colby?”
“Hi.” He was silent for a moment as if deciding on his words. “I wanted to hear your voice.”
She sank to the closest chair. Never would she have expected such a greeting from him. What little resistance she had to him melted. He made her feel. Everything. With a look, he warmed her blood. He made her want to believe that she could have more. That was so ridiculous. Too much of a romantic. She’d always been too much of a romantic. Protect yourself, shelter your heart, her mother used to say. She struggled not to make too much of an admittance that might have been lightly said. “Did you think of s
omething else to tell me?”
“Yeah, I miss you.”
Her heart hammered as pleasure rushed through her. She closed her eyes, let the softness of his voice float over her. She was more thrilled than she wanted to be, and so afraid to make too much of what he’d said. “Colby—”
“You’ve got that sound in your voice. It must be a female thing.” Laughter warmed his voice. “My mother gets the same sound when she’s exasperated with me.”
He had no idea what getting involved with her might mean to him. “For good reason, probably,” she teased, and attempted to steer the conversation away from him. “Did you find out more about Harriet?”
“I didn’t call about that.”
“But you know more, don’t you?”
“No. I called Harriet’s neighbor,” he said more seriously. “She wasn’t home. I’ll call again tomorrow.”
Tessa pushed open the screen door and stepped onto the back porch again. “What are you hoping to learn?”
“If she knows anything about my aunt’s marriage to Parrish. Like why they were estranged.”
Tessa settled on the top step and stared at the darkness behind her house. “And you’ll ask if she knew anything about Harriet’s lover.”
“Right. What were you doing?”
“Sitting outside on the porch.”
“You shouldn’t.”
She’d never been skittish about being alone, but she peered hard at the inky darkness. “I’m all right,” she insisted even as she wandered into the house. She wished now she had the lock fixed. For good measure, she pushed the back of a chair under the doorknob, then climbed the servant’s staircase to her rooms on the second floor.
“Go inside.”
“I did.” Feeling hot, she stopped by an end table in her living room to stand in front of a fan. She had to remember what wasn’t possible for her. Like her mother, she’d never expect promises from any man.
“I’m attracted to you, Tessa.”
She heard the smile in his voice. “I’m attracted to you, too, but—”
“I think you’re a beautiful woman.”
His voice curled around her like a caress. “Colby—”
“Just say thank you.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “Thank you. Good night, Colby.”
“Tessa?”
“What?”
“Think of me.”
A second later, she was listening to the dial tone. Oh, he was dangerous. He made her believe she could have more. She set down the receiver and shook her head. She had to be careful. Very careful.
Colby believed that a good night’s sleep was all he needed to get his head on straight. The sensible side of him, which had led him to leave rodeo before he injured himself beyond repair, knew he didn’t belong with her. There were other women he was better suited for. They didn’t believe in staring at crystals and looking for colored clouds. They wouldn’t even consider tofu pizza. They also didn’t heat his gut.
Colby awakened by daybreak from a dream of a woman with raven-colored hair and haunting gray eyes, a woman he wanted to make love with. Annoyed with himself, he had breakfast and forced himself to stay at the ranch and do the one job he hated. He spent the morning closeted with his computer and record keeping.
By afternoon, only when he was finished did he let himself leave the study. He was congratulating himself for resisting the temptation to go see her when the phone rang.
His mother rushed words. “Warren Parrish is at Harriet’s house,” she said instead of a greeting. “Someone saw him there yesterday, too.”
“I’ll meet you there at three.”
“I’m sorry to bother you,” his mother said, not for the first time, when Colby was climbing out of his truck half an hour later.
With her, he walked toward his aunt’s house, a white bungalow with yellow shutters and a giant willow in the front yard. The house had been sealed by authorities, but Parrish stood on the porch as if he owned the place. “Has he been here all day?” Colby asked his mother.
“Yes, I believe he has. I needed reinforcements or I wouldn’t have asked you to meet me.” Disgust edged her voice. “He views me as the little woman.”
Colby masked a grin but found humor in her words. His mother definitely was not the little woman. Though she was slim, delicate-looking, she had never let anyone back her down when she thought she was right.
“Your father had to drive to Billings for a truck part or he’d be with me.”
“No problem, Mom.” Colby figured Parrish needed to know that all of the Holmes family planned to keep an eye on him.
“I can’t believe he’s still here,” she said about Parrish.
Beneath his hand under her arm, Colby felt her fury.
For the first time since Colby had met Parrish, he wasn’t smoking one of his cigars. “Hello, Louise. Colby. What are you doing here?”
“That’s my question,” Louise said.
“I have every right to be here.” Parrish delivered a slow, amused smile. “I was Harriet’s husband. This will be mine soon. So don’t think of touching anything that belonged to her.”
“Nothing! You will get nothing,” Colby’s mother yelled. “If you break in there, we’ll press charges.”
Colby wasn’t certain she legally had that right. “Mom, let’s go.” He could have forced a confrontation, but that would only upset his mother more. “He can’t get in. Can’t do anything. When we have answers, we won’t have to put up with him,” he said to soothe her while they walked to his truck.
He drove her home and made the call to Harriet’s neighbor in Boston again. The conversation was brief, leaving them with more questions than answers.
Colby left her and drove to town to see the sheriff.
“He’s not here right now,” Holt informed him after a greeting was exchanged.
He’d rather talk to Holt, anyway. Though they’d clashed a few times at the beginning of the investigation, they respected each other. “This is about what we discussed.” Colby relayed the information he planned to share with Tessa and told Holt about Parrish hanging out at Harriet’s house.
“I’ll ride by.” Holt swiveled his chair away and set papers on a counter behind him. “And I’ll fill the sheriff in about what you’ve learned. Where are you headed now?”
“To Tessa’s. My mother found more photos to show her.”
Holt shrugged in a noncommittal way as if not wanting to voice an opinion about Tessa’s power.
“Did Tessa tell you what happened at her store?”
Holt’s frown deepened as Colby told him about the M.Y.O.B. message. “I sure don’t like the sound of that. I think it would be a good idea to keep an eye on Mystic Treasures.”
Satisfied with his response, Colby left. He stalled on the sidewalk and withdrew the photos from his shirt pocket. One was of Harriet standing in front of a tiger’s cage at a zoo. She was smiling, appearing so different from the way Colby had seen her most of the time. “Who were you?” Colby said aloud to the woman in the picture.
“Talking to yourself now, Colby?”
Looking up, he was met by the smile of a leggy redhead. Diana stood beside a bright red sports car. He expected a slight pang. She looked as beautiful as ever, but he felt nothing. He’d been engaged to the woman smiling at him. He should have felt something.
“I heard you were back in Rumor,” he said, closing the space between them. The moment wouldn’t be easy, he realized in that instant. “I’m sorry about your husband.” If he learned anything from the engagement to Diana, it was that he’d had one shot at a permanent relationship with a woman and didn’t want another.
“It was unexpected.” She held out a ringless left hand. “I never thought I’d be such a young widow. But we both know that marriage was a mistake.”
“Was it?”
She drew a tight breath and smiled. “Yes. That’s why I’m back. I came to see you.”
Tessa stood at the window of Mystic
Treasures. To stir interest, she’d removed the crystal display and propped a zodiac chart in the window. Along with it, she draped an assortment of amulets over a ruby-red velvet display stand.
From the bay window she saw Colby and the woman standing near him. So that was Diana? Tall, polished, sexy. Diana touched his arm, leaned close. She wanted him back. Tessa didn’t need to hear their conversation to know that. Telltale movements carried a clear meaning. Did he still love her? Tessa wondered.
She watched a moment longer, expecting Diana Lynscot to bat eyelashes at him. A mass of coppery-colored hair blew in the warm breeze. She looked like a Miss America contestant.
According to Marla, they’d broken off the engagement because Colby traveled so much on the rodeo circuit and couldn’t give Diana the home life she wanted, so she married another. Older than her, her new husband had recently died. But now, retired from rodeo, Colby could give Diana that stable life. Possibly they both wanted to resume their relationship.
People accepted Diana. Born and raised in a neighboring town, she was part of the community, was perfect for him. If she and Colby got back together, people would nod approvingly, say something like, “They were destined for each other.”
They’d say just the opposite if he were with Tessa.
“Do you daydream a lot?”
Lost in thought, she hadn’t even heard the bell ring. Turning, she practically stood in Colby’s embrace. Before she had time to think, he framed her face with his hands and gave her a long, lingering kiss.
Stunned. There was no other word to describe what she was feeling. Don’t take my breath away. She needed to remember that there was another woman.
“Isn’t it time to close for the day?”
“Almost.”
“Good. Then have dinner with me. And before you say, Colby—”
Big Sky Cowboy Page 7
