She tried for her best I’m-not-amused look. As he chuckled, she knew she’d failed. It was natural that this attraction existed. He was macho, possessed an enormous amount of charm, of sexuality. Perhaps she needed to spend time with him. She needed him to realize she wasn’t someone to date on a whim, someone to amuse him, or worse, she wasn’t someone to make his ex-fiancée jealous. “Were you a tease as a little boy, too?”
“Terrible one.” He fiddled with a strand of hair near her ear. “Look, I have to eat and so do you. Let’s do it together. If it will make you feel better, we’ll discuss the business of Warren Parrish.”
“Have you learned more?”
“Food first?”
“All right.” Nerves hummed with his nearness. “Food first.” When had she felt so weak with a man? she wondered.
“Why didn’t you tell the sheriff about what happened last night at the store?” Colby asked once they were seated at the table in the Rooftop Café.
She’d planned to, but a sheriff’s report meant making her problems public, and she was trying so hard to keep a low profile. “If I did, others might hear about what happened.”
“Secrets are hard to keep in this town.” He motioned at the menu in her hands. “What do you like?”
“Everything.”
“No one likes everything,” he said, running a finger across the top of her hand.
A thrill that seemed unbelievably adolescent skittered through her. “I do.” She had to get a grip on this.
“Brussels sprouts?”
“Yes.” Tessa made herself look up, meet his eyes. They gentled a face that bore a hard, stubborn look. She viewed his stubbornness as a good trait. She admired people who didn’t give up. A lesson learned from one man who’d run when life got too difficult.
“Sauerkraut?”
Tessa couldn’t help laughing. “Yes.”
“Cauliflower?”
What was the point to the twenty questions? “I gather you don’t like those foods.”
He looked pained. Easily she imagined him making the same face twenty years ago. What did you do for fun as a boy? What’s your favorite pie? What Christmas present did you long for most? She wanted to ask. “Do you like opera?”
He slitted his eyes at her. “Do you?”
“Certain ones.” As the server appeared at their table, she looked away from the amusement in his eyes and quickly scanned the menu. She ordered a chicken salad, then waited until they were alone before asking, “Tell me now what you’ve learned about Harriet when she was in Boston.”
A frown knitted his brow. “Look at these first.” He set photographs on the table close to her. “My mom found these. Harriet was in Boston when they were taken.”
Tessa reached for one photo. “I don’t know if I’ll feel anything.” The tip of a finger touched one corner of the top photograph.
“Don’t leave.” A gut-wrenching ache hit Tessa before she could block it. Tears smarted in her eyes. Her stomach clenched. “You can’t leave,” she yelled at his back, watching him storm toward the door. “I love you.” When he slammed the door, she jumped. Though she squeezed her eyes tight, she felt the tears on her cheeks. An ache rising within her, she touched her belly. “How could you leave me?” Shame. It filled her. She’d begged him not to leave. She’d never thought she’d beg anyone.
“Tessa.” Colby’s voice broke in on the image. “What’s wrong?”
She placed a hand on her chest in response to an empty sensation in the vicinity of her heart. “She cried so hard. Hurt so much.”
“Who?”
“Harriet. He hurt her.” She stared at the hand that he’d closed over hers. “It was her lover.” No one had ever touched her, offered comfort after she’d had a vision. Most people backed away instead of coming closer. She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know who it was.” She didn’t want to let Harriet’s feelings take over her body again. There was too much hurt.
She sat back, aware people were staring at them. “Someone hurt her.” More than that. She knew Harriet had kept her pain tight within, shared it with no one. “Will you tell me now what you learned from the neighbor?” she asked, in need of a distraction after such intense feelings.
He leveled a frown at the steaming black coffee in his cup. “Unfortunately the marriage wasn’t wonderful. According to the neighbor, Harriet caught Warren with another woman on their wedding night.”
Tessa imagined Harriet’s heartbreak at such a betrayal. She’d waited so long to find someone to love, and to be loved. Then when she’d finally thought she’d found someone, he’d been unfaithful to her immediately. “Why? Why did he do that to her?”
“He married her for her money.”
“Oh, Colby, that is so sad. Terribly sad.”
“That might be what you were seeing.” He inclined his head, forcing eye contact. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know.” She stayed silent as the server set their plates before them.
“According to Harriet’s neighbor, Harriet fled that night,” Colby said, once they were alone and eating. “That’s when she came back to Rumor. The woman said no one in Boston had known where she’d gone until almost a year later.”
How difficult it would be for him to be around Parrish. “I’m sorry.”
He looked up from the steak on his plate, sent her a puzzled frown. “About what?”
“I know how you feel about Warren Parrish. I’m sorry you have to deal with him.”
He gave her an unconvincing grin. “Can’t you see into the future for me? Tell me how long I have to put up with him?”
Tessa wasn’t offended. She’d heard the same request often enough from others. “No, I can’t do that.”
He cut his steak. “If you don’t want to tell the future, then tell me about your past.”
She poked a fork into her chicken salad. “You’ll be bored.”
“Hardly.”
Too easily he could make her a believer. How ironic that was. He wouldn’t believe in her power, but he had the ability to make her want to consider love again. “What did you want to be when you grew up?”
He didn’t hesitate. “A cowboy.”
She laughed and speared a lettuce leaf. “How many men can say they got their wish?”
“Lucky man, I guess,” he said about himself, but she knew how much he’d sacrificed physically and emotionally to attain goals in rodeo. His many injuries and his broken engagement to Diana came to mind. She’d also heard how hard he worked on his ranch since settling down. Before Harriet had died, he’d devoted all his time to the ranch, never came to town. She remembered the warm hellos from the customers at Joe’s Bar who were glad to see him.
“When you were growing up, where did you live? Chicago?”
“No. We moved a lot. The Poconos. Las Vegas. Anywhere there was a resort. My mother worked as a seer at a lot of high-priced resorts, telling fortunes. Madam Cassandra.”
“An unusual childhood?”
“I thought it was normal.” Before she was nine, she’d hated leaving friends. There hadn’t been many after parents learned about her visions.
“My mom said that yours wanted to travel.”
Tessa didn’t correct him. She knew that was what everyone thought.
“Was one of those a favorite place?”
“A resort in New Hampshire. We lived on the premises in a caretaker’s cottage. We had a house for a while, and a flower garden.” She hadn’t meant to say more, but the memory was such a good one. “I’d sneak into the kitchen and get delicious desserts. I have an insatiable sweet tooth. I’ll eat lemon meringue pie for breakfast.” His wince stirred her laugh. “Anyway, after school, I’d spend hours in the kitchen, watching the cook. She’d make some wonderful desserts.” She’d been grateful for that woman’s kindness and friendship. At twelve, it hadn’t been easy for her to make friends.
“A good time?”
“My mother was a fun person,” she said honestl
y. “We had a good life.” A different one, by his standards. She looked away, realized they were being watched by other diners. She guessed people were gossiping about them. Why would one of their own choose to be with the spacey owner of that weird shop?
“Was there anything you wanted?”
A home, a place to call my own. “Everyone yearns for something. Don’t you?”
“That’s a loaded question.” He moved his thumb, caressing the top of her hand. The gesture was loverlike, intimate. “To be with you.”
She didn’t think he was the kind of man who’d use a woman, but she remembered how close he’d stood to Diana. How well did she know him? “Why?”
His eyes held hers. “Someone hurt you badly, didn’t he?”
“I’m not looking for more in my life right now.” Was she intriguing to him because she was different? Or was he using her to forget another? I don’t want to be hurt again. “I’m not looking for promises.”
“Neither am I.”
Chapter Six
Colby had read such sadness in her eyes that he’d deliberately made himself back off. Despite her smile earlier, when she’d let it slip that friendships hadn’t been easy, he’d sensed a life filled with disappointments.
Because she’d made it clear that she wanted space, he’d planned to give her a few days. The act was a selfish one. He thought if he stayed away from her, he’d stop thinking so much about her. The plan failed.
By eight-thirty the next morning, twice he caught himself remembering the warning about the cowboy on his lap, and he had to give himself a mental kick. Never gullible or easily fooled, he hit the computer in his office and did some morning research about parapsychologists and ESP and telepathy. He’d yet to ask Tessa about claims people made that she was a scryer and could crystal gaze. Tarot cards, crystals, runes, palmistry all belonged in a different world.
He believed in what he could see, taste, feel. He wasn’t impressionable or superstitious. He refused to think too much about the past. He believed in concentrating on now, not the future.
At this moment, on this sunny day, he wanted to see Tessa. That probably wasn’t the most rational decision he’d made, but sometimes a person went with gut instinct.
At first, he’d been curious about her. He wondered if that was because she was so different. People claimed she was strange. The thought annoyed him. There was nothing peculiar about her. She walked to the beat of her own drummer, took her own counsel, believed in things he didn’t understand, but that didn’t make her odd. And he knew then that more than desire led him. Softer, gentler feelings existed for her.
By ten o’clock, he strolled into Mystic Treasures, determined to be with her. He recalled the last time he’d felt like this. He’d been sixteen with hormones raging for Leah Trecker, a sexy little blonde who wore the shortest skirts in the county. Like then, he had no choice. But unlike then, he wouldn’t stand at her door looking like a grinning fool. Before he stepped into the store, he’d drummed up a legitimate reason for being there. Making a fool of himself over any female wasn’t something he’d ever do again.
Tessa stood near a display of crystal balls. In the soft light filtering into the room from the octagonal window, she was cast in an ethereal glow. He skimmed the slim body that was more angles than curves. Blue, ankle-length, the dress had tiny white flowers. On her feet were those sandals he viewed as a flimsy excuse for shoes.
He closed the door behind him but stayed by it until she looked up. He wanted to see if she’d react to him. He wasn’t disappointed. For an instant, he swore she looked pleased to see him, but if he’d blinked, he’d have never seen it. She was good at hiding feelings, he realized. It might take time to catch on to nuances, to under stand what a tilt of her head or a shrug of a shoulder or a subtle turn of her body meant. “I brought a bribe.” He moved near, caught her scent. The fragrance curled around him like a seductive cocoon. “I brought you breakfast,” he said, setting a bag from the Calico Diner on the counter.
Because the sight of him had quickened her heart beat, Tessa pretended interest in the bag’s contents. Even before he removed a plastic cup, she smelled the rich aroma of the coffee. “What else do you have in there?” Suddenly impatient, she peered into the bag. “Croissants?” She was intrigued. She couldn’t mask her astonishment. “You look more like a biscuits-and-gravy man.”
He took off his hat and set it, too, on the counter. “I like them.” His head bent close to hers as he reached into the bag. “There’s more in there.”
She peered into the bag and smiled. “You’re a bad influence.”
“One serving of lemon meringue pie for the lady with the sweet tooth.”
She laughed. She hadn’t wanted to be amused. Certainly she didn’t want to be charmed. But she had little choice. “Did you bring two forks?”
“I’ll pass.” His hand touched hers. There it was again, the warm, secure sensation she’d felt the first time hec touched her. Oh, say it like it is. A rightness descended on her whenever he was near. She wished—she wished her mother was alive, that she had someone to talk to about what she felt whenever he touched her. “You don’t know how to live,” she teased to stop her serious ponderings about him.
“Die happy,” he said on a laugh before he took a bite of his croissant.
“So what is it you’re trying to bribe me to do?”
“Parrish plans to hang around to find out if he inherited anything.” A trace of frustration colored his voice. “We have to do something, get answers. Will you go to the library with me?”
His request made sense. Outside of her home, Harriet had spent most of her time at the library. “If I go there with you, then I might feel something?”
“That’s possible.”
On a Saturday afternoon, the library was quiet but not empty. Lacking an abundance of windows, the two-story, redbrick building was huge but dark inside with mostly artificial lights. Tessa walked down an aisle between large tables where students from the local high school were studying.
With Colby, she sat at one of the varnished pine tables. She tried not to think about Harriet, to clear her mind of pressure. She made small talk with Colby about how nice the library was for a small town.
“Their pride and joy, my mother says.”
To not disturb others, she spoke low. “Louise came into the store this morning. She bought a love amulet.”
Colby removed his hat. “My next birthday present, no doubt. My mother is looking for a wife.”
“Your mother is?”
“Of course.” A slow smile lit his face. “She doesn’t think I’m capable.”
“Or have an inclination to?” Tessa asked. If he wanted to find someone, he wouldn’t have a difficult time. She couldn’t help wondering if he still pined for Diana, if that kept him from being satisfied with anyone else. She wasn’t sure how much he’d be willing to discuss. “I heard about your broken engagement. I’m sorry.”
He sent her a curious look. “Why?”
“It must be a painful memory.”
“We called it quits a month before the wedding.” That he didn’t offer more made Tessa stay silent. “Now my mother feels I might dodge matrimony.”
Was that because he was marriage shy or still in love with the ex-fiancée? If that was true, she couldn’t fault Louise for being concerned. “Does it upset you that she’s trying to play matchmaker?”
“I humor her.”
She heard such fondness. “You get along well?”
“Really well. My parents made a good life for me. They doted on me.” His smile widened. “Although they briefly threatened to disown me if I went into rodeo.”
“They didn’t want you to?”
“She’s a mom. She was afraid I’d get hurt.”
“And you did. Often.”
“Still they came to every rodeo within a day’s drive of Rumor to cheer me on.”
How difficult it must have been to deal with a son who sought thrills, firs
t on a motorcycle and then on an angry, bucking Brahman. “And now they want you to get married.”
“What she really wants is a grandchild. Do you see one in my future?”
By his teasing manner, he showed he still didn’t believe in what she could do. “I don’t predict. Remember?”
He released a chuckle and received a shh from Molly Brewster, the librarian in charge since Harriet’s death.
Tessa wondered why the quiet, subtle beauty pulled lovely blond hair tightly back in a twist. She offered Molly a quick smile, received a faint one from her. Though only in her late twenties, Molly looked weary. She doesn’t trust easily, Tessa guessed, but didn’t allow herself to delve deeper, to learn what secret Molly kept close.
“Hello, Colby.”
Tessa looked up with him in response to Dee Dee Reingard’s hello. The sheriff’s wife, Dee Dee was the doting mother of five, and at fifty, hardly the person to have something in common with an ex-rodeo ladies’ man. “I don’t know her,” Tessa said when Dee Dee moved on to check out an armful of children’s books.
“I know Dave,” he said about the town’s sheriff, “better than her, but I guess he put her onto me. They have a pack of kids.”
“I’d heard. Is that how you know her? Because of her kids?”
“That’s our connection. She’s into PTA, always at all of her kids’ games. When I came back to town, she pounced on me to coach one of the teams.”
“Did you agree?”
He delivered a crooked grin so full of boyish charm that Tessa’s heart turned. “What do I know about soccer?” he said.
“What about baseball?”
“I played a little. Enough to break a few school windows.”
How different they’d been as children. She glanced around at the aisles of books. As a child, she’d loved to read, escaped into worlds different from her own. She’d been quiet, even a touch shy. She doubted either of those words would have described Colby as a child. “Were you always getting in trouble?”
“Never.” He chuckled low, got another shh from a frowning Molly. “She’s almost as conscientious as a librarian we had in school. She used to shh if one of the kids sneezed.”
Big Sky Cowboy Page 8
