Experiment in Terror (Koehler Brothers Book 1)

by Anderson, Alene

  Matt walked her to her car. When she would have opened the door, he pushed her up against the vehicle and taking his face between his two hands, he leaned to kiss her. A long slow kiss.

  The next day as Amanda sat at her desk daydreaming of the evening she had spent with Matt, the intercom on her phone buzzed. She picked it up and Jenessa announced Matt was on the line for her.

  “This is Amanda,” she said into the receiver and hoped he didn’t detect how breathless she was.

  “I have to make a run up to Boulder today and wondered if you would have time for lunch.”

  Amanda glanced at her watch. It was a few minutes until ten. Should she meet him again so soon? She didn’t want to appear overly anxious. But she couldn’t resist the opportunity to see him .

  “What time did you have in mind?”

  “Would one work for you? That would allow us to miss the noon rush.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  “If it’s all right with you, I’ll stop by your store when I get into town. Then we can eat lunch somewhere on the mall.”

  She had no sooner hung up the phone, when her intercom rang again. This time it was Charlie.

  “Well?” her friend asked without any preliminaries.

  “Well, what?” she teased, knowing what Charlie wanted to know.

  “How was your date last night?”

  “Fabulous,” she said. “And he just called and wants to have lunch.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “No, I think I’ll take him to Illegal Pete’s.”

  “Oh, can I go with you? I want to meet him.”

  “If it was anyone but you, I would refuse. Be over here a few minutes before one.”

  Amanda smiled when she hung up the phone. She knew Charlie was anxious to meet Matt. She was going to be surprised when she saw him. Except for his eyes and his height, he didn’t look anything like the homeless man they had seen at the concert on the mall.

  By the time she did her paper work from the previous day, took the deposit to the bank, called a few artists for restocking, and relieved Jenessa for lunch, it was almost one.

  Charlie entered Amanda’s office at five to one and had just sat down when the intercom rang and Jenessa announced Matt was waiting in the store to see her.

  “Wow!” Jenessa added in an undertone.

  “I hope he didn’t hear that,” Amanda said.

  “No, he’s looking around the store.”

  “He’s here,” Amanda told Charlie as she hung up the phone. “Let’s go.”

  They entered the store together and saw Matt looking at some photography near the front of the store.

  “Hello, Matt,” Amanda said.

  He turned and his eyes lit up as he smiled down at her.

  “Matt, this is my friend Charlie. I hope you don’t mind if she goes to lunch with us.”

  “Not at all,” he said.

  “I thought we would go to Illegal Pete’s,” Amanda said. “It’s one of our favorite places to have lunch. Have you ever eaten there?”

  “No, but I’ve heard good things about it.”

  “Then let’s do it,” Amanda said, waving for the two to precede her out of the store.

  The three of them strolled down the mall with Matt between the two women. Amanda explained that Charlie owned Bare Threads, the dress shop on the mall across from Creations For You and mentioned they had been friends for years.

  “Charlie’s husband is my attorney,” Amanda added. “He’s the one who gave me Gary Kaufmann’s name.” She smiled mischievously.

  The three of them laughed and Matt reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. They reached Illegal Pete’s and Matt stepped forward to open the door. There was a small line waiting to be served and the two women stepped to the end of it, with Matt bringing up the rear. He insisted on paying for their lunch and they soon made their choice of food and drinks and sat down at a table.

  “You certainly don’t look anything like you did that day when Amanda and I saw you at the concert on the mall,” Charlie said. “Even your hair color is different.”

  Matt laughed. “I have a cousin who works for one of the big studios in Hollywood. When he isn’t working, he’s at his home in Evergreen. Luckily for me, he was able to fix me up. He’s pretty incredible when it comes to disguises.”

  “I would have to agree,” Charlie said. “So you were wearing a wig and I’m assuming the beard was fake.”

  He nodded.

  “But it was so real,” Amanda said. “I never dreamed it wasn’t your own hair.” She paused, remembering when he had held out his hand to help her up after her fall in the park. “And the ground-in dirt on your hands. How did he do that?”

  “With a special liquid. Luckily it was a temporary dye. They weren’t really that dirty, but I noticed you didn’t want to touch them,” he teased.

  Charlie regarded the two of them as they smiled at each other. “What’s that all about?”

  Amanda told Charlie about the fall from her bike in the park, and Matt’s offer to help her up. “My thought was, ‘No telling where those hands have been,’” she added, and the three of them laughed together.

  “You two will have to excuse me,” Charlie said, glancing at her watch. “I have an appointment in about ten minutes so I need to get back to the store.”

  “How about you?” Matt asked Amanda. “Do you need to get back?”

  “No, I can stay,” she said. She wondered if Charlie really had an appointment or if she’d made it up to give them some time alone together. Whatever, she was grateful to her friend.

  “If I stay in Boulder for the rest of the day, can I take you for dinner tonight?”

  Startled at the question, Amanda said, “You’re going to get tired of me.”

  “Never.” He smiled.

  “When we go back to the store, you can come in with me. I’ll have to check my calendar. It does seem like I have something, but I can’t remember what it is.”

  When they left the restaurant a few minutes later and started back to her store, Matt took her hand in his. She loved the feel of his warm hand with its long fingers wrapped around her own and she gave it a squeeze. He smiled down at her, and she felt a warm glow throughout her body. He dropped her hand as they reached Creations For You and opening the door, he stood back as two women customers came out, their arms full of packages.

  Amanda went directly to her office and Matt followed her. Running her finger down the calendar on her desk, she saw she had promised her mother to come to dinner. She didn’t dare cancel for a second night in a row.

  “I do have something scheduled,” she said, and smiled to herself at the look of disappointment on his face. “However, if you give me your cell phone number, I’ll see if I can change it to another night.”

  Grabbing a sticky pad and a pen, Matt wrote down the number and handed it to Amanda.

  Amanda glanced at her watch and saw her mother would be in class. “I’ll have to call you in about thirty minutes. Will you still be in town?”

  “Yes, I have to stop by and see the Chief of Police for a few minutes. If you can’t make it tonight, I’ll head back to Denver.”

  The intercom buzzed and when Amanda picked up the telephone, Jenessa told her one of the artists was on the line for her.

  “I should take this call,” Amanda said.

  “Do you have to?” Matt asked, an unreadable look in his eyes.

  Chapter 11

  After Matt left, Amanda took the call.

  “Denise,” she said. “What can I do for you today?”

  “I wanted to give you notice. I will be pulling my jewelry out of Creations For You.”

  “Really? Is it something we’ve done?”

 
; “No, my husband is being transferred to Des Moines, so we both feel it won’t be convenient for me to remain as one of the artists in your store.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. You know how well your jewelry sells. You do know we have some out-of-state artists in the store, don’t you? You could ship your jewelry in and I could have someone keep your space stocked.”

  “It’s not that. It’s the new job my husband’s taking. He’s going to be doing a certain amount of traveling. I’m going to be going with him, especially when those trips take him out of the country. So I’m won’t have time for my jewelry.”

  “The travel sounds wonderful. Lots of luck to you both,” Amanda said.

  After hanging up the phone, she searched through her card index. She was going to offer the space Denise was vacating to the young women she had interviewed the first day she had seen Matt on the Boulder Creek Path disguised as a homeless man. What was her name? She flipped through the index cards until she found it. Kathy Chambers.

  She would call her, but first she must decide what to do about this evening. Could she cancel with her mother?

  She called her mother at the University.

  “Absolutely not,” her mother told her, when she asked if she could cancel. “I’m giving the dinner for my cousin, Irene. It’s in celebration of her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary and I told her you would be there, along with some other family members. What is going on with you, anyway? This is the second night in a row.”

  “A friend asked me out for dinner. I didn’t know your dinner was for Irene. I’ll tell my friend I can’t go. Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll be there. Should I bring a gift?”

  “That would be nice. Something from your store. You know what a big hit that always is.”

  She knew she shouldn’t invite Matt since it was a family gathering. Plus, her parents would be asking all kinds of questions. How had they met? How long had they known each other? What was his career? Where did he grow up? Etcetera, etcetera. There was nothing for it. As bad as she hated to, she would have to pass on having dinner with Matt. He would be too much of a distraction from her cousin’s anniversary celebration, which wouldn’t be fair to her cousin.

  She dialed the number Matt had given her. He answered immediately. When she told him she did have an appointment for the evening and she couldn’t get out of it, she could hear the disappointment in his voice as he said they would make it another time.

  “I have an idea,” Amanda said.

  “I hope it has something to do with spending time with me.”

  She laughed. “It does.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Do you have a bike?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  “Tomorrow is Sunday. I never work on Sunday. If you’re free, you could come up to Boulder and we’ll go biking. I’ll pack us a lunch and we can have a picnic while we’re out.”

  “I like it.”

  “Come up about ten in the morning and we’ll leave from my house. I’ll give you my address.”

  After Amanda had given Matt her address, they talked for a few minutes and then he said he had to go because a call was coming in, but he assured her he would see her the next day.

  “Do you have to take it?” she teased, asking him the almost same question he had asked her earlier in the day.

  “Look at all these leftovers,” Mrs. Barton said to Amanda after everyone had left the anniversary celebration.

  “Why are you surprised?” Amanda asked as she started rinsing the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. “This always happens after one of your dinner parties. Then I have to come and help you and Dad eat them the next day, and the day after.”

  “You know me so well.” Her mother laughed. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

  “A friend and I are going to bike out to Lake of the Pines and have a picnic lunch.”

  “What time do you think you’ll be back?”

  “I don’t know. Probably around two or three. Why?”

  “Maybe you could come up for dinner tomorrow night. Bring your girlfriend along with you.”

  “It’s not a girl, Mom. I’m going biking with a man.”

  “A man! I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

  How much should she tell her mother?

  “I met him a few weeks ago and I’ve had lunch and dinner with him.”

  “Well, bring him along. You know we always enjoy meeting your friends.”

  “I’ll have to ask him and let you know.”

  “Do that, darling. I’m so glad you’re seeing someone. After all, it’s been five years since your divorce.”

  “As you know, Mom, I’ve been pretty much turned off by the opposite sex, thanks to Eric.”

  “Well, I hope your friend can make it. What’s his name?”

  “Matt Koehler. Now, no more questions, Mom. Save them for dinner tomorrow.”

  Mrs. Barton smiled at her daughter and began setting the plastic containers of leftovers into the refrigerator as Amanda put the dishes into the dishwasher.

  Amanda knew if she brought Matt to dinner, he would be in for an interrogation from her parents. Where did they meet? What did he do? Where did he grow up? Did he have any siblings? On and on.

  If they continued to see each other, and she was hoping they would, it was inevitable he would meet her parents, so she might as well bring him for dinner.

  Sunday was a bright, sunny day. A perfect day for biking, Amanda thought as she spread the mayonnaise and mustard on the bread before laying on slices of ham and cheese. She was glad she had thought of the outing. She loved biking and it wasn’t always easy to find someone to go with her. She was glad it could be a solitary sport when necessary.

  A few minutes before ten, the doorbell sounded throughout the house and Amanda hurried to answer it knowing it would be Matt. Opening the door, she saw he was wearing a pair of khaki shorts topped by a white short-sleeved knit shirt, which accented his tan.

  His face lit up in a smile as it always did when he saw her and she couldn’t help but smile back. She loved his smile and the way he always lit up when he saw her. She leaned around him to see his black SUV with a bicycle rack on the back.

  “Come in,” she said, holding the door open wider. “I’m about ready. Just need to finish packing our lunch.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “A lot of bikers take the Foothills Highway out of Boulder to Lyons. About five miles out of town, there’s a development called Lake of the Pines, which has a nice little beach there and some picnic tables.”

  “I thought Lake of the Pines was a gated community.”

  “It is,” she said. “But I have the security code to get in.”

  He raised questioning eyebrows.

  “I know someone who lives out there.”

  “Can I help you finish packing the lunch?”

  “No, but you can come in the kitchen and watch me. I want to check and make sure you like everything I’m taking.”

  “That won’t be a problem, since I like most things.”

  He followed her into the kitchen, and she motioned him to a stool by the kitchen bar where containers were stacked. She gave him the inventory of what was in each one.

  “It all sounds good to me,” he said.

  He watched her arrange the containers into the red backpack laying nearby. She followed that with a couple of oranges, two cans of Coke, bottles of water and an icepack to keep the liquids cold.

  “Turn around,” she ordered after she zipped up the backpack.

  He stared at her in mock dismay. “I’m the one carrying this?”

  “Of course, that’s the only reason I asked you along,” she teased.

  “There’s going to be a charg
e.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “I’ll let you know later,” he said with a smile as he turned around, and Amanda slipped the straps over his shoulders.