13
AFTER TELLING his machinists to go grab some lunch, Mike made a quick trip home and then set out in search of Colby Huxford. He’d forgotten to ask Beth where the vermin was staying, but his first guess, the elegant White House Bed and Breakfast in Warren, turned out to be on target. Mike talked to the folks there and said he was interested in locating Huxford on some urgent business having to do with the glass cutter patent Huxford wanted to purchase from Beth Nightingale. With that kind of detailed lead-in, he easily got the information that Huxford was probably eating lunch at his favorite midday spot, a little Italian deli in the heart of Bisbee. Mike knew the place.
Before he walked in, he made sure Huxford was there by sauntering past the glass-fronted deli and glancing at the tables. Sure enough, the weasel sat chowing down on what looked like a salami sandwich. How Mike would have loved to go in and ram it down his throat. When he thought of Huxford threatening Beth this morning, he wanted to kill the son of a bitch. But he’d promised Beth he wouldn’t be violent.
The minute he walked into the sandwich shop Huxford glanced up as if he were a wild animal scenting danger in the air. Mike walked over to Huxford’s table, pulled out a chair and sat down.
“I’m afraid you’re not invited to stay,” Huxford said. His Adam’s apple bobbed.
Mike took pleasure in his obvious fear. “I’m not staying. I’m here to deliver a message. By the way, that’s an interesting scratch on your cheek there. Cut yourself shaving, did you?”
“Don’t get cute with me, Tremayne. Did Beth send you?”
“No. In fact, Beth and her sister, Alana, are on their way to Sierra Vista to see the Eckstroms.”
“I’d advise them to send a lawyer instead.”
“I don’t think they’ll need one.” Mike leaned his forearms on the marble-topped table and deliberately shoved himself into Huxford’s personal space. “Alana took that family on an outdoor vacation last year and single-handedly turned the son from a potential drug addict into a high school sports star. The kid, and the parents, would do about anything for Alana. She’s going to ask them to forget about this asinine suit you talked them into.”
“We’ll! see.” Huxford leaned back in his chair and flexed his shoulders in a comical show of bravado. “Mrs. Eckstrom seemed quite concerned about her son’s future when I talked with her.”
“Oh, I think this will work. Beth’s going, too, and folks around Bisbee learned a long time ago that you don’t mess with those Nightingale girls. The fact is they don’t need me to drive the last nail in your coffin. They can take care of themselves. I’m here strictly for my own pleasure.”
Huxford sneered. “I suppose you’ll threaten to beat me up or something if I don’t leave town by sundown.”
“That would be fun, but I promised Beth I wouldn’t lay a hand on you. However, I do expect you to be gone by tonight.”
“And if I’m not?”
Mike sat back in his chair and crossed his ankle over one knee. “Well, let me tell you a little about myself, Huxford.”
“Not interested.”
“You should be. Last year I got real chummy with a tribal shaman down in South America. The rain forest natives have herbal concoctions you’ve never heard of. Poisonous frogs are a big thing, too. The hunters tip their arrows with some stuff that’s so lethal that one scratch will bring down a jaguar in seconds.”
“So?” Huxford licked his lips in a nervous gesture.
Mike reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal box. He opened the catch and put the open box on the table. “There wasn’t a lot to do in the evenings in the rain forest. I got pretty good with a blow gun. I learned how to mount the arrows on the shaft, too. Attach them one way and they fly perpendicular to the ground, which is how they need to go if you want them to penetrate the ribs of an animal. Attach them so they fly horizontally, and they’ll slide between the ribs of a man.”
Huxford glanced around the shop. It was empty, and even the owners were busy back in the kitchen catching up on some delivery orders.
By the time he glanced back at the table, Mike had repocketed the box containing the arrowhead. “No witnesses, Huxford. There wouldn’t be any when I hit you with the arrowhead, either.”
“You’re either bluffing or you’re insane.”
Mike smiled at him. “If I were you, I wouldn’t hang around a town with a potential madman in it. Could be dangerous to your health.”
Huxford pushed out of his chair, leaving most of his sandwich on the plate in front of him. “I’ve heard enough of your crap.” He threw some money on the table. “I begged the company not to send me out to this godforsaken place. You can have it.” With that he stomped out of the deli.
“Thanks. Believe I will,” Mike said to the empty room. He picked up the untouched half of Huxford’s sandwich and began to eat.
BECAUSE HE WASN’T squiring Beth and Alana around, Mike decided to take his dad’s old truck to Tucson. Storm clouds had been threatening for the last couple of days, but tonight they looked really serious. He wondered if Alana’s Jeep leaked during a downpour. If it did, the two women would probably get wet on the return drive to Bisbee.
Then again, maybe he’d be taking Beth home in the truck and Alana would be driving back to Phoenix. He couldn’t believe she’d want to hang around once Beth broke the news. He hoped to hell she’d done it by now, even if that meant the visit to Ernie’s room wouldn’t be all sweetness and light. It was time to get things out in the open.
He couldn’t exceed the speed limit in the aging truck as he had in the rental car, and he was running late. By the time he arrived at the hospital, big drops of rain pelted the asphalt parking lot. The air smelled of damp creosote bushes, a tangy fragrance peculiar to the desert that Mike happened to love. Thunder growled over the mountains. It would be a wet night.
When he started down the hall toward Ernie’s room, he found Alana and Beth waiting together in the hall. One look at their untroubled expressions told him that Alana still knew nothing. Disappointment ate away at the glow of triumph he felt from his encounter with Huxford.
Nevertheless he approached the two women and put a smile on his face. He’d have to continue to play this Beth’s way. “What’s up?”
“The doctor’s with him and asked us to step outside for a minute,” Alana said. “Your shirt’s damp. Must be raining out there.”
“Yep. How’d the discussion go with Mrs. Eckstrom?”
Alana grinned. “She doesn’t think she wants to pursue that lawsuit, after all. Turns out her son did cut himself on the glass, not on the tool, but he wanted to blame something besides his own carelessness, so he said the cutter did it.”
“We even got the cutter out and ran it back and forth across everybody’s hand to prove the point,” Beth added. “Mrs. Eckstrom apologized for putting us through all the trouble.”
“That’s terrific.” Mike looked into Beth’s eyes and wasn’t encouraged. The strong glow of love and passion that had been there the night before had dimmed considerably. He could see the whole thing pretty clearly—Alana had charged in to save the day and Beth couldn’t bring herself to lower the boom on Alana’s fantasies. But where that left him wasn’t at all clear.
“Okay, your turn,” Alana said. “What happened when you saw Huxford?”
“Well, I told him you two were punching a large hole in his lawsuit scheme.”
“Our counterattack might not have worked, you know,” Beth reminded him.
“I knew it would work. As I told Huxford, anybody who’s lived around Bisbee very long knows that when the Nightingale girls join forces, watch out.”
Alana laughed. “So once you told him we were on the case, he turned tail and ran back to Chicago?”
“Not quite. But he is gone.”
Beth looked worried. “Mike, you promised not to get physical.”
Mike put up both hands. “I didn’t hit him. Not even once. It took a lot of restraint, but the only mark on that slimeball is the one you put there.”
Alana stared at her sister. “Beth hit this guy? This I have to hear.”
Mike listened to Beth’s abbreviated version of why she slapped Huxford. As he expected, she left out Huxford’s remark that Mike had gotten there ahead of him sexually. She left out the fact that she’d met Huxford as she returned home after spending several hours in a hotel bed with Mike.
“Awesome, sis,” Alana said. “I can’t believe you got violent so quickly, just because he tried to make a move on you. You must be getting feistier in your old age. It’s too bad, in a way, that he wasn’t a nice guy.” She turned to Mike. “Which reminds me. We need to have a talk with this girl, Mike. She’s tucked herself away in her studio down in Bisbee, where she hardly ever meets single guys. I’ve tried to get her to spend time with me in Phoenix so I could introduce her around, but she won’t come. I worry that she’s going to become a shriveled-up old maid type who putters in her glass studio and has no life.”
Mike fixed Beth with a relentless gaze, taking no pity on her just because her cheeks were growing pink. “Is that what’s going to happen to you, Beth?” he asked softly.
She sent him a challenging glance. “I think we’re getting off the subject of what you said to Colby.”
“Yeah, I’m curious about that, too,” Alana said.
So Mike filled them in on the conversation at the deli and watched Beth’s eyes grow wide with disbelief.
Finally the tension must have overwhelmed her, because she grabbed his arm. “I hope to God you don’t really carry around a poison-tipped arrowhead that would kill somebody!” Then she withdrew her hand quickly, as if she’d touched a hot stove.
The brief grip of her fingers was enough to make him long to pull her into his arms. One kiss in front of Alana would be worth a thousand words. But he didn’t dare give in to that impulse and risk losing everything. “No, I don’t have a poison-tipped arrowhead,” he said. “I have no interest in carrying around something like that.” He winked at her. “Especially with my reputation for being a little clumsy sometimes.”
“So what was it you showed Huxford?” Alana asked.
“Just an arrowhead I brought home from Brazil. It could be tipped with poison, but it isn’t. And I never told him it was. I just showed it to him after describing my expertise with a blow gun. He checked out of the White House B and B pretty quick after that, according to the person I talked to.”
Alana chuckled. “That’s great, Mike.”
“Can you really use a blow gun?” Beth asked, still visibly shaken from the story.
“Yeah, I can. It didn’t take much practice, considering all the years I shot spit wads in school. It’s the same principle.” He gazed deliberately at Beth. “The secret’s in how you use your tongue.”
Beth’s color heightened and she looked away, but Alana didn’t seem to notice a thing. “I remember the time you shot a spit wad at me when we were taking the English final from old man Geddes,” she said. “He almost flunked you.”
“And you talked him out of it,” Mike added, returning his attention to Alana.
“I should have let you hang,” Alana said with a grin, “considering that was the same day you—”
“You can go in, now,” the nurse said from the doorway of Ernie’s room.
“Oh. Thanks, we will,” Alana said, starting immediately for the room.
Mike took the opportunity to grab Beth by the shoulders. He held onto her until Alana was inside the door of Ernie’s room. Then he leaned down and put his lips close to the side of her neck. “I love you, even if you are a coward,” he murmured before biting her ever so gently.
She drew in a sharp breath but didn’t turn in his direction. After he released her, she straightened as if she were a well-trained soldier and walked into the room. Feeling more discouraged than ever, Mike followed.
BETH REMEMBERED hating seesaws when she was a kid because the bouncing up and down made her stomach hurt. That’s how she felt now. One minute she couldn’t imagine devastating Alana by telling her about Mike, and the next she was dying of frustration and ready to shout out the news. In between these bouts she watched Mike and Alana interact and couldn’t help noticing how alike in temperament they were. For most of her life she’d believed they should be together. They were the strong ones, the brave ones. She was the little mouse who yearned for excitement but didn’t have the nerve to claim the life she wanted.
With the imprint of Mike’s gentle nip burning as if it were a brand on her skin she walked into Ernie’s room. Alana had already claimed the chair by his bed and was talking animatedly to him.
Ernie glanced up as Beth came in followed by Mike. There was an unmistakable question in his eyes. “So you’re all in the same room together again,” he said. “About time.”
“Life’s too short to hold grudges,” Alana said, turning toward Mike. “Right?”
“Right,” Mike responded.
“How are you feeling?” Beth asked, coming to the foot of the bed.
“Tip top, now that you three are all here.”
“Nifty jaguar tooth you’re wearing,” Beth said, as she tried to tell herself Ernie was looking better, even though in her heart she knew he looked more tired than ever.
“Yeah, the nurses are callin’ me Crocodile Dundee,” Ernie said with a smile.
“Wait’ll you see a jaguar in the wild, Dad,” Mike said, moving up beside Beth, his body just barely touching hers. “It’s an awesome sight.”
Beth knew she should move away, but the underlying note of anxiety in Mike’s voice made her stay near him. She could tell he was worried, too.
“I’ll just bet it is,” Alana said, turning toward Mike. “By the way, I was just telling your dad about my new brainstorm. I told Beth about it earlier, but the funny thing is that I haven’t told you, and you’re the key party in this.”
“In what?”
Standing so close beside him, Beth felt Mike tense. She gripped the end rail of the hospital bed as a premonition of disaster swept over her:
“I think you should come into business with me,” Alana said. “I’ve tapped into a lucrative market, and I need a good sidekick who’s up for adventure and travel. I’ve been wanting to expand into rain forest treks for families. Your life-style would be about the same as it is now, but you’d be building something for yourself, financially. What do you think?”
In the agonized few seconds of silence that followed, Beth wished a tornado would come through and suck her right out of the room. That almost seemed like a possibility with the way the rain pounded against the window and lightning crackled outside.
“It’s a gully-washer,” Ernie remarked.
“Looks like it,” Beth agreed.
“Well, Mike?” Alana prompted. “This business is really going places. I’d like you to be part of it.”
“It’s an interesting idea,” Mike said at last. “I’ll give it some thought.”
“She might make you live in Phoenix,” Ernie said.
“Oh, I know Mike wouldn’t want to live in a big city,” Alana said quickly. “That wouldn’t be a requirement.” She gazed at Mike. “Just promise me you’ll think about it, okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed, his tone neutral. “And I appreciate the offer.”
“We’ll consider it a standing one,” Alana said. “You’d be good at this, Mike.”
“Maybe so.” He cleared his throat “Listen, you haven’t had as much time with Ernie as Beth and I have recently. Why don’t you stay here and tell him about your canoe trip while Beth and I go out in the hall and talk? Something came up today at the shop about the cutter design, and I want to ask her a few things so I’m clear about the process for tomorrow.”
“Sure,” Alana said. “It’s hard for me to picture you laboring away in that machine shop, though.”
“I’ve sort of enjoyed it, to tell you the truth.”
“Then you’ve changed a lot, Mike.”
“I probably have, at that Come on, Beth. Let’s let them swap tall stories while you and I get some business accomplished.” He took her arm and led her out of the room and several feet down the hall.
“How long have you known about this idea of Alana’s?” he asked her once they were out of hearing range.
“She just mentioned it this afternoon.” Beth gazed up at him, her stomach a nervous twist. “To be honest, it sounds perfect for you.”
“There you go again, assuming you know what will make me happy. But I can tell you that this isn’t it.”
“Why not?”
He took her by both elbows. “Because I’d be dealing with the wrong sister, that’s why not. Because I’ve always loved you, and you’ve always loved me, and it’s finally dawned on me that I can have you and my adventures in the rain forest. You can have me and your stained-glass studio. We can make it all work—marriage, travel, children, happily ever after. That doesn’t fit too well with being a partner in Alana’s business.”
Her chest felt tight. “You want to m-marry me?”
“Somebody should.” He smiled down at her. “Or you’re liable to turn into a shriveled-up old maid type who putters in her glass studio and has no life.”
“But I’m too quiet, and I think too much about everything! Alana’s like you, decisive and ready for action.”
“Maybe that’s why she’s never excited me very much. I love those differences of yours. Alana’s passion is all on the outside, for everybody to see. Yours is hidden away, and I’m the only man who knows just how deep it runs. I’ve been fascinated by the rain forest because it’s secluded and mysterious. I’m even more fascinated by the mysteries of Beth.”
She began to tremble, and her heartbeat sounded loud in her ears.
“I can read your answer in your eyes,” he murmured. “All you have to do is say it.”
“Oh, Mike. It sounds so wonderful, but—”
“Of course, sometimes you do think too damn much,” he muttered. He pulled her to her tiptoes and settled his mouth over hers.
“Beth,” Alana called.
Beth quickly whirled away from Mike, but the minute she saw Alana’s face, she knew it hadn’t been quickly enough.