Tessa swung around with the box cradled in her arms and saw Colby standing in the kitchen doorway. “Look.”
By the expression on his face, she knew she’d paled. In a few strides, he crossed to her, enveloped her in his arms. “Tessa. They’re from me. I’m sorry. That was damn insensitive of me.”
Still cradling the box, she shot a look at him. “You sent them?”
“God, you’re white. I never thought you’d get scared when you saw them. It was a dumb idea.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she quickly replied. She was becoming a weak little girl. When had she ever let herself become so unnerved so easily? “It was a great idea.” She needed to overcome the sense of dread she had every time she saw flowers. In an excited rush to see what he’d sent, she whipped the red ribbon off the box, then lifted the lid. Her heart quickened. A dozen perfectly shaped red roses and wispy-looking ferns were nestled in the green tissue. “Oh, Colby.” Her throat tightened. The tears came unexpectedly.
With his fingertips, he caught her chin. “I didn’t buy them to make you cry. I thought you needed to get ones that would make you smile. Unfortunately they didn’t affect you that way.”
Tessa laughed in response to the good humor in his voice. “Oh, but they did. These are tears of joy. Thank you. It was so nice of you.” She raised misty eyes to meet his. “Thank you for reminding me how wonderful it is to get them like this, how beautiful they are.” She lifted the flowers to take in their fragrance. “Do you have a vase?”
“A vase?” He grinned wryly. “Now there’s something I’ve had a lot of need for.” Keeping her close, he walked her to the kitchen. “I have a glass pitcher.” He turned to retrieve the pitcher from a cabinet. “A big one. My mother told me it was for iced tea.”
From the way he said that, she doubted he’d ever made any. She joined him by the sink, watched water fill the pitcher. “The pitcher is fine, really,” she said, not knowing what could be stirring his frown.
“Can you take the day off? We need to get some answers. We might find some in Billings.”
“Check florists? Find out who sent the dead flowers?”
“It’s an idea.” He faced her. “You can’t live in fear. I brought this on you. I have to do something to stop it.”
Tessa didn’t bother to argue. If she had, he’d have gone alone. He was hoping she might feel something at one of the florists if she went with him. She thought it might be a good idea. As much as she loved his attention, he couldn’t play her bodyguard twenty-four hours a day.
When they drove through Whitehorn, Colby slowed the truck to practically a standstill for the posted speed limit outside Whitehorn Memorial Hospital. Tessa viewed the jagged peaks of the Crazy Mountains to the west. She’d stopped in this town when she’d arrived in Montana and had driven to the Stop N Swap. She’d expected only the owner of the junk store, Winona Cobb, to be there, but her niece, Crystal Cobb, now Ravencrest, had been there, too. They’d connected immediately. Because of their psychic powers, they were kindred souls. Tessa had visited Winona several times on days when she did her volunteer work at the hospital.
It was afternoon when Colby drove them into Billings. In passing, Tessa noticed that a local park was empty. The heat smothered, discouraging summertime picnics or softball games. An American flag on a pole hung limply from lack of any breeze. At a lazy pace, Tessa strolled with Colby along the sidewalk and wandered into a florist shop.
By four o’clock, visits to several similar shops had proven futile. “If the flowers weren’t ordered from a florist here, I doubt the pen was bought at one of the stores,” Colby said when they stepped outside again.
Tessa stared at the display window still showing floral arrangements with Fourth of July colors. “The proverbial search for the needle in the haystack,” she said and fought drooping spirits. If they could discover the name of Harriet’s lover, the person who gave her the pen, they might narrow down possibilities. At the least, they might be able to eliminate Harriet’s lover as the killer. Tessa gestured toward a gas station with a quick-stop market. “Do you think they sell pens?”
He scanned the street of businesses, then opened the truck door and removed the last box of dead flowers she’d received. “Let’s try that florist over there.”
The woman inside the shop was a sweet grandmotherly-looking type with silver hair. “Roses are for lovers.” Since they’d entered, she’d repeatedly looked from Tessa to Colby. “You really are a lovely couple. I suppose everyone tells you that.”
“Everyone,” Colby confirmed, slipping an arm around Tessa’s waist. “We were told it was written in the stars.”
The woman beamed. “Oh, how romantic.” As she turned away to answer her phone, Tessa gently elbowed him in the ribs. “You’re an incorrigible tease, aren’t you?”
“Guilty.” He grinned, still looking pleased when the woman returned to them. “We need help,” he said, bringing the conversation to the business at hand. He opened the box to reveal the flowers.
“Oh.” The woman clucked her tongue. “They’re dead. I’d never send dead flowers. And I don’t use that kind of box,” she said, tapping a finger on it.
“Do you know who might?”
“Someone who buys inferior flowers for their arrangements.”
Colby prodded. “Like?”
“Morton’s Mortuary has a florist adjacent to their building. They’re not too particular there.”
“Where is it?” Colby questioned.
She gave them an address and whispered a departing suggestion to Colby. “Red roses. They’d be perfect for her.”
The man at the mortuary, an Ichabod Crane look-alike who held his hands together in a gesture of prayer, informed them in his quiet, monotone voice that they acquired their flowers from a nursery in Boise. They made a quick check with the florist next door. It had no record of delivering any flowers in Rumor.
Tessa sighed. “One dead end after another.”
“I’ll check out Boise,” Colby said.
She thought he might be wasting his time, but said nothing rather than go head-on with his stubborn streak. “Did you bring the pen?” Tessa asked, eyeing a greeting card shop across the street.
“I have it.” He fished in his shirt pocket and removed the gold pen with its fine point.
Tessa viewed it as a gift for a practical woman. Had Harriet’s lover understood she’d treasure that more than a bottle of perfume? Or had Harriet felt disappointment at not receiving something more romantic?
“Let’s go over.” Colby placed a hand at the small of her back to urge her toward the store. “We might have some luck.”
They had none.
“The pens can be bought in any stationery or greeting card store,” the woman manager in the nationwide chain store told them. “And engraving is usually offered.”
“She made the pen as a gift seem like nothing special,” Tessa said when they stepped outside. “It might have been a practical gift, but if it was from a man Harriet cared deeply about, it would be special to her. Don’t you think so?” she asked when they were in the truck.
Colby switched on the ignition. His lips curved in a wry grin that carried a hint of sadness. “She’d value something that was useful.”
As he turned on the CD player, she dropped her head onto the headrest and listened to the music, country songs, mostly about love. “We came up empty today.”
Colby looked away from the traffic. “I know a way to keep the day from being a total waste.”
She saw the flash of his smile and laughed. “I know you do. So do I. Let’s go horseback riding.” She saw his look of surprise. “You thought I couldn’t?”
“I thought you were a city girl.”
“Fooled you.”
Atop his horse, a deep brown with a patch of white on its chest, Colby took the lead. Slowly he rode Dancer down a trail that snaked around trees away from the ranch and toward a lake. He gave a sweep of his arm. “Best place in the world.”
Tessa brought the roan alongside Dancer. “Oh, it’s lovely here,” she said as the lake came into view between the trees.
Colby thought she was. Sunlight gleamed on her hair, casting silver streaks through the raven color. With her nearness, he caught her light, flowery scent. Desire was only a breath away, he realized. “It’s a great place to go fishing.”
“Fishing?” A smile swept over her face. After hours that had held too much seriousness, she was grateful that he’d thought of a way to lighten their day.
He reined Dancer at a grassy spot where wildflowers sprinkled color on a nearby path. “Where did you learn to ride?”
“We lived in Texas for a while.” As Colby dismounted, so did she. Perspiration trickled down her back. “My mother had a brief relationship with a rancher.” So often her mother had gotten attached to some man and then watched him leave after one of her visions.
He tethered the reins on a nearby tree branch. “Pick a spot.”
While she chose two boulders near the bank and beneath a tree, he grabbed the fishing poles and tackle box from behind his saddle. “Is this a favorite spot of yours?”
“Garrett and I used to skip school and come here. Until my dad caught us, I’d miss for days.”
“And ace the tests?”
“Usually.” Colby settled on the rock beside her. “Everything came easy,” he admitted. A gentle breeze fluttered her hair. With a featherlight touch, he tucked a strand behind her ear.
“I always liked going.”
He leaned over, kissed her gently, softly, tenderly. “Bet you were a cutie.”
Tessa laughed. Pleasurable warmth moved through her. “Oh, stop.” She cast a look around. “Any girl’s initials carved on a tree in a heart?”
“Nope. Want yours?”
His question made her smile. When she’d been young, Tessa would have loved it if some boy had said that to her. How many girls had he made such an offer to? She wondered, aware he’d known his share while traveling the rodeo circuit. “Do you miss rodeo, Colby?”
His head bent, he stared into his tackle box. “That was a different life. It gave me thrills. But this is just as satisfying, in a different way. Let’s see if you’re really any good at this.”
Shifting on the hard rock, she raised her face to a bright sun. It promised to deliver another sweltering day. “I never back away from a challenge, Colby. I saw you, you know. Years ago.”
“You mean—” He wiggled fingers in front of his eyes. “That kind of saw me?”
Tessa stifled a giggle. “Yes. I saw you in a rodeo in Texas. Ten years ago.”
Despite the brim of his hat shading his face, she saw his grin. “Why would you remember me?”
“Because I was fourteen.” She took the rod from him, then peered into the tackle box for a lure. “Because you were eighteen and—”
He looked away from the water, shimmering beneath late-afternoon sunlight. “And what?”
And I was a dreamy-eyed teenager. Stalling, she pretended intense interest in the lures. “Gorgeous,” she answered while she chose a three-prong hook with a red-and-white stripe.
He sounded pleased. “You thought I was gorgeous?”
“Remember, I was fourteen. Easily impressed.” Tessa laughed at his pseudo-withering look.
“Did you like the rodeo?”
“It was fun.” She paused to cast her line. “I held my breath the whole time you were on the horse.” She’d sat on the bleachers, captivated by the lean, cute cowboy. She’d listened to the buzzer, the cheers of the crowd and hadn’t been able to take her eyes off him. “I plan to catch the first fish.”
Colby hooked his line before slanting a look at her.
“Are you trying mental telepathy to catch one?”
“My magic power,” she teased.
He leaned close and nuzzled her neck. “I know. It’s potent.”
She turned her face so her mouth met his, but at the last second jerked back, letting his lips kiss air. “Oh! I think I’ve got one.”
“You just put your line in. You couldn’t have—”
Definitely she felt the tug on the pole. “Tell the fish that,” she said, reeling in the line. “Oh, Colby.” The fish splashed the top of the water. “Oh, look. Look what I’ve got.”
“Reel it in.”
“I am, I am,” she said excitedly. “It’s big, isn’t it?”
He started laughing. “I don’t believe it.”
“How big is it?”
“Big enough. You’re amazing, Madam Tessa.”
“Can you cook this?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the fish.
“I know someone who can.”
Colby waited until they were in the truck driving toward town before he made the phone call. As he expected, his mother was agreeable. With a goodbye, he set his cell phone on the seat beside him. “My mother said bring the fish. She’ll make the rest of the dinner.”
“That’s nice of her.” Tessa sniffed hard. “I smell fishy.”
He thought she smelled like wildflowers. “That’s because you hugged the fish.”
Tessa pulled a face at his tease. “The way it was flopping around, I thought I’d lose it. I won’t be long, but I need to take a quick shower.”
“Okay. I’ll go see Holt while you do that.” He braked in front of Mystic Treasures, thought about going in to check rooms but knew she’d resist. “I shouldn’t be too long.”
“I’ll be waiting.” Leaning close, she placed a hand on his shoulder, pressed her breasts into him and kissed him hard.
“Tessa,” he said when she drew back.
On a laugh, she jumped out of the truck. “Later.”
Effortlessly she knocked him off balance, he realized as he watched her dash up the stairs to the store. Sharp, conflicting emotions moved through him whenever he thought of her, was with her. She made him feel more than he had in a long time. In little ways, she managed to surprise him, made him laugh more than any woman ever had. It felt so damn good to feel good.
He was still smiling when he entered the police department a few minutes later.
“I was coming to see you,” Holt said in greeting. Sitting at his desk, the deputy sheriff was munching on a powdered sugar doughnut.
“Got any news?” Colby asked.
Holt’s expression remained grim. “You won’t like it.”
“Did you learn more?” Tessa asked as soon as they were settled in Colby’s truck.
“Some.” Driving, he kept his eyes on the dark road. “Holt’s been checking into Parrish’s past.”
He’d been so quiet, too quiet. “You were hoping he could be linked to the murder.”
“He was my number-one suspect,” Colby said with a glance away from the road.
Tessa shifted on the seat to see him better in the dark confines of the truck. “Was?” She ran a smoothing hand over her lap in the peach-colored dress with its scooped neck and short sleeves. “He isn’t anymore?”
“I wish he was, but Holt told me that Parrish has an airtight alibi for the night of Harriet’s murder.”
“Are they positive?”
A trace of irritation edged his voice. “He has the best one he could have. He was in a Kansas City jail for disorderly conduct. My parents won’t be pleased.”
Louise met them at the front door of her home. At Colby’s brighter than usual greeting, Tessa assumed he would stall before announcing what he’d learned.
“Come in the kitchen,” Louise urged.
Tessa stood in the living room of the country house and viewed the beamed ceiling and redbrick fireplace. She followed Louise across the highly polished wood floor and through a dining room with its bay window and window seat. “You have a lovely home.”
“Thank you. It’s taken a lot of years of fixing it up.”
The kitchen was enormous and sunny with a wallpaper design of little yellow teapots on the wall above the sink and a knotty pine floor.
“This is one fine fish you caught, Tessa.” Colby’s dad lifted the fish Colby had cleaned at his house. “My son loves trout.”
“They both do,” Louise said to Tessa.
Colby gave her a grin before opening the refrigerator.
“Do you plan on telling us what’s wrong?” Bud asked.
Tessa was surprised by his father’s words. She’d thought Colby had done an admirable job of hiding his annoyance about Warren Parrish.
He faced his parents while yanking the tab off the beer can. “I didn’t want to ruin dinner.”
“You won’t. Tell us,” his mother urged. As he shared the news, her frown deepened.
Under his breath, Bud muttered something indecipherable.
Clearly they had been hoping that Warren Parrish was a suspect and would be out of their lives soon.
In response to the distress on his mother’s face, Colby offered encouragement. “It only means that Parrish isn’t the killer, but it doesn’t mean that he’s won, Mom.”
Sadness lingered in her eyes. “I couldn’t stand that man the moment I met him. You never got a vision about him?” Louise asked.
Tessa wished she could have given them information. “No. If I don’t feel something right away, it’s unlikely I will later.” She moved closer to Louise. “Let me help with dinner.”
“We all will,” Bud said.
Louise pointed at her son. “You bread the fish. Tessa, you can mix the coleslaw. I’ll start frying.”
Tessa grinned at Colby. “Now I know why you’re a good cook.”
He slipped an arm around her waist. “Learned at my mother’s knee.”
“Don’t believe him,” his father quipped. “He learned while traveling so he wouldn’t starve.”
“A lot of hot dogs and beans during the lean years,” Colby responded.
Bud laid a hand on his son’s shoulder. “There weren’t many of those. You won your share of prize money.”
“He worried me sick,” Louise said.
“She was always afraid he’d break a leg,” his father said.
Louise looked up from the frying pan. “I was more concerned he’d become taken with one of those groupies who chased after him.”
“Most of them are teenagers, Lou,” Bud reminded her.
“Some aren’t.” She slid the spatula under the potato slices frying in the pan, then glanced askance at Tessa. “They’re the ones that really worried me.”
“Mom,” Colby said in an affectionate, scolding tone.
Tessa veiled a smile.
Merrily, Louise went on. “Lots of women were taken with who he was, not who he is.”
“They were knocking down my door, Mom,” Colby said on a laugh.
“You weren’t ever lonely, were you?”
Tessa had heard that he was a favorite not only because of his skill and winning record but also because of his charm and good looks.
“You’ve heard about the wrong kind of women,” Louise said with a look at Tessa. “The last two years when he was earning lots of money it got worse.”
A handsome champion with money would be considered a prize catch, Tessa mused. But she was confused. During that time, he’d been engaged to Diana Lynscot. Was Louise talking about her?
“Could we discuss something else?” Colby asked, looking comically pained rather than annoyed.
Tessa laughed at their easy camaraderie but wasn’t surprised by it. From the moment she’d met Louise, she’d liked her sense of humor. Bud Holmes was just as likable and easygoing as his wife.
Conversation shifted from Colby’s ranch to the previous baseball game on television. When Colby told them about her dilemma, Louise touched her hand. “What a dreadful thing to have happen. You need to learn the name of the person sending those flowers. I can’t believe the problems going on in Rumor right now.”
“They’ll all be taken care of soon,” Colby’s dad said to soothe her. “And we’ll have a celebration dinner then. We’ll expect you to be here,” he said to Tessa.
“I’d like that,” she answered. They were so warm and welcoming, she wished she would be. Tonight had been another first for her. They’d known about her and still had made her feel comfortable, welcomed. Most parents of the men she’d dated acted as if they should hang garlic on the door to keep her away. Maybe that’s why a tinge of melancholy swept over her after saying goodbye. Though she hoped to maintain a friendship with Louise, she doubted she’d be with the three of them like this again.
Waiting outside for Colby, she sat on the porch swing. The warm night air carried no breeze, and she placed a hand to the dampness at the back of her neck. The heat was making some people cranky, for good reason. Every day that passed, the woods got drier and the chance of fire became greater.
Sitting back, she pressed her heel on the porch and swayed, let her mind drift to business. She needed to change the front display window from…
“Get out!”
She stood in a room with an easy chair, a reading lamp and table. “Get out!” she yelled at his back. “Is that why you really came here tonight? How can you ask that of me? It’s yours.” Fury filled her. “I won’t get rid of the baby.”
“I don’t want it.”
He sliced her open with those words. “It doesn’t matter to me what you want.”
“Get rid of it. Or else.” He swung away, stormed toward the door.
Tessa jerked at the image. He’d turned. She saw the buttons on his shirt, but his face was blurred. That made no sense. Everything else was clear. She’d even seen the numbers on the face of Harriet’s wristwatch.
“Tessa, can you hear me?”
The feminine voice, the gentle touch of a hand on her shoulder brought her to her surroundings, but for a long moment, she stared at Louise’s face. “Did your sister sit here often?”
“Whenever she visited.”
“What about the last time you saw her?”
“Yes. She was here on the morning of her death. She seemed distracted. Why do you ask? Did you have a vision, Tessa?”
“Yes, I did.”
Anticipation came into Louise’s dark eyes.
Tessa rushed her words. “But I didn’t see the killer’s face.” To tell her that in her vision Harriet’s lover wanted her to get rid of the baby would have served no purpose except to sadden Louise more.
Colby kissed his mother’s cheek. “Go in, Mom.”
She gave him a wan smile. “I’m sorry. I was hopeful.”
Tessa stood and hugged her. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I wish I could give you more.” Tessa waited until Louise stepped inside. “I saw only his back, Colby.”
He slipped an arm around her shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“No, you don’t understand. He’s faceless.”
“I know, Tessa. You told me that before. You—” As she balked, he stilled. “That’s not what you mean, is it?”
“He hides.”
Even in the shadows of night, she saw his confusion, said no more. He didn’t want to believe in her visions.
She remained quiet during the drive to the ranch, but when they stepped onto the porch, she had to tell him what she felt. Someone needed to know. “Colby, he hides from everyone,” she said, placing a hand on his arm to stop him from unlocking the door.
“I don’t understand. What do you mean? You can’t see his face because he’s hiding from you?”
“No, he hides from everyone. They—we—all of us see a different person. Like your aunt had seemed rigid, even straitlaced, hardly the type to be even dating a man, and—”
“Was actually having an affair. Is that what you mean?”
“Sort of. This person is two-faced. No one knows the real person.”
“Then it is someone we know?”
“The lover is. Yes. I think the reason I can’t see the man’s face is because I know him. I feel so badly. I wish I could have helped more.”
“It’s all right.”
How easily he said that. Was that because he’d never believed she’d be any help? She pushed away the wave of sadness sweeping over her. Don’t spoil the time with him, Tessa. “I’m sorry that you didn’t catch any fish today,” she said when they stepped inside his home.
“That’s not why I went fishing.”
“You didn’t want to catch any fish?” No man used to winning would like an unsuccessful day doing anything.
“I had more time with you. That’s why I suggested going.”
With a few words, he made her feel so wanted. She’d never look for promises, but she was yearning for them. “And what did you learn?”
“There’s a lot I don’t know about you.”
A gentle hand touched her hip, drew her to him. “Is this going to be twenty questions time?” she teased.
“I know you like horses. That’s all I need to know.”
“Easy to please.”
“I know we both like to play pool.”
She sensed that he was striving to keep the mood light. She wanted that. She didn’t want to explore their relationship too deeply. “That doesn’t count.”
“I know you can rig the line and take a fish off a hook.”
Tessa relaxed against him. “Incredibly important.”
“What’s more important?” he murmured, pulling her to him.
“That you’re responsible, sensible, practical, logical,” she reminded him.
“And you’re not?” His voice came out softer, caressing. “Is that the point you’re trying to make? Tessa, you’re responsible. You have a business. You get up every morning and open it to customers.”
Despite his seriously said words, Tessa saw a game beginning. “And you think I’m sensible?” Most people viewed her shop as nonsensical. Therefore, as owner, she was, too.
“And rational.”
He was serious, she realized. This wasn’t lip service. He believed she was responsible and rational.
“You’re clearheaded.”
She felt like laughing. She was so accustomed to different comments. Absurd. Wacky. Spacey. “Why do you think that?” she asked, trying to understand what made him see her differently.
A smile darkened his eyes. “You have good survival instincts. When Leone came after you, you kept your head, didn’t argue, didn’t agitate her.”
He had no idea how much his compliments were touching her. “What about practical?” No one who owned a store offering unicorns and good-luck charms and objects to see into the future could be considered practical.
“That might be a stretch.” He looked down as she began to unbutton his shirt. “I think you have a romantic streak, like to believe in fantasy.”
She placed her palms against his bare chest. “So I’m not practical?” she challenged lightly.
“Doesn’t matter. You have other fine qualities.” Absently he toyed with a strand of hair near her cheek. “You’re clever. Imaginative.”
Beneath the gentle caress of his fingers along her spine, her eyes nearly closed. “That isn’t the same.”
His breath blended with hers. “Quit examining this, Tessa.” Lazily he kissed her jaw. “Just go with it. Why are you so afraid of us?”
The question forced her to remember what she’d tried not to think about. She’d always believed that no man would ever accept such an oddity as hers in the woman he loved. She’d believed that her so-called gift had cursed her to a life without love.
“I asked you once before who hurt you. Tell me,” he said against her cheek. “Trust me, Tessa.”
She gave her head a shake. “It happened years ago.”
“That doesn’t make it any less important to you.”
“Few people understand or accept my clairvoyance.”
He inclined his head, forcing her to meet his stare. “Someone you cared about didn’t?”
Tessa stepped free of his embrace. “Yes,” she admitted. “His name was Seth. Years ago, I was with friends on a trip at a resort when I had a vision. I saw one of them falling, screaming. I told him about the vision. He laughed. So did Seth.” He’d made fun of her. “He said that I thought I had Gypsy blood and could tell fortunes.” She remembered how humiliated she’d been by his words, his ridicule.
Colby closed the inches she’d placed between them. “And you loved him?”
She made herself look up, knew he wouldn’t let her stop now. “I was young.” She met his serious dark stare. “I thought I loved him, so it hurt later, when we were alone, when he yelled at me. He was furious, claiming I’d made a fool of him, that because of me, his friends were laughing behind his back for having me as a girlfriend.”
“What did you do then?”
“I couldn’t go anywhere until the next day because of where we were. The next day, the friend who was an experienced backpacker was climbing a mountain with friends, and he fell.”
“He—”
She watched his eyes, disbelief, the longing to comprehend, to make sense of something.
“What did he say?”
“When Seth heard about his friend’s injury, he stared at me as if—” She took a deep breath. The old hurt rose so swiftly she was unprepared for it. She swallowed hard against the knot in her throat. “He stared at me as if I was weird, abnormal. He said that he never wanted me to do that—whatever the hell that was—again. I left him within the hour. I couldn’t change for him, for anyone.”
“He was a jerk.”
“He was afraid,” Tessa countered. “Aren’t you?”
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Colby opened his arms to her. “Only of how much you make me feel.”
Tessa nearly stopped breathing. “I can’t change.” She felt compelled to remind him.
In the dim light of the room, his eyes looked darker. “I’m not asking you to change.”