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“Just popping out for a walk,” Molly said as she sauntered through the long living room of the lodge house, ignoring Saul, who was sitting on her leather sofa with his feet propped on a crate, flicking through the house renovation magazines that were stacked on Molly’s great-grandmother’s coffee table.
“In the dead of night?” he asked.
“Won’t be long. Don’t wait up.”
“I don’t intend to.”
Molly made for the door. She still hadn’t had time to dry her hair properly, not if she wanted to see Alice and still get to bed before midnight, but she’d tucked it all beneath her mocha hat because she didn’t want to get a chill.
“Take a flashlight,” he called.
“It’s a full moon.”
“So you’re off to do a naked dance in the wilderness?”
“You wish,” she said, turning and giving him a saccharine smile.
His smile appeared, reaching his eyes. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing you dance naked in the wild.”
The stirring of sensuality that swirled in her stomach was so unexpected, her eyes almost retracted in their sockets.
“Cake knife,” she said. “Remember what that’s for?”
She turned from the sound of his low laughter, let herself out, closed the door, and headed down the driveway. Did he find her attractive? It sent a odd, silvery-sweet shiver down her spine.
“He was probably joking,” she murmured, then glanced over her shoulder at the shadows behind her.
“It’s me,” she called as she walked through a thick clump of willow trees twenty minutes later. She always called, and Alice never answered because Alice always knew it was Molly. But Molly felt it only polite to announce herself.
She settled herself by the pit fire. “He’s here,” she said. “The stranger.”
“I know.”
“He’s a pain in the ass.”
Alice chuckled.
“And his equipment is in Lubbock.”
“Not all of it.”
“He’s strong though,” Molly continued. “He’s going to put the roof on—well, he says he’ll stay long enough to do that. He might change his mind now. I forgot to get the ready-meals from Momma this morning.”
“Distracted, were you?”
“You’re telling me.” Molly picked up a stick and poked the embers, deciding to say nothing about the thoughts she’d been having about Saul’s equipment—and she didn’t mean his building gear. “There’s something going on but I can’t work out what. It’s like it’s in my grasp but out of my reach. If you know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean,” Alice said. “Take your time and let it come to you.”
“I don’t mean chanelling. I don’t have any mysticness.”
Neither did she want it. So much bad had happened in the past few years. Why would she want to know for sure that more was on its way?
Alice paused. She didn’t move, but Molly knew the stillness. When it surrounded her grandmother it felt like the air had been whipped to flat.
“He’s watching you,” Alice said, her voice as soft as a dry leaf falling from a branch.
Molly gasped. “He followed me here? I didn’t hear a thing behind me.” She’d looked over her shoulder a dozen times, imagining something, but hadn’t seen anything. Not even a coyote.
“He’s watching out for you, not stalking you. Thought you might get yourself into some trouble.”
Molly hugged her knees, but strangely, her heart warmed at the thought of Saul looking out for her. “Can he hear us?”
Alice shook her head. “Too far back, but he can see us.”
“I haven’t told him about you yet. I don’t know how he’ll take it.”
“Why don’t you let him make up his own mind?”
Molly grunted.
“Getting on well?” Alice asked in an amused tone.
“We hate each other.”
“Maybe he thinks you’re a bit of a pain in the ass, too.”
“I inherited that attribute,” Molly said loftily. “It’s in my genes.”
It earned her another chuckle.
“Ask him about the time he left Colorado,” Alice said.
“Why?”
“Just ask.”
That was an odd request, but Molly didn’t push for more information. Alice never told anyone what was about to hit them. She said the person needed to figure it out for themselves and Molly was sure her grandmother enjoyed herself when she offered cryptic, mysterious messages. But she tucked away the reminder to ask him.
“Marie will be over to see me tomorrow.”
Molly didn’t question it. Momma had either made up her mind to visit Alice, or she would do so tomorrow. “Is it the developers?”
Alice nodded, and Molly released a lengthy sigh. “We’re having a lot of trouble with men, aren’t we?”
“Not so much from your stranger.”
“Not yet. And I thought he wasn’t mine.”
“So, do you think he’s dangerous?” Alice asked.
Molly shook her head. There was definitely something not right about him, but she didn’t feel frightened of him. “I’d better get going,” she said. “Got a big day tomorrow, if he sticks around.”
“Make your way home without looking back,” Alice said. “Don’t let him know you know he’s there.”
A tremor ran through her, like the brush of a bird’s wing on bare skin. She wasn’t sure any man, apart from Davie, had looked out for her welfare before now. “Why can’t I let him know that I know he’s there?”
“Because he’s figuring you out as much as you’re figuring him out.” Alice shook her denim, calf-length skirt, grit and earth falling from its soft folds. “There’s one more thing.”
Some sort of premonition swept over Molly’s body in a goose-bumping prickliness. “What?”
“Forget about the ring.”
Molly cringed. She’d thought Jason loved her but what woman bought her own engagement ring?
“You should never have bought it in the first place,” Alice said. “You know why, too. But it’s your lie...”
Alice let her words hang in the air and Molly pictured the ring she’d thrown at Jason and the new girl after discovering them in one of the unoccupied motel rooms. She ignored Alice’s last words, still unwilling to recognize the lie within her for what it was. It was such a complicated issue to clarify. Had she been right? Or wrong?
“Forget about the ring,” Alice said again. “Don’t push him about it.”
“It’s worth five thousand dollars.” What sort of woman would she be if she let him get away with duping her and holding on to her money? “I’m going to get it.”
“Well, then, Molly Mackillop, you’ve got trouble coming.” Alice looked at the fire as the flames died down to low, smoky curls. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Saul stood in the shadows at the rear of the lodge house, watching Molly head inside. He’d turned his bedroom light off and closed the door, so she’d figure he’d gone to bed.
He fingered the key he’d pinched for the door at the rear of the lodge that would lead him inside later, through the rooms that hadn’t yet been renovated. But first, he wanted to check out the place she’d been, and see if he could figure out why the old woman lived on her own in such a remote place.
He walked back the way he’d come, down the driveway, and onto the road that led into town. About a mile or so down, he turned left onto a road with no name. At least, that was what the signpost said. No Name Road. Five minutes later, the road narrowed and forked. He paused. One track had been cleared, gravel and dirt pushed to either side to make a decent pathway. A sign told him, A. Mackillop. No Appointments Necessary.
Saul took the lesser used track and ducked beneath willow branches until he reached the point where the track widened, the sandy surface ensuring he had no trouble keeping himself silent.
He came to a stop among another clump of willows, about fifty yards from the pit fire, which was burning, the flames low but bright.
She was there. She must have stayed after Molly had left. She was supple enough to sit cross-legged on the ground. She wore a fringed suede jacket and a long denim skirt, the folds reaching to her calves.
The fire flared suddenly, long and bright, like a rod of molten steel. A log must have shifted. There wasn’t even a slight breeze tonight.
“You can come on over,” she called without looking around. “I don’t bite.”
Saul grinned and left the shadows.
“What gave me away?” he asked as he reached the sheltered fire pit.
She nodded at the ground. “Don’t stand on ceremony. Sit. Did she get home safely?”
“She did.”
“So you thought you’d pop back to check me out.”
“I thought you’d be in bed. I only planned on taking a look around. You’re Molly’s grandmother.” He extended his hand. “Good to meet you. I apologize for sneaking around your property.” He hadn’t realized she’d even known he was there. He must have given himself away.
“Don’t. You were doing it to protect Molly.”
“Not really.” He didn’t want the old girl to think he had a thing about her granddaughter. “I was doing it to snoop.”
She laughed. “Whatever fills your tank.”
She hadn’t taken his hand so he hunched down to warm his hands by the fire. “You live out here? A bit remote, isn’t it?”
“For a woman my age?” she asked. “Start using your sense, Saul Solomon.” Her eyes held a twinkle but Saul didn’t have time to wonder why. “You already know that my daughter, Marie, lives on her own and does just fine, and that my granddaughter lives on her own, under harsher circumstances than me. What does that tell you?”
“That I need to remember my sense.” Saul allowed a smile to play on his mouth.
It’d be hard to pull the wool over this one’s eyes. She had olive-green eyes. Molly’s were lighter, sometimes like a slice of flint if she was riled. Marie had green eyes, too. Three engaging women with mesmerizing green eyes. There was a warning there, somewhere.
“You haven’t got anything to fear from the Mackillop women,” she said.
Were his thoughts obvious on his face? “Are you a miss, too?”
“Alice Mackillop,” she said. “They call me Crazy Alice. Thought I’d tell you that first, in case you don’t use your sense when you’re told it by others, and start figuring you need to watch your back the next time you come calling.”
“Wasn’t planning on snooping anymore,” Saul said. Crazy Alice. That did make a statement.
“But you’ll be back.”
Saul doubted it. Now he knew that Molly took midnight walks to visit her grandmother, he’d back away from protection-mode.
“So there are three Mackillops I have to watch out for?” he asked. “Or are there more hiding in the valley.”
“We don’t hide.” She gave him a brief look. “I have two sisters. Wild Ava in Surrender and Mad Aurora in Reckless. They have granddaughters, too. Lauren and Pepper, but they don’t live in the valley.”
“You all have green eyes?”
“To date.”
“To date? You’ve got great-grandchildren on the way?”
“Not yet. But my sisters and I are working on it.”
Saul smiled, imagining the grandmother sisters, Crazy, Wild, and Mad, getting together with their crochet hooks.
Alice chuckled. “It’s not what you’re thinking.”
Saul looked away from her. Could she read his mind, or something? He’d gotten the same impression from Momma Marie, only not as deep or as unnerving as the impact he got from Alice.
“I’ll leave you to it.” He nodded, then rose. “Good night, Alice.”
He turned to head back through the trees, but she stopped him when she spoke. “Molly’s got trouble coming,” she said quietly.
“What kind of trouble?”
“She won’t hide from difficulties, or run from them, no matter who tells her she ought to. I guess you’ve noticed her touchy side by now.”
“I have been given an idea,” Saul said. “But while I’m here, I’ll keep an eye on her for you. Good night, Alice,” he said again, and turned and headed the way he’d come.
“Night, Saul Solomon,” Alice said to his back. “Pleasure to meet you. I was beginning to think it might not happen this decade.”
Saul walked into the night pondering Alice’s prediction—or whatever it was—about her granddaughter and trouble.
Molly was hidden away in the valley. What could harm her?
And did he really want to know?
