Chapter Nine

I must have fallen asleep because I awoke to a soft knocking at the door—clearly a human knock this time. I stumbled towards the sound. The clear light of day had all but obliterated the terrifying episode of the night before. I found myself doubting it’d ever happened; surely it’d been a nightmare?

No, I knew better.

Outside the window, parked in the driveway, there was an old truck with a U-Haul behind it. With a relieved smile, I flung open the door. “Thank God, Jim, it’s you. I thought you’d never get here.” I laughed and threw my arms around the man standing in my doorway—only it wasn’t Jim.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” I snatched back my embrace, red-faced. “I thought you were my brother.”

A tall, dark-haired stranger was framed in the doorway, blocking out the sun. I looked up into his laughing eyes. He still had his arms around my waist, and wouldn’t let go. I firmly withdrew his hands, angry he was so amused by my mistake.

“Do you always greet strangers like this?” His gruff voice had the tone of authority. “I’ll have to come more often.”

He was tall, at least six-five, with rugged good looks; dressed in a worn leather jacket and blue jeans. His eyes examined me as if he were trying to memorize my face.

“Not usually,” I got out somehow. I was a mess. I’d slept in my clothing for three nights straight and hadn’t had a bath or washed my hair in days. I felt embarrassed and irritated. He’d caught me looking so ragged. No woman wants to be caught looking like a wreck by an attractive man.

“Well, it’s not often a pretty lady greets me so affectionately. Usually I get the cold shoulder. But I liked it. I liked it a lot.”

Something in the set of my chin and my angry eyes must have stopped him. His hand went up in a conciliatory gesture. “I know. You thought I was your brother.”

“I did. By the way, where is he?” I peeked around the stranger’s shoulder to look. “That’s his truck.” I was careful not to go near him again.

It was then I saw Jim fooling around with something on the rear of the truck. “Jim!” I yelped and ran past the stranger into my brother’s waiting arms.

“Sis!” He grabbed me and planted a kiss on the top of my head, and held me away from him to get a good look. “You’re too thin, Sarah.”

“It’s the fashion, isn’t it?”

“For what?” He grinned. “Tooth-picks? You look gaunt.”

“Thanks, still the same old Jim—so damn truthful it hurts.” It was my turn and hands on hips, my eyes took him in. The hippie of a few years ago was gone. His hair wasn’t shoulder length and scraggly, but shorter and neatly cut, the wire-rimmed glasses, however, remained. He wore cowboy boots and blue jeans.

A Stetson was clutched in his hand. I thought he looked thinner, too. His shoulders drooped and there were circles smudged under his eyes. Yet they were the same green eyes I remembered staring up at me when I was a child. Melancholy eyes that held something I couldn’t understand hidden in their depths. They were an old man’s eyes. My brother could have been forty, instead of younger than I.

A chill passed through me. Something was wrong. Though Jim was smiling, I could sense a struggling inside of him and it snaked out to me like an electric shock.

“You look pretty tired yourself,” I remarked. “I thought you’d never get here.”

He eyed me over his shoulders as he jammed the tail gate of the U-Haul up and with a loud thump the back of the trailer came down suspended on rusty chains. “Thought I’d never get here, either.” He swung around and looked at me and then past me. I looked, too. “Had some trouble.”

“By the way, if it’s not being too nosy,” I asked, “who is he?” The stranger was lounging against the door watching us. Something about the way he stood or the set of his jaw reminded me of someone else. He casually gave me a mock salute and smiled.

“Oh, him? He’s a good Samaritan. The truck died on me about five miles back and if he hadn’t come by and offered to help, I’d still be crawling around under the hood without the slightest idea what was wrong. You know how I am about engines, Sis. Don’t know enough to fill a thimble. Now this guy,” he aimed a thumb at the nonchalant stranger, chuckling. “He knows all about them.”

I sighed and turned to the man. “Seems I owe you my thanks, also. It’s my furniture in the truck there. It’ll be lovely to sleep in a real bed again. Thank you.” I put out my hand to shake his. He took it and his skin was warm against mine. “Mister?”

“Detective Ben Raucher,” Jim supplied, amused. As if it was a joke.

I yanked my hand away immediately. I should have known, he was a cop. I should have recognized the stubborn set of the jaw, the arrogant stance. So like Jonathan.

“Oh, you’re a police officer?” I said coldly. “Anywhere around here?”

“Yes. Here.” He smiled boldly.

“You don’t look like a cop.”

“What’s a cop supposed to look like?” He raised an eyebrow and threw Jim a conspiratorial glance. What had Jim told him about me? I wondered.

My brother chuckled and I gave him a small shove.

“Apparently not like you, Ben.” Jim shrugged. “And, oh, my, you even ride a motorcycle.” He shook his head, horror in his voice.

It was then I saw the shiny black Yamaha parked in front of the house. With a side look I watched the tall man lounging nearby and was aware again of how I must look. I inched my way closer to Jim, lowering my head and trying to pull my fingers through the tangles in my hair. I felt Ben’s eyes appraising me.

“Mom?” The voice was Jeremy’s. He swayed in the doorway, half asleep and rubbing his eyes. “Who you talking to?” He glanced at the detective and over at Jim. His face lit into a big smile, and, in a flash, he was out the door and into Jim’s outstretched arms. It’d been years since he’d seen his uncle but he seemed to know him instinctively. The boy threw his arms around Jim’s neck and hung on like an octopus.

“Is this Jeremy? I can’t believe it. Last time I saw you kid, you were sucking a bottle and playing with your rattle.” They all laughed.

The detective stood smiling behind the two. He reached out a hand and ruffled the boy’s hair until he got his attention. Jim introduced them and sent Jeremy off with a playful swat to his behind. “Get in the house. It’s chilly out here.” But Jeremy had seen the motorcycle and headed right for it. The detective walked around the other side and showed him the bike, pointing out some of its better features. The motor roared into life, disturbing the early morning silence. I marveled at how I could have slept through its arrival.

Jeremy gazed up in awe at the stranger as they talked over the loud hum of the machine. He’d made a friend. I looked on in displeasure, knowing once my son knew the man was a cop, like his father, he’d idolize him even more. I heard Jeremy ask him for a ride.

The detective, the sunlight streaking through his wavy hair, looked to me to see if it was all right. He was so good looking he could have been an actor or something. “Maybe sometime, if your mom says it’s okay,” I heard him promise. Jeremy’s begging eyes focused on me.

“Maybe sometime, later. We have work to do now.” I motioned towards the loaded U-Haul and the packed truck in front of it.

I hadn’t meant to rope in the detective but he rolled up his sleeves with a huge grin. “Well, let’s start moving in this stuff. I haven’t got all day.” He tapped his watch. “I have to be on duty in two hours.” I tried to protest, looking first at Jim and then at him, but they ignored me.

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Sis.” Jim jumped up on the tailgate of the U-Haul.

“Detective?”

The man nodded.

“You don’t have to help. We can manage,” I protested stubbornly.

“Sarah, right?” He stated more than asked as he grabbed the end of the couch and began to pull, pushing me gently out of the way. “Call me Ben. I’m a human being, too, you know. I’d be a fool if I didn’t take advantage of helping a pretty woman out, now, wouldn’t I?”

“Flattery will get you nowhere with me. I’m immune.” I didn’t much care for his pushy manner. I didn’t care for him. He was like every other cop I’d ever met. Brash, arrogant, and probably a womanizer. I glared at him as he helped Jim carry in the couch, but he seemed oblivious to my growing dislike. The angrier I became, the more he smiled and winked at me. I figured the best way to discourage him was to simply ignore him. Maybe, like a headache, he’d go away.

“Mom, he’s a neat guy.” Jeremy was next to me. “He said he’d give me a ride on his motorcycle next time he came over. Wow!” A minute later he was climbing up into the back of the truck and dragging things out. “Over my dead body he’ll take you off on that two-wheeled death trap,” I vowed wordlessly.

I debated a moment or two, standing in the sunlight and, giving in with an audible groan, I began to help them unload. Every time I turned around, Ben was either right behind or in front of me. Too close. It was bad enough he wouldn’t stop grinning at me, but even worse, he was a cop and I wanted none of his kind anymore. I knew what they were like and I was determined to hate every last one of them. No exceptions.

We worked pretty much in silence unloading the U-Haul and the truck.

When they were empty, Jim said, “Thanks for helping, Ben.”

“Yes, thank you,” I added in a half-hearted way.

Everything was in the house, not in its final place, but at least inside. Jim gave me a disappointed look. “She’s not always this rude, Ben. I guess she got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” He was making excuses for me. My own brother.

“Well, next time I’ll remember to come over in the evening,” Ben kidded back, smiling, as Jim observed us. “Is she any nicer when the sun goes down?”

“No,” I threw in sarcastically unable to resist it. “At night I’m a real bitch.” I knew I shouldn’t be behaving this way, but something in the cop’s cocky manner ticked me off. Something about him made me boiling mad. It was his attitude, I guess. His very existence.

“She’s kidding, Ben. Visit us anytime.” Jim sent me a warning look and slapped Ben on the back.

Jeremy listened, watching the three of us.

“Nope, I don’t think she is,” Ben replied without a ghost of a smile. When he looked at me, I saw something in his eyes which hadn’t been there before. Disappointment.

Jim had shaken his hand before he’d left. I’d barely nodded goodbye at him.

Because by the time he climbed on his motorcycle and had roared off in a cloud of fumes, I’d learned to detest him and, I’m afraid, he knew it. Usually I wasn’t a rude person but I was in no frame of mind for a flirtation of any kind. I’d been burned one too many times. A man put on a badge and a uniform and he thought he was God’s gift to women. Well, this was one woman who wasn’t going to fall for it. No way. Not ever again. It made no difference how charming Ben-the-cop could be. He wasn’t going to fool me.

“You treated him like dirt,” my brother pointed out as soon as Ben was gone. “Why? After all, he helped me get here and also helped carry in all the heavy stuff when he didn’t have to.” I knew Jim wasn’t mad at me, only baffled.

“He’s a cop,” was all I said and walked into the house.

Behind me Jim was silent.