Chance of a Lifetime (38 page)

He lifted a new list. “People who can walk around downtown without being noticed. I’ve named them the invisible people. I’m guessing my stalker is close all the time. He either lives or works around the square.”

“People who own .22 pistols.” She added another list to his stack. “And”—she pulled the deputy’s list out—“people who play darts at Buffalo’s and probably have their own darts.”

Trace sat on the arm of one of the leather chairs and studied the lists. “We know whoever he is goes to the library, hangs out and plays darts at the bar, knows the town well enough to set your car on fire and not be noticed leaving.”

Rick frowned at the gun list. He recognized almost every name. After a long while, he looked up. “You do realize that half the men in the writers’ group own guns.”

He stood. “I need to walk. I think best on my feet.”

She didn’t bother arguing. “We drive out of town. Make sure we aren’t being followed. Then we walk.”

“Fine.” He sounded bothered by her restrictions, but he agreed.

Before they made it downstairs, Rick took a call from his mother. She’d heard about the shooting at church and was upset. She wanted him to come over for supper and talk. Which, in Matheson language, meant that half of the clan would be there.

He tried to get out of it but finally admitted to Trace that he’d put them off long enough. They were worried. The whole town was worried. He needed to let his family know that he was all right. They’d all give him advice and they’d feel better.

Trace said she wanted to check a few more ideas out. “If you’ll call Alex and Hank to pick you up, I’ll let you go,” she said.

Rick raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you’ll
let
me go.”

He was standing, moving around the desk before she realized her mistake.

The game was on. He chased her through half the house before he caught her in the third-floor bathroom and kissed her. Another one of those all-out, knock-your-socks-off kisses that left her shaking with need and about to lose control.

When they were both out of breath, she pushed him away. “Did you ever think of asking instead of just attacking?”

“Nope,” he answered. “You ever think of offering?”

“Nope.”

“You want me to back off?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

She smiled. “When I do, I’ll pull a weapon.”

“Fair enough. Until then, I’ll keep coming.”

They walked out of the tiny bathroom and saw Martha Q standing at the bottom of the stairs. Her arms were folded over her chest and her smile reached from ear to ear. “I guess you guys finally figured it out, did you? It’s about time. All I ask is that you try not to break the furniture.”

Rick recovered first and hurried down the stairs. He kissed Martha Q on the cheek and said, “I have no idea what you are talking about, Martha Q. We were simply having a discussion about dinner.” He winked. “I have to call my cousin and go over to my mother’s house. Your niece is staying here for the Sunday night dinner with the Biggs boys.”

Martha Q rolled her eyes. “I forgot it was Sunday. I’ll go check and see if Mrs. Biggs needs me to run to the store. I swear those boys can eat more than I’ve ever seen.”

Thirty minutes later, Trace stood on the porch as Rick walked out with a loaf of banana bread tucked under his arm like a football.

He looked straight at her. “You will be here when I get back?”

She nodded. “When I leave, Matheson, I promise I’ll say good-bye.”

“Fair enough.”

A truck honked and he was gone before she had time to
tell him to be careful. He’d be with his family. One was a sheriff. Rick would be safer there than with her.

Trace had seen one name on the list that drew her attention. Rick hadn’t caught it because the name wasn’t listed on the library list or the gun list, but he’d been near them every day.

S
UNDAY NIGHT

T
ANNON DROVE NINETY MILES AN HOUR THROUGH THE
night. The afternoon with his mother had been worse than usual. As she recovered, she grew more and more demanding and everything he did was wrong. She’d told him once that every time she looked at him, she missed his father more. You’d think two people who had one child would smother him with attention and care, but it had never happened, and it was about time he stopped waiting for any love to flow over him. His mother loved herself more than she could ever love Tannon or his father.

Paulette Parker had gotten her way all her life. She’d been spoiled as a child; her one friend, Shelley, Emily’s mother, had always given in to her plans; and her husband had worshipped her. Only age stood up against Paulette and wouldn’t give in to her tantrums.

The only bright spot in the visit had been when Tannon
mentioned Emily. His mother had gone on a rage about how he should have married her, but now it was too late. She’d never take a hard man like him. Not sweet little Emily.

Tannon hadn’t said a word, but inside he smiled, remembering how he’d held her at dawn and thinking about how he’d hold her tonight.

He rested his bandaged hand on the steering wheel and forced all the anger from his thoughts. He wanted Emily tonight. He needed to feel her against him. The thought of what tonight might promise had kept him sane all day and now he was late getting back to Harmony, the one place in the world he wanted to be.

He parked the truck and ran up the steps to her building, pressed the code and was in. Emily had probably had dinner ready for two hours. He almost ran when the elevator opened. He pounded on the door of her apartment, but no one answered. He pounded again. He even tried the door, but found it locked.

Maybe she’d fallen asleep waiting. Maybe she was in the shower. Maybe she’d gone to bed without him.

“Hey, mister,” a woman in a nightgown said from down the hallway.

“Sorry.” Tannon turned toward her, not feeling sorry at all. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

The woman stepped out into the hallway. “You must be the guy I’m supposed to give this note to. Emily said you’d be banging the door down if she wasn’t back and she was right. She said to tell you she forgot to charge her phone so she couldn’t call you.”

Tannon took the note and nodded his thanks. Before the woman was back in her apartment, he’d ripped it open.

I’ll be back as soon as I can. The marshal called and asked me to open the library so she could look around.

He read the note again, then folded it and put it in his coat pocket. It made no sense. The shooting happened in the bar. Why would anyone want to look around the library?
Whatever they wanted could surely wait until Monday.

He ran down the stairs, not caring that his boots were probably waking up people on every floor. Something wasn’t right.

E
MILY SAT AT THE MAIN DESK FEELING VERY ALONE.
T
RACE
Adams and one of the deputies were wandering around somewhere in the back. She’d followed them for a while, but they made her nervous touching things, moving things. Libraries had an order about them and the public didn’t belong in the back.

She jumped when she saw a shadow cross the door. Even knowing the door was locked, for a moment she couldn’t make herself look.

Then she heard a tapping and Tannon’s voice calling her name.

Emily ran to let him in. Suddenly nothing about the night seemed frightening.

He didn’t kiss her, but his arm held her tight as he walked her away from the doors. She’d expected him to start firing questions, but he didn’t. She was safe and that was all that seemed to matter.

Before she could explain that she had no idea why the marshal would want to search the library, Trace stepped
out of the back with the deputy at her side. The marshal carried a plastic bag with two darts inside.

“Emily,” she said calmly. “Would you happen to have Sam Perkins’s address?”

Emily went to her office and returned with a slip of paper. “This is it, or at least it was when he applied for the job a few years ago. Before that, I think he hung around town doing odd jobs and staying wherever was cheap. Is something wrong?”

“No,” the marshal said. “We’d just like to ask him a few questions. Thank you for allowing us to look around.” She took a step, then looked back. “Does anyone go into the staff area besides staff?”

“No.”

“Thanks.”

Emily wanted to ask more questions, but she doubted she’d learn more. With Tannon’s fingers wrapped around her hand all she could think about was getting someplace where they could be alone.

They walked out just behind the marshal and Tannon followed her back to her apartment. They didn’t kiss when they were back at her place. He was polite, asking about her day, wondering why the marshal would want to talk to the janitor, complimenting her on the meal she’d left warming in the oven, helping her with the dishes.

Finally, they were standing in her living room. Only a few feet remained between them, but neither knew how to cross it.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” she asked, feeling her shyness all the way to her bones. They’d touched and kissed before, but each time they were separated it seemed they had to start all over again in knowing how to love.

“No, I’m not interested in a movie,” he said before straightening and pulling in his breath as though the task before him might be difficult. “I want to go to bed with you. I’m not interested in a sleepover. I’m interested in sleeping with you every night for the rest of my life if you’re agreeable to the idea.”

He frowned. “We can be friends if that’s all you want, Emily, but I think it’s only fair I tell you straight out how I feel. I can’t fall in love with you, honey, because I’ve been in love with you all my life.”

When she didn’t say anything, he continued his side of a debate she hadn’t prepared for. “I know I’m not good enough for you. My mother reminded me of that fact today. I’m not sure I know how to be gentle and patient, but I’d like to try. I yell when I’m angry and I know that frightens you, so I’ll try to keep it down. All the way home, I’ve been thinking of what to say, what I need to say to make you love me, and now it doesn’t seem to be coming out right. I’ve got money enough to buy you a house if that’s what you want. I should have bought a ring, but I wasn’t sure you’d let me get that far.”

“Tannon,” she said softly, but he was lost in his speech.

“I work about sixty hours a week, but I can cut that down. I’d be home for supper most nights. I’d—”

Emily had heard enough. “Tannon. Stop talking and come to bed.”

He looked at her a moment before her words sank into his tired brain, and then he smiled a slow smile.

She offered her hand and he took it. When they were in the bedroom, she let him turn off a few of the lights. She stood on her side of the bed and he stood on his. Slowly, they began to take their clothes off. There was no alluring strip, just two people preparing to climb into bed as if they’d done so in front of each other a thousand times.

When she pulled her slacks off, she held her breath and turned, letting him see the scars crossing over her stomach. No one, not even her roommates in college, had ever seen the scars.

He looked down at them, then back up at her eyes. For years, she’d feared what a man would say when he saw the scars. She’d promised she’d never take a lover because of that fear, but Tannon wasn’t a lover—he was her best friend.

He moved slowly to her and kissed her gently before kneeling down on one knee. His big hand moved over the
red jagged lines dug into her flesh years ago. “Do they bother you?”

“No. They’re just the remains of one bad time. Are they ugly to you?”

“Yes, not because of the way they look, but because they are a reminder of when you were hurt.” He stared at them a moment, then looked up. “I don’t care about them. The you inside is so beautiful I barely see them.”

Without a word, he leaned and kissed her damaged body. “Only you matter, Emily, but I have to tell you: I’ve always known about them. I’m the one who found you that night. I’m the one who held you until the medics came. I saw what they did to you that night.”

She felt the cold of the room against her bare skin. “Why didn’t you stay with me? Why didn’t you visit? I don’t remember much of the attack. The doctor said I passed out during it either from head trauma or loss of blood. When I woke up hours later, I felt very alone. Why didn’t you come?”