Colder Than Ice (9 page)

She smiled broadly and turned to step outside.

Then she stopped and turned back again. She gripped the lapels of his bathrobe, jerked him forward and planted a brief, platonic kiss on his cheek. “Thanks for looking after Maude. It's sweet, the way you are with her. And with Bryan.”

“That's me. Sweet as apple pie.”

“See you later—on my run?”

He was suddenly looking forward to it. He glanced down at his own attire, a bathrobe over boxer shorts, and said, “I'll even wear clothes.”

“Me, too.”

“Crying shame.”

She grinned at him and hurried to her car. Joshua watched until she was out of the driveway and out of sight down the road. Then he put the cat out, poured a cup of coffee and began checking the house for open windows.

 

Beth spent more time looking into the mirror than she usually did before a morning run, her hands a little too con
cerned about getting her higher than usual ponytail perfectly centered.

The moment she realized what she was doing, she scowled at her reflection. “What's the matter with you? He's a stranger.”

She pursed her lips, shrugged. “Well, he's Maude's grandson. That's not exactly a stranger.”

Sighing, she brushed her teeth, then rinsed her mouth with mouthwash. Twice. And she used a triple coat of roll-on, because God forbid she should run into Joshua Kendall smelling of sweat.

“You're pathetic,” she told her reflection. Then she tucked her itty-bitty derringer into the pocket of her maroon-and-white warm-up jacket, zipped it up to keep it there, and stepped out her front door into the brilliant autumn sunshine.

She could see her breath this morning. It was getting awfully cold for running. She was a diehard, though. She would push it until the snowbanks along the roadside made it too dangerous. Then she would haul her treadmill out of the storage space under her rented cottage, assemble it, oil it up and plug it in.

She started out slowly, building up to a stronger pace as her body warmed and her muscles limbered. She felt good today. Not in the usual way that running made her feel good, but in a new way—a way she hadn't felt in a long time.

It was because of him. She wasn't so naive that she didn't know that. It was because a great-looking man with no apparent mental defects found her attractive. Imagine feeling so buoyant over something so juvenile.

Not that she was going to let it cloud her judgment or weaken her caution. If anything, the feeling made her even more wary. Not only didn't she trust him, she was going to have to be very careful about trusting herself.

Still, the closer she got to Maude's house, the more she had to fight to keep the smile from her face. And when she arrived there, and saw that both Maude and Joshua were waiting for her on the front porch, the smile was impossible to suppress.

She walked up the sidewalk, taking deep, lung-bursting breaths and blowing them out slowly, so she wouldn't be panting when she got to them.

Joshua was on his feet, glancing at his watch. “Ten minutes early.”

“I didn't know anyone was keeping track,” she said, mounting the steps.

He shrugged. “I was getting ready to worry in case you were late.”

“Don't,” she told him. “Worrying about me is a waste of time.” She noted his clothes. “And you're not running home with me again.”

“I'm not?”

She shook her head firmly. “No, you're not.”

“And why not?”

“Because I have the feeling you're trying to be protective of me for some reason. And I don't like that. I resent it, in fact.”

“You do?”

She nodded. “Good morning, Maude.” She leaned over Maude and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“Morning, dear. Don't be angry with Joshua for wanting to watch over you. I was the one who put him up to it.”

“And since when do you think I need watching over?”

She shrugged. “That car yesterday spooked me, I guess.” She reached for a pot and poured tea. “Today's brew is for energy and heat, er, warmth, I mean. It's going to be too cold for our outdoor tea parties soon,” she said, setting the pot down
and rubbing her arms. She wore a heavy fleece sweater and a knit hat.

Beth sank into her chair and lifted the beautiful china cup, bringing it to her nose and sniffing. “Mmm…cinnamon?”

“Yes. And ginseng and cloves, with just a hint of vanilla.”

“It's really delicious,” Joshua said.

Beth took a sip. “Mmm, it is. You're brilliant, Maude.”

“You may not think so much longer,” Maude said.

“Why's that?” Beth was curious, frowning from Maude to Joshua and back again.

“Well, my kitchen range is on the fritz. Now, I can get by with the hotplate and microwave for breakfast and lunch, but I had such a special dinner planned.”

Beth set her cup down. “I'll take a look at it for you.”

“Don't bother, Beth,” Joshua said. “I already looked it over. I'm afraid it's gonna require professional help.”

“Really?”

He nodded. Maude nodded, too, very enthusiastically. “I've got a call in to Milt Rogers, in town, but he's working on a furnace over in Pinedale today. Said he could come out first thing tomorrow. Which still brings me back to tonight's dinner.” She smiled her sweetest smile. “I thought I'd just bring all the groceries over and cook dinner at your place,” she said with a firm nod. “That wouldn't be any trouble for you, would it, Beth?”

Beth blinked and knew better than to argue. She couldn't say she had plans to go out, because she never went out and Maude knew it. She couldn't say she didn't feel well, because if she were ill, she wouldn't be running. And saying no for no reason at all would just be rude. So she smiled right back at Maude and said, “Of course it wouldn't be any trouble.”

“I didn't think so,” Maude told her. “Drink your tea, dear. It's getting cold.”

The screen door creaked, and Bryan stepped out onto the porch. He wore sweatpants, a T-shirt, and his feet were bare. He wasn't skinny like a lot of boys his age, she thought. The tight T-shirt revealed a physique that probably drove the girls his age wild. Not quite as nice as his father's, but…

“Morning, Bryan,” Beth called, dragging her unruly thoughts to a halt.

He frowned at her. “Are you all crazy? It's freezing out here.”

“Oh, I like to enjoy the outdoors while I can,” Maude said. “Soon enough it'll be winter, and I'll be cooped up in the house till spring. When I think about the snow to come, this autumn chill seems like nothing.”

“Winters pretty bad up here, are they, Maude?” Joshua asked.

Bryan reached back through the door and reemerged with a jacket in hand, one he pulled on quickly.

“We get hammered with snow and frozen with cold,” she said. “If you call that bad, then I guess they are. I think it keeps life interesting. Why, you never know when the first blizzard of the season is going to hit. It's happened as early as mid-October and as late as mid-December. But it always happens.”

“Is there a betting pool?” Bryan asked with a grin.

“There are several,” Maude told him with a sly wink.

He laughed softly and came out farther, reached for an empty cup and then the teapot.

“Oh, you don't want that, Bryan—” Maude began.

But he was already pouring. “Sure I do. I heard you say it makes you warm. I'm frozen.”

“Well, the tea might help,” Beth said, “but maybe some shoes and socks would help more.”

He grinned at her, curling his toes and sipping his tea. He seemed better this morning than he had before, Beth thought. Definitely not as sulky and brooding as he had been. Then again, he hadn't been sulky or brooding at her place yesterday, either. Only around his father.

Maybe things were better between them today.

Beth finished her tea in a single gulp. It burned down her gullet.

“Well, I'd better go.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Josh drained his cup and put it down, getting to his feet.

Beth scowled at him. “Where are you going?”

“My morning jog.”

“Josh, I told you, I don't want you coming back with me.”

“I'm not running with you. I'm running by myself. It's a free country, and you don't own the road.”

“But—”

“But nothing. If my morning jog happens to follow the same route as yours, that's hardly deliberate.”

“You're really pushing it, you know that?”

He smiled and winked at her. Beth hugged Maude goodbye and jogged down the steps, along the sidewalk and out to the road. Josh came right behind her.

He'd followed her, single file, for about fifty yards, when she finally rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder. “For God's sake, you might as well come up beside me.”

He picked up the pace, drew up beside her. “If you insist. I was enjoying the view from back there, though.”

“Very funny.” She sighed, glanced sideways at him. “Why are you doing this, Josh?”

“Look, I care about Maude. And she cares about you. She's
worried, Beth. I mean, it's not like her to hear noises in the middle of the night and get all nerved up like she did last night, is it?”

“No. At least, it's never happened since I've known her.”

“It's because of that car yesterday. I know it doesn't make any sense, but that made her nervous. She's got it in her head that whoever it was, was up to no good, and you know how she is when she gets something in her head.”

She nodded, her lips thinning. She did know. Arguing with Maude was about as practical as arguing with a bulldozer.

“So if it makes her feel a little better to have me watching out for you, then I'm willing to do it. Aren't you?”

She narrowed her eyes on him. “And that's all this is? You're humoring Maude?”

“If I say it's not, are you going to send me packing?”

She pursed her lips, thinking that over. “No. Not yet, anyway.”

“Okay. Maude isn't the only reason I'm tagging along after you like a lonely pup. The truth is, I like you, Beth.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay? Just okay? Not even an ‘I like you, too, Josh'?”

She looked sideways at him. “You can tag along until we get to my house. Then you turn right around and jog your butt right back to Maude's. Agreed?”

“Fine.”

She nodded. “My place is around the next bend. You want to race?”

Before he could reply, she took off at a sprint.

B
eth looked across her coffee table at Josh, who sat in an easy chair. Maude was in the kitchen, whipping up something that smelled wonderful. Beth caught glimpses of her beyond the archway in the kitchen and kept offering to help. Maude flat out refused. Bryan was at the small desk on the far side of the living room, using Beth's computer to catch up with his e-mail.

“Thanks for letting Bry use your PC,” Joshua said. “He's been bored out of his mind.”

“It's not a problem. I certainly don't mind him using my computer if he doesn't mind using my screen name. Did you ever get hold of the local ISP?”

“Phoned them today. They're ‘processing our application.' But they said he should be able to log on by morning.”

“That'll make him happy.”

Josh shrugged. “He thinks I should have upgraded him to wireless service.”

She smiled. “Typical teenager.”

“How's he doing? With the tutoring, I mean?”

“We had a great session today. I assigned him
Hamlet
last night, and he's already halfway through it. He's smart, Josh. And he's a good kid.”

“Thanks.”

She was quiet for a moment. The silence stretched, and it was awkward. She looked toward the kitchen. “I wish Maude would let us help.”

“I think she's enjoying having people to take care of,” he said.

Beth nodded, knowing he was right about that. “So is there really anything wrong with her stove?”

Joshua looked alarmed. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, Josh, isn't it obvious?” She shook her head at his puzzled look. “She's been trying to fix me up with some ‘eligible young man' ever since I met her. I'm afraid I was right in my earlier assumption. You are the newest candidate.”

“Oh, that.” He smiled as if to cover it, but she didn't miss the look of relief that crossed his face. “So you still think she's matchmaking.”

She shrugged. “I'm sure of it.”

“Do you mind?”

She shrugged. “I keep telling her I'm not in the market for a man.”

“Ouch.”

She looked up quickly. “I didn't mean—”

He held up a hand, stopping her. “It's okay. I'm not easily offended. Or dissuaded.”

She shrugged, not sure what to say to that. “Things seemed better between you and Bryan, this morning.”

“Changing the subject, huh?”

She raised her eyebrows, waiting.

“Actually, yeah, I think things
are
better. And I have you to thank for it.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“I tried what you suggested, talked to him about what was going on with me.”

“And it worked?”

He shrugged. “He didn't respond in kind. Then again, he didn't stomp away and slam a door on me, either. I call that progress.”

“It's a start.”

The dull bleat of a cell phone came from Beth's purse, which was hanging from a hook in the tiny foyer, near the door. She crossed the living room, dug it out and answered.

“Hey, Beth? It's me. Is everything okay there?”

She frowned, recognizing Dawn's voice instantly. “Fine, hon. Where are you calling from?”

“My cell. It's new, don't worry. And I'll only stay on a minute. I'm online with someone using your screen name. I thought it was you and sent an instant message. He says his name is Bryan. I thought I'd better check on you.”

Beth glanced into the living room, where Bryan sat by her laptop, tapping his fingers on the desk as he watched the screen. Then she looked at Josh, who was several feet away, but still within earshot. She turned her back and walked as casually as she could closer to the front door. “Yeah. One of my students. He's cool,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I like him a lot, actually.”

“Okay.”

“Just watch what you say, Dawny.”

“I know that. I'll talk to you later.”

“Bye, hon.” She clicked the off button and carried the telephone with her back into the living room, setting it casually on the coffee table. Josh was still sitting where she'd left him, looking a little too disinterested.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

“Fine. Just a…former student, checking in on me.”

The computer made a chiming tone, Bryan focused on the screen and began tapping keys again. It was a little too odd, Bryan chatting with her daughter online. It made her feel skittish. But Dawn was sharp. She wouldn't let anything slip.

“I see you moved your punching bag in our honor.”

She smiled at him and nodded. “This place is too small as it is. No room for company
and
a punching bag.” She took her spot on the settee, trying to look relaxed even though she was tense. It was odd, having a man in her house. Though she didn't think she would feel so tense if he were any other man. Not
this
tense, anyway. It was an odd sort of “quiet before the storm” kind of tension. Something was brewing between them, and as much as she'd vowed never to get involved with any man ever again, she was seriously considering making him an exception.

He must have read it in her eyes, because he leaned forward, reached across the coffee table and covered her hands with his. “It's sweet of you to indulge Maude like this. It means a lot to me, how good you are to her.”

“She's important to me.”

“I know.”

She licked her lips, then noticed the look Bryan sent across the room, his eyes on their hands, his brow puckered in a dis
approving frown. Guiltily, she pulled her hands from beneath Josh's.

“So what do you do? Back in Manhattan, I mean.”

“I'm a businessman.”

She lifted her brows. “That's a man for you. Sums up his entire life in one word.”

“It really isn't all that interesting. Small consulting firm. My partner's running things while I'm away.”

He had opened his mouth to say something more when a loud crash from the kitchen brought him to his feet. Beth leaped up and ran into the kitchen, and he was right behind her. Maude was lying on the floor beside a toppled chair and a broken china cup.

Beth fell to her knees beside her friend. “Maude? Honey, what happened?”

Maude moved her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out, only clipped, shallow breaths. Then she went still. Utterly, frighteningly still. Her eyes were open, wide-open, her face coloring pink, then red, then deepening to purple. “Maude!” Beth turned her head, “Josh, do something!”

Josh dropped to the floor beside her as Bryan burst into the kitchen. “Bryan, get help. Call 911.” He barked the words, then leaned over Maude, a hand at her throat, his face intense.

Beth cradled Maude's head, holding it up just slightly. She looked into her friend's eyes and knew beyond any doubt that Maude could still hear her, see her. She still knew what was going on. There was an awareness in those wide, frozen eyes. A panic way down deep that couldn't seem to make its way out.

“She's not unconscious, Josh. God, look at her! Maude, honey, hold on. I'll make this okay, I swear.”

Maude wasn't moving. No part of her was moving, not
even her wide eyes, which seemed frozen in horror and were beginning to bulge.

“Hold on, Maude. Just hold on.”

Beth glanced behind her, through the archway into the living room, and saw Bryan speaking rapidly on the cell phone, while he clicked keys on the computer, probably logging off.

Josh leaned closer. “Maude, what happened? Can you tell me what happened?”

The old woman's eyes never moved. They didn't close. Just locked there, frozen in horror.

“Josh, she's not breathing!” Beth shook Maude gently. “Breathe, Maude. Jesus, why isn't she breathing?”

Bryan came back into the kitchen, the phone still at his ear. He came all the way into the room this time, and Beth knew when he got his first look at the expressionless nightmare of Maude's face. It was as if she'd been flash frozen and dipped in blue dye.

Bryan's face paled. “Oh, God.” He swallowed, seemed to shake himself. “They're on the way.”

Josh laid his head against Maude's chest, his ear over her heart. He straightened again, looking grim. “Do you know CPR?” he asked Beth.

“Yes.” But she had already seen it—she'd seen the moment when the awareness in Maude's eyes blinked out. They didn't close. But the horror vanished. And something, something…left.

Tears flowing, Beth gently tipped Maude's chin up. She leaned over her, fingers pinching her friend's nostrils, and blew gently into her mouth, two quick breaths.

When she stopped, Joshua started the chest compressions, five of them. And then it was Beth's turn again. They fell into a steady rhythm, while Bryan stayed on the phone, filling in the dispatcher as to what was happening.

Minutes ticked by like hours, but finally Beth heard sirens. Bryan disconnected, then ran to the front door to let the paramedics in. They were locals, though Beth barely knew them. She could probably have come up with some of their names, given a few minutes to think about it. Maude would have known them. She would have known who their parents were, how old their kids were, what their day jobs were and what they had been like as children.

But Maude wasn't talking.

Beth moved aside, shaking bodily as the medics took over. She was barely aware of it when Josh's arm slid around her shoulder. He pulled her against his side. “Hold on, Beth,” he whispered. “Lean on me if you need to.”

Bryan went over to where they stood, actually taking hold of her hand. It was as if they were trying to comfort her—when they were the ones who were Maude's family.

The door was still wide-open, but it banged the wall anyway when Frankie Parker charged in. She strode across the living room to where they stood in the archway, wearing her uniform and looking pissed at the world. “What the hell happened?”

“I don't know, Frankie,” Beth said. “She was making us dinner. She just—collapsed.”

The medics were jolting Maude now, sending bolts of electricity through her—two, then three, times.

“She's diabetic,” Frankie snapped.

“Maybe that's it,” Beth whispered. “She probably took her insulin already, and she hadn't eaten yet. Maybe her blood sugar dropped and—”

She stopped there as a medic lifted a huge needle in his fist and then stabbed it straight into Maude's heart. “God!” Beth spun around and crushed her face against Joshua's chest. His
hands buried themselves in her hair and held her there, even as he moved her several steps away from the kitchen, farther into the living room.

She heard someone say to continue CPR, and a second later, the medics carried Maude out on a stretcher.

“We should go to the hospital,” Bryan said softly.

Beth lifted her head from Josh's chest, turning to see Bryan; his eyes were wet. Whether it was for Maude or for the memories all this must be stirring up in him—he'd lost his mother only a few months ago after all—she didn't know. Probably some combination of the two. He put a hand on Beth's shoulder.

Beth's throat closed up, and she bit her lip, so the tears that rolled down her cheeks fell in silence.

 

Joshua watched, feeling helpless as the paramedics loaded Maude into an ambulance, resumed CPR even as the doors closed and took off for the nearest hospital, siren screaming. Beth and Bryan stood close together, looking shell-shocked as Josh unlocked his pickup and held the passenger door open.

Beth watched the ambulance go, distracted until Josh touched her face, drawing her attention back to him. He helped her get in. Bryan climbed in beside her, and Josh went around to the driver's side. He thought there was no real hurry. Maude was already gone; he felt it right to his bones. He kept a careful eye on Bryan. His son had seen too much of death lately. He didn't need this.

Maybe bringing him on this assignment had been yet another in Josh's long string of mistakes. Maybe he'd screwed up beyond fixing it this time.

Bryan said, “I think there were still burners on in the kitchen.”

“I'll get them,” Josh said.

Bryan nodded. “Let's you and I wait out here, okay, Beth?”

Josh watched his son as he leaned over her and fastened her seat belt, and a rush of pride surged through him. His son was a hell of a man. Not a kid, but a decent, honorable young man. A man, Josh realized for the first time, he would like and respect even if he wasn't his own son.

He was a little surprised that this was the first time that fact had occurred to him. He shook it off and went back into the house, taking a careful look around the kitchen as he turned off the burners and the oven. Then he glanced at the floor and saw the broken teacup. Hell, better safe than sorry. He opened drawers until he located the sandwich bags, then carefully placed the broken pieces of the teacup into one of them. He took a careful look around the entire room but found nothing out of the ordinary.