Cricket Cove (3 page)

Chapter Three

A
melia was late. She hated being late. It was rude, it was irresponsible, and most of the time it was entirely preventable. Today was an example of a good exception.

She’d gone to her car, coffee and keys in one hand, book satchel in the other, ready to go to work at the photography studio. She was running on time, which meant she was going to be a few minutes early. With any luck, she’d arrive in time to get a bear claw from the bakery next door before they sold out.

As soon as she saw her tires, she knew that bear claw was not in her cards today.

All four were flat.

“Okay, that’s odd.”

It didn’t take ten seconds for her to figure out how and why. When she unlocked her door to set her bag inside, the tire valve caps were lined up in a neat little row on the ledge in front of her odometer. All the air rushed from her lungs with a sickening wheeze.

“Roger.”

There really wasn’t another explanation. Given their encounter in the grocery store the day before, she had been expecting something. But not this.

The first time she’d realized Roger was toying with her was the same day she’d met Logan for the first time. Almost a month ago, on her father’s birthday, Amelia had overslept. It was an unusual occurrence, to say the least. When she’d called up to the farmhouse at the top of the mountain and apologized, explaining that her power was off and the clock’s alarm hadn’t awakened her on time, they had told her they had power. So did her aunt and uncle who lived just up the road, almost within sight of Amelia’s trailer. That had been odd, but she hadn’t made the connection until she’d walked out into the yard to see Archer standing with Logan. They were discussing her power outage, which had apparently been caused by the quick connection having been knocked loose.

Whoever had disconnected the power had also taken her favorite pair of ratty sneakers, which she’d left on the porch after having gotten them wet the night before. Logan had discovered them tied together, hanging across the power line on the other side of the road.

The taunts hadn’t ended there. A few mornings later, she’d gotten up to find a small pile of white gravel on the rug at her front door. She came home from work a few days after that to a dark porch, and once she’d unlocked the door and set her things inside the house, she discovered that the lightbulb had been removed from the fixture. The globe had even been replaced.

Things were mostly quiet after that. She’d started to relax, thinking that maybe it
had
been kids after all. But then yesterday at the grocery store, she had turned the corner and her buggy had collided with someone else’s. The apology had died on her lips as she saw Roger’s smirking face.

“Well, well, well. Lookie here. Amelia Campbell. Fancy running into you.”

She was immediately suspicious. “Roger. Where’s Lori?”

He gave a negligent shrug. “Home. Not feeling well, as usual.”

Amelia knew he never let Lori go to the grocery store without him for fear that she’d speak to another man. And she knew Roger wasn’t the kind of husband who just went out and bought groceries for the family because his wife didn’t feel up to it. His cart was empty, save for a six-pack of beer. The suspicion that he’d followed her into the store crawled into the back of her mind.

“I’ll have to stop by and see her, then. Has her mother been by to check on her?”

She didn’t miss the way his hands tightened on the handle of the cart or the way his mouth flattened into an ugly line. “I think it’s best if you stay away. She needs her rest right now, and seeing you always tires her out. I’ll be home the rest of the day with her, once I get back from the store and running errands, of course.”

Amelia’s heart crept into her throat. That meant he’d probably beaten Lori again. As soon as she could get to a pay phone she’d stop and call Lori’s mother, Christine. She tried to pull her buggy back, but he pinned her against the shelves again.

Undaunted, she raised her chin. “Then I’ll check in on her soon.”

Roger sighed. “You know, I wish you wouldn’t. She really does better when you aren’t around. We’ve had this discussion before.”

She brought her buggy back as far as she could, and then using all her strength, slammed it into his. The wire frames hit so hard his tires left the floor.

“Temper, temper, little girl,” he half growled, jaw clenched. “Some man needs to teach you a lesson or two.”

The light that entered his eyes as he looked her over caused Amelia’s stomach to turn. “You listen to me, you stupid son of a bitch. One of these days you’re going to go too far. And when you do, someone’s going to rip your throat out. I just hope I’m there to see it.” She
knew
better than to antagonize him, but stretched as thin as she was, her caution went out the window. “You stay the hell away from me, and you keep your hands off Lori. If her father was able, you’d already be a dead man.”

Lori’s father, Edward, had undergone open-heart surgery the year before. He’d never fully recovered and Roger used the man’s illness to do whatever he wanted to Lori.

Taking advantage of the curiosity of a passing shopper, Amelia got her buggy loose from Roger’s and hurried past him. The mocking sound of his laughter had followed her down the aisle, and she barely managed to hold herself together long enough to pay for her order.

Now, standing beside her disabled car, she felt like crying. Alternatively, if Roger had suddenly materialized in front of her, she knew she would have killed him. Stretched to her emotional breaking point, she put her belongings in the car and unlocked the trunk to get the small compressor she carried out of her emergency kit.

“Thank you, Daddy, for putting this kit together.” She sighed as she plugged it into the cigarette lighter. The compressor was slow as molasses in January, but it would do the job.

By the time the four tires were aired back up and she’d washed up, she was going to be at least twenty minutes late getting to Emma’s. She called and left a message on the machine so her sister wouldn’t worry, then hit the road.

“I don’t know how in the world I’ll explain this. I don’t want to lie but I refuse to worry her,” she told the empty car when she stopped at a light. Aside from the power connection incident, she hadn’t said much of anything to anyone about what Roger was doing. She knew that wasn’t smart, but she hated being a burden. It was one of her biggest faults, Amelia knew.

“If he does much more, I’ll have to tell Rick. He’ll know what to do.” Rick was her cousin, Jack and Gilly’s son, and a deputy sheriff. “I just don’t have any way of proving it’s Roger. As evil as he is, he’s smart.”

When she glanced to her right, she saw that the person in the car next to her was staring at her with suspicion. She laughed ruefully and shook her head. “I’m turning into a crazy person who talks to herself. Pretty soon I’ll be the old lady at the end of the street who has a houseful of cats. Ah, well.” The light changed, and with a quick wave, she pulled away from the other car.

She knew she couldn’t ignore Roger’s antics forever. She knew the time of putting his actions to the back of her mind was coming to a close. But today she just wasn’t up to facing the reality of what she was up against, what she’d gotten herself into by trying to defend her best friend. Admitting Roger was spooking her would be admitting a bitter defeat, and she wasn’t strong enough to deal with that reality just yet.

Chapter Four

W
hen Logan and Archer walked into the Campbell farmhouse the Thursday evening before the wedding, they were met by a pacing Amelia. The planning binder he’d hardly seen her without since he’d moved from Virginia was tucked under an arm. Logan groaned.

“Sure you don’t want to just fly to Vegas?” he muttered to his brother as he slid his shoes off and set them in the line of shoes next to the door.

“I heard that. Don’t you even think about it, soldier boy,” she threatened. “I’ll string both of you up by your toes. We’re in the living room.”

His brows snapped together in a fierce scowl. Before he could bite back at her, Archer pulled her into a loose headlock.

“You know I wouldn’t ruin all your planning, Pip. He’s kidding. What do you have for us?”

“Some last-minute details, that’s all.”

“If we’re talking about flowers and dresses and froufrou, I’m going home. I’m starving,” Logan commented as they followed her through the wide double doors.

“Oh, is that why you’re so grumpy?” she asked. “Your blood sugar is low and it’s making you cranky? I’m sure Sydney has some animal crackers she wouldn’t mind sharing with you.”

“Pip,” Archer warned under his breath. She didn’t respond, but she stopped with the biting remarks.

A round of hellos greeted them when they walked in. Archer waved at the couple sitting on the hearth in front of the empty fireplace. “Hey, Ben. Ainsley. When did you get in?”

“A couple of hours ago.” Emma’s twin brother and his wife lived in Lexington. “Getting nervous? Only a few days to go.”

“Nah. Excited. Where are the boys?” Archer asked.

“They’re upstairs playing, out of the way,” John, Emma’s oldest brother, answered from his seat on a second love seat. His wife, Zanny, was beside him, feeding their infant daughter, Molly, with a bottle.

“You could go up there with them,” Amelia suggested to Logan innocently, her smile as fake as a three-dollar bill.

“It would probably be more fun than whatever you have planned,” he shot back.

“Oh, dear God, tell me they aren’t still at each other’s throats?” Emma asked Archer with a groan. “Aren’t
we
the ones who are supposed to be bickering?”

Archer went to the love seat where she was curled up with Sydney. “Absolutely not. That’s a myth.” He bent down and kissed her, then took the space beside her. The happiness on his brother’s face made Logan smile. The smile faded when he saw that the only empty seat was on the couch next to Amelia, and he gave an inward curse as he sat. He wondered if she had planned it that way, then decided it didn’t matter. He could sit anywhere in the room and she would still annoy the piss out of him.

“So, here’s where we are. We’ll start decorating the church and reception hall tomorrow.” For the next thirty minutes, Amelia went over the plans with an eye for detail and discipline that would have served her well in the military. He tried to pay attention to the words, but the light floral scent she wore kept distracting him. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they were sitting close enough on the couch that he could feel the heat of her along his right side. Their arms brushed several times during the discussion. Logan had worn his shirtsleeves rolled up to the elbow, and the tingles that ran along his skin when they touched made him regret that decision.

Just when he thought the talk was winding down, with Amelia having been distracted by a question Rachel had about the catering, Sydney got up and came over to him. She stood beside him for a minute, her head tilted.

His eyebrow quirked. “Yes?”

“Up, please.” Without waiting for his response, she carefully climbed into his lap and settled down. She pushed her glasses up on her nose, then reached out with a small hand to do the same to his. Satisfied, she nodded once. Logan winked at her, and she giggled.

“Are you flirting with my daughter?” Archer teased.

“I am.”

Sydney sighed and laid her head on his chest. She patted him three times, then started toying with the buttons on his shirt. “Uncle Logan, I got a question for you.”

“Okay. Ask away.”

The little girl pursed her lips and blinked up at him. Logan could practically see the wheels turning in her head, and a glance at Archer told him his brother was waiting with bated breath to see what she would ask. Sydney was known for being precocious, to say the least. The question could be anything from wanting to know what was for dinner to asking where baby brothers came from. She’d hit him with
that
bombshell the first time he’d talked to her on the phone, and he’d stammered his way through an “I don’t know.” Fortunately she was five, and she’d bought it.

“Well, I know you got a kitty cat inside. Right? Just like my new daddy used to have, but his kitty cat went to sleep. Yours isn’t asleep, though. So when you turn into the kitty cat and somebody rubs your belly, do you purr? Noah’s pet kitty cat purrs when someone rubs her belly.”

An awkward silence spread across the room. Logan gave a slight shake of his head as though he wasn’t quite sure what he’d heard.

“I beg your pardon?”

Sydney huffed, and her scowl was straight Emma Campbell. “When you’re a kitty cat, do you purr?”

Logan had no idea what to say. He looked at Archer, whose eyebrows were nearly to his hairline. Emma looked similarly astonished. Looking around the room, he saw that the only ones who didn’t seem surprised were her grandparents, Sarah and Owen. Owen was even shaking his head, half amused.

Emma straightened from where she’d been leaning against Archer. “Sydney, sweetheart, um… do you remember when we talked about what was okay to bring up and what wasn’t?” Emma asked gently.

Sydney bit her lip and turned to her mother. “Yes. But it’s just us here. Not strangers. And I’m not picking my nose or showing my bloomers.”

“Oh, boy.” Archer was fighting a smile. When Emma narrowed her eyes at him, he held up his hands. “This one’s all you.”

“Fine. You can handle her first boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend? She’s five!”

Logan coughed to hide his laugh at his brother’s horror. The narrowed look Archer sent him told him he hadn’t been entirely successful.

“You just wait. Someday you’ll have a daughter, and we’ll see who’s laughing then.”

“Oh, hell no. I’m not having kids. You know that.”

Emma rolled her eyes at their exchange. “She won’t always be five. Sydney, we don’t just ask people about their shifting abilities like that. Not everyone has an animal inside them and they wouldn’t understand. It might upset them. Okay?”

Sydney turned her face up to Logan. “Are you upset?”

“No, but your mom is right. Shifting is a secret.”

Her shoulders slumped with disappointment. “Okay, then. I won’t ask again.” She got down, dejected, and Archer held out his hands. She let him pull her into his lap, and he gave her a smacking kiss.

“Where did you hear about Uncle Logan’s kitty cat? Do you mind telling me?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t hear about it. I felt it.”

Archer frowned and exchanged a puzzled glance with Emma, who shrugged. “What do you mean?”

Sydney gave a half shrug. “I don’t know. It’s like when I listen to you here.” She tapped him on the chest. “I can feel that you used to have a kitty cat but it’s asleep now. And I can feel that he still does. When Aunt Zanny had Molly in her belly, I could feel her. And I can feel Aunt Ainsley’s baby, too. It’s just this big. It’s a girl, too,” she whispered as she held her fingers two inches apart.

The silence and shock that filled the room was almost palpable. As one, the family turned to Ben and Ainsley, who wore sheepish but pleased looks.

“Ben?” Owen asked quietly.

“We, uh, we weren’t going to say anything for a little while, but yeah. We’re pregnant.” He put his arm around Ainsley and kissed her temple. “We found out a couple of weeks ago.”

The laughter and tears that filled the room told Logan more than words that this pregnancy was a very unexpected, very welcome event.

Emma was the first to reach the couple, and she pulled both of them into a tight hug. “How?” she asked tearfully. “Have you been trying? IVF?”

Ben’s face turned red but he was laughing. “The usual way, and no. It just happened. We’ve been talking about adoption lately and then Ainsley started throwing up. We thought it was the flu.”

“This wasn’t supposed to be possible,” Ainsley said with a joyful smile. “We’d accepted that years ago. We’re not sure how it’s come to pass, but it has. Jonah said it happens sometimes, especially when a couple starts seriously exploring adoption.”

“Jonah’s a friend who’s also a doctor,” Archer explained when Logan looked to him questioningly.

The celebration over the joyful news disrupted the planning session so much that even Amelia had to concede defeat. “We might as well go in and eat. I don’t think any of us can focus on the wedding right this minute,” she teased as she hugged her brother.

After they sat down around the dining room table, plates full, Emma’s attention turned back to Sydney. “So tell me about this feeling you get, sweetie.”

The little girl shrugged. “It’s like a little tickle, right here.” She pointed to her own belly, down low. “And then when the baby gets bigger, the tickle gets bigger and then the baby kicks and stuff. Just like Molly. ‘Cept I don’t feel the kicks, just the tickle.”

Zanny cleared her throat. “When I first found out about Molly, before I told anyone, even John, Sydney kept running over to me for hugs. She’d put her head against me, then giggle and run away. I thought it was a game at the time, but… With this family’s abilities? Maybe it isn’t surprising that she can feel things.”

Everyone looked to Owen, who was studying his granddaughter with speculation. “I’ve come to the conclusion that anything is possible with this family. I grew up hearing about women who were healers, who could lay hands on a person and know what was wrong with them. I’ll do some digging.”

“I’m surprised you’ve not come across that kind of folklore before,” Rachel commented. “As many years as you’ve been doing genealogy and research.”

“I’ve seen some articles and journals that mention it, but that sort of thing was never at the top of my list. I know where to start, though.”

Sarah laughed from the opposite end of the table, her smile warm for her husband. “Does this mean we’ll be spending the night in the studio tonight while you do research?”

Owen’s answering smile was just as warm. “Maybe.”

Logan knew that Owen had a studio located a short distance away from the main house, set back into the tree line a bit. “Is that where you write?” he asked.

“It is.”

“And it’s Mom and Daddy’s getaway,” Amelia teased. “I’m surprised the two of you haven’t moved back out there now that we’re all out of the house, as much time as you spend there. I guess you’re showing Mom all your new sketches, hmmm?”

Owen reached over and tapped her on the nose. “Hush.”

Emma’s cheeky grin matched her baby sister’s. “I’m with Pip, here. I think we should be seeing a lot more books than what we do, as often as you need Mom’s ‘opinion’ on something.”

Their father looked down the table to Sarah, laughing helplessly, his cheeks flushed as teasing laughter sounded from around the table. “Daughters. I told you sons are easier, but no. You insisted on having girls, too. See what you’ve done?”

“Not by myself,” came the pert response. “And if Sydney is right, you’re about to be overrun by granddaughters, Owen Campbell.” He didn’t look too put out by the idea if his happy grin was any indication.

“Yeah, what about that?” He looked to Archer and pointed. “Get busy on some grandsons, would you?
After
the wedding.”

Archer’s face turned red so fast and he coughed so hard Logan thought he was going to have to do the Heimlich maneuver on his brother. But he was laughing so hard himself he didn’t know if he could do it if he had to. Around the table, most everyone was laughing along with him, enjoying Archer’s embarrassment.

When the laughter died down a little, Amelia looked at Logan with amazement.

“Oh, my God. You
do
have a sense of humor. Who would’ve thunk it?” She widened her eyes and batted her lashes at him from across the table. “Someone should take out an ad in the paper. Emma, where’s your camera?”

Emma couldn’t respond for the tears streaming down her cheeks. She snorted when she tried to answer and could only shake her head.

Logan scowled. “I have a good sense of humor, thank you very much. Just because I don’t think everything is a joke doesn’t mean I don’t have a sense of humor. Ow!”

Archer poked him in the side. “Cool it, dude. She has a point. You have gotten pretty serious.” His eyebrows were raised, his face set in a challenging look as he watched Logan.

“Yeah, well, where I’ve been the last few years, there hasn’t been a lot to laugh about.” He thought he heard Amelia mutter something about him having a stick up his ass and that not helping, but a quick frown from her father had her flushing and looking down at her plate.

“I guess I could tell them all about some of your more embarrassing moments from childhood,” Logan conceded to Archer. “Some of the stunts you pulled were pretty funny.”

For the rest of the meal, partly in an effort to smooth things over and partly to prove Amelia wrong, he kept them in stitches with exaggerated tales of Archer’s antics as a young boy.

“Be careful when he’s sick or if he, um, over-imbibes,” he warned Emma. “He has a tendency to strip down buck naked. When he was a little guy, it was all we could do to keep clothes on him. I think he finally grew out of it when he was about eight or nine.”

“That’s not true. I was much younger,” Archer protested indignantly. “And I’m not planning on ever over-imbibing again, you’ll be happy to know. I’m too old for that.”

Logan held back a smile when Amelia snickered from across the table.

“Turning over a new leaf, are you? Because I remember a day not that long ago when you had to take Aunt Gilly’s headache remedy.” She made a face at Archer and stuck her tongue out.

Archer made a face back. “Extenuating circumstances, you know that. When’s the last time you saw me… indisposed before that?”

She tapped her cheek with a finger and pretended to think. “Let’s see…”