Sudden Storms (8 page)

“See,” Weston said, pointing to the trunk of the ancient tree. “Folks have been carvin’ names in this tree since I was a little bit.”

“Oh, look!” Jolee exclaimed. “There’s Dan and Betty. Do you think that could be Dan and Betty Furman in town? Why, they’re in their fifties!”

“Yep. That’s them,” Weston assured her. “Lookee here. Rebecca and Toby...that’s the Millers in town. Jill and John Parker. There’s all kinds that have carved here. Now, there’s somethin’ I seen here awhile back I need to ask Paxton about.” Weston gestured for Paxton to follow him to the other side of the tree and Jolee and Rivers looked, too.

Rivers watched as a deep, rather worried frown wrinkled Paxton’s brow as he looked at the tree. She followed his gaze and felt sorry for the child of Mother Nature when she saw the damage that had been done to it in one area.

“What do ya make of that, Pax?” Weston asked, pointing to an area brutally scarred with what looked like the lacerations made by a knife.

Rivers looked closely. Two names had been carved in the tree where the vicious damage scarred it now. She swallowed hard, an odd sort of trepidation rising in her—Paxton and Ruby. The names carved in the tree beneath the more recent damage were “Paxton and Ruby.” Indeed, someone had chopped at the lettering, leaving the deep and fairly fresh scars in the bark and wood beneath.

Paxton reached out and touched the area with his fingers, tracing the deep wounds of the tree. He shrugged his shoulders, still frowning. “Don’t know. Someone just up to no good, I suppose,” he mumbled.

“Maybe,” Weston agreed. “But don’t it strike ya as strange…them fresh cuts in this here tree…and me seein’ Ruby in town yesterday?”

Rivers quickly looked to Paxton. His thoughts and feelings were not visible in the indifferent expression he now wore. In truth, his face suddenly seemed as lifeless as stone.

“Her family has moved back into town, Paxton. She’s here with them for awhile. She’s perty as ever and probably just as fickle,” Weston said.

“She’s a fine girl, Weston. She didn’t do nothin’ wrong,” Paxton mumbled.

“Well, that may be true of Ruby…but her mama’s with ’em, Paxton,” Weston informed, lowering his voice.

Paxton quickly looked to Weston, who nodded. Then he glanced at Rivers for a moment before studying the scarred tree again. “Maybe she’s healin’ then,” Paxton suggested.

Weston raised his eyebrows disbelievingly. “I still wonder, Pax. This here does make me wonder.”

Rivers felt her heart begin to constrict once more. Paxton still loved this Ruby. It was, however painful, very obvious. He defended her at every turn. Furthermore, the defacing of the tree seemed to bother him.

“Ruby perty much left ya at the altar, Paxton. How can you defend her like that?” Weston argued.

Rivers feared her stomach would become so upset from her painful emotions that she might be sick. She began to walk away from the others.

“Hush, Weston,” she heard Jolee scold.

“It’s time we had it out of him, Jo. If he’s gonna ever get on with his life…it’s time he put it behind him,” Weston argued.

“It is behind me, Weston,” Rivers heard Paxton tell his friend. Knowing he lied made her feel even more ill. She walked faster, but it wasn’t long before she felt Paxton’s powerful grip on her arm.

Turning to face him, she spoke before he could. “He’s calling your bluff, Paxton. He knows you…”

“Then I’ll just call his, Rivers,” he interrupted. “Let’s walk awhile and give them a chance to cozy up a bit.”

Still holding her arm, he linked it through his own and began walking with her. Being so near to him was an odd sort of intoxication. It sent Rivers’s common sense, her rational thought spinning to the wind. She couldn’t speak, afraid she might suddenly turn to him and confess her love, throw herself against him, beg for his kiss. And so she said nothing. They simply walked in silence, and for quite a distance.

“Ruby’s mother was a bit…unstable,” he said, unexpectedly breaking the awkward silence between them. “I figure it’s her that tore up the tree like that. She was mighty angry when I…” He paused, seeming to reconsider what he was about to say, then continued, “Hey, we better head back. We’ve come quite a ways. I didn’t realize how far we…”

His words were drowned out by a sudden clap of thunder. In the next instant, heavy rain poured down from the Heavens. Rivers looked to Paxton, who stood face turned upward, eyes closed, letting the moisture trickle down his face and neck.

“Let’s get back. We’ll get drenched!” Rivers said, wiping the rain from her eyes.

Paxton looked at her then. “Somethin’ about sudden storms like this,” he said. “They give ya two opportunities ya might not take at any other time.”

“And what might those be?” she asked, brushing the wet hair from her forehead.

“You can cry your heart out and nobody’s the wiser. That’s one,” he answered, reaching out and taking her hands in his own, as he pulled her closer to him. “And two, there ain’t a better condition for sharin’ a kiss.” He drew her against the warmth of his powerful body, embracing her securely in his arms.

“Don’t, Paxton. Please,” Rivers begged as she felt several tears of heartache escape her eyes.

“Don’t lose your nerve on me now, girl. Jolee and Weston are spyin’ on us from just over there a ways,” he whispered as he held her face firmly with one hand. “Close your eyes from the rain, Rivers,” he whispered an instant before he took her mouth with his.

Rivers’s body went limp in the strength of Paxton’s arms and at the hot pressure of his mouth on hers. Her inner voice silently begged him to release her, to end the spell his kiss wove over her mind and body. Undone, Rivers gave into him entirely, letting herself revel in the feel of his hands on her waist and back—allowing her mouth, her senses to thoroughly savor the moist taste of his kiss. Yet the taste of her own tears intruded. Their salty flavor distracted her, reminded her he was kissing her simply for farce. Still, she savored the feel of being held by him, the warmth of his body against hers, the heat of his mouth instructing hers to join in some intimate dance. The taste of salt seemed to distract Paxton as well. He abruptly broke the seal of their lips, taking her face between his hands and intently studying her expression.

“It won’t be long, girl. Then I’ll release you. You’ll be free to go,” he comforted, misreading the cause of her tears.

“But I…” she stammered. How could she convey to him she didn’t want to leave? That she never wanted to be without him? That she wanted to stay in his powerful arms forever, eternally savor his kisses?

“Now kiss me in the rain just once more, for Jolee’s sake, Rivers,” he mumbled as he released her face and let his hands slide around her waist, pulling her body flush with his own before again banding her in his arms.

She was breathless in his arms, found it difficult to breathe, for the rain was increasing and he held her so tightly. His final kiss was light and teasing. When he broke from her, he said, “Look,” and tipped his head toward the direction from which they had come.

Rivers was torn between the pure delight burning within her at seeing Weston and Jolee some distance away embraced in an affectionate kiss, and the heartache she felt at having her own kiss end.

“Wooo whooo!” Paxton exclaimed unexpectedly. “I love a storm!” He reached back over his shoulders and took hold of his shirt, pulling it over his head and off his body. He stretched his arms out at his sides and turned his face upward again, letting the rain wash over his now bare torso. “You like me best when I’m just bathed, ain’t that right, girl?” he asked as he motioned for Rivers to follow him as he started back toward the others.

The refreshing shower ended quickly, however. By the time they were all in the wagon, the sun was shining bright and high in the sky. This time returning home, Jolee sat with Weston as he drove the team, and Rivers found herself next to Paxton in the wagon bed.

Paxton stretched his arms along the sideboards of the wagon and breathed deeply. “Ain’t nothin’ like a quick shower to freshen up your mood, right?”

His amused smile faded then, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her. “I don’t owe you no such thing, girl,” he growled in a low voice.

“I ain’t told nobody the whole story, girl. Weston knows a tale or two of it, but not the whole thing. I went to her daddy about two weeks ’fore we were supposed to get married and told him I couldn’t marry Ruby,” Paxton confessed in barely a whisper.

Rivers looked at him quickly. “I wasn’t in love with her. That’s the meat of it. Then there was her mother…” he added, pausing.

“She’s…she’s mad?” Rivers asked. “Were you afraid that Ruby might inherit the insanity?”

Paxton shook his head. “Wouldn’t have mattered to me if I had really been in love with her. I would’ve married her anyway. It was…well, her mother…” He sighed exasperated. “Dang it all, Rivers…I’m confessin’ to ya here! Quit readin’ things in. I didn’t love the girl! I thought I did—thought I should. But I couldn’t. Believe me, I tried. But when I told her daddy I was backin’ out…well, they left that very night. They hired some folks in town to pack up their house and move their belongin’s for them. Nobody heard a word from ’em…until now, I guess.” He looked at her, and Rivers was shocked at the expression on his face. An expression of guilt and shame. “Ya see, I done her wrong.”

“Marrying her when you didn’t love her would’ve been wrong, Paxton,” Rivers assured him.

“Yeah? Well, you didn’t see the look on her face when she walked in havin’ overheard what I told her daddy,” he grumbled.

But Rivers could all too well imagine what Ruby felt and how she had looked when she’d heard she had lost Paxton Gray. All too well did she hold an unspoken kinship with the woman.

She pressed her fingers to her lips, trying to smooth away the delightful sensation of his kiss lingering upon them. But it didn’t help. She doubted anything ever would.

Paxton and Weston were unhitching the team when Jolee said to Rivers, “I want to check on Mary Belle, Rivers. Her udder was in sorry shape when I milked her this mornin’. Come with me, will ya?”

Rivers nodded and followed Jolee into the barn and toward the cow. “That was a nice piece of refreshment for us, wasn’t it?” Jolee asked, kneeling down beside the animal.

“While we’re out here,” Jolee said, standing, “I’m lookin’ for that little hatchet of Paxton’s.” She began rooting through some tools in a wooden box near the stall.

“Oh, I’ve seen it!” Rivers exclaimed as she walked toward an empty feed bin used for storage. “It’s right down in here.” Rivers groaned, however, as she noticed the silky spiderweb just inside the bin. “Oh! I can’t stick my hand in there! Look at that web! It’s huge!”

“Yeah. Looks like a big one! Look at the size of that web!” Jolee whispered. “Paxton would be very impressed. I really should get a jar and catch it for him.”

Rivers wrinkled her nose and wondered why anyone would think to do such a thing. Then she watched in stunned horror as Jolee stuck her hand into the bin as if there were nothing at all to fear.

“Jo!” Rivers gasped quietly.

“Can’t be scared of ’em, Rivers. Just leave ’em alone, and they won’t hurt you.”

Rivers’s eyes locked on the hatchet’s handle, and terror raced through her veins as Jolee pulled it from the darkness of the bin. A mere inch or less from where Jolee clutched the hatchet with one hand sat an enormous shining black spider.

Rivers screeched at the sight of the spider, startling Jolee, who jumped, dropping the hatchet. The spider, however, seemed to fly from the handle at the same moment and onto Jolee’s dress.

“It’s on you!” Rivers screamed.

“Where? Where? Get it off!” Jolee squealed, swatting madly at her bodice.

Rivers stood terrified as she watched the spider crawl up Jolee’s sleeve and disappear under a strand of her hair hanging loosely over one shoulder.

“It’s on my neck! I can feel it!” Jolee whispered.

The fear was plain on Jolee’s face and finally broke the spell of panic paralyzing Rivers. Slowly, she moved the strand of hair. There, like an evil omen, was the spider. It was perfectly still, and sitting on Jolee’s neck.

“What do I do?” Rivers asked in a desperate whisper.

“What in tarnation is goin’ on in here? Sounds like a bunch of screamin’ magpies,” Paxton thundered as he and Weston burst into the barn.