The Keeping (22 page)

She giggled. “So
if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there, it still makes a
noise?”

He chuckled back.
“How’s your burn?”

Mel took the cloth
away. Her skin wasn’t nearly as pink now. “I think it’s
better.”

“Good. I’ll wet
the cloth again and you can hold it on for a bit longer. You should
cool a burn for ten minutes.”

“First aid
training?”

“Something like
that. I’ve lived in places where it pays to know how to take care
of simple injuries.” He fixed the cloth for her. “You wait here.
I’ll go upstairs and get a shirt for you to wear. As enticing as
the tea towel is, I assume you don’t want to drive home in it.”

“Ah—no. I think
that would definitely give the people of Stump River something to
talk about.”

Ryne left to find
her a shirt and Mel moved to stand by the window, staring out at
the pouring rain. It was raining heavier by the minute and becoming
harder to even see across the yard. Something flashed by the window
and for a moment she was sure it was a pair of wolves, but that was
ridiculous. What would wolves be doing out in the rain, running
around the house? Surely, they’d hole up in a cave or a burrow or
wherever they made their home. She shook her head. No—she was just
imagining things.

A door slammed,
the noise coming from the back entryway just off the kitchen. She
could hear male voices laughing and then two very damp, scantily
clad men entered the room. When they saw her, they came up short
and fell silent. Mel stared at them speechless. At one point she
believed she’d said that good looking men didn’t grow on trees;
apparently that wasn’t quite true in Stump River.

Chapter
16

Both of the men
before her were amazing specimens; tall and lean, with well defined
muscles. She watched, fascinated, as little rivers of water
cascaded down their bare chests, rising and falling over the well
developed abdominals. Some drops were lost in the indent of their
navels, while other luckier ones travelled even lower, disappearing
below the waist band of their shorts. Said shorts were sopping wet
and clinging to their bodies, hinting at the interesting anatomy
hidden beneath.

Tearing her gaze
upwards, Mel felt her face flush with embarrassment and hoped they
hadn’t noticed the direction of her eyes. Unfortunately, from the
smirks on their faces, she strongly suspected they had. Both men
appeared to be around twenty and had blonde or light brown hair; it
was so wet at the moment, it was hard to determine the exact
shades. Their heights were comparable, though the one with hazel
eyes carried himself in such a way, that he seemed the larger of
the two.

He was the one
that moved first, stepping forward, his hand extended.

“Hi! I’m Bryan. We
met out by the road the other day.”

Realizing she was
basically ogling them, Mel gave herself a little shake and accepted
his hand. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you at first, with you being
so wet and nearly naked...” She let her voice trail off, feeling
her cheeks growing even hotter as he laughed lightly.

“That’s okay; it’s
always nice to be appreciated. You’re Melody Greene, right?”

She nodded. “You
can call me Mel.”

“Mel is good with
me.” He gave her a friendly smile and she lost some of her initial
embarrassment. Giving his head a nod to the side, Bryan introduced
his companion. “This is Daniel.”

The man in
question waved lightly. “Nice to meet you.”

Mel noticed that
he had the most amazing eyes. They were a deep liquid brown, the
kind that made her think of rich cafe mocha with pools of melted
chocolate on top. He seemed like he’d be the quiet sort, but not in
a way that made you think you could walk all over him. It was more
like he was a deep thinker. She smiled kindly at him.

Bryan cleared his
throat and she brought her attention back to him. “I see you and
Ryne have had an interesting afternoon.”

“Interesting?” His
comment puzzled her. “Well, we talked a bit and he showed me the
house.”

“Uh-huh. I always
like a game of ‘show and tell’ myself.” Bryan gestured towards her
with his hand. Mel frowned, not getting his meaning at all. He
chuckled. Reaching forward, he flicked the edge of her makeshift
shirt—also known as a tea towel—and Mel gasped. She’d completely
forgotten she was shirtless and barely covered. She crossed her
arms protectively over her chest and struggled to not blush, yet
again. Good heavens, her blood pressure had never had this much of
a work out before!

“Hey! No need to
be embarrassed.” Bryan grinned. “I—”

“Bryan!” A low
growl followed the utterance of his name and Bryan underwent a
complete transformation. The grin disappeared and he seemed to
shrink down. He turned to face the speaker, tipping his head
down.

“Ryne, I was
just—”

“I know what you
were just doing. Keep your hands to yourself. Both of you get
upstairs and dry off. And don’t forget to clean up the puddles you
undoubtedly left all over the floor.”

Both men almost
slunk out of the room, leaving Mel gaping at Ryne who stood in the
doorway holding a shirt in his hand. His stance, his expression,
the way his hand was fisted, all screamed aggression. He kept his
eyes fixed on the other two until they were out of sight. Shifting
uncomfortably, Mel spoke hesitantly.

“They were just
introducing themselves to me. Neither one did or said anything
wrong.” She tried to placate Ryne, not sure why he had sounded so
angry and dominant. The reaction of the other two was puzzling as
well. Why did they put up with his attitude and allow him to order
them around, as if they were naughty children and he was their
father? Even if he owned the place, that was no way to speak to
grown men.

Ryne’s response
was delivered in a sharp tone. “They know better. I told them to
keep their distance.”

“From me?
Why?”

“I have my
reasons.” Ryne abruptly changed the topic. “Here’s a T-shirt to
wear.”

Mel took the
offered clothing and turning her back, she somehow managed to
shimmy into it without losing the towel. Once she was decently
covered, she pulled the towel from underneath the shirt and hung it
over the back of a chair. By the time she’d finished, Ryne seemed
calmer but Mel was still anxious to get away from the man. He was
just too unpredictable for her to feel comfortable around him. “I
suppose I’d better go. I’ll type up a list of questions and drop
them in your mailbox tomorrow. That way you won’t have to leave the
gate unlocked.”

“Actually, I’m in
town tomorrow. I work at Miller’s on Wednesdays.”

“All right. I’ll
drop it off there.” She looked around, found her purse, and started
to head towards the front door, keeping the conversation light for
fear of setting him off again. “Thanks for lunch and the tour of
the house. It really is an interesting home. When I first saw it
from the outside, it seemed sort of spooky, but now I can see it
has potential.”

“Thanks.” He
seemed cordial enough now, and Mel felt herself relaxing
marginally. They were at the front door now. Her hand was on the
door knob ready to open it when Bryan walked down the stairs,
rubbing his hair dry with a towel.

He was whistling
unconcernedly. Surprisingly, the younger man didn’t seem to bear a
grudge for the way Ryne had talked to him, merely grinning and
offering a bit of advice. “I wouldn’t go out there if I were
you.”

Ryne raised his
eye brows in query and Bryan continued. “First of all, it’s raining
so hard, I doubt if Mel could see to drive. Secondly, there’s a
large tree that fell down across the driveway about halfway to the
road. There’s no way you can get a car around it.”

“You mean I’m
stuck here?” Mel couldn’t keep the squeak of surprise out of her
voice. She didn’t believe this. This was the sort of thing that
happened in books and movies, not real life.

“I’m afraid so.”
He turned to Ryne. “Daniel and I looked at it, but it will take all
three of us, and probably a chainsaw, to move it out of the way.”
Bryan shrugged and wandered on his way, seeming completely
unconcerned by the situation.

Mel turned to
Ryne, all thoughts of his earlier bad temper washed away by a
sudden pressing need to leave. She was his guest and she figured he
had certain obligations towards her. Rocking back and forth on her
heels, she looked at him expectantly. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Well, do
something.” She fluttered her hands at him, as if shooing him on
his way.

Instead of moving,
he put his hands in his back pockets and then shrugged. “If the
road is blocked, it’s blocked. Like Bryan said, it’ll probably take
all three of us and a chain saw to clear the road. Those trees are
massive.”

“I heard him. I
mean, why aren’t you getting your coat and umbrella and whatever
else you need to go out there and get to work?”

Ryne looked at her
as if she was crazy. “Because it’s pouring rain and quite possibly
it will start to thunder and lightning. I don’t know about you, but
I’ve always heard you don’t stand outside playing with power tools
in the middle of a storm.”

Mel regarded him
for a few minutes, blinking slowly as she processed his words and
their implications. When it all made sense, she slumped back
against the door and closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly side
to side in denial. “So I’m stuck here for how long?”

“Probably until
morning.” Ryne glanced at his watch. “It’s almost four now. By time
the rain stops, it will be getting dark and too late to do
anything.”

She whimpered and
opened her eyes, looking at him resignedly. “As I recall from the
tour of the house, you don’t have any spare rooms do you?”

“Well, technically
there are lots of rooms, but as you saw, they’re sealed off because
the windows aren’t air tight and there’s no furniture in them
either.” He winked at her. “Don’t worry. You could always sleep
with me.”

That comment had
her standing upright, indignation spreading through her. “If you
think for one minute that I’d—”

“Hey, I’m just
teasing. The couch is pretty comfortable.” He grinned cheekily.
“And if you change your mind, my bedroom is right next door.”

Mel didn’t find
that overly amusing or comforting. Ryne did have a bedroom right
down the hall from the entertainment room, complete with its own
bathroom and a connecting door to his office. The other two men
slept upstairs. “Thanks, but I’m sure I’ll be fine all on my
own.”

“You never know;
you could have a bad dream.” He had a certain glint in his eye that
made her feel he knew something she didn’t know, but for the life
of her couldn’t figure out what it might be.

Resigned to her
fate, Mel made the best of things. She helped make a simple pasta
supper and did the dishes. When they all decided to spend the night
watching a movie, she volunteered to make the popcorn and carried
the bowls and cans of pop into the entertainment room. Ryne
remained calm, even a bit charming, giving no sign of his earlier
bad mood. Bryan and Daniel also acted as if the incident had never
happened. Slowly, Mel relaxed, coming to the conclusion that it was
an issue between the three men and if it didn’t bother them, then
she wouldn’t dwell on it.

After putting the
movie into the DVD player, Ryne sat on the couch beside her while
the other two settled in the recliners. She noticed that while they
spoke to her, they also kept their distance and never looked at her
directly. Mel couldn’t help but wonder what Ryne had said about her
that would have them acting so oddly. Why did he want them to stay
away? Was he afraid that she’d ask them questions? That must be it,
she decided. The man really was way too caught up in this privacy
thing.

That made her
think back to the conversation she’d overheard between Kane and
Elise. Kane had been worried about the discovery of something and
it had to do with one of Ryne’s pictures. She decided it was most
likely the one that Mr. Greyson had. Now what could be so special
about a picture of a wolf? Whatever it was, Ryne didn’t want her
finding out about it. And quite probably Daniel and Bryan were
aware of the secret too, otherwise why would Ryne want to keep her
away from them. Hmm... It was all very puzzling. Hopefully, if she
set her questions up carefully enough, Ryne would reveal something
that would help her figure out the little mystery.

Speaking of
mysteries, she glanced back at the TV screen and then hurriedly
looked away again. The men had picked the movie and, of course, had
chosen a horror flick complete with mass murders, blood, guts,
undead monsters and a hapless female who spent a lot of time
screaming and wandering into places she’d be better off staying
away from, all in the middle of a storm. Mel shook her head. What
woman would be that clueless?

Another blood
chilling scream came from the speakers and even without looking,
Mel was aware of the mutilated body parts on the TV screen. She
fought to suppress a shudder, hating this type of movie. Almost
every man she’d ever dated thought the more guns and gore in the
script, the better. What was wrong with a nice romantic comedy? A
little hugging, a little kissing, a few misunderstandings, and
then, a ‘happily ever after’ ending!

Beside her, Ryne
shifted on the couch and Mel tried to imagine him watching a
chic-flick. Hmm... There’d be a girl snuggled up beside him, her
head on his shoulder while he gently played with her hair.
Frowning, Mel realized the girl was herself. Darn! That was the
second time, she’d found her imagination creating scenarios
depicting the two of them. What was going on?

Out of the corner
of her eye, she studied him, wondering exactly what it was about
Ryne that her subconscious found so appealing. His dark hair looked
thick and soft and had a slight curl to it where it brushed his
collar. She wondered how it would actually feel, if she were to run
her fingers through it. In contrast, a shadow of stubble graced his
jaw and she was quite sure it would be rough against her skin. Her
gaze moved upward and she noted fine laugh lines at the corner of
his eye, and the strong brow above. Just in time, she caught
herself reaching up to trace the feature with her fingers.