The Red Hat Society's Acting Their Age (20 page)

Mia hadn’t wanted to stop any more than he had, Cade thought, pleased by that fact. He smiled. She was something. He still felt her body’s warmth, smelled her soft scent, tasted her. Not a hint of girly bubblegum lip gloss on her perfect lips. Mia tasted like a woman. And he’d been dead-on right when he thought that once would not be enough. He wanted to kiss her again. And again.

When he reached the block of cells, Roy Cobb, his only prisoner, blinked bloodshot eyes at him from behind the steel bars. “You awake?”

Roy scowled. “Who could sleep on this rotten piece of plywood you call a bed?”

Cade took a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the cell door. “I’m taking pity on you, buddy. Don’t ask me why. Any more running around town acting like a one-man lynch mob and I won’t be so soft-hearted again.”

Roy tugged on his boots as if he couldn’t do it fast enough. Standing, he stuffed the tail of his wrinkled work shirt into the waistband of his pants. “Yeah? Well you’re who got me started, Sloan. Talking about all the extra hours Aggie’s puttin’ in all the sudden at that dad-gum frou-frou coffee shop. How people are gossiping about the migraines she’s been sleeping off every afternoon at Mia’s when nobody’s home.”

Cade closed the door after Roy stepped from the cell. “I was afraid you’d say that.” They walked down the hallway side by side.

“So, you riled me up on purpose?”

Bingo. But Cade wasn’t about to admit it. He glanced at his watch. “It’s still early. How about I buy you a beer, Roy?” He placed a friendly hand on the older man’s shoulder.

“I don’t drink, but considerin’ the past few days, I’m beginning to think I might start.”

Cade chuckled. “Wouldn’t be the first time woman troubles turned a man down a crooked path.”

Roy patted his bowling-ball belly. “Could use a root beer float, though. Joe Pat over at the pool hall makes a good one.”

“Root beer, huh?” They stepped out the office door then Cade turned off the light and locked up. Leave it to Roy Cobb to drown his sorrows in ice cream and root beer instead of alcohol. Too bad all that sugar didn’t sweeten his sour attitude. Cade gestured toward the truck. “I’ll spring for a double float, how’s that? We have some things to talk over. It might take a while.”

Joe Pat packed in a crowd on weekends, but on work nights like tonight, the parking lot was less than half full. Cade and Roy entered the dimly-lit bar to the sound of Tim McGraw on the corner speakers. Glass balls clacked together atop the pool tables lining one half of the smoky room. Two players looked up when the door opened. Nodding, they said, “Hey, Sheriff.”

Echoing their greeting, Cade scanned the faces of the few other customers at the scattered tables that filled the room’s remaining space. Only two men sat at the long narrow bar across the way.

Roy nodded toward one dark head bent over it. “Well, look who’s here again.”

“Appears you’re not the only man in town dreading an empty house tonight,” Cade said as they walked over and pulled up stools on either side of Eddie Chilton. “What’s up, Eddie?” Leanne’s husband, he noticed, had opted for something stronger than root beer to wash away his troubles.

“Not a whole hell of a lot.”

“You staying a while?” Cade hoped so. He could save some time by talking to both of the men at once.

“’Til closing, most likely.” Eddie shrugged. “Beats another long night alone in a cold bed.”

“Hey, now.” Cade chuckled. “That’s my life you’re talking about.”

Roy ordered his float then settled his forearms on the bar top. “When you gonna get that high-strung wife of yours under control, Eddie? She’s puttin’ ideas in Aggie’s head.”

“Shoot.” Eddie twirled a toothpick between his teeth. He didn’t appear offended by the older man’s bluntness. “Lea spent a lot of time at your place growing up. You should know as well as anybody that nobody convinces the woman to do anything until she’s good and ready.”

Roy grunted. “They oughta be ashamed. Married women their age carrying on like that. Gettin’ all dolled up and prancin’ around town like a couple of cheerleaders. What are they tryin’ to do? Catch the eye of every Tom, Dick, and Harry in town?”

“What are you getting so worked up about?” Eddie sipped his whiskey. “So Aggie dyed her hair red. Big deal. Your wife’s true blue, you know that. She’d never fool around with another man while she’s married to you.”

Roy grunted again.

“And the only thing different about Leanne is her hairdo,” Eddie continued. “Which I happen to like. She’s always been a flirt. I’m used to it. Hell, it’s one of the things I love best about her.”

When the bartender set Roy’s float and Cade’s beer down in front of them, Roy said, “If it’s not that, then what are they up to?”

Eddie stared down at the amber liquid in his glass. “I don’t know about Aggie.” He shrugged. “As for Lea? My guess is, she’s thinking about leaving me. Not for some other dude, necessarily. I think she’s bored.”

Roy scratched his head. “With what?” He licked the froth from the top of his mug.

“With this town.” Eddie glanced up at his own image in the mirror behind the bar, caught Cade’s glance and averted his eyes again.

He didn’t say that Leanne might be bored with him, too, but Cade saw that worry in him, anyway. In the way he sat hunched over his drink, in the lines around his eyes.

“She’s sick of the same routine every day and night,” Eddie said.

Roy frowned at himself in the mirror and muttered, “Not Aggie. She loves the same ol’ same ol’.” He spooned a bite of ice cream from his float.

Cade bit back a smile. Roy sounded like a man trying to convince himself of something. “You’re both on the wrong track.”

Eddie shifted to study Cade. “You know something we don’t?”

“What’s going on with your wives . . . Mia, too . . . doesn’t have a single thing to do with secret flings or plans to leave town. It has everything to do with a girl named Rachel Nye.”

Even Roy managed to keep quiet as Cade told the two men about Rachel. About purple nail polish and bubblegum lip gloss. About pink thong panties in Mia’s flowerbed and MTV blaring from her television set.

“When Buck Miller filed his complaint on you, Roy, he also said he glimpsed into Mia’s bedroom last night before she pulled the window shade.”

Roy bristled. “That perverted son of a—”

“He swore it wasn’t on purpose,” Cade interrupted, with a laugh. “He just happened to look out his window in that direction.”

Eddie’s cheek twitched. “Did he just happen to have on a pair of binoculars at the time, too?”

“He said Mia, Aggie, Leanne, and someone else he didn’t recognize, thanks to his failing vision, were having a pillow fight.”

“So that’s where Aggie took off to last night.” Roy snorted again. “She said she had to run to the store and she got cornered by Reba Bodine on the produce aisle. You know Reba. The woman’s gabbier than all get-out.”

“The thing is,” Cade continued, “the judge won’t grant another warrant to search her place unless I can show him proof she’s harboring a fugitive.”

Eddie shifted. “And he doesn’t consider lace panties and the word of a Peeping Tom proof? Is that what you’re saying?”

“That’s it.” Cade asked himself the same question he’d gone over time and again. Even if he had proof, could he really arrest Mia? Mia, who he’d been trying to get close to for months before this whole mess landed in his lap. Who had finally agreed to go out with him for the first time today. Who, less than two hours ago, had kissed him back like she meant it.

Mia
. . . Cade lifted his hat and ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t been able to get her off his mind the past few months. Now, after that kiss, she was in his blood, too. And he was in a predicament.

“So what we need is evidence.” Eddie tapped his fingers against his whiskey glass. “I may only run a small town newspaper, but I know a thing or two about investigative reporting. This shouldn’t be too hard.”

“It shouldn’t?” Roy frowned.

“Not if the Sheriff here’s willing to give us a little leeway.”

Cade didn’t like the sound of that, but right now he was willing to listen to any and all ideas. “That depends. What do you have in mind?”

“Tell you what, Sheriff.” Eddie slapped Roy on the back. “Maybe you’re better off not knowing. Roy and I can take care of things, can’t we, Roy?”

“We can?” When Eddie nudged him, Roy jumped and said, “Sure we can.”

Cade narrowed his gaze. “Whatever you do, it’s got to be on the up-and-up.”

“Don’t you worry about that. Just leave it to us.” Eddie nodded toward the pool tables. “Roy, let’s you and me play a game or two and have ourselves a talk. I’ll drive you to your truck when we’re through. That’s you parked over at the Cactus Hotel, isn’t it?”

Roy cast a sheepish glance in Cade’s direction then nodded.

“Thought so.” Eddie pushed away from the bar. “’Night, Cade. Talk to you soon.”

“Don’t go too far, Eddie,” Cade warned again.

“Just far enough to get you your evidence without hurting anything or anybody. And maybe get our women back in the process.”

Cade watched the two men as they ambled over to a pool table. He blew out a noisy breath. What in the hell was he doing? Had he really let himself sink to this? Allowing a couple of civilian yahoos help him do his job? And by what methods?

But, the truth was, Cade had run out of ideas. All he knew for certain was that, for the first time in his career as sheriff, he’d reached a dead end.

Cade realized that Eddie and Roy didn’t seem aware that if their wives were involved in hiding Rachel, a runaway foster kid, a ward of the State, they could be accused of a crime right along with Mia. He decided not to mention that fact. He’d gone this far, why not take it to the end? Once he had his proof and the girl safely in custody, he’d worry about how to protect the women.

Chapter 15

A
cross town, Mia sat on her bed, her nightgown-covered knees drawn to her chest, the stargazer lily Cade had gaven her in a vase on the nightstand. Aggie, Leanne, and Rachel, all in pajamas, had gathered in her room. Aggie sat beside Mia, working on a needlepoint canvas Mia had started years ago and never finished. Leanne sat at the foot of the bed with Rachel standing in front of her. Rachel wore the halter top they’d cut out earlier, and Leanne was using straight pins to fit the garment to her tiny body.

“Trent called,” Aggie said.

“Oh, shoot.” Mia winced. “I forgot to call him with an excuse about why I can’t fly to Dallas on Saturday. What did you tell him?”

Leanne took a pin out from between her teeth. “I answered the phone. I told him Aggie and I ran away from home and that you were out on a date with Cade.”

Mia’s stomach flip-flopped. “Thanks a lot.”

Leanne smiled and tucked the pin into the seam beneath Rachel’s left arm. “Well, it was the truth. Oh, and by the way, Brent called, too. He wanted to know if you could drive over and babysit on Sunday.”

“All the sudden I’m in demand.” Mia wasn’t complaining. She’d love to spend Saturday with Trey and Sunday with her grandkids if not for the fact that her life was in chaos at the moment. “I guess you told Brent I went out to dinner with Cade, too?”

“Nope. I said y’all went parking out at Cooper Lake.”

Mia pressed a foot against Leanne’s back and tried to push her off the bed.

Laughing, Leanne glanced over her shoulder and said, “Watch it.”

“Yeah.” Rachel made a face at Mia. “You’re
going
to make her
stick
me.”

Leanne held out one bare leg and wiggled her toes. “So, is he?”

“Is who what?” Mia asked, widening her eyes and trying to look innocent.

“You know who and what,” she scoffed. “Is Cade a good kisser?”

Rachel made a gagging sound.

Aggie dipped her needle into the canvas and looked at Mia over her reading glasses. “I, for one, hope you don’t know the answer to that question. Make the man wait, I’m telling you. You won’t be sorry.”

“I seem to recall hearing,” Leanne said in an exaggerated sultry tone, “that even at sixteen, Cade had a certain finesse in the way—”

Covering her ears, Rachel groaned, “He’s
old
.”

Mia scowled at the girl. “That’s a matter of opinion. But I’m still not going to compare notes with Leanne’s high school friends.”

“Hmmm.” Winking at Rachel, Leanne cupped a hand to her mouth and whispered, “So, something happened that she
could
compare if she wanted to. That’s a good sign.”

“What’s the big deal about kissing, anyway?” Rachel lifted her gaze to the ceiling.

“After your first time, we’ll talk, sugar,” Aggie said with a smile.

Leanne slid Aggie a look of disbelief. “She’s fourteen. This isn’t 1950. Even in my day, fourteen-year-old girls kissed.”

Rachel blushed three shades of red.

“Speak for yourself, Leanne.” Compassion for the girl squeezed Mia’s heart. She wished Leanne would notice Rachel’s humiliated expression. “I was two months short of sixteen before my first kiss. Steven Fargo. Backseat of the band bus after the football game over in White Deer.” Her lips felt bruised just thinking about it.

“Fat Lips Fargo?” Now Leanne gagged instead of Rachel. “The tuba player?” When Mia nodded, she said, “You’ve got to be kidding. I’m surprised that didn’t scare you into never kissing anyone ever again. What were you doing on the band bus, anyway? You weren’t a member.”

“Steven was sweet,” Mia protested, trying but failing to keep a straight face. “His lips
were
a bit large, now that you mention it. And moist. Which was why he was so great on the tuba, I suppose.”

Aggie kept her gaze on the movements of her needle. “I remember that boy. He hit the low notes so loud during halftime the stadium bleachers vibrated.”

“What about you, Mia?” Leanne’s eyes glinted with mischief. “Did Fat Lips vibrate your bleachers?”

“
Leanne
, hush.” Aggie’s head jerked in Rachel’s direction as she paused to give Leanne a playful stab with her toe.

With a dismissive laugh, Leanne asked, “How about it, Packrat? Have you been kissed yet, or are you following Mia’s example? Which wouldn’t be a bad thing, by the way,” she quickly interjected. “In fact, it beats the path I took by a long shot. When I was your age, I spent way too much time worried about what
guys
wanted, when I should’ve been worrying about what
I
wanted.”