Wife Wanted in Dry Creek (6 page)

“Well, if you put it that way,” the ranch hand said and then grinned. “I’ll be there ready to do some kissing.”

“Gazing,” Tracy interrupted. “She’s only asking for the gazing in the eyes thing.”

“I never do anything halfway,” Pete said and winked at Katrina’s nephews. “There’s a lesson in that for you boys.”

“Zach’s only three,” Katrina protested.

But the ranch hand was already putting his Stetson on his head and walking to the door.

Conrad turned to Tracy. “I’ll see that there’s no kissing.”

Tracy smiled back at him a little sadly. All the spark had gone out of her face. “It doesn’t matter. He’s kissed hundreds of women anyway. What’s one more?”

“Well, the woman we get may not want to kiss him anyway,” Katrina said with some satisfaction. Then she stopped. “I forgot. I might not be here tomorrow. The sheriff will talk to Leanne and I’ll leave.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Conrad said.

“But—”

“We’ll talk about it on the way to the sign,” Conrad said as he started to usher the boys out of the café. He didn’t think it would help anyone to say that the sheriff wouldn’t let her leave town unless he knew how she came to be in that old car.

They were almost to the door when Katrina whispered, “But what will we do if the sheriff doesn’t let me go? What if Leanne and Walker don’t answer their phone at all today? Maybe they’re off on some romantic adventure.”

“I don’t think your sister and her husband would leave without telling you. Not when you have the boys,” Conrad said, keeping his voice low. He looked down at Katrina’s nephews. They were standing very still in that way children did when they were nervous.

As careful as he was, Conrad figured some of his
words had escaped because he saw his aunt Edith walking toward them. She’d been Mrs. Hargrove until she married his uncle a year or so ago. No one had been able to get used to calling her Mrs. Nelson so she became Edith to everyone and Aunt Edith to him.

No matter her name, she was the heart of Dry Creek.

Right now, she was wearing an apron over one of her gingham print housedresses and had her hair pinned back in a careless bun. She had white orthopedic shoes on her feet and an old gray coat hanging from her shoulders. She looked like she was in a hurry to go somewhere. But, if there was a child in need anywhere in Dry Creek, she would be there even if she had to interrupt her baking to do so.

She smelled like spices when she got closer.

She smiled gently as she put her hands on the boys’ shoulders and then bent down until she was at eye level with them. “You boys are welcome to stay at our house for a while. I’m going to be baking gingerbread cookies today. I’ve already got the dough stirred up and you can help me use the cookie cutters to make the men.”

“Will they have eyes?” Ryan asked eagerly. “We like the eyes.”

Aunt Edith looked up at Katrina. “You’re welcome to come, too, dear. You won’t want to spend your day just waiting over at Conrad’s. Who knows how long it will take him to fix that muffler?”

“Oh—I—” Katrina stammered and then she looked at Conrad.

“Katrina might be busy. But the boys will need a place to take a nap later,” he said.

“Only Zach takes a nap,” Ryan protested. “I’m six.”

“That’s right. You’re a big boy,” Edith said as she straightened up and put her hands behind her back to ease some pain. She clearly didn’t bend as easily as she used to.

“I appreciate you doing this, Mrs.—” Katrina started and then stopped.

“This is my aunt.” Conrad started the introductions. “Katrina Britton, meet Mrs. Hargrove-Nelson. We call her Edith. She’ll help you with the boys. “

“He’s right,” Edith said with a soft smile. “I’m home all day so just bring the boys by when you’re ready. I have the oven going for the cookies so I’ll be there.”

Conrad could see Katrina relax. “Thank you.”

“I could even take them with me now if you’d like. I have some toys they might like to play with.”

“What kind of toys?” Ryan asked.

“There’s no need for them to be out in the rain,” Conrad said to Katrina. “They won’t care about seeing that sign anyway.”

Katrina nodded. “I guess if the boys want to go—”

The boys nodded and shyly gave Katrina a hug when she opened her arms to them. Then she patted them on their heads and let them go.

“There’s no one in town better to keep an eye on them,” Conrad said as they watched the boys walk away with his aunt and uncle.

“It does make sense,” Katrina agreed, her voice low
even though there was no one around them any longer. “I don’t really want them there when I talk to the sheriff anyway.”

“Yeah, well, let’s go then,” Conrad said.

He had been going to show her the sign first, but maybe they should just go ahead and see what the sheriff had to say. That way, when she saw the sign, she could devote her full attention to it.

“I hope you’re not disappointed,” he said as they walked back out on the café porch. “It’s just a sign.”

“I don’t care what it looks like. I’m going to make it work,” she said. “I have to.”

Which only made him more nervous. He wished now that he’d given more than ten dollars to the cause when the teenagers in town had taken up a collection to place a bench by the sign. He suspected they only wanted it so they’d have someplace to sit and hold hands in summer. Well, he figured they couldn’t get into very much trouble doing that since someone could come down the road at any time.

They had the bench on order, but no one had received it yet so there was nothing around the sign but mud and dried grass. And a few small boulders someone had hauled over for sitting. The last he heard no one had painted the signpost again, either. Every winter, it seemed to get a little more chipped. He liked the weathered look of the sign, but a photographer might not.

He wondered what it would take to get everyone to agree to put a new coat of paint on the signpost. It might be an odd attraction for a town, but the people here had
taken that old metal post to their hearts and they were particular about anything that was done to it. If he understood love, he might understand about the post, he told himself. Right now, though, he felt clueless.

A
fter they stepped out of the café, Katrina took a minute to stand in the shelter of the porch. More dark clouds had moved in and cold rain was being blown around by the wind. She could see Edith and Charley Nelson walking with the boys down the street, all four of them with their heads down. Then she saw Charley stop and pick up Zach so he could ride on his shoulders. No one seemed to mind all the mud.

Her nephews would do fine with the older couple. Besides, it would only be for a couple of hours. By then, if all went well, she and the boys would be driving back to Leanne’s place with nothing more than a good story to tell.

She patted the small pocket on the side of her jacket. She missed having her cell phone with her. She hadn’t been able to give a number to the Nelsons. Of course, they would both know to call the gas station if they had
any problems with the boys. “Your aunt has your number. Right?”

Conrad looked over at her. “My phone number? Sure.”

He was standing at the edge of the porch, waiting for her. When he left the gas station earlier, he’d put on a buffalo plaid jacket. She just now noticed he’d turned up the corduroy collar and it made him look like a lumberjack.

“You okay?” he asked. “It must be near freezing out here.”

She nodded and put the collar up on her jacket. Unfortunately, the leather jacket only had a shallow band of a collar. If she was going to stay around here longer, she’d need to get a warmer jacket. Now, what made her think about that? She’d rather go back inside the café, but the sheriff was waiting.

She looked down the street. She was a good hundred yards from the station, but she could see that the sheriff’s car was still parked right where it had been.

There were no sidewalks so she would have to walk through mud to get to the asphalt. She really should have made sure her walking shoes were in the trunk of her sister’s car. She had remembered to move her photography equipment, she should have thought of the shoes, too.

After a few steps, she felt the heels of her shoes suddenly go down.

“Oh.” The sinking caught her off guard.

Her heels sank into the mud and were resting on the frozen ground beneath the slush.

“What’s wrong?” Conrad stepped over and steadied her arm.

“I think I’m stuck,” Katrina confessed. When he’d taken her arm, he’d also stepped closer. She hadn’t quite realized how tall he was. Of course, she’d shrunk an inch when her heels slid down in the mud. And his shoulders were broad enough to block the rain so she was happy to stand there while he looked down at the ground.

Conrad frowned. “You’re going to ruin those shoes.”

“Well, I can’t go barefoot.”

“No, you can’t,” he agreed grimly. “Not in this. So hold on to your hat.”

“I don’t have a hat.”

He didn’t answer her. Instead, he scooped her up and settled her into his arms, her muddy shoes dangling off the ends of her equally muddy feet.

“Oh,” she breathed.

His jacket was wet, but where it was open his shirt was dry. That’s where he nestled her. “There. I’ll get you to the asphalt at least.”

“You don’t need to—” Katrina started, but he was already walking with her. She hadn’t realized he was quite so strong. She could feel the muscles of his arms through his jacket and she could see the underside of his chin. Being swept off her feet like this was really quite romantic. It made her think of her whole goal for the day. “Do you ever go without your shirt?”

“What?” He stopped so quick she thought he might drop her.

“I was thinking of the stop sign picture. If you had your shirt unbuttoned and—”

“No one is going to take a picture at that stop sign with their shirt hanging open. Not in this weather. Not me, not Pete. No one.”

“Well, I just thought it would be romantic. You know, like those old movie stars. Tarzan and Jane.”

“Tarzan!” Conrad set her down more abruptly than necessary. “He didn’t even own a shirt! And I don’t think he ever saw a snowstorm.”

Fortunately, they had reached the asphalt and her shoes didn’t sink. She was standing very close to him though and it gave her a dizzy feeling in her stomach. He was looking down and his eyes were dancing with laughter.

“Well, other movie stars go bare-chested, too,” she said just so she could watch his eyes. “Tom Cruise. George Clooney. You could be one of those.”

He stared at her, speechless. Then he growled. “If you want movie star romance, here it is.”

And, with that, he kissed her.

It was an impulse. She knew that right away, even without the chuckle in his throat. But then, when it should have ended, it didn’t. Instead, his lips were coaxing hers to move with him. Suddenly, it wasn’t just his lips; the temperature of the air around them warmed up so much she didn’t even feel the cold on her face. Or on her feet, either. What had happened to her feet? She wondered if she was standing on the
asphalt or if she had slipped back into the mud. Maybe that would account for why she felt so off balance.

And then Conrad moved slightly. Instead of kissing her lips, he was rubbing his thumb along the line of her jaw. He had his head bent to hers and their foreheads were touching. His breath turned the air between them white.

“You’re sweet,” he murmured.

“Me?” she squeaked.

He nodded. “Maybe, if you stay around for a while, we could—”

And then she remembered. She swallowed. How could she have forgotten?

“I can’t date you,” she said in a whispered rush.

It was silent. Conrad finally pulled his forehead away.

“Well, I understand, of course,” he said stiffly. “We don’t even know each other. Besides—” He stopped, took a step away, and then spun around. “No, come to think of it, I don’t understand. Are you worried about the sheriff taking you to jail? That will all be over once he talks to your sister.”

“So you believe me about that?”

“Of course, I believe you. The boys know you’re their aunt so I figure their mother must have told them you were. Those boys don’t look worried about anything. Besides, I’ve looked under the hood and no one would steal that car you’re driving. So I figure you must be worried about going to jail, but that’s not going to happen.”

Katrina shook her head. She was tempted to tell him everything about her health and her childhood.
But, he was right, they didn’t know each other very well. “There are worse things than spending a few days in jail.”

“What do you mean?” His eyes were quiet now, searching hers.

“I can’t tell you,” she said.

“I see.” Everything about him closed down. “Well, it’s not a problem. I should be getting back to the station anyway.”

And, with that, he turned and started walking back to his business, leaving Katrina standing in the middle of the asphalt road. The rain was still coming down and she realized she had forgotten the umbrella back at the café. She didn’t mind the cold wet of the day, though. It would hide any tears that came and she had no use for sunshine anyway.

She wished it had been different, but she knew she’d done the right thing. She liked Conrad, but she was a little bit of a loner at the best of times. She didn’t make casual friends. She didn’t trust easily. It wasn’t fair to ask anyone to walk beside her until she knew more about the cancer. Her old boyfriend had certainly agreed with that. Maybe after she saw the doctor again, she could come back here and set things right.

Conrad couldn’t believe what he’d done. It might sting that Katrina didn’t want to go out with him, but he should be more gracious than that. He was a grown man, not a little kid. His only excuse was that his
uncle’s prayer request had churned up expectations in him that he shouldn’t be thinking about.

“Conrad!” He heard the shout and looked up.

Sheriff Wall was jogging toward him with a scowl on his face and a hand on his head to keep his hat from blowing off. Half-frozen rain was coming at both of them and, outside of his name, Conrad couldn’t hear anything else the lawman was saying. Then the sheriff pointed at something behind him.

Conrad turned around. Ah, yes, the sheriff was worried about Katrina escaping.

“I’m sorry,” Conrad said, as the lawman got closer. “She’ll be here in a minute.”

Sure enough, Katrina was walking down the asphalt road with more dignity than he possessed. Her long black hair was flying. A lesser woman would be bowed by the wind, but not her. She had taken off her high heels and was walking barefoot in the rain.

Conrad turned back to see the sheriff looking at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” the lawman demanded. “You don’t know who this woman is. She could be anyone. And you’re out in the middle of the street kissing her like you’re a couple of teenagers.”

“She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me,” Conrad confessed miserably.

“Well—” the sheriff said gruffly and then cleared his throat.

“I more or less asked her out and she said no,” Conrad continued just in case the man didn’t get the full picture.

“At least one of you has some sense then,” the sheriff finally said. His voice did have some reluctant sympathy, though. “I heard about that prayer request of yours. My wife has it stuck to our refrigerator door with a magnet.”

Conrad grimaced. “That was my uncle’s doings.”

“Yeah, well,” the sheriff said and then gave him a short pat on the back. “I think you should pick a woman who isn’t in the middle of a theft investigation—or worse.”

Conrad felt icy cold. “What do you mean worse?”

The sheriff nodded grimly. “Here she comes. I’ll tell you both when we get back inside. No sense in us catching pneumonia out here talking.”

No one had said much when Katrina came up to the two men. The wind was miserable by then and everyone had their heads down. The sheriff pointed to the gas station and they all started walking against the wind to get there.

Katrina was exhausted. After a few steps, Conrad put his arm around her and helped her along. She didn’t really need his help, but his shoulders provided some shelter for her and she wasn’t about to refuse his kindness.

The sheriff was the first one to step inside the gas station office.

“Your aunt and uncle have the boys?” he turned to ask Conrad. Rain was still running down the man’s face, but he had a serious look to him and he didn’t even wipe the drops away.

Conrad nodded. “We thought it would be best.”

“They have toys,” Katrina added.

“They’ll be well taken care of,” the lawman said and then he stood there.

“Have you heard from Leanne or Walker?” Katrina asked, beginning to worry. It was clear something had changed since the sheriff had talked to her earlier, but she couldn’t imagine what it could be. “They called back, didn’t they?”

“No,” the sheriff said. “But I had one of the men from the tribal police go over and check their house. I thought maybe they were just outside or something.”

“Leanne doesn’t spend much time outside. It’s too early for her garden.”

“Yeah, well, she wasn’t there,” the sheriff said. “Walker wasn’t there, either.”

Katrina swallowed. Maybe that was good news. “They’ve been having problems. They could have gone away for the day and—”

“Someone broke into the house,” the lawman continued. He kept looking at Katrina like he was judging her response. “A window was smashed and everything was messed up inside.”

“They didn’t have a fight, did they?” Katrina asked. She’d worried about Leanne marrying Walker, but she’d never thought of physical violence. She’d known he intended to live on the reservation and she didn’t think her sister would do well there.

“The man said it didn’t look like a fight. The furniture wasn’t broken. Mostly drawers were upended and
the clothes in the closets were thrown on the bed. No real damage done though. Usually, in a fight, a lamp gets broken or something.”

“Could they have been packing?” Conrad asked.

The sheriff shook his head. “Everyone’s things were gone through. The boys. The wife. The husband. It was more like a search, but that’s not all.”

Katrina couldn’t stand it any longer. “What is it?”

She felt her breath catch in her throat again.

The sheriff was looking at her, his eyes blank of any emotion. “There were traces of blood on the doorjamb. Someone could have cut themselves breaking into the house. Or someone could have grabbed the jamb on their way out of the house if they were injured.”

“No,” Katrina groaned.

“Do you mind if I look at your hands?” the sheriff asked.

“What?” Katrina asked.

“Your hands,” the man repeated.

Numbly, she held them up.

“To the elbow, please,” the sheriff asked and she took her jacket off.

Conrad held out his hands and she gave the garment to him. His dark eyes followed her movements and she couldn’t figure out what he thought. The light was low in the office and not much more was coming through the windows. It was raining steady outside. The faint smell of coffee hung in the air.

Katrina pushed up the sleeves on the ivory pullover she was wearing. Then she spread her fingers wide
and let the sheriff take a good long look. Then she turned them over.

“I’d never hurt my sister,” she whispered when he finally finished examining her. “She’s my only family.”

The sheriff wasn’t moved by her words. “An awful lot of violence happens in families. And you said yourself the two of you had your problems. You mentioned you haven’t been in close contact for a long time.”

“Yes, but—” Katrina looked over at Conrad. “Truly, I wouldn’t.”

He nodded and turned to the sheriff. “If you want to ask more questions, I think we should wait until we can get a lawyer here.”

“A lawyer!” Katrina protested. “I don’t need a lawyer.”

The sheriff turned toward the window. “There’s a forensics team on the way to the house now. They’re going to try to get a handle on the bloodstain. If it doesn’t match either of the two adults living in the house and it doesn’t match yours, we might be able to eliminate you from consideration. The tribal council has samples of their blood and will confirm or deny for us.”