“Do you feel like playing at the sing-along tonight?”
It had only been a couple of days since her confrontation with Reuben and the brawl that had come from it. There was still a fear nagging at her chest but she pushed it down. If what Dewey Fuller had said was true, Quinn needed all of the help he could get, even hers. With a nod of her head, she said, “I can do it.”
“Great!” Quinn exclaimed. “The way I see it, if we can—”
Suddenly, the panicked shouts of men split the afternoon sky. Looking up, Adrianna was horrified to see one of the giant logs that had been lying on the bed of a rail car break free from the control of the men with the levers and come bounding off the car too soon. As if in slow motion, the log struck the ground with a thunderous noise, bounced once, then twice, before slamming into a man, crushing him beneath its tremendous weight. It had all happened so quickly that the man hadn’t had time to move an inch.
“Oh my God!” she screamed.
Before she could draw another breath, Quinn raced away from her, sprinting to where the fallen man lay. As she and Gabe hurried to catch up, she could see Quinn and several other men straining against the log, marshalling all of their strength to push it off its victim. All around her, voices shouted.
“Get a winch!”
“Push ’em free!”
“Somebody go and grab the doc!”
When she was close enough to see what had happened, Adrianna gasped at the sight of the man lying beneath the log. He screamed in pain to the heavens above as the log pinned both of his legs to the ground, but still, she couldn’t look away. Quinn strained mightily, the veins on his arms and neck standing out. Agonizing moments followed one after another as the men pushed and prodded. Finally, the large log rolled free enough to allow two men to scoop the wounded man from where he had been trapped and whisk him away for medical attention. Without a word, Quinn followed them. Adrianna arose to follow, but Gabe’s hand held her fast.
“He must do his job.”
As she watched him retreat, she marveled at the way Quinn confronted danger. It was more powerful than the way he had sought to protect Jesse and to keep the Whipsaw alive. It was in his nature to jump in to fight Reuben or to leap to help the pinned man.
Quinn Baxter is the type of man who is instinctively drawn to doing what is right!
Even if he was in financial peril or if his own well-being was threatened, he strove to overcome what was in front of him, danger be damned!
“He’s one of a kind,” she muttered.
“Oui, mademoiselle,”
Gabe agreed.
A
DRIANNA SPENT THE
rest of the afternoon with Jesse. He seemed to enjoy exercising with the bar Quinn had hung over his bed. He joked about being the man on the flying trapeze and said his aim was to sling his feet over the bar. Adrianna had laughed and said he’d better learn how to swing his feet off the bed first.
She was growing quite fond of the boy. On one occasion when he had told her that he might fall in love with her, she had kissed him on the forehead and told him she would consider waiting for him to grow up. The time she spent with him was the most pleasant part of the day.
After Quinn had kissed her the night before, she’d lain awake for hours thinking about it. Her stupid heart pounded at the thought that he might really be falling in love with her. But logic told her that he was being kind and reassuring, as if she were about the same age as Jesse. If that alone had been true, would he have kissed her? She both looked forward to and dreaded seeing him at the dinner table. She heard him when he came in and heard Lola’s voice asking him about his day as if she were his wife.
When the call came that supper was ready, she was in Jesse’s room, and the two of them went together to the table. Adrianna darted a glance at Quinn. His dark eyes met hers and held them. After their talk on the porch and the kiss that followed, she felt shy with him, and he seemed to be aware of it. Holding her gaze he winked at her and color flooded her face. During the meal, she said nothing, giving Jesse the opportunity to talk to his brother.
When Lola wasn’t giving her full attention to Quinn, she watched Adrianna.
Goddamn stupid little bitch!
Lola stared over the top of the water glass, her eyes shooting daggers into the woman sitting across from her. She had come into her life and was trying to ruin everything! Dinner had been served and they had all sat down to eat, but the thought of food made her stomach churn; the hatred she felt was strong enough to even keep her hunger at bay.
“It won’t be any trouble at all,” Quinn explained to Jesse. “Whenever there’s any kind of ruckus down at the Whipsaw, things are always calm for a week or so afterward. It seems that those who wanted to fight got it out of their craw.”
“I hope you’re right,” Adrianna said, her gaze darting across the table to sneak a peek at Lola. “It’s hard enough for me to play in front of strangers. If I had to worry about another fight breaking out, I don’t know if my fingers would stop shaking long enough for me to hit the keys.”
“Don’t worry about it. Gabe and I will see that you’re not bothered.”
What in the world does Quinn see in this woman?
Lola was thinking, her mind half on what was being said. This was the question that had roiled around in her mind from the moment she’d first noticed that Quinn might have a soft spot for Miss Adrianna Moore. A blind woman could have seen his interest! But why?! She was certainly no stunning beauty, her breasts were not even a good handful compared to hers. But the worst thing about her was the way she seemed to think she was so superior.
She walks around with her snooty nose in the air like I was just a mere servant here.
“Some potatoes please, Lola?” Quinn asked, breaking her thoughts.
“Of course,” she said sweetly, plopping a large spoonful down on the plate he held out. She’d hoped that her smiles would get a response, but he had already turned his attention back to the
bitch
without even giving her so much as a word of thanks! In her heart, she knew that her beloved Quinn wasn’t blameless, but she couldn’t bring herself to blame him for it. He was enchanted with the bitch—for now. Lord only knew it was easy enough to entice a man; she had led Reuben around as if he were a dog on a short leash, eager to please, hoping for a little petting. Quinn was a man, after all. He could be steered around by his pecker just like all of the rest of the men she knew. The problem was that she wasn’t the one doing the steering!
From the moment she had been hired to help tend to Jesse and to clean the Baxter house, Lola had had a plan. It had been a simple one, to hitch herself to Quinn by hook or by crook, and everything had been going according to plan. It would only have been a matter of time before Quinn would have realized that he couldn’t live without her and declared his feelings. But now the plan was in danger of running off the tracks!
Man-stealing little slut!
Lola wasn’t so generous with her feelings for the younger Baxter boy. Taking care of Jesse was a chore, one that she grew more tired of with each passing day.
Who gives a damn if the little shit ever gets out of that chair?
She sure as hell didn’t! All along, her intentions had been to ship him off to some home as soon as she’d landed Quinn, but it was possible she had been shortsighted. Maybe she needed to get rid of him sooner. Who knows, maybe the added grief of losing his brother would drive Quinn right into her arms? Maybe if she—
“—I want potatoes, too!”
Lola looked up to see Jesse holding his plate toward her, the look on his face demanding. She felt the edges of her mouth begin to curl into a sneer but quickly fought the expression down. As she was about to demurely do as she had been told, a voice spoke from across the table.
“You should ask politely, Jesse,” Quinn scolded.
Properly chastised, Jesse nodded and asked again with exaggerated politeness. “May I please have some more potatoes?”
“You certainly may, dear,” Lola answered warmly, dishing up the food. Even though the little shit’s legs didn’t work, it was still possible for him to be led by his pecker, too! Outwardly, she remained as pleasant as an angel but her insides roiled with fury.
She imagined leaping across the table and stabbing the slut’s eyes out with a fork, the fantasy giving her a temporary moment of glee, but it was fleeting. If she were to do so, all that she had painstakingly worked for would be ruined. No, this required something different.
When she had realized that Adrianna Moore wasn’t the type to be frightened away, when even Reuben had failed to motivate her to leave Lee’s Point, she had begun to think differently. She needed to be ruthless and unforgiving. To that end she had come up with a different plan, one that had been set in motion that very night. When it bore fruit, no one would be any the wiser. Then everything would be back to the way it was. The way it should be.
It’s only a matter of time, bitch! Only a matter of time.
“That gator was twice as long as the boat itself! I leaned over and took me a long look see and just then that critter done opened his mouth as wide as he could! There was more teeth than there is keys in that there piano, I done do swear!”
Adrianna smiled politely. She hadn’t found the story as funny as Roy Long had. He was busy slapping his knee with one gnarled hand as he threw back his head in a hearty laugh, but she’d always had a gift for patience.
When she and Quinn had arrived at the Whipsaw minutes earlier, he had made a beeline to the bar where he’d begun to talk business with Gabe. She’d only been a step behind, but it hadn’t been enough; she’d immediately been cornered by the crusty old man who’d proceeded to talk her ear off.
“That sounds like it was frightening,” she commented politely.
“Darlin’,” Roy crowed, smacking his worn lips together, “I done seen enough in my years here on this earth to put any of them movie fellas to shame. I ever told ya about the time me and my cousin Huey done hitched us a ride down to New Orleans with them there bank robbers?”
“No, you haven’t,” she admitted reluctantly.
As Roy continued talking, Adrianna’s eyes stayed fixed on Quinn. With each passing day, she found that there was much more to the logger than met the eye. Each discovery she made caused her skin to tingle as if it were charged with electricity. She had begun to feel drawn to him, to feel a connection building, and she wanted to know every part of him.
“Fella showed me his gun. It was as big as his arm, I done do swear!”
It was the kiss they had shared that had truly turned her world upside down. The memory of his lips against hers was a treasured one. Even though they came from such different worlds, she from the luxury she had known in Shreveport and he from the rougher, rural world of Lee’s Point, she felt an attraction to Quinn Baxter that she’d never experienced before, that she had never even dreamed of.
“Huey just looked him in the eye and said he didn’t take no shit!”
Again, Adrianna’s mind drifted away from what Roy was saying. Ever since she had spoken to Dewey Fuller, she had wondered if what the dapper man had said about Quinn’s money troubles was true. Why else would the man have spoken to her? At first, she’d tried to convince herself that it was none of her business and that by asking Quinn about it, she’d only be interfering.
“Should have seen ’em standin’ there when we stole their car!”
She’d wanted to tell Quinn at the picnic earlier in the day that Dewey Fuller had talked to her about his finances, but the time had not been right. She just needed to find the appropriate moment.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain that suddenly arced across her stomach like a bolt of lightning, each of its many tendrils burning brightly. It ached so intensely that her hands involuntarily went to her midsection and she winced in agony.
“Ouch,” she said under her breath.
Roy stopped telling his story and reached out to her, steadying her with his rough hands. “What’s the matter there, darlin’? You went as white as a sheet, I done do swear!”
It took a few moments for the wave of pain to pass, but Adrianna finally found some relief. As she tried to compose herself, she felt momentarily dizzy and had to use the support the old man offered until she regained her balance. “I think I might have been in the heat for too long,” she explained, the memory of being in the scorchingly hot attic still fresh in her mind. “But I feel better now. Thank you for your hand.”
“Weren’t nothin’. Y’er probably still a might touched about the other day, that’s the way I see it.”
“The other day?”
“What with all the fightin’ and all,” Roy explained. “But ya ain’t got no reason to be worried. If’n another starts up, I’ll come to yer rescue just like ol’ Quinn did, I done do swear!”
Adrianna smiled warmly. She was just about to thank Roy for his offer when she noticed Quinn walk from behind the bar and head across the tavern toward the office. This was her chance! Behind that door, she’d be able to ask him about Dewey in privacy.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Long,” she said quickly, trying to excuse herself, “I’ve enjoyed your company very much, but I need talk to Quinn for a moment before I begin playing.”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head none, sweetheart,” he cackled. “Way I sees it, this done give me another chance to belly on up to that bar and have myself a drink or two!”