Betting the Rainbow (Harmony) (19 page)

Chapter 32

HAWK HOUSE

R
ONNY WOKE WITH THE SUN BLINKING THROUGH THE CURTAINS
of an open window. She’d slept the night away next to Austin Hawk and he hadn’t killed her . . . or made love to her, for that matter.

Looking over at him, she thought he seemed peaceful. His arm lay across her middle, loosely holding her near. When she wiggled, he didn’t move. Didn’t even seem to be breathing.

He’s dead!
she thought, sitting up in bed as his arm lifelessly fell away.
I’ve been sleeping with a dead man. No wonder he didn’t have nightmares or make love to me. He’s dead!

She poked him with a stab of her finger as if testing roadkill for signs of life.

Austin opened one eye and said, “No, I’m not dead.”

“You read my mind.” Ronny considered the possibility that
mind reader
might be worse than
dead guy
.

“It wasn’t that hard. You still look about to have a heart attack. Let me guess. This is the first time you’ve woken up with a man?” He laughed. “You’re so adorable, Ronny. You’re always on edge waiting for the worst-case scenario to tumble on top of you.”

“I spent my childhood living with Dallas Logan. She wouldn’t let me go to school because there were too many germs at school. I was ten before I realized other children weren’t called germs. Every time I left the house, she quoted facts about the numbers of stolen and murdered women each year. Based on what she said, I thought my first job would be in human trafficking, and if I lived through that I’d move right into unidentified victim.”

“That explains it.” He pulled her back down. “You’re safe. My fangs only come out at night.”

“I slept here with you all night.” Ronny needed to state an obvious fact. “Right here, with you.”

“I know, honey, I was right here too. Remember me? I’m the guy on the other side of the bed.” He raised one eyebrow. “Am I going to have to introduce myself every morning to you? If so, that could get rather boring because I’d really like last night to become more of a routine than a shock to you every morning.”

She giggled, something she couldn’t remember doing for a very long time. “You didn’t have a nightmare. You didn’t fight in your sleep.”

He rolled to his back and stared at the ceiling. “That hasn’t happened since the fire. I fight sleep every night because I know what’s coming, but you’re right. Last night I don’t think I dreamed at all. I do remember waking up a few times and patting on you, hope you didn’t mind. The feel of you in the darkness is like returning to a memory logged into every cell of my body. It feels so right.”

“I touched you too, hoping to calm you so the nightmares wouldn’t get in. And they didn’t. What do you think that means?”

She leaned against his shoulder. He’d dressed last night, saying they’d have a date, and they hadn’t even left the bedroom.

“It can only mean one thing. You’ve got to sleep with me from now on. It’s the only polite thing to do.”

“Is that an invitation or an order, Hawk?”

“An order,” he snapped.

“I don’t take orders.” She smiled and waited.

He reconsidered his order. “A standing invitation. Any night, just come on over. I’ll share the bed with you.”

“That I’ll consider.” She climbed out and tried to straighten her once-starched shirt. “What time is it, anyway?”

“Ten, I’m guessing.” He stretched, silently telling her he didn’t care, because watching her was his only plan for the day. “My leg feels pretty good this morning. I guess the doc was right. I’ve been totally off it since you walked in last night. Maybe we should stay in bed all day to finish the healing.”

“We forgot supper last night and you took a shower and got all dressed up so we could have a date.” She glanced over at Austin. In jeans and a knit shirt, he looked pretty much the same except for morning stubble, but she looked like she’d slept in her clothes. Which she had. “Want some dinner now? I set it in the fridge before I came to check on you. Supper sounds good about now.”

He reached for his crutch. “I’ll race you to the kitchen. I’m starving.” He used the crutch one step, then carried it the rest of the way.

Fifteen minutes later they were on the porch eating cold fried chicken and potato salad out of storage containers when Mr. Carleon walked up from the direction of her cabin.

Ronny stood and introduced the two men, feeling as if she’d been caught cheating.

Mr. Carleon was formal, as always, and polite. “I’m sorry to interrupt your brunch, but I need to talk to Miss Logan about a matter that won’t wait. If you will excuse us, Captain Hawk.”

Austin nodded but didn’t look happy.

Ronny set down her plate and followed Mr. Carleon back to her cabin. She’d lost her appetite. It had to be terrible news or he wouldn’t have hiked down from the main road. Someone had died or had an accident.

Maybe her mother had been arrested again. No, he wouldn’t come down for that. Everyone in town knew no matter what Dallas Logan did, she’d be out within an hour. Last time the deputies took up a collection for her bail.

“I’ve e-mailed and called several times but couldn’t reach you,” Mr. Carleon began. “I wasn’t aware you were helping care for Captain Hawk until I stopped by the Delaney place.”

“We’re all pitching in,” Ronny said, not wanting him to think that she’d adopted Austin. “Why do you call him Captain?”

“That’s his rank. I don’t believe he’s retired yet, just on medical leave.”

She wasn’t surprised Mr. Carleon knew all the facts about Austin. “What brings you out here?”

“I have news that won’t wait much longer. Also, I said I’d come if I was unable to reach you by phone.”

“I’ve been busy since Austin was shot.” Ronny knew she didn’t have to tell him everything going on in her life, but she felt she owed him an explanation. “I’m sorry to have put you out. I planned to call you this morning.” She didn’t add that she hadn’t because she’d left her phone in her cabin last night.

“No trouble. I enjoyed the walk. I thought you might be busy helping. I heard about the accident from Dr. Addison when she and her husband, Tinch, came to breakfast this morning, and from your mother an hour later when she came by to see if Martha Q had heard about Hawk. The accounts were radically different.”

“I can imagine, but, Mr. Carleon, you don’t have to worry about me. Austin killed the hogs and Kieran told me the farmer set up traps to catch any more who come near. After hunting with guns, he said his sons will be checking traps from now on.”

“I wasn’t worried about you, dear. Any more than I always do, that is. I came out to tell you that Ivan, Marty’s hiking buddy, is getting married next weekend. Ross, remember him, the pilot who came up to help when we moved Marty from the hospital in Oklahoma to your little duplex?”

“I remember.”

“Well, Ross called me and said he’d stop by and pick up the two of us and we’d all fly down to the wedding. It’s going to be a real Texas shindig. Boots, hats, and two-stepping. I thought you might like to go. It’d only be for a few nights, then we’d fly back.”

“I think I would. I remember the three men. All adventurous like Marty must have been before the accident. They were with him when he fell. They got him off the mountain. Right?”

Mr. Carleon nodded. “From what I hear, Doc has traded his wild ways for volunteering with one of those organizations that goes into places where people never get to see a doctor. Ross still flies, but he spends most of his time writing books about where to find the adventure in life. Last I heard he was a consultant for some TV show called
Try Not to Be Eaten Alive before Dawn
. Of course, Ivan will settle down once he’s married. Ross told me when he called that the bride said she wasn’t going anywhere that didn’t have an indoor pool for her honeymoon.”

Ronny laughed. “It will be worth the flight to see what kind of woman would marry any one of them. Marty used to tell me all about the wild places they went to. He said they hiked the Pecos Wilderness once for a week without bathing. When they finished, they drove to the nearest town and not a single restaurant would let them in until they rented a room and showered.”

They talked like old friends as the morning turned into afternoon. If he noticed her wrinkled clothes, he didn’t see it as important enough to mention. Mr. Carleon was like that. He saw only the good in people he liked. People he didn’t like, he didn’t see at all.

Ronny told him she’d like to stay longer at the little cabin she called Walden, and he said he’d take the New York apartment off hold.

“I’d like to go back to work. Not at the post office, of course, but maybe open my own accounting business or even a bakery. I think it’s time I stepped back into life.” The words came out far easier than she thought they might.

He smiled, spreading wrinkles across his lean face. “I think that’s wonderful, but you know, miss, you don’t have to work. You have enough to—”

“Mr. Carleon, I think you’ve done a wonderful job of taking care of me, but I’d like to work before the money Marty willed me runs out.”

“It won’t,” he said simply. “You have over a million in accounts that pay you roughly eight thousand a month without touching the principal. You also have a stock account that’s been building. Your current draw on your bank account, per month, including rent, is about two thousand. At that rate, you’ll never run out.”

She leaned back and thought about what he’d just said. “Does anyone know about the money?”

“No one in Harmony. I set it up through a bank in Dallas. You can take over running it any day you like, miss, or I’ll manage it for you until you’re ready.”

“You like doing it?”

“I do. It gives me something to do. Life wouldn’t be near as pleasant if I didn’t get to walk to my office every morning and keep all accounts up to date. Makes me feel useful.”

Ronny grinned. “Then please continue, Mr. Carleon. And, please understand that I want to feel useful too. I just don’t know how, yet. As for the money, I’d like you to donate a hundred thousand to the fire department. Marty always worried about Harmony not having the best equipment.”

“I’ll do that. And don’t worry, miss, you’ll find your way. Maybe that wounded captain next door will help you out.”

Smiling, she asked, “You don’t mind that I’m seeing him?”

“I’m happy for you both. I ran a check on him before I rented the cabin. He’s a good man fighting his way back from terrible times, I think. Marty used to tell me that just looking at you made him feel better, and I didn’t miss the way Captain Hawk stared at you. I think he feels the same.”

“We’re not . . .” She had no idea how to finish the sentence.

“I’m not asking,” Mr. Carleon added. “One question before you get the ATV out and drive me back up to my car. Do you want me to buy this place for you?”

“It’s for sale?”

“I can get it for a good price if you want to live out here. We could have a real road put in and rebuild the dock. Even enlarge the cabin fairly easily.”

Ronny hugged her knees. “Leave the road as it is, but rebuild the dock. I think I’ve found my first real home. As for adding on, I think it’s just about perfect just the size it is.” She almost added that she wouldn’t be sleeping there, but that seemed too big a step to tell anyone yet, even herself.

“I’ll get to work on it as soon as we get back from the wedding.” Mr. Carleon stood. “Oh, I almost forgot, congratulate Dusti Delaney for me.”

“For what?”

He smiled. “She won the poker game last night. I would have thought you’d have heard the party from here.”

Ronny shrugged. “I guess I was asleep.” Turning away, she smiled to herself and rushed down the steps, suddenly in a hurry to get back and tell Austin the news from the poker game.

Mr. Carleon talked as they drove toward Rainbow Lane. He was settling into Harmony as well, even thinking about buying the house next to the bed-and-breakfast. “Mrs. Biggs, Martha Q’s cook, assures me I can still come over for meals. If I had a house I could finally get my things out of storage. They’ve been there so long I’m afraid they’ll all have to be insured as antiques.”

When he said good-bye he gave her one of his rare, polite hugs and hurried off to his car. She had no doubt he was already making his next to-do list in his head.

Ronny also planned all she’d do to fix the place up as she drove back down to the lake. Her own place. Her own home. It sounded like a dream come true. She’d enlarge the kitchen and maybe build an office space by the front window so she could work and look out on the lake. As long as she could get reliable Internet she could work from the cabin and only go into town when she wanted to.

When she walked back over to Hawk House, Austin wasn’t on the porch where she’d left him a few hours before. Their half-eaten lunch was still there. He wasn’t in his three rooms, but his jacket rested on the railing at the bottom of the stairs.

Ronny began to climb. The second floor. No one. All the bedrooms were empty, almost as though no one had ever lived in them. The third floor had only one room. If he’d gone up another flight, it had to have been torture on one leg.