Betting the Rainbow (Harmony) (23 page)

He knew nothing about fashion, but surely that amount of jewelry didn’t go with a jogging suit. If she ever did manage a run, she’d beat herself to death with all those beads.

“It gets any hotter out here, I’m calling the fire department.” She pulled out a half dozen tissues from her bra and started patting every inch of exposed flesh.

“How are you, Miss Martha Q?” He smiled, guessing who she was from what Ronny said about making Martha Q her first client if she opened an accounting business. He’d heard about her for years. Kieran said she thought the woman had killed several husbands and a few lovers but no one ever saw her do it.

The woman glared at him. “How do you know my name? I don’t believe we’ve ever met. I may be getting older, but I wouldn’t forget a well-built man like you, especially with those scars.”

In his short-sleeve shirt she had no problem seeing the scars on one arm and those that ran up his throat almost to his chin.

He grinned. “I always like people who look at others straight on. If you look carefully you notice we’re all scarred one way or another.”

Martha Q nodded. “You’re a wise man, whoever you are.”

“I’m Austin Hawk. I own the place across the lake. I think the locals call it Hawk House.”

Martha Q seemed to relax a bit. “I knew your father.”

He didn’t respond. If rumors were true, she knew the fathers of half the people here. “How well did you know him?” She’d either laugh or leave. Austin didn’t much care which.

She laughed. “Not that well. He bought me a drink once at a dance over in Bailee. Said he was in town to settle an estate for a house out by Rainbow Lane. I’d just lost a husband and he’d lost a father. We talked about grief. I remember he said the strangest thing. He said he hated the house his dad owned, but he wouldn’t sell it because his son loved it.”

Austin stared at her. He had no reason to believe the lady was lying, but all he remembered was that his dad hated the house and never stayed around. It never occurred to him that his father had kept Hawk House because of him.

“Thanks,” he finally said. “I’m glad you told me that.”

“No charge for the truth,” she added. “And while I’m talking, I might as well tell you to stay away from Ronny Logan. I saw the way you looked at her. She’s a sweet, good girl and she don’t need to be your layover love.”

“What are you talking about?”

She huffed and wiggled as if settling into a padded chair. “I know you’re in the army. Dallas Logan told me. You’re just laying over here in Harmony. You’ll be gone when the ship sails and leave her pining away. Dallas may not be speaking to her daughter but she worries about Ronny.”

“You learn that from experience during World War One or Two, did you?”

“Don’t try to insult me. I know what you’re doing. Traveling men like you always looks for the shy innocent ones. There are probably broken hearts all over the world waiting for you to come back to them.”

Austin decided he was too much of a gentleman to mention that it was Ronny who usually attacked him or that what Martha Q was talking about was none of her business. If Dallas Logan wasn’t speaking to Ronny, she likely wouldn’t know what was going on at the lake.

When facing an enemy head-on, diversion might be the only option. “Forget Ronny, Martha Q. Any chance
you’d
go out with me?”

She laughed until she choked and had to down half of his tea. “If you were twice the man and twice the age, you still wouldn’t be man enough for me.”

Austin had no doubt she was speaking the truth. Apparently no one man ever had been if stories were true.

“I might give it a try if I weren’t wounded.” He winked at her, deciding he liked this lady.

“I know, I heard. You got shot by a pig.”

Just as he’d suspected, she’d known who he was when she sat down. This woman should have been a general. She knew exactly what she was doing apparently, and he had no idea where the next attack would be coming from. “You’ve been talking to Ronny’s mother too much.”

She shook her head, but her sprayed hair didn’t move. “Nope. I’ve been listening to her too much. She’s convinced you’re the devil living out here with her daughter. Says if you don’t leave the poor child crying, you’ll take her off to live somewhere else.”

“I’m not leaving her. I’m crazy about Ronny.” He couldn’t believe he was telling something so personal to Martha Q, but he figured she had her own vault of secrets. “I’d spend the rest of my life hating myself if I hurt her.”

“I know. I saw it in your face when she walked away just now. Be careful, son of Travis Hawk, because I got a feeling you’ll be the one who falls hard if it doesn’t work out between you two.”

“You
did
know my dad.”

“I said I did.” Martha Q picked up his tea and finished the glass. “I ain’t got enough life left in me to repeat myself, so listen up the first time.”

“Yes, ma’am, but your warning may have come a bit late.”

“Then be good to her.”

“That I can promise.” He leaned over. “Don’t worry about her.”

Martha Q patted his arm and wiggled out of the chair. “I’ll be seeing you around. Next time you’re in town, stop by the inn for a meal.”

“I’ll do that,” he said, surprised to realize that he meant it.

Austin leaned back as she waddled off into the crowd. How was it possible that he’d ever thought the people of Harmony wouldn’t be worth getting to know?

Chapter 37

TRUMAN FARM

R
EAGAN WATCHED
N
OAH CLIMB OUT OF HIS TRUCK AND
head toward her. When she’d said he could come over to see the baby, she hadn’t expected that he would make it a nightly trip. He was as regular as the sunset around the place.

As usual, he sat down and she passed him Utah.

“You wash your hands?”

“Yes,” he snapped. “I took a shower. Don’t want his first memory of me to be the smell of cow shit.”

She grinned as Noah smiled down at his son and began telling him every detail of what had happened at the ranch.

When he finally took a breath, Reagan asked, “I thought you’d be at the party at the Delaney place tonight.”

“I’d rather be here with you,” he said, looking straight at her. “Rea, there’s nowhere else I want to be. Whether we’re together or not, I want to be part of your world. I’m hoping, if I don’t screw this up, you’ll let me keep coming.”

She could hear her heart pounding. Over the past few weeks she’d stopped hating him, but she wasn’t sure she could open her heart again. Loving Noah hurt too much . . . but not seeing him again might hurt even more.

She changed the subject and they talked about what he was doing on the ranch until the sun went down. When they’d been kids he’d called the place “his,” then later when he talked about it he called it “the” ranch. She’d noticed the past week he was back to calling it “his.”

When he lifted Utah to his shoulder and stood, they went inside. Somehow they’d reached the point where he didn’t have to wait for an invitation to step inside. He’d become comfortable with the baby in his arms and she couldn’t forget a time when she’d been comfortable there too.

He was standing beside her now and she was still missing him. She wondered if any other woman in the world hated and loved the same man at the same time. She was circling in a tornado and there didn’t seemed to be any hint of where she might land.

Utah was fussy and didn’t want to go to sleep, so Noah put him in the swing and tried singing to him again.

When the baby cried louder, Reagan laughed, truly laughed.

Noah, with his black eye, grinned and kept singing.

“You picking on me again, Rea? I’ve been practicing singing to the cows and they don’t seem to mind.”

“Keep practicing.” She smiled. He’d always known how to make her laugh. “Your eye is looking better. Want to tell me why you asked Big to hit you the other night?”

“No. He didn’t really hit me. I kind of walked into his fist. I’d do it again if it’d make you smile, Rea.”

“I don’t want to see you hurt, Noah.”

“I don’t want to see you hurting, Rea.” He looked up at her and she saw just how much she meant to him in his gaze. Since the morning after the fight at the poker game he’d been doing all he could to prove he’d changed. He’d been her man before he even knew he was a man and now he was trying his best to be the man she needed him to be, but she wasn’t sure it was enough, not this time, maybe not ever again.

When he looked back down at the baby she knew that this time, this one last time, she had to find a way to at least try. Too much of her heart already belonged to Noah. If she pulled the rest away, she wasn’t sure she’d have enough of the muscle left to pump blood.

Utah finally drifted to sleep in the swing and they sat down to dinner. She’d cooked a roast in the oven with vegetables piled on top. Noah ate three helpings and was reaching for another when she told him she had pie.

When she passed him a slice, he said, “Thanks,” like she’d given him a great gift.

They talked of safe topics, and then Noah casually mentioned that one of his friends had called and said there was big money coming up at a rodeo in Houston this weekend.

“I could make enough to double my herd with a win,” he said between bites. “That, and the money I’ve got saved, will set the ranch up for years. It’d be something, not having to scrape by.”

Reagan listened to words she’d heard a hundred times before. She could hear the excitement in his voice. Like a racehorse dying to run. Noah’s drug of choice had never been alcohol, it had always been the rodeo, and he couldn’t turn down one more chance to ride. One more chance to win or die.

This time she didn’t bring up the argument of what if he was hurt or crippled. What if the bull killed him? Some said for bull riders, it isn’t if they get hurt, it’s when. This time she just listened and added one more reason she’d never let Noah back into her life. In his mind he was already riding in the Houston lights, already flying through the eight seconds, already winning. He wouldn’t, or maybe couldn’t, see that the fall was coming.

When he left, she kissed him on the cheek and he smiled, happy for once.

She didn’t say a word about his going. There was nothing left to say. Noah wasn’t hers. He never would be.

“Good-bye, Noah,” she whispered as she closed the door.

Chapter 38

WALDEN CABIN

R
ONNY HAD SPENT THE NIGHT OF THE PARTY WITH
A
USTIN,
but at dawn she’d gone back to her cabin. Though they’d cuddled and touched, she’d never pushed further and to her surprise, he seemed to be letting her take the lead.

It was almost as if they were passing through their teenage years, moving into passion slowly, one step at a time. She knew he wanted her, and his hesitation made the nights so much sweeter because she knew he didn’t want to rush her. The tough man was being kind, and his tenderness touched her deeply.

She’d told herself a hundred times that she didn’t want to fall in love again. She wanted a fling. She wanted to be able to walk away without getting her heart involved. The last time she’d loved a man in her mind, but not with her body. This time she wanted it to be the other way around.

Only problem was, she wasn’t listening to herself. Austin mattered to her. When he’d gone into town a little after noon, she’d missed him more than she thought she would. He hadn’t stopped by to talk, he’d just waved from the dock.

In an odd way, she missed taking care of him. The wound in his leg hadn’t slowed him down long, and now he seemed to be pushing himself. He’d stopped using the crutch completely and told Abby he really didn’t need her checking on him. Some mornings he put on what looked like a thirty-pound pack and walked along the beach. Once she’d caught him trying to run up the stairs. It wouldn’t be long before he’d take the two flights with the pack without even breathing heavy.

He seemed a man driven, but she wasn’t sure in what direction.

Ronny planned her day, deciding she’d stop when he got back. Only he didn’t come back. She worked through lunch organizing, planning her remodel, getting used to the new computer Mr. Carleon had left with her a week before. It had all kinds of new accounting programs. Figuring them out was almost like working a crossword puzzle, and she loved it.

By late afternoon, she decided she missed Austin far too much to pay attention to her work. So she dressed as if for a date and walked over to his place. She could wait there as easily as at the cabin. She might even climb to the widow’s walk and watch him turn off Rainbow Lane at the Delaneys’ place, then row over.

As she reached his house, she noticed none of the lights were on and it was almost dark. He hadn’t said he’d be late. If he’d thought he’d be coming after dark, surely he would have left a light burning. He hadn’t said anything to her. Not even where he was going or what business he had to do. Maybe they should think about talking more? This late, she was starting to worry.

Neither of them was used to telling anyone where they were going. If they stayed together, maybe they should develop that as a habit. “If,” she whispered aloud. Her whole life was full of
if
s.

A lantern at the dock blinked on. For a moment, Ronny thought he might be there, then realized it was only a timer clicking on.

The house was unlocked as always. Ronny wandered through the rooms. The place had the feeling of never having been truly lived in. All the rooms were there with furniture scattered about, but nothing seemed to belong. No Hawk had ever left his signature on any corner. No personal pictures, no books, no keepsakes, nothing that said a woman had ever lived in the house.

She couldn’t help but wonder if everything in Austin’s life was the same way. When he’d talked about traveling he’d never mentioned a place he returned to for leave or a relative he visited. Maybe there were none.

The only house he came back to year after year was this house, and he hadn’t bothered to truly settle in here. The place looked like it hadn’t even been painted in thirty years. No memories of past times whispered in the hallways like they do in most old houses.

She began walking slowly through the rooms, touching the walls, saying hello to the place. Sadness moved over her as she realized no one had ever really lived in this fine house, with its strong bones built to withstand any storm. No one had ever cared for it. Even the furnishings were cheap and shabby, as if bought years ago in lots. Ten pieces, including lamps and pictures, at one price.

Ronny brushed one of the faded seascape scenes framed in plastic.

The frame slipped, showing the true color the wall had once been painted. Blue, not gray, she thought as she lifted the picture.

Behind the painting were rough scratches on the wall.

For a moment she thought they were scars, and then she made out letters and numbers cut into the plaster with little skill.

AUSTIN HAWK WAS HERE 1996

She brushed her fingers over the carving, tears drifting down her face unnoticed. Seventeen years ago a little boy must have wanted to belong so badly he’d carved his name.

Now she knew why he’d returned. Here, this place, was as close to a home as he had. This part of Texas, where few knew his name, was his base. When he was broken and hurting, he came here.

She smiled. He was a hard man to figure out, but an easy man to love. He didn’t know how to talk to her. She laughed. He didn’t even know how to act interested when she talked sometimes.

Ronny walked to the dock and waited. She knew what she had to do.