Queen (14 page)

He smiled and tipped his hat, missing nothing of the cold look Cody Bonner was giving the man escorting his sister who wasn't a sister.

"What took you so long?" Cody asked, staring pointedly at Queen's hand caught between the other man's elbow and rib cage.

"Oh! Right!" Queen said, and the smile on her face transposed her natural reserve into vivid excitement. "Cody! You'll never guess. I was standing in line at the bank waiting to conduct my business when…"

Cody lost his train of thought. That was right: he still didn't know what her business in there had been. His mind wandered, as it had off and on for the past thirty minutes. Maybe if he broke his leg, or got a bad case of the flu, she would have to stay longer.

"… enrolled for the year."

Queen stopped talking, and Cody realized that he'd completely missed everything she'd been saying.

"Umm, what was that last part again?" he muttered, embarrassed that he had to ask.

Queen rolled her eyes and dropped the man's arm as she stepped in front of Cody and waved her hand across his face as if checking to see if he were conscious. "Yoo hoo," she drawled. "Is anybody home?"

He laughed. It was so unlike her to tease him. "Sorry, Queen. I was lost in thought. I guess I was still worried because Sheriff Miller here had just accused me of casing the joint." He pointed to the bank across the street and then grinned.

Queen looked once at the sheriff and then back at Cody and started to smile. "Caught in the act?"

He nodded. "Something like that."

He watched the laughter dancing in her eyes, although she never broke a giggle. He wished he knew what it would take to make Queen not take herself so seriously.

The sheriff cleared his throat and kicked at a pebble on the street. Queen's face turned as red as her hair, and Cody couldn't think what to say. There was nothing to be said but the truth, and that was that they'd forgotten anyone else was present.

"Sorry again. You must think we're idiots. But it's not lack of brains that keeps me from introducing myself, it's lack of manners." Cody offered to shake the hand of the man who had accompanied Queen across the street. "I'm Cody Bonner."

"Cody, this is Stanley Brass," Queen said. "He'll be the boys' principal here in Snow Gap. He was just telling me about the early pre-enrollment day available for new students. I thought you'd like to meet the man who'll be in charge of your sons."

The knot in Cody's stomach promptly untied itself. Thank God! He was just the school principal.

He took a second look at the man and decided that he didn't look so menacing after all. In fact, he looked absolutely nondescript. He was probably pushing at least thirty extra pounds and fifty years of age. His hair was thinning, and even though he had a nice smile and twinkling eyes, the best thing about him was the wedding band Cody suddenly noticed on his ring finger.

"Mr. Brass. It's a pleasure. After you meet my boys, I hope you can say the same."

They all laughed, and the tension passed. Within minutes Queen left the trio on the street corner to continue making acquaintance. She had other things to do.

"Meet you at the restaurant in an hour, okay?" she whispered just before she walked away.

Cody smiled and nodded as he continued to talk to the other men. To the casual observer it would seem that he was entirely committed to the conversation at hand, but it wasn't so. He didn't miss where Queen went or the intent way in which she was walking. If she was about to run, he was going to be right behind her.

"Gee, Dad. Didn't you ask her where she was going?"

Donny's plaintive question was echoed by Will and J.J., who were impatiently awaiting Queen's arrival so that they could all go to lunch.

Cody shook his head and tried not to give his imagination full rein. He'd already mentally ticked off the places she wasn't. He'd looked in every corner of the shops along the main street while his boys were still occupied at the video arcade. But his surreptitious surveillance had come to a halt when they'd arrived at the appointed time and place, anxious for pizza.

"Tell you what," Cody said. "You three go on inside and get a table. If you're too hungry to wait, order some garlic bread and sodas until I get back. I'll run on down the street and hurry her along. I'm sure she's just dawdling in some dress shop. Okay?"

The suggestion was met with approval as Donny took charge and herded his younger brothers into the pizza parlor. Cody watched until they were safely seated inside before he made a break for the street corner where he'd last seen Queen.

The day was clear. Sunshine over the Rockies colored the blue sky with a white-hot glare. It would be a nice day for traveling. And that thought scared him to death.

He went up one street and down another, staring in windows, peering inside doors. He didn't miss a store in four blocks, and there was still no sight of Queen.

"Hey," he said to a man who'd just exited a pharmacy. "Where would someone go to buy a bus ticket… or catch a bus in Snow Gap?"

The man paused for a moment and then pointed. "I think the bus still stops at the cafe on Turner Street. But I'm not sure if they sell tickets there."

"Thanks," Cody said, and was down the street in a flash, his long legs making short work of the distance.

He turned the corner the man had indicated and then stopped and watched in horror as a long gray bus pulled out of the cafe parking lot and onto the highway, moving at a fast clip through the two-lane traffic on its way to somewhere else.

"No!" Cody didn't know he'd shouted aloud until he saw a woman eyeing him strangely. "God… no," he whispered, and ran a hand through his hair. He hadn't been able to find her anywhere else, and he'd been too late to stop the bus to see if she was on it.

His shoulders slumped as he turned in a slow circle, like a lost soul trying to get his bearings. And that was just exactly how he felt. He'd lost his anchor.

An ache started around his heart and began to spread in a twisting, winding pain. It hurt to breathe, and he was having trouble focusing on the street sign above his head. He looked up at the sky, then closed his eyes and swallowed several times until he thought he was able to go back to the boys without losing control of his emotions. And then he heard someone calling his name.

She was almost running, and smiling as she came nearer. Her hair fanned around her face, and she had her purse in one hand and a small paper bag in the other.

"Where were you going?" she asked as she came to a halt and clasped her hand against her breasts as if to hold back her heart, so winded was she from her sprint. "I thought we were having pizza."

Cody could only stare. Every nerve point in his body went on alert. He saw a pulse throbbing wildly at her throat and imagined he could hear her heartbeat.

Vibrant heat radiated from her tousled and windblown curls in such force that he imagined the skin on his face was scorched. His gaze raked the questioning glance in her wide green eyes and then down to the slight gap of her lips where she was slowly drawing in long drafts of air.

"Oh, hell, lady," he said, and yanked her into his arms.

It was hard to say who was the most stunned—Queen because she was suddenly pressed against a wall of muscle and a wildly beating heart or Cody for having brought her there. One long moment passed before either moved or spoke. And then, when they did, it was Queen who moved and Cody who started talking, and fast.

"I'm sorry," he said, holding up his hands in surrender before she could take offense. "Don't misunderstand what just happened."

Queen stepped back, clutching her purse and sack against her chest. "What did just happen?" she asked nervously.

Cody groaned and wiped a hand across his brow. "You don't want to know."

"Oh, but I do, Cody Bonner. I not only want to know, I have to know what made you grab me like I was about to fly awa…"

The question died on her lips. She stared at the receding panic in his eyes and then at the bus stop behind him. Realization dawned. He'd thought she'd run away!

He turned around and stared blindly at the cafe, silently discussing with himself the merits of confessing the truth and giving her ideas she didn't already have, or lying through his teeth and hoping she bought the whole nine yards. He looked back and, as it turned out, didn't have to lie because she'd already guessed the truth.

She doubled up her fist and punched, connecting in a halfhearted blow above his belt buckle. "Damn you, Cody Bonner. I don't deserve that."

He took the gesture as it was meant to be given and had the good sense not to argue when he saw the fury on her face.

She spun around and started to walk away, blinking furiously to clear her vision from a sudden burst of angry tears.

"You're right, lady," he said quietly, "you don't."

His admission of guilt was the only thing that would have stopped her, and it did. But all the joy was gone from the day. In a single second she'd gone from imagining herself an honorary member of his family to someone he didn't even trust to keep her word.

When she stopped walking, his hand slid across the back of her neck, and she felt him move around to face her. He was only inches away from her, and still she would not look up… could not look up and see the doubt and know that she was nothing in his eyes.

"Oh, God, honey, don't shut me out," he whispered, and dropped his hand to his side, completely ignoring the fact that they were standing on a fairly busy side street in broad daylight, as near to an embrace as two people could be without actually touching.

Queen finally looked up, her eyes swimming in tears, and then could do nothing but shake her head and look away. The pain was too fresh… too deep… for words.

"I'm sorry. So, so, sorry. All I can say is… I panicked. You said an hour. It's been closer to two. I looked and I looked. I couldn't find you anywhere."

She muttered something.

"What? I didn't hear what you said."

"I said," she shouted, suddenly too angry to hold back, "I was getting my stupid boots half-soled. It took longer than I expected."

She kicked at his shoe with the toe of her boot, drawing his attention to the new, shiny black soles shining on the sides.

"Soles… on your boots? You were just getting your boots fixed?" The tenor of his voice rose with each word until he was somewhere between laughing and shouting.

Before she knew it was coming, he'd swooped her up into his arms and was dancing a little jig in the middle of the sidewalk. A woman smiled at them from behind a store window, and another giggled, but Cody didn't care if the whole damn town was watching.

"Put me down," Queen sputtered, and yanked at the tail of her sweater, which had ridden above her waistline. Her cheeks were as red as her hair, and a small sprinkling of freckles that hardly ever showed had suddenly sprouted into plain sight across the bridge of her nose. "What will people think?"

"I don't give a tinker's damn what anyone thinks," Cody said as he put her back on her feet. "All I care is that you're still here. I don't even care if you're mad enough not to speak to me for… oh, hell… at least a week."

The grin on his face was contagious. Try as she might, she couldn't stay mad. She looked up and bit her lower lip to keep from smiling. "Well… comb your hair," she ordered, smoothing hers back into place. "We can't go eat pizza with you looking like that."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and dug in his pocket for a comb as he began following her down the street.

"And when we get to the pizza parlor… for God's sake don't tell the boys what an ass you just were," she added. Then she thought of something else. "You haven't already scared them to death, have you?"

"No way."

"At least you had that much sense," she muttered, and resumed her march toward the pizza parlor with Cody half a step behind.

Cody swallowed hard and fixed his gaze on a spot just above the level of her right shoulder, telling himself that if he concentrated on something else, he wouldn't notice the sway of her slender hips beneath the loose hem of his sweater. But it was no use. She was too tall and leggy for him to ignore, and she was too justified with her anger to ignore him.

Just before they went inside, she turned and jabbed a forefinger into his chest, punctuating each word of her last order.

"Smile. Don't act as if anything is wrong." A small smile of her own came and went, but it was enough to give Cody hope that sometime he might be forgiven.

"And I don't like anchovies or black olives on my pizza," she announced as if nothing had happened. With that she pushed open the door and left Cody on his own to decide if he wanted to follow.

He did.