His low, hard tone chilled her worse than any wind. It hadn’t been a suggestion, but an order. She watched him walk toward her front door.
Something moved inside the trailer, like a light breeze that crumbled the thin curtains. Marcie opened her mouth to warn him just as he opened the door.
Something black flew out at his face as fast as a cannonball.
Marcie’s scream echoed in the cab as she watched Brand fall like a huge oak into the mud. She jumped out of the truck and ran toward his body, spread, arms out, and looking dead in the low light slicing out from inside the trailer.
“Brand!” she cried as she reached him, expecting to see blood everywhere.
But all she saw were two cut lines on his cheek, just deep enough to bleed. He opened one eye. “I’m going to kill that cat.”
Reality hit Marcie. What had shot out of the house was one of a half a dozen wild cats that lived around the park.
Laughter splashed away fear. Brand had been attacked by a wild cat.
Brand sat up. “It’s not funny,” he grumbled. “That cat ate my hamburger when I set it on the step, knocked over my coffee, and almost tripped me twice, getting under my feet while I was working. He’s a killer cat.”
She offered him a hand. “Come on inside, you poor man. Let me clean you up and treat that wound after your terrible fight with a kitten.”
He was grumbling something as he stood and shook off as much mud as he could, then followed her in.
“My brave hero fights off five men and gets taken down by a kitty.”
“I’m no hero. That cat is probably a baby mountain lion.”
Marcie tugged him to a stool and reached for the first aid kit. When she turned back, his knees were apart, so she moved in close to wipe the blood from his cheek.
Once the Band-Aids were on, she put her hands on his shoulders and pushed, rolling him a few feet to the small kitchen sink.
His dark coffee-colored eyes watched her as she covered his chest with a kitchen towel and began washing the mud out of his hair. “You’ll have to wait till you get home to shower. I don’t think you’ll fit in mine. My brother is six inches shorter than you and he barely fits. In the summer he showers out behind the trailer using rainwater stored in a fifty-five gallon tank.”
Brand closed his eyes as she plowed her fingers through his hair. “I could get used to this,” he said near her ear.
“Nope. This is a one-time thing. I’ve sworn off men for good, and much as I like you, Brand, you’re a man.”
“So can we be friends?”
“Friends. I can deal with that. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had a boy or a man for a friend. I thought I did once, in the sixth grade, but then he grabbed my developing breasts on a dare.”
Brand straightened and she backed away. “I’ll make you a promise, Marcie. I’ll never make a pass or grab any part of you. If you ever want more than friendship, you’ll have to come to me. If you do, there’ll be no flirting or pretending. I don’t play games.”
“Thanks for making it plain.” She shivered at his honesty. “But, Brand, I’ll never come to you. My heart, hell, my whole life, has been shattered one too many times.”
“Friends,” he said. “You’ll call me if you’re in trouble and you’ll always have a place to crash on my couch.”
“Thanks. Will you still come to hear me sing?”
“I will.”
She thought of hugging him, but he might think she was flirting. She’d never been offered friendship without strings. She wanted to treasure it awhile.
He showed her the huge locks, and she thanked him.
As he walked out and headed to his truck, she smiled. He veered toward the trees to pick up the half-grown cat.
“Come along, Killer,” he said. “I’ve got some barn mice who want to meet you.”
Marcie watched until his truck lights disappeared, then locked both her dead bolts. For the first time in years she slept without waking up at every sound she heard in the trailer park.
Sunday
Chapter 15
Jesse
The rain woke Jesse deep in the night. He tossed for a while, then got up and checked on the kids. The storm didn’t seem to be bothering them. They all looked so peaceful in their beds.
Sometimes, on nights like this, he would wake and for a moment think that Beth was still in the house. He could almost hear her bare feet walking the hallway. She’d be watching over the kids or tiptoeing into the kitchen to start breakfast before she woke him. He loved waking up to the smell of coffee and rolls baking. He’d smile, then act like he was asleep so Beth could wake him up with a kiss.
But now those memories were like dreams, half-forgotten in the plans of today.
Reality pulled him full awake and he knew she would never walk the hallway again. It was like she’d slipped away when he wasn’t paying attention for just one second. From the center of his world to a memory, in a blink.
When her absence slammed into his heart, it hurt just as hard as it had the first night when he’d come home from the hospital with a baby but no wife. No best friend. No partner in life. No Beth.
He grabbed a quilt and went out on the porch. He’d heard thunder earlier, but now the night was silent, as if waiting for the rain. The air had an eerie glow about it. Beautiful and a bit frightening at the same time. The night seemed to be silently weeping a moment before the storm came in, riding a north wind.
Jesse was a part of this land. He understood the weather better than most guys predicting it on TV. Right now his land was taking a beating. There was nothing to do except watch. The hammering of the rain on the tin roof and the swishing sound of water running off and making plopping sounds in puddles was almost like music.
He closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.
In his dream he was dancing with a tall woman to the beat of the storm. He could feel her soft body against him as they moved, almost making love as they glided across the dance floor. His hands were at her waist and her fingers rested over his heart. The touch of her seemed to be healing what was broken inside him.
She had long curly hair the color of the Red River in spring, and green eyes.
In his dreams he looked down at her ample breasts. In the V of her dress he could see the two mounds pushing together. As he watched, thinking he’d like to touch her skin, a snake twisted up out of her dress. A deadly coral. Red, black, and yellow.
Jesse jumped awake so violently he almost fell off the porch. He tossed the quilt and stuck his head out into the rain. The dream left him shaking. The rain left him freezing. But nothing could wash the dream away.
Was it a warning or simply a nightmare?
When the phone rang, he couldn’t wrap his thoughts around what the sound was. The dream had been so real.
He was still shaking when he stepped inside and answered the phone. Hell, he thought, am I awake or still in the dream? No one called this late. “Hello.”
“Sorry to wake you, Jesse, but this is Sheriff LeRoy Hayes. We’ve got a problem on our hands.”
Jesse shook his head like a dog, sending water flying in every direction. “How can I help?” Even half-asleep, Jesse knew the sheriff wouldn’t be calling unless it was an emergency.