A touch of love (14 page)

"I haven't yet, but it's a nice idea. Let's not do it tonight, though."

Aubrey moved away from him to speak with Gardner, and Jesse marveled at how easily they had fallen into a comfortable routine. He was used to spending time with women, that was nothing new, but never as much as he had spent with Aubrey in the last few days. Rather than feeling the restlessness that usually drove him from a woman's arms, he just wanted more of her. He wasn't so fascinated by her, however, that he forgot he was supposed to be looking out for trouble.

The afternoon session was relaxed, but productive, and as the seminar drew to a close, everyone attending seemed genuinely pleased by the experience. "I hope this will be a yearly event," someone offered, and the suggestion was met with enthusiastic applause. Then a slender young man seated in the rear rose to his feet.

"I've been appointed the group's spokesman, and while we've all enjoyed your seminar, we've had a difficult time waiting to ask about the photograph that appeared in the Times on Monday. Would you tell us what prompted your visit to the Ferrells', and how you plan to solve the case? Can you do it with intuition and creative imagery alone?"

Aubrey supposed she should have expected the question and had an answer prepared. She felt Jesse move up behind her and knew he was about to respond for her, but able to take care of herself, she spoke first. "The Ferrells are Jesse's cousins," she explained. "We'd stopped by merely to check on the property, but unfortunately, the reaon for our visit was completely misinterpreted. I've no involvement in the case whatsoever."

She turned and looked up at Jesse, her steady gaze a clear warning to be still, and while his eyes narrowed slightly in

a silent dare, he nodded on cue. Relieved, Aubrey turned back to the audience. "Now I'd like to thank all of you for being so willing to experiment with creative imagery. You're the ones who've made the seminar a success.''

After another burst of applause, a few of the executives left immediately, while others lingered and presented copies of The Mind's Eye for Aubrey to autograph. Shelley was used to working primarily behind the scenes to guarantee everything ran smoothly, and as the last of the bankers finally moved toward the door, she went to Gardner's side to offer help.

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked. "You're always the first to arrive and the last to leave and that's never seemed fair to me."

"I don't mind," Gardner exclaimed, and rather than thank Shelley for her kindness, he followed Irish's progress toward the door. She was speaking with a tall blonde who looked as though he must have played basketball in college, and Gardner was surprised he didn't just grab her around the waist and pluck her off her feet so that he could look her in the eye while they talked. The way he was bending down was not only awkward, it looked painful, but the man was giving Trisha such rapt attention he obviously didn't feel a single twinge of back pain.

"Looks like Trisha's made another conquest," Gardner complained.

"Perhaps, but she's not interesed in him, so it doesn't matter." Shelley waited a moment, but when Gardner continued to watch Trisha's extended farewell, she walked away. He had a dolly to tote his equipment out to his van, and plenty of experience doing it, so she wasn't really surprised he didn't need her.

As they drove home, Aubrey noted how frequently Jesse's glance strayed to the rearview mirror, and turned to look

over her shoulder at the traffic trailing them. "Is something wrong?" she asked. "I don't see anything."

Jesse was sorry she had caught him being so vigilant, but figured if she were unaware of a possible danger, then she couldn't look out for it. "There's a gold Corvette two cars behind us that I saw near Shelley's house this morning."

"So what? Plenty of people drive into LA every day to work."

"That's true, but I've got a bad feeling about the car. Give me some credit for having a smidgen of intuition, will you? Shelley, do any of your neighbors drive a gold Corvette?"

Shelley turned around to get a look at it but the Buick Regal between them blocked her view. "I haven't paid much attention, but I don't remember seeing one."

Jesse pulled off the freeway an exit early, at Orange Grove, but the Corvette kept right on going toward Pasadena. Aubrey promptly dismissed it as a threat, but Jesse remained suspicious. "If that's the same car I saw this morning, then he knows where we're headed. Let's everyone keep an eye out for him."

They dropped Shelley off at her mother's house, which was right around the corner from hers, then took a circuitous route to Aubrey's, and didn't sight the Corvette on the way. Jesse let Trisha and Aubrey out of the Volvo before he drove it into the garage, and Trisha promptly drew her boss aside while they had a minute to speak privately.

"I thought Gardner looked awfully cute today, but if he has a crush on me as Shelley claims, he hides it well. He didn't even sit beside me at lunch. Do you think I ought to call him and ask him out?"

Aubrey regarded her assistant with a befuddled stare. She couldn't imagine a more spectacular mismatch than the self-conscious young man and the supremely confident Trisha, and hesitated to encourage it. "Why don't you wait

until Saturday, and make a few friendly overtures. If he's interested, he'll respond.''

"And if he doesn't?"

"Well, what would you do if it were anyone else?"

Trisha waved to Jesse as she started down the driveway toward her car. "I'd forget it. Thanks, I'll do just that."

"What's she going to forget?" Jesse asked.

Aubrey waited until she had unlocked the back door to respond, and then did so in a hushed whisper. "Asking Gardner for a date on Saturday, if he doesn't seem any more interested in her than he was today."

"She'd ask him out?"

"This is the nineties, cowboy. Don't women ask men for dates in Arizona?" Aubrey went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to get a drink of water. "I want to take a shower before we go out."

"Take your time, and yes, women do invite men out in Arizona, but I told Gardner to play it cool with Trisha. I thought once he improved his looks that she'd go into her attack mode, and apparently she has, but we ought to coordinate our strategies so we don't have those two working at cross purposes."

"I can't even coordinate my own life, let alone theirs, Jesse. Let's just stay out of it. Please."

Jesse nodded, but he had plans aplenty for them both.

Not wanting to surprise her in the morning, he was just about to broach the subject of a return trip to the Ferrells' house while they were eating dinner, when Aubrey surprised him by mentioning his cousin first. He carefully chewed his bite of steak and laid his fork on his plate. They were seated side by side in a comfortable red leather booth, and he hoped the mellow surroundings would influence her mood.

"I was surprised by the question about the photograph today," Aubrey confided, "but only because ithadn'tcome

earlier. It's been three days since it appeared, and while I may have let you frighten me into allowing you to stay at my home on Monday, I really don't feel that I'm in any danger because of it." She paused to make certain he understood how serious she was.

"I don't want to regard every rusde in the bushes or car I see twice in a single day as a threat"

' 'Wait a minute. What rustle in the bushes are you talking about?"

Jesse appeared alarmed, and Aubrey hadn't meant to scare him. "Oh, I'm sure it was nothing. I thought I heard someone in the backyard last night, but Guinevere was on the back porch and she didn't bark. It was probably just an opossum. They're nocturnal and they wander the neighborhood, foraging for tasty leftovers in the trash."

Apparendy completely unaware of the pain she had just caused him, Aubrey took another bite of scampi, but Jesse was so angry with her he shoved his plate away. "Why didn't you tell me about this last night? Did you think the killers would walk up and ring your doorbell?"

"Will you please keep your voice down," Aubrey asked. The couple dining in the next booth hadn't turned to stare at them, but if Jesse continued to berate her that loudly everyone in the dimly lit restaurant was sure to turn their way. "No. I did not expect danger to plunk itself down on the doorstep, but still, you're making too much of this, which is exacdy why I didn't wake you last night."

Jesse shook his head. "When did you plan to call me, when you felt the cold edge of a knife at your throat?"

Aubrey had also lost her appetite, laid her fork across her plate, and blotted her mouth on her napkin. "I think we ought to continue this discussion at home. Then you can pack your things and go back to Edith's."

"Like hell." Jesse didn't know which was worse, that she hadn't called him when she had heard a suspicious noise,

or that she wanted him gone, but he wasn't about to leave. "The only way to settle this issue to our individual satisfaction is for you to come out to the Fen-ells' house again tomorrow. This time, I want you to pump up that intuition of yours, or whatever else it is that painted the clear picture of my last ride in your mind, and get us some real clues as to what happened to Pete and his family."

'Til do no such thing."

Jesse wrapped his fingers around her wrist. "Yes, you will, or I'll feel obligated to serve as your bodyguard forever. Look at it that way, Aubrey. The only way to get me out of your life is to find the Ferrells, or what's left of them, and catch their killers."

Aubrey didn't fight his confining hold, she simply stared at his hand and waited for the awful images she was sure would appear, but other than outrage, she felt nothing. "I think we better leave," she ordered in a hushed voice, "or I'll ask the manager to call the police and have you arrested."

"What's the charge? Caring more than I should about a stubborn redhead who doesn't know enough to report a prowler?"

Aubrey didn't know what to make of his sudden declaration that he cared about her. Completely confused, she said, "Let's straighten this out at home."

Jesse brought her hand to his lips, then released her. "That's fine with me, but now that you've become so agreeable, I think I'll finish my steak."

Aubrey leaned back against the soft, red leather and hoped it took him long enough for her to think of a convincing way, other than summoning the police, to send him away. Where was an Indian brave when she needed one, she wondered, but that bit of wildly creative imagery brought her no peace that night.

masquerade as the Caped Crusader, or whatever superhero's popular now?"

Jesse couldn't believe she didn't know. "It's the Power Rangers, and there are five of them. But that's beside the point. I don't want to play a superhero; I just want to make certain you'll be safe."

"Aren't you concerned about yourself?"

Jesse shot her a condescending glance, and Aubrey immediately recognized her mistake. "Of course. You rode bulls for a living. How stupid of me to forget that you don't even know the meaning of the word fear."

Jesse took care not to slam his door so loudly he would wake every baby in the neighborhood, but he certainly didn't appreciate Aubrey's sarcasm. It was true he had gotten her into the mess she adamandy denied being in, but he did not believe cooperation to get her out was too much to ask.

Guinevere was inside, and started yapping at him as soon as he unlocked the door.

"Okay, rag mop. You've impressed me with how fierce you are. Now come on, back me up here." Aubrey had left several lights burning in the house, but Jesse flipped on a lot more as he moved through the downstairs. He didn't see anything out of place, nor find a window unlatched, but remained alert as he climbed the stairs. He paused outside Aubrey's bedroom, but neither heard nor felt anything odd. When he toured the room, the only scent was vanilla incense, and he felt sure no one had been there since they had left.

There were three other bedrooms on the second floor, and this was his first chance to see them. All were just as beautifully furnished as hers, but without the clutter that would have come from even occasional use by a guest. There were also two bathrooms in addition to Aubrey's, one decorated in pink, the other sky blue. The towels

hanging on the racks were new, and the rolls of toilet paper unused. The couch in the den folded out into a bed, so he hadn't had to sleep on the floor, but it now struck him as insulting that Aubrey hadn't offered him the use of one of the spare bedrooms.

"This is a damn movie set," he remarked under his breath, and the sound of his voice echoing off the walls was enough to send Guinevere into another barking fit. Fearing Aubrey might worry that something had happened to him, he hushed the dog and hurried back down the stairs, but when he opened the back door, he found Aubrey leaning against his Chevy, gazing up at the stars, obviously completely unconcerned about his welfare. Still aggravated that she apparently didn't trust him enough to give him a room upstairs, his voice had a graveled edge. "I should have told you to stay in the truck with the doors locked."

"Why? I don't recall anyone being attacked in the driveway near here."

"Want to be the first?" Jesse scoffed. The dense cloud cover which so often blanketed Los Angeles was missing that night and the stars beckoned with a sparkling brilliance. He paused only a moment to enjoy the spectacular view, then coaxed Aubrey inside.

"Let's make some tea," he suggested, thinking he probably needed the soothing brew more than she did. While Aubrey lit the fire under the teakettle, he went to the refrigerator, opened the freezer compartment, and knelt down to survey the contents. "I knew you'd have frozen yogurt. Would you like some?"

"That's wonderful, Jesse. I'd like you to leave, while you're just making yourself more at home. Aren't you needed at your ranch?"

Aubrey was sorting through the tea canister looking for a particular type of teabag rather than facing him, but she was making no effort to hide her frustration, and Jesse

readily picked up on it. 'Til take that for a yes." He grabbed the carton of strawberry frozen yogurt, closed the freezer, and stood. He knew where the bowls and spoons were, and quickly got them out.