Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue (11 page)

“Look, you’re a beautiful woman. God knows who you might attract sitting here alone like this on the side of the road. Beyond that, I’ve gone to plenty of accident sites where people were parked on the side of the road and got rear-ended. Just a whole lot of them have been killed or crippled.”

“I only closed my eyes for—”

“A few minutes,” he said finishing her sentence for her.

“Yeah, I hear that all the time too.”

“You’re being very—”

“Rude? Mean? Nasty?”

Sophia’s seldom-aroused temper began to rise. “Sir, why do you keep interrupting me and putting words into my mouth?”

“If I don’t wake you up and shock some sense into you, me or somebody else could be putting a
breathing
tube into your mouth.”

The message hit home and Sophia softened. After all, he was only trying to help and his advice was wise. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Apparently not. Do me and yourself a favor. Pull your car inside that gate and wait for your friends.” He gestured
toward the other side of the cattle guard. “You’ll at least be off the road.”

Without another word he turned and stomped back to a pickup parked behind her rental car. He drove around her, through the gate and up a long caliche road without a backward glance, churning dirt and caliche behind him. Sophia watched him in stunned silence. In a matter of seconds he was out of sight.

“Jerk,” she muttered, but she started the engine, obediently eased across the cattle guard and parked just inside the gate.

His display of anger continued to disturb her. She should have offered her right hand. People rarely rejected a handshake. Touching him might have at least given her some insight into his psyche. There was a reason why this handsome-looking man was so mean inside. But he had hardly given her the opportunity to shake hands or even say much. She sighed, willing the incident out of her mind. She doubted she would ever see him again.

But as her eyes focused on the road the stranger’s pickup had taken, a familiar voice came to her:
Do not be so quick to judge, Sophia.

He did call you beautiful.

Justin watched in his rearview mirror. He couldn’t tell if the woman had moved her car as he had instructed, but there would be a rise in the driveway soon that would give him a perfect view. If he saw she hadn’t left the county road’s shoulder, he might just go back and move her himself.

His reaction to the potential danger wasn’t out of the ordinary for him. Jumping into the role of mega-hero wasn’t new for him either. But what
was
new—and unsettling—was how the young woman in the car had affected him. His reaction had been sexual and raw and he felt ashamed. He smacked his head with the heel of his hand.
God, did I just call her beautiful? What would Rachel think?

F
orgodsake, Ed,” Debbie Sue grumbled, “we’re gonna meet an old lady from El Paso, not the Pope.” Sitting in her pickup in front of Edwina and Vic’s cream-with-powder-blue-trim mobile home, big engine idling and wasting gas, she tapped her horn for the second time.

It was Saturday morning and they had accomplished a miracle in re-scheduling their salon customers for the day. Debbie Sue had already wasted enough of the bonus time squeezing into her Wranglers; she wanted to waste no more.

She still hadn’t figured out the necessity for her and Edwina to meet with Isabella Paredes and her granddaughter, but she was willing to go along rather than make waves. Besides, they were killing two birds with one stone, so to
speak. They had already told Justin they would install surveillance equipment today.

Toward the end, in the backseat of the pickup were a couple of motion-sensitive cameras that could blend into any décor and capture a picture of any human who crossed its eye, as well as an innocuous hardbound book that was, in reality, a motion-activated DVR. The book’s title,
How To Do Home Plumbing Projects
, was sure to be ignored by most people who saw it.

Over the past few years, as their funds had allowed, the Domestic Equalizers had accumulated gadgets of varying levels of sophistication, including an eavesdropping device they had acquired in New York City. Some of their equipment was already outdated. It seemed that one device had no sooner been paid off before another came on line with the promise of being better, quicker, quieter and unfortunately, most times, cheaper. Debbie Sue longed for newer and better equipment, but as difficult as keeping up with current technology was, neither she nor Edwina was excited about spending Styling Station funds on equipment for the Domestic Equalizers to use. The beauty salon was still their bread and butter.

Debbie Sue kept her complaints about their equipment to a minimum. Even outdated stuff beat none at all. And it sure beat sitting and waiting for hours on end eyeballing a subject or the haphazard method of putting a watch under a tire to be crushed when the vehicle moved, forever freezing the time of its departure.

After agreeing to work for Justin, Debbie Sue had done her homework online and learned the devices ghost hunters used—infrared thermometers, ion counters and/or electromagnetic field detectors, things that were too costly to consider. She was glad to leave ghosts and the spirit world to Sophia and let the Domestic Equalizers concentrate on earthbound subjects known as humans.

The double-wide’s screen door opened and closed again, giving her hope that Edwina was on the way out.

Minutes later, Debbie Sue had her hand on her pickup’s door latch, set to march into the mobile and hurry Edwina up, when the skinny brunette appeared wearing bright yellow jeans and some kind of white, floaty tunic top with a huge turquoise-and-yellow floral pattern. She was typically accessorized—enormous earrings, a black-and-white cowhide purse the size of a third-world country, half a dozen bangle bracelets clicking on each wrist, makeup worthy of a beauty pageant queen and in one hand, a Sonic Route 44 Dr Pepper. If the locals who knew her saw her any other way, they would think she was ill. Debbie Sue sighed and watched her gingerly make her way down the five wooden steps that led from a small wooden porch attached to the double-wide.

To take those steps any way other than carefully would be irresponsible, because the woman was wearing three-inch wedge heels on size-ten feet. The shoes could easily be described as her trademark since she was rarely seen wearing any style but that one.

Edwina climbed into the pickup and plopped onto the passenger seat. She deposited her belongings, reached for the seat belt, buckled it snugly and heaved a great breath. “What are we waiting for, Dippity-Do? Let’s get this show on the road.”

Debbie Sue knew debating the number of minutes she had been waiting would be pointless. She rarely won an argument with Edwina. Not because she was always wrong, but because she usually wearied of trying to sort out some of Edwina’s logic and gave up.

She slowly backed out of the caliche driveway to avoid spraying the area with dirt and dust. “What’s Vic doing today, working on his bike?”

“Lord, yes. Since he got that damn motorcycle he’s become obsessed with getting it in top shape and meeting his old navy pals at Terlingua again. What about Buddy, is he home?”

“He started work on the deck on the back of the house. He was so eager to get at it, we didn’t even eat breakfast. I’m surprised at how well he’s doing. He’s never built anything in his life.”

“Wait!” Edwina threw her arm across the cab and struck Debbie Sue’s shoulder. “I forgot something!”

“No. You. Did. Not.” Debbie Sue put firm emphasis on each word. “I’ve used a quarter tank of gas waiting for you.”

“Well you could’ve turned off your motor.”

“Ed. Whatever it is, if you don’t have it now, you’re not going to.” She cast an eye at Edwina’s purse. “Besides, you’ve
got everything in the world in that overnight case you call a purse.”

“But—”

“Forget it, Ed. We’re already late. I’ve gotta drive like a bat out of hell to get to Justin’s on time.” Debbie Sue steered her pickup toward a left entrance to the Odessa highway. Looking over her shoulder, she pressed the accelerator and the pickup’s engine responded. “I’m starving. I was hoping we’d have time to run through Hogg’s drive-thru and grab some breakfast, but too late for that.”

They rode without talking all the way through Big & Rich booming from the radio with “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).” When the commercials began, Debbie Sue turned down the radio. “What were you doing, anyway? I was beginning to think you’d backed out on me, that you’d changed your mind about meeting this psychic.”

Edwina crossed her arms over her flat chest, lifted her nose and sniffed as if she were offended. “I was fixing your breakfast. Unlike some people I know, Vic and I
did
have breakfast. Sausage patties and Vic’s homemade biscuits and cream gravy. I was putting a sausage patty dipped in gravy between a biscuit for you. And a Styrofoam cup of fresh-brewed coffee. I was putting it all in a sack, but I set it down when I had to hurry up and grab my purse. I didn’t pick it up again.”

Debbie Sue gasped and stared agape at Edwina’s profile. She really was hungry and no one made better biscuits or gravy than Vic. “Ed, dammit, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just did tell you.”

They made the rest of the trip without talking, with Edwina staring straight ahead, arms crossed over her chest and Debbie Sue mentally snarling and gnashing her teeth. She turned up the radio, needing to be calmed by George Strait’s sweet voice crooning “How ’Bout Them Cowgirls.”

As they approached Justin’s cattle guard, Debbie Sue saw a white economy car parked just inside the gate, to the side and away from the driveway. “Guess that’s them.”

“I only see one person,” Edwina said, leaning forward and squinting.

“Me too. And she looks young. Didn’t you say Isabella Paredes is old?

“Older than I am. Hell. She’s older than my mother.

“Maybe she’s laying down in the backseat.”

“What backseat? Hell. Maybe she’s dead.”

“Ed, don’t say that.”

“Sorry. You know I’m kidding. What I can remember about her is that she’s a pretty small woman. That was fifteen or so years ago. Maybe she’s shrunk some more.”

“Now that’s entirely possible. Just look at Maudeen. If she gets any smaller she’ll just disappear.”

“Oops, I think she’s spotted us.” Edwina hunkered down.

“Don’t pull up beside them on my side. I don’t want to be the closest. She might remember me. You talk to them.”

“Oh, Ed, she isn’t gonna remember you after fifteen years. You said you only saw her the one time. But I don’t mind doing the talking.”

Stopping within a few feet of the car, Debbie Sue killed her pickup motor, slid out of the cab and started walking toward the white car. “Sophia?”

The driver’s door opened and the woman got out. “Yes. Debbie Sue?”

Sophia was a girl, almost a kid, Debbie Sue determined. Couldn’t be more than twenty-five years old. “Nice to finally meet you.” Debbie Sue glanced into the car’s interior, but spotted no other occupant. “I don’t see your grandmother.”

Sophia shifted her stance, pushed her hair back and bit her lower lip.

Debbie Sue was proud of the fact that since she had become a hairdresser, she had also become “bilingual.” Thanks to her experience listening daily to women and their ups and downs—and a few men—she understood body language as well as she understood English. She had no trouble translating that this girl was nervous. Something was terribly wrong. Maybe the older woman was sick. Hell. Maybe she
was
dead, just like Edwina had said. “I hope she isn’t ill.”

When Sophia didn’t reply, Debbie Sue tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, studying the girl’s face. “Sophia?”

Sophia began talking in a gush, spilling a story of the recent loss of her grandmother. She wept intermittently, stopping occasionally to dab at her eyes with her fingers.

Fuck!

As Sophia talked, concern for Justin Sadler and his money grew in Debbie Sue’s mind and she hated that she had recommended to him that he pay this woman’s travel expenses. Debbie Sue listened without interrupting, mostly
because her brain was scrabbling for what to do next. She glanced over her shoulder once to reassure herself that her partner was still seated in the pickup. If Edwina heard what was going on with Sophia, she might have one of her fits. Dealing with one person having a meltdown and bawling was hard enough. She didn’t need one of Edwina’s fits on top of it.

Debbie Sue dug deep and struggled for genuine sincerity. “I’m sorry for your loss, Sophia. But why didn’t you tell me this when I called you the first time?”

“I was looking for a second job when you called,” Sophia said. “I’m broke. It took every cent I had just to make this trip. I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, but Gran Bella was ill for such a long time. Between the medical bills and the funeral expenses—”

“And now you want to pass yourself off as a physic,” Debbie Sue said dully. “And you expect me and my partner to back you up.”

The girl’s eyes widened, as if she was alarmed. “Oh, no. I’d never do anything deceitful.”

Debbie Sue’s mouth twisted into a horseshoe scowl. “With all due respect to your grandmother’s departure, that’s exactly what you’ve already done.”

Sophia broke into tears again. “I knew if I told you over the phone, you wouldn’t give me the chance to prove myself.” She walked over to the car, reached inside and brought out a purse. She dug inside it, came up with a tissue, blew her nose and dabbed at her eyes again. “I swear, I have the same psychic powers my Gran Bella had. I’ve just never used them,
uh…
commercially
before. I do need the money, but it’s more than that. I honestly believe I can help your client.”

Debbie Sue had never trusted a liar. That fact alone had done more to destroy her former engagement to Quint Matthews than any other. She couldn’t keep from shaking her head. “Well, I don’t know. I probably should consult my partner.”

“Please, Debbie Sue. I’m begging you to just give me a chance.”

“I don’t know,” Debbie Sue said again. “Justin Sadler’s already skeptical. He agreed to this because my partner and I recommended it. It’s a lot of money.”

“Debbie Sue, please. It took every cent I had to make this trip. But look, if he doesn’t think I can help, I won’t ask him to reimburse me a dime.”

Debbie Sue tilted her head and studied Sophia’s face. Except for her swollen eyes and reddened nose from crying, she looked innocent enough. “You’re that sure of yourself?”

“Yes, I am,” she said firmly.

“What’s going on?” A voice behind them called out. Debbie Sue turned and saw Edwina’s head poking out the pickup’s window. She opened the door and stood on the running board, holding on to the door for support and at the same time trying to tie a scarf over her beehive hairdo.

Debbie Sue walked back to the pickup and spoke quietly to Edwina. “Ed, the grandmother really is dead, just like you said. We might be fucked.”

Edwina’s stare came at Debbie Sue like a heat blast. A full thirty seconds passed. “Well, do-dah, do-dah,” she finally
said, a singsong inflection in her tone. “I hope there’s another chorus to that song.”

A gust of wind yanked the scarf from her hand and sent it airborne. Edwina grabbed for it but missed, hooking her other arm over the door frame to keep from falling off the running board. “Well, shit. There goes my good silk scarf.”

Sophia couldn’t hear the conversation between Debbie Sue and Edwina. As she watched and waited for Debbie Sue to return, the partner’s scarf floated toward Sophia. The wind abated for a moment and the scarf fluttered to the ground at Sophia’s feet. She bent and picked it up and rubbed the cool fabric between her fingers. Instantly a vision appeared in her mind, like a photo plucked from the pages of a family album. A dark-haired child sat opposite a grown woman, with a checkerboard between them. Sophia saw that she herself was that child and even more remarkably, the woman playing checkers with her was none other than the one who had lost the scarf, Debbie Sue’s partner.

Startled by the information, Sophia swung her attention to the partner. She had looked almost exactly the same in Sophia’s vision from fifteen years ago as she looked today. Coal-black hair in a beehive hairdo, cat-eye glasses, flamboyant dress. She was tall and thin as a rail. Time had neither subtracted nor added much to her appearance.

Smiling, Sophia called out, “Edwina, hi. Do you remember that day years ago when we played checkers? You never did let me put a crown on your king. I hope Vic treats you better than your husband did back then.”

Sophia had expected a reaction. Who wouldn’t in the same situation? But she had not counted on the racket that came. The scarf’s owner let out a shriek that could wake the dead and drive dogs into frenzy throughout the surrounding area. Then she ducked back into the big red pickup and slammed the door with a loud
whump
.