Renegade Moon (CupidKey) (14 page)

“I think Goldie brought out the kittens,” Martin said. “I heard them earlier.”

Eric nodded. “They’ve opened their eyes.”

“Oh, kittens!” Destiny sighed.

“Let’s show them off,” Martin said, leading the way to the barn.

“Goldie had them hidden in back, underneath some junk,” Eric said. “This is her first litter. And her last. She’s visiting Kitty Planned Parenthood when these are weaned. Old Tiger will no longer have any wild oats to sow, either. They both go to the vet.” He flashed Destiny a grin.

“I admire you for that. Even with spay and neuter programs around Austin, people fail to have it done.” Destiny hurried inside the barn. Mewing balls of fur drew her to a corner. She scooped up a yellow fluff ball and held it to her cheek. “You take after your mama,” she cooed. The kitten opened its tiny mouth and mewed. Destiny nestled it back beside the others as Goldie padded over to check her babies. Destiny stroked Goldie, then picked up a black kitten, seemingly determined to explore every corner of the nest. As she lifted him, he widened his infant blue eyes and gave her a credible hiss. She giggled at his ferociousness.

“He’s certainly different from the rest of the family.” She stroked the tiny kitten with her fingers. “I like you best.” The kitten attempted to roam her lap, his little needle claws pricking her bare legs. An inquisitive striped explorer tried to climb one knee.

“Give Destiny a kitten,” Martin suggested.

“When they’re old enough to leave Goldie, you can have the pick,” Eric told her.

“Oh, I can’t.” Disappointment filled her. “My landlord doesn’t permit pets.”

“So you don’t live with your folks?” Martin asked.

Destiny laughed. “Not for years and years. Once I had to move back in for two weeks to wait for my new apartment to be ready. I don’t know who was the most relieved when I finally moved into my new place, me or my folks! Now I live in a different town. Austin. And they still live in Houston.”

“I can’t believe you’d be any trouble to live with,” Martin teased.

Eric scowled at them both, and for a moment Destiny feared he might leave the barn. Instead, he bent to lift a wee kitten in his big hand. He held the squirming baby to his face, stroking the soft fur with his thumb. “I think we’ve kept you babies from your mama long enough.” The kitten mewed agreement as Eric reunited it with Goldie.

Destiny put the striped kitten and the black adventurer next to Goldie and all the babies were soon nursing away happily as Goldie purred in contentment, licking each one in turn.

“I’m going for the mail,” Estrella called out the back door as they emerged from the barn.

“Take the Suburban,” Martin yelled. “Keys are in it.”

“
Grácias
,” Estrella said. “I like the air-conditioner.”

They all poured glasses of lemonade as they passed through the house to the front porch. Soon Estrella returned from the rural mailbox on the highway, bringing Eric birthday cards from their sister, some cousins, and from the Garcia children.

“Hey,
hermano
. Where’s my card?” Eric teased Martin, lifting an eyebrow at his brother.

“Right here.” Martin spread his arms. “I’m your living card.”

“You’re a card, all right.”

“He’s so sensitive,” Martin said seriously to Destiny. “Why, he’ll cry himself to sleep tonight because I didn’t get him a card.” He heaved a sad sigh.

“You’re going to cry yourself to sleep from the knots I’ll put on your head,” Eric countered with a grin. Soon he and Martin had to go help Domingo repair a section of fence. They tossed rolls of wire and fence posts into the back of the pickup and bumped away.

Destiny went inside, took a bath and washed her hair, then dressed in her white sundress with a meadow of tiny flowers scattered across it. Spaghetti straps tied at the shoulders. The fabric nipped in at the waist, then flared out to swirl around her legs. She completed her outfit with her white sandals.

She wasn’t sure where the impulse to wear the sundress came from.
Must be burned out on shorts and jeans,
she told herself. She watched her reflection in the mirror, turning this way and that, practicing her smiles.

Face it, Winston, you just want to fancy up for Eric’s birthday.
However, the silent scolding didn’t deter her from splashing on cologne and applying blush and mascara.

When she returned to the living room, she noticed the photo still lying on the dining room table where Eric had left it. She picked it up, looked at it, then put it down again. She rode a seesaw where he was concerned. Eric drew her close and held her at arm’s length at the same time. He’d erected an invisible barrier that he seemed to desperately want breached, but something held him back.

Eric could be so full of fun; playing like a child in the water, then closing off over the difference in a kitten. Destiny wanted to reach out to him in those instances, but he withdrew emotionally, becoming so remote. At times he acted so cold to her, smart aleck and uncaring.

She recalled the day they’d eaten lunch in Las Nubes with Lee Duncan and Iris. They’d been so close, holding hands and talking by the creek, then
poof!
A short time later, he’d simply gotten up and walked out of the restaurant.
Had that been because of Glen King appearing? What did they have to do with one another? Every question seemed to lead to another.

What should I do?
Destiny strolled out onto the porch and sat down in a wooden chair. The breeze blew in teasing puffs, occasionally bearing a tantalizing whiff of magical desert mountain scent. The dogs trotted over to lie at her feet. She had nearly dozed when she heard the truck returning. She waited on the porch, listening as the men came in the back door, slamming and stomping and talking. She could hear Estrella offering refreshment. The screen door creaked.

“Hey,” Eric called in her direction.

She smiled. “Hi.”

“I’ll grab a shower and join you.” He disappeared back inside.

Soon he returned, dressed in clean jeans and a beige shirt. A few minutes later Martin came out, followed closely by Estrella.

“Would you like supper now? I will fix it while Domingo cleans up.”

“Not just yet.” Eric glanced at Martin, who nodded in agreement. “We’ll cool off first, okay?”

“
Sí.
You tell me when you feel hungry.”

The dogs shoved heads under their masters’ hands while Eric and Martin petted, rubbed, and talked to them. Joby turned and gave Destiny’s arm a good lick to let her know she wasn’t being left out. She glanced at her watch. Almost seven-thirty. Where did the time go? High, wispy clouds feathered the western horizon, promising a spectacular sunset. She leaned back in her chair and surveyed this rugged land, which had claimed her heart as ruthlessly as had the man beside her.

What action, if any, should she take? Her mom always said,
Prepare for any door to open.
Could she bring herself to do that? What if the door that opened was not the one she cared to walk through? The mystery surrounding the dig, the airstrip, Eric’s involvement in possible illegal activities all chased around in her thoughts. How could she prepare to enter an open door when she didn’t know where it would lead?

Eric leaped to his feet and Martin copied his action. Destiny blinked, startled at their sudden movement. “Is something wrong?”

Martin pointed at the rise. “Guess so.”

Iris’s violet Corvette roared over the top, leading a caravan of several other vehicles.

Commanding the dogs to silence, Eric and Martin stood on the edge of the porch, watching the vehicles arrive in swirls of dust and disgorge crowds of passengers. Destiny recognized many of them as people from the dig. Only a few were locals.

Iris emerged from the Corvette, circled around to the other side and opened the door. She wore a pale lavender sundress trimmed with white piping and accented with high-heeled strappy sandals, probably silver before being coated by the tan dust. Reaching inside the car, she lifted out a fancy birthday cake and came forward, leading the entourage. Everybody laughed and called out birthday greetings.

Destiny sensed Eric’s dismay and embarrassment. For a moment he looked like a volcano ready to blow. Then, with a visible effort at control, he smiled and accepted the outstretched hands offered him.

As Iris carried the cake onto the porch, Destiny glanced at it. A cowboy sat on a rearing horse, tossing a lasso that contained the message,
Happy Birthday, Eric!
A perfect cake for a ten-year-old boy, not a full-grown man.

Martin shot forward, taking it from Iris. “Give me the cake before you drop it.”

Destiny lifted her brows as she watched the cake handoff.
Did
Iris know Eric best? After witnessing his reaction to the surprise party, she began to doubt it.

“Happy birthday,” Iris cooed at Eric, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him right on the mouth. For an instant, his hand rested on her waist, then fell to his side.

“What’s all this about?” he asked quietly, staring down into her face.

One arm remaining around his neck, Iris waved a hand at the others. “It’s a surprise birthday party.” People unloaded cooler chests and food trays and carried them up onto the porch. Estrella clucked around, directing the action.

“Beer and champagne!” someone announced, opening the ice chests.

“Get the glasses,” Iris called out, dragging Eric away, leaving Destiny boiling.

“Great idea, huh?” Lee Duncan said, coming up behind her.

“I suppose. But beer and champagne for a man who doesn’t drink alcohol?” Destiny clamped her lips shut, determined to bite back her jealous fury and not let it show. Eric had stood there, letting that woman hang all over him and kiss him. She’d love to take that ludicrous cake and dump it over both their heads.

“That’s not for Eric. We brought him ginger ale.”

“I hope you brought enough for me, too,” she murmured, watching some men set up portable tables. “Where did those come from?”

“From Wes’s, where Iris got the barbeque. Excuse me.” Lee hurried away to answer a summons.

Iris came back outside and fiddled with her portable CD player. Loud rock music blared out. She immediately punched the stop button.

“Eric doesn’t like rock,” someone hollered to Destiny’s relief, her ears ringing from the racket that appealed more to teenagers than mature adults. At that noise level, anyway. Where had Iris gotten the music? Surely, not her taste?

“I know that!” Iris shouted back, quite undignified. She slipped in another disc, a mellow country-western. However, Eric stepped over, turned down the volume and spoke briefly to Iris. Destiny wished she could hear the conversation.

Martin appeared at Destiny’s side, a wicked little smile playing around his mouth.

“Aren’t most of these people from the dig?” Destiny asked him. “I only see a few locals here.”

“Iris isn’t comfortable with the locals. They don’t fit into her tidy world and, even worse, they don’t care. Iris doesn’t know how to deal with that.”

“You seem amused.”

“Not unkindly, but yes, she amuses me. She takes the wrong tack with Eric every time.”

“So you understand Iris?”

“She and I are alike in a lot of ways. I think I understand her better than she understands herself.”

“Sorry. I don’t share your sympathy for that woman.”

Martin slipped an arm around Destiny’s shoulders. “Now, sugar. Be sweet. Let’s get in line. Everybody’s crowding at the food table and digging in.”

Destiny ended up between Eric and Martin at their table, with Iris on Eric’s right and Lee on Iris’s other side.

“You’re a lucky man, Eric,” Lee said. “Most bachelors are fortunate to get a card on their birthdays, and Iris has given you a champagne barbeque.”

“Yeah. Lucky,” Eric mumbled, carefully keeping his eyes averted from Destiny.

Destiny studied the crowd. All the dig personnel were here, eleven men and five women. She noticed two local couples, and a very large man with his two daughters who, fortunately for them, weren’t as big as their father. Men outnumbered women, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone. Estrella and Domingo shared a table with one of the local couples.

“Estrella,” Iris called imperiously. “Bring out the cake.”

For a moment or two Estrella allowed herself a pout, but the woman next to her rose and they went into the house together, chatting. Emerging, she set the cake in front of Eric.

“Where are the candles?” Iris demanded.

Estrella’s pout returned. Her friend handed them forward. She took them and plopped them in front of Iris. Then she haughtily marched back to her table, where she and her friend took their seats beside their husbands.

“Oh, good grief,” Iris muttered, fumbling with the candle box.

“Forget the candles,” Eric said.

“But you have to blow them out and make a wish.”

“Estrella baked me a cake at noon and I did all I needed to do then. So just cut it and let everybody have some.”

Standing, Iris picked up a knife and began slicing. She glanced over at Estrella. “Come help serve this.”

Estrella started to rise, but Eric pointed at her. “Sit down. We can pass it around.” He glared up at Iris. Oblivious to his anger, she sliced away at the cake, murdering the misshapen cowboy on his overly fat horse.

Plates of cake made the rounds and bottles of champagne sat on tables alongside cans of beer. Martin offered her champagne, but she shook her head. Suddenly, Eric poured ginger ale into her glass.

“Thank you,” she murmured, sipping the fizzy beverage.
Not
your
typical
glass
. The tall, thin-stemmed splits felt like crystal, obviously expensive and definitely not from Wes’s. Probably belonged to Iris. Destiny controlled the urge to cry
Skoal!
and hurl hers into the rocks.

Iris set a box on the table in front of Eric. “A gift for you, darling. I want you to open it now.”

He stared at it as though it might explode.

“Go on, open it,” Iris urged, thrusting it into his hands.

He removed a big silver bow and tore away the wrapping, revealing a jewelry box. He snapped open the lid. Nestled on black velvet was undoubtedly the most ostentatious watch Destiny had ever seen. Tiny diamonds outlined the shape of New Mexico on the gold face of the watch, where one small ruby perched indicating the location of the Bar-M. The band was made of beaten gold. Certainly it had cost a fortune, but Destiny had to clap a hand over her mouth to smother a giggle.