Something in the Water... (17 page)

Ariel almost felt bad about what was happening. The pain in Joanie’s expression was apparent, but then, none of them were kids any longer. Pushing aside a twinge of guilt at hurting them, she said, “I’d feel sorry for you two, but you’ve caused a lot of trouble.”

“Why?” Joanie asked, her eyes on her husband’s, imploring.

Studs hung his head in a way that would almost have been comical, if not for all the havoc he’d wreaked in Ariel’s life. “I…wanted the recipes for myself,” he admitted, trying to keep his voice low enough that only his wife could hear. “And I wasn’t going to ask the witches for it.”

“Only because I was up there,” Ariel said. “And you know I wouldn’t give you a damn thing, Studs. What do you have against me and my family, anyway? Did you do this out of spite?” Only now did her mind really register that he’d said he wanted the recipes.

He lifted his gaze, as if to meet hers, but his eyes stopped shy of hers. He exhaled a long breath. “C’mon, Ariel. Tell him to let me go.” Now his eyes did meet hers, and the uncharacteristic honesty in the gaze made her heart lurch. Then she reminded herself that Studs was only being nice so he wouldn’t go to jail.

“I took the book. I admit it. And…” His eyes shifted
to his wife. “I made up those lies.” All at once, his voice cracked. “Joanie baby,” he continued. “It was for you. You’d get so jealous when you thought I was with Ariel, and then you’d come running to me, doing all those sweet things, trying to make sure I loved you best. But you’ve been so unhappy lately…” He swallowed hard, then continued. “I couldn’t ask the Andersons for any specialty teas, but I figured if I borrowed the book for a few days, maybe I could find a tea that would…”

Joanie’s voice was hard to interpret. “Set things right between us?”

He nodded.

Ariel could only shake her head in stupefaction. “This is his motive,” she muttered, unable to believe it. Surely, Joanie would leave the jerk now. Already, she was unhappy in the marriage, and now her husband had been exposed as the most dangerous kind of gossip, as well as a thief.

As if reading her mind, Michelle muttered, “Leave him in the dust.”

Instead, Joanie grasped her husband’s hands and brought them to her heart. “Oh, Studsy,” she whispered. “You did all that for me?”

Ariel uttered a strangled sound. Could this possibly be happening?

“You know how much I love you, Joanie,” he said.

Had Ariel’s whole life been dogged by rumors, just so Studs could make Joanie jealous? Joanie was smiling through tears. “Well, you know they’re saying something’s in the water, so maybe we should…”

“Kiss and make up?” Leaning, Studs offered a wet, sloppy kiss.

Ariel’s eyes felt as if they were going to pop out of her head. “I really don’t believe this,” she said, stunned.

“They deserve each other,” said Michelle.

“Don’t you dare show mercy,” Rex put in.

“Throw the book at him,” Jeb said.

“Ditto,” added Marsh, sounding astonished.

“I wasn’t about to let him off the hook,” Ariel assured.

Swiftly, as soon as she nodded, Sheriff Durham stepped past Joanie, grasped Studs’s wrists and cuffed him. As he moved toward the door, Ariel felt Rex’s arm slip around her waist, guiding her in the same direction. Her whole side warmed, and once more that telltale heat washed over her, urgent and undeniable. As they walked toward the front door, their steps were in perfect tandem, and she wanted to feel Rex against her, skin to skin.

“C’mon,” he urged, leaning so close to her ear that his breath feathered over the lobe. “Sheriff Durham can handle the rest. Maybe we can get some alone time before he returns the book to you. After that, we may be busy all night, helping your folks get ready for the festival.”

And she had to sleep, unfortunately. Tomorrow was such a big day. The cameraman from Charleston would be here to greet her by seven in the morning. Most of the real work would take place in the editing room in Pittsburgh, but Ariel wanted to make sure the story wound up having the exact right approach. Since Jack and Ryan had said she could use the material about the CDC looking for a love bug in Bliss, she was sure the piece could be humorous, quirky and heartwarming. That’s what she wanted, at all costs.

“I think we can steal a couple hours,” she whispered huskily to Rex, already feeling his fingers on her thighs,
parting her, and the rush of sensation as he filled her until she was sure she’d die from the pleasure of it.

They’d reached the yard when, from behind her, she heard Marsh say, “Maybe we ought to tell Sheriff Durham about Angus Lyons.”

“Yeah,” Jeb cut in excitedly as Ariel turned to look over her shoulder at the others. “We saw him,” Jeb continued. “I recognized him from an old newspaper clipping that Chicken Giblets, I mean Miss Gibbet, showed us in school. I thought it was interesting, so I read more about the Core Coal takeover. Anyway, it’s definitely him. He’s back, and he’s staying at the Outskirts Motel.”

Studs’s voice sounded then, the tone as sly and crafty as a snake. “That’s another reason I’ve been so busy lately, honey,” he said to his wife. “I’ve been staking out Angus Lyons. He’s registered at the Outskirts under a fake name, Lawrence Nathan. I’ve been watching him and his ex-lover.”

“Oh, honey,” commiserated Joanie, as if her husband were Perry Mason and Sherlock Holmes rolled into one.

His eyes skated to Ariel’s, and now, although he was wearing handcuffs, the gaze held a gleam of ugly triumph. “Now that you’ve gotten me arrested,” he said, his mouth slowly broadening into a Cheshire cat’s grin, “you have a free afternoon stretching before you, Ariel. So, why don’t head on down to the Outskirts Motel and meet your daddy?”

“M
Y DADDY
?” A
RIEL SAID
in shock, clutching the dash board as Rex drove. She glanced beside her. Feeling uneasy about what she saw in his expression, she added, “What?” as he pulled into the parking lot of the Outskirts.

Rex hesitated, then said, “Nothing.”

She squinted, inviting further commentary that didn’t come, then she glanced around the lot. “My mother’s car’s here,” she murmured, her hand already on the door handle. Her mind was still reeling. Maybe her mother had had an affair with Angus Lyons years ago, after what appeared to be an outbreak in Bliss.

Then after he’d left town, he’d carried the bug to Szuzi.

But was she, herself, a result of their union?

Angus Lyons,
she thought now. Impossible. And he’d seemed like such a nice man. Maybe that was the worst thing. She’d taken a liking to him both times they’d met.
No wonder he was looking at me in such a strange way. Almost…as if he knew me.
Had he and her mother kept in contact? Why hadn’t her mother said something about him? Had she known he was in town? And had he known about Ariel?

Whatever the case, she hated that the information had
come from Studs. Anger surged through her as Rex turned off the vehicle. Not waiting for him, she hopped out of the mobile lab, slammed the door and headed for room twelve, having no idea what she might find.

Rex’s hand grabbed her from behind. “Maybe you’d better take a deep breath, Ariel,” he murmured. “Don’t go in there half-cocked.”

Even though she knew he was right, she wasn’t about to wait. She’d been wondering about her father her whole life. “I’m fine,” she said, her voice a mere croak. Her lips had gone dry. She licked them and realized she could still taste Rex’s kisses. That calmed her some. “Okay,” she said, seeing the concern in his eyes. Dutifully, she made a show of inhaling deeply, then exhaling.

A slight smile toyed with his lips, and it brought a twinkle to his eyes. His voice grew husky. “Kiss me first.”

Her arms circled his neck quickly, drawing him near, and his arms wreathed her back. Mouths and hips locked at the exact same moment and sparks of fire passed between those two pressure points. She tilted her hips up ward as his tongue plunged deep, meaning business. She gave him a payoff, a slow thrusting that got the juices rushing inside her. A second later, her mind cartwheeled into the abyss.

He went with her, she could feel it in his response.

She was falling into the wet heat of his mouth, spinning over a waterfall, riding a current of relief.

The past hour had been so strange. But this man was grounding her. Gliding her hands from his neck, she cupped his powerful shoulders, then flexed her hands,
drawing him yet closer…and then wanting him closer still. She wouldn’t be satisfied until he was thrusting deep inside her again.

Rex’s grip around her back grew tighter, as if he had every intention of pulling her right down onto the burning concrete and loving her, here and now. The sun was strong, and when she opened her eyes, she saw sunspots.

Blinking, she found herself looking into his eyes, which were as blue as the sky. When he tilted up his chin, she could see clouds reflected in the irises.

She squinted. “What?”

He shook his head. “Hmm?”

“You’re looking at me funny.”

He hesitated, and once more, just as in the car, she was sure he was withholding something from her. He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

Whatever it was, there was no use trying to find out.

Turning, she slipped an arm around his waist and headed for the door. Nothing more than the knock of his hip against hers made her knees weaken. When they reached the door, she lifted a hand and rapped.

A man’s voice called out. “Who is it?”

Her hand curled around the doorknob. “Ariel.”

Would he know who she was? Yes. She was sure of it. He’d watched her earlier with such awareness. He had to know she was his daughter. But maybe she was wrong. What if all this was just fantasy? But that’s why she’d come here, wasn’t it? To put the past to rest, so that she could move on.

From behind the door came a rustling sound, whis
pers. No one said anything, though. They were in there together, trying to decide what to say, she thought, turning the knob. The door wasn’t locked. After a second’s hesitation, she pushed it open, then realized she shouldn’t have. Inhaling quickly, she glanced around the room. The man who’d previously called himself Lawrence Nathan was bare-chested and quickly donning his pants. Her mother was blushing, her cheeks bright red, and she’d clearly just slipped her dress over her head.

Ariel was so stunned she could only gape. “Sorry,” she managed to say. Then added, “I guess it’s true.”

The color that had flooded her mother’s cheeks now drained until they looked chalk white. “You heard…

How? That’s impossible.”

“Sheriff Underwood found out that…” She hazarded a glance at the man who was probably her father, and was thankful for the strong wall of Rex’s back, which she could feel right behind her. “That, uh, Angus Lyons was in town,” she said. “And we found the book. The sheriff took it.”

Her mother squinted. “The sheriff?”

“Long story,” Ariel said simply. “He wanted the recipes, to heal the relationship with his wife. Sheriff Durham arrested him and took the book to dust it for fingerprints.

We’ll have it back in an hour.” She could barely believe the words coming from between her lips. There were so many other more important things right now. And she wanted to know about her father…“Is it true?” she asked.

Her mother came forward, caught her hands and looked deeply into her eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
“You always asked questions, but I was very hurt by how my affair with your father ended, so I didn’t really want to talk, and I pretended you didn’t really need to know.”

“Maybe I didn’t,” Ariel said quickly, venturing another glance at Angus Lyons. He looked so still. Not a muscle moved. Even his gaze seemed stationary, just fixed on her face, and she had no idea what he was thinking.

“I’ve been happy,” she forced herself to say, hating the pain she saw in her mother’s eyes. And the love.

Over her shoulder, Ariel could see the mussed covers of the bed, and a lump formed in her throat. If she hadn’t met and made love to Rex, all this would be playing out differently, but now she knew how passion could rock a woman to her very soul. Her mother, too, might have lost her head and experienced the kind of loving Rex had shown Ariel. It would make people do things they never would otherwise.

“I know you’ve been happy, honey, but…” Her mother took a deep breath, then the story poured out, and Ariel listened with growing understanding. Her mother and Angus had met when he’d come to town with his father, to buy real estate, ostensibly for land development. The affair had started during a late summer such as this one, and they’d spent an idyllic time, be coming lovers, even though Samantha’s grandfather, Eli Saltwell, didn’t approve.

“He didn’t approve of big business,” she explained.

“He’d worked in the coal mines in his youth, and had lived through some of the more violent strikes down in the southern part of the state. He remembered when
that part of the country was kept peaceful only under marshal law, and he’d seen how chemical waste from the mines had destroyed the rivers and streams.”

Ariel’s mind couldn’t catch up. “Eli Saltwell was married to Great-gran?”

“Still is,” her mother said. “They never divorced, and now I believe they’re starting to make amends. Of course, who knows if it will last. Those two were oil and water. Passionate and fiery, but they couldn’t carry on a civil conversation.” Her gaze shifted briefly to Rex. “If you need any proof there’s something in the water, that’s probably it.”

From behind her, Ariel heard his chuckle. “I think I’ve found my own proof.”

“Angus was in the dark about how his father operated,” her mother went on. “And while he was here, he started to wise up.”

“Because I fell in love with your mother,” Angus clarified, now coming to her mother’s side. His voice was soft, almost silken, and seemed to strum with feeling. Ariel could hear the love in it. “I found…” He paused, his eyes drawing Ariel’s to his. “Things in Bliss I’d never imagined. Your mother bolted me out of the world I’d always known and made me see things in a whole new way….”

Ariel squinted. “What happened?”

“Your mother found papers in our rooms regarding the land deals. My father and I, as well as other members of the coal consortium, were staying in the bed-and-breakfast,” he explained. “And she was tidying up.
I…there’s no excuse,” he began. “But I guess I bought my father’s sales pitch lock, stock and barrel. I figured he really did intend to turn Bliss into a tony resort, initially, but then began crunching numbers and realized that the coal business would bring more revenue, which was why people from Core Coal had come into town to meet us. I also believed he’d make good on his promise to the town later, and develop the resorts after Core Coal had mined.”

Ariel’s gaze shifted to her mother. “And you told Eli….”

Her mother shook her head. “No. I sat on the information. I wanted to ask Angus about everything first. So, I left the papers.”

“And then Eli found them?” Ariel guessed.

Her mother nodded. “He drove through Bliss like a bat out of hell, telling everyone who’d already sold land that they’d been conned, and everyone who was considering selling not to do so. Then he headed to Charleston and brought back a good attorney.”

“When your mother asked, I told her everything I knew. Like I said, I still believed my father’s lies.” He shook his head. “My father believed his own lies, you see.”

“Rationalizations,” put in her mother.

He nodded. “So, to me, it seemed natural that we might have a change of heart and mine the land first. I’d grown up in a business-oriented family, and from our point of view, such development always looked like positive growth. In terms of revenue, it would have been good for the town, but the land would have suffered.”

“So, I told him to get out.” She flashed him a quick look. “But I didn’t know I was carrying you then, Ariel.”

“So he left….” Ariel prodded.

“That woke me up,” he said. “I understood what we were really doing here, how it could affect people. But it was too late. Your great grandfather and great grand mother were fighting like cats and dogs. Gran, who’d just lost her husband, that’s your grandfather, to a hunting accident—”

“A hunting accident?” asked Ariel.

“You knew that,” said her mother.

Yes, but that had been only one of so many rumors about her family. Sure, her relatives had told her that her grandfather had died while hunting deer one autumn.

“People in town blamed me,” her mother put in.

“She was the prettiest girl in town,” Angus clarified.

“A homecoming queen. Everyone loved her.”

“But they thought I’d fallen in love with someone who wanted to harm them.”

Angus’s voice hardened. “And she did.”

“But you didn’t know, not really,” said her mother, then added, “after that, I left town for a couple years and lived down in Charleston. By the time I came back, Gran and Great-gran had sort of started keeping to them selves. And I guess with no men around, we got a little stranger and dowdier, only going into town once a week, or when we absolutely had to do so, for odds and ends.”

“But people in town knew…”

Her mother shrugged. “Older people probably suspected you were Angus’s child, but they weren’t sure.

And because he was the wrong sort, as far as they were concerned, I suppose I got a reputation. You know how
people can be around here,” she said. “They don’t have the benefit of running an inn, so they don’t meet so many fascinating people from other places.”

Ariel had never thought of it that way. She swallowed hard. Her own mother had been the victim of gossip, just like her. “You’d think I would have heard the stories,” she said.

“About you belonging to Angus?”

Belonging.
The word made her heart turn slowly over in her chest. Suddenly she wouldn’t believe this was happening. She nodded.

“People were put off by us after that. Like I said, we kept to ourselves. And I guess, as often happens in such experiences, everyone made a silent pact just to keep quiet about whatever they suspected.” Her voice softened. “I didn’t really want to talk about the whole or deal,” she explained. “I believed then that Angus had meant to fool me, that he thought I was a stupid country girl who could be taken in by his lies.”

“I told her differently,” he said.

“But I didn’t know what to believe.”

“So, I just took off,” Angus said. “Left the country.

I had to think things through on my own, without my father’s influence. I’ve always loved him. I always kept in touch. But after losing your mother, I…well, I can’t say I blamed him. But I learned that I had to chart my own course.”

“He’s worked all over the world,” her mother said.

“Saving rain forests and trying to slow development that would ruin the earth.”

Really, Ariel thought, no one was at fault. And yet she wanted someone to be. Maybe that was the worst kind of tragedy, she decided, when at the end of the day, there was really no one to blame. Angus had grown up in such a way that he’d bought into his father’s rationalizations, and her mother was only trying to get the whole story from her lover before telling anyone. And Angus had seen the error in his ways and relented.

“So, you didn’t know about me?”

Angus shook his head quickly. “Of course not. And don’t blame your mother for not telling me. I married a few years after that. She was trying to forget the past.”

Of course he’d been married. Her mother would have had every right to move on, also. “How did you…”

“I was in Peru when I got a call from Jack Hayes a little over a week ago,” he said.

Ariel was shocked. “My boss?”

He nodded. “We were at Harvard together. So, when you said you wanted to—”

“Do a story that might involve you and Core Coal,” she finished, the pieces falling into place, “he called you.”