Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) (24 page)

She was starting to work up another rage when Henry put his hand on her forearm. "You can order more tack, Polly."

"I know! I'm going to start checking some of the auction sites tomorrow. Maybe my own stuff will show up and I can freakin' buy it back!"

"Well, that would just be wrong, now wouldn't it!" Henry laughed. "But, what a good idea!"

"It was Ken's idea. What I want is for them to be stupid enough to put it up on one of those online Buy/Sell sites and I can show up with the cavalry and shut their little operation down. I'm only going to feel guilty if they are doing this to feed a family. If they're doing it to feed an addiction, I'm going to have their heads!"

Jason and Eliseo had been quietly talking as they walked to the end of the barn, heading back to the main house. Jason stopped, turned around and looked at Polly, horror on his face.

"What is it Jason?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing. It's nothing."

"Something freaked you out, Jason. What is it?"

"It's nothing, Polly. Sorry. I'd better get upstairs and check on Andrew." He took off at a dead run for the house before she could say anything more. Eliseo and Henry both looked at her in surprise.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"I have no idea, ma'am ... I mean, Polly," Eliseo responded.

They walked together back to the house and he went in to the kitchen to check on the evening's progress with Sylvie.

"Are you ready to call the evening off?" Henry asked.

"I feel as if I should go upstairs and push Jason a little more, but I hate to do that. He'll tell me what's on his mind as soon as he can. So, no. What were you thinking?"

"I know this quiet house where there is a comfortable sofa, movies, popcorn and maybe even a little ice cream in the freezer."

"That sounds perfect. Let's go."

“Two-thirty in the morning. Seriously. Are you kidding me with this?" Polly sat up. Henry had brought her back to Sycamore House after midnight and she had curled up on the couch to wait for Sal. She wanted to hear everything about the rest of her evening with Mark Ogden. Polly had left the lights on and unlocked her front door so Sal could just come in, but so far, nothing. She'd finally fallen asleep about one o'clock and knew better than to worry. Both Mark and Sal were adults and could take care of themselves, but what if there had been an accident?

Polly chuckled to herself. When she was in high school, she had promised her dad that she would always let him know where she was, even if it was after curfew. If he knew where she was and she didn't have something going on early the next morning, he told her to call again when she was leaving and come straight home at that point. That way he wouldn't worry about whether or not she was dead in a ditch somewhere. While her friends were constantly grounded for staying out late, she was smart enough to play by the rules of the house.

One Friday night, though, she'd stayed out much too late with a boy and didn’t have a way to call home. They'd been out parking on a country road and when she came rushing in the front door, her dad had been sitting in his recliner reading a book. She'd apologized and showed him that her watch had stopped. He simply smiled and told her to go on to bed. The next morning, however, there was a note on the kitchen table beside Polly's breakfast plate. When she opened it, there was two dollars for a new watch battery and instructions to meet her dad in the barn at nine o'clock. Mary had smiled at her and told her to wear her sloppiest jeans and oldest boots.

Polly had spent the rest of the day scrubbing down tractors. Her dad had told her that after church the next day she needed to wash both cars and as soon as they were dry, she would sweep out the garage so that they'd stay clean for a while. That was the last time she'd lied about where she was. It was much simpler to make a quick phone call. Sylvester had been quite proud of his clean tractors, even asking her to pose on one for a picture.

She got up and went into the bathroom, where she washed her face, changed into an old baggy t-shirt, and pulled her robe off the back of the bathroom door. Then, she realized she could check across the hall to see if her friend was back. Maybe she'd come in to the apartment and had seen Polly sleeping. She pushed her feet into a pair of slippers and headed for the front door. There was no light coming from Sal's room and she didn't know what to do next. If Sal was sleeping soundly, she hated to wake her, but Polly knew she would worry all night without knowing. Finally gathering her courage, she knocked on Sal's door and waited. There was no response. She knocked a little more loudly. Still no response. Finally, Polly ran back to her apartment, grabbed her phone and brought it back to open the door electronically. There was no one in the room.

"Well, hell. Now I’m going to worry," she said out loud.

"About what?"

Sal's voice behind her made Polly jump and yelp.

"You scared the crap out of me. How did you get in here and up those steps without me hearing anything?" Polly demanded. "And where have you been until nearly three in the morning!"

Sal smirked. "You turn into quite the mothe
r hen at this hour, don't you!"

"Maybe a little," Polly giggled. "Sorry. I was starting to worry."

"Don't tell me you've been waiting up all night for me to get home!"

Polly shifted her eyes back and forth. "No, I fell asleep. I woke up a few minutes ago."

"Whew. I'd have felt terrible. I assumed you were sleeping, but I suppose I should have texted you anyway."

"Yes, you should have. You're a bad, bad girl and I should probably ground you for that."

"You mean you won't let me fly back to Boston tomorrow? I could probably live with that."

"You had that much fun with Mark? Oh, come on back to the apartment and give me all the details. You can't hold anything back!" Polly said and grabbed her friend's elbow.

"I've never had so much fun," Sal replied. "We had a great night."

"Where did you go? What did you do?"

Polly shut the door to her apartment and the two of them landed on the sofa. Sal kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs up underneath her and faced Polly, who did the same. Polly pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and threw it across the two of them.

"He took me to Des Moines. We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Boone and got some ice cream and then headed on down. He said he'd heard about a club where we could dance and that's exactly what we did, Polly. That man is like a dream on the dance floor. I didn't want the night to end."

"Oh, Sal. He is, isn't he! That night he taught me how to dance last January was like heaven. I felt like such a princess."

“Yes! That's the word for it. He made me feel like a princess. Now, tell me why he hasn't been caught by some young, hot thing here in the Midwest, because I'm thinking about stealing him and making him come back to Boston with me."

"You can't have him unless you move out here. If you try to take him away, I'll make your life miserable."

"Oh, he'd never leave Bellingwood. He's so happy here, it's sickening."

"I knew you two would get along. He spent enough time living in the city that he gets you."

"And he's spent enough time living in rural Iowa that he gets himself too. Seriously, why is this man not taken?"

"He's been pretty busy with his practice, you know. I don't think it's been easy and he just brought on a partner this year. He's been doing it all by himself. That probably hasn't left a lot of time for a social life."

"I'm not complaining, but I still don't understand."

"Did he take you down in his pickup?" Polly asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"How did you find room to sit? The thing is a dump!"

"I didn't think it was that bad. Maybe he cleaned it up or something. It wasn't like there was
stuff on the floor or my seat."

"Oh, then, he cleaned it up. Huh, maybe he does like you. He could barely make room in
there when I tried to get in."

"No. It was fine. I didn't pay too much attention to it, though. We talked all the way down and all the way back."

"And he took you to Dairy Queen?"

"Well, he promised me ice cream. It was fine. Actually, it was pretty good. Too many more trips and I will know how to get around Boone all by myself!"

"How much do you like him, Sal?"

"I like him a lot, but it isn't going to do either of us any good. After tomorrow we're going to be fifteen hundred miles apart and neither of us is planning to uproot our lives. This was a just lot of fun."

"You know, if you ever decided to write all of those story ideas you have tucked away on your hard drive, you could probably live anywhere."

"Can you imagine me telling my parents that I was going to move to a little town in Iowa, marry a veterinarian and write books? They'd toss me in the ocean!"

"They'd love Mark."

"You have to stop this. I can't think about it. It's not going to happen and I'm not going to build something up in my mind that will end up breaking my heart. Because that boy could break my heart."

"It's been one date and you're already talking like this?"

"Polly, we had barely gotten down to Boone and he was holding my hand. When he brought me back here, we stopped out back and kissed in the truck for a while. Neither one of us wanted the night to end, but he has to work early in the morning and I knew you had to get up with the horses. I'm sleeping in, though, since I don't have to be at the airport until two o'clock."

"I'm sorry. You said you were making out in my back lot?" Polly giggled.

"A little bit. Not for very long. But, it was sweet and romantic. I've never done anything like that either."

"One date with the man and this is what happens. I'm impressed, Sal Kahane. You found something to like about the Midwest after all."

"Hey! I like it all. I think this place is wonderful!"

"I know, I'm only kidding."

"What happened with the rest of your evening? Mark said the horses were alright."

"Not much else happened. Ken Wallers, the police chief, was down at the barn and he interviewed a couple of kids from the wedding reception who saw the truck drive off. After that, Henry and I went to his house and watched a movie."

"Nothing else?"

"No, nothing else. Okay, maybe a little kissing. But, nothing too steamy."

"Good heavens, Polly. You two a
re like an old married couple."

"That's not true! I like that things are going slowly. I want to know everything about him before ..."

"Before what? The end of the world? Girl, you two need to get over yourselves. The whole town knows you are together. Hell, even most of Boston knows you’re together. Whenever you finally admit that you’re a couple, you'll have a lot more fun."

"We know we're a couple. But, there's a lot going on in my life right now and if I lost Henry as a friend because I screwed this relationship up, I'd have to
move. Let me go slowly, okay?"

"You can go as slowly as you like, but this turtle and molasses thing is a little bit much, don't you think?"

"It's working for us. Just because I don't go out on a blind date with someone and end up making out in my friend's parking lot doesn't mean I'm doing something wrong."

Sal smiled. "Well, it doesn't mean I'm doing anything wrong either." She fanned herself, "Whoa, am I not doing anything wrong."

Polly giggled.

Sal got serious and said, "I have a question for you, Polly. Would you be upset if Mark took me down to the airport tomorrow?"

Polly cocked her head, "No. I don't suppose I would. Really?"

"I feel like the girl who drove off from a party with a boy, leaving her friend to get another ride home. Are you sure?"

"It will be fine, but I get it. Hot boy trumps girlfriend every time."

"Oh, now you're trying to make me feel guilty."

"Maybe a little bit," Polly giggled. "No, it's fine."

"Thanks. He's going to take me out to lunch and then to the airport, so we'll leave about eleven."

"You'd better get to bed so you can get your beauty sleep. I need to get a couple of hours before the morning gets here, too."

Polly followed Sal to the entryway. "I'm glad you had so much fun tonight. I was worried that I'd screwed the evening up," she said, "but it seems like I sent it in another direction."

"And what a nice direction it was. Goodnight, Polly. Thanks for a wonderful week. I'll see you in the morning before I leave, okay?"

"Love you, too, sweetie," Polly said and hugged her friend. She stood in her doorway and watched Sal practically skip across the hall to her room, unlock the door and slip inside. The cats were already asleep on her bed, so she patted it for Obiwan to jump up, tossed her robe on the floor, crawled in between the sheets and was asleep within moments.

Her alarm went off at 6:30 and Polly rolled out of bed and hit the floor. "Crap," she said. "I didn't even have anything to drink last night. Oh, this is going to be a long day." She moaned and groaned as she pulled her jeans and a sweatshirt on. Fumbling with her phone, she checked the temperature outside and when she read that it was only 39 degrees, she moaned some more. She pulled the sweatshirt back off, yanked a flannel shirt out of her drawer and then after making sure the buttons were all in the right place, tucked it in and drew the sweatshirt back on. She patted the hair on top of her head and figured it would have to do until after she'd had a shower. Her boots and jacket were beside the front door and she pulled a pair of work gloves out of another drawer.

Eliseo took one look at her and laughed out loud, then grabbed his side. She didn't see him laugh like that very often, so she smiled and said, "I look that bad, do I?"

"No, of course not," he said. "Did you get any sleep? I heard your friend come in and wondered if you two had stayed up after that."

"Oh, I'm sorry you heard that. I didn't think about you putting up with the noises from upstairs."