Unforeseen Danger (19 page)

“I most certainly do not!”

“I had it all worked out,” Matt told Jake.
 
“I told everyone Cat was secretly dating Barry
Roberts
big brother—”

“—who was a boxer in the navy,” Catherine interrupted.
 
“I’ve never forgiven you for that.”

“Cat,
darlin
’, we were fourteen!” Matt protested.
 
“I had to scare off all the competition.”

“Yes, well, it worked,” she remarked.
 
“I didn’t have a boyfriend for nearly two years and couldn’t figure out why the boys avoided me.”

Matt cackled and rubbed his hands together gleefully.
 
“I paid Barry Roberts five dollars to back me up on it, and it worked, too, until Justin Hawthorne blew the whistle on me and began dating you himself.”
 
He looked at Jake and said, “I never did pay that son of a gun back for telling on me, but your daddy nearly cost me a kneecap.
 
I invited myself to sit with Cat at lunch that day, and the next thing I knew, she kicked me under the table so hard it brought tears to my eyes.
 
She said ‘Barry Roberts sends his regards’.
 
I limped for a week.”

“Served you right,” she said.

“Then you go and marry that old dog, Zeke, before I had a chance to ask you out.”

“You had three years.
 
I don’t recall even one invitation to dinner.”

“Would you have said yes?” he asked quickly, and she laughed.
 
“Never mind, don’t answer that.
 
I need to talk to Jake’s doctor.
 
I’ll call or drop by when I find out anything.”

Nikki and Jake sat in the backseat of Catherine’s car on the way home.
 

She pressed her face against his chest and murmured, “Your heart’s beating so fast.”

“They gave me another shot in the emergency room.
 
That one really juiced me up.”

On the way home, Darcy compiled a list of people who’d been at the house.
 
When they pulled into the driveway, she handed it to Jake and asked, “Are you still going to work tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”
 
Catherine and Nikki protested, but he said, “Have to.
 
I still have that meeting.”

Catherine glanced at them in the
rearview
mirror.
 
“I’ll be here in the morning.
 
Eight o’clock
okay?”

“You don’t have to come that early,” Nikki said.
 
“I hate that you have to come at all.
 
I know you have better things to do than baby-sit me.”

“Don’t be silly, dear.
 
I don’t mind.
 
What time do you leave for work, Jake?”

“About a quarter till eight.”

“But I have memory therapy from nine to ten and physical therapy right after.
 
Someone will be here with me until
11:30
, and then I’ll have to get a shower.
 
There’s no sense in you having to just sit there all that time.”

“
Noon
, then?”

“That’ll be fine.”

“I’m going to the grocery store right now.
 
Zeke’s probably wondering where I am by now, so I’ll stop by the house and make him
go
, too.”

Nikki waved goodbye as Jake rearmed the security system.
 
She followed him into the living room.
  

“Whew, what a day.”
 
He flopped onto the couch and smiled at her.
 
Patting the couch beside him, he said, “Come here.”

Nikki sat beside him and Jake pulled her into his arms.
 
As she listened to the steady thump of his heart beneath his soft, flannel shirt, it hit Nikki how close she’d come to losing him today.
 
How this whole mess was her fault.
 
Tears stung her eyes as she said, “Tell me how we met.
 
When we met, when we first fell in love.
 
I want to know everything about us.”

***

Jake grinned, pleased that she wanted to know.
 
“We met on a Friday night, nearly three years ago.
 
A couple of friends and I were going to the late show at the
theater
.
 
We were standing outside, waiting for the first show to clear out when I saw you coming out.
 
You were the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.
 
I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but stare at you.
 
You caught me staring and elbowed one of the girls that
was
with you.
 
Then you walked right up to me.”

It had been so cold that night, but Jake scarcely noticed.

She was headed right toward him, like something out of a dream in her clingy, tangerine-
colored
sweater and tight black jeans.
 

Feline.
 

The word jumped into his mind as he watched her walk, lithe and feline, moving as gracefully as a panther.
 
Her beautiful face flushed pink from the cold, but she didn’t wear a coat.
 
Jake’s chest felt painfully tight and it took him a moment to realize he was holding his breath.

Then, suddenly, there she was, close enough to touch, close enough to perfume the cold air around him.
 
She was flawless, exquisite, and Jake knew he was lost when she reached out and took his hand.

“Are you married?” she asked, and he shook his head, unable to speak.
 
His friends whispered to each other and Jake felt their envious stares.

“Good, because I’ve decided that I’m going to marry you one day.”
 
She smiled then, a brilliant smile that made her eyes sparkle like pale green gems.
 
Still holding his hand, she whipped a pen out of the little purse slung across her shoulder and uncapped it with her teeth.
 
She stretched out his palm and scrawled

Nikki

555-4238

“You’ll
be needing
that.”
 
She wrinkled up her pert little nose and grinned at him again.
 
Jake was dumbfounded, stricken by her beauty and boldness.
 
She strolled back to her giggling friends, leaving him struck mute in her wake.
 

***

“I did that?
 
I walked up to you and told you that I was going to marry you?”
 
Nikki asked in astonishment.
 

Jake laughed.
 
“Yes, ma’am, you did.”

“What did you think?”

“What did I think?
 
I thought I was in love.
 
If you’d have just asked, I would’ve married you right then, right there.
 
That was the most miserable movie I ever sat through, and I didn’t watch any of it.
 
I sat there with my hand stretched out in front of me so I wouldn’t smear the numbers, but I already had it memorized.
 
I couldn’t wait to get out of there and call you.”
 

She smiled and glanced over his shoulder toward the mantel.
 
Jake saw her gaze snap back and her smile disappear.
 
He was already turning to look when she said, “The lavender rose.
 
It’s gone.”

November 7

Nikki locked the door behind her therapist and punched in the alarm code, proud that she didn’t have to look at the numbers Jake had taped on the back of a photo frame.
 
She clutched the rail and climbed the stairs on rubbery legs.
 
The session on Jake’s treadmill had left her weak.

Upon entering her bedroom, she crossed over to the bed and flopped down.
 
A couple glances at the clock later, Nikki forced herself to get up and head to the shower.
 
Catherine would be here soon and Nikki had things to do.
 
After she cleaned up, she planned on tearing the place apart to try to find some clue to the stalker’s identity.
 
That was how she thought of him.
 
The stalker.
 
Not her lover, not anymore.
 
The only man she wanted was her husband.

It took Nikki longer than she thought it would to shower.
 
She felt so drained.
 
She’d just finished buttoning her top when she heard Catherine call out below.

“I’m in my bedroom!” she yelled back down.
 
Nikki stood with her hand on the folding door and stared in dismay at the crammed closet.
 

What did one person do with so many clothes?

Silk shirts, leather jackets, designer gowns…it seemed hard to believe all this stuff was hers.
 
Deciding to start at the top, Nikki began tugging a box down from the top of her closet.

Catherine rushed over to help.
 
“Nikki, dear, what are you doing?”

“Sheriff
Garrettson
told us that we should look for clues to find out who this man is, so we can stop him.
 
I hope I kept something that might give us a clue to his identity.”

“I see,” Catherine said.
 
She sighed and then patted Nikki’s hand.
 
“I wish that neither of you would ever
have
to know, that you could just put this thing behind you.”

“Me, too,” Nikki replied.
 
“I wish we could just move on with our lives, but I don’t feel like this man is going to let us.
 
I can’t let him hurt Jake.
 
I couldn’t stand to see him hurt any more because of me.”

“Nikki, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so happy you and Jake are working things out.”
 

Nikki sat on the carpet and began poking through the contents of the box.
 
It contained old photo albums.
 
She opened the cover of one and stared down at a picture of Jake wearing a Santa hat.
 
He had his arm slung around her, and they looked so happy.
 
“I can’t imagine why I would’ve done this.
 
He’s been so wonderful and I couldn’t ask for more.
 
I wouldn’t even believe I had an affair if he hadn’t told me I confessed it.”
 

“You’re young.
 
We all make mistakes,” Catherine replied.
 
“Stop beating yourself up for it and just enjoy the time you have together, because it goes by so quickly.”
 

Her mother-in-law got a dreamy look in her eyes and said, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Jake’s father.
 
We were married almost nineteen years when he died and it nearly killed me.
 
 

I kept thinking it was so unfair, that nineteen years wasn’t nearly long enough.
 
I’d loved Justin Hawthorne ever since I could remember.
 
Jake reminds me so much of him.”
  

Nikki shifted and Catherine glanced at her, looking startled, as if she’d forgotten Nikki was there.

She gave Nikki a melancholy smile.
 
“Sorry, dear.
 
I’m rambling.”

“I don’t mind.”
 
Nikki patted her hand.
 
“Sometimes it’s good to talk about things.”

“I guess I’m thinking about Justin a lot this morning.
 
Today would’ve been our thirty-second anniversary if he’d lived.”

“I’m sorry,” Nikki said, and hugged her mother-in-law.

“It’s so hard to give up on a love like that.
 
I know I’ll never feel like that again.
 
Zeke and I have been married for ten years now, but it’s not the same.
 
Zeke and I had always been friends and he was so persistent, but I think the main reason I agreed to marry him was that I hated to be alone.
 
I know that sounds silly and petty—”

“No, it doesn’t,” Nikki interrupted.
 
“It sounds human.”

They continued to talk as they searched the closet and the rest of the room.
 
To Nikki’s disappointment, they found nothing.
 

Catherine frowned at her watch.
 
“I bet you haven’t eaten any lunch, have you?”

When Nikki confessed that she hadn’t, Catherine went downstairs to make sandwiches.
 
Frustrated, Nikki scanned the room, looking for anything they might have missed.
 
Her gaze fell on the small notepad by the phone and she thought about a detective program she’d watched from her hospital bed.
 

Feeling a little silly, Nikki picked up the notepad and the stubby pencil beside it and started shading.
 
To her amazement, letters began to appear on the pad.