Читать книгу A Difficult Woman - Jeannie Watt - Страница 10

HER CARPENTER HAD fired her.

Tara clenched her teeth as she drove, still having a hard time adjusting to the fact. Half a porch to go, plus several other very necessary jobs, and he had fired her. What was she going to do now? Luke couldn’t help, even though she knew he’d try.

She’d just have to get along without any help. This wouldn’t be the first time she and the Time-Life Home Improvement series had gotten a tough job done together.

Yeah, right. She could do this alone. Who was she kidding?

If only Nicky weren’t leaving next week.

But he was. He needed the summer school credits and, frankly, she needed hands a little more skilled than Nicky’s.

Damn that Matt Connors. And Eddie Johnson. And Martin Somers. And… The list was just too long.

Nicky was sprawled on the sofa, wearing old sweats and watching a hideous Vincent Price movie when she got home.

“Don’t you ever sleep?” she muttered.

He gave her a lazy smile. “You got an e-mail,” he said, lowering the volume of the bloodcurdling screams emanating from the bleached blonde on the television screen. House on Haunted Hill. Nicky’s favorite bad movie. “I printed it out.”

“Where?”

“On the table,” he said.

Tara wearily brushed the loose hair off her forehead as she crossed the room. It had better be good news. This had been one long, rough day. She read the printout, then crumpled it in her fist.

“I cannot believe this,” she said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

Nicky frowned at her. “You sent out all those party brochures. I thought you wanted to book a reunion function here.”

“I did.” Tara uncrumpled the paper and read it again. The Night Sky High School graduating class of 1965 wanted to hold an afternoon cocktail party here before the reunion dance. And they wanted to pay her well for the privilege. A Mr. Nathan Bidart, former class president, had requested the booking, and he also wanted three rooms. Three rooms. Just like that. Almost the entire second floor. And she hadn’t even advertised rooms; Bidart must have simply assumed. And he was in business, which was the market she was targeting. Her stomach hurt.

“Did?”

“I don’t have a carpenter anymore.”

He put the movie on mute. “What did you do?”

Tara shrugged, then rubbed her neck. “I was ungrateful.”

Nicky gave a snort. “So what do you do now? You can’t hold an outdoor party with half a porch. You have to call Bidart and tell him you can’t host it, or find a new carpenter.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Tara said, yawning. She released the clip that held her hair, then groaned as the barrette popped into two pieces. She stared down at the sterling silver conchos in her right hand, the French clip in her left.

The perfect end to a perfect evening. Disgusted, she tossed the pieces into the fruit bowl where Nicky kept his keys and headed for the hall.

“I’m going to bed.”

She caught sight of Nicky shaking his head before he picked up the remote and settled back into House on Haunted Hill, and felt extremely glad he didn’t know about the balloon payment. One Sullivan worried sick about finances was more than enough.

STUPID BIRD.

Tara usually loved waking up to the sounds of the birds in the ancient cottonwood trees outside her window. Usually. But after a long night of calculating in her sleep, and trying to figure out how in the world she could get everything done, Tara was in no mood for cheerful birds.

Matt had done the decent thing and tried to help her and she had done the knee-jerk thing and refused that help. She’d fought her own battles since she was eight years old and some kid had taunted her about having a daddy who stayed too long at the beer joint. That kid had ran home crying a few seconds later with a bloody nose and Tara had discovered she did indeed have the power to fight back. She didn’t have to listen to all the talk about her father, whom she loved and was fiercely protective of, especially since she didn’t have a mother.

Of course, that had been before her dad had committed armed robbery and reinforced the general opinion that there was no such thing as an honest Sullivan.

She and Nicky had moved into the big Victorian house with Aunt Laura shortly after her father’s arrest. It hadn’t been a happy time. The kids in school remembered how fiercely she’d defended her father and wouldn’t let her forget it. The adults in town hadn’t treated “that Sullivan girl” much better.

As soon as she graduated high school, she moved to Reno, taking Nicky with her, never dreaming that someday she’d be back, trying to make a place for herself in the community.

She pushed the covers aside and sat up, glancing briefly at the photo of her father she kept on the bureau and feeling the usual mixed emotions. The picture had been taken when he was about the same age as Nicky and the resemblance was strong. Dark blond hair, an easy grin. Tara looked nothing like him. She took after her dark-haired mother, who was smiling in the matching silver frame. Her mother had died when Nicky was three and her father had died in prison of pneumonia when Tara was eighteen—just a few months before he was due to be paroled. Sometimes, even though she hated herself for it, she wondered if maybe that had been for the best.

No sense dwelling on it. It never did her any good. And right now she had a porch to rebuild and a few new doors to hang.

Nicky groaned when he traipsed into the kitchen an hour later and saw the stack of home improvement books sitting on the table where his plate should have been. He walked to the coffeepot, giving the table a wide berth. He filled his cup, took a revitalizing drink, then leaned against the cabinets. His expression clearly said that he knew from experience how dangerous how-to books could be.

“It’s not that bad,” Tara said without raising her eyes from the pages of one.

“Yes,” he said bluntly, “it is.”

Tara looked up.

“Remember what happened the last time you moved beyond your abilities?”

“Wiring can get confusing. All those junctions…”

“Look, T. You’re good. I’ll give you that. And you learn fast, but you don’t have that much time.”

“Your point?” she asked sourly.

“Tell me what happened last night.”

He brought the coffeepot, filled both of their cups, then took a seat across the table from her.

Nicky shook his head when she finished telling the story. “One punch to the gut, huh?” He was obviously impressed. Eddie was a big guy.

“Neatly done, too.” Although she had thought there might be more to Matt Connors than met the eye, Tara hadn’t expected him to know how to fight like that. His moves had been quick and automatic. Well-practiced.

Silence hung between them for a few seconds and then Tara closed the book in front of her.

“I guess I should go and see if I can talk him into coming back.”

Nicky nodded, his eyes fixed on the kitchen window. “You shouldn’t have any trouble finding him.”

Tara’s eyes widened in surprise. “You’re kidding.” She jumped to her feet and crossed to the window. Sure enough, Matt Connors’s pickup was turning into the drive.

“Let’s hope he’s not here for his tools,” Nicky commented as he watched the truck roll up the drive.

“Let’s hope,” Tara echoed.

“Or his last paycheck.”

Tara scowled at her brother over her shoulder as she headed for the front door. “You’re a real ray of sunshine, you know that?”

“Just don’t blow this, okay?”

“I won’t blow it,” she replied flatly.

I can’t blow it. She took a moment to collect herself, and then stepped out onto the porch.

MATT EASED HIS PICKUP to a stop next to Nicky’s Dodge. He turned off the ignition, but he didn’t get out of the truck right away.

Damn, but he was tired.

He’d had some alleged coffee at the Owl that morning, knowing he probably wasn’t going to get any from Tara, but now the casino brew was burning a hole in his gut. It wasn’t in his nature to leave someone in lurch though and, no matter what had happened last night, the Sullivans were apparently in one.

Numb from lack of sleep, he stared at the porch. Tara stood on the top step, keeping the advantage of higher ground. Matt let out a breath and pushed the truck door open.

Squaring time.

He made his way up the walk as far as the bottom porch step, and for a moment he and Tara simply stared at one another. She was dressed for work, but her feet were bare, and her hair hung to her waist in a loose ponytail. She looked tired and yet she also looked good. Must be the hair he thought, wondering what it would feel like to hold handfuls of it.

And what would it feel like spilling over his chest?

The thought came out of nowhere. What would it feel like if he got a grip?

“I’m glad you’re here,” Tara said, breaking the silence. “I want to apologize for last night. I was rude and ungrateful. I’m sorry.”

The words came out in a staccato rhythm, sounding more rote than sincere.

“You haven’t apologized much, have you?”

Tara frowned. “Why do you say that?”

“Because you’re not very good at it.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“You have most of the words right,” he explained, “but it’s the delivery that’s all wrong. You see, you’re supposed to sound like you mean it, not like you’re saying whatever you have to.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Yeah? Well, guess what? At this point I would say whatever I have to to get you to do what I want.”

Not what he expected. He almost smiled, but Tara didn’t notice. She was staring at something in the distance as she worked out what to say next. When she looked back at him, her expression was grudgingly sincere.

“When you hit Eddie last night, I was shocked and…unnerved, I guess. I hadn’t expected any intervention and then, out of the blue, there you were.” She held his gaze for a few seconds. “I’m sorry for not being more appreciative. I know you were trying to help. It was just kind of—” she pressed her lips together momentarily “—scary help.”

Okay. That was a revelation. It hadn’t occurred to him that of the two of them, she might have considered him more of an unknown than the big guy she’d been staring down. “I guess I can understand that.”

Tara studied him matter-of-factly, almost fatalistically. “Are you here to pick up your check?”

“Nope.”

“So—” she tilted her head “—are you coming back to work?”

He gave a nod.

There was a cautious silence, then, for the first time since he’d met her, Tara smiled. At him. A slow, totally fascinating curve of her lips that changed her beauty into something warmer, more approachable, a hundred times sexier. He felt as if his breath had caught in his throat, which was ridiculous. It was only a smile.

“That’s great.” Her voice was low. “I was afraid—”

“Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” Her expression grew serious. “As long as it doesn’t happen again.”

“It shouldn’t…as long as you pick on someone your own size.”

Her smile was more wry than sensual this time, but once again, Matt felt a response he wasn’t ready for.

“Do I still get lunch?”

“Twelve sharp.” She raised a eyebrow. “I have some breakfast on, too, if you’re interested. It should be ready in about ten minutes. Nicky’ll probably have more coffee brewing by now.”

Breakfast that didn’t include bouncy eggs and burned toast? Coffee that didn’t bottom out on the pH scale? What a concept.

“Consider me interested.”

THE SUN WAS SETTING by the time Matt finished for the day. He left Tara inspecting the porch, which was practically done, and although she hadn’t said much, she’d worn a satisfied smile that somehow made the hours worth it.

He pulled up in front of his house a few minutes before he was due to meet Luke. He figured he had just enough time to wash the sawdust off before he made his way across the alley for another fun-filled night at the Owl. He’d just turned on the shower when he heard a sharp rap at the door.

He cranked the water off, pulled on his jeans and his glasses, and then walked barefoot over the old hardwood floor to the front entry. The rapping continued, rattling the small curtained window in the door. He pulled the door open and found himself facing a uniformed deputy.

“What happened?” he demanded, hoping the guy wasn’t there to tell him Luke’d had a heart attack or something.

“Nothing’s happened.” The deputy’s tone was professional, his dark eyes carefully appraising. Catzilla peeked in from behind his legs. “I’d just like to talk to you for a minute, Officer Connors.”

Officer Connors. Not only did the guy know who he was, he was pretty damned formal about it.

“Is this official?” Matt asked. He didn’t know how it could be…unless it had something to do with the parking lot incident last night. Assault, maybe? Oh, that would go over well with the lieutenant. He was just itching to get something on Matt.

“I’m not on duty right now.”

Matt stepped back to allow the man in. The deputy expertly blocked the cat’s entry before he closed the door behind him. He gave Matt another quick appraisal before introducing himself. “I’m Rafe Sanchez. A friend of Tara’s.”

“Tara? She had you check me out?”

“No. I heard what happened with Eddie Johnson last night.”

There was a beat of silence while Matt put two and two together. Sanchez wasn’t on duty and Johnson didn’t seem like the type to press charges. “So you decided to check me out.”

“Yep.”

Matt wasn’t insulted. He understood looking out for your own.

“What’d you find out?”

“You’re with the Reno PD. You’re a friend of Luke’s. You’re on vacation.”

Matt nodded. “Yeah.”

“How long will you be in town?”

“A few weeks.”

“And then you’ll be going back to work?”

Something in Sanchez’s voice caught Matt’s attention and he realized Sanchez had facts. At the very least, he knew about what happened, maybe about Matt’s father, too. Matt let out a soft breath.

“I guess you’re here to make sure I’m not a basket case, ready to go off the deep end around Tara.”

“Something like that.”

Matt appreciated the fact that the guy didn’t try to hedge. Matt wanted to assure Sanchez that he was only a little burned out, not some crazy on the brink of exploding, but his training had taught him the less said the better.

“What do you think? Am I safe?”

“You’d better be.” Sanchez studied him intensely before adding, “I just thought you should know that.”

The message was crystal clear. Where Rafe Sanchez and Tara were involved? It was a definite possibility, one that he didn’t particularly like. He didn’t need someone checking up on him, making certain he was treating the girlfriend all right.

“Don’t worry. I’m probably in more danger from her than she is from me,” Matt muttered darkly. To his surprise, the deputy actually cracked a smile.

“Maybe so.” He gave Matt another long look, but it wasn’t so intense now. “You know, if you have any problems—”

“Yeah.” Matt didn’t let him finish. He didn’t need anyone else in his business. “I’ll let you know.”

Another faint smile. “Thanks for your time.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Matt replied with quiet irony.

The deputy let himself out of the house. Matt waited until he heard the front gate bang shut, then headed back to the shower.

“YOU’RE LATE,” Luke said as Matt sat across the table from him fifteen minutes later.

“You look well entertained,” Matt responded, nodding at Becky, who sauntered away. He reached for the beer Luke had ordered for him. He’d told Luke the night before that he didn’t like having a beer with dinner when Luke couldn’t, but the older man had insisted, saying he wanted to live vicariously. “Deputy Sanchez stopped by to check me out.”

“He probably heard that you and Tara had trouble last night.”

Matt’s eyebrows went up. “Yeah.”

“What happened?”

“We—” Matt’s mouth twitched “—had a misunderstanding.”

“Involving Eddie Johnson.”

Matt tipped the top of his beer toward Luke in silent agreement. The old man probably knew as much or more about the encounter than Matt did. “We made up. I spent the afternoon at her place working on the porch. It’s practically done.”

“Good. I’m hoping to be able to come out tomorrow and take a look, see if there’s anything I can do.”

Matt gently set his bottle down as he tried to come up with a way to say this without getting Luke’s dander up. Finally he just said it. “Maybe you should take it easy a while longer. You know…let the medication take effect?” He didn’t want his friend to hurt himself, but he didn’t want to insult him, either. Thin line there.

“Maybe,” Luke replied after a lengthy silence. He pulled the tea bag out of his cup and squeezed the last bit of moisture out of it. “How’re you sleeping?”

Matt raised his eyes to meet Luke’s. He hadn’t told Luke about his insomnia, but he supposed that his exhaustion had to show.

“I know stress,” Luke said as he put the tea bag aside. “I saw action similar to yours while I was in the service. I was only twenty.” Luke shook his head. “You gotta experience it to understand it.”

That was an understatement.

“How’d you get past it?” Matt shifted back in his chair, not certain he wanted to explore this.

“Time. Change of scenery. More time.”

Luke let the comment sit for a bit as he stirred sugar into his tea. “When I heard from my brother how things had been going for you—your dad…the standoff—I had a feeling. Thought maybe you should get away for a while, and since I needed help…” His mouth quirked up at the corner. “But you’ve figured that out. Time and a new place. It helps. Some.”

After an uncomfortable silence, Matt said, “I appreciate it.” He didn’t necessarily think the change of scenery would provide a wonder cure, but it couldn’t hurt. And the time away would recharge him, help him get ready for the next stage of battle. He gave Luke a half smile and a gentle warning. “I don’t know I’ll be as talkative as the last time you helped me out.”

Luke nodded his understanding.

The last time, Matt had been an unhappy kid, working for his stepdad, Luke’s brother, building apartments while on vacation from college. Torn. His mom had been pushing him to study engineering, education, law—anything but criminal justice. She hadn’t wanted him to become a cop like his biological father.

Matt, however, had been fascinated by law enforcement. And hungry for approval from the man he’d only seen a week or so every summer after his parents’ divorce.

Luke had been his crew’s boss, and he’d also been the only person who simply listened to Matt without offering an opinion, the only guy who just let him talk.

“Mom thinks it’s ‘lovely’ that I’m spending my vacation with you.” A corner of Matt’s mouth lifted. “I’d kind of appreciate it if she kept thinking that.”

He hadn’t given her any facts, except what was printed in the newspaper, and in the paper he’d come off looking pretty good. She didn’t know about the insomnia, the dreams, the lieutenant’s vendetta. Matt was thankful she lived almost seven hundred miles away.

“I wouldn’t dream of telling her otherwise,” Luke replied. “My brother would kill me if I upset your mom.”

“Thanks.” Matt didn’t want his mother upset. Again. She’d suffered enough trying to keep him out of law enforcement and, ironically, after all of the turmoil Matt never did develop the relationship he’d hoped for with his father, even after landing a job in the same PD. Their relationship had never felt like that of a father and son. It was more like that of two guys who worked together, two guys who didn’t have a lot in common. Later, after his dad had been killed, Matt and the rest of the department discovered his father had a good reason for not letting anyone into his life.

He wiped condensation off the bottle with one finger. “What’s Sanchez’s relationship with Tara?”

“I don’t know the particulars,” Luke replied, apparently amused by the abrupt change of topic. “But I think if you upset Tara, you’ll be dealing with Rafe.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Matt said dryly.

“It’d be easier if you just didn’t upset Tara.”

Matt shrugged. “Too late for that.”

Luke’s eyebrows drew together for a split second and then he burst out laughing. He was still smiling when he gestured Becky over and ordered up another round of Budweiser beer and Lipton tea—hold the sugar.

MATT CONNORS was MIA.

The table was set and his breakfast—or what was left of it—was shriveling up in the warming oven. They’d made a deal the day before and she’d agreed to give him meals in lieu of some pay. He’d seemed to like the idea, so she didn’t understand why he’d skip out on the first day.

She finally gave up waiting and started painting another bedroom, but every now and then she paced to the window, scanned the county road. Where was he?

It had been over two hours since she had fed Nicky and sent him to Reno with a shopping list almost as long as he was tall and instructions not to come back for at least two days. Nicky had spent six years of junior high and high school in Reno while Tara went to college, earning first her bachelor’s degree, then her master’s in English, and she knew he had friends to see and stuff to do before he headed south again. He’d already spent most of his short vacation scraping, sanding and painting. Enough was enough. Nicky was still a kid.

A sudden ominous thought struck her and she tucked a loose wisp of hair behind her ear as she laid down her brush and headed for the phone. Tara dialed the number to the Anderson house and tapped her foot as the phone rang. And rang.

Tara’s nerves started to hum. If Eddie and his numbskull buddies had hurt her carpenter in some kind of misguided attempt at revenge, she was going to—

“Yeah…?”

The voice on the phone was thick with sleep.

“Matt?” Tara said cautiously.

“Tara.” His voice was instantly alert. “What time…?” She heard fumbling and then he muttered an expletive. “Sorry…I overslept. Give me twenty. I’ll be right over.”

He hung up before she could reply. Fifteen minutes later he was at her door, his hair still damp from a shower. He hadn’t shaved and the dark stubble gave him an entirely different look. An incredibly sexy look.

Tara suddenly realized she was staring and stepped back, letting him in.

“So what’d you do last night?” she asked as she led the way to the kitchen. “Tie one on?”

“I was up late.”

He didn’t look so much hungover as exhausted, so she let the subject drop and tackled the matter at hand. “I’d like to get the porch finished and the gazebo fixed and painted, but…” She paused, studying him with a slight frown. “I need you to adjust the height of the new doors before you do that, so that I can stain them.”

She had bought several solid wood doors to replace damaged and missing ones in the house, only to find that while the doorframes were consistent in width, they were not consistent in height. In fact, some of the frames weren’t even true and it was going to take finagling to get the doors to hang and swing correctly. It wasn’t something she wanted to leave until the last minute.

“Show me what you got,” he said. She watched as he crossed the room to the porch door, thinking, in spite of herself, that he wore those worn-out Levi’s very well and wondering why she hadn’t noticed it before.

Until he’d taken on Eddie, she hadn’t realized his long lean body was almost solid muscle. That awareness was having a definite effect on the way she was looking at him now, so she was glad he didn’t have the ability to read minds when he glanced over his shoulder and caught her staring.

“Do you want your breakfast?” she inquired innocently.

“What kind of shape is it in?”

Tara grimaced.

“I think I’ll hold off until lunch.”

Tara was impressed that he didn’t expect her to cook another meal for him. She led the way to the prefab metal shop where the doors had been stacked. The shop had a woodstove and a cement floor and was, all in all, a comfortable place to work. Her aunt Laura had been an artisan who specialized in pottery and soap-making, but she had done a little of everything and had collected quite an assortment of woodworking tools.

Matt went immediately to the table saw, inspected it, then moved on to the tools hanging on the pegboards lining the wall.

“Find what you’ll need?”

“Yeah.” He shoved his hands in his back pockets. Tara’s eyes automatically followed.

She had to stop doing that.

“The doors each have a sticky tab on them, telling where they’ll be hung and the measurements of the frame,” she said briskly. “I’ll be wallpapering the parlor. Lunch is at noon.”

Matt Connors nodded. He reached for a saw and Tara headed for the door, glad to have made an escape before he caught her gawking at his butt again.