Beneath a Beating Heart Page 16

  “Checking on you. What’s so important you had to be out here at the crack of dawn?”

  “I have a lot of work to do,” she answered, standing up.

  “It’s not so important you need to scale a gate at sunrise.”

  “It was long past sunrise, and, yes, it’s important.”

  “To whom?”

  “You.”

  He shook his head.

  She touched the mirror again. “You are the one who wanted the antiques appraised.”

  “No, I didn’t. Neither does Nate. That all comes from Sandra, my ex-wife. Or soon to be. The divorce isn’t final yet. That was Sandra’s niece, Joni, who waited on us last night. The one I needed to be so nice to. Sandra wants to pull every last dime out of my pocket. My lawyer suggested we have the antiques appraised before her lawyer convinces a judge to order it. That’s when I hauled some of the stuff into Buzz, and he suggested calling in you to have them appraised.” Lou shook his head while glancing around. “There’s nothing worth a pot of gold here, other than the land.”

  She hadn’t heard about the soon to be ex-wife wanting money, but it certainly made sense. “You don’t know that.”

  “Yes, I do. Nate and I have been coming out here for years. If there had been a national treasure out here, one of us would have already found and sold it.”

  She didn’t doubt that. Walking away from the table, she stopped near the stove. Maybe he wasn’t behind the nuclear deal. “Nate seemed interested in having the items here appraised.”

  “He’s agreed because it’ll satisfy Sandra.” His lip curled. “He owes me that much for sleeping with her while we were still married. We wouldn’t be in the predicament we’re in if it wasn’t for that.”

  She had no idea how to respond to that tidbit but did wonder how much more convoluted could things get. She also questioned just what predicament he referred to.

  Lou patted the chair. “Once Sandra gets all she can out of the antiques, she’ll agree to the sale. Both she and I need to sign off on it. What I want to know is what you’re so interested in.” He picked up the mirror and spun it around. “Besides this old thing.”

  “It’s my job.” She rung her hands together to hide the way her nerves started ticking beneath her skin as she moved closer to the table, and the mirror.

  “I don’t buy that.” He eyed her closely. “What have you discovered about this place?”

  Swallowing so her voice wouldn’t squeak, she replied, “Nothing.”

  He pulled out the chair and sat. “Time to pony-up, darling.”

  Anger zipped up her spine. “If anyone needs to pony-up, it’s you.” Grabbing the mirror out of his hand, she carried it to the counter and set it down gently. She had half a mind to tell him about the plans for a nuclear waste dump that Vivi Anne had uncovered, but telling him might do more damage than good. Going with a gut feeling that came out of nowhere, she spun around. “Isn’t it time you admit you’re still in love with your wife and try to work it out?”

  The snap of attention, the shock on his face said more than he did. “Who told you that?” He added a laugh, as if it wasn’t true.

  “No one had to tell me.” Since when? When had she become an expert on love? And why was she, of all people, sticking her nose into other people’s love lives? She’d never had one of her own, so it certainly hadn’t come from experience. She knew less about love than an earthworm. They don’t even need a mate to reproduce.

  He laughed again. “Well, darling, you need to get your eyes checked, because if that’s what you think you’re seeing, you’re as wrong as you could be.”

  No, she wasn’t. She’d bet the price of the kitchen table and chair set. “Sandra asked you for the divorce. You were willing to work it out, even after the Nate debacle.”

  “Who have you been talking to?” He leaned across the table. “Joni?”

  “No.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Nate?”

  “No.” She crossed the room, stopping near the table.

  “Who?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” she flat out lied.

  “Not at liberty. In other words, it’s hearsay without an ounce of proof to back it up.”

  “I have proof.” She lifted her chin, believing in her sixth-sense. “It’s in your eyes. In your voice. You still love your wife.” That was the truth. She instinctively knew it.

  He opened his mouth but closed it as he glanced around.

  She knew something else, too. He’d never planned on telling her anything about his family. “You took me to that restaurant last night, knowing Joni would wait on us, and would tell Sandra you were out with another woman.”

  Abruptly, he pushed away from the table. “You better hurry up and finish your job. Saturday’s right around the corner.”

  She’d struck a chord with that one, but so had he. “I already told Nate I need more time.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t have it.” He walked to the door. “Nate or I will be back to see you leave before dark.”

  Jumping to her feet, she followed. “I need more time. There is so much here. I have to catalogue everything and—”

  “Then you better work fast.”

  She tried to catch it, but the screen door banged shut before she’d reached it. That irritated her. She caught it before it bounced against the door frame a second time, and pushed it open, but she stopped before following Lou outside. Arguing with him would get her nowhere, but more than that, Rance might come in while she was outside.

  She had no idea how long that may be, and the desire to get more information out of Lou was too strong to contain. “Nate said he has this place sold to a developer. To build a resort,” she said from the doorway.

  Lou stopped and spun around. “Nate didn’t have this place sold.” He pointed a thumb at his chest. “I did. I’m the realtor. Nate thinks because his dad got lucky in a few stocks, he’s a high roller, and likes to act that way. Truth is he wouldn’t know where to begin looking for a buyer for this place.”

  “Are you still selling it to the developer you found?”

  Lou shook his head. “The deal I brokered wasn’t enough money for Nate, and he convinced Sandra it wasn’t enough money for her, either.”

  “So why the rush?”

  He huffed out a sigh. “In order to finalize my divorce. Anything worth value will be sold, the buildings demolished, and the property spilt in half. Nate can do whatever he wants with his half. My half will be sold, so Sandra can get her half of the proceeds and we’ll go our separate ways.”

  She wished her cell phone wasn’t in her purse. She’d read the text from Vivi Anne so quickly this morning, she couldn’t remember if it was Nate or Lou who was selling to Leeman and Holmes. She could remember that name, so why not which cousin was selling? Or maybe she just remembered Leeman and Holmes had made an offer and Vivi Anne hadn’t said to whom.

  “Is Nate selling his half?” she asked.

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass what Nate does,” he snarled. “I only talk to him when I have to. My guess is yes. He doesn’t want this place anymore than I do.”

  “To a developer?” she asked. “That’s what he told me. That they are going to build a resort out here.”

  Lou shook his head. “Not for the price Nate wants. It’s too far from town. It would take too long for anyone to recoup their money. But, if Nate thinks he has a buyer willing to pay the price he thinks it’s worth, more power to him. I just want out.”

  His lip curled as he glanced around. “This place has been a pain in my ass for as long as I can remember. Every summer we had to mow the grass, paint the house, pound nails in loose shingles, fix the corral. Uncle Riley always had a job for us to do out here, and our parents made us comply. My mother and Nate’s mother fought over this place like two cats over catnip. That’s what killed all four of them.”

  “It is?” Edith had mentioned both Lou’s and Nate’s parents had died in a plane crash but hadn’t elaborated.


  “Yes. Uncle Clayton and my dad wanted to have seismic tests done on the land to check for crude oil, but Uncle Riley refused. The four of them, my folks and Uncle Clayton and Aunt Rosie were flying to Cheyenne to see about having Riley declared incompetent when Uncle Clayton’s plane went down. Nate and I were eighteen, had just graduated high school.” He shook his head. “We had seismic tests done right after Riley died, didn’t turn up nothing.” His gaze went to the house, and resentment filled his eyes. “This place is cursed. Has been from the day old Rance built it.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Rance’s jaw was locked together so tight, his neck ached. A crick had formed in his neck from looking over one shoulder at the house, wondering if Beth was still in there. He told her to wait, and she better, but when he’d walked out of the house, he’d had the same feeling as when he’d seen her in the bedroom that first day. The one when she’d walked right through him. She’d been sitting at the table, so that sensation could have only come from someone else walking through him. Whoever had pulled up to the house in her time.

  “Is she all right?”

  His spine quivered at the sound of Cindy’s voice. He turned her way and didn’t bother holding the contempt out of his tone. “If Horse was limping, you should never have made her pull that buggy all the way out here.” He’d checked the horse’s other three legs and hooves, and found nothing, and knelt near the last hind one. “You should have had Ace Burchett take a look at her. His blacksmith shop is just down the block from the sheriff’s office. Cliff would’ve pointed it out to you. Nan, too.”

  “Well, maybe I exaggerated a little bit,” Cindy cooed.

  Her voice was so high-pitched it made his ears sting, and her frilly pink dress was covered with so much lace it made his eyes hurt. So did the matching hat with a big feather flaying in the wind. The idea of having anything to do with this woman was beyond his imagination. He glanced toward the house again, wishing he could see through the screen door. Cindy was the exact opposite of Beth. Of all the things he loved. A sense of urgency had him completing his inspection of Horse’s leg and hoof. He stood and patted the horse’s hip. “She wasn’t limping?”

  She batted her lashes and shrugged one shoulder up to her cheek. “It was more like she was dragging her feet. I figured she was homesick and seeing you would help.”

  Horses don’t drag their feet, but they did get homesick, he knew that well enough, and couldn’t blame Horse for feeling that way. He would, too. “Nan know you’re out here?”

  Still batting her lashes, she turned toward the house. “Your home is so lovely.”

  His home was a lot of things, but he wasn’t about to agree or disagree with her concerning a single one of them. Nor would he invite her in. Ever.

  “Could I bother you for a glass of water?” she asked. “I’m dearly parched from the trip all the way out here.”

  Before he’d married Beth and they’d built the house, he’d drawn water from the well near the barn. Still used it to water the horses and to get a drink himself when working outside. Clicking his tongue, Rance led Horse toward the well, and after filling a bucket for the animal, he dropped the rope back down and brought up another bucketful. Lifting down the metal dipper he kept hooked on the overhang that kept leaves and other debris out of the well, he filled the dipper and handed it to Cindy.

  She frowned. “I usually use a glass.”

  He shrugged and drank the water himself. She could travel back to town as thirsty as a camel for all he cared.

  As he started to hook the dipper back on its nail, she said, “Oh, well, I guess I could use that this once.”

  He refilled the dipper and handed it to her.

  “I do hope I don’t dribble,” she said with a giggle.

  He found nothing funny about not knowing how to drink out of dipper. Turning around, he said, “Just hook it on the nail when you’re done.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Walking around Horse, he answered, “Just checking the rigging so you won’t have any trouble on your way back to town.”

  “Oh, that is such a long drive,” she said. “I was thinking I might rest a bit before returning.”

  “There are some shade trees about halfway to town. A good place to rest.” His stomach tightened as the little grove of trees came to mind. He and Beth often stopped there, not necessarily to rest, on their way home from town. On their way to town sometimes, too. His gaze settled on the house again.

  “Nan has told me so much about you,” Cindy said. “I feel as if I know you.”

  “You don’t.”

  “I could.”

  She’d walked around Horse and stood directly behind him. That grated on his nerves as much as not knowing who was in the house with Beth.

  “If you’d let me, I could even become your friend.”

  “I have friends,” he said, skirting around her and making his way to the other side of Horse. “Don’t need more.”

  “I felt that way at one time.”

  He didn’t care how she felt at any time.

  “You see, Rance, I too have lost someone very dear to me. His name was Eugene, and we were engaged to be married. It’s been almost a year now. He worked for the railroad, and there was an accident. I didn’t believe it when I first heard. Said there was no way he could have died.”

  The hair on his arms slowly rose, and it took all he had to hold off a shiver. It didn’t help that she was dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, and sniffling, and looking sincerely sad.

  “Then I saw his body,” she said close to a whisper. “And I had no choice but to believe it. People tried to comfort me, my friends and family, but I didn’t want comfort from them, I wanted Eugene. Wanted him to be alive so badly I dreamed about him. Dreamed about us getting married.” She sniffled again and dabbed at her nose.

  He scratched the back of his neck, where the muscles had grown tight. She wasn’t looking at him, was gazing down the road and looking as forlorn as any person could.

  “He died two weeks before our wedding. Two weeks. Oh, it was awful. So, so awful.”

  His gut tightened. He would have been in rough shape had Beth died two weeks before their wedding. Twisting he looked at the house. What was he thinking? He had been in rough shape when she’d died. Would still be if she hadn’t returned. His throat closed up. He had to swallow twice to open it back up. Beth hadn’t returned. Not completely.

  “People kept saying Eugene wouldn’t want me to be so sad,” Cindy said. “And that made me so mad. They didn’t know what Eugene would have wanted. At least that’s how I felt. Oh, goodness, I felt that way for a long time. Months. For months and months, I was mad and alone. Alone, and lonely. I was bad company. So bad my friends no longer came around. I thought I didn’t care, but then, Eugene came to me in a dream, and told me I couldn’t mourn him forever. That I had to start living again. I told him that I didn’t want to, but when he asked me to do it for him, I knew I had to.”

  She sniffled again and wiped at her eyes before tucking the handkerchief under the cuff of her sleeve. “That’s when I knew exactly what Eugene would have wanted. For me to live. Because he loved me as much as I loved him. So I put a smile on my face and started living again. It wasn’t easy. Especially at first. But each day it got a little easier and eventually I decided maybe it would get even easier if I got away, so that’s when I decided to come and stay with Aunt Nan for a while.”

  The smile on her face appeared to be as genuine as the red rims her tears had left around her eyes.

  “Well,” she said, dipping her head slightly. “I’ve taken enough of your time for today. Thank you for checking over Horse, she’s a good animal, gentle and well-trained, and thank you for the water.”

  A good splattering of guilt at making her drink from the dipper curdled the contents of his stomach. “I-I-uh-could get you a glass of water if you want one. From the house.”

  “No, but thank you. A sip from the dipper w
as all I needed.”

  She turned to walk toward the buggy, and he followed and helped her onto the seat.

  “Have Ace check Horse when you get into town,” he said. “Just to make sure there’s not something up with one of her legs.”

  “All right, I’ll do that. You be sure to stop by the house if you come into town. Cliff and Nan will be glad to see you.”

  He nodded.

  “I’ll be glad to see you, too, especially if you want to talk, need a friend who understands.”

  He wanted to shake his head, say that wouldn’t happen, but the muscles in his neck and throat didn’t want to cooperate. So, he merely took a step back and watched as she skillfully backed Horse up and steered the animal around the well and out of the yard. It wasn’t until she was little more than a speck on the horizon that he pulled his gaze away, wondering if he’d been wrong about her. Had that nip of trouble Cliff referred to been how she’d behaved after Eugene died? He would have been in more than a nip of trouble if he hadn’t had horses to train during those first few weeks after Beth’s accident.

  He spun around then and jogged toward the house. She’d better still be there.

  The door had yet to close behind him when he knew she wasn’t.

  ****

  Liz approached the little cabin cautiously. She hadn’t explored any of the out buildings but considering Rance hadn’t returned to the house by the time Lou left, she figured now was a good time. She didn’t believe the property was cursed any more than she believed it was haunted.

  That was a bit of an oxymoron. Yet, not really, because Rance wasn’t really a ghost. He was a time-traveler, as was she. There was a definite difference.

  The door creaked as she pushed it open and dust motes floated in the sunlight that entered the room. Surprisingly, or maybe not, the cabin, which was made of thick square logs that resembled railroad ties, had more modern appliances than the house.

  Actually, modern wasn’t the correct term. They’d probably been purchased in the forties or fifties. A fridge that was as round as it was square and a narrow electric stove sat along one wall, as well as a small set of metal kitchen cabinets that housed a sink.