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  The steady, quiet motion of the swing and Jack’s own thoughts had practically put him to sleep when he heard the distinct crunch of gravel under someone’s feet. He set his heel down on the porch without making a sound and watched the dark shadow of someone sneaking up to the front porch. Ray fumbled around under the little ceramic frog in the middle of the cast-iron table, giving a snort when he found the spare key.

  Red-hot rage plowed its way from Jack’s mind to his heart, down to the pits of his stomach. As far back as he could remember, that frog had held the spare key, but how did Ray know that? Unless Dee had had second thoughts and called him. He’d just bet the man carried a cell phone with him, and he’d bet even more that he still had the same number he’d had when he and Dee were married. She’d called him and told him where to find the key, to come to her room quietly, and they’d talk again about the papers.

  Well, if that’s the way she wanted things, then she could have them that way. He scooted his feet around until he found his flip-flops and, wearing them on the wrong feet, he started down the front steps to the yard.

  Whoa, buddy boy. So what makes you think she’s instigated this? You are her best friend. She’s Dee, for goodness sake. She was humiliated beyond words when he had their marriage annulled. Why would she tell him to come up to her room in the dark? You need to wake up, Jack Brewer. The man might be there to murder her. After all, if she was dead, the will would be null and void, the golden goose going to the next of kin, which would be Ray and his family.

  Jack turned heel and tiptoed into the dark house, carefully skipping the stair that made the squeaking noise. He leaned against Dee’s bedroom door and listened carefully.

  Dee dreamed of fishing at Buckhorn with Jack. They’d caught enough for a big fish fry the next night and talked until the wee hours of the morning. Then Jack had lain back to watch the clouds skitter across the full moon. He reached out and pulled her closer to him, kissing her passionately on the lips.

  “Jack.” She knew even in the dream that it was just a dream. She’d wake up in a few minutes and laugh about the silliness of the whole thing.

  “Darlin’, you are so beautiful with the light of the moon coming through the window.”

  Window? They were outside on their lucky quilt, the one that Nanna had made for Jack when he was just a little boy. The moon was lovely, but there was no window. And Jack’s voice was higher and didn’t have its normal Okie twang. Somehow it sounded more like Ray.

  “I know you still love me. You can’t have fallen out of love with me so quickly. Let’s have one night for old time’s sake. I’ll be gone before daylight. No one ever needs to know about it.”

  Dee’s eyes popped open to find Ray sliding in the bed beside her. In her half-sleep, she sat straight up and stared at him, aghast. “What are you doing?”

  He slid a hand from her knee to her thigh. “Only what you want, darling.”

  She scampered out of the bed on the other side. “You get out of here. Right now. What can you be thinking about, Ray? We are not married. You have a wife and a child on the way.”

  “I’m here, and you know you still love me. Angie doesn’t have to know. We were good together, Dee.”

  “You are rotten to the core. I’m not stupid, Ray. You’re still trying to get me to sign those papers. You think I’m just a little ignorant country girl who’s panting to get you to kiss me? Well, you are wrong. Get out of here and don’t ever show your face in Murray County again. Roxie’s got a shotgun, and she’d be glad to use it on you.”

  “Roxie doesn’t scare me.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and pinching herself slightly on the rib to make sure she really was awake. “How’d you get in here, anyway?”

  “Remember when I came here with my fishing buddy? The key was still in the same place. We went fishing and stayed out all night, stumbled into our rooms, and got up at daybreak noon and went fishing again. I hate fishing. But I did like you, so I came back every weekend. Now come back to bed. Afterward, we’ll sign those papers and I’ll go away.”

  Outside the door, Jack listened to every word, sorry that he’d mistrusted Dee. It looked like she was holding her own without any support from anyone. However—

  Jack slipped out of his flip-flops, pulled his shirt up and over his head, and threw them both on the table beside the door behind a big bouquet of asters and straw flowers. He unfastened the snap on his jean shorts and undid the zipper about an inch, slipped his boxers down inside until it appeared the shorts was all he wore. Using his fingertips, he ruffled his already unruly hair and rubbed his eyes. Then he swung the door open.

  “Dee, darlin’, where’s Roxie keep the extra rolls of toilet paper?”

  “Jack?” She was bumfuzzled. He looked like something from a beachcomber’s magazine. By the light of the moon streaming in the widow, she could see his bulging biceps.

  “What in the devil is going on here? I leave our bed for one minute and come back to find you with another man? Dee, is this that ex-husband of yours? What’s he doing in my bed?”

  Dee decided on the spur of the moment to play along. She ran to Jack’s side and buried her face in a broad expanse of chest. “Jack, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he was coming back. Honest.”

  “Oh, yes she did. She called me and told me to come up here and we’d work out an agreement over the papers.” Ray was rapidly getting out of bed and reaching for his jacket.

  Jack could swear he saw a faint red glow on the man’s cheeks.

  “Dee? You said you were over this jerk. You promised me before we got married that you never wanted to see him again.”

  “You married this two-bit storekeeper? This nothing that works at the store next door? My God, Dee, I thought I’d taught you more class than that.” Ray started for the door, then realized Jack was blocking it.

  “This nothing person says you owe his wife an apology.” Jack pushed Ray.

  He bounced on the bed once and came back like a boxer ready to fight. “I won’t apologize to her.”

  Dee felt like an actress in a soap opera. “Just let him go, Jack. I promise it’s over. We’ll talk about it. Roxie will hear if there’s a fight. She might shoot you in her attempt to kill Ray for coming inside her house. I couldn’t bear it if I lost you because of him.”

  Jack stepped aside enough to let the man sneak out the door past him. “You sure?”

  “You are a fool, Dee. Whatever my father paid you to get out of my life was worth every dime.”

  “Let him have the last word,” Dee whispered so low only Jack heard it.

  “I don’t think so.” Jack took off down the stairs.

  One thing Jack had to admit when his tender bare feet hit gravel: the man could surely run fast. By the end of the driveway, when he heard the car rumble into life, he stopped the chase and gingerly picked his way back to the porch where Dee sat on the steps, waiting for him.

  “I had it under control,” she said between clenched teeth.

  “I know.” He reached into his shorts and pulled up his boxers, fastened the snap at the waistband, and zipped all the way to the top. Then he sat down beside her, keeping a healthy distance between them. One never knew when she might turn violent, even with all that pent-up anger. The last time, a flying rock found its mark and cost him a lot of blood.

  “Then why’d you pull a fool stunt like that? Roxie would have had a cardiac arrest if she’d come out in the hall and found two men in my bedroom. Sometimes I get so mad at you I could just . . .”

  “Come on, admit it, you haven’t had so much fun since we were kids. Maybe not since I got this scar.” He pointed to the faint line on his face.

  “You shouldn’t have made me mad. Besides, that was twenty years ago. I was five years old and it was in broad daylight, not in the dark. Pretending to be my husband? Jack, what on earth made you do that? And where did you come from, anyway?”

  “I came over to talk to you. Couldn’t go to sleep with that
argument or whatever-to-hell it was on my mind. Everyone was already asleep, and I sat down on the swing. Then he came up on the porch, found the spare key, and went right in.”

  “You thought I’d called him, didn’t you?”

  “For a minute.”

  “You don’t trust me.”

  “And you don’t trust me either.”

  “Trust is an issue with me right now.”

  “Understandable. I just did the first thing that came to my mind. Figured if he thought we were married, he’d feel like a fool.”

  “What you did up there wasn’t half as funny as watching you chase Ray out of the yard like a stray hound dog,” she giggled finally.

  “Ha-ha,” he said.

  “But my husband? Couldn’t you think of anything better? Couldn’t you just have broken in with a weapon and killed him?”

  “Only thing in the hall was an umbrella. I don’t think he would’ve believed it was a sword, even in the dark, and besides, it’s hard to kill a man with an umbrella.”

  “Got to admit the whole thing was more than a little bit childish.” She leaned over and pushed him on the shoulder.

  “Of course it was. But think of his place in the silly scenario. He thinks you married a geek who works at a dying convenience store after being married to the most important man on the whole east coast. That must deflate his ego somewhat.”

  “I hope it flattens it out like a cow patty on a flat rock in the middle of July. That will must be worth a fortune, Jack. For him to try what he did, he’s desperate. And don’t you be talking about my best friend like that. I don’t let anyone run down Jack Brewer, not even Jack Brewer.”

  “Why, thank you, ma’am. I do believe my own collapsed ego is mending with that comment. I was your husband half an hour ago; now I’m relegated to the back seat and just your best friend. I may go home and eat a whole jar of Vick’s VapoRub and die in a heaping bag of bones and broken heart.”

  “Yuck, a whole jar of Vicks would kill Freddy Krueger.”

  “Want to talk about it?” he asked seriously.

  “What, Vicks or Ray?” she asked.

  “Ray,” he answered honestly.

  She swatted a mosquito. “Not out here. Let’s go to your place and, yes, I would like to talk about it, Jack. Very much.”

  He waited until they were in his kitchen. He turned the lights on and opened the refrigerator door. “Hungry or just thirsty?”

  “Dr Pepper in the can, please.” Dee postponed the conversation. Why did she think she wanted to talk about it, anyway? She would make small talk, maybe go over the whole humorous episode again, and then go home.

  Jack handed her a sweating can of Dr Pepper and then jerked on a T-shirt from the back of a kitchen chair. “Talk?”

  “Okay. I just realized tonight why I married that man in the first place, Jack. He represented everything I wanted. A solid family. Mother. Father. Regular type of job. A home. Friends who came for dinner. All those things you read about in the magazines.”

  “You had that,” Jack said.

  “No, I didn’t. I had a mother who I called Mimosa because only General Lee and God have titles. A grandmother who came to my school parties looking like a madam.”

  “She’ll make you eat soap, she hears you talking like that.”

  “I know, and I’d deserve it. I fought a little girl in grade school because she said that about Roxie. Every time we had a party, she brought her beautiful petit fours and she wore all those ruffles and heels and the ratted red hair.”

  “You were the one who blacked Lisa’s eye and bloodied her nose? You never told me. I’m hurt.”

  “Wasn’t so proud of it. Besides, I was terrified Roxie would find out what that kid said about her. I loved her. Still do, but I thought if you looked up the word dysfunctional in Webster’s you’d find a family picture of me, Roxie, Mimosa, Tally, and Bodine right there beside it. A functional family, a perfect one, was like what Ray had. Life sure teaches us some hard lessons. Roxie, bless her darlin’ heart, has more love in her little fingernail than those folks do in their whole body.”

  “Then the marriage wasn’t a total failure, Dee. You learned a valuable lesson.”

  “I did. And I learned tonight that Ray doesn’t hold one bit of my heart anymore. There’s nothing there but disgust.”

  Jack could have shouted, but he just nodded.

  “You’re a good friend.” She smiled, and it reached her twinkling eyes.

  “Ah, shucks, I thought I made a pretty convincing husband, darlin’.”

  “Very convincing. Right out of Days of Our Lives. Check next week in Soap Opera Digest, and you’ll find out how great the audience loved your performance. Now I’m going on back home and trying to go back to sleep. It’s nice that you’re still watching after me.”

  He opened it for her, and as she brushed past him, he reached out, gathered her into his arms, breathing in the scent of shampoo still in her hair, baby powder on her neck, and the sweet aroma of fabric softener in her nightshirt. He hugged her close, then leaned back far enough to tilt her chin up with his fist.

  She tasted cold Dr Pepper in the fiery kiss. When he released her, she leaned in slightly for more, then jerked back. What was she doing? This was Jack, her friend from next door.

  He grinned. His heart soared. Something deep in his soul knew when his lips found hers that this was right. This was what he wanted forever.

  “Good night, Jack,” she said huskily.

  “Good night, Dee,” he said hoarsely.

  “Maybe we’d better pretend that never happened. Just the result of the moment.” If she’d known one cool kiss could set a fire to raging in her heart, she would have been wrapped up in his arms from the time she was thirteen.

  “I don’t think so, darlin’,” he drawled as he watched her walk away.

  Chapter Eight

  Roxie sipped her coffee and nibbled on the corners of toast. Tally ate while she studied for a test. Dee stared out the dining room window and tried to make sense of the kiss she and Jack had shared.

  Bodine appeared in the doorway and in a dramatic flourish dropped clothing and shoes on the kitchen floor.

  “What’s that?” Roxie asked.

  Bodine poured a glass of orange juice and wrapped a piece of toast around two pieces of crisp bacon. “Ask Dee. She’s the one who had two men in her bedroom last night. Didn’t she wake anyone else up with the fighting?”

  Tally grinned at her sister. “That’s not fair. I can’t even have one and you get two?”

  Mimosa pushed past Bodine and rubbed sleep from her eyes before she poured a cup of coffee. “Who gets two of what?”

  “Dee had two men in her room last night. Jack left his shirt and shoes on the table beside her door,” Bodine said.

  Dee blushed.

  Tally raised an eyebrow. “Dee?”

  Roxie yawned. “Seems Ray wanted to see if he could talk her into signing those papers. I heard it all from my bedroom. Then Jack pretended to be her new husband. Ingenious act, if I do say so myself. Saved me having to load up the shotgun for the second time in one day.”

  “Roxie!” Dee exclaimed.

  “It’s over now. Got all three troubles in one twenty-four-hour period, so now we’re home free.” Roxie picked up the morning paper. “Looks like the weatherman is calling for cold rain today. Is Jack going with you into town to see the lawyer?”

  Bodine could hardly believe her ears. “You mean Dee’s not grounded or nothing? She’s had men in her room and you’re not even going to make clean the bathrooms or nothing?”

  Roxie drew her finely arched brows down in a frown. “Little lady, who is the ultimate boss in this house?”

  “You are?” Bodine sniffed.

  “Then do not question my authority. Dee took care of it, along with Jack’s help. You don’t know everything that went on, and it’s not your business. You’ve got a full-time job taking care of your own doorstep. Keep it swept and don’t worr
y about anyone else’s.”

  “What does that mean?” Bodine asked.

  “It means just what it sounds like it means,” Roxie told her. “You worry about keeping Bodine Hooper right and that will keep you busy enough so you won’t have time to worry about other people’s sins.”

  “Did Dee sin?” Bodine asked seriously.

  “Bodine, are you jealous of me?” Dee asked.

  “Yes, I am. You’re all pretty and already grown up and you don’t have pimples or say the wrong things or get into trouble for using bad words, and you can stay out late as you want over at Jack’s house or in the porch swing,” Bodine said honestly.

  “Bodine, that’s not nice,” Tally said.

  “Don’t be getting on to her. I’m in the same boat as she is. I’m jealous of her,” Dee said.

  “You’re jealous of me?” Bodine asked.

  “Yes, because you’re young and because you haven’t made the mistakes I have, but mostly I’m jealous of Tally. I’m so jealous of her I could just have a hissy fit right here on the kitchen tile, so clean me off a space and watch me pitch one.”

  Tally cocked her head to one side. “Me? I just got out of jail for hot checks. I’ve been the poorest example of a sister in the world, and you’re jealous of me?”

  “Yes, I am, and do you want to know why?” Dee winked slyly at her sister.

  “I’ve got a feeling you’re about to tell me,” Tally said.

  “Because Bodine belongs to you and not me. I want a child, especially a daughter. Everyone in this house has a daughter but me. Roxie has one. Mimosa has two. Tally has one, and I don’t have any. I want one just like Bodine, while I’m wishing, one who’s a witch one day and a princess one day. Who’s the only girl pirate I know. Who has a green thumb and could make silk flowers grow. That’s why I’m jealous of you, Tally,” Dee said.

  “Wow.” Bodine smiled. “I’m pretty special then, huh?”

  “The most special thing in this house, young lady, and don’t you forget it.” Dee hugged her closely. “But not special enough the school bus will wait for you, so you’d best swallow that bacon in a hurry and get out the door. I’ll be waiting at Jack’s for you this afternoon. Maybe I’ll even talk Roxie into letting me make peanut butter cookies today.”