The Wedding Gift. Sandra Steffen

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СКАЧАТЬ took a job with a prestigious marketing firm in L.A.,” Ruby said. “After spending three years going stark raving mad in a tiny cubicle that for all intents and purposes might as well have been a chicken crate on an egg-laying assembly line, I chucked it all and returned to the roots I’d spurned. You’re sure I don’t have grease on my face?”

      This time Madeline smiled. “I’m positive.”

      At the city limit sign, Ruby said, “I’ve done all the talking.”

      Now the silver car in the mirror was close enough to discern the make and year, close enough to see Riley Merrick behind the wheel.

      “I don’t mind,” Madeline said. “Really. My fiancé once told me I have a face everyone talks to.”

      She didn’t miss Ruby’s quick glance at her bare ring finger. “Does your fiancé drive a silver Porsche?” “No.”

      Now they were both keeping an eye on the car in the mirror.

      “But you know somebody who does.” At Madeline’s nod, Ruby added, “A friend then?”

      “Not exactly,” Madeline said as the wrecker crawled through a pothole on its way into the garage’s driveway. “He just threw me off some property and accused me of trespassing.”

      Along with the gift of gab and legs long enough to give Heidi Klum a run for her money, Ruby O’Toole possessed the rare and uncanny ability to move her eyebrows independently of each other. She demonstrated before saying, “I should have let you do the talking.”

      Madeline looked out the side window to see if Riley would follow her into the parking lot. Ruby leaned ahead to peer around her.

      Together, they saw him stop at the curb. He lowered his window and stared at Madeline. Yearning swelled inside her, making it difficult to breathe and impossible to tear her gaze away. She wondered how long she would have sat there if he hadn’t broken eye contact. Probably as long as it was going to take the beating rhythm of her heart to return to normal.

      “Something tells me you haven’t seen the last of him,” Ruby said quietly after he’d disappeared around the corner at the end of the block.

      She was still making up her mind about that.

      Madeline left Red’s Garage an hour later with a preliminary quote for the repair of her car, simple walking directions to the Gale Motel six blocks away, and more O’Toole family history—red hair wasn’t the only thing that ran in that family. She set off at a fast clip, her tote over one shoulder, her purse over the other, her wheeled suitcase bumping along behind her.

      Red O’Toole had cautioned her to keep an eye on the sky. She was more concerned about the Land Rover that was following her. She stepped up her pace and reached into her purse for her cell phone.

      “You don’t need to call 911,” a man with shaggy blond hair said, rather sharply in her opinion, as he pulled up beside her. “Riley sent me.”

      She tried to recall where she’d seen him. “Why would he do that?” she asked as she considered flagging down the car approaching from the opposite direction.

      “You’ll have to ask him.”

      The approaching car passed while she was foolishly still deciding. Great. Now it was just her and this stranger and her cell phone.

      The houses in this part of town sat close together. Their graying porches and brown lawns looked forlorn despite the daffodils blooming along their foundations. Not a single curtain moved, which meant there would be no witnesses. She could practically hear their grumbles if her brothers had to drive all the way up here to identify her body. That lovely thought finally brought her to her senses.

      Again, the man spoke before she completed the 911 call. “Riley told me your car broke down and that you could use a ride.”

      “Like I said,” she repeated, “why would Riley do that?”

      “Like I said, you’ll have to ask him.” The guy wasn’t going to win any awards for charm. For some reason that made her feel less threatened.

      “My name’s Kipp Dawson. I’m six-one and go a buck seventy soaking wet. See for yourself.” He fumbled through the glove box then held his license toward her. When she failed to move closer, he tossed it to her, wallet and all.

      She read his ID while keeping an eye on her surroundings. “What are you doing here, Mr. Dawson?”

      “I’m giving you a ride. Unless there’s somebody else who can come and get you.”

      “I have three older brothers. Three protective older brothers. Accomplished hunters, all of them.”

      “If you were going to call them, you would have by now.”

      In other words, she’d wasted her breath on the implied threat.

      “Riley has two brothers,” he said as if it had relevance to this conversation. “Half brothers, technically, one older, one younger. Pains in the ass, both of them. They come through for him when it counts, though.”

      A fat raindrop landed on her forehead while she was wondering why this stranger was sharing Riley’s personal information with her. Within seconds the sky opened up, just as Red O’Toole had predicted.

      Kipp got out of his vehicle and wrestled her suitcase from her. After tossing it into the back of his aging Land Rover, he said, “Riley has friends, too, who have his back. We’re worried about him.”

      She stood ten feet away in the pouring rain, uncertain what to do about Kipp Dawson and his offer.

      “Riley thinks his mother sent you,” he said, getting soaked, too. “I talked to Chloe a few minutes ago. She didn’t mention you.”

      Madeline could have blurted the truth, but if she told anyone the reason she was here, it had to be Riley. And she had no right to tell him unless he asked. What had she gotten herself into?

      “Maybe having a nurse around isn’t such a bad idea,” Kipp said.

      “Are you saying you think he needs a nurse?” she asked.

      “I’m not saying anything. I’m just offering you a ride to the motel because Riley asked me to. Do you want it or don’t you?”

      Kipp Dawson looked as rough and unkempt as his dented old Land Rover. He was probably right about weighing one-seventy. Men didn’t often lie about their weight. His hair appeared darker now that it was wet and his whisker stubble was too straggly to be a fashion statement. Beneath his exterior was a vein of something earnest.

      That didn’t make him her friend.

      She tossed his wallet back to him and continued on her way. Walking faster now that she wasn’t weighted down by her cumbersome suitcase, she heard him swear and close his door. Then he was following her again in his car.

      The little motel was exactly where Ruby had said it would be. Kipp parked under the portico beneath a lighted vacancy sign that was missing the C, then hauled her bulky suitcase out of the backseat. After setting it heavily on the pavement next to her, he got back in the driver’s seat without СКАЧАТЬ