Cattail Ridge (8 page)

Chapter Nine

E
mma was still reeling from the kiss that evening when she put Sydney to bed. She was so distracted Sydney even noticed.

“Are you okay, Mommy?”

Emma smoothed her hair back off her forehead and leaned down to kiss her. “Yes, honey. I’m just thinking about something. Which story do you want me to read to you?”

“How about one of Grandpa’s? The one where Toby meets the girl?”

“Okay. We can read that.” The story was one of Sydney’s favorites. Emma’s, as well. Knowing the truth behind the story, that it was one of the first times her parents had met years earlier, made it special.

Having played all day with her friend from next door, it wasn’t long before Sydney was sound asleep. Emma eased out of the bed and covered her up, but then sat back down on the edge of the mattress to watch her daughter sleep.

Sometimes looking at Sydney was so much like looking into a mirror of the past it made Emma’s chest tighten. Mostly Sydney resembled her and the Campbells. But every now and then she’d do something that reminded Emma of Ted, and Emma’s breath would catch. An example was when Sydney lost her temper, which, fortunately, was rare. The family teased Emma that the little girl was the spitting image of her when she was angry, and to a large extent she was. But there was enough of Ted in her that it was an unpleasant reminder of the worst parts of their relationship.

After a last caress, Emma turned the light off and left the bedroom. She made her way quietly downstairs to the kitchen where Archer’s ghost from earlier that day greeted her. She wasn’t sure what to make of the kiss. Reaching into one of the tallest cabinets, she pulled down the bottle of whiskey she’d stashed there years earlier. It was still more than half full. She had plans to put a tiny dent in it tonight.

She filled a glass with two fingers of the amber liquor, then capped the bottle and put it back where it went. Leaning against the counter where she’d been standing when Archer kissed her, she sipped the drink.

For more than five years now, she’d protected her heart. The only times she’d even ventured near the idea of dating again she’d gotten quick reminders of why it was best to remain single. What she’d told Archer and Amelia earlier, that she and Burke had gone on one date, was true. But there had been a couple of other guys who’d shown interest since Emma came home from Georgia.

The first date had ended fairly innocuously. The man was nice but as soon as she’d started talking about Sydney, he’d lost interest. The way the enthusiasm had drained out of his face was almost comical. That had happened when Sydney was about eighteen months old.

The second date was far less amusing to remember. She’d gone against her better judgment and agreed to have dinner with one of the salesmen who frequented the bakery next to her shop. Things had gone well until he’d walked her to her door at the end of the date.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in for coffee?” he’d asked, leaning in close as she dug her keys out of her purse.

A frisson of alarm snaked its way down her spine but she shrugged it off. “Not on the first date. But I’ll give you a rain check if you’re interested. Just for coffee.” He seemed nice enough and he’d made her laugh. A second date wasn’t out of the question at all, not for her. He had other plans, though.

“So you’re going to play all innocent, is that it? If that works for you, I can go with it.” He crowded her up against the door, his lower body pressing into hers. His arousal was obvious, but even then, fear didn’t kick in. Disgust, however, was another matter.

“Seriously, Rodney. I don’t put out on the first date and to be quite honest, I don’t think there’s going to be a second. You need to go.” She turned her head to avoid his kiss but he gripped her chin with a hard hand and forced her face back to his. Truly furious, Emma bit down hard and caught his lip. He pulled back with a roar.

“Ow, you stupid cunt! What the hell is your problem?” She didn’t get a second’s warning to protect herself before his hand flew up to slap her across the mouth. “I’ll teach you, you little bitch. You don’t treat me like that and get away with it.”

He made a move to grab her arms, but before he could, the door swung open behind her. Emma half-stumbled into the foyer as her grandmother stepped forward, the shotgun she held at hip level aimed straight for Rodney’s crotch.

“Say one more word, sonny. You’ll make me a happy woman.” Eliza’s voice was cold, and a blind man would have been able to see that she was dead serious. “Now git. And you forget you were ever here.”

He turned and ran back to his car. Once there he shouted back at the house, “It’s not like I’d be getting anything she doesn’t give away. Everybody knows she spreads her legs for anything with a dick. Hell, she’s got a bastard kid. Stupid cunt.”

To Emma’s horror, Eliza stepped out onto the porch, raised the shotgun to her shoulder, and fired a round in his direction. The blast was deafening. Even in the dim glow from the streetlights they could see the way his face turned dead white, and Emma was certain her grandmother had hit him. Instead of falling to the ground, though, he jumped in his car and sped off.

“Nonny! What if you hit him?”

“Nonsense. It’s loaded with rock salt. Besides, maybe he learned something. He’s lucky I didn’t castrate him.”

Lights were coming on in houses all up and down the street, and Emma felt herself start to shake as fear started creeping in.

“Someone will likely call the police. I’ll handle things when they show up. You get yourself upstairs and get cleaned up. Did he hurt you?” Eliza waved at the neighbor across the street. “Big ol’ sewer rat. I think I got him,” she hollered, then closed the door.

Emma set her purse on the hall table with shaking hands and sank down on the stairs. By some miracle the loud blast hadn’t woken Sydney, whose nursery was toward the back of the house.

Eliza unloaded the shotgun and laid it on top of the table. She walked to stand over Emma and gently touched her cheek. “Your chin will probably bruise and your lip’s a little swollen. He must have grabbed you pretty hard. Are you okay, Emma Jean?”

The tears hit then. Shame, fear, disgust, anger, all piled into one hot mess of emotion that Emma just couldn’t hold back. Eliza sat beside her and pulled her into a tight embrace.

“Just let it out, sweetheart. Let it out. Nonny’s here.”

Emma cried for a few minutes, until a flash of red and blue lights lit up the hall, shining in through the half-moon at the top of the door.

“You go on upstairs. I’ll handle this.” Eliza got to her feet, pulling Emma up with her even though Eliza was a tiny little thing.

“I should report him.”

“No. I’ll take care of him. You get on upstairs now. You know how this would be treated. Reporting him would do more harm than good.”

Emma grabbed her purse and hurried upstairs just as the doorbell rang. She ducked into a shadow at the top and listened as her grandmother answered.

“Ricky. I hoped they’d send you out.”

“Nonny. Everything okay?” Emma heard her cousin ask. Rick, Jack’s son, was a sheriff’s deputy.

“Why, yes. We’ve had a problem with sewer rats and raccoons getting in the garbage. I saw one and thought I’d send a message. I know I shouldn’t have fired the round but they make such a mess. It won’t happen again.”

There was silence, only interrupted by the sound of a police radio. After a minute Rick spoke to someone–a dispatcher, Emma presumed–giving them a code that all was clear.

“One of the neighbors said there was shouting, and a car sped off right after the shot.”

“Huh. Well you know, sometimes the rats have cars. And I only used rock salt. Not anything lethal.”

Rick’s sigh was audible even from where Emma stood, and she could imagine him running his hand over his head. “Damn it, Nonny. Is Emma okay?”

“She’s fine. Came in a little while ago, and she’s resting now.” That Eliza didn’t take him to task over his language spoke volumes to Emma and apparently to Rick, as well.

“You sure this rodent problem is taken care of?”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure it is. There’s probably a puddle out there on the street, I scared it so badly. It got the message loud and clear.”

“If it didn’t, you let me know and I’ll take care of it. Hear me, Em?” he called up the stairs.

“I do. Thank you,” she called back down, her voice wavering.

“Nonny, I’m going to let you off with a warning. No more shooting. Not in the city limits. I only responded because I heard the call go out to dispatch and recognized the address. If I’m not on duty and something like this happens, you could get cited or even arrested.”

“I promise you, I won’t be any more trouble. Now you be safe out there tonight, hear me? And we’ll see you at Sunday dinner.” She told him something in a voice too low for Emma to make out, and the door closed.

Emma heard Sydney stirring then and went down the hall to the nursery. The little girl was sitting up, eyes heavy with sleep. When Emma eased inside, she raised her arms.

“Mama, up.”

Tucking her daughter against her chest tightly, Emma sat down in the rocking chair beside the toddler bed and snuggled her close. Thinking about Rodney’s words made her angry all over again but she forced the nastiness from her mind. She’d deal with it later.

A couple of minutes later Eliza appeared in the doorway, sippy cup in one hand, bag of ice wrapped in a towel in the other. “I figured she’d be awake. You going to sit in here for a while?”

Emma nodded and accepted the cup to give to Sydney, then took the ice. “For a little while, yes.”

Eliza ran her hand over Emma’s head, then Sydney’s. “Rick’s going to have a talk with our sewer rat. I’ll head down and put the gun up where this one can’t get to it. You give me a shout if you need anything.”

“Nonny? Thank you.”

Her grandmother stopped in the doorway. “Hush. You just take that little girl’s love and let it soothe you. Ricky’s going to take care of the rest. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

Long after Sydney fell back to sleep Emma sat and held her, rocking slowly. She was okay, she kept reminding herself. Even if Nonny hadn’t opened the door, Emma was tall and she was strong. Rodney wasn’t that much bigger than her, and while he’d had the element of surprise, Emma had a mother’s fierce protectiveness for her child on her side. Still, if he’d had a weapon, there was a chance he could have gotten inside. The thought kept chasing through her mind long into the night.

When Emma was eighteen she’d gone to Savannah to college. While she was there she’d grown quite close to her mother’s sister, Kathy. Kathy had moved to Georgia after her first husband had raped her and beat her nearly to death, then shot and killed their two children and himself in front of her. He’d also killed his boss, a man with whom Kathy had been having an affair and was planning to run away. The tragedy had left lasting scars on the entire family and Kathy in particular, as one might expect. Because of knowing what Kathy had gone through, Emma had always been more cautious about dating than most of the young women she knew. It was hard now not to chastise herself for letting Rodney gain the upper hand.

She would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that his attack had brought back disturbing memories of her last night with Ted. She blocked that out before she could even go there. Revisiting that night did no good.

Several weeks passed after the dating incident before Emma’s nerves completely settled down, and the lesson she’d learned that night stayed with her. She decided then and there that until Sydney was older she wasn’t going to date anyone. The risk wasn’t worth the reward, not in Emma’s book.

Now, three years later, there was Archer, and Emma didn’t know quite what to do about him.

She knew he was a good man, a gentle giant of a man. He’d demonstrated that amply through the years he’d been with the family. So many times he’d stepped in when they needed him to, and Emma was sure her parents thought of him as an adopted son. She’d even discussed his suitability for Amelia with her mother on several occasions. Looking back, she wondered if Sarah hadn’t known all along that Amelia had plans for Archer and Emma.

“What a mess,” she murmured with a long sigh. She rolled her head around, trying to undo the tenseness in her shoulders and neck. The house was quiet and not for the first time, Emma wondered how she’d get on without Eliza around once she and Eli married. She’d give a lot right now to have her grandmother there, to see what Eliza thought about this development.

“Maybe I’ll call her tomorrow.” Finishing off the alcohol, she rinsed the glass out and set it in the sink. As she turned off the water she thought about Archer and his naked chest. The memory made her shudder with longing. Although she hadn’t been with many men, only two as a matter of fact, Emma had never been shy about sex. She’d never treated it lightly, but she enjoyed being feminine and reveled in that powerful feeling.

She’d not been intimate with anyone since the last time she’d been with Sydney’s father, more than five years earlier. If she had needs those were easy enough to take care of on her own, even if she did long to have someone to hold on to from time to time. But tonight she wished she were the kind of woman who could just get in her car and drive the short distance to Airport Gardens, where Archer lived, and knock on his door. Her instincts told her that sex with him would be mind-blowing and overwhelming.

Emma longed to be overwhelmed, to let go and let someone else take charge for once. To not have to be the strong single mother and business owner, to just be a woman. She hadn’t realized until this minute how much she wanted that sort of freeing release. And now that she had realized it, she didn’t know how in the world she was going to get the genie back in the bottle.