Rock Harbor Series - 01 - Without a Trace (22 page)

Kade released the dog and turned to Bree. “I bet you didn’t know brickwork was the way I put myself through college.”

Bree’s eyes widened as the reason for his attire penetrated. “How did you know it needed doing?”

“I ran into Naomi and Donovan at the coffee shop this morning, and she mentioned it. I wasn’t sure I should even help after the way you
sandbagged me with that pup.” His eyes narrowed. “You knew I didn’t want her to have a dog.”

Uh-oh, she’d known it was coming. “She needed one, Kade.”

His mouth twisted. “If you could hear that puppy cry at night.” He shook his head. “But the worst of it is she isn’t taking responsibility for him.”

Now Bree did feel guilty. “She’s only had him a week. Give them time to adjust.”

“I don’t have much choice.” He grinned, but it was feeble. He moved forward and grabbed her bucket. “Okay if I use this?”

“Sure. Naomi was with Donovan? Were the kids with them?”

“Yep. Looked like one big happy family.”

Bree couldn’t help the delighted grin that spread across her face. “She must be making headway.”

“Looked that way to me, if by making headway you mean her and Donovan becoming an item.” He took the hose and sprayed water in the bucket then began adding dry mortar mix from a bag.

Bree watched until she realized she was admiring the muscles in his back as they rippled under his shirt. Her cheeks heated and she looked away.

Kade gave the mortar a final stir. “It looks about ready. Show me how to get to the tower, and we’ll have this job done in no time.” He stood and hefted the bucket in one hand.

Much as she hated to accept charity, right now Bree felt like hugging him in gratitude. “This way,” she told him. He followed her as she led him through the kitchen and up the steps to the second floor.

“I like your house,” he told her. “You’ve done a great job on the floors. Naomi told me you and Rob did most of this yourselves.”

High praise indeed, since he seemed to know something about house restoration. Bree’s spirits lifted. “I’ll just be glad when it’s all done.” His compliment gave her an inordinate amount of pleasure.

She paused outside the door to the catwalk. Her mouth went dry
as her hand reached for the door handle. She didn’t want to go back out there, but with Kade’s attention on her, she had no choice. The handle resisted her, but she managed to thrust open the door and step outside. Thankfully, there was little wind, but the metal walkway shuddered under their weight. Her stomach plummeting, Bree gripped the railing tightly.

Kade moved past her and set down the bucket. He strapped on the leather apron and pulled a trowel from its pocket. Unwinding the rope from his shoulder, he tied it to the bucket, which he tied to the railing. He then opened a window and attached a harness to a post inside the tower. Within two minutes he was rappelling down the side of the tower.

Bree watched him and wished she could be so nonchalant about dangling forty feet from the ground. Gingerly moving to the railing, she peered over the edge and watched as he began to repair the mortar.

“It’s not as bad as I was expecting,” he called up to her. “The way Naomi talked, I thought the tower was about to crumble away. It just needs a little shoring up. I should be done in about an hour. There’s no sense in you keeping a death grip on that railing. Go back inside, and I’ll tell you about my fee when I’m done.”

His fee? Her bank balance left much to be desired. Still, at least she hadn’t had to do the job, and if she had to, she could borrow some funds from Anu. Her gratitude overwhelmed her disgruntlement at having to pay Kade for the job. He surely wouldn’t charge her as much as a brick mason would.

He didn’t seem to notice her surprise. He paused to swipe a hand across his forehead as a bird squawked from the power lines in front of the house.

Kade lifted his head. “Mazzy!”

A starling lifted from the lines and came swooping toward him.

“Watch out!” Bree shouted. She ducked as the bird tried to land on her head. Picking up a trowel, she tried to swipe at it.

“Don’t hurt her, Bree! Mazzy, come,” Kade called. The bird squawked again then flew down and perched on Kade’s shoulder.

“You know this bird?” Bree blinked. How had he trained a wild bird to come when he called? Though he had a compelling personality, she found it hard to believe his charisma extended to wild animals.

“She thinks I’m her mother,” Kade said, shooting an impudent grin up at her.

Bree covered her mouth and chuckled. “I can’t imagine anyone less like a mother.”

Kade’s grin faded. “Or a father, according to Lauri.” When he reached around and held out his hand, Mazzy stepped onto it. “I found this one on the ground, barely hatched and without feathers. I fed her until she was ready to scavenge for food then turned her loose in June, but she’s hung around all this time.”

“I didn’t think it was possible to feed baby birds. Did you chew up the worms and regurgitate them for her?” Bree laughed again at the incongruous thought.

“She liked cat food mixed with water just fine, didn’t you, girl?” He leaned back in the harness and stroked the bird’s head. “I would get some on my finger then poke it down her beak. She gobbled it right up.”

“You’re a man of many talents,” Bree said.

“Yeah, well, don’t think you’re getting something for nothing,” he warned. “You’ll have to pay for it with your time.” Her smile faded as she realized his fee did not likely involve monetary payment. If he asked her out, what could she say? Her heart told her she wasn’t ready for any new relationship. Not now, maybe never.

“I’ll make some coffee,” she said abruptly. “Come inside when you’re done.”

He nodded. “I’ll rappel on down to the ground and come in the back door.”

As Bree backed away from the rail, Mazzy came squawking toward
her. Bree ducked inside and shut the door, barely avoiding the bird’s demented attempt to perch on her head.

She found a tin of chicken downstairs in the pantry and decided to make chicken salad. It felt strange to be preparing a meal for a man again. Strange but good. She hummed as she chopped celery and walnuts then stirred in mayonnaise.

By the time she’d prepared lunch, she heard Kade in the backyard cleaning up his tools. Bree’s palms prickled. How stupid to react like that. She’d been out of contact with everyone but family for too long.

One of the verses she’d read in the psalm came to her.
His heart is
secure, he will have no fear.
That certainly applied to Kade. Giving of himself and dangling fearlessly from the tower to help a friend. Did that mean she could cross him off the suspect list? She wished she knew for sure.

A few minutes later, Kade opened the back door and stepped into the kitchen. He took off his cap and apron and hung them on a peg by the door. “The coffee smells good.”

“You don’t even have any mortar on you.” She was usually covered from head to toe with paint or any other material she worked with.

He winked at her. “What can I say—I’m neat. I take my coffee black.”

Bree poured him a cup of coffee then made the chicken salad sandwiches and placed them on plates. She set them on the table and pulled out her checkbook.

“How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Whoa, I never said you would have to pay in money.” He took the checkbook out of her hand and tossed it on the table.

Here it comes. She crossed her arms over her chest. The last thing she wanted to do was offend him, but anything more than friendship between them was impossible. She couldn’t deny the thought brought her a mixture of elation and terror; however, it was a dizzying proposition she’d rather not face.

When she didn’t respond or even laugh, Kade frowned. “You didn’t really think I would charge a friend for something like this, did you?”

“Are we friends? I thought we were just acquaintances.”

His frown turned to a scowl. “You sure keep that wall high around yourself, don’t you? I don’t have any designs on you. The good Lord knows I already have my hands full with Lauri. I don’t need another difficult relationship.” He pointed a finger at her. “You owe me. Thanks to you, I’m saddled with a pup I expressly told Lauri she couldn’t have. Now you have to fix it.”

“What’s he doing?”

He sighed and took a bite of his sandwich then broke off a piece and tossed it to Samson. “Lauri’s dog is driving us both crazy. He doesn’t do anything he’s supposed to do. Could you come out and give us some more pointers? You owe me.”

“I’m sorry, Kade, I’d forgotten all about the puppy.” How could she have been so self-centered? She’d promised Lauri to get started on the training right away, but the days had slipped past too quickly. Some trainer she was. “I’ll be glad to do that. I have about an hour and a half before I have to meet Hilary for coffee. How about I come out now?”

A grin of relief spread across his face. “Great. If Lauri concentrates on something else, maybe those moods of hers will get better.” He spread his hands. “What am I doing wrong with her?” he asked.

“You’re asking the wrong person,” she said. “I’m no good at sibling relationships. I’m an only child, and I don’t even know where my mother is. I waffle like a kite without a tail when it comes to standing up to Hilary, and when it comes to speaking my mind I’m a sphinx.”

“Sounds to me like you just did pretty good with speaking your mind.” His gaze caught and held hers. His grin broke the tension between them. “What you’re describing is exactly how I feel with Lauri. I can’t seem to talk to her. I used to be the perfect older brother.
She would brag about me to her friends, and she never missed calling me every Saturday night. When I moved in, everything changed.”

“Could it be because you’ve quit being her brother and are trying to parent her?” Bree offered the advice tentatively, aware she didn’t have the right to judge anyone else’s actions. Not when her own had been so faulty.

Kade didn’t seem to take offense at her criticism. “I’ve wondered about that. But she’s as wild as the porcupine under my front porch and just as prickly. She needs
some
guidance. If I didn’t parent her, she’d be out every night with only God knows what kind of riffraff.”

“Are you sure?” Bree asked quietly. “Maybe if her brother was there to run around with and show off to her friends, she’d want to stay home more.”

“You don’t understand, Bree.” Kade rose and grabbed his hat from the peg. “I’d better get going. I need to pick up some dog food on the way.”

She was an idiot. Advice had a tendency to turn into a rabid dog and bite the one who offered it. She followed Kade and Samson out the door.

They were both silent as Kade drove out past the city limit sign. He stopped at Konkala Service Station and ran in to buy dog food while the women waited in the truck. Once he was back in the vehicle, he turned onto Whisper Pike and entered the forest.

When the silence threatened to grow uncomfortable, Bree cleared her throat. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You know your sister better than I do.”

Kade made a noncommittal sound. Bree tried again to break the silence. “I haven’t seen Naomi all morning. Did she say what she was going to do after lunch with the O’Reillys?”

“Something about going shopping with them.”

Bree raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like she’s making definite progress. She’s meeting me this afternoon to see what we can find out about . . .” She let her voice trail off. Maybe she shouldn’t talk about it with
him. There was still the issue of his being at the scene the night Fay died.

“Find out about what?”

He might know something about the woman. She didn’t have to tell him everything she knew. “Have you seen a woman around in the woods? Shapeless clothes, old fedora on her head, maybe a little kid with her?”

Kade frowned. “Not that I can remember. Who is she?”

“I guess that woman the O’Reilly kids saw was real. I thought she might have seen the plane’s wreckage.”

“Why would she feed the kids then abandon them in the forest?” Kade’s voice rose. “If Timmy had died when she could have helped him—” He broke off and shook his head. “I’ll keep an eye out for her, but it sounds like a slim chance, if you don’t mind my saying so.”

She
did
mind. Terribly. But once again, she swallowed how she really felt and settled back against the seat with a shrug. He didn’t know the full story, and it was just as well.

A woodpecker, no doubt after beetles and other insects, pounded on the wall of the old cabin. Rachel had tried to shoo him away on numerous occasions, but he always came back, and now she was too distraught to care.

Sam’s disobedience in town yesterday had given her pause over what to do with him while she went to Chicago. What if he disobeyed again and wandered off into the woods? With travel time, she’d be gone two days. Maybe she should take him with her. But even as the thought crossed her mind, she rejected it. Sam was too fragile to sleep on a park bench. Thanksgiving wasn’t far off, and the autumn nights dropped to freezing and sometimes even lower.

There was no help for it. She would have to leave him home alone. Her gaze lingered lovingly on the boy. He sat coloring quietly on the
rug in front of the wood stove. The wood stove! She gave a small gasp. Sam had never put wood in the fire. This was a different wrinkle in the problem. Rachel rubbed her forehead.

Could she find some discreet person in town to watch him? But she knew no one. She’d been careful to keep her distance, to meld into the background like a neutral wall color. People talked in small towns, and she knew a few people had noticed her on her infrequent excursions, but the rumor mill would rev up if she brought a small boy to town. That was out of the question.

Her gaze sought the wood stove again. “Sam, you’re a big boy. Would you like to learn to help Mother by putting wood in the stove?” No one knew the danger of fire better than Rachel. But surely he was big enough to do a simple task like keeping the fire going.

Sam’s head jerked up, and his green eyes widened. He scrambled to his feet. “I can do it!”

Rachel joined him in front of the stove. “This is very important, Sam. If you make a mistake, you could burn the house down. I want you to pay close attention.”