Star Bright

  He beckoned her into the bedroom. “The sooner you pack, the sooner we can get out of here.”

  From her closet, she hauled a large suitcase that was almost as big as she was. As she began filling it with clothes and toiletries, she smiled faintly. “This reminds me of the day I packed to leave the ship. My hands were shaking then, too. I was so afraid I would bump into Peter as I disembarked and that he would recognize me.” She plucked something black from a pocket of the suitcase. “My Elvira wig.”

  “Your what?”

  She shook out the synthetic strands and tugged the net cap over her sun-streaked curls, instantly transforming herself into a vamp. The fake tresses were long, pitch-black, and as straight as a bullet on a windless day. “Voilà, I’m now a mistress of darkness.”

  Parker couldn’t help but gape. “My God, the change is amazin’.”

  She shrugged. “It was even better with the full disguise. I looked like a totally different person. As it happened, I did see Peter as I left the ship. He walked right by me.”

  “You must have been scared half out of your wits.”

  She nodded as she doffed the wig and pushed at her tousled curls. “The whole week was a nightmare. I told housekeeping that I was seasick and took my meals in my cabin. Janet sneaked me extra food so I could leave most of the room-service meals untouched. People can’t eat much when they’re nauseated, and I didn’t want to raise any red flags.”

  “Not everyone has friends who love them that much.” Parker trailed his gaze over her sweet face. It didn’t surprise him that she had inspired such loyalty in a girlfriend. Almost from the first, he’d felt drawn to her, and with that feeling had come a strong sense of protectiveness that no other woman had ever elicited within him. There was just something about her that had always tugged at his heart. “You’re a very lucky lady.”

  She tucked the wig back into the suitcase. “Someday I hope to be there for Maggie and Janet like they were for me.” She glanced up, fixing him with those expressive hazel eyes that revealed her every emotion. “I’ll be there for you, too, if you ever need me.”

  “That’s a promise I’ll hold you to,” he replied, his voice going thick. She was so incredibly dear, this woman, and with every passing day, as he came to know her better, he only loved her more. “It was very brave, you know.”

  She threw him a startled look.

  “Findin’ the courage to do what you did,” he explained. “It took a lot of guts.”

  “I’m not brave, Parker. I did what I had to do to stay alive. That’s desperation, not courage.” She folded a cotton top and placed it in the suitcase. “My dad used to say I had a lot of gumption, but I lost it somewhere along the way.”

  She sounded so dejected that Parker couldn’t let that comment pass. “You haven’t lost it, honey. You’ve only tucked it away somewhere. Remember what I said about givin’ yourself some time to heal? In a few months, you’ll have as much spunk as you ever did.”

  She only smiled sadly and shrugged again, the gesture saying more clearly than words that she didn’t believe him. In that moment, Parker vowed to find a way to restore her self-confidence.

  While she finished packing, he stepped over to her bed and plucked a snoozing Thomas from her pillow. The tom immediately began purring. Parker cradled the battle-scarred feline in the crook of one arm to free a hand so he could give the cat scratches behind the ears.

  As Rainie latched the suitcase, she suddenly got a concerned look on her face. “Oh, no.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “I don’t have a cat carrier.”

  “One of those cages, you mean?” Parker snuggled the cat closer. He hated to stuff the poor fellow into one of those tiny boxes. It seemed cruel to him.

  “How can we transport Thomas without one? Most cats don’t like cars.”

  “Why don’t they like cars?”

  “I don’t know. I’m no expert. I only know that people usually put them in carriers to travel.”

  Parker cocked his head to study the tomcat’s face. “We could run into town and buy one, I reckon.”

  “Mojo is locked in your bathroom,” she reminded him. “Going to town will take an extra hour. If we’re gone too long, he’ll wake up and chew on your vanity cabinet and mopboards.”

  Parker considered the problem. “We could put Thomas in my toolbox,” he suggested.

  Her expression went from concerned to horrified. “We can’t do that. It’d be mean.”

  He half expected her to wrest the cat from his arms. “Sweetheart, my toolbox is five feet long, two feet deep, and two feet high. I can remove most of the tools and toss in a saddle blanket for him to lie on. It’ll be a lot nicer than one of those damned cat carriers. It’s not airtight. He’ll be safe and comfortable in there. It’s only a thirty-minute ride.”

  She considered the suggestion. “Are you sure he’ll be able to breathe in there?”

  “Positive.”

  Nervous fingers toying with the tiny pearl buttons on her pink knit top, she finally nodded. “All right. That’ll probably work.”

  The toolbox turned out to be every bit as big as Parker had claimed. “My goodness,” Rainie exclaimed, “I think I could curl up for a nap in there.”

  “I told you it was roomy.”

  Parker removed most of the stuff from inside the box to make space for her pet, and then placed a folded saddle blanket over the remaining contents to create a soft surface. To get Thomas inside was a feat in itself and took both of them to pull it off. Rainie had to join Parker in the bed of the truck, hold the lid of the box open, and be ready to slam it closed the moment Parker slipped Thomas inside. To Rainie’s surprise, the cat stopped squalling the moment she shut the lid. She imagined him sitting in there, terrified and unable to see in the darkness.

  “Done,” Parker pronounced. Placing a hand on the side of the truck bed, he vaulted over it to the ground in one fluid motion that made Rainie envy his strength and agility. “Let’s roll so he doesn’t have to be cooped up in there for very long.”

  Problem. Rainie had climbed up into the bed of the truck without any trouble, but climbing back down didn’t look as simple. Like most ranch vehicles, Parker’s truck was jacked up to keep it from high-centering in muddy fields. She walked to the lowered tailgate, looking for hand- and footholds. Just when she’d picked out a pathway of descent, Parker came around and held up his arms to swing her to the ground.

  “You’re kidding. Right?” She looked askance at his outstretched hands. She’d never been swung down from a high perch, and she wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about trying it now. “I can manage by myself.”

  “Don’t be a goose. Just jump. I’ll catch you.”

  “What if you don’t?”

  “I will. I promise. Just jump.”

  Rainie remembered that cliff he’d been talking about earlier. Trust. She took a deep breath, inched forward until the balls of her feet rested on the edge of the tailgate, and then fell back, reluctant to take the leap. “I can’t.”

  He gave her an exasperated look. “It’s only four feet down, honey.”

  “It looks like a mile to me.”

  He started to laugh. And then, before she could guess what he meant to do, he caught her around the knees and bodily plucked her from the tailgate. Rainie shrieked and grabbed for handholds, her easiest target his head. His Stetson went flying. Her hands knotted in his thick black hair.

  “Don’t drop me!” she cried.

  He was laughing so hard now that he could barely talk. In a muffled voice, he said, “Drop you? And go bald before I’m forty? Turn loose of my hair, woman, so I can put you down.”

  Rainie saw that his face was pressed against the juncture of her thighs. She tried to unclench her fists, but her fingers refused to relax. The warm huff of his expelled breath sifted through her skirt, steamy against her skin. He suddenly went still. She guessed that he had just realized where his nose was buried. Rainie was mortified, but not
so mortified that she could let go and risk toppling over backward.

  He finally loosened his hold on her enough to let her body slide the length of his within the supportive circle of his arms. When her feet touched the ground, he didn’t release her. His expression was devoid of laughter now. His eyes had gone serious and shiny. With a start, she registered that her fingers were still knotted in his hair. She quickly lowered her hands to his shoulders, but somehow that was even worse. Feeling all that warm, hard muscle and flesh under her palms made her heart skitter and her stomach flutter. She could also detect the steely ridge of his arousal pressing against her belly.

  Smiling slightly, he loosened one arm from around her to smooth a flyaway strand of curly hair from her eyes. “Safe landing, just like I promised.”

  Except that Rainie didn’t feel safe. She’d seen that look in a man’s eyes before and knew what had put it there. “Parker, I—”

  He angled a finger across her lips. “Shh,” he whispered. “Don’t say it.”

  “But I need to make it clear that—”

  “It’s already clear.” He dropped his arms to his sides and moved back a step to slam the tailgate closed and fetch his hat. Motioning at the truck, he said, “You ready to roll?”

  Rainie turned away, her heart still slamming like a kettle-drum. Once inside the truck, she could think of nothing to say. Fortunately Parker had never been at a loss for words.

  “I should go into the cat-transport business. That toolbox is perfect.”

  Rainie shook her head. “Cat lovers might disagree.”

  “Why? You ever seen those tiny cages they stick cats in? And those cardboard carriers with the airholes are even worse. My toolbox is much nicer. At least Thomas can move around, and with that saddle blanket over the tools, he can even take a nap if he wants.”

  “That’s true,” she conceded.

  “So stop lookin’ so worried. The cat is fine.”

  Rainie nodded, but in truth, it wasn’t the cat she was worried about now.

  “Parker, about what just happened,” she ventured.

  He angled a look at her that was laden with meaning. “Nothin’ just happened, Rainie, and nothin’ is goin’ to happen.”

  Once at the ranch, Rainie couldn’t wait to get Thomas out of his temporary prison. Only when Parker opened the lid, the cat shot from the enclosure like a bullet from a gun. Before either of them could react, Thomas was streaking across the yard toward the arena and was soon nowhere to be seen.

  “Damn it.” Parker put his hands on his hips. “Here, Thomas!” he bellowed.

  “That isn’t how you call a cat,” Rainie informed him.

  He gave her a bewildered look. “How, then?”

  Rainie showed him by example, calling, “Here, kitty, kitty,” in a high-pitched voice.

  Parker shook his head. “Darlin’, my vocal cords weren’t made to sing soprano.”

  “I’ll do it then. You’ll only scare him.”

  Parker carried her suitcase into the house while she criss-crossed the yard, calling shrilly to the cat. When Parker went back outside, Rainie was clear over by the arena building, trilling into the evening air, pleading with Thomas to come back. Parker sighed. He’d never been a cat person, but Rainie clearly was. If Thomas didn’t return, she’d be heart-broken.

  “Here, kitty, kitty!” he yelled. “Thomas!” Under his breath, Parker muttered, “Don’t do this to me, you brainless fluff ball.” Thinking the cat could have covered quite a bit of ground in the time since he’d escaped, Parker circled behind the house to search more area. “Here, kitty, kitty.”

  Nothing. Parker went back to join Rainie. She looked so forlorn standing there in the fading light, her skirt drifting around her slender legs like a flowery flag in the evening breeze. He walked up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. She instantly stiffened and grasped his wrists, as if she feared that his hands might wander. No way. Parker knew they had a long way to go before she would be ready for anything remotely resembling intimacy. And oddly, he was okay with that. Now that he’d found Rainie, he finally understood what his dad had always meant when he said true love was about a whole lot more than just sex. Loving this lady was a multifaceted experience. As much as he desired her physically, he was willing to wait as long as she needed him to wait. Another of his dad’s sayings sprang to his mind: Anything worth havin’ is worth waitin’ for. Rainie was definitely worth waiting for.

  “He’ll be all right, honey,” he murmured near her ear, praying his reassurance wouldn’t prove to be false. “There’s nothin’ out here to hurt him. We’ll put food and water on the porch. Once he calms down, he’ll come sniffin’ for his supper.”

  Rainie reluctantly accompanied him to the house, but Parker didn’t miss the worried glances she kept shooting behind her as they walked.

  “He’ll be fine,” he said again. “Trust me on that. Okay? If there’s anything I understand, it’s critters. He’ll be back before we go to bed, guaranteed.”

  Thomas didn’t return. Parker listened for meows as he and Rainie shared an evening meal of canned chili and crackers, a repast that his houseguest barely touched. He kept an ear peeled as they cleaned up the kitchen and fed Mojo. After partaking of his meal, the puppy curled up under the table and went to sleep. No yowls had yet sounded from the porch. Rainie looked sad and worried. Parker could think of no way to comfort her.

  “You said once that he loves tuna. How about if we open a can and go sit on the swing? Maybe he’ll smell it and come to you.”

  “That might work,” Rainie said.

  After opening the tuna, Parker grabbed a couple of jackets from the wall pegs and draped one around Rainie’s slender shoulders. As he pulled her hair out from under the denim collar, he knew he’d never loved anyone in quite the same way that he loved her. Just the scent of her—apples, vanilla, and cinnamon—made his senses spin and his arms ache to hold her close.

  “What’s the name of your perfume?” he couldn’t resist asking. “I’ve never smelled the like.”

  She giggled. “It’s my own concoction, a blend of extracts from my cupboard. Do you have any idea how much perfume costs nowadays? Even the copycat stuff is expensive. I decided to come up with my own scent.”

  He made a mental note to buy her some perfume, but then just as quickly scratched the idea. He loved how she smelled.

  The night had turned chilly. When they sat on the swing, Rainie huddled inside the jacket, shivering. Her summer skirt was made of thin, insubstantial stuff, offering little protection from the cold.

  “That’s central Oregon for you, hotter than hell durin’ the day and colder than a well digger’s ass when the sun goes down.” Parker tucked her under his arm and drew her close. He felt her body brace against him, a telltale sign that she was more than a little worried about him making unwelcome advances. He guessed that was only natural. The dynamics of their relationship had taken a drastic turn that morning, and as young and innocent as Rainie was in many ways, she’d also seen the dark side of a man’s nature. “Relax,” he said softly. “If you’re thinkin’ I might put a move on you, get it out of your head right now. Nothin’ like that is on my agenda.”

  “It’s not?”

  The surprise in her voice made him smile. “Absolutely not. We’ve got the rest of our lives, Rainie mine. I’m in no hurry.” He ran his hand lightly over the jacket that covered her arm. “The way I see it, all really good marriages are built upon a solid foundation of friendship. I’m not denyin’ the importance of a physical relationship. Don’t get me wrong. But sex alone will never be the glue that holds us together. Our friendship will do that. Someday when we’re old, we’ll have the friendship to fall back on.”

  “You haven’t asked me to marry you, and I haven’t said I will, Parker. Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself?”

  “Nope.”

  “But I haven’t said I love you, and I’m still married to another man.”

  Parke
r didn’t need to hear her say that she loved him. He knew she did. He saw the truth of it in her eyes every time she looked at him. “You’re contractually bound to Peter Danning, not married to him. There’s a difference. Not even the Roman Catholic Church would hold you to the vows you made to him.” He let that hang there for a moment. “Were you married to him in a church? I never thought to ask.”

  “No. We got married in Las Vegas the first time around.”

  “The first time around?”

  “There’s a policy at Barrestol against executives fraternizing with subordinates. Peter was so far up the ladder that he probably wouldn’t have been fired for having a relationship with me, but it still would have reflected badly on him if anyone had found out. So I left the company. We were married in Vegas, I moved in with him, and he kept it a secret for almost six months. When he felt I’d been gone from the company long enough, he concocted a story about how we’d bumped into each other after I left and started dating. A few weeks later, he announced our engagement, and the second time, which was all for show, we were married in a vineyard by a justice of the peace.”

  “He’s some piece of work, isn’t he?”

  “Appearances are everything to him.” She shivered again. “That’s one of the things I’ve always admired about you, Parker. You don’t care what other people think.”

  “I care,” he corrected. It occurred to him that he had encouraged Rainie to share her secrets with him but that he had shared very few of his own. Nothing deep, anyway. Nothing that hurt or made him feel ashamed when he thought about it. In order for her to truly know who he was as a person, he needed to correct that. “I just refuse to put on an act to impress anyone. For a while when I first went away to college, I tried to slick myself up.”