Chapter Fifteen
“I’m not going to shoot anyone,” Dallas said.
Noah wasn’t sure. She wasn’t on duty, yet she’d strapped on her firearm. The action might have been habit, which was understandable, or reflex, which could imply anticipation or, and he hated to think it, reaction. If the latter, then he would err judiciously. Better that than what ifs and remorse. Taking into consideration that he had never in all of the eighteen years he’d known Dallas seen her as angered as at present, he thought it best not to chance anything and to consider every possibility.
“I wasn’t going to shoot anyone,” she said in almost the same way as before ― sullen, pouty and perturbed, but with less enthusiasm.
Nevertheless, Noah was not appeased. In fact, her words and the set of her jaw sent a chill scaling his spine. She was convincing herself she didn’t have murder in her heart. Since she seemed adamant to attend this soirée, he needed to calm her. First, though, she needed to surrender her weapon to him. He held out his hand.
With a sigh, she slapped her Glock in his open palm.
“Thanks.” He locked the gun next to his in the glove box.
He looked around. “Looks like we’re the first to arrive.” When Dallas didn’t answer, he asked, “Do you want to wait a few minutes before going in?”
She nodded.
“Did you hear the one about the policeman who spots a woman knitting while she’s speeding down the Interstate?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “He pulls up beside her and shouts, “Pull over.” She shakes her head and says, “Cardigan.”
The joke drew a chuckle from her, but she still wasn’t in a tranquil frame of mind. Wondering what to do next, he noticed they drew weird looks and strange stares from people out for a stroll or walking dogs. Perhaps sitting in a driveway was unseemly in this posh neighborhood of quarter million dollar homes, or maybe his monster truck cast a zit on the street where Beemers and Porsches sat en masse.
Whatever he decided, he needed to do it fast before someone called the police. The thought made him grin.
“How can you laugh at a time like this?” Dallas asked.
“I was thinking we should make a move soon before one of these good old home boys call the police on us.” Noah nodded toward the rear view mirror. “Take this guy, for example. See those beady eyes, he’s taking everything in ― our license plate number, make and model of the truck and the color.” He cleared his throat. “Those athletic shoes were made for running. If I were to take the wheel wrench from the back compartment, we’d see just how fast that would be. See the holster clipped on his waistband. You’d think cell phone, wouldn’t you?”
Dallas nodded.
“But it’s not!”
“No?”
“No. It’s really a two-way radio, the latest in communication technology, as a matter of fact. It has built-in flexibility to handle all the needs of Neighborhood Watch with such advanced features as wide frequency range, multiple signaling and loud audio. It’s rugged! It’s reliable! It’s the new direction in walkie-talkies!”
She slapped his arm.
“See that? He just checked his watch. Now, he’s mentally recording the time of day that he’ll enter later in a journal when he gets home, thereby marking our arrival. In fact,” he looked out the driver’s window, “it wouldn’t surprise me if later we find our tires streaked with chalk.”
Her smile made him smile. “How are we?” he asked, hoping for the best.
“Getting there.”
That was not at all reassuring. He visualized her in a dark place, a place where emotions overruled principles. “We can still leave.”
“Too late.” She motioned her head toward the side of the house. “We’ve been found out.”
Knowing what she meant and keeping his eyes fixed on Dallas, he said, “Probably that little old boy with the plaid shorts and checked muscle shirt I saw driving by on a scooter a little while back. I bet he telephoned the Fenwicks and advised them of the strange vehicle parked in their driveway.” He looked out the windshield and watched a woman, who made jeans look real good, wearing a white blouse with a red bandana strung around her neck walk toward them. A loose ponytail held back a mane of red curly hair. “Jesus,” he said after he found his voice. “Is that ―”
“My half-sister.”
Noah realized he acted like an imbecile. When Dallas had told him about Alexandra being her biological mother, he had envisioned Lily looking like Dallas. Nothing could be further off. “You don’t look anything alike.”
“I know.”
“Maybe Katie’s research is wrong,” he said, making the suggestion knowing Dallas would disagree.
“Hold onto that thought until you meet the Trojan horse.”
“Didn’t you already meet her?”
“Yes, but at the time I didn’t know she was my mother, and I wasn’t looking for family resemblance.” She frowned.
“What is it?”
“I just thought of something Juliette of The Striped Tiger said.” She stared into his eyes. “She thought Lily and I were sisters.”
It was his turn to frown. “I don’t see it,” he said, shaking his head.
Dallas chewed on her lip. “Well, the woman is part gypsy, part wizard of Irish and French descent.”
“Maybe we should get out of the truck,” Noah said.
“You think?”
They hopped out of the vehicle. Dallas wore a bright smile, Noah noticed. Unable to do otherwise, his smile matched hers as he looked at Lily. He imagined every male and female reacted this way to her. He watched Dallas’s half-sister approach them like she’d known and loved them all her life. He found himself responding likewise.
Noah knew the appearance wasn’t an act. People didn’t fool him and if the occasion happened, which wasn’t often, it wasn’t for long.
He stood back while Dallas and Lily hugged, then watched when the women stood back and admired each other.
“You look great,” Lily said.
Dallas smiled and hauled Noah to her side. “All due to him. Lily, I’d like you to meet my husband, Noah Madill. Noah, this is Lily.”
He shook her outstretched hand, finding her touch warm. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“The same here. I was just telling Abbott the other day how strange it was that you and he are friends and Dallas and I just recently met. Like it was meant to be.”
“Kismet,” Noah said, knowing full well that was hardly the case. Dallas had orchestrated their meeting, but that was not something he was about to tell this obviously loving and warm half-sister of Dallas.
“Yes!” she said. “Exactly. Shall we join the party?”
“Sure,” he said. “Lead the way.” When Lily turned, Noah draped an arm around Dallas’s shoulders and hauled her close. “She’s lovely.”
Dallas looked up at him. “Isn’t she.”
“You’re not going to make a scene, are you?” he asked in her ear. He had only just met Lily, yet he felt protective of her. He surmised she had that effect on people.
“You took my gun from me, didn’t you?”
Dallas had never been so complicated, so difficult to predict. Of course, she had never been faced before with untold truths by people who professed to love her.
They caught up to Lily on the side of the double car garage.
“You have a beautiful property,” Noah said. He admired the lilac trees that marked the property boundary, the Scotch pines that looked planted haphazardly over the yard but were aesthetically placed, the mounds of rock gardens showing off an array of begonias and geraniums in yellow, pink and white, and the rich green manicured lawn.
“Thank you. These lots are an acre and a half so if we want to get rowdy, the neighbors won’t hear us.”
Noah couldn’t imagine Lily rowdy. “Then they won’t mind when I play my drums.” Noah noticed the mixture of expressions that crossed her face ― from interest to surprise to…well, downright fright, he decided. He thre
w his head back and laughed.
“He’s kidding,” Dallas said, poking him in the ribs.
Lily loosened her bandana. “I was just going to say the neighbors don’t appear to mind when I shoot off my potato gun.”
It was Noah’s turn to be surprised.
Lily exaggerated a wink and said, “Gotcha!” She hooked one arm in Noah’s and the other in Dallas’s and looked at them, each in turn. “I just know we’re all going to be such good friends.” She sighed and smiled. “I just know it.”
Noah turned away from Lily’s sparkling eyes to look at Dallas, wondering if Dallas had any intention tonight of confronting her biological mother with the truth of her paternity. With another look at Lily, he wondered, too, how she could. The truth would change everything and everyone’s lives involved, quite possibly ruining lives in the process.
Wasn’t Dallas happy with Eileen and Dan? They were wonderful, loving, supportive parents. Telling them now that she knew what they knew, would lead to accusations, hurt and hate, which would result in destroying their relationship. Dallas wouldn’t intentionally do that, would she?