Secrets Rising Page 6

  But unidentified flying objects or something paranormal…

  That was just nonsense. Had to be. She’d been in shock, scared, and probably something electrical had snapped at the farmhouse when the quake struck, which would explain the flash of light, just like Jake had said.

  And as for the box, the only thing weird about it was that Ray had bothered to plan that far in advance to give her a birthday gift. But then, didn’t everyone do something out of character sometimes? Like, herself, for example. Last night.

  Don’t go there, she reminded herself even as her pulse jumped all by its rebellious self. A tingly feeling way down low reminded her that she’d had a good time, too.

  Now she had to pay the price. Regret.

  “Ray left me a present,” she said abruptly.

  The front door of the store dinged as another customer came in.

  “What do you mean, a present?” Lise finished putting up the last box of detergent and stood, brushing off her jeans.

  How she managed to look perfect no matter what she was doing was a mystery. Keely’d showered and changed into fresh clothes at her mom’s before coming over to the store—against her mother’s objections that she should rest after her “ordeal”—and yet she was already a mess from crawling around on the floor picking up grocery items.

  Lise, on the other hand, looked like a fashion plate, per usual. She was three years older than Keely and her family had gone to church with hers, so Keely had often gotten her hand-me-downs. She’d never looked as good in them as Lise had.

  Especially today when she was tired and felt hungover from stress and grief over the farmhouse. Everyone she loved was alive, though. That was what mattered.

  Keely pushed up from her knees.

  “A birthday present. Can you believe it? He bought me something, wrapped it up, left the box in the cookie jar. I found it yesterday.”

  Lise’s perfectly manicured brows lifted. “Really? That’s interesting. Hmm.”

  “Yeah. Hmm.” Keely tried real hard not to say anything negative but gave up. “Maybe he thought I was going to find out he’d been sleeping around with Alexa Donner.”

  “Or Judy Applegate or Cherry Whitehead or—”

  “Okay, okay.” Keely held her hand up.

  “I don’t know why you get uptight whenever you start to say anything bad about him. He was a jerk, and personally I’m not sorry he’s dead.”

  “Oh, my God, balance your chakra.” Keely waved her hand in a zigzag motion. Mary O’Hurley used to be her best friend in kindergarten, but now she read palms and tarot cards out of her house and at the occasional school carnival. Even if Keely didn’t believe in any of that stuff—truth was, Mary didn’t, either—she’d picked up some of the New Age jargon just for fun.

  “Ray needed something balanced and it wasn’t his chakra,” Lise said. “Maybe he even killed somebody! What are you going to say then?”

  Keely’d tried to make a police report about the skull she’d found in the rose bed but every available state trooper was otherwise occupied on emergency detail. They told her they’d call her back later today and get out to the scene as soon as they had the manpower.

  A skull in her garden wasn’t top priority under the extraordinary circumstances.

  “We don’t know that,” she pointed out. Not that she could think of any other explanation. She’d even thought about getting out the phone book and checking up on all the women, at least the ones she knew about, who Ray’d slept with.

  But that was a little too embarrassing. Um, hello, this is Ray’s widow, and I found a skull in my garden. Just wondering if you’re okay….

  Right.

  Besides, she’d have heard if any of the women he’d slept with had gone missing. They were mostly local girls. The only one she knew about from Charleston was Cherry Whitehead, and surely she’d have heard about her if she was missing, too. Their local network news came out of the city.

  Lise rolled her eyes. She was always quick to condemn Ray, which was one of the reasons Keely hated to say anything bad about him. Lise said enough.

  Or maybe it just reminded her of how stupid she’d been to marry him. She had judgment trouble when it came to men. If anyone’s energy centers were out of whack and needed balancing, it was hers.

  “Whatever.” Lise waved off the topic of Ray, to Keely’s relief. “Now, about your birthday—”

  “I don’t want to do anything.”

  “Your mom said she was going to fix dinner at her house for everybody. Come on. That means I don’t have to cook.” Lise’s husband, Tom, worked for the town and seemed pretty decent as far as men went. They’d been high-school sweethearts. Aside from that minor episode with Jud, Lise had better judgment in men than Keely. “Besides, you’re staying there now anyway, aren’t you?”

  “Do you hate me? No.” The thought of living with her parents made Keely want to choke. She loved them, but live with them? No, double no, triple no. They would drive her crazy, fussing over her. They were also seriously committed to getting her remarried and eventually they’d get back to their mission when the shock of the quake passed. “I’m going to use the apartment over the store. I haven’t been able to rent it out, and now that’s a good thing. But yes, okay, I’ll go back over there for dinner.” She wouldn’t want to disappoint her mom about that, at least, though she knew it would mean a huge gathering of family and friends, and she wasn’t really feeling up to it.

  “So did you open the present?”

  Back to that topic.

  Keely shook her head. “Maybe later. I don’t know. I still have it.” She’d stuck it in her office desk drawer when she’d come over to the store earlier from her parents’ house. Lise had brought clothes and a few necessities—Keely could get anything else she needed straight from the store shelves. She felt funny about opening the box. It was on the wrong side of strange, getting a gift from the grave. “I have a lot of other stuff on my mind.”

  “I’m sorry about the farmhouse.” Lise touched her arm. “You were always so attached to it, and I know how much you wanted it. You can rebuild, you know. Insurance money. A new house will be so much easier to live in.”

  “I liked the old house.”

  “I know. I’m just glad you’re okay, that’s all.” Lise pulled her into a quick hug then leaned back. “Everything’s going to be okay, you know.”

  “I know,” she lied.

  “You’re alive, that’s all that matters. I’m glad you weren’t alone. You haven’t said much about this Jake Malloy guy who was with you.”

  And she wasn’t going to. She’d given Lise the Reader’s Digest version of her night trapped in the cellar, the same story she’d given her parents. Sometimes she told her friends everything and sometimes she didn’t. This time it was the latter. She sensed that Lise didn’t always tell her everything, either.

  “There’s nothing to tell. Look, it’s nearly three o’clock. Weren’t you supposed to get your mom at three? She wants to go help out at the community center, right? And you were supposed to give her a ride.”

  “Oh, yeah. Thanks. I wasn’t watching the time.” Lise narrowed her eyes. “But don’t think I didn’t catch that. I want to hear about this guy and you can’t put me off forever.”

  “He’s old and fat and has a wart,” Keely said with a straight face. Lise could be as bad as her parents about trying to set her up. She was sure all Keely needed was a good man, like Tom. “He was nice, that’s all. I was glad I wasn’t alone all night. End of story.”

  “Hey, boss lady.” Tammy Draper, the clerk, called her from the front of the store. “Somebody’s looking for you.”

  Keely followed her friend up to the front of the store.

  Tammy was ringing up another customer. There’d been a run on bottled water and Keely noticed it was again the most popular item at the cash register. A lot of the people out in the country had wells that ran on electricity and power was out in half the county. She counted herself lu
cky they still had it at the store and that the phones were working.

  Bright afternoon light spilled in from outside and at first all she could see was a lean shadow against the glaring sun on the glass windows of the storefront. Then he turned and her eyes adjusted and the rest of her body went haywire, including her brain.

  “I didn’t mean for them to call you up here,” Jake Malloy said. “I just wanted to know if you were in the store. I would have come to find you. I’d like to speak with you privately, if possible.”

  Privately? He wanted to speak to her privately?

  Keely swallowed hard. Dammit. He was just as melt-your-knees hot as she’d remembered, and she’d rather not have even remembered much less had to face him. Unlike Lise, she looked like crap. Not that she cared what Jake Malloy thought of her.

  Okay, she cared.

  Her brain was definitely out of control. She had to fight a flashback of his hands all over her body. She’d lost her cool with him completely last night. Not again.

  Deliberately, her gaze locked on him and held. She could handle this. He looked amazing in another plain T-shirt and jeans, but so what? Her insides quivered and she told herself she was probably just hungry. She hadn’t stopped for lunch.

  Then she remembered her friend, standing next to her. This was going to be trouble.

  “Hi. I’m Lise Tanner, Keely’s friend.” Lise stuck out her manicured hand. “And you are…”

  “Jake Malloy.” He took her hand, shook it.

  “Ah.” Lise gave Keely a long look, then turned an amused gaze back on Jake. “I heard about you. I didn’t recognize you without your wart.”

  Jake’s brow furrowed. “My what?”

  Lise grinned. “I’ll let Keely explain.” She gave an airy wave. “I’ve got to go grab my mom. You, babe, have got some ’splaining to do with me, too. See you at dinner.” She turned, then swiveled back. “Hey. I know you’re new in town and everything. And we’re all so grateful about how you were there for Keely last night. It’s her birthday and we’re having a big dinner over at her folks’ tonight. Family, and a bunch of her friends and—”

  Oh, no. Keely knew where this was going and she didn’t like it.

  “Lise—”

  “You’re a friend now, that’s for sure. Please join us. Dinner’s at seven. Home cooking. Keely’s mom’s the best. I know she’d want you to come. We all would.”

  If she could have crawled into a hole, Keely would have so been there.

  “Keely can get you directions.” Lise sported a smug grin. “If you don’t get your pickup back from Dickie by tonight, call me and I’ll send Tom after you.”

  She took off into the bright sun, the bell over the door dinging behind her. The store suddenly felt really small, like airplane-bathroom small, just Keely and the man she’d had, what felt like fantasy sex with last night.

  And people were watching. She could feel Tammy’s eyes boring into her back. Curious.

  “I have an office in the rear,” Keely said. She couldn’t imagine what Jake Malloy wanted to speak to her about, but best to get it over with quickly before her imagination went nuts with possibilities. And no way was she discussing Lise’s wart remark.

  As for the dinner invitation…

  “I’m sorry about my friend. Don’t feel like you have to be polite about that. I’m sure you’d be bored stiff at my parents’.”

  Her office was the size of a beanbag, but at least when she stuck her foot in her mouth, which she was bound to do at any moment, it wouldn’t be reported on the gossip tree. Her desk was noticeably cluttered with snacks propped on top of every stack of paperwork. Half-eaten packages of donuts, chocolate pretzels, gummy bears, candy bars, you name it. It was a constant temptation, working all day in a grocery store full of goodies.

  Keely sank into the chair behind the desk and motioned Jake into the metal folding chair against the wall by the door. He shut the door first.

  She hadn’t really wanted the door shut.

  He filled up the tiny space, his expression dark and intense.

  “That was nice of your friend,” he said finally. “But you don’t have to worry. I wouldn’t want to intrude on your birthday dinner.”

  She felt like a heel now, a total heel.

  “It’s not that.” Awkward, awkward, awkward. “I didn’t mean that you would be intruding. It’s just…I thought we decided it’d be better if we just went our separate ways.” The conversation had been bad enough this morning. She didn’t want to have it again. “What was it you wanted to speak with me about?” she prompted. Hurry. Her foot was already halfway down her throat.

  He watched her like he could see right into her head and knew she was full of crap.

  “Are you doing all right?” he asked.

  “I’m fine. And that’s really kind of you to ask, but—” But she had lots of things to do in the store and if he didn’t stop staring at her, she was going to hyperventilate. She resisted the urge to reach for a donut. Sugar was not the answer to her problem.

  A lobotomy might be.

  “I’m glad,” he said.

  “Are you okay?” Polite. She could be polite. That’s all he was being. It wasn’t like he could possibly really care how she was doing beyond the social nicety of it. He certainly hadn’t stuck around for chitchat after they’d been rescued. “Everything all right with the house? It wasn’t damaged in the quake, was it?” The thought abruptly occurred to her. If the house was messed up, the only other rental she had to offer was the apartment over the store and she didn’t really want to give that up.

  “The house is fine. I noticed a few things out of place, some things that must have fallen out of shelves. No big deal.”

  “Oh, good.” Relief washed her. “So…”

  She waited, let her gaze drift away nonchalantly though the truth was she couldn’t handle holding his eyes directly, wondering how he could carry on this casual conversation with her as if they hadn’t stripped their clothes off last night and had wildly explosive sex. Or was she the only one who’d felt that way about it?

  That was not a good thought. She noticed how his lean muscled shoulders pushed the limits of his T-shirt. She remembered how powerful those shoulders had felt under her touch. That was not a good thought, either.

  Her mouth watered and this time she really did pick up a donut.

  “Want one?” she offered. “I skipped lunch. I’m hungry.”

  He shook his head. “I went out to your place this afternoon. I rented a car.”

  His smashed car. She’d almost forgotten about it.

  She swallowed a bite of donut. “Great. I’m still sorry about your car.”

  “Not your fault.”

  The office phone rang. Keely gladly reached for it. “Well, if that’s all, it’s really busy here.” To show how terribly busy she was, she said, “Foodway, Keely Schiffer here,” quite officiously into the phone, put her barely eaten donut down, wiped her fingers on a paper towel she deftly ripped off a roll on the filing cabinet behind her, and grabbed a pen and pad of paper as if ready to take down very important information. She was busy. Multitasking. Official.

  “Hey, girl, how you doing?” Mary’s perky voice bubbled across the phone line.

  “Fine. But shouldn’t you already know that?” Keely couldn’t resist teasing her friend. She’d only once let Mary read her palm and that time had scared her so badly, she’d never let her do it again. Mary’d told her there was a black cloud surrounding her aura and that she saw a man and a woman as shadowy figures who were going to hurt her. It’d been a few years ago and it was right after that when Keely had discovered Ray was cheating on her.

  She’d reminded Mary she’d only seen a man and one woman when it should have been at least four or five women.

  “Brat,” Mary said. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I was having the weirdest feeling about you and I had to be sure.”

  “No more aura stuff,” Keely interrupted. She avoided Jake’s ga
ze though she could feel him watching her. He hadn’t left the office.

  He was waiting—for what?

  “It’s probably just your mom freaking me out when she told me about your house and everything,” Mary said. “She told me you were at the store and I know I’ll see you tonight, but I’m worried about you. I just had to hear your voice. I keep feeling like something’s wrong with you.”

  “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “You know, I saw those red lights last night that everybody’s talking about,” Mary said. “Did you? And today, Patsy Renniker came over and asked me to do a tarot reading on her. You know she has me do one once a week and I swear even an earthquake isn’t going to stop her, and I got so scared, I told her to go home. She’s got cancer. I know she’s got cancer. I mean, I don’t know that but it’s like I could see it when I started doing her cards. I told her to go to the doctor, right away.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  “It freaked me out, Keely. You know I don’t ever tell anybody anything bad when I do a reading. I never thought anything bad before. I just tell everybody they’re going to live to be a hundred. Good stuff. But now—It’s like it’s for real now. I’m not making it up anymore. And I keep getting this feeling about you.”

  “I’m fine.” Actually, Mary was starting to freak her out. “What about you? What about your place?”

  “Nothing messed up but my new gazebo. Fell over, completely, probably because somebody hadn’t finished nailing the sides right. Eighty-five percent finished and he lets it sit there for the past six months. Now it’s ruined.”

  “Eighty-five percent syndrome,” Keely said. “Men only build things to eighty-five percent completion.”

  “No kidding. I get eighty-five percent on the way to an orgasm and Danny’s finished,” Mary said.

  Keely started to laugh then accidentally caught Jake’s drop-dead hot eyes when she leaned her head back and she swallowed so hard she nearly choked. No eighty-five percent completion rate for Jake.