Colder Than Ice

Then I’m not sure how the hell I’m supposed to.

God, his voice was so familiar. And so filled with regret!

A telephone rang, shrill and sharp. It cut through the dream, and Beth sat up, looked at her bedroom around her and sagged in relief when knowledge filled her mind. She knew who she was. She knew where she was. She was all right after all.

But that dream—it had been a long time since she’d had that particular dream. She’d all but forgotten about the man who had come to sit with her while she wasted away, a comatose Jane Doe in a hospital bed.

The phone rang again. She turned toward the nightstand, reached out for the telephone, the night-light making it easier. Then she brought it to her ear.

“Hello?” No one was there. “Hello? Who is this?”

When no one answered, a chill slid up her spine like an icy finger. The memory of Mordecai crossed her mind, and she reminded herself that she had always known he would find her sooner or later. Maybe tonight was the night.

Then she frowned, because she could hear voices. She pressed the volume button on the side of her phone, clicking it up as many notches as it would go. It sounded like…it sounded like Maude, speaking to someone else. It was muted, distant.

Beth flung back her covers and got out of bed, going into the living room, where the caller ID box was, and looking at the digital readout. Maude’s phone number showed on the screen. She listened, heard nothing more, then depressed the cutoff and dialed it back.

A harsh busy signal was her only reply.

“Hell.” Something was wrong over there. She didn’t know Joshua Kendall well at all—and the fact that he’d stirred some kind of insane attraction in her should probably be taken as a bad sign rather than a good one. The last man she’d been attracted to had turned out to be an insane mass murderer.

Beth shoved her feet into her running shoes, simply because they were near the door. She yanked a coat off one hook and her car keys off another as she went out the door and into the brisk chill of an autumn night in Vermont.

Joshua had been dreaming about hot, wet, frantic sex with Beth Slocum when something woke him up—and at the worst possible moment.

He groaned, wondering when the hell he’d started having dreams worthy of a seventeen-year-old, then rolled over and glanced at the clock. The time—5:06 a.m.—glowed at him in neon green. Then he heard footsteps and was on his feet and pulling his gun out of the holster on the bedpost before another thought had time to cross his mind.

He yanked a bathrobe—one Maude had laid out for him that was not his own—from the footboard and jerked it on, then headed barefoot into the hallway, the gun in his hand, his hand in the robe’s pocket.

At Maude’s room, he paused, because her door was opening. He stepped back a little. She poked her head out. “Is that you, Joshua?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Something woke me.”

“Me, too.” She swung her door wider and turned around, shaking her head. “I could have sworn I heard someone in the kitchen.”

“Why don’t you stay right here and let me go check?”

“My goodness. Yet another benefit to having a young man around the house, I guess. All right, I’ll force myself to let you wait on me. After all, ‘A woman who says she dislikes chivalry is both dishonest and a fool.’”

“That’s a good one. I’m gonna write that down.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze, then took hold of her door and told her to get back inside. She did, and he pulled it closed. Then he closed his hand around the grips of his .38, tiptoed to the stairway and down it.

There was someone in the kitchen. Even now, he heard movement. Soft, barely audible, but there.

He crept through the house, through the dining room and into the kitchen. Reaching inside, he flipped the light switch and raised the gun.

A large black cat sat on the counter, glaring at him with eyes that seemed more irritated than startled.

Sighing, he lowered the gun.

“Well, I’ll be…” Maude said from behind him.

He frowned, turning to face her. “I thought I told you to stay upstairs.”

“Oh, Joshua, don’t be silly. I’ve never obeyed a man’s orders yet, and I don’t intend to start now, chivalry or not.” She nodded at the cat. “That’s Frankie’s beast. Comes in here any time I leave a window open more than a quarter inch, looking for a snack. I swear he’s made of rubber. Aren’t you, Siegfried?”

“Siegfried?” He shook his head. “Don’t tell me—Frankie has another cat named Roy?”

“Dog. Bluetick. Dumb as a rock, but twice as friendly.” She moved to the fridge, pulled it open and reached in to straighten the row of tiny brown vials of insulin before grabbing a small carton of cream. As she poured some into a bowl for the cat—who weighed fifteen pounds if he weighed an ounce—headlights invaded the house from the front, and then footsteps raced across the porch and someone pounded on the door.

Maude paid no attention. She was looking at the cordless phone that lay on the counter beside the feasting cat, bringing it to her ear and frowning at it.

Joshua went to the door and, after a cursory look outside, opened it.

“What is going on?” Beth asked. “Where’s Maude?”

“Um…” His brain was not processing her questions, because she was standing there in an unbuttoned denim jacket with fake fur at the neck and sleeves, and a T-shirt. Aside from the sneakers on her feet and the goosebumps on her legs, he wasn’t sure she was wearing anything else, and that idea sort of lodged in his brain and wouldn’t let go. “Uh…”

She snapped her fingers in front of her chest, then raised them to point at her eyes. “Up here, Josh. Hello? You with me now?”

He nodded. His gaze faltered, started to slide lower again. She had great legs. Kind of funny to see them with sockless feet and running shoes at the bottom and a T-shirt hem at the top, but still…Must be all that running that made them so slender and firm and—

She hooked a finger under his chin and lifted his head. “Hey, caveman. Me Beth, you Josh. Where Maude?”

“Kitchen.”

“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes and walked past him into the house. He followed as if she’d slipped a leash around his neck, barely remembering to close and lock the front door before he did.

“Beth! Well, my goodness, what are you doing out here at this hour?”

“My phone rang. When I answered, no one was there, but the call came from here.”

Maude thinned her lips and sent the cat a glare. “Siegfried! Did you do that?”

“You think the cat called me?”

“I have you on speed dial, dear. Siggy had knocked the phone off the charger stand and more than likely stepped on a button or two while he was scavenging the kitchen for a free meal.”

Beth heaved a sigh and sank into a kitchen chair. “Well, that’s a relief. I thought something had happened.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, hon. Not with Joshua and Bryan here.”

Beth slid a glance Josh’s way, and he knew it had been his presence she’d been worried about. She didn’t trust him.

He turned to Maude. “The question remains, though. How did Siggy here get into the house? I thought it was locked up tight.”

“Oh, I probably left a window cracked. My bathroom, more than likely. I’m always leaving that one open. Or the basement, maybe.”

He nodded slowly. “I’ll check them. It’s probably a good idea to try to break that habit.”

“Hell, Josh, Maude’s got nothing to worry about. Everyone in town adores her, and it’s not like we get any random crime in Blackberry.”

“Well, you never know,” Maude said. “You feel free to check, Joshua, and I’ll do my best not to forget again.”

“Kiss-up,” Beth accused.

Maude sent her a wink. “I’m goin’ back to bed. You two put that cat outdoors when he finishes his cream. He’ll go right on back to Frankie’s. Always does.” With that, Maude left them in the kitchen and headed up to bed.

Beth sighed. “You may as well go back to bed, too. I’ll head home.”

“Hell, it’s heading for five-thirty. No point going back to bed now.” He turned to the counter, started running water into a carafe. “I’m making coffee. Stay for a cup?”

“Sure. Why not?”

He measured ground roast, poured in the water, turned on the switch. “So you were worried I had done something to Maude and came rushing over here to save her.”

She frowned at him. “I was afraid something had happened to her. She could have fallen, broken a hip or something.”

“If she had, didn’t you think I would have taken care of her?”

“She’s in her seventies, Joshua. Almost eighty. She has to shoot insulin into her veins before every meal, and I know her balance is getting pretty shaky, though she’d rather be shot than admit it. I was worried. She’s my friend.”

He nodded. “And I’m a stranger.”

She pursed her lips. “It wouldn’t matter if you were a stranger or not. I…don’t trust men.”

“None of us?” He made his eyes wide and lifted his brows as he searched her face. “Not even the good ones?”

“You telling me you’re one of the good ones?”

“Lady, I am the best one.”

“You’re full of yourself, too.”

He let his teasing smile die. “You’ve been burned by my gender before, I take it.”

She met his eyes, and he saw swirling depths of emotion—whirlpools that threatened to suck him right in. “Burned. Yeah. I’ve been burned. Fell for the bad guy, then was damn near destroyed by the rescuing heroes.”

He winced inwardly at that, had to avert his eyes briefly.

“I’ve got horrible taste in men, Joshua.”

“Then it’s a good sign that you don’t like me, right?”

“That’s just it. I do like you.” She slid out of her chair and got to her feet. “I’ll take a rain check on that coffee, okay?”

Without waiting for an answer, she walked to the door. Without waiting for an invitation, he followed her. He reached past her for the door, opened it for her. She turned to look up at him, smiled just a little. “Don’t try to kiss me, okay?”

He’d been thinking about doing just that, and her frankness surprised him. “How am I supposed to resist? Huh? You show up at the crack of dawn with your hair practically standing on end, wearing a baggy T-shirt and the most god-awful jacket I’ve ever seen—and sneakers. Damn, woman, I’d have to be a saint to resist that.”

She smiled broadly and turned to step outside.

Then she stopped and turned back again. She gripped the lapels of his bathrobe, jerked him forward and planted a brief, platonic kiss on his cheek. “Thanks for looking after Maude. It’s sweet, the way you are with her. And with Bryan.”

“That’s me. Sweet as apple pie.”

“See you later—on my run?”

He was suddenly looking forward to it. He glanced down at his own attire, a bathrobe over boxer shorts, and said, “I’ll even wear clothes.”

“Me, too.”

“Crying shame.”

She grinned at him and hurried to her car. Joshua watched until she was out of the driveway and out of sight down the road. Then he put the cat out, poured a cup of coffee and began checking the house for open windows.

Beth spent more time looking into the mirror than she usually did before a morning run, her hands a little too concerned about getting her higher than usual ponytail perfectly centered.

The moment she realized what she was doing, she scowled at her reflection. “What’s the matter with you? He’s a stranger.”

She pursed her lips, shrugged. “Well, he’s Maude’s grandson. That’s not exactly a stranger.”

Sighing, she brushed her teeth, then rinsed her mouth with mouthwash. Twice. And she used a triple coat of roll-on, because God forbid she should run into Joshua Kendall smelling of sweat.

“You’re pathetic,” she told her reflection. Then she tucked her itty-bitty derringer into the pocket of her maroon-and-white warm-up jacket, zipped it up to keep it there, and stepped out her front door into the brilliant autumn sunshine.

She could see her breath this morning. It was getting awfully cold for running. She was a diehard, though. She would push it until the snowbanks along the roadside made it too dangerous. Then she would haul her treadmill out of the storage space under her rented cottage, assemble it, oil it up and plug it in.

She started out slowly, building up to a stronger pace as her body warmed and her muscles limbered. She felt good today. Not in the usual way that running made her feel good, but in a new way—a way she hadn’t felt in a long time.

It was because of him. She wasn’t so naive that she didn’t know that. It was because a great-looking man with no apparent mental defects found her attractive. Imagine feeling so buoyant over something so juvenile.

Not that she was going to let it cloud her judgment or weaken her caution. If anything, the feeling made her even more wary. Not only didn’t she trust him, she was going to have to be very careful about trusting herself.

Still, the closer she got to Maude’s house, the more she had to fight to keep the smile from her face. And when she arrived there, and saw that both Maude and Joshua were waiting for her on the front porch, the smile was impossible to suppress.

She walked up the sidewalk, taking deep, lung-bursting breaths and blowing them out slowly, so she wouldn’t be panting when she got to them.

Joshua was on his feet, glancing at his watch. “Ten minutes early.”

“I didn’t know anyone was keeping track,” she said, mounting the steps.

He shrugged. “I was getting ready to worry in case you were late.”

“Don’t,” she told him. “Worrying about me is a waste of time.” She noted his clothes. “And you’re not running home with me again.”

“I’m not?”

She shook her head firmly. “No, you’re not.”

“And why not?”

“Because I have the feeling you’re trying to be protective of me for some reason. And I don’t like that. I resent it, in fact.”

“You do?”

She nodded. “Good morning, Maude.” She leaned over Maude and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“Morning, dear. Don’t be angry with Joshua for wanting to watch over you. I was the one who put him up to it.”

“And since when do you think I need watching over?”

She shrugged. “That car yesterday spooked me, I guess.” She reached for a pot and poured tea. “Today’s brew is for energy and heat, er, warmth, I mean. It’s going to be too cold for our outdoor tea parties soon,” she said, setting the pot down and rubbing her arms. She wore a heavy fleece sweater and a knit hat.

Beth sank into her chair and lifted the beautiful china cup, bringing it to her nose and sniffing. “Mmm…cinnamon?”

“Yes. And ginseng and cloves, with just a hint of vanilla.”

“It’s really delicious,” Joshua said.

Beth took a sip. “Mmm, it is. You’re brilliant, Maude.”

“You may not think so much longer,” Maude said.

“Why’s that?” Beth was curious, frowning from Maude to Joshua and back again.

“Well, my kitchen range is on the fritz. Now, I can get by with the hotplate and microwave for breakfast and lunch, but I had such a special dinner planned.”

Beth set her cup down. “I’ll take a look at it for you.”

“Don’t bother, Beth,” Joshua said. “I already looked it over. I’m afraid it’s gonna require professional help.”

“Really?”

He nodded. Maude nodded, too, very enthusiastically. “I’ve got a call in to Milt Rogers, in town, but he’s working on a furnace over in Pinedale today. Said he could come out first thing tomorrow. Which still brings me back to tonight’s dinner.” She smiled her sweetest smile. “I thought I’d just bring all the groceries over and cook dinner at your place,” she said with a firm nod. “That wouldn’t be any trouble for you, would it, Beth?”

Beth blinked and knew better than to argue. She couldn’t say she had plans to go out, because she never went out and Maude knew it. She couldn’t say she didn’t feel well, because if she were ill, she wouldn’t be running. And saying no for no reason at all would just be rude. So she smiled right back at Maude and said, “Of course it wouldn’t be any trouble.”

“I didn’t think so,” Maude told her. “Drink your tea, dear. It’s getting cold.”

The screen door creaked, and Bryan stepped out onto the porch. He wore sweatpants, a T-shirt, and his feet were bare. He wasn’t skinny like a lot of boys his age, she thought. The tight T-shirt revealed a physique that probably drove the girls his age wild. Not quite as nice as his father’s, but…

“Morning, Bryan,” Beth called, dragging her unruly thoughts to a halt.

He frowned at her. “Are you all crazy? It’s freezing out here.”

“Oh, I like to enjoy the outdoors while I can,” Maude said. “Soon enough it’ll be winter, and I’ll be cooped up in the house till spring. When I think about the snow to come, this autumn chill seems like nothing.”

“Winters pretty bad up here, are they, Maude?” Joshua asked.

Bryan reached back through the door and reemerged with a jacket in hand, one he pulled on quickly.

“We get hammered with snow and frozen with cold,” she said. “If you call that bad, then I guess they are. I think it keeps life interesting. Why, you never know when the first blizzard of the season is going to hit. It’s happened as early as mid-October and as late as mid-December. But it always happens.”

“Is there a betting pool?” Bryan asked with a grin.

“There are several,” Maude told him with a sly wink.

He laughed softly and came out farther, reached for an empty cup and then the teapot.

“Oh, you don’t want that, Bryan—” Maude began.

But he was already pouring. “Sure I do. I heard you say it makes you warm. I’m frozen.”

“Well, the tea might help,” Beth said, “but maybe some shoes and socks would help more.”

He grinned at her, curling his toes and sipping his tea. He seemed better this morning than he had before, Beth thought. Definitely not as sulky and brooding as he had been. Then again, he hadn’t been sulky or brooding at her place yesterday, either. Only around his father.

Maybe things were better between them today.

Beth finished her tea in a single gulp. It burned down her gullet.

“Well, I’d better go.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Josh drained his cup and put it down, getting to his feet.

Beth scowled at him. “Where are you going?”

“My morning jog.”

“Josh, I told you, I don’t want you coming back with me.”

“I’m not running with you. I’m running by myself. It’s a free country, and you don’t own the road.”

“But—”

“But nothing. If my morning jog happens to follow the same route as yours, that’s hardly deliberate.”

“You’re really pushing it, you know that?”

He smiled and winked at her. Beth hugged Maude goodbye and jogged down the steps, along the sidewalk and out to the road. Josh came right behind her.

He’d followed her, single file, for about fifty yards, when she finally rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder. “For God’s sake, you might as well come up beside me.”

He picked up the pace, drew up beside her. “If you insist. I was enjoying the view from back there, though.”

“Very funny.” She sighed, glanced sideways at him. “Why are you doing this, Josh?”

“Look, I care about Maude. And she cares about you. She’s worried, Beth. I mean, it’s not like her to hear noises in the middle of the night and get all nerved up like she did last night, is it?”

“No. At least, it’s never happened since I’ve known her.”

“It’s because of that car yesterday. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but that made her nervous. She’s got it in her head that whoever it was, was up to no good, and you know how she is when she gets something in her head.”

She nodded, her lips thinning. She did know. Arguing with Maude was about as practical as arguing with a bulldozer.

“So if it makes her feel a little better to have me watching out for you, then I’m willing to do it. Aren’t you?”

She narrowed her eyes on him. “And that’s all this is? You’re humoring Maude?”

“If I say it’s not, are you going to send me packing?”

She pursed her lips, thinking that over. “No. Not yet, anyway.”

“Okay. Maude isn’t the only reason I’m tagging along after you like a lonely pup. The truth is, I like you, Beth.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay? Just okay? Not even an ‘I like you, too, Josh’?”

She looked sideways at him. “You can tag along until we get to my house. Then you turn right around and jog your butt right back to Maude’s. Agreed?”

“Fine.”

She nodded. “My place is around the next bend. You want to race?”

Before he could reply, she took off at a sprint.

Chapter Six

Beth looked across her coffee table at Josh, who sat in an easy chair. Maude was in the kitchen, whipping up something that smelled wonderful. Beth caught glimpses of her beyond the archway in the kitchen and kept offering to help. Maude flat out refused. Bryan was at the small desk on the far side of the living room, using Beth’s computer to catch up with his e-mail.

“Thanks for letting Bry use your PC,” Joshua said. “He’s been bored out of his mind.”

“It’s not a problem. I certainly don’t mind him using my computer if he doesn’t mind using my screen name. Did you ever get hold of the local ISP?”

“Phoned them today. They’re ‘processing our application.’ But they said he should be able to log on by morning.”

“That’ll make him happy.”

Josh shrugged. “He thinks I should have upgraded him to wireless service.”

She smiled. “Typical teenager.”

“How’s he doing? With the tutoring, I mean?”

“We had a great session today. I assigned him Hamlet last night, and he’s already halfway through it. He’s smart, Josh. And he’s a good kid.”

“Thanks.”

She was quiet for a moment. The silence stretched, and it was awkward. She looked toward the kitchen. “I wish Maude would let us help.”

“I think she’s enjoying having people to take care of,” he said.

Beth nodded, knowing he was right about that. “So is there really anything wrong with her stove?”

Joshua looked alarmed. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, Josh, isn’t it obvious?” She shook her head at his puzzled look. “She’s been trying to fix me up with some ‘eligible young man’ ever since I met her. I’m afraid I was right in my earlier assumption. You are the newest candidate.”

“Oh, that.” He smiled as if to cover it, but she didn’t miss the look of relief that crossed his face. “So you still think she’s matchmaking.”

She shrugged. “I’m sure of it.”

“Do you mind?”

She shrugged. “I keep telling her I’m not in the market for a man.”

“Ouch.”

She looked up quickly. “I didn’t mean—”

He held up a hand, stopping her. “It’s okay. I’m not easily offended. Or dissuaded.”

She shrugged, not sure what to say to that. “Things seemed better between you and Bryan, this morning.”

“Changing the subject, huh?”

She raised her eyebrows, waiting.

“Actually, yeah, I think things are better. And I have you to thank for it.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“I tried what you suggested, talked to him about what was going on with me.”

“And it worked?”

He shrugged. “He didn’t respond in kind. Then again, he didn’t stomp away and slam a door on me, either. I call that progress.”

“It’s a start.”

The dull bleat of a cell phone came from Beth’s purse, which was hanging from a hook in the tiny foyer, near the door. She crossed the living room, dug it out and answered.

“Hey, Beth? It’s me. Is everything okay there?”

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