Sweet Talk

It was neither snowing nor raining when Val awoke the morning of November 4; sunshine peeked through the slats of the vertical blinds at her bedroom windows, creating long, thin lines on the far wall. She opened her eyes and lay there thinking. Today was Election Day and she was going to vote if it killed her.

It wouldn’t, of course, no more than her being part of Jinni’s wedding had. Other than that one fleeting weak spell, she had come through it like a trooper. Still, she hadn’t been really active since she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The whole thing had been a physically and emotionally draining ordeal, from the initial diagnosis to the day she’d heard her oncologist say, “There is no longer any sign of cancer, Valerie.”

She had been trying very hard to believe it was true, trying almost desperately to trust in her doctor’s prognosis, but she could not completely rid herself of doubt, fear and worry that it could come back. Every so often anxiety grabbed her in a viselike grip and wouldn’t let go, sometimes for days. She hated when that happened, but she hadn’t yet figured out a way to prevent the depressing occurrences. It was Jinni’s opinion that Val’s fear was a normal part of the healing process and would vanish in time. Val hoped so.

Lazily lying there, she found her thoughts drifting from her health concerns to the wonderful time Jinni and Max were undoubtedly having on their honeymoon, and then—for some unknown reason—to her parents. The Fairchilds hadn’t been terrible parents, merely uninterested and self-absorbed. Wealthy and generous, they had sent their daughters to the best schools in the country, when neither had wanted to leave home.

It was one of the topics she and Jinni had discussed at great length. They’d finally decided that their parents, now deceased, had loved them in their own way; it simply wasn’t the way kids needed to be loved.

“It’s what turned you into an animal doc,” Jinni had said matter-of-factly. “Pets love unconditionally. Neither of us got that from Mother and Dad.”

“You could be right, but it didn’t turn you into an animal doc,” Val had wryly pointed out. She could have explained—or tried to explain—that veterinary school was the aftermath of the nightmarish episode that had nearly destroyed her at age twenty-two, followed by long-term psychiatric counseling. Working with animals, which she had always loved, had been her escape, Val had later realized. Her primary therapist had recognized that and pushed to get her headed in a productive direction. Veterinary school had given her a goal, a reason to go on, a nudge back to normalcy.

It had only worked to a certain point, however. Val saw herself as a divided personality now, with one part hiding behind the other. Her strong side could make friends with undemanding people—folks like Jim and Estelle—run her business, lovingly care for sick animals and put up a darn good front for anyone curious enough to wonder what made Dr. Fairchild tick. There really was only one person in Rumor with any genuine—or maybe unnatural—curiosity about her, Val knew, and there was no way she was going to let Reed Kingsley get close enough to penetrate her facade of strength and get to her soft, vulnerable underbelly.

What she had to keep asking herself was why would a man who seemed to have it all bother with a woman like her? Had she ever given him more than a remote, polite smile? Or any reason to think she might be an easy mark? Never! He had to be flawed in some invisible way, which was one more reason to keep a safe distance between them. One of these days her disdain for his unwanted attentions would sink in. What in God’s name had he thought she would do when he’d asked her at the church if she was going straight home—simper over the possibility of spending the rest of the evening with him? Maybe the rest of the night? What a jerk!

Snorting disgustedly, suddenly tired of dissecting life in general and herself specifically, she threw back the covers, got up and headed for the shower.

Twenty minutes later, dressed in jeans and a bright yellow cotton sweater, she walked into the kitchen and smiled at Estelle, who had arrived while Val was in the bathroom.

“Good morning. That coffee smells wonderful.”

“I brought some homemade coffee cake for your breakfast. You’re getting too skinny,” Estelle said.

Val stuck her forefinger into the waistband of her jeans and pulled it away from her body. There was about a two-inch gap. “These used to be tight,” she said.

“Well, you’re not eating enough. Sit down and I’ll fix you some eggs to go with that coffee cake.”

Val let her. Sometimes she liked being fussed over, and Estelle was a natural-born mother, certainly one of the kindest women Val had ever met. It had been a lucky day, indeed, when Jim and Estelle Worth had knocked on her door with a copy of the Rumor Mill, in which Val had placed a help-wanted ad.

Holding her cup of coffee in both hands, with her elbows on the table, Val asked, “Did you ride in with Jim today, or did you drive your own car?”

“I rode with Jim. Now, don’t you go worrying about a thing over at the clinic. I’m sure Jim has everything under control.”

Val smiled. “I’m sure he does.”

“We came in early to vote. Already did it.”

“Well, that’s where I’m going right after breakfast.”

“Glad to hear it. Oh, are you feeling up to a bit of shopping? We need some things if I’m going to do any real cooking today. Jim can do it if you’re not feeling well today.”

“I’m feeling fine, Estelle. Write up a list. I’ll take it with me and go to MonMart right after I vote.”

“Wonderful. I like seeing you getting out and about.”

“I like it, too,” Val murmured.

She looked out the window while she ate Estelle’s delicious scrambled eggs and homemade coffee cake. Her yard looked like fall. Mums and marigolds, the hardiest of plants, still bore scattered blooms, but there’d been enough heavy frosts at night to decimate everyone’s flower gardens. Still, it was her yard and she loved it, just as she loved her house. Jinni had thought the ranch house quaint when she first saw it, but Val thought it perfect for Rumor.

After vet school she had looked for a place to move and set up a practice. She’d found an ad in a trade journal that piqued her interest—an established small-animal clinic in a small town in Montana. After calling the man who was selling and bombarding him with questions, she had made the trip to Rumor and looked everything over for herself. Indeed, the town was small. She had never lived in a town without stoplights and heavy traffic, and Rumor, along with its surrounding countryside boasting so much incredible scenery, had struck Val as utterly charming. Money was not one of her problems; her parents had left her and Jinni very well off. She had made an offer for the clinic, which the owner accepted, and the day she’d arrived in Rumor she had looked for a reputable building contractor. The rather run-down clinic had become the modern and attractive Animal Hospital, and while those renovations were going on, her house had been built on the vacant land that had been included in her purchase.

So she had never thought of her house as quaint; to her it was warm and cozy and comfortable. Jinni would be much happier living in Max Cantrell’s fabulous mansion than she could ever be in a cozy little ranch house like this one, Val knew, but for her needs it was perfect.

Finished with breakfast, she got up and carried her dishes to the sink. Estelle immediately tut-tutted. “If you do the work around here, what do you need me for? Here’s the grocery list. Go vote and have a good time shopping.”

Laughing, Val took the list and went for her purse. Before leaving the house she told Estelle, “I’m going over to the clinic for a minute to check on those pups born yesterday. Then I’ll be gone…probably for a couple hours.”

“Take your time,” Estelle advised. “Relax and enjoy the day. It’s another beauty, and this weather won’t last much longer.”

Everyone said it, over and over again. Chuckling under her breath, Val left the house and walked toward her animal clinic. Everything might not be perfect in her world, but she was thankful for what was.

Chapter Two

Life was good for Reed Kingsley, and he knew it. He also knew that if some calamity should suddenly destroy his parents’ great wealth, and his own, he would still have a good life. Reed believed that his greatest personal asset was a genuine fondness for the human race. In simple terms, he liked people.

Reed considered his having grown up on a ranch to be a stroke of luck, since he had loved country living from the time he was big enough to sit a horse. In his heart, though, he believed he would have derived a connection to the land if home had been a two-acre operation instead of the many thousands making up the Kingsley Ranch.

That attitude wasn’t due to a lack of respect for his family’s good fortune. Nothing had ever been handed to the Kingsleys free of charge. The family had worked hard to make their ranch successful, and the fact that it was the biggest and most productive in the area was merely a result of their efforts.

Now, of course, the elder Kingsleys were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. At age sixty-five, Stratton, Reed’s father, still mounted a horse and checked on the herds of healthy, hardy cattle in his fields, but not with the dedicated regularity of his early years. Stratton was becoming a gentleman rancher, a little more so each year. He had good men working for him, young cowboys full of vinegar, and the rides he took these days were more for enjoyment than necessity.

Then, too, he had MonMart on his mind. The immense discount store in Rumor was the flagship for what would soon become a national chain. Russell, Reed’s older brother, was the driving force behind MonMart’s inception and rapid expansion. Stratton was content to leave the kudos for MonMart’s astounding success to Russell—and most of the enormous responsibility, as well. He showed up at the administrative offices just often enough to keep his fingers in the pot and let everyone know that he backed his eldest son one hundred percent.

Reed couldn’t boast of anything as audacious as MonMart as a personal accomplishment, but then, he wasn’t the spitting image of his father, either, as Russell was. Russell could talk cattle, horses, land, irrigation and anything else that went with ranching but it was all business to him. To Reed the land was so much more than a means to make money.

Reed had never envied Russell’s business acumen or his younger brother Taggart’s long-ago declared and seemingly permanent independence from the family coffers. Tag was happily married and made his living as a carpenter—an extremely competent carpenter, by all accounts. In his own way, Tag was as much of a success as Russell, their father and Reed himself.

Reed also had a sister, Maura, and he considered Jeff Forsythe, who’d been in the family since age six, as another brother. All the Kingsley kids were married or engaged, except for Reed. Not that it bothered him to be the only hold-out. After all, his siblings had fallen in love and he hadn’t. He sure wasn’t going to get hitched just to join the pack.

Besides, he was happy as he was, content with his routines. For instance, he drove from his house—built awhile back on Kingsley land, same as Russell’s house was—to his parents’ home for early morning coffee. Carolyn, his mother, sometimes slept in, but usually she was up and active, planning her day and willing to talk about it. Stratton was always awake early, usually with plenty to say about the ranch, the MonMart chain, the family, the national and global news, or any other subject that might arise. It was a good way to start the day, and Reed rarely missed a morning.

Sometimes he did work at the ranch for his dad, and after that he drove to Rumor and put in a few hours at MonMart. Russell seemed to appreciate his input, and Reed enjoyed his time at the superstore.

Then he almost always went by the volunteer fire station. He was Rumor’s fire chief and even when no one else was at the station, he liked checking equipment and making sure everything was in order. Last summer’s fire had devastated the landscape for miles around and could have been worse; it could have turned and destroyed the town. It was a sobering thought, and Reed knew that while he’d always taken his job as fire chief seriously, the Rumor fire intensified his dedication to civic duty hugely.

This morning, Election Day, he drank coffee with his folks and discussed the candidates on the ballot. Around nine he drove to the Rumor courthouse, where voting booths had been set up in the lobby. He voted, then chatted with everyone he ran into, and finally turned his SUV back the way he’d come, toward MonMart. The superstore sat on twenty acres of lush, heavily treed land four miles from the center of town. Five acres were paved; the remaining acreage was gradually being turned into a park with bike paths and hiking trails. The store itself was Russell’s baby, but the park was Reed’s. Before the fire, his idea had been a good one. But after the conflagration that had blackened so much land south and southeast of town, it had mushroomed to greatness.

People already used the park, even though Reed didn’t consider it finished. Much of the underbrush had been cleared and some trails created, along with one bike path around the perimeter. But his plans included hiking trails crisscrossing the property, picnic areas, playgrounds for the younger set and a special area for youthful bikers and skateboarders. Also, he wanted to add plants and trees to spots of sparse vegetation. He had gone to the Billings office of the U.S. Forest Service and picked up several books and pamphlets about indigenous vegetation, so that along with what he already knew about the subject, he was able to lay out a sophisticated but sensible landscape blueprint.

His mother had become interested in the project and offered her services. Carolyn felt the town should be involved in both labor and finance. “People will feel a much stronger bond with the park if they help in some way to develop it, Reed,” she had told him.

He couldn’t disagree. His mother worked tirelessly for several fine charities, and he gladly turned over the financial end of the park’s development to her. Rumor Park, as he thought of it—though he would really like someone to come up with a more meaningful name—was going to belong to the people of Rumor. Once completed, it would be ceremoniously presented to the town. In the meantime, Carolyn was seeking the approval and assistance of state and national environmental groups and, to arouse further local interest and enthusiasm for the project, was planning a Christmas ball. It would be a swank affair—the likes of which had never before been seen in Rumor—and would be held in enormous, heated tents set up on a good-size area of MonMart’s parking lot. The decorations were going to be spectacular, and tickets were already sold out.

Reed grinned when he pulled into MonMart’s busy parking lot and envisioned the glamorous event, which was scheduled for the second week of December. The bank account that had been opened for park funds contained a large sum of money, and by spring, Rumor Park would be finished. Just thinking about it delivered a thrill to his system. He loved being involved in community affairs, and he sometimes wondered if he shouldn’t run for public office.

But then he would be tied to one job, and ever since high school he’d been happiest when juggling a dozen different duties and responsibilities.

After parking in the employees’ lot to the right of the store, he went in, whistling between his teeth. He felt so good it had to be a crime, he thought, grinning at the first person he saw. The young woman smiled back and said, “Good morning, Mr. Kingsley.”

“’Morning, Lois.” He went upstairs to the administration offices and stopped in at the video room, where a security officer kept an eye on a dozen monitors, the output of the surveillance cameras placed around the store. It was too bad that retailers had to guard against theft, but shoplifting was a national scandal, and even in a nice little town like Rumor some people couldn’t resist the temptation of sneaking goods into a pocket or handbag.

“How’s it going this morning?” Reed jauntily asked Homer, the computer whiz manning the equipment today.

“Same as always,” Homer replied with a big grin. “Busy downstairs. Looks like folks are getting an early start on Christmas shopping this year.”

Reed glanced at the monitors and nodded. “It does, doesn’t it? Goods have been pouring in and going out so fast it’s a race to keep the shelves stocked.”

“Well, you can’t knock success,” Homer drawled.

“Nope, sure can’t.” Reed made a move to leave, but then stopped short. He narrowed his eyes on a screen and bent closer to it. Was that woman in aisle twelve Valerie Fairchild? It was! His pulse quickened. Went a little bit wild, actually. Just the sight of her shopping made his blood run faster. He remembered his vow to leave her be, to never put himself in the position of being turned down by her again, but clinging to that oath while watching her with his own eyes wasn’t easy.

“What’s so interesting?” Homer asked, and took a look at the monitor Reed couldn’t seem to tug his eyes away from. “Did you spot something?”

“Just someone I know.” Reed pulled himself together. “See you later, Homer.” He hurried out and went to his office. But instead of sitting at his desk and doing something productive, he paced the floor and thought about Val. He’d felt so damn good not ten minutes ago. Now he ached all over, and he resented losing his fabulous mood over something so mundane as Valerie Fairchild doing her weekly grocery shopping.

By damn, he had every right to walk any aisle in the place! If he just happened to run into her—it had happened before—what could she do but be nice?

Groaning over Valerie’s polished ability to be nice and ice-cold at the same time, Reed told himself to forget it. To forget her! Why couldn’t he? He’d known women who were more beautiful, possibly women with more sex appeal, but she was the one he couldn’t get out of his mind.

Leaving his office to get himself a cup of coffee at the snack bar down the hall, he passed the surveillance room and couldn’t resist checking the monitors again to see where Val was now. Homer looked at him curiously, but Reed ignored him and searched each monitor screen until he found her. She was in the canned goods aisle, and she was… Bending over, he peered more closely at the image. What was she doing? It looked as if she was leaning against the shelves, but why would…

It hit Reed like a ton of bricks. Running from the room, he took the stairs two at a time, then rushed through the store like a madman. Everyone in town knew that Dr. Fairchild was recovering from breast cancer, and obviously she wasn’t fully recovered yet or she wouldn’t be propped against a damn shelf!

Reed hit the aisle running, saw Val still leaning there with her eyes shut, and hurried toward her. Bending low enough to anchor his left arm behind her knees, he scooped her in the air.

Val was so startled she just hung on while Reed Kingsley hurriedly strode to the front of the store, leaving her cart of groceries behind. Everyone they passed stopped dead in their tracks to stare, and her fury sprouted and grew. She was so furious by the time they went through the large automatic doors and outside that she could have cheerfully murdered the odious jerk intent on saving her from…from what? My God, she thought, with tears burning her eyes, this incident would be the talk of the town in five minutes!

“Put me down,” she said in a lethally low and hoarse voice, afraid that if she spoke with greater volume she would screech loud enough to wake the dead in the Rumor cemetery. She could feel her shoulder bag bumping against his leg as he walked, and wished it were sharp and pointed and beating a hole in his thigh. Maybe it was a cruel thought, but she had never been so embarrassed in her life.

“In a second,” Reed said. “You need some fresh air.” He kept going, heading for Val’s bright blue SUV. He recognized most of the vehicles around town, so it was no great feat to pick out Val’s in the nearly full parking lot.

People who were transferring purchases from carts to their vehicles stopped to study the sight of Reed Kingsley carrying Valerie Fairchild through the organized maze of parked cars and trucks.

While they gawked, Val seriously—hysterically—considered slapping Reed Kingsley silly, which was exactly what he deserved. But that would only give friends, neighbors and complete strangers something else to stare at. She wasn’t helpless; she knew she could wriggle and squirm and force him to put her down. But that would create another scene, and some of these shoppers were pet owners who brought their cats and dogs to the Animal Hospital. They knew her as the animal doc. Years from now they would still think of her in this debasing situation whenever they brought Snookums or Buffy or Killer in for a shot or some other procedure. She would never live this down—not ever!

Her only usable weapon was her voice and she went for it. “I wish I could think of some way to hate you more than I do at this moment,” she said in the same deadly tone she’d used before.

Reed was so shocked he nearly dropped her. He stopped walking and let her feet slide to the pavement. “I…I sure as hell didn’t do this to make you hate me,” he mumbled.

She wasn’t quite steady on her feet and reached out to the closest car, grabbing it for support. She had enough strength to glare into this wannabe rescuer’s eyes, though, with a look in her own that could have curdled milk. “What in hell did you think was going on in there?” she spat.

“You looked faint. You’re still pale.”

“I am not pale, and I wasn’t going to faint. How dare you humiliate me in front of the whole town? What do you do—imagine yourself as some kind of knight in shining armor, running around saving damsels in distress? You should be locked up!”

Reed was so shaken by her fury he could barely think at all, let alone come up with a reply. He’d honestly thought she needed help; obviously he’d made a huge mistake. He felt sick about it.

“I—I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I really thought—”

“Go to hell!” She let go of the strange car and walked the short distance to her own.

“Wait! What about your groceries?” Reed called.

“Put everything back on the shelf or shove them where the sun don’t shine! I wouldn’t go back in there if the damn stuff was free!” Val got behind the wheel of her SUV, started the engine and backed out of her parking space. Her eyes were burning like fire, but that Kingsley jerk was still watching her and she would rather drown in her own salty tears than let him see her wiping them away.

Reed realized the enormity of his act when he returned to the store and found that everyone he met asked him what had happened. The incident would be the talk of the town for days, and he had smeared Val’s reputation by assuming something that wasn’t true. She hadn’t been feeling faint, she’d coldly told him; she’d been…what? She’d denied without explaining, but what would cause a woman to lean against shelving in a store?

Mumbling evasive answers to the curious, Reed hurried toward the stairs to the second floor. But when he remembered Val’s cart, he made a U-turn. It was right where she had left it. Right where he had caused her to leave it.

“Damn,” he muttered under his breath. The basket was loaded with meat, vegetables, dairy products, fruit and bakery goods. She’d done a lot of shopping, probably filling a weekly grocery list. And there it all sat. Would she calm down and come back for it?

“She won’t have to,” he said under his breath, pushing the cart toward the front of the store. At the first available checkout stand, he unloaded the pile of groceries and told the clerk to put the cost on his account, bag it and have it delivered to his office. He wasn’t sure what to do with it but he figured he’d think of something.