The Next Always

CHAPTER SIXTEEN




FOR THE SECOND TIME IN TWO DAYS, CLARE OPENED THE door of the bookstore early. But this time she did it with a smile on her face.

“Hi. I just got in. It’ll be a couple minutes yet for coffee.”

“That’s not why I’m here.” Beckett shut the door behind him.

“Oh, something’s wrong.” Instinctively she reached for his hand. “Is there trouble at the inn?”

“No. I want to know why you didn’t tell me about Sam Freemont.”

Damn it, Avery. Resentment laced with irritation rolled in first. “It wasn’t something I wanted to talk about.”

She moved behind the counter. Maybe he didn’t want coffee, but she did. Plus it gave her both a little distance and something to do with her hands.

“You mean it wasn’t something you wanted to talk about with me.”

“Or at all. It was an uncomfortable situation. Dealing with the public means I deal with uncomfortable situations from time to time.”

“How many times do you have a customer trap you in here alone and put his hands on you?”

“I wasn’t trapped.” She refused to think of herself that way. Trapped or helpless. “And it was my own fault for opening the door in the first place.”

“Why the hell did you?”

Since she’d berated herself a dozen times since, the sharp, sharp question struck like a slap. She responded in kind. “Look, Beckett, it was knee-jerk. A customer at the door, and someone I knew.”

“Someone you know who’d already been coming on to you, annoying you.”

“Yes, and in hindsight I shouldn’t have let him in. You’d better believe I won’t make that mistake again. I made that clear to him, and to Avery. She shouldn’t have gone running to you about this. It’s my business.”

“Is that how it is? I’m supposed to stay out of your business?”

She let out a sound of impatience. “That’s not what I meant.”

“That’s what you said, and that’s how it strikes me, all the way through.”

She felt trapped again, this time by too much concern and what she judged as out-of-place anger.

“You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”

“I don’t think so. Anytime I want to give you a hand with something, I have to talk you into it.”

“I don’t want to take advantage of—”

“Why the hell not? We’re sleeping together—when we get the chance.”

“That doesn’t mean I want or expect you to deal with things I’m perfectly capable of dealing with myself. I appreciate your help, you know I do, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to start depending on you to take care of me.”

The beat of silence that followed tolled like a bell.

“Couples take care of each other, Clare, that’s what makes them a couple. And couples tell each other when something happens that scares them.”

“Really, Beckett, really. You’re making this a bigger deal than it is. Avery—”

“Don’t put this off on Avery. Did Freemont leave when you told him to leave?”

“No.”

“Did he stop touching you when you told him to knock it off?”

“He didn’t really—” Yes, he had, she admitted. Why compound stupidity with denial. “No. He won’t come in here again. He won’t be allowed. I told my staff.”

That cut, he realized. Just kept slicing. “You told your staff, but you didn’t tell me.”

“Oh, Beckett.” Frustrated, and with rising guilt she didn’t want to feel, she threw up her hands. “I just told them he’d been rude and obnoxious that morning, and was banned from the store. I didn’t give them chapter and verse. And you know, this really isn’t about you. It’s about me.”

“It’s about us. It’s about trust.”

“I trust you, of course I trust you. I guess, bottom line is I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d be upset and mad, and it would become this enormous thing. Now you are, and it is, which doesn’t change the fact Sam was a complete jerk, and I kicked him out of my store.”

“Could you have kicked him out if Avery hadn’t come to the door?”

“She did, so—”

“That doesn’t answer the question. You should be able to give me that much, Clare. You should be able to give yourself that much.”

It mortified her because she didn’t know, just wasn’t sure of the answer. “I think . . . I think the situation would have become more difficult and—and fraught, but—”

“Fraught.” Eyes on hers, he nodded slowly. “That’s a word for it.”

“I’d have gotten him to leave, Beckett. I always do.”

“Always?” Beckett laid his hands on the counter between them. “There’s another word. He’s done this before.”

“Not exactly this, no. He makes a pest of himself, and yes, it’s irritating and annoying—and maybe a little creepy, too. He’s just got this idea stuck in his head that if he keeps asking me out, I’ll just give in and go. Which is never going to happen.”

“Has he come to your house?”

She thought of the weekend with stomach flu and bored children. And that hadn’t been the first time. “Yes, but I—”

“Goddamn it.”

“Beckett—”

“He’s more than a pest, Clare. He’s harassing you, and it needs to stop. You have to call the police.”

“I don’t want to do that. I just don’t.”

“You’re smarter than this.” He turned away, paced to the stacks. She could actually see him struggle for control. But there was still plenty of fire in his eyes when he walked back to her.

“Let me lay this out for you. He comes in here when you’re alone.”

“I let him in. I made the mistake.”

“Regardless. He pressures you, as he has before, to go out with him. You decline. You ask him to leave. He won’t. Then he scares and intimidates you by trapping you here at the counter. You tell him to stop, he doesn’t. You tell him to leave, he doesn’t. He put his hands on you, and you can’t be sure what might have happened if Avery hadn’t come to the door. Is that accurate?”

“Beckett—” Something in his face stopped her from making more excuses. Because he was right, she admitted. And she was smarter than this.

“Yes, accurate enough. But he didn’t hurt me, or even come close to hurting me.”

“If Avery hadn’t come along, he might have. He comes here, he comes to your house. Think about that, then think about your kids and what it would be like for them if things had gotten more out of hand here, if anything had happened to you.”

“That’s not fair. It’s not fair to bring the boys into this.”

“The hell it isn’t. If this is about you, it’s about them. You call the town cops, you tell them exactly what happened. Then it’s on record. You want this to stop. That’s a step to making it stop. It’s obvious he isn’t going to listen to you. Maybe he doesn’t come here to the store next time. Maybe he drops by your house again. Your kids like to answer the door. Think about what might happen if one of them lets him in.”

“Now you’re trying to scare me. Good job,” she muttered. “All right, I’ll call the police, tell them what happened. Mostly because you’re right—he doesn’t listen to me. He doesn’t take my refusals and disinterest seriously. I guess if I do this, he might.”

“Good, and I have a feeling he’ll take me more seriously.”

“I knew it.” She jabbed a finger at him. “You’ve just got to go confront him. Make it an issue.”

“Clare, for Christ’s sake.”

The tone, a kind of weary patience she often heard in her own voice when her children behaved like morons, might have amused her under any other circumstances.

“It is an issue. You think I’m going to go call him out? Beat him up?”

“Aren’t you?” she demanded.

“It would be satisfying, and I admit it was my own knee-jerk response. But no, that’s not what I’m going to do. What I am going to do is talk to him, make it clear if he bothers you again, there’ll be consequences.”

“So if he bothers me again, then you’ll beat him up?”

He had to smile. “That’s possible to likely. We’re involved, you and me. You matter. I’m telling you what I’m going to do because I figure when people are involved, when they matter, they tell each other.”

Something in what he said struck a chord with her, and opened a void. Think about it later, she told herself. Deal with now. “I don’t see how picking a fight with him is an answer.”

“Clare.” Firmly, he covered her hands with his. “I didn’t pick the fight. Neither did you. Now you do what you have to do. Make the call. I’ll do what I have to do. Then, if Sam’s got any common sense, or sense of self-preservation, he’ll leave you alone.” He gave her hands a light squeeze before releasing them.

“You can be pissed at me for a while,” he told her. “I’m still a little pissed at you. We’ll get over it.”

“You know what I’ve always noticed about you and your brothers? The hard heads, and the unassailable certainty that you always know the answer.”

“When you know the answer, it’s not being hardheaded. It’s just being right.” He went to the door, opened it. “You’re the woman in my life,” he said. “Another thing about me and my brothers? We look after the women in our lives. We don’t know any other way.”

He went out, stuck his hands in his pockets, crossed the street. He was more than a little pissed off, he admitted. At her, at f*cking Sam Freemont, at the whole screwed-up situation.

He knew how to put on the calm when he had to. Knew how to exert some self-control even when he didn’t want to.

He went through the inn, looking for one or both of his brothers. His pleasure at the sight and smell of paint, of men busy at work, couldn’t quite cut through the fury still balled in his gut.

He caught the scent of honeysuckle as he topped the second floor—and heard the porch door swing open in E&D.

“Not now,” he muttered, and kept going up to three. He found Ryder in the innkeeper’s kitchen setting the first of the cabinets.

“Good, give me a hand.”

“I’m heading up to Hagerstown.”

“Give me a hand anyway. Let’s get this first one up. How’d it go with Clare?”

“You don’t know people till you know them. Isn’t that what Dad always said?” He braced the cabinet on the marks while Ryder got the drill. “She’s got a bigger stubborn streak than I ever noticed.”

“Let me ask you a question. How many women have you known who didn’t have a stubborn streak?”

Beckett thought it over. “Good point. But she’s calling the cops. She doesn’t want to, and she’s pissed I found the right lever to push her to do it.”

Ryder drilled the first screw home. “You used the kids, didn’t you?”

“That’s her weak point, so yeah. Plus, I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. And she’s pissed I’m going up to talk to Freemont.”

“Told you not to tell her.”

“That’s not how I work things. That’s not how you build a relationship.”

“Build a relationship.” Ryder snorted as he sent the drill whirling. “You’ve been reading again.”

“Blow me.” He glanced around as Owen came in.

“Guys downstairs said you blew right through, so I figure you’d talked to Clare.”

“Yeah, I talked to her. I’m heading up to talk to Sam.”

“Good. Are you sure you don’t want backup?”

“I can handle Freemont.”

“He practiced fighting with Clare first,” Ryder said as he checked the level of the cabinet.

“Well,” Owen shrugged, “she’s wrong.”

“I don’t know how you guys missed the memo, but it doesn’t mean dick when a woman’s wrong. Flowers,” Ryder told Beckett.

“I’m not buying her flowers. She ought to buy me flowers. She screwed up, and I don’t care about the goddamn memo.”

Ryder just shook his head when Beckett stormed out. “You know, for twenty bucks’ worth of daisies or whatever, he could smooth a lot of this over.”

“He’s standing on principle.”

“Yeah, and a man who stands on principle doesn’t get laid.” He finished the first cabinet, stood back to take a look. “Let’s get the rest of the top run up.”

“I’m supposed to meet Hope over at Vesta at ten. Avery’s letting us use the back room to go over the reservation software.”

“So, she can wait a few minutes. You’re not planning to bang her, are you?”

“Jesus, I’m not going to bang our innkeeper.”

“Then you won’t have to buy her flowers if you’re late. Let’s get these up.”




BECKETT FOUND HIS calm again on the drive up the Sharpsburg Pike. In his experience you got more results with flat reason than angry confrontation. He just had to keep reminding himself he wanted results and not the satisfaction of a fight.

Not that he couldn’t take lame-assed Sam Freemont—which he had on one memorable occasion in sophomore, no junior year, he remembered, when the bastard had tried to shake down little Denny Moser over Denny’s homework.

And that, he recalled, had taken only one punch.

He remembered, too, Freemont had gone whining to Assistant Principal Klein, but with Denny backing him up, Beckett hadn’t gotten in any particular trouble.

Freemont tended to steer clear of the Montgomerys, he thought as he pulled into the car dealership. Beckett doubted Freemont would be pleased to see him there, on his own turf.

Beckett headed straight into the showroom with its shiny, new, spotlighted cars. Before he’d done more than glance around, one of the salesmen hotfooted over.

“Good morning! It’s a great day for a new car. What can I put you into today?”

“I’m not after a car. I’m looking for Sam Freemont.”

The salesman’s smile stayed in place, but his eyes lost their light. “He should be back in his office. I can have him called out.”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll go on back. Where’s his office?”

The man gestured. “Back there, turn left. He’s all the way down. The corner office.”

“Thanks.”

Beckett worked his way down past empty offices, or others where salesmen manned phones or computers. He found Sam with his feet up on his desk, paging through a copy of GQ.

Figured.

“Sorry to interrupt since I see you’re so busy.”

Sam looked up. The sneer came first, just a quick twist of the mouth as he slowly set his feet on the floor. “Looking for a new pickup? We’ve got a basic economy model that should suit you. No frills for the working stiff.”

“Nice sales pitch.” Beckett stepped in, closed the door.

“Leave the door open.”

“Fine, if you want everybody to hear this.” Obliging, Beckett opened the door again. He thought about remaining standing, then opted for the more casual, even careless mode, and sat.

“Unless you’re here to buy a car, I’m busy.”

“Yeah, checking out the latest fashion in ties. This won’t take long, then you can get back to it. You crossed a line with Clare yesterday.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know you’ve been—let’s just call it pestering her.” Insulting word, Beckett thought. The action of a child, not a man. “And you haven’t taken no for an answer. She’s not interested in you.”

“You’re speaking for her now?”

“I’m speaking for me. She’s already spoken for herself. I’m speaking for me when I tell you to leave her alone.”

“Or what?” Sam flicked at his lapel. “Did you come here to threaten me? Do you think you worry me?”

“Yeah, I think I worry you. I think you’re smart enough for that. It’s pretty simple. You’ve been trying to push yourself on Clare. She doesn’t want it. You’re going to stop.”

“You don’t give orders to me.”

To test, Beckett shifted in his chair, and watched Sam jerk back.

“I’m laying out the facts. Clare’s off-limits. That’s it.”

“Because you say so? Because she’s decided to try a little slumming with you?” Heat spread over his cheekbones in red patches that clashed with his tie. “It’s no business of yours if Clare and I had a slight misunderstanding yesterday.”

Some people don’t change, Beckett realized. He was pretty sure Sam had used the slight misunderstanding gambit to Assistant Principal Klein to explain his harassment of Denny Moser.

“It’s completely my business, and she’s explaining your slight misunderstanding to the town cops right about now.”

Sam’s color surged hot, bright, then drained. “She’d never do that.”

“Don’t come around her again. You don’t live in town, Sam. You’ve got no reason to be in Boonsboro anyway.”

“You think you own the town now?”

“I think Clare means more to me than Denny Moser did. Not that I didn’t like him,” Beckett said easily. “Still do. But if you try anything with Clare again, you’ll find out how much more she means to me.”

Beckett got to his feet.

“You’ll be sorry you threatened me.”

“I haven’t threatened you. I won’t. Let’s hope you don’t put me in a position where I have to act. Nice tie,” he added, and strolled out.




HE DIDN’T BUY her flowers—that was too much of a capitulation to Ryder. He bought her a plant. A plant wasn’t flowers, even if it had flowers.

He filled out a little card.

No blood spilled.

Beckett



Not an apology, he decided. A statement and a token. No point in anybody being pissed off when they’d both done what needed to be done.

He dropped it off at the bookstore, mostly he admitted, so his brothers wouldn’t see it and lord it over him.

“Clare’s in the back with a customer,” Cassie told him. “I’ll tell her you’re here.”

“No, I’m just dropping this off for her. I’ve got to get to work.”

“It’s so pretty. I love African violets. What’s the occasion?”

“Nothing.”

“Just because? Those are the best.”

“Yeah, well. Gotta go.”

He escaped.

When he got back up to the third floor, Ryder had nearly finished. It seemed just a little surreal, Beckett realized, like he’d passed through a small time warp.

“So?”

“He was his usual self. An a*shole. But he got the message.”

“Good, now maybe we can concentrate on work.”

“Suits me.”

They worked through the morning, into the afternoon. He paused in his install of rods and hooks in the bedroom closets of the apartment when he heard female voices.

When he stuck his head out he saw Hope, Avery, and Clare huddled in the kitchen.

“Ladies.”

“Owen said you’d probably be finished with the cabinets.” Hope closed the cabinet door she’d poked in. “They look nice.”

“We’re going to drag her down to look at furniture later,” Avery told him, “but we’ve heard the tile work up in The Penthouse looks great so far. We want to go see.”

“They’re working in there now, but you can go up, take a look.”

“Go ahead.” Clare kept her eyes on Beckett’s. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

Avery gave Beckett a quick thumbs-up behind Clare’s back, then pulled Hope out of the apartment.

“You and Avery are okay?”

“She and Hope ganged up on me. We were worried about you, and so on. It’s hard to argue with sincerity and real concern. I gave it a pretty good shot, like I did with you.”

“What did the cops say?”

“I talked to Charlie Reeder. He didn’t like it any more than you did. Still, there’s not a lot they can do. As I said, I let him in, he didn’t hurt me. He didn’t threaten me. But they have it on record, and if he comes back, I can take out a restraining order. They’ll talk to him if it comes to that. Actually, I have a feeling Charlie’s going to talk to him anyway. I seem to have that effect on people.”

“Sincere and real concern.”

“Mmm-hmm. And you talked to Sam.”

“We had a conversation, and he knows the way things are. It was quick, simple, to the point.”

“And bloodless, according to the African violet.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you buy me the plant to soften me up?”

Setting the tool down, he crossed to her. “I bought it so you’d understand we don’t have anything to fight about.”

“It worked. So did something you said when you were lecturing me.”

“I wasn’t . . . maybe I was.”

“You said couples tell each other their problems. I had to ask myself if I’ve just forgotten how to be a couple. But the fact is, Clint was gone for half our marriage. And when he was gone, he was dealing with life and death, every single day. I got out of the habit of telling him about problems on the homefront. Why should he worry, with all he dealt with, if one of the kids had a fever, or if the toilet overflowed or the roof sprang a leak?”

“You got used to running things on your own.”

“What could he do about it when he’s in Iraq and the car breaks down in Kansas?”

Beckett gave her a long, quiet look. “I’m not in Iraq.”

“No, and it has to be said, I’m not in Kansas anymore.” She lifted her hands, then let them fall. “It’s not that I’ve forgotten how to be a couple, but that my experience in being part of one is different from yours. Maybe from most people’s. And I’ve been on my own a long time.”

“Now you’re not. I’m not fighting a war, and I’m right here.” Needed to be here, he realized, with her. “You know, I figure you know how to use a plunger if your toilet overflows.”

She laughed a little. “Believe me.”

He cupped her chin in his hand. “But if you’ve got a leaky roof, you don’t have to be the one climbing up the ladder to patch it.”

“So, there are degrees. It might take some time for me to figure them out.”

“We’ve got time. It sounds like we’re okay, too.”

“Pretty close to it anyway. Fights always keep me on edge for a while. Why don’t you come to dinner tonight—my version of a pretty houseplant.”

“I’d like that.”

He laid his hands on her shoulders. “I’m going to be there for you. I hope if you don’t want to expect it, you can accept it. Maybe even like it a little.”

“I like you.” She rose up to kiss him. “I like us.”

“That’s a good start.”

“I’ll see you tonight.” She kissed him again. “Thanks for the real and sincere concern, and the plant.”

“You’re welcome.”

He went back to finish the closets, smiled a little when he smelled honeysuckle.

“You come in here, too? I don’t mind the company. Not now anyway. Things feel right again.”

His mood smooth now, he gave the closet rod a shake to check its stability. “Good and right,” he decided.




HIS MOOD CONTINUED smooth through the work, through a post-work meeting where his mother popped in with Carolee to check out the progress of tile and paint. It gave him a lift to hear their voices echoing through the building as they moved from room to room.

He had just enough time to run home, shower off the day before driving down to Clare’s.

It was hard to beat three boys eager to play, a pretty woman fixing you a hot meal. And he thought as he drove home that night, when you added some time with that pretty woman after the kids were bunked down for the night it equaled a damn perfect way to end the day.

They’d navigated the bumps, he decided, and he realized they’d learned things about each other—maybe things neither of them had considered.

She wasn’t the carefree girl she’d been when he’d taken that first fall back in high school. He’d known that, of course, how could she be? But, he understood now as he climbed the stairs to his apartment, getting to know—really know—who that girl had become made this—he supposed he could call it his second fall—a lot deeper.

At sixteen, he’d known the heartache of being in love with Clare Murphy, a girl who belonged to someone else, who looked at him as no more than the most casual of friends. He’d experienced the confusion of feelings for the young widow who’d returned home with two little boys and another growing inside her. Feelings he couldn’t articulate in anything but friendship, something she’d accepted and returned.

And now, he was discovering the joys and frustrations of tripping past those careful, safe feelings, past the simple wanting and into that same bright blast he’d felt as a teenager.

It was odd, he thought, that those feelings could endure more than a decade. Feelings that had been neglected, ignored, suppressed. He supposed the foundation of those feelings had always been in place, maybe waiting. No matter how both of them had changed, evolved, restructured their lives, at the base they remained who they were.

He stood for a while, looking through his window toward the inn. Enduring, he thought. Some things were meant to. They needed care, understanding, respect, and a hell of a lot of work. Whatever changes came, the heart endured.

He went to bed eager to work on those changes—at the inn, with Clare and her boys—and to see what came.

And woke in the same smooth and optimistic mood. Right up until he carried his second cup of coffee outside to the parking lot behind his apartment and saw the four slashed tires on his truck and the vicious gouges running down the driver’s side.