“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
“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
He filled out a little card.
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 asshole. 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
