Hearts in Motion (5 page)

The way Abby remembered her mom and dad on the days when every step felt like she was walking through quicksand and would never make it through to the other side.

Cara looked at her with wide eyes then shifted her gaze to Lion, her arms reaching out.

Abby stepped out of the way as the girl embraced Lion with no hesitation. How wise of Cara to trust a dog more than a human.

Her heart squeezed.

Two weeks. Only two weeks.

That’s what she’d thought yesterday. Eager for the two weeks to be over so she could go on with her life.

Watching Cara now, she changed her perspective.
Only nine days to show Cara a wonderful time. Four days left this week, five next week. Every day she was with her, there would be laughter. Every day kisses. Every day hugs.

She looked up at Holden. His gaze was fixed on his daughter, his face unreadable.

Then he raised his eyes to her, and something in them, a bleakness, a need, made her suck in her breath. Made her want to step forward and hug him, too.

“I’ll try to be here earlier tonight,” he said.

“Try?” She reined in her volatile emotions. Maybe everyone needed a hug, but it didn’t mean she had to do the hugging. “That’s not a word I like. It’s a wiggle word.” She glanced down at Cara. “Like a wiggly worm.”

Cara giggled, and Abby felt a thrill. A little catch of lightning flickering through her.
 

“What kind of worm would you prefer?” he asked.

She switched her gaze to him and felt his intensity. As if he really cared about her worm choices. “I’ve actually never met a worm I wanted to...” His eyes lit up, and she knew she should keep her mouth shut. But since the first time she’d seen him nine years ago and threatened to call the police on his brother, her shut-up valve hadn’t seemed to work around him. A lot had changed in the past nine years, but not that. “Wiggle up to,” she finished.

Cara giggled again then said, “Epic!” She knelt on the floor and held her arms out to the white kitten. The normally timid kitten dashed straight to her, meowing and rubbing her head against her arms and her chin, marking her scent on Cara’s skin.

A hand clasped Abby’s shoulder, and she whipped her head up, staring at Holden who was staring at Cara. He didn’t seem to be aware that he was standing so close that she felt his body heat. He didn’t seem to be aware that he was holding onto her shoulder as if he had a right to touch her like this, as if she were more than just a babysitter.

She knew when his awareness returned, the intensity leaving his face, his muscles relaxing, his grasp loosening. She could feel his reluctance as he pulled his hand away slowly, his fingers brushing her shoulders in a caress that sent shivers through her.

“I’ll be back by six,” he said, his voice husky.

He told Cara goodbye. She looked up at him, her smile dipping. He headed to the door, and Abby followed him.

“So what are you going to be?” she asked. “A man or a worm?”

Gripping the screen-door handle, he turned slightly. His gaze flickered up and down her, and she was aware of her peach T-shirt with the cat outline and old, silky, blue shorts that she liked because cat and dog hair slid right off them, while her hair was barely combed and her face was clean of makeup. But none of that mattered because she could tell by the smoldering in his light blue eyes—no longer
icy
blue—that he saw her as a man saw a woman.

Some things a woman always knew.

“The first time I saw you,” he said, “you know what I thought?”

“No.”

“That you were trouble.” He nodded then opened the door and headed outside. But even after the door closed behind him, she felt his stare on her face and body, as if it were burned into her skin. As if he’d branded her with his gaze just like Epic had branded Cara with her pheromones.

Abby wrapped her arms around herself, a frisson whispering through her.
 

Men.
It was too bad she couldn’t put them in a little box and just take them out when she needed them.

Which wouldn’t be that often.

She mentally locked the box and imagined herself kicking it, the box going up, up, up in the sky, disappearing into the sun.

Only then did she turn back to Cara and to her pets. Her reality. And though it would be great to have no money worries, and a lot of women her age already had a husband, kids, and a 401K account, she felt full inside. In this moment, she was alive and happy, and she had a little girl to take to a dog park for the first time in her life.

And when they were finished with the park, then she would come home and worry about what came next.

***

Will that man be at the dog park?
Quigley asked.
The one who came to the house the last time?

Minnie hissed at Quigley’s reminder of Mom’s last mistake.
If he comes, I’ll scratch him again.

Lion said if he sees that man, he’ll bite him.
A humming sound came from Quigley’s throat, and he jumped up to the top of the cat-perch ladder.
I would like that. Mom should be more careful who she mates with. He was a bad man.

Humans are like dogs,
Minnie advised him. Epic was napping, and she thought it looked like a good idea.
They’re too trusting.

Is Cara’s dad good?
Quigley asked.

Minnie took a quick lick of her front paw. Next would be her back paw.
I don’t know yet. Did you smell him?

The air stank with his mating smell. Did you smell her, too?

How could I miss it? The mating scent is stronger than tuna.

What are we going to do?

She lay down, not answering. She didn’t want to go through another of Abby’s romances again. She’d rather go to the bad place, the one called “the vet,” with the ladies who poked her with needles.
 

Maybe this time will be better,
Quigley said
. Maybe he’ll be good for her. And good for us, too. Maybe he’ll help save us.

She gave him a long look. He was younger but old enough to know better.
We’ll do just fine without him, the way we’ve always done. Mom will save us, and if she doesn’t...

I know,
Quigley said,
we’ll have to do it ourselves.
And then he braced himself and hissed, the way he stood making Minnie think of a bird with its chest puffed out to attract the females, pretending to be big, strong, and wise.

Human males did the same thing. And human females did it, too, only in different ways.

The way Mom had this morning.

Minnie hunched down. She had to trust in Mom...but maybe there was a way they could help her make everything go right.

She would just have to watch out for the right opportunity.

When it came, she would pounce on it.

6

Holden entered Ryan’s office, and Ryan’s eyebrows rose with surprise. He was sitting back, a phone to his ear. He held up two fingers, which Holden took to mean he’d be off in two minutes.

Instead of sitting, Holden headed to the window and peered out at the view of the employee parking lot. Usually he drove in, parked in his reserved spot, and didn’t give the rest of the lot another thought. But here he could glance out and see the two empty rows in the back that used to be filled.

In the view from his office, he could see the building that used to hum with workers and noise ten years ago. But he couldn’t actually see the emptiness. He couldn’t actually hear the silence in it.

It helped him ignore the problem. But today he couldn’t ignore anything. He felt like the prince and the pea, and the pea was the size of a parking lot and damned uncomfortable, gnawing at his belly.

“What’s up?” Ryan asked.

Holden turned. “I saw your text about the Houston account.”

“They’re downsizing. Judy has a couple new leads.”

He headed to Ryan’s desk. “If this keeps up, we’ll have to downsize. So far, we haven’t laid off or fired anyone. We’ve just not rehired when people retire or quit. It’s not good. A company is either growing or dying. And we’re dying.”

“Hey, I’ve been saying that for years.”

“Funny, I haven’t heard you say anything.”

Ryan’s face reddened. “Maybe I haven’t said it, but I’ve been thinking it. It’s the reason I went to Miami instead of Italy last January. And I’m more careful with my investments. If the business goes under, I should be good.”

Hot anger surged through Holden. “What about our workers?”

“Most of them are older.” Ryan got up and stepped to the window then turned to face him.

Like two gunslingers standing off in a saloon, Holden thought.
 

“If we go under,” Ryan continued, “they’ll be okay.”

“But what about the city?” Holden gestured toward the heart of the city. “Eagleton Furniture is a mainstay of the community. We still have 435 workers. They buy groceries here, go to schools, restaurants, clinics, the movies. They shop here. What we decide to do, even the smallest decisions, have a large ripple effect on Eagleton’s economy.”

Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets. “Anything we do, the Asian factories can copy and do cheaper a month later. We still have the high-end stores buying our stuff, but even there...” He shook his head. “I don’t like it any more than you do.”

Holden didn’t reply right away, the silence stretching between them as a truck drove down the parking lot, its motor rumbling, and a hawk flew by Ryan’s window.
 

“We need to stop being complacent,” Holden said. “We need to stop letting ourselves off the hook.”

Ryan took his hands out of his pockets. “That’s easy for you to say. It’s not as easy to do.”

“Maybe it’s not supposed to be easy. Maybe life isn’t supposed to be easy. I don’t think it was easy for our great-grandfather to start the business, either.”

“What do you suggest?”

Holden shook his head. “We’re stale. We need to do something.”

Ryan braced his legs. “No matter what you think of me, our reps aren’t slackers. We’re aware that we’re losing customers to cheaper foreign competitors. We’re doing everything we can to find new markets.”

The anger leaked out of Holden. “You can’t fix it until I fix it. We’ve gotten stale. We need to revitalize the company. Shake things up.”

Ryan’s eyebrows rose again...then kept on rising. “What the hell did you do with my brother?” He grinned. “Funny, I thought having a child killed brain cells, but it’s fired up yours.”

“Something has,” Holden said, and an image opened in his mind of Abby laughing. Since he’d seen her on Monday, his brain wasn’t his only organ that had fired up.

This was the fourth day this week he’d seen her. When he’d dropped off Cara this morning, he’d tried to stop himself from looking forward to Abby’s grin and the way she seemed to laugh at him and, at the same time, laugh with him. As if they shared a secret.

But besides Cara’s parentage, his only secret was the way his body reacted around her.

Ryan headed to his desk, diverting his thoughts. “Are you going to call a meeting?”

“Not yet.” He spoke slowly. In his mind, he could feel...something. His hand tingled, the way it did sometimes when he was alone at night, or even in his office, and he needed to paint. “Let’s both of us think about it.”

He took long strides to the door. “Call if you have any ideas,” he said and headed across the hall to his office. After letting Sherry know he didn’t want to be interrupted, he brought out his paints. Normally he didn’t do this here, but once in a while, the need became irresistible. The way he imagined a junkie needed a hit or Sherry, a self-proclaimed chocoholic, needed her top drawer filled with chocolate.

Methodically, he prepared for the painting. He cleared his desk and set down this morning’s newspaper to protect his desk. He got out his paints and a canvas. He went into his private bathroom for water.

He did all this in a trancelike state, his conscious thoughts at a minimum. He finally sat down at his desk and stared at the blank canvas for a long moment.

Then his hand twitched, and he chose a cerulean blue. Squirted it on the plastic plate he used as a palette. Then he added some white. As he dipped in his brush, mixing the colors, he didn’t know what he was going to paint....

He’d never told anyone, not Juliana, and certainly not Portia, but at times like this it felt as if his subconscious ruled his actions.

Taking a deep breath, he put brush to canvas, and his brush started to fly.

***

He set down his brush, looked at the image of a cat with red-gold hair and green eyes. The colorful cat sat on a purple velvet chair with wheels, like a cross between a fairy-tale carriage and a chair.

Like all his pictures, it appeared to be suspended in ether, giving it a fantastical appearance. This time, the background was pale blue, reminding him of the summer sky.

It was trying to tell him something. He connected the coloring of the cat to Abby but had no idea what it meant.