Twice Kissed - Lisa Jackson [31]
“Why not?”
Was that her heart drumming? “Water under the bridge, cowboy. That’s all it is.” She took a sip of her coffee and was grateful that her hand was steady. This conversation was getting way too personal.
“I don’t think so.” Suddenly he leaned forward, his elbows landing on the Formica tabletop. “I think you’re scared.”
Damned straight. “Of what?”
“Me, for starters.
“In your dreams.”
“Not my dreams, kid. My nightmares.”
“Let’s not get into this, okay? It’s not the time, or the place. All we have to concentrate on is Mary Theresa.”
His steady gaze called her a liar.
“And whatever you do, Walker, don’t try and second-guess me or psychoanalyze my motives, or read more into my words.” She hooked her thumb at her chest. “I tell it just like it is, okay?”
The waitress returned on hushed shoes. A plastic smile curved her glossy apricot-hued lips as she slid two platters onto the table. “Can I get you anything else?”
Yeah, a one-way ticket back home.
“This’ll do,” Thane said, then quirked an eyebrow at Maggie, inviting her opinion without saying a word.
“Just catsup.”
“Comin’ right up.” She turned, snagged a plastic squirt bottle from the counter, and plopped it in front of Maggie.
“Thanks.”
“If ya need anything, just give a holler.” She motioned to the counter, where a refrigerated case spun slowly, showing off an array of confections. “You just might want dessert, and our lemon meringue pie is to die for. No kiddin’. Baked fresh.” She pivoted on a soft-soled pump and focused her attention on a table of men with round bellies, flushed faces, baseball caps of various colors, and toothpicks wedged into the sides of their mouths.
Maggie ate in silence, and Thane didn’t bother trying to break into her thoughts or making meaningless chitchat. In a small diner where everyone talked, laughed, smoked, and flirted, they ate in stony silence, the past edging into Maggie’s thoughts, eroding her equilibrium while the future towered in a dark mysterious cloud ahead. When they were finished with burgers, fries, and a wedge of pecan pie with ice cream at Thane’s insistence, he reached for his wallet.
Maggie delved into her purse.
“This is mine,” he said, eyeing her as she extracted her wallet.
“No way.”
“I practically shanghaied you to get you to come with me.”
She pulled out a ten and rested her elbows on either side of her half-eaten hamburger and the goo that had been most of her dessert. “Look, Walker, let’s get one thing straight, okay? I pay my own way. Yes, you talked me into coming, but I would have flown to Denver anyway to find out what happened to my sister. So we’ll split everything down the middle.” With that she reached for her ski jacket.
“Is that so I don’t get the wrong idea?”
The tops of her ears started to burn as she stood and shoved her arms down the jacket’s thick sleeves. Quickly, she forced her hands through the gloves that she’d stashed in one pocket. “I guess.”
She wanted to wipe the amused smile from his beard-shadowed chin. “You want to make sure I don’t think this is some kind of convoluted date, right?”
“You’re so damned conceited, it’s unbelievable.”
“It beats paranoia.”
“Barely.”
His smile faded as he tossed a matching bill onto the table. Anger flashed in his eyes. Without another word, he grabbed his jacket with one hand and Maggie’s elbow with the other.
“What’re you doing…wait.”
Silently he pulled, forcing her past the front desk, through double glass doors to the vestibule and into the dark night, where snow continued to fall. A quiet seething rage emanated from him as they strode to his truck. He unlocked the door for her, then climbed into the driver’s side. After tossing his jacket into the space behind the seat where her laptop was stowed, he jabbed his key into the ignition. The engine turned over as she buckled her seat belt. He crammed the gearshift into reverse and backed out of his parking space.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” he said as he threw the truck into first, maneuvered around a semi