The Fall Of Shane MacCade - MacKade Brothers 4 Part 2

"No. But you run the family farm?"

"That's the way it worked out. Jared has his law practice, Rafe's into building, Devin's the sheriff."

"And you're the farm boy," she finished. "What do you farm?"

"We have dairy cattle, pigs. Grow corn-feed mostly, but some nice Silver Queen-hay, alfalfa." He could see she was taking it all in with those big intense eyes, and he added, very soberly, "We've had ourselves a nice crop of potatoes."

"Really?" In unconscious sympathy with the beat whispering through the speakers, she drummed her fingers on her knee. "Isn't that a lot of work for one man?"

"My brothers are there when they're needed. And I take on some 4-H students seasonally." He moved his shoulders. "I've got a couple of nephews coming up. They're eleven now. I can usually con them into believing they're having fun when they're feeding the stock." "And is it fun?"

"I like it." This time he looked at her. "Ever been on a farm?"

"No, not really. I'm an urbanite."

"Then you're in for a surprise with Antietam," he murmured.

"Urban it's not."

"So Regan tells me. And, of course, I know the area through my studies. It must have been interesting growing up on one of the major battlefields of the Civil War."

"Rafe was always more into that than me. The land doesn't care if it's historical, as long as it's tended."

"So you're not interested in the history?"

"Not particularly." The truck rumbled over the bridge that spanned the piece of the Potomac River between "Virginia and Maryland. "I know it," he added. "You can't live there all your life and not know it. But I don't give it a lot of attention."

"And the ghosts?"

"I don't give them a lot of attention, either."

A smile shadowed her mouth. "But you know of them."

Again he moved his shoulders. "Part of the package. You want to talk to the rest of the family about that. They're more into it."

"Yet you live and work on a farm that's supposedly haunted." "Supposedly." He didn't care to talk about it, or think about it.

"Look, Regan mentioned something about you coming out to do whatever it is you do-"

"To study and record any paranormal activity." Her smile spread. "It's just a hobby."

"Yeah, well, you'd be better off at the old Barlow place, the house Rafe and Regan put back together. It's a bed-and-breakfast now-one of my other sisters-in-law runs it. It's lousy with ghosts, if you believe in that sort of thing."

"Mmm... It's on my list. In fact, I'm hoping they can squeeze me in for a while. I'd like to stay there. And from what Regan told me, you have a large house. I'd like to stay there, too."

He wouldn't mind the company, but the purpose didn't sit well with him. "Regan didn't mention how long you were planning on being around."

"That depends." She looked out the window as he took a route through a cut in the mountains. "It depends on how long it takes me to find what I want to find, and how long it takes to doc.u.ment it."

"Don't you have, like, a job?"

"I'm taking a sabbatical." The word had such marvelous possibilities, she closed her eyes to savor them. "I have all the time in the world, and I intend to enjoy it." Opening her eyes again, she saw the glint from the little gold earring in the ashtray.

"Don't worry, farm boy. I won't cramp your style. When the time comes, you can tuck me into some little room in the attic. I'll do my thing, you can do yours." He started to comment, but she made some soft, strangled sound and sat bolt upright in the seat. "What?"

She could only shake her head, absorbed in the jarring sense of deja vu. The hills rose up, gra.s.s green against outcroppings of silver rocks. In the distance, the higher mountains were purple shadows against hazy skies. Fields, high with green stalks of corn, thick with summer grains, rolled back from the road. On a sloping embankment, black-and-white cows stood as still as if they were on a postcard.

Woods, dark and thick, ranged along a field, while a winding creek bubbled along the verge.

"It looks just as it should," she murmured softly. "Exactly.

Perfect."

"Thanks. It's MacKade land." He slowed the truck a little, out of pride. "You can't see the house this time of year. Trees are too thick. It's back down that lane."

She saw the rough gravel road, the way it swung left and followed the line of trees. With her heart thudding dully in her breast, she nodded.

Come h.e.l.l or high water, she thought, she was going back there.

And she would stay until she found all the answers to all the questions that plagued her.

She took a deep breath, turned to him. "How far to town?"

"Just a few miles now." His eyes narrowed with concern. She'd gone dead pale. "You all right?"

"I'm fine." But she did open the window to take a deep gulp oflate summer. "I'm just fine."

Chapter Two

Through the display window of her shop, Regan saw the truck pull up to the curb. With a child in each arm, she dashed outside.

"Dr. Knight."

"Mrs. MacKade." Rebecca slid out of the cab of the truck and let out a cry of pure pleasure, then launched herself at her friend as her vision blurred.

Gone was the cool and the clinical, Shane noted, and he found himself grinning at the way the two women babbled and embraced. He'd had some reservations about Rebecca Knight-and maybe he'd keep a few of them. But there was no doubt as to the depth of affection here.

"Oh, I've missed you. I've missed you," Rebecca said over and over as tears stung her eyes. "Oh, Regan, you're so gorgeous, and look at these. Your babies."

She let the tears come. She'd never had to hold back or feel foolish with Regan. Sniffling, she touched Nate's cheek, then stroked a finger along the baby's soft head. "I don't see you for a few years, and look what you do. Married and the mother of two. I've got to hold one."

Always willing, Nate held out his arms.

"You must look like your daddy," Rebecca commented, delighted when Nate puckered up for a kiss.

"Daddy," Nate agreed. "Play ball. Shane!" He bounced up and down like a spring. "Shane, gimme ride."

"Shows what you know, choosing your uncle over a lady." But Shane hauled Nate onto his shoulders, where the toddler could squeal and grip his hair.

"You found each other." Regan beamed at both of them. "I'm sorry I couldn't get away to pick you up myself."

"I'd say you had your hands full." Rebecca turned to give Shane a mild smile. "And your brother-in-law managed just fine. All in all."

"You must be tired. Come into the shop. I'm just closing up.

Shane, come in for some tea."

"I have to get back, thanks anyway. Down you go, Nate." He swung the boy around, inciting a series of rolling belly laughs.

Wise to her son, Regan clutched Nate's hand firmly in hers the minute his little feet hit the ground. "Thanks." She kissed Shane lightly on the lips. "I owe you one. I want to give Rebecca a welcome dinner tomorrow, when she's had time to catch her breath. You'll come, won't you?"

"A free meal." He winked. "Count on it. See you." "Thanks for the lift. Farm boy."

Shane paused at the driver's-side door. "Anytime. Becky."

Regan lifted a brow as he drove away. "Becky?"

"Just a little joke." Objectively she looked up and down the street, noted the light traffic, the old stone buildings, the people loitering in front of doorways. "I'm trying to picture Regan Bishop as resident and shop owner of Small Town, U.S.A."

"It was home the minute I saw it. Come inside," she said again.

"Tell me what you think of the shop."

Now she could picture it, Rebecca realized the moment she stepped into Past Times. The style, the elegance of gleaming antiques, lovely old lamps and gla.s.s and statuary. There was a smell of spice and baby powder that made her smile.

"Mama," she said after turning around in a circle. "How does it feel?"

"Incredible. I can't wait for you to meet Rafe." She moved into a back room, setting the baby in a ba.s.sinet, then lifting Nate into a high chair, where he occupied himself with a cookie. It gave her time to take a breath. "Of course, you've seen Shane, so you've got a fairly good idea of the MacKade looks."

"Are they all like that?"

"Tall, dark and ridiculously handsome? Every one of them. With bad-boy reputations to match." She leaned back, took a long survey. "Rebecca, it's always what people say when they haven't seen in other for a while, but I have to say it anyway. You lookwonderful."

Rebecca smiled as she tugged on a short tress of chestnut-brown hair. "I got the nerve to have this hacked off when I was in Europe a few months ago. You were always trying to coax me into doing something with my hair."

"I'd have never been that brave, or inventive. Boy, it suits you, Rebecca. And-"

"The clothes?" Her smile widened. "That was Europe, too. I had a crisis of style, so to speak. I was walking along the Left Bank and happened to catch a glimpse of this woman reflected in one of the shop windows. She looked like an unkempt scarecrow. Her hair was tangled and hanging down in her face, and she had on the most dreadful brown suit. I thought,Poor thing, to look like that in a city like this. And then I realized it was me."

"You're too hard on yourself."

"I was a mess," Rebecca said firmly. "A cliche, the dowdy prodigy with a sharp brain and bad shoes. I walked into the nearest beauty salon, gave myself no time to think, to rationalize, to intellectualize, and threw myself on their mercy. Who'd have thought a decent haircut could make such a difference to the way I felt? It seemed so shallow. I told myself that even when I walked out with several hundred dollars' worth of skin creams."

She laughed at herself as she realized that, after all this time, she was still savoring that moment. "Then I realized that if appearances weren't important, it couldn't be a problem to present a good one."

"Then I'll say it again. You look wonderful." Regan reached out for Rebecca's hands. "In fact, since you're happy with thechange, I'll be perfectly honest and tell you I wouldn't have recognized you. You're absolutely striking, and I'm so glad to see you looking so fabulous."

"I have to say this." She gave Regan's hands a hard squeeze.

"Regan, you were my first real friend."

"Rebecca."

"My very first, the only person I was close to who didn't treat me like an oddity. I've wanted to tell you for a long time what that meant to me. What you meant to me. But even with you, I had a hard time getting that kind of thing out."

"You're making me cry again," Regan managed.

"There's more. I was so nervous coming here, worrying that the friendship, the connection, might not be the same. But it is. h.e.l.l."

Rebecca gave a lavish sniff. "Got any tissue?"

Regan dived into a diaper bag and pulled out a travel pack. She handed a tissue to Rebecca, used one herself. "I'm so happy," she said, weeping.

"Me too."

Rebecca decided the rambling old stone house just outside of town suited Regan and Rafe MacKade perfectly. It had the rough, masculine charm of Rafe MacKade, and the style and feminine grace of Regan, all rolled into one.

She would have spotted Rafe as Shane's brother from a mile away with one eye closed, so powerful was the resemblance. So she wasn't surprised when he pulled her into his arms for a hard hug the moment he saw her. She'd already gleaned that the MacKades liked women.

"Regan's been fretting and fussing for two weeks," he told Rebecca over a gla.s.s of wine in the big, airy living room.

"I have not been fussing or fretting."

Rafe smiled and, from his seat on the sofa, reached up to stroke his wife's hand as she sat on the arm near him. "She polished everything twice, vacuumed up every dog hair." He gave the golden retriever slumbering on the rug an affection nudge with his foot.

"Most of the dog hair," Regan corrected.

"I'm flattered." Rebecca jolted a little when Nate knocked over his building blocks and sent them scattering.

"Attaboy," Rafe said mildly. "If it's not built right, just tear it down and start again."

"Daddy. Come play."

"It's all in the foundation," Rafe said as he got up and ranged himself on the floor with his son. They began to move blocks, Rafe's big hands moving with Nate's small, pudgy ones. "Regan says you want a close-up look at the inn."

"I do. I want to stay there, at least for a while, if you have a vacancy."