Chasing Rainbow, Page 23

  “You see?” Gene said to his sister.

  Roxy ignored him. “Rainbow, if your only problem with him is that he’s a male chauvinist, then you’re never going to get married. Men are born believing they’re superior.”

  “I resent being treated as if I’m too stupid to know what I’ve seen with my own eyes.”

  “Well, of course,” said Roxy. “But that’s the way men treat women.”

  “Not necessarily,” Gene interposed. “What happened, Rainy?”

  “I saw a man staring at me in the restaurant last night. When we got to Jake’s apartment—”

  “You went to his apartment last night?” Roxy said in horror. In her case, what was sauce for the goose was not sauce for her daughters. She had lived a freewheeling, eclectic lifestyle and had had many affairs. The lesson she had learned from all this was that she didn’t want her daughters to follow in her footsteps.

  “Shut up, Roxy,” Gene said. “What happened when you got to his apartment?”

  Rainbow shrugged. “There was a picture on the table of the man I had seen at the restaurant. Jake didn’t believe me.”

  “Did he say he didn’t believe you?”

  Rainbow thought back over it. “He said I was mistaken.”

  “That’s a big difference, Rainy.”

  “No, it’s not! He was essentially saying that I didn’t have the sense to know what I’d seen with my own eyes.”

  “Actually,” said Gene, “he was saying that he couldn’t imagine that someone he knew would have sat in a restaurant staring at you without saying a word to him. He was surprised.”

  Rainbow made a face at him. “So? Why didn’t he just say that? Why did he have to accuse me of being wrong?”

  “An unfortunate choice of words.”

  “Quit making excuses for him,” Roxy said. “You men always stick together.”

  “I’m not sticking with Jake. I’m just pointing out that this all may have been a misunderstanding.”

  “Then he should have said so!” Rainbow looked down at her mug, trying to conceal sudden tears.

  “Did you give him a chance?”

  “He walked me all the way home and never said another word about it.”

  Gene frowned at that.

  “Beast,” said Roxy.

  “There’s something more going on here,” Gene decided.

  “Of course there is,” Roxy announced. “He’s a man. That’s what’s going on here. Rainbow got mad, and he didn’t get laid.”

  “Mother!”

  “Roxy!”

  She shook her head at both of them. “I know men. That’s all they want, and if they don’t get their way, they act like spoiled brats.”

  “In all honesty, Mother,” Rainbow finally said, “I don’t think that’s what happened.” Because if he had wanted her that badly, he could have had her on his couch yesterday afternoon. But there was no way she was going to say that.

  Gene nodded, as if he understood what she wasn’t saying. “I’m sorry, Rainy.”

  She shrugged. “The story of my life.”

  “You see,” said Roxy. “You see? She’s depressed.”

  “I’m not depressed! I’ll be fine. I just need to wake up and get on with life.”

  Needing to escape her mother, she carried her coffee into her bedroom and started dressing. She had a nine o’clock reading, which would keep her safely out of the way, but after that she was going to have to find something to do so she could hide from this excess of familial concern.

  And tonight was the seance Roxy had agreed to hold for Mary Todd. The thought gave her a twinge. It wasn’t that she doubted either her mother’s sincerity or her intentions, but it was plain to her that Mary Todd was up to no good. And Rainbow had to live in this town. If something unpleasant happened tonight, Roxy could go on her merry way back to Sarasota, and Mary wouldn’t give a damn, but Rainbow would be tarred with the brush of whatever happened because of her mother’s involvement.

  She smothered a groan and stood looking out her back window at her garden. It looked as if it was going to rain soon. The clouds were low and gray, and moving swiftly. Maybe they were getting a tropical storm.

  She ought to check the Weather Channel, or turn on her weather radio. Even at this distance from the water, she sometimes got some flooding from a storm.

  Unlike her mother, who dressed flamboyantly, Rainbow made a point of dressing conservatively to meet her clients. This morning she wore a blue voile dress with a short-sleeved jacket that she felt was both feminine and businesslike.

  Her client, though, was an old and favored one. Christine Morgan wouldn’t have minded if Rainbow had greeted her in a T-shirt and jean shorts.

  Christine lived at the Towers with her husband and their two Yorkshire terriers. Her primary concern at these readings was the welfare of her children and grandchildren, and so far Rainbow had had nothing but good news to give her.

  This morning was different, though. Rainbow felt a heaviness the instant she touched Christine’s hand in greeting, and felt a growing reluctance to do the reading. Much as she would have, liked to suggest that Christine come back another time, she didn’t dare. Feelings like this shouldn’t be ignored.

  They sat at the table in the reading room, and Christine shuffled the tarot cards. Then Rainbow took them and laid them out face down in a simple T pattern. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to need many cards this morning to get to the root of the heavy dread that was filling the air around her. Flipping the cards over quickly, hardly seeing them, she felt her impressions spiral rapidly into images and feelings.

  “Water,” she heard herself say. “There’s a lot of water … flood? No, no, not that… I see a boat…” Her voice trailed off as she reached through the dark for a clearer image.

  “We were thinking about taking a cruise,” Christine said helpfully.

  “That’s it. Fire and water.” Rainbow yanked herself out of the well of concentration. “Don’t take the cruise you’re thinking about, Christine. Something bad will happen. I see fire and water and feel terrible fear. Take a different cruise. But don’t take the one in… December. You were thinking of December, weren’t you? Over Christmas. Please don’t take that cruise.”

  Christine nodded, looking disappointed. “I always wanted to take a Christmas cruise. Oh, well. We can do something else and take the cruise next year, I guess.”

  Rainbow reached out and touched her hand, feeling again the sense of heavy darkness. “This isn’t the cards talking, Christine. I’m deadly serious.”

  “I know you are.” She gave a little smile and a shrug. “Ben will probably be relieved. He wasn’t all that keen on the idea anyway.”

  After Christine left, Rainbow felt a desperate need to get outside and breathe some fresh air in the hopes she could shake that terrible feeling of doom.

  Premonitions like this were rare, but they were the reason she kept using her talents for other people. If her talent helped prevent just one tragedy, everything else would be worthwhile.

  Which was why she wasn’t going to call herself a freak again. She might be a freak, she might be the mutant and weirdo she called herself, but that was nothing next to being able to help someone avoid a tragedy.

  Of course, there were always questions that plagued her. If something was destined, how could you avoid it? What if by telling Christine and her husband to avoid this cruise, all she did was postpone the trouble she foresaw?

  And what if, by encouraging Christine not to take the cruise, she actually changed the future somehow? How would Christine feel about her if there was no fire on the cruise?

  Such questions could give her a headache, so she decided to just leave them alone. There weren’t any answers, so why worry herself about it?

  The wind was blowing too strongly to allow the use of an umbrella, and the day was too warm and humid for a raincoat, so she changed into casual clothes, evaded her family in the kitchen, and darted out the front door before an
yone could stop her.

  She didn’t hear thunder or see lightning, so she felt it was safe to go down to the beach and walk.

  The huge waves were pounding the shore, dragging the sand away in great chunks. The tide was high, cutting the usually wide expanse of white beach to half its width. The churning waters had turned up piles of seaweed, abandoning them on the shore to die.

  Surfers were rarely seen along the Gulf Coast, but today there were two young men carrying their boards out into the water to take advantage of the waves. She wondered if they had left their brains at home. The undertow out there would be fierce, and the water was full of all kinds of flotsam as the currents tossed the sea floor to the surface.

  Other than the surfers, the beach was empty except for seagulls who hunkered in the sand and pelicans who seemed to be playing on the wind.

  The rain had soaked her, plastering her clothes to her skin, but she didn’t care. It was a warm rain, and despite the wind, the air was warm, too, keeping her from getting chilled.

  When she reached the area where the turtle’s nest had been, she stopped, but no sign of the nest was left. Even the poles that had held the plastic yellow tape that marked off the area had vanished, carried away by the hungry waves.

  She hoped the baby turtles could survive this storm. At least they had hatched before the waves had torn open the nest. Would they have drowned otherwise? Probably.

  The clouds were still low, and there was no sign of relief in sight from the weather. All the way out to the horizon, the sky was a dark, leaden gray.

  She resumed her walk, eyes down to watch for shells the waves might toss up, or for a pretty piece of driftwood. When she looked up again, she had reached the Towers.

  Just then, lightning flickered in the sky out to sea, and a short while later, a hollow roll of thunder reached her. Time to go home. Most especially time to get away from the Towers. She didn’t want Jake to see her out here and think she was mooning over him.

  Which, of course, she absolutely was not. She wouldn’t moon over any man ever again.

  The waves seemed to have grown even higher, and the tide had risen. Her footprints in the wet sand were gone, and large puddles were forming in the hollow behind the highest point of the beach. She definitely should have headed back sooner.

  “Rainbow!”

  She turned, her heart sinking, and saw Jake running down the beach toward her. She wanted to keep walking, but her feet seemed to have become mired in the sand.

  He caught up with her. “You shouldn’t be out here,” he said. “You could get hit by lightning.”

  “There wasn’t any when I started out,” she replied, her chin lifting defiantly. “Do you always tell people they’re idiots?”

  He swore and looked out to sea, his hands clenching and unclenching. Finally he looked at her again. “I’m sorry. I was in the rec room trying to fix a leaky faucet when I saw you out here. Then I saw the lightning.”

  “You should have taken your own advice and stayed inside, where it’s safe.”

  “Apparently so.” He brushed his wet hair back and looked at her through the rain. “Look, I’m sorry. I saw you, saw the lightning, and got worried.”

  “Why were you fixing a faucet? Doesn’t the building have a handyman?”

  “Yeah, but it’s his day off, and the dripping was driving the Wednesday Morning Bridge Club crazy.”

  In spite of herself, she almost smiled. “Life as the association president isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, huh?”

  He gave her an unexpected grin. “Frankly, it’s a headache. Listen, can we continue this discussion indoors? Or in my car? I’d be happy to drive you home.”

  She looked down, and was horrified to see that not only was she soaked, she might just as well have been wearing plastic wrap. Very little was left to the imagination.

  “I’ll just soak your car. I can run home in just a few minutes.” She started to turn, but before she could step away, he reached out and lifted her right off her feet. With one arm beneath her shoulders and one beneath her knees, he carried her toward the Towers.

  “Just put me down this instant, you arrogant creep!”

  He flashed her another grin. “Sorry, lady, but I can’t let you risk getting yourself killed.”

  “This is battery, you know! I could have you arrested!”

  “Go ahead. But for now, quit wiggling so I don’t drop you.”

  “Put me down this instant!” “Sure. If you agree to come inside or let me take you home.”

  “This is extortion!”

  “Probably.”

  She gave serious thought to popping him in the jaw, but decided that he could get her arrested just as easily as she could get him arrested. Besides, if he dropped her, she was apt to break something. “Jake, please. Just put me down.”

  “Sure. Like I said, just as soon as you agree to show some common sense.”

  “Common sense? You’re a fine one to talk about that! People with common sense don’t go around acting like cavemen!”

  “Aw, gee, I thought women liked cavemen.”

  Then she did come very close to popping him. “I do not like being manhandled.”

  “I wonder if there’s a gender-neutral form of that word.”

  She gaped at him, not comprehending. “What?”

  “Yeah, you know. Like ‘personhandled.’ And what if it’s a woman doing the manhandling?”

  She absolutely, positively did not want to stop being angry with him. She was clinging to the shreds of her fury with all the determination of a drowning woman grasping at straws, but laughter was threatening to overwhelm her, because despite everything else, she had a great appreciation of the absurd, and this whole situation was absurd. “Jake, please.”

  “Sure. Anything your little heart desires, as long as it involves getting you out of this storm immediately.”

  “Okay, okay! You can drive me home.” He set her on her feet at once and held her hand as they jogged up to the building. Almost the instant they stepped under the awning at the entrance, between one gust and the next, the wind’s breath became icy. Turning back to look out at the sea, they saw a wall of heavy rain approaching, so thick it obscured everything behind it. Lightning forked down from the sky, striking the water, and thunder cracked deafeningly.

  “Just in time,” Jake said. He turned to look at Rainbow. “You’re shivering!”

  “The temperature just dropped fifteen degrees.”

  Another gust of wind struck them, this one strong enough to cause the awning to flap wildly and the supporting poles to bend ominously.

  “Let’s get inside,” Jake said. “This is going to be bad.”

  She didn’t argue. They made their way through the storm-darkened lobby and took the elevator up. Jake unlocked his door and threw it open to let her enter first.

  I shouldn’t be doing this, she thought, as she stepped across the threshold. Here she was again, in the lion’s den, and such a short time after having been bitten. Maybe she ought to see a psychiatrist about why she was so incapable of staying away from people who hurt her.

  Jake’s apartment was gloomy, turned into near-darkness by the storm. “You know,” Jake said, as he closed the door, “this is downright spooky. If I were a ghost, I’d rattle some chains right about now.”

  “But it’s so much more impressive in broad daylight, don’t you think?”

  “Well, of course. But mood helps a lot, too.” He hit the switch for the lights, but nothing happened. “Great. No power. Hang on a minute, I’ll get you some towels.”

  “Thank you.”

  The wind gusted, rattling the windows, and Rainbow could have sworn she felt the building move.

  The walls creaked eerily, and she found herself longing for the safety of her ground-level cottage. At least there she wouldn’t have far to fall if the wind blew the house away.

  Jake returned, handing her a thick towel. “Listen, if you want, there’s a terrycloth robe hanging in
the bathroom. You can change into it, and I’ll throw your clothes in the dryer. Up to you. Me, I’m going to go change right now.”

  He disappeared into the bedroom, leaving her to stand in the middle of his living room dripping and shivering as she tried to dry her sodden hair. The wind rattled the windows again, and even in the gloom she could make out debris blowing past in the rain.

  She decided a dry terrycloth robe sounded too good to pass up, especially when she felt as if she was turning into an icicle.

  In the bathroom, she peeled off her clothes and wrung them out over the bathtub. Jake’s robe, which probably came only to his knees, nearly reached her ankles, and enveloped her in warmth.

  Carrying her wet clothes, she stepped out into the living room. Jake was already there, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.

  “I just realized,” he said, sounding sheepish, “no power, no dryer.”

  She had to laugh. “I didn’t think of it, either.”

  “I can’t even offer you a warm drink, unless you want hot water out of the tap.”

  “That’s okay. It’s just nice to be in something dry. The power shouldn’t be out long.”

  “Probably not.”

  He crossed to the window. “It looks vicious out there.”

  “Well, unless it’s a tropical storm, it’ll blow over quickly” she said, hanging her wet clothes over the kitchen sink. “That would be good.”

  She perched on the couch, being careful to keep the robe wrapped around her legs, and felt the tension in the atmosphere. Neither of them really knew what to say after last night, she realized. And maybe Jake didn’t really want to say anything at all. Maybe he was just one of those overly protective men who would have rescued any drowned rat from a storm. Maybe he’d be glad when she could leave.

  She ought to be feeling the same way, she realized. Only she didn’t. Part of her desperately wanted to mend their fences and restore them to where they had been before their argument. Some of her apparently still believed in fairy tales.

  Don’t be stupid, she told herself. The fairy tale got it wrong; the prince always turned into a frog.

  “I love storms,” Jake remarked, his back still to her as he looked out through the sliding glass doors. “I’ve seen some real humdingers around the world. They can cause a lot of damage, I know, but they’re always so beautiful anyway.”