Лори Касс - Wrong Side Of The Paw

“He’s actually quite nice.”

I’d never once, in the twenty-plus years I’d known him, seen him be anything other than kindhearted and generous with his time. He was willing to drop everything to help a friend and do it with a grinning joke. Yes, he had an unfortunate tendency to act the part of an Up North hick, especially if there was some show-off downstater in the audience, and he didn’t always take things as seriously as they needed to be taken, but as a whole, he was a genuinely nice guy.

I thought back in time to the previous summer. We’d sat side by side on his porch one warm evening and as our hands had brushed each other as he’d handed me something, I’d felt an uncomfortable prickling sensation. He’d touched my hair and the same thing had happened.

And even as I was remembering, my skin started to prickle again.

My eyes went wide and I sat up straight. “Oh, no,” I breathed. “It can’t be. It’s not possible.”

But as soon as the thought had entered my brain, I knew there was no way to unthink it, because it was true.

I was in love with Rafe Niswander.

And had been for years.

• • •

After a restless night of sleep, I crawled out of bed with eyes full of grit and felt the uneasy knowledge that my life had changed irrevocably.

“What do you think?” I asked Eddie, but my cat, as per usual, didn’t have any advice to offer when I needed it the most. On the other hand, he did purr like a champ as I slid him into his cat carrier, so I wasn’t going to complain.

“Breakfast?” my aunt called as my feet trod the last few steps.

“No time,” I called back. “Errands to run and people to see before I go into work.” Plus, I didn’t want her to see my troubled face. I would explain my newfound feelings to her at some point; just not yet. “See you tonight.”

But in those few words, Aunt Frances had heard something in my voice. “Minnie?” she asked, walking into the living room. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” I closed the door to the front closet and put on my coat, not meeting her eyes. “There’s just a lot to do today.” Sort of. “Ready, Eddie?” I picked up the cat carrier and took hold of the front doorknob.

My aunt, however, put her foot against the bottom of the door, trapping me inside. “One minute, young lady. You’re not leaving this house until I get a promise that you’ll tell me what’s going on.”

I tugged at the unmoving doorknob. “Aunt Frances—”

“Promise. I’m bigger than you and I have nowhere to go. I’ll hold this door shut all day if I have to.”

“Fine,” I said, sighing. “This week. We’ll talk about whatever this is before another week goes by.”

“Then you’re free to leave.” She stepped back from the door. “Of course, it would be nice if I could get a hint about the topic we’ll be discussing. If I did, I could do any necessary research before you spill your guts.”

“Research won’t be needed,” I muttered. “Trust me.”

“Mrr,” Eddie said, and then we were out the door.

Five minutes later, before I could lose my courage, I parked in a visitor spot at the middle school. “Be right back,” I told Eddie, and headed inside. It was forty-five minutes before school started. If this was a normal day for Rafe, he’d already be at his desk, knee deep in whatever it was the principals did before school began.

I stared at the front door, took a deep breath, and went inside. “Don’t let this be awkward,” I told myself. After all, Rafe had no idea of the realization I’d come to twelve hours earlier. There was no way he could possibly know that I loved him, had loved him, would probably always love him.

“Don’t,” I whispered. If he’d ever had any interest in a romantic relationship with Minnie Hamilton, he’d had numerous opportunities to speak over the years. He’d never said a word. We were friends. And would remain only friends. It would take time, but I’d adjust to this new reality and would eventually move on.

I gave an involuntary moan of pain. Which sounded so pathetic that I was ashamed of myself. “Buck up,” I told myself firmly, ignoring the bleak emptiness I felt, trying not to think about Kristen’s upcoming wedding, in which both Rafe and I would undoubtedly be playing key roles, and opened the door to the school offices. “Hey,” I called. “You in there?”

“Hay is for horses,” Rafe called back. “I’d prefer steak and eggs.”

“Oatmeal,” I said, walking past the counter and his secretary’s desk, still empty at this hour, “is a much healthier choice.”

As I entered his office, a balled-up piece of paper popped me on the shoulder. “What was that for?” I stooped, picked up the paper, and fired it right back.

He batted it away and into the wastebasket. “Two points for the big winner. That’s what you get for suggesting healthy food instead of something I might actually like.”

“Is that what you tell your students?” I asked.

“I tell them to do as I say, not as I do.”

“And how is that working out for you?”

He grinned. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

I looked away from his smile, that wide, easy expression I’d seen thousands of times but that was now threatening to undo me. “Maybe I will.”

“You could, but you won’t.” He wadded up another piece of paper and lobbed it at a nearby chair. “Have a seat.”

“Can’t stay,” I said, but took the time to perch on the chair’s edge. “I just stopped by to tell you something.”

“Let me guess.” He whistled tunelessly for a moment, then said, “Eddie has finally found a way past his vocal limitations and is telling you exactly how you should run your life.”

“He’s been doing that for a year and a half,” I said. “It’s all in the interpretation. No, it’s about Dale Lacombe. I talked to Carmen last night. A while back, I’d asked her if any of Dale’s employees had ever been angry enough to kill him, or if any of them had ever threatened him.”

Rafe snorted. “Most of them, I’d say.”

“At the time, she couldn’t think of anyone, but last night she called because she’d remembered one name.” I paused, not wanting to say it out loud, knowing that I had to. “And it was yours.”

He gave me a blank look. “What are you talking about? I only worked for Lacombe once, the summer between high school and college.”

“Yes, but Carmen said . . .” I tried to remember exactly what she’d told me. “She said you’d blown up at Dale, gone on and on about how horrible he was as a boss.”

“True enough,” Rafe said, leaning back in his chair and putting his hands behind his head. “I did say all that. He was the worst boss I’d ever had, and that hasn’t changed.”

“There’s more,” I said evenly. “She said you blew up at him after he fired you, and that you threatened him. That you told him it wouldn’t take much for an accident to happen on a dark night.”

For a long moment, there was silence in the room. Rafe’s gaze met mine, and though I longed to go to him, to hold him tight and give him what comfort I could, I met his gaze and didn’t flinch.

Then he started laughing. Loud and long. “Seriously?” he asked, through spasms of laughter. “She’s going to take that to the cops?”

“First thing this morning, she said.”

“Sweet.” As his laughter faded to chuckles, he wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands. “Wish I could be there when she talks to Inwood, because that would be worth something.”

“It was a threat,” I said, getting a little annoyed. “And Dale Lacombe is dead.”

“A threat, sure.” He started laughing again. “What I told him was to take a long walk on a short pier. Not very original even at eighteen, but that was all I had. I mean, who fires a kid for picking up litter?”