“Who wants a snack?” she asked after locking the back door. Two canine butts instantly hit the floor. Tess gave each dog a giant rawhide chew toy and then double-checked the lock on the front door before heading toward the bathroom, pulling off her dusty clothing as she went.
She’d barely gotten into the shower when the dogs went into a barking frenzy, making her jerk so hard she hit her elbow on the faucet. And it wasn’t the UPS-man-is-here-again barking. It was the this-is-something-we-aren’t-familiar-with barking.
Not again...
Tess cranked off the shower and got out, heart pounding. She wrapped a towel around herself and stood for a moment on the bath rug, her hair dripping, listening.
The dogs were at the back door, not the front. Growling now instead of barking.
Crap. That wasn’t good. Tess let the towel drop and yanked her robe off the hook next to the shower. She struggled into the robe and stood still again, heart hammering. And then she heard it.
Laughter.
Happy kid laughter.
The blood that had been pounding in her temples drained away, leaving her feeling oddly light-headed. Just kids.
What were kids doing on her property?
Tess tried to swallow, but it was impossible because her mouth was dry. She moved cautiously to the window. There, not fifty feet from her house, three girls walked along the path next to the overgrown creek, pushing bicycles and talking.
Tess stepped away from the window as the tallest girl, who pushed the smallest bike, looked over at the house.
Did they know they were trespassing?
Tess tightened the belt around her waist and headed for the kitchen, where the dogs scratched at the door, anxious to get out and deal with this threat.
“Nee. Af,” Tess said and they both obediently dropped to their bellies. She watched the girls disappear behind the barn, then reappear on the other side. They followed the creek to the road, then pulled the bikes under the wire fence.
Tess slowly sat on a kitchen chair and rubbed her hand over her forehead. She’d just had the crap scared out of her by children. Something had to give. She couldn’t live the rest of her life like this. Afraid of little girls and cowboys.
CHAPTER THREE
“HEY, DAD?”
Zach looked up from the PVC pipe he was measuring. Darcy and Emma stood in the doorway of the shop. “Yeah?”
“Lizzie’s bike got a goat head in the tire on the way home today.”
Well, that explained why they were late. “Where’s the bike?”
“The front yard.”
“Where’s Lizzie?”
“Riding my bike. Her feet can barely touch the pedals.”
Zach set down the pipe, wiping his hands on a rag as he walked toward the door. “I don’t think I have another repair patch.” Goat heads were the round seedpod of a ground covering weed, hard as nails with a couple nasty tire-puncturing prongs sticking out. They were hell on bike tires.
“Maybe Tia can bring one home from town.”
“You can text her,” Zach said. Emma immediately headed off to the house. “But she may not get done with her class before the store closes,” Zach called after her.
“Wal-Mart doesn’t close,” Darcy said.
Zach kept forgetting that. “Well, once upon a time stores did close,” he said.
Darcy cocked her head. “And you remember those days? Man, Dad. You’re old.” Zach grinned as they walked toward the lawn where Lizzie’s bike lay on its side.
“Yeah, and I feel it every year.”
“Is that a gray hair there?” she asked.
“You should know,” Zach replied. “You probably put it there.”
“So how’d the pasture thing work out?” Darcy asked casually, hooking her thumbs in her front jeans pockets.
“What pasture thing?” Zach asked slowly.
“You know...the pasture across the road. The one the lady wouldn’t let you rent.”
“How do you know about that?”
“Tia was talking to Mrs. Bishop about it.”
“Did Beth Ann or Mrs. Bishop know you were there?”
Darcy shook her head. “If they know I’m there, then I don’t hear any good stuff.”
Lizzie came wobbling around the corner of the house before he could answer, perched on Darcy’s bike, the tips of her toes barely reaching the pedals. Benny the collie bounded alongside her.
“Don’t wave,” Zach said as her little hand lifted a few inches off the handlebar. She immediately clamped it back down as the bike wobbled dangerously. Both he and Darcy took a quick step forward, but Lizzie regained control and pedaled on, Benny right behind her. Zach hoped they had some Band-Aids on hand.
“She thinks she’s so cool now that she’s in the first grade,” Darcy said.
“Yeah. I don’t know anyone else who ever felt that way.”
“Come on, Dad. I was a serious student. Lizzie is all about having a good time.” Darcy’s eyes twinkled behind her glasses as she glanced sideways at her father. He shook his head and then picked up Lizzie’s bike from where it lay in the grass and tipped it upside down so he could take off the tire.
“I think this is beyond a patch kit,” Zach said. “We’ll have to get another tube.”
“Should I text Tia again?” Emma asked, having just stepped out onto the porch.
“No. I’ll get one when I go to town tomorrow.” He wasn’t going to have Beth Ann chasing all over Wesley looking for inner tubes when she no doubt had class work to do when she got home.
“But—” Emma started, only to be interrupted by her older sister.
“We can walk home,” Darcy said.
* * *
TESS FELL ASLEEP in the chair watching television, the sound turned down so low she practically had to read lips to understand the action. She hadn’t counted on sleeping at all—at least not until daybreak, which was the usual time she fell asleep. But despite the cowboy’s visit, despite the shower scare, she conked out sometime in the early-morning hours, only to be startled awake sometime after sunrise by the dogs scrambling to their feet and racing for the back door.
Tess tumbled out of the chair, tripping over the fleece blanket she’d been nestled under and going down hard on her knees. And then, during a brief lull in the canine uproar in the kitchen, she heard the girls’ voices.
This was ridiculous. There was no reason for those kids to cut across her property. It was, after all, hers.
She started for the back door, then stopped when she saw how far away the three girls were. She’d have to run after them if she wanted to warn them off and that smacked of crazy. She wanted to keep them off her property, not scare the daylights out of them...although that probably would keep them off her property. Something to consider.
She gripped the door frame and watched as they disappeared around a thicket of willows growing along the creek. No. She’d wait until they passed by again. From the time frame, it seemed logical that they were traveling to and from school. Yesterday they’d showed up around three. She’d make certain she wasn’t in the shower at that time and if they passed by again, well,