“I agree,” Douglas said. “Do you think we should contact Wanda and warn her?”
“Nope.” Everyone grinned. “Let’s wait and see what she has to say when she contacts us and yells at us.” Angie grinned as they went on with their day.
Chapter 9
With her earbuds in, listening to her favorite music, Willow Raintree laid out twenty dirty, filthy hand towels in the driveway and grabbed the hose to hose them down. She needed to get the dried, caked on gray and red clay off them before she could throw them in the washer. Intent on her task, she moved her head to the music and reflected on the last couple of months. She’d been able to fill all her orders and stock up on inventory. With the purchase of Magnolia’s kilns, she could fire more than she could in the past. Happy, she did a little dance to the music and grinned.
She was just as filthy as the towels, but she knew she was almost done. Once they were rinsed, she only had to wring them out and take them upstairs and throw them in the washer. Then climb into the shower herself. It was late Saturday afternoon, and the only thing on her agenda was a hot shower, and a good book. Later she’d call for takeout. She hadn’t decided yet if she wanted pizza or Chinese. She figured that she’d let her fingers to the walking when she was ready to order and would get her usual from which ever place her fingers dialed.
As she moved the hose back and forth over the towels from top to bottom, she watched as the gray/red sludge slowly ran down the driveway. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow, and instead of panicking, she waited until the shadow grew more significant. Then at the last possible moment, she whipped around, aiming the ice-cold spray from the hose directly at the intruder.
“Who are you, and what are you doing on private property?” she demanded as she took the earbuds out and saw that her trick had worked. She’d hit the man directly in the chest, he stumbled back and fell on his ass straight in the line of the gray/red sludge that had run out of the towels. She frowned when he started muttering under his breath, when he wiped his face, Willow laughed her ass off at the sludge he streaked across it.
“Turn that off!” Came the demand.
“Why?”
“Because I need to talk to you.” Willow didn’t turn it off, but she directed it back onto the towel beside him.
“I don’t know you, why do you need to talk to me?”
“I’m looking for Wanda Perkins. My investigation has led me to this address.” Christopher looked up and sucked in his breath as a beautiful blonde with glowing blue eyes stared back at him. He looked her up and down and liked what he saw. He enjoyed it so much that he hoped like hell she didn’t notice his instant erection, despite the blast of ice water she’d already covered him with.
Willow stared at the man in shock. Ever since she settled in Arizona, she’d gone by the name Willow Raintree. All of her designs and everything made was by that artist. She hadn’t gone by Wanda since she arrived. Not even her neighbors knew her as Wanda. It wasn’t that she was hiding from anything, it was just that since she ‘found’ herself, she’d been freer than she had been in years. It seemed that when she was home, everything had been planned from minute to minute, for years, if you added them up, a total of eight yearshad been spent in hospitals. Living a sterile life on the whim of doctors and nurses. She was tired of it, that was why she’d gone to her family years ago and told them of her plans. So far, they had been good at not pressuring her for her address. She loved that about her family.
“Who are you? And why are you here?” She watched as the man stood, slipped in the sludge and swore as he fell again. Once he regained his footing, he stepped out of the water and onto the side. She wouldn’t say it was grass because she was in Arizona and it had already started to turn brown.
“My name is Christopher Evans, and I have personal business with Miss Wanda Perkins. I know that’s you because I saw a picture of you that your brother Douglas showed me.”
Christopher watched the woman carefully, and the only indication she gave was a slight frown. She tossed the hose to the side and started picking up the towels and wringing them out one by one. He winced when the hose wasn’t immediately put away. He winced again when he saw how filthy she was, her legs from the knees down were soaking wet, but also caked with red and gray clay. She had the same mud on her arms and face, and her hair was twisted on top of her head, and as he looked closely, that too had clumps of the mud.
“You got dry clothes with you?” Willow asked as she studied the man. She began rolling up the hose and waited for his answer.
“I do.”
“Why don’t you grab them, I’ll offer you a shower then you can tell me what’s on your mind before youget out of here. You have two minutes to get your stuff then the offer’s off the table.”
Christopher didn’t say anything, he turned on his heel and slipped and slid his way to his car and was back in those two minutes. Without saying a word, he followed her into the building and frowned as he looked around. But she didn’t give him much of a chance to see anything. On the other side of the room, she led him through a door, up a set of stairs and through another door and directly into a state-of-the-art kitchen, where she removed her shoes. She went to another door and threw the towels she’d carried up, her socks and right before his eyes, she began peeling her jeans down her ample hips. But she grabbed a large towel and wrapped it around herself. By the time she was done, he knew for a fact she was naked beneath that towel. She turned to him and smirked.
“Might as well toss your stuff in too. There are bath towels on the shelf above the washer. Down the hall are six bedrooms to choose from, each has their own bath. I’ll meet you back in the kitchen in thirty minutes. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m filthy and in need of a shower.” With that, she turned on her heel and left him standing there gawking after her. As soon as she entered her bedroom, she quickly locked the door, wedged a chair beneath the door handle and hurried to her bathroom, taking her cell phone with her. She closed the door and quickly dialed.
“Gypsy, this is Willow.”
“Oh, hey, Willow. What’s up?”
“I need to use your husband.”
The woman on the other end of the line laughed. “Now didn’t I show you that website to go to so you could purchase your own personal ‘man’?”
“Not that way.” Willow laughed. “No, I don’t know if you saw what happened downstairs, but some guy showed up saying he was looking for Wanda. I’ve never seen this man before in my life. And stupid me, I literally hosed him down, he fell in the sludge from the towels. As we speak, he’s taking a shower in one of the spare bedrooms.”
“Where are you?” Gypsy was suddenly serious.
“Locked in my bathroom. I told him we’d meet back in the kitchen in thirty minutes.”
“Stall as long as you can. I’ll send Mick and some of the guys over in forty-five. Make sure the connecting door is unlocked. Trust me, we have your back.”
“Thanks, Gypsy. I owe you.”
