“Oh, God!” Rose looked repulsed. “I don’t know how you can touch that thing.”
Naomi reached over, grabbed its tail, and pushed it into the bag.
“Thanks.” Chaska flashed her a smile, then spoke soothingly to the snake. “There you go, buddy. You’re okay. No one’s trying to hurt you.”
Bob walked over to the house to turn off the water, chuckling to himself. “What happened to all that bullshit about respecting the snake’s energy?”
Rose spluttered. “Well, I…”
“What the hell are you doing over there in my bathrobe?” A woman stood across the street at the inn, hands on her hips.
“You told me not to come out in my underwear, woman!” Bob shouted back.
“Put on some damned pants!”
Naomi had to fight not to laugh.
“Rose, you’re going to want to plug that hole before something else moves in.”
“Right. Thanks so much, Chaska. Stop by for a free tarot reading anytime. You, too, Naomi. I would love to see what’s in your cards.”
That wasnevergoing to happen.
Chaska tied off the bag, looked over at Naomi. “Ready to go for a ride?”
Chaska droveup the winding dirt road to the site of the old quarry, where much of the stone for Scarlet’s earliest buildings had come from. He could tell something was bothering Naomi, though she hid it well, laughing about Bob and his kimono.
“I’ve got to say it—Scarlet Springs is a little weird.”
“Only a little? We must be slacking.” Chaska chuckled. “I like it that way. Kendra—the woman you saw yelling at Bob—is Lexi’s stepmom. Lexi’s mom died in a car accident when Lexi and her sister Britta were very little.”
“That’s awful. It must have been so hard for them.”
“Yeah.” Chaska knew first hand how that felt.
Naomi had never asked about his family, but then she’d probably learned early in life not to ask others unless she wanted to answer questions herself.
He decided to come right out and tell her. “My mother died when I was twelve and Win was ten. She got drunk and wandered outside in a snow storm when we were with our dad. They found her frozen to death ten feet from our front door.”
Naomi reached over, rested a hand on his thigh. “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”
“For a long time, I blamed myself for not being home that night, for not being there to save her.”
“You were a child. Itwasn’tyour fault.”
“I know that now, but then…” Chaska changed the subject. “So, what were you and Rose talking about?”
She looked guiltily down at her hands. “She … She tricked me into admitting that you and I are lovers.”
So that’s what was troubling her.
Naomi told him the whole story—what Rose had said to her, what she’d said to Rose. “Then she said, ‘So youarelovers.’ I gave her exactly what she wanted. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“You have no reason to apologize.” Chaska kept the grin off his face, touched that Naomi would stand up for his dignity the way she had. “Rose is Scarlet’s biggest gossip. She’s been tricking people into telling her things since before we were born. But just so you know—the entire town is going to know about us before sunset.”
“You’re not angry?”
“No. I’m touched by what you said. ‘Beautiful and sacred.’ I like it. I think poor Rose is the one who’s jealous now. Did she really say she thinks I’m hung?”