CHAPTER.

29.

Charlene finished up the sandwich Angel had insisted she eat. It was almost three in the afternoon. She was demoralized, hoa.r.s.e, and footsore. And to make matters worse, the sky above Last Chance was darkening with big, black clouds. The rumble of thunder vibrated the front windows of the Kountry Kitchen.

"I've got to go," she said, pushing up from the table. "I need to find that cat."

"In the rain?" Angel asked.

"If need be."

"I think you should put up some lost cat posters or something. But before that you should go to the hospital."

"We've already been through that. Tigger is the best medicine I could give Rainbow. I want to be able to tell her the cat is safe and sound. Now, I have to go."

She threw a ten-dollar bill on the table and headed out the door.

Angel didn't follow her. Either he'd given up trying to tell her what she should do with her life or he'd decided not to get wet. He was probably waiting for the deluge. Knowing Angel, once the skies opened up, he'd come find her in his Jeep.

She looked up at the sky. Big, gray thunderheads were ama.s.sing overhead, and the humidity had reached critical ma.s.s.

She should turn around and go back. But she was a fool. She'd already been up and down Julia Street five times-as far west as the old abandoned Smith house and east all the way to Allenberg Pike. For all she knew, the cat might be trying to get back to Chicago.

Sometimes animals did that kind of thing.

But she didn't want to admit failure. So she blew out a sigh and headed south on Palmetto Avenue toward Julia Street one more time. She got as far as Chancellor Street before the raindrops started to fall.

Lightning flashed while she waited for the light. The thunder came quickly, and the rain increased. No time for turning back now. Traffic was light, and she dashed across Palmetto against the light. She ducked under the florist shop's awning just as the skies opened up in earnest.

She was about to call Angel and let him know she planned to take refuge down the block at Dot's Spot when she heard the meow.

She looked up through the dark, gray rain just in time to see a drowned-looking cat on the other side of Palmetto Avenue. She squinted at the poor, drenched animal.

Its ears were flat to its head, and its coat was almost saturated. But the curl at the end of the cat's tail was unmistakable. It was Tigger.

"Stay right there," Charlene said, putting out her hand in an utterly useless gesture. She left the shelter of the awning. Rain beat down on her and soaked her T-shirt in a matter of seconds. She glanced at the light. It was about to change again, going green for the traffic on Palmetto. But the road that had been deserted a moment ago now seemed crowded with traffic.

A truck was heading north, and a car with its right turn indicator flashing waited at the stop light on Chancellor Street. "Stay put, Tigger," she pleaded.

She took two steps out into the street and thought about running across the road before the light changed.

But the truck was coming on fast. And then Tigger jumped out into the traffic on Palmetto Avenue just as the light changed. The driver of the truck slammed on his brakes. It fishtailed and slid sideways over the slick pavement. The pickup crossed the centerline and careened headlong toward Charlene.

She lost sight of the cat and stood there a moment, paralyzed by the oncoming vehicle as time seemed to slow down. And then her instinct for survival kicked in. She hopped back onto the curb, just as the truck slammed into the car making a right turn on the red light.

"No," she wailed, her voice drowned out by the thunder overhead and the groan of bending metal.

Tigger was gone. Tigger was gone. What the h.e.l.l was she going to do?

Tears filled her eyes, and she forced herself to take a step back into the road. The Mazda sedan had been totaled, but the driver seemed to be okay. The truck seemed remarkably unscathed, probably because it was a big, honking Dodge Ram.

She took another step out into the street. The Mazda was leaking fuel or oil or something.

"Tigger?" she called.

And then, miraculously, she heard the meow.

She took several more steps out into the street, calling the cat's name, sure that the animal had been seriously hurt. But she found the cat, wet and trembling, hunkered down under the back end of the Dodge.

"Come on, girl, come to me," she said as she got down on her knees. There wasn't any blood. The cat didn't seem hurt, but it was hard to tell because thick clouds had turned the afternoon dark. The rain continued to fall as she tried to coax the cat from under the truck. Tigger was soaked right through to the skin.

"Is that your cat?" The Mazda's driver had gotten out of her car and managed to find an umbrella. Charlene didn't recognize the woman, but the look on her face said everything. She shook her finger in Charlene's face. "Someone should take that cat away from you. Look at what your carelessness has caused." The woman turned toward the truck driver, who turned out to be Roy Burdett. "Would have served her right if you'd just run the cat over."

Roy ignored the woman and hunkered down beside Charlene. "Is that the cat that belongs to the little girl who got run over this morning?" he asked.

It was always a little amazing how everyone in town seemed to know the latest news, especially if it involved someone getting hurt. "Yeah. I've been looking for her all day. Bless you for putting on the brakes."

Roy got down on his belly and scooped the cat up in his big hands. "Here you go, Dr. Polk." He put the cat in Charlene's arms and then continued. "And mind yourself when you get up. It looks like the car I hit is leaking some oil."

"Thanks, Roy." Charlene snuggled Tigger against her soaking wet chest. The animal was shaking like a leaf. But it didn't look as if she'd been injured. She was panicky and wanted to get down, out of Charlene's arms. But there was no way in h.e.l.l she was letting that cat go. She stood up, trying vainly to protect it from the rain.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

Mike. What was he doing here? She turned around, and there he stood on the sidewalk right by the door to Eugene Hanks's law firm. Well, that explained his presence here. He'd come to sign Rainbow over to Reverend Lake.

The thought soured Charlene's stomach. "I'm finding the cat. Isn't that what you asked me to do this morning?"

"Yeah," he said, taking a step forward, his voice sounding strange and tight, "but I didn't intend for you to go rushing out into the middle of traffic and putting your life at risk. d.a.m.nit all, Charlene, that cat is a nuisance and a demon. You could have gotten hit. s.h.i.t, you almost did get hit. Don't you have any brains?"

Charlene took one step forward, intent on giving Mike Taggart a piece of her mind. He had some nerve getting mad at her for trying to save Tigger's life. Obviously he wasn't the man for her if he didn't understand how important the cat was.

"You listen up, mister-"

She didn't get any further with her tirade because she must have planted her foot square onto the oil Roy had just warned her about. Her feet slipped right out from underneath her, and she fell backward, hard onto the blacktop.

She saw stars for a moment. And pain exploded in the back of her head. Somehow she managed to keep her hold on Tigger. She closed her eyes against the rain. The world began to spin, making her stomach roil.

"Don't move." She knew that voice. Mike stepped into view and tried to take the animal, but she wouldn't let go.

"Tigger isn't a demon cat."

"Come on, Charlene. I didn't mean what I said about the cat. It's just that" His voice broke and he stopped talking, and somewhere in Charlene's rattled brains she knew that his tone of voice meant something important. But she was kind of having trouble making sense of the world right at that moment.

Sirens blared. She looked up at Mike and saw the tears running down his face. Or maybe it was just the rain. "I was just coming out of Eugene's office. I saw it all happen. The cat is not that important, Charlene," he said.

"I needed to save her. Rainbow needs her."

"Rainbow needs you more."

"That's nice, Mike. But I'm not going to marry Tim. Can we get that clear?"

He caressed her cheek. That was very nice. She wished he would do more of that. "Of course you're not," he said. "You're going to marry me. So you better stay with me. I don't think I could bear being left again."

Whoa, the head injury must be pretty d.a.m.n serious. Did he just propose? No, not possible.

She tried to get up but the pain exploded in her head.

"Don't. Wait until the EMTs get here."

"Okay. But I'm wet."

Someone threw a blanket over her. And she didn't have the heart to tell them that it did nothing for the water that was flowing like a river under her back. Not to mention that the pavement was kind of hard.

"I think I may be concussed. Did you just ask me to marry you?"

Mike smiled. "Uh, yeah, I think I did."

"You think you did? Boy, that's the story of my life. I wait thirty years for someone to pop the question, and he's not even sure he asked."

"I'm sure." Charlene was just settling herself in for a little romance when the EMTs arrived. They pulled Mike away, forcing him to take Tigger with him. And the next thing she knew, Ross Gardiner was there asking her a bunch of questions and shining a light in her eyes.

And then Mother and Daddy showed up, and before long, there was a whole crowd right there in the middle of Palmetto Avenue standing under the only stoplight in town.

The ER waiting room was crowded with a boatload of people from Last Chance, most of whom Mike didn't even know. Mike had gone home to change into dry clothes and to drop off and feed the cat. And in that short time, Charlene's family had gotten the jump on him.

Her mother was at her bedside while the doctors conferred. Since Mike wasn't family, no one in charge would let him get close. And her father, a tall man who looked exactly like her, had already told him in no uncertain terms that he disapproved of Mike on every level possible.

Mike was thinking about giving the guy a piece of his mind when Timmy came striding across the room. "Mike. Where have you been? I've been trying to call you for the last three hours. You need to get upstairs to Rainbow's room."

Oh. G.o.d. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine, but she's awake and she keeps asking for you. Look, Mike, I just heard about Charlene. Is she going to be okay?"

He nodded. "They think so. She's got a nasty b.u.mp on her head, but I gather they did an MRI or something and she didn't fracture her skull. She's concussed, and they're trying to decide if she should stay the night. I swear, Timmy, that cat almost took out the two people I care most about in this world. You think it was some kind of crazy payback or something?"

"The two people you care about most in the world?" Timmy asked.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, Timmy, I think you come in third."

"Mike, I'm glad you care about Charlene and Rainbow, because I have something important to say. Something you might not want to hear." He paused for a moment. "I refuse to be Rainbow's guardian."

Mike blinked.

"It's not that I don't care about her. I love her. But she belongs with you, and I'm not going to let you cop out. But I'll be here to help you in any way you need."

And hadn't Timmy been there from the beginning, making him stay, making him take responsibility, allowing his flock of church ladies to get all up in Mike's business? Like a village.

"Uh, Timmy, I kept my appointment with Eugene Hanks."

"I intend to rip up that medical power of attorney."

"No need. Because I didn't sign it."

"You didn't?"

He shook his head. "I can't leave Rainbow like I left Angie. Even if I do know that she's in great hands. I just can't. I love her. But the thing is, I still want to enter the World Series of Poker, so I'm going to have to figure out some babysitting arrangements."

Tim chuckled. "If you want my advice, I'd take that up with Charlene."

"I intend to. If I can ever get past her parents."

"Don't worry. Charlene is way beyond listening to them. Just give it time, Mike. In the meantime, Rainbow needs you."

In the past, Mike might have argued. But Timmy was right. Mike had plenty of time.

He'd already called Paul and told him to nix the Dragon Casinos deal. Mike still planned to enter the main event at the World Series of Poker, but he'd do it without a sponsor. If he played well, the Dragon Casinos people might still be interested. Or not. He didn't care. He could play poker for the thrill of it, and maybe turn day trading into the day-to-day job. He'd been doing pretty well in the markets these last two weeks.

But he wasn't worried about any of that right now. Right now he was sticking around for Rainbow and for Charlene.

They decided Charlene could go home, so long as her parents kept an eye on her. Head injuries could be tricky, but they were pretty sure she'd been lucky.

In truth, she had a raging headache, but she wasn't sure if it was because of her stupid fall or the hours she'd spent listening to Mother rant on about this and that.

It was almost dark when they wheeled her out of the emergency treatment center and to the curb where Daddy had pulled up his big Cadillac.

It was now or never.

Charlene stood up. Every muscle screamed in pain. Falling flat on one's back created bruises in all kinds of places. And with a head injury they were reluctant to prescribe pain meds. Which was just as well, because she had a conversation she needed to continue with Mike Taggart. It was a tossup whether the conversation would turn into a fight or something else. She prayed that her mind hadn't played tricks on her. She distinctly remembered him saying something about marriage.

"Mother, Daddy, thanks for staying with me. But I've got to go upstairs now."

"What?" They spoke in unison.

"I don't want to make a scene. So we're going to be adult about this, okay? I'm going back into the hospital to visit with Rainbow. I should have been there all day with the rest of the Methodist women praying for her speedy recovery. If I hadn't been so stubborn about staying away today, perhaps I wouldn't have gotten hurt. But it wouldn't be the first time that my stubbornness got me hurt. Only this time, being stubborn almost cost me everything, and I'm not talking about the car accident either. I'm talking about losing Rainbow and Mike. I love them, and I was an idiot to run away from what I feel."

She turned and walked, slowly and painfully, back into the hospital. She expected her parents to follow her, but maybe they'd finally gotten the message.