Page 20 of Tiger's Quest
I ran my hand nervously across the top and carefully tilted open the lid. Rows of tiny drawers were lined with velvet, and inside each little drawer was a coiled-up hair ribbon.
“The segments come out. See?”
He lifted the top section and the next one. There were five sections with about forty ribbons per section.
“Every ribbon is different. No two colors are the same, and there’s at least one from every major country in the world.”
Stunned, I said, “Ren. . . I—”
I looked up. Mike saw nothing wrong at all. He probably thought something like this happened every day. Sarah was looking at Ren with new eyes. Her suspicious and concerned expressions were gone.
With a small approving smile on her face, she said, “Well, Ren. It seems you know Kelsey pretty well. She does love hair ribbons.”
Suddenly, Sarah cleared her throat loudly, stood, and asked us to watch the kids while they went for a quick run. They brought us two mugs of steaming hot chocolate and disappeared upstairs to change into jogging clothes. Though they exercised all the time, they usually took a break on Christmas.Was she trying to give Ren and me some alone time? I wasn’t sure if I should hug her or beg her to stay.
The box was still on my lap, and I was absentmindedly fingering a ribbon when they jogged out the door with a wave.
Ren reached over and touched my hand. “You don’t like it?”
I looked up into his blue eyes and said huskily, “It’s the best present I’veeverbeen given.”
He smiled brilliantly, picked up my hand, and pressed a soft kiss on my fingers.
Turning to the kids, he asked, “Now who would like a story?”
Rebecca and Sammy picked out a book and climbed up onto Ren’s lap. He wrapped an arm around each of them.
He read in an animated voice, “I am Sam. Sam I am. Do you like green eggs and ham?”
The only word he got stuck on was “anywhere,” but the kids helped him sound it out, and he got it every time after that. I was impressed. Mr. Kadam must have taught him how to read English.
Ren convinced Sammy to hold the book for him and pulled me closer with his free arm. He tugged me up against his body so that my head rested on his shoulder and then trailed his fingers teasingly up and down my arm.
When Mike and Sarah returned, I bolted up and started gathering my things like a woman with her shoes on fire. Nervously, I glanced at Ren and found him watching me with a slightly amused, steady gaze. Mike and Sarah thanked us and helped me pack my things into my car. Ren said his good-byes too and waited for me outside.
Sarah gave me a look that clearly meant I had some explaining to do. Then she shut the door and left us in the cold December weather. We were finally alone.
Ren slipped off a glove and traced my face with his warm fingertips.
“Go home, Kells. Don’t ask me questions now. This isn’t the right place. We’ll have plenty of time later. I’ll meet you there.”
“But—”
“Later, rajkumari.” He slipped his glove back on and walked over to the Hummer.
When did he learn how to drive?I turned my car around and watched the Hummer in the rearview mirror until I turned onto a side street, and it fell out of view.
Thousands of questions pummeled my brain, and I ran through the list on the drive up the mountain. The road was a little icy. I set aside the burning questions filling my mind to focus on the drive.
When I passed the curve and saw my house, I noticed something was different. It took me a minute to figure out what it was: there were curtains in the window of the connecting duplex. Someone had moved in.
I parked in the garage and walked to the front door of the other home. I knocked but nobody answered. Twisting the knob, I found the door unlocked. The home was furnished almost the same way as mine but in darker, more masculine colors. When I saw the old mandolin resting on the leather couch, my nagging suspicions were confirmed. Ren was moving in.
I walked through the kitchen, found the pantry and refrigerator empty, and saw that the bottom half of the back door had been refitted with a huge swinging flap.
Hmm . . . won’t keep burglars out. They can crawl right in. But, I guess they’d get a surprise if they tried to steal something here.
I hurried back to my house, closing the door behind me, not even bothering to look upstairs or check his closet for the designer labels I knew were there. There was no doubt in my mind that Ren was my new neighbor.
