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“Well,” Nancy said, “what was I doing? You know, what was taking place in the visions?”
Oh, hell, Tux thought, he didn’t want to scare her to death. What should he say? It wasn’t as though he had any experience in predicting the future. How did he even know there was any validity to what he’d seen? This whole situation was confusing and very disturbing.
“Mr. Bishop?” Nancy persisted. “Tux?”
“What?” he said, snapping back to attention. “Oh, the visions that you were in. Well, it was a mishmash of things, you understand.
“The buttons and beads were swirling around as though they were being whipped by a wind, then they settled into columns, rows, which I assume were those bins you have there.
“The painted sign saying Buttons and Beads came into view, then disappeared. My friend doesn’t see images like a movie, all neat and tidy and organized.”
Nancy nodded. “I’ve got it. So? What was I doing in the mishmash?”
Tux began to search his mind frantically for what he should say. For all he knew, the visions had meant nothing because he really didn’t possess the power to see into the future.
On the other hand, if by chance this once...and it better not happen again...he actually had glimpsed a scene of something that had not yet taken place, but was going to happen; Nancy deserved to be warned of the danger that she might be facing.
Then again, she didn’t even own a bright blue shawl.
He was going nuts arguing with himself. He was chasing his own thoughts around in his head like a hamster in one of those endless wheels that went nowhere.
Tux cleared his throat. “Yes, well, you want to know the part you played in what my friend saw. That’s certainly a reasonable request. I—”
He was interrupted by the tinkling of the bell over the door as a short, plump woman in her sixties bustled in, carrying a grocery sack. Breathing a mental sigh of relief at the reprieve, Tux stepped back out of the way.
“Hello, darling,” the woman greeted Nancy. “How are you this lovely summer morning?” She glanced at Tux. “Oh, you have company. Go right ahead with what you were doing. I’ll wait.”
“We’re just chatting,” Nancy replied. “Glenna Cushman, this is Tux Bishop. Tux, Glenna owns the used clothes store down the block.”
Tux smiled. “It’s a pleasure, ma’am. I saw your shop. The Second Time Around is a clever name.”
“I know,” Glenna said, laughing merrily. “I was so tickled with myself when I thought of it.” She slid her gaze over Tux from head to toe, then back again. “Hmmm, aren’t you a dandy hunk of stuff? Yummy.” She looked at Nancy. “Nancy Shatner, please say you noticed that this is one very sexy man.”
Tux laughed.
Nancy blushed a pretty pink and rolled her eyes heavenward.
“Glenna, please,” Nancy said, with a moan. “Hush. All right?”
“Well, facts are facts, dear,” Glenna persisted. “The man definitely does wonderful things for a pair of jeans. Beads and buttons simply won’t keep a woman warm on a snowy winter night.”
“Glenna,” Nancy said, leaning slightly toward her, “this is Houston, Texas. We don’t have snowy winter nights.”
“Figure of speech. You know what I mean,” Glenna said. “You’re young and beautiful. You need a man in your life. Tux, don’t you think Nancy is beautiful?”
“Glenna,” he said, his voice very low and rumbly as he looked directly at Nancy, “I think Nancy is extremely beautiful. She reminds me of a gypsy. Oh, yes, she is definitely beautiful.” And now he knew she was unattached, was not involved in a relationship with a man. Thank you, Glenna Cushman.
Dear heaven, Nancy thought, unable to tear her gaze from Tux’s mesmerizing blue eyes. She could hardly breathe and her heart was beating like a drum.
Tux’s voice had dropped an octave, and she felt as though it were caressing her like dark velvet, creating thrumming heat as it swept over and throughout her. Tux Bishop was having a very unsettling and unwelcomed effect on her, drat him.
“I must dash back to the store,” Glenna announced, breaking the strange sensuous spell that had weaved around Tux and Nancy. “I just took some things that came in late yesterday out of the washer and dryer. Per usual, my darling girl, you get first pick. I thought this was perfect for you.”
Glenna reached into the sack and whipped out a garment that she flipped onto the top of the bins in a splash of color.
It was a bright blue shawl.
Two
Nancy stared at the blue shawl as she agreed absently with Glenna that it was lovely. The older woman reminded Nancy once again how handsome Tux was, then hurried out the door to return to her own store.
“Tux?” Nancy said. She tore her eyes from the shawl to look at him. “You told me your friend couldn’t see into the future.”
“He can’t.” He frowned as he met her troubled gaze.
“But he did. He saw me wearing the shawl before it belonged to me, and now here it is.”
“Yeah, here it is.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Why would he suddenly glimpse something from the future? I can’t accept this.”
“Oh, really?” Nancy returned, her voice rising. “Pitching a fit isn’t going to change the fact that I now own a bright blue shawl. You keep dancing around the subject of what was happening to me in those visions. I want you to tell me.”
Once again the tinkling bell over the door announced the entrance of someone into the store, and once again Tux sighed inwardly with relief.
An attractive, middle-aged woman, who was smartly dressed in an obviously expensive sundress with a matching wide-brimmed hat, went to the row of bins.
“Good morning,” the woman said, smiling at Nancy. “I need some beads for a blouse I’m having made. It has a Western style, and I thought it would be nice if beads were added to the fringe. A friend told me about your store, so I drove all the way over here to select the beads myself.”
“I appreciate your making the trip,” Nancy replied pleasantly. “Now then, what color is the blouse and what kind of material is it being made from?”
Tux tuned out the discussion between the two women. He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and wandered around the narrow area making up the front portion of the store.
There was a lot of inventory in a small space, he mused. Nancy Shatner had used every inch of room to advantage. The sun pouring in the gleaming front window cascaded over the bins of buttons and beads, creating an extremely appealing kaleidoscope of color.
There were more beads than buttons, he noticed. The beads were a variety of every shape, size, color and material imaginable. There were even leather beads, as well as some that looked like delicate crystal.
Tux stopped in front of the two bins holding the buttons. He picked up a square button that appeared to be hand-painted china, then carefully replaced it. The next one he scrutinized was a replica of a buffalo nickel, the one after that a tiny wooden log.
Fascinating, he thought, and very clever. It would be interesting to know how Nancy had come to the decision to operate such an unusual business. It would, in fact, be interesting to know more about Nancy Shatner herself, the woman.
Tux went to the front window and stared at the shabby, empty building he’d leaned against across the street.
Surely Nancy didn’t live above Buttons and Beads, he thought. This was definitely not a neighborhood for a woman alone to take up residency. Not even close. It wasn’t that great a location to operate a business, but low rent had no doubt enticed Nancy to set up shop here.
Her reputation for having quality merchandise was obviously spreading, as evidenced by the arrival of Mrs. Megabucks from across town. He had to give Nancy credit for what she’d accomplished, that was for sure.
“There you are,” Nancy said, handing the woman a white bag. “Thank you so much. Your blouse is going to be beautiful. I tucked one of my catalogs into that bag so you can browse at your leisure, and I’ll put your name on my mailing list so you’ll be notified of special sales in the future.”
“Marvelous,” the woman said. “I’ll certainly tell all my friends about Buttons and Beads. Some won’t come into this section of town, so I’ll share the catalog, too. Goodbye for now.”
“Goodbye,” Nancy said, “and thank you again.”
The woman left the store, and Tux turned from the window to look at Nancy.
“You seem to have everything covered from A to Z,” he said. “I’m impressed, ma’am.”
“Thank you, sir.” She smiled as she dipped her head slightly. “What kind of work do you do?”
“I’m a private investigator,” Tux said, walking slowly back toward the bins.
“Really? I’ve never met a detective before. Were you a police officer?”
“No, I worked for the government until about a year or so ago.”
“Ah, I see. Then you were, no doubt, a secret agent of some kind.”
Tux frowned. “I didn’t say that.”
“It’s obvious. You worked for the government. If you’d been a mailman, or internal revenue clerk, or social security expert, you would have said so. Besides, secret agents who get tired of dashing all over the world are perfectly trained to become private investigators.” She shrugged. “That’s how it goes in the movies, and it makes sense to me.”
Tux chuckled. “You’re really something. You’re also right. I don’t announce that I was a government agent. People either start asking me questions about what they believe must have been an exciting life, or I make them nervous and they close up.” He paused. “Do I make you nervous, Nancy?” He looked directly into her dark eyes.
“No,” she said quietly.
Oh, Tux definitely had an unsettling effect on her, she admitted silently, but it had nothing to do with his former or present occupations. It was Tux Bishop, the man, who was throwing her off-kilter, causing funny flutters of heat to whisper throughout her. He was just so incredibly, blatantly male.
She lifted her chin a tad. “I believe that everyone should try to know who they are and discover what they want. Then they should move forward and go after their goal, their dreams and...”
Nancy’s voice trailed off and she averted her eyes from Tux’s.
“Whatever,” she finished saying after a moment. “I didn’t mean to get on a soapbox about it. Just erase all that. You didn’t ask for a sermonette.”
Tux looked at Nancy intently, suddenly wishing his powers... which were usually annoying...included the ability to peer into a person’s mind. To be more precise, into Nancy Shatner’s mind.
Who had tried to keep her from going after her goals, her dreams? he wondered. Her voice had rung with determination, conviction...and, yes, passion.
“If I’m nervous about anything,” Nancy said, “it’s your apparent reluctance to reveal to me what I was doing in the visions your friend had and what was happening to me. Is there some reason you don’t want to tell me what he saw?”
“Of course I’ll tell you, Nancy,” Tux said, “but I want to be certain you understand that this whole thing could be a false alarm.”
“Fine. Now explain my role in the scenario that your friend saw.”
“Yeah, well.” Tux began slowly. “I realize I’ve been postponing telling you, but I didn’t want to scare you. Nancy, my friend sensed danger during all three visions. When he could finally see you clearly, you had on the shawl, you were crying and holding out your arms as though pleading for help. He sensed you were frightened.”
“Oh, dear,” she whispered. She pressed trembling fingertips to her lips.
“I’m sorry,” Tux said miserably.
On impulse he strode past the end of the bins to where Nancy stood behind them, and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m sorry I frightened you,” he repeated. “I feel so rotten about this, especially because I can’t explain why or how it happened. If I...we, my friend and I...could figure it out, it might help to ease your fears.”
Nancy encircled Tux’s waist with her arms and rested her head on the solid wall of his chest.
Oh, he felt so good, she thought. He was strong and powerful. Yes, she was determined to be independent, to take care of herself, answer to no one but herself, but, oh, God, this whole bizarre business was suddenly frightening.
Nancy sighed. It was a shuddering sigh and Tux tightened his hold on her, inhaling her delicate aroma of flowers. He hardly remembered moving to comfort her, his protective instincts having risen to the fore, but now he was very aware that she felt like heaven itself pressed close to his body.
He could feel her breasts, lush and full, against his chest. He could feel how delicate she was, like fine china. He could feel the tenseness caused by her fright slowly ebbing.
But then there was an even greater shift, change, as senses heightened, as the man totally reacted to the woman, the woman to the man. Heat began to build and chum in a body soft, a body hard. Heartbeats quickened.
The blue shawl, the threatening visions, the endless questions, were all forgotten.
Nancy lifted her head to meet Tux’s gaze, seeing the smoky hue of desire in his eyes, not caring if her own eyes revealed the same.
Tux covered her mouth with his, parting her lips, meeting her tongue. It was an explosion of sensation that rocketed through them like the licking flames of a roaring fire.
Hot.
Burning.
He deepened the kiss and passions soared.
Tux raised his head slightly to draw a rough breath, then slanted his mouth the other way as he claimed Nancy’s lips again, drinking of her taste like a thirsty man having found sweet nectar.
Oh, Tux, Nancy’s mind hummed. It was ecstasy. The feel, the aroma, the taste of this man was exquisite. Never, never before had she experienced such an incredible awareness of her own femininity compared to the blatant masculinity of a man, this man, Tux.
She was on fire, burning with the want of him. Her breasts ached with a tantalizing pain, yearning for the soothing touch of Tux’s hands. Deep and low within her, the heat pulsed, matching the rapid tempo of her heart.
She was being swept away on passion’s tide, and she gloried in it...
What on earth was she doing?
Nancy broke the kiss and moved her hands to press them flat on Tux’s chest, pushing him away, forcing him to release her. She took a quick step backward and willed her racing heart to still.
Tux frowned, shook his head once sharply, then took a raspy breath.
“Nancy?” he said, hearing the gritty quality of his voice.
“I...” She wrapped her hands around her elbows. “That shouldn’t have happened. I don’t do things like that. I don’t leap into the arms of a man I don’t even know. You must think I’m...” She lifted her chin. “Well, I’m not. Understand? I was upset, momentarily frightened by what you’ve been saying ever since you came in here.”
Tux nodded. “Oh.”
“Oh? Oh! That’s all you have to say?” she said, none too quietly.
“What do you want me to say?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she admitted shaking her head. “I’m totally mortified. I don’t wish to discuss what happened any further.”
