Snakes disturb me.” She shuddered. “Lizards are bad enough.”
“I have to have a hobby, my dear,” he reminded her. “It could be worse. Do you remember that witch doctor we met down the Amazon, the one who collected heads?”
“I withdraw every objection,” Tina promised, hand over her heart. “Would you like tea, darling? I’m going to pour some for Elissa and her...and Mr. Roper.”
“I’ll be out directly,” Elias promised. “I have to feed poor old Ludwig.”
“Poor old Ludwig,” Tina chuckled as they made their way back down the hall to the kitchen, where sliding doors opened onto a deck facing the ocean. “He takes him walking down the beach on a leash. It’s a good thing we have such a loyal congregation.” She shook her head.
“Father is eccentric,” Elissa said quietly, glancing worriedly at King.
He cocked an eyebrow. “My father collected rocks,” he remarked. “And I had a great-uncle who could forecast the weather with jars of bear grease. Compared to that, keeping lizards seems pretty sane.”
Elissa leaned back in her chair. “Go ahead, Mother, tell him what you do in your spare time,” she dared, watching Tina pour amber tea into tall glasses of ice.
King frowned slightly and turned to Tina. “What do you do in your spare time?”
Tina set the glasses on the small kitchen table. “Well, I’m a special deputy for the sheriff’s department.”
“Now, that sounds interesting,” King said, and he seemed to mean it.
“It’s very interesting,” she agreed. She got her own tea and sat down. “I have so much experience as a missionary, you see, it gives me a little insight into people. Some of the folks we arrest are women, and I seem to deal with them better than the men do.” She smiled wistfully. “I’ve been on drug busts and in shoot-outs and stakeouts, and once I jumped a fence and wrestled down a young pusher and held him for the deputies. Yes, it’s exciting and very rewarding. I often look up the people later and try to get to know them.” Her eyes softened. “I’ve managed to get several of them to come to services on Sunday. And we baptized one just last week,” she added, her voice a little husky. “I suppose this sounds pretty saccharine to a worldly man like you.”
“But I’m not,” King said, surprising even Elissa. “I was raised a Baptist in Jack’s Corner, a small town outside Oklahoma City, near my ranch. My father was Apache, but he bowed to some white customs. He found church fulfilling for a time.”
Elissa was stunned at how easily King related to her mother. He’d even volunteered information about his heritage, which he was usually so prickly about.
“Apache,” Tina said, studying him more closely with totally innocent curiosity. “Yes, your eyes are very dark, and you have high cheekbones...”
“Mother,” Elissa groaned, “he’s not an exhibit.”
King chuckled. “Elissa is remembering that I can get touchy about my ancestry,” he remarked with a smile in Elissa’s direction. “I don’t mind honest curiosity. I don’t suppose you see many Native Americans in this part of the country.”
Tina grinned. “I guess I don’t look it,” she told him, “but I’m part Seminole, on my mother’s side.”
King’s eyebrows rose. “You never told me,” he murmured to Elissa.
She shrugged. “You never asked about my ancestry.”
He frowned. That was true. They often shared their thoughts and feelings and dreams, and he’d even told her about his family, but he’d never bothered to ask about hers. He felt oddly guilty about that now and inordinately curious to know more about this little spitfire.
“My grandfather had a Seminole name, which he changed,” Tina continued, looking at King. “Is Roper your father’s real name?”
King smiled and told her the Apache word for Man Who Throws Rope. “That’s why he changed it to Roper,” he added.
“Do you like to fish, Mr. Roper?” Elissa’s father asked, coming into the kitchen.
“If you mean deep-sea fishing, no,” King replied. “But if you mean dipping a worm on a hook into a creek, yes.”
Mr. Dean grinned. “My sentiments exactly. There’s a nice little swamp about two hours’ drive from here, where you can get some of the biggest bream and crappie you ever saw.”
“We have a spare room,” Tina Dean added, smiling at him. “It’s quiet here. We’re off the main drag. I see that Elissa looks horrified, but we won’t let the lizards eat you, and if you’re as tired as you look, the change might do you good, Mr. Roper.”