lingered. She tried not to look at the blank windows or notice the closed doors as she hurried about her errands. She even tried to think about her encounter with Buddy, and how she had probably overreacted, and how unlikely it was that he’d try something again, no matter what he was up to.
Sometimes letting people know about incidents like that provided a measure of protection. If anything happened to her, she knew the first place they’d look. And thanks to Craig, now so did Buddy.
The Laundromat was quiet that morning and she was able to wash all her clothes rapidly while she read a book. Unfortunately, as she folded her things, she noted again that everything carried the marks of her art. Everything.
She sighed, stuffed it all back into her suitcase and car, then headed down the street to the department store. Freitag’s Mercantile. The name spoke of another era, and she liked it.
Unfortunately, while she had assumed when leaving Tampa that she wouldn’t need much in the way of warm clothing—it was summer after all—apparently folks in this part of the world believed it was summer, too, which meant there wasn’t a whole lot of warm stuff to look at. And she definitely needed warm if she was going to spend her nights in the forest.
A nice clerk named Glynda offered to help her, and Sky explained her problem.
“Thin blood?” Glynda’s brown eyes twinkled. “Every so often we get someone from your part of the world. It doesn’t help to tell them it’s actually warm.”
“For you, maybe,” Sky joked.
Glynda laughed. “But I do have solutions. Layering. We’ve got some nice summer-weight sweaters, plenty of long pants, a few sweat suits...”
Sky might have splurged except she knew darn well that everything was going to have paint on it before this trip was over. Most of it, anyway. So she settled on some extra jeans, a sweat suit for wear in the evenings and a couple of those sweaters. Glynda even found her a warmer jacket. She hesitated, then reminded herself that she could probably wear it for a week or two in the winter and it would last forever. As long as she didn’t paint in it.
With that done, she drove to the grocery at the edge of town, got more ice for her cooler, some reasonably healthy snack foods that shouldn’t spoil and even some spices to use if she cooked. There was roughing it and there was roughing it. She’d had enough of the roughest of it in the army. These days she appreciated every creature comfort, however minor.
She stopped in at the station and Lucy gave her a key for the cabin. “Enjoy it,” Lucy said cheerfully. “Nobody seems to want it any time in the next month, so have at it.”
“Thanks.”
Lucy leaned over the counter a bit. “Just be careful,” she said more seriously. “Craig seems to think Buddy is just a harmless nut, but I’m not so sure.”
Sky felt apprehension run along her nerves. “Any particular reason?”
Lucy hesitated, then shook her head. “Sorry, no. It’s just a feeling. I guess I got worried when I heard he’d bothered you. Buddy never used to do things like that.”
“So Craig says.”
“And he’s probably right. He deals more with the guy than I do. But just watch yourself anyway. Craig’s still in town as far as I know, and I don’t know when he’ll be back. You’ve still got the radio he gave you, right?”
“Yes.” And she’d better remember to turn it on this time.
“I monitor all channels, so you won’t exactly be alone out there.” Lucy smiled again.
And with that pleasant thought, Sky headed out toward the cabin to unload and then decide if she wanted to paint or do something else with the day. She was, she realized suddenly, free to do anything she wanted. It was a vacation.
Funny how that idea was only beginning to penetrate.
She’d managed to make most of her trip without thinking about Craig too much, but when she got to the cabin there was no avoiding it any longer. Her mind’s eye kept throwing up images of him as she unloaded and carried everything into the cabin. Handsome. Well, okay, better than handsome because he managed to look really good without being at all pretty, or making her think he should be a movie star.
But more important was kindness. Reminding herself that anyone could be nice for short periods didn’t help. He was nice. There was something about him that