Before We Were Strangers

by Brenda Novak

  “Stop it. I haven’t even slept with her,” he lied.

  “Maybe it was the message you had me put on the roses, but I find that hard to believe.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Will you quit it? It doesn’t matter who I sleep with. What I do with my off hours doesn’t interfere with my ability to do my job.”

  “Said every politician who crossed that line.”

  “Do you mind? The chief of police is waiting! She’s not pregnant, okay?”

  “Good. Because I think you’re crazy to trust her. She’s already trapped one man. Do you want to be next?”

  “You don’t know anything about her.”

  “I know she got pregnant with Micah Evans’s child on purpose. No one wants to say that out loud, but it’s true. His mother used to be a good friend of mine. She told me that one day, while we were sitting in church.”

  “The gossip in this town is unbelievable.”

  “True, but making it in politics means you have to take that into account. Isn’t that what you always tell me?”

  “I’ve done pretty good on my own so far.”

  “But you’re not yourself right now.”

  “Let it go, Edith. We’re both going to be fine.” He was using Paige, not the other way around. “But I appreciate your concern,” he added facetiously. “Now, will you get out of my office so I can do my work?”

  With a final, dubious glance, she trudged out.

  “And close the door behind you,” he called after her.

  Only after the door slammed did he pick up the phone. “What’s going on?” he asked Bill.

  “You’re not going to like it,” came the reply.

  He’d had a feeling. Perching on the edge of his seat, he began kneading his forehead. “Please tell me you’re keeping up your end of the bargain.”

  “I’m doing what I can, but you need to be aware that this could get away from me.”

  “Get away from you how? You’re the chief of police, for God’s sake!”

  “It’s not that simple. Keller PD has been back in touch.”

  Ed’s stomach cramped as soon as he heard the word Keller. He didn’t want to think of the past. “Detective Polanski’s bothering you again? Don’t tell me that old bag of bones is still trying to pin my family’s murders on me.”

  “Not him. Polanski has retired. There’s a new detective on the case by the name of Ramos—a young guy, familiar with all the latest forensics. He’s going through the case, checking every statement, looking at every detail.”

  “Shit...”

  “See what I mean?”

  Ed’s mind raced through the possible implications. Bill needed to stand his ground. That was all there was to it. “You can handle Keller PD. Your predecessor did, didn’t he? And I wasn’t even mayor back then.”

  “But I’ve got Micah, a member of my own force, trying to stick his nose into everything. So that’s different, right? If Ramos and Micah get together on this... Well, that could change a lot of things.”

  “Whether they team up or not, there’s no way they’ll ever tie me to the deaths of my mother, father and brother. I wasn’t even in the area.”

  “But like you said, the investigation itself could be enough to sink your reelection. And innocent men are charged with crimes all the time. Having Sloane in town, claiming you’re responsible for Clara’s disappearance, is bad enough. If people start hearing that the police in Keller believe you might’ve had something to do with the deaths of your parents and brother, well...you’d be surprised how quickly things could turn around on you.”

  Ed came back to his feet. This was getting bad. He had to do something before it got any worse. “Don’t worry. Sloane won’t be sticking around. And once she’s gone, Micah will back off, that new detective won’t get any farther than Polanski did and everything will return to normal.”

  “You sure about that?”

  There was no way to be sure—unless he saw to it. “Positive,” he said and got off the phone.

  * * *

  Micah wanted to stay in bed with Sloane, to drift off to sleep with her bare body cradled in his. The real world would come crashing in soon enough. He had to work at three, and it was already noon. He wanted to preserve these few seconds.

  But regular life drew him back even sooner than expected. A few minutes after he rolled off her, he could hear his phone ringing in the other room. Although he’d heard it a few times while they were making love, he hadn’t been paying attention, not enough to consider answering. Now, however, he was beginning to wonder if something was wrong.

  After placing a kiss on the bruise Randy had made on Sloane’s forehead, he crawled out of bed and went in search of his cell.

  It wasn’t hard to find, since it was ringing again.

  Paige was trying to get hold of him. Because he didn’t care to talk to her, he silenced the sound but checked to see what he’d missed in the past hour.

  “Jesus,” he muttered when he saw that she’d tried to reach him at least fifteen times, including both calls and texts.

  Where are you?

  Why aren’t you picking up?

  Trevor isn’t going to get lunch. He doesn’t have any money...

  Can you answer your damn phone?

  All of her texts followed the same theme, so he didn’t bother listening to her voice mails. That she had a legitimate reason to contact him made him feel like a jerk for being irritated with her. He’d invited her to reach out whenever Trevor needed something.

  He glanced at the clock that was resting against the wall since he hadn’t yet gone to the trouble of hanging it. His son’s lunch period had already started, but he was close enough to the school that he could still make it in time to buy Trevor a meal. “Sloane?”

  “What?” she called back.

  I got it. On my way, he typed into his phone and a swoosh told him the text was sent.

  “Why don’t you take a nap while I run over to the school?” he asked as he hurried back to the bedroom to get dressed. “Trevor needs lunch money.”

  “No.” She dragged the sheet with her as she sat up. “I can’t sleep. I need to pick up my car and go to the motel so I can get cleaned up for the day.”

  “Okay, I’ll take you with me and drop you at your car. But once you’re packed at the motel, bring your stuff over here. There’s a key under the mat. Let yourself in if I’m at work and keep the key in your purse.”

  She wrapped the sheet around her as she climbed off the bed. Other than her panties—Micah had no idea where those had gone; he certainly hadn’t been keeping track—all her clothes were in the living room. “Micah, I don’t think I should stay here with you.”

  He pulled on his boxers and his jeans. “Where else would you go? Where else would you be safe?”

  “I’ll stay at the motel.”

  “No. Definitely not.” After talking to Detective Ramos, he felt adamant about that.

  She shoved a hand through her tousled hair. “You really want me to stay here?”

  “I do.”

  “But I don’t want to cause you any trouble...”

  “I appreciate that, but I can take you in if I want. Paige will try to twist it into some kind of betrayal of Trevor, but I rarely bring Trevor here, so it won’t affect him. I mostly take him to my folks’ place when I have him, remember?”

  “Doesn’t matter. If Paige decides to make an issue of it, it’ll affect Trevor whether you want it to or not.”

  “She’s acting concerned that she can’t get a hold of you, so hopefully she understands the threat you’re facing. You’ll be safest here with me, and I think we’ll make good roommates,” he added with a wink.

  “Roommates?” she echoed. “If what just happened is any indication, we won’t be sleeping in separate rooms.”

  “I see
that as a good thing.”

  “After a year of celibacy, I bet.”

  He shot her a grin but she sobered. “Micah, becoming accustomed to that kind of intimacy will only make it harder when I have to leave...”

  He found a clean shirt and yanked it on over his head. He wanted her to stay in Millcreek. He’d always wanted her to stay. But he hadn’t been with her for ten years, had no idea how she’d changed, how he might’ve changed, if they were as compatible in reality as it seemed in his head—and in his bed. Maybe the past hour had been more about leftover desire and pent-up frustration than anything else. Why overthink it or try to decide too much too soon? “Staying here isn’t any kind of promise.”

  “Then you’re okay with our relationship remaining casual.”

  He shoved his wallet in his back pocket and scooped his keys off the dresser. “I’ve been married and divorced since you lived here before, and I have a son to think about. I’m not asking for a commitment. I’m not even sure I could give you one. We just came back into contact. Let’s take it one day at a time.”

  She seemed relieved. “Okay. I’ll think about it.”

  “What’s to think about?”

  “I’m hoping I might be able to make a smarter decision when I’m not looking at you in those jeans and that T-shirt and wanting to take them off again.”

  Spotting her panties on the floor partway under the bed, he walked over to retrieve them. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks this ended too soon.”

  He tugged on the sheet as he handed them off, but she accepted the panties while holding fast to her only covering. “Hey! You’re fully dressed!”

  “So? You’re a model. Surely, you’ve got to be comfortable with a little nudity,” he teased. “I expect to be the lucky beneficiary of that.”

  She scowled at him. “It can’t be that casual.”

  “Because...”

  “It’s different when you care about the man who’s looking at you.” The way she spoke, without even a hint of a smile, told him she was sincere, which caused his chest to tighten so much it scared him. Perhaps he’d been too cavalier about his relationship with her. Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to maintain the emotional distance he needed.

  “Those are the kind of statements that will get us into trouble,” he said.

  She lifted her chin. “So no statements like that.”

  “None.”

  “And no expectations, either.”

  When he kissed her, she allowed him to lower the sheet a bit. “I say we start there,” he said and cupped her bare breast before going out to get her clothes so she could dress.

  * * *

  “You’ve got to come back. You’ve been gone for over an hour!” her sister complained. “I’ve had at least four customers, and I can’t even open the till! Don’t you care about your business?”

  Paige didn’t care about anything right now. As far as she was concerned, the rest of the world could burn to the ground, including her business, if it meant she had to leave before she was ready. Micah had texted her five minutes ago to say that he’d take care of getting Trevor some money, which meant he should be coming out of the house any second.

  Would Sloane be with him?

  Paige pulled herself up higher, so she could get a better look. Where the hell was he?

  “Hang on for a few more minutes,” she said to Yolanda. “I told you, Trevor forgot his lunch money.”

  “So call Micah! Can’t he help? Even if he’s on duty, he should be able to swing by the school.”

  Her palms were beginning to sweat and her heart was knocking against her ribs. She didn’t want to see what she thought she’d see, was still praying it wasn’t so. “I haven’t been able to reach them.”

  “Them?” her sister echoed.

  “Him. I meant him!”

  “But it can’t take this long to drive over to the school!”

  Paige pressed a hand to her head so that she didn’t start screaming. “Yo, please. I need a few more minutes.”

  “Fine. Then I’m going to turn the sign to Closed. I might as well. I can’t actually sell anything. I can’t figure out how to work this damn register. You were only gone twenty minutes last time!”

  “Don’t close. At least people can come in and look. If they want to buy, they can come back.”

  “But will they? That’s the question. I can’t believe you’d risk losing customers like this.”

  Paige thought she saw movement at Micah’s door, but she was parked down the part of his street that curved to the right before coming to a dead end. It wasn’t all that easy for her to see, but unless he was going to visit someone who lived in one of the ten houses deeper in this small neighborhood, he’d never travel in her direction, which gave her a degree of confidence he wouldn’t notice her.

  “Quit worrying,” she told Yolanda. “Micah’s giving me most of his check each month. So much that I’m not even sure what he’s living on. Financially, I’m fine.”

  Her sister fell silent. At the same time, Paige caught her breath. She saw movement. But was it two people or just one?

  “You’re starting to scare me, you know that?” her sister said at length.

  “What are you talking about?” She was barely listening, but she knew Yolanda wasn’t happy.

  “Are you doing something to get Micah’s attention?” Yolanda demanded. “Does this have to do with him and not Trevor? Because you need to leave that man alone. I’m sorry you can’t get over him. I feel bad about that, because I want you to be happy. But if he wants out, you have to let him go.”

  “This has nothing to do with Micah,” she lied.

  “Then where could you be?”

  “At the school. I have to go in now. I’ll be back soon,” she said and disconnected.

  Yolanda didn’t understand. Sure, she’d had her difficulties. Infidelity could be heartbreaking. But her husband had had one fling after another. He hadn’t loved, passionately and enduringly, another woman the entire time they’d been together. Paige had spent her whole adult life living in the shadow of Sloane’s memory—a woman who’d turned out to be a famous cover model! How could a regular girl living in a small Texas town ever compete with that?

  Maybe she’d wanted Sloane to come back to prove the real person couldn’t be as perfect as the one in those glossy images. But this wasn’t going in the direction she’d hoped.

  Forget about him, her sister had once said. As if it was that easy.

  She caught her breath as two distinct people came into her vision. Micah was with Sloane, all right. As tall and thin as Sloane was, there could be no mistaking her. She must’ve been with him the whole time, just as Paige had suspected.

  Paige covered her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes. Deep down, she’d been hoping to be proven wrong, had been hoping she wouldn’t drive away from the neighborhood hating both of the people who’d always meant so much to her.

  Letting go of the steering wheel, she fell back against the seat but could still see Micah open the door for Sloane. She could also see him duck his head for a quick kiss and felt as though someone had just punched her in the stomach.

  “You son of a bitch,” she whispered and dialed Ed’s cell phone.

  “What’s happening?” Sloane’s father asked.

  “They’re back together, all right. I’m watching them now. You’d better do something, because I promise you, if Micah thinks Sloane might be right, he’ll leave no stone unturned trying to help her.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Sloane couldn’t help feeling conspicuous as Micah ran into the school. She was wearing the same clothes she’d had on yesterday—the same makeup, too—and her hair was mussed from being in his bed. She was afraid someone would see her in his truck before she could talk to Paige. She had missed so many calls and texts from her form
er best friend that she had to respond soon. It had already gone too long. It was just difficult to decide what to say. While she wanted to be honest with Paige, she didn’t want to hurt her.

  She took out her phone. I’m fine, she wrote. But I need to talk to you. Do you have a few minutes that I could come over tonight? Maybe after Trevor goes to bed so we can talk in private?

  She was just about to send that message when Micah came hurrying back.

  “Did you make it in time?” she asked as he climbed behind the wheel.

  “He’d already eaten. Paige had given him money, so this was all for nothing, a wasted trip. I don’t know what she was thinking, going into a panic like that.”

  “I guess the good news is that Trevor was able to eat.” She smiled, hoping to ease his irritation. Paige had dragged them out of bed during the afterglow of their first time together in ten years, but considering what Paige had expressed at the motel, Sloane couldn’t help wondering if she had simply been testing Micah to see if he would take care of the problem for her as quickly as he did. Sloane believed that was entirely possible, but she knew Paige was reeling, so she kept her mouth shut. She felt sorry for Paige. Plus, she didn’t want to build animosity between Micah and Paige when they had to get along for Trevor’s sake.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he said as he started the truck.

  “I’m thinking about sending this to Paige. If I’m going to move in with you, I feel like I have to be totally up front with her.”

  He paused before putting the transmission in Reverse so he could read what was on her phone. “Should I be there for this? Maybe we should tell her together.”

  “No. Showing up unified would make it even harder for her. It would feel like we’re teaming up. I’m sad because I know she’s struggled a great deal with the divorce.”