by Edie Claire
He rubbed his face with a hand, hoping to look thoughtful while obscuring any signs of doubt. Calling her out on her lies would be easy, but it would serve no purpose. Whatever had really brought her up here still terrified her. He could see it in her eyes. She was desperate. Her lack of trust in him hurt, but his irritation melted with each glimpse of the frightened fawn that hid behind her mask of stubborn determination. If she couldn’t fool him, she would only try to convince someone else to help her. Which would not go well.
Jason wished he could convince her to trust him. But how? He mulled his options carefully before speaking.
“You think you can learn the office spiel quick enough to be of use tomorrow?” he forced himself to ask. The fact that she felt obligated to perform menial tasks as payment for what he would consider a favor was almost as insulting as her distrust. But he recognized mulish pride when he saw it. If it made her feel better to believe he was a mercenary jerk, fine. She was welcome to sit at his desk for a few hours — he could find ways to kill the time.
“Absolutely!” she insisted. “No problem.”
“So what is it you want me to do, exactly?” he asked. He didn’t sound enthusiastic, but that was okay. He wouldn’t be, even if he did believe her. He might be a better actor than she was, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed deception.
“The idea is to find out what kind of people they are, without them realizing that anyone is asking about them,” she began, the lines of tension gradually returning to her forehead as she spoke. “They’re a retired couple, moved to Ucluelet from Toronto about a year ago. What he wants to know is pretty basic, really. Are they good, nice people who lead a happy, peaceful life, or are they litigious money-grubbers who would sue their own relatives to make a buck? You can see why he’d want to know. Are they forgiving or vengeful? How do they feel about family?”
At the last words, her eyes flashed with an emotion he couldn’t read. Was it fear? Or perhaps… guilt?
He felt an unwelcome tug at his own heartstrings. Whatever emotion was driving her, it ran deep. This was important to her. Critically important. So important she’d put everything else in her life on hold and driven thousands of miles to another country to set it right. Who were these people to her? What could possibly be so frightening about a retired couple from Toronto? Why all the cloak and dagger nonsense?
He wanted to be straight with her, just ask her for the truth. But if she didn’t trust him, she wouldn’t answer anyway. As things stood now, she would only accept his help on her terms, and that meant under false pretenses.
He smothered another sigh and resolved to play along. She would come to trust him, eventually. They just needed a little more time to get to know each other. Then she would tell him the truth on her own.
He was sure of it.
***
Laney fetched her laptop and emailed a copy of the Tremblay computer file to Jason. By the time she had locked up her room and returned to the lobby, he was pulling a copy from the printer at his desk. “Do you recognize the address?” she asked, then realized she sounded too anxious. “I mean, I’m sure we can find it.”
Jason’s face was technically smiling, but the eyes she so enjoyed gazing into had developed a new degree of distance. It was possible he didn’t fully believe her story about the friend in Oklahoma. But he had agreed to help her, and he wasn’t asking any thorny questions. She was grateful for that.
“Oh, I know where it is,” he answered. “Ucluelet isn’t a big place.”
Something in his tone worried her. “What is it?” she asked. “What’s wrong with it?”
He offered another empty smile and stashed the paper in a pocket. “Nothing’s wrong with it,” he insisted. “Would you like to see for yourself? If we head out now, we can do a drive-by while it’s still light.”
“Yes,” she said immediately. “Let’s do it.”
Within minutes they were cruising down the Pacific Rim Highway again, this time covering new ground to the southeast. Nervous as she was, when they crossed into the national park preserve, Laney once again found her attention drawn out the windows. “It’s so beautiful here,” she breathed, admiring the tall stands of hemlock, spruce, and cedars that surrounded them. “There’s just so much green. I wish there were mountains, too. I loved driving through the Cascades, even in the snow.”
Jason chuckled. “There are mountains here. You would have seen them on the bus ride coming in; it’s a shame you don’t remember. Rocky peaks, thick forest, babbling brooks, rushing rivers… Vancouver Island has them all.”
Laney made no attempt to cover her surprise. “Really? I’d like to see that.” A flash of warmth shot through her as the sparkle returned to his eyes.
“You will,” he said confidently. “And it is beautiful. When you grow up in a place, you have a tendency to take it for granted. I try not to, but it always helps to see things from someone else’s perspective.”
Laney remembered the sign at the beach and laughed. “You shouldn’t joke about wolves eating dogs, though.”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “What joke is that?”
She explained. “Some people are bound to believe it!”
“Laney,” he said with amusement. “We do have wolves here. That sign came from the parks staff, and there’s no joke about it. We also have black bears and cougars. In fact, Vancouver Island has the highest concentration of cougars in the world.”
She opened her mouth to accuse him of teasing her again, but promptly shut it. He wasn’t joking. This was serious. Rabid raccoons and bats were one thing, but large predators were not in her repertoire. She could have been killed! “Why was I not informed?” she demanded.
He laughed out loud. “What do you think the sign was for?”
She shut her mouth. Best not to look any more stupid than she already felt.
“Don’t worry,” he said lightly. “The bears are hibernating and the cougars want nothing to do with humans. I’ve lived here over twenty years and still haven’t seen a live one. As for the wolves, they show up around the lodge occasionally, but you’ve nothing to fear unless you’re small and furry.”
Laney turned her gaze back to the window. The dense, moss-draped woods that hugged both sides of the road had taken on a haunting, eerie quality. But that made the scenery even more beautiful; its very wildness both fascinated and excited her.
The view changed again, with signs of civilization increasing as they crossed back out of the reserve and neared the neighboring beach town of Ucluelet. The town’s outskirts were studded with a variety of tourist shops and accommodations, much like Tofino, but as they drove into the town proper she noticed several distinctions.
“Ucluelet is different, isn’t it?” she asked, breaking a lengthy, companionable silence. It was nice that Jason didn’t want to chatter all the time. He seemed to sense that she was fully absorbed with the view, which she appreciated. “The vibe is different. It’s not surfing and art galleries so much as—” she looked around thoughtfully. “Fishing. And eating out and spending time with family. It’s like a comfortable, downhome nineteen-fifties nostalgia kind of place. As opposed to hippie-chic.”
Jason chuckled. “Definitely less bohemian. But it’s a great place for fishing or a relaxing family vacation. More ordinary working people live here year round. It’s less expensive.”
Laney smiled. Her Grandpa Auggie would have loved it here. He’d get a kick out of fishing in something besides a lake. And her Gran would enjoy sitting out on a deck in the sunshine, knitting or quilting while watching the boats on the water.
Jason drove in a little loop around the business district, then headed back out the way they had come. “I wanted you to see the town first,” he explained. “Now we’ll check out your address.”
Laney tensed. She wasn’t ready for that part. But she never would be.
“Are you nervous?” he asked.
She jumped at the question. She should say something like “why would I be?�
�� But she had a strong suspicion it would be pointless. “I wish I wasn’t,” she said instead.
She tried not to look at him, but she failed. The brief glance she stole made her wonder again whether he was buying her story, seeing as how he appeared to recognize the scrap of truth she’d just delivered for what it was. He looked sympathetic. Perhaps even a little pleased.
Laney kept her face averted. She couldn’t deal with his emotions right now. Not when she could barely face the truth herself. She wasn’t ready. For any of it.
“It’s coming up on the left,” he announced.
She swung her head around again, looking past him out the windshield. The narrow lane on which they drove meandered through more thick trees, here and there offering glimpses of the Ucluelet inlet on the other side of the modest houses and occasional B&Bs dotted along it. Laney could see that any of the homes would have an incredible view from its backyard, and she found the whole neighborhood charming until Jason slowed the car to a crawl. Then her breath caught.
The house before them wasn’t like the others. It wasn’t a house at all. It was an estate. A frickin’ mansion! Stone pillars flanked either side of a newly paved drive that led through carefully manicured clusters of trees and shrubs. The main residence was some architect’s celebration of the Pacific Northwest — a striking blend of wood, native stone, and abundant glass. It was one and a half stories here, two and a half there. Decks and sunrooms abounded. A separate building, half buried in a cluster of woods to the side, had the appearance of a guest house. In the opposite direction was a simpler structure, reminiscent of a barn, that could house anything from prize race horses to a yacht. It was the last dwelling at the end of the road, spanning several acres of lawn and forest, all right on the water.
“Looks pretty sweet,” Jason commented. “I bet they’ve got a private dock in the back.”
Laney said nothing. There was nothing to say.
“Do you want to pull in for a closer look?” he asked.
“No,” she said quickly. “No, we’re done now. Can we go back?”
Since the car didn’t move for a moment, she assumed he was studying her. But she had turned her face away — from both him and the giant house. “Are you a hundred percent sure this is the address I had in the file?” she squeaked.
“Yes,” he answered, turning the car around. “The number is posted on the entryway.”
To her chagrin, the house was now out her window. She could either look at it or allow him to see her angst. She chose to look at the house. But her eyes were no longer seeing it.
Rich. Gordon and Joan Tremblay were rich. And not just “Now we can retire to Florida” rich. They were “Our next place should have a car elevator” rich! They were those kind of people.
“Are you okay?” Jason asked tentatively.
“I will be,” she forced out. She didn’t want to talk. She couldn’t talk. All she wanted was to go someplace and cry.
Why? Why was she so upset? She couldn’t seem to answer her own question. She wanted to know that Jessica’s grandparents were okay, that they didn’t need their granddaughter back, that they didn’t need anything. If they were super-freaking rich, they should lack for nothing, so what was the problem? Could she not go home now and consider her obligation met? Should she not be happy that nothing else was required?
But she wasn’t happy. She wasn’t happy at all, and it must be because she’d been hoping for something else. Some other set of grandparents, people who were kind and folksy and loving and open and normal. People who ate peanut butter straight from the jar and clipped coupons for groceries. People who made casseroles for church potlucks and bought used cars. People who would keep a picture of Elizabeth and Carl and little Jessica on the fireplace mantel, treasuring their faces every day, even after all these years. People who would love her.
Jessica, she corrected herself quickly, her face aflame. People who would love Jessica! People who would be made happy by her news, who would be grateful just to know the truth and would want nothing more. People who would never dream of making Laney’s situation any more difficult than it already was. People she could trust with her life!
Jason had said something else, but she didn’t know what it was. She put a hand to her cheek to make sure she wasn’t crying. She felt no moisture, but she feared it was only a matter of time.
Chapter 20
Laney paid no attention to where Jason was driving. She was too focused on keeping her eyes dry. There was no possible way to explain an explosion of tears on behalf of a school friend’s extended family’s potential legal squabbles.
The more she thought about the problem presented by Jessica’s grandparents’ wealth, the more miserable it made her. She hadn’t decided whether she would tell them the truth, but even if she wanted to, she couldn’t now. These people had money. Lots of it. And apparently no heirs besides one childless middle-aged son. It would be hard enough to approach them with some delusional-sounding story about switched toddlers and stolen identities. But with a substantial inheritance involved, it would be impossible. What else could they possibly think but that she was some unscrupulous grifter? A soulless, contemptible fraud taking advantage of their feelings for their poor, deceased daughter and granddaughter for personal profit?
Of course they would think the worst of her! Why wouldn’t they?
She could never tell them the truth. Ever.
Whether they were nice, loving people or not.
“Come on,” Jason commanded.
Laney looked around. The car had stopped. His door was open and he had one foot on the ground. But they weren’t at the lodge. “Where are we?”
He twisted back around toward her. “Wickaninnish Beach. There’s a killer sunset happening even as we speak. By the time we get to Chesterman, it’ll be too late to see it. But this’ll be gorgeous.” He caught her eyes. “Come on. You won’t regret the effort. I promise.”
“Fine,” Laney said mechanically, turning to open her door. She didn’t want to go anywhere, with Jason or anyone else, but if she had to look into his empathetic, uncannily all-seeing eyes one more second, she was going to drown his upholstery.
She followed him along a boardwalk that led to an impressive wooden visitor’s center with giant storm-watching windows and outdoor viewing decks. The public building appeared to be closed, but Jason clearly had other plans. He stepped off the boardwalk onto the beach and led her to a jumble of logs up near the tree line, well away from the lapping waves. It was only after she had settled onto one of the logs beside him that she even noticed the sunset.
He was right. It was spectacular. The shining golden orb hung low above the water, shedding a cone of light that illuminated layer upon layer of steadily approaching waves. Rocky islands were silhouetted upon the horizon, while above them hung puffy white altocumulus clouds. The sky overhead was calm and still tinted with blue, but down closer to the water it burned with a splash of vibrant orange, red, and yellow.
Laney sat and stared, hugging her coat tightly around her. The sunset was stunning, as were all of her natural surroundings. But the usual joy couldn’t reach her. Her body seemed like a cold, empty shell, protecting a center that was nothing but a question mark. She didn’t know who she was. She wasn’t even sure whom she wanted to be. She didn’t know what she wanted, period.
“If you’re too cold, we can go back,” she heard Jason say. He was sitting beside her, but at too great a distance to offer any warmth. Too bad she wasn’t up to his standards — if he found her attractive, she would at least have an arm around her shoulders right now.
“I’m fine,” she lied, to no logical end. She was miserable and she was cold. Why bother to pretend otherwise?
“I don’t understand what it was about the house that upset you so much,” he said quietly.
Laney’s eyes remained on the sunset. She shivered. She was certain her trembling was visible, but Jason remained where he was, his hands on the log to either side
of him. Damnation, was she not the only female around at the moment? Was she that undesirable? “I was hoping they’d be normal people,” she answered without thinking.
“People who live in big houses aren’t normal?” he questioned.
“They’re rich,” she tried again, her teeth chattering.
“Rich people aren’t normal?” he pressed.
“You don’t understand!” she said shortly.
He moved slightly closer. “Make me understand,” he pleaded.
Laney fought a strong urge to scream. He had no idea how much raw animal magnetism that husky whisper of his exerted, even to a woman who wasn’t freezing. Then again, maybe he did. He probably made use of it quite often. The question was why he was bothering to use it now, on a woman he didn’t give a damn about.
She stopped herself. That wasn’t fair. Jason might not want her, but he did care. He had saved her life out on that rock. He had visited her in the hospital multiple times, hauled her stuff to her bedside, helped her with her computer, taken her out to dinner with a friend, and schlepped her sorry rear end to the grocery store and everywhere else she wanted to go. And he’d never asked for a single thing in return.
Except her trust.
Wow. And she hadn’t thought it possible she could feel any lower.
She shifted and looked at him. He was a genuinely nice guy, wasn’t he? She’d never known a “man of a million women” to be so, but there was a first time for everything. He looked back at her without flinching, curious, maybe even hopeful. The dim light obscured the color of his eyes, but the subtle rays of sunset still showed off their killer twinkle.
She let out a long, exhausted breath. “Oh, hell. You don’t believe a word I’ve been telling you, do you?”
His full, sensual lips smiled lazily. He shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just really hard for me to trust a person I’ve only known a couple days. And this thing is big. For me it’s… potentially dangerous.”
She said nothing else, waiting for him to comment. He seemed deep in thought.