“Why did you come back, then?”
“I told you. I came back for you. I proved myself, and now I’m here, and gainfully employed. Like I said I’d do, even though you didn’t give me any hope.” He didn’t care that his last words came out bitter. She had to know how rejecting him by simply not responding had impacted his life.
She tilted her head, eyes narrowing. “You felt you had to prove yourself … and you thought … you thought I was impervious somehow?”
Tugging on her hair, he nodded. “Your actions spoke louder than words.”
With a move he hadn’t anticipated, Candace slipped off his lap, and aside from yanking her hair out of her head, he had to let her go. She rolled sideways across the cushion and was on her feet, staring down at him. It was like a replay of her earlier fit of temper, except she was so very pale. When he made to rise, she fixed him in place with a simple gesture, then inched backward until her legs came up against the chair. The leather whooshed as she fell into it.
“Let’s get this straight. You left the day after graduation and signed up. Wrote me a note with exactly seven words scrawled across the page, didn’t even sign your name. I had to find out you’d enlisted from your friends.”
Shaking his head, he met her eyes. “I broke a promise leaving you even that much, but it seemed worth the risk. I thought you’d understand, believe in me.”
The faint purr of the fridge was the only thing audible in the sudden silence, if one didn’t count the roaring in his head. She looked incredulous, and the puzzle pieces began to move into place.
“Goddamn it, Reece. You thought a teenage girl would hang onto a cryptic, fucking note and wait for you?” The Cherry Coke fired his way like a missile, and he blessed his quick reflexes. Candace had deadly aim, whether by design or because of her outrage. The bottle maintained its integrity and the cap stayed on somehow when it hit the wall.
“Before you throw anything else, darlin’, what about all the other cards and letters? They were hardly cryptic.” Writing them and finding a way to express himself hadn’t been the easiest task for a man like him, but while in basic training and then being in the field had been a hardening experience in many ways, it had also opened up his softer side. Having someone back home to look forward to seeing again, to being with, had been the glimmer in the darkness that was the desert hell. Until he’d come to understand she wouldn’t reply.
With one fist pressed to her mouth, she blinked, and he could visualize how her brain was ticking over. Candace had always been quick. A bright, smart girl despite her father’s indifference in so many matters where she was concerned.
“I didn’t get any cards or letters.” The words were flat, but she didn’t call him a liar.
It couldn’t be that simple. Life didn’t conspire that way, although certain people did. “I sent them to my mom, darlin’,” he said quietly, taking care not to give any evidence of a certain building fury. “She mailed them to you from here.”
“I didn’t get them.” There was a line of white around her lips.
“Candace.”
“Tell me why you left.”
Resting his elbows on his thighs, he rested his chin on his steepled fingers. “Long version or short one?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“I’ll sum it up, answer your questions later.” If he didn’t keep his fingers clasped he was gonna fly apart, maybe choke a certain man. “Your daddy found out about us. That we weren’t just friends.”
At her start and tiny gasp, he nodded. “I don’t know how, didn’t ask, but he came here a day before graduation. My mom was just leaving for night shift, and I was watching the kids. He pretty much laid it out, Candace. I leave you alone or he’d make life difficult for my family—and you.”
“But … why?”
“Because I wasn’t who he wanted for you. He had plans for you to marry somebody in the company when you got old enough.”
She grimaced. “Murray Knox. One of the managers. Never happening.”
“Well, your daddy had plans, and they sure didn’t include a no-account like me. Single mom, my siblings with a different father, no money or social standing.”
“That didn’t matter to me. None of it.” She whispered it, but the truth was there, and it shored up his defense against his building rage.
“He told me I’d be in trouble for being with you. Statutory rape was mentioned.” He nearly closed his eyes against the memory of his mother’s pained expression. “He said he’d send you away to some kind of home for wayward teen girls.”
“I was sixteen, Reece. You were seventeen.”
“And then you were seventeen and me, eighteen.”
“Bullshit. You were eighteen for what, a week? Before you left?” Before you left me echoed in the room as if she’d spoken it.
“He had the power to make it stick, darlin’. He meant it. He told me to get gone and vanish from your life. Or else.”
Her head bowed and her shoulders shook. Reece hustled over and knelt beside her, taking one of her hands in both of his. “Shhh, darlin’. It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. Daddy sent you away and I … I fell apart, and he didn’t even notice. I tried to erase and forget what we had by … doing things that—”
Tugging her to the floor, he sprawled with her, rubbing her back and murmuring against her hair. “I know. It’s okay. It’ll be fine.”
Pushing up onto her elbow, she squinted past the tears. “How can you say that? We’re not the same people, Reece.”
Brushing the moisture from her cheeks, relieved she didn’t flinch from his touch, he said, “Maybe not quite the same, but my feelings haven’t changed for you. Matured, grown maybe, but they are there, as strong as ever.” And the relief, now he understood the truth, actually made him lightheaded.
She pulled away and sat with her back against the chair, drawing her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. From behind the makeshift fence she peered into his eyes. “He made sure I didn’t get any correspondence from you.”
Noting she hadn’t reciprocated his feelings, he wondered, not for the first time, if it was too late. “I negotiated with him, Candace. Eighteen year old kid or not, I knew the score. I agreed to leave without explanation, stay clear for six months and give you the chance to recognize infatuation as your daddy termed it.”
“But you left a note.”
“I told Bradley to leave it for you.” His little brother had carried out the request as though it was like one of those spy movies the kid liked. And it was Bradley who had kept Reece up to date about Candace over the years, along with a couple of other friends.
“I thought it was a kiss off. That you’d kicked me to the curb on your way out of town.”
He’d never made it a secret that Barrister wouldn’t likely hold him, and he could see how she’d feel that way.
“It was the best I could come up with and not cross your father any further. After training was over I wrote you.”
He’d excused her lack of response by rationalizing. He had given her the six months without his influence as he’d promised, and then figured she’d been pissed enough to ignore him for a few more. Receiving mail over there had been sketchy at best, and he and his squad had moved around in ops that weren’t termed covert, but were anyhow. But after well over a year of not hearing from her, nothing in response to those missives he’d penned while lying up in a rocky scrape in the ground, he’d reached out to his friends and family.
Only the apparent fact she had no one else in her life, at least not in Barrister, and had settled down after throwing over the traces for a time, had given him hope she was waiting for him. Maybe pining, as he was for her. He’d then written from the military hospital in Germany, receiving nothing back, although she was still in Barrister, having opened her own business. The fact she hadn’t responded to him then, after receiving a letter that made reference to the medical reason for his discharge … even that hadn’t dissuaded him. He had
taken the job as Sheriff to scope things out and determine the lay of the land, but he’d told her the truth. He’d come back for her, just like all his correspondence had pledged.
Scrabbling beside the chair, she came up with her purse, shaking the contents onto the floor. She picked out her phone, and he opened his mouth, knowing her intention.
“It doesn’t matter, Candace. We know the truth now.” He meant it. The anticipated upcoming battle with her father was going to be ugly, but he was prepared. He didn’t want her to show their hand. Although she still hadn’t given him reason to hope.
“You have no idea of the truth, Reece. You weren’t here. And I wasn’t there—with you. What kind of parent does that?”
Hating to have to say it, he forced the words out anyhow. “He told me that if I made something of myself, gave you a chance to be certain of your feelings about me, he wouldn’t stand in our way. My way. It made sense back then. You from such a wealthy, upstanding family, me from the wrong side of town. I jumped at it, certain I could prove myself.” And he had in most everyone’s eyes.
“Oh, my father always has my best interests at heart,” she said bitterly. “You must remember.”
He did, but he couldn’t change the choice he made at the time. Candace was punching at numbers on the screen.
“Daddy? Sorry, I know it’s late. Hope I didn’t take you from something important.” The saccharine sweetness of her tone made Reece wince. “I found out something momentous tonight. Wanted to share it right away.”
He set a hand on her knee in silent support, now knowing she had to do this, and she didn’t shy away.
“It seems you withheld my mail for years. Tampered with it. One of those federal offenses you go on about from the safety of your office as you fuck with the emission standards.”
Emerson Grant’s voice was unmistakable as he shouted over the phone, but Candace kept talking. “We’re done, Daddy. Finished. Disown me or I’ll disown you, but our relationship is officially terminated. You keep your nasty, judgmental thoughts and opinions to yourself. I’m nearly twenty-four, in possession of my trust fund and shut of you. You enjoy your ready-made family, Daddy Dearest, and if you come near me, bother me in any shape or form, you won’t like the consequences.”
Tapping the end button, she tossed the cell on top of her purse, and struggled to her feet. “Take me to my car, please.”
Jesus Christ. Not at all as he’d envisioned this night. “I’m not letting you leave in your condition, Candace.”
Giving him another searching glance, she raised one shoulder negligently, then bent and gathered up her belongings, stuffing them back in her purse. Little wallet, a tampon, the phone, and some other detritus were tucked out of sight. She eased around him and he tensed, ready to stop her if she headed for the front door, but she made her way to the smaller bedroom, stepped inside, and shut the door. All without giving him another glance.
Reece flopped backward and stared at the ceiling. So not how he thought tonight would play out. In a few minutes he’d get up and find his own bed. There would be a considerable amount to accomplish tomorrow in order to keep Emerson Grant acquiescent. Something told him Candace had poked a hornet’s nest with a sharp stick, but Reece would have her back whether she needed him or not.
Chapter Four
Candy dropped onto the bed, the firm mattress cushioning her fall. In truth, she’d doubted Reece would take her to her car, let her go, but her only thought had been to put some distance between them. She was surprised he’d allowed even her retreat to this room, but then he was likely reeling from the fact his assumptions were incorrect as well. Or he’d read her and knew that she needed space.
Once she’d accepted that her father had denied her contact with the boy she’d loved, sent him away, the very idea of Reece in Iraq and Afghanistan, waiting and watching for some kind of response from her … it hurt so badly she had trouble taking a breath against it. How could he ever forgive her? Or want her again? And he still had friends and family here who would know of her apparent perfidy. His mom had moved away, and it shamed Candy she didn’t know why, because anything and anyone with a connection to Reece had been avoided like the plague.
But those still living here had to have told him of her behavior after he’d left. The good time girl hiding her grief and loss, and the total hurt behind all that meaningless partying. She closed her eyes against what he might know about her escapades away from Barrister. It didn’t matter that she’d sought any form of comfort to deal with what she believed to be callous abandonment. What she’d done had been a reflection of her low self worth, for the most part, and now she couldn’t stand to look at him and see that judgment in his eyes. Not when he’d given her hope those years ago that she was actually someone separate from the rich girl everyone else saw. Someone valuable and worthy of love.
She hadn’t lied when she said they’d changed as people. It was true, except nothing had changed. This time it was she who’d figuratively walked away, having become a different girl from the one Reece had loved. The memory of him commanding her to her knees unfurled, and she flinched, now aware he knew of her sexual predilections.
Thinking about her father was nearly as disturbing. He’d abandoned her, too, emotionally, and any respect she’d had for him was gone. She’d learned a thing or two during that one disastrous year of working for him, and knew where some bodies were buried. She figured he’d wash his hands of her now. It wasn’t like he wanted her for anything, unless he saw marrying her off as some political advantage, and she was no longer dependent upon him financially, with her trust fund kicking in on her last birthday. There might be a nasty showdown, but it couldn’t touch her, not really, and wasn’t that a sad fact of life.
It was time to move on, do something different with that life. Staying in Barrister had been a mistake, and she wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to not learn the truth. At least that way she could have nursed her empty self and carried on. If she stayed, her torment of the what-ifs would be underscored by seeing Sheriff Murdoch every day. It had been bad enough knowing he was back, able to hide in the comfort of her antipathy for him, yet wondering how she’d cope when he took up with somebody else. There were some young women in the area who weren’t blind, after all.
Turning onto her side, she curled up and pressed both hands between her breasts, trying to assuage the ache blooming there. Born under a cursed star, maybe. Her daddy was never the same after losing his wife—her mom. He’d married Roslyn after a decent interval, a widow with two boys he could mold into company men, unlike Candy. And the marriage had been … cool, efficient, certainly nothing inspirational. She’d unwittingly followed in her father’s footsteps, never again seeking a grand romance, but she felt not one iota of empathy for her parent after what he’d done. The bitter taste of resentment and impotent rage burned her throat.
Reece was on the other side of that door, or maybe in the bedroom next to hers. She hadn’t heard him moving around, but he was so quiet for such a big man. Her entire being longed for him, and she actually flirted with the idea of allowing one last time with him, before mentally slapping herself. Instant gratification would get her exactly nowhere. Her phone signaled an incoming text, and she checked it by reflex.
Roslyn. Call me. Not likely. She’d said her piece and couldn’t find it within herself to miss even the idea of her daddy, or Roslyn. Or her life in general. It was actually a relief, and she hoped it lasted forever.
A door shut softly, and she flinched. Probably Reece had gone to bed. She could wait a while and then, when he was sleeping soundly, get up and sneak out. Take that walk back to her car and drive someplace far, far away. Set up shop someplace else, maybe. Join the circus like people used to do. The ones who needed to run away, had nothing to keep them at home or maybe just craved adventure. Her situation fit all those criteria, although craving adventure took on a decidedly nasty aftertaste.
For a moment she thought about calling
Sinclair, but her friend was probably working out her issues with Craig and Ash, and she wasn’t going to put her own crap out there. Funny how she had faith in those boys, and none in Reece. Well, that wasn’t exactly fair—or accurate. She was a seething mass of hormones and need whenever she thought about him, never mind laying eyes on him and being in such close quarters. His hands on her … the feel of his hard body against her own … she bit back a whimper. She was still angry at him for leaving, but that emotion was fading away as she viewed his actions from a more mature viewpoint. What should he have done in the face of her father’s machinations, an eighteen-year-old boy with familial responsibilities? The trouble was, without that self-righteous anger and scorned pride, she could see no reason not to indulge herself with Reece. Whom she still loved when she was being honest with herself.
The ache in her chest grew as she accepted any connection with Reece wasn’t going to be an indulgence. He’d brought her here to have it out with her, and when he’d realized they’d both been misled and tricked by Daddy Dearest, Reece had given her space, intuiting her need for it. Because she had to process and come to grips with everything that had transpired over the past years without his influence.
So why did he still want her here? That was the question she’d been circling around as she puzzled everything else out, forming the pattern to explain her life since Reece.
It doesn’t have to be over. He still wants you. The hurt in her heart eased some at the thought. But she doubted she had the courage. After all, he’d said he loved her. Past tense, and now being wanted wasn’t enough. With a sigh, she clambered off the bed and made her way into the bathroom. The same face stared back at her from the mirror above the vanity, although her hair was pretty much hanging down every which way and the eye makeup had devolved into a rabid raccoon look. Was that insanity or hope she saw in her eyes? She blinked, but it was still there. Should she go to him and trust that he was indeed willing to take her for the person she was? Could she overcome the effects of the intervening years when she considered his honesty? Maybe he could come to love her—again? It made her start when she gave herself a solemn nod back in her reflection, and a giggle rose unexpectedly up her throat. Insanity, then. That would be her defense, and it fit with this whole legal farce Reece had concocted.
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