The Texan's Tennessee Romance

by Gina Wilkins

  “She was fired, Case,” Aaron said in a low, grim voice, as if he knew Casey wasn’t going to like it but he had to say it, anyway. “Fired for selling confidential client information to the tabloid press.”

  “That’s bull.”

  Andrew shook his head. “It’s the truth. Her firm represented a lot of Nashville celebrities, several of whom were involved in various legal problems, and there were sleazy publications willing to pay for the details. The senior partners apparently thought there was enough evidence against Natalie to fire her. It was done discreetly, and Natalie didn’t contest the action. She just left, and came here.”

  Casey was still shaking his head when Andrew finished speaking. “No. She wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  “The facts were covered up by her firm because they didn’t want the negative publicity,” Aaron said. “They fired her without pursuing it any further because they wanted her and the potential scandal to disappear. Andrew found someone in the firm who was privy to the facts and was willing to share them with him.”

  For a price, Casey thought bitterly. Apparently, privacy ethics were rather loose in Natalie’s former firm. But he could not accept that she would sell her own. “I don’t believe it.”

  “There must have been some compelling evidence against her or she wouldn’t have just gone quietly,” Aaron argued. “She would have fought for her job.”

  Casey slammed a fist against the breakfast bar, making his cousins look at him in concern. “I don’t want to hear any more of this. I am not gossiping about Natalie behind her back with you two.”

  “This isn’t gossip, Case. This is fact,” Andrew said evenly. “You might not like it, but that’s what happened. We thought you should know.”

  “She’s Jewel McDooley’s niece, for God’s sake. What on earth made you think you should run a background check on her?”

  “Because we saw what Tamara did to you,” Aaron said after a pause, completely serious for once. “You didn’t believe the rumors about her, either, and when you were slapped in the face with the truth, it hurt you. We heard you were falling hard for another woman with big secrets, and we wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt again.”

  He gave them both a hard look. “You overstepped your bounds,” he said, his quiet tone seething with the emotions he wasn’t able to suppress.

  He snatched up his keys and wallet and headed for the door.

  “Hey. Where are you going?”

  “Out,” he said without looking around in response to Aaron’s question. “You guys can have dinner without me.”

  “Damn it, Case—”

  But he’d already slammed the door behind him and was headed for his truck, having no interest in anything else his overly intrusive cousins had to say at that moment.

  He climbed behind the wheel, started the engine and drove away from the cabin. And then pulled over to the side of the road and just sat there, staring blindly out the windshield. He didn’t know where he was going.

  The things Andrew and Aaron had told him about Natalie kept creeping into his mind, whispering doubts. He didn’t want to believe any of it. And yet…

  Why had she been so secretive? Wouldn’t she have known he would believe her when she asserted her innocence?

  If, of course, she was innocent.

  He thought of the man he’d seen leaving her cabin before noon on Friday. She had to have known Casey had seen him, that he’d been curious, but she’d deliberately made no mention of the guy. Who was he? Was he somehow involved in this whole mess?

  No. He shook his head with a scowl, thinking of the things he had gotten to know about Natalie during the past few days. She hadn’t told him specifics about her life, her career, but he’d spent a lot of time with her. He’d gotten to know her pretty well.

  Of course, he’d thought he knew Tamara well, too. And he had known her for several years before he’d found out how wrong he was about her. He’d spent only a couple of weeks with Natalie.

  Yet, as Aaron had so accurately pointed out, he had fallen hard.

  Aaron had also reminded him how badly Tamara had hurt him, Casey thought, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel. Not because he had been so deeply in love with her, he knew now. But because he had trusted her. And that trust had been painfully abused.

  The thought of being so bitterly disillusioned again…well, he had to admit it scared him a little. And that was an admission of vulnerability he didn’t like making.

  Natalie was surprised to hear a knock on her door at just after eight that evening. Recognizing the three rapid taps Casey always used to announce himself, she turned off the rather dull television program she’d been watching and moved across the room.“Casey?” she asked, opening the door. “Is something wrong?”

  Bending to pat Buddy, who’d ambled up to meet him, Casey said without looking at her, “I need to talk to you about something. I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you, but I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”

  That didn’t sound encouraging. She glanced at the door he had closed behind himself. “Where are your cousins?”

  He straightened, and for just a moment she saw what might have been a flash of irritation in his eyes. “They’re back at my cabin, I guess. Or having dinner. I don’t know.”

  “You’ve quarreled with them?”

  “Yeah. But that’s not why I’m here. Or, rather, it is—but…Damn it.”

  His uncharacteristically awkward stammering might have amused her had he not looked so grim. She motioned toward the couch. “Have a seat. Can I get you anything?”

  “No. Thanks.”

  “Are you sure? If you haven’t had dinner, I’ve got some…”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  That sounded even more serious, since Casey had the typical young man’s hearty appetite. “What is this about?” she asked a bit nervously now.

  Ignoring her invitation to sit, he paced to the fireplace, staring down at the dark grate. She hadn’t bothered with a fire that evening, and the room felt suddenly cold and dark, as if he’d brought the chilly night in with him when he’d entered. Seeming to sense Casey’s mood, Buddy sat on the hearth rug and gazed up at him, spine straight, his tail still.

  Casey didn’t seem to be in any hurry to start the conversation he said they needed. She perched on the edge of a chair, her fingers locked in front of her as she waited for him to answer her question.

  When he finally spoke, his words caught her by surprise. “My family has had more than our share of drama through the years,” he said, causing her to frown. That was hardly the way she had expected him to lead off.

  “I suppose most families have,” she offered tentatively.

  “I told you about my dad and his siblings being separated and then finding each other again years later.”

  Even though he wasn’t looking at her, she nodded.

  He must have seen her from the corner of his eye, because he continued, “My aunt Michelle—the one who was adopted by the wealthy family and initiated the search for her siblings?”

  “Yes, I remember you telling me about her. She married the private investigator.”

  “Right. Tony D’Alessandro. Anyway, Michelle was kidnapped when she was just a little girl and held for ransom for several days by a former family employee.”

  Shocked, she said, “What a terrifying ordeal that must have been for her. Was she hurt?”

  “Not physically, no. But you can imagine that it was a horrifying event that haunted her for a long time.”

  She wasn’t sure what this had to do with her, but she nodded somberly. “It must have.”

  “That wasn’t the only traumatic event that members of my family have endured. My aunt Lindsey had a similar kidnapping experience several years later. My uncle Jared was once wrongly accused of robbery and was thrown in jail until he could prove his innocence. My parents met when my grandfather, a prosecuting attorney, hired my dad to protect my mother from some gang members who want
ed to snatch my mom for leverage against Granddad in a big court trial.”

  Her head was spinning a little from all those dramatic details. “Your family has endured a lot,” she conceded, her voice rising a bit in question.

  “That history has left us—some of us, anyway—a little paranoid. And then there’s the fact that several of my close relatives, including my dad and my cousin, Andrew, are private investigators and security consultants. Put a mystery in front of them and they seem compelled to dig into it. Especially if they think one of the family is in a position to be hurt by it.”

  She was growing more confused by the minute. “I don’t—”

  “Apparently, Aaron’s been calling Molly during the past week, trying to find out how I’ve been doing and what was keeping me here so long,” Casey cut in bluntly. “Molly’s a sweetheart, but sometimes she talks too much. She mentioned that I’ve been seeing you, and I think she told him that I was pretty obviously infatuated by you.”

  Feeling her cheeks warm a little, Natalie looked back down at her hands. “So your cousins rushed out here to save you from me?”

  Casey drew a deep breath and blurted, “Molly told them you lost your job with the law firm. I don’t think she meant to let it slip, but Aaron’s pretty good at weaseling information out of people, almost before they realize it. Anyway, Andrew did a little snooping, I guess, and…well, I’m very sorry, Natalie, but he told me what happened to you in Nashville.”

  Natalie felt her eyes go wide, the blood draining from her face. “He had no right to do that!”

  Casey turned toward her then, holding up both hands, palms outward. “I know, and I told him the same thing. That’s why I had to get away from them for a while. I was so mad I wasn’t in the mood to deal with them.”

  She pushed herself out of her chair and began to pace in agitation. Buddy swiveled his head to watch her. This was so not the way she had wanted Casey to hear about what had happened to her, without even a chance for her to tell her side of the story. “Why would they investigate me, just because you and I have spent a few days together? What did they think I was going to do to you?”

  He pushed his hand through his hair in a weary gesture. “It’s hardly an excuse, but they’ve been worried about me. None of them really understood why I felt the need to take off when I did. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever been irresponsible, other than the pranks we played as kids. My mother thinks I’m on the verge of a breakdown, which is ridiculous. So…they heard I’ve been spending time with a woman who has a few secrets and they overreacted. I’m not defending them, I just know how they think.”

  Clutching her arms against a chill that was as much emotional as physical, she muttered, “When they found out what secret I’ve been keeping, they must have totally freaked out. I must really be out to con you, huh?”

  Casey moved to stand in front of her, blocking her agitated pacing. “No one said anything about you trying to con me.”

  “They just think I had a very good reason for not telling you about what happened in Nashville, right? Like maybe I’m guilty of exactly what I was accused of doing.”

  “They didn’t make any judgments about that,” he said, though she noted he couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “They simply told me the facts about what happened.”

  “Oh, really?” She planted her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “And just what ‘facts’ did they share with you?”

  “I’m sure you know what they were told.”

  “I’d like to hear it from you,” she insisted, wondering who in her former firm had been talking about her, and how those “facts” were being spun.

  Looking extremely uncomfortable, Casey shoved his hands in his pockets. “They, um, heard that you sold confidential client information to the tabloids. Celebrity clients, sleazy gossip magazines. They said the senior partners found out about it and let you go quietly because they didn’t want the negative publicity to reflect badly on the firm and cause other clients to lose faith in them. And that you left without fighting the charges.”

  “And what does that tell you?” she asked bitterly.

  “That there must be a hell of a lot more to the story than my cousins found out,” he replied evenly.

  “So that’s why you came running over here? To give me a chance to tell you my side?”

  His eyes narrowed, as if her display of temper was triggering his own. “I came here because I thought you deserved to know what my cousins had done,” he almost snapped. “Their invasion of your privacy was inexcusable, as I told them, myself.”

  “You’re right. It was. I haven’t even told my aunt what happened. Oh, God, you don’t think your cousins…”

  “They won’t tell your aunt,” he interrupted firmly. “They haven’t told Molly. Andrew and Aaron and I are the only ones here who know.”

  “That’s bad enough,” she grumbled, crossing her arms again and turning away. “Do you have any idea how humiliating this is for me?”

  His tone gentled. “I can imagine.”

  Placing his hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face him again. “You don’t owe me any explanations, Natalie. What happened to you is no more my business than it was my cousins’. But if you want to tell me, if you want my help…I’m here.”

  Still stinging because the choice to tell him was taken away from her, she asked, “What do you think? Do you believe I did what they said?”

  “I’d like to hear your side.”

  “Spoken like a true lawyer,” she said, pulling away from him and taking a few steps back. “You’re keeping an open mind while you listen to the defendant’s story, right? It’s not your place to determine guilt or innocence.”

  “No, it’s not.” He sounded as if he were clinging to his patience with some difficulty. “But I didn’t automatically believe what Andrew told me, either.”

  “How magnanimous of you.”

  “You aren’t being exactly fair.”

  “It’s a matter of trust,” she whispered, turning her head to hide a sudden, mortifying rush of tears. “Do you trust me or not?”

  The silence that fell between them then broke her heart. This, she thought dully, was exactly why she hadn’t told Casey the truth from the start.

  He couldn’t see her face, because she had turned away from him. He could read her emotions in the slump of her shoulders, and he hated himself for what his instinctive hesitation had done to her.Since he had met her, he’d seen Natalie defensive, guarded, amused, relaxed, even cautiously flirtatious. He’d watched her open herself to Buddy—and to him, in some ways. But he had never seen her looking defeated. Until now.

  “I’ve had some trouble with trusting lately,” he said, his voice sounding a bit loud in the too-quiet room. “A couple of people I trusted let me down. Hard. I guess you could say that’s why I’m here, pretending to be a handyman. I needed to think some things through, put them into perspective.”

  “I hope you’ve had more luck with that than I have,” she murmured, still looking away.

  “I thought I had,” he replied. “I thought I’d gotten over it completely. Apparently, I was wrong.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Moving to stand behind her, he rested his hands on her shoulders, which went rigid beneath his touch. “I didn’t realize it until now, but I let my recent disillusionment color my reactions to what my cousins told me about you. I didn’t immediately jump to your defense because I didn’t want to have my trust betrayed again if I found out I was wrong about you. It was a stupid, cowardly response on my part. I’m sorry.”

  “You’re saying you suddenly believe I’m innocent?” she asked, understandably skeptical.

  “I’m saying that if I’ve learned anything about you during the last couple of weeks, it’s that you are honest. Almost to a fault, sometimes,” he added with a wry smile. “You asked if I trust you. I’m sorry it took me so long to answer. Yes, Natalie. I trust you. I don’t believe you sold your ethi
cs for cash.”

  “You can’t know that,” she countered, her head still lowered.

  “I haven’t told you anything about myself. Even when you told me you’re an attorney, I didn’t tell you I am, too.”

  “No. I can understand now why you didn’t.”

  “It was too humiliating.”

  “I know. I suppose I should confess that I was already aware of your profession when I told you what I do. All I knew was that you were a lawyer, and that you were between jobs.”

  She looked over her shoulder at him. “How did you know?”

  His mouth crooked. “Molly let it slip to me, too.”

  “I don’t think I’d ever share a big secret with your cousin Molly,” she resolved with a little shake of her head.

  He chuckled. “I know it sounds that way, but Molly has been known to keep secrets. Anyway, I only found out your profession a couple of days ago. That’s why I thought I should tell you what I do, and then let you fill me in on whatever you wanted me to know in your own time. I swear to you, I made no effort to find out anything about you that you didn’t tell me yourself. I didn’t ask Andrew and Aaron to snoop. I would have ordered them not to if they’d bothered to tell me what they were doing.”

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter now,” she muttered, sounding suddenly weary. “Everyone will probably find out eventually. Especially when I can’t find another job because no one will want to hire an attorney who’s been accused of selling confidential client information.”

  He moved to stand in front of her, looking down at her dejected expression. He still felt like a heel for being partially responsible for the sadness in her eyes. “You didn’t do it,” he said, and it wasn’t a question.

  “No. But that doesn’t matter. I’ve done everything I know how to do to prove that someone set me up to take the blame for those leaks. I have a few leads, but no solid evidence. And without incontrovertible evidence, it’s my word against the firm’s. No one will believe me.”

  “I just mentioned that several of my relatives are P.I.s. Despite my present irritation with him, I know Andrew’s very good at his job. Tell him the details, give him the names of anyone you suspect, and let him see what he can find out. Let us help you clear your name.”