by Wendy Vella
“You ready for the ride of your life, sweet cheeks?”
“You have such a big head, Trainer.”
“Some parts of me are certainly bigger than others.”
“Jack! I cannot believe you said that in public.”
“Three, two, one, go!”
The hooter sounded, and they were off. It wasn’t a huge distance, and Rory was light, but he still didn’t take off at a sprint like Lenny.
“That Christmas shop has all their decorations outside. I might get another reindeer.”
Jack grunted something.
“Oooh, are those homemade candy canes?”
“Will you shut up and concentrate?”
“You need to go faster, those people are beating us. How’s that for concentration?”
Jack slapped her on the butt. She shut up.
Mr. Goldhirsh passed him, and no way was he having that. At the halfway point, he increased his pace and passed Luke.
“Loser.”
“Asshole,” Luke shot back.
“Oooh, only two left in front. Go, Jack, go! I want a Christmas jersey!”
The end was in sight, and the crowds lining the streets were screaming. Jack used the last of his energy to stride out, and soon he was level with Lenny.
“Go, Jack!” he heard Bailey and Aunt Jess scream at him. Only Fin was ahead of him now. Increasing his pace, he put in a sprint and passed him just before the line.
“We won!”
“W-we?” he rasped.
“Okay, so you did.”
He lowered Rory to the ground, and then braced his hands on his knees. She bent to peer up at him.
“My hero.” She batted her eyelashes.
“Y-you have a s-smart mouth.”
“Winners!” Mayor Gripper arrived, still in the bucket of the tractor with Buzz at his side. “Jack Trainer and Aurora May Haldane. Congratulations to you both!”
“Do I get a kiss?” Jack looked for Rory, but she danced away, eyes twinkling. Damn, she looked sweet, sexy, and plenty of other words that eluded him right at that moment.
“Come here,” he said softly, crooking a finger at her. Something inside him changed right then and there as she poked out that small pink tongue. The ache inside him eased into the inevitable.
“You can’t even stand upright, let alone handle me,” she said so only he could hear. Her words were filled with mischief.
“I can handle you, Princess, don’t you—”
“Hi, Jack.”
Two words, and they had him jerking upright to look into the face of the woman standing before him.
Shit.
“How’s my man?”
“Rachel—” Jack wasn’t fast enough to stop her as she leapt at him. Seconds later she was plastered all over him. Her legs were locked around his waist and her lips on his.
He managed to peel her off him, but not before everyone saw. He searched for Rory and found her a few feet away with Leo. All laughter had gone from her face, and she looked devastated.
“Rory—”
“It’s okay, Jack. Really… I’ll see you round.”
“Wait, it’s not—” He reached for her but she stepped away, then turned and disappeared into the crowd.
Hell!
Chapter 37
“They seemed chummy.”
Rory ignored Leo and started back up the main street. She needed to get her clothes from A.S., then she’d be heading home.
Seeing that woman throw herself at Jack had been hard… more than hard, it had been painful. She’d had to leave or make a fool of herself by dragging her off him. She’d been seconds away from losing it and doing something ugly in public.
The man unhinged her, and not in a good way.
“You know of course that woman could have been his friend before you came along, squirt?”
“I have no idea what or who you’re talking about.”
“So we’re playing that game, are we?”
“Shut up, Leo.”
He did until she was back on the street dressed in her clothes again.
“I didn’t like him to begin with—well hell, he’s a Trainer—but then I saw he’d changed. Those boys have certainly come good.”
“They’re good people.”
All except that lothario, Jack. She’d vowed not to get involved with him, promised herself it was just a fling... a casual affair. Seeing Jack with that woman made her realize it wasn’t. In fact, she’d fallen for him hard.
Bastard.
The problem was he wasn’t a bastard. He was kind and sweet and.... Oh God, she loved him. The realization was not a welcoming one.
“You okay?”
“Yes, why?”
“Your skin looks a little greenish all of a sudden.”
“It does not!”
“You coming in to pick your sweater, Aurora May?”
They were passing Mrs. L’s shop, and the woman was standing outside manning her market stall.
“I can get it later if you’re busy, Mrs. L.”
“She’ll get it now.” Leo nudged her inside.
“I don’t feel like it now.”
“Because you saw that woman draped around your man, but this will cheer you up.”
“He’s not my man,” Rory hissed.
“Whatever. And you should cut him some slack. Like I said, she may be an old flame, and from what I’ve learned he’s been nothing but kind to you.”
“Every woman in this town is an old flame of his!” The words spewed from her lips as she vented. “He’s like some kind of... of…” She couldn’t find the right words. “Modern-day Casanova!”
“Just the right man to fall hard for the right woman,” Leo said calmly in the face of her rage.
Rory looked at her brother, standing there looking big and rugged among all the Christmas decorations in the quaint little shop.
“How the hell would you know that?”
“I’m insightful.” Leo tapped his chest.
“No you’re not,” Rory scoffed. “And you have no idea the man Jack Trainer is.”
“I kind of do, because he’s like me.”
“You’ve been in Ryker for a couple of hours and suddenly you know everything?” Rory moved to the shelf to look at Christmas sweaters. She’d pick one, then get back to her nana’s house, which she now thought of as her house.
“Not everything, squirt, some things.”
“Just butt out, Leo. This is none of your business.”
“So there is a this?”
Rory ignored him and kept looking. She pulled out one that had everything she’d told Jack the fiend that she wanted on the front.
“Nice,” Leo said.
It was red with a Christmas tree and twinkling lights, and had the words Merry Christmas written along the bottom.
“Plain but classy,” Leo added.
After thanking Mrs. L. for the sweater, they left the shop—just as Jack was coming in.
“Nice work on the race, bud,” Leo said, then wandered away to look in shop windows.
“I can’t help that I know a few women, Rory.”
Even dressed as Santa, the man was a serious looker. How the hell was that fair?
She felt it again, the unreasonable swell of jealousy she’d felt when that woman threw herself at Jack.
“That was a little more than just knowing a woman, Jack.”
“We spent some time together last winter. Rachel is back in town and wanted to—”
“Look, it’s all right. I know you have women friends... lots of them, and that you’re likely still seeing some of them. I get it.”
“Get what exactly?” His words were cool.
“That you don’t do exclusive. That this, what we had... have was just fun. So don’t worry about it.”
“Fun?” The word came out coated in ice. “It was sure as hell more than fun.”
“Yes it was,” she conceded, while inside her pathetic heart was shattering into tiny pieces. “Bu
t I know there will be nothing more, and so thanks again for everything, really. You were a great friend when I needed one, but now I have Leo—”
“So get lost, Jack?” he snarled at her, his green eyes angry slits. “Is that how this is going, Princess? See you round, Jack, I no longer need you?”
“Don’t use that tone on me!”
“Well excuse me, no way in hell do I want to upset your delicate fucking sensibilities.”
“What is your problem? I’m giving you permission to run back to your bimbo!” She hadn’t meant to shriek the last word but it came out that way.
“I don’t need your permission for anything I do, and Rachel is not a bimbo,” he gritted out. “She’s an intelligent woman who runs her own company.”
“Excellent! She sounds absolutely perfect for you then. You both have really big heads to hold your really big egos!”
Angry that she’d allowed herself to love this man, Rory knew she should shut up, but couldn’t seem to stop the words from falling out of her mouth.
“I never realized just how low your opinion was of me, Aurora May. I guess now I do.”
“I don’t. Look, Jack, I’m sorry okay, that came out wrong, it’s just—”
He didn’t wait to hear her words, instead walking away from her, back up the street he’d just come down.
“It’s just that I’m scared,” she whispered, turning away. Really scared about loving you and getting hurt.
“I heard you shouting from here,” Leo said as they started for home.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Thankfully her brother chose that moment to listen to his little sister and shut up, but only about that matter.
“You should have told me what’s been happening to you, Rory. I had to hear the details from Jack.”
“He should have kept his mouth closed.”
“No, he shouldn’t. You’ve had a rock thrown through the window, two letters, and the manure incident. You should have picked up the phone and called me. This involves me and Matt too.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right I should have said something. I just didn’t want to worry you.”
He dropped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her close.
“Do you really think father may have been innocent, Rory?”
“I believed him the last time he told me, Leo, but I don’t know how to find proof.”
“Why did you believe him then?”
“I don’t think he had any reason to lie. He died soon after.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, Rory.”
“It’s okay.” She leaned into him.
“Jack said it could be one of two reasons why you’re getting this trouble. I’m not sure about Dad’s innocence, but the other seems more likely, if still a bit farfetched.”
“You can look through Dad’s briefcase and decide for yourself, but there’s no doubt to my mind Dad had an affair and that we have a sibling out there somewhere, Leo. I just don’t think we’re going to find it easily.”
“But we have to try.”
“Yes.”
They walked the rest of the way home in silence, both deep in thought, and Rory tried to put thoughts of Jack aside for tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough to open herself up to that pain again.
“Did you leave the door open?” Leo said twenty minutes later as they walked up the drive.
“No.” Rory started running with him on her heels. Leo ran through the door first.
The place was a mess. Drawers emptied, cupboards opened, the contents strewn.
“Call the cops, Rory.”
She did, fumbling for her phone. Once she’d called Chief Blake, she followed Leo through the house.
“The briefcase!” Rory ran to the bedroom. Opening the closet, she dragged a chair close and climbed on top. The relief when her fingers touched the cool surface of the case had her exhaling loudly.
“It’s still here.”
Something had made her hide it. Impulse perhaps; whatever it was, she had a feeling now that she’d done the right thing.
“You and I are going to sit down now, Aurora May, and you’re filling me in on everything that you know or think about what’s happening. Do it fast before the police arrive. Even allowing for the traffic and road closures due to the festivities in town, they’ll be here soon.”
“Leo—”
“Now,” he said in that voice that used to make her run for cover.
They sat at the kitchen table, and she talked, and he listened.
“They were looking for something, squirt. Maybe this is what it was?” He touched the briefcase. “Considering what you’ve told me is in here.”
“But why? No one even knows about it.”
“Are you sure of that? You didn’t mention it anywhere?”
“I don’t think so, but then it’s a small town. People overhear stuff all the time.”
The wail of sirens had Rory getting to her feet, and then Chief Blake was knocking on her door with one of his deputies.
“No way... Leo?”
“Dean?”
“What the hell happened to you? You look like a mountain man,” the deputy said.
“And you... hell, a cop? You remember Dean Long, squirt. We were friends in school.”
“Sure, hi.” The man was unrecognizable from the thin faced boy he’d once been.
“Now the reunion is done with, you want to show me around, Rory?”
“Leo, this is Chief Blake.”
“Your reputation proceeds you, Mr. Haldane.”
Leo winced. “And not in a good way I’m sure, Chief.”
“Son, everyone is entitled to be an asshole at least once in their lifetime. Now how about you show me the damage?”
They walked through the house, and while it was a mess, nothing was destroyed.
“My guess is they were looking for something, but what, is the question?” Chief Blake said as he scribbled notes in his little book.
“I don’t know for sure, Chief, but it could have been this.”
Rory went to get her father’s briefcase.
“Why would someone want that?” he said when she laid it on the table. “Unless it’s to do with that theory we discussed with the Trainers about your daddy being innocent?”
“It was my father’s.”
“Why wasn’t this taken in the investigation?”
She shrugged. “I can’t answer that.”
“And what’s in it that would cause someone to do this to your house?”
“Can I talk to my brother for a second, Chief Blake? It won’t take a minute, I promise.”
The police chief looked at the siblings, then nodded.
“We’ll start checking for fingerprints.”
Rory went back down the hall.
“Do we tell him what we suspect, Leo?”
“We have to.”
“Okay, but there’s something else, Leo.”
“Oh God, it’s twins?”
“Idiot,” Rory said with a tight smile. “Some things have been going missing around Ryker Falls, and some of Mom’s old friends accused me of doing the stealing.”
“I know Jack told me.”
“They ended up here in my cupboard, Leo.”
“I know that too.”
“Jack was here when I found them, and he... well, he believed that I hadn’t stolen them, and thought it was likely done by whoever was targeting me.”
“The same Jack you got angry with over that woman?”
“I-it’s complicated.”
“It’s okay, you can grovel to him later. We need to sort this first and talk to Chief Blake.”
“I-I keep doubting him,” Rory whispered. “It’s like I want him to be bad and a womanizer, when I actually don’t believe he is.”
“You’re trying to sabotage what you have with him, squirt, and that’s likely because for the first time in your life you love someone other than your brothers.”
Sh
e knew that what Leo said was the truth.
“We don’t have time for a Dr. Phil session now, squirt, so pull yourself together. Jack loves you, he’ll be pissed off for the evening, and then tomorrow you can kiss and make up.... Scrub that. I don’t like to think about my little sister sharing bodily fluids of any kind with anyone.”
“Leo!”
“Let’s go, Chief Blake’s waiting.”
“Do you really think he does… love me I mean?”
“Squirt, the man can’t see straight for loving you.”
Rory held onto that thought tight as she told the police what was going on—everything—she then showed him the stolen items still in her kitchen cupboard.
“Hell of a pickle,” he said. “But I’m guessing you wouldn’t have shown me all these if you were guilty. There’s also the fact they’re still in here, and the cupboard wasn’t searched, or messed up like the rest of the place, to consider.”
He and his deputy took the stuff away, and said he wanted Rory to go in to the station tomorrow to answer a few more questions.
After they’d left, she and Leo sat and talked well into the night. It was as she lay in bed later, just before she closed her eyes, that she let herself think about Jack and how much she missed having him lying beside her. Tomorrow she needed to talk to him… really talk, and the prospect of baring her soul was a terrifying one.
Chapter 38
The room at the lodge where the bachelor auction was to be held was full. This close to Christmas there were carols playing and the wine was flowing. Everyone was in high spirits except Rory, who was nervous and on edge.
She’d woken early after a restless night and called Jack, but he hadn’t answered. Rehearsing what she needed to say, she then drove to the barn, only to be told he would be gone most of the day on a group ride. Frustrated, she’d gone home and spent the afternoon with Leo, going through the attic looking for more of their father’s papers. Anything to clue them in on the identity of the child.
Mandy had come to the house to collect her an hour before the auction, as she’d been sure Rory would be a no-show otherwise. She’d been right. Rory had planned to stay as far away as she could.
“It’s looking great, don’t you think?”
Mandy was excited now everything was done.