by Kait Nolan
Even as excitement began to hum in her blood, she had to force herself to slow down, consider all the angles.
“There’s one major problem with this scenario.”
“What’s that?”
“All those letters of intent are for Norah’s skills. I’m not Norah. I’d never pretend to be.”
“You’re every bit as good as she is. Better, even, at some things.”
“That’s sweet, Reed, but you’re not exactly an unbiased party here.”
“I agree, but it’s not coming from me. Norah’s said so herself. Which is why she got these.” He reached into his coat pocket and handed her a folded sheaf of papers.
Cecily unfolded them. “What’s this?”
“Signatures from all the business owners in town who want to work with you. Not quite as comprehensive as what we pulled together before, but we were operating on a much shorter time-frame, with less manpower. I didn’t figure you’d appreciate being bowled over either, so I didn’t loop in the rest of the family. Still, it should be enough to prove viability of the concept.”
“Norah did this for me?”
“I thought it was my idea when I took it to her, but as usual, she was five steps ahead of me. She said she owed you. If I hadn’t brought it up, she would have.”
A hard knot lodged in Cecily’s throat as she stared at the list of names spanning more than three full sheets of paper.
She could stay.
She could do the work she loved, putting both her skills and her inheritance to good use helping people. Just like Norah, she could put her own mark on reviving this charming little town. And she could see where things went with this smart, funny, incredibly caring man, who’d gone to all this trouble to give her an option that would fit within her personal principles.
As the silence stretched out, Reed seemed to lose a little of his certainty. “You don’t have to give an answer right now. I know we’re not…things aren’t…I wouldn’t expect you to make a decision without going and doing the interview and taking time to gather all the facts. I just wanted to even the playing field and make sure you knew you had another choice.”
The knot in her throat dissolved, leaving a spreading warmth in her chest. Cecily rose to her toes, sliding her arms around his neck and bringing his face close to hers. “The only choice I’m concerned with right this moment is whose house is closer—yours or mine?”
Chapter Seven
“I have a surprise for you.” Cecily could barely contain herself as she cornered Reed in his office.
“Does it involve those two lips meeting these two lips?”
“Totally not the surprise. Though I suspect we’ll get there.”
“Then lay it on me.”
She pulled the copy of the contract out of her purse and laid it on the desk.
He pulled out his horn rims—swoon—and proceeded to scan it before his gaze snapped to hers. “This is a offer to purchase real estate. Here.”
“It is. Mitch was right. The old train station would make an amazing office. My grandfather has a saying: Start as you mean to continue. If I’m going to make a business here, I might as well start out looking like a real—” But he’d skirted the desk and scooped her up with a whoop before she could finish.
“This is amazing!”
His unfettered enthusiasm curbed the nerves that’d been simmering beneath her excitement.
“The offer hasn’t been accepted yet. I low-balled it. The place has been vacant for years, so I figure there’s room for negotiation.”
“You’re so sexy when you talk business. This calls for celebration.”
Cecily blocked his mouth with a hand. “Later. I don’t have long, I need to get back to the office pretty soon. If you kiss me, you’ll just destroy my focus for the rest of the day. I just wanted to drop by and share the news. I need to call Verdant and cancel my interview.”
Reed sobered. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
She gazed up at him, waiting for the uncertainty, the second guessing. But it never came. Crazy as it was, the decision felt right. “Sometimes you have to take a leap. This is mine.”
His eyes warmed. “Okay then. Celebration after work. Whatever you want.”
Oh the possibilities. “I’ll text you the details.”
“Ah. Then I’d best get on over to pick up my replacement phone, post haste.” He pulled the cell out of his pocket to show the spiderweb cracks across the screen.
“What happened?”
“Dropped it. Naturally it hit the sidewalk at the exact angle needed to totally destroy it. They’re holding a replacement for me at the AT&T store in Lawley.” He checked his watch. “Which I need to be leaving to go pick up, now that Brenda is back from her lunch break.”
“Go ahead. I’ll see you tonight. Do you mind if I just use your MacBook to put in some final tweaks to the book signing campaign?”
“Knock yourself out.” Reed leaned over and typed in the unlock password. He waited until she took his vacated chair before dropping a quick kiss to her cheek. “Tonight.”
As he walked out front to give Brenda instructions, Cecily loosed a dreamy sigh. Tonight.
But for a few hours more, she had to bend her brain to work-related tasks. Shoving up her sleeves, she got to work.
Brenda came in as she was loading the remaining newsletter blasts. “I can’t believe you’re okay with him staying friends with his ex.”
Cecily looked up. “Huh?”
“His ex. The one he texts with all the time.”
What is she talking about?
“I’ve met Annelise. He’s definitely not talking to her after the way she treated him.”
“Not her. That one was a stone-cold bitch. I’m talking about Selina.”
Who the hell is Selina?
“He hasn’t told you about her, has he?”
Cecily tried to recall if she’d ever heard him mention that name before but drew a blank.
Brenda nodded, as if her silence confirmed it.
Her automatic indictment of Reed annoyed Cecily. “I haven’t given him a rundown of all my exes either. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Are you all buddy buddy with any of yours?”
“Well, no, but—”
The older woman rolled right over her protest. “If I were you, I’d want to know what they talk about.”
Annoyance and sympathy stirred in equal measure. Cecily wondered if Brenda would ever get to a place where her ugly divorce didn’t color everything in her world. She hadn’t yet gotten to the point where she realized her over-sharing on the topic made everyone uncomfortable. “Well, that’s understandable given your experience. But Reed’s not like that. We’re good.”
“Suit yourself.” Pausing in the doorway, she added, “But I didn’t think my ex was like that either.”
Cecily stared at the door for several moments after Brenda had gone back down the hall.
I will not let her make me paranoid. I’m not going to be that girl.
She got back to work. But as she finished with the A-B newsletter groups, what Brenda said continued niggling at her.
Other than Annelise, he’d never mentioned any ex. Certainly he’d have dated people in the intervening years, but no one of any particular significance. He’d have mentioned that. Wouldn’t he? As far as she knew, he hadn’t been involved with anyone between their almost fling in the summer and now. And even if he had been, they weren’t together before, so he had every right to have dated whoever he pleased.
But she couldn’t help remembering Jefferson, who’d had a woman on the side. In the grand scheme of things, that’d been the least of his betrayals, so it wasn’t something she thought much about. But he’d cheated. People cheated every day. It was a sad fact.
Oh, don’t be ridiculous. Reed wouldn’t do that.
Even as she thought it, iMessage dinged.
She wasn’t going to look, but she saw the name Tony Becker, the author for the big sig
ning. Could be a bump in the road she’d need to smooth out quickly. Just in case, she clicked over.
“Son of a bitch.”
Becker was canceling due to a family emergency. Shit. Shit. Shit. And all the publicity is already out there.
A part of her brain was already calculating how to deal with that, when she saw the name Selina Kyle in the list of iMessage contacts. The latest message was from earlier that morning. Wish you’d been able to hear last night’s talk from Barry Hanna. He was amazing.
That was hardly a smoking gun. But she just couldn’t stop herself from looking, calling herself an idiot the whole time. She clicked over to the conversation.
Holy shit.
Reed and Selina talked a lot. The conversation scrolled back pages and pages. Nothing strange or incriminating, just friendly chat about books and daily life stuff. He’d even talked about her.
Cecily smiled a little. “Master of my craft, huh?”
But as she went back further, she could tell that they were clearly involved at some point. And there was never any change in the tone of their chat to indicate a break up.
Don’t be stupid. Reed is absolutely the type who’d break up with someone in person.
But even as the thought occurred to her, she couldn’t help but remember all the times she’d seen him texting and smiling. When she’d asked who he was talking to and he’d put her off, saying it was no one important.
The devil on her shoulder whispered in her ear, There’s an easy way to answer this question.
Her conscience screamed, Don’t do it! This is a violation of his trust and his privacy!
The devil poked at her conscience with a pitchfork. And if he’s got nothing to hide, then there’s nothing to lose. And if he does have something to hide…
“I’m going to hell,” Cecily muttered, and clicked in the message box. You there? She wished immediately she could take it back.
But the reply was almost instant. There you are. You’ve been quiet lately.
Okay. Okay, you’re in it now. Might as well get the answers you’re looking for and prepare to grovel and apologize later. Been busy. Can you do me a favor?
Selina: Name it, tiger.
How to ask this without it coming across as weird? Define our relationship.
The laughing emoji came first, followed by Selina’s reply. Got another naysayer because I’m long-distance, huh? Fine. Yes, I exist. Yes, I’m your girlfriend. A picture of a cute blonde making a kissy face popped up.
Cecily’s head began to roar. Since when?
Since beginning of August.
The, Thanks, was automatic, though Cecily’s hands were trembling.
Selina: What’s this for? Your mom? Tell her she’s free to send me a batch of her famous snickerdoodles any time she likes.
Nausea roiled in her stomach.
August. Selina and Reed had been together since August. Which made her the other woman.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Clearly her picker was broken, as her cousin Blair would say. And she’d be right.
Oh God. Oh God how could I have been so stupid? How could I show such horrible judgment again?
Shoving back from the desk with shaky legs, she gathered her purse and headed for City Hall. At least I can stop this one in its tracks.
~*~
Shit. Shit. Double shit.
As soon as his new phone was up and running, the first message to pop up was from Tony Becker. Canceling.
Reed had spent the drive back from Lawley getting in touch first with Becker’s publicist, then with Tony himself to see if there was any way to talk him out of it. Given the man’s mother was going in for double by-pass surgery, that was a great big negative. Reed had offered his prayers without question and told the distraught author he was welcome any time.
Cecily hadn’t answered when he’d called to notify her. He figured she’d gone radio silent for a meeting, so he left a voicemail with the news, feeling awful for her. She’d put so much work into this. He hated to see it all go to waste. Not that everything she’d done was a waste. The platform she’d built could be used for future events and promotion for years to come.
He hated to see his own investment go to waste, too. The outlay on advertising wouldn’t hurt him too bad, but he wasn’t operating with such a margin of profit that he could afford to have this happen often.
Maybe it’s not too late to cancel the ad and get a refund, he mused, stepping back into Inglenook.
“What the holy hell is wrong with you?”
Reed actually stumbled back against the closed door in the face of the fury pumping off Norah as she rose from the couch. Her normally calm and even demeanor had been replaced by a rage so great, he half expected her to bulk up and start screaming “Hulk smash!” And he had no clue what she was so pissed about.
“What?”
“I trusted you. I encouraged her to trust you. How the hell could you do this to Cecily?”
“Do what? Norah, what the hell are you talking about?”
“You cheated on her, you slimy bastard. I’m ashamed to have to call you family. And you’d better believe that by the time I get through with you, the wrath of God is gonna look like a church picnic.”
“I knew it.” From the entryway to the next section, Brenda stood, a look of disgust on her face.
Reed shoved away from the door and met Norah toe-to-toe. “What the hell? I didn’t cheat.”
“Then who the hell is Selina Kyle and why did she say she’s been dating you since August?”
Oh fuck me. He didn’t know how it’d come out. Now was absolutely not the time to ask.
Reed inhaled a long, deep breath and decided he really didn’t give a good damn about Brenda’s feelings at the moment. “She said it because it’s what she was paid to say as part of an invisible girlfriend service I signed up for before Cecily and I got together.”
Whatever Norah had been expecting, that wasn’t it. Pure bafflement cut through a few levels of her anger. “Invisible girlfriend?”
“Virtual Match is a service that provides an invisible significant other—texts, emails, that kind of thing. People use it to prove they’re in a relationship when they’re not. It was Zach’s idea.” He pulled out his phone and pulled up his account, handing it over so Norah could see the profile they’d built that night at Los Pantalones.
“Why would you need such a thing?”
“It seemed like a way to put a stop to Brenda’s inappropriate come-ons without embarrassing us both by actually bringing it up as an issue.”
Brenda made a strangled noise and flushed the color of a beet.
“That,” Reed said, gesturing toward her. “I was trying to avoid that.”
Norah squeezed her temples. “Okay, leaving aside the fact that you’re an idiot man, why wouldn’t you have canceled the service when you and Cecily got together? Or told her about it and had a good laugh over it?”
“We got to be friends, so I felt bad for firing Selina when she hadn’t done anything wrong.”
Norah snorted with disgust. “God, that’s so you.”
“I didn’t mention it to Cecily because, frankly, I was a little embarrassed. It was never anything inappropriate and sure as hell never a real relationship. I’d never do that to anyone. How did you even find out about it?”
“Cecily came to me in tears, gave her notice, and withdrew her offer on the train station property.”
Reed felt the blood drain out of his head. “Where is she?”
The last of Norah’s anger faded away, leaving sympathy in its wake. “Gone.”
“Gone? Gone where?” He’d go after her, explain that he was a dumbass and—
“I don’t know. She said she was leaving town.”
Reed was already dialing Cecily’s cell. Of course she didn’t answer. He left another voicemail. “Look, it’s me, and nothing is what you think. I didn’t cheat on you. Selina’s not even a real girl. And okay that sounds
ludicrous, but there’s an explanation. Please, just…call me back.”
The moment he hung up, he looked to Norah. “How long ago was this?”
“A couple of hours.”
Maybe she hadn’t made it out of town. Reed bolted for the door.
“Reed!”
He turned back at Brenda’s shout.
She seemed to deflate, curving in on herself in misery. “I’m sorry.”
Reed didn’t have time to deal with this. He aimed a finger in her direction. “Stay here and man the store. I’ll deal with you later.”
Sprinting to his Explorer, he tore through town at speeds that would’ve gotten him arrested had any of their boys in blue been looking.
Please still be here. Please still be here.
Her car wasn’t in the drive when he screeched to a halt. But Christoff’s was.
Reed pounded on the door. Christoff opened it, and Reed narrowly avoided the fist the other man led with.
“It’s not what you think!”
“What I think is that you broke my best friend’s heart, you son of a bitch.” He landed a firm thump against Reed’s shoulder.
“I didn’t cheat on her. It’s all a misunderstanding.” Reed kept his arms up in a defensive position and slowly edged off the porch under Christoff’s onslaught.
“I fail to see how that’s possible since she heard it from your first girlfriend’s mouth.”
What? “That can’t be possible. Selina is a fake girlfriend. From Virtual Match.”
Christoff stopped trying to hit him. “What the hell would you need to use that for?”
“Because Brenda’s a cougar and she was after me.” And if he’d ever made a more emasculating statement, he couldn’t remember it. God.
Christoff cocked a considering head. “Okay, yeah, I can see that. You figured having a fake girlfriend would be less awkward than confronting her about it.”
“Yes! Selina isn’t real. But Cecily doesn’t know that and I have to tell her. Where is she?”