“We don’t intend to have much alcohol on the premises, but champagne and cocktails for special occasions would be nice,” Fancy noted.
He didn’t have the wherewithal to even acknowledge her comment. Looking over at her carried a great amount of risk. Staring directly into her eyes was tantamount to gazing straight into the sun. He was afraid if he stared too long at her, he might forget all the ways she’d trampled over his heart. He might bend, then break.
For the next forty-five minutes he did his best to focus on giving the ladies the best possible legal advice for Savannah House. Sitting so close to Fancy was proving to be difficult. Every now and again he would sneak a look at his watch, praying for the seconds to fly by quickly so he could make his escape. Case wouldn’t feel safe until he’d entered the cool, dark halls of the Duvall Corporation. He let out a sigh as the clock struck one. Case reached for his briefcase and began placing his documents inside. “Ladies, thanks for being so attentive. I really need to get back to Duvall.” He stood up and picked up his briefcase, studiously avoiding any contact with Fancy.
“Case, you’re welcome to stay for lunch,” Hope offered. “Morgan cooked for us. It’ll be quite a treat.”
“Chicken and dumplings if that entices you, with banana pudding for dessert,” Morgan said in a sing-song tone. Her almond shaped eyes teased him by promising culinary delights.
Even though his stomach grumbled with hunger, he had no intention of sticking around to eat lunch with his former fiancée sitting nearby. If he did he might just choke on his lunch. Or he might decide that he couldn’t go another day without kissing those beautiful lips or holding her silky hand. No! No! No! These thoughts were weak ones.
“Another time,” he said brusquely, raising his hand in a goodbye wave before he made a fast exit out of Savannah House.
“How do you fall out of love with someone? How do you tell your heart not to beat faster when he’s around? How do you teach yourself not to yearn for him?” Fancy Tolliver
Chapter Two
Fancy watched Case walk out of the library as if his feet were on fire. A few moments later she heard the front door close with a bang. She shuddered at the sound of it. Case hadn’t been able to mask his annoyance. Or his desire to get as far away from Savannah House as possible. Not that it was Savannah House he was trying to get away from. Everyone knew Case was fleeing her presence.
“Well, that wasn’t awkward,” Fancy drawled, looking studiously at her fingernails. She didn’t know if she was imagining it or not, but it seemed as if Case’s words had been infused with innuendo. She couldn’t imagine that the other girls hadn’t picked up on it. The thick silence in the room seemed to verify her suspicions.
She didn’t dare meet the gazes of her five friends. Some instinct told her that she might see pity in their eyes. Fancy didn’t want to see it, nor did she want to wallow in her own feelings of sadness. She was tired of being depressed and hopeless and guilty. She’d known before moving back to Savannah that Case had shut the door on their relationship some time ago. As Mama always said, there was no use crying over what might have been.“What’s done is done, Francine.”
“This too shall pass,” Morgan said in a firm voice that brought her out of her deep thoughts. “It won’t always be like this. A few months from now you’ll both have moved on…and you might not ever be friends, but it won’t be so…hostile.”
“I’d hardly call it hostile. He was just being business-like,” Charlotte said, her cheeks flushed with emotion. Fancy let out a sigh. Poor Charlotte still felt the need to defend Case at every turn.
Fancy raised a hand to her throat. Moved on? The very idea of Case moving on with another woman made her want to throw herself down on the hardwood floor and have a tantrum of monumental proportions. It would be agony to rub shoulders with his wife or girlfriend in Savannah society. She could just imagine it. Case dancing cheek to cheek with his wife at the “Hearts for Heroes” red tie gala. Or what if she bumped into them at the Valentine’s Day banquet? The mere idea of it made her skin crawl. There were only so many times she could plaster a fake smile on her face and act as if nothing bothered her. Who wanted to live their life doing that?
A sigh slipped past her lips. She couldn’t even respond to Morgan’s comment. She had her pride after all. There was a huge possibility that she might just crumble rather than eke out a response.
“Maybe Fancy isn’t quite ready to move on,” Olivia suggested. “Am I right?” She looked at Fancy with sympathetic eyes.
Fancy bowed her head and didn’t answer. Her tongue felt all twisted up. This subject was so painful. So gut-wrenching. How could she even put into words how she felt about not being with the love of her life? So far, the only one she’d poured her heart out to about Case was God. And He had listened to every word, every cry, every lament. And He still continued to hear her out, every time she needed Him.
“Is she right?” Hope asked. “Are you still holding on?”
Fancy fumbled with her fingers. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s hard to close a door on something that was such a big part of my life. People always talk about moving forward, but it’s so incredibly painful when you feel as if a big huge chunk of you is missing.”
Charlotte leaned forward in her chair. Her features were strained. “Are you still in love with him?”
She shook her head, feeling helpless in the face of such a monumental question. Did you ever truly stop loving someone who had left such an indelible imprint on your soul? Was it even possible?
“I can’t imagine ever not loving him,” Fancy admitted, shocking herself in the process. She wasn’t a person who felt comfortable baring her soul. And even though she loved these women like sisters, it didn’t come naturally to her to pull back her layers and allow herself to be vulnerable. She’d already been hurt so badly. Ever since then she’d been running away from the searing pain and the betrayal that she still didn’t comprehend. To this day she still didn’t know which one of her friends had told Case about her spending time with Marc. That single action had sealed her fate with Case.
Fancy looked around at the faces of her dearest friends. Their expressions ranged from shocked to sympathetic to emotional. “I know it’s too late. I’m not harboring any illusions about a happily-ever-after,” she said with a sigh. “It’s just so sad that we can’t be friends. Sometimes I look at my phone hoping and praying that it will ring and he’ll be on the other end. Or when I walk down River Street I can’t help but remember all the romantic nights we spent walking by the riverboats.”
“I don’t know why there’s no hope of a reconciliation,” Hope said. “Part of being a Christian means forgiving and moving forward, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, that is part of our faith. But Case has to make those decisions for himself,” Callie added. “Everyone processes things in their own way. We know Case has a lot of pride. He found it impossible to move forward in the relationship. We can’t judge him for that.”
“And I wounded his spirit, as well as bruising his soul,” Fancy said with a groan. “So now I just have to be a big girl and deal with the fallout.”
“Easier said than done,” Charlotte said. “We know how much you loved him. And he loved you just as deeply.”
Although Fancy knew that Charlotte was trying to raise her spirits, it hurt terribly to hear about the love she’d lost. Once upon a time, she and Case had stood on the precipice of a bright and wonderful future, full of promise and the expectation of a life lived in love. It had all crashed and burned around her, leaving her standing amid the ashes. Once again, tears of regret pricked at her lashes. She had no one but herself to blame! She’d been foolish and impulsive in her decisions.
Fancy grabbed her purse and stood up. “I’d love to stay for lunch, but I promised Mama I would help her out with her bridge club meeting.” She rolled her eyes. Mama still loved entertaining after all these years. It wasn’t a stretch to think that Mama believed she was the reigning Quee
n of Savannah high society.
“Next time,” Olivia said in a cheerful voice. “We know how much your mother missed you while you were away in New York City.”
“That’s an understatement,” Fancy said with a laugh. “She burned up my cell phone with all of her calls. And until I find a place of my own, I’m going to be spending a lot of time with the folks.” Fancy dramatically rolled her eyes.
All of the girls chimed in on the laughter. Olivia threw her head back and let out a heartfelt chuckle.
What Fancy wouldn’t give at this moment to be upbeat and happy like Olivia. She radiated joy like a beacon. Even Hope—who had shown up in Savannah with a newborn baby and no father in sight—was a ray of sunshine compared to her. Perhaps being back in the fold of her best friends would inspire her to seek her own happiness. Moving forward meant accepting that her life with Case was over. That was difficult, but far from impossible.
After saying her goodbyes, Fancy made a fast track to her car. As she revved the engine, Case continued to dominate her thoughts. His disgust with her had been written all over his face. Still—after all this time—he couldn’t forgive her. And she would never be able to forgive herself for her thoughtless actions. She had been her own worst enemy in destroying her life.
Unfaithful. She had become involved with another man. It hadn’t been physical in any way, shape or form, but she’d become attached to him when Case had been out of town on business and dealing with the Duvall accounts. And even though she hadn’t done anything physical with Marc Cabron, she had leaned on him and spent a lot of time with him in an intimate setting. She had confided in Marc about her feelings of loneliness due to all the time Case was spending away from Savannah. Marc had fallen in love with her. Somehow—and she still didn’t know how—Case had discovered her friendship with Marc and confronted her. She’d admitted to spending time with Marc while Case was out of town on business. Everything had exploded with that one admission. Case had been livid and incredulous. The Savannah gossip rags had gone into overdrive and printed salacious rumors about her relationship with Marc. Even though they had tried to work through it, Case had decided that he didn’t want to marry someone who had been emotionally involved with another man.
It had taken her a long time to wrap her head around the fact that she had been unfaithful to Case. By very definition, he was right. She had been meeting up with Marc for dinners and get-togethers, and telling him personal things about her relationship with Case. But at no point had she ever crossed a line by kissing Marc or telling him that she cared for him romantically. The entire time she had been in love with Case. Not that it had mattered in the harsh light of day. Case had decided that she wasn’t wife material.
That knowledge shamed her. She considered herself a virtuous woman, but in his eyes, and perhaps in the eyes of God, she wasn’t. Fancy had honestly never known that spending time with another man would jeopardize her relationship with her fiancé. At some point she’d had an inkling that spending time with Marc was a betrayal of Case, but she hadn’t allowed herself to listen to that little voice inside her until it was too late.
Why hadn’t she listened?
As she pulled up outside of her family home, she hesitated for a moment to get out. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Mama would quiz her today about seeing Case. She’d made the mistake of telling her mother that he was helping them out with legal matters. And if Fancy told her that he’d been cold and indifferent today her mother would barrage her with insults about her inability to keep her fiancé. She’d almost gotten used to her mother’s insults about her behavior with Marc and her failed engagement.
Did a person ever get used to verbal abuse? Or had she just learned to tolerate it?
Although living in the high octane world of New York fashion had been lonely and isolating, it had given her some distance from her mother. It had allowed her to breathe and stand on her own two feet. And it had given her a chance to date and to focus on something other than Case. Although her heart wasn’t as bruised as it had been, she hadn’t met anyone who had managed to eclipse Case. As far as her heart was concerned, he was the one. The sad part was that she couldn’t imagine any other man ever being able to win her heart after Case had already claimed it.
**
Case tried to focus on work, but his thoughts veered toward Fancy for the rest of the afternoon. Images of her floated through his mind. Did she have to be so incredibly beautiful? Her ice blue eyes had cut through him like lasers. She’d always possessed the keen ability to see straight through him. Had she realized that his gruff demeanor was just a front? A way of keeping his heart from being broken all over again?
Why hadn’t he been a little bit nicer to her? He regretted being so taciturn and abrupt. The truth was, circumstances didn’t afford him any other choice. Putting up a wall between them was the smartest thing he could do to maintain a safe distance.
At five o’clock he decided to hang it up for the day. His cousin, Luke Duvall, had invited him to a billiards club to hang out with a few of their friends. Although he’d initially begged off due to his work load, he’d had a sudden change of heart. He sorely needed a distraction. Getting out and socializing was something he needed to do in order to get over this whole Fancy situation. He was still stuck. After all this time Fancy shouldn’t have this magnetic hold over him. And he shouldn’t be sitting in his office all day desperately trying to stop thinking about her. His heart shouldn’t roar like thunder every time she was in his orbit.
But it did. Each and every time.
By the time he showed up at “The Rack” in downtown Savannah, everyone else was already gathered in the private room. Luke was the first one to see him as he walked into the room.
“Hey, cuz. I thought you couldn’t make it,” Luke said, enveloping him in a tight hug. With a pool cue in his hand, Luke looked like the quintessential player. He’d changed out of his office attire and was now wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved dark shirt.
“I decided that all work and no play makes Case a very dull boy,” Case quipped, turning toward the sound of laughter. “And we can’t have that, can we?”
Hunter Rawlings, his childhood friend turned multi-millionaire businessman, reached out to clap him on the back. Newly married to Olivia, Hunter had now relocated to Savannah, where he helped run Renault Industries, as well as his own vast corporations.
“Good to see you, Case. I was hoping you’d make it out tonight,” Hunter drawled. “Haven’t seen you in a bit.”
“Me too,” Jax Holden chimed in. “Where have you been hiding yourself?”
Jax grinned at him, reminding Case of the way he had been in their childhood—impish and full of mayhem. More times than not, he’d been hatching a plot along with Hunter and Case. Luke, as always, had been the one who’d always followed the rules and stayed on the straight and narrow. Some things never changed, Case thought. Luke was still following the rules and serving the interests of the Duvall family, even though Case suspected it was killing him to deny the dictates of his heart. Music was his true passion.
“I’ve been busy,” Case said. “Duvall keeps me hopping these days with all of the new overseas clients. It’s exciting that we now have a foothold in France and Germany, but it means more work for me.”
“Tell me about it,” Luke grumbled. “I’m up to my elbows in work.” Luke also worked for Duvall Corporation. Their fathers were brothers who ran the company jointly. Luke and Case were the heirs apparent to the family dynasty, although Case knew that Luke’s heart wasn’t in it. As a singer and songwriter, Luke’s dream had always been to have a career in the arts. For a Duvall, that was out of the question.
“How’s Meryl? I heard the two of you have been spending a lot of time together?” Luke asked, giving his cousin a pointed look.
“Charlotte has a big mouth,” Case said with a nod of his head. “It’s nothing serious. We’re just hanging out. Dinner. Dancing. Movies.”
Jax let out a low whistle. “Meryl! Who would have ever thought that the two of you would end up together? She was quite…interesting when we were kids.”
Hunter raised his eyebrows. “I’ll say. She was hardcore. And I seem to remember her being Fancy’s nemesis.”
Three pairs of eyes focused on him like laser beams.
He cut them off at the pass. “No. That is not part of the equation. I am not going out with Meryl to get at Fancy,” he protested. “That’s not my style.”
“Let’s hope Fancy sees it that way,” Luke said with a smirk. “Those two can’t stand each other.”
Case shoved his hands in his pocket and rocked back on his heels. “Fancy doesn’t have a say in any of this. That ship sailed a long time ago,” he snapped. “Furthermore, their animosity was ages ago. Some of us have grown up in the last decade or so.”
Luke held up his hands. “All right. Take it easy. Why don’t you take my place and unleash some of that energy?”
Luke shoved a pool cue at Case. He knew Luke was right. It was his way to bottle everything up inside until it all came spewing out. It wasn’t healthy. He needed to focus his energies on other things in his life than a former fiancée who hadn’t loved him enough to stay away from another man. He gritted his teeth. After all this time it still made him seethe. This was no way to live.
After an hour of playing several rounds of pool, they all sat down to eat. Chicken wings. Mozzarella sticks. Burgers and fries. Pitchers of beer. The perfect food for billiards night with the boys. Nice, easy and laid back.
“So what is it that you like about Meryl?” Jax asked. The question made Case want to groan. He really didn’t want anyone to focus on the fact that he was casually dating Meryl. It would be crass to admit it out loud, but he didn’t see a future with Meryl. He was just having casual, light-hearted fun.
The Last Kiss (Secrets of Savannah Book 3) Page 3