Betsy sank down on a chair by Dana’s desk and fanned her face with a book. “What did we ever do before the invention of air-conditioning?”
“We sweltered,” Dana replied glumly. Then she brightened. “Wait a minute. Betsy, you must know. Do we have a contract for repairs?”
“Never needed one. Nick’s always done that sort of thing.”
Dana groaned. “I should have known.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I thought you two were getting close. Looked that way when I saw you together last week.”
“That’s the problem. I can’t go running to Nick for help again. He’s already done way too much for me, especially around the house. I feel like I’m taking advantage of our friendship.”
“Land sakes, child, it isn’t as if this is some personal favor. This is town property and Nick’s always been real obliging about having his crew work on whatever needs fixing. He only charges for parts.” Betsy regarded her closely. “You sure that’s all it is? You didn’t have a fight or something, did you?”
“No. You were right. We’ve been getting along really well. It scares me sometimes. Nick seems too good to be true.”
“He’s a fine man.”
“I know that’s what you think. I think so, too, but can you ever really know a person well enough to be sure of what he’s like underneath? What about all those women who wake up one day and discover they’re living with a criminal? Or that their husband has three other wives in other cities?”
Betsy looked scandalized. “Goodness gracious, why on earth would you bring up a thing like that? Nick’s never broken a law in his life, except maybe the speed limit.”
“Do you really know that, though? You’re not with him twenty-four hours a day.”
Betsy seemed genuinely puzzled by Dana’s reservations. “Honey, you’re not making a bit of sense. With Nick, well, I’ve known him since he was just a little tyke. He’s always been a little stubborn, maybe a wee bit too self-confident, but you’ll never find a more decent, caring man.”
The book’s pages fluttered slowly, then stopped in midair as Betsy’s thoughts wandered back. She shook her head sadly. “Why, the way that man suffered when Ginny was sick, it was pitiful to see. He couldn’t do enough for her. Anybody with eyes could tell he was dying inside, but around Ginny he was as strong and brave as could be. He kept that house filled with laughter for her and Tony, and he made sure Ginny’s friends felt like they could be there for her. Lots of times when someone’s dying, folks don’t want to be around ’cause they don’t know what to say. Nick put everyone at ease for Ginny’s sake. You can tell an awful lot about a man by the way he handles a rough time like that.”
Dana felt that wistful, sad feeling steal over her again. “He obviously loved her very much.”
Betsy seized on the remark. “Is that what’s bothering you? Are you afraid he won’t be able to love you as much?”
Dana sighed. “I wish it were that simple, Betsy.”
“Then what is it, child? Something’s sure worrying at you. Is it Nick who’s got you so confused or something else?”
“I can’t explain. It’s something I have to work out on my own.”
“An objective opinion might help.”
“Maybe so, but I’m not ready to talk about it.”
“Child, sometimes I think you and Nick were meant for each other,” Betsy said in exasperation. “You’re both just as stubborn as a pair of old mules and twice as independent.”
“Betsy.” There was a warning note in Dana’s voice.
“Okay, I get the message. But if you ever feel the need to talk, just remember I’m willing to listen and I can keep my mouth shut.” Betsy patted her friend’s hand. “Now let me call Nick and get somebody over here to work on this air conditioner before you melt right in front of my eyes.”
“Thanks, Betsy.”
When Betsy had gone, Dana sat staring after her. Their talk had helped her to crystallize some of the uneasiness she’d been feeling lately. She and Nick really had become close. Sometimes it felt as if she’d known him all her life, as if he was a part of her. Occasionally, it seemed he knew what was going on in her mind before she did. That ability to communicate should have reassured her, but it didn’t.
When she and Sam had met, they’d shared that same sort of intimacy. A glance was often enough to tell them what they needed to know about the other’s thoughts. She had been awed by the closeness back then, but she’d learned from bitter experience not to trust it.
“What you really don’t trust is your own judgment,” she muttered, disgusted with herself. Nick had done nothing in the weeks she’d known him to betray her trust. People like Betsy, who’d known him since childhood, trusted him implicitly.
But everyone had trusted Sam, too, she reminded herself. He was a well-respected member of a highly prestigious law firm, a devoted son, a supportive brother, a sensitive and generous fiancé. He was all that, but he had been a terrible husband. For reasons she had never understood, he was incapable of dealing with his wife the way he dealt with the others in his life. She had learned that too late. The price for blinding herself to Sam’s flaws had been a high one.
“Is the town paying you to sit here gathering wool?” Nick’s hands rested on her unsuspecting shoulders. He leaned down to kiss her, but as his lips touched her cheek, Dana trembled.
Nick sat in the chair Betsy had vacated and studied her with troubled eyes. “Hey, I was just teasing. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing a little cool air wouldn’t cure.”
“Coming up,” he promised, getting to his feet. He hesitated. Hazel eyes swept over her as if by looking closely he could discover whatever it was she was hiding. “Is that all it is?”
“That’s it. Mildew could grow on your brain in this humidity.”
“A pleasant thought,” he chided lightly as he went to the air-conditioning unit and began dismantling it. “I came over here thinking how lucky I was to get a chance to see my favorite lady in the middle of a workday and you want to discuss mildew.”
“I don’t want to discuss it. I want the damn air conditioner fixed!”
Nick spun around and stared at her in astonishment. The next minute, tears were streaming down her cheeks and he had her in his arms. “Dana, sweetheart, what is it?”
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled against his shoulder.
“Don’t be sorry. Just tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing. That’s just it. There’s nothing wrong.”
“You’re not making a lot of sense.”
“Betsy said the same thing,” she said, leaning back in his embrace and looking into his eyes. They were filled with concern and something more, a deeper emotion that she wanted desperately to respond to. She sighed and put her head back against his shoulder. His shirt was damp from her tears and the awful heat, but underneath his shoulder was solid, as if he could take on the weight of the world.
She wanted so badly to trust what she felt when he held her, but she wasn’t sure she dared.
“Dana.” He handed her a handkerchief.
“Thanks.” She dried her tears and blew her nose. “I don’t know what got into me.”
“I think you do.” Her eyes widened and she started to protest, but he put a finger against her lips. “I’m not going to try to make you tell me today, but someday you must.”
She nodded. Maybe someday she would be able to tell him.
By the end of the day she was snapping at her own shadow. She was in no mood to be going to a birthday party at the home of Nick’s former in-laws, but she knew a last-minute cancellation would puzzle Nick and hurt Tony.
Fortunately, Tony was so excited he kept up a constant stream of chatter most of the way to his grandparents’ home outside of town. Nick kept casting worried looks in Dana’s direction, but he maintained an awkward silence, speaking only when Tony asked him a direct question.
Finally, exasperated by the pall that had settled over
the car, Tony sank back into his seat and grumbled, “You guys are acting really weird. Did you have a fight or something?”
“Of course not,” they both said in a chorus, then looked at each other and grinned.
“Sorry,” they said in unison, and chuckled.
Tony gazed from one to the other and shook his head. “Like I said…weird. I can hardly wait to get to Grandma’s. Maybe there’ll be some normal people there. You know, people who’ll sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and stuff.”
“You want ‘Happy Birthday’?” Nick said, glancing at Dana. “We can give you ‘Happy Birthday,’ right, Dana?”
“Absolutely.”
Nick’s deep voice led off and Dana joined in. By the time they pulled into the Leahys’ long, curving driveway, there was a crescendo of off-key singing and laughter. Nothing could have lightened Dana’s mood more effectively. Whatever nervousness she’d been feeling about this meeting with Ginny’s parents had diminished, if not vanished. Nick squeezed her hand reassuringly as she got out of the car, then draped his arm around her shoulders as they crossed the impeccably manicured lawn to meet the Leahys.
The older couple was waiting on the porch of an old farmhouse. Joshua Leahy’s thick white hair framed a weathered face that seemed both wise and friendly. His ready smile deepened wrinkles that had been etched by sun and age. His work-roughened hands clasped Dana’s firmly.
On the surface his wife’s greeting was just as warm, but Dana sensed an undercurrent of tension.
“We’re so glad you could come,” Jessica Leahy said, her penetrating brown eyes scrutinizing Dana even as she welcomed her. Dana’s own quick assessment told her that Mrs. Leahy had reservations about her but that she was holding them in check for the sake of her son-in-law and grandson.
“I’m glad you’re here before the others,” she said to Dana. “It’ll give us some time to chat before they arrive. Nick, dear, why don’t you and Tony help Joshua with the grill? He never can get the charcoal right. Dana, would you mind helping me in the kitchen?”
“Of course not,” she said as Nick looked on and gave her a helpless shrug.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Leahy assigned tasks with the brisk efficiency of a drill sergeant. When she was satisfied that Dana was capable of following her directions to finish up the deviled eggs, she picked up a platter of ribs and began brushing them with barbecue sauce.
“So, Dana…Do you mind if I call you that?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, then, Dana, why don’t you tell me about yourself? Nick and Tony think the world of you, but I must admit they don’t seem to know too much about your background.”
“What exactly would you like to know, Mrs. Leahy?” Dana asked cautiously.
“Oh, where you’re from, what your family is like. I find people absolutely fascinating, though sadly we don’t get too many strangers settling around these parts.”
She tried to make her questions seem innocuous, but Dana had a feeling they were anything but that. Mrs. Leahy had a sharp mind and she had every intention of using her wits to assure herself that her beloved family was not in any danger from the unknown.
“My background’s no secret,” Dana said as she spooned the egg mixture into the whites and sprinkled them with paprika for extra color. “I’m from New York. My family is still there. My father works for an international bank. My mother raises money for half a dozen charities. I have two sisters, both married and still living in Manhattan.”
“You must miss them.”
“I do.”
“Why did you leave?”
“The pace of the city didn’t suit me. I wanted a place to catch my breath, start over.”
“Were you running away?”
Dana dropped the spoon with a clatter. “Sorry,” she murmured as she bent to pick it up and clean up the egg that had splattered on the gleaming linoleum.
She stood up to find Mrs. Leahy staring at her astutely. “I’m sorry if my question upset you.”
“Why should it upset me? I wasn’t running away from anything.” She met Mrs. Leahy’s dubious gaze directly, challenging her. In the end, it was the older woman who backed down and just in time. Nick was opening the screen door and poking his head into the kitchen.
“Mind if I steal the lady for a minute, Jessica? There are some people here I want her to meet.”
“Of course, dear. We’re almost finished in here anyway.” She gave Dana a measured glance. “It was nice talking to you. I’m sure we’ll be getting to know each other better.”
To Dana’s ears, those words had an ominous ring, but then she told herself she was being foolish.
“Sorry about the inquisition,” Nick murmured in her ear as they went into the yard. “Thwarting Jessica’s plans is a little like trying to stop an army tank with a BB gun.”
“No problem. She’s bound to be curious about me.”
“Did she unearth any deep, dark secrets I ought to know about?”
Dana frowned. “Why would you ask that?”
“I was only teasing.” He studied her closely, an expression of concern in his eyes. “She must have been rough on you.”
“Not really,” she said, and put her hand on Nick’s cheek. Suddenly she needed his strength, needed the reassurance of feeling his warm flesh under her touch. “Don’t mind me. I’m just a very private person. It threw me a little to have someone I’d just met asking a lot of questions.”
Nick wrapped his arms around her and linked his hands behind her waist. His chin rested on top of her head. Her body was locked against his, and the strength and heat she’d needed were there. Nick embodied vitality and caring, passion and sensitivity, and he was generously offering all of that to her.
With a final reassuring squeeze, Nick released her and took her hand. “Ready to face more people?”
“Do I have a choice?” she muttered. “Let’s go.”
The rest of the evening passed in a blur of children’s laughing faces, introductions and reminiscences, all of which seemed to have Ginny prominently at the center. Dana felt slightly uncomfortable, but Nick appeared downright irritated by what seemed an obvious attempt to keep Dana firmly in place as an outsider.
After he’d dropped an exhausted Tony at home, he drove Dana to her house. “I’m really sorry for the way the evening turned out. I don’t understand what got into Jessica tonight. She’s not a petty woman.”
“She’s just trying to protect her family.”
“From what?” he exploded. “You? That’s absurd. The only thing you’ve done is bring happiness back into our lives.”
“I’m sure that as she sees it, I’m taking her daughter’s place.”
Nick sighed and bent over the steering wheel, resting his forehead on hands that gripped the wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Ginny is dead.”
After a split-second hesitation, Dana reached over and put her hand on Nick’s shoulder. “She knows that. That makes it even worse. Why should I be alive when her daughter isn’t?”
“You’re not to blame, for heaven’s sakes.”
“She knows that, too. I didn’t say her feelings were rational. She may not even be aware of them. It just comes out subconsciously in her actions.”
“I’m going to talk to her.”
“No, Nick. Let it go. Give her time to adjust. This must be very hard for her. She doesn’t understand that I’m not trying to replace her daughter.”
Nick sat back and shook his head. “You’re really something, you know that? How can you be so understanding after the rough time you’ve been through?”
“Don’t go nominating me for sainthood,” she cautioned with a grin. “There were a couple of times in the kitchen when I came very close to tossing a few deviled eggs at her.”
Nick reached across and massaged Dana’s neck. “I wish I didn’t have to get home right now,” he said softly, his eyes blazing with desire.
“But you do,” she said, wishing in so many ways it wer
e otherwise, while knowing at the same time that it was for the best. “There will be other nights.”
When Dana made that vow, she meant it. She was sure she was prepared to risk taking the next step in her relationship with Nick. Like a wildflower that beat the odds to survive in a rocky crevice, love had bloomed in her heart. As impossible as it seemed, she was beginning to believe in a future with him.
Then the mail came on Thursday. In it was a letter from Sam’s parents. When Dana saw the Omaha postmark and the familiar handwriting, her hands trembled so badly the letter fell to the floor. She stared disbelievingly at the envelope for what seemed an eternity before she dared to pick it up.
How in God’s name had they found her? Surely her parents hadn’t revealed her whereabouts.
What does it matter now? They know. They know.
It seemed like the beginning of the end of everything she’d worked so hard to achieve. Serenity vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced by pain. Hope for the future was buried under the weight of the past.
Reluctantly, she opened the envelope, daring for just an instant to envision words that would forgive, rather than condemn. Instead, she found the all-too-familiar hatred. The single page was filled with unrelenting bitterness and accusations. All of Sam’s parents’ pain had been vented in that letter. They promised to see her in hell for what she had done to their son.
What they didn’t understand was that she was already there.
Badly shaken, Dana closed the library early and walked home. The arrival of that letter had convinced her that while the Brantleys might not make good on their threats to expose her today or even tomorrow, sooner or later the truth about her past would come out. When it did, it would destroy the fragile relationship she was beginning to build with Nick. She would rather die than see the look of betrayal that was bound to be in his eyes when he learned the truth.
Sitting on her front porch, idly rocking through dusk and on into the night, she decided it would be better to distance herself from Nick. She stayed up all night, and by dawn her eyes were dry and painful from the lack of sleep and the endless tears. She had vowed to end their relationship the next time she saw him. And if Nick wouldn’t let her go, she was prepared to leave River Glen.
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