by Mary Campisi
“Is your shoulder bothering you? You look like you’re in pain.” She ran a hand along his left shoulder. “I could massage it for you.”
“I’m fine.” He didn’t want to hurt Paige, but she deserved the truth. “How about we sit down and talk? Do you want something to drink? Wine? Beer? Tea?” Did he have tea? Hadn’t Tess left a box in the cupboard? Thinking about her squeezed his chest, stole his breath. Every second Paige spent here without Tess knowing jeopardized what they shared.
Cash sank into the recliner, but instead of Paige sitting in the chair next to him, she slung her long legs over the recliner and shimmied into his lap. “Paige? What are you doing?”
She turned on her side, snuggled her head against his chest, and flung an arm around his waist. “This feels so good.” She sighed, let out a long breath. “So very good.”
Cash tensed. Now what? “Paige—”
“Shhh.” She began unbuttoning his shirt. He tried to stop her but she batted his hand away. “I know why you’ve been avoiding me, and it’s okay.”
She knew? No, she absolutely did not know.
“Ben said you went through some tough stuff.” She paused and thank God, those nimble fingers stilled. “He said that after the shooting, you hated everything, even yourself. He told me you wouldn’t see anybody, and your aunt was the only one allowed to visit. That’s why I stayed away, but Ben convinced me to come after you.”
Damn you, Ben Reed.
“He said you needed to feel alive again and I could do that.”
“He said that?” What the hell did Ben know about feeling alive? He was still making himself miserable because his wife left him—three years ago. Yeah, he knew as much about feeling alive as a dead man did. Nothing.
“In so many words.” The fingers started again, this time sliding along his belly, landing on his crotch. “He said finding the right woman makes a man feel alive.” She stroked his crotch. “I think I can make you feel alive.” She ran her tongue along his jaw and whispered, “What do you think?”
Cash was too busy trying to still Paige’s wandering hand that he didn’t hear the car pull in the drive, didn’t even know someone was standing outside the door until he looked up and spotted Tess watching him, two bags of groceries in her arms, her face the color of paste. “Tess!”
“What?” Paige scrambled to her feet as Cash pushed out of the chair and ran outside.
“Tess! Wait!”
But it was too late. The woman he loved was gone.
Chapter 14
It took less than fifty minutes for the town to start buzzing about Cash Casherdon and Tess Carrick and the woman who came between them.
Did you hear a woman visited him?
She called him “Daniel,” can you believe that? A stranger, no less.
How do you know she’s a stranger? Maybe she’s not, maybe she’s part of another life Tess knows nothing about…
Charlie Blacksworth did it, why not Cash?
Who does she think she is, waltzing in here with her brother?
Speaking of waltzing, I heard she was a dancer.
What kind of dancer?
You never know what kind now, do you?
You can’t tell what goes on in the city.
Wasn’t the man with her a cousin, not a brother?
Who knows? Who cares? What was she doing here and why now, when Cash and Tess were seconds from a wedding announcement?
Says who?
Wanda Cummings spotted him going in the jeweler’s the other day. How’s that for proof?
Now what?
Now what, indeed?
Christine had been on her way out of the office when Bree called, saying something “absolutely, unbelievably horrible” had happened and could she meet her and Gina at Lina’s Café in ten minutes? How could she ignore that request? She called Miriam to let her know she’d be late picking up Anna and had just ordered an ice tea when Bree and Gina burst into the diner, faces flushed, voices animated as they headed toward her.
Bree stopped at the counter and said, “Hi, Phyllis. When you get a sec, we’ll have an ice tea and a raspberry lemonade, extra lemon. Thanks!” Then she made her way to Christine’s booth and slid in beside Gina. “Oh, my goodness, this is so horrible.” Bree snatched a menu and fanned herself. “I simply cannot believe it. We have to do something.” She looked at Christine, her eyes wide, lips pinched. “This could be disastrous.”
“Bree. Take a breath.” Christine held her gaze. “Now somebody tell me what’s going on.”
Gina sighed and drummed her fingers on the Formica table. She seemed almost as upset as Bree, which was a stretch, since Gina rarely showed emotion and Bree always showed emotion. “Some woman showed up at Cash’s today and Tess saw her.”
“A woman? Who?” And it better not be Natalie Servetti or Christine might have to consider a petition to run the woman out of town.
Bree stuck her nose in the air and uttered, “Her name is Paige.”
Gina rolled her eyes at Bree’s theatrics and added, “She’s the cousin of the guy who was Cash’s partner in Philly.”
They didn’t say girlfriend or former girlfriend, but common sense tagged her as one or the other. “Why is she here?” And then, “So that’s what Nate meant when I asked him how Cash was and he said, ‘a storm’s brewing.’”
“He said that?” Bree leaned forward and whispered in a loud voice. “Was he there? Did he see her? And why didn’t he tell you?”
Both women stared at Christine, waiting. “I don’t know. Nate doesn’t gossip.”
“This is not gossip,” Bree said in a firm voice. “This is called intervention. We’re helping a friend, and if I see that woman strutting around town, I will yank every last hair out of her blond head.”
“Bree.” Gina placed a hand on her friend’s arm. “That sounds like the hormones talking.”
Bree patted her belly and sniffed. “That’s true, but I’d still want to do it, hormones or not.”
“We know.” Gina turned to Christine and said, “That’s all the information we have. Nothing else about exactly why they’re here, how long they’re staying, and what the woman was doing crawling all over Cash’s lap and unbuttoning his shirt.”
“And she had a hand on his crotch,” Bree whispered. “Damn that woman. And damn Cash for getting into such a fix.”
“Wait. How do you know all of this if it just happened? Did Tess tell you?” Christine couldn’t imagine Tess hanging around long enough to get a report on the intimacies of the relationship Cash shared with the woman named Paige.
“Her uncle called me.” A faint smile flitted over Bree’s full lips. “He was at Olivia’s when Tess showed up, half hysterical and covered in tears and grief. Will being at Mrs. Carrick’s so much is another story, one I’m still trying to figure out. Anyway, he knows how close Tess and I are and he wanted me to be the first to know.”
Gina slid her a look. “He called me, too, but I was with a patient and couldn’t take the call.”
Bree ignored this and shook her head. “This is eight years all over again. They came so close and then, poof, it all blew up.” She swiped at her eyes, careful to avoid the blue eyeliner. “Is this going to be like one of those tragedies we had to read in high school where the couple never ends up together?”
“Absolutely not.” Gina said this with a ferocity that dared anyone challenge her. “We’re going to get rid of that woman and her cousin.”
“And exactly how do we get rid of them?” Christine sipped her ice tea and waited.
Gina’s lips curved into a faint smile. “I plan to find out where they’re staying and confront them.”
“And if she’s staying at Cash’s?” Bree asked. “What then? Will you barge right in and give her a piece of your mind?”
“I’ll do what needs to be done,” Gina said in a quiet voice. “Tess and Cash have suffered their share of misery and they deserve a second chance. Who better to help them than us?”
Christine agreed but there was something that hadn’t been addressed and while nobody wanted to acknowledge it, someone had to say it out loud. “What if the woman really was his girlfriend? What if she thought she had a right to be with him?” When Bree’s lips flattened and Gina’s eyes narrowed, she held up a hand and said, “I’m on your side. I want Tess and Cash together, too. Remember, I’m the one who almost lost her husband because of Natalie Servetti’s antics.”
“Whore,” Bree muttered.
Gina looked at her and added, “Skank whore.”
They all laughed and spent the next few minutes devising and revising strategies to get rid of the opposition, namely the woman named Paige, who may or may not have been involved with Cash and who may or may not still be involved with him…or think she was…
When the tall, dark stranger walked into Lina’s, Christine spotted him first. Strangers in this town were an intrigue, like the warm, decadent center of a chocolate lava cake, and they made people curious. When she lived in Chicago, strangers were everywhere: in elevators, restaurants, streets, highways, the gym. She’d never wondered about them, where they were going, what they did for a living, if they had children, a sick parent, a rescue dog? It hadn’t mattered because the unspoken rule was to mind your own business—ignore, block out, don’t care.
But this town wasn’t like that and because she’d been here a while, she wasn’t like that any longer either. Oh, there were still people she didn’t know, but a lot of them knew her and if they didn’t, they weren’t shy about inquiring and offering up a name and a handshake. Nate called those people busybodies, said he didn’t like them prying into his personal affairs, but the truth was, he didn’t much like anybody prying, except Christine. She could “pry away” and he’d answer, even if he didn’t want to.
So, who was the guy in the Harley T-shirt and jeans who was heading toward them? Christine zeroed in on the eyes. They met hers and he nodded his dark head and smiled. “Excuse me.” Before she could think about the intelligence of her actions, she slid out of the booth and blocked the man’s path. “Are you new in town?” He had to be the cousin. The broad shoulders, thick neck, self-assured stance, all spoke of police. This man had to be Cash’s former partner.
“Just passing through.” His smile deepened and he extended a hand. “Ben Reed.”
Christine shook his hand and said, “Christine Desantro.”
“Desantro? I just met a Desantro a little while ago.” He paused. “Nate, I think.”
“That’s my husband.”
He nodded. “Lucky man.”
“Yes, he is,” Bree said, scooting toward the edge of the booth. “And he’s good friends with Cash Casherdon. Are you his old partner?”
Ben Reed turned and pinned his blue gaze on Bree. “I am.”
“Hmph.” She eyed him. “Where’s your cousin?”
That gaze narrowed. “How do you know about my cousin?”
Bree lifted a brow and offered a silky response. “We make it our job to find these kinds of things out.”
The man merely stared, then looked from Bree, to Gina, and finally to Christine. “Is somebody going to tell me what’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you.” Surprisingly, this came from Gina.
Ben Reed’s gaze swung to her and just as surprising was his next question. Big, bold, unafraid. “How about you start from the beginning and tell me why I feel you’d like to boot us out of town in the back of a garbage truck.”
“Because we would,” Bree said, and this time her smile was real.
“Because Cash is in love with our best friend,” Gina said, ignoring Bree. “He’s always been in love with her. Did he tell you how he ended up in Philly? Why Tess broke off the engagement three days before the wedding?” Her voice grew louder, her eyes darker. “How he begged her to work things out, but she wouldn’t?” Pause. “Or couldn’t?” She studied him, contempt spreading over her face. “Of course not. You don’t even know who Tess is, but Cash has never forgotten her and he’s never gotten over her. They belong together and they have a shot at a second chance, or did, until your cousin showed up.”
“Hey, don’t pin this on my cousin. She was with Cash for almost two years.”
“Was she?” Gina asked. “Or was she merely filling in?”
Ben Reed’s jaw twitched. “You’re talking about my cousin.”
“We mean no disrespect,” Bree said, emotion simmering in her words. “It’s just that Cash and Tess belong together, like ham and Swiss on rye.”
“What?”
“Okay, then, peanut butter and jelly.”
Oh, Bree. Christine stepped in before Cash’s partner thought they were all crazy. “What Bree means is that Tess and Cash belong together because they’re two parts of a whole.”
Bree nodded. “That’s what I said. Peanut butter and —”
“Destiny,” Gina blurted out. “Destiny brought them back together.”
“Destiny?” He rubbed his jaw, zeroed in on them and said matter-of-factly, “And here I thought it was two bullet holes that sent him back here.”
***
He had to talk to her. Now. Cash barreled down the road in Will’s old truck, ignoring the potholes and definitely the speed limit. The image of Tess staring at him from the other side of the screen door pounded his brain. There’d been shock, disbelief, and pain flittering across that beautiful face seconds before she turned and ran.
Damn. He pressed the accelerator, desperate to reach Olivia Carrick’s house so he could talk to Tess, make her understand that what she’d seen had not been what she thought. Hell, what had it been—a woman’s attempts to rekindle a relationship that had never been about more than filling a physical need? Paige might want to believe it had been about more than sex, but it hadn’t. Not for him. She deserved a man who could commit, but he wasn’t that man. The only woman he’d ever been able to commit to was Tess. She owned his heart, lived in his soul, and he had to tell her that before she shut down and pushed him away so hard he’d never find his way back again.
He pulled into Olivia Carrick’s driveway behind Tess’s car and eased out of the truck, ignoring Edith Finnegan, who had stopped watering her violets and raised a pink-gloved hand to shield her eyes as she followed Cash. Damn busybody. He climbed the steps but before he could ring the bell, Will opened the door.
“Cash.” He stepped onto the front porch, closing the door behind him.
“I have to see her.” He didn’t even try to hide the panic in his voice.
Will laid a hand on his shoulder, his expression softening. “She needs some time.”
Cash shrugged off Will’s hand and stepped back. “I have to see her, Will. Now. I have to explain.” Over two hundred pounds of muscle and determination blocked Cash from the front door, but it was the respect for the man that kept him from trying to break through.
“She’s devastated, son.” He shook his head and sighed. “Damn but we did not see this coming. When your woman sees you with someone else, that burns her brain like a branding iron and it’s near impossible to erase.”
Desperation surged through his body, spurted out in sound. “I can erase it. Just let me see her.”
Will shook his head. “Can’t do that. Not yet. Olivia’s with her now, which is difficult enough to believe seeing as the woman isn’t keen on shows of emotion.” His voice dipped. “But she’s learning.”
Cash planted his hands on his hips and stared at Will. “I’m not letting her run away like last time. I won’t do it, Will.” He sucked in air, spat out, “Not again.”
“Good. Fight for her. You two love each other and you belong together.”
“How about you tell her that?”
“I plan to.” Will’s blue eyes held Cash’s. “But how about you make damn sure there are no more women slipping onto your lap or your bed before you come calling again?”
Cash left the Carricks’ but he was damn well not giving up. He had to make Tess understand h
e loved her, had always loved her, and he’d start with her old engagement ring. The jeweler was sizing the new one, but it wouldn’t be ready for three more days. Tess might be gone by then, just like last time. In all of his years doing police work, logic beat out panic every time. Too bad it didn’t work in his personal life. When he reached Ramona’s, he had one goal in mind: find the ring and head straight back to the Carricks’ with an apology and a proposal. He should have stopped to realize a man didn’t apologize to his almost-fiancée for witnessing a woman crawling around on his lap and then present her with a ring and a pledge of “till death do us part.” It would have made more sense to spread it out instead of jumbling it all together, but Cash didn’t have time and right now, common sense was not anywhere nearby.
He tore into the house and straight to Ramona’s bedroom. It was dark and cramped with record albums and an old stereo. There were magazines in one corner, scraps of fabric on a chair, and books. Lots and lots of books. A handmade jewelry box rested on top of an old walnut dresser along with an arrangement of red silk roses in a glass vase. Cash had made the jewelry box for her in high school shop class. Why had she kept it? He’d scored a B- but it was really C work. The shop teacher told him he’d received extra points because he’d never seen a shine like that or felt wood so smooth. Cash flipped the box open, fingered around earrings and necklaces, but Tess’s engagement ring wasn’t there. Next, he rummaged through the dresser drawers, but still nothing. He didn’t like poking around in his aunt’s belongings, but he wasn’t going to call and ask about the ring now, not when the town probably already knew what had happened. Ramona would have a thought or three, and he really did not want a lecture.
The nightstand would be an odd place to keep a diamond ring, but his choices were dwindling and so was time. Cash opened the nightstand and rummaged through a few papers, pens, a book. He spotted the jewelry case from Howard’s, grabbed it, and flipped it open. Tess’s engagement ring winked at him, small in comparison to the one he’d recently chosen, but still beautiful. A symbol of hope, dreams, and love. Cash snapped the case shut and shoved it in his jeans pocket. As he closed the drawer, his gaze landed on a piece of paper with Tess’s name on it. He eased it from the drawer and unfolded it. Tess’s scrawl covered the page, and it was written to him, with a date on it of almost eight years ago.