Return To Sender (The Hart Brothers Book 2)

by J. S. Cooper

  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “I only know what he looks like because he’s had his photo in the papers.”

  “Oh no, really?”

  “I can’t remember ever meeting him in real life. I can’t remember even having a conversation with him. It’s like I didn’t exist in his world. I was nothing.” His voice echoed down the hall. “Wow, I see why you love this room. Look at all this natural light and wow, the books.” He stared around the library and I watched him, my heart aching for him.

  “Why didn’t your dad ever talk to you?” I asked him softly as my phone beeped again. I knew it was Wade without even looking and I ignored it.

  “I guess because he didn’t care.” He shrugged. “He didn’t want me. I was nothing in his life.”

  “But still he should have been there …” My voice trailed off as he walked to the window that looked out to the forest behind us.

  “He was married. He had his ‘legitimate’ kids. I was nothing but the bastard.”

  “The bastard …”

  I'd heard those words before. Hadn’t Louisa, Wade’s mom, said that her husband had cheated on her and gotten another woman pregnant? Hadn’t that been the reason why she’d said she’d left? I looked over at Gordon, and as he turned his face to the side and I studied his profile, a jolt of recognition hit me.

  Was Gordon a Hart? Was he in fact Wade’s brother?

  “Gordon, can I ask you something?” The words barely left my mouth and then I heard a large creaking from the door as if someone had opened it. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as if someone were behind me and staring at me. I turned to look at the doorway, but there was no one there. I walked over to it quickly and looked down the corridor, but it was empty.

  “What did you want to ask me?” Gordon asked as he walked over to the bookshelves and started fumbling through the books.

  “Uhm …” I felt hesitant to ask him what I was thinking now. If he was Wade’s illegitimate brother, why hadn’t he told me already? “I was just curious if you had any fun plans for the summer?”

  “Oh, hmm, not really.” He shook his head. “So, did I tell you that I met Wade’s last assistant in the village as well?” He spoke idly. “She was a real looker, tall and blonde. Did Wade ever mention her to you?”

  “No.” I swallowed hard, not wanting to think about Wade being close with another woman. I was about to ask Gordon what he knew about her when he suddenly made a face.

  “Where’s the bathroom, please?”

  “Oh, go down the hallway, last door on the right,” I said and watched as he walked out of the room. I waited for a couple of seconds and then pulled my phone out of my bag again to see a few more messages from Wade.

  “Are you still alive?”

  “Have you run off with my millions and headed back to the City?”

  “Savannah, where are you?”

  I smiled at the texts and then responded. “Hey, I’m still here in Herne Hill, where exactly are you?”

  “I told you I had to go away.”

  “Okay then, can I help you?”

  “You sound cold.”

  “I didn’t realize texts could sound cold.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Why do you care?”

  “Just wondering if you’re thinking of me.”

  “Not.”

  “Are you mad at me?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Last night was special.”

  “Bye.”

  “Savannah …”

  I was about to text him back when I heard a door slam. I frowned. Leaving the library, I headed for the kitchen.

  “Gordon?” I said as I stopped outside the guest bathroom. There was no response. I said his name again, this time louder. “Gordon?”

  “Hey, sorry.” Gordon’s voice sounded manic as he came out from a room across the hall. He’d been in Wade’s office.

  “What were you doing in there?”

  “I got lost. Sorry. There are so many rooms in this place.” He gave me a wry smile, but I found it hard to smile back. I walked over to Wade’s office to close the door. As I peeked inside, I saw a piece of paper lying on the ground. Had Gordon been going through Wade’s stuff? I wanted to confront him, but it made me too nervous.

  “Hey, I just got a text from Lucy. There are some things she wants me to get from the store before I pick her and Jolene up, so I think I have to cut our time short here. Sorry about that.”

  “Oh, man.” He frowned. “I could wait here for you to get back?”

  “No, I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “We should leave now.”

  “Are you mad that I got lost?” He gave me what I assumed was his puppy dog face, and I tried not to roll my eyes. Did he think I was stupid? Or that I was interested in him? And wasn’t he gay? Why would he think I’d fall for that?

  Because he’s an actor, a voice in my head shouted at me. I wanted to slap myself. How had I been so blind as to everything that was going on around me?

  “Do we have time to have a …” Gordon started and his voice trailed off as I gave him my best death stare. I knew that he was slightly confused as to why I was being so cold to him, but I was done with men like him and Wade. Shit, for all I knew they were cut from the same cloth.

  “It was great seeing you. Let’s chat soon.” I said as I closed the front door behind me and walked to my car. “Bye.” I got into the car and slammed the door shut. I watched as Gordon got into his car. No way was I going to leave while he was still on the property. Who knew what he would do if I just left?

  I started my car as soon as I saw his car driving away from the house and followed him out. As I pulled into the main road, I looked left and then right and was surprised that I couldn’t see the tail of Gordon’s car. He must have been driving fast to have made it out of sight already.

  As I drove along the street, I wondered why he would have sped away.

  Chapter 5

  “Jolene, my darkling!” I bent down as my scrappy little dog came running towards me, tongue out.

  “Did you just call her your darkling or your darling?” Lucy followed behind him at a much more leisurely pace. She was carrying two big duffel bags and Jolene’s leash in her hands.

  “I meant to say darling, but I called him darkling by mistake.” I laughed as I rubbed the top of her head.

  “Called him darkling?” Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Are you distracted or something?”

  “Oh, oops.” I kissed Jolene. “I meant her, my beautiful darling girl.” I grinned and then gave Lucy a hug. “I’m so happy to see you. My mind has been all over the place.”

  “Thinking about Wade?”

  “Who else?” I groaned as we talked towards the car. “I’m so glad you guys are here, though. I’ve missed you both so much. I don’t even know how I’ve survived this long without you both.”

  “I don’t know either, darkling.” Lucy giggled and then brought me in for a big hug. “I’ve missed you like, whoa! Also, Jolene may very well be related to the Dark Lord.”

  “The Dark Lord?”

  “He who shall not be named.” She giggled. “Sometimes I think Jolene was channeling him in the middle of the night when she would start whining to go out to pee.”

  “Oh no. I’m so sorry.” I grabbed her bags to walk them the rest of the way to the car. “I owe you big time.”

  “I wouldn’t say big time, but I want to know everything. Everything.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me as we got to the Range Rover. “Nice ride.”

  “Well, my boss is kind of a big deal.” I giggled as we got into the SUV. “Or at least he has a lot of money.”

  “I wouldn’t mind him dropping me off a few stacks.”

  “Dropping you off a few stacks?” I raised an eyebrow as I pressed the button to start the engine. “Say what?”

  “That’s what all the cool kids say.”

  “We’re not cool.”

  “I know, but we can try to
be.” She sat back in the seat and started messing with the buttons that operated the seat. “Oh shit, this seat has a massager and heats up?” She moaned as she sat back. “Can this be my new home?”

  “Oh, Lucy, I’ve missed you.” I laughed as I drove out of the parking lot and made the way back to Hart Manor (as I thought of it in my head). There’s something about being with close friends that can just make your day. It’s comforting and warm, and they make you feel secure and whole. Lucy was that friend for me. No matter how crazy my brain was or how fried my emotions were, when I was with Lucy, I felt a sense of peace and calm. “Thanks for coming, Luce, you truly are the best friend a girl could ask for.”

  “I learned from the best.” She smiled at me and I grinned as I turned the radio on loudly. Top 40 music pumped out of the stereo and I Hope by Gabby Barrett started playing.

  “I love this song.” Lucy sang along to the radio and soon both of our voices were screeching into the wind. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw that Jolene had her out the window and was looking around eagerly. I realized this was the first time she’d ever been out of the city.

  “Welcome to the country, Jolene.” I laughed to myself at the irony. If anyone should have known the country, it was Jolene. Well, at least Dolly Parton’s Jolene. “She’s hypnotized by the trees.”

  “She’s trying to think of all the different ways she can pee on them.” Lucy rolled her eyes. “She’d climb them if she could.”

  “Haha, I bet she would.”

  “So tell me everything there is to know about Wade Hart.” She peered at me as if trying to see into my soul. “You don’t look any different.”

  “Should I?”

  “In books, they always say that once a woman has lost her virginity, she has a glow and everyone around her seems to know. Frankly, you look just the same to me. I see no glow.”

  “Wait until tonight.” I laughed. “I’ll put on some fake tan and bronzer.”

  “You are a goof, Savannah.” Lucy turned to look back out the window. “I know you said it was country out here, but man, there are no skyscrapers in sight. It’s all trees and farmland.”

  “Do you hate it?”

  “I don’t hate it.” She shook her head. “It’s just different. I’ve been in New York too long. It’s strange not staring out of the window and watching a homeless man cuss someone out or a taxi almost get in an accident.”

  “Oh, you make me miss the city far too much.” I laughed and then as we pulled into the long driveway, I turned to her. “This is Wade Hart Manor.”

  “Is that really the name?”

  “No,” I laughed. “But it should be. The way he goes on, you’d think he was some sort of nobility.”

  “You don’t think he is, do you?”

  “What?” I stopped the car and got out.

  “Do you think he could be a prince or something?” Lucy walked up to the house, her eyes wide in awe. “Holy shit, he is really rich, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he’s rich, and no, I do not think he’s a prince.” I grabbed Jolene from the back seat.

  “What about a duke or a lord?” She turned back to look at me. “Or maybe he was part of the Russian dynasty that had to flee after Stalin took over.”

  “I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “Though that would be kinda cool.”

  “You might have slept with one of the descendants of Louis XIV!”

  “Hmm…” I cocked my head. “Louis XIV?”

  “Off with their heads and let them eat cake.” Lucy giggled. “I think those two quotes were from that time period, right?”

  “You mean during the French Revolution? I think it was Marie Antoinette that said, ‘let them eat cake,’ and that was why she was beheaded. Well, that and many other reasons. Also, she was French, not Russian.”

  “Listen to you, Ms. Francophile.”

  “Hardly.” I walked up to the front door and unlocked it. “Come on, let me show you inside.”

  “I can’t wait.” Lucy followed behind me into the foyer, and I let Jolene down onto the cool marble. She immediately started darting back and forth in excitement and I watched in horror as she slid along the marble into the wall and bumped her nose. She let out a small yelp and then went running down the hallway.

  “Looks like Jolene already feels at home in her palace,” Lucy observed.

  “Oh God, Jolene, don’t start feeling too at home!” I cried out, visions of poop and pee all over the place. I could just imagine Wade coming home to that hot mess. There was no way I could talk my way out of that.

  “Oh, guess what, Savannah?” Lucy turned to me with a huge smile as we walked into the kitchen.

  “What’s that?” I asked her, my eyes sweeping the room and noticing the open French doors. Hadn’t I locked them before I left? I briefly remembered walking back into the house after I’d been looking for Wade and closing the doors, but maybe I hadn’t locked them properly. Or maybe Gordon had gone outside?

  “I’m going to try out for a singing show.”

  “You’re what?” My jaw dropped as I gave Lucy my full attention. I studied her face to see if she was joking. Please God, let her be joking.

  “I was thinking of trying out for The Voice or even American Idol.”

  “Yeah, and I’m going to try out for America’s Best Dancer. You’ve got to be kidding right?” I started doing the Robot and giggled. “You can sing as well as I can dance, which isn’t saying much. Girl, I hate to burst your bubble, but you can’t carry a tune.”

  “And you can’t dance,” Lucy sang in a high voice and started laughing. “I’m not joking though.” She made a face. “I’m actually 100% serious.”

  “Oh God, Lucy, why?”

  “Oh, I know I can’t sing.” She laughed. “But wouldn’t that make a great documentary?”

  “What? The tale of the girl who can’t sing?” I wondered if my best friend had gone crazy.

  “No, a story of someone so desperate to make it that they enter television contests just to get noticed.”

  “Hmm.” I walked over to the fridge. “Do you want a drink?”

  “I’d love a glass of white wine if you have any.”

  “Not red?” I asked in surprise. Lucy and I loved red wine more than anything in the world.

  “White wine feels more classy, and this has to be the classiest house I’ve ever been in.” Lucy twirled around the room. “I feel like I should be in a white dress with a huge skirt singing.”

  “What?” I laughed at the image in my mind.

  “Or maybe in a maid’s outfit.”

  “Girl, don’t get me started on maid’s outfits,” I grumbled. “I can’t believe Wade made me wear one.”

  “I bet he just wants you to wear it in bed. I bet he has some sort of boss fantasy and he wants to bend you over his desk and pull your garters down.”

  “Lucy, you’ve been watching too much porn.”

  “Not porn, actually,” she sniffed. “French and Italian films. They are so much more open to sexuality than we are in France and Italy.”

  “So they have a lot of mainstream movies about bosses fucking their maids?”

  “Savannah, watch your language please.” She held her hand up. “I might have to take my belt off and give you a spanking.”

  “Yes, Wade-I-mean-Lucy.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Is this your way of telling me that you’re now a dominatrix?”

  “No, but wouldn’t that make a fantastic documentary … from Suburbia to the Dungeons … How I Became the Number One Dominatrix in the World?”

  “Oh Lucy, stop, I can’t …” I laughed so loudly that Jolene ran up to me and jumped up on my leg eagerly, hoping to join in whatever fun she thought she was missing. “Jolene, stop.” I giggled and then I looked over at Lucy with a grateful smile on my face. “Girl, I am so glad you’re here. You have really gotten my mind off of the whole Wade thing. It has been driving me crazy. I needed a good laugh.”

  “And that’s why I’m here.�
�� She paused. “Well, that’s not the only reason why I’m here. I also want us to figure out what’s going on with Wade. We can be like Cagney and Lacey.”

  “Who?” I blinked at her.

  “Come on, girl, Cagney and Lacey!” She huffed. “It’s an old TV show, but it’s still great.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Okay, we can be like Holmes and Watson.”

  “I’m Holmes.” I grinned. “You can be Watson.”

  “How about I’ll be Batman and you can be Robin?”

  “I’ll be Catwoman.”

  “I knew you were into tight lycra and whips.” Lucy winked.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “A little. What happened to that wine you promised me?”

  “Why don’t we walk Jolene real quick and then come back and relax?” I looked at the clock. “Then we can watch a movie and gossip?” I headed towards the French doors and frowned when I noticed sprinkles of dirt on the floor. “Why is there mud inside?” I murmured.

  “What’s wrong, Savannah?” Lucy came up behind me. “I don’t mind walking Jolene first and then coming inside.”

  “Nothing. I thought I’d closed this door, but maybe I was wrong.” I stared at the ground. “Gordon was here earlier, and I guess that he went outside and trekked some mud in when he came back inside.” I shrugged. “I like him as a person, but for some reason, I just don’t trust him. I think he has some sort of ulterior motive for hanging out with me.”

  “Who are these men you know and why are they all shady?” Lucy sighed. “Sometimes, I’m happy I’m single, but then I go to bed at night all alone and wish I had someone.”

  “I know.” I rubbed the back of her shoulders. “I’m in the same boat. I wish I had someone as well. And let’s not say I do. I hardly think I have Wade Hart. Yes, I slept with him, but I don’t think that really means much.”

  “Let’s not give up hope, Savannah. Maybe he really is your knight in shining armor and we just don’t know it.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” I looked out the window and searched the sky. “I’m not seeing any flying pigs though, so maybe it’s not my day for miracles.”

  “Oh, Savannah, come on, let’s take Jolene out and you can show me the grounds to your mansion and then we can come back inside and snoop up a storm.”