“I mean it though. You’ve been a lifesaver.”
I felt like time was racing and as much as I wanted to stay and talk, I had to get going if I was going to have enough time to get ready for Mason.
“This is an Abernathy colt, so I’m sure he’ll have no problem adjusting. But if you need me for anything, just text me,” I said as I left the stall.
I picked up my pace as I stepped out of the stable, but Mason surprised me. He slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him.
“I couldn’t help but notice there isn’t a ring on your finger,” he said, his voice grave.
“What are you doing?”
Surprise filled my voice. Even though I really wanted to stay in his arms, I pushed my hands against his strong chest to give myself space. I had to remember how much he hurt me before. I wouldn’t let that happen again.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to kiss you.”
His head lowered towards mine and I pushed him further away.
“No! Just no. Who do you think you are? Am I supposed to just drop every ounce of sanity because you want to kiss me? It’s been fifteen years, Mason. You don’t know anything about me anymore,” I said.
“I know you, Tara. The time away doesn’t change anything between us. At least it doesn’t for me.”
“Time changes everything. Things ended when you left. Just because you’re here now doesn’t mean things will go back to the way they were.”
“Are you dating anyone? Are you married?” He barked his questions at me. I hated having to admit the truth.
“No,” I said, my voice full of frustration.
“Then why can’t we pretend we were never apart? We’re not kids anymore, Tara. We don’t need the foreplay of playing coy. You can’t tell me you feel differently now than you did back then. I can see it in how you look at me.”
“Forget about how I look at you. That doesn’t matter. And forget about dinner tonight.”
“What do you mean forget about it?”
His tone was demanding, and it made me push back even more. Inside though, I was struggling. The naive girl he left fifteen years ago was gone. I was stronger now except for my knees. He still made them weak.
“I don’t think I want to see you right now. I don’t know if I ever want to see you,” I said. “I told you, I’ve changed and you need to accept that. Just as I’m seeing that you’ve changed, too. And not for the better.”
I pushed further away from him, finally breaking his hold on me, and stormed down the dusty path to my cottage. I was glad I didn’t hear his footsteps behind me. I wasn’t one of those women who wanted to be chased and followed. I needed to be alone.
Slamming the door behind me, I walked aimlessly into my home. Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I had cried too many times for that man.
How dare he grab me and try kissing me! I should have slapped him or kneed him in the balls, but I really wanted that kiss. I had been dreaming about his lips, his arms, everything about him for all these years.
Why did I push him away? I don’t know. Something just didn’t feel right. I wasn’t that girl from all those years ago, I was different. I had changed and I wanted him to acknowledge that and see me for who I was now. But, deep down, I still wished he kissed me.
Mason
How dare she. I got into my car and sped away from Jefferson Manor as quickly as I could. As I drove back to the downtown area of Canyon Cove, I replayed my interaction with Tara in my head. I was trying to make sense of it, but it only fueled my anger more.
I pulled the car up to the hotel valet and took the ticket from him without saying a word. I didn’t need to say anything; he knew who I was. Everyone did.
The heels of my boots clapped against the marble floor as I walked through the hotel lobby towards the bar. The last thing I wanted at that moment was to be alone with my thoughts in my suite. I knew all I would think about was her. She was all I had thought about for the past fifteen years. Being spurned by her wouldn’t change that.
As I entered the bar, I found a small booth in a quiet corner. The bartender nodded in my direction and I raised two fingers at him. As I loosened my tie, he set a glass on the small table in front of me. In his other hand, he held a bottle.
“Good?” he asked as he held out the bottle.
I nodded and he poured my two fingers’ worth. “Leave the bottle,” I grunted.
As I took a sip, the bouquet of cheap perfume enveloped me. A young woman with sun-kissed blonde waves and a seductive pout slid across from me. She was pretty, but she wasn’t Tara.
Seeing Tara was like stepping back in time for me. Every emotion rushed back as if only fifteen minutes had gone by instead of years. I should’ve kissed her. It had been on my mind for too long to not do it.
“Are you waiting for someone?” the woman asked nervously.
“Maybe,” I said, thinking about Tara.
“It’s a woman, isn’t it? Maybe I can help you forget.”
While I knew what she meant, there was something about her demeanor that told another story. She seemed lost, like a helpless kitten. I was curious about her story.
I looked over towards the bartender and raised my glass to him. He nodded and brought over an empty glass and set it on the table.
“It’s always about a woman,” I said as I poured her a drink then slid it over to her.
“No, thank you,” she said, pushing the glass away. “I don’t drink while—”
She cut herself off, and her eyes drifted towards another booth where a man wearing sunglasses sat.
“Not while you’re on a job.” I finished for her. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Candi. Of course I know yours, but I can call you whatever you’d like.”
“Mason is fine. How much for him to go away?”
I darted my eyes towards her pimp then back at her. She chewed her lip nervously then lowered her voice.
“He never goes away.”
“But he won’t follow you to a room,” I said.
She nodded. I pulled my wallet out and slid a small wad of hundreds across the table to her.
“Let’s go.”
I held my hand out to her and helped her out of the seat. Her hands felt dry, like someone who spent her day cleaning, not like the high-priced escort she was pretending to be. As we walked out of the bar, I felt her tremble.
The harsh lights of the elevator revealed how thin and withdrawn she was. Her eyes were slightly hallowed and her skin was sickly pale. She reminded me of a worn doll that someone had dressed up, hoping to make it look nicer.
As the elevator rose to the penthouse suites, she stared out the glass at the lights below. She hugged herself and rubbed her thin arms. I took my jacket off and placed it over her shoulders.
“Thank you, Mr. Abernathy,” she said as she turned to face me.
“I told you before, it’s Mason. Now what’s your name?”
“Candi.”
“Your real name.”
Her eyes darted away from me and she looked out again.
“He’s not here.”
“Tricia,” she whispered.
The doors opened and I led her down the hall to my suite. Housekeeping had left the lights on and music playing from my call to the hotel earlier. A large bouquet of deep red roses sat on a vase on the table.
Tricia gawked as she entered the room. While she admired the roses, I picked up the room phone and called down to the lobby.
“Good evening, Mr. Abernathy. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Connect me with Security, please.”
“Right away, sir.”
After a brief wait, a man’s familiar voice came on the line.
“Mr. Abernathy? This is Joseph, head of security.”
“Good, I was hoping you were on duty,” I said. I turned away from Tricia and lowered my voice. “There’s a man in the bar wearing sunglasses.”
“Yes,
I saw him arrive earlier with a young woman.”
“She’s with me now. Take care of him. Scare the living shit out of him. I don’t want him bothering this young lady or any others again.”
I hung up the phone and walked over to Tricia, who was sitting on the couch looking uncomfortable. She smiled sweetly at me and pushed her small chest forward in what I guessed she thought was a sexy pose.
“I’m ready when you are,” she said.
“Why were you here with that scum?”
“What? Oh, you mean in the bar? Let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about how I can make you feel better.”
“I’ll cut to the chase, Tricia,” I said as I perched myself on the arm of the chair across from her. “I live in hotels. I haven’t had a place to call home in fifteen years. I see girls like you all the time, and every once in a while I bring one up to my room like I did with you. Right now, you have a choice to make. You either tell me what you’re doing with him, or you go back down and take a chance with another John.”
As she looked around the suite, I saw her eyes stop every so often as she took everything in. Her eyes settled back on me. She took a deep breath before speaking.
“If we’re being honest, you seem like a pretty straight up guy. And you gave me more money than I’ve ever seen. Most men would’ve started grabbing at me in the elevator.”
“I didn’t bring you up here for that.”
“Then why am I here?”
“To give you a chance. Listen, I’ve had a rough day. Tell me why you’re with that asshole and I’ll see what I can do to help you.”
“Only if you tell me about her,” she said, reaching over to touch my knee.
My eyes met hers and after our silent conversation, I knew I didn’t have to play dumb. She read me like an open book.
“You first,” I said.
“Maybe I do need that drink.”
“We both do.” In the freezer, I kept a bottle of Grey Goose that I pulled out and poured into a couple of glasses. “You look like you haven’t eaten in days. Order whatever you want from room service.”
“Anything?”
Before I could finish nodding, she grabbed the phone and pressed the button. As I set the glasses down on an end table, I heard her order enough to feed an army.
“There’s no way you can eat that much,” I said. I didn’t need her to answer, I had done this enough times before to know her story without hearing it. She wanted to bring the leftovers home.
She grinned and looked like a child, which angered me even more. I hoped Joseph would use his fists to get his point across on that lowlife.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she hung up the phone. “That man, Mr. Dunham, owns the building we live in. My father is a gambler, just not a very good one. He’s done what he could for us, but the best he could do was this apartment in the South End. When we couldn’t pay the rent, Mr. Dunham made me an offer.” Tears welled in her eyes. “I didn’t know any other way out. I’ve been working seven days a week wherever people will hire me, but it’s never enough. I’m the oldest of five and most of them are still in school, so they can’t help.”
I put my hand up to tell her to stop talking. I didn’t mean to make her cry. I found a box of tissues and handed it to her.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two. I should be in college or out on my own, but I can’t leave my brothers and sisters like that,” she sniffled.
“We have to get your family out of there.”
“We don’t have any place to go.”
“Call them. Tell them to pack whatever means the most to them and that a car will pick them up later. You’ll stay here for a few days until I find a home where all of you can live.”
“But we can’t afford anything,” she cried.
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“But then...” her voice trailed off and she looked down, afraid to ask her next question. “What do you want from me?”
“I’m opening an office in Canyon Cove. I need someone who lives here to run it. Someone I can trust.” Her gaze met mine again and I saw confusion spread across her face. “You’ve managed a household with four children and a gambling father. You’ve offered yourself in order to keep a roof over their head when you could have left them. I can’t train integrity like that.”
“But--”
“I’m not done. I’ll arrange for a house for your family to live in. A small deduction will come out of your salary to pay for it. In exchange, I expect you to manage my office here. What do you say?”
She eyed me suspiciously as she took a sip of her drink. “Tell me about her first.”
She surprised me. It made me feel that much better about my offer.
“Her name is Tara,” I said, leaning back in the chair. “I was going to propose to her tonight, but she didn’t want to see me.”
“What did you do?” she said, her voice full of accusation.
“I didn’t do anything. All I did was try kissing her.”
“You’re leaving something out.” Her eyes narrowed.
“It’s nothing really, but the last time we saw each other was fifteen years ago. She thinks I don’t know her anymore, but I do. I always have. I know her better than I know myself.”
“How can you? Have you been spying on her?”
I laughed. “No, of course not. Today was a chance meeting. Fate finally stepped in and brought us back together. I don’t want to go any longer without her.”
Now it was Tricia’s turn to laugh. “You’re an idiot, you know that? You can’t expect things to just go back where you left off. You need to woo her. Women want foreplay, and not just with sex, but with relationships too. Trust me on that.”
I was shocked that she felt so comfortable speaking to me like this. People rarely had the balls to talk back to me or tell me I was wrong.
“I think you and I will work well together,” I said.
“You really meant everything you said? About my family and the house? The job?”
“I don’t bullshit people. I meant every word.”
“Then I’ll take the job.” She stuck her hand out to me to shake, but then pulled it back at the last second. “But only on one condition.”
“What is it?”
“You let me help you get your girl back.”
I grabbed her hand and we shook. “It’s a deal.”
Tara
I was cleaning up around the cottage when I heard a soft knock on the door. The cottage was on the Boone’s property, not far from the main house. I could live wherever I wanted, but the small house had a coziness I adored so when they offered it to me to live, I accepted.
I didn’t need to look to see who was knocking. It could only be one of two people, Maya or Ashley. As I opened the door, Ashley started talking immediately.
“So tell me about this guy you call the love of your life,” Ashley said with a smile as she walked in.
“Well hello to you too,” I said. “Can’t we talk about something else?”
“No, I’ve never seen you light up the way you did when you said his name. Everything about you changed. You have to tell me. I won’t take no for an answer.”
“You know, Xander is right. You are stubborn.”
“I’ve never said any differently. Now spill it.”
She tapped the table with an impatient look. I knew she wouldn’t let it drop just like I knew what her reaction would be.
“Mason was my first love, my first heartbreak, my first, well, not everything, but he made it feel like that.”
“Go on,” she said as she leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Everything, Tara. Every single detail. I’m your friend, you’re supposed to tell me all the sordid details.”
“Well, I don’t know about sordid, but we did have a lot of fun,” I said with a laugh. “Honestly, I can’t even tell you what it was ab
out him. I mean I remember vividly the first day I saw him, what he was wearing, how I reacted to him. I think I remember feelings more than anything. He made me feel special and beautiful. I never felt like I had to be anyone other than myself with him. We were only together about eight months, but there was something about it that felt like it would never end, in a good way.”
“So what happened?” she asked.
“It ended.”
Ashley shot me a dirty look that made me burst out laughing.
“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you everything. He left the ranch and took my heart with him. He had an invitation to go to Germany to learn more about some environmental something or other. He was only supposed to be gone for a few months, but he never came back. I never heard from him again.”
“Never? He just disappeared?”
“Well, he didn’t come back like he said he would, and he never called. I never heard from him while I was still down there and eventually I just couldn’t stay there anymore, so I left.”
It didn’t feel like it was me telling the story. I had lived through it so many times that I was numb. The slightest thing reminded me of Mason and when it did, I felt like I was taken back in time.
“You must have tried looking him up. Do you know what happened to him?”
“I’ve searched for him online but never really found much. Just mostly his business stuff like how he took over running Abernathy Ranch like his father always wanted him to. I’ve never found anything personal, not even a photo of him. I don’t know where he lives, if he ever got married, nothing. Sometimes I feel like he never existed. Anyway, it doesn’t matter.”
“What do you mean? Why not? He’s here. You just saw him.”
“And he asked me out on a date and then he kissed me so I cancelled it.”
“You did what? I thought you were excited to see him again.”
“I was, but everything felt too much like it did in the past.”
“But isn’t that good? You said you were crazy in love.”
“I was. And maybe I still am. But it’s not right. It was so long ago and we’re different people. I’ve changed and he has to see that.”
[Canyon Cove 02.0] No Regrets Page 16