Perfect Fit

by Carly Phillips

  “Let’s sit,” Mike said, gesturing toward the couch.

  Cara lowered herself onto the sofa. Her new position gave her a perfect view of the bedroom corner of the apartment, where a suitcase sat open on the bed.

  Her stomach cramped but she said nothing. He’d asked to talk, and she’d let him begin. She’d focus on getting through this without falling apart.

  He settled in beside her, careful not to touch her. The cool distance between them was reminiscent of the early days when he’d come back to Serendipity, and her heart hurt at the distance between them. For all they’d had and suddenly lost.

  She couldn’t help it. She had to ask. “What happened?” Last time she’d seen him, he’d kissed her in his office, told her he needed her after everything that had gone on within his family. Next thing she knew…dead silence.

  “Simon’s retiring,” Mike said.

  Of everything, she hadn’t expected that.

  “And he asked me to take the job. For good.”

  She blinked. “That must have thrown you. When did he tell you this?”

  He looked away, unable to meet her gaze. “Saturday afternoon.”

  With his answer, a yawning, cavernous pit opened inside her. “And that’s why I haven’t heard from you.”

  He had the good grace to at least look embarrassed.

  Cara sighed. “I take it you turned him down?”

  “I told him I’d think about it.” He shrugged out of his suit jacket and laid it over a chair, then undid his tie so it hung loose around his neck. His top button followed, leaving him with an extremely sexy, rumpled look that tugged at her heart.

  Hardening herself toward him was hard, but she couldn’t afford to feel bad because he looked so torn. “Why didn’t you just tell him the truth? That you don’t want to stay here? You never wanted to be here in the first place.”

  “Because I don’t know if that’s true!” He spun away and walked to the window.

  She’d never seen Mike look so torn, so unsure. Unable to help herself, she rose and joined him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You told me yourself, you were here while Simon needed you. He’s in remission. He’s retiring. You can go back to the life you love and leave this small town and all of us behind. Like before.”

  Cara was proud that her voice didn’t crack.

  “I didn’t count on you,” he said quietly.

  “What?”

  He placed a hand on hers and turned. “You heard me. I didn’t count on you. And when I tell you I’m not sure what I want to do, I mean it. I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

  His hands slipped to her waist, burning her with his touch. “Yes, you can,” Cara told him. “Or that suitcase wouldn’t be packed.” She stepped out of reach, knowing she was close to shattering.

  “I just need time,” he said, his voice pleading with her to understand.

  “You’ve been nothing but honest with me, so let’s not start sugarcoating things now. Actions speak louder than words, but together? They send a potent message.” Her shoulders shook, but she continued. “You’re leaving just like you always said you would. This was short term and I knew it. Shame on me for falling harder and hoping for more.” She turned away, unable to believe she’d admitted her feelings. “Take care,” she said, almost running for the door.

  “Cara, wait.”

  She paused without turning to face him.

  “I’m suffocating. I just need time and space to sort things out.”

  She shook her head. “If you needed time, I’d have given it to you. All you had to do was ask. Instead you did what you always do—you packed up and you ran.”

  She wasn’t just referring to his going back to New York, but to his disappearing act this past week. He wasn’t dumb enough not to know what she meant.

  “Bye, Mike.” It took everything she had, but Cara walked out the door without looking back.

  Seventeen

  Cara’s doorbell rang. And rang. And rang. Then the pounding started. She’d taken the week off from work to pull herself together…and yes, maybe wallow a little. She had the sick time owed to her and figured she deserved to indulge herself, so here it was Thursday, and someone was banging on her door. At eight in the morning.

  She grabbed her fuzzy robe, pulled it on over the tank top she slept in, and stormed to her front door. She whipped it open, prepared to give whoever was there a piece of her mind.

  She found Sam, who had been calling her twice daily to make sure she was okay. “Can’t a girl take time off without you checking on me constantly?” she snapped at him, leaving her door open for him to follow her inside.

  “You’re not sick, you’re depressed, and though you have good reason to be, it’s enough. He may be my brother, but he’s an ass. He doesn’t deserve you, and he sure as hell doesn’t deserve for you to be sitting around sulking over him, so let’s go. Shower and get dressed. We’re going shopping.”

  Cara wrinkled her nose. Neither one of them loved hitting a mall. “For what?”

  “It’s my mother’s birthday this weekend and I need to buy her a present.”

  “Fine. For Ella, I’ll pull myself together. Besides, I want to buy Daniella a little motivational gift. She’s signed up for paralegal courses online, and she’s interviewing with some firms who are willing to wait until she can work. Belinda’s got some great contacts,” Cara said of Havensbridge’s founder.

  Sam smiled. “That’s great. One less person to worry about,” he said. “Has her ex gotten a court date yet?”

  Cara shrugged. “I’m not sure. Daniella said he’s been quiet, but sometimes she gets that eerie feeling she’s being followed. I reminded her not to go out alone, and she said she knows.”

  “That’s all you can do. Now go. Get ready.” He prodded her on the back.

  Cara headed for the stairs. Pausing, she turned to her partner. “Thanks, Sam.”

  “That’s what friends are for. Hey, have I told you that you look like hell?”

  She frowned at him. “Gee, thanks.”

  “Just calling it like I see it.” He tipped his head toward the stairs.

  “I’m going.” But she paused. “Sam, have you…” She trailed off, wanting to ask how his brother was doing.

  Had Sam spoken to him? Was he suffering like she was? Or had he gone back to his lifestyle, and women like Lauren, as if the interlude in Serendipity and with Cara had never happened?

  “I haven’t spoken to him,” Sam said, reading her mind. Because that was what a good partner did. And really, what else would Cara possibly want to know? “He’s not answering when I call. I’m sorry.”

  Cara nodded, the lump in her throat that she’d been fighting all week returning as big as ever.

  “He spoke to the mayor before he left town,” Sam said, surprising her. “He laid out everything about the cold case and the money in the evidence room.”

  Cara stared, stunned. She’d been so wrapped up in her personal drama, she’d completely forgotten about the case. “What did she say?”

  “According to my father, because I didn’t hear it from Mike, the mayor uttered a few choice words that her voters wouldn’t be too happy to hear. Especially when she found out the extent of the people involved.”

  “Is Simon in trouble?” Cara asked.

  “I’ve gotta hand it to my brother. He managed to make it a burden for the mayor if she went public with the information.”

  “How?”

  “By reminding her that many of those who were mentioned in that black book, who’d visited the Winkler place, and who had been involved in the cover-up, were also her biggest campaign supporters,” Sam said with a grin.

  Cara pulled her robe tighter, unable to hold back a smile of her own. “Brilliant.”

  Sam nodded. “Added to that, the Winkler place had been shut down for years, so there was no point in bringing that up again. Everyone who was once involved appeared to be clean now, and the only person still in public offic
e was retiring.” Sam spread his hands wide. “So really, what good would it do to air the dirty laundry except to tarnish her loyal supporters?”

  Cara leaned on the banister. “Case closed, huh?”

  “Appears that way.”

  “What about Rex?” Cara hadn’t seen him or heard about him since his near arrest. “Did he go back to Vegas?”

  “He checked out of the hotel he was staying in after Mike made sure he knew his presence wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere in Serendipity.”

  Cara exhaled slowly, surprised Mike had a one-on-one confrontation with his father. “At least he had closure,” she said, knowing how much Mike needed that to move forward in his life.

  “Do you want some advice?” Sam asked.

  Cara shrugged, knowing she couldn’t stop him. “Go for it.”

  Sam met her gaze, his expression sincere and full of compassion. “Stop caring about him.”

  Cara shook her head and laughed. “Do you think I haven’t tried?” she asked, storming up the stairs so she could shower. And then do her least favorite thing in the world: shopping.

  Could her life get any more exciting than this?

  The walls were closing in and this damned apartment didn’t feel a thing like home. Mike’s small place over Joe’s was more welcoming, and that was because he had more waiting for him when he walked outside than he had in New York City. A week had gone by and he hadn’t put out feelers at his old station or with the feds because he wasn’t ready to think about remaining in Manhattan.

  But just a short week ago, he hadn’t been able to think about settling in Serendipity either. So he’d turned to his same M.O. and done what he did best.

  He ran away.

  Mike hadn’t been able to look himself in the mirror since. He hadn’t answered his brother’s or sister’s calls. He’d come back here for breathing space and thinking time, but it hadn’t taken long for him to wonder why the hell he had thought he needed either one.

  Everything he wanted had been staring him in the face in Serendipity. A woman who understood him, accepted him, completed him in a way he’d never believed possible. He missed Cara, her smile, her laugh, and most of all, he missed the way she called out his full name when he was deep inside her. Hell, he even missed the dingy office at the station and how he could hear Cara’s laugh when his door was left open. But every time he thought about going back, he remembered her face when she realized his suitcase was open and half-packed in his apartment.

  Destroyed.

  That was the only word he could think of. He’d destroyed—not her, Cara was too strong to let him defeat her—but he’d trashed whatever faith she’d had in him. And though he’d given her no reason and even discouraged it, she’d believed in him enough to invest her heart.

  What had he done? He’d thrown that gift away.

  His cell rang, and he glanced down. For the first time all week, he answered a call from home. “Hey, Sam.”

  “I’m on my way up the stairs to your apartment. Open the damned door and let me in. We need to talk.”

  Mike heard his brother’s voice in the hall and opened his door as Sam finished his sentence. “Come on in,” Mike muttered.

  Sam walked inside and looked Mike over. “Thank God you look like shit too.”

  Mike drew his shoulders back, Sam’s words hitting him hard. “Cara’s in bad shape?”

  “What do you think, asshole?”

  His heart hurt at that, and he expelled a long breath. “I deserved that.”

  “You’re lucky I don’t haul off and hit you.” Sam headed to his brother’s fridge and pulled out a soda. “Are you that damned selfish that you couldn’t see what you had? Or are you that stupid that you really don’t want her?”

  Mike sat on the couch and leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling. “I fucked up. I’m not going to go into all the crap in my past, or why I did it. Suffice it to say that everything was coming at me at once, and when I left, I thought I needed time and space to think.”

  Sam flung himself into the nearest chair. “And now that you’ve had it?”

  He shook his head, disgusted. “I know how badly I screwed up. Everything I want is what I left behind.”

  “Then why are we sitting here?” Sam patted the arm of the chair.

  He leaned forward and met his brother’s gaze. “Because Cara made it clear that with my actions, she can trust me to keep my word, at least when it comes to leaving.”

  “So you’ve got some work to do. Since when are you afraid of hard work?”

  He was afraid of many things, but work wasn’t one of them. “Never. But I’ve done nothing but prove to her that I don’t want commitment. Why the hell would she believe I feel differently now?” He studied his younger brother’s serious expression, wondering what words of wisdom Sam could possibly offer.

  “Are you coming back?” Sam asked, point-blank.

  Mike swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

  “For good?”

  He nodded. “I’m going to get my girl.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  Mike stiffened. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means, what happens if you can’t convince Cara to take you back? What if she’s too battle-scarred from her mother staying in a relationship that hurts her?”

  His gut cramped at the too-real possibility.

  Sam leaned in close. “If Cara doesn’t come around, are you still taking the job as chief? Will you stay?”

  Mike already knew his choices. Remain in Serendipity without Cara beside him, or return to this lonely apartment in a city he couldn’t care less about and a job he hadn’t checked in on once.

  Easy answer.

  His family was in Serendipity. The people he loved, even if he didn’t always show it.

  As his mother had already pointed out to him, Mike had spent the last half dozen or more years in one place. He knew how to stick, he just hadn’t wanted to believe it. Panic had been second nature to him. Something expected. Comforting, even. He refused to take the coward’s way out by blaming his parentage or Rex. Mike had dug into his own way of thinking and screwed up all on his own.

  “I’m staying,” Mike muttered. Though losing Cara would kill him, it wouldn’t change his plans.

  Sam grinned, slapping his hands on his thighs. “All right then.”

  The relief on his brother’s face would have been comical if this weren’t Mike’s life.

  “So here’s what you’re going to do,” Sam said. “Go big or go home. Show the lady you mean business. What happens next may be up to her, but at least you’ll know you did everything possible to win her back.”

  “Thanks,” Mike said, looking at his brother in a new light.

  With that, Sam leaned back and finished his soda, while Mike gave thought to his brother’s advice. Sam was right. He’d have to put it all on the line to win Cara back—and he had to do it knowing there was still a chance he’d end up alone in the end.

  He shivered, the chill taking him off guard. He couldn’t let that happen. No matter what, he had to convince her that he loved her and wanted her beside him for the rest of their lives. There was no other acceptable alternative.

  “Hey, Mike?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “You ready to go home?”

  Saturday night at Joe’s—minus the owner and his new bride, who were on their honeymoon. Cara was here under duress from her friends, her good mood forced. But even she knew it was time to get back to living, and tonight was as good a time as any to start. She’d just concentrate on her friends and pretend she was having a good time. Eventually, she’d feel the corresponding emotions. She wouldn’t feel so numb.

  “I feel like dancing,” Alexa said.

  Cara nodded, wanting to get moving and maybe stop thinking so much.

  “Liza?” Alexa asked, since she’d also joined them.

  Liza smiled, rocking her hips in time to the beat. “Why not? I could use so
me letting go.”

  Katy Perry’s music set the tempo, and Cara let go in a way she hadn’t done in way too long. The crowd seemed to grow, the buzzing in the room grew stronger, and soon the floor was full.

  As the steady beat pulsed through her veins, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the flow of the music and the camaraderie of good friends.

  As she refocused on the room, she realized that they had company. Liza had paired up with her husband, Dare, and to Cara’s surprise, both Erin and Alexa were doing some seductive dancing of their own with two good-looking guys Cara had never seen before.

  For Alexa, a woman who preferred work to even her friends’ company, this was an unusual state of affairs. Cara was curious and knew she’d be grilling her friend later. As for Erin, Sam was eyeing his sister’s moves with a scowl on his face.

  When strong arms slid around Cara’s waist, she jolted in surprise, assuming it was one of her fellow cop friends joining her. Willing to have a partner on the dance floor, she leaned back into the strong masculine body, allowing him to lead from behind.

  Hands on her hips, he pulled her tight against him, until the swell of his erection pressed into her behind.

  That was going too far and Cara broke his hold.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, spinning around and coming face-to-face with familiar brown eyes. “Mike!?” Her knees went weak and her breath caught.

  “Hey, baby.”

  Everything inside her warmed at the endearment, and what a kick in the ass that was, considering how hard she’d fought against his using it.

  She folded her arms across her chest in the most defensive gesture she could think of. Anything to help keep her distance. “What are you doing here?”

  After the longest, most painful week of her life, his sudden reappearance was a shock, to say the least. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest, fear warring with panic at seeing him again.

  “I’m back.” His searing gaze never left hers.

  She didn’t know if he meant for a visit or what, but she refused to let herself care. “Good for you. And you thought you could wrap your arms around me and pick up where we left off?” she asked, her voice rising.

  Alexa tapped her on the shoulder. “Are you okay?” her friend asked.