by Gina Conroy
“You’ll keep me posted?”
“As much as I can. Seems you care more about wrapping up this case than the son. Weird business sometimes.”
After the man hung up, Daniel stared at his phone. Alexander had really asked for him? The kid was a fool. Even if Daniel weren’t a potential witness, he couldn’t stomach the thought of defending the man in a potential criminal action for the murder of his father.
A hand touched his shoulder, and he tried to quiet the inner war.
“Everything all right?” Ciara stepped next to him. “You look upset.”
That word couldn’t begin to describe the fire pouring through him, demanding an outlet.
“What did the detective know?”
Daniel tried to couch his words to be light. “Just that Alexander wants me to represent him during his questioning.”
“You can’t do that.” The shock ricocheted in her voice.
“I know. Can you imagine he asked?” He ran his fingers through his hair, wishing instead for something to throw against the tennis court’s fence. The resounding clatter would sound so good.
“So what now?” She leaned against his arm as if to lend her support as he struggled to find footing.
“I guess we let the detectives do their thing. Trust they’ll figure out if Alexander was involved. If not… I guess we leave it to them anyway.” He looked at the woman beside him. “I guess it’s time to let them figure it out.” He tipped her chin. “There are other things I’d like to figure out.”
A sly grin tipped her lips. “Like what?”
He studied her eyes, soaking in the way she had stripped the barriers that used to exist. The ones that separated them from each other like the deepest cavern. If she could do that, then he could bare his soul. Let her know what he wanted. What he was ready to fight for. He leaned down until their foreheads touched.
“What I want is to learn how to encourage a woman like you to fall in love with a man like me.”
Chapter 9
The next days confirmed what Ciara had dreaded. Alexander Banter had killed his father. All to receive his small inheritance from his mother’s death. He was tired of waiting for his dad to let him make the decisions on the money. That dreadful morning weeks earlier, he’d arrived at his father’s chambers ready to argue with Judge Banter. He left a murderer.
The days sped up after that, each one feeling a bit more like spring. Even on the days she met Daniel in court, they didn’t feel like adversaries anymore. They couldn’t be colleagues. But she now understood he wasn’t the enemy she’d created in her mind.
Still, she couldn’t decide how far she wanted their growing relationship to evolve. Friendship felt… safe… if a tad dull. But anything else required risk. She thought she could offer that to him, but each time he pulled back, she exhaled.
Maybe she wasn’t as ready as she thought for more than friendship.
Either way, she had to settle the matter in her mind and clue her heart in on the decision. Because right now, anytime her gaze collided with Daniel’s, she lost her place. Her thoughts popped like so many bubbles in the spring air. Then her emotions would begin soaring like a kite. Next thing she knew, she’d take up writing poetry. And that would be too much. Way too much.
Daniel’s calls dried up. She tried to tell herself it wasn’t because the police had resolved the mystery. He simply had a case that consumed him. Probably a stack of clients who all demanded his attention at the same time.
If anyone should know how client crises erupted at inconvenient times, she should. That was the life of a family law attorney.
Yet another reason she’d lectured herself not to fall for Daniel.
Her heart had ignored her advice. Quite good advice. The kind that could protect her.
Ciara swiveled her chair to the credenza, placing the phone behind her. Out of sheer determination, she quit listening for the phone to ring. She had too much to do, too many people depending on her, to let one man distract her focus and energy.
By the end of the day, she felt good about what she’d accomplished, but her phone still hadn’t rung with the right voice on the other end of the call.
As soon as she got home, she hurried upstairs and changed into exercise clothes. She tied on her tennis shoes and bolted out the door. Her thoughts roamed over the past weeks. All that had happened to turn her world on odd angles. She prayed she’d never have to find another person she respected and admired facedown and hours away from death. She prayed that somehow she could forgive Alexander for killing his father. And she prayed that she could come to grips with what she felt for Daniel—whatever it was.
She took the bridge across 395 and continued power walking into the neighboring community. Her thoughts churned to the tempo of her pumping arms.
Somewhere she could find peace.
She had to. The alternative of letting a man control how she felt about the rest of her day couldn’t be more wrong. God, help me figure this out. I just want to honor You, especially in my relationships.
Could there be a more crucial area in which to put God first? She couldn’t imagine one.
Her relationships with other people touched every area of her life. From clients to colleagues to people in her neighborhood and at church, her life was a tightly woven web of connections.
Ciara shivered and picked up her pace again. The vibrant beauty of yellow and red tulips, pastel crocuses, frothy cherry blossoms, and other flowering trees couldn’t pull her mind from the sense she was holding on to something. Something she needed to relinquish if she wanted to see what was possible in this area of her life.
What did she want?
Her dreams had always envisioned a husband and one or two kids who looked a lot like them completing a family picture that morphed into older images each Christmas. She’d imagined loose teeth and braces. Dolls and LEGOs. Trucks and crafts.
Instead, her life existed in her job and town house, without even room for a dog or cat. As she examined it, it felt pathetic. Empty. Not at all matching the dream.
Her steps slowed as she reached the playground on the back side of the neighborhood. Wasn’t it time to chase her dreams? Dreams that involved more than serving her clients? Dreams that would fill her life and her home?
She longed to, but even as she examined the idea, she knew it wasn’t entirely true. If it were, she would call Daniel. She wouldn’t cling to some old-fashioned notion that he had to call her first.
Ciara sank onto a swing and pushed her feet against the mulch. Slowly the swing rose higher and higher as she pumped. Her hair blew off the back of her neck and she stretched out, letting the swing lift her higher and higher. She closed her eyes and listened to the breeze as she swooshed back and forth.
God, I want to live like this. Abandoned to You and trusting You with my future. She paused. With Daniel.
The words released a weight in her chest. Could she trust God? To know her best interests? To protect her heart? Even as she thought the questions, she laughed. If she couldn’t trust Him, who could she trust?
Friday evening, Daniel hurried from the office. The days stayed light longer, but if he didn’t hurry, he wouldn’t have enough time to implement his plan. And if there was anything he was good at, it was building a plan and executing it.
It was what attorneys did every day.
Now he just had to get this one to work out. With a certain girl. Who just might outthink him if he wasn’t careful.
He flew through his town house, grabbing the fresh clothes he’d set out the night before. In less than fifteen minutes, he was back out the door and in his car. He turned to a classical station to set a soothing mood as he zipped up King Street toward Cherry Blossom Estates. Toward Ciara.
One chance. He had one chance to get this right.
He shook his head and turned up the music. If he kept telling himself things like that, he’d lose his focus before he even arrived at Ciara’s doorstep.
“It’s just
one night, man.” The pep talk didn’t help. At all.
At the stoplight, he looked in the rearview mirror, then tried to rub the stress from his face. It wasn’t Ciara’s fault his day had deepened the circles under his eyes. He really needed to evaluate how he selected clients. Some of them simply weren’t worth the added headaches, like today’s no-shows. Not showing for a child support hearing stood as the all-time no-no, and these guys didn’t get it. Even if you felt persecuted, you had to show up, tell the judge why. Today’s yahoos had ignored his advice and now one had an arrest warrant outstanding and the other was one small step away from the same thing.
Tonight would be a great night to avoid work conversations in total.
Like that could happen when two attorneys went to dinner. He’d just have to try hard to come up with ways to steer the conversation in any of a million other directions. All of them far from that courthouse sitting near downtown Old Town.
He pulled his sedan into a vacant slot in front of Ciara’s end unit, then hurried to her door. Almost before he knocked, the door opened and Ciara stood there. His breath disappeared as he soaked in the vision of her. At her throat, she wore a frothy pink scarf the same color as the cherry blossoms, setting off her cream dress and adding warm color to her cheeks. Heels elevated her closer to his level, and she wore her hair down in soft waves just below her shoulders. Her eyes sparkled as she smiled.
“Let me grab a coat, and I’ll be ready.” She turned toward the corner where her coat tree hid and slid into her beige trench coat before he could reach her side. Ciara tugged her hair free of the collar, then quirked her head to the side. “What?”
Daniel gathered his thoughts. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
The color in her cheeks heightened, and she glanced to the side. “You say that to all the girls.”
He cleared his throat. “Not at all.” He offered her his arm. “Ready for an evening out?”
“Absolutely. I am glad to put this week behind me and relax.” She took a step on her heels and teetered just a moment when one seemed to slip into a crack on the brick.
Should he reconsider his plans? He studied her a moment, then decided he couldn’t. It was time to let her know.
Ciara brushed back a creeping wave of uncertainty. Had she overdressed? Daniel kept looking at her with something in his gaze, something she couldn’t read. He opened her car door, and she slid onto the leather seat. After placing her hands in her lap, she took a steadying breath as he hurried around the car.
Daniel started the car and eased out of the neighborhood. “Are you hungry?”
“Not yet.”
“Good. I thought we could make a quick stop before heading to the restaurant.”
The strains of violins wrapped around her. Usually she found classical music soothing, but today an edge of discord seemed to creep in with the tones. She shook off the thought, one that surely came from her overactive imagination. She eased against the cushion and forced herself to relax. Work had ended and she had time to relax.
In moments, Daniel motored his car through light traffic into the city on 395. They veered off onto the Fourteenth Street Bridge, and soon he twisted through the maze back toward the Jefferson Memorial. Its neoclassical marble dome poked over the Japanese flowering cherry trees that ringed it.
Ciara stayed quiet as he pulled into a parking slot. He turned off the car and looked at her.
“Up for a stroll?” There was a playful glint hiding something deeper—maybe a challenge—in his gaze.
“Always.” Though if she’d known, she would have worn different shoes. A pair that wouldn’t leave mismatched blisters all over her feet.
Daniel led her to the sidewalk that circled the Tidal Basin and kept a slow pace. For a Friday night, tourists and pedestrians hadn’t overrun the area, though several runners zipped around them. The cherry trees stretched branches overhead, each still decorated with the dainty pink and white blossoms that exploded with the advent of spring. Without crazy storms, the blossoms had lasted longer than Ciara could remember seeing them.
Daniel kept up a steady stream of small talk. Anytime a topic showed a hint of petering to an end, he’d turn to something new, almost as if he wanted to make sure one topic didn’t show up. Ciara let him lead wherever he wanted. She’d enjoy the moment regardless of the topic, as long as it wasn’t a case they shared.
As they reached the end of the circle, he stopped and looked into her face. “Want to sit on the steps for a minute?”
Ciara nodded, even though she didn’t want to imagine what might happen to her cream dress. The dry cleaners could try to sort out any mess later. Right now she wanted to enjoy the easy camaraderie between them. Even if it meant cold legs and possible stains.
After he helped her ease to the stone, she couldn’t hide a quick shiver.
“Guess I should have grabbed a blanket.”
“I’ll be fine for a bit.”
He slipped his sports jacket off, then slid it over her trench coat. He shoved his hands in his pockets and studied the skyline.
This was what Ciara loved about living in Washington, DC. Moments like this when the reality that she lived in the nation’s capital confronted her from all sides. Planes roared into and out of flight patterns for Reagan National Airport, while cars streamed in and out of the city on 395. The monuments and Capitol Building stood in contrast to the sky, while government buildings lined the spaces in between. Throw in the mix of tourists, and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
Daniel bumped her shoulder, and she turned toward him.
“I’m glad we’ve started spending time together again, Ciara.” The words seemed almost forced, not the natural delivery she’d expect.
“I am, too.” She shifted, feeling the cold penetrate her dress.
Daniel studied his hands, then looked up at her, his eyes piercing her. “I don’t have many regrets in my life, but one is letting us drift apart after our clerkship. You are an amazing woman, and when I’m with you, I want to be so much more than the man I am now.”
She started to speak, needing to stop wherever he was headed, but he placed a finger on her lips. The contact sizzled into the space between them, and her breath hitched.
“Hear me out.”
He must not understand that at the moment she could hardly form a thought, let alone a sentence. Instead, she almost moaned when he pulled back slightly.
“I know we’ll probably never see our cases the same way… and frankly, life would get boring if we did.” A rakish air hit his eyes, and she caught a hint of Humphrey Bogart. “But I don’t want to let us drift apart again. I want you in my life, deeply in my life. I can’t imagine it without you now.”
He stroked her cheek, and Ciara leaned into the touch.
“I want you, no, need you in my life, Ciara. These last weeks have shown me what a shell I’ve lived without you.”
She nodded. “My life’s the same. Full, but not rich. It’s missing something crucial without you.”
“It’s more than that.” Daniel took a moment as if weighing what he intended to say next. Counting the cost before saying the words. “I can’t imagine my life without you beside me… forever.”
Ciara kept nodding, even as she searched his gaze for any hint that he didn’t mean what he’d said. “I can’t go back either.”
“I love you, Ciara.” He tipped her chin up, then slowly, hesitatingly eased toward her. He stopped, hovering above her lips, giving her the opportunity to back away… create space between them. Instead, she leaned into him, met his kiss. The moments evaporated as he held her, a touch as light as if she were a cherry blossom he could crush. Instead, she felt treasured and honored.
After a minute, he eased back, and she hid her face in his chest. Daniel wrapped his arms around her, and she knew she’d found what her heart had searched so long for… a place to be loved.
CARA C. PUTMAN lives in Indiana with her husband and fou
r children. She’s an attorney and a ministry leader and teacher at her church. She has loved reading and writing from a young age and now realizes it was all training for writing books. An honors graduate of the University of Nebraska and George Mason University School of Law, Cara loves bringing history to life. She is a regular guest blogger at Generation Next Parenting and Writer Interrupted, as well as writing at her blog, The Law, Books & Life. Learn more about Cara and her books at www.caraputman.com. She loves to hear from her readers.
BURIED DECEPTION
by Gina Conroy
Dedication
So many people have had their hands on this novella that I was afraid there might be no one left to read it! Many thanks to WIN, ACFW, and my ACA family who have tirelessly critiqued and encouraged me with this debut novella. Special thanks to my Cherry Blossom Capers partners, Cara, Lynette, and Frances, who believed in me enough to include me in this collection. Special thanks to Amelia Chrisholm and the staff at Mount Vernon who never grew tried of my questions and provided me with behind scenes information about the archaeology program. To my family, who might not “get” this writing thing, but who let me do it anyway. And to my daughter, who prayed every night for mommy to sell a book. Last, but never least, to the One who’s brought me this far on my writing journey by teaching me how to surrender.
Chapter 1
Alex, come back!” Samantha Steele’s heart jolted, and she darted after her seven-year-old son. The little renegade ignored her pleas and ran full-throttle toward the dig site behind the slave quarters at Mount Vernon Estates. She glanced at Callie, her nine-year-old, who huffed after her. Why’d her sitter get sick the first day of her archaeology internship?
Samantha pursued Alex through the upper garden toward the archaeology pit where tourists gathered. Her chest tightened. Squatting in the dirt, her boss seemed oblivious to the runaway locomotive about to cause a train wreck.