by Mary Frame
She swallows and meets my eyes. “Being in the game isn’t easy, as you know. You’re always on the run. Always looking behind you. Always making plans and covering tracks. It was exciting when I was younger but . . . it was time for it to be over.”
Her words floor me. “You wanted to get caught?”
She shrugs. “We were in over our heads. It was too much. Everything had spiraled out of control.”
I know the feeling.
“Your father doesn’t know.” She lowers her voice, as if he might hear her. “He never had anyone who loved him but me, you know.”
I don’t really understand the comment. Is she making excuses for him?
There are things she’s not telling me. About why she was done. Did she do it to protect us? Maybe even a little bit?
I don’t know what to say to her, but I don’t have to because she keeps talking.
“I know we won’t get out of this, no matter how much your father promises me he has it all figured out. Will you come see me sometime? Maybe bring Paige, too?”
“I don’t know.” How could I? I’ve spent the last three months running from them and now she wants me to spend time with them willingly? Even just Mother? I guess it helps if they’re behind bars. I don’t think I can forgive them, but I have to move forward.
I wouldn’t be here if Mother hadn’t tipped me off about the safe. I bet she even left the car door unlocked on purpose. And all the breaks they kept giving me, when she convinced Father to give me more time . . .
I know eventually I have to make peace with them, even if only in my own mind and heart.
I leave the courthouse a bundle of damaged nerves. All raw sensation and exposed underbelly. Agent Sparks takes me back to the hotel and we order cheeseburgers and raid the mini fridge. I don’t know what to think about anything anymore, but I’m glad I talked to my mom. I have to make peace with my past. It’s part of who I am.
It’s my last night. Tomorrow, they’re releasing me back into the wild. Or, you know, back to Castle Cove. I’ve been avoiding all thoughts of Jared and what’s going to happen when I go back, or where I’m going to stay and what I’m going to do. I have to go back, though. Paige is there. Even if I can’t have her, even if I can’t see her, even if I have to sleep on the street, I’m going to find a way to stay close.
“What am I going to do now?” I ask Agent Sparks.
“Have you ever considered a career in law enforcement?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The next morning, Agent Sparks drops me off at the bus station with a hug and a one-way ticket anywhere.
“If you ever need anything, call me. My card is in there.” She nods to the envelope with my ticket. I reach inside and pull out a plain white card with her name, email, and business-phone and cell-phone numbers written in red ink.
“Thank you for everything.”
“Good luck in Castle Cove. I don’t know if I could live there. Those people are nuts.”
“They are.” I smile. “But they’re my nuts.”
I watch her drive away with a sigh and then finger the card in my hand. I wonder what she would do if I called her for a job . . . after I find the money for school and hopefully graduate before I’m thirty-six and too old to be an agent.
I blow out a breath and the business card slips from my fingers and flutters to the pavement.
Bending over, I pick it up. As I stand, my eyes catch on a pair of shoes stopped in front of me. They’re connected to legs encased in dark jeans. A fitted—but not too tight—black T-shirt. At the top is a lovely, recognizable face.
My eyes drink him in. His hair is a mess. His face is scruffy and unshaven. His eyes are watching me as I watch his, our gazes mirroring both hope and caution. He looks delicious. I mean, for god’s sake, he’s wearing jeans and a T-shirt. But still. Possibly the most attractive thing I’ve ever seen.
I don’t know what to say.
Thankfully, he starts first.
“I have to ask you something.”
“Anything.”
He pauses for a few seconds. “Were we a lie, too?”
I shake my head. No matter my answer, will it be pointless? Too little too late? How can I tell him the truth and expect him to believe me? “Does it matter how I answer? Would you believe me?”
“It matters.”
I bite my lip. I don’t deserve his trust, even now that every word is the truth. “I never even told you my real name.”
“I know.” Then he hesitates and admits, “Actually, I always knew you weren’t Ruby.”
My heart drops to the concrete floor at my feet. “What?” I can’t believe it. “What do you mean, you always knew?”
“You might remember when we first met, I wasn’t exactly, um . . .” He smiles a little, one corner of his mouth ticking up at the side. “Nice. To you. I knew you were lying about being Ruby. When I first saw you, you were looking for work on the boardwalk. I watched you go into the stores and ask for a job. But then suddenly you were the owner of the new shop and starting a business. It didn’t make sense.”
I think back to that day at the boardwalk, when he yelled at me for going into the abandoned shop. I didn’t realize he had seen so much. He was a distraction to me, even then.
I don’t know what to say.
He shrugs and shoves his hands in his pockets before he continues. “I’m a cop. It was easy to look up Ruby and realize it wasn’t you. At first, I didn’t really know what to think. And it really didn’t make sense when you knew things happening around town, and you helped people. You weren’t acting like a bad guy. You were kind. I thought maybe you were on the run from something or someone and using Ruby as a cover. I just didn’t know what it was. I had hoped you would trust me and talk to me before it came to this.”
“Trust is a difficult thing. So hard to gain, so easy to lose. You were right, though. I was on the run. Ruby was a cover, one I never should have used. I should have told you sooner. I should have trusted you.” I sigh and look him in the eye. “There’s a lot of things I should have done. I’m sorry that I didn’t trust you enough to tell you. You did earn my trust, over and over, and I was an idiot.”
He smiles a little, just a small upturn of his lips, but it’s enough to send my heart racing. “You’re not an idiot. I understand why you did what you did. Although, I agree that you should have told me sooner.” He moves closer, pulling his hands out of his pockets and I wonder if he’s going to touch me, hug me, strangle me, something. But he stops less than a foot away. So close I have to look up at him. “You haven’t answered my original question.”
I breathe, “We were never a lie. Not to me.”
His smile grows. “Good.” He glances around the bus depot. “Where are you headed?”
“Oh, you know, LA.”
His brows rise. “LA?”
“Yeah, I thought I might audition for a soap opera or something.”
His brows furrow. “Really?”
I smack him in the arm with my envelope. “No! I’m going to Castle Cove, obviously. I can’t go anywhere else. Not if Paige is still there . . . ?” I hold my breath, waiting for his response. It’s something I haven’t wanted to think about, Paige’s real family coming for her. What if they take her away? What if they don’t let me see her? Could I blame them? Would they want someone with such an inauspicious past around their long lost niece or granddaughter or whatever? I wouldn’t.
He smiles but tries to suppress it. “She’s there. But you . . . is it just Paige you want to go back for?”
She’s there. Relief fills me. And my heart flutters with hope at his words. Does he want me to come back for him, too? I can’t quite believe it yet.
“Well, you know, I heard the next book club selection is really good.”
“Really.”
“Not the one they’re actually reading, but the one they’re pretending to read.”
“Of course.”
“And I can’t miss the next tr
ivia night.”
“That would be a shame. You know, I happen to be heading your way. I could give you a ride.”
Now I can’t hide my smile either. “Yes. Yes, please.”
I follow him out of the bus depot and to his car, parked a few rows down in the lot.
We don’t speak again until he’s driving on the freeway.
“How did you know about the . . . my parents? Because you knew, didn’t you. Before the gala.”
He nods. “Agent Sparks and her partner clued me in a couple weeks before. The FBI has been on their tail in the past, but they gave the agents the slip a few years ago. The feds picked them back up because of their involvement with Bradford Stone. Your parents were running a con on him. But it didn’t work out for them, so he started blackmailing them for a significant amount of money. If they didn’t pay him, he planned on taking Paige. He tried to run after you outed them at the gala. The FBI caught him about an hour outside of town and he squealed.”
I nod. “I saw him in Portland.”
“It sounds like they were using Paige as a backup plan, but they never intended to turn her over to him. Anyway, the FBI was tracking him and your parents. Agent Sparks and the others followed them here. The feds didn’t know for sure that you and Paige were even involved. Neither did I, at first, but I started to suspect.”
“When?”
“It just made sense. You were related, you were already lying about being Ruby, and they were known cons . . . Then there were the Castle Cove Ninja incidents, and I found you outside their house late at night.” He shoots me a look, his brows lifted. “You were in all black. I am a cop, you know.”
I flush, chagrined. Of course he knew. “What were you doing by their house?”
“Meeting up with the agents that were tailing them.” He smiles at me. “I knew you were planting a tracker on them. I told you about the chief’s purchases for a reason. I wasn’t sure if you would really steal them, but then . . . I saw the items missing from the archives right after you took them. I didn’t know about the jewelry heist but it was fishy when I found the jewels under the pier. I knew you were involved, but I didn’t know they were actually your parents or that they were blackmailing you or any of those details.”
“Did you hide your tax statements before my birthday party? Which isn’t really my birthday, by the way.” I bite my lip at the confession, even though he undoubtedly knows.
“I did.” He shoots me a quick glance before turning his gaze back to the road. “I knew at that point your parents weren’t exactly trustworthy. I couldn’t take any chances. I may have also set up a small, separate bank account to see if they would try and take it. Or if you would.”
He set it up as a ruse. The man is positively criminal when he wants to be. “I almost used it myself to run again.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. I didn’t. Why didn’t you tell me all of this when I came clean and you arrested me?”
“Well, you see, we had a plan to get them before they left with the charity funds, after the gala. But then Ruby’s accountant showed up, and you exposed them and came clean. We had to do something to make sure they didn’t bail town right away. The only way we could see to keep them here and bring them down was to implicate you. If they thought their plans had worked and you were going to take the fall for their crimes, they would show up to help nail the lid on your coffin. And we would have witnesses, law enforcement, a respected judge . . . and quite a few members of the general public, which wasn’t planned but worked out okay even though I wanted to wring Tabby’s neck.” He shakes his head.
We’re quiet for a few minutes while I think over all of the information he’s given me, along with everything I’ve learned over the last few days.
There’s a question I’m dying to ask and dreading at the same time.
“What about Paige’s real family? Did you contact them?”
“I did. They’re coming to Castle Cove in a couple days. They’ve been making preparations to stay in town for a while.”
My heart starts thumping in my chest. Am I going to lose her anyway?
“They seem very anxious to meet her but also concerned about everything she’s been through. I explained the whole situation to them. They want to run some DNA tests to be sure, but it’s more of a formality. I sent them some pictures and she looks exactly like her parents. They don’t want to upset her routine too much, and it sounds like they’re open to a sort of joint-custody-type thing, depending on what Paige, I mean, Andrea wants. They’re more concerned with her happiness, it seems, than taking her away from everything she has, but they definitely want to be involved. I just thought you should know. They seem like good people.”
I nod, not able to speak, my throat swelling with emotion.
When we reach Castle Cove, I expect him to go to his house, but instead he heads down Main Street and pulls in front of Ruby’s.
“What are we doing here?”
“You’ll see.”
I follow him up the familiar sidewalk, past the sign with the whimsical font that reads Ruby’s Readings and Cosmic Shop, and into the store.
Unlike the first time I walked in, it’s not an empty, dusty space.
It’s full of people and chatter.
In one corner, Ruby is laughing at Mrs. Olsen, who’s holding up a very phallic lighthouse glass sculpture with an arrested expression on her face.
A few more ladies from book club are filling up the space, plus Mrs. Hale and the Newsomes. Ben and Tabby are arguing by the door that leads to the living space, Troy is trying to tickle Eleanor with a peacock feather . . . it’s all so wonderfully familiar.
“You’re here!” an even more familiar voice calls out, and then footsteps are thudding across the wood floor in my direction.
“Paige!”
She throws her arms around me and the room erupts in cheers.
I flush, embarrassed to be on display at such an emotional moment. Even more people are hovering in the doorway to the reading room.
I make myself step back, but I can’t let go of Paige yet, my hands clenched on her shoulders. “You’re wearing new clothes.”
“Tabby made me go shopping with her while we were waiting for you to come home. She said it was the only thing that would make her not want to lie around and eat her feelings.” She rolls her eyes, but her smile is wide and bright.
I can’t believe I’m here. And she’s here. And everything will be okay. Everything will really be okay.
Then Tabby is jumping in between us to give me hugs and I’m lost in the shuffle of people all wanting to talk to me, like I didn’t just see all of them a few days ago.
Finally, I get a chance to ask. “Why are you all here?”
Ruby answers. “It’s a welcome-home party.” She’s smiling, her blond hair braided around the crown of her head with little white flowers stuck in the creases.
At my confusion, she explains. “Not this building, home, but Castle Cove, home.” Then she laughs a little and pats Jared on the arm. “This is your real home.”
I’m not sure if she means Jared or Castle Cove. Maybe both.
But the truth is I don’t even know where I’m sleeping tonight. Jared hasn’t said anything explicit, and while we’ve danced around the issue, I’m not a hundred percent sure he even wants to be with me still. There’s no way we can just pick up where we left off, right?
I can’t ask him now anyway because I’m being herded through the house and out to the backyard. There’s a barbeque set up. Mr. Bingel is wearing an apron and flipping burgers. Children run around in the sprinklers and grown-ups sit around talking and eating and laughing.
I spend an hour or more answering questions and talking while we eat and sit in the warm summer sunshine.
Paige stays near me almost the whole time. I meet Jared’s eyes a few times across the backyard but it’s not until people start leaving that he comes my way.
I’ve spent the last half hour ta
lking to Ruby about her time in India. When Jared stops in our little circle, she finishes her story and then Mrs. Ramsey comes over to ask her a question. They walk away and then it’s just Jared and I standing in the corner of the yard.
The first time we’ve been alone since we got here.
“So can I—?”
“Are you—?”
We both stop and laugh awkwardly.
“You go first,” I say, wanting to stall before I have to humble myself yet again and beg for a place to stay.
“I was just wondering if you were about ready to go.”
“Where are we going?”
He shoves his hands in his pockets and squints at me. “Home. I was hoping. My home, I mean. That is, unless you—”
“No.” I stop him. “There is no ‘unless’ for me.”
“What were you going to say, before?”
“Actually, I wasn’t sure you would want me to stay with you so I was . . .” I flail a little. “Preparing myself to ask.”
His eyes flare for a moment and then he smiles, a slow upward slide of his lips. After a quick glance around, he grabs my hand and tugs me around the side of the house.
“Where are we—”
My words are interrupted with a searing kiss and all thoughts flee. He leans against the wall and pulls me against him, his hands sliding down my body until I groan into his mouth.
It would be so easy to just lose myself in this right now, but I need to know.
“Jared.” I pull away.
“Yeah.” His voice is throaty and his eyes are hooded.
“What does this mean?”
“What does what mean?” He nuzzles my neck.
“I mean . . . you still want me?”
“Nothing’s changed, Charlotte.”
He said my name. My name, on his lips.
Finally.
My breath catches in my throat, and I can’t speak. He must misinterpret my silence as confusion, because he keeps speaking.
“I love you. Of course I still want to be with you. I want you and Paige to live with me—whenever we can keep her—and we’ll figure the rest out.” He pauses, his eyes searching mine in the fading light. “That’s what you want, too, right?”