Old Flames Never Die (Valentine Mystery)

by Harte, Jenna

  Tess nodded again. She felt a hand grab her knee and knew it wasn't Jack trying to be amorous. “The police will want to know about his family, friends and work.”

  “Oh, well. They'll be disappointed. Except for the fallout with Bobby Wilson, I don't know much about what Charles' life was like.”

  Tess frowned, but before she could say anything, she felt another squeeze on her knee.

  “You should probably call a lawyer,” Jack suggested.

  “But I've got an alibi—”

  “I know. But the police can be tricky. If it weren't for Tess, I might be in jail today.”

  “You're a lawyer, Tess. Can I hire you?”

  Tess nearly choked on the wine she was sipping. She wiped her mouth with her napkin to give her a moment to gather her thoughts. “Liv, I'd love to, but my practice is closed right now and I haven't been working. I think you should call someone who specializes in defense law. I can give you some names if you like.” Tess could feel Jack's confused eyes on her.

  “Do you really think I need to do that? Won't that make the police more suspicious?”

  “I think it's always best to have a lawyer with you when you talk to the police,” Tess said.

  “I guess I'll need those names then.”

  ~~~~

  “So what did you think?” Jack asked once he and Tess were in the car heading home.

  “She's nice.”

  “Nice? That's it?”

  “What do you want me to say?” Tess asked.

  “What did you really think of her?”

  “I thought she was beautiful, smart, charming, and I can't imagine why it didn't work out between you two.” Well, she could think of one reason, but she wasn't going to share that.

  “I was afraid this might happen.”

  “What might happen?” Tess asked, not liking what she thought Jack was about to insinuate.

  “That you might not be able to meet her without thinking about my past relationship with her. Is that why you refused to help her?”

  “No. You know I haven't been working.”

  “But you've been talking about it. This would be the perfect opportunity to get back to work. Instead you acted like she wasn't worth it, which is what I was afraid would happen if you came.”

  “Then why'd you invite me?”

  “I wanted you to see that you had nothing to worry about.”

  “Who's worried?” Tess defended herself. Sure, she was a little unsettled about the idea of meeting one of Jack's old flames, but not because she thought he’d take up with her again. It was just a woman's insecurity.

  He glanced at her and then the road. “I thought you'd realize by now that I'm committed to you and our relationship.”

  “I do realize it. You think that by not representing her I'm questioning your love for me?”

  “I know you. You're waiting for something to happen to prove that you shouldn't have let yourself fall in love with me.”

  Waiting wasn't quite right, Tess thought. Wondering was more like it. “My reason for not working with Liv has nothing to do with my worrying I might lose you to her. Sure, I compared myself to her. That's what the new woman and old flame do. I'm sure she did it too. You and Daniel do it all the time,” she said, referring to the annoying pissing matches Jack and her friend Daniel got into.

  “I'm not jealous of Daniel,” Jack said.

  “And I'm not jealous of Liv. I'm going home with you and she's going home alone. I have no reason to be jealous.”

  Jack pulled into the driveway and parked in front of the house. He sat with his hands on the wheel looking out through the windshield.

  “What's going on?” Tess asked. “You're acting strange.”

  He turned to her, his face etched with worry. “We need to talk.”

  Tess' heart dropped to her feet. She knew as well as anyone that the words 'We need to talk' were never followed by anything good. “It sounds like maybe I should have been jealous after all.”

  “No. No,” he said again as he reached out to her. “I love you. But I need to tell you something and I don't think you're going to like it.”

  “So don't tell me.”

  “I have to. If this thing between us is going to work, we need to be honest.”

  Tess swallowed. Whatever happened to ignorance is bliss?

  “Let's go inside,” he said.

  Tess could feel the wall beginning to rise. She could see in Jack's eyes that he saw it too.

  “I haven't betrayed you,” he said. “I never will.”

  Okay, that was good. So why did he have doomsday written all over his face?

  They went to the kitchen where Jack put water on for coffee. Tess sat and waited for the shoe to drop. Jack pulled a chair in front of her and sat. Their knees bumped as he reached forward to take her hands. Tess allowed it, although she didn't hold his back.

  “I met Liv at a party I went to just after my mother died. I wasn't really in a party mood, but I needed to get out, get drunk…” He let the rest of his thought hang in the air.

  Tess' heart softened. She had only recently come to understand the toll his mother's loss had taken on him.

  “Anyway, Liv struck up a conversation and it started from there. She listened and comforted. I was living on the edge then. Drinking too much. Doing crazy things. I didn't care. She kept me grounded or as grounded as I could be behaving the way I was. I'd probably be a homeless bum if it weren't for her.”

  “I'm glad she was there for you. But you don't need to explain your relationship with her, Jack. I told you that I'm not having any fears about it.”

  He pulled her hands to his lips and kissed them. “My mother died two years ago, Tess.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “Liv has been married to Charles for six years.”

  Tess sat for a minute wondering what the two had to do with each other. Then realization dawned. She could only stare at him and then, pulling her hands back, she stood and moved away. “She was married.”

  Chapter Two

  Tess couldn't breathe. On an intellectual level, she knew her reaction was over the top. After all, he hadn't betrayed her. But the idea that Jack could be involved in infidelity was so out of the realm of what she believed about him. He wasn't that type of man. There had to be an explanation.

  “Did you know she was married?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you did it anyway?”

  “Yes. I can tell you what I was thinking at the time, but it doesn't excuse it.”

  “Why did you do it?”

  Jack sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. “I wasn't in my right mind after my mom died. I was bitter that I could have all this money and success, but not save the one person that mattered most. I was drunk or getting drunk most of the time. Liv and Charles were having problems. They were separated and she said she was filing for divorce.”

  Separated. Filing for divorce. That was better, wasn't it? She looked at Jack and saw disappointment etched in his face. She could see this was hard for him. “With her, there were brief moments when the pain was gone.”

  “What about Cora?”

  Jack sighed. “Cora tried to help, but only Liv would let me do what I wanted.”

  “Which was drink and have sex with a married woman.”

  Defeated, he dropped his head. “Something like that.”

  “So what happened?”

  He laughed.

  “This isn't funny.”

  He looked up at her then. “No. I'm laughing because I think you'll appreciate the irony of this. It was Brad who told me I was throwing away my life and that my mother would be sorely disappointed.”

  “Brad?” Her ex-fiancé and Jack's chief operating officer wasn't the type to intervene in anyone's crisis. The only explanation was that Jack's behavior was impacting the company's bottom line. Brad wouldn't tolerate that.

  Jack smiled. “Who would have thought he had scruples, eh? Anyway, he convi
nced me to get back involved with the business. I wasn't quite ready then, but I broke it off with Liv, who took it well. Then I went away for a while to get my head together. When I got back, I decided I wanted to honor my mother by living how she lived— all out, carpe diem and all that. But until I met you again, I was still carrying around a huge hole. With you I'm…”

  “If you say I complete you I'm going to walk out of this room.”

  He gave a faint smile. “I just feel normal again. Better than normal. I don't want to lose that, Tess.”

  She rubbed her hands over her face and then looked to him. “So why are you telling me this now?”

  “I told you…”

  “Why now? Why not before we went to dinner?”

  Jack gave her a sheepish expression. “I thought I wouldn't tell you ever. I didn't think it would matter. I told myself it wasn't the same type of betrayal you experienced.”

  “Cheating is ch—”

  “I know that. I was just trying to avoid it. But then, tonight in the car, you told me you weren't jealous. I realized I had the trust I thought you were denying me, but I didn't deserve it. I had to come clean and hope you'd forgive me for not telling you sooner or for doing it at all.”

  “I would have never thought you'd do something like that.”

  “I'm not perfect.”

  The tightness in her chest that had been loosening began to burn. “What does perfect have to do with it? Since when does decency require perfection? There has to be millions of non-perfect people who've never been involved in infidelity.”

  “I made mistakes because I didn't handle my mother's death very well. But I am decent, Tess. Since we have known each other, I have never done anything to make you question my feelings for you, have I?”

  She shook her head. It was true. In fact, of the two of them, she was the one who'd always put a wrench in their relationship.

  “I will never betray you. You have my word.”

  “This is not a little thing, Jack. I wasn't just angry at Brad when I caught him cheating. I was angry at the other man. They both knew he was engaged, but slept together anyway.

  “I know. I was hurting and alone and pissed off at the world. I didn't care about me or Liv and certainly not Charles. She was hurting too. If she wasn't separated, it probably wouldn't have happened.”

  “Probably?”

  “Jesus, Tess, I don't know. I only know that at the time her separation was the reason I decided it was okay. She told me she was going to file for divorce. If I didn't care about other people's commitments, I would have tried to seduce you when you were with Brad. I may have made a bad choice, but I believed Liv and Charles were over. “

  “But she didn't leave him.”

  “I don't know if she did or not. We were over about as quickly as it started. They must have reconciled, but I don't know what he knew or if he knew. I'm not like that now. I've got myself together. I'm happier than ever and that's because of you.”

  She stood, watching him, wanting to believe him. A part of her did believe him, at least the part about his love for her. But if he could be a part of infidelity once, didn't that mean he could do it again?

  “Tell me you believe me. I made a mistake once in a horrible time in my life. You aren't really going to make me pay for that, are you?”

  “It's not a matter of punishing you, Jack. It's a matter of trusting you.”

  He stood then, walked to her. “You know all my secrets, my demons. I've been honest with you, Tess.”

  He stood close, but didn't touch her. He was waiting for her to make a move. She could see the uncertainty in his eyes, as if he knew that she could just as easily move away as toward him. She had to give him credit. He could have kept the secret to himself or at least not highlighted Liv's marital status. By showing his past mistake, he was trying to tell her he could be trusted.

  A little tinge of guilt crept into her gut. “Since you've been honest with me, I should probably tell you something I've been keeping from you.”

  His eyes narrowed and he looked like he wasn't sure if he should be worried or annoyed. “Okay.”

  “I think Liv killed her husband.”

  Jack couldn't have been more surprised. “She has an alibi.”

  “I know.”

  Confused, he asked, “So why would you think she killed her husband?”

  “She acts like a woman who needs an alibi.”

  “Turns out she did need one,” he pointed out.

  She blew out a breath. “The only people who act like they need alibi know they need an alibi.”

  Jack shook his head. “You aren't making sense.” Then he realized what must be going on. “Did Daniel call you?” The idea of it angered him. Not that Daniel would call her, but that Tess would willingly go to dinner with Liv and not tell him she was undercover for the police. Talk about betrayal.

  “No. I figured this out all on my own. I've worked with a few guilty people.”

  “And what did you figure from our dinner?” he asked tightly.

  “What did I have for dinner?”

  “What? Some pasta dish.”

  “It was risotto. And did you and Brad play golf this weekend?”

  “Yes. So what?” Jack couldn't determine where Tess was going with her questions.

  “Do you have the receipt?”

  “I don't know…I think Brad paid.”

  “So if I were killed this weekend, you'd have no alibi.”

  “Except that I was with Brad.”

  She gave him an exasperated glare. “The point is, who collects receipts when it's not business?”

  “Maybe Charles required her to. He was known be tight with a penny.”

  “Jack, she told us she couldn't help the police with information about Charles' life and yet she knew he ate an egg white omelet at 9:08 in the morning.”

  “Maybe she cooked it for him,” Jack said. Although deep down, he didn't think Liv knew how to heat water in a microwave. “Look, it might look suspicious to you, but Liv's not a killer. She's got too much going for her.”

  “Just because she's good in bed doesn't mean she isn't a killer.”

  “And just because you're jealous doesn't mean she is.”

  “We're not back to that, are we?” Tess' eyes mirrored Jack’s anger and annoyance. “Are you always going to discount what I say because you think I'm jealous?”

  “What you're accusing her of is ludicrous.”

  Tess stepped back and he could see the walls rising again. That pissed him off even more. “Don't retreat on me, Tess. Couples disagree. They argue. That doesn't mean it's over.”

  “I don't like having to listen to you defend an old lover.”

  “We simply don't agree.”

  “It's more than that. You just chose her story over my instincts.”

  Jack stepped away, cursing as he ran his fingers through his hair. “You've caught me off guard. I just can't see that she'd kill anyone.”

  “Fine.”

  “But that doesn't mean I don't believe you or don't think you aren't a good lawyer. I just think you're mistaken. Maybe all this time off has—”

  “Stop! Please don't tell me my skills are compromised because I've taken a little time off. I have no proof and I may be wrong, but I'm telling you, her story doesn't measure up.”

  He shook his head. “Let's just let it go. We did our duty and had dinner. Now it's over and we're back to us.”

  “And how about when the police call and want to talk to you? Because they will.”

  “Why? I don't know anything. It's been over a year since I last talked to her.”

  “Because two days after her husband was murdered, she called you.”

  ~~~~

  The chirping of Jack's phone woke Tess. Rolling over, she reached to his side of the bed to find emptiness. Popping open one eye to make sure she didn't miss him, she verified that his side was vacant. She started to muster the energy to reach across the bed to grab the phone on
his bedside table when he walked into the room with only a towel draped low around his waist. Water dripped from his chest and hair. He looked delicious. Tess would have considered divesting him of the towel, if it weren't for the scowl on his face.

  Jack picked up the phone and checked the caller ID. He gave Tess a knowing look before answering. “Daniel.”

  Tess flopped back on the bed. She didn't try to listen in because she knew what this call was about.

  “Why do I need a lawyer? Am I a suspect?”

  Or did she? She was certain the police would want to talk to Jack about Liv, but not as a suspect.

  “Or do you just want to delve through my sordid past?”

  Whatever it was, Tess knew she was going with Jack to talk to the police. Not that she would have ever let him talk to them alone, but now it sounded like Daniel wanted her there.

  “Nine-thirty, then.” Jack tossed the phone on the bedside table, his scowl growing darker.

  “I can be ready in forty-five minutes,” she said.

  “I don't want to give him the satisfaction of making you hear about Liv and me again.”

  “But he won't get any satisfaction,” Tess argued. “I already know. I do know everything, right?”

  He gave her a disappointed glare, then stalked to his closet. Tess tried not to feel his dismissal as rejection, but it was hard. She went to the bathroom and showered, reminding herself that disagreements were part of relationships, and that Jack being mad didn't mean he was done with her.

  When she finished, she popped open the door to reach for her towel, but it wasn't there. Poking her head out, she saw Jack standing outside the stall with the towel hanging from his fingertip. He was fully dressed, including a tie.

  “I'm sorry,” he said as she took the towel and wrapped it around her. “I'm not proud of my behavior with Liv and I don't like the idea of parading it out for everyone to see. But I shouldn't take it out on you.”

  “No, you shouldn't,” she said moving to the sink to brush her teeth. “I don't suppose it occurred to you that I would want to go, not as a lawyer, but as someone who loves you. You know, to stand by my man?”

  She saw the tension ease on his face and his lips slightly tilted upward. “No.”