Leo’s guard softened, relieved they were at least speaking. “I even had a few new tricks up my sleeve.”
“How come you’re not trying to scare her?” Everett glanced down the hallway. “Although from the cozy set up in the den, I have my answer.”
“The power went out. We kept each other company.” Leo couldn’t tell his brother the true nature of his feelings for Rose. Everett’s world-class manipulations had no boundaries. “I’m glad you’re finally talking to me.”
Everett shrugged. “Only out of necessity. Some things are unforgiveable.” He inhaled sharply. “Differences aside—”
“God damn it!” Leo slapped his palm on the table. “What the hell is wrong with you? Jesus. Life is short.”
“Very cliché. I expect more from you.” Everett’s jaw tightened and eyes narrowed. “You never asked my permission to be with Camille.”
“I didn’t need your permission to fall in love.”
“With her, you did.” Everett’s voice cracked.
“How many times have I told you, I hardly knew Camille when you two dated, and when I met her two years after you guys broke up, I figured it was over. Our romance wasn’t planned, it just happened.”
Everett shut his eyes, brought his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Please, Leo. Stop.”
“Why does it matter after all this time? You’re happily married. Jacqueline is a wonderful woman.”
Everett lowered his hand and opened his eyes. “I only came here to tell you I’m going to sell you the house. I’ve set up a meeting with the attorney. This way, you have no need to contact me any longer.”
Leo bit back rage building inside him. He couldn’t believe his brother would go this far. He’d always hoped someday this tension would end. “God damn you, Everett! Be a man. Tell me what’s really bugging you.”
“Be a man?” Everett pushed back the chair fast and stood, his cheeks blasting bright red. “I was a man! There was more going on between Camille and me than you know.”
“And why is that? Your silence perhaps?”
“You didn’t deserve any more than that.”
“Spoken like a true grudge-holding, stubborn—”
“She was pregnant.”
“What?”
“When we were dating, she got pregnant.” Everett quieted. “We discussed marriage, but she lost the baby early in the pregnancy.”
Camille had never told Leo this, leaving him to wonder how well he really knew his wife.
“It—well, the whole episode changed her. I never wanted to end things. It was her call.” Everett fell back into his seat. Pain deeper than Leo had ever seen on him filled his eyes. “I loved her.”
Leo understood how Camille’s mental health issues were tied into her physical well-being. A pregnancy, then losing a baby, could shift her hormones in ways he could only imagine.
“I’m sorry, Everett. I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me?” Leo suddenly felt anger at Camille for never having shared this with him. Her secrecy carried a manipulative quality that hurt.
“Tell you? Admit the woman I loved chose my brother?” Everett snorted. “It wouldn’t have mattered. By the time you two came home, it was clearly too late.”
Truth rang in his remark, leaving a sour taste in Leo’s mouth. “But, if we’d at least talked—” Leo stopped as the guest apartment door opened.
Bella entered the kitchen dragging her attached leash. Rose entered next, still tucking her camouflage T-shirt into the waistband of a pair of baggy jeans that narrowed at her ankles. This time she wore her glasses, and “happy face” barrettes held back coppery loose hairs from her face. Leo noted his brother’s silent observation, screaming of judgment that only someone who flew on private jets and stayed at five-star hotels could have.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Her curious gaze drifted between the two men; then she turned to Leo. “Back in a bit.”
“Enjoy your walk.” He smiled, hoping she’d know he was okay. She gave him an uncomfortable, brief smile back. He’d tell her the good news about the house later.
Everett started intently at Rose, his brows furrowed. “So, Emma?”
She lifted a brow.
“Have we met before?”
“No.” Her cheeks turned crimson. Leo wanted to rush over and block his brother’s view because she looked guilty as all hell of something. “I have one of those faces.”
“Possibly. But…” Everett drummed his fingers, squinted at her. “Oh well, maybe not.”
She blinked a few times, but Leo sensed her uneasiness was no doubt spurred by Everett’s intense scrutiny.
“I’d better walk the dog.” She hurried out the back door.
“You know,” Everett said the second the door shut, “I forget names, but I never forget a face.”
The remark unnerved Leo. Especially with everything on the news about the FBI investigation. “Can we get back to what you said before? I wish you’d reconsider our relationship. Dad loved us both. He left us this place in the hopes we’d reconcile our differences. I hoped we could, too.”
Everett stared passively at Leo, like mentioning their father might have softened his hard shell.
Then a steely glow shadowed his eyes. “I’ve some recent sales figures from town, similar comps to this place.” He reached into the pocket of his jacket and removed a sheet of paper. “I think you’ll find this figure for the buy-out a fair asking price.”
He handed it to Leo then stood and went to the kitchen window.
Leo studied the information. The price was fair and the term of the deal one he couldn’t refuse.
“Interesting. She’s out there talking to Harry,” Everett mumbled. He suddenly turned around and stared at Leo. “Is she from town? Maybe that’s why I remember her.”
“No. Boston. She’s from Boston.”
Everett turned back to the view outside the window.
If Everett recognized her as Rose Richardson, who knew how far he’d go. The worst part was, there wasn’t a damn thing Leo could do about it.
Chapter 23
After typing the same sentence twice, Leo got out of the chair and walked to the attic window. The sparkling lake waters usually relaxed him. Not today.
Everett had left an hour ago and Rose hadn’t returned from her walk. Leo imagined his brother running into Rose along the road, stopping, and grilling her for information. Either about her relationship with Leo or, worse, why she looked familiar.
Bella’s howl made him glance toward the end of the driveway. The dog dashed across the backyard toward Harry, who approached Rose, several steps behind her pet. As they neared, he extended a bunch of lilacs to Rose.
She smiled and took them, burying her nose inside the fragrant flower. Then she gave sly old Harry a peck on the cheek. Leo chuckled. In his younger days, Harry was a man that could’ve made Leo jealous with such a gesture. Aw, hell. He was a teeny bit jealous now.
She stood chatting with the neighbor, her chin held high, laughing sweetly, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Stoic. Rose struck him as a woman who’d survive, no matter what. Last night, she’d admitted to running at the age of eighteen and building herself a new world.
An uneasy thought trampled him out of nowhere. Maybe that’s all she’d been doing here.
After Everett had left, the first thing Leo did up here was go to his computer and search for “Warren and Wendy Holloway.” Despite how she’d talked openly about them, his curiosity needed to be satisfied.
The shooting happened in nineteen ninety-two. Leo vaguely recalled seeing it on the news back then. One link showed the handsome couple. Wendy Holloway’s pretty, heart-shaped face and smallish mouth reminded him of Rose. Her father, tall with rich dark hair and a profile that could give Rock Hudson a run for his money.
Passion. It drove people to do the unthinkable. In her parents’ case it was Warren’s affair with another actor, leaving Wendy angry e
nough to kill her husband and then herself.
The article had shown a photograph of the whole family. The Hollywood couple stood on each side of a preteen girl at a formal event. The young girl possessed the maturing features of the same woman he’d made love to last night. The worry she might leave took another stab at his gut, but he knew he had to put faith in what they’d found.
A knock at the attic door jarred his thoughts. “Come in.”
After a stampede of footsteps, both Rose and Bella appeared at the top of steps. Bella got to him first.
He scratched Bella’s chest as she dragged her tongue against his cheek, sloppy but rewarding. “How’s my girl?” he cooed, earning him a faster tail wag.
“I’m good.” Rose grinned and sidled near him like a cat in search of attention. “Working?”
“Sort of. I could use a break.” Leo stood and put his arms around her waist, drawing her close. “I’m sorry Everett barged in earlier. I didn’t know he was in the States.”
“I could tell. Do you think he recognized me?”
“He didn’t say anything after you left.” Leo opted to keep to himself the few things his brother had said so she wouldn’t worry even more.
“What’s strange is he seemed familiar to me, too. On my walk, I finally figured out why. I think we met at a fundraiser at Charlie Palmer’s restaurant in DC. Mostly CEOs and presidents of some huge firms were there. I could swear I was introduced to Everett. There with another guy who worked for some company in Switzerland. They wanted to open an office in Raleigh. Does that sound like something he’d attend?”
“Possibly. He works and lives in Switzerland at the moment. Even if he figures out who you are, I doubt he’d tell anybody. You shouldn’t worry.”
Leo tried to look sincere. He trusted his brother about as much as he did a cobra launched to strike, but why concern Rose any more than she was?
He kissed the top of her head. “So, beautiful, why the visit to my lair?”
“Harry invited us over for a barbecue tonight.”
“You sure he wants me there? I saw him hand you those flowers.”
“Wow. You’re jealous enough to spy on me?” She lifted her hand off his shoulder and traced his jawline with her fingertip. “I’d say the trust in this relationship went downhill fast.”
“Hell, yeah. Harry’s a lady killer.”
She laughed. “Those sparkling blue eyes of his are persuasive. He invited Bella, too.”
“If Bella’s going, then I’m in.” He dipped his head and sampled her bottom lip, moving to the side of her mouth then kissing her full on the lips. “Harry’s a good guy.”
“I think so too.” Emma stretched on her toes and brushed her lips to his. Before she could pull away, he slipped a hand behind her head and deepened the kiss. His other hand went beneath her shirt, enjoying a path along her spine as she melted into his hold.
She pulled away, tipping back her head to see him. “You’re distracting me before I could finish. I thought we should bring something, even though he said we didn’t need to.”
“Sure. Want to take a ride into town? Crumbs Bakery probably has something left in their cases.”
“If not, I’m sure they’d whip something up for you. You’re probably their number one customer.”
“Not true. But I do go regularly.” He nestled his nose into her hair, inhaled a sweet scent, as delectable as the smell of baking cookies at the bakery. Combing his hands through her hair, he kissed her tenderly. Her throaty sigh of contentment made his needs stir and the problems of today tumble away.
She slipped a few fingers inside the waistband of his sweatpants and her gaze drifted over his shoulder. “Why’s there a bed up here?”
“When I was fourteen, my parents let me turn this into my bedroom instead of sharing a room with Everett.”
“Did you lure pretty young ladies up here back then to show them your etchings?” She kissed his throat then behind his ear, her warm breath washing over him.
“My etchings? Do I strike you as the type to use such understatement to get what I want?”
“Maybe at that age.”
“To answer your question, no. I did not lure any girls up here.” He carefully guided her backward to the bed, eased her onto her back, and stretched out alongside her. “But, you know, we never finished what we started before.”
She allowed him to take over. He removed her camouflage shirt and went for her baggy jeans. “I’m starting to find your weird wardrobe kind of sexy, you know.”
“I hope you’re not disappointed by what’s on beneath these pants.”
He snapped the button and shimmied them down her hips. The enticing red bikini panties once left at his door fit snug to her curves. He ran a hand along the slope of her hip. “You, my dear, could never disappoint me.”
* * * *
Rose stuck another dinner dish onto the drying rack, feeling easily at home in Harry’s large kitchen.
His colonial, nearly as old as Leo’s, had updates galore. The kitchen’s black granite countertops, whitewashed cabinets, and shiny hardwood floors were more like Rose’s home in North Carolina. Walls throughout the house were painted at least in the past decade. Nothing like the wear and tear found in Leo’s house. Still, Leo’s place carried charm she now found comforting.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Leo entered the room carrying his coffee mug. His gaze hungrily flowed over her body. He’d been in Harry’s office helping Harry with a computer problem, the irony not wasted on Rose. “Did I tell you yet that you look very pretty tonight?”
“Three times.” She hiked up the sleeve of her pink cardigan, tossed on earlier with a heather-gray skirt that rode a few inches above her knees. “Here I’d thought my Hello Kitty pants were your thing.”
As she moved toward the sink to start washing the pans, he put down his mug and took her hands, pulling her to his side. “I like those, too. You even tempt me in your Hee Haw outfit.”
She laughed. “My overalls?”
“Yup.” He put his hands on her hips. “And that camo shirt gives me a whole new perspective on jungle wear.”
He leaned in, lips parted and centimeters from hers, when Harry yelled from the other room. “Leo, I think I may see what’s wrong.”
He gave her a quick peck and quietly said, “The best laid plans…” He let go and went over to the Mr. Coffee to refill his mug and yelled, “Be right there.” He looked at her as he poured. “Give me a few more minutes and then I’ll come help clean.”
“I’m okay. Take your time.”
She dipped her hands into the sudsy water and washed a pot, her thoughts wandering to worries that the FBI might consider Leo an accomplice because she’d been staying at his house.
All afternoon, she’d mentally rehashed what could happen to him if they found out. It left her with one conclusion; the only way to fix this might be to return to the place she’d just run away from.
Hard as she tried to ignore the pain in her chest over leaving him, it might be all she could do. It distanced Leo from her problems. It could—and most likely would—lead to her arrest.
Harry’s voice traveled from the den as he explained to Leo about his computer woes. Rose washed another dish, but sadness owned her. Leaving here might be the hardest thing she ever had to do.
* * * *
“So you see, Harry, it’s easy. Just click on this next time and you should be okay.” Leo was proud of his neighbor. Compared to many other senior citizens, he was damn good on the computer.
The older man shook his head. “I never would’ve dreamed it was something so simple. Thanks.”
Harry shut off the computer, glancing at Leo as he did. “I’m glad you came over with Emma. She’s visited me a few times for tea.”
“I heard. You two are getting to be fast friends. Like the two of us when I first arrived at the lake years ago.”
Harry chuckled. “I’ll never forget how you w
andered over here, giving your mom a heart attack. She thought you’d drowned.”
“I wasn’t used to having a parent who paid any attention to my whereabouts.”
“Well, you learned fast enough.” Harry shut down the computer. “So it’s not so bad, having a houseguest? I thought you were happy to finally get the place back to yourself.”
“I was. But I’m actually getting more work done with her around.”
Harry reached out to pat Leo’s hand. “You’ve got a glimmer in your eye when you look her way. You’d better pay attention to how you feel about her, because I think she’s a special one.” His expression became more serious. “Did you ever wonder why Emma showed up here?”
“What do you mean?”
Harry frowned then got up and picked up a newspaper from a chair. He pointed to a photograph. “A few cosmetic changes and they’d be twins.”
Leo held his breath. Rose’s worry that media attention might backfire on her now became his worry. “I guess they do look similar.”
“Emma’s story about why she’s here, it’s always sounded vague to me. Do you think there’s a chance the woman the FBI are after is her?”
Leo debated, unsure if he should put faith in Harry as he’d done his whole life. Finally he said, “What if it was?”
Harry’s brows lifted. “Well, I like Emma. I’d want to understand her side, because all I’m hearing is what the media knows.”
Leo drew in a breath and lowered his voice. “Please, Harry. Whatever your suspicions, can you just let them be?”
A noise at the door made them both turn. Bella trampled toward the two men, happy-go-lucky as always. But Rose stood at the door, her arms crossed and expression wary. “What are you two talking about?”
* * * *
“But if you two figured it out, so will the rest of Northbridge.” Rose waited behind Leo as he unlocked the back door of his house. “Probably half the town has figured it out by now.”
They walked inside and Leo flipped the light switch. The overhead light brightened the kitchen.
He faced her, already frowning. “I told you, it’s only because I overheard you talking to your friend Janine.”
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