by Jenny Penn
But how could there be any doubt?
She saw what she saw…hadn’t she? Wasn’t any attempt to rationalize that away simply an act of a broken heart pathetically trying to heal itself? Heather didn’t know what to believe in that moment, and she just wished she had a second to think, but Konor wanted his answer now.
“Tell me,” Konor ordered her, stepping up to catch her shoulders in a hard grip. He all but lifted her off her feet, forcing her to meet his gaze and answer his questions. “Do you really think I’d be here if there was even a chance Alex was guilty of all the things you’ve, no doubt, been imagining all night long?”
“I don’t know what to believe.” Heather wished she did, but she didn’t. “I just know what I saw.”
“What you think you saw,” Konor corrected her. “And that’s not true, because you know me and you know Alex.”
“Do I?” Heather shook her head, thinking that she didn’t really. “Do I even trust what I know? And how can there really be anything between us without trust? Don’t you see how hopeless it is?”
“It’s not,” Konor maintained. “You’re just trying to make it be because you’re scared.”
Before Heather could argue that the reasons didn’t matter, that nothing could be built without trust, GD barged into the kitchen, calling out a greeting that had Konor growling and Heather sighing as he intruded on their moment.
“Heather? You in here? I brought your chariot!” There was a pause and she could feel GD glancing around the room before he gave another shout out. “Heather?”
Swallowing back the pain and anguish gripping her, she caught and held Konor’s gaze for a long moment and knew the choice she was making would cut him, too. She could see it in his eyes. He might be hiding it well but Konor was panicked. As much as his fear touched her heart, Heather couldn’t let that change her mind.
“I’m here.” Her voice quivered, squeaking out at first until she cleared her throat and tried again. “I’m back here!”
Konor’s jaw rolled as he clenched it tight and for a moment his fingers tightened around her before they finally released her, stepping back as GD’s footsteps grew louder. Heather felt the rift widening between them as Konor stood there staring down at her with his features cast into an impenetrable look that warned she’d pushed him too far and she couldn’t help but wonder if things would ever be the same between them.
Despite the sure knowledge that it was for the best, Heather couldn’t help the tears that flooded her eyes. She dipped her head, trying to blink them away before GD arrived, but couldn’t quite accomplish the task. So, instead, she kept her gaze pointed toward his shoes as the big man came to a stop beside her.
There was an awkward moment of silence where she could sense GD’s attention shifting between her and Konor and knew that he could sense the tension that lingered in the air. He didn’t even bother to pretend like he didn’t notice.
“Well, I’m guessing I’m interrupting a happy moment,” GD commented sarcastically as he pulled Heather into a quick hug. His voice gentled as leaned down to whisper in her ear. “How you doing, beautiful?”
“I’m doing.” Muffled against his shirt, that traditional rejoinder assured GD knew that she wasn’t happy. Not with Konor. Not with him. Not with anybody. Not right then.
“Hmm,” GD murmured as he allowed her to pull back. He didn’t let her go completely, though, but kept an arm over her shoulders, anchoring Heather to his side as he turned to give Konor a pointed look.
“I brought the van as requested. It’s parked out back.” GD nodded toward the door that led into the alley. “So, perhaps, you should go get started loading it while I have a moment with my girl.”
Konor’s expression soured with that order, his eyes darkening dangerously on the possessive hold GD had on her. Heather could feel the sudden shift of his temper from annoyance to raw violence, a warning that sounded in his tone.
“You can say whatever you want to my woman,” Konor stressed his claim as he growled over his words, “in front of me.”
“That’s an interesting stance to take.” GD paused as if considering it before cocking a brow at Konor. “The question is, can you enforce it?”
Alarmed by the turn in the conversation along with the sudden surge of testosterone filling the air, Heather snapped out of her stupor and pulled away from GD’s arm to confront both men. “There will be absolutely no enforcing of any kind. Not in my kitchen Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” GD answered instantly, a smirk lighting up his face as he shot a smug look in Konor’s direction. “You heard the lady, get gone before you cause any more trouble.”
For a moment Heather really did think that Konor would take a swing at GD. He had his fist cocked and at the ready, but in the end he simply heaved a heavy sigh and shoved past the big man with no more than a mutter.
“Fine, but I don’t know why I have to do all the heavy work, given you’re the one with all the muscles.”
“Which is just why you need the workout. Got to build up that puny frame. After all, Heather likes her men big, don’t you, beautiful?”
“Actually, I like them discreet,” Heather reminded GD, giving him a dirty look for antagonizing Konor.
“And big,” GD stubbornly insisted, apparently bent on a picking a fight.
“The biggest thing on you is your mouth,” Heather shot back, not amused and more than a little concerned that Konor was about to take an exception to GD’s taunting, but she might have picked the wrong retort because all she managed was to turn his smile lewd as his tone dropped suggestively.
“You never said that like it was a complaint before,” GD all but purred provocatively.
“Enough!” Heather all but begged. “Please. I swear, you’re making me think I was better off with Konor.”
She could say that because Konor had moved far enough away that he couldn’t hear her. Thankfully, he’d chosen to ignore GD and continued on to where she had the racks stacked with trays of boxes all waiting to be delivered. He started rolling them out, the squeaky sound of the rack’s wheels scratching through the air as GD grabbed his chest and stumbled a step back like she’d shot him.
“Ouch. You wound me,” GD declared with a dramatic flourish. “I might not ever recover.”
“And I might never forgive you,” Heather countered.
“Forgive me?” GD repeated with a shocked laugh. “For what?”
“For unleashing Konor and Alex on me?”
“Unleashing?” GD snorted. “You make them sound like dogs.”
“They are,” Heather assured him dourly.
“I heard that!” Konor shouted back from the other side of the boxes, making Heather become suddenly aware of the silence in the kitchen.
“Get to work,” GD hollered back, his words getting lost in the loud bang of the back door being slammed open. The piercing cry of the rack’s wheels started up again, disappearing outside as GD turned his smile back on Heather. “And as for you, you can just stop glaring at me. I didn’t do anything, or unleash anybody. Okay? I simply stepped back, allowing them the room to try. You’re the one who went out and got herself engaged to one of them.”
“I did not!”
Heather gaped up at him, wondering if there was anybody who hadn’t heard that rumor, like Taylor. She hadn’t had a chance to touch base with her son and could only imagine what he was thinking.
“Then maybe you should tell your dad that,” GD suggested. “Because I just spent most of the morning with him and Alex and they were both accepting congratulations and answering questions about the wedding and your plans to start working on a family.”
“What?”
Heather thought she’d keel over right there from heart failure. He wouldn’t dare. After last night, Alex had to know she didn’t want him anywhere near her, much less her family. Unless, of course, the man thought he could somehow bluff his way through this disaster… After all, he already had Konor trying to get her t
o believe it was some strange misunderstanding.
Her dad definitely wouldn’t fall for that bullshit. He knew the score. More importantly, he’d side with family. All she needed to do was reach a phone.
“Don’t bother,” GD warned her as Heather tried to shove past him, reading her mind as usual. “I already talked to your dad. He’s heard about the Gwen rumor.”
“It’s no rumor,” Heather snapped. “Trust me, I was there. I saw them in bed together.”
Heather paused, but GD didn’t flinch. Instead, he shrugged. “It was a misunderstanding.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Heather felt like pulling out her hair and screaming. She gave into only one of those two urges. “Ahhh! Did all of you practice your lines together?”
“There is no need to practice when it’s the truth,” Konor hollered out, clearly passing back into the kitchen and pulling an empty rack, given the speed with which the wheels were crying.
“He’s right.” GD nodded, proving just who he was really loyal to. “I talked to Gwen myself.”
“You talked to Gwen?” Like Heather would believe anything that woman had to say, but it was still telling that GD had cared enough to try. “When? Why?”
“Last night, and because she called to ask me to bail her out.”
“She called you…” That made no sense to Heather other than the obvious reason, which left her feeling kind of sick. “Oh, God. Don’t tell me you and her—”
“No, it’s not like that,” GD denied. “But she is a member of the club…and so was the sheriff, which could be kind of embarrassing for more than just Gwen if this…dispute became more food for the gossips than just the momentary blip. If you get what I mean.”
Heather got him all right. “She blackmailed you.”
“The club, technically,” GD corrected, hesitating before adding on, “and Alex, not that he was particularly worried about her threats. He seems to think you were worth sacrificing his career for, along with everything else in his life, but I was concerned about your future prospects with an unemployed husband to care for.”
“How very noble of you,” Heather retorted, feeling the beginning pressure of a headache building behind her eyes.
Things weren’t supposed to be this complicated. Reaching up, she rubbed at her temples as she tried to think of just what to say. Before she could find the words, though, she needed to figure out just what she was feeling. Heather didn’t know. Between Konor, GD, the rumors, and her dad’s betrayal, she didn’t know who to believe or trust.
“Come on, Heather,” GD’s tone dipped, the smug amusement fading away to honest concern. “Just think how much easier it would be to give in to the obvious instead of fighting it? You and Alex are meant to be, and everybody knows it.”
“But—”
“Look, Gwen and Alex…” GD not only cut her off, he then paused as if he wasn’t sure how to say what he had to say. “That’s been over for a while now, but those words may have never have been technically spoken and Gwen just needed things to be made clear. Trust me, they have been.”
“She cheated on him.” And Heather knew all about those details. “Cheated with Killian and Adam and he’s been persecuting them for it for months now…that doesn’t sound like something that’s actually over.”
“He’s been persecuting because he enjoys it.” GD used her word with enough of a snicker to let her know he’d thought she’d gone a little far with that description. “As for Gwen, he forgave her.”
GD paused long enough for that news to sink in to Heather. It wasn’t welcomed and didn’t understand why he was smiling down at her as if it should be.
“So that’s how much he loved her, huh?” Heather muttered.
“Or didn’t care,” GD corrected. “And I happen to know that’s the truth. What I don’t know is whether or not you’re going to let that bitch ruin what could be the best thing in your life? Because, trust me, beautiful, eventually he will find someone else if you’re unwilling to take him in. After all, a man’s got to get his itches scratched somewhere.”
He made it all sound so simple, but it wasn’t. She didn’t want Alex to go back there, but resented the threat that he might. At the same time, she knew GD was right. She couldn’t expect for Alex to spend the rest of his life pining after her. The question was, would she spend the rest of her life pining after him?
Heather feared she knew the answer to that.
“I need to think.”
“Heather—”
“Nope.” She held up a hand, silencing his objections. “I heard what you had to say. What Konor had to say. What, apparently, my dad would say. And I know what Alex would have to say. Now I need time to figure out what I want to say. Okay?”
GD considered her for a moment before nodding. “Fine, but there is one more thing you should know. Alex quit the club. He gave up all his buckles and all his women because he said he didn’t need them anymore. Think about that.”
Chapter 25
Heather did. She thought about little else all day long, only to come to no conclusions. It was all too much, all too confusing, and she didn’t know who or what to believe—Alex or her own eyes, her heart or her mind, the longing or the fear.
That’s what it really came down to. She wanted to believe Alex, wanted to give in to her heart’s longing, but she was afraid to, afraid to get hurt again. Not just her, but Taylor, too.
She had a son to consider. He came first. If Konor wanted to accuse her of hiding behind Taylor, then that just went to prove that he didn’t really understand the responsibilities of the parent. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Krane did.
Heather had a sick feeling she knew exactly what Alex’s parents were up to when they pushed through the front door not a half hour before closing. That was, incidentally, just about the time she’d been expecting her father and son to show for an early dinner. It seemed highly unlikely that was a coincidence.
After all, Elaine and Rhett Krane weren’t exactly regulars. In fact, Heather couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen them at the bakery, not that she took their absence as an insult.
Despite her tumultuous relationship with their children, Elaine and Rhett had never been anything but nice to her and her family. Elaine had brought over a casserole when her mother left and old baby clothes when Taylor had been born, and Rhett had helped out her father more than once when it came to fixing up something around the house. Of course, they’d socialized more than once at backyard barbecues. They were neighbors, after all, and in a small town like Pittsview, neighbors were almost as close as family.
Given the way Elaine and Rhett greeted Heather, that’s exactly what they thought they were about to become. Alex’s father approached her with the serious reverence that he was known for. Taking her hands in his, he dropped a kiss on both her cheeks before formally welcoming her into the Krane clan. He stepped back, declaring that Alex had made a fine choice.
Elaine was not nearly as reserved. She threw her arms around Heather and pulled her in for a hug that nearly had her drowning in the other woman’s bosom. Elaine Krane was a tall lady with ample assets and tendency to take charge. That’s just what she started to do.
“Oh, honey, this is wonderful news!” Alex’s mother declared as she leaned back, holding Heather at arm’s length as she gazed happily down at her. “We always hoped you and Alex would end up together, didn’t we, Rhett?”
“Uh-huh, always hoped,” Rhett repeated on cue as he settled down into the booth to reach for a menu.
“Do you remember, honey, when Heather painted Alex’s bike pink?” Elaine tipped her head back and laughed, not bothering to wait for her husband’s agreement before latching onto Heather’s arm and casting a knowing grin her direction.
“That’s when I knew you were in love with our boy, and I knew he was just as infatuated with you when he claimed he was the one who did it.”
“He did?” That revelation had Heather coming up short and wondering just w
here in the world this rewriting of her past would end.
“Of course he did.” Elaine smile held a mischievous glint as she eyed Heather. “He thought you’d get into trouble if he told the truth, and even back then he was trying to protect you.”
Protect her?
That wasn’t the Alex Heather knew. She was beginning to wonder if she knew him at all.
“But that’s just what good men do,” Elaine assured her, appearing unaware of Heather’s inner turmoil. “Now tell me, are you really planning on a June wedding? Because I honestly don’t think we can get everything done in time, and besides, it will be hot as the dickens then and you really want to consider your honeymoon and you don’t want to be sweating through it.
“I’m thinking spring would be a better time, and you know, it’s not like you have to wait on the children. It’s the intent in the heart that counts and I have no doubt that your intent is pure.”
It was. She really did intend to strangle Elaine’s son because Heather had no doubt that Alex had sent his parents over here just to apply the very pressure his mother was wielding like an expert. She didn’t even wait for any affirmations for any of the assumptions she was making, which put Heather in a hell of a position. If she didn’t speak now, things would only become awkward later, but fate wasn’t giving her the chance to make any objections.
Before Heather could even begin to figure out a response, Taylor came rushing through the door, calling out excitedly for her. Talking a mile a minute and moving damn near as fast, he was all but bouncing with excitement as he tried to tell her every detail of his day in one long, rambling sentence. Heather barely managed to get a word in, though Elaine managed more than a few.
Taking charge of her son just as easily as she’d taken charge of Heather, Alex’s mother had Taylor calling her Grandmom Elaine as she led him over to toward where Rhett sat reading the menu as if it were a paper. Grunting and agreeing when prodded to by his wife, Rhett nodded along with almost everything she said.
Taylor, on the other hand, was looking up at Elaine with wide, amazed eyes, hanging on every word and quickly responding to every question she asked. They were bonding at lightning speed, and Heather didn’t know what the hell she was supposed to do about that.