Natalie's Deception (The Candy Cane Girls Book 5)

by Bonnie Engstrom

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Connie jumped up from her chair at the breakfast table and grabbed Nat’s arm.

  “Why are you walking funny?”

  “Just some aches and pains from when I took that aborted sky dive. Not a big deal.” She hobbled to the sofa and sighed. “Thank God I missed the tree. That would have been much worse.”

  Connie wasn’t convinced. She got on her computer and asked Nat what insurance she had. “We have to find you some help. Maybe that’s why you came here to Scottsdale.”

  “That seems far-fetched. That God would bring me here for back healing.” Natalie chuckled while jamming a fist into her lower back to take the pressure of the pain off.

  ~

  “I found it!” Connie was excited. “It’s just around the corner, too. Spine Scottsdale Physical Therapy.”

  “What? Physical therapy? Not for me.” Natalie was vehement. “No way. I own a gym and can get all the workout I need to get back in shape.” Maybe she should have stayed in Newport where Bryce could help her.

  Connie insisted she look at the web site. It was impressive. Still, she wasn’t ready to relinquish her body. She just wanted to crawl in a hole.

  The pain got worse. Not so much constant, just when she stood up and tried to walk. Both necessary movements. Connie pushed her, even made an appointment for tomorrow.

  Noon came around. She was starving, but she got in Jaeda’s car with effort. He and Connie held her arms and guided her in to “the place,” as she called it reluctantly. She felt like a cripple.

  It looked ordinary, not intimidating. A few chairs, a sign to please stay in the waiting area until called for your appointment. A friendly young woman behind the desk greeted her with a smile and a cheerful hello. She would risk it.

  Her name was called, and a cute young guy named Jessie with a pony tail guided her to a table. She didn’t usually like ponies on men, but on him with his dark blond hair, sort of like Nick the surfer, it was appealing. He helped her up on a table with pillows under her head and a foam wedge thing under her knees. He placed some sticky things on her lower back first and told her to relax. She got zapped. It was a good feeling. Loosening her muscles, relaxing her in tiny increments. Buzz, buzz, zap, zap. So calming.

  A timer dinged, and a handsome young man with curly dark hair named Gabe took the zapping things off her back. He almost had to wake her up. “Ten minutes are over,” he said in a kind voice. “Can you roll on your stomach for the ultra-sound?”

  She obeyed and squealed when the cold jell was squirted on her. But, the warm feeling of the wand was rewarding.

  ~

  “How was it?” Jaeda and Connie asked in tandem. That made them all laugh.

  “Guess we’ve started to think and talk alike,” Connie said smiling almost smugly.

  “It was . . .,” Nat hesitated. Did she want to avoid admitting how helpful it was? Finally, she shrugged and said, “It was okay.”

  “Just okay?” Connie asked.

  “Naw, it was great, even terrific. And,” she hesitated again, “cute physical therapists. Of the male persuasion. Great looking females, too,” she added.

  “Wow, Jaed, maybe I should do something about this kink in my neck.”

  Nat knew Connie was teasing him, but he glared at her for just a moment. Was he still worried about their different type of marriage? She hoped not. They seemed perfectly suited for each other – no gray in between. Just black and white. She giggled silently to herself.

  ~

  “What are you doing?” Connie asked.

  “My exercises. For my back and arm.” Seemed obvious to Natalie.

  “Oh, one of the cute physical therapists gave those to you?” Connie couldn’t resist teasing Nat.

  “No, one of the female PTs gave them to me. Claire.”

  “What? Claire like that woman at your gym? Nick’s mom?”

  “Another Claire. Much younger, very pretty, and very good at manipulation and massage.” Natalie, too, had been a little thrown off by Claire’s name. It wasn’t that common. But, this new Claire was amazing, especially with her hands. Strong hands, strong fingers that found the tight knots and kinks on Nat’s back. She was glad Connie had insisted on physical therapy. She should thank her, but she didn’t want her to get a big head.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Bryce scowled. Why had he agreed to help Nat out by taking over the gym while she was gone? He hated the responsibility. Thank goodness that fussy lady Claire was helping. He would just open the gym on the days he had clients for personal training. She could do all the rest. He hated commitment.

  What was Nat doing anyway? She had texted him once asking how things were going in her gym. But, what about her reference to physical therapy? Back problems from her aborted jump? He had kept to protocol, just yelling instructions to her. So, she almost missed a tree. Not his fault, he had done his job . . . an walked away. Coward. The word rang in his head. He shoved it aside and walked into Nat’s Gym to meet a client.

  ~

  Billy raked his hand through his head of unruly hair, grabbed a clump and pulled. Why had Natalie rushed off to her friends in Scottsdale? She said she needed a break. From him, or from work? Maybe he should take a ride out there. The latest owner wanting to sell a Jaguar D-Type said to feel free to use it. He probably meant around town, around Newport where it could be seen in all its fancy glory. But, he hadn’t said to drive it only in town.

  ~

  It had been almost a week since Nat was gone, and Bryce had no more clients for personal training until next Monday. He made an instant decision. After running home for a few change of clothes, he jumped on his bike. Even if things didn’t pan out with Nat, he had heard about Go AZ, the huge motorcycle place. That at least would be fun to visit.

  The three hundred plus mile trek to Arizona was easy. Until he heard the sirens. He was just inside the border and pulled over. He couldn’t imagine what he had done. He was obeying the speed limit, hadn’t swerved or acted crazy on his cycle. What?

  “Welcome to Arizona,” the tall trooper said in a surly voice.

  Bryce lifted the eye gear on his helmet and reached back into the cycle’s pouch for his license. He was yanked off his cycle and thrown face down on the blacktop. He felt a heavy foot on his back. What was happening? He started to pray, not something he usually did.

  ~

  What was going on ahead? Billy pulled through the kiosk between California and Arizona, then was stopped in a long line of vehicles. Two patrol cars with blinking lights and a helicopter buzzing overhead. The two cop cars were angled across the road. Guess he wasn’t going anywhere soon.

  Several officers were moving down the line of pulled over cars. One tapped on his window. She was young, brunette and had skin like alabaster. Where did that thought come from? Did he even know what alabaster looked like, ever seen it? Must be an old phrase of his grandma’s.

  He pushed the button to roll down his window and was startled by her raspy voice that didn’t go with her beauty. Then he panicked. She asked for his registration. The car wasn’t registered in his name, only his client’s. He pulled it out with shaky hands and tried to explain. He showed her his broker license. Her toothy grin didn’t assure him. He ended up with his hands on the hood of the expensive car being frisked.

  That’s when he noticed the man lying face down on the blacktop with a huge officer yelling at him. Bryce!

  For some crazy reason he couldn’t fathom, the big brunette released him and almost shoved him back in the fancy car. Somehow, he had the courage to tell her his friend was in front of him lying on the road with a trooper interrogating him.

  “We are traveling together.” He knew that was an exaggeration, if not a lie. But, he wanted to help Bryce, even though they were trying to woo the same woman.

  Brunette looked at him askance. “Yes,” he said with conviction, “that’s Bryce.” He had never learned Bryce’s last name. How stupid. Would he get away with this
?

  ~

  They pulled up to glaring lights at a truck stop restaurant. Bryce kept hugging him and pounding him on the back. Billy noticed his eyes were wet. He hoped he had done the right thing. He had verified for Bryce as the part owner – an exaggeration – of Nat’s Gym. No one, not even the troopers, had questioned that. Fortunately, it worked. He wasn’t sure it would have with CHIPS, the California State Highway Patrol, but he and Bryce were glad it did in Arizona.

  ~

  The two men stared at each other over lukewarm cups of brown goo. Both shoved their Styrofoam cups aside. “Now what?” they almost said in the same breath. Both laughed, a good sign Billy thought.

  “So, why are you here? On your way to Arizona?”

  Bryce fiddled with his thumbs, picked up the errant napkin on the table and crushed it. He shrugged, and his muscular shoulders almost made contact with his ears. “I’ve always wanted to see GO AZ.” It was almost a question.

  “You’re lying.”

  “Not really. But, I do have another reason. What about you?” he threw the question back to Billy. He leaned forward and locked eyes with the other man.

  “None of your business.” Billy’s face was blotchy with anger. “I don’t usually badger with the cops, especially for bikers. And, I don’t hassle with bikers.”

  “Whose car?” Bryce gestured toward the parking lot with a stubby finger. “You bringing it here to sell?”

  “None of your business.”

  Billy kicked back the plastic chair and stood up. He was sorry he had helped Bryce. The man was insufferable. At least Billy hadn’t lied, not really. Just fabricated Bryce being part owner of Nat’s Gym. It really was none of Bryce’s business why he drove to Arizona. He hoped he could find Jaeda and Connie’s place with the GPS.

  He strode to the parking lot and jumped in the fancy car. That’s when he realized he was out of gas.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Natalie hurt. After the physical therapy session yesterday, she felt wonderful. But, this morning she hurt. Her back was throbbing with pain, and the exercises hurt even more. She hobbled to the breakfast table and moaned when she sat.

  “Maybe a little walk with Jake would help with the kinks?” Connie, always the optimist, suggested. “You need to keep moving.”

  “If you think. I will try.” She wanted to be a good sport, but she really hurt. Maybe Connie was right. Moving hurt, but moving meant she could move.

  Connie held the leash, but little Min-Pin Jake pulled ahead. So did Connie. Jaeda stayed home getting ready for his banking job. Natalie stumbled, on a loose stone none the less. What was wrong with her? Would she need back surgery?

  Connie and Jake broke into a trot. Nat sat down on a low wall and cried.

  She was weeping into her hands and using her tee shirt to sop up the tears when she heard a loud rumble. A cycle? She knew the rumbling sound of them from Candy’s stepdad’s and stepbrother’s. She had even ridden on both of the Lord men’s motorcycles. Actually, Jaeda had one, too. A different sort of one with a small sidecar for transporting Jake. Must be a neighbor in the cul-de-sac. Connie said the Wade guy who was a visitor had one. Maybe him.

  The cycle pulled up in front of her. Would the revving sound never stop? She opened her eyes when a hand touched her arm.

  ~

  “This is confusing,” Connie said, and Jaeda nodded.

  “I know, and I don’t know what to do.”

  They sat musing at the dinner table, all playing with their food like toddlers and pushing it around with their forks making squeaking noises on the plates. Natalie felt miserable. She should have been elated that two men were so concerned about her they both traveled to Arizona to seek her out. Instead, she felt numb.

  Connie and Jake had traipsed back to Nat sitting on the wall and found Bryce beside her. He was holding her hand, actually massaging it tenderly and murmuring in her ear. Little Jake started to bark in his protective shrill tone.

  “What is going on? What are you doing here, Bryce?” Connie was glad she pulled his name from her memory bank. She had only seen him a few times at Nat’s Gym, but she remembered he was the trainer.

  “You don’t need to be so confrontational, Con,” Nat frowned at her with red-ringed eyes.

  “Sorry. I apologize. Guess it was the shock of seeing you here.” Then she peered at him in a perplexing way. “I thought you were supposed to be taking care of the gym for Nat.” Was she challenging him? Maybe so.

  “It’s okay. He came because he cares about me,” she said with conviction. “But he needs a place to stay.”

  Dinner was finally pushed around on their plates, and Nat and Connie were stacking them in the dishwasher when the doorbell rang.

  “Who at this hour?” Connie asked. She wiped her hands and opened the heavy oak door. The guard at the community gate was supposed to call if someone requested to visit who was not on the resident’s list. She wondered who was working this evening. Maybe that new guard in training.

  “Oh! Hi, Billy.” She felt like a parrot, but she couldn’t resist asking, “What are you doing here?” Then she felt contrite. “Welcome to Arizona, and our home,” she added with little enthusiasm.

  Billy walked right in, uninvited. It was his nature, and he never made excuses for it. Natalie knew that about him. After all, he was Candy’s brother, and she had known him for years as she was growing up. Connie had known him for years, too. All the Candy Cane girls were so close they were all almost family within several families. She remembered bursting into Candy’s home a few years ago when she needed family. No one had batted an eye, just said, “Hi,” and welcomed her.

  “Came to see Natalie,” he said with a brash voice. He didn’t bother to say hello, just focused on Natalie.

  Natalie shrank back and sunk on the sofa. She wasn’t weeping, but she lowered her forehead into her hands. What on earth was he doing here?

  “What on earth are you doing here?” she muttered. “Why did you come?”

  “Checking on you” he said as he settled beside her. “Still worried about your sky dive fall.”

  “How did you know where I was?”

  “Claire.”

  “Nick’s mom?”

  “Yep. I stopped in yesterday morning. She told me you were visiting Con and Jaeda here in Arizona. Worried me, wanted to see if you are okay, want to help.” Like Bryce, he gripped her hand and rubbed it. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “Why am I so confused?” Natalie mumbled to herself. She was writing in her journal, something she hadn’t done for a long time. She penned in the word “conflicted,” set the ballpoint aside and wiped her eyes. She knew she should be flattered that two men had followed her to Arizona, but all she wanted was breathing space. For her emotions and, now, her hurting back. Why had she succumbed to Billy’s crazy idea of sky diving? Was her injury really his fault for pressuring her, or was it the fault of the instructor on the ground who was supposed to guide her to safety?

  She remembered the time she and Billy had surfed off the coast of Newport. It had been super fun, and with her swimming background, she had been confident and picked it up right away. She hadn’t been scared, just exhilarated. She examined her thoughts and decided she really hadn’t been scared much about the skydiving, either. With Melanie encouraging her, and Billy who had dived before, she had felt confident, excited. It was the accident. That had changed everything. She needed to find out who that instructor was, the one who guided her wrong, the one who abandoned her when she crashed and left her to limp over to her car and drive herself to the ER. How could she find out who he was, how could she do that? Maybe Billy would know. But, if she learned the man’s name, what would she do?

  ~

  He was just about to punch in her number when his phone trilled. Natalie! He hoped it was a good sign she called him.

  “Hi,” she said her voice sounding sad. “Wasn’t sure if I should call you. You get settled oka
y in the hotel?”

  Bryce grabbed the phone tight with one hand and the towel around his middle with the other. He had just stepped out of the shower. He sat on the bedside and wiped his face with another corner of the towel. The towels in this inexpensive hotel, make that cheap motel, were flimsy. He put his phone on speaker and whipped off the thin white towel to jump into jeans. Now, he could concentrate on Natalie’s warbled voice.

  “You sound down, depressed. What can I do? I came out here to cheer you up.” He still felt guilty. Was that enough?

  “Uh. Really nice of you, Bryce, but I was planning on a respite. Now,” she continued, “I feel like I have to entertain you.

  “Maybe Billy, too.”

  Bryce sucked in a breath. What a dilemma for Natalie. For him and Billy. Talk about a love triangle. He thought about Romeo and Juliet in his high school English class, but even though he was on social media, he couldn’t remember a recent one.

  “Tell me about your trip,” she said.

  ~

  Billy refused to stay in one of the cheap hotels Jaeda suggested. They were closer to Las Brisas in Scottsdale Ranch where he and Connie lived, but he could afford the Westin, and it wasn’t all that far. Besides, he needed a secure place to park the sports car he had ‘borrowed.’ Heaven forbid anything should happen to it. He paid the valets extra to keep an eye on it. There were three of them, two who were young and in awe at the car, and an older, wrinkled man who winked and assured him he understood its value. “Gonna watch that baby like a hawk, Sir. And, Norm, when I leave an’ he comes on, he will, too.” Billy pressed a fifty in the older man’s hand and promised more when he checked out. The toothy grin in the dark face reassured him.

  Billy fought with the fancy hotel sheets and the lush down comforter. After turning the shower to stinging-hot, he felt better, cleansed. He’d had the top down on the little car a lot of the way, so grime stuck to sweat on his clothes and body. Last night he was so exhausted he climbed into bed dirty. He knew in this luxurious hotel the sheets would be changed daily. He probably should leave a big tip for the chambermaids before he checked out. He remembered reading once how the Kennedy men left lavish tips and how one of them, maybe Joseph the patriarch, said it was important to honor the workers who did menial tasks. Or, something like that.