by Becca Van
Sean frowned. “How would she? Have either of us told her how we feel? How much she means to us? I don’t think either of us has told her that we love her. All we’ve done is make love with her and tried to get her to open up with us.”
“Fuck! We’ve screwed up big time.”
“Yeah, we have. Damn it!”
“We have to find her.” Jason sat down on the stool. “We have to tell her how much we love her. How could we be so fucking stupid?”
“I don’t know,” Sean answered. “We’ve been so intent on getting to the root of her fears neither of us stopped to think to explain what we wanted or felt.
“Jeezus! What if she came down to the office and saw us with Jenny?”
“No.” Jason shook his head but he looked scared. “I suppose it could have looked worse than it really was.”
Sean nodded and felt fear stab his heart. “How was Tasha to know we were comforting our cousin? That’s the only explanation I can come up with.”
“Surely she would have hung around and talked to us if she’d seen us with Jenny?” Jason asked.
“Would you have?” Sean asked.
“Shit!”
“Exactly,” Sean said. “You would have either confronted the woman or been so angry and hurt you would have walked away before you could be humiliated even more. At least that’s what I would have done.”
“I can’t believe she doesn’t trust us,” Jason said and Sean could see the pain in his eyes.
“Would you have trusted a woman you were with if you didn’t know how she felt about you?”
“Probably not.” Jason sighed. “We can’t let her think…”
“Why couldn’t she have confronted us if she had any doubts?” Jason asked in a soft, deep voice.
“Easy, bro. I understand how you feel because I feel exactly to same, but don’t let pain and anger rule you. You don’t want to end up hurting our little girl and pushing her further away. God, I love her, Jay. We have to get her to come back to us,” Sean said in a voice hoarse with pain.
“We will, Sean. Just remember she has an art showing in less than a week, so if we can’t get to her through this Lisa McDonald, we’ll catch up with her at the gallery.”
“I just hope she isn’t in as much pain as we are, because if she is we’re going to have one hell of a time convincing her to come back. You know she was scared of intimacy and committing herself to us for just that reason. She was scared we would break her heart.”
Chapter Eight
The days seemed to drag by for Tasha. She knew her two men, ex-lovers, had been hounding Lisa at the library, trying to wrangle information from her as to where she was holed up. Thank God she was a trusted friend. The first night Lisa had come home from the library she had asked Tasha what she wanted her to do. She hadn’t wanted Lisa to tell them where she was, so she told her to just keep saying she hadn’t seen her and didn’t know where she was.
The day of her showing came around fast and Tasha was a bundle of nerves as she loaded her car with her dress and borrowed jewelry then headed over to Nikki’s gallery. She was going to shower and dress at Nikki’s so her hair and dress wouldn’t be creased or mussed up before she arrived. It was an intimidating feeling, knowing she would have a lot of people looking at her art and critiquing it. She was beginning to feel sick with nerves. She came out of the bathroom to see Nikki standing in her living room with a glass of what looked like alcohol in her hand. She shoved the glass at Tasha.
“Drink it, Tasha, it will help settle your nerves.” Nikki stood over her until she’d downed the alcohol.
Tasha knocked back the shot of whiskey in one gulp, sucked in a breath and coughed as the alcohol slid down her throat in a blaze of fire. Nikki pounded her on the back until Tasha could breathe once more.
“Don’t let those tears in your eyes spill over or you’ll end up looking like a raccoon,” Nikki said with a laugh.
“Thanks for that. You could have warned me. I hate whiskey,” Tasha said with a watery smile.
“Yeah me, too, but it does the trick. How do you feel now?”
“Better, thanks.”
“Okay, it’s showtime. Let me go down first and open the doors. I want you to wait ten minutes and then follow me. By the way, you look really sexy in that dress.”
Tasha didn’t reply, just rolled her eyes at Nikki and then listened to the echo of her new friend’s laugh as she left the apartment. Tasha was still nervous and she paced the confines of the living room as she watched the clock, but at least she didn’t feel ill anymore.
Oh shit! What if Jason and Sean show up? What was she going to do? She would just have to try and ignore them and hope to God she could keep her emotions contained if they did show. Tasha glanced at the clock, took a deep breath, and felt as if she was outside her body watching herself, then she headed out of Nikki’s apartment.
She hesitated on the landing of the narrow staircase, glad for the petitioning wall that hid her from view. She could hear the voices as people roamed about the room and hoped the crowd wasn’t too large for her and gave her stage fright. Tasha hated being the center of attention but she supposed she was going to have to learn to deal with it if people ended up liking her art. Or hating it! Either way she was going to be the talk of the town.
Taking another deep breath, she ran her hands down the sides of her dress and then began to walk down the stairs. She hesitated at the bottom of the stairs on the edge of the room then she froze. She saw the woman who had been with her two men. The woman saw Tasha and stepped forward, grasping her hand in hers, and introduced herself.
“Hi, you must be Tasha. I’m Jenny Flint, Jason and Sean’s cousin.” Jenny shook Tasha’s hand.
The roaring in her ears was loud and she’d just heard what the woman had said. Their cousin. “Their cousin? You’re their cousin?” Tasha asked, her voice becoming strident with emotion.
“Yes I am. Why, is there some reason I shouldn’t be?” Jenny frowned as if puzzled over Tasha’s reaction.
“Um no. Sorry. I was just a little surprised. I didn’t know Jason and Sean had any relatives living in Passion.” Tasha gnawed on her lower lip. She was screwed. She had walked away from the two men she loved without giving them a chance to defend themselves. She hadn’t trusted them. Oh no, she had ruined everything.
“Tasha, come and meet some of the local business people.” Nikki grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the woman she had been talking to. “Pull yourself together, girl, or you’ll have people thinking you’re crazy. Put a smile on your face and leave it there,” Nikki said for Tasha’s ears only.
Tasha made herself smile and make small talk as she was introduced to the people milling about the gallery. She knew most of them anyway as they had often visited her shop for coffee. She realized Nikki was trying to promote her as an artist so she went along with her.
By the end of the evening, Tasha felt as if her face was frozen, and the muscles in her jaw ached abominably from the forced smile she had held all evening. The only genuine smile she had given for the night was when she greeted her sister and her two fiancés. She had not seen Jason and Sean amongst the crowd and drew the conclusion she had well and truly wrecked their relationship.
Nikki beckoned her across the room and got her to stand between two covered easels, which held a painting of some sort. Thinking Nikki wanted help with the unveiling of a new artist, Tasha waited for direction from her new friend.
“I want to thank you all for coming here tonight in support of a new artist whom I believe has the best talent I have ever seen. She has never had any form of training other than which she had in school, so all the work around you tells its own story. She has been given a gift from God and I am only trying to help her launch a career, which I know will inevitably be astounding. I left the last two pieces to be shown because I consider them to be the best of the best of tonight’s showing. Tasha, will you please pull the cover off the painting closest to you?”
/> Tasha felt a dawning horror in the pit of her stomach as she watched Jason and Sean enter the gallery. She had a feeling she knew what was beneath the covers and looked at Nikki with a frown and a shake of her head.
“Let’s give Tasha a round of applause. It seems she’s feeling a little shy tonight.” Nikki gave a satisfied smile and nodded toward the covered paintings. Tasha couldn’t seem to get enough air into her lungs, but unless she wanted to look totally ludicrous, she was going to have to remove those cloths. Her eyes latched onto the two men stalking toward her as she reached for the edge of one cut-down sheet.
She turned back to the cloth-covered easel closest to her and pulled it off with a flourish as dread filled the pit of her stomach. Tasha gasped with dismay as she unveiled the painting she’d had done of her two lovers and herself. Even though she felt like her insides were trembling, she managed to get her shaky limbs to cooperate and began to back away from the painting, trying to skirt around the other easel so she wouldn’t knock it over. She came to an abrupt halt as her back slammed into a hard, warm, muscular chest.
“Oh, no you don’t, little girl. We’re not letting you run away from us again,” Jay whispered in her ear and steered her back to the still-covered easel. He held her securely in his embrace with an arm wrapped around her waist as he pulled the cloth from the painting. He looked at the two paintings for what seemed like forever and then an expression of what looked like awe crossed his face. When she tried to pull away again, his arm tightened around her waist and she was very conscious of the length of his body plastered against the length of hers.
“How in the hell can you throw that away, Tasha?” Jay whispered in her ear. “Look at your paintings, sweetheart, it’s all there for the world to see. Why can’t you see it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tasha lied and licked her dry lips, trying to smile as the people in the room applauded her best paintings.
She watched Sean walk up to Nikki and talk to her but Tasha couldn’t hear what he said over the noise of the crowd. People began vying for her attention and she began to feel inundated, overwhelmed.
“Ladies and gentleman, please feel free to wander around and enjoy the refreshments on the table at the back of the room. I’m sorry to say if you wanted to purchase these two paintings beside me, they were actually sold before the show began. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” Nikki smiled at everyone then turned back to Tasha.
“You are a massive success, Tasha. I’ve had two offers from other galleries for your next lot of work and there are only two paintings which weren’t sold tonight.” Nikki indicated the two portraits she had done.
“Who bought them and when?” Tasha asked with a frown, but she already had a fair idea who had purchased them.
“Who do you think, little girl?” Jay asked. “Did you think we didn’t know what you were painting? We know everything about you, Tasha.
“We know you are slow to anger but when you do lose it, boy we had better look out. We know you love us even if you won’t admit it.”
Tasha shook her head and tried to move out of Jason’s hold but he was relentless and wouldn’t let her escape. Sean came closer and stood in front of her. And when she finally gained the courage to look up into his eyes, the emotion she could see there caused her heart to race and her breath to hitch.
She shook her head. “I never said…You never told me…”
“No, we didn’t and that was a big mistake on our part,” Sean said, and when she turned her head away he took her chin in his fingers and brought her gaze back to his. “We know you don’t trust us because when you saw us with our cousin, who by the way was upset and needed a shoulder to cry on because she had just found out her mother, who lives back in Ireland has breast cancer, but instead of giving us the benefit of the doubt and asking us what was going on, you took off.”
“We know we haven’t really given you a reason to mistrust us,” Jason sighed and she could hear what sounded like pain in his voice. She was the one hurting. Why would he feel hurt? Because you didn’t trust them, and you hurt them when you didn’t confront and talk to them.
“But we also know we haven’t exactly given you a reason to trust us.” Sean let go of her chin and took a step back, but then he reached out and palmed her cheek. It took everything she had not to turn into his touch and nuzzle against his hand.
“If you had taken a look at your own paintings, you would realize that we love you as well, baby. We know we only have ourselves to blame as we never spoke those three words to you. Will you please forgive us, Tasha? Please give us another chance and we’ll prove to you just how much we love you?” Jason whispered in her ear.
Tasha had tears streaming down her face. To the onlooking crowd she hoped it looked like tears of happiness at the success of her art show. She felt terrible for overacting at seeing them comforting their cousin in her time of need and she made a point to apologize to Jenny later and offer her help if she needed it.
Her heart was full but also felt a little battered and bruised. If only she had trusted them and confronted them like Toni had suggested then maybe none of this would have happened.
Tasha turned in Jason’s arms and wrapped her arms around his waist. Sean came up behind her and pressed his front against her back.
“I’m so sorry. You have no reason to forgive me for the way I’ve acted. I’m sorry for running instead of talking to you.” She drew back slightly so she could see Jay and then reached behind her for Sean’s hand and tugged until he was standing beside his brother and she could see Sean’s face, too. “I’m sorry for not trusting my own instincts and letting my head rule my heart, and I’m sorry I never spoke those three words to you or Sean.
“I love you, Jason, and you, too, Sean. I will never run away from either of you again. I thought I was going to die from the pain of being separated from the two of you. I only hope you can forgive me for being such a stubborn coward.” Tasha sobbed as she looked from Jason to Sean and back again. Tasha would have to talk to them later and tell them how she felt unworthy of anyone loving her after what her dad’s uncle had done, but now wasn’t the time or the place.
“Of course we forgive you, darlin’.” Sean stroked a finger down her cheek. “As long as you can forgive us for taking so long to say the words. I love you, Tasha, more than I ever thought I could love another human being. You complete us, sweetheart. We’re not whole without you. Please come back home?”
“Yes,” Tasha launched herself from Jay’s arms to Sean’s. “Yes I’ll come back home with you. I love you both so much.” Tasha pulled Sean’s head down to hers and planted a quick kiss on his lips. Then she moved back to Jason and did the same to him.
“I want to go home right now, but there is something I need to do before we leave.” Tasha gave then a mischievous smile as she headed over to Duncan and Alec. She grabbed them by the hand and pulled them along with her until she was standing in front of her new friend Nikki.
“Nikki, I would like you to meet two good friends of Jason and Sean. This in Duncan and Alec McLeod, they bought the coffee shop from me and Toni. Alec, Duncan, this is Nikki Sprite.” Tasha introduced her new friend and watched her lovely pixie features go from stoic to surprised, and then a scowl. Tasha wasn’t trying to match make but she had seen how lonely Alec and Duncan were and wanted to introduce them to as many people as she could and see the sadness leave their eyes. They were really nice men and even if they didn’t find women of their own, having friends surrounding them couldn’t hurt.
“We’ve already met,” Nikki snapped. “When I went and purchased coffee from these two arses.” Tasha gaped at Nikki when she spun on her heel and stormed away. Then she turned her surprised look to Duncan and Alec as the two men burst out laughing and moved away. There had to be a story there and Tasha was determined to find out. Not today, but she would eventually.
“Well that was interesting,” Tasha muttered under her breath then caught a glimpse of
her two men heading in her direction. She smiled at them.
“Are you ready to go yet, darlin’?” Sean placed an arm around her waist pulling her against his side.
“Yeah, I’m really tired.” Tasha lifted her hand and covered her mouth to smother a yawn. “No wait! There’s one more thing I have to do. Oh God, I can’t. I promised I wouldn’t tell them.”
“What are you talking about, little girl? What has you so worried?” Jason frowned at her with concern.
“Well, I have a friend who is in a lot of danger.” Tasha whispered the words so no one else would over hear her. “This friend of mine is in great need of police protection but hasn’t been able to trust the law.
“She’s already been to the law once and they either didn’t believe what she had witnessed or they were trying to protect a colleague. She’s in hiding under an alias and I am very worried her life is in jeopardy. Do you trust Noah and Zach? Do you think they are good, law-abiding policemen?” Tasha asked her two men.
“If I had to trust them with my life or yours, I wouldn’t hesitate to call them, darlin’,” Sean replied with sincerity.
“Do you want me to go and talk to them, Tasha? I think I’ve already worked out who you’re talking about. It’s LM isn’t it, sweetheart?” Jason asked.
“Yeah. Jay, I’m so worried she is going to end up dead. If you go and talk to them, then I’m not breaking the promise I made. Am I?” Tasha gripped his hand, waiting for his reply anxiously.
“No, you’re not, little girl. Leave it to me.” Jason headed in the direction of Sergeant Zachary Beech and Noah D’Angelo, tugging her along with him. She tried to pull out of his clasp but he wouldn’t let her. She gave Sean an imploring look over her shoulder, but he just placed a hand on her lower back and guided her over to the two police officers.
“Hey, Zach, Noah, how are you doing, guys?” Jason thrust his hand out, greeting both the men.
“Good. I’m glad to see you’ve worked out your little disagreement with your woman,” Zach said but he wasn’t looking at any of them. Tasha turned to see who he was looking at and spotted Lisa. She should have known it was her he had in his sights. From what Lisa had told her, both the men hadn’t left her alone since that night at the hotel.