False Hope (McKay-Tucker Men Book 2)

by Marianne Rice

  Chapter 14

  In Mason’s mind, the following weeks ran smoothly. He either ran with Emma to work or drove her, depending on the humidity index for the day. He tried not to hover, but he did have some ground rules he’d laid out. Under no circumstances was she to leave her car unattended. She must let him know where she’d be and who she’d be with at all times. And under no circumstances was she to be left unattended. He hired himself for the latter job.

  While Emma thought of his rules as smothering and domineering, her family appreciated his overprotective nature. Mason promised to take care of her, and he’d be damned if anything happened to her during his watch. Just when his watch ended, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t want it to ever end. But the reasonable side of him knew he’d have to back off eventually, but not until the sicko was caught and behind bars.

  “What about when I’m parked at your house, and you’re babysitting me at work? Don’t you think my car is safer in my parking lot than sitting by itself at your house?” Emma whined.

  She had a good point, but he squashed that argument down. “I’m only gone for a few minutes, and then I’m at home all day working.” And so they settled into a routine during the day as well as at night.

  If his mother or sister didn’t come by with dinner, then he and Emma barbecued out back. She matched his appetite, workouts, and stamina in bed. Three of his favorite things to do. And on day number five they had a breakthrough on the case.

  Mason pulled the chicken off the platter and Emma set the potatoes on the patio table when a familiar car drove down the driveway. Detective Walker unfolded his long legs from his unmarked car and walked out back and up the stairs to the deck.

  “Sorry to interrupt your dinner, but I need to ask you a few questions.” He took his sunglasses off and made himself at home in one of Mason’s deck chairs.

  “Wanna beer?” he asked.

  Walker shook his head. “On the clock, but thanks.”

  Emma put down her water bottle and folded her arms across her chest. She used her body to guard her emotions, but he didn’t think she realized it. She was terrible at poker. Her “tells” were as clear as the sky was blue.

  “Did you catch him?”

  “No, but we’re getting closer. The fire marshal says an accelerant was used. We didn’t find the container it was in, but have reviewed video footage of nearby gas stations. I’d like you to come down to the station and take a look. There’s a lot of footage. Folks filling up gas cans for lawn mowers, tractors, boats, jet skis, you name it. I’m hoping someone looks familiar. It’s as good a lead as we have at the moment.”

  “I guess. But I’m sure lots of people will look familiar. We’re a small town.”

  “It’s a place to start. Come by the station tomorrow morning.” Detective Walker nodded, put on his shades, and then left.

  When the case was solved, she wouldn’t need Mason anymore. The confident Emma Fulton would be back and she would have no need for the insecure, stuttering computer geek. She had accepted J.T. as her father, her blood sugar was under control, and soon Cole would have another apartment ready for her to move in to.

  His time with her was limited, and he didn’t know how to extend it; relationships were not something he did very well.

  * * * *

  For the first time, the silence between Emma and Mason turned uncomfortable. Shy and awkward she could handle. But she sensed something different. Tonight Mason seemed…distant. She cleared the dinner plates and washed the dishes by herself. Usually, Mason helped or at least hung out in the kitchen while she did the domestic work. After she had done a load of laundry, she sat next to Mason on the couch. He flipped through the twenty-eight ESPN channels, not watching a single show. Frustrated, she reached for the remote and turned off the television.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey,” he replied.

  “Are you mad at me? Did I piss you off somehow?”

  “No.” He stared at the blank television screen.

  “What’s with the weird attitude? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I-I have a lot of work to do.”

  “Yeah, looks like it,” she scoffed. “Listen, if you’re mad at me for something, will you just tell me?”

  “I’m not m-mad,” he said, but his blank stare didn’t change.

  Interesting. He started stuttering again. It wasn’t obvious but slipped out when Mason seemed…nervous. What could he be bothering him tonight? They developed a nice pattern of work, eat, sex, and sleep. He’d never be a conversationalist, but he’d been holding his own.

  Emma wasn’t one to feel insecure, but she questioned her role in his life. Maybe she took too much for granted. He was comfortable in his solitude, and she totally invaded his privacy. He was used to coming and going whenever he wanted, and now he was stuck babysitting her.

  She remembered the scared expression on his face when she and Meg unloaded bags of toiletries and made room for her feminine products in his guest bathroom, and now his bedroom. She had completely taken over his space, and he was too much of a gentleman to tell her to back off. He wouldn’t do that to her; she needed to do it for him.

  Starting tonight. Starting with the sleeping arrangements. She honestly didn’t think he minded the nightly sex, or morning sex, or afternoon lovemaking sessions in the shower after her workout, but she needed to start somewhere. Mason was too shy, too polite, to tell her she was invading his space. She needed to make the first move and not be an emotional basket case about it.

  Emma stretched and stood up “I’m going to bed. I need to get into the station early before my first patient comes at nine. I’ll sleep in the guest room, so I don’t bother you.”

  Hoping he’d tell her to sleep in his bed, she paused, but he didn’t say a word. Quietly she said, “Well, good-night then.”

  It was barely six when she showed up at the station, alone. Mason hadn’t interfered with her morning routine, hadn’t offered to drive her, or demand to tail her. He let her go alone. That in itself was scary, not that she feared for her life, but because she knew she was losing him.

  After three hours of viewing grainy video, the detective was no further along in the case than before. “I’m sorry, Detective, I just don’t see anything peculiar about any of these people.”

  “We’ll widen the search. Can you come back in a few days when we’ve collected more videos?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Walker escorted her to her car and reminded her to check back on Wednesday.

  The day dragged on and got worse when Cole showed up at her work, his smiling mug offering good news. “I’ve got tenants moving out of the Meadow Brook house in a few days. With only two weeks left of the summer, I doubt I’m going to rent the monstrous place again until ski season. I worked things out with the owner. She doesn’t mind letting you use it for a few months. It’s yours, poptart.”

  “Great. Thanks,” she said unenthusiastically.

  “Unless you and Romeo want to keep playing house.” He draped an arm around her shoulder and toyed with her hair.

  “No, Romeo and I are done.”

  “Whoa.” Cole took a step back. “Done as in done or done as in…what?”

  Emma shrugged. “We’re under a lot of pressure right now. We never really had a chance to date or really get to know each other. One day we were barely friends the next he’s saving my life and asked me to move in with him. I don’t think he’s ready for that yet.”

  “But you are?”

  Ah, the million-dollar question she had asked herself all night as she tossed and turned. Moving out of Mason’s house would be for his benefit. She would be happy staying and playing house forever, but not until he got his head out of his butt. If he didn’t feel like he could open up and talk with her, then their relationship wouldn’t go anywhere. They were too far into their relationship for him to still feel uncomfortable around her. Better to cut the ties now before she became even more emotionally vested.

  �
�I am not having this conversation with you. You know nothing about healthy relationships.” Emma reached for her purse, about to shut down her computer, but where would she go? Mason needed his space, Paige was probably at school getting her classroom set up, and Connor and her mom were at the beach with the kids.

  Depressed with her life, she tossed her purse on the floor and dropped into her desk chair.

  “Poptart, you’re like a candy bar. Half sweet and half nuts.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  Cole made himself comfortable in a chair across from her and propped his feet up on her desk. “You and Mason are obviously in love, so what’s this crap about you two being done?”

  Annoyed because she wanted to talk about it, and with all people, Mason’s brother, Emma reached in to her mini fridge and pulled out a water to help cool her temper. “You and I are a lot alike. We like to talk. Play.”

  “Have sex. Lots of sex. At least I assume you do. Don’t tell me Mason doesn’t like sex? I always knew there was something off about him.”

  “The sex is fantastic.” She blushed. He smiled. “I mean, that’s not the problem. Actually, I don’t know what the problem is. He won’t talk to me.”

  “So is the problem that he won’t talk to you, or is there another problem he won’t talk about?”

  Emma wrinkled her nose in disbelief. “Wow, that actually makes perfect sense. Yeah, the problem is he won’t talk to me. He’s there for me physically and always knows what I want, but he won’t talk. When he starts to, he gets all tongue-tied and then clams up.”

  Cole dropped his feet to the floor and stood up. “Don’t give up on him, poptart. If anyone can get through to him, it’s you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’ll figure it out,” he said kissing her on the forehead before leaving.

  Moments later, when she was on her way out of the office, her cell phone rang. Without checking the caller ID, she answered. “Hello?”

  “Hey stranger,” Paige said. “I heard your morning didn’t go so well. How about an afternoon sunning by the lake?”

  Surprised Mason would confide in Paige, much less anyone, Emma snipped, “So he tells you things but not me? Ugh, men.” She unlocked her car and quickly checked the back seat for bad guys. Once she was sure the car was safe, she slid behind the wheel and cranked up the air conditioning.

  “He’s a good guy. He’s really trying. I think you should cut him some slack.”

  “Slack? I dunno. I’ve given him opportunity after opportunity to talk to me. I understand it’s…hard to talk to me about some stuff, but I’d like to think I’m approachable. For crying out loud, he can have sex with me, but can’t talk to me?”

  “What? You had…” Paige went silent.

  “That shouldn’t have come as a shocker to you, Paige,” Emma said as she backed out of her parking spot.

  “But…I thought…you knew. I can’t believe you’d do this to me.”

  “Knew about what? Paige, what’s wrong?” When Paige didn’t answer Emma knew something wasn’t right. “I’m on my way to your place. I’ll be there in ten.”

  She didn’t know if Paige was still on the line so she chucked the phone on the passenger seat. For not being an emotional person, she sure had a lot of turmoil going on inside her head.

  In record time, she pulled up to Paige’s apartment and raced up the front steps. She didn’t bother to knock and let herself in.

  “Paige! Where the hell are you?”

  The toilet flushed and Emma heard the faucet turn on. A tear-streaked Paige emerged from the bathroom. She blew her nose, glared at Emma.

  “Oh sweetie, you look like hell. What happened?”

  Paige snorted, “You should know.”

  Emma peeked over her shoulder. “Are you talking to me? I haven’t a freakin’ clue what’s going on here. I manage to piss off everyone I’m around without even doing anything. So what did I supposedly do to you?”

  Paige stomped past her into the kitchen, grabbed a carton of ice cream out of the freezer, pulled a spoon from the drawer, and shoveled an overflowing spoonful of Chunky Monkey into her mouth. “Go wawy,” she said around the mouthful of ice cream.

  Emma ripped the spoon from her hand and tossed it on the counter. “What crawled up your butt, Miss Perky Pants? What happened to ‘Oh, the world is such a beautiful place?’?”

  “The world sucks! Especially with two-timing best friends.” Paige kicked a kitchen chair, knocking it over and grabbed the ice cream, but Emma yanked it out of her hand before she could dig another iceberg-sized bite.

  “Paige Thorne, what the hell are you inferring?”

  “You and your need for sex!”

  “What does that have to do with—?"

  “Is everything okay in here?” Walker stuck his head through the front door. “I heard a lot of commotion and wanted to make sure there wasn’t any trouble. Mind if I come in?”

  “I suppose you came to see her?” Paige sneered and stomped off to her bedroom.

  “Did I, uh, interrupt?” he asked.

  “Yeah, you did. Give me a minute, okay?” Without waiting for approval, Emma followed the path to Paige’s bedroom. She opened the door and found her best friend crying into her pillow.

  Gently, Emma sat down and stroked Paige’s back. She instantly stiffened and yelled into her pillow, “You and your detective can go to hell now.”

  “I feel like I’m there right now. Paige, sit up,” she demanded. “I’ve had the month from hell and can’t handle it if my best friend wigs out on me. Stop beating around the bush and tell me what the hell you’re so pissed about.”

  “Fine!” Paige sat up and hugged her pillow to her chest. “You’re my best friend, well used to be. You can get any guy you want, but you go and sleep with my guy. I can’t compete with you. You’re prettier, skinnier, more outgoing, and too perfect!”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Put the brakes on, chickie. Since when did Mason become your guy? I thought you were cool with me being with him, cousin and all.”

  “Not Mason, Bryce.”

  “Bryce? What about Bryce?”

  “You’re sleeping with Bryce.”

  “What?” Emma sat up straight and shook her head. “Why the heck would you think I slept with Walker?”

  “You said you were…earlier…on the phone.”

  “Like twenty minutes ago? That conversation? I was bitching about Mason. Cole told me some things and…” Realization set in. “Oh my God! You thought I was talking about Walker? Oh sweetie.” Emma reached over and pulled her best friend into a bear hug. “Oh sweetie,” she repeated. “No, no, no. I’d never betray you. You should know that.”

  Paige sniffed and rubbed the back of her hand across her nose. “Yeah, well, you said you were tired of him not listening, and I knew you were supposed to see Walker at the station so I figured…well, you know what I figured.” She sniffed again and used the backs of her hands to wipe away the streaks on her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I guess my emotions are a bit fried lately too. I’m so worried about you. So tell me what happened with Mason.”

  “You’re too kind. No, I won’t get into that now while you’re still processing. Besides, your detective is in your living room waiting to grill me some more. Make yourself pretty while I hold him off.” She got up and stroked Paige’s curly hair.

  Emma could see Walker from the hallway. He paced the small living room, ready to take flight any minute.

  “Okay, I’m here. You’re uptight too. Does this mean you caught the guy or he got away?”

  “No, no news on that front.”

  “Oh, then why are you here?”

  Walker’s cheeks stained red and he turned his head to stare out the window. He wasn’t eager to question her, but actually looked embarrassed to be there. Emma smiled as she put two and two together. He didn’t know she was at Paige’s, so he must have come over to see her for an afternoon quickie. How cute. A
nd Emma was in the way.

  “I’m actually heading out. Can you tell Paige I won’t be able to keep our lunch date? I hope she isn’t too hungry or upset I left her high and dry.” She winked and patted Walker’s shoulder on the way out. “She likes Chinese,” she whispered none too softly.

  With Paige’s love life under control, Emma felt the need to do a little processing of her own. She drove out to the farm to see Nana and Bumpa and ride Lady, her favorite mare. Something about riding a two thousand pound animal through open fields and winding, wooded trails was extremely calming. She needed to get away from friends, family, technology, lovers, and detectives.

  Since being displaced by the fire, Cole had taken up residence in his old bedroom at his parents’ farmhouse. With barely any salvageable furniture, not that it was salvageable before it burned, he moved in with just the clothes on his back. It didn’t bother Cole the way it had Emma. She didn’t think of herself as a materialistic person, but her furniture, dishware, clothes, and accessories were a sign of her accomplishments. Her ability to be independent and make it on her own without handouts. Connor offered to buy her furniture, “A birthday present,” he claimed, even though it wasn’t her birthday. He offered to buy her a car. “A congratulations present,” he said after she partnered with Harry, but she declined all of his ostentatious gifts.

  One very important lesson her mother taught her was to be independent, never to rely on anyone else when you can do it yourself. And she did. Until now. For the past week she’d been living off the handouts from her family, knowing her mother arranged a food cycle. Nana and Bumpa brought dinner on Monday, Meg on Tuesday, she went out with Paige on Wednesday, Annie and Rick brought a bag of groceries on Thursday for Mason to grill, Cole stopped by with takeout on Friday. It was all a little too well timed and very unnecessary.

  Emma was quite capable of making her own meals, as was Mason. But in the week she had been living with him they’d hardly been given the chance. Their days were spent working; their evenings eating with family and their nights…those were for the two of them in the darkness of his bedroom.

  Pulling up to the charismatic farmhouse, Emma sat in her idling car and rolled down her window, taking in the fresh scent of the farm. It never disgusted her, the smell of horses and chickens, not even when she first moved here from the city. The smells of the animals made her feel comfortable and at peace.