Resisting Samantha (Hope Parish Novels Book 10)

by Zoe Dawson

I let my breath go in a rush, my heart pounding. I couldn’t let my mind go those places just yet. I took a deep, uneven breath and held it, forcibly regaining my control.

  “I think we’re on this crazy ride together.” There was no way to take it back. It had been reckless to say it, words that took us from a friendly comfort zone to a not-so-comfortable zone of intimacy.

  And it had become intimate. Because finally, after years of avoiding the truth about my interest in Chase, I had openly acknowledged it to him and to myself.

  Where we would go? I didn’t know, and that terrified me almost as much as seeing a ghost who was part of a mystery I urgently needed help unraveling.

  Wherever that led us.

  ***

  The next day, I was tending to my herb garden just outside my new French doors. It had been a heavy, emotional day yesterday for the both of us. I hadn’t gotten Chase to talk yet, but I wanted him to open up to me. The voodoo charm and the ghost sighting were still heavy on my mind, and I was thankful I hadn’t had any more dreams. In the sunny light of day, I chose to enjoy the scents of spring and pick fresh herbs. I decided I would use the mint for a dressing. Maybe a pork tenderloin dish.

  When my cell rang, I hoped it was Chase, but he mentioned he’d be fishing all day and out of touch when he dropped me off last night. His good-night kiss reminded me of the kind of tangled mess I could get into with him.

  When I saw it was Evie, I answered. “Hey, there. What’s up?”

  “I thought you’d want to come by and see if we can dig up any of those transferware plates. I know how you loved the one you broke. You seemed so distressed.”

  “Oh, that would be wonderful. Would you like some fresh mint and basil?” I offered. This actually worked out. Evie had mentioned that her granny knew some things about voodoo, but she had passed. I wondered if Evie knew anyone else who could help. I could really use her advice.

  “Oh, that sounds divine. Bring it along. I’ll brew some tea.”

  Evie Sutton was a beautiful, gentle, and optimistic woman. It was clear she was deeply in love with her husband of just over two years, Winchester Sutton, Chase’s uncle. It was quite a whirlwind of a courtship, which took place during a heart-wrenching time in the Outlaw history, to the accompaniment of a lot of nail-biting and drama, until they found their way to a sweet happily-ever-after.

  River Pearl’s stormy, steamy romance with Braxton Outlaw had kept the old biddies’ tongues flapping for a long time. It had been so good to see them yesterday, now contented, tired parents, and still head over heels for each other.

  I went inside and decided that my next project was going to be installing the bathroom off my bedroom, and then after that goad my cabinetmaker so I could get the kitchen together. I decided I would let Beth handle Imogene’s on Saturday and take the day to start framing out my powder room and office. The rest of the downstairs space I would leave open. I also really needed to get over to Lafayette and order my appliances. I was so ready to get my home together.

  Evie had a way of digging up absolutely perfect items to add a magical touch to my projects, and I hoped she would be willing to help me again.

  Besides, sponge baths were getting really old, and my determination doubled. Yep, powder room, bathroom, and shower were going in next.

  I drove over to Evie’s shop behind her simple clapboard house, the gris-gris bag tucked into my purse. The beautiful honeysuckle trellis arching over slate gray paving stones was to die for. When I saw the landscaping, I vowed I was going to get Boone’s information…or maybe on the way home, I’d just stop by his house. I wondered if he could do a pergola.

  The faint scent of honeysuckle teased across my nose, and I breathed deep as I got out of the car. I noticed a Mercedes that looked very much like River Pearl’s car as I stepped onto the grassy part of the curb.

  Breathing in the honeysuckle again, I rounded the house and smiled. Evie had some gorgeous pieces displayed outside. Some stunning weathervanes, rattan lawn furniture that I immediately decided was going to be mine, and some old tin wash tubs and colorful clay pots.

  Her whimsical shop had grown over the years, and was now a must-stop for tourists. People came from as far away as Lafayette to shop. The bell rang on the door as I walked in, and the girl behind the counter said, “Hi, Samantha. Head on back.”

  “Thanks, Melinda.” I said. I opened the door and came to a screeching halt. River Pearl, her mother, and Evie had their heads together. Uh-oh. It looked like I’d just been ambushed by the sweetest woman I knew, and she was in cahoots with her daughter-in-law and her sister-in-law. Chase wasn’t going to be happy about this. Maybe I could get out of telling him? Right.

  I narrowed my eyes and they stopped talking. Evie rose, looking as innocent as an angel. “Samantha, c’mon right in, shug,” she drawled.

  Amy Sutton and River stayed seated around a small table Evie used to restore smaller antiques. “Look who stopped by. You know Amy and River Pearl, of course.”

  “Of course,” I said with a wry cast to my voice.

  The smile never left Evie’s face. I walked past the two women who smiled and greeted me.

  “Samantha, it’s so good to see you,” Amy said. “I can’t tell you how scrumptious that brunch was yesterday. The crème brûlée was heavenly.” The look she gave me made my stomach flutter.

  Oh, yes. Evie was a backstabbing turncoat. Taking a deep breath and squaring my shoulders, I smiled.

  “I’m so sorry about the chocolate-raspberry cake.”

  She waved her hand. “Now don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. Accidents happen.” The foxy glint in her eye told me I should be worrying my pretty little head instead about being pumped by Chase’s family members about his personal life.

  “That’s right,” River added. “You outdid yourself with the brûlée.”

  I smiled, but could tell it was tight. “Thank you, ladies so much. You’re very gracious.”

  As Evie preceded me through to the back storeroom, I hissed, “Traitor.”

  She whirled, smiled at her co-conspirators, and closed the door.

  “I couldn’t help it. I was roped and tied into it by my daughter-in-law,” she whispered. “I saw it with my own eyes, and they don’t lie. You two have some chemistry. Is there something going on?” At my expression, she chuckled. “Lord have mercy. I suspect the whole town is talking about it.”

  “Oh, my God. For the love of Pete. I tripped.”

  She moved some fireplace screens over to the side, then bent down and picked up several woven rugs. She looked up, a glimmer of humor in her eyes. “Uh-huh. On purpose?”

  Bracing myself against a tall wooden bookcase, I took a fortifying breath. “Evie, this is so inappropriate.”

  She chuckled, shooting me an amused look. “Oh, shug. You don’t have to go all Yankee hard. This is the South. The small town South. You’ve lived here long enough to know all about the gossip. I’m shocked you haven’t noticed, but everyone gets into everyone else’s business.” Finally she made it to some cardboard boxes. “Jessica Archambault said Chase has been to your house. Twice.”

  I slapped my forehead. “He’s helping me with some of my construction.” I said without a speck of inflection in my voice.

  She batted at the dust and that glint was back. “Oh, is that what they’re calling it these days, cher?”

  “Do you have the plates?” My voice was Yankee hard.

  “Let’s give it a little lookie-see.”

  She opened the box. “So, do you have a thing for him?” Rummaging inside, she stopped and looked at me when I didn’t answer. “You might as well tell me. We’re going to winkle it out of you sooner or later.”

  “No comment.”

  “You are simply no fun.”

  She moved that box and opened another one. “I swear, that boy has been out in the bayou much too long,” she said her voice filled with sympathy. “Must be terrible lonely for him.” She closed up that box and se
t it aside. Digging into the next one, she made a soft cry. “Oh, yes. Here we go.”

  She pulled out some wrappings and set them down on another small, beaten-up table.

  But I was still hanging on her words about Chase.

  “I knew I had more. Looks like a whole set.”

  When I spied the teapot and cups, I sighed. “I’ll take everything.”

  “It’s a terrible shame you’re going to be short a dinner plate. I will keep my eyes out for more of this pattern.”

  “Thank you, Evie. And now you might as well get it out of your system and tell me about Chase.”

  Her eyes softened and she said, “He was always more reserved, quieter than Jake. He played sports, loved baseball, but Jake was the athlete in that family. It seemed as if he tried to outshine Chase as much as he could. Middle child syndrome. Boone had that a little until I set him straight.” She rested her hands against the sides of the box. “Chase and Jake used to hang out with my boys. It was a secret I kept, because they were good for each other. The six of them ran the bayou when they were young. Ethan Fairchild, too, as thick as thieves, they were. Chase knows it like the back of his hand.”

  Evie’s expression altered. She started to rewrap the transferware, her thoughts clearly focused on the unpleasant past. It was a few minutes before she spoke again, her voice heavy from the weight of remembering. “James Sutton, his daddy, put so much pressure on Chase. He had his life mapped out for him from the day he was born, and, by God, he made sure he didn’t deviate.

  “He got into Harvard, but shortly after high school graduation, he disappeared. At first we thought something happened to him, but then I heard the sheriff found him and he refused to come home. Sheriff Dalton said he was of age, and he couldn’t coerce him. James was devastated, and so angry. Rumors are he went out to the bayou and they got into it something fierce. River did some patching up when she came home to stay, but Jake is bitter, his daddy is powerful disappointed, and his momma just wants him back in the fold.”

  This was breaking my heart to think about Chase being so isolated, so alone out there…and had been for years. I softened my stance against Amy and River Pearl. It must be hard on them, and they must be anxious for news about him. I realized they might be happy if we were an item. It might mean he was changing, coming back, and—they were probably hoping—coming home.

  “He showed them, though. He worked his keister off, and built that business from the ground up. Now he’s doing very well for himself. But no one except River Pearl has been out there to visit him. Win and I have visited, though. We chartered one of his boats. The shop is beautiful, old logs and glass. He ties flies that sell for a pretty penny on the web. Yes, the Suttons should be proud of him.”

  Evie smiled while she sized up my present state of mind. “Well, we’d better go and face the inquisition.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes, my elation at finding more of that pattern dimmed. I rubbed at an imperfection on one of the cups, my throat tight. I had asked, and Evie had answered, but those answers only increased the pain around my heart. Knowing just made things worse.

  I did manage to stave off Amy and River, much to their frustration, but I suspected there would be another round two. River struck me as the kind of woman who never gave up.

  After they left, I confided everything to Evie about the ghost and the gris-gris bag, and swore her to secrecy. She said there was a woman over in Vermilion Bayou who could help. As a bonus, the woman made the best gumbo in the world.

  But it wasn’t until I was heading over to Boone Outlaw’s house that my concentration fractured, and I found myself remembering the bleak look in Chase’s eyes last night. The memory of the terrible bleakness set off another rush of emotion, one that swamped me. It hurt to know just how isolated, how unhappy his life had been.

  No one should have to live like that.

  But he had. And knowing that changed everything.

  The knowledge broke open something in me that I thought had died with Jeff. That scared me like nothing else could.

  I had vowed I would never love like that again. Never. It hurt too damn much to lose it. It was only now I saw my folly. Chase wasn’t Jeff.

  And he was now a threat to my resurrected vulnerability.

  Chapter 5

  CHASE

  Mooring the Cessna to my dock, I unloaded coolers onto the weathered boards. My back muscles strained with my catch. It had been an excellent haul, and I easily made my orders for the red snapper I’d travelled to the Gulf to fish.

  Tired, windblown, and a bit sunburned, I set the two coolers on my flat hand truck and rolled it noisily up the dock. The waist-high carpet of marsh grass to my right spread as flat as a putting green, unbroken by bush or tree, except for a clump of cypress at the waterline halfway to the lake.

  The bayou extending to my right several hundred yards was a beautiful, long, straight channel that was a dream to take off from.

  The bait shop was dark, but as with the other day and River’s unexpected visit, I slowed when I saw the big, brand-new Cadillac, sidewalls still unmarked. I didn’t have to check it out to know it was top of the line and fully loaded—after all, the Suttons had an image to maintain. Recognizing the undercurrent of bitterness in that thought, I studied the well-dressed man leaning against it. Instead of being wary when River had shown up, but pleased to see her, the sight of my daddy’s pricy showpiece of a car set my teeth on edge.

  He’d never said one word about my business, hadn’t set one foot on my property, and I didn’t give one damn.

  At least that’s what I told myself.

  My daddy did casual Southern gentleman to a T, whether he was on the putting green, or sipping a mint julep on our back patio, or wheeling and dealing—light blue seersucker pants and cream linen shirt open at the collar, a study in stylish elegance. He was leaning back against the car, checking his phone, but straightened when I came into view.

  “Chase.” He offered up a smile, but it was tight and telling. When my father wanted something, he got the same taut smile on his face, and that meant it was his-way-or-the-highway time. Ten years ago, I took the highway and never looked back. He pushed away from his socially de rigeur vehicle. In his early fifties, he was still physically fit, powerfully built. I saw my brother Jake in his build, where I took after my momma’s side of the family, same as River. He still had a head of golden hair, his face etched with years of hard dealing, and he still had the same aura of power. He stepped forward, a calculating glint in his eyes.

  “Daddy,” I said stiffly. “Did you get lost?”

  The smile faltered for just an instant. I continued on up the ramp, opening the door to the shop and pulling the truck inside. I didn’t even bother to leave the door open.

  Moments later it opened, and he stepped through just as I disappeared into my cooler. I needed to clean, prepare and package up this catch to distribute to my customers by the end of the day. I didn’t have time to do James Sutton’s bidding. Whatever it was.

  “Chase. I came here to talk to you. It’s time we worked out our differences.”

  “Our differences? What differences would those be, Daddy? Me bucking the system, or your disappointment?” I didn’t bother to turn around, but flipped off the top of the first cooler and removed the top snapper. I opened my fillet kit and pulled out my long, thin, flexible knife. My first cut was just behind the head and side fin. Then I made short work of taking the meat without bones and then skinning it.

  “No, Chase. It’s about you. About you giving up hiding out in the bayou and coming home.”

  “So I’m a coward and a deserter.”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m not blameless in this, but neither are you. I will admit that our past conversations—”

  “Conversations? You mean shouting matches.”

  “Whatever you want to label them. But it’s been ten years, Chase. Your absence has been felt all of those years. We just want you to participat
e and be part of the family. Do whatever you choose and deem right for your life. Just come home. That’s what everyone wants.”

  I laughed sharply without mirth. “Not everyone.”

  “Jake will come around. He’s just bitter and—”

  “Are you going to tell me that what I do for a living is okay now? You want to bury the hatchet and have me join family functions? I know we took a hit two years ago, and things have been tough on the family business.”

  “The business is flourishing.”

  “I’m talking about the putting-on-airs business. It doesn’t stop.”

  “That is less of a concern.”

  “Bullshit. What is Anna Kate’s role?”

  “She’s Jake’s choice. He is taking his place in society. That’s what he was trained to do.”

  I gave another empty laugh. “Jake’s so brainwashed that if you told him to wade into the bayou because that would help his social standing, he would do it.”

  “He took over when you left, Chase. Don’t denigrate your brother for stepping up and doing what was…shoot, boy. I didn’t come here to argue with you.”

  “No. Say it, Daddy. Do what’s right. I think you’ve wasted your time. Again. Nothing’s changed.”

  “Everything’s changed. The scandal about the Colonel, and your sister’s marriage to Braxton Outlaw, and, above all the sheer embarrassment over the heinous acts of your Uncle Earl, have combined to make us a target for speculation, gossip, and scandal, to the point that there were times when we couldn’t even lift our heads. You out here, shunning your family only adds to it. Come home, Chase,” he roared.

  He closed his eyes, then opened them, revealing anger still flickering in their depths while he shook from his outburst. I had pushed him, and we found ourselves rehashing the same old argument.

  “I didn’t want to say all that. I came here to remind you that you are a Sutton, and still part of this family, no matter what’s happened. That won’t change. If you won’t do it for me, do it for your momma and your sister. After all, we’re now in business together.”