A Family Affair: Summer: Truth in Lies, Book 3 (12 page)

She’s leaving
.

“I won’t bother you again.”

Don’t leave
.

“I told your aunt I’d stay, but I can’t. Tell her to do what she needs to do.”

“What does Ramona have to do with any of this, and what do you mean, ‘do what she needs to do’?”

Tess blinked hard, cleared her throat
, and centered her gaze on his chin. “She came to see me in Virginia, asked me to come back here.” She shook her head and sighed. “Your aunt thought I could help you grab onto life, make you care again. Think about that. I tried to tell her I was the last person you’d want to see, but she insisted.”

“Why would
she ask you to do that?”
Why would she do that?
It made no sense.

“
Desperate, I guess. She said when you were in the hospital you kept calling my name.” Her lips flattened. “You were probably cursing me, but she didn’t see it that way.”

“So you came back.” Why hadn’t Tess simply refused the request?

She nodded, her blond hair swiping her chin. “I didn’t want to.” Her gaze inched up his face, settled on his eyes. “You are a dangerous man, Daniel Casherdon, even lying flat on your back.”

His lips twitched. “I like to think I’m dangerous, especially when I’m on my back.”

She did not appreciate his humor. “I meant because you were injured.”

“
Of course you did. And what about the other part, the ‘do what you need to do’?”

“Ask your aunt what that means. I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to tell you.”

“I’m asking you.”

“Don’t. Please.” She swiped at a tear and said, “This is not getting any easier. I have to go.” She attempted a smile and held out her hand.

He stared at the delicate hand that belonged to the woman he could never forget. “You’re kidding, right?”

Tess’s smile wobbled, but she kept her hand extended. “I’d like to think we could at least part friends.” Another tear fell but she didn’t try to stop it.

“Friends?” He could barely get the word out.

She must have realized he wasn’t accepting her damn handshake because she let her hand fall to her side. “Good-bye, Cash. I hope you find the life you’re looking for.”

She moved past him, her lily-of-the-valley scent suffocating him with too many memories of how things used to be with her. If she walked out that door right now, there’d be no hope for a second chance with her. Was that really what he wanted? Oh, he’d spent years cursing her for taking the life they should have had, but now that he might actually have it again, could he risk it? Could he open his heart and let her in? How could he not?

“Tess.” She had her back to him and her hand on the doorknob. In seconds she would be gone from his life. He moved toward her, chest pounding with equal amounts fear and hope. “Don’t go,” he said in a hoarse voice. He touched her hair; soft, silky, pure Tess. “Look at me.” Her shoulders shook and her hand fell away from the knob. Cash eased his hand to her neck, trailed it along her shoulder. “Look at me, Tess.”

She did turn then, her eyes filled with tears and something else—hope, fear, love? Maybe all three? When she spoke, her lips trembled as if she had difficulty getting the words out. “I’ll stay.”

Cash let out a long breath, leaned down and kissed her,
slow and deep. He pulled her to him, molding her body against his. It had been so damn long and yet he remembered the smell of her, the taste, the touch. “I want you,” he murmured against her lips. “So damn much.”

“Cash,” she breathed, easing away so she could look at him. “We should talk. There are things you should know, things—”

“Shh.” He pressed a finger to her lips. “Not now. Tonight it’s just us. No past, no hurt, just you and me.” He traced her lips and smiled. “We’ll deal with the world tomorrow.”

“But tonight will change everything.” Her eyes glistened. “We won’t be able to go back.”

Tess was afraid. Well, so was he. “Then we’ll move forward.” He stroked her cheek and added, “Together.” There was no talking after that as years of emptiness and denial fell away, pushed aside by the desperate need of two souls destined to be together. They made their way to the bedroom, unbuttoning, unzipping, kicking off shoes, shimmying out of jeans. Her bra landed on the chair sometime after her second shoe hit the floor. He’d planned a more leisurely reunion—when he allowed himself to consider a reunion with her at all, which was rare and mostly confined to pre-dawn dreams—but one touch of her naked flesh and he knew there would be nothing slow or casual about it. He wanted Tess. All of her. Now.

“I don’t want to hurt your shoulder
.”

He cupped her left breast, sucked the nipple until she moaned. “I’m not thinking about my
shoulder right now.”

She sighed and held his head against her breast. “I can’t think of anything.”

“Good,” he murmured. “Don’t think.” He slid a hand down her back, dipped his fingers inside her silk panties and slipped them off. Then he cupped her sex, feeling heat and desire—for him. That knowing made him harder, more desperate to have her. Tess was right; tonight would change everything. Thank God. She moaned into his mouth seconds before she eased his boxers down his legs and rubbed her belly against him, exciting the hell out of him. Much more of that and it would be over. Cash fell to the bed and pulled her on top of him. “This might be easier—” he lifted her hips and settled her over him “—the first time. After that,” he smiled, “anything goes.”

After, it would be hard to remember who the aggressor was. Once she pressed her nakedness against him,
welcomed his tongue into her mouth, the rest blurred in a frenzy of passion and need. Had she fallen onto him with a satisfied groan, or had that sound escaped his lips as he fitted her on his shaft? Who rode whom? Who began the stroking, the tantalizing thrusts? Whose moans? It all blended in a medley of heat, pleasure, and need. Sucking, stroking, thrusting, pleasuring…ah,
definitely
pleasuring, until their bodies convulsed against one another, slick, satisfied, spent.

Sex had always been this way with Tess. There’d never been another woman who could pull him from himself and take
everything, even what he didn’t know he had to offer. With Tess, it had always been about more than body parts and sensation. With her, it was a blending of body, spirit, soul. It had always been about love. And it always would be.

***

Will Carrick was a good man who didn’t gossip and kept what he knew to himself, unless he had something that needed saying. Like the phone call he’d made to Olivia early this morning, informing her of Cash and Tess’s “sleepover.” Heavens! The news was a relief as well as a delight, but that’s where the story had to end. Details, comments, suppositions were more than Olivia cared to hear. She might have birthed three children and shared a bed with the same man for many years, but public displays of affection or discussions referring to the intimacies between a man and a woman were as unwelcome as eggshells in the omelet she planned to make for Will this morning. And that man didn’t think he was going to get her talking about her own medical situation either, because she wasn’t. She’d told him as much last week when he’d gently inquired about the testing she’d had done. As if she’d tell him she needed a hysterectomy! Just because Will Carrick shared the same last name as hers did not mean they’d be sharing more, even if she did catch him watching her every now and again in a quiet way that made her insides percolate. That foolishness belonged to the young and that’s exactly where it was staying.

Speaking of foolishness, if Cash and Tess planned to have regular sleepovers
, they were going to have to be a bit more discreet unless they wanted the whole town knowing everything they did. Why hadn’t Cash and Tess considered that? Well, they should have thought twice about sharing a bed in a place where the town knew what brand of toilet tissue a person used. Will had said he thought about moving Tess’s car behind the barn, but he didn’t have the keys and that meant going to the cabin to get them and considering what was probably going on in there, he’d decided against it. She’d heard the humor in his voice when he mentioned the part about what might be happening in the cabin, as if he found telling her quite entertaining. Oh, but she had not wanted to hear that speculation coming from her brother-in-law’s lips.

The news would spread through Magdalena faster than a grease fire, but what she didn’t know was who would be doing the spreading. There w
ere any number of suspects, from the well-intentioned romantics like Pop Benito to the not-so-well-intentioned ones, like her next-door neighbor, Edith Finnegan. How a straight-shooting, honest man like Jack Finnegan could have a troublemaking, miserable sister like Edith was almost impossible to comprehend.

When Will’s pickup pulled into the driveway, Olivia set aside the whisk, wiped her hands on the dishtowel
, and hurried out the front door. “Thank goodness you’re here.” Will was tall, lean, and weathered with a take-charge air about him that his younger brother, Olivia’s husband, had not possessed.

He stepped out of the truck, tipped his baseball cap at her
, and said in a deep voice, “Morning, Olivia. Take a breath, it’ll be—”

“Shhh. Do you want
her
to hear?”

No point putting a name to
her
because they both knew she meant Edith Finnegan. The woman was
not
to be trusted. Word had it she was behind the run on pumpkin pie filling a few years ago, when the town cleared out every shelf from Magdalena to Tristan for fear of a shortage, which, according to Edith, would “devastate” Thanksgiving pie bakers. Most bought ten and twelve cans or more, paying a solid forty percent above the usual price because they were
not
going to lose out on their pumpkin pie or pumpkin rolls at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Only thing was, the pumpkin pie filling never did run out, even with the increased number of purchases.

Some said Edith invented the tale to stir things up because she was bored and lonely, while others sa
id she made a deal with store owners in the neighboring towns. Either way, nobody trusted her after that, especially not her brother, Jack. He pretty much disowned her for putting a move on the town like she did. Olivia glanced at Edith’s house and swore she saw the kitchen curtain move. Will held the door to let her enter and Olivia was reminded yet again how Thomas had been so preoccupied with his plans, he’d forgotten about courtesy and courtship.

“How about a cup of coffee? Have you eaten yet?”

“Sure and no, I was just on my way to Lina’s for an omelet.”

“Hrmph. My omelets are every bit as good as
hers. Would you like ham and cheese or a veggie omelet?”

He smiled. “You have to ask?”

“You just need to train your palate to try something new.” She paused, raised an eyebrow. “Something that isn’t loaded with fat and sodium.”

Of course he ignored her and not only that, the man actually tormented her with, “Don’t forget the sugar. You know I love my donuts.”

She fixed his coffee, cream, one heaping teaspoon of sugar—she’d work on reducing his sugar intake later—and handed it to him. “Sit while I fix you breakfast.”

Will sank onto the chair and placed his ball cap on the bench behind him. He’d painted the kitchen a
sunflower yellow because he said it would cheer her up during the long, cold winter nights. When she’d first seen the color, she’d called it sunglass worthy and a bit too bright, but he’d convinced her it was exactly what she needed.

He said she needed sunshine in her life after living through so much darkness. He didn’t need to provide names and a timeline
. She knew he meant Tom and JJ’s deaths, Riki’s disappearance, Tess’s broken wedding and subsequent departure from Magdalena. The paint was a symbol of hope and cheer, and now with Tess’s return and the “sleepover,” this might be the beginning of a whole lot of cheer.

Olivia whisked three eggs together with the casualness of one who’s done it for years and met his gaze. “Just because she didn’t come home last night doesn’t mean they don’t still have plenty of issues to work through. Like, where would they live? That’s a big one. He’ll probably head back to Philadelphia and she has a condo in Richmond, but she
’s never there. What kind of life would that be for them, with her on the road or in the air? Who would take care of the children? Day care is so expensive and even so, Tess is gone weeks at a time. That’s no marriage.” Her voice downshifted as she recalled her husband’s many trips that took him everywhere but home. “It tears a couple apart.”

Will set his coffee mug on the table and said in a gentle voice, “Is that last part something you picked up from experience?”

“What do you mean?” What
did
he mean?

“You and my brother. He spent more days on the road than
at home.” He pinned her with that blue gaze that saw more than it should. “It’s a lonely life for the ones left behind.”

She cleared her throat, looked away
, and whisked the eggs harder. “I was referring to Cash and Tess.”

“Sure.” And then, “I think those eggs are…ready to cook.”