“Glad to hear it. I’d hate to think that greeting was for me...” The phone crackled again, drowning out the rest of his words.
“There’s something I need to talk to you about,” she began, hating to, but knowing she couldn’t hide the truth from him.
The phone crackled again, blurring both sides of the conversation. “This is a terrible connection—but I’m on a mobile. I’ll call you later, but whatever it is, you decide. I trust you, Cassie.” The crackling intensified, and reluctantly she replaced the receiver, knowing the conversation had ended, knowing she couldn’t hold on to him through only a phone connection.
I trust you
. The words echoed and repeated, assaulting her.
Dropping her face into her hands, she allowed herself to remember a time that had brought only pain.
She’d been in high school when she met Tommy Brewster, a slick twenty-year-old who swept her away, and also swept the truth under the rug.
At that time, because she and her mother needed the money, Cassie had been employed cleaning the houses of the many rich people in Twin Corners who were enjoying the profits of the oil business before boom turned to bust. She’d confided impressive details of the magnificent homes and their contents to Tommy, never dreaming that he would make copies of her keys, so that he could burglarize those same homes.
When Tommy was suspected of the robberies, he’d sworn he was innocent and convinced her to run away with him. After they were on the run, and by then both labeled suspects, she’d discovered the truth. Embarrassed by her naiveté, the fact that she was clueless about Tommy’s actions, she couldn’t bear to return and face her mother’s disappointment.
When the police caught up with them, Tommy had told the officers that Cassie was the mastermind, the one who had purposely obtained work from the rich so that she could set them up for the robberies. She’d protested, telling the police she knew nothing about the robberies until after she ran away with Tommy. However, she’d admitted to staying with him after she discovered the truth.
With a previous record, Tommy had been sent up for hard time. Because of her age, her spotless record and a somewhat understanding judge, Cassie had been given a lesser sentence to be served in a correctional institute. Still, she’d served eighteen months—time that she could never erase.
While other kids were enjoying their senior proms, she’d been mopping gray tile floors. Her beloved dream of swimming and diving had died, as well. The closest thing to sports at the correctional facility had been hoeing beets and digging for potatoes. The band trip she’d worked so hard for had been forfeited, along with her graduation, and what was left of her innocence.
Lifting her face from her hands, Cassie imagined Blake’s expression, should he ever discover the truth.
I trust you, Cassie.
Her eyes squeezed shut. The truth would kill every shred of that trust.
The phone rang, startling her, even though she’d expected the call. Forcing her voice to be steady, she answered and then listened to Tommy’s exorbitant demands, her own voice turning dull.
“I told you, Tommy, I don’t have the money.”
“I wonder how you’ll feel after I have a chat with your boyfriend.”
Cassie clutched the phone, willing herself to sound convincing. “There’s no need to speak to him—he already knows all about my past.”
“Then you won’t mind if I drop in and pay him a visit.”
“No—”
“You wouldn’t want him to think you’re a money-grubber, would you, sweetheart?” The vision ran through her, chilling every cell of her body. But Tommy was still speaking. “That when times got tough, you turned to what you knew best? A man who could provide the money, no matter what you had to do to get it.”
Could Blake believe that their sweet love had been engineered on her part?
“Forget it, Tommy.” She tried to bluff once more, knowing her heart wasn’t in it, now that hope had been snatched away. “I’m not interested in your threats, and Blake won’t be, either.”
“Don’t count on it, sweetheart. And as long as I’m breathing, I’ll be in your face. Starting with your boyfriend.”
She heard a click in her ear, but she still held the phone, frozen in place. The horror of everything she’d kept hidden for years was now a nightmare from which she couldn’t awaken. She could never expose Blake to this pain...to the truth about her. Before he returned, she had to be gone, taking her love and the power to hurt him with her.
CASSIE STARED at the three shocked faces of Blake’s children and felt her own heart splinter. “I know this is unexpected,” she said, trying again. “It has nothing to do with you, but I have to leave.”
“You can’t go!” Mark wailed, forgetting to be cool.
“It’s not what I want—”
“Grown-ups always say that,” Todd protested. “Then they do things that hurt.”
“Like going away,” Mark added.
Kevin was quiet, but his facade had disappeared, too. In its place was a confused, betrayed boy. “I thought you cared about us.
Really
cared.”
“I do, Kevin. I...” She stopped short of telling them how much she loved them, how each of them had seized portions of her heart, pieces that no one else could replace. She feared knowing that would make the fact that she was leaving forever even worse.
“If you cared, you wouldn’t leave us,” Mark protested.
“Please don’t go,” Todd pleaded.
Hopelessly she stared between them. “I can’t explain... but always know how very much I care for you.” Her throat worked and she could barely speak. “I will
never
forget you. Ever.”
“Then don’t leave,” Kevin replied.
Closing her eyes against the betrayal on their faces, Cassie knew she had no other choice.
JIM AND KATHERINE ANN pushed their suitcases into the darkened front hall, fruitlessly flicking the light switch.
“I don’t think the electricity’s on,” Cassie told them wearily. Anticipating complaints, she sagged for a moment against the column on the porch, wilting in the warm, humid night.
“I know where some candles are,” Jim offered, to her surprise. He had been the quietest since she hustled them into packing, the one most outwardly affected by their departure.
But he’d been his stalwart self, except during their goodbyes to the Matthews boys. All three of her children had been shaken by having to leave behind the boys, who had become like family.
Cassie could still see the Matthews sons, the betrayal painted on their faces. Although Maria had agreed to watch over them until Blake’s return, Cassie still felt as though she’d abandoned them. Now there was another rip in her heart, to accompany the one she’d made by tearing herself from Blake’s life.
“Thank you, Jim. I’ll have the lights turned on tomorrow.”
“The house looks sad,” D.J. added in a small voice.
And lonely and neglected
, Cassie added to herself. Instead of being a welcoming safe haven, the house seemed to commiserate with them in their sorrow.
Katherine Ann slipped her hand into Cassie’s. “It’ll be okay, Mama. Things will look better tomorrow with the electricity on.”
Cassie swallowed a lump in her throat. Despite the confusion she knew they must be feeling, her children were being troupers. Of course, they were no doubt still in a state of shock. It all still seemed unreal to her. If it could only have been a dream, instead of her old nightmare.
DAPHNE IGNORED Maria’s not-too-subtle suggestions that it would be best to visit when the
señor
was home. Unable to believe her good fortune, Daphne strolled through the halls of her late sister’s home, pleased by the renewed feeling of control. She didn’t know what had sent Cassie packing, but she was celebrating. It had looked as though the little hick were making irreversible inroads, but now....
Daphne hummed as she ascended the stairs, determined to see that Cassie’s room was indeed empty. One glance told her that, despite her hasty departure, Cassie had left the room neat; tidy and most definitely empty.
Daphne’s smile grew. Feeling delightfully possessive, she pushed open the door of Blake’s suite. She swept the room with a proprietary gaze, then started to withdraw when a bit of paper on his dresser drew her eye. Insatiably curious, she moved closer. Seeing Blake’s name written in a clearly feminine scrawl across an envelope, Daphne picked it up. Feeling no guilt, she slipped the letter from the envelope. She read for a few lines, her giddy happiness disappearing. Daphne knew that Cassie’s explanation and avowal of love would send Blake scurrying to Backwater, Texas, without hesitation.
Needing no further convincing, Daphne crumpled the letter. Careful not to leave it in the trash can, she stuffed it in her purse as soon as she was downstairs again. Leaving an upset Maria and her sad-looking nephews without a further word, Daphne departed, new plans already brewing.
Chapter Eighteen
B
affled, Blake stared at Maria, watching her wring her hands in an agitated fashion. When her words still didn’t sink in, he turned to his boys, seeing matching expressions in their eyes. From sadness and disappointment to hurt and betrayal, their gazes echoed what Maria had just told him.
Cassie was gone.
Maria seemed equally upset as she answered his most obvious question. “I don’t know where, Senor Matthews, only that it must be something very serious to take the
señora
away so suddenly, not even waiting until the morning light to leave.”
“She left in the middle of the night?”
Maria shook her head. “In the evening. Still...”
Still, it was bizarre, and totally out of character for Cassie. “Did she leave a note?”
Maria shrugged. “I did not look,
señor
. The boys—”
“Took your time,” he interjected, still entrenched in disbelief. “It’s all right, Maria. I’ll look.” He started to turn away, then brought himself back to face his faithful housekeeper. “And thank you for taking care of the boys.”
“
De nada, señor.
” She hesitated. “This is not like Cassie.”
“No.” He sighed heavily. “It’s not.” Turning to his sons, he draped one arm around Kevin, and with the other pulled first Todd, then Mark, toward him. “I don’t know what’s going on, guys, but I’ll find out.”
Mark shuffled his Reebok-clad feet. “Dad, make her come home, okay?”
“Yeah,” Todd echoed his twin. “We need her.”
Kevin dipped his head. “They’re right. Can you fix things?”
Blake fought the knot in his throat and the pain in his heart. “I’ll do my best.” Gravelly emotion resonated in his voice. “We all need her.”
CASSIE OPENED THE DOOR for the dozenth time, plastering a smile on her face, accepting the tuna noodle casserole from another neighbor who’d heard they were home. It hadn’t taken the Twin Corners grapevine long to get the word out. The doorbell hadn’t stopped ringing. It had been a blessing to learn that the phone couldn’t be connected for a while. That, too, would no doubt have been ringing, as well. It seemed her neighbors’ curiosity couldn’t be satisfied without their seeing or hearing for themselves that the Hawkinses were back.
And there wasn’t anyone Cassie wanted to call...at least not in Twin Corners. Her mother spent every spare moment with them, but that wasn’t exactly a comfort, since she thought Cassie had been crazy to leave without talking to Blake. But Cassie knew she’d done the right thing, that she couldn’t drag him down because of her past. He was too decent. He deserved someone who could soar with him, instead.
But that didn’t stop her heart from breaking.
Leaning against the door, Cassie heard another update on what had gone on in Twin Corners during their absence, forcing herself to smile and pretend interest. She finally escaped more questions, closing the door and turning to her children with the casserole in hand. “Tuna noodle—I guess this is lunch.”
The irony struck them all simultaneously. How Cassie had cooked the disastrous tuna noodle casserole the first night they were in L.A., and all the changes they’d been through since then. She glanced around at the dusty furniture. The air of neglect was so much stronger in the daylight. What should have seemed familiar no longer did.
“I wish we had some fruit.” D.J. spoke up as he accepted one of the plates she handed him.
“Or grilled chicken,” Katherine Ann added.
“We’ll have to get used to fewer choices,” Cassie answered, trying to keep her voice even, refusing to let her despair leak through.
“It’s okay, Mama,” Jim told her, not mentioning the more important things they’d left behind, the opportunities that had been snatched away. “It’s just lunch.”
As Cassie stared between her children, she knew it was far more than lunch. She’d assumed they could come back here and resume their former lives. But none of them were the same. The children were tiptoeing around that truth, one they’d already recognized. Despite her blindness, the kids all knew what she should have. They’d all changed, grown, and none of them fit back in the neat little molds they’d left behind. Those shells had been outgrown, discarded. Their hearts and lives were in Los Angeles. And because of her past, she had to leave them there.
BLAKE STOPPED SHORT of pitching the phone across the room. Cassie’s phone in Twin Corners had not been reconnected, and the phone company refused to tell him whether there was a reconnection order in the works. All attempts to reach her mother had been fruitless. The phone rang endlessly, but no one answered. Was it possible Cassie had gone somewhere other than Twin Corners? What could have happened to make her take such drastic action?
“Hey there, handsome!” Daphne’s voice washed over him like glass shards as she entered the room without knocking. “What are you doing hiding out in here?” She waved toward his nearly darkened study. “It looks positively bleak.”
“Matches my mood,” he responded shortly, out of the patience needed to deal with his sister-in-law.
“What you need is some cheering up,” she responded with a seductive smile. “And I’m just the one to do it.”
“Forget it.”
“But—”
He passed a weary hand over his forehead. “I’m sorry, Daphne. But the truth is, I really want to be alone.”
“If this has something to do with that Cassie creature—”
“Daphne!” His voice was as stern and effective as a whiplash. “I won’t have her spoken of like that.”
“I haven’t heard you so defensive of anyone since my sister....” Daphne’s voice trailed off as she stared at him. “You’re in
love
with her...with that little country girl.”
“Ten points for you.”
“But she left,” Daphne protested.
“Without a word,” Blake agreed, unable to disguise his pain.
“You’re going after her, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “As soon as I find out where. I’ve booked a morning flight to Texas. I haven’t left yet, because I’m not sure she’s there and I didn’t want to charge headlong in the wrong direction. But I’ve got to start somewhere.”
Sighing, Daphne opened her purse, pulling out the crumpled letter and shoving it across the desk. “This should give you a clue.”
He read a few lines, then jerked his eyes back toward Daphne. “I don’t know whether to thank or strangle you.”
Daphne’s smile was sad but wise. “You two deserve each other.”
“I think Elizabeth would approve,” Blake said finally, in a gentle voice.
“Yeah, I know. But you don’t have to rub it in.”
A hesitant knock on the door interrupted them. Maria’s face wore its now perpetually anxious expression. “I’m sorry to bother you, señor, but you have another visitor.”
“It’s okay, Maria. I have one minute.” He glanced at Daphne. “Then I’ve got a flight to pack for.”