Authors: Christy Reece
Standing in the middle of the drive, he made a slow 360-degree turn, inspecting the perimeter. Nothing. Birds continued to twitter as a light spring breeze fluttered the budding flowers of a nearby dogwood tree. Still the feeling lingered.
An urgent need to see Keeley had Cole running toward the house. Jordan was probably still out, but he knew Eden was inside with her. Despite this assurance, he had to see for himself that she was all right.
He unlocked the door, swung it open, and promptly lost his breath. Keeley stood in the middle of the giant foyer. She was dressed casually in jeans and a pink, sleeveless cotton shirt. There was nothing remotely sexy about her clothing. But somehow Keeley made them sexy.
The jeans emphasized her long, shapely legs, and the fitted shirt was just snug enough to hug those luscious curves. Thick, lustrous, shoulder-length hair gleamed blue-black under the large chandelier. A sudden image of that hair spread out on a white pillowcase had him swallowing a groan. Why the hell this woman?
He’d spent as little time in Keeley’s presence as he could. Any information he didn’t get in their initial
interview, he could pick up from Eden or Jordan. Spending time with her wouldn’t help him find her children. She was the only person he knew for sure was innocent. But that was only half the reason why he stayed away from her.
She stirred something in him. Something he hadn’t felt in years…. Actually, he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt anything like it. Sure, she was beautiful. Her exotic beauty and lush curves made him long for things he dared not put a name to. She reminded him of the movie stars from years ago, a Sophia Loren exoticness with the classic loveliness of Grace Kelly. After his interviews today, Cole was beginning to see that her inward beauty might well rival her outward beauty.
Whatever the reason for this odd attraction, he needed to stay focused. Being around her for any length of time blurred that focus. Guilt? Definitely. But something more than that. Something he needed to stay the hell away from. Having any kind of feelings for her other than obligation would be damned stupid.
A slight movement beside her jerked him out of his lustful thoughts. She wasn’t alone. He turned to see another woman, about Keeley’s age. She was shorter, much smaller than Keeley. Very pretty, with light brownish-blond hair and a thin, somewhat angular face.
“Cole, this is my friend Jenna Banks.”
Cole drew closer and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Jenna.”
“Jenna came over for dinner.”
Jenna Banks snorted softly as she shook his hand. “More like I invited myself to dinner.” She winked at Keeley. “Have to make sure the girl’s eating.”
Keeley laughed softly. “That and the fact that Mrs. Thompkins made her famous chicken and dumplings.”
Her eyes twinkling, Jenna nodded. “Not going to lie, that’s the primary reason. It was exceptional tonight.”
“And I appreciate you staying so I could talk with you,” Cole said.
She shot a mysterious smile at Keeley. “Anything for Keeley.”
A wide-eyed, almost panicked look flickered on Keeley’s face. What was that about? He shifted his attention back to Jenna. “Would you be available to talk now?”
“Absolutely.” She gave Keeley another long look. “I’ll see if I can find out that information we were discussing earlier.”
A pink blush added a lovely color to Keeley’s face. After whispering “Behave” to Jenna, she shot Cole an awkward look. “I’ll go make sure Mrs. Thompkins keeps dinner warm for you.”
Before Cole could ask her if something was wrong, she turned and almost ran toward the back of the house, toward the kitchen.
His eyes followed Keeley until she disappeared from view. When he turned back to Jenna, he was surprised to see a small smile on her face.
“Something amusing?”
She shrugged and the smile disappeared, making her look years older. “How can I help you get her children back for her?”
“Let’s go into the sitting room.”
He followed behind her, noting that she had a slight limp and favored her right knee. She settled onto the couch and Cole chose a chair across from her.
“How long have you and Keeley known each other?”
“Since we were six years old. Her mother was like a mother to me.”
“What about your own parents?”
Her expression became shuttered for just an instant. Then, as if realizing it, she immediately altered that look with a wry smile. “My dad took off when I was kid. We
never saw him again. My mother was too busy drowning her sorrows to notice me. Keeley’s mama pretty much raised me.”
“So Keeley is more like your sister than friend.”
“Absolutely.”
“Any idea why anyone would want to hurt her by taking her children?”
“If you’ve been around town asking questions, then you probably already know the answer to that. Keeley doesn’t have a lot of friends in Fairview … thanks to Elizabeth Fairchild.”
After a day of talking with people who did indeed like Keeley, he didn’t agree with Jenna’s assessment. However, he nodded, keeping his opinion to himself.
“So you believe it could be one of the townspeople?”
Jenna shrugged. “It could be just about anyone that Elizabeth has influence over … which is basically everyone within a hundred-mile radius of Fairview, along with plenty of politicians and the like all over the state.”
“But she has no influence over you?”
She gave a self-satisfied smile. “The town of Fairview needs my services. Elizabeth has no control over that.”
“But before you had the business, how’d you escape her attention?”
“Before I married Frank, I had no money, which meant I had no significance to Elizabeth. After I married, I had almost as much money as the Fairchilds. She couldn’t touch me.”
“You’re a widow now, though?”
“Thankfully, yes.”
Noting his obvious look of surprise at her blunt statement, Jenna grimaced and said, “Sorry, but I can’t play the grieving widow. Frank was years older than me and a son of a bitch.”
“Why did you marry him?”
“Why does anyone marry? We both had something the other wanted. He liked my looks, I liked his money.”
Though he didn’t share her opinion on marriage, Cole couldn’t help but be impressed with Jenna’s honesty. Not many people would be willing to admit they’d married for money.
“Tell me about Keeley’s husband.”
“You mean the other SOB in town. Well, at least until someone had the good sense to kill him.”
“You didn’t care for Stephen?”
“He cheated on her, Mr. Mathison. If you hadn’t noticed, Keeley is one of the sweetest people in the world. I’m not in the habit of forgiving or forgetting. He broke her heart.”
“You’re very protective of her, aren’t you?”
“Keeley’s the only family I have. Aren’t you protective of yours?”
Cole ground his teeth together. He thought he had been, until it was too late.
“Did other people dislike Stephen?”
She snorted. “The fair-haired Fairchild? If they did, they wouldn’t dare show it. Openly disliking a Fairchild can get you into the unemployment line very quickly.”
“If you dislike the town so much, why stay?”
She shrugged. “The business I inherited from my husband is very lucrative, and even with its faults, Fairview is my home. Besides, Keeley’s here.”
“So if Keeley moved, would you move?”
“I might consider it. After Stephen died, we talked about moving in together. Hailey and Hannah mean the world to me, too. They’re my family.”
“What would happen to your business if you moved?”
“I would sell it.” A wry smile lifted her mouth. “Despite my antipathy for some of the townspeople, I don’t really enjoy seeing them in my business.”
Since he knew she ran the town’s only funeral home, Cole could understand her reasoning.
“You were supposed to be at the park with Keeley that day … but you had to work?”
Her expression one of sorrow, she said, “Yes, something I’ll never forgive myself for. You’ll never know how many times I wished I’d postponed my meeting so I could have been there.”
He refrained from telling her that since she looked as though a stiff wind could knock her down, he doubted that she could have been any help. Instead he moved on to his primary suspect. “What about Keeley’s mother-in-law? Could she be responsible?”
Her nose scrunched in distaste. “Absolutely. She’s not only mean enough but she’s got the money to get away with it. Seems her only joy in life is making Keeley’s life miserable.”
“How does she do that?”
Jenna held up her hand and began ticking off items. “Tickets ranging from speeding to driving too slow, running red lights, parking. If there’s a ticket to be issued, Keeley will get it. Haven’t you noticed that she rarely leaves the house?”
A sudden anger that had nothing to do with her children’s disappearance flooded him.
“What else does Mrs. Fairchild do?”
“You name it, she’s tried it. She continues to try to contest Stephen’s will. She accused Keeley of having something to do with Stephen’s disappearance and death. Made insinuations that it was Keeley who cheated on Stephen. And those are just the ones I know about.”
Cole was determined to return the Fairchild children back home safely, but before he left Fairview, he had every intention of changing the town’s attitude toward
Keeley. And that would begin with convincing Elizabeth Fairchild to stop her harassment.
“Are you married, Mr. Mathison?”
Somewhat surprised by the question, Cole said, “No. Why?”
With a mysterious smile, she said, “No reason. Just wondered.” Her expression turned grim as she leaned forward. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Keeley. Seeing her hurting like this is killing me. I’ll do anything to help you bring her girls home.”
The house was quiet as Cole went through his nightly ritual of ensuring that everything was locked up tight. Though the security system was of the highest quality, he’d taken to double-checking all locks before he went up to his room. Despite the fact that what was most precious to her had already been stolen, Cole had to make sure that she was safe each night. As if this too-late, lame-assed routine would make up for the hell Keeley was going through.
Eden and Jordan had headed to bed about an hour ago. Keeley had gone up to her room minutes after Jenna had left.
As he wandered through the house, he couldn’t help but appreciate the way Keeley had made the enormous mansion so comfortable and livable. On the outside, it had an elegant and pretentious glamour, as if whoever designed the house wanted to impress onlookers.
On the inside, Keeley had somehow turned the giant structure into a home. He could imagine two little girls running through this house and their mother not agonizing over the mess they might create.
Rubbing away the tension at the back of his neck, he tugged on one last window in the sitting room and then headed toward the stairway. Staying up as late as possible was the norm for him. If he went to bed too soon, before extreme exhaustion hit, nightmares would attack. He had them every night, but if he was tired
enough, he could sometimes avoid remembering them. Waking up with the vagueness of horror was a hell of a lot better than remembering the agony in vivid, Technicolor detail.
At the top of the landing, he jerked to a stop. The unmistakable sound of weeping hit his ears. Unable to prevent himself, Cole went toward the sound. At Keeley’s bedroom door, he stopped. His chest tightened to an unbearable pain as he listened to the soft, heart-wrenching sobs coming from within.
His hand on the doorknob, he twisted it, all the while telling himself he was crazy. She wouldn’t appreciate his sympathy, would resent his intrusion. That didn’t stop him from opening the door.
The room was dark with the exception of a light from the bathroom. It cast enough brightness for him to see the huddled figure in the middle of the bed, holding a pillow in her arms as she shuddered with grief.
Cole’s heart cracked wide open.
Refusing to back away, refusing to think about all the reasons he shouldn’t be in this room with her, Cole went to the bed. “Keeley?”
When she didn’t appear to hear him, he sat on the edge of the bed and said softly, “Keeley?”
The sobs stopped abruptly as she sat up and looked at him. Her beautiful face was wet with tears, and he watched a teardrop glide to her full, trembling lips. Everything within him tightened.
Instead of patting her hand, assuring her that things would get better, doing the normal, impersonal stuff to ease the agony of grief, Cole went with his instincts. He opened his arms.
And Keeley, instead of demanding that he leave, screaming that he came uninvited to her bedroom, threw herself into them. Though he knew he was just a warm body to her, Cole held her close, and as she
sobbed her heartbreak against his chest, he smoothed her hair and whispered soothing, inarticulate words of comfort.
When was the last time anyone just held her? Petted her? This woman was going through hell, yet when he’d walked into her room, she’d been holding a pillow for comfort. If things had been different, she’d at least have the solace of her husband’s arms.
He told himself he owed her—that this was the only reason he was here, holding her. Deep down, Cole knew that to be a lie. This woman stirred something in him that had nothing to do with guilt, obligation, or sorrow. He just damn well needed to keep that part of himself as separate as possible.
After several minutes, she pulled in several ragged breaths and then stiffened in his arms, as if she’d just realized where she was. He held her tight for just another second and then let her go.
Her voice husky and thick with tears, she asked, “Did I wake you?”
“No, I was about to go to bed … heard you.”
“I’m sorry, I—”
“No. Don’t apologize. I wish I could do something to help you.”
Instead of backing away, she leaned into him again, rubbed her face against his chest, and said, “This helps. Thank you.”
Aw hell
. Arousal surged hard, thick … unrelenting. Cole ground his teeth as she nuzzled against him, her soft, womanly body pressing into his. This wasn’t about him and his inappropriate lust … it was about comforting her. Unfortunately, the erection throbbing insistently wasn’t receiving the message.