Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (37 page)

“You also look exactly like his cousin, John.”

Rogan gasped but Eli shook his head like he was disgusted with Becca. Not necessarily like he was surprised. Pieces of the puzzle—and the weird conversation between Eli and the nurse at the hospital—suddenly fell into place.

“I trust Rogan to make the right decision for himself,” Eli said, making Rogan feel about ten feet tall for a full second. “Why don’t we let him decide? If he wants to go with you, then he can. If he wants to stay here, he’s welcome to do so for as long as he likes.”

Rogan looked up at Eli and at that moment, loved him more than he’d ever loved anyone.

“I want to stay here with Dad,” he said again, pretty sure that his wants had little to do with how this would turn out.

“Rogan, he’s not your dad.” She thought carefully for a moment. “At best, he’s your second cousin.”

Rogan waited a long moment for Eli to argue with her. He looked up at Eli, whose face had completely fallen as he shook his head.

“Technically, first cousin, once removed,” Eli said. “But it doesn’t matter.” Eli’s voice was quiet. He looked down at Rogan. “I don’t know whether she’s telling the truth or not, but it doesn’t matter to me. Family isn’t about blood. It’s about love. Hell, if Fluffy can be part of my family, then you
certainly
are. The biology of the situation doesn’t make a difference to me.” He looked at Rogan for a second that stretched long. “Does it matter to you?”

Rogan looked up into Eli’s face. He was the first person in Rogan’s life who’d ever put any sort of parental effort into him. He looked at the difference in his life between the time he’d arrived and now. He was so much better off here.

“If it does matter, we can have a DNA test done, but however it turns out, it won’t change how I feel about you.”

Rogan shook his head slowly. “It doesn’t matter.”

If there was one thing that Becca did well, it was cutting her losses while she could. She straightened her shoulders, hiked the strap of her purse farther up her shoulder and pursed her lips.

“Fine. If that’s how you want to play this, then go for it. I won’t fight you on it.
You
can deal with his attitude, his dog and his moodiness.”

“Becca.” Rogan reached out to wrap a hand around her elbow. “Don’t leave mad. I’m tired of living like a nomad, but it doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Stay. Have dinner. Tell us about your trip. Tomorrow you can go off to Chicago and your new job and your new life, and we can keep in touch.” Tears flooded Becca’s eyes. “I’m—” he sighed, not sure how he could make her understand. “For the first time, I’m
settled.
Sudden Falls has been a good place for me.” Even a week ago, he doubted he’d have been able to see that.

Becca wiped her eyes with her fingers. “You’re sure you don’t mind if I stay for a while?” She looked up at Eli.

“You guys need to catch up. Of course I don’t mind. Stay all weekend if you like.”

As the doorbell rang—Amy had finally arrived—Rogan had a little bit of hope that he might be able to have a real relationship with both his mother and the only dad he had ever known.

“Did you do something with the packing tape?”

Maddie sipped the hot water containing a wedge of lemon, a spoonful of honey and a cough drop and considered not answering her mother. The woman was an organizational demon even at seven-thirty in the morning.

It was criminal—especially when Maddie was fighting a nasty spring cold.

For seven long days her mother had managed to turn Maddie’s life upside down. Seven days of her “trying” to be nice—and failing somewhat miserably. Maddie gave her props for trying but she had to admit she was looking forward to the moment the last box was packed up and her mother was on her way back to Florida.

Which meant she should probably point her in the direction of the packing tape.

“It’s on the kitchen counter, Mom,” she called out, her voice cracking. She cleared her throat, then coughed. She only wanted to climb back into bed.

Or better yet, she wanted Eli. She’d barely seen him all week, and what little time she had spent with him had been well-supervised by both her mother and Rogan. She considered a kidnapping attempt. Or maybe asking him to make one.

She checked the clock. If she left now, she might be able to catch him before he left for work. The idea of a moment or two in his strong arms was enough to propel her directly into her shoes. If she couldn’t spend a day in bed, dumping this cold, then maybe she could let a few minutes in the comfort of his embrace shore her up for the day.

“Mom, I’m leaving for work!” she croaked up the stairs, closing the front door behind her before her mother could lob an argument. The sky threatened storms as a strong wind pushed big thunderheads off to the west toward them. Maddie had to brace herself against the breeze as she made her way across their two side yards.

Twenty seconds later, she let herself into the kitchen of Eli’s house, drawing to a stop when the scene around the breakfast table registered with her.

Becca, still dressed in a long T-shirt—Maddie couldn’t tell what—if anything—she wore underneath it, her hair clearly mussed from sleep, held a frying pan by the handle as she forked sausage onto three plates. Eli wore a pair of sweatpants and a white T-shirt that read “I don’t care who you are. I’m not giving you my spoons,” his hair also looking a bit worse for wear. Rogan had managed to pull on jeans, but Maddie suspected he’d slept in the shirt which read, “I’ve got an inferiority complex, but it’s not a very good one”.

A different woman—for that matter Maddie from a few weeks ago—would have completely lost her cool and flown to a jealous rage. Instead, she looked at the quiet family scene and felt an intense ache of longing. She trusted that Eli hadn’t taken up with Becca. But this is what she wanted more than anything in the world and as usual, she was on the outside looking in.

“Hi,” she said hesitantly from the doorway.

“Hey, babe,” Eli said as if nothing were amiss, while he got to his feet and crossed the kitchen. “You’re in time for breakfast.”

He studied her for a moment. “You don’t look so good.”

“Spring cold.” She sniffed. “What’s all this?” She tried not to let the rampant jealousy she felt influence her tone.

“Becca has returned from Tibet.”

“So I see.” He didn’t look as devastated as Maddie would have expected if Becca were taking Rogan away. Did that mean Becca was… sticking around? She looked over at Rogan who was happily shoveling pancakes into his face with great abandon. Her pride refused to let her ask if Becca was staying. Not that she thought Eli was going to leave her—at least not for
Becca.

“What about Rogan?” she asked finally.

Eli smiled, which brightened his face with a brilliant light. “Rogan is staying here.” He lifted an arm in invitation to a hug.

She met him halfway across the kitchen. “That’s great,” she said, unable to keep herself from wrapping her arms around him. His response still didn’t answer the question of Becca.

Eli dropped a kiss on the end of her nose. “Hey, stranger,” he said quietly enough that the other two likely couldn’t hear him. “I’ve missed you. How are things going with your mom?”

She fought the urge to vent. “Don’t ask. The reason I’m not home in bed with Nyquil is that she’s taken over.” Maddie’s cell phone began to ring. “Speak of the devil, I’m sure,” she said, flipping the top open and answering even though she didn’t recognize the number.

“Maddie O’Callaghan? This is Mario with CGR Security. Are you at 101 Main Street in Sudden Falls?”

“That’s the address of my store, but we don’t open until after 9:00. Is there a problem?” she asked, wondering if they were ever going to get the security system working properly.

“There’s an intruder alert,” he told her. “We’ll be contacting your local police department.”

She shook her head and growled. Eli gave her an inquisitive look. “Don’t bother,” she said. “The system still isn’t working properly. It’s been going off every couple of days. I’m five minutes away. I’ll go turn off the alarm.” She took a deep breath. “Can you have someone come out today and look at it?
Again?
”

Mario cleared his throat. “I’ll schedule one of the maintenance teams first thing,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said before turning her phone off.

“Not again,” Eli said.

“So much for breakfast. Come by and take me to lunch?” She needed to find out what was going on, but obviously this wouldn’t be the time to do it.

“Love to,” he said, dipping forward to buss her on the lips. “But I promised Becca and Rogan I’d go into Cincinnati.”

Maddie felt her spirits sink even further. Between her mother’s visit and now Becca’s arrival she felt so disconnected. “Okay. We’ll catch up soon.”

It was more to bolster her own flagging sense of connection than a request for him to reassure her, but he did. “Absolutely. I’ll give you a call later today.”

Maddie nodded before hurrying out to her car to make the two-minute trip to the store. She spent little effort thinking about her drive, the coming storm which blew tree limbs at unusual angles or even her mother. Her focus was on the breakfast she was missing and their trip into the city. She realized, more and more, that what she wanted was under her nose. All she had to do was take it.

She deserved this, no matter how many times she managed to convince herself that she didn’t. Why couldn’t she accept that Eli cared for her—loved her—and that he’d be there? Why did she feel so undeserving?

When she pulled up to the store, she could hear the alarm blaring. She had to fight to open the car door against the wind. Putting her shoulder into it, she struggled out, leaving her bag in the car. The wailing siren sent shafts of pain through her already touchy head. Letting herself in the front door, she turned it off, letting the sudden quiet settle around her. She looked around the store. As usual, nothing seemed disturbed, except…

She peered toward the back of the store. It seemed extra dusty today. Almost…
foggy?

Actually, it looked smoky. She sniffed, but couldn’t smell much of anything through her clogged sinuses. She headed to the back. The door to the basement stood wide open.

It hadn’t been locked since the Mayor and his group picked up their toys, but she normally left it shut.

Maddie jumped when she heard a thud in the basement. Sniffing again, she decided there might be a smoky smell to the air after all. She hit the silent fire alarm button on her security system, crossed to the back of the store, and picked up a cast-iron fireplace poker from the antique set near her display of quilts and the fire extinguisher which hung on the hall wall.

As something else crashed in the basement, followed by a muffled exclamation, she suspected she should probably feel like the first blonde bimbo to get eaten by the monster in every horror movie she’d ever seen as she crept down the stairs, but instead, all she felt was anger.

How dare someone vandalize her store again?

What she found when she hit the bottom of the stairs brought her to a halt.

Lisbet stood, nearly surrounded by flames as she tried to beat a path to the open cellar doors with her coat. The fire tore through the dusty basement, eating everything in its path. A pile of cardboard boxes and a pine armoire filled with old, dry fabrics to nourish and fed it until it raged out of control.

“Lisbet!” she yelled over the crackle of the fire. Between the smoke, her cold and yelling, Maddie’s cough returned with a vengeance.

“
Maddie!
” Lisbet’s terrorized scream prompted Maddie into action. She sent ribbons of foam from the fire extinguisher around the center of the room, giving Lisbet a clear path to the stairs.

Tears made tracks through the soot on Lisbet’s face as she made her way toward Maddie before collapsing on the steps behind her. Maddie sent several more pulses of the fire extinguisher to a couple of glowing boxes by the open cellar doors.

She breathed a deep sigh of relief that the fire was out. Between the fire and her cold, it sent her into another round of coughing. The thick fog of smoke through the basement had yet to dissipate. Maddie pointed Lisbet toward the steps leading up to the main floor. “We should get out of here,” she wheezed between coughing fits.

Lisbet trudged up the stairs ahead of Maggie. Once they entered the store’s main floor, Maddie grabbed Lisbet by the arm. “What happened here?”

Maddie felt tears build up behind her eyes as she realized the truth.

Lisbet had set fire… to her
store
. To her last, best shot of making something of herself. It didn’t seem possible.

“It was just supposed to be the arbor outside,” Lisbet said. “The wind…”

Sure, Maddie was used to the town not
liking
her, but this sort of rampant hatred… even given what she’d done to Lisbet. It had been a stupid, childish
prank
that she’d never intended to go farther than a slipped costume.

A prank,
seventeen
years ago.

“Why?” Maddie whispered. “The letters? The brick? The graffiti?”