Oh, help.
“Tessa.” His voice was low and hoarse. He took a step toward me, and I could see in his eyes that he didn’t know what he was doing any more than I did, only that he felt something strong in this moment.
With Bailey nowhere in sight.
Ha!
Before either of us could decide whether we would cross the bridge that beckoned between us, the roar of an expensive engine and the sound of tires on the dirt road demanded our attention. We turned, our shoulders coming together and sending a shock of contact though my arm. I wanted to lean against his strength, and when I saw who had arrived, I allowed myself the luxury. In fact, I stepped even closer to Gage, my breath coming faster. His arm surrounded me protectively, and for some reason, that made me want to weep. Gage was a protector, as I’d seen with Mia, and in this moment he was mine.
Julian climbed out of his green BMW. He wore tan slacks, a yellow golf shirt that was open at the neck, and shiny brown leather loafers. His skin looked bronze against the yellow shirt and blond hair. He was good-looking, there was no question about it, and his confidence radiated in the way he carried his lean body as he strode up the walk. I wondered if that was something he’d learned in school, or if, as the child of a wealthy man, he’d developed it from infancy.
He didn’t speak until he stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Tess,” he said finally. “I’ve been looking for you.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I swallowed and took a breath, but Gage beat me to speech. “So you’ve found her. What now?” His voice held an unmistakable threat.
“I just want to talk to her. Alone.”
“I think it’d be better if you got back into your car and left.”
Gage had only two inches on Julian, but he was a good deal broader, and his vantage of the porch made him even more menacing. Even so, Julian wasn’t cowed. “What, are you speaking for Tess now? Last I knew, she could speak for herself.”
Gage tensed, and I remembered how easily he’d disarmed the man from the club. “I can speak for myself just fine,” I said hurriedly. “But I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“You walked out on me without an explanation.”
“Are you denying what Sadie told me?”
“There’s a woman who’s been making a pest of herself. I’m sure that’s what Sadie’s brother saw. I’ve talked to Sadie and explained—she’ll tell you herself if you call her.”
Yes, I’d seen that—Sadie laughing with Julian at the door to her apartment. We’d joked about his power to make himself believed, so I didn’t blame her for anything. I knew how convincing he could be.
“I was never unfaithful to you,” Julian continued. “I promise. Tess, I love you. We belong together.” The words were perfect, so smooth, and utterly believable. As he spoke, he drew out something from his pocket: our engagement ring. The difference between it and the fake band I had replaced on my ring finger was all too glaringly clear in the stark sunlight. “Please take this and come with me.”
Two days ago I wouldn’t have hesitated to go with Julian. He was handsome, rich, everything a woman could want.
Except that I didn’t want him, and I found he no longer had power over me. My sister was right—I hadn’t been myself around Julian. I’d been what he and my mother wanted me to be: Julian’s fiancée and Elaine’s dutiful daughter. Not me, Tessa. Though after hearing my mother in the barn, I had new hope that she and I could reach another level of interaction. Perhaps not entirely what I’d dreamt of as a child, but enough.
Next to me Gage was glowering, every muscle poised to react, the arm around me rigid. His eyes burned into mine when I looked his way, and I saw he was afraid of what I would choose.
“Julian,” I said carefully, “I don’t believe you.”
His eyes widened with surprise. They were blue, like the sky, but icy, without warmth. “But it’s true. Honey, I can prove it.”
I shook my head. “Even if I did believe you, it wouldn’t matter. I’m staying here.” I leaned further into Gage and felt him relax marginally.
“How can you do this? After everything we’ve been to each other?”
My first urge was to apologize, but he was the one who’d betrayed me, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Wasn’t it you who once told me you had to follow your heart?”
“Yeah, but that was—” He broke off.
“For you? For your heart?” An excuse to date someone else while engaged to me?
“Are you saying you love him?”
What a thin line I walked. My gaze went to Gage, who was watching me, the tiniest of smiles on his lips. He had gone from fierce to amused, though I was sure I was the only one who detected the difference in both his expression and his stance. I linked my hands together around his waist, going on tiptoes to kiss the scars on his cheek. “Yes, I am.” I felt Gage’s surprise, his arm around me tightening further.
“Sorry you came all this way,” I said, turning back to Julian. “Good-bye.”
“Your father’s going to regret this,” Julian muttered. “Did you ever think of that?”
“Maybe, but fathers don’t choose who we marry.”
“That’s what you think.” His lips twisted into a sneer that marred his handsome face. “You think you’re really something, don’t you? Well, let me tell you—there’s a lot better out there than you. If my father hadn’t been breathing down my neck about this merger, we’d never have gotten this far.”
I was stunned into silence. Had the merger between my father’s cereal company and their frozen foods conglomerate held more importance than I’d believed? But why would Julian’s family need my father’s smaller company?
“Leave now while you’re still breathing.” Gage said, his voice low and deadly.
Julian stumbled back as though Gage had slapped him. “You’ll regret this, Tess. I promise.”
“If I ever see you around here again, you’ll be the one who’ll regret it.” Gage released me and went down the stairs slowly and deliberately.
“You want to go back to prison? Huh?” Julian challenged, but he was giving ground. “You’re nothing but scum.”
“And you’re nothing but Daddy’s little boy doing anything he can to save his father’s company from a takeover—no matter who it hurts.”
Julian stared at him in shock.
“Oh, yes. I had a lot of time in prison to educate myself about current events, and I’ve kept up on things since I was released. Because of my friendship with Tessa, I’ve had a particular interest in reading up on your company, and I’m thinking those two huge recalls you had last year hurt your bottom line pretty badly. The rumors say you closed four of your larger factories. What’s that left you with? Three? Four?” Gage took another step forward.
Julian shot a horrified glance at me, turned, and ran to his car. The motor revved as he spun out in the dirt and drove away.
“At that rate, he’s going to have to replace those tires in a month,” Gage said as he returned to the porch.
I barely heard him through my shock. Julian had been marrying me for the same reason my father had wanted me to marry him—for his company’s stability. Probably for my half million as well, which might go at least a little way toward the company’s recovery. I’d been marrying Julian because I’d loved him and thought he’d loved me, but it was all a lie. No wonder he’d been seeing someone else. Maybe she was his real love and I his duty.
“So, that went well,” Gage ventured. He hit the tip of his shoe on a clump of mud someone had tracked onto the porch.
A tear slipped from my eye. I didn’t want Julian, but this new information stabbed deeply. Had any of Julian’s attentions or declarations been real, or had he laughed about them behind my back?
Gage’s foot stilled. “Tessa, what is it?”
“He was using me.”
He was silent for a long moment. “I take it you didn’t know about his dad’s company going down the tubes?”
“I thought the merger would be good for my dad’s company, but I didn’t realize they were using me to get to my dad—not that I was marrying Julian for the merger.”
“I know,” he said softly but with a strength that cut through my words. “We’ve talked an awful lot about him these last months. I know you cared for him.”
“I don’t love him.” Not anymore.
“Then why do his reasons matter?”
“It makes me feel so worthless.” My words were scarcely a whisper.
“Tessa.”
“What.”
“Look at me.” When I didn’t comply, his fingers went to my chin. “No man would come this far to see an ex-fiancée who had already married someone else just because of his father.”
“Then why did he come?”
“I bet he realized how much he did care and how much he’d be missing out on if you weren’t in his life. The essence of who you are radiates from you, Tessa, and it’s beautiful. Any man would be a fool to walk away voluntarily.”
Warmth flooded me, sending a current of electricity through his fingers into my skin. Emboldened, I asked, “Even you?”
His jaw worked for several seconds before he leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on my lips, a kiss that left me puzzled and wanting more. “Especially me,” he whispered.
For the first time I dared to hope. I couldn’t tell Gage that I’d meant it when I said I loved him, but I could ask for time. “I like you a lot, Gage, and I want to get to know you better. I love Mia and Dylan. Maybe we could take a little time before we dissolve this marriage. See where things go.” Things meaning the friendship we were developing, the common interests, the fire in my veins whenever he touched me.
A swift intake of his breath told me he understood what I was saying. He took a step back, his hand dropping away. Misery shone in his eyes. “It wasn’t real.”
I blinked. “What wasn’t real?” He couldn’t be talking about the kiss. I knew a real kiss when I experienced one.
“The marriage.”
“What?”
“My friend Calvin isn’t licensed to marry anyone. He owed me a favor, and I had him pretend to marry us.”
I remembered his arguing with Calvin at the hotel, and suddenly it began to make sense. “Why would you do that?”
“I knew you’d regret it, and I didn’t want you to get into trouble with the law about your inheritance.”
I stared at him dumbly, both relieved and angry. Relieved because I hadn’t thrown away sacred promises, but angry because I loved him and there was nothing holding him to me. My knees threatened to collapse, and I put out a hand to catch the porch railing for support. “You lied to me.” If he’d lied about this, what else had he lied about?
Gage’s hand touched my shoulder. “I knew from the moment I saw your face when we sent those pictures after the wedding that I’d done the right thing. You’d realized what a terrible mistake you’d made, and you were hurting because of it. That’s why I stayed and played cards. I wasn’t about to leave you alone looking so lost. I felt like the biggest jerk in the world.”
I had been feeling lost, and if he hadn’t come to me, I would have spent the entire night sobbing alone in that big bed. I hadn’t considered how my reaction might make him feel. But in the end I wasn’t married, and Lily hadn’t missed my big day. I still had a chance to do it right the first time.
On the other hand, no wonder Mark was having problems verifying my marriage. It was a sham.
I wanted to laugh. I wanted to be grateful. Yet all I could think about was how I’d lost Gage. Now that I knew the truth, there was no point in staying on and pretending to be married, especially when he’d made it clear he didn’t want me snooping in his business. There was nothing to do but go home—either to my parents or Lily’s.
Lily. There was no way I would be able to help my sister now. All the tears inside me dried up, as if stopped by an invisible tap. “What will I tell Lily?”
“I’m willing to help. I have a bit saved that I can lend her.”
For some reason the fact that he’d give her money, but not marry me, hurt even more. “I should have suspected it was fake,” I said, forcing a lightheartedness I didn’t feel. “You’ve told me enough in the past few days that you would never get married.”
“You know why.” His voice hardened slightly.
“I know why, but I still think you enjoy playing the martyr way too much.” I pushed past him, heading down the walk.
“Where are you going?” he called.
“None of your business.”
“Mia will have dinner soon.”
“I’m not hungry.” I’d reached the road and debated which way to turn. Maybe if I kept walking, I could find a rental car agency eventually and use my credit card. I could return for my things later.
“You’re going to find someone someday,” Gage called after me. “Someone who loves you exactly the way you are. Your laugh, your smile, the way you walk. He won’t give a fig about your father’s business. He won’t mind that you sleep past ten and keep him up all night. He’ll love your freckles, the scent of Serenity on your skin. He’ll—” The words stopped coming, but I didn’t know if it was because he’d run out of breath or flaws to enumerate.
Fight. I remembered telling him that he should fight for his future, yet here I was so thrown out of kilter that I’d forgotten it myself. I cared about Gage, but more than that I believed in him. He hadn’t killed Skeet, and I wasn’t leaving until I either made him fight to prove his innocence or until he threw me out. Had our situations been reversed, I knew he’d do the same for me. Of course, that didn’t mean I wasn’t angry at how he’d fake the marriage. Angry and relieved.
I turned slowly and walked back to the porch. “You’re right,” I said. “I will find someone like that one day, and when I do, I’ll kiss him exactly like this.” Placing my arms around him, I gave him a good demonstration that left us both breathless. “And then he won’t care how many pancakes I eat or how orange my hair is.”
His eyes danced. “Your hair is orange?” His arms had come around me during our kiss, and he was standing as though he didn’t realize he was still holding me.
“Definitely.”
I was thinking about kissing him again when Mia opened the front door. We broke apart a little guiltily.
“There you two are,” she said. “Dinner is ready. Dylan is setting the table.”
I took out my phone. “Do you mind if I make a quick call first? It’s important. It’ll only take a minute.” If I reached Mark, I could tell him to stop looking into the wedding so I could save myself some money and perhaps a lengthy investigation.
“There’s time,” Mia said. “Come and help me, Gage.”
“Sure.”
I was aware of Gage’s eyes on me as he followed Mia inside. I was still angry at him, but the last few seconds had greatly improved my mood. As for Lily’s house, maybe I could get a job as a clerk in a grocery store if my college degree couldn’t land me anything with higher pay. That would help until the baby came, even if we had to move to a small apartment and have her girls sleep on the floor. Maybe they could work and pitch in more than they had in the past—though I knew most were still trying to finish high school degrees. It’d only be temporary. I’ll make it worked, I vowed. No way would I ask Gage for money.
“Hi, Tessa,” Mark said. “I was about to call you.”
“I can explain,” I began.
“My guy found quite a bit of tasty information about your Bailey Norris.” He paused. “What can you explain?”
“You first. I didn’t realize you’d find anything so fast.”
“Not me. My guy. Anyway, it was all a matter of public record. The Internet has just about anything you want to know, if you know how to search, and this guy has state of the art programs for searching. Bailey and Charlie Norris were born in Covina, California, to Lew and Gretta Norris. Records show numerous calls of domestic violence to the
home—all made by neighbors. Lew was often drunk, and he was apparently a loud, violent drunk.”
“And the mother?”
“Mousy thing. Not much written about her, except that every professional who talked to her believed she was scared to death and lying. The children missed a lot of school, and the counselors suspected abuse, but they could never find solid proof because they moved around almost yearly to differing cities in California. The records are all piecemeal.”
Thinking of Bailey growing up that way made me pity her, and I didn’t want to pity her.
Mark cleared his throat and continued. “They were in Chino when the father turned up dead in the swimming pool of the house they were renting. No defensive wounds, but clear indication that he was stabbed in the back of the head and tossed into the pool unconscious. Drugs were discovered among his belongings. During the investigation, the mother received permission to take the children to Kingman to live with her sister, where the local police department kept an eye on them. Bailey was a junior in high school, the boy a year younger, though he didn’t have much credit and ended up taking the GED to get into the navy. The dad’s death was never solved, but there seems to be a general suspicion that the son stabbed the father with a poker while he was sleeping.”
“Did you say a poker? As in fireplace poker?”
“Yes, according to the medical examiner, but it was never recovered. The one from the rental house was missing. The family claimed it had been lost before they moved in, but Charlie had taken a drive to the beach that same day, and rumor says he had a friend with a boat.”
“So they just let the family go?”
“Not exactly. The Kingman police kept an eye on them, as I mentioned, but after a few months the officer assigned recommended dropping the case, and everything was forgotten. The consensus seems to have been that if the son had killed his father, he’d done the world a favor.”
Tell Me No Lies Page 16
