by Ines Saint
Not that it mattered. It was still crazy. He wouldn’t put that burden on Paige, and he wasn’t sure she wanted it anyway.
After a few minutes, he got up. There was one thing he could do that wouldn’t hurt anybody. Not if he stayed far enough away.
* * *
Paige couldn’t contain her excitement. It was halftime, and Tyler was the little star on his team. And he had so many people cheering him on! Even Glenn, Gerard, and Muffy had managed to come out. They were sitting nearby, but they hadn’t exchanged anything more than stiff greetings.
It pained Paige. She’d never thought much about going through a divorce, but the few times a hypothetical divorce came up, she’d always thought she would bend over backward to stay friends with her ex and his family, and that she would make it work admirably. It had never occurred to her that it was a two-way street, and that too much bending could make a person snap in two. So she, Glenn, and his parents were cordial only. The kids knew there was tension, and they didn’t like it, but they at least agreed that cordiality was doable and manageable, and they knew that they had more than enough people to love them.
Jasmine had dumped Glenn, but he’d already moved on to a new girlfriend. One with money. There were no fights between Paige and Glenn, and disagreements were handled through lawyers. She no longer beat herself up about “choosing the wrong dad,” because if not for the dad she did choose, she wouldn’t have had Riley and Tyler. And their life, over all, was good.
“Look, over there,” Grandma Sherry whispered to Paige, but Gracie and Hope heard, too, and they all looked.
Paige strained her neck. “I don’t see anything.”
“The dark gray, un-fun Buick. It’s Alex’s car.” Ruby pointed.
Rosa laughed.
Paige’s heart sped up so fast she got dizzy.
“It’s too far away to see inside. How do you know?” Hope asked, but there was fake innocence in her voice.
“Boyd told us he’d make sure to get him down here, and he told me what car to look for,” Grandma Sherry explained.
“That’s nice of him,” Gracie said. “To want to come down here to watch Tyler.” Gracie was an even worse actress than Hope.
“It is nice of him,” Riley agreed. Paige’s head whirled. Riley had been sitting with her dad up until a few seconds ago. “He was nice to us, Mom.” She then turned to Ruby. “I heard you talking about a plan if he came to town. What is it?”
Paige narrowed her eyes at her grandmother, but the game started back up, and they all settled down. What plan?
Half an hour later, their team won, with Tyler scoring the winning touchdown. Their side of the bleachers went wild. Even she and Muffy hugged, before they realized what they were doing. Riley ran out onto the field, lifted Tyler off his feet, and Tyler waved at them, his smile reaching his ears. Riley then said something to him, and he looked over to where Alex’s car was parked and he waved frantically, looking even happier.
Paige felt as if her chest would explode from the pressure of knowing Alex was there, the excitement of watching her son score a winning touchdown, and seeing her son wave at the man she couldn’t stop thinking about, no matter how hard she tried. There had been too many intense moments when they’d shared truths and let down their guard. It was a connection not soon broken or forgotten.
When she looked over to his car again, to see if it was really him, her eyes widened in disbelief. Ruby and Rosa were getting into the dark gray Buick. Seconds later, the Buick drove off.
“What’s going on?” Paige whirled to face her grandmother and sisters.
Hope grabbed her hand and sat her down. “We’ve been thinking about life in reality, and life on paper.”
“Reality and paper?”
Gracie nodded. “Yes. You and Alex together seems crazy, right?”
“Uh, yeah!” Paige said, casting a glance over at her ex-husband and his family.
“On paper,” Hope continued. “It sounds awful, messed up, grounds for lifelong therapy for you, and the kids, and—”
“Yes. Enough. I get it! I’m an awful mom just for thinking about it!” Paige ground out.
Gracie’s eyes widened. “So you have thought about it! We knew it. We knew you were sweet on him still.”
“Get on with it,” Grandma Sherry said. “The team will leave soon.”
Gracie put her hand up when Hope was about to talk, and continued herself, “But that’s just on paper. And Glenn looked awesome on paper, remember? Reality was different. It always is. We joke around that we’re messed up. And I’m sure that when Alex first looked at the details of our lives on dossiers or files or whatever they call them, he thought the same thing. But we’re so much more than that. Look at all the perfect-on-paper people you surrounded yourself with for years. They’re messy, too. They just won’t admit to it. The same way you wouldn’t. And look where controlling what things looked like on paper led you. Wouldn’t you take the messy reality over the perfect lie now, if you still had the choice to go back and do things over?”
It felt as if the world around her had stilled. “Of course,” she said. “But—I’m not going to mess up my kids on purpose just so they can live in reality.”
Grandma Sherry butted in. “Look at them. They’re happy, because they know that despite the screwiness going on up here in the stands, they’re okay, and it will all be okay. They’re already learning what you forgot. That to live life fully, you have to take the screwiness, too. Now, off you go to Tyler’s team celebration dinner. Think about what we said.”
“But what were Rosa and Ruby doing—” She was shoved toward Tyler and not allowed to finish.
So Paige went to Tyler. It was Friday evening, it was Glenn’s weekend with the kids, but he’d agreed to let Tyler celebrate with his team, and to have Paige come along.
The happiness and excitement that surrounded her all through dinner was contagious, and she managed to exchange a few pleasant words with her ex-in-laws about it. And throughout it all, her own demanding words kept coming back to her. “Because in life, everything is just like it reads on a piece of paper, isn’t it?” Those were the same words she’d thrown at Alex when she’d challenged him to dig deeper. And now she was being challenged, to dig deeper . . . and to have courage.
After dinner, she got a text from Ruby telling her they’d rented the apartment she’d lived in and they needed her to pick up some of the stuff she’d left behind. She took the bait, even though she knew it was a lie. Alex would be there. What he had to say, she didn’t know. Even he’d agreed the two of them together was a crazy idea.
Only . . . was it, really? Distance gave people perspective. The kids both remembered Alex as being good to them, and time would teach them he’d ultimately helped their daddy. Today, they’d been happy to see him.
Paige got to the apartment, feeling confused and full of anticipation. The sun medallion reminded her that Alex had taken a bullet for her. Not that she ever forgot or stopped being grateful and even awed by it, but it wasn’t something she’d explained to the kids. It was too much. Their grandfather had shot the FBI agent investigating their father.
Someday, when they started looking up articles on the Internet, it would all come out. It was all there. She couldn’t change that.
Feeling like she was tied up in knots, she knocked. “Finally, someone, help!” Alex’s voice called from the inside. Paige tried the knob. The door opened.
Alex was sitting in the middle of the room, his wrists handcuffed to the back of his chair, his feet tied to the chair legs with Christmas lights.
“Wha—”
“Rosa and Ruby!” he exclaimed. “The keys to the handcuff are on top of the refrigerator.” He pointed with his nose.
“How in the world were two seventy-something-year-old women able to do this to you?”
“Precisely because they’re seventy-something-year-old women! I wasn’t going to wrestle them. And Rosa had a Taser. I knew she’d use it, too. I could see
it in her eyes. She wanted to.”
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. There he was, the kind of guy who’d let two senior women handcuff him and tie him up with Christmas lights because he’d never hurt them. The greater good and all.
“Alex?”
Their eyes met and locked for the first time in weeks, and it felt as if lightning had struck and fire had spread. He stopped struggling. No matter how deep she fell in with this man, there would always be more to fall into. Like whatever connected her to him was endless. “I love you, too, Alex.”
He froze. Ice Man was back. But she knew him now. It was his mask. “What do you mean?” His throat worked, but his eyes revealed nothing. “What about the kids?”
“It’ll take time. We’ll have to go slow. And it won’t be easy. But I think it’ll be worth it. For all of us.”
He studied her a long moment, his eyes slowly softening. “You’re all worth any wait.” He smiled. “Come here.”
She went to him and sat on his lap. “Does this hurt your thigh?”
“No. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” She kissed his lips.
“Good,” he said, drawing out their kisses. “Now, go get those keys.”
“I don’t think so. It’s your turn to be handcuffed. But don’t worry, payback will be sweet.”
A wicked grin, one she’d never seen before on him, lit up his face. “I’m not supposed to agree. Those are regulation handcuffs, Paige.”
The fire in his eyes licked at her insides, and his silly words made her heart swell. She straddled him, and became insanely turned on. Her openmouthed kiss swallowed a sound she’d never heard from him. The kiss went from hot to desperate, and before long, she’d had her way with him. They were sweaty, and breathless, and she didn’t think she’d be able to move again. The whole thing was hotter than she could ever have imagined. “Paige?” Alex said, after a while.
“Mmm?”
“Please unhandcuff me now.”
“Hold on a moment. I’m seeing stars.”
“Take your time.” He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “I want for you to always see stars.”
Keep reading for a sneak peek at
GOOD GRACIE
The next book in the Piper Sisters series
Coming soon
From Lyrical Shine
Chapter 1
“We won the contract for the Dayton-Montgomery County Courts Building, and we want you to be the lead workplace designer on the project.”
The words had been in a constant loop in Gracie’s head. The first half of the sentence tugged her feelings one way, and the second half pulled them in the opposite direction. One tiny comma separated a nightmare and a dream. One small word united them. No matter how she looked at it, there was no choice.
She’d been working hard to land lead on a project of that magnitude. It was the next step, a challenge that, when all else was pushed aside, had both her left and right brain in a constant buzz of excitement and anticipation. Using both her creativity and her technical expertise to optimize and harmonize workspace for eleven judges, the county prosecutor, and all court employees across multiple divisions, each with its own purpose and challenges. Functional, yet attractive and sustainable ideas that would enhance the life, productivity, and culture of the workers came to her day and night.
But whenever her thoughts necessarily turned to the actual building, her stomach became heavy with dread. It was home to sealed records of her case against one of the area’s most prominent families—and to the man who’d been her champion. The man whose life she’d unwittingly changed forever. All for taking up her case and her cause.
He didn’t resent her for it. That much she was sure of. Josh Goodwin had a fair and just core, the beauty of which she hadn’t fully appreciated and understood at the time. There had been no room for anything but gratitude that someone outside her family was fighting with and for her. But there was no way he could remember the experience with anything but the same dread she felt. Not after the way he’d been portrayed and everything he’d lost . . .
Tomorrow, she had no choice but to take it all on, the project and the memories. Tonight, she’d take the first step on her own, with no one watching her. As she stood under the streetlight and stared up at the structure, the anger and despair came back to her, but she fought both feelings off. It was the only way she’d make it inside.
And so she took a step toward her future.
* * *
Josh Goodwin sat at his desk, reading through juvenile incident reports and files the sheriff’s office had sent over, and making notes to request additional insight before making decisions as to whether they’d file, dismiss, or bargain.
A fourteen-year-old had brought a gun to school and hidden it in his locker. The file was short. Many questions arose, and he made notes.
The next file was thicker. A sixteen-year-old star athlete had been caught with drugs in his car. He had a bigshot lawyer at the very firm that had once been waiting for Josh, and the lawyer had filed a motion to have the case dismissed. It took discipline not to close his eyes and shake his head when he read the particulars of the case. Reserving judgment until he’d listened to all parties involved just as thoroughly as he was reading everything now was the fair route.
The last file, an ongoing investigation, darkened his day. A well-known local businessman’s son was being investigated for murdering his cheating stepmom. There was evidence to suggest the boy’s father had put him up to it.
Time and time again, jealousy and feelings of betrayal enraged and darkened the human mind and heart, turning people into monsters. The evidence against the father was clear and strong, but he had hired one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the state—a man whose calculated cynicism worked upon on jurors’ perceptions in ways only those who’d witnessed it understood.
Josh leaned back, shut down his feelings, and thought about everything in each file before making a few more notes.
When he was done, he threw his sports coat over his arm, locked up his office, and made his way down to the second-floor lobby, where he’d be making his announcement tomorrow. Walking through things and anticipating questions and arguments always made him feel more prepared.
When he walked off the elevator, a motion to his right caught his attention. When he looked over, the corner of his eye caught a feminine, skirted figure taking off. Knowing there was no good reason for anyone to flee, Josh yelled, “Stop,” and took off after the swiftly moving figure.
When he got to the short hallway, there was no one there. He walked slowly, looking all around him. There were three doors and they were shut, as they should be. He peered into each window and tried the handles, one by one. They were all dark, and they were all locked.
Only one door remained. A supply closet at the end of the hallway. Aware that his dress shoes were clicking on the tile, Josh first walked back to the elevator before slipping them off and making his way carefully back down the hall and to the closet. A minute passed.
“I know you’re there.” A muffled female voice came from inside the closet. “And I know you think I’m up to no good and that you have a moral responsibility to figure out what I’m doing. I assure you I’m only here to work. Please just leave.”
Josh rolled his eyes heavenward. Seriously? It sounded like a young girl, and maybe it was. Only a teen would ask an adult to take her word for something and leave her alone. And yet the words were very adultlike. “I can’t leave until you show yourself and tell me exactly who you are and what you’re doing here.”
“Can we find a way to put your mind at ease that doesn’t involve me opening the door?”
Josh put a hand to his head. He’d been in plenty of unusual situations. It came with the job. But this—this was new. And absurd. It had to be a teen, and maybe the teen was in trouble. “Why don’t you want to come out?”
“I’m busy.”
“Are you one of our
courthouse ghosts?” he asked. Humor sometimes did the trick with kids.
Silence. “Yes.”
It was a pitiful and honest “yes.” Josh was silent for a moment, too. Whoever was behind the door had something to hide, but he’d bet his career she wasn’t a menace. Still, it was his responsibility to get to the bottom of whatever was going on. Some leader he would be if he simply left. He ran hand though his hair and sighed. “Look, there’s no lock on this door. Nothing has prevented me from opening it. I’ve been trying to give you a chance, and I hope that shows that you that you have nothing to fear from me. But it’s my responsibility to open this door now and find out what’s happening.”
The door abruptly swung open, and Josh instinctively moved to the side. He peered in and went cold all over. All he could do was stare.
It was a ghost.
* * *
As much as she’d done to change her appearance, Gracie knew he instantly recognized her. Everything about him registered shock. It was as if he was frozen in place. She swallowed hard, but she was unable to get past the lump in her throat. He looked exactly the way she remembered him—short, straight dark hair, sparkling brown eyes, charmingly handsome face. Average height. Lithe, athletic build. He looked the same, but her reaction was new. A jolt of heat infused her from head to toe the instant she looked at him. Embarrassment, most likely. “He—hello, Mr. Goodwin.” The word “mister” sounded strange to her ears now. He looked almost her age, though she knew he was a little more than seven years older than she was.
He’d been twenty-four and she’d been nearly eighteen when they’d first met nine years ago. He was fresh out of law school. She was a high school senior.
“Gracie Piper.”
She pushed her glasses up and swallowed again. Looking down, she said, “It’s Grace Dearborn now.” It was imperative they get that straight.
She forced herself to glance at him again. He’d straightened, but he still stared. “What are you doing hiding in a closet?”
