He was home. And this time it was to stay.
He would do right by his father yet.
EIGHT
Melissa slammed the dryer door and eyed the stacks of folded clothes on the table. Her favorite nightgown was missing. She specifically remembered putting it in the clothes hamper. But the last of the laundry was dried and folded, and the silk teddy seemed to have disappeared into thin air. If she didn’t know better, she would swear the house was haunted.
This was the third item in less than a week. The day before yesterday it was the novel she had been reading. And Sunday, her MP3 player walked off. For someone who lived by the adage “A place for everything with everything in its place,” she was sure losing a lot of things.
A familiar ringtone sounded on her phone, cutting into her private gripe session. Beethoven’s Fifth. BethAnn. She hurried to the kitchen and snatched the phone from the counter.
“You sound frustrated. What’s up?” BethAnn could always pick up on her moods. “Nothing serious. The dryer just ate my nightgown.”
“That’s a bummer. Mine eats socks. I have two feet, so I know two socks go in, but way too often, only one comes out. I think if you ever took my dryer apart, in the bowels of the thing you’d find some mischievous little gremlin guarding a huge mound of socks.”
Melissa laughed. “I’m glad I’m not the only one.”
“So what are you up to?”
“Other than going crazy because I can’t remember where I put anything? Not much.” She peered into the oven. Her casserole had another fifteen minutes. Dinner was late, and Smudge wasn’t happy. He paced back and forth in front of his empty food dish, gold-eyed gaze settling pleadingly on her face.
She lowered her voice, her tone serious. “When I got home last night, there was another note on my door.”
“Oh, no. Like before?”
“Yep. He knows I gave the flowers away.”
BethAnn gasped. “That’s sooooo creepy. I hate to say this, but I can’t stop thinking about Eugene.”
“It just doesn’t fit.” She popped open a can of cat food, propping the phone against her ear with her shoulder. “Finding me, making the trip down here—it takes money. As long as I knew him, he never worked, just got checks from the government.”
“He’s on disability?”
“I think so. He only mentioned it once, and I didn’t pry. He didn’t look disabled. But he did say something once about being on medication.”
“Maybe his problem isn’t physical. A lot of mentally ill people act completely normal as long as they’re medicated. But when they go off their medication, watch out.”
She pulled a spoon from the drawer and nodded slowly. Maybe that was what had happened, how he’d gone from slightly quirky to terrifyingly nuts in a two-month time span. His version of reality was entertaining when he’d been telling his tales of adventure. But when he’d started seeing her as “his woman” and threatened any guy who so much as looked at her, it wasn’t so entertaining anymore. Soon none of the guys in the complex had wanted to get within twenty feet of her. Even the women had given her a wide berth after some cold glares from Eugene.
“So did you call the cops about the note?”
“I sure did. Just my luck, I got Chief Branch again. He can never resist making some snide comment. This time it was something about wasting the town’s resources.”
“He’s so full of himself.”
“I know.” She placed Smudge’s dish on the floor and leaned back against the counter. “All us peons are beneath—”
A startled gasp choked off the rest of her words, and her heart momentarily stopped.
“Melissa?” Panic laced BethAnn’s tone. “What’s wrong?”
She stood frozen, eyes glued to the window behind the kitchen table. A moment earlier, a face was framed in one of the panes, dimly illuminated by the patio light. The instant she saw it, it was gone.
“Someone was just looking in my window.”
“Call the cops. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“He’ll be gone, especially if he sees me calling them.” And if she called Chief Branch out again so soon, he’d probably try to arrest her.
“Do it inconspicuously. You know, act relaxed, like you’re talking to me.”
She turned her back to the window and, with hands shaking, dialed 9-1-1. Even after disconnecting the call, she kept the phone pressed to her ear. Moments later, the face reappeared, nothing more than an indistinct shape. The sheers hanging at the window and the dimness of the patio light made her prowler impossible to identify.
But she was probably quite visible under the bright kitchen lights. Uneasiness washed over her, a sense of total vulnerability. She resisted the urge to run and hide and forced herself to continue her pretend conversation—talking, laughing, even gesturing for effect. Her performance could have won an Emmy...until the phone began to ring in her hand.
It was Chris. But his greeting was interrupted by a high-pitched shout from outside. BethAnn?
“I’ve gotta go.” She blurted the words and snapped the phone shut, not giving him a chance to protest. In the foyer, the frosted sidelight strobed red and blue, and she heaved a sigh of relief. Just as she opened the door, a Harmony Grove police vehicle ground to a halt. BethAnn’s van sat in front of it, driver’s door wide open. Where was BethAnn?
Alan jumped from the car. “Freeze!” he commanded, pistol leveled on some point across the yard. “Hands in the air.”
She started at the sharp command and followed his gaze to where a lone figure stood at the far end of the house, dimly silhouetted against the dappled glow of Mrs. Johnson’s garage light.
A female voice called out. “Alan, it’s me. He ran that way.” She lowered her hands and pointed behind her. “Jumped the fence onto Mrs. Johnson’s property.”
BethAnn? What was she doing over there?
Alan shot across the yard, while BethAnn headed toward the front door. At the porch she paused to catch her breath. “When I got out of the car, someone was coming out from behind the house. The instant he saw me, he ducked back and took off across the yard.”
Melissa scowled at her. “I can’t believe you chased him. What did you plan to do with him if you caught him?”
BethAnn held up her keys. A mini canister of mace dangled from the key ring. “I knew the police would get here any minute, and I figured I could disable him in the meantime.”
“I appreciate the thought, but I don’t want you getting hurt on my account. I’d rather you stick with running BethAnn’s Fabrics and leave the police work to the professionals.”
“I know. This was just too tempting.”
Melissa shook her head. BethAnn always was the impulsive one. Age hadn’t taken it out of her. Neither had marriage.
When Alan walked across the front yard a few minutes later, he was alone. “I didn’t find anyone.” He pocketed the flashlight, removed a pad and pen and addressed BethAnn. “Describe the person you saw.”
“Well, I didn’t get that close. He started to come out from behind the house but saw me and ran. He was a stocky build, between five-nine and six foot. I think he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, but I couldn’t say what color.”
Alan turned to Melissa. “Any idea who it was?”
“Not really. Stuff has been going on for a week now. It started with two creepy notes, and now this.”
“Tell me about the notes.”
“I’ll do better than that. I’ll show them to you.” She opened the door and motioned him inside. She liked Alan. He treated each call with the seriousness of a murder investigation. Which was more than she could say for his chief.
Alan read both notes, then lifted his gaze, brown eyes grave. “Any idea who wrote these?”
She drew in
a deep breath. “Possibly.”
BethAnn stepped up beside her, lending silent encouragement, and Alan wrote feverishly in his notepad. When she had finished, he closed the pad and slid it back into his shirt pocket. “Show me which window he was at, and I’ll try to lift some prints. I’d like to take these notes into evidence, too.”
She led him through the kitchen and out the back door. Regardless of what Chris thought, Alan was good. What he lacked in experience, he made up for in eagerness. By the time he finished, fine black powder coated the outside of the kitchen window and peppered the stucco sill beneath.
“If anything else happens, give us a call. Meanwhile, I’ll drive by here regularly.”
She walked with him and BethAnn down the sidewalk as another set of headlights cut a path up the driveway. Not again.
BethAnn grinned widely. “It’s Chris. So we’ll be leaving you in capable hands.” She skipped to her van and turned back for one final wave. The grin was still there.
Melissa shook her head. If she left BethAnn in charge of her love life, she and Chris would be married before year’s end.
* * *
Chris jumped from his Blazer and reached her in two long strides. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. What are you doing here?”
He ignored the annoyance in her tone. “After the way you answered the phone, I think that’s obvious.” His gaze circled the yard, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, at least in front. “So what happened here?”
“Nothing serious.” She dropped her gaze to the ground and shifted her weight onto one heel-clad foot. She obviously hadn’t changed her clothes after work. The charcoal-gray tailored suit had professional written all over it. And her stance was about as relaxed as her dress. She stood straight and stiff, arms crossed protectively in front of her. What would it take to penetrate that shell of self-sufficiency that had only grown thicker over the years?
“I’m guessing BethAnn didn’t just drop by for a visit.”
Several moments passed while he waited for her to answer. Finally she drew in a deep breath. “I was on the phone with her and thought I saw someone looking in the kitchen window. It was probably nothing.”
He clenched his teeth against the sense of protectiveness surging up from within. If only she would let him stay. But she had already flat-out refused. And that was before she was furious with him. He bit back the words of caution hovering on the tip of his tongue. “If anything happens that makes you at all uncomfortable, you know you can call me any time.”
Her stance didn’t relax in the slightest. She was more closed off than ever. “Thanks, but that’s what the police are for.”
He heaved a heavy sigh. He had really blown it. He was amazingly good at that, at least where Melissa was concerned. “Well,” he began, “my reasons for calling were more than just checking on you. I wanted to apologize for getting my partner involved. You were going to tell me when you were good and ready, and I let concern get in the way of my better judgment.”
She momentarily lifted her gaze to his face, then let it once again fall to the gravel drive. But in those brief moments, her features seemed to soften just a little. Finally she shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. What’s done is done.”
“I know it is, but I was hoping you’d give me a chance to make it up to you.” Actually, he had a lot more to make up for than his invasion of her privacy. His refusal to trust her had almost destroyed them both. He squared his shoulders, searching deep inside for the strength to say what needed to be said and the confidence that the words would somehow be enough.
“Missy,” he began, “I know I’ve said I’m sorry for everything that happened five years ago, but I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve regretted the choices I made. I should never have listened to Adrianne’s lies.”
“Adrianne’s lies?” She met his gaze fully, brows drawn together. “What did she tell you?”
“The whole time you and I were together, she was always dropping hints about Lance.”
A hardness crept into her eyes. “If I had wanted Lance, I wouldn’t have left him in the first place. It was you I was in love with.”
“I know that now. But she was constantly insinuating there was something going on between you. Since she was your best friend, I had no reason to doubt her.”
Her eyes narrowed, and pain flickered in their depths. “But you doubted me.”
“I did, and that’s something I’ll kick myself for until the day I die.” He drew in a slow breath. It was time to tell her the whole story. Maybe she would understand. “The night you walked in, she had stopped by my apartment while you were at school. I was complaining that I wasn’t seeing much of you, with school and work and all the wedding plans. Well, she started acting really uncomfortable, as if there was something she knew but didn’t want to tell me.” He stopped speaking for several moments and closed his eyes. Five years later, the memory still felt like a steel fist clamping down on his heart.
“Anyway, I got this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and asked her point-blank if you were seeing someone. She wouldn’t answer me, just looked at the floor. But I kept pressing. Finally she told me you had been seeing Lance for the past four months and were planning to call off the wedding.”
She stared at him, eyes wide and mouth agape. “And you believed her?”
“I know, it was stupid.” Stupid and inexcusable. How would she ever forgive him? “She was so convincing. I was completely devastated. And, of course, she was right there ready to offer sympathy. The comforting hug was welcome. But when she planted that kiss on me the moment you walked in the door, I just froze. After what she had told me, I was too stunned to react one way or the other. Two years later, she began dating my friend Todd. I don’t know if her conscience started to bother her or what, but she eventually broke down and told him everything.” He shook his head, regret weighing heavy on his heart. “Believe me, when I got that phone call, I really wanted to die. I finally learned the truth, but it was two years too late.”
She continued to stare up at him, arms wrapped tightly around her midsection, physical evidence of the wall she had put around her heart. Finally she spoke, the pain in her features at odds with the icy tone. “You could have talked to me, you know. You didn’t have to start sleeping with her.”
His eyes widened and his jaw sagged. “What?”
“You and Adrianne had been having your fling for quite a while. I was just lucky I found out before I made the mistake of marrying you.” She spat the words at him, the pain in her eyes now mixed with anger.
Shock ricocheted through his brain. Adrianne, of all people! She was so not his type. Shallow, cheap, flirty and totally wrapped up in herself. The complete opposite of Melissa. “Is that what you think, that I slept with her?”
For some time, her eyes remained locked on his face, searching for answers, confidence fleeing her gaze with every passing moment. “Are you saying you didn’t?”
“Of course I didn’t! Why would you even think that?”
“But Adrianne—” She shook her head as if trying to wrap her mind around something just out of her grasp. “Adrianne told me that this thing between you had been going on for several months.”
He sank against the side of her car, feeling like someone who had just taken a solid steel-toed boot to the gut. Adrianne hadn’t just lied to him; she’d lied to Melissa, too. All this time, Melissa believed he had been unfaithful. And he hadn’t done anything to dispel that notion, just accused her of cheating with Lance. No wonder she had severed ties so thoroughly.
“Whatever Adrianne told you, she was lying, just like she lied to me about Lance.” Somehow he had to convince her. “What you walked in on that night is all that ever happened. You’ve got to believe me, Melissa.”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know wh
at to think.”
He pushed himself away from the car and rested one hand on her shoulder in silent entreaty. “All I did was accept a comforting hug. That kiss was initiated by her, right when you walked in the door. And I don’t think the timing was any accident. She had it all planned out.” He dropped his hand and leaned back against the car again. “There was just one thing she didn’t anticipate—my reaction. After that night, she kept coming around, and all I would do was talk about you. She said I needed to forget about you, that you had made your choice and were happy with Lance. Finally she gave up.”
While he talked, he studied her, searching her face for some sign that the barriers were coming down. But there was none. She never met his gaze, just stood ramrod straight, arms still crossed in front of her. Did she understand? Did she even believe him?
“Melissa,” he prodded, “please talk to me.”
She shook her head, all her thoughts and feelings locked securely behind that protective wall that had gone up the moment she had seen him with Adrianne. “I have to go. I need time to think.”
She spun away from him, strode quickly up the walk and disappeared into the huge old house. For several moments, he stared at the closed door, doubt chasing regret through the corridors of his mind. How could something so perfect have gone so horribly wrong? How could a simple misunderstanding cause a rift so big it couldn’t be spanned?
Determination surged through him. Somehow, some way, he would make everything right again. Whatever it took, he would win her back.
That was his new goal.
Second only to keeping her safe.
NINE
Melissa backed from Kevin and BethAnn’s driveway onto the short dead-end road that branched off Main Street. She hadn’t planned to stay so long. But Sunday lunch after church turned into a whole afternoon of chatting and reminiscing. And, in BethAnn’s case, pondering a future for Melissa with Chris. BethAnn had been thrilled to hear his version of what had happened that night and saw no problem with them simply picking up where they had left off.
Midnight Shadows (Love Inspired Suspense) Page 9
