Rumor Has It

by Maureen Child

  Ten

  Nathan spent a couple of frustrating days trying to track down answers to his questions. He couldn’t find Alex Santiago and he had no clue who had vandalized the diner kitchen. Frustration chewed at him. That bad feeling about Alex was intensifying, and as for Amanda…

  This was damn personal. Someone was out there trying to hurt her and damned if he’d let them. Amanda was his and nobody was going to mess with her and get away with it.

  Of course, he mused ruefully, he hadn’t told Amanda yet how it was going to be between them. Now that he’d decided that they were going to be together, he wanted to take his time. Keep seducing her with sex, get her used to the idea of having him back in her life before he actually told her it was time to get married. He wasn’t an idiot, after all. The last time he’d asked her to marry him it was because of the baby and none of it had ended well. It shamed him to remember it now, but it was best to go into any tricky situation with your thoughts and goals straight. Looking back, Nathan was willing to admit he’d handled that situation badly long ago.

  This time would be different.

  Amanda was a hell of a woman, but she had a spine and was likely to fight him on this whole marriage thing if he didn’t work it just right.

  Not that it mattered if she fought him. He would have her, in the end. It would just be easier all the way around if he could just keep reminding himself to be patient.

  But he wouldn’t be patient in finding whoever was behind this mess at the diner. Because he knew, whoever it was, would also turn out to be the source of the rumors. Highly unlikely that two different people would both be harassing Amanda at the same time.

  When the phone rang, he snatched it. “Sheriff’s office.”

  “Hey.”

  “Chance.” Nathan straightened, grabbed a pen and slid a pad of paper in front of him just in case he needed to take notes. “You hear anything?”

  “Nada.” Chance sounded disgusted. “I’ve talked to everybody I can think of and nobody’s seen Alex.”

  “Damn.” He sat back in his chair and tossed the pen to the desktop. “I talked to Mia Hughes yesterday—Alex’s housekeeper. She hasn’t seen him in days. Says he hasn’t been home at all.”

  “Well, where the hell is he, then?”

  “I don’t know, Chance.” Nathan shook his head and stared off into space. “It’s like he dropped off the face of the earth.”

  “I don’t mind admitting that I’m getting worried, Nate,” Chance said. “This isn’t like Alex.”

  Nathan was worried, too. It just didn’t seem reasonable that nobody in Royal had heard from or seen Alex. And why the hell would he leave town without at least telling Mia? Something was definitely wrong here and Nathan didn’t like it.

  Usually, in a town like Royal, the “crimes” he dealt with were kids getting into trouble or the occasional battle between neighbors. Now he had a missing man and a break-in.

  “Any news on what happened at the diner?” Chance asked.

  “No.” One word. Disgusted. Nathan had never felt helpless before and he didn’t care for it. He couldn’t find his friend and he hadn’t been able to discover who was behind the vandalism to Amanda’s place.

  Though he did at least have a half-baked suspicion on that one. Didn’t make much sense to him, but he’d check it out. And if he were right…it would help prove to Amanda that she could trust him—in spite of the mistakes in their past.

  “What is with Royal this summer, man?”

  “Wish to hell I knew,” Nathan answered.

  * * *

  The upside of having her diner demolished, Amanda thought, was that she had more time with Nathan.

  He hadn’t wanted her staying alone in the apartment over the diner until he found whoever had done the damage. So, she’d been staying here, at the house he’d had built for himself on the Battlelands. Normally, she might have fought him over his bossy, take-charge attitude, but she hadn’t wanted to stay there, either. As much as she liked the little apartment, it would never really feel safe to her again.

  Nathan’s place, as great as it was, was temporary and she knew it. The only answer was to find a place of her own.

  “Guess it’s time to look for that house,” she said aloud.

  “You have a house,” Terri told her firmly. “Right here.”

  “This is Nathan’s,” Amanda said, shaking her head as she took a sip of her tea. “Being here with him is wonderful, but it isn’t permanent.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know which of you has the harder head.” As if accepting that she wouldn’t change Amanda’s mind, Terri sighed and went to a new subject. “How’s the diner coming along, anyway?”

  “We’ll be able to open again on Monday. We’ve got a new grill and Pam’s been helping me clean up and restock the kitchen.”

  “There’s a miracle,” Terri murmured. “Pam doesn’t exactly strike me as the helpful type.”

  Amanda had to chuckle. She’d been surprised by her sister’s assistance, too. “That’s one good thing that came out of all of this. Pam did such a turnaround this last week—she’s been so nice it’s almost eerie.”

  “And all it took was the destruction of the diner.”

  “Whatever caused the change, I’m happy about it.” Amanda had never wanted to be at war with her sister. Over the last week, they’d worked together in the kitchen, straightening up, restoring order. Not that she and Pam were joined at the hip or suddenly becoming best buddies…but it was a start. If this new relationship with her sister continued, then the vandalism would have been worth it.

  Terri set a paper sack on the kitchen table and pushed it toward Amanda. “I got what you asked for at the store.”

  Amanda’s stomach flip-flopped as she reached for the bag. She took a deep breath then blew it out again. “Thanks, Terri. If I had gone into a store anywhere near here to buy it myself, everyone in town would have known by the end of the day.”

  “Amanda…”

  She cut her friend off. “Remember, you promised. Not a word. Not even to Jake.”

  Terri made a quick cross over her heart and held her hand up. “I swear. But you’re crazy, you know that, right? You should tell Nathan.”

  “I will,” Amanda said. “If there’s anything to tell.”

  “Stubborn,” Terri said. “Okay, fine. Do it your way.”

  “Wow, thanks for that, too,” Amanda said with a smile.

  “Okay, I’m going. But if you need me, just call. It’ll take me a whole ten seconds to walk over here from the main house.”

  “I’m fine, Terri. But thanks. I appreciate it.”

  “You’re welcome. And I really hope you get this straightened out already. It’d be nice to have you here on the ranch permanently.”

  When the kitchen door closed behind her friend, Amanda picked up her tea and the small paper bag and wandered out of the room. Her gaze slipped over Nathan’s place and in her mind, she instinctively added pillows, splashes of color, vases filled with summer flowers.

  Terri was right about one thing. Amanda didn’t want to buy another house. She wanted to live here. With Nathan. But she couldn’t do that without love.

  Nerves skittered through her already uneasy stomach and Amanda swallowed hard to settle everything down. She’d been here in this house with Nathan for nearly a week and it was becoming too comfortable. Being here with him, having breakfast and dinner together, waking up in his arms—it all felt just right. As it was supposed to have been seven years ago.

  But no promises had been made. No talk of a future. No mention of love.

  Amanda’s heart twisted a little as she reminded herself of that. She couldn’t let herself slide into a relationship with Nathan that had no chance of succeeding. And the longer she stayed here with him, the
harder it was going to be to leave.

  Especially now.

  She stopped at a window overlooking the front yard of the main ranch house. Jake and Terri’s kids were clambering over the jungle gym Nathan and Jake had built for them. Their shouts and laughter pealed through the morning air and Amanda smiled wistfully as she listened to them.

  If things had been different, her child would have been out there with them. Her child.

  Taking a breath, she turned around and headed for the stairs. She carried her tea up to the master bedroom, sliding her hand along the polished oak banister as she went. Nathan was in town at the sheriff’s office. He’d be there for hours.

  So, she told herself, there was no better time for her to find out the answer to a question that had been nagging at her for a week.

  * * *

  Pam looked horrible.

  It was the first thing Nathan noticed when she opened the front door of her house to him. And that gave Nathan the answer he was looking for. In between his regular town duties and the unofficial search for Alex, Nathan had been working on the vandalism at the diner.

  He’d spent hours thinking about this, looking for witnesses, anything to help him figure out who was behind Amanda’s troubles. And the one name that kept coming back to him was Pam.

  No one else in town had any real issues with Amanda. But her sister hadn’t exactly made a secret of the fact that she resented Amanda’s presence even though her return to Royal had been at Pam’s request. So he was playing a hunch. Trusting his instincts. He’d come to Pam’s house to talk to her about this, maybe get her to confess. Now, looking into her eyes, he knew he was right about it all.

  “Nathan.”

  “We need to talk.” Nathan walked past her into the darkened house. Drapes were drawn, shutting out the sunlight, as if she were in hiding.

  He marched through the small, familiar house and stopped in the living room. Then he snatched off his hat and turned to face the woman following him.

  Abruptly, tears filled her eyes and spilled over to run unchecked down her cheeks. “Nathan—”

  “You’re sitting here in the dark,” he pointed out. “Looking mighty miserable and I think there’s a reason for that. See, I came here on a hunch,” he said, his voice clipped and hard. “The only person in town who has a problem with Amanda is you, Pam. No one else would have had access to the diner without breaking a window or something to get in.” That fact had bothered him from the jump. The lock on the door hadn’t been jimmied, so either he was looking for a skillful vandal with terrific lock-picking talents, or… “But you had a key. You went there in the middle of the night, let yourself in and tore that kitchen apart, didn’t you?”

  “I swear I didn’t go there intending to wreck the place,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around herself as if searching for comfort. “I went to get a bottle of wine from the fridge. Then I was there, alone and started thinking about you. And Amanda. And the more I thought, the angrier I got and before I knew it…”

  His stance didn’t soften, his voice didn’t warm when he said, “Why? Why would you do that to your sister? To your own damn business?”

  She unfolded her arms and wiped tears away with both hands before taking a long breath and saying, “I’ve been so angry for so long.”

  “Angry about what?” he demanded, his gaze locked on her as if seeing her clearly for the first time. She looked miserable, eyes gleaming with tears, her teeth biting into her lower lip and her shoulders hunched as if she were somehow trying to disappear inside herself.

  “You,” she admitted finally, staring up at him.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  She laughed harshly. “God, I’m an idiot. Look at you. You have no idea.”

  “Pam,” Nathan growled, “my patience is stretched as thin as it can get. I’ve had a bad week and I’m not much in the mood for guessing games with you, so whatever’s stuck in your craw, spit it out.”

  “Fine. Why not finish the humiliation?” She threw her hands high and let them slap down against her sides. Shaking her head, she blurted, “I was always crazy about you, Nathan, but you never looked at me. Never saw me.”

  “Pam—” Nathan said her name and watched her flinch.

  She shook her head and held up one hand to keep him quiet. “Please don’t say anything. Bad enough I have to say this. Bad enough that I wasted years pining after you when I never had a chance.” She huffed out a strangled breath. “It was always Amanda for you, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it was.” He didn’t feel sorry for her. She’d caused a lot of trouble. He did feel badly that he’d never noticed that her fondness for him had become an obsession. That much was his fault. If he’d been paying attention, he could have spared everyone a lot of misery. As it was, he played another hunch. “What about the rumors attacking Amanda? The ones seven years ago and now? Was that you, too?”

  She inhaled sharply and winced as if she were in pain. “Yeah. That was me.” She turned away from him as if she couldn’t bear to face him. “God, this is like a nightmare. Even I can’t believe what I’ve done.”

  “Pam—” He broke off and shook his head. Hard to believe this one woman had caused so much damage. All of it stemming from jealousy. “You spread those lies about Amanda, suggesting she got rid of our baby. And you thought that would make me care for you?”

  Her voice dropped to a whisper but in the stillness Nathan heard every word. “I never thought you’d find out.”

  “And the diner kitchen? What was that about?”

  “God. I was in the diner alone.” Her strained whisper sounded as if she were having to push every word through her throat. “Amanda was spending the night at the ranch. With you. I swear I didn’t consciously mean to do all of that. But I picked up an iron skillet and just started beating the grill. I was so angry, so—it doesn’t matter,” she said brokenly. “It was like I lost my mind for a few minutes. I was so furious with her, for coming home.” She looked around at him. “For taking you from me. I just lost it.”

  He wasn’t moved by her confession. If anything, his jaw clenched tighter and his eyes narrowed more. All Nathan could think was that because of Pam, he and Amanda had lost seven years together. “She couldn’t take me from you because I was never with you.”

  She dropped into a chair, wrapped her arms around her middle and rocked. “I know. And I’m sorry. I really am. For everything. I wasted so much time. But, Nathan—”

  “No, there’s no excuse for any of this, Pam,” he told her flatly. “And if Amanda wants to press charges against you, I’ll throw you into a cell so fast, the world will be a blur.”

  Her stomach sank. “You’re going to tell her?”

  “No,” he said. “You are.”

  “Oh, God.”

  “Yeah,” Nathan went on. “See, Amanda’s going to marry me as soon as I get around to telling her how things are going to be. And I’m not going to be the one to break the news that her only family betrayed her.”

  Pam winced at that, but Nathan didn’t give a good damn if her feelings were hurt. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll tell her.”

  “Do it fast.” He stalked out of the house and slammed the door behind him.

  Seven years wasted. But it wasn’t all Pam’s fault and he knew it. As much as he’d like to forget, Nathan had to acknowledge that if he’d had more faith in Amanda and more damn spine, he never would have believed a word of those rumors. Instead, he’d been young enough and stupid enough to let lies throw his life off track.

  Well, no more.

  * * *

  Nathan was still fighting off the anger Pam had churned up in him when he parked outside his house. In no mood to talk to Jake, he was glad it was late enough that his brother and his family were already at dinner.

  He
got out of his car, slammed the door and took a minute to calm himself before going inside to see Amanda. Like he told Pam, he didn’t want to be the one to tell her that her own sister had been behind the harassment aimed at her. And if he went in there furious, she’d worm the information out of him whether he wanted to tell her or not.

  Still, hard to believe that Pam was the vandal. And the one who’d started all the vicious rumors. But hell, at least he’d solved one mystery. Alex’s disappearance was still chewing on Nathan. He was making calls, talking to people and, so far, he had nothing. As Alex’s friend, Nathan was worried. As a cop, he was frustrated.

  Shaking his head, he stared at his house and in spite of everything, the tension inside him easing. Lights were on, and it struck him suddenly that he really liked coming home to this. Always before, he’d leave work and drive up to an empty house, dark windows and a silence that grew thicker with every passing moment. But for the last week, Amanda had been here and she’d etched herself into every damn corner of that house—as well as his heart.

  If she left him today—an option that would not be allowed to happen—he still would see her all over his house. He would hear her laugh, catch her scent on every stray breeze, reach for her across his bed.

  Even after the rough day he’d had, Nathan smiled as he noted the pots of bright yellow and blue flowers Amanda had set on the porch yesterday. His chest tightened as he recalled her walking along the wraparound porch, muttering to herself about rockers and matching chairs and tables and how nice it would be to sit out on a summer night and watch the moon crawl across the sky.

  He wanted that. With her. Wanted to come home to a well-lit house holding the woman he loved. All right, yes, he loved her. He hadn’t told her, of course, because their past was still between them and he knew that though she might not admit it, she didn’t completely trust him again yet. He couldn’t blame her—hell, thinking back about what had happened between them years ago, how they’d ended, made him want to kick his own ass.