Giving another push on the chair, she lifted her feet off the ground and enjoyed the sway of the new swinging chair that Justin had installed for her. Setting her phone aside, she picked up the card she’d found on the chair.
Hope you like my housewarming gift. From, Justin.
She wasn’t sure when he’d fixed up the chair. They only completed the spray painting around 11 at night. She had washed up and gone to bed after Justin left for home.
The chair was there when she opened the door, along with the small card on the cushion.
She tipped her head against the silver metal chain and looked out at the sky while her chair swung back and forth.
She stared idly up at the clouds, watching them drift as a wave of cool breeze swept by. Seemed like summer was finally moving on and making way for autumn to arrive.
Her head turned toward the corner of the street when she heard the engine. Even before the car steered into the street, something inside raised a red flag.
She dropped her feet to the floor and stopped the chair from swinging while her fingers tightened against the metal chain.
Once the car turned in, her stomach twisted into knots.
It wasn’t Justin’s truck.
The black sedan drove past the Seymours and toward her house, parking right beside the stone pavement.
She grabbed her phone and got to her feet, intending to go back into the house and lock the door. But as she stood, she peered into the car’s windshield and her jaw dropped.
The driver side door opened and Cole stepped out from the car, glancing around. “You’re really here.”
“What…” Paige couldn’t move her legs. How did he find me?
Cole ran up the stony steps and onto deck, taking her hand. “Do you know how worried I’ve been? You shouldn’t have left so suddenly; I’m sure there wasn’t a need for that. Come back with me.”
She pursed her lips and slipped her hand out of Cole’s as gently as she could. She couldn’t have been clearer in her letter.
Clearing her throat, she swallowed and said, “I’m sorry, Cole. I’m not going back with you. I’m sorry it took me two years to realize it, but…but,” she stuttered. “But I don’t love you and I’m not going back with you.”
“Don’t be silly. You’re just upset over our fight.” He reached out and took her hand again. “Everything is fine. Come back with me and you’ll see that.”
“It’s nothing to do with our fight. I’m happy where I am and I’ve no intention of going back.”
“Paige, you’re being stupid. This whole stalker thing is blowing out of proportions. No one broke into your house. What’s the point of going into your house? It serves no purpose.”
Paige drew in a deep breath and pulled her hand from Cole’s, this time more forcefully. She hated it when Cole talked down to her. She knew it happened, and she didn’t need his agreement for her to know it was true. “Cole, I don’t want to talk about that anymore, not with you. I’m sorry you made a wasted trip, but I’m not going back with you.”
“You heard the lady.”
Paige looked over Cole’s shoulder and saw Justin standing in front of her porch.
Cole ignored Justin and continued. “Don’t be stupid. You got frightened by something you thought happened. It was nothing. Your imagination got the better of you.”
She raised her hands, palm out, and took a step back. “Doesn’t matter if you believe me. Even if I do go home, I won’t go back to you.” She quickly moved around Cole and took Justin’s outstretched hand.
But Cole grabbed her by the arm and jerked her back, forcing her to come to a stop with a gasped.
“Do you know how worried I was?” Cole bellowed.
Justin stepped between them and ripped Cole’s hand from her. “There’s no need to get rough.”
She’d never seen Cole this angry. She stayed behind Justin, watching Cole.
“It’s time for you to go,” Justin said, dragging Cole down the porch while making sure he kept Paige behind him.
And when she heard that, something in her mind clicked; she finally remembered the vital question she hadn’t asked. “How did you find me?”
Cole shrugged off Justin’s hand after much struggle and turned back to Paige. “Who is he?”
“How did you find me?” she asked again. She hadn’t told anyone where she was. Not even her own mother had her new address. She hadn’t brought any of her old credit cards along. Andrew had opened another account for her, and she’d paid everything with cash.
She did everything Andrew told her to, so how did Cole find her?
If Cole could find her, that meant her stalker could as well.
Justin must’ve seen her distress. He took a step forward and grabbed Cole’s arm like how Cole had done with her. “She asked you a question.”
“You’re making all these stupid decisions simply because your imagination got carried away. Look at yourself! Living in this pathetic town, teaching in a high school, getting together with small town losers.” Cole’s arms waved about as he tried to pry Justin’s hand from his arm. Then he gave up and jabbed his finger toward her. “I was there for you whenever you needed me. Then you just up and left without telling me?”
Paige wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying. She saw his crazy attempt to get out of Justin’s grasp, but all she could think of were the letters, the roses, the photographs, and the phone calls.
She took in a deep breath and lowered her voice. “How did you find me?”
“Are you seeing this guy?”
“Answer my question,” she seethed.
“Mrs. Garner,” Justin suddenly said. “He said you were teaching in a high school. You haven’t even started work.” He shoved Cole aside and went over to her, pulling her into his arms.
She closed her eyes and clutched onto Justin’s T-shirt.
“I’ll go talk to her,” he said softly into her ear.
“You really are a whore.”
In an instant, she was standing alone while Cole was moaning on the ground, his hand over his nose while blood escaped through the space between his fingers.
“He broke my nose! That brute broke my nose!”
Paige stared, dumbfounded as Justin wrapped his arms around her. She couldn’t believe Cole would use her own nightmare against her.
Justin rubbed his hands down her back, his jaws tense and eyes focused on Cole. “Leave, before I make you crawl away.”
“I’ll listen to him.”
Paige looked up and saw Mr. Seymour pointing a rifle at Cole. She didn’t bother to glance back at Cole. She knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t pick a fight with a gun pointing at him; he never even dared to stand up to Andrew before.
“Let’s go in,” Justin whispered and led her toward the Seymours.
Mrs. Seymour was already standing by the door. “Come in. Everything will be fine.”
Justin sat her down on the couch. “I’ll call and check if Mrs. Garner is in school now. Otherwise, I’ll go see her at her house; I know where she stays.” He ran his thumb across her lower lip. “You stay here and call your brother. Let him know what happened and tell him to inform your previous school that your current address shouldn’t be given to anyone else. They probably gave it to Cole because they know him, thought he was your ex and there was no harm in that.”
“Drew hadn’t visited because he didn’t want to risk getting followed.”
He took her hand with a gentle squeeze. “Can you call and check if Mrs. Garner is in school now?” he asked Mrs. Seymour.
Mrs. Seymour nodded and went over to the phone while Mr. Seymour came in. “He’s gone.”
Justin pushed her hair aside and ran his finger down the length of it. “We’ll deal with whatever happens. I’ll be right here.”
Paige leaned onto his shoulder and snuggled closer.
“She isn’t in school,” Mrs. Seymour said. “I’ll make some tea.”
“It’s all righ
t, I think I’ll take her with me.” He stood, pulling her along. “You can call your brother on the way there.”
Justin kept his hand around Paige’s waist as they left the Seymours’ house and walked over to his car. He moved his hand over her shoulders and realized how cold her arms were.
Maybe he should’ve allowed Mrs. Seymour to give Paige a cup of tea first.
Rubbing his hand over her arm, he stopped right beside his car and turned her over to face him. “Are you all right?”
“I’m sorry, you must think I’m overreacting.”
“This is you overreacting? How are you like when you under react?” he teased.
She cracked a small, wry smile.
“You left everything to come over. You took every precaution to make sure you didn’t leave a trail behind. I can understand how you’re feeling.”
She placed her hand over his chest. “Thank you, for understanding.” She sighed softly and laid her head onto his shoulders. “One minute. Let me stand like this for a minute. I’ll be fine after that.”
Justin was anxious to get hold of Mrs. Garner and make sure she didn’t reveal Paige’s whereabouts to anyone else, but as practical as that was, it wasn’t what Paige needed now.
He held her quietly until she moved. She tiptoed and gave him a peck on his lips.
“Better?”
She nodded with a smile.
Justin opened the passenger door and waited for her to get in, then jogged over to the other side and got into the car.
He might never fully understand the fear Paige had gone through with the stalker, but he hadn’t seen her like this since the first night. Cole showing up didn’t mean the stalker knew where she was, but the possibility was enough to take away the sense of security she’d felt in Pine.
While driving over, Paige called Andrew and informed him of Cole’s appearance. “No, I’m fine. No. No, I’m with Justin.” She looked over and smiled at him. ‘Yes, I’m fine,” she repeated. “All right, bye.”
She sighed softly as Justin pulled up outside Mrs. Garner’s house.
“Do you want to come in with me?” He didn’t think she’d want to be alone now.
“Yeah.”
Before either of them could step out of the car, Justin’s phone rang. He pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and frowned at the unfamiliar number.
Paige craned her neck over. “Aargh! That’s Drew’s number. He did it again. He has a friend in the FBI.” Looking apologetically at the Justin, she continued. “Shawn is severely misusing his FBI power.”
Justin laughed and picked up the call. “Hi, Andrew.”
“Is Paige with you?”
“Right beside me.”
“Have you spoken to Mrs. Garner?”
“No, we’re right outside her house. We’ll drop in on her when you’re done.”
“Justin, I know you’ve seen her without all the pressure from the stalking. I can tell she’s much happier, but she had a lot of problems dealing with the stalking. Watch her. And don’t let Cole get anywhere near her. He’s been manipulating her with the stalking thing.”
“What is he saying?” Paige mouthed.
“Nothing,” he said softly and gave her a peck on her hair. “All right,” he answered Andrew. “I’ll keep her safe.”
“Are you seeing my sister?”
“Why? Did my background check fail?”
Andrew laughed dryly on the other end of the phone. “If it had, you won’t be sitting next to her.”
“Are you coming over?”
“No, I don’t want to take the risk. Let me know if she gets any mail,” Andrew said. “Pass the phone to Paige.”
He handed the phone over. “He knows,” he whispered.
She huffed and took the phone. “I’m here. Mm-hmm. Because I know you’ll get all interrogative about it. Okay. Okay.” She turned to him and rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t think he’ll come back; Justin punched him in the nose. You would’ve liked to do it yourself, right? All right, bye.” She returned the phone to Justin. “Was he rude? I’m sorry if he was. He’s always like that.”
He grinned and nudged her cheek with his finger. “Don’t worry about me. Shall we?” He pushed open the door and stepped out.
They rang the bell and waited for less than a minute when the door flew open.
“Celia said you’ll be dropping by,” Mrs. Garner stated as she opened the door. “Come in. I heard I caused some problems.”
Justin sat down on the couch and was about to answer when he changed his mind. He didn’t want to keep Paige sheltered like Andrew had. He wasn’t going to brush her off like what Cole had done, but he didn’t quite agree with Andrew’s methods either.
He gave Paige’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Why don’t you explain the situation?”
Paige’s face blanked, and she blinked, but she quickly regained her composure. “We were wondering if you gave my address to anyone recently?”
“Yes, I called your old school…a week back? To ask for reference. It isn’t that I have doubts about you, but it is my duty to screen potential teachers. Your ex-boss asked me where you were, so I told her.”
“You gave her my actual address?”
“Not on that call. But some administration called me back a few days ago to ask for your address. Something about your last paycheck still with them.”
Paige turned away with a frown, her thumb twirling the ring around on her index finger. “That can’t be right. My brother picked up my last paycheck.”
“Some mixed up, perhaps?”
Justin saw Paige shutting her eyes and slowing taking in a deep breath through her nose. He didn’t reach out to comfort her; he wanted to, but he didn’t.
He sat and waited. Even when he felt Mrs. Garner attention on him, he sat and kept his eyes on Paige. He let her take as much time as she needed.
As the silence dragged on, Mrs. Garner grew uncomfortable. “Look how rude I am. I haven’t even offered the two of you some water.”
Paige sighed, shaking her head with an awkward smile. “No, it’s fine. I’m sorry, I was just…” She looked over to him, seemingly hoping for some form of help.
He smiled at her encouragingly and gave her hand another squeeze.
She appeared to have caught on to what he was doing and finally nodded. She licked her lower lips and said, “I’ve a situation with a stalker in New York, which was why I left. I didn’t give anyone my address to make sure that the stalker won’t find me.”
“Oh,” Mrs. Garner gasped. “I didn’t know that.”
Paige’s head bobbed up and down. “I know. It’s not your fault; I should’ve told you beforehand. But I’ll really appreciate it if you don’t reveal my address to anyone else.”
“Of course.”
“Not even the fact that I’m in Pine Bluffs.”
“I understand.”
Paige sighed heavily and gave Mrs. Garner a wry smile. “Thank you.”
“Thanks for your time.” Justin stood from the couch.
“Not a problem. I’m sorry if I caused any problem.” Mrs. Garner walked them to the door. “And Justin, thanks for the donations, it—”
“It’s nothing,” he quickly interrupted.
“Donations?” Paige asked as they returned to the car.
He was hoping that Paige would be too occupied with Cole’s arrival to catch what Mrs. Garner had said. “Just something to repay Mrs. Garner.”
“Repay her for?”
“I got into a fight in school with one of Mrs. Bradley’s friend’s son, and Mrs. Bradley jumped on the chance to get me kicked out of school.”
Paige’s eyes widened. “And Mrs. Garner stopped her?”
“And she wasn’t even the principal then, just my math teacher. She insisted that I was provoked and didn’t deserve to get expelled. She could’ve been fired.”
“That’s nice and brave of her.”
“It is.”
Paige slipped into the car and
asked, “Why didn’t you say anything just now?”
“I think you’re more than capable of handling things on your own. You don’t need me, or even Andrew, to speak for you. Are you mad?”
She broke into a grin and shook her head.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Good. Then can you do something for me?” He turned the key in the ignition and drove back to the Seymours. For the first time in his life, he made it a point to remember the different cars that the neighbors drove.
“What?”
“Stay at the Seymours tonight.”
She played with her ring again, pulling it in and out of her finger.
“You don’t want to?”
Her head leaned heavily back against the head rest. “I don’t know what I want. I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t want to run again.”
He thought about that for a moment. “Your bed is here, I suppose you don’t mind me using the air mattress?”
“You want to stay over?”
“Then you won’t be alone, and you don’t have to run.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but appeared to have problem forming words.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have to decide now, right? Can I get back to you on that?”
“Yeah,” he tried to say it as nonchalantly as possible, but he couldn’t help wondering what was wrong. They had been spending so much time together and she didn’t seem to mind.
Though curious, he didn’t want to press her for an answer now.
Cole crooked his jaw as he glanced out at the godforsaken town.
What the hell was Paige thinking? Leaving the big apple for a place like this.
These towns belonged to losers who couldn’t get their heads together to study and get out of town. Why would she associate herself with people in such a small place?
And that brute.
What did she see in that guy?
Cole didn’t see how Paige could move on so quickly.
They were together for over two years. Two years! He had even proposed to her.
When she had rejected his proposal, he thought she was still angry over the row they had.
A Fresh Start Page 15
