He parked in the alley behind the store. Finding the back door unlocked, he made a mental note to say something to whichever employee was responsible. If anything was missing, he’d be taking it out of someone’s paycheck.
The dim light in the store was still enough for him to make his way to his office. What didn’t make sense was that the light was on and the door open. Yep, someone was definitely going to pay.
He stepped inside to chaos, and the sight of a little brown purse sitting on his desk. Susan’s? He glanced at the mess of papers and files. Surely she wouldn’t have trashed his office and then left her purse. “Susan?”
No sound greeted his ears. He set the purse back on his desk and called the police. They promised to send a squad car and informed Cade to leave the store.
No way. He needed to see whether anything was missing. If not, then he would know the office had been the target for whoever broke in.
Not that they would find anything about…anything. He’d come back to Woodsbrook hoping to make a clean start, not bring the past with him.
Maybe after what his father had done, that was impossible. When Mom died, Cade actually had hope that with his father now in prison, he could pick up the shattered pieces of his life.
He walked the perimeter of the store until he reached the long counter in front where the cash registers were. Not that he expected anything to be missing there. They didn’t leave money in the drawer after hours.
Other than his office, the store was as clean and pristine as when he’d left it earlier that day. He headed for the coffee bar. Nothing out of place there, either. Next he checked the restrooms, hoping he’d find Susan in the women’s room.
He knocked, then edged the door open. “Susan?” When he received no answer, he stepped inside and looked under the stalls for feet, feeling ridiculously obtrusive. He breathed a sigh of relief not to find her there.
Maybe she had forgotten her purse. If so, he’d be happy to have an excuse to see her in the morning. He turned off the bathroom light.
While waiting for the police, he decided to walk the aisles, straightening a book here and there, seeing which genres needed refilled on the shelves.
He froze at the sight of a pair of pink and white gym shoes sticking from behind a display. “Susan.” He knelt beside her, pressing his hand to a bleeding wound on her head. From the way she lay, he surmised she’d fallen and hit her head.
Her eyes fluttered open. “Where were you?”
“Shh. I had a flat. Let me call an ambulance.” He reached for his cell phone.
She stilled his hand. “We have to leave. They might still be here.”
“Who—” His question cut off when two police officers entered the store and approached them.
“Mr. Akin?” One of them wearing the nametag of Olsen, held out his hand. “Seems you’ve had a breakin?”
“The only thing trashed is my office. Through that door at the right end of the store. This is my friend, Susan. We had a meeting tonight, but I was detained.” He helped Susan sit up. “She’s hit her head and needs help.”
“I’ll call for an ambulance,” the other officer said. He turned away and spoke into his radio.
Susan tried to speak again.
Cade held a finger to her lips. “Just relax, sweetheart. We’re taking care of everything. Help is coming.”
Susan scowled at him and slapped the hand he held to her head away. “I’ll do it myself. You need to listen to me.”
“Mr. Akin, could you follow me to your office, please?” Officer Olsen stepped back. “Is anything missing?”
“Not that I could tell.”
With a backward glance at Susan, who was being helped into a chair. Her gaze implored Cade to come back. It took all of his willpower to continue following the officer to his office.
He stood in the doorway while the officer looked around. “Someone was looking for something. Do you recognize the purse?”
“It belongs to Susan Turner, the woman with the other officer.”
“Would she have done this?”
“I don’t see why. We had an appointment. I was late. I found this and her. That’s all I know.”
Officer Olsen wrote something on a small pad, then led the way back to Susan. “Ma’am. Are you able to answer a couple of questions?”
Sirens wailed out front of the store.
“Was anyone else here when you arrived?”
“Yes. That’s what I’ve been trying to say. Someone knocked me down. That’s how I hit my head.” Her gaze clashed with Cade’s. “They might still be here.”
4
“He’s back.” Lynette pointed to the door seconds before the bell jingled.
Susan groaned. Since the trouble in Books and More, Cade had become her constant shadow. The man insisted he was now her protector and that her being attacked was somehow his fault. Regardless of his reasons, she couldn’t get much work done.
“Coffee,” Cade announced. “I got you a caramel latte, Lynette.”
“A man after my own heart.” She tossed Susan a wink, then gave a lame excuse of needing to check a bar code so she could duck into the back room.
“Don’t you have a job to do?” Susan accepted the coffee. “I appreciate the morning coffee, as I have every morning for a week, but it really isn’t necessary.”
“I’ve got good employees.” He leaned against the counter. “All they need me to do is sign their paycheck.”
“Well, I don’t have but one employee, so my days are full.”
“Anything I can help you with?”
“No, thank you.” She really didn’t want him to know about her Elvis celebration. She was already losing business to his mega store without him stealing this idea, too.
“I have something for you. I’ll be right back.” He jogged out to his car and returned with a flat package. “I thought of you and had to get it.” He set it on the counter.
It looked suspiciously like a vinyl record. She tore off the white wrapping and gasped. “Elvis Presley Rock and Roll 1956. Signed!” Her heart threatened to beat free.
Wait. This had to have cost him a lot. “I can’t accept this. It’s too much.”
He frowned. “I bought it for you. Remember when you said you dreamed of owning—”
“I remember.” She didn’t need him to keep dredging up the past. She slid the album toward him.
He stepped back. “Throw it away if you don’t want it.” He marched to one of the shop’s comfortable chairs, picked up the new release thriller he’d been reading, and sat down. Just as he had every day since she’d been knocked unconscious.
Shaking her head, she entered the back room. “Would you man the front desk? I’ve some things to take care of and I don’t need Cade breathing over my shoulder.”
“Sure. He’s eye-candy.” Lynette grinned and took a stack of invoices from the back room. She seemed to think she could find a way to pay them without the shop going into the red.
Good luck was all Susan could say. If something didn’t change, and fast, she’d be out of business.
Her computer dinged, signaling an incoming email. Susan opened it, her smile spreading as she read. She’d found a buyer for the Tarzan collection. The door to Turn the Page would stay open for another month. She might live on peanut butter and jelly and tuna fish sandwiches, but the door would stay open.
She put up a few more collectible books her grandfather had left her, then sat back in her chair and stretched. What a wonderfully profitable morning.
The bell over the entrance jingled for what had to be the twentieth time that day further increasing Susan’s sense of well-being. For the first time since Cade had opened his store, she felt optimistic.
A quick glance at the clock told her Lynette would be heading home. Susan stretched again, then headed for the front counter.
Cade’s chair was empty. Hallelujah!
She rifled through the invoices Lynette had left behind and signed the checks. Wh
en she’d finished that, she pulled the clipboard with her notes for the big Elvis shindig from under the counter.
She had a large cardboard cutout of the King ordered, planned on serving peanut butter and banana sandwiches, his favorite, along with other simple finger foods. She’d serve coffee, sweet tea, and lemonade. Song after song would play through the shop’s speakers. What she needed now was to make up her flier and get it distributed to every book reader in town.
“What are you doing?” Cade’s breath tickled the back of her neck.
Susan shrieked and whirled. “Don’t sneak up on me. Where were you hiding?”
“Bathroom.” He gave a cheeky grin. “What would you like for lunch?”
“I brought my lunch.”
“A PB&J? You can’t live on those.”
“I can.” She set the clipboard under the counter.
“Can I help with your Elvis party? I have some framed records of his that I could loan you. I even know an impersonator.”
She closed her eyes. He’d seen. Now, he’d take over or run off with her only hope of saving the shop. She opened her eyes and stared into his dark eyes and almost lost her resolve.
“Look.” She exhaled deeply. “I appreciate you wanting to help me, although I don’t understand your reasoning, but it isn’t necessary. I feel like a broken record. Please go back to your shop and leave me be.” Dreaded tears welled in her eyes. “Having you here, being nice to me…” and looking oh, so, delicious, “is more than I can take. We can’t go back to what we once had.”
With the softest of touches, he swiped his thumb under her eye. “Don’t cry, Susan. That’s one of the things that break my heart. Your tears.”
“Then go away, Cade. That’s the only thing that can help me.”
He shook his head, his hand dropping to his side. “I can’t.”
“You also can’t tell me why, correct?”
He nodded, regret flickering across his face. “I wish I could, but there is more at stake here than us.” He stepped back. “I’ll leave you alone. For now, but know that I will be keeping an eye on you.” He brushed the back of his hand across his cheek, started to say something else…then left.
He gave Susan what she wanted. So, why did she feel, again, as if a part of her heart had been ripped away?
~
Hands in his pockets, head down, Cade trudged down the sidewalk, again not really caring where his feet took him. Coming home to Woodsbrook had been a gigantic mistake.
Susan couldn’t, wouldn’t, forgive him. Danger had followed him. He was alone in the world with nothing but money and a bookstore he wasn’t sure he wanted anymore.
When he reached the city’s lake, he sat on the same bench he’d sat on before and watched the noonday sun sparkle across the water’s surface. If only life was as serene and unrippled.
He squinted against the sun’s glare as two men skirted the lake’s bank and headed his way. The smart thing to do would be to get up and leave. But, he wasn’t feeling very smart at the moment. In fact, he felt a little like punching something.
The look on his face didn’t deter the strangers. Instead, they continued to approach him, no smile on their faces.
“Gentlemen,” Cade said when they stopped in front of him. “What can I do for you?”
“Are you Cade Akin?” The darker of the two asked.
“Maybe. Who wants to know?”
“Did you go by the name David Wells for the last ten years?”
Cade stood. “Who are you? You’ve been following me around town, haven’t you?”
The man gave a thin-lipped smile. “Maybe. Look, Mr. Akin. When your father took you from here, he also took something that belongs to our boss. He wants it back.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” His father took something?
Cade knew his father had been involved in some shady deals, but a thief? All he’d known about were a few gambling incidents…could it be possible? Did his father steal and that’s why they left town? What if they’d never officially been in the Witness Protection program? Cade’s world tilted.
“My suggestion, Mr. Akin, is that you figure it out real quick. If not, we might have to pay your pretty little lady friend a visit.”
“Like the one you paid her last week?” His hands clenched into fists. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“Then there shouldn’t be a problem.” He gave a curt nod, and headed to other side of the lake along with his silent companion.
The man was right. Cade needed to figure it out.
With long strides, he headed back to town, turning left instead of right down Main Street. After twenty minutes of walking, he stopped in front of his childhood home. A For Sale sign sat out front.
Cade pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the realtor’s number. Fifteen minutes later, he stood in what had once been his parents’ room. With no way of searching the house with a watchful realtor around, he made a bid to purchase.
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Akin. I’ll get with the owners and let you know as soon as I do whether your offer is accepted.”
Cade had no doubts it wouldn’t. After all, he hadn’t negotiated, instead offering list price. “I’ll look forward to your call.”
With one last glance over his shoulder, he followed the realtor from the house. As the woman drove away, Cade headed for Books and More. A full search of the house would have to wait until another day.
He glanced through the window of Turn A Page, spotted Susan at the front desk, a smile on her face at something a customer said. He did his best to squelch the desire in his heart that she’d forgive him. It didn’t work.
Maybe it wasn’t that she didn’t care for him, but that she couldn’t. He’d been gone for ten years. It was quite possible she had a husband or serious boyfriend. He needed to find out so he would know whether to continue his hopeless pursuit.
“Hey, Lisa, what do you know about Susan Turner?” He asked, stepping up to the coffee bar in his bookstore.
Lisa cocked her head. “She owns that quaint little shop, she’s quiet, very pretty, and seems kind of lonely to me. Why?”
“No man in her life?”
“Not that I know of.” She smiled. “You interested in her? Some of the men around here call her the Ice Queen.”
“Thanks.” Ice Queen, huh? He grinned on the way to his office. He’d have to make sure he was the one to melt her heart.
He sat in his chair, pleased that nothing had been destroyed in his office during the breakin. Well, Elvis sported a dent in his left temple, but that added character to the bronze bust.
Cade reached for his phone and dialed the local florist. Moments later, an order for pink-tipped roses was placed and would be delivered right at quitting time to Turn the Page.
Tomorrow, Cade would take Susan her coffee, as he’d been doing, but instead of sticking around, he’d leave. Hopefully, consistent, heartfelt gestures would help her warm up to him.
He wouldn’t give up until he’d tried everything he could think of. He chuckled, remembering the night he’d asked her to the prom. He’d mailed a letter every day with one thing written on the paper. The first day was a W, the next an I, and so on until he’d spelled out, will you go to the prom with me?
He’d had her put her answer in an envelope and place it in her mailbox. She’d said yes, making him the happiest boy in the eleventh grade.
He reached for a crisp, blank sheet of paper and wrote a W.
5
Susan sat in front of her computer checking emails well before opening time. Her idea of finally posting Grandpa’s books for sale were paying off. The selling of his first editions eased a mountain load of stress off her shoulders.
It didn’t even bother her when Cade arrived with her coffee and strolled into her office as if he belonged there. “Good morning.”
His face lit up. “Good morning.” He handed her the iced mocha. “Lynette not working to
day?”
“No, she called in sick.” Susan eyed the extra drink. “Looks like you’ll definitely get your caffeine fix today.”
He shrugged. “I’ll give it to one of the girls at the store.”
The bitter taste of jealousy rose in her mouth. Sheer foolishness. She’d made herself very clear where a relationship with Cade could not go. So, why the pain at the thought of him with someone else?
“What’s wrong?” Cade’s brow furrowed.
“Nothing. Why? It’s a great day.”
“You had a…look.” He cocked his head. “Like something suddenly worried you.”
“Don’t be silly.” She took a sip of her coffee to keep from nervously rambling. After all her brave talk of not needing him, she didn’t want him to catch her in the biggest lie of her life.
“I’d best get this drink to the store before it melts.” He gave her one last puzzled look and headed out the door.
That was close. Susan needed to guard her emotions more carefully. People have always told her she wore them across her face.
Determined to do better, she continued work on the computer until the bell jingled over the front door announcing the first customer of the day. With a smile, she headed to the front counter.
A woman with two small boys entered and headed straight to the children’s section.
Susan followed. “We got in a new adventure book yesterday,” she said, reaching for a book on the shelf. “It has great reviews and is perfect for anyone who likes to fight dragons.” She handed the book to the woman.
“Wonderful. We’ll take one of these and…” she glanced at a table of discounted books, choosing one with a knight on the front, “this.”
The woman put her arm around the oldest boy’s shoulder. “We tried out the new big store down the street, but the boys and I prefer the intimacy of this place. Sometimes, you can’t find a single person to help you find what you’re looking for.”
Susan put a hand over her heart. “You just made my day. I pride myself on being available. Thank you.” Maybe Turn a Page would survive after all. “Please spread the word and be sure to mark your calendar for the first Saturday in August. The Elvis celebration will be a lot of fun.”
Love Draws Near Page 26
