Obsessed With You
Coastal Romance Series
By Jennifer Ransom
Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Ransom
Cover art by MC2 Creative Services
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. References to actual people, places, and events are used to lend authenticity to the novel and are used fictitiously. All characters, dialog, and events are from the author’s imagination and are not real. Any resemblances to real people, places, events, or dialog are coincidental.
This book may not be copied, scanned, or reproduced in any way without permission from the author.
Jennifer Ransom is the author of Runaway, Love Weaver, Hand-Me-Down Love, Come Down in Time, and Serena’s Choice.
Chapter One
Cathy Sullivan walked into the townhouse and navigated her way through the boxes on the floor. Practically everything she owned was in one of those boxes. She was moving in three days into the house that Aaron had bought for them. The house where they would start their married life together. Just two more weeks. She could hardly believe it.
Everything for the wedding was already in place. Her best friends, Heather and Michelle, would be her bridesmaids. She loved them both so much, she had chosen not to have a maid of honor. They were both her maids of honor. They had bought their black dresses and would carry bouquets of a mixture of all white flowers while Cathy carried a bouquet of white roses.
Cathy got a glass of wine and collapsed on the couch. She kicked her shoes off and curled up against the pillow. Just two more weeks and all the stress would be over. The planning for months, the caterers, the florist, the invitations—which had already been sent two weeks prior. So many details. She looked forward to the honeymoon in Jamaica when all of it would be behind her. She envisioned lying back in a chaise with a margarita in her hand as the waves lapped against the sandy shore. Aaron, with his dark good looks and muscular build would be lying beside her, holding her other hand.
Cathy put the setting sun in her vision, the gold and red colors sparkling on the water. She would be wearing the new sleek black one-piece she had bought last week; Aaron would be wearing his denim-colored bathing suit or maybe even a Speedo, which he told her he had worn before. She could picture the elastic fabric stretching over his manliness and she blushed just a little at the thought, at her excitement at the vision. He would be the most handsome, sexiest man on the beach. Cathy felt herself relax with the sunset vision of her honeymoon.
Just two more weeks.
Aaron had paid for most of the wedding at his insistence. His work as a financial consultant for Peachtree Financial Consultants, plus his own private stock trading, had made him a wealthy man. Cathy’s grandfather paid for her dress and he would fly into Atlanta the day before the wedding. As she sipped her wine, Cathy envisioned her grandfather walking her down the aisle, giving her away to Aaron. She smiled. She sat her glass of wine on the coffee table and rested against the pillows. Before she dozed off, she was thinking of her father, who died of bone cancer when she was eleven, and her mother, who committed suicide while Cathy was in college. Her mother had never recovered from losing her husband and finally gave in to her grief and ended it.
Cathy’s mother’s raven hair and sad face were the last thoughts she had before she fell asleep. She dreamed of the cottage they lived in after her father’s death. It was next to the Victorian house her grandparents lived in on the bay. Cathy’s bedroom window looked out over the garden and the bay glittered blue in the distance.
Cathy heard a ringing sound and wondered if the sea birds were calling.
It was so insistent.
The ringing pulled her away from the bay and the cottage. Pulled her all the way into the present world when she realized her cell phone was ringing. She groped for the phone beside her on the couch.
“Hello,” she said groggily. She had not checked to see who was calling; she just wanted to stop the phone from its never-ending ring.
“Is this Cathy?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Yes,” Cathy said. It must be someone associated with the wedding—the caterer or florist maybe. Cathy tried to clear her head.
“You don’t know me,” the woman continued. “But I know Aaron. I know him very well. And I think you should know that we’ve been seeing each other for over two months.”
“What do you mean?” Cathy asked. She wasn’t sure at all what the woman meant when she said they had been seeing each other. Was this a co-worker of Aaron’s?
“I mean,” the woman said, “that we’ve been together.” She paused for just a second. “Sexually.”
“Who is this?” Cathy asked, fully alert by then.
“I’ll let him tell you that,” she said. “He’ll probably say he doesn’t know who I am or some other nonsense. But he knows me all right.”
Cathy didn’t say anything. She held the phone to her ear and listened to the woman breathe.
After a moment, the woman said, “Cathy?”
Cathy still didn’t speak. She was finished speaking to this stranger. But she didn’t hang up the phone.
“Look,” the woman said. “I can hear you breathing so I’m just going to keep talking. Aaron and I have known each other professionally for years. I work at another financial institution, but we’ve seen each other at various conferences and events. We got together a couple of months ago after an event downtown, and we’ve been seeing each other ever since.”
Cathy’s mind was darting all over the place, but she had too much pride to say another word, to give credence to what this woman was saying.
But she didn’t end the call.
“I won’t pretend that I don’t love him, because I do,” the caller said. “I want him and he knows that.”
Cathy felt like she was on a carnival ride that kept thrusting her roughly one way, then pulling her back in the opposite direction. The Scrambler.
“He says he’s going through with the wedding to you. It’s what he wants, he said. But I thought you should know what you’re getting. A man who has not been faithful to you.”
Cathy had clarity for one second and ended the call.
Chapter Two
Cathy didn’t call Aaron after the call from the woman. She wanted to see his face when she confronted him. That would tell her what she needed to know. She sat on the couch staring at the door, waiting for it to open. She stared for thirty minutes before she got up and went to her computer. She opened her Pinterest page where she was collecting photos of furniture and other items for their new house in Buckhead. After Friday, her new job would be making a home. Aaron told her after she accepted his proposal that she could quit her stressful job if she wanted to. He would help her set up her own business or she could do exactly what she wanted to do. Aaron made plenty of money. More money than they would ever need.
Cathy tried to focus on her new house and the upcoming wedding, but she was too rattled by the phone call. She felt her world was slipping away from her like sand through her fingers.
Cathy’s heart was thumping hard in her chest when she heard the key in the door. She turned away from her desk and watched Aaron come in, placing his briefcase on the table by the door. He walked toward her, smiling.
“Hey, Cat,” he said.
He was the only person who had ever called her Cat, and she liked that. It made her feel they had a special, intimate relationship. She definitely thought they had that.
“Hey,” she said. She was not smiling.
“I’m going to get a drink,” Aaron said heading to the kitchen. “Want one?”
“Sure,” she said. She was amazed that Aaron had not detected the coolness in her voice, the lack of smile at seeing him. But he didn’t
seem to have noticed.
Cathy thought about moving to the couch but then decided against it. Aaron would sit beside her and she wanted to keep her distance from him. She didn’t need his hands all over her as she confronted him.
“What are you doing way over there?” Aaron asked when he came into the living room.
“I want to ask you something,” she said.
Finally, Aaron seemed to realize that all was not right with the world. His smile faded as he handed her a martini.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“A strange woman called me about an hour ago,” Cathy said evenly. “She said you’ve been having an affair with her.”
Cathy watched his face for a reaction, but she saw only confusion. Her lip started to tremble a little. The dread at his confession had gone to the pit of her stomach. She was feeling queasy, like she might throw up any second.
“What?” he shouted in disbelief.
“She said it’s been going on for a couple of months,” Cathy said.
Aaron walked over to Cathy where she still sat at her desk and leaned down to put his arms around her. She pushed him away.
“Cathy, I haven’t been having an affair with anyone.”
“Why would she make up something like that?” Cathy asked.
Aaron turned away and crossed the room. Cathy stared at his back, wishing she could see his face. He turned around again and looked at her. He sighed.
“I have no idea,” he finally said.
Cathy wanted so much to believe him, but the woman sounded so credible on the phone. She felt confused.
“Where’s your phone?” Aaron asked, breaking into her muddled mind and its scrambled thoughts. “I’m going to sue whoever she is for libel!” His eyes flashed with anger.
She pointed at the couch. Aaron picked it up and after a few presses, threw the phone back on the couch.
“It says private number and won’t let me call it back,” he said.
The grip of dread began to loosen on Cathy and she smiled slightly.
“It’s slander,” she said.
“Huh?”
“You’re going to sue her for slander,” Cathy said. “Libel is when a lie is published. Slander is for the spoken word.” Was she really giving a language lesson?
“Do you believe me?” Aaron asked. Cathy thought she might actually see some tears forming in Aaron’s eyes, but she wasn’t positive about that.
At that moment, Cathy realized she had a choice. Allow her world to crumble all the way as she had been imagining ever since she got the call or believe Aaron, her best friend. Aaron, who held her as she cried about her parents and their untimely deaths, smoothing her hair and giving her little comforting kisses. Aaron, who listened patiently when she came home exhausted and grumpy from her stressful job at a city magazine. Aaron, who tenderly picked up an elderly woman who had fallen on the sidewalk and helped her home. Aaron, who knew how to cook steak, chili, and spaghetti, and that was all. Aaron, who was going to be the father of her children. Aaron, her best friend. If she couldn’t trust him, then who could she trust?
Cathy had given her heart to Aaron because of the kind of person he was. Yes, he was incredibly good looking and sexy. He was dynamic and he was wealthy. He had dated many women before he met her, but he had chosen Cathy to be his wife. She had come to know him well over the past year and it simply was not in his character to cheat on her. Their relationship was too important for him to wreck it for a fling. She was sure of that.
“I believe you,” she said.
Aaron rushed over to Cathy and swooped her up in his arms. He kissed her tenderly all over her face before claiming her mouth. He picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, laying her gently on the bed. He undressed her and they made love passionately, crying out together as they climaxed.Chapter Three
Cathy wished she could get the woman out of her mind, but she couldn’t. It kept creeping back in when she least expected it. She packed the last of the boxes, trying to stay focused on her task.
And then there it was again.
She asked herself why a woman would do that to another woman if it wasn’t the truth. She asked herself why a woman would want to do that to Aaron. Someone who hated her? She couldn’t imagine who that would be. Someone who hated Aaron? But who? His charisma made him invincible to hate.
On Tuesday night, the day after the call, Cathy brought it up again.
“What if she calls back?” she asked Aaron.
“I blocked all private number calls on your phone,” he said.
“Oh,” she said. That bothered her a little bit. It seemed that Aaron was afraid the woman would call her back. Maybe tell Cathy some more truths. She tried to shake those negative thoughts out of her head.
The movers came on Thursday afternoon and moved the boxes, the bed, a dresser, and the couch and one chair. All would be replaced after the honeymoon when Cathy could research furniture for the house at her leisure. She looked forward to having leisure time, something that had been rare in the five years she had worked for The Scene. In those years, she attended endless events and conferences, meeting Atlanta’s celebrities and movers and shakers. It was at one of those events that she met Aaron. She considered it to be the best thing that ever happened as a result of her job, making years of stress and misery worth it.
And after tomorrow, those years would be over.
Cathy and Aaron ordered a pizza on Thursday night and made love in their beautiful four-bedroom house in Buckhead for the first time. The next morning, Cathy kissed Aaron goodbye and drove to work for the last time. She had been able to push the woman’s call out of her mind for the most part since she had been so busy with the move and with work. There was a lot to do to leave the job she had held for five years. A lot of loose ends to tie up so that a new person could step into her job and not have it be a chaotic nightmare. She would finish a very detailed notebook for her replacement that day, and then she would be done.
The phone rang incessantly, making it nearly impossible for Cathy to work on the notebook. The printer called to confirm the count for the next issue. The graphic designer called to confirm approval for the special autumn layout. Marlena called to see how she was progressing on the notebook. Cathy would not miss Marlena and her micro managing.
Co-workers called and stopped by her office to wish her luck. Then the phone would ring again. It was all impossible, and she wasn’t going to miss it one bit.
The phone rang again and she picked it up, resigned to answering one more question before she could get out of there.
“Cathy?” a woman said.
“Yes,” Cathy said with a harried tone.
“Did Aaron tell you about us?” the woman asked.
Cathy felt the blood drain from her face. Her hands felt icy cold as she gripped the receiver.
“He has no idea who you are and why you’re playing such a sick joke on him,” Cathy said venomously. “He’s going to sue you.”
The woman laughed throatily. “I’d like to see him try,” she said. “Everything would come out then, and he’d have nowhere to hide.”
“Why are you doing this?” Cathy asked.
“I just think you should know who he really is before you give your life away to him,” she said. “Consider it a woman to woman thing.”
“I don’t believe anything you say,” Cathy said.
“You should believe me,” the woman said.
“Prove it,” Cathy said.
“Aaron comes from a little farming town in north Georgia,” she said.
“So,” Cathy said. Plenty of people knew that.
“His little sister was killed in a farming accident when he was eleven,” the woman continued.
Cathy knew that was something that Aaron didn’t discuss with many people because it was so painful. As he had comforted her over her parents, she had comforted him over the tragic loss of his sister.
Even still, Cathy said, “That’s not private inf
ormation.”
And then the woman went in for the kill.
“He’s got a birthmark shaped like a strawberry on his left butt cheek.”
“I think people might’ve seen that,” Cathy said. “It’s high enough up. . .”
“And he has another birthmark,” the woman interrupted. “And you and I both know where that is. About the size of a dime, I’d say, when fully aroused.”
Cathy’s blood ran cold. Her grip on the receiver was so hard her fingers had turned white.
“You must be an old girlfriend of Aaron’s,” she said.
The woman laughed again. Cathy hated the sound of her laugh.
“No,” she said. “I’m Aaron’s new girlfriend.”
Cathy slammed the receiver into the cradle of the phone. She got up and locked her office door before she burst into tears. She sobbed for several minutes before she managed to get it down to sniffles. Two people knocked on her door during that time.
It was time to get out of there. Cathy picked up her purse and her tote bag that contained her personal belongings and walked out of her office for the last time. She didn’t stop by Marlena’s office on her way out because she thought she might start crying all over again. She didn’t want that to be the last vision anyone had of her.
Cathy was grateful the receptionist was away from her desk as she passed by it and through the main doors. It was difficult to maintain her composure, but she managed to ride the elevator to the first floor and walk out into the sweet autumn air without seeing anyone she knew.
On the trafficky drive home, Cathy allowed herself to sob some more.
Forty-five minutes later, she unlocked the door to her Buckhead house and dropped her purse and her tote on the floor in the kitchen.
Her heels clicked on the hardwood floors as she walked through the vast and empty rooms, the clacking sound echoing eerily. Cathy went up the carpeted steps to the second floor and pulled her laptop out of the closet. She sat on the bed and pulled up Google. She keyed in “signs of an affair.” Right away she found a site that listed eleven signs your husband or boyfriend may be having an affair.
Obsessed With You Page 1
