by Susan Sands
Tess wasn’t the least bit shy or intimidated by these women. “Thanks so much. I appreciate the welcome. I do have one favor—if you can help me. Matthew mentioned that you, Emma, might be able to help me find a good rental while I’m here working in town. I think my, uh, edgy appearance has put a few of the local owners off. I guess they’re not used to normal people having more than two earrings or color in their hair other than what appears in nature.” Tess flashed Emma a great big smile.
Judith spoke up. “Oh, honey, this color doesn’t appear in nature, except maybe on a child under the age of five. If anybody tells you it does, they’re going straight to hell for lying.”
Everyone laughed.
Emma spoke up then. “I told Matthew I would be happy to either take you around or make a few calls to help you break through the glass ceiling of narrow minds around here. By the way, I think you’re lovely,” Emma said.
Thankfully, Matthew could tell she meant it. “We’re eating fried pickles. I wanted Tess to feel a little more at home, and Emma, you did that for me when I got here, so I thought I would pay it forward.” He smiled at her.
She smiled back, still obviously not quite ready to forgive him for being seen around town with Tess.
“Oh, I love the fried pickles here—they are my absolute fave,” Sadie said.
“Why don’t y’all join us?” Judith asked, but it was more like a demand.
Matthew’s gaze searched Emma’s silently for permission. She nodded almost imperceptibly. Tess wasn’t waiting for anyone’s permission. She’d hightailed it to their table to gather up the pickles and beers while he pulled over a couple extra chairs.
“Now, this is what I call a party.” Judith beamed.
*
Emma was enjoying herself, even though she’d started off feeling stiff and uncomfortable walking in on Matthew and Tess, sitting together so comfortably. She’d never expected to experience this kind of insecurity again when it came to a man. She’d never cared enough since Tad. Even then, it had been frustration over other women trying to get him to betray her. He hadn’t while they’d dated, so far as she knew, but she’d hated feeling always on guard. Just seeing Matthew laughing with another woman brought back a sliver of that uncertainty, and even now, it felt awful.
But, as she sat at the table alongside the others, Matthew had slowly, without being too obvious, scooted closer and closer until she was warmed by his radiant heat right next to her, not quite touching, but nearly so.
Tess was a lively spirit and was regaling them with tales of living as a single woman in New York City. Even Jamie and Judith were laughing with Tess as if they’d known her their entire lives. Emma understood how unusual that was. Normally, an outsider had to work for years to break through the established circles here before she was even nominally accepted, especially by someone like Judith Dozier-Fremont. But stranger things had happened, and Tess really seemed like a genuinely nice person, besides having been out in public with Matthew when they’d walked in.
Maybe Emma could forgive her that so long as Matthew wasn’t interested.
She suddenly felt Matthew’s warm breath near her ear as he whispered, “I’ve missed you, Emma.”
She involuntarily shuddered as heat and a chill went through her at his words and from his nearness. Instead of answering right away, imperceptibly to the others, she leaned back into his body and felt a growl in response as he moved in closer with his chair until their bodies were touching—his chest to her back and he slipped an arm around the back of her chair. She doubted anyone noticed except the two of them.
Until she looked up and saw Tad standing in the doorway of the restaurant, eyes locked, not on his own wife, whose back was to him, but on Emma and her now-cozy situation with Matthew. For a moment, his expression appeared murderous, then, just as quickly, he worked it into a more pleasant one, straightened his shoulders, and made his way toward their table.
“Well, I wondered what was keeping you.” He addressed Sadie with a playful smile, but his annoyance was barely below the surface of both his words and expression.
Sadie must have noticed, too, as she seemed a little too brightly brittle. Maybe only Emma noticed that because of their earlier conversation in the car.
“Oh, hey, honey. We decided to come grab a bite after we finished up with pageant practice. I texted you where I was.”
“I saw it earlier, and I knew y’all were having your girls’ night, but had no idea you’d met up with these two.” He gestured toward Matthew and Emma.
“Oh, that was all a coincidence. Matthew was with Tess having dinner when we arrived.” Jamie piped up and supplied the details.
Tad frowned in momentary confusion, but since Matthew was cozied up with Emma, he obviously dismissed that. Matthew had pulled Emma even closer to him once Tad had slithered up to their table. “Sarah Jane’s tucked in and Gerta’s there, so I thought I would come join you.” Tad’s phony smile made Emma want to retch.
“Here, take my seat. I’ve had a long day and I’m going to pay my check and head out.” Emma nearly toppled her chair as she simultaneously disengaged from Matthew and stood abruptly.
Matthew stood as well, obviously understanding her need to get the hell out of there and away from Tad. “I’m going to take off, too.” Then, he glanced over at Tess, who seemed to be having a blast. “Are you going to stay awhile?”
She looked around at the other women. “Are you leaving or staying?”
Judith and Jamie shared a silent communication. “It’s time we head home, too. But this was so much fun. Let’s plan to do it again soon. Tess, give us your number and we’ll shoot you a text next time we go out,” Judith said. “Oh, and don’t worry about finding a place to live. We’ve got you covered. I guarantee that nobody will give you a hard time around town from this moment forward—and if they do, you’ll let me know, won’t you, dear?”
Tess beamed. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.”
“Well, I guess we won’t have to go house-hunting will we?” Emma asked.
“We can still get together though. I’d like that,” Tess said.
Emma smiled at Tess. “So would I.” Tess was an infectious personality. One couldn’t help but like her.
Sadie appeared relieved the party was breaking up. “Sorry, hon, it looks like you caught us at the tail end of things tonight.”
Tad’s mouth tightened, then he smiled. “Well, at least I can give my best girl a ride home.”
Sadie, God bless her, never faltered. “I am a lucky girl.” The waitress brought the checks, which they’d pre-arranged to have split up to avoid confusion. Sadie took hers and headed toward the bar to pay it away from the rest, Tad in tow, because the too-smart Sadie gave him no choice.
As they moved chairs back to their original positions, Matthew said privately to Emma, “Can I follow you home?”
She wanted to say no, that she needed some time to figure things out. But he stood there, staring at her, his blue gaze so direct and sexy. He said he’d missed her. She’d missed him, too. Maybe they could hang out for a bit and talk. Sure. They could talk.
“We could—talk.”
His grin was expressive. “Yeah. We could. It’s totally up to you. I’d like to spend time with you. I know we’ve both had a long day, but talking’s good.”
“Okay. See you in a little while.”
She’d been a little shaken when Tad had come into the restaurant, eyeballing her like that, but he didn’t have the kind of power over her he believed. Maybe she’d allowed it more than she’d realized in the past, but Emma was prepared for a fight now. Tad wouldn’t intimidate her into breaking things—whatever “things” were at this point with Matthew.
Chapter Twelve
‡
After what had happened at the wedding, Maureen had been doing some homework via her husband and Ben. She really hadn’t known where to begin, but as a typical meddling mother, she’d had to start someplace. Since Em
ma pretty much refused to discuss what had happened with Tad in the past, or her decision to step down from her pageant title all those years ago, Maureen mined what resources she could. She began with Ben. Ben knew most of the girls who had attended college with Emma, mainly because they’d wanted to know him, even though he’d been a few years younger.
Ben’s position as an attorney, and as, well, Ben, allowed him to gain entry into places others were denied. Ben had agreed to go on this fact-finding mission after what had gone down at the wedding. There were too many unanswered questions they felt led to Tad as the cause of Emma’s life not being what it might.
So, Ben started with the women who he believed were close enough to his sister and might have known what happened. He was reporting back to Maureen tonight.
Ben’s face was grim as he spoke. “Her roommate at the time, Marianne, says she picked Emma up that night in her underwear with a blanket around her from a hotel. Says she recognized the guy as a member of the Auburn Football team but didn’t know his name.” The night in question was the “Iron Bowl” ten years ago on Thanksgiving weekend when the University of Alabama historically played Auburn University in a grudge match of epic proportions for the year’s bragging rights.
“Did Marianne explain why Emma was at a hotel in her underwear with an Auburn football player?” Maureen was truly shocked.
She realized they’d been in college and young people did crazy things, but she also knew that Emma had been devoted to Tad in those days.
“Apparently Emma was completely out of it. The guy wouldn’t tell Marianne anything except to watch her carefully and to get her home safely—oh, and not to tell anyone where she’d been because he wasn’t sure who’d drugged her.” Ben’s eyes darkened when he ground out these words.
“Drugged her? Oh, my.” Her poor baby. Maureen put her hand to her chest.
Howard had been listening intently, quietly until now. “Sounds like our Emma found herself in a heap of trouble that night.”
“We need to discuss this with Emma. There’s no getting around it. She’s got to come clean so we can help her. Whatever she’s been keeping from us has caused a lot of damage to her life. It’s time her family shared this burden. Someone did something to her and never paid for it,” Ben said.
“I just hope she won’t get too upset that we went behind her back to find out about it,” Maureen said, knowing it was far too much to hope.
“Honey, anytime you go digging up old dirt, you’d better plan for messy situation. I can get any kind of background checks done quietly through unofficial channels if you need them,” Howard said.
Ben narrowed his eyes at Howard. “Are you ever going to tell us what kind of secret service you did for the government?” he asked.
Howard shook his head. “The less you know the better, son. Suffice it to say, I can get stuff done that most civilians cannot.”
Ben shook his head. “Well, I won’t question it unless I have to use it in a court case. If I obtain illegal evidence on someone it wouldn’t be admissible.”
“Don’t worry about it, son.” Howard reassured Ben again.
“Honey, Howard gets stuff done. Let’s not ask how, okay?” Maureen suggested.
“I’m an attorney; I have to ask.” Ben turned toward her. “Anyway, we need to have an intervention with Emma. Even if she doesn’t want us to find something out, she needs to know we know something bad went down that night besides Tad breaking up with her and her struggling to cope, and that we are here to support her if she wants to bring it to light.”
“We want to know because we want to help, but I doubt she’s going to willingly share it with us. You know how private she’s always been,” Maureen said.
“At least she’ll know she doesn’t have to guard some awful secret anymore if she doesn’t want to. It gives her the option. After living with a burden for a long time, it’s often a relief to let it go.” Howard said and smiled at her.
Maureen had lived with an awful secret for so many years that had burdened her heart in the worst way. At least Justin, her late husband, had known the truth and she’d not had to hide it from him. And now, they all knew. There was a huge relief in that.
“You’re right about that, honey,” she said as she smiled at Howard.
“Well, we’ll get her over at some point this weekend to have a talk, when she’s not running around like a mad woman,” Ben said.
“Do you think we should look into Matthew’s past as well? Since she’s showing so much interest in him—and him in her?” Maureen hated that she was so distrustful, but she felt like she had to ask.
Ben frowned. “I don’t like the idea of digging into Matthew’s past, Mom. He hasn’t given us a reason to doubt him.”
Maureen tended to agree. “But think of how disappointed Emma would be if he turned out to have some awful secret or worse. You know she already has such issues trusting men. I know that’s why she hasn’t gotten close to anyone since Tad,” she said.
“I’m now of the belief she hasn’t gotten close to anyone because Tad made sure she didn’t,” Ben said.
“That’s a pretty big accusation, son. Care to elaborate?” Howard asked.
“It’s a constructed hunch, but every time Emma has had even a mild dating interest in anyone since they broke up, it seems that the guy has conveniently been removed from the situation.”
“How so?” asked Howard.
“Well, that nice boy who worked for the timber company got a company promotion and moved to Dallas right after he and Emma started seeing one another,” Maureen said.
“And there was Joe from Atlanta, whose family had moved here a few years earlier. He came home after finishing his graduate degree at Vanderbilt to visit and he and Emma hit it off. They were inseparable during a couple weeks at Christmas that year until Joe was suddenly arrested for possession of cocaine and the family moved back to Atlanta, saying they never wanted to set foot in this town again. The charges were dropped due to a clerical error after that,” Ben said.
“I don’t think she ever heard from poor Joe again,” Maureen said.
“It does sound like some fishy business for sure.” Howard scratched his chin.
“I’m not sure any of it is provable except by talking with the guys and, even then, they might not know exactly how their circumstances came about.”
“Maybe they were warned to stay away from Emma and didn’t listen before the bad circumstances befell them?” Howard surmised.
Ben made a note on his phone. “I’ll look into it. Maybe I can find out where they are and speak with them.”
“What’s your goal here, son?” Howard asked.
“I think what we all want is for Emma to understand that she has been played and that she is free to go after anything she wants. She may not even know how she’s been manipulated. If we could show that Tad has been pulling her strings all this time, she could get some satisfaction out of taking him down. And we could figure out a way to expose him for breaking the law in the process. And who knows what he might have done around the time they broke up? I’m getting a bad feeling about all the things from back then now that I realize what’s been happening up ’til now,” Ben said.
Maureen saw a larger picture now. “Yes, I see where you’re going with this. Emma needs to know all the facts so she can decide how much she’s comfortable sharing and if she wants to proceed with taking Tad down in a big or small way for the wrongs he’s done to her.”
They agreed to call Emma over to Evangeline House Saturday when everyone would be available, at which point the intervention could commence.
*
They talked. Sex, of course had been on the table as well Emma knew, but it hadn’t been what the end of their evening was about. When Matthew came inside just a minute behind her from the restaurant, he sat on her sofa, ready for her to make whatever move she decided upon to set the tone.
She watched him, his long, muscled legs stretched out onto the ottoma
n from the big, oversized chair where he sat. His jaw had more like a ten o’ clock shadow, which did things to her down in her woman places. But she decided they should talk about whatever needed saying. She wasn’t one to over share, but he really hadn’t shared much about himself with her at all, and maybe it was time.
“How about a beer?” she asked.
“I had a couple with dinner. Water’s fine.”
His good sense still surprised her. “I assume you’re planning to drive home tonight,” she said with good humor.
“I don’t take anything for granted. I’m happy when things work out in my favor though.”
“Water it is.”
She brought brought out two tall glasses of ice water, set them on the coffee table, then sat down on the couch, tucking her feet under her. Emma had already kicked her shoes off the minute they’d come inside the door. Wearing heels all day might seem glamorous, but it was hell on her feet.
“So, here we are, all ready to talk,” he said.
“Yep. Let the talking begin.”
“Any topic you want to start with?” He asked.
“You.”
He frowned. “Me? I’m not that interesting.”
“Oh, I think there are fathomless depths I know nothing about yet.” And she really was interested in finding out what made him tick.
“Hmm. Well, let’s see; There’s my sister, Lisa, who’s a couple years younger. She’s married to Dub, who my mom believes is having an affair. She has two cute kids, a boy and a girl. My mom is living and my dad is dead. My stepdad took all the money and left her, so now she’s started to gamble. Tomorrow, I’m headed to my hometown where I haven’t been in a really long time because the idea of going back makes my skin crawl.”
She stared at him, eyes wide, not knowing what to say or how to respond to such a literal info dump.
He shrugged. “You asked.”
“Uh, yes, I did. I just didn’t expect so much information at once. Wow. So, your stepdad ran off with the money? How long ago?” She didn’t know where to begin, so why not the there?
