Love, Alabama (Alabama Series Book 2)

by Susan Sands

  He heard Emma’s intake of breath. “My last client just canceled. I’ll be right over. But I’ve got to leave for a pageant first thing in the morning.”

  “Just come over to Mom’s as soon as you can. And don’t say a word about what’s happening with Sadie. No one knows—not even Tad. I just filed the papers and who knows what he’ll do when he finds out.”

  “Tell Sadie to hang tight. I’ll be there soon.” Emma sounded truly worried about the other woman.

  “I didn’t know the two of you were such good friends.” Ben was surprised at Emma’s empathetic response to Sadie’s situation. Not that she wasn’t an empathetic person, just that he expected Emma to be a bit more cynical toward Sadie.

  “We’ve recently come to friendly terms and I don’t envy her living with that asshole for all these years.”

  He hung up the phone satisfied that Emma was on her way.

  *

  Emma’s heart raced, her hands shook, and a sudden weakness overtook her limbs. Oh, boy. What had Tad revealed in his journal? She wasn’t surprised that he’d documented his nefarious actions. Whatever they’d been over the years, he was likely to be proud of them, even if he’d been unable to boast about them to others. At least he could write them down and savor them over and over. Sounded like him.

  She’d just set the alarm and was locking the front door of her studio when she heard approaching footsteps. She looked up to see Tad towering over her. Damn. Emma’d had years of practice training her facial expressions. This was the moment of truth, knowing what she did. He was hovering over her and she was sandwiched between him and the front door. Unfortunately, the small covered entrance shadowed the two of them to passers-by.

  “You’re in my space; can you step back an give me some breathing room, please?” She took the position of strength, because bullies fed on weakness, she well understood. When he didn’t step away, she very loudly barked. “Back off!”

  He did, but then laughed, a low rumble from deep in his throat. “You’re such a tiger, aren’t you?”

  “I’m on my way out and I’ve had a long week, Tad. What do you want?”

  “But still no manners. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be teaching our young women in the community?”

  “I teach them to find their dignity, strength, and pride from within—things I wish I’d known more about several years ago.”

  He clutched his heart dramatically. “Oh, ouch. That was a direct hit.” He grinned. “I like your spirit, Emma. I always have. Too bad my sweet Sadie doesn’t have much of that. Makes for a boring life.”

  “I think Sadie has more going for her than you’re giving her credit for.” Way more, asshole.

  He waved away her words. “I’m not here to discuss my marriage, but I am here to prove my point that Matthew Pope isn’t the man you thought he was.”

  Something in his tone made Emma take notice. She wasn’t going to like this.

  “Did you know he went to Auburn? At the same time we were at the University of Alabama?” Tad’s tone was smug.

  She had braced herself for something bad. Her eyes widened. Why hadn’t Matthew told her this? “So what? Why does that matter?” She challenged Tad.

  “I’ll bet you’re wondering why he didn’t tell you? Let me fill you in. Because he was a hayseed kid who played football back then—looked completely different. He even had a different name. Matthew Blanchard, I believe it was.” Tad peered expectantly over his Ray-Ban’s at her. “No? Still no little jingly bells going off?”

  Something about his being a football player at Auburn was totally making her stomach flip. Then, Tad pulled out an old photo. It was a faded, but pretty clear individual helmetless, black and white of a football player. He looked vaguely familiar—handsome with serious eyes. She turned it over. Matt Blanchard. No.

  “Putting it together yet?” He continued to watch the comprehension dawn on her face. “Yeah, I thought you might. I did some digging because I remember seeing him in the fraternity house the night you let those guys put their hands all over you.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  But Tad wasn’t wrong.

  It was him. Matthew Pope was Matt Blanchard, the football player who took her to his hotel room that night. And he hadn’t told her; all this time they’d spent together, he’d allowed her to trust him and he’d lied to her. He’d known how mistrustful of men she was and likely how that had come about. But he hadn’t said a word.

  “No. You’re in denial about what he is. Did you even remember him? What he did? So, what do you think of your Prince Charming now? Just goes to show, you can’t trust anyone, can you?”

  She tried to push past Tad, but he caught her by the arms and pulled her against him, turned her around and shoved her back against the door. She could feel the front of him pressed against her, his hot breath on her mouth. He had an erection. Emma thought she might throw up. Instead, she instinctively brought her knee up as hard as she could, with possibly super-human strength, leaving him writhing in agony on the brick path leading to her studio.

  Resisting the urge to kick him in the perfect teeth, she ran to her car, peeled out of the parking lot, and headed straight to her mother’s house. Taking a couple deep breaths, she tried to tamp down this awful sense of free-falling.

  She could hardly process what Tad had told her. Matthew, the Matthew she’d just discovered she loved had lied to her about who he was. What did he know about that night? He’d witnessed her worst nightmare and hadn’t said a word? Who could do that to another person?

  She pulled into the drive at Evangeline House and fervently wished she could avoid everyone, run upstairs to her childhood bedroom, and throw the covers over her head. Her heart was broken.

  But of course, that wasn’t to be. “Emma, thank God.” As soon as she opened the front door, Ben grabbed her in a hug. She collapsed into him and sobbed.

  “Emma?” He pulled back and looked at her. “What’s happened?”

  She looked around then and noticed Sadie, her parents, Mom, and Howard all just beyond the foyer in the main sitting area, their expressions grim and concerned. “Can we talk in the other room?”

  “Of course.” He turned to the group. “Excuse us.”

  They went into the kitchen where he made her a cup of hot tea. “Now, tell me what’s happened.”

  She did her best not to cry as she filled him in on Tad’s visit to her studio, then pulled out the crumpled photo from her pocket where she’d shoved it at some point on her between then and now. He frowned as he looked at it. “I did a background check on Matthew, but haven’t had the chance to read it yet.”

  “Why did you do that? Did you suspect him of something?” She asked.

  “No. But with everything that’s happened, I went ahead with it. I wasn’t even sure I would pull it up unless I felt the need. I didn’t know about any of what happened that night, Emma. Why didn’t you tell us?”

  Emma shook her head. “Because I was ashamed, and I really didn’t know what happened that night. I was so out of it. I-I thought that maybe I was somehow responsible.”

  His expression was thunderous. “How could you be responsible? You were so obviously taken advantage of in some way.” He paused a second to unclench his fists. “Sadie says that Tad admits he’s responsible for what happened.”

  Something clicked with Emma. “The night of the wedding he said something about giving me a drink before I wandered off and ruined everything.”

  “Let’s go have a look at what’s written in the journal.”

  They stood and she said, “I’m-I’m in love with Matthew, Ben. After all this time. I haven’t been involved with anyone, and haven’t even allowed myself to really like anyone.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “Maybe he was waiting to find the right time to tell you about the past.”

  She gave him an incredulous look that said he had the brains of a rock or maybe a turd. “Really. Don’t you think it was pretty pertinent in
formation? ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve been meaning to tell you now that we’re dating seriously and having sex that I met you ten years ago when you’d been drugged and we spent the night together in a hotel room when you were Miss Alabama.’”

  Ben cringed. “Hopefully, it will be a better explanation than that.”

  “Nothing he could say will make me trust him or make this okay.” She shook her head sadly.

  “Let’s just see if we can piece this together, okay?”

  They reentered the room with the others. Sadie came over and hugged her. Somehow, they’d developed a kinship over one really nasty bastard.

  *

  Saturday morning dawned cooler than it had been, but it was perfect weather for working with the windows open with his mom to get things moving in the right direction. “Honey, do you want me to turn the game on later?” Mom asked, as she leaned up from petting Daniel.

  He frowned at the dog. He’d been so distracted by his thoughts that he hadn’t realized Auburn was playing LSU at noon today. “That would be great. Thanks.”

  “I know how much you love your team.”

  He looked over at her. She seemed tired, but in a better frame of mind, certainly more than she’d been last night when he’d arrived. He’d pulled out all the nasty remains in her refrigerator when he’d gotten back from the grocery story after a quick run-through at the Buy-Low just as they were locking up for the evening.

  He’d stocked up on eggs, cheese, fresh lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, milk, orange juice and any other staples he’d been able to grab within the fifteen minutes he had. Lisa was there now, getting things like toilet paper, soap, and other items he’d noticed Mom was low on.

  Lisa had stopped by this morning with the two adorable munchkins to say hello on their way to the store. His heart had nearly come out of his chest when he’d gotten such an enthusiastic hello from them. Jordan and Claire weren’t a bit shy meeting their uncle who they hadn’t seen since Claire was a newborn. Both threw themselves into his arms as if they’d known and remembered him their whole lives.

  “Hey, guys. Wow; look at you two.” He hugged both, getting a whiff of baby shampoo from Claire’s shiny curls and noticed a scrape on Jordan’s elbow when he’d removed his jacket that was undoubtedly the result of some carefree childish excursion, bringing him back to his own childhood with Lisa.

  It warmed him to see these two looking so happy and peaceful, something he and Lisa likely were at some early time in childhood, but that he couldn’t quite remember. It relaxed him, too, and he experienced a sensation of healing and well-being just knowing Lisa was content with her family, because he was well on his way to happy, too—finally.

  After managing to separate them from Daniel, Lisa took off, kids in tow, for the grocery.

  Now, if they could work through the issues with Mom, maybe they could all find some closure.

  “Mom, you take the lead on throwing away the things you’re comfortable getting rid of, okay?” He’d pulled out several large, black trash bags and placed them out in the living room. He’d already thrown out the actual trash, as in the food containers, empty or opened cans and cigarette butts. And he’d tinkered around with the dishwasher and realized the breaker had flipped, probably during a storm, and needed no further repair. Now that the dishes were clean and the trash was cleared, things were looking much better. The place really needed dusting, vacuuming, mopping and deep cleaning top to bottom after a few months of neglect. But they would take it a step at time.

  She looked around, taking in the changes. Her clothes were clean, and he noticed she’d made an effort with her hair this morning. “There are some things around that I really don’t need, I guess. Let’s face it, I won’t read all these newspapers and I can throw out the advertisements I’ve gotten in the mail. I guess that’s as good a place as any to start.”

  “Okay. If you want to work on that, I’ll mow the grass and do a little yard work, okay?” He noticed a doggy door through the utility room that opened out to the fenced backyard. Ah, Daniel was able to go outside at will. Matthew wondered how the carpet had been spared his urination issues. Or, maybe Daniel treated him special.

  Mom had a twinkle in her eye when she asked, “Are you sure you remember how to do that? I mean, do big time TV producers know how to mow grass and use a weed eater?”

  He laughed. “Touché, Mom. How about you do your thing in here and I’ll go muddle around and try to remember how to start the lawnmower outside?”

  “Deal.”

  As Matthew made his way around the corner of the garden shed, he dialed Emma’s number again. He’d tried to call her last night, but his call had gone straight to her voice mail. The same thing happened again now. He knew she was headed to a pageant a couple hours away today, but thought she would have at least called him back, especially after their last conversation.

  Frowning, he dropped his phone in his pocket; he would try her again later. Now, he had a mower to deal with. Then, he noticed Daniel the spaniel eyeballing him from two feet away. “No, Daniel, go back inside.”

  The spaniel sighed as he lay down, stared at Matthew, and refused to move.

  Matthew got the message. You’re an asshole and I’m going to either pee on you or keep an eye on you at all times. Or something like that.

  At least the kids liked him.

  Chapter Fifteen

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  Emma turned her phone off last night, and only turned it on again briefly to check on her pageant contestant. She couldn’t bear the thought of hearing it ring and knowing Matthew was calling. He didn’t know she knew about his past—their past. He still believed that when he came back here tomorrow night, they would pick up where they’d left off. No matter what he had to say, she couldn’t ever look at him the same way again.

  Emma wondered if she could ever look at anything the same way or trust her judgment after what she seen written in Tad’s own handwriting last night. Emma couldn’t bear to even think of what a fool she’d been. Yes, she’d been young and naive, but could she have been that wrong about the person she’d given her innocence and heart to? She’d believed in Tad Beaumont, and even though she’d found out the kind of person he was later, this—this was so much worse than what she’d even imagined.

  A knock at the door pulled her out of her miserable thoughts. “Yes?”

  “Honey, it’s Mom. Tad’s been served papers this morning. I just wanted to let you know.”

  She shook off her own self-judgment and tried to focus on what Sadie must be going through right now. Sadie and Sarah Jane were the ones whose futures were currently most affected by Tad’s actions moving forward.

  “Okay, Mom. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  “Are you alright, honey?” Mom asked from just beyond the door.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Take your time.”

  Emma had already showered and dressed. She’d been sitting on her bed wondering what the next step could possibly be in her life. It was all such a mess. Right now, she could do her best to divert her own worries and think about someone else.

  Just as she descended the staircase, a loud banging on the front door left her with no doubt who was trying to beat his way inside.

  “Ben. What should we do?” She’d made it to the bottom of the stairs just as Ben was heading toward the front door.

  “No. Not yet.” He turned and called to Howard, who’d just appeared from the kitchen as well. “Howard, he’s here.”

  Howard picked up what looked like a walkie-talkie. “Close in.” He waited a beat, as the loud banging stopped, followed by a thud.

  The walkie-talkie came to life. “We’ve got him.”

  Howard opened the front door. “Well, hello there, Mr. Beaumont. Thanks for dropping by. I want to make certain you’re aware that your wife, Sadie, is here at Evangeline House.”

  Tad was being held tight between two very large and extremely capable-looking men in dark sunglasses who made Tad, squirming ineff
ectively in his loafers and golf shirt, look quite ridiculous. “Of course. I know she’s here. I’ve come to talk some sense into her.”

  Howard frowned. “So that means you’re aware that you’re breaking the terms of the order of protection filed by Sadie Beaumont against you?”

  “What—of course, I’m aware. Nobody’s going to arrest me. Who are these assholes and whom do you think you are, accosting me in my town? I’m warning you—”

  “Ben, did you get that?” Howard looked behind him.

  Ben had recorded the whole incident. “Tad, these men are private security hired to protect Sadie just in case you decided to make a bad decision. Howard, here, has extremely high US government security clearance that you really can’t compete with as a mayor in a tiny town in Alabama.

  Tad’s entire body tightened and his expression became truly enraged. “You’ve got nothing on me.”

  Ben pulled out the journal and a few of the photos of Emma, the damning ones. “In your own words, written in your own hand, you son of a bitch.”

  “You took my personal property without my consent or a warrant. It will never be admissible,” Tad yelled.

  “I didn’t take it, Tad. Sadie took community property from the home you share. She has every right to do with this as she chooses. By the way, you really shouldn’t have been so careless as to leave your safe open.”

  “That bitch!” Tad screamed, obviously referring to Sadie.

  Emma thought the top of Tad’s head was going to blow off like in the cartoons. He hadn’t seen her yet. She was off to the side and out of his line of vision. But he was about to see her.

  She stepped out. “Hi, Tad.” She wavered between feeling a bit sorry for him and the urge to beat him to death with her bare fists.

  “Emma. Tell them. Tell them this is all a mistake.”

  “I read the journal,” she said with no emotion.

  His facial expression registered comprehension of that, but there wasn’t any kind of regret attached to the comprehension. On the other hand, she saw anger flare in his eyes. “So, you know, then. You know how badly you screwed everything up for me—for us back then.”