“She cares,” he said, hardly daring to believe. “She cares!” Jared jumped into the air and hollered again, “She cares!”
With sudden inspiration, he knew what he had to do now, and he would do it just as soon as he got out of the hospital. Jared smiled, and then frowned as black ate at the edges of his vision until the room went suddenly dark. Strong arms caught him as he fell into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The house was quiet. It had been that way for a week, ever since she had returned from New York. Cassi sat in her TV room, staring at the blank screen, the only light coming from the lamp beside the couch. Through the open window came a light summer breeze, rustling the leaves of the various plants that dotted the room. Not another sound broke the lonely silence.
Why didn’t Jared call?
She had heard nothing from him since the day of the shooting. He hadn’t even sent a check for the Mother and Baby.
Could she have killed him with that bullet? She didn’t really believe he was dead, but it remained a possibility. Infection could have set in, or something equally as bad.
At first, holding on to the thin hope that he would contact her, she had tried to slip back into her life as if nothing had happened. After four days of his silence, she had asked Linden for vacation time and had come home in tears.
That was the day she had finally unpacked the duffel bag Renae had given her and found the T-shirt Jared had worn at the beach. She clutched it first to her heart and then to her face, breathing in his fragrance. She remembered vividly how she had hidden it in her bag when Jared had come back early to the motel from the funeral. It was all she had of him, and she was grateful for it.
She threw herself onto her bed and cried, her face buried in the shirt. “How can it hurt so much?” she asked over and over. The protest only grieved her more.
She put on Jared’s shirt that day and hadn’t taken it off in the three days since, except to shower. Eventually, she knew she would get over him, but until her heart healed, she wanted to wallow in her sorrow, feeling the bittersweet pain. No matter what the consequences, she agreed with the saying that it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. At least she now knew what love was.
Her phone rang shrilly in the silence of the room. Cassi picked it up, trying to stifle the hope that flared within her.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Cassi. It’s Renae. How’re you doing?”
Cassi sighed. Since her adventure in New York, Renae had called her every day. “I’m fine. And no, he hasn’t called.”
“Maybe he can’t find your number. Why don’t you call him?”
“What would I say? ‘Hi. I’m completely crazy about you, could you propose?’ Is that what you’re suggesting?”
“No, but I can’t believe you left New York without saying good-bye. Did you ever tell him how you felt?”
“Not unless a bullet to the shoulder counts.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was.”
“No way. Don’t worry. He’ll call.”
“It doesn’t matter. He loves Laranda.”
Renae snorted. “I don’t believe it. I saw the way he looked at you.”
“Well, he’s in New York with her, and I’m here alone. Isn’t that plain enough?”
“Maybe he’s recuperating.”
“Renae, give it up. For heaven’s sake, I shot the man and—”
“You said he kissed you. That meant something.”
Cassi sighed again, this time more loudly. She had needed someone to talk to during those first days back from New York, and Renae had been available. Now Cassi wished she hadn’t been so open with her. “He kissed Laranda, too.”
“Well, what if Linden had been shot and was clinging to you, begging you to stay with what might be his dying breath? What would you have done?”
Renae’s words hit Cassi like a slap in the face. For a few seconds, she was unable to breathe. Thoughts whirled in her head, tumbling against one another in a battle to be heard first. She let the phone slip to the couch.
Cassi stood up and paced the room restlessly. “If it had been Linden,” she repeated. Seeing the situation from Jared’s point of view was shocking. Laranda was his friend, and he could no more leave her to die alone than she could have left Linden.
Maybe Jared hadn’t used Cassi or led her on. Maybe he was simply a good person whose sense of right wouldn’t let him take the easy way out.
She had it nearly worked out in her mind when she spied the phone on the couch. Renae was yelling something, and Cassi quickly picked it up and put it to her ear.
“Then why hasn’t he called?” she asked.
“Oh, Cassi,” breathed Renae. “I was worried there for a minute. But why haven’t you called him? It’s the same thing.
“I left him my Mother and Baby.”
“You what? Really? You left him a six-thousand-dollar statue?” Renae whistled in amazement. “Good girl. That must have said something.”
“So now it’s his turn, right?”
Renae was silent for a moment. “I hate to say it, but you’re right. It’s his turn now.” She paused a moment more before adding, “Maybe he’s an arrogant pig, after all.”
Cassi chuckled for Renae’s benefit, though pain shot through her at the thought. “Hey, thanks for calling, Renae. I really have to go. Besides, don’t you have a baby who needs you or some plans to make?” Renae had told her she was going to take guitar and voice lessons two nights a week as soon as she recovered fully from having her baby.
“Yeah, but call me soon, huh?”
“Sure. Thanks for calling.” Cassi disconnected with relief.
The utter silence immediately overwhelmed her. She took a last look at the room, and then turned out the light. Loneliness crept over her like something she’d never experienced before, heavy now that she’d experienced so much companionship with Jared. She shrugged the thought aside, knowing she had to get on with her life, but at the same time knowing she would never again look at things in the same way. Love had changed her.
Sighing deeply, she turned on the light in the hall that led to her bedroom. Perhaps she would read a bit before trying to sleep through the nightmares she knew would come, as they had every night since shooting Jared. Sometimes in her dreams he died, and in others he pointed an accusing finger at her as the ravishing Laranda at his side laughed gleefully. In the dream, Cassi would run away but always behind her ran the hook-nosed smuggler waving a gun.
She shivered as the doorbell rang, sounding loud in the stillness of the night. Involuntarily, Cassi flinched. Who could it be at this time of night? She turned on the entryway light and opened the door.
“Jared!” Cassi’s shock was complete. There he stood, looking more handsome than she remembered with his blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Closer inspection, however, showed that his unshaven face was haggard and also pale. His left eye was still greenish, and a sling held one arm securely against his chest.
“May I come in?” His eyes ran over her as if searching for a hidden sign.
Cassi realized she was still wearing his T-shirt, and for a moment she considered slamming the door and running to change so he wouldn’t suspect the extent of her suffering. “Yes, of course, please come in.”
Jared bent down and awkwardly picked up a medium-sized box with his free arm.
Cassi rushed to help, noticing a dozen or more other boxes also on her porch. “What’s this?” Hefting the box, she led the way to her living room.
Jared shifted his feet nervously. “Open it,” he said, giving her a lopsided smile that made her heart jump.
Puzzled, she opened the flaps to reveal six shoebox-sized cartons inside, cushioned by white packing peanuts. Puzzled, she looked up at Jared to see that he had gone to her front porch and was carrying in another box. “Go ahead,” he encouraged.
She pulled out the first carton and opened it. Inside lay
three of the smaller pieces from Jared’s Life collection, nestled in thick tissue. She put it down and removed the lids of three more boxes. “Your collection,” she said. “What—why?”
“The minute I saw you’d given me your statue, I knew I would give you all of mine, along with my heart. I’ve brought all fifty-three—no, fifty-four with the Mother and Baby.”
Jared reached for her hand, going to one knee on the soft carpet. “I think I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you standing in front of those pamphlets at the hotel, dressed in your jeans and T-shirt, with your hair tumbling around your shoulders. I should have told you how I felt the night we broke the Buddha. Then after the shooting, you left and I thought you didn’t care, but when I saw your statue, I knew. Oh, Cassi, please give me a chance to show you how much I love you. I can’t live without you and your crazy impulsiveness brightening up my life. I know we can work everything out. Please, marry me.”
Cassi’s jaw dropped. This was her favorite daydream turned real, and for once in her life she was speechless.
“I’ll give you all the time you want to consider it, and as long an engagement as you need to be sure. I’ll wait as long as it takes.” He stopped talking and simply looked up at her, waiting for an answer.
Tears formed in Cassi’s eyes. He had given her his most precious material possession, as well as himself! “Yes,” she said softly.
“Yes? Just yes?” he said with a grin. “No exclamation of undying love?” Then he added hurriedly, “That’s okay, I’ll take yes. But is it yes you’ll think about it, or yes you’ll marry me?”
Pulling him to his feet, she practically threw herself against his uninjured shoulder. “Yes . . . I’ll marry . . . you,” she said between kisses. Softly she added, “I love you, too.”
Jared threw back his head and laughed. He hugged her again and again, as if afraid to let go. “I hoped so. I brought my collection to use as a bribe, just in case you wouldn’t marry me, but—” He shrugged, smiling.
Cassi pushed herself closer, loving the way his good arm tightened possessively around her. “It’s perfect.”
“Oh, I’m going to get you a ring, too. Make no mistake. I want the world to know you’re mine. Until we go to pick it out, this will have to do.” He motioned to the boxes.
Cassi chuckled. Life was worth well over forty thousand dollars, much more than any ring she would choose. She lifted her lips to Jared’s.
After a long moment, he sighed. “Much as I don’t want to, we have to stop. You’ve got a porch full of boxes that we should really bring in.”
Cassi laughed and walked with him to the door. As promised, lined up along her porch was the rest of his Life collection. But something beyond that caught her attention even more. In front of her house sat a large moving van. She blinked in surprise.
“You don’t think I’m going to risk a long-distance relationship with the most beautiful woman in the world, do you?” Jared said.
“You’re moving?”
He nodded. “To be near you until we’re married and decide where to have our gallery. Actually, it was Carl’s idea. He called me from Mexico five days ago, while I was still in the hospital. I was worrying about what to do, and he suggested packing it all up and appearing on your doorstep. It sounded like a good idea, so I put the apartment up for sale, Meela helped me pack, and here I am.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! You mean to tell me you got out of the hospital, packed up your things, and drove across America all by yourself, just to be with me?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t see any point in hanging on to New York when my life was with you.”
“And you were in the hospital until five days ago?”
Jared nodded. “I lost more blood than the doctors thought, and then I made it worse by going to look for you.”
“You looked for me?”
“Of course, I did.” His hand came up to caress her face.
“What about Laranda?” Cassi held her breath as she waited for the answer. She didn’t like the woman, but she didn’t want her death hanging over them, either.
“I hear she’s all right, or at least she’s out of critical condition. I haven’t seen her myself, and I don’t plan to. But the doctors do think she’ll be paralyzed from the waist down, though she’s not getting much sympathy, as you can imagine.” His voice lowered. “What she did was awful, but I would live through it a hundred times over if it brought me you.”
Relief flooded Cassi. His words made it clear that Laranda belonged to the past.
“Uh, you don’t know a place where I can store some of this stuff, do you?” Jared eyed Cassi’s garage. “That looks about the right size.”
“It’s all yours.”
Jared grinned. “Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you. Carl wanted you to know that he married Maria the day after he flew to Mexico. They’re still there, waiting for her visa to come through so he can bring her here.”
Cassi laughed. “Good for him.” Everything had worked out. Everything except—
“We’ll have to have a play area in one room of our gallery,” she said. “That way our kids can be near us while we work. And we’ll have to hire someone to manage the gallery while we go on buying trips, plus a guard so you don’t have to carry a gun, and—”
“Only if you’ll promise to let me teach you how to cook,” Jared said, rubbing his stomach. “We can start right now. I’m starving.”
“You look way too exhausted to cook. I’m sure I have some frozen dinners I can pop in the microwave for you.”
He groaned.
She laughed. “Honestly, Jared. There’s no use in my learning. We’ll have seven kids, and you can teach them how to cook.”
“And vacuum?”
“That, too. Then they’ll work while we go jogging every day.”
Jared groaned again, but his expression was happy. He stroked Cassi’s hair, his arm sliding down her back to tighten around her waist.
Their lips met once more, and Cassi knew it would be a little while longer before they brought in the rest of the collection from the porch that evening. For, as exceptional as Life was, they were discovering for themselves how wonderful their lives could be.
THE END
We hope you enjoyed A Bid For Love, the first novel in the Love series. For your enjoyment, we have included a sample chapter of Framed For Love, beginning on the next page. A list of all books by Rachel Ann Nunes can be found in the About the Author section following the sample chapter.
FRAMED FOR LOVE
by Rachel Ann Nunes
CHAPTER ONE
The phone rang at Jared’s apartment, but for the ninth time that day there was no answer. Cassi Mason slammed the receiver onto the cradle and returned to the main part of the gallery where her boss, Linden Johansen, was carefully hanging a painting. He paused in his work, and Cassi could feel him staring at her flushed face. She willed herself to be calm.
“He’s not home,” she said. “I don’t get it. Four days before we get married. Three if you don’t count that Saturday morning—less than seventy-two hours! And he disappears. Where could he be? I know he didn’t have any auctions or appointments.”
“I’m sure he’s just out getting last-minute things done,” Linden threw his hammer onto the supply cart and touched her arm. “Don’t fret so.”
Cassi forced a laugh at his choice of words. “Linden, I’m not fretting. It’s just that he missed his final fitting for the tux, and there’s not much time left.”
“Your cogency leaves a lot to be desired.”
“Cogency? Linden! I don’t know if I like this extend-your-vocabulary class you’re taking. What does that even mean?”
“Something about compelling or convincing—I’m not sure exactly, but whatever it means, you aren’t doing it. What you are doing is fretting. And you have to stop. If Jared needs some pants, I can lend him some. I bought a tux last year for my step-cousin’s daughter’s wedding. Jared’s about my
size.”
Cassi hugged her friend and mentor, bringing a flush to his face. “Oh, Linden, it has to match with everything else. But thanks anyway. You’re the best.” In fact, with her own parents living several states away, he was becoming like a father to her.
“Humph! Just for that, I’m not going to show you that secret tunnel in my new mansion after all. And it’s magnificent.”
“So you’ve told me. But I still don’t see why you need such a big house and a secret tunnel.”
“It might come in handy with all the spy work I’ve been doing.” Linden gave her a grin. “Besides, a lot of these older mansions have them. It’s normal.”
“Forget about your tunnel,” she said lightly. “Just be glad I’m finally getting married. I’m getting old.”
Linden snorted. “Twenty-nine isn’t old. When you get to be sixty like me, then we’ll talk—if I’m still around.”
Cassi laughed as he intended, but her mind was on Jared. Where was he? She had waited so many years for him to come into her life. She had almost lost him once, and now this. Had he changed his mind? Self-doubt ate at her.
“Will you listen to me?” Linden said, his narrow face tightening in concern. “I told you, he’ll show up. He’d be crazy not to.”
“You’re right.” Cassi kissed his cheek. “Thanks. I think I’ll just go home and work on my last-minute list. I promised Jared I’d clean out the closets so he’d have some room when he moved in.”
As she left the gallery, a tingle formed in her stomach and worked its way into her throat. Today was Wednesday, and on Saturday she and Jared would be married! Could it really be true? If he felt half as nervous as she did, it was no wonder he was keeping busy.
He hasn’t disappeared, she thought. He’s just plain scared.
She drove to her small home in the suburbs of San Diego, mentally deciding what items from her closets would end up in the pile for charity and what she would simply throw away. There had never been any need before to conserve space, but with Jared moving in . . . and perhaps later they would have a child. Cassi smiled at her thoughts.
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