Too Hot to Handle

by Jennifer Bernard

  Get over yourself.

  Cassie’s words kept coming back to him. They acted like a swift kick in the ass.

  Of course Holly wouldn’t be better off with Sylvie, especially because Sylvie didn’t even want her. Holly needed to know she was loved and supported. If he was lacking in some way, he’d work harder, or get some help, or seek out some guidance. But for damn sure he wasn’t going to walk away.

  “So Cassie and I worked out this plan,” Holly was saying. “This is step one, telling you. The next thing is to tell the director and ask her if I can work off the amount that I stole, or like, double.” She plucked a Kleenex from a nearly empty box next to the couch and blew her nose. “The worst part is that I’m afraid they won’t let me work there anymore.”

  It wouldn’t surprise him. “Why did you choose the observatory? You love that place.”

  “I do. I really love it. I don’t know, the other girls all chose fancy vacation houses, but that was easy because they were empty. I wanted to do something even more wild and crazy.”

  Wild and crazy. That description made Kevin cringe because it made him think of Sylvie.

  But shit. If Sylvie had done this—and she probably had done similar crap—she wouldn’t have confessed to her parents. She wouldn’t be forming plans to pay the money back. She wouldn’t be riddled with guilt.

  Loving Holly meant loving all of her, including the traits that might—or might not—come from her mother.

  “Well, the good news is, I know how much they like you there. Maybe they’ll be willing to work something out. It’s at least worth a try. So—you want me to go with you?”

  She screwed up her face and rested her chin on her knees in that classic Holly pose. “No. I don’t know. Maybe. Yes.” She rolled her eyes at her own indecision. “I guess it would be nice, but on the other hand, I shouldn’t need my daddy to hold my hand. I should handle it myself.”

  “I won’t hold your hand. I won’t say a thing. I’ll just be the strong and silent moral support. But…” He hesitated, since it took a lot to say this. “If you’d rather have Cassie, or heck, even your mother with you—”

  “Mom?” She turned her head so her cheek rested on her knees. “Please no. Ugh, do you even have to tell her about this? She’d probably gloat about how clever I was to pull it off. I really, really don’t want her to know. And I definitely don’t want her anywhere near the observatory.”

  Kevin let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “And Cassie? Have to admit, I was surprised you called her, considering how angry you were about us.”

  “Yeah, I kind of lost it that day. I was mad at myself for what I did, and I knew how pissed you’d be about it, and I just—I don’t know. Lost it. Sorry.”

  “I knew something was wrong. Good to know it wasn’t about Cassie.”

  “Does it even matter now? You totally flipped out on her, Dad.”

  He slumped onto one of Hunter and Starly’s outrageously comfortable armchairs. The angry way he’d spoken to Cassie, the words he’d used… Now that the fear had drained away, and he knew exactly what had happened, and how Cassie was involved, he couldn’t believe he’d been such an ass to her. “Shit, I really did, didn’t I?”

  “She was just trying to help. I asked her not to tell you yet, and she agreed as long as it wasn’t something urgent or dangerous. She wasn’t trying to interfere or anything.” She shoved his arm lightly. “She actually came back from a trip when I called her. I saw her suitcase and bugged her until she told me.”

  He did a double-take. “She was already gone?”

  “Yeah, on her way to Mexico. She turned around at LAX when she got my message. You kind of owe her an apology.”

  That was probably understating it. But he wasn’t ready to shift his attention to Cassie yet. He still had questions for Holly.

  “Why’d you call Cassie in the first place? You can trust me, Holly. I might freak out, but you can still trust me.”

  “I know, but…” Tears sprang into her eyes. “I knew how disappointed you’d be. I mean, you sacrificed so much for me, leaving the Air Force and becoming a mechanic and moving here and—”

  “Honey, I’m happy as a clam here.” He gestured around him, indicating the house, Jupiter Point, everything. “I dig this town. I like my job. And the chance to be around for all the ups and downs in the life of Holly O’Donnell? That, kiddo, is the best part of all. None of that counts as a sacrifice, sorry. So just get that out of your head, okay?”

  “So…you still love me?” she asked in a small voice.

  His heart cracked wide open. He opened his arms, leaned across the space separating them, and wrapped her up in the biggest bear hug he could manage. “Jesus, Holls. Of course. You don’t ever have to worry about that.”

  She shuddered against him. “And you’ll visit me in jail?”

  “Too soon for that joke,” he said with a wince.

  “Sorry.”

  After a long and very satisfying embrace, he asked as he pulled way, “So just to clarify. Everything you said the other day about wanting to leave Jupiter Point, that was because of this situation?”

  “Yes. I was being a coward. I was not looking forward to facing up to everything. But Cassie and I talked it through.”

  “It sounds like Cassie really came through for you.”

  “She did. She’s cool. You could definitely do worse, Dad.”

  God, he owed Cassie an apology. Probably a lot more than that. Like dinner at the Seaview and chocolate every day for the rest of the year. Or maybe something more intimate, like naked back rubs for a month.

  Yeah, like she was going to let him anywhere near her naked back.

  The magnitude of his fuckup finally sank in. Cassie had rushed back from a trip to Mexico to help his daughter, and he’d treated her like a piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe. What the fuck was wrong with him?

  And what if she couldn’t forgive him?

  Life without Cassie…he couldn’t even imagine it any more. She was woven into every part of his existence here. With her sassy, spunky, freewheeling spirit, she’d snuck into his heart and completely taken the place over, without him really being aware of it.

  He loved Cassie.

  “Holly, there’s something you should know. Right away.” Because he was done keeping any sort of truth from his daughter.

  “What?”

  “I wasn’t lying to you before, about Cassie—I was lying to myself.”

  “What do you mean?” Her eyes went round and curious.

  “I want Cassie to be a real part of our lives. I love her. I think I might even want to marry her.” Astonishing—but it was totally true. “I know that wasn’t what I promised you, but—”

  “No, it’s cool. It’s fine. It’s good. I told you I like her.”

  He grinned fully for the first time since their ill-fated ‘family day.’ “Thank God.”

  “But Dad—you should probably hurry.” Looking exhausted, she lay back on the couch and tucked a blanket around her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m pretty sure you totally blew it with her.”

  27

  During Cassie’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it “vacation,” two customers had dropped off vehicles for Knights and Ladies Auto Repair. Apparently cars didn’t stop breaking down just because Kevin’s daughter was struggling, or because her own life had hit a patch of black ice.

  Tobias and Ben were both gone for the day, taking part in a rescue-training course, so she had the airstrip and the hangar to herself. That was a huge relief, because she didn’t think she could handle any questions right now. Ben had been blessedly question-free during the flight from LAX, but knowing him, that wouldn’t last. He’d be dying to interrogate her.

  She no longer had any desire to go to Mexico. She didn’t need to recover from heartbreak anymore. Now she was just plain pissed off.

  Kevin had texted a few times. The first said, I’m sorry, can we tal
k? The next said, Thank you for being so kind to Holly. You’re the best.

  You’re the best. For some reason, that grated on her. It sounded completely insincere and generic. The best at what? At fumbling her way through an interaction with a teenager she barely knew? Possibly screwing it up?

  She didn’t answer either of those texts, or the next one, which simply asked where she was and if she had some spare time.

  Well, she didn’t have time. She was busy fixing cars, doing her job, being an independent, self-sufficient woman who didn’t need anyone. So he could just cool his jets.

  Once she wasn’t quite so hurt, they’d talk.

  Of course they would, because ignoring the person working on the vehicle next to you was just childish. But she wasn’t about to open her heart to him ever again. She’d been stupid and fallen in love with him, but that was okay. She could fix this.

  She was a mechanic, after all, and that was what she did. She fixed things. Hearts had valves just like engines. It shouldn’t be hard to do.

  Since no one was around, she plugged her iPod into the speakers and selected her favorite work playlist, a mixture of rock-it-out head-banger music and old Motown hits that made her smile. She put the Toyota Camry on the lift, gathered all the tools to replace its struts, and set to work.

  Dad had taught her how to replace the struts on their old Ford Explorer. He’d laughed when she’d popped up next to him, ready to remove bolts and look up torque specs.

  “Does your mother know you’re here? She doesn’t need you for anything, does she?”

  “Nope, she said I could go play.”

  “So why don’t you go play? You don’t have to waste your time with this old hulk. And I’m not talking about the car.”

  But to her, the pleasure of having her father all to herself was worth passing up a swim in the creek, or a game of touch football, or whatever else her brothers were up to.

  Okay, so becoming a mechanic wasn’t the typical way to mourn your murdered father, but it had worked for her.

  Lost in thoughts of her father, she didn’t notice when the music stopped. She put down her wrench—and realized with a shock that instead of hitting the cardboard she’d laid out on the concrete, it hit solid flesh. Someone’s hand.

  Kevin, she thought instantly, and smiled. Maybe he was coming to apologize in person for acting like such a jackass. And maybe she’d accept his apology—after she made it clear just how deep his words had cut.

  “I’m sorry, I’m all booked up,” she said.

  “Your schedule just cleared.”

  She froze. She didn’t recognize that deep baritone voice. It certainly wasn’t Kevin, and his tone was anything but friendly. More like menacing.

  She wheeled herself from under the Camry.

  A stocky man in his fifties, her wrench gripped in his fist, looked her up and down. “You look so much like your mother, though not half as beautiful.”

  “Do I know you?” He wore a cowboy hat that shielded the upper part of his face and a thick beard that masked the lower half. An air of nervous energy clung to him, as if he was excited about something. Or scared of something.

  “You don’t recognize me?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Are you here for a repair job? As I said, I’m booked. After this Camry’s done, I have a Subaru to—” She stopped, because he took a step closer and she caught the scent of his sweat. It wasn’t clean, honest perspiration created by hard work. It was nervous sweat, that kind that poured out of your body in moments of stress.

  This man was up to no good.

  “Your mother knows me. You should give her a call.”

  Her entire body went on high alert. The little hairs on her arms stood up and ice shot through her veins. That made two times this man had mentioned her mother. “She’s out of town right now. Why don’t you tell me what you’re here for?”

  “Don’t lie. She’s not out of town. She’s staying with the Reinhards. My old house. She thinks she’s safe there. But I need her to know I’m not trying to hurt her.”

  It was him. The one who had killed her father. Matthew Dearborn.

  Even though she’d stared long and hard at the photo Will had shown her, he looked different in person. Bulbous nose. Dilated pupils. Crazy eyes. Cheap cowboy hat, like something from a souvenir shop. The look of someone who wasn’t trying to hide his insanity anymore.

  He was strong, too. That was clear from his grip on the wrench, and the hunched bulk of his shoulders. He was big and beefy and could overpower her without blinking, if that was what he intended.

  “You killed my father.” It was so surreal to be saying that. As if she were acting in a play. Badly.

  He waved his hand, the one that wasn’t holding the wrench. “Accident. I just wanted to talk to her. If he’d just let me do that, we would have been happy. He wasn’t right for her. He should have stepped aside like I asked.”

  Cassie’s throat closed up. She told herself not to react, not to move, not to feel. Her feelings could wait until this man was no longer here, until he was locked away somewhere. Right now, she just had to get through this moment.

  “So go ahead,” Dearborn said, gesturing at her phone, which lay on the workbench—next to lots of tools that she could use to attack him. “Call Janine.”

  “Sure.” She walked slowly toward the bench, scanning the items she could use against him. A hammer seemed like the easiest thing, and it wasn’t far from her phone. “What is it you want me to say?”

  “You’re going to tell her to come here.”

  No, she wasn’t. She was going to tell her to call the fucking police, then lock herself behind the Reinhards’ security gates and stay put until this man was arrested.

  “I know what you’re thinking. You think you can call for help, or tell her to call for help. I planned for that. I’m good at planning. I lie awake at night planning everything out, every single little step. I knew your brothers would be at that training today. I know where your oldest brother is right now. He’s chasing a clue I left for him. A tip about the hutch you all are so interested in.” He gave a nervous little giggle.

  Her stomach clenched into a tight little ball. She had no idea where Will was, but if Dearborn knew about the training, he probably wasn’t lying about Will. Shit shit shit!

  “Bet you don’t know where your youngest brother is. Aiden, the little one. I always felt bad for him. I would have been the father he deserved. I would have paid attention to him, the way Robert never did. I watched you all when you came to church, the poor little guy always left behind.”

  Crazy dude. Aiden was never left behind. Sometimes he rode on one of his brothers’ shoulders, sometimes Cassie held his hand. Cassie wanted to leap to her dead father’s defense, but she also knew there was no point. Dearborn would believe whatever he wanted, whatever fed his delusions.

  “Well, he grew up just fine, so I guess you didn’t need to worry so much.” Her hand was almost on her phone now. If only she had 9-1-1 on speed dial. Wait, wasn’t it automatically programmed in? What number could she press to reach a dispatcher?

  “Halt right there.”

  She froze.

  “You didn’t answer my question. Do you know where Aiden is?” The hidden glee in his voice made her sick.

  “He’s at school. College.”

  “Evergreen, very good school. He’s getting good grades. Settling in well. I’ve been keeping my eye on him because I know Janine would want me to.”

  No, she wouldn’t, Cassie wanted to scream. She wants you to go away and leave all of us alone.

  “But you’re wrong,” he continued. “He’s not at school right now. Not to worry, he’s somewhere safe. Somewhere no harm will come to him. But that could change, so you’d best do exactly what I say.”

  Oh my God. This man had Aiden stashed somewhere? Her little brother Aiden, one of the best people in the entire world? “I don’t believe you. If you had Aiden, you’d use him to get to Mom. You wouldn�
�t need me.”

  Something ugly flashed in Dearborn’s eyes. Did that mean she was right?

  “Are you willing to bet on that?” He whipped a Polaroid from his pocket. In the photo, Aiden, his blond bedhead hair even more tousled than usual, stared defiantly at the camera from a chair—to which he was tied.

  Dearborn stuffed the photo back in his pocket. Cassie tried to hide her shudders. Would he hurt Aiden? This same man had kidnapped Felix, Savannah Reinhard’s son, and he was only eleven. He’d threatened Julie when she was only seventeen, and scared her so much she’d stayed away from Jupiter Point for twelve years. Dearborn clearly didn’t mind hurting people of any age.

  He’d slashed Dad’s throat. Killed him right in his own kitchen.

  She put her hand to her throat as if she could feel that pain in her own body. “If anything happens to me or Aiden, my mother would never forgive you.”

  “That’s why I don’t want anything to happen to you guys,” he said as if that made total sense. “I really don’t. It would break my heart to have to hurt either of you. Now go ahead, pick up your phone and call Janine. Tell her you have a present for her. Don’t worry, you won’t be lying.” He reached in the pocket of his bulky olive-drab jacket.

  She flinched, expecting him to pull out a weapon of some kind.

  Instead, he came out with a locket.

  She peered at the jewel dangling from his fingers.

  The sight of it sent horrified chills up and down her spine. She knew that locket well. Her grandmother had given that locket to Janine when she got married. It held a baby picture of Janine on one side, and on the other an old vintage photo of her parents’ wedding. Mom had worn it constantly, claiming it was her favorite piece of jewelry. Then she’d lost it.

  “Where did you get that?”

  He chuckled. “A suitor has to have his secrets. Sorry, that’s privileged information. But I know Janine will be glad to have it back. And that’s just the start of what I can give her. I know she’s tired of traveling. You and she have been wandering all over the country, and I understand that. She had to work through something personal, and I’ve been patient. But I know what she really wants. She wants to come home to Jupiter Point. She wants to make a life here. The life she would have had all along, if Robert weren’t such a prick. She should have everything she deserves, and I’m going to give it to her.”