His gaze was steady on hers, and he clutched her hand. “This is where Gracie comes in.”
Tally almost stopped breathing. Now they were getting to the crux of it, the cause of all their issues. Gracie—the woman he’d been kissing in the pictures she’d been sent, though the sender was still a mystery.
“I wondered if you were going to mention her.”
“Gracie is my mother’s carer. Well, one of them.”
Perplexed, Tally stared at him. His mother’s carer. “Your mum made it?”
“Yes, but she’s been in a coma since it happened. Gracie and three other wonderful women live with Mum and provide round-the-clock care for her, but Gracie is the one I deal with mainly. The house in those photographs you were sent is one I had built for Mum. It has everything she needs, all the latest medical equipment.”
“Oh, Cash, what a woman your mother is—to still be hanging on after all these years.”
Cash nodded. “There have been plenty of times when her doctors recommended withdrawing her feeding tube. They were certain she would never regain consciousness and all I achieved by insisting they keep her alive was to drag out her inevitable death. But I couldn’t do it. I always had hope.” He smiled then. “Remember the photograph of me and Gracie kissing?”
Tally dropped her gaze as a sharp pain shot through her heart. “How could I forget?” she mumbled.
“That was the day my mother regained consciousness.”
Tally’s head snapped up. “She’s awake? Alert?”
“Yeah.” His smile lit up his eyes for the first time since he’d arrived earlier in the day. “Her doctors are saying it’s a miracle. Not quite, based on the research I’ve done, but extremely rare all the same. On the day those photographs were taken, Gracie had called to tell me Mum had woken up. I raced around to the house. It’s not far from mine. You can imagine how ecstatic I was. When Gracie came running out to greet me, I wasn’t thinking of anything other than my mother and how, after all these years, she may finally recover. I gave a brief peck to someone I consider a friend and a confidant.”
Tally tilted her head to one side. “And the photographer just happened to snap at the right time?”
The smile drained from his eyes. “I don’t think it was a random paparazzi. I think someone was following me, waiting for a chance to make something out of nothing. To break us up.”
She frowned. “Who would do such a thing?”
He shrugged. “No idea. An ex-girlfriend, a journalist with a grudge. Could be anyone.”
“Kinga?” she asked, tensing at the thought of Cash’s old agent, who’d hated her on sight. Kinga had wanted Cash for herself, and then Tally came along and ruined her plans to be Mrs Gallagher someday. The two women had an argument that ended with Kinga punching Tally in the face. Cash had immediately sacked her.
He nodded. “It crossed my mind too, so I did some digging. She was telling the truth about getting help when she turned up at the house. Remember on the Saturday we went riding? She’d already had a couple of one-on-one counselling sessions, and after our altercation, she signed herself into a residential facility in London the same day.”
The enormity of what Cash had told her suddenly hit, and Tally covered her face with her hands. She’d been an idiot. A jealous, stupid, crazy idiot who’d caused all this angst. And for nothing. “You kept telling me to trust you,” she whispered through her fingers.
Cash eased her hands away from her face. “Yes, I did.” He grimaced. “I should have told you as soon as you showed me the photographs, but I panicked. I couldn’t tell you who Gracie was without spilling the whole sordid truth—a truth I’ve avoided talking about for so long… I’m sorry, baby.”
“You telling me what happened is the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.” She shook her head in astonishment.
“If it means you’ll give me another chance, I’d do it again. Ten times. A hundred times.” He rubbed her upper arms, his hands tender but firm as they caressed her bare skin. “I have to know, Natalia. Can you forgive me? Do we have a future together?”
She gave him a playful bump with her shoulder. “You don’t start with the easy questions, do you?”
His smile in response to her teasing was full of hope mixed with a tinge of fear, which flattened the corners of his mouth rather than lifting them. “Baby, it’s the only question that matters.”
Tally studied his face. She knew it as well as her own, and the man behind it was the only one she would ever want. But her heart had too many cuts to simply paper over the cracks, and healing would take time. “I can’t go straight back to where we were, Cash. I feel battered and bruised.”
He offered her a faint smile. “However long it takes, I’ll wait.”
She dropped her head. “I thought I’d lost you.”
He tilted her chin up, encouraging her to meet his gaze. When she did, he was wearing that look—the one that made her knees shake and her body scream with hunger.
“I would have never given up on you. We belong together. I didn’t think I was capable of loving anyone until I met you. It took me far too long to admit it to myself, let alone to you. And when I did finally manage to blurt it out…” His lips twitched at the corners. “Well, my timing was shit.”
Tally laughed, the stress of the last few weeks diminishing. “It could have been better, ace.”
His eyes brightened. “Have I ever told you I love it when you call me that?”
A sudden longing to be close to him led to her pecking him on the lips, but as he moved to deepen the kiss, she pulled back. Her body was urging her to do one thing, but her mind was yanking her in the opposite direction and was winning the battle. Disappointment flickered across his face, but he didn’t push.
“Let’s go for a walk,” she said, rising from the sofa. “And if you’re good, I’ll let you buy me lunch a bit later.”
Cash grinned at her ribbing, but as she led the way out of the living room, he stopped her. “I need you to keep this between us. If what happened to my father gets out, it could ruin my career. I trust you implicitly, but—I’m sorry—I don’t feel the same way about Emmalee and Pete.”
Tally shook her head. “They won’t hear it from me.”
“They’ll want to know why you’re letting me within ten feet of you, though.”
“I can handle them,” she said firmly.
The tension in his face receded, and when he clasped her hand, a deep-seated longing sprang up inside her. But her heart had been broken, and she needed to learn to protect it much better. Another break, and she doubted it would ever heal.
5
“Nice place,” Cash said when they reached the typically English pub with a thatched roof, colourful window boxes, and whitewashed walls. He held the door open for Natalia and ushered her through.
The inside matched the outside with traditional low-hanging beams and stone floors. The place was packed, but luckily, Cash spotted a table tucked away in a corner close to where an open fire burned in the grate. He pointed it out to Natalia, and she sidled past tables full of diners, murmuring an apology whenever she had to ask them to tuck their chairs in.
“Here,” Cash said, passing Natalia a menu once they’d sat down. “What do you want to drink?”
She scanned the drinks selection on the back page. “Think I’ll have a glass of the Pinot.”
“Why don’t I get a bottle?”
She glanced up. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”
He laughed. “It’s me who’s going to get drunk. After the morning I’ve had, I need it. What about food?”
“I was thinking of having the chicken salad,” Natalia said while reading the menu.
“I’d rather you chose something with more calories.”
She frowned at him. “I like chicken salad.”
“Humour me. You’ve lost a lot of weight. I don’t want you getting ill, especially when it’s my fault.” He waved the waitress over. “Hi, can we order?”
“Sure. Welcome to the Kings Head. What can I get for you?”
“A bottle of the Pinot Noir and two glasses.”
“White Pinot for me,” Natalia said.
Cash smirked before glancing up at the waitress. “Whatever the lady wants, and I think I’ll have the salmon. Natalia?”
She raised her chin. “The fillet steak with garlic butter, please. Oh, and fries.”
Cash chuckled under his breath as the waitress made a note. He’d missed the way Natalia challenged him. If anyone else acted as she did, he’d have quickly put them in their place and enjoyed doing it. But when Natalia asserted herself, it was a treat he relished.
“Anything else?” the waitress asked, a slight dip between her brows forming as she gave him the same curious look that strangers often directed at him when trying to place where they’d seen him before.
“No,” he said, handing her both menus. “That’s it.”
“Happy with my meal choice, dear?” Natalia said as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
Cash repressed a smile at her barely veiled sarcasm. “Very. I’m worried about you being this thin.”
“Really?” she purred, fluttering her eyelashes for maximum effect. “Surely, all I’d have to do now is dye my hair blond, and I’d fit right in with your preferred type.”
For some reason, she was trying to wind him up. He chuckled. “You’re my preferred type whether you’re thin or curvy. As long as you’re happy, it’s fine by me. I just want you to be healthy.”
She held his gaze, and when her tongue swept over her bottom lip, his stomach tightened. It had always been easy for Natalia to turn him on. She only had to be present and breathing.
“Careful,” he said. “You remember how insatiable I am, right?”
Underneath the table, she rubbed her leg against his, and it took all his willpower not to groan out loud.
“Oh, I remember.”
He was thinking about kicking the flirting up a notch when a couple appeared at their table.
“It is you,” the man said, looming over Cash, while the woman bobbed from foot to foot and grinned inanely at him. “You’re Cash Gallagher, aren’t you?”
Cash inwardly cursed. He wanted to say something sarcastic like Last time I looked, or even better, Yes. Now, fuck off. I’m busy. Instead, he pasted on a false smile.
“I am,” he said shaking the man’s outstretched hand.
“Do you mind if we get a picture?”
Yes, I fucking do mind. “No, not at all.”
The man nudged his wife. “Go on, Sarah. Get in there.” After his wife squeezed in beside Cash, he took several photographs.
Cash ground his teeth and prayed for them to hurry up, but when the guy stuck a beer mat virtually under Cash’s nose for him to sign, his patience ran out.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m in the middle of lunch with my girlfriend. Do you mind?”
The man peered at Natalia as if he hadn’t noticed her before. “Oh, sorry, love,” he said, his loud voice drawing unwanted attention from nearby tables. “Guess you get used to sharing him. You don’t mind if he signs a few things for us, do you? The wife adores him.”
Natalia took one look at Cash’s face and drew herself upright. “Actually, I do mind,” she said, hitting the guy with her best icy stare. “Cash has kindly posed for pictures, and now I’d appreciate it if you would leave us alone so we can enjoy our lunch in peace.”
Intense pride flooded Cash’s chest. What a woman. The man gaped at Natalia before his wife managed to tug him away, muttered apologies tumbling from her mouth.
After they’d gone, Natalia grinned at him. “Who needs Isaac?” she said, referring to Cash’s burly security guy. She leaned back in her chair and reached for her wine, but as she lifted it to her lips, her hand froze. “Oh, shit. Why aren’t you in the States? You’ve missed Indian Wells.”
His breath stalled as he gaped at her. “You think I could compete when my head’s all over the place? I’m a fucking mess.”
“But your rankings?”
He let out a frustrated sigh. “Screw the rankings. I don’t care. All I want is to win you back and for my mother to regain a semblance of a normal life. Nothing else matters.”
Natalia began to say something then seemed to decide against it, choosing to drink her wine instead.
“What is it?” Cash said.
She lowered her voice to barely above a whisper as she leaned across the table. “How come no one knows? I’ve done hundreds of hours of research into you, reading everything I could get my hands on. And yet… nothing. It’s a miracle you’ve kept all this quiet what with social media and the Internet. It’s virtually impossible for normal people to keep things private. For a celebrity, it’s almost inconceivable.”
The waitress dashed over, holding two plates aloft. “Okay, my lovelies. Who’s for the steak?”
Cash pointed at Natalia, who was glaring at the waitress with barely veiled annoyance at the untimely interruption. He waited until they were alone once more. “When it happened, I was still a minor in the eyes of the law, so my arrest, the investigation—all of it is in sealed records.” He picked at his salmon as his appetite waned.
“Of course,” Natalia said, nodding. “And your mum’s carers have never let anything leak?”
Cash shook his head. “They’ve never let me down. They’re all discreet, professional ladies.”
She fixed her gaze on him, her beautiful blue eyes filled with empathy, and his stomach clenched. He ached to touch her, to get back to their earlier flirting, but the moment had passed.
“I’m glad it hasn’t come out,” she said. “It is strange, though. Why the dislike of journalists if you’ve managed to keep this under wraps?”
Cash popped a spear of broccoli into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “Fear, maybe. And worry if I opened myself up, or allowed anyone to get close to me, I might let something slip. Or an innocent remark may lead one of the more inquisitive reporters to delve a little deeper. It’s far from impossible to find the truth if one has the right motivation.”
“You let me get close.”
“Yeah,” he said with a grin. “And look where that’s got me.”
“Lucky for me,” she said, returning his smile.
His spirits lifted, the aching void in his chest getting smaller—not disappearing entirely but at least reducing in size. Maybe he did have a chance at forgiveness.
“What happens now?” he said as she cut into her steak.
She glanced up at him. “Fancy giving me a lift back to London?”
6
“Cash, stop the car.”
Tally spotted Cash’s puzzled look, but he pulled over two streets from her and Em’s flat in London. Cutting the engine, he twisted in his seat.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m getting out here.”
“Why?”
She unfastened her seatbelt. “I don’t know whether Em’s at home or not. Better if she doesn’t spot me with you until I’ve had a chance to explain.”
Cash grimaced. “It’s not going to be easy to explain when you have to withhold the truth.”
“It’ll be fine,” she said, trying to come across as indifferent because she didn’t want Cash to know how worried she was. Trying to explain why they were getting back together when she couldn’t tell Em and Pete the full story would no doubt result in judgemental stares and difficult questions. Though she was Tally’s best friend, Em could be fearsome when she wanted to get to the bottom of something. She would have made a great journalist, apart from the fact she could barely spell her own name.
“Are you sure you don’t want me with you?”
Tally snapped her attention back to the present. “No. It’s better this way.”
They got out of the car, and Cash lifted her suitcases from the boot. He set them on the pavement and kissed her cheek. “Call me as soon as you can. I’ll be at the Dorchester.”
He c
limbed back into the car and drove away. Tally frowned as she watched him disappear around the corner. Apart from the couple of kisses they’d shared in Brighton, he hadn’t tried to push her into anything more, although she shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, she’d been the one to pull back when they kissed, and the one to tell him she wanted to go slow. Except did she really want to go slow, or did she want to hurtle headlong into life with Cash once more? Admiring from afar was very different from being in the centre of the storm, and yet, the last three weeks without him had been torturous.
Argh! The swaying from one thing to another was making her head spin. Why couldn’t life be simpler?
She turned in to her road and bumped her suitcases over the kerb as she crossed to the other side. At least Em hadn’t moved out of the flat yet. Tally let herself in and left her cases inside the door of her old bedroom. A few of her things were still dotted around, although she’d put most of it in storage before fleeing to Brighton. At the time, she hadn’t anticipated returning to her old home, but the familiarity of the place was exactly the comfort she needed, sort of like wrapping herself in an electric blanket on a cold winter’s day.
Em wasn’t at home, so she decided to cook them some dinner. She needed something—anything—to take her mind off having to break the news to Em that she and Cash were getting back together. Without a decent explanation, she was going to look like one of those women who tolerated cheating and forgave their significant others time and again, turning a blind eye to affairs. Sure, it wasn’t true in her case, but that was exactly how it would seem.
Em’s cupboards were virtually empty, but Tally managed to rustle up a chicken stew using a few leftovers. Once the stew was bubbling away, she reduced the heat on the stove and ducked round to the local off-licence. She picked up a bottle of Pinot and a half-decent Prosecco advertised as the offer of the week.
Light had begun to fade when the front-door lock rattled. Bracing herself, Tally wandered into the hallway as Em stumbled through, lugging several makeup bags and boxes, the cord from a pair of GHDs trailing behind her. She tripped over the cord and cursed.
Losing Game: A Winning Ace Novel (Book 2) Page 3
