That couldn’t be right.
The men shook hands, and thankfully the man said his name, Trent. Which, of course, didn’t ring any bells for Rosie.
“Well, so nice to see you, but we were just leaving.” She grabbed Cord’s hand and went to skate off.
“Wait a second,” Trent said. “At least wait until Justin meets you.”
“Oh, right, of course,” Rosie mumbled.
Beside her, Cord shifted. It would be rude to leave, but there wasn’t too much that Rosie wanted to do more. She couldn’t hang out with these men. It would be just a matter of time before Cord figured out she didn’t really know them.
In her gloves, her hands sweated, and suddenly her jacket was too warm. Did Rosalin work with them? It seemed like they were casual acquaintances, or like maybe she’d dated Trent.
Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long, and Justin skated over with a big smile.
“Hey. This must be the infamous Rosalin.” He grinned. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” His tone was suggestive which made Rosie blink several times.
“Shh,” Trent said with a wink. “This is her fiancé, Cord.”
“Oh? Rosalin has a fiancé? I hadn’t heard.” His wolfish grin got even bigger if that were possible. “I’d say you’re a lucky guy. Rosalin should be able to keep you entertained anyway. Although you are living in Chicago, correct?”
“No. She’s moving out to my ranch which is two hours north of here.” Cord’s eyes were narrowed, and any smile that had been on his face had faded.
“Can’t imagine Rosalin living in the middle of nowhere. She’d be bored in two days. You’re not making her quit her job, are you?” The way he said it made it seem like it would be a national catastrophe if Rosalin had to quit her job.
“No. She’s going to work from home.” Cord’s tone sounded a little defensive.
The eyebrows on both men rose. Rosie looked between them, concerned. Rosalin had told her she was an executive assistant, but somehow Rosie was beginning to think that that wasn’t true. She didn’t like the constricting feeling that was starting to tighten her chest, nor the dread that was sticking like glue in her stomach.
The men looked at each other. Justin seemed to realize that something he didn’t quite understand was going on, and his smile faded, replaced by confusion.
But Trent was completely clueless. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, Rosalin, but I don’t believe for one second that you’re getting married.”
Rosie had given up trying to pull Cord away, but as soon as Trent finished speaking, he stiffened then looked down at her. “I’m ready to go.”
He didn’t wait for her but grabbed her hand, skated off the ice, and walked to the empty bench, sitting down heavily. He ran a hand through his hair.
“That feels like a dream.” He looked at Rosie. “Can you tell me that was a dream?”
Rosie didn’t know what to say, but she knew she had to defend her sister. “Is it going to make a difference?”
Cord sighed. “Your past is your past, and what you’ve done before doesn’t change anything. I think we both know I’d be lying if I said I was in love with you. We know you’re not in love with me either.” His eyes met hers. “Regardless of how we feel about each other though, I think it’s important that any running around ends with our marriage. I don’t think I’m out of line to demand that.”
Rosie looked down at her hands. She wasn’t sure what she expected out of Cord, but she knew he wasn’t a jerk. He would never hold someone’s past against them. And what he was asking was not unreasonable. If Rosalin thought it was, then that was her problem.
“I can’t argue with that.” Her fingers twisted together.
“I think there’s more going on though, isn’t there?” Cord bent his head down, seeming to search for her eyes.
She had a hard time meeting his gaze. But she had to.
“Rosalin, I think you need to level with me. You’ve been acting odd the last several times we’ve been together. There’s something up, but I’m not sure what it is. You’re keeping it from me, something more than what I just found out.”
Like cancer spreading through her body, the guilt that Rosie had been harboring poisoned her veins. She’d never done this before, and her twin was going to hate her, but she couldn’t keep up the pretense.
Cord would hate her too.
Of all the things in the world that could happen to her, the one thing that she didn’t want to have happen was for her to lose her best friend. But she had to confess. Cord walking away would be the result. He might not hold Rosalin’s past against her, but he would never condone lying. The deceit that she’d been engaged in was unforgivable.
She took a deep breath and swallowed hard, hoping her heart didn’t jump out of her throat.
“I’m not Rosalin. I’m Rosie.” She squared her shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “And it was me who was with you when we picked up the cake. Rosalin pulled a twin, and you know what that means. I couldn’t tell her no.”
Cord’s eyes flickered. The pain that went across them squeezed at her insides, constricting her lungs and making each beat of her heart painful.
It had never been her intention to hurt him. But he felt betrayed, and rightfully so. It was easy to see that in his eyes at least. Anger too. As he sat there, the anger pushed the other emotions aside.
She wasn’t afraid of his anger; he would never hurt her. But it made the guilt so heavy and hard. And she wanted to cry.
She couldn’t. This wasn’t about her.
His hands fisted and his bearing was stiff, but his voice was level as he spoke. “As we were sitting in the restaurant, I had made up my mind to talk to Rosalin and call the wedding off. I realized that without you between us, Rosalin and I didn’t have anything to talk about. I found myself wanting to talk to you.” He swallowed.
Rosie’s mouth was dry, and her throat hurt. But she didn’t move.
He shoved both hands in his pockets and looked over her head, blinking.
“I can’t believe you would do this to me, Rosie.” His head tilted down at her. “I trusted you. I thought you were my friend. I can’t believe you lied to me like this.” His face twisted, and his eyes narrowed. “I know what Rosalin actually did was worse than getting her sister to play her and deceive me, but what you did hurts worse, because I thought you were my best friend.”
He pulled his skates off and put his boots back on, lacing them up without saying anything. Miserable, Rosie did the same, tying the laces of her skates together and throwing them over her shoulder.
“Come on,” Cord said. “I’ll make sure you get back to your car. I suppose you rented one?”
Cord had seen them exchange places often enough he knew they were good at it.
“No. I never even thought about renting a car. I was so miserable about what I was doing I didn’t give it a thought. I forgot about the skates, too.” She held her own skates up and took a shaky breath, her lungs hurting. “I’m sorry. I know sorry isn’t good enough. But I don’t know what else to say.”
He looked down at the ground. “I believe you. Believe that you’re sorry. But I don’t think I can trust you.” He let out a breath; it was almost a groan. “How can I ever trust you again?” He shook his head. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”
His words scared her. “Of course, it matters.”
“If I had deceived you like that, would it matter to you?”
She clamped her jaw together and looked straight ahead.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to be friends anymore?” There was hurt in her tone, but she couldn’t hide it.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be friends. It’s that I don’t see how we can be.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets.
They’d reached her car, and she stopped, turning to him, biting the insides of her cheeks, trying to hide the panic that boile
d in her heart. She knew she deserved this. She never should’ve agreed to pretend to be Rosalin. He was right. She had deceived him and lied to him. How could he ever trust her again?
She hadn’t noticed until that moment, but snowflakes drifted down lazily. It didn’t look serious, and she doubted if it would amount to anything.
Cord looked up at the sky. “I’ll follow you home, just to make sure you make it there safely.”
He gave her a last long look before he turned and walked to his truck.
It hurt. Her whole chest burned because she’d deceived her friend and hurt him. But, as awful as she felt, as soon as she got in her car, she gave her twin a call. Something was going on with Rosalin, and she needed to figure out what it was. Rosalin might need help.
But her call went to voice mail. She left a message, asking for a call back, and she called four more times on the ride home. But Rosalin never answered.
Chapter 10
CORD SAT IN HIS TRUCK, staring at the steering wheel. His chest burned. His throat ached. And his heart felt hollow.
Rosie. Of all the people in the world, he never thought Rosie would do this to him. It wasn’t overly shocking that Rosalin would get her sister to pretend to be her. He’d come to the conclusion that Rosalin and he didn’t really like each other. Or at least, they didn’t have much to say to each other. And that was as much his fault as hers.
But Rosie? He couldn’t believe she’d agreed to this. Had she been laughing at him all this time? Rosie, who was so sweet and kind and innocent. She’d been his friend forever. At least, he thought she was his friend. But this definitely wasn’t something a friend would do. And he wasn’t out of line to feel betrayed.
Her car drove slowly by in front of him, and he pulled up behind her. The really rotten thing about this whole mess? He just realized how much he cared for her.
Obviously, she didn’t feel the same.
Cord drove home on autopilot all two hours following Rosie. He didn’t pull off to go to his farm. Rather, he followed Rosie on toward Sweet Water.
Several miles before town, he could see flashing lights in the distance. He thought he smelled smoke. His hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. His mother lived outside of town, so he wasn’t worried about her. And Rosie’s parents had downsized into a one-bedroom efficiency apartment where they didn’t have to take care of the grass since neither of them enjoyed working outside. Their apartment was in a small community just half a mile from the school where they both worked.
Still, something was burning.
Brake lights came on on Rosie’s car, and that’s when his heart started to thump. They’d reached the houses at the end of town, and he could see the fire trucks sitting along the street. Right in front of the library.
There were no flames, but in the spotlight from the fire trucks, smoke drifted up from the rubble of what used to be the library and Rosie’s apartment.
He might be angry at Rosie. And yes, maybe he was wondering if they could still be friends. But just because she had done something pretty horrible to him didn’t mean he didn’t still care about her, and his heart broke for her.
What was she going to do now?
The firefighters hadn’t bothered to barricade the street. Maybe because it was so late and there was no traffic.
A group of people stood around on the sidewalk, looking at what used to be the library. The dark figures of firefighters moved like shadows in front of the smoky ruins. The red and white lights flashed in the dark, giving an eerie, odd glow to the scene.
Rosie’s car pulled along the sidewalk and stopped. But she didn’t get out. He pulled in behind her and debated about what he should do. For two seconds.
Then he opened the door and hurried up to her, stopping at her window. She didn’t seem to notice him and didn’t wind the window down. Her eyes were fixed on the scene in front of her, on the ruin that used to be her house, on the smoldering ashes that represented her dream since high school.
They’d fought long and hard together to get this library up and running. People had argued. The town was too small. They didn’t have the funds to support it. No one would work there for pennies on the dollar. But Rosie had pushed through every objection and opened up her dream.
Now it lay in smoldering ruins. Not just the library but her house and everything she owned had gone up in smoke tonight. How could he not feel bad for his best friend? And want to help?
There wasn’t a part of him that thought she deserved this after what she’d just done. He’d been angry but had never wished anything bad to happen to her.
And honestly, he understood. She’d been doing what she’d done for her twin, and it was obvious that she felt torn and upset about it.
Rosie’s door pushed open, and Cord stepped back far enough that she could get out.
Her face, pinched and ravaged, seemed to be unable to turn from the devastation.
At least she wasn’t crying.
He put a hand on her shoulder. Her face jerked to him. Obviously, she hadn’t even known he was there. His stomach tightened and twisted at the look on her face. It matched the destruction of the smoldering ruins.
He didn’t even think about it but wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She was stiff at first, but as he tightened his arms around her and laid his cheek on her head, her own arms came up and wrapped around him.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, his lips moving against her hair.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I know. I just feel so awful for you. I know how much you wanted this and how hard you worked for it.” Oddly, he felt tears prick his own eyes. Knowing the pain she must be feeling caused his own chest to hurt.
She sniffed.
He ran his hand down her back. As his eyes roamed over the smoldering ruins, he recognized one of the people standing in a group off to the side. His mother?
Of course, she had just been voted onto the Town Council this fall. This would be a pretty big deal for them too, since they were the ones who were funding it.
As though she felt his eyes on her, his mother turned. She studied them for a minute or so, trying to figure out who they were in the dim light. Then she said something to the people she was standing with and walked toward them.
“Hey, you two.” His mother stopped beside them and put a hand on Rosie’s back.
“Does anybody know what happened?” Rosie asked, her voice only a little bit muffled by his jacket.
His mother looked him in the eye. Rosie and he were so close, had been through so much together growing up, had done so much that he didn’t think his mother thought anything about him holding her. Rosie didn’t pull away, and he was glad for it. He wanted to keep her in the shelter of his arms. Not that he could take the pain for her, but this was definitely not something he wanted her to carry by herself.
“It’s too early to tell for sure.” His mother’s hand rubbed gently on Rosie’s shoulder. “The Fire Chief is speculating electrical wires sparked it. That happens a lot in these old buildings, he said.” His mother shrugged. “They’ll do an investigation and figure out for sure, but in the meantime, Rosie, you’re welcome to come home with me. It’s crowded right now because Clay and Reina and Tella and Charlie...” She laughed. “There is a lot of us in the house, and it’s small, but you are always welcome.”
Rosie stiffened against him, like the idea of being around all those people right now was more than she wanted to face. He could no more stop the next words that tumbled out of his lips than he could stop his heart from beating.
“I have an extra bedroom that’s not being used. Rosie can come home with me. It’ll be a lot quieter there, and she can regroup and figure out what she wants to do. I’m heading north with my sleds anyway shortly.” He wanted to pull Rosie closer, not let her go.
He didn’t question those feelings. But he squeezed her and then leaned back, trying to look in her eyes. “If you want, the offer’s open. You know you’re alwa
ys welcome at my place. I was going to ask you to take care of Sadie and Bill while I’m gone anyway.”
He knew giving her a place to stay wasn’t going to solve all of her problems. The little bit that the township paid her for being the librarian took care of all of her bills, but it hadn’t left any extra. Her house was now gone, and he knew she didn’t have any savings. She’d been very happy to be the librarian; it’s all she ever wanted. He was pretty sure she would have no idea what to do next. And despite the events of the evening, she’d been his best friend forever. He couldn’t just walk away from her.
Plus, it felt good to hold her.
When her face turned to his, he realized she hadn’t been crying. Maybe it was the shock of losing her home. She seemed just a little disoriented. Or maybe she just really didn’t know what to do.
Her head turned toward his mom. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Stryker. I appreciate the offer. But I think for tonight, I’ll go with Cord.”
His mom didn’t say anything, but she nodded. She wasn’t thrilled; he could tell that from her expression, but she seemed to realize this was what Rosie needed, at least for tonight.
He pulled Rosie back against his chest, somehow feeling like she really belonged there. Funny how a devastating loss could erase the feelings of betrayal and remind him that his lifelong friend had always been there for him. How could he not be here for her?
Ted Simone, the Fire Chief, walked up behind his mother. “That’s Rosie, right?” he asked, his voice sounding rough on the night air.
Rosie pulled away, slightly turning her head to look at him. She nodded. “Yes, Mr. Simone. It’s me.”
Growing up with the twins the way he had, Cord was used to people being confused as to which one they were talking to. Obviously, even though he was engaged to one and considered the other one his best friend, he didn’t always know which one he was talking to.
“I know this is probably a shock to you,” the chief said. “I don’t want to make things harder than what they are. But I do have some questions I need to ask you.”
Cord kept his arm firmly around Rosie. She didn’t try to pull away, although she was no longer leaning against him. “It’s fine. You can ask me whatever you need to.”
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