Chapter Three
At eleven-thirty on the dot, Cassie knocked on the back door of the bookstore and a smiling Penny Garwood opened it and waved her inside. Penny’s short, stylish brown hair had a pretty barrette on one side, holding it back from her face. Cassie liked the woman’s style.
“Well that’s a good start, Cassie. Right on time.” Penny handed her a stack of paperwork. “Have a cup of coffee and fill all this out. I’ll be out front getting everything ready to open. Come on out when you’re finished.”
She settled in with her papers and took a sip of coffee. She tried not to look at her hands as she wrote. Tried not to think about how much her life had changed in the span of not even an hour. Cassie had had to learn to write with her left hand while the fingers on her right healed. Her victim advocate had encouraged her to keep writing that way. Another layer to her new life. It’d been strange to think constantly about how to become Cassie Gambol and keep Carly Sunderland dead.
Still, she’d gotten to the point where she answered to Cassie like it was the name she’d been born with. She wrote her new social security number with her left hand on that paperwork and listed the past jobs as those people she knew she could trust to keep her secrets and back up her cover.
Cover. She nearly snorted. Once a respected surgeon, now she had to deal with cover. And she didn’t even get a cool car like James Bond had.
Finishing up, Cassie went out to the front of the store and handed the papers to Penny who looked through them quickly, tucked them into a folder and smiled.
“Okay, that’s all done. Let’s get you to work.”
For the next several hours, Penny showed Cassie the ropes. How to work the cash register, how to find stock, what went where. It wasn’t complicated but it was more detailed than she’d expected it to be and after a while, Cassie fell into the rhythm of it all.
At five Penny turned over the closed sign and locked up. “Good job. Especially for your first day. I’m impressed.”
Cassie hadn’t felt accomplished in a very long time. It was a simple thing but it felt damned good.
“Thanks.”
“Are you busy tonight? We need to set up your schedule and it just so happens I have chicken marinating in my fridge. As an added bonus, I’ve got sangria that I started last night so it should be nice and ready to drink.”
With a little bit of effort she could make an actual friend. The first new one in a few years. “You sure I wouldn’t put you out?”
“I wouldn’t have invited you if that was the case.”
For some reason, Penny’s mixture of formal Southern charm and blunt manner put Cassie at ease. She didn’t feel pitied or suspected. “All right then, sounds good.”
Cassie followed Penny a little way from the center of town and into a neighborhood that overlooked a lake. Penny pulled into the driveway of a large Tudor-style house with gorgeous landscaping. The front yard had a huge willow tree that shaded the entire front of the house including the large porch.
She got out and caught up with Penny at her door. “This is some place you’ve got here.” The inside of the house was gorgeous. Filled with period antiques but it still felt comfortable and homey.
“Thank you. I quite like it myself. It was my wedding present.”
“Oh, I didn’t even think to ask if you were married.” Cassie blushed.
Penny said, “I was. He died two years ago.”
“I’m sorry. About your husband, that is.”
“Well thank you, honey. He and I had a lot of good years together. I miss him of course, but this house has a lot of good memories.” Penny hung her bag on a hook on a gorgeous oak armoire near the front door and Cassie followed suit.
Penny gave her the quick tour and they ended up in the kitchen. “I’m going to put the chicken on the grill. Can you throw a salad together? All the greens are in the fridge.”
Expertly—salads were the only thing she could really do well in the kitchen—Cassie chopped up vegetables and ripped lettuce, tossing them all together in a big bowl as Penny tended the grill.
“You ready in there? Come on out and bring the sangria,” Penny called to her from the deck.
The pretty glass pitcher of fruited wine in hand, Cassie paused a moment in the doorway as the full impact of the view hit her. The back deck overlooked a lawn that sloped down to the water. It was shady and cool there with a breeze coming from the lake. Peaceful. The kind of place you’d want to come out and sit at the end of the day with a man who loved you. How wrong was it that a man who gave this to his wife for a present was dead while the man who tried to kill his was alive?
“This view is something else.” Cassie came out and put the sangria down.
“One of life’s greatest pleasures, sitting out here with a glass of wine and watching the sun go down. You hungry?”
Cassie nodded and for a few minutes they got down to the business of filling plates and sipping sangria until the edge was off. They made small talk as they ate dinner. Penny warmed up, losing a bit of her formality, and Cassie began to remember what it was like to have friends and do normal things like have barbecued chicken on a summer evening.
“So why Petal, Cassie Gambol?” Deciding enough small talk had been expended, Penny cut to the chase. Perceptive eyes watched the woman seated across from her.
“A friend passed through a few years back and loved it here. I was sick of LA and wanted a change.”
“Well, isn’t that easy sounding? Somehow, I think it’s more complicated than that. You married?” Cassie was a good person, Penny hadn’t seen or sensed anything to make her believe otherwise. But she skirted around details, kept things broad and general. She was hiding something.
Cassie’s mouth tightened. Bingo. There was a story there. “I was. We divorced.”
Penny waited but Cassie didn’t elaborate. “What did you do in LA?”
“All kinds of things. I worked for my brother. I ran his law office.”
“You certainly do seem to be organized. I know a lawyer who needs some part-time help, actually. One of my dearest friends, Polly Chase, her husband, Edward, is looking. She was just talking about this a few days ago.”
“Polly Chase?”
Penny looked askance at Cassie when her voice cracked. “Yes. Do you know her? She’s a pistol.”
“She barreled into the back of my car at a red light night before last.”
Penny’s eyes widened and then she began to laugh. “Oh my. I wish I could say I was surprised but I’m not. Frankly, I’m waiting for Shane to take her license away. I love her like my own mother but she is the worst driver in the history of ever. I trust you’re all right? I haven’t seen her since Wednesday and haven’t been out of the store much. I can’t believe I missed the gossip on that.” Penny sighed with a rueful smile. “She really is a good person. She’s just the type to always be thinking about twelve other things and putting lipstick on at the same time.”
Cassie just shrugged. “I’ll have to take your word for it. My small bit of experience with the woman hasn’t been all that encouraging.”
“She’ll win you over. It’s useless to try to resist her. She’s special in her own indomitable way. Fiercely loyal and loving. When Ben died, that was my husband, she came over here every day and brought me food.
“Did my laundry. The entire family has been there for me. Kyle, her son, he took care of the lawns and Shane—that’s the sheriff, you may have met him after the accident—he was at my side the entire trial. Edward made sure they prosecuted that rat bastard within an inch of his life.”
“What happened to your husband? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“He was murdered. A hit-and-run. That scum had a record of drunk driving as long as my arm. He hit Ben when Ben was on his evening jog. Left him bleeding by the side of the road. Didn’t even call the cops anonymously. By the time they found Ben, it was too late. He had massive internal injuries.” Penny’s shoulders fell. “Anyway, one of that murderer’s co-workers saw the damage to his car and called to report him. They found Ben’s blood on the bumper. He confessed. And then he tried to say it was allergy medication that went wrong. He’s doing ten years. That bastard killed my husband and all he got was ten years.”
Penny’s smooth veneer slid away and behind it, Cassie saw something she recognized. Reaching out, she squeezed Penny’s hand. She knew what it felt like to be failed by the legal system, even when most of the people involved had done all they possibly could for her.
“I’m sorry. I don’t even have words so I won’t try.”
Penny sighed and shook it off. “I’m mostly past it. I have my days, but you have to move forward. I met Ben in my last year of high school. He and I had twelve years together, that’s more than a lot of people ever have. Living in the past kills you and I know he’d hate it if I couldn’t let go.” Penny smoothed down the front of her skirt as she pulled herself together.
“If you decide you’d like the work, I’d be happy to introduce you to Edward. He’s a very nice man. And if you haven’t seen those Chase boys yet, well, you’re in for a treat.” Penny winked.
Not being able to help it, Cassie laughed. “Yeah, I’ve seen ’em. I live next door to Matt, and Shane took my accident report. I met Kyle and his wife, Maggie, too.”
“All of them are single except for Kyle.” Penny’s face tried to stay innocent and nonchalant and Cassie snorted.
“Oh, well, I don’t think I’m ready to date just yet. Maybe later.”
The humor slid from Penny’s face. “That bad, was it? Your ex?”
“Yes.”
Penny let the one word answer go because it spoke volumes. Whoever Cassie’s ex-husband was, he wasn’t a nice man. She liked Cassie and hoped one day she could confide in her. Penny knew that every story had to be shared in its own way so she’d back off for the time being. She would ask Edward about the job too, though, because she wanted to help Cassie all she could.
* * *
The following Sunday, Shane pulled his truck into his parents’ driveway and hopped out. It was just in time for the weekly family dinner. He cut it close but he’d had a call and had driven past Cassie’s on his way back. Just to make sure everything looked all right.
Opening up the front door, he smiled as he was greeted by the hoots of his father and brothers watching baseball in the TV room. Moving toward the insanity of noise, his attention was snagged by the feminine laughter of his mother and sister-in-law across the hall in the sitting room.
Baseball was for suckers when you could grab some attention from two of your favorite women. And he wanted to talk to his mother about a few things anyway. Tossing his stuff on the bench in the hall, he joined them as they sat drinking lemonade and talking.
“Hey, Momma, Maggie.” He bent and kissed their cheeks and tossed his long body on the couch.
“Hey, puddin’. How are you today?” Polly grinned at her oldest son.
He pretended to glower at the pet name and Maggie just laughed as she handed him a glass of lemonade.
“Be better if you didn’t call me puddin’. You get out to talk to Cassie Gambol yet?”
“I do believe that girl is avoiding me. Not that I blame her. Some way to greet her, plowing into her and all. But she can’t evade me forever.”
Maggie snorted a laugh. “She’d be a fool to even try, Mom. But from what I’ve seen of her, the woman is very shy. There’s a story lurking just below the surface but I doubt she’ll part with it easily. Liv and I had breakfast with her last week and I’ve seen her at the bookstore. She’s friendly enough but she reminds me a lot of an animal that’s been abused. Her eyes...” Maggie paused, looking for the right words “...there’s a shadow there.” Maggie looked to Shane. “I thought you suspected her of being the leader of a drug cartel and smuggling through Petal.”
“She’s hiding something, but I’m willing to admit I think it’s more of her running out of fear than running to hide a dark history as a master criminal.” He rolled his eyes at his sister-in-law.
Shane told his mother all about how Cassie had reacted to Matt and then him the week before. “I think she needs someone to turn to, Momma. I want her to know she can trust us. Er, the people here in Petal, I mean.”
Polly’s very perceptive gaze took her son in. “Well, aren’t you sweet? You are, aren’t you? Sweet on this girl?”
Shane gave up trying not to smile and sighed. His mother was too damned smart for her own good. “Yeah. Okay so yeah, I like her. There’s something about her that draws me. I don’t know what about her makes me just want to scoop her up and wrap her in my arms to protect her. It’s not that she’s giving me a line or anything. Hell, I can barely get three words out of her. I’ve tried to talk to her here and there but she’s so jumpy.
“And sometimes I see her and she’s so afraid. I don’t want her to be afraid of me. I hate that. I may have been a jerk a time or two—” he looked quickly at Maggie “—but I’ve never physically hurt a woman. I want her to trust me. I want—” he scrubbed his hands over his face “—I want her to look at me without fear. I want her to see me as a man and not a threat.”
And he hated that she made him feel that way but he’d fought it since the moment he saw her and had given up. He was more than sweet on Cassie, he had a major jones on for her.
“Well, I’ll talk to Penny about her. Maggie, you said she worked at the bookstore?”
“Yeah, a few days a week. And Shane, she’s...you’ll be careful with her, won’t you?”
“I’m not a villain, damn it!” Frustrated anger coursed through him but the look on Maggie’s face calmed him down. “Look, I know I was a jerk to you. But I’m trying to be better and I really do want to know Cassie. I won’t hurt her if I can possibly help it.”
Maggie nodded. “I don’t think you’re a villain, Shane. I think you’re a good man who needs the right woman to love. So okay we’ll reach out to her.”
“My heart breaks to think about that woman all alone here and scared.” Polly’s face shadowed for a moment before she recovered herself.
Shane watched his mother’s face and realized he had such wonderful examples of womanhood in his life. His mother cared so much about people and so did his sister-in-law. He could finally begin to see that his own woman could have a place there, in his family and his life. And he wanted to know if Cassie was that woman.
* * *
Cassie worked out on her front porch filling the pretty planters with bright flowers. She wanted to make the apartment her home. Each week she decided to do one more thing to claim the space. The flowers were the first step, the next week she planned to try and make some curtains for the windows in her bedroom.
“Hey there, Cassie.”
She looked down the stairs and into the upturned face of Polly Chase. She’d been trying to avoid the woman for the last week and a half but Penny told her to give it up because Polly would eventually find her.
She couldn’t help but smile back at the woman as she teetered up the stairs toward her on spiky heels. “Hello, Mrs. Chase. How are you today?” Time was up, she’d been caught like quarry. Cassie got up and poured water into the planters while she waited for Polly to reach her.
“Better now that I’ve finally found you home.” Polly got to the landing and thrust two bags at her. Cassie took them with a puzzled look on her face.
“Would you like to come in? I’ve made some iced tea.” Cassie may have been annoyed at Polly plowing into her but it was impossible not to respond to the tiny woman’s smile.
“That would be lovely.” Polly walked past Cassie into the apartment. “Have a seat, I’ll bring it out. What’s this?” Cassie held up the bags.
“Oh just some casseroles and a cobbler. Peach. I hope you like peach cobbler.”
“Like it? I never had it before until I moved here and it’s solely responsible for two extra pounds. It wasn’t necessary for you to do this, you know.” Cassie began to put the pans in her freezer and the cobbler on the counter. She filled two glasses with ice and tea and brought them to Polly.
“It wasn’t necessary but it’s neighborly. You’re new to town and I got you into a car accident your very first day here. Lordy, I can’t believe I did that. I hope you don’t think worse of me.” Polly blushed furiously.
Cassie had of course but found herself unable to hold her anger now that she was face-to-face with Polly. “Everyone in this town adores you, Mrs. Chase. I appreciate you coming by, I really do. And no, I don’t think worse of you. Accidents happen.” Especially if you were Polly Chase apparently.
Polly laughed and drank her tea. “Not bad for a Northerner.” She winked.
“Northerner? I’m from Los Angeles.”
“Exactly. If you’re not a Southerner, what are you then?” Polly waved it away and Cassie just laughed and tried not to stare at how high Polly Chase’s hair was. It was like an engineering marvel.
In the end, Polly stayed for an hour and wrangled a promise that Cassie would come to dinner sometime within the next month.
Bowled over, Cassie watched her whip away from the curb and nearly hit an oncoming car. The capper was the gay wave she sent to her near-victim as she drove away.