Chapter 6
“I should have hung Wanted posters all over the state of Colorado with the caption, Cynthia Newhouse. Female Killer. Armed and dangerous. Approach with caution.”
J.T. still couldn’t believe she’d shown up bold as brass at the gallery where Caroline worked. And that she was coming here! To Dare Valley.
“Wouldn’t have helped,” Trev said, throwing a basketball up in the air from his position on the couch. “She’d have shown up anyway. Crazy-ass gold diggers do that. Caroline was smart to call you.”
While she’d been calm on the phone, he’d heard her voice tremble. It had just about killed him to know his messy baggage had done this to her. The deflated picnic had been bad enough.
“The Grand Mountain Hotel should bar her or something.”
“It’s a hotel,” Trev reasoned, reminding J.T. he was getting dramatic. “They don’t discriminate. At least we know she’s coming for sure.”
Trev hadn’t been surprised to learn Cynthia had made her move, although neither of them had expected she’d physically show up in Colorado.
“Will you quit it with the whole basketball MVP fantasy?” J.T. said, marching over and catching the ball Trev had once again tossed in the air. “She knows about Caroline, Trev. This is bad. Really bad. I’m already having fantasies about wrapping Caroline up in a blanket and whisking her off to safety.”
“Very romantic of you,” Trev said. “Again, it was only a matter of time before Cynthia found out about her. You’re hoping to start dating her, after all.”
He tightened his grip on the ball, wanting to throw it through the window. “But Cynthia and I are divorced… She isn’t supposed to be keeping tabs anymore.”
“You have a real tantrum coming on, don’t you? Should I burp you or something?”
“You’re a real dick sometimes.”
“And you need to get a hold of yourself,” Trev said, sitting up and swinging his legs onto the floor. “I’m glad Uncle Arthur called you over this morning. My pep talk clearly didn’t make a dent.”
J.T. had felt better after their talk. Mostly. But that call from Caroline had brought him low again.
“Personally I’m glad Sin City is coming here,” Trev said. “It gives us a home field advantage, of sorts. Everyone in town loves the Hales, and they have warm fuzzies about the Merriam line too because of the university. They’ll look out for us. She won’t be able to do anything without us knowing about it. Hell, Jill works at The Grand and so does Natalie. We have a built-in Hale security force.”
“Maybe you’re right,” J.T. said, the first hint of mirth cutting through his fear. “I wouldn’t put it past Jill to sneak into Cynthia’s room and plant a snake under her pillow along with a nighttime chocolate.” The image made him think of Arthur’s comment about looking for a snake’s underbelly.
“J.T., as your older brother and genetic superior, I’m always right,” Trev said, grabbing the ball from him. He’d never let J.T. live down the fact that he was his elder by two minutes. “Now go see Caroline.”
“Huh?” His mind was spinning a mile a minute. “But Cynthia is coming here.”
His brother jammed the ball against his chest. “Yes, and we’ll watch her. Right now, you need to get your ass up to Denver and reassure Caroline. I know you’re in shock, but let me repeat back your side of that brief conversation.”
His brother mimed a cheesy smile.
“Caroline. Hi. I’ve been thinking about—” The smile turned to an over-blown face of horror. “What? When? You’re fucking kidding me! Oh, my God! I’m so sorry. Thanks for calling me. Don’t worry. I’ll look into it. Okay, I’ve gotta go.”
“You should have gone into comedy instead of the family business,” J.T. said, slamming the ball back against his brother’s chest. “I wasn’t that bad.”
“Yes, you were,” Trev told him as he tossed the ball on the couch. “Now listen to your older brother.”
“Like the two minutes you have on me has given you such a wealth of wisdom,” J.T. drawled.
Trev tapped him on the side of the head before he could blink. “Listen to me!”
“Hey!”
“I mean it, J.T. I’ve been by your side for three years over this, and I’ve seen every permutation. The Fast and Furious binge watches. The long sprints until you can’t breathe. The sad hours of drinking whiskey from the bottle.”
Depression settled over him. “It’s never going to end. She’ll never back down.”
“It already has ended,” Trev said. “You’re divorced, and that’s a fact. You’ve handled the past shit as well as you can and you and the rest of us will keep handling Sin City this time. But I’m with Uncle Arthur. Don’t you dare let her ruin your possible future with Caroline. J.T., I like her, like her in a way I’ve never liked anyone you’ve ever dated. Okay, except that flight attendant from Alitalia. She was—”
“I get it! Okay!” He pushed Trevor back, but his brother held his ground.
“No you don’t,” Trev said. “You’re letting Sin City undermine your chance with Caroline. Now, get your ass in your car before I clock you. Don’t make me call Mom.”
“You’re bluffing.” Usually Trev kept their mom out of things.
“You know what Dad says. You can take the girl out of the Southside of Chicago, but you can’t—”
“I know the rest,” he said, kicking the couch. “She’d probably tell me one of Grandpa’s war stories or talk about the sacrifices Grandma made during the war.”
His mother’s parents had met writing letters to each other after her brother had died in WWII. Theirs was one of those epic romances you only expected to see in movies and books, and it had filled him with a romanticism his siblings sometimes teased him for.
“She might make you read their old letters again,” Trev said. “Mom always said it helped build character.”
Their mother hadn’t come from money like their father had, and she’d felt it was important they had a sense of hard times, even if they never experienced them. Of course, J.T. now felt he could lay claim to some.
“You only talk this tough when you’re worried. Big W worried.”
His brother only stared him down.
“It’s no wonder we hired you to deal with the Russians. I’m afraid of you too when you get like this.”
“That’s why I’m your older brother,” Trev said, grabbing him in a man hug.
“Yuck. Did you have to put your meaty arms around me?” But he squeezed him back with all his might. Damn he was a good brother.
“You’re just jealous you’re not this buff.”
“In your—”
“Out! And tell Caroline that if you act like a moron again, I’ll beat you into shape for her.” Trev made a show of kicking him in the backside as J.T. walked over to the side table and pocketed his key fob.
“Thanks, Trev.”
“I’ve always got your back, little bro,” he said.
“It was only two minutes,” J.T. said, grinning at him over his shoulder as he left. Trev had already found the basketball and was once again tossing it into the air.
Two hours later, J.T. walked into Leggett Gallery. Caroline was working at her sleek white desk, her laptop open. She looked up. He couldn’t help but notice her smile took a while to develop.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t more…comforting on the phone,” he said, strolling over. “Blame it on shock.”
“Join the club,” she said, not rising from her position.
He pulled out one of the chairs in front of the desk and joined her. “I didn’t expect her to…mess with you.”
“It’s not surprising, I suppose,” Caroline said, closing her laptop. “Kendra bragged about selling a painting to you, which wasn’t very professional of her.”
“And yet so common in the art world when it comes to big art fish like me,” J.T. said. “I’ve always found it annoying. I’m sorry. What can I do to make it better? Have you had lunch yet? I know it’s late…”
“Cynthia told me why she’s intent on messing with you,” Caroline said, kicking back in her chair with an aloofness he wasn’t used to from her.
He remembered how easily they’d laughed together over their dinners in Rome. Right now, those seemed ages ago. “Did she now?”
“I’ve had a while to think about it.”
Those words seemed ominous. “And what did you decide?”
“You broke her heart,” she said quietly. “Somehow I hadn’t expected that. Not after what you’d told me yesterday.”
He knew it was true, to some extent, but he also knew Cynthia had a remarkable ability to manipulate people and garner sympathy.
“She asked me if I’d ever been in love, and I honestly couldn’t tell her I had. She said she’d pinned all her hopes and dreams on you, more or less.”
That was classic Cynthia. “Not all, perhaps, but some, of course. One has to pin some of them to consider marriage. It wasn’t a commitment I took lightly. I loved her too, you know.”
Caroline looked him in the eye, her gaze intent. “Then what happened?” she asked.
He’d hoped what he’d shared with her yesterday would be enough, but if she needed to know more about the breakup to understand, he’d give it to her.
“She was beautiful and elegant, of course. That struck me right away. We had a lot in common, and, well, I thought she was a good person. Trev says I got snowed in by all the philanthropy she does.”
“So what helped you see her differently?” she asked, crossing her arms.
His brow wrinkled at her sign of discomfort. Heck, he couldn’t blame her. He wasn’t comfortable either.
“When I suggested she join me for a goodwill tour to some terrific charities in the Middle East and Africa that I was visiting as a representative of Merriam Oil & Gas, she balked. It was beneath her, she said, and suddenly I realized she only wanted to…raise money like a socialite might. Not get her hands ‘dirty,’ so to speak. She didn’t care to meet the real people she was helping.”
For the first time, he’d recognized the look of calculation in her eyes. Cynthia had apologized and tried to fix it with sex, but he’d started to realize his wife wasn’t the woman he’d thought he had married.
“Then it was a bunch of little things that didn’t feel so little to me. I caught her dressing down the coat check person after I went outside to give the valet our ticket. I was appalled. The woman had only misplaced her fur. It certainly wasn’t a reason for Cynthia to question her intelligence and make her feel like shit.
“It went downhill quickly after that. I caught her being rude to one of our custodians at the office, and I mean ugly rude. I didn’t want to be with someone like that.”
“I’m glad you find that type of behavior upsetting,” she said. “Not everyone would.”
Sad but true. “We Merriams might have money, but we’ve never believed we’re above anyone. We always try to treat people with respect and kindness. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would do otherwise.”
“So you left.”
“There was more to it,” he said cautiously, not sure how much detail to give. “I thought she’d settle down with me in Rome, but she was constantly trying to talk me into taking time off. She didn’t think I should work so hard. I was rich. Why did I need to toil and sweat every day? There was this party she wanted us to go to in Milan, but I had a big meeting the next day. She tried to persuade me to send an ‘underling’ in my place, saying that was what important people did. You get the picture. When I told her I loved what I did, she was baffled.”
“You weren’t who she thought you were either,” Caroline said, pushing aside her laptop.
The weight of his past seemed to extend the divide between them. He wanted to curse Cynthia yet again.
“No, I wasn’t, and when I told her that we weren’t right for each other, she went kinda crazy. She said no one left her—and a whole bunch of other stuff not fit for anyone’s ears. I…didn’t let it sway me. I thought it would be a simple divorce. We hadn’t been married long. We both had our own money.”
“But that wasn’t how it went,” she finished for him. “You were smart to get out when you did. More time wouldn’t have helped, I don’t think.”
He wanted to reach out and touch her. To stroke her cheek. But he didn’t dare, not until he finished. “No, it would only have made it worse. She said she wanted kids, but I quickly realized she didn’t mean it the same way I did. She planned to hire a nanny to raise the kids and then ship them off to boarding school like her parents had done with her.”
“I’m trying to summon some compassion for her, but I just can’t,” Caroline said. “Everyone has something in their past they need to overcome, but it doesn’t justify hurting other people.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” J.T. said. “It worries me that she came to see you. Part of me wants to tell you never to contact me again.”
“That’s dumb,” she said and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oops. Did I say that out loud? The Hale gene sometime kicks in when I’m feeling vulnerable.”
J.T.’s mouth twitched. “You don’t look anything like Uncle Arthur, thank God, but you sounded like him right then. He chewed my butt pretty good this morning, but he followed up with a good dose of his proverbial wisdom.”
“Sounds like Uncle Arthur,” she said. “I’m glad he talked to you.”
“Me too. He was right. I don’t want Cynthia to ruin what I have with you, but I’m not going to lie, the thought of her visiting you, harassing you, made me break out in a cold sweat. It’s not right. What did she do, by the way? I was so shocked, I…didn’t ask many questions or say anything to reassure you. I’m sorry about that.”
She looked down, as if contemplating how much to share. Oh, they were on a conversational tightrope now, dammit.
“We talked about the paintings in the gallery for a while, and then she asked which painting I would purchase. If I could afford it, of course.” She gave him a fake smile.
He cursed.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have told her, but I’ve dealt with people like her before, and I hate to lie. I figured why not tell her.”
J.T. was already shaking his head. “Let me guess. She bought it.”
“How did you know?”
Shrugging, he said, “I’ve seen her pull that kind of power play before with people she doesn’t like.”
“I don’t much like power plays,” Caroline said.
“Neither do I,” J.T. said. “I want to protect you, but I’m scared I can’t. If she knows you were in Rome with me, she’ll likely surmise you’re helping me with the museum. I told you she moves fast. Did she say anything about that?”
She shook her head slowly. “No, not explicitly.”
But you could feel the silent elephant in the room.
“That makes you a potential target,” he said softly. “I’m…really upset about this, and I’m really sorry.”
“A target?” she asked, gripping the edge of the desk. “What do you think she’ll do?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I wish I knew. You seem to be in her sights, and the fact that she’s staying in Dare Valley is honestly terrifying. I might have to buy a crucifix and garlic on the way back.”
“I’ll go with you,” she said, trying to joke. “Vampire Busters is right around the corner.”
“Caroline…”
Something in his tone caught her attention. “Yeah?”
“I don’t think she knows how I feel about you yet, but she will if we keep seeing each other.”
“Then we should…shack up together in Dare Valley this weekend for sure!” she blurted out.
Her words shocked him silent, but then he started to laugh. Her ability to laugh at herself and life—even some of the paintings she loved—always lifted his spirits. It was one of the things he loved best about her.
“My filter clearly is gone,” she said. “It’s like nervous Tourette’s or something.”
“Cynthia has a way of pushing everyone to their breaking point. But honestly, this is an important decision. I can’t predict what she’s going to do. If you want out, I’m totally cool with it.” He almost managed to say the words in an easy tone. Almost.
She studied him. “But you aren’t. I can see the fire in your eyes. I appreciate you for saying this and giving me the choice. But honestly, there is no choice. I won’t let her intimidate me. I want to work with you on the museum. It’s a great career move for me.” She held his gaze, then added, “And I want to be with you. None of that has changed.”
“Are you absolutely certain?”
She nodded decisively. “Yes.”
He blew out a harsh sigh. “I’ll ask you again if things get rocky, but I’m…”
She laid her hand on the desk, as if reaching out to him. Giving in to his need to touch her, he took it and clasped it firmly.
“Relieved,” he finished after a long pause. “Also, please feel free to say I’m being ‘dumb’ anytime. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a tough-talking family, but oddly I respond pretty well to that kind of talk.” Uncle Arthur had his number too, thank God.
She tried to fight the smile, but it won out, he was relieved to see. “Noted. I’ll tell you when you’re being dumb anytime. You don’t have to ask me twice.”
“Have any plans tonight?” he asked, quirking his brow at her. “I thought I might stay over in Denver tonight. I’m officially divorced, remember?”
They’d walked this infernal tightrope for too long. Not together but not not together. They needed to know if they worked as a couple before Cynthia tried to tear them apart. The way Caroline was standing by him—professionally and personally—meant the world to him. Loyalty mattered, and anyone who said otherwise hadn’t been betrayed by someone they loved.
“I was hoping you’d remember that.” Her thumb stroked the back of his hand. “It just so happens my dance card is free tonight.”
“Seems my luck is improving.”
He got to his feet and circled the desk, not wanting any separation between them. Taking her into his arms, he spun her around in a circle, bringing her close enough for him to hear her rapid breathing, feel the heat of her body. Something between them had shifted. Cynthia had no doubt intended to scare Caroline off with her gambit, but instead she’d brought them closer together.
They were finally going to dance like they both wanted to.