Chapter Thirteen
Brian stayed in Petal over the next several days to visit and keep in contact with the investigators on Terry’s trail. Still, Cassie tried to keep to a schedule.
Shane had come to her table at the Sunday Market but she asked him to go. It hurt just seeing him.
He left messages on her voice mail every morning to tell her he loved her and every night to say goodnight. Her feelings were all over the map. She loved him. No doubt about that. Every time she saw him walk by the front of the bookstore, every time she heard his voice or found a note he left for her on her car, she missed him more than she had before.
Loving Shane and being with him had filled up her life. Not in an onerous way like being with Terry had been. Being with Shane hadn’t weighed on her. It had been good, right. She felt like she’d belonged to something instead of to someone.
But it would hurt less to lose him now than to take him back and fall into the same traps she’d done before and lose herself in the process. She’d rather be alone than live in fear ever again.
* * *
Polly Chase parked her car on Main and got out for the short walk to Paperbacks and More. “Damn kids. I tell you, if you want something done...” she mumbled as she patted her hair into place and absentmindedly waved at someone who’d called out a hello.
She walked into the store and zeroed in on Cassie. Her heart ached for the girl her son loved so much. Men!
“Hello, Polly.” Cassie smiled wanly.
Polly pulled Cassie into a hug and held her upper arms as she gave her a long up and down. “Honey, you look like hell. When you gonna forgive Shane so you can both get some sleep?”
“Polly, I appreciate you checking in on me, I really do. But this thing between your son and I is not only private but complicated.”
“Oh that’s a pretty way to tell an old woman to mind her business. I like you, honey.” Polly chuckled as she sat in the chair behind the counter. “But I’m a nosy old woman, it’s a perk of getting old. You can be annoying and people just call you eccentric.” Polly laughed at that. “Anyway, I know Shane messed up. I know what he did and how he reacted must have made you wonder if he’d be like your wretched sonofabitch ex. But you and I both know after a day or two, that’s not the case. My son is a good man and that bitch gave him, how do you kids say, issues or baggage. I’m not excusing his actions, you best believe I tore a strip off him a mile wide and his father has too. But no one is punishing him harder than he is himself.”
Polly leaned in, peering intently at Cassie. “You’ve made mistakes before in your life. I know part of that is what makes you hesitate now. But also, can’t you see your way to giving my boy another chance? Let’s face it, you two are going to fight. A lot. There’s enough chemistry between the two of you to make an old woman sweat.”
Cassie blushed crimson and looked at the paperback in her hands to keep from looking at Polly.
“You two have chemistry and heat but you’re both stubborn, headstrong people. Lord knows this won’t be your last fight. But you can fight with your man and know it’s going to be all right the next day. Edward is the kind of man that butter wouldn’t melt. I like that. It suits me. But Shane isn’t that man. He’s got my disposition. We’re a tad hot headed. We love fierce. Shane loves you and I know you love him.”
Polly hopped down from the chair, grabbing the bag she’d put near the register stand. “Two things. This has a cherry and a peach cobbler. Eat them both, you look pale. The second thing is I already think of you as my daughter-in-law so I love you too. Please give Shane another chance, for both your sakes. Oh, okay a third thing. You call Matty or Marc or me and Edward if you feel spooked, all right? We worry.”
With that she thrust the bag at Cassie, hugged her again and click-clacked out of the store.
From there she headed over to the police station.
“Shane Edward Chase! You hold up right there, boy,” Polly thundered as she stormed down the hall toward where he stood with the county prosecutor.
“Mrs. Chase, ma’am.” The prosecutor, a boy she babysat many a time, bowed and got the hell out of there.
“Coward,” Shane muttered and then waved his mother into his office. “Have a seat, let me get some soda because I can see from the look of you this will be a long lecture.”
With narrowed eyes, Polly sat as she glared at her eldest’s impertinence. “You look here, boy, I brought you into this world, I will not hesitate to take your dumb ass right out of it.”
Shane laughed as he handed her a soda. “Of course, Momma, I’m sorry. I imagine this is about Cassie and I know, it’s my fault and I’m trying to get her to talk to me. I told you that yesterday and the day before and before that too.”
“I just went to see her, girl looks like she hasn’t slept in a week. She’s on the fence about you. But she loves you. She must ’cause I didn’t let her get a word in edgewise.” Pleased with herself, Polly chuckled again. “I made a good case for you, I hope. You know you and her are gonna butt heads a lot, right? Makes it more interesting in the bedroom I imagine.”
Shane winced and got a sour look. “I don’t want to have that line of conversation with you, Momma.”
Polly waved him away. “Pshaw. Boy, you’ll have any line of conversation with me I tell you to. Your daddy and I have four children, you think we don’t have some chemistry ourselves? Now listen here, you’ve got to let her know that you love her and won’t hurt her, even though you’ll be fighting with her regular-like. And don’t deny it, you two are just that way. But Maggie and I made her some cobbler and you know how your sweetie loves cobbler. Sweeten her up a bit hopefully.”
Standing she raised the soda. “Thank you, Shane. You’ve turned out to be quite a decent man. I’m pretty proud of myself for not tossing your butt in the lake all the times I wanted to when you were a kid.”
Shane grinned and kissed her cheek. “You’re the best, Momma.”
“Yeah, yeah. Boy, you better work on this girl harder because if she’s not at dinner on Sunday you’re eating a tuna sandwich.”
With a last wave, she headed out while he chuckled.
* * *
Brian walked out of the apartment and saw Shane talking with his brother. Making his mind up, he stalked over to them.
Shane looked up and saw him approach and nodded. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a few days now. Clear the air.”
“I’m going to speak now. You have no idea what my sister told me every time I spoke to her. About how wonderful you were, how gentle and kind and loving you were. How you chased away her demons and made her feel not only protected but capable of protecting herself. She was so proud of you, proud of herself for finding a man who was worthy of her.” Brian looked him up and down.
“And so I get this information about that fucking bastard surfacing, trying to find her, and I think I can come here, meet you. Instead, I get to listen to her cry every night. You tell me, Shane Chase, why the hell you think you’re worthy of my sister.”
Shane took a deep breath. “You don’t know me so I can see why you’d be suspicious. It must have been hard to watch your sister go through what she did. I love her. Cassie means everything to me. You don’t know what it was like...what I was like before. She changed me.” He shrugged.
“I fucked up. I’m sorry. I have this old stuff and seeing her brought it to the surface. I was wrong. I’ve told her that. I made a mistake. I want to make it up to her. I’m not that bastard. I’m nothing like him. You can be mad at the person you love and not try to kill them. I don’t know how to communicate that to her. But I’m going to keep trying until she listens to me.
“And I want to protect her. Yeah, yeah, I know she doesn’t want that. But I love her and I’ll be damned if that freak gets another shot at her. I’m trying to respect her need to do things herself. I want her to learn to shoot a weapon and take self-defense courses.”
Brian looked at him funny and then chuckled. “I take it you haven’t talked to her about this plan.”
“Well, no. She just told me about the attack two weeks ago. I’d wanted to talk to her about going to the range and then we got into this fight. Why? Is she afraid of guns?”
“God help you, Shane.” Brian shook his head and started to laugh. “She’s not afraid of guns. After the attack, after she got out of the hospital she went to the range every day and learned how to shoot. At first with her left hand because the right hand was so damaged. She’s a pretty damned good shot. She’s got a license to carry, I took care of that. She’s got a 9 mm. The self-defense classes would be good. She didn’t have enough mobility yet after the physical therapy to really get proficient but she started to take martial arts classes just before she decided to up and move here.”
Shane smiled wryly. “Okay, so the fact is that I’m not worthy of your sister. I can’t think of anyone who is. She’s just that special. But I love her and I’ll keep loving her. And she makes me a better person, but I’m not perfect and yeah, I have buttons but so does she. So if I’m willing to work around hers, she should be willing to work around mine. Not that I think I handled it well. I didn’t. But damn it, I deserve a second chance.”
Brian looked at him silently for long moments and nodded shortly. “Yeah, I think you probably do. I have it on good authority that she’s having dinner with Maggie, Penny and Liv tonight at Dee’s. She told me she’d be home by nine. I’ll be out then if you think you might want to talk to her.”
Without saying anything else, Brian turned and walked away but not before looking back over his shoulder and tossing back, “If you hurt my sister again, I’ll make it my business, Shane.”
Matt watched as the man drove away in his rental before turning to his brother. “I like him.”
* * *
Cassie spent the evening with her friends, enjoying the time with Michael and the easy communication with people. She began to know them and they her. Mostly they didn’t talk about Shane but in their own way, each of them encouraged her to at least talk things over with him.
And she began to think they were right. Oh who was she kidding? She’d wanted to talk to him for days but was afraid. Afraid that if she did she’d lose him. Indecision had frozen her.
She’d talk to him the next time he called, she resolved as she walked from her car toward her stairs. Stairs that Shane sat on, holding a bouquet of roses, a gold box of chocolates at his feet.
“Those will melt out here in this heat,” she said, walking past him and up the steps to her door.
“I should probably get them inside then, huh?”
“The roses need water too or they’ll wilt.”
He stood but stayed down at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her. “Can we talk?”
“The lives of roses are at stake.” She unlocked her door and walked in, leaving it open.
When he got inside, she’d pulled out a vase and was filling it with water. He locked up behind himself and came into the kitchen, handing her the roses.
“So talk.”
And he did. He sat at her kitchen table and laid it all on the line. “Do you remember our first real fight? We promised each other that we’d step back and then work it through. We said no more not talking for days. So I called you every day. Twice a day. I kept my end of the bargain.
“I was an asshole. Stupid. I got caught off guard and when I saw you there it wasn’t you, it was her for just a brief second. But I didn’t let it process, I just spoke out of pain and I hurt you and I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you and I did but I’d like the chance to make it up to you.”
“I’m not her! I would never do that to you! How could you even think that of me? I love you. I trusted you with my heart and you hurt me.”
“And I’m not him! Come on, Cassie, give me a break here. I said some not very nice stuff, yes. I take responsibility for it. It was wrong but I didn’t hit you, I didn’t blame it on you. I made a mistake, a stupid mistake. I love you, but we both know it won’t be the last mistake I make. I’ll make more because I’m a clumsy guy and I do clumsy guy stuff. I’m a tool. But I love you more than words can say. I want you to be with me forever. I’m serious about you, about this, us. I want us to move forward and build something. Please let’s move past this. Please forgive me.”
She exhaled and looked into his face. A face she loved. She didn’t see arrogance there, not anger or calculation. His words seemed genuine. She wanted to believe him so badly.
“Okay. We both have our buttons and I realize what Sandra did to you changed you and made you gun-shy. I’m sorry she hurt you so much and I wish you hadn’t been so devastated. Honestly, the woman is out of her damn mind. So in the offing, after all is said and done, you have baggage and you unloaded it on me. Problem is, you heaped a lot of nasty on me. Even for just a moment. And that intersected with six years of my life that I don’t care to repeat, even as a sick, vague memory caused by your behavior.
“You can be a tool and do stupid guy shit, that’s normal. But derision like that is another story. I can’t deal with it. I won’t ever again. I won’t.” Reaching out she took his other hand in hers as well. “I know. I know what it feels like to have that shadow of who you used to be come up and surprise you.”
He closed his eyes a moment and let out the tension that’d built up in his muscles. “I love you so much, Cassie.”
She smiled. “Yeah, yeah. I love you too, Shane.”
Standing up, he pulled her to him, hugging her tight. “We’ll just work it through. You and me, we’re it, right? I’ve missed you this week. My bed has been empty, my arms, my life. I was getting used to your presence in my life and then you were gone and I didn’t know quite what to do. Don’t tell anyone that last bit.”
She laughed. “Yeah, wouldn’t want to blow your cred as a hard-ass or anything. I missed you too.”
He moved slowly, bringing his lips to hers, and kissed her. Relief, joy, reconnection, desire, love—all rushed through him at once at having her back. “Bedroom?” he asked, breathless as he broke the kiss.
“Can’t. Brian is due home any minute.”
“I’d say I’ll be quick but that’s not really a good thing in this situation. Can I stay over? And you and Brian can fill me in on everything about your ex too. I want to know not just as the sheriff but as the man who loves you. Share your life with me.”
“You hate my bed. You think the mattress is too soft,” she said.
He grinned. “It’ll absorb the sound of the makeup sex.”
“Uh.” She blushed. “Well go on home and get some clothes and bring back some cobbler from The Sands, it’s still open. And then I’ll let you have the side closest to the door.”
He brought his lips back to hers, brushing his mouth over hers softly and nipping her bottom lip between his teeth for a moment. “When you put it like that, how can I refuse? Peach or berry?”
“I had peach yesterday so berry.”
“You ate an entire cobbler?” he asked, not entirely shocked.
“So sue me. Your mother and Maggie made me some but I get hungry when I don’t get sex regularly. You were an ass. I needed the comfort.”
“I’ll help you burn the calories.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“You saying I’m fat?” she teased.
“Oh, you’re just torturing me for fun now, aren’t you?” Shane groaned.
She laughed and tiptoed up to kiss his chin quickly. “Yeah. G’wan then. I’ll see you back here in a bit.”
* * *
The minute Shane walked into The Sands and asked for a berry cobbler, Ronnie smiled at him for the first time in a week. She also followed up with an exclamation of pleasure that he and Cassie were back together.
When Shane returned, Brian had gotten back and Cassie had a pot of decaf brewed to drink with the cobbler.
Shane relayed the story to Cassie and Brian. “The whole damned town took your side, I’ll have you know. They didn’t even know what the hell happened and still they took your side. My mother hasn’t spoken three words to me other than how I had to fix it between us. My brothers wouldn’t play pool with me. At dinner last Sunday you should have seen it. My brothers all got these big juicy steaks and I got this tiny piece of gristle.”
Unsuccessfully stifling a laugh, Cassie put a plate with cobbler and ice cream in front of him and then filled his coffee cup. “Your mother came over on Tuesday. She called every day this week too. Came into the bookstore every day I worked as well. Brought me cobbler to sweeten me up on your behalf. She’s Machiavellian, that woman.”
Cassie got her brother and herself a cup of coffee and joined them at the table. “She likes Brian. Maggie even baked tartlets for us. Lemon because it’s his favorite.”
Brian started to laugh, pleased to see his sister so lighthearted and silly. His reservations about Shane had faded over the week as he watched the man continue to reassure Cassie that he loved her but also didn’t crowd her. And his family was just what Cassie needed. Brian didn’t like the heartache she’d endured but he did like the fact that the man owned up to it and made it better. It was more than Terry had ever done.
“Tell me about him. Give me the details.” Shane continued to eat but his expression darkened and by the end of the story, his eyes were narrowed and his mouth set in a tight line.
“Here’s what we’re going to do...with your permission.” He looked quickly at Cassie who’d tensed up and then relaxed. “I hear you’re a crack shot, we’ll keep you going to the range, we can both go together so neither of us gets rusty. I’d like to put in a full security system here. We talked about it a little bit a while ago. I’ve got a list of available options and one of our contractors can put it in as soon as you decide on which you want. I even spoke with Chuck and he said he’d pay for half of it and not raise the rent if you paid the other half. If it’s more than you can afford right now, we can work out a payment plan.”
Brian looked at his sister from under his lashes. “Don’t worry about the money. It’s not a problem. Carly... Cassie, I’m with Shane on this. Please put in the system. I can’t be here, you can’t come back to California and live with me at my place, it’s hard enough having you so far away. If you have this system, I’ll feel so much better.”
“Don’t think I don’t know you’re both working me,” Cassie said, eyes narrowed. “But I’d be stupid not to do it. Shane, if your friend can do it on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, let’s get him scheduled.”
“If he can’t, I can be here or Matt can or someone. I’d like to do it as soon as possible. If that’s okay with you of course.”
“Fine, fine. Thank you. And I’m not a crack shot. I just know my way around a gun. I’ve got a license for it.”
They finished up the coffee and cobbler as it got late. Brian stood up and stretched. “I’m going to go to bed. I’ve got a plane to catch tomorrow afternoon.”
They said their goodnights and Shane and Cassie went into her room and shut the door.
Cassie sure hoped Shane was right and the softness of her mattress drowned out the sounds of their reunion or they probably kept Matt and Brian up all night long.