“Please, please, please tell me that Mason has gotten in touch with you,” Tina said, her voice a beleaguered combination of direness and dread.

Sarah Jane felt her heart jolt into over drive. “What? No. Is he okay? He was sick today and went home, but I didn’t think it was anything ser--“

“No, no, no,” Tina hurriedly reassured. “It’s not that. He’s fine. I mean, he’s sick, but not any sicker than he was when you saw him earlier.”

Confused, Sarah Jane felt a line emerge between her brows. “I’m afraid I’m not following. If he’s fine, then why has he been trying to get in touch with me?”

Tina released a small weary sigh. “Sarah Jane, where is your cell phone?”

She glanced down. “On my coffee table.”

“Is there any particular reason you didn’t take it with you?”

She felt a smile flirt with her lips. Tina knew she was going out with Mick, so that should be obvious. “Because I didn’t want to be interrupted.”

“When I tell you what I’m about to tell you, you’re going to wish you’d been interrupted.”

A prickle of unease tingled in her neck. “Tell me what?”

“Are you sitting down?”

Oh, hell, she thought, stomach roiling. “Do I need to?”

“Yes. Also remove any sharp objects and promise me that you will not flip out. You have to mull and consider and come up with an appropriate response. No attacking anybody. Promise?”

“If it’s bad enough that you think I might attack somebody then you ought to know that I can’t make that kind of promise, Tina. Just tell me what it is. You’re scaring me.”

“There’s no need to be scared. You’re just going to be mad as hell.”

Mad was definitely preferable to scared. She did mad quite well, in her opinion. In fact, she was bloody brilliant at it. She sank down onto her couch, but remained on the edge of the seat rather than reclining back. “Okay. I’m ready. What’s the news?”

“Tucker Mills overheard some interesting need-to-know gossip today while he was cleaning Chastity’s pool and when he stopped by Mason’s this afternoon to drop off some chicken soup, he shared it with him.”

Tucker was one of Mason’s good friends and often passed along little tidbits via her assistant. It’s how she’d learned that Chastity had gotten the tummy tuck. Sarah Jane felt her mouth parch and a horrible feeling settled into the pit of her belly. “Go on.”

“Seems that Chastity was on her cordless phone, roasting poolside, talking to one of her friends--Laura probably--about how her ‘secret weapon’ had arrived in town.”

She frowned. “Secret weapon?”

“Yep. Her secret weapon is a hired dick who’s supposed to catch you trying to break into her house to find your father’s will. He’s supposed to document the evidence so that she can turn it over to the sheriff’s department and have you arrested.” She heard her friend’s teeth grind. “Again.”

It was true, Sarah Jane decided as she shot up from the couch and began to pace. Blood could boil. “That scheming bitch. I’ll kill her. I’ll snatch her hair out from its bleached blonde roots. I’ll--”

Tina hesitated, implying that the worst hadn’t come. “Sarah Jane, sit back down.”

She drew up short and blinked. “How did you know I was up?”

“Because I know you,” she said, exasperated. “Sit back down.”

Impatient, pissed off and annoyed, Sarah Jane shoved her hair away from her face. “Tina, if I can’t throw things or hit anybody, then you’re going to have to let me pace.”

Another sigh, as though she truly dreaded what she had to say. “Her private dick is a photographer, Sarah Jane. Who’s posing as an employee from a magazine,” she added significantly.

It took precisely three seconds for the relevance of that last sentence to penetrate and when it did, Sarah Jane wished she’d listened to her friend and had sat back down because her legs suddenly felt like they were going to buckle.

“Mick?” she breathed. Surely not, she thought faintly. Surely there had to be some sort of mistake.

“She didn’t mention him by name, but after seeing them together this morning... I don’t know. But I can’t think of anyone else it could be, can you?”

Sarah Jane walked over to her chair, nudged Blinken aside and sat down heavily, reeling from the news. Though she desperately wanted to believe otherwise, in her heart Sarah Jane knew her friend was right. Granted she hadn’t thought a thing about the Designing Weekly article--she’d completed a nice job for an Atlanta-based company just prior to that call--but she had thought the photographer traveling separately from the reporter was a bit strange. Then seeing him with Chastity this morning... Hadn’t she caught a weird vibe then? Hadn’t she known something hadn’t been right? Off?

Instead of listening to her instincts, she’d dubbed the warning jealousy--which, gallingly, God help her, was partly true--and had set about claiming him for herself. Her face blazed right along with her temper and her humiliation reached critical mass, remembering how she’d flirted shamelessly this afternoon, then had asked him out. Her face crumpled in horror.

And oh, God, she’d kissed him. Had been practically sucking his face off and sliding all over him and if it hadn’t been for Chase, she imagined things could have gone past the point of no return. Her eyes narrowed into angry slits.

And he’d known. He’d known, the scum-sucking, sleazy miserable bastard.

No doubt Chastity did as well, which made it all the more unbearable. Her eyes suddenly burned. In anger, she told herself. She would not shed a tear over their deception. She would not be the butt of their damned joke.

Too late, a little voice chided. Too damned late.

She would not wish that he hadn’t been the person she’d thought he was, she would not mourn the loss of what she thought might have been the beginning of something special. She would not weep over the crushed bud of what had been a promising new romance. Just because she’d felt more alive and more relaxed and at ease with him than she ever had with anybody else was no reason to make her want to cry. He’d been part of Chastity’s evil plan, a witting participant, and so what if she’d felt a spark? A glow of something truly special?

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway--she knew he would never stay here. Hadn’t she prepared herself for that? Hadn’t she known she needed to guard her heart?

“Say something, Sarah Jane,” Tina said.

She started, having forgotten the phone was pressed to her ear. She sighed heavily and ignored the lump welling rapidly in her throat. “I don’t know what to say, other than I feel like a total fool.”

“How were you to know she’d stoop to something so low?” Tina demanded. “Who could have predicted this? You’re not physic, Sarah Jane. And this... This is has all just gone too far. I knew she didn’t want you to find the will, but going to this length to keep you away from it? Either she hates you more than we knew, or your dad has put something in that will she doesn’t want you to see.”

“Probably a combination of both.” It really didn’t make any sense. Yes, Chastity was a mean-spirited slut, but there was something more to this move. The eternal question, of course, was...what?

“Forewarned is forearmed, though. You’re going to have to be really careful when you break into the house because, as we now know, you’re being watched. Asshole,” Tina harrumphed. “He sure had me fooled. I actually liked him.”

She had, too, Sarah Jane thought glumly, lips still tingling from the kiss.

“Anyway, while Tucker was eavesdropping he also heard her mention that she was going over to Atlanta for a ‘procedure’ tomorrow morning and wouldn’t be back until next Thursday. Sounds like some substantial, expensive work, doesn’t it?” Tina said bitingly.

That was just the break she’d been waiting for, Sarah Jane thought, chastising herself for not staying on task. Instead of thinking about Mick’s beautiful lips and the bedamned hopeful but futile ember of something extraordinary between them, she should have been thinking about getting her inheritance back before it was all gone. The longer Chastity hid the will the longer she had to deplete her funds. Her jaw flexed.

And she didn’t give a damn if Mick was watching her or not--she’d still do what she had to do. And if she had to slug him in the process, then so be it.

“So...what are you going to do about him?” Tina asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean are you going to let him know you know who he is or are you going to blast him into next year?”

For the first time, Sarah Jane felt the ghost of a smile on her lips. “You mean I have to choose?”

Tina chuckled. “There’s my girl. Seriously, though, what are you going to do?”

“You know, Tina, as much as I would like to play this the smart way, which would be to play along with this little farce so that I can keep an eye on him as well...I just don’t think I’m that good of an actress.” She allowed a little groan to escape. “Particularly after tonight.”

Her friend winced. “Dammit, I was afraid of that. How far did it go?”

“Just a kiss,” she said, downplaying the massive groping session which had just played out on her front porch a few minutes ago. Furthermore, it had been so more than a kiss. It had been wonderful, fantastic, moving...unforgettable. She’d seen stars and rainbows behind her lids. It was hands down the best kiss she’d ever had. Ever. And even knowing what she knew now, God help her, she still longed for another.

“So you’re going to send him packing, right?”

“I am.”

“Sweetie, I’m sorry.” She tutted under her breath consolingly. “I know you liked him.”

Sarah Jane grimaced as another altogether unpleasant realization surfaced. “I also liked the idea of being in Designing Weekly and the cash I was going to pick up, but that’s been a figment of my imagination as well.”

“I’d thought about that,” she commiserated. “That was a terrible thing for them to do.”

Sarah Jane paused, gathered a little self-indignation around her shoulders and straightened, hoping to dislodge a bit of the unexpected hurt. You know, it really was a terrible thing. Bad enough that Chastity was breezing through her inheritance like redneck Barbie with a sudden influx of cash, but now she’d messed with her business as well? Her very livelihood? And he’d gone along with it? To collect money by proxy through her?

She set her jaw so hard she thought she heard her teeth crack.

“Let me know when you figure out what sort of punishment you’re planning for Mick because I might want a p-piece of the a-action for Chase.”

The tremble she heard in Tina’s voice immediately forced Sarah Jane’s brain to switch gears. “What are you talking about? What’s happened?”

“Chase has started seeing Laura again.”

“Oh, Tina,” Sarah Jane said, an apology in her voice. That bastard, she thought. Mick might not be the only person she slugged. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

A little sob, then, “I wish I was. Clara saw them at a movie in Ridgeville last night. You know, Sarah Jane, I just don’t get it. If he doesn’t want me, then why does he string me along?”

Because he’s a selfish bastard, Sarah Jane thought. “Because he’s not certain that he doesn’t want you, he’s just certain that he doesn’t want anyone else to have you.”

She sniffled. “I just wish I knew what to do.”

“You know what I think,” she gently reminded again. “You break it completely off and throw a little competition into the mix. He’ll either let you go--and you’ll know once and for all how he feels--or he’ll come running back. Right now he’s calling all the shots and that suits him just fine. You’ve got to take charge. You can’t keep permitting him to do this to you.”

“You know what, Sarah Jane? You’re right.” She heard Tina blow her nose into a tissue. “I’ve known you were right all along, I just haven’t wanted to execute your advice because it feels like giving up, and giving up is going to break my heart. But guess what? It’s already broken. He breaks it every time he pulls something like this. Every time he hooks up with that sleazy vindictive whore. I’m done,” she announced with more conviction that Sarah Jane had ever heard in her voice. “I am so not letting him do this to me again.”

Sarah Jane inwardly gave a little cheer. Finally. “Tina, I promise you won’t regret it.”

She sniffed again. “I wonder if you’ll be saying that when I’m bawling on your shoulder.”

“You can bawl on my shoulder anytime and you know it,” she said, smiling. She picked at a loose thread on her shorts.

“Men are turds,” Tina announced.

“You know why, don’t you?”

“No, why?”

Sarah Jane grinned as a vengeful plan so perfect it might have been delivered from a genuine Revenge Muse. “Because they’re full of shit.”

Tina managed a watery chuckle. “There is that.”

“Are you busy right now, Tina?” she asked in a deceptively light tone. “Got anything planned for the rest of the evening?”

“No,” her friend said hesitantly. “Why?”

“Because I have the perfect remedy for their constipation. You game?”

A wicked laugh bubbled over the line. “You bet.”