Читать книгу Best-Kept Secrets - Dani Sinclair - Страница 15

Amy fretted, knowing it was useless, but worried just the same. Her mother hadn’t asked, and by late evening Amy felt she should have been pushing for answers to Amy’s relationship with Jake Collins. That she hadn’t was so out of character, Amy grew worried. Her mother must already suspect the truth.

When her parents had asked her about Kelsey’s father all those years ago, she’d never mentioned Jake by name. She’d told them the simple truth—she’d foolishly fallen for a man she’d met in Annapolis. A man who hadn’t been interested in being a father any more than he’d been interested in a long-term commitment. Being the sort of parents they were, they’d never pushed her to reveal more. She’d been grateful, because it had been so hard to think about Jake back then without crying.

Actually, not crying had never gotten as easy as it should have until she’d firmly locked away her thoughts of Jake.

Amy decided to approach her mother after Kelsey had gone to bed. Though she’d told her daughter pretty much the same story she’d told her parents, she’d always known the time would come when Kelsey would want more detailed information about her father. Amy didn’t intend to lie. She just wasn’t sure how to handle the situation now that the time appeared to have arrived.

Amy found her mother puttering in the kitchen, alone. Taking a deep breath, she decided to get it over with.

“About Jake—”

“Charming man. So gracious and kind.”

“Yeah. Kind.” So kind he couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge his own child. “I guess you’re wondering how I know him.”

“Well, actually, dear, I was simply hoping you could put paid to the rumor about him being in the Mafia.”

“Mother!”

“Well, it does seem ridiculous,” she said, briskly wiping her hands and folding the dish towel.

“He was in the navy, not the Mafia.”

“Good, dear. That’s such a relief.”

Her mother could be exasperating when she chose to be. And there was only one reason Amy could think of that would explain why she was choosing to be so obtuse about Jake. She suspected the truth. Amy needed to disabuse her mother of any idea she might be harboring about matchmaking.

“I met him that summer after I graduated college.”

“When you were staying in Annapolis with your friend?”

The college friend she’d forgotten all about the night she was introduced to Jake. “Yes.” She waited for the inevitable questions. Her mother couldn’t fail to make that connection.

“I’m glad, dear.”

“You are?”

“Yes, of course.” Her mother pushed absently at a wisp of silvery hair. “I never did like the idea of the Mafia in Fools Point. You know, dear, I’m feeling awfully tired this evening. Would you mind if I turn in a little early?”

Amy gaped at her. While true that her parents had always respected her right to privacy, her mother wasn’t even going to ask?

Then concern set in. “Are you okay? You’re not having any pain or anything, are you?”

“Who’s having pain?” her father demanded, coming into the kitchen on the end of her question.

“Now, Corny, don’t go getting all upset. I just said I was tired. I’d like to go up to bed and read for a while but I didn’t want our daughter to think I was ignoring her.”

“I wouldn’t think that.” But she was puzzled and very concerned. Her mother hadn’t looked well since the incident outside the restaurant. If Amy hadn’t been so caught up in her own dilemma she’d have realized that much sooner. The walk in that heat and then being thrown to the ground like that…

Cornelius Thomas laid a wrinkled hand on his wife’s arm. “That sounds like an excellent idea,” he agreed tenderly. “I just bought that new science fiction book R.J. and some of the others were talking about down at the general store. I’ll come up with you and read, too. You don’t mind, do you, Amy?”

“No. Of course not. You two go ahead. If you need anything, just call out.”

For the first time Amy accepted that her parents had aged a great deal in the years she’d been gone. They’d always been older than most of her friends’ parents. Amy had been a surprise baby coming to them late in life. That fact had never bothered her until now.

“Good night, dear. Don’t forget to check the locks before you come up, will you?”

“I won’t forget.”

She kissed them good-night, then wandered aimlessly around the house she had always called home. Despite the newly installed satellite dish and its variety of stations, there was nothing on television to hold her interest. She flipped through the channels, trying not to wonder what Jake had been doing with himself all these years. Had he stayed in the military or had he gone on to do something else? It was hard to imagine him running a restaurant. She couldn’t remember him cooking anything more than steaks on the grill when they’d been together.

Jake had changed in others ways, as well. He seemed stern now—more aloof and forbidding. No wonder the town thought he was a gangster. His facade placed a wall between him and the world at large. His eyes were watchful, but in their depths a person glimpsed a soul that had seen too much of the hard side of life.

Amy tried to shake off thoughts of Jake. But the feel of his body over hers this afternoon had brought about a resurgence of so many emotions.

Amy finally turned off the television and settled back on the couch with a book. Unfortunately, the novel couldn’t hold her attention, either. Jake’s face kept intruding.

He’d always been a private man until one really got to know him. And he’d always carried an air of arrogant competence. But where was the man she’d laughed with? Made love with?

It was hard not to remember his hands engulfing her small breasts, stroking and readying them for the pleasure his mouth could bring.

Amy closed the book with a snap. She was not going to think about that.

“Idiot!” She set the book on the coffee table. A romance novel couldn’t compete with the reality of their past. It had been nine years since they’d parted, but his every touch lined her memory.

Amy stood and walked to the living-room window, gazing out over the porch without really seeing. She had to purge her recollections somehow. She had to—

A flicker of motion caught her attention. Had she just seen someone move from behind the maple tree on the curb to the cluster of pines in the front yard?

She strained to see, watching the dark yard intently. Should she turn on the porch light for a better view? Maybe she’d just imagined…No. Definitely not her imagination. Something or someone had just slipped from behind the tree to blend into the overgrown bushes that surrounded the porch.

Her pulse quickened. Eleven o’clock was definitely too late for neighborhood children to be playing hide-and-seek in her parents’ front yard. Besides, the figure had been too tall for a young child.

Someone was up to no good. She curbed the instinct to step onto the porch and call out. Ten years ago she wouldn’t have hesitated, but Fools Point was no longer the safe, quiet town she’d grown up in. Heck, the downtown area practically looked like a war zone. They were still repairing the damage to the buildings that psycho had blown up last month. And the renovations were barely under way from the fire that had destroyed most of the motel. No wonder she’d heard one of the locals refer to Fools Point as Mystery Junction in the restaurant today.

She’d better call the police. Chief Hepplewhite only lived a few doors down. That fact alone would practically guarantee her an instant response.

She headed for the kitchen.

Her mother kept a small night-light plugged into the wall near the stove. The light offered enough illumination to show a shadow at the back door.

Her breath caught in her chest. Someone was on the back porch.

But they hadn’t knocked.

Fear gripped her as she realized the person was using a knife to cut open the screen door. Someone was trying to break in.

Fear and anger swept her in equal measure. Her family didn’t need this! She hit the switch, flooding the kitchen with light. The shadow fled, footsteps racing across the old wooden porch. As the person disappeared from view, Amy reached for the telephone hanging on the wall.

Before her shaking hand could punch in the first number, she heard heavy footsteps on the porch. He’d returned!

She choked off her scream as a fist pounded loudly on the back door.

“Amy! Let me in.”

She nearly dropped the telephone. “Jake?”

Her knees were weak with reaction and her hand shook so bad she could barely unbolt the door. “What do you mean by scaring me half to death that way? Who do—”

Without warning, he enfolded her in his arms. Strong arms that had always offered safety and comfort—and unbelievable pleasure.

“Shh. It’s okay. He took off. You’re all right now. We need to call the police.”

Amy pulled back. She’d allowed herself to snuggle into the familiar scent and feel that only Jake had ever evoked for her.

“What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you realize? Someone just tried to break into the house.”

“That wasn’t you out there?”

In the blink of an eye she glimpsed his hurt before his rigid mask returned.

“I was coming to talk to you when I saw someone sneak around the corner of your house. I wasn’t sure what was going on so I followed. The person saw me when you turned on the light and took off. I was going to give chase until I saw you standing in the kitchen.”

He hesitated. Once more she glimpsed pain behind his expression.

“I decided to make sure you were okay,” he said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize there were two people out there. I only saw one.”

“So did I.” Jake regarded her without expression. “Do you want to call the police or shall I?”

“Is there any point? Whoever it was is long gone by now.”

“You should still report the incident.” His mask was back in place, his manner coolly aloof once more. “He might try breaking into someone else’s house next.”

“Yes. You’re right. Okay. I just don’t want my mother disturbed. She and Dad are pretty heavy sleepers but she isn’t feeling well.”

“She wasn’t hurt this afternoon, was she?”

“No. Nothing like that. She’s just tired.”

Her gaze riveted on Jake’s once dear face. This close, she saw that the years hadn’t been kind. Deep lines bracketed his eyes and mouth. The sadness behind his dark, watchful eyes called to something in her soul.

“What are you doing here, Jake?”

“I came to ask you a question.”

“I meant here in Fools Point.”

His expression didn’t change. “I decided to make my home here now.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

No emotions showed at all. She wanted to tell him that it did matter, but then he’d want to know why. Amy wasn’t sure she had an answer for that particular question.

“What did you want to ask me?” she asked instead.

He moved close enough that she could reach out and touch him. Her heart sped up and her stomach muscles contracted in expectation.

“Is Kelsey my daughter?”

The world dissolved in icy shock to reform in blazing anger. “How dare you ask me that?”

“Is she?”

Hands gripped her shoulders, pinning her beneath his steady stare.

“You bastard. You never even read my letters, did you?”

Jake blinked. “What letters?”

She tugged free, moving away from him, wrapping her arms around her suddenly chilled body. How could he stand there and ask her that?

“I never got any letters from you, Amy.”

“Right.”

“I never lie, Amy.”

She rounded on him angrily. “Well, if you didn’t get them, then your brother-in-law is a bigger bastard than you are.”

Jake flinched, but his gaze didn’t waver.

“Ask him,” she insisted. “I wrote you twice. Once when I found out I was pregnant, and once after Kelsey was born. I almost didn’t send you the second letter since you never responded to the first one, but I figured you’d at least want to know if you had a daughter or a son.”

Jake tried to quell the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He could only stare at her while her words flayed him with a pain much deeper than any physical wound.

“My brother-in-law is dead,” he said softly. “He and my sister were killed in a plane crash almost eight years ago.”

He watched her face crumple in consternation.

“I didn’t know.” Her hand lifted as if to offer him comfort, then abruptly fell to her side.

He rubbed his chin, trying to make sense of what she’d told him. “You gave Ronnie the letters to send to me? Why didn’t you give them to Carrie?”

“Your sister wouldn’t take my calls after you left. I wanted your address, but Ronnie wouldn’t give it to me.”

She tried to conceal her remembered hurt, but he knew. One more snippet of guilt to live with.

“Ronnie wasn’t friendly, either,” she went on more stoically. “I figured he and Carrie knew we’d broken up and they didn’t want to get involved. While Ronnie wouldn’t give me an address to write to you, he agreed I could send you a letter through him.”

Jake’s pain bit a little deeper. Jake had told Ronnie and Carrie he didn’t want to talk to Amy. He’d never thought about the position he’d put them in. He hadn’t told Amy how to reach him because he’d wanted to keep the breakup simple and as painless as possible. Amy wouldn’t understand that he’d done it to spare her. He didn’t understand it himself anymore. He could see Ronnie tossing out her letters thinking she was trying to cling to a dead relationship.

“You didn’t tell Ronnie about the baby.”

Her eyes snapped green fire. “It wasn’t any of his business. Are you telling me he never sent you my letters?”

“I’m telling you I never got any letters from you, Amy,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if Ronnie didn’t send them, or if they never caught up with me. I moved around a lot on my assignments overseas. Some-times…well, mail didn’t always catch up with me. I didn’t learn about the plane crash until months after it happened. I swear to you, I never knew about Kelsey.”

He could see she wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. He didn’t blame her. He’d had months lying in that hospital bed not so long ago regretting the choices he’d made. Especially the fact that he’d let her go—and the unforgivable way he’d gone about it.

“I’m sorry, Amy.”

“So am I.” A sheen of tears hovered in her eyes. “Now get out of here, Jake.”

The words fell like a blow. She followed them up with a knockout punch of calm deliberation. “My duty was to let you know. I did my part. Goodbye, Jake.”

He deserved her anger and more. He shook his head, knowing he was going to have to hurt her even further.

“That isn’t how it’s going to work,” he said mildly.

“Oh, yes. Yes, it is, Jake Collins. Kelsey is my daughter. I’ve raised her, cared for her and loved her since she was born. I don’t need you and neither does she. Now get out of here.”

She immediately pressed 9-1-1 on the phone she held in her hand. Her eyes held his accusingly.

“This is Amy Thomas. I’d like to report an attempted break-in at my parents’ house. Someone—” she held his gaze steadily “—cut the screen trying to get inside the back door.”

Her pain ate at him. He deserved her anger, but she had it wrong. He wasn’t about to walk away now that he knew he had a daughter.

He was a father!

The unbelievable miracle would take some getting used to.

“The police are sending a car,” Amy told him. “You can leave now.”

“They’ll want to talk to me.”

“Maybe they will, but I don’t,” she said with quiet dignity.

The quiver of her lower lip was the giveaway. She was holding back tears.

“I’m not going to justify walking away nine years ago.”

“Good. Don’t.”

“I couldn’t if I tried,” Jake said softly. “But I want you to believe one thing. If I had known about Kelsey I would have done everything in my power to take care of both of you.”

Amy gave a ladylike snort. “I didn’t need anyone to take care of me, Jake. I managed just fine on my own.”

“Of course you did. You were always stronger than you thought you were.” He glimpsed the reflection of flashing lights in the living-room windows. “The police are here. I’ll speak to them, but this conversation isn’t over.”

“Yes, it is.”

He walked past her through the house, heading for the front door. Officer Derek Jackstone was just mounting the porch steps.

“Officer,” he greeted Jackstone.

“Hello, Mr. Collins. I didn’t expect to see you here. We had a report of a prowler?”

Jake explained the little he’d seen, then nodded toward Amy who watched the exchange in silence. “I’ll be at the Perrywrinkle if you need me for any reason.”

“Thank you.” Officer Jackstone stepped past him and Jake headed down the steps without looking back. “Ms. Thomas,” he heard Jackstone greet Amy.

“Derek, you may wear a uniform now, but I’m still the same Amy who sat next to you in biology,” she told him.

Yes, she probably was, Jake thought. She was still the same Amy he’d fallen in love with nine years ago. And she was more out of reach now than she had been then. He sighed and wondered if it was too soon to take another pill for his back.

ONCE DEREK LEFT, Amy paced the house nervously, trying not to think about Jake or the past or anything else. The attempted break-in didn’t disturb her as much as their conversation.

She didn’t want to feel sorry for Jake. She didn’t even want to believe him.

But she did.

Amy turned off the lights, double checked the doors and windows, and headed upstairs. Her parents must have fallen asleep early because even the flashing lights of the police car hadn’t brought them downstairs to investigate.

Ronnie had never sent her letters to Jake. All this time she had thought he didn’t care and Jake hadn’t known the truth. Not that it changed anything. Jake was Kelsey’s biological father, but he had no place in their lives. Amy had only wanted to show him what he’d given up.

Yet he hadn’t given her up if he never knew of her existence.

Amy shook aside that thought. Walking away without any explanation was proof enough that he wasn’t the sort of stable influence she wanted in Kelsey’s life. One day they were lovers in every sense of the word, then next he’d left on a mission for the navy. When he’d returned, he’d announced he was being sent overseas—indefinitely. And he’d thanked her—thanked her!—for the past few months and left.

The hollow feeling returned along with the memory. She’d been so desperately in love with him she would have followed him anywhere.

And in a way she had. She eyed her reflection as she finished brushing her teeth. After all this time she could finally admit to herself that the only reason she’d taken the translator’s job was that she’d known they’d send her overseas on military contracts. Overseas, where Jake was.

But it hadn’t mattered. She’d never seen Jake again.

“Spilled milk,” she told her reflection. She and Kelsey didn’t need Jake. They didn’t need anyone.

She turned off the lights and slipped between the sheets of the big double bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to every creak the old house made. Had the house always made this much noise? It wasn’t as if there was a lot of wind or anything tonight.

Finally she had to admit that she wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. While Derek Jackstone had assured her that the prowler had probably been some kid looking for easy money, Amy realized the incident had unnerved her more than she’d thought.

Even with Derek’s promise that he would drive past the house frequently tonight, she was uneasy, jumping at every sound.

Though Jake’s presence had distracted her right after the attempted break-in, she now began to wonder. Derek’s explanation of some kid made no sense. Any local teens would know she was staying here with her parents. Why would they risk breaking into an occupied house when the living-room light had clearly been on? That made no sense.

What would have happened if Jake hadn’t come by in time to scare the intruder away? Amy shuddered.

Resigned to a sleepless night, she got up and walked over to the window. No moonlight or streetlight broke the darkness. Not even the flicker of fireflies relieved the stillness. She watched intently while her thoughts roamed wildly.

And something moved in the shadows across the street.

She tried to calm the flutter of fear that captured her breath. She stared until her eyes ached with the effort. But she still couldn’t decide if someone lurked in the shadows of the gnarled old maple tree or not.

FINGERS FISTED, the watcher stared at the old house. Anger flared at the unfairness of the whole thing. So much was at stake. Too many people knew the truth. People who could no longer be trusted to keep the secrets of the past. The parking lot had picked the worst possible time to collapse.

She was still the biggest danger of all, of course. If it hadn’t been for the restaurateur’s interference…but he had interfered and now the situation would require some thought. She’d been alerted to her danger.

At least the gravel spill would delay things for a while, but not indefinitely. Still, putting the truck in gear had been a stroke of genius, even if the laboratory tests would eventually reveal the truth. Chief Hepplewhite wasn’t like his fatuous predecessor. He’d move on the crime scene with care…and unfortunate speed.

There was no choice. Fools Point would have to bear witness to a fatal accident. Possibly, an entire series of accidents. She wasn’t the only danger—just the most immediate one.

Too bad the dump truck hadn’t knocked her into the hole and buried her beside the others. All the problems would have been solved neatly then.

The next accidents would require careful planning and strategy. No more leaving things to chance. But in the end, all of them would be as dead as the bones in that old root cellar.