Playing with Fire (9 page)

Cassie set her sandwich down, wiped the corner of her mouth, and tried to think how to answer the question without putting herself in a difficult position. “You have to understand,” she began. “It all had to do with Diane. She and I were total opposites. She was bright, vivacious, a charmer from the day she was born. I was kind of the afterthought. Dull gray. Nobody asked or expected very much of me.”

“You sell yourself short.”

Cassie took a swallow of her iced tea then went on. “No matter what Diane did, my folks were one hundred percent absorbed with her. They chalked up her wildness, her reputation, to ‘youthful hijinks,’ as my dad used to say. She was the bright light in their lives.”

She paused, gathering her thoughts.

“When Diane died, I was still so…well, I was still dealing with what happened when you two got married, and I couldn’t make myself come home for the funeral. They never forgave me. When Dad died, my mother all but told me to stay away. That was fine with me. We’ve only had limited contact since then.”

“I messed up your life a lot, didn’t I.” It was a statement more than a question.

“Truth be told, I think I guess did that all by myself.” Her voice was low, quiet. “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it right now, if that’s all right. Would you like some more iced tea? Or another sandwich?”

Griffin reached out and caught her hands in his. “I don’t want iced tea, and I don’t want anything else to eat. I want you to look at me.”

She stared at her lap.

He tugged on her hands. “Cassie? Lift your head and look at me.”

With great reluctance, she raised her eyes to meet his, thinking what a bad idea this had been. She should have just let him get his own lunch.

“We either keep picking at this thing until it starts to bleed,” he said, “or we open it all at once and hope it will heal.”

“I keep telling you,” she said in a sad tone, “there just isn’t anything to say. This was a mistake, Griffin. I’m sorry. I appreciate your help with the locks and the yard, but when you’re finished, I think you should just go.”
Before I make a fool of myself again
.

“Not a chance.” He shook his head. “For one thing, I discovered something last night, and you should have, too. Whatever was there between us six years ago is still there. It’s always been there for me. Diane got in the way, and there’s just no polite way to say it any different.”

So, he did remember what he’d said. But did he mean it?

He paused, watching her, then went on. “I know she was your sister, but she just wasn’t the nice person your parents thought she was. Diane was selfish, self-centered, and she used people. She always hovered at the edge of a precipice, daring everyone to fall over it with her. When we were all running around like idiots, it was okay, because she could drink and fuck with the best of us.”

Cassie jerked.

Griff tightened his grip on her hands. “Does that word offend you? I’m sorry, but there’s just no other word for it. None of us in that crowd bothered much with morals at that time. We were wild then. All of us. Some nights I even slept in the drunk tank with my father. That’s just the way it was.”

“Is that the way it was with us?” she demanded. “Just…an exercise?”

“No,” he said, emphatic. “But that’s another topic for discussion. I’m just trying to make you see something here. Diane was just a good time, a hard ride, as they say. One more place I could run away from the disaster my family had become. But I never loved her. She knew it, I knew it. I guess I hoped, when I married her for the baby, we could start something new.”

“Did you?”

“Not even for a minute.” A shadow of sadness swept over his face. “Diane didn’t want to be married, but your folks would have had a fit if she was single and pregnant. The money wasn’t so great then, either, which bothered her a lot. I don’t know what she expected, but it sure wasn’t what she got. And, of course, there was my dad.”

“I heard he passed away about year after Diane,” Cassie interjected.

“All I can tell you is it was a blessing for both of us.”

“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say.

“Yeah, well, aren’t we all. Thank you.”

He still held her hands in his, preventing her from leaving the table. “When she told me about the baby, I took it as some kind of sign to clean up my act. But Diane wasn’t about to let a baby cramp her style. She bragged that she didn’t even look pregnant. Most nights all we did was fight, and she’d slam out of the house. It was a freaking disaster.”

“Is that what happened the night she died?” Cassie asked in a soft voice.

“You mean the night she was murdered? The night the whole town thought I killed her?” His tone was venomous. “Let’s call it what it is, Cassie. You can’t dress it up with nice words.”

“I just…I don’t….”

“The night Diane was murdered, we had a big fight. That’s what you wanted to know. Right?”

She nodded, looking at her lap again. He sounded so angry.

“I guess I’m just damned lucky I went to Phil’s house instead of staying home and getting smashed. Two other people dropped by, and we drank beer and watched a game on television. Otherwise, I’m sure I’d be on the inside looking out through bars right now.”

Without raising her eyes, she said, “I never believed you killed her, Griff. I didn’t think you could do something like that.”

“You’re a majority of one, I’ll tell you that. People still look at me cross-eyed.”

“But you do everyone’s landscaping and everything,” she pointed out again, and frowned. “They still hire you.”

“Because they don’t have a choice. It’s me or no one.” He dropped her hands, stood up, and took his dishes to the sink. “We still have a lot of unsettled issues between us, Cassie. And we’re going to settle them before you leave here. Make no mistake about that. If I have my way, Tampa has seen the last of you.” He headed toward the front door. “I’ll let you know when I’m finished, so you can take a look.”

She sat in her chair a long time after that, trying to straighten out her brain and her emotions. Griffin Hunter, Stoneham’s worst bad boy, had grown up. As a man who’d walked through hell, he was even more dangerous. Before, he had been a forbidden pleasure she hungered for, beckoning her.

Now, he was older, his wildness under control but still there below the surface. Letting him into her life again was a big mistake, but she seemed powerless to stop it. If she kept opening the door for him, he’d walk right in and consume her. And that scared her.

Still, if she was honest with herself, this was the reason she hadn’t wanted to come back to Stoneham. Here she’d have to face the fact she’d never stopped loving him all these years. No matter how much she kept denying it to herself, there it was. That’s why she still wore the locket.

Those kisses last night. Powerful kisses that she had willingly accepted, that stirred something inside her. The imminence of more was just hanging out there, tempting her, keeping her on edge.

And his words. “I love you.”

Could she trust what he said? What could she do with it? Could she admit that she’d loved him all her life?

Those two nights with him so long ago still haunted her memory. She had indeed saved her virginity for him, hoping shamefully that one night she would be the one in the bad boy’s arms. Even after the disaster of his marriage, the months and years of crying and anguish, nothing could erase that exhilaration. Seeing him now brought it all back.

Walk away
. But she knew she wouldn’t. She had built a fantasy on secret dreams and two stolen nights. Could she let down the bars long enough to find out if that fantasy was real?

Cleaning the kitchen took the longest of all the rooms, and by the time she finished, Cassie needed a break. She decided to take the opportunity to call Harley Graham.

“Good to hear from you, Cassie.” His words boomed across the connection, somehow so comforting. “Everything going okay there?”

“Yes, Harley. Just fine. Thanks.”

“Ran into Neil,” he commented. “He told me you and he had met, gotten things started.”

“Yes, we did.” She sighed. “I didn’t think everything would take so long. I guess I was dreaming if I thought I could do it in three days.”

“Not around here, girl.” He chuckled. “By the way, I’m passing the word about the funeral service on Tuesday. Hope you don’t mind.”

“No, that’s all right. I don’t expect a big crowd, and that’s just as well.”

“You may be surprised, honey. Your folks lived here a long time.”

Cassie thought a moment about how to frame her question. “Harley, did my mother have a lot of visitors during her last few months?”

He paused, and she could imagine the faint lines of a frown forming on his forehead. “I don’t know what you mean. She had two or three friends who looked in on her. Neil came by every so often to check on her and get her to sign some papers or other. Thad Williams, the senior partner in that firm, used to do all the legal work for your folks. When he retired, Neil took over, but Thad still came around to see her now and then. What’s this all about? You looking for someone specific?”

“No, no,” she said, quick to answer him. “I guess I was just trying to get a picture in my mind of what was going on here.”

“Well, if there was anyone else who came to see her, they’ll for sure be at the funeral. You can check everyone out for yourself.”

“Thanks, Harley. And thanks for setting everything up here for me.”

“No problem.” He paused. “I happened to drive by your house a while ago and saw Griffin Hunter working in the yard. You hire him to do some work?”

“Uh, yes, well, that is, Carol Markham suggested I get him out here to neaten things up. I’m listing the house with her.”

“Be careful, Cassie. Griffin may be a lot older and run a good business, but I still don’t think I’d trust my daughter with him, if I had one.”

A knot formed in her stomach. “Thanks for the advice, Harley, but I can handle Griffin. I’m older, too. Remember?”

“Just call me if you need me. You know I’m always here for you.”

That went well
. Cassie leaned back against the counter.
No one to suspect of breaking and entering except solid citizens, and a blatant warning about Griff
. Her headache was returning, too. She tore off a paper towel, wet it with cold water, and put it on the back of her neck.

“Are you all right?”

She hadn’t even heard the object of her thoughts come in. He stood inches away from her, crowding her again, towering over her.

“I’m fine,” she said, again giving a fast response. “A little overwhelmed by everything, I guess. I just got off the phone with Harley.”

“You’re not sick, are you?” Concern flashed in his eyes.

“No, thank goodness. That’s all I’d need right now.” She moved the towel around to cool her cheeks. “I’d told him I’d check in with him today. I also wanted to see if he knew who was visiting my mother these past few months. I’m trying to figure out who’d be searching for something here.”

Griff cocked an eyebrow. “Did you get anything from him?”

She snorted. “A list of respectable citizens and a warning not to succumb to your charms.”

Griff smiled at that. “Looking out for his surrogate daughter, was he? It’s nice to know my reputation is still intact. You’d do well to listen to him. I have plans.”

She started to say something, but he took her hand and pulled her toward the front door.

“Right now, I want you to come outside and see what I’ve done. The place sure was a mess.”

Cassie couldn’t believe how he’d transformed it. The grass was neatly mowed, the shrubs trimmed perfectly, all the beds weeded. Even the shriveled rose bushes had perked up. He walked her around the side yard and into the back. The flower beds had sparkled back to life, and all the edges of the lawn, including around the patio, were trimmed with great precision. He had put fresh mulch around the crepe myrtle and sycamore trees.

“Griff!” She couldn’t hide her amazement. “I can’t believe it’s the same place. This is fantastic. You do incredible work.” She couldn’t stop staring, overwhelmed by what she saw. “Did you learn all this from your father?”

“Yeah, right,” he snorted. “Some from working with him, some on my own by trial and error.” He glanced away. “Two years ago, I started taking landscaping classes at the junior college in San Antonio. I learned a lot there.”

She looked at him, her mouth gaping.
Griffin Hunter going to college?
She felt like she’d stumbled into a different dimension.

“Close your mouth, Cassie, you’ll catch flies. Did I shock you? They say education is for everyone, you know.”

“It’s just that….”

“That you never expected it of me, right?” His moved closer to her, his presence crowding her. “What
did
you expect of me, anyway? Did you just want to give up your cherry to the town bad boy so you could have your own naughty memories? Was that it?”

The day had been too long, the tension too much, the frustration too great. She sank onto a lawn chair and burst into tears. She swiped at her face with the wet towel, knowing she looked as undone as she felt.

“Cassie?”

In an instant, he knelt beside her, brushing away the hair escaping from her ponytail, wiping away the tears running down her cheeks. “Honey, I’m so sorry. That was a rotten thing to say. And I didn’t even mean it. Look at me, sugar. Come on.”

Sugar
. She could still hear him, his seductive voice whispering in her ear while he did unbelievable things to her body. While his fingers probed inside her, slick with her liquid, and his thumb did things to her clitoris that six years hadn’t erased.

The tears she had saved up all this time came tumbling out. She rocked back and forth, crying in huge gulping sobs, not even caring what she looked like. She just needed to cleanse her body of the pent-up suffering.

She hadn’t noticed Griffin leaving her until suddenly he was back. “Here.” He handed her a glass of water and two aspirin. “Take these and drink all the water.”

She obeyed his gentle instruction. Her body slowed its paroxysms and returned to normal. “Thank you.”