A Place in Her Heart (2 page)

Chapter Two

Cal pulled into the garage parking area, part of his mind still back on the sidewalk where he’d left Katy. He knew people changed as they got older, but she was so different it was as if she were halfway to being a different person. She’d always been friendly, chipper, fun to hang out with, easy to talk to—all despite the fact she hadn’t had the best home life. Could she be upset because he hadn’t kept in touch? He had for a while, but then he’d been sent to places where getting messages out was either difficult or prohibited, and they’d fallen out of touch. The last time he’d tried to call her, the number had been disconnected.

He grabbed the clipboard with her contact information. A glance at her name told him she must be married. Or at least had been.

“So what is it?”

He looked up as his older brother Sean walked toward him, wiping his hands on a shop towel.

“Not sure. Won’t start.” Cal extended the clipboard. “It’s Katy Weatherly’s car, though she’s Katy McShea now.”

“McShea? Who’d she end up marrying?”

“No idea.”

“You two used to be as close as peanut butter and jelly.”

“Lot has changed since then.”

Evidently including Katy’s attitude toward him.

“What’s wrong?”

Cal shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Liar.”

“It was just weird, that’s all.”

“Weird?”

Damn, Sean wasn’t about to let it go.

Cal walked toward the back of the truck and lowered the lift. “Like she didn’t really know me.” Honestly, it’d been as if she couldn’t wait to get away from him.

“Like you said, it’s been a long time since you saw each other. Or maybe you just stink.”

Cal called his brother an unflattering name, which caused Sean to laugh before he turned and headed back inside.

But as Cal moved the tow truck back to its spot at the edge of the lot, he couldn’t keep from trying to figure out why Katy had acted the way she had. His gut told him it had been more than just the fact they hadn’t seen each other in five years. Though it didn’t make any sense, he kept coming back to the feeling he’d gotten when their eyes had met—that he scared her.

* * *

Katy’s legs were still shaking as she walked into the shelter. Though common sense told her she was being paranoid, she had looked over her shoulder approximately twenty times during the two-block walk from where Cal had dropped her off. Part of her brain still remembered the fear that had once ruled her life and whispered that if she turned her back, Terry would catch her and pull her into the cycle of abuse once more.

No, she would not let that little voice get to her. She straightened and took a deep breath.

“You okay?”

Katy glanced across the hall to where Cherise Tandy, a young woman who’d been coming to the shelter for the past couple of months, stood in the doorway that led into one of the classrooms. “Uh, yeah.”

“You sure about that?”

Katy nodded and pasted on a smile that she hoped looked remotely real. “Just had an unexpected brush with the past.”

Cherise’s expression tightened, seeming to be all too familiar with the dark things that could lurk in a person’s past.

“Really, I’m fine. Let’s get things going.”

Katy managed to focus on teaching her cake-decorating class and then on meeting with Linda and some of the other staffers to plan for the upcoming Thanksgiving Day meal. But even though she said the right things at the right times, Cal was never far from the front of her mind. Part of her wanted to be excited to see him, to catch up, to recapture some of those happy times they’d spent together with their small group of friends. But another part of her couldn’t get past the fact that he’d been the one to introduce her to Terry when they’d come to Boston after basic training.

By the time she stepped outside and headed for the bus stop, the sky had darkened with clouds, dropping the temperature a few degrees. As she glanced up, she wondered if the sky had changed to match her mood.

She shook her head and told herself the atmosphere didn’t care that she’d been thrown for an emotional loop. It was just interested in acting like November in Boston.

When she reached the bus stop, she shifted from foot to foot and kept scanning the area, even though she knew she was being irrational. Not for the first time she felt like kicking herself. If she’d only been brave enough to tell Cal how she’d felt all those years ago, that Terry hadn’t been the guy she’d been interested in, she might not have ever had to go through what she had. Though she liked her life now, she’d give almost anything to have not had to survive the hard way.

But she’d missed her opportunity. Almost in the blink of an eye, Cal had been off to Navy SEAL training and Terry had been stationed at the submarine base in Connecticut, allowing him to come see her whenever he could get away. Katy’s thoughts drifted back to those days, despite her wish to forget them. Though she’d been totally head over heels for Cal, Terry’s attention had gradually made her start to believe that Cal was just an object of infatuation, not of real love. Having grown up with only a mother who’d barely kept them off the streets, Terry’s gifts of flowers, boxes of chocolates and his time had gotten her caught up in a whirlwind. Before she knew it, she’d woken up one day married to him.

A shiver ran down Katy’s back, a shiver that had nothing to do with the chill in the air whipping around the edge of the building behind her.

She tried to refocus her thoughts on something else, anything other than those frightening days, but her mind simply wouldn’t comply. As a couple more people arrived to wait for the bus, her memories stumbled back to how quickly the honeymoon had been over for her and Terry. At first she hadn’t realized it. No, that wasn’t right. She hadn’t wanted to admit she’d made a mistake by trading a bad situation for a worse one. But only weeks into the marriage, Terry’s problems with alcohol started to become clear. She’d done everything she could to keep him happy, and sometimes it had worked. But she’d made what he’d seen as an unforgiveable mistake when she’d worn heels out to dinner with him and some of his buddies and their wives and girlfriends. In flats, she and Terry had been the same height. But with the heels, it had become painfully obvious how short he was, and after they’d gone home he’d punished her for that.

She flinched as she remembered the first punch.

“You okay, dear?”

Katy looked over to where an elderly woman bundled in heavy winter gear was looking at her with concern.

“Yes, thank you.”

The woman seemed about as convinced as Cherise had, and Katy realized she must be terrible at hiding her true feelings.

Except when it had come to Cal. Or maybe he’d just been a typical guy and not seen what had been staring him in the face.

The bus finally came, and with its arrival Katy forced herself to think about the work waiting for her at the other end of the ride.

As soon as she stepped off the bus a few minutes later, she shoved all the painful memories of the past away. She stared at the slender brick building that housed her apartment on the top floor and her pride and joy, Katy’s Cakes, on the bottom. She even managed a genuine smile as she looked at the fun pink script on the window and the pedestals filled with tiny cakes aimed at enticing passersby into the shop.

She crossed the street and stepped into the blessed warmth, inhaling the delicious scents of chocolate and cinnamon.

“Did you just get off the bus?”

Katy nodded at Stephanie, her only employee. “Car pooped out on me this morning.”

As she told Stephanie about what had happened, she didn’t mention that she’d known the tow truck driver, that he’d once filled her heart like air filled her lungs. If she didn’t speak his name, if she tried to pretend seeing him again didn’t matter, maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe when he left this time, it wouldn’t hurt so much.

Chapter Three

The next morning, Katy was right in the middle of boxing up an order of two dozen miniature pound cakes when her cell phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but she answered anyway.

“Hello?”

“Katy?”

That voice. Why did it jerk her back to the past so easily, to when she’d been that lovesick girl mooning over one of her best friends?

“Yeah.”

“We’ve fixed your car.”

“That was fast.”

“I might have gotten you moved to the front of the line.”

“Uh, that was nice of you. Thanks.”

“What can I say? I’m a nice guy.”

She couldn’t help but smile, and her heart expanded a little despite the fact that she knew it was a very bad idea.

“You didn’t put an address on the form, so I don’t know where to bring the car.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I’ll come get it this afternoon.”

“You sure? I don’t mind.”

She wasn’t sure why it hadn’t occurred to her before, but she suddenly wondered why he was working at a garage. He was a Navy SEAL. At least, he had been. It’s all she’d ever heard him say he wanted to be. That didn’t tend to be something you tried on for size for a few years and ditched in favor of being a grease monkey.

“Yes.” She was positive she didn’t want him to know where she lived and worked, in case he was still in touch with Terry.

After she hung up, she looked up the location of the garage and figured out the bus stop nearest to it. When Stephanie arrived for work in the mid-afternoon, Katy caught the bus, hoping Cal would be out on a towing call when she arrived.

No such luck. As soon as she stepped into the small office, he shot her a smile that had her knees suddenly going weak. She moved to stand against the front counter to support herself as she dug her wallet from her purse.

Cal handed her the bill and her keys then leaned his hip against the opposite side of the counter. “So, McShea. That mean you’re married?”

Startled, she glanced up in time to see him looking at her left hand, the one free of a wedding ring. She’d pawned it after she’d left Terry, in order to pay for a few hot meals.

“Um, not anymore.” Did his question mean he wasn’t in contact with Terry?

“Then we should go out to dinner and catch up.”

“No.”

She realized her answer had been too curt when Cal jerked back a little.

“Why are you mad at me?”

She stared at him for a long moment, at the genuine look of confusion in his eyes. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I’m not.”

“Could have fooled me.”

She needed to change the subject. “Why are you here at the garage?”

He leaned back against the counter behind him and crossed his arms. “I’m on leave, just helping out my brother, Sean. He owns this place now.”

“Oh.”

The front door dinged as an elderly guy stepped inside. Cal didn’t look like he was going to shift his focus off her for a few moments, but then he asked the man how he could help.

Katy used the interruption as an opportunity to slide her credit card through the reader and then sign the receipt that printed out on the small printer adjacent to the cash register.

She glanced to where Cal was writing down all the things the other man wanted done to his car. As if Cal sensed her gaze, he looked up at her. She wanted to accept him back into her life, but that was too dangerous. Still, she didn’t have to be so sharp with him.

“Thanks for getting my car fixed so quickly. I appreciate it.” Before he could finish with the older man and turn to her, she grabbed her keys and hurried out the door. As she drove back toward the bakery, she had to fight the urge to cry like she had the day she’d watched Cal get on a bus and wondered if she’d ever see him again.

* * *

Cal told himself to forget about Katy and whatever reason she had for acting so strangely. She might have said she wasn’t mad, but he wasn’t quite buying it. Still, the look in her eyes right before she’d left had softened. He hadn’t imagined that. There had been a flicker of the Katy he’d known before she’d fled. And that’s exactly what she’d done—fled. He wasn’t the kind of guy who could leave the
Why?
tugging at him unanswered.

With that question still bugging him after he drove home and had dinner with his family, he went to his boyhood room and did some online research. Turned out Katy owned a bakery a few miles away. He smiled as he planned just what he was going to have for breakfast the next morning. Some pastries and some answers.

* * *

The scents that hit Cal as soon as he opened the front door of Katy’s Cakes made his stomach growl audibly. But Katy was so busy mixing batter and talking on the phone that she didn’t notice. Only when he closed the door behind him did she look in his direction, her eyes widening before she shifted her gaze toward the window, as if she thought she’d see an army of reinforcements there to take over her bakery. Something was wrong, and his gut told him he needed to get to the bottom of it. His gut had saved his life enough times that he knew to pay attention to it.

Katy spun so her back was to him as she continued talking on the phone. As he sauntered toward the glass display case, he heard enough of her conversation to figure out she was talking to a supplier about a problem with a delivery. Cal eyed the offerings in the case, a variety of cupcakes and miniature cheesecakes—enough personal-sized cakes to give all of Boston cavities.

A buzzer went off in the kitchen at the same time the door behind him opened to admit a couple of older women. He glanced toward Katy, who looked frazzled. That’s when he realized she was here alone. Without a word, he rounded the front counter and headed toward the ovens, where the timer was continuing to beep. He grabbed the thick oven mitt and removed two trays of cupcakes from the oven before tossing the mitt on a metal prep table and heading toward the display case.

“How can I help you ladies?”

He didn’t have to look in Katy’s direction to know she was staring at him. He figured he’d find out whether she was thankful or annoyed when she got off the phone and the customers left. By the time he boxed up two cupcakes each for the ladies, Katy had ended her call and moved to the cash register to ring them up. Good thing, since he had no idea how much the treats cost.

When the women walked out the front door, Katy didn’t immediately whip around. Instead, she seemed to take a slow, deep breath before she shifted her gaze to him.

“Why are you here?”

He propped one hand atop the display case. “To solve a mystery.”

“Of?”

“Why Katy McShea is so different than the Katy Weatherly I knew.”

She didn’t immediately offer an answer. Instead she appeared to be studying him. “Have you told Terry where I am?”

“Who?” What was she talking about? He felt as if he’d missed part of the conversation.

“Terry Miller, your friend from basic training.”

It took Cal a couple of beats before he remembered who she was talking about. “No. I haven’t thought about that guy in years. But I got the impression you weren’t interested in him.”

Something changed in her eyes before she averted them, and he’d have sworn he had seen devastation.

“Katy, what’s going on?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

Oh no, she wasn’t brushing him off that easily. Hoping to get her to actually talk to him, he reached over and touched her arm. She jumped away as if he’d scalded her skin. Her reaction punched him in the gut because he knew what it must have meant. Rage like he’d never experienced welled up inside of him, but he kept it under control. If he was right, rage was the last thing she needed to witness.

“Did Terry hurt you?”

She bit her bottom lip then gave a single, quick nod.

“I’m so sorry.”

The front door opened to admit more customers.

“I can’t talk about this,” she said under her breath, and then offered the women a smile he knew she didn’t feel.

She might not be able to talk about it now, but there was no way he was leaving her alone after dragging up what was obviously a painful past. While she helped her customers, he walked slowly toward the back of the kitchen area, giving himself time to rein in the rest of his anger. That was harder than a lot of missions he’d been on, because in that moment he wanted nothing more than to punch Terry Miller hard enough to knock him into another state.

In the next breath, guilt hit him like a bomb. He’d been the one to bring Terry back to Boston after they’d completed basic training at Great Lakes, to introduce him to Katy, to try to get the two of them together.

He had to make this right.

Unable to change the past, he did the only thing he could at the moment—grabbed a broom and started sweeping the kitchen.

He expected Katy to object, but she didn’t. Instead, they fell into working side by side, as the bakery stayed busy all morning. When there was finally a lull, she stepped next to where he was loading used cake pans into the dishwasher.

“Don’t you have to get to the garage?”

“Nope.”

He sensed that she was about to say something else, but then the phone rang.

In the early afternoon Katy ordered sandwiches for them both, but they kept working.

“How do you do all this by yourself?” he asked. “Don’t you have help?”

“I have one employee, but she’s off today.”

“Seems like you need more.”

“I get along fine. I like to stay busy.”

They did exactly that, right up until she hung the “Closed” sign in the front door and turned the lock. She stood there a moment with her back to him. He’d swear he could see the strength she’d marshaled all day drain out of her to be replaced by dread. He wasn’t going to push her. True, he wanted to know what had happened, but she had to tell it in her own time.

Hoping to alleviate the tension, he said, “Well, I guess I should try one of your cupcakes since they seem so popular.”