Count on Me (Petal, Georgia) (18 page)

But Caroline, though not as big a drama pro as her grandmother, still had a degree in theatrics and a belly full of this nonsense from her grandmother. “That man was my father. And he’s Shep and Mindy’s father and he was my mother’s husband as well. Do you know his regrets were never about himself? I’d go see him, and he’d be broken up imagining my mother’s last minutes. Or that my sister and brother were growing up without a mother. He missed them, and it broke his heart that they could ever believe he was guilty.”

“
He was guilty!
” Her grandmother’s eyes glittered with hatred. “She never should have gotten together with him to start with but she had to.” Abigail gave her a pointed look, reminding her
she
was the reason they got married.

Royal stepped up then, putting himself between Caroline and her grandmother. Like a shield against all the hurtful words her grandmother used like a weapon. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to stop you. You’re going to say something else you regret and can’t take back. Mrs. Lassiter, I surely am sorry for the loss of your daughter. Caroline loves you and came back here, in large part, to mend some fences and work on her relationship with you and her brother and sister. But it seems to me she’s got a right to feel how she does about her father.”

Royal eased back to stand next to Caroline, reaching out to take her hand. Everything was suddenly so much better because he’d reached out and defended her.

Abigail Lassiter gave him a long, measuring look. “There will be lunch at our home on Saturday. Eleven thirty. Don’t be late.” Abigail turned her attention back to Caroline. “See you then.”

With that, her grandmother kissed her cheek, turned and swept from the room.

“Run.”

He looked at her, amused. “What?”

“Run. She’s got your scent now, but I can keep her busy while you escape. Sorry you’ll need to leave the state.”

“Caroline, I hate that she talks to you that way.”

She wanted to lean into him and let his energy calm her. But they were in public and her freaking associates could come out at any moment and it was bad enough her grandmother had pulled that shit while they could have been overheard. Caroline didn’t want to make it worse.

“I came to get you. I was in town already so I adjusted my schedule to pick you up.”

“I have to drive in to work tomorrow.”

He opened the door after it was clear Abigail had truly gone and left the building.

“I can drive you in. I like taking care of you. It’s not like I don’t need to be up anyway. Then I can stop at the Honey Bear for coffee on my way out too.”

“All right. I just need to run home to get my stuff.”

They walked and various people called out hellos here and there. He opened her door, and she got up and in.

At her place he ran the food for dinner and her garment bag and overnight case to his truck, but when he got back she was waiting, smiling.

“Okay, so I’ve got a little something for you.”

He grinned. “A present?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

She handed over a small ice chest with some bungee cord and the cold inserts for it. “Inside there are all the little containers you might need. I mean. You said you went out and were gone all day and forgot to break to eat or what have you. You can strap this to your ATV and have stuff to snack on and eat and drink.”

He pulled her into a hug. “That’s a really thoughtful present. Thank you. I’ve been meaning to do something like this.”

He kept that in one hand while she closed and locked her door, and they headed back to his truck so he could drive them to his house.

“In case I was mistaken, I was invited to lunch Saturday.”

“That was a command, not an invitation. Abigail Lassiter doesn’t ask permission.”

“She’s out of line.”

Caroline sighed heavily. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it damn well does matter. Why do you spend all your time advocating for other people and their rights, but you just let her steamroll you the way she does?”

“They’re all I have left.”

“That’s bullshit. You have lots of people who care about you in your life who don’t try to cut you down and make you feel like dirt all because you freaking believe your father. Are you really going to talk to the cops over in Millersburg?”

“Well Ron is and I might swing by to listen in. He and Elliot Charles, a cop from Millersburg, came to my office on Monday. Ron is going over there to talk to the cops in the department and see what he can find. He—Elliot, I mean—told me he believes my dad was innocent. His grandfather was a local crime and justice reporter. I think I have a couple of his pieces about my father’s case in the master file. Anyway it’s a good way to introduce myself to these guys. The old-timers always have so much great info on old cases.”

“Charles. They’re related in some way to the Chases right?”

“Yes. Polly is Elliot’s cousin like four times removed or something like that. He was with them over the weekend and contacted Ron. They both came to see me Monday. I think he’ll prove to be handy when I talk to his cops.”

“Good that you have an ally.”

“She looks a lot like my mother.” Caroline hadn’t intended on saying that, but with him it all seemed to come out anyway.

He sighed. “Your grandmother?”

“Yeah. My mother was pretty much the opposite of Abigail Lassiter. My mom was open and funny, and she loved learning new stuff and trying new things. If you met my mom she’d know all about you in fifteen minutes because people just talked to her. She always did front-of-the-house stuff at the diner because people loved her. She’d come over to their table and ask them how things were and end up holding babies or looking through someone’s vacation pictures. She was the kind of person who gave off a light and you wanted to be around it. My grandmother looks a lot like her and sometimes that makes it worse. Because I need my mom, you know? I have aunts who absolutely love me. Uncles. Cousins. My paternal grandmother. I have people I can turn to but it’s not the same. And none of them are near.”

“My dad died about nine months after your mom got killed. I was pretty much raised by my aunt and uncle, even though we all lived on the same farm for most of my childhood. My mom has always been sort of dreamy. My dad shielded her, did everything for her. She just didn’t know how to do much and no one ever expected her to learn so there’s a sense of helplessness about her. My Aunt Denver? Now she’s the opposite. Steadfast. Hardworking, and I’ve yet to see something she can’t do immediately or master within half an hour of practice. She’s a farmer through and through. And she’s my mother. She didn’t give birth to me, but she is my mother in every way that is important. She was sturdy when my mother was…
not
. My uncle is old school. He’s sort of stoic, but he’s always been there for me like a dad when my biological one gave my mother every bit of his love and attention.”

He hadn’t spoken in this sort of detail about his life. It pleased her he trusted her enough to reveal these parts of himself.

“And then he died and she got into a car accident about two years later. She was injured pretty bad. Was in a coma for six days. In the hospital for five weeks. Like I said, my mother isn’t strong. She’s gone through a series of surgeries and she’s never really recovered.”

Her heart ached for him. “I’m so sorry.”

“She lives in an assisted-living facility near Atlanta. She likes it there. Likes being coddled and cared for, and that’s where she’ll die. I hate that this is reality, but it is. My aunt and uncle are the parents the ones I was born to never managed to be. I don’t know what I would do without them and their advice. So I know what you mean when you say it’s not the same.”

She took his hand, saying nothing else until they’d reached his house and she’d turned on the oven to put the lasagna she’d put together that morning in to bake. Spike scampered around, chasing a balled-up piece of paper he kept bringing back to Royal to throw.

“It’s totally all right for you to find yourself
oops sorry busy
on Saturday afternoon, you know.”

He handed her a glass of wine. “I’m going with you.” He clinked it. “I seem to recall you liked this one.” He turned music on, and Kacey Musgraves’s “Back on the Map” came over the speakers. Caroline smiled, putting her glass down to get close enough for a kiss.

Instead he got
her
close enough to haul to his body and then into a slow dance with some grinding and heavy petting thrown in and
oh wow
it worked.

Her head rested against his chest, her pulse a slow, warm throb. Her breath was full of his scent, the heat of his body radiating against her face.

The hands he slid up her back kept her pressed to him. He was a really good dancer. Slow and sexy. He moved…oh my God the way he moved. He loped, but with intensity, and such a thing shouldn’t even be possible but it was and he was really good at it.

When she imagined herself in his eyes, she felt beautiful. Sexy. “Coming back here would be so much harder without you. You make me happy, Royal.”

He pulled her tighter, his heart beating resolutely against her ear on his chest.

“I thought I knew so many things before you came here. I thought I knew what it meant to be undone by someone. But I didn’t. I didn’t know it at all. Not until you filled my vision and I fell in love with you. You undo me, Caroline. It’s terrifying and awesome all at once. Like a thrill ride.”

He’d just told her he was in love with her.

She tipped her head back to look up into his face. “Do I have loop de loops?”

“Oh fuck yes you do. You’re swoops and swirls and dizzying turns. You turn me upside down all the time. Sometimes you smile a certain way and
damn
. I’m hit by something new about you.”

She stared at him, swallowing hard.

“Wow.”

The song ended and Luke Bryan’s “Shut It Down” came on.

“I don’t think I’ve ever undone anyone before. I really like it.”

He laughed and kissed her, diving into her taste until he was nearly drunk with her. “I hadn’t welcomed you to my house yet. Terrible breach of manners on my part.”

“You’re a really good host that way. Thanks for sticking up for me. With my grandmother. Thanks for sharing that stuff about your mom with me. Thanks for slow dancing in the kitchen and wow, I…thanks for loving me.”

There was a pause and he felt her energy shift and he waited, hoping like hell whatever she said next was good.

And it was. “I’ve been falling in love with you since you fetched cereal for me off the top shelf. You backed me against something then too.”

He did very much enjoy backing her against things or getting her prone on the bed or the couch. He did it right then, backing her to his kitchen counter gripping the smooth edge at her back. “It’s pretty much my favorite pastime.” He kissed her again.

The oven dinged that it had finished preheating.

“Okay, woman, let’s get this dinner started. Tell me what you want me to do.”

She put the lasagna in the oven. She made a salad, and he put out some garlic twists she’d picked up at the Honey Bear.

“In a few weeks it’ll be warm enough to be outside. I have one of those deck heater things. I also have a new piece of outdoor furniture on order. It’s a covered chaise for two. I’m thinking ahead.”

“Awesome. I don’t have any outdoor space at my place. Yours is so lovely. It’ll be nice to use it.”

“Interesting thing that. Want to help me plant some pots for the deck? I traded some kale for groundcover and flowers, and I have the box planters out there anyway.”

Her smile—Christ, she was pretty—brightened. “I’d love to help you plant. But one thing.”

He set the table. “What?”

“Melissa invited us over Sunday afternoon for a barbecue. Clint is back in town so you can meet him too. Plus you can see her adorable little house.”

Caroline had been trying damned hard with his friends so of course he’d do things with her friends and get to know them.

“Sounds good.”

They settled at the table and filled their plates.

“So, do you have like a basic talk when you discuss your father’s case? Like the case in an outline or gif-formed answer?”

She ate and watched him for a while. “Why?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I’ve read some on the internet. This is important to you. A part of who you are, and I think I’m at the point I should know about this and have an opinion.”

“Are you sure?”

“At first I thought I’d let it sit a while to see how you and I worked out, what our relationship was, before I pushed it. Then I panicked thinking,
oh my God what if I ask her and I don’t believe her
? So I read stuff online. Some of the pieces you’ve written and those written after your father lost his appeals. I want to hear your explanation. Your intro to the case. I know you have one. I want to understand it better. Please.”

And over the next two hours she laid it all out. The same things he’d already been bothered by, like the lack of any real motive and the way the DNA at the scene that didn’t match her father’s had never been followed up on. She explained how each time they had something new they couldn’t just automatically take it to court, that there had to be a basis for each thing that she could bring up to the court and new evidence wasn’t always enough.