Here Comes Trouble (38 page)

“This doesn’t seem to be your night, does it?” Not a very sensitive way to start this sort of conversation. But hey, cut him some slack. He didn’t have very much experience in arresting an employee. Dealing with Becky Lynn was the closest he’d come to this.

An exhausted sigh escaped him. “Diane, look at me.”

Thick, dark lashes swept up over brown eyes when she lifted her head.

“I like you,” he said gently. “You’re a good waitress. But it shouldn’t have come to this.”

Perspiration glistened Diane’s wide forehead. “I’m sorry, Chase,” she replied in a hoarse whisper. “I didn’t mean to betray you.”

No explanation. Not that he expected one. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Her reasons why didn’t change what she’d done.

With a shake of his head, Chase stood and approached his father again. “What’s going to happen to her? You’re not pressing charges are you?”

Martin’s gray eyes darkened. “She’s in handcuffs, Chase.”

“I saw that but...” He tossed a glance at Diane. “Don’t you think she’s learned her lesson already? Come on, Dad. Her husband’s unemployed. What’ll happen to her kids if she goes to jail?”

“She can’t go unpunished. Besides, I doubt she’ll spend that much time in jail, anyway.”

“The amount of time she spends in irrelevant. How do you think she’ll find a job after she has a criminal record?”

Martin wrapped thick fingers over Chase’s shoulder. “This business is my livelihood, son. I have to protect it.”

Chase shook his head. A heavy weight had settled over his shoulders. “There has to be a way to resolve this that doesn’t end up with her in jail.”

Both Martin’s white brows flew up his forehead. “Such as?”

“Suspend her for a little while and garnish her wages.” He tossed a glance around the dining room. “I don’t have the heart to watch Diane walk away in handcuffs.”

“Chase...” Martin led them near a wall so they could continue their disagreement in semi-private. “I know you like Diane and have a soft spot for her, but she deceived both of us. One of these days if you ever end up owning your own restaurant you can do whatever you want with your employees. But I built this place from the ground up. I won’t take this kind of risk with it. I’m sorry.” A softness settled over his father’s faded gray eyes. “This is the way it has to be.”

Of course, Chase understood that. Never would he intentionally ask his father to risk his own business. If he’d been in the old man’s shoes, Chase no doubt would have done the same thing. The shock and disbelief that had washed over him after seeing Diane had thrown his sensible thinking for a loop. No matter how much he liked her, Diane had broken the law and lied to them.

Chase threw one more glance at the waitress. One of the officers grasped her elbow and lifted her to her feet. “You’re right,” he said to his father. “I’ll tell Anita when she comes in.”

“I’ll leave it up to the two of you to explain this to the staff. In the meantime, go home and get some more sleep.”

Chase didn’t stick around to watch Diane being taken away. Seeing her in handcuffs was wrenching enough. How had he not seen this? How could one of his best waitresses have been stealing right under his nose? He’d been so convinced of his father’s paranoia and keeping him placated that Chase ignored all the signs. Of course now, it made sense. Woman’s husband loses job. Woman falls on hard times. Woman gets desperate. Maybe the possibility of getting caught never even occurred to Diane. The woman had five mouths to feed. She probably thought if she could sneak one or two pieces of steak, maybe some bread and a little extra cash, she’d be able to float her family through until they got back on their feet.

They say money, or lack of it, had a way of changing a person. Diane must have gotten to the point where the hopelessness was too much to handle. Maybe in her mind she didn’t have any other choice. She was just a mother who didn’t want to see her children starve. While Chase couldn’t relate, he could see how that would push a person to do something stupid. But should she be arrested for it?

Chase pushed through the restaurant’s front doors and walked across the parking lot to his car. The sky was still black as midnight overhead. Would Lacy have woken up by now and found his note? No, he’d bet she was still sound asleep, not even aware that he’d slipped out. She’d been so emotionally drained after her outburst she’d probably doze for the next two days. The rest would do her some good. Lacy was one of those people who rarely took time for herself. Over the next several months, before the baby came, Chase would see that Lacy got plenty of rest.

He started up his truck and exited the parking lot. A shower and change of clothes was absolute music to his ears.
 
So why was he headed back to Lacy’s so he could crawl back into bed with her?

Twenty-One

Because I’m in love with you
.

Had Chase really said that to her? Or had her over-worked mind conjured it up as she’d drifted off to sleep? Of course, she hoped it was the former but she had no idea for sure. It also could have been a really, really good dream. One where Chase was hopelessly in love with her and wanted to marry her for real and not because he’d impregnated her. She wanted something more than him showing up after work and dragging her off to bed.

All the pretending and keeping their affair secret had taken its toll on her and probably hadn’t been the best decision to begin with. Her interaction with Brody last week made her realize that. In her roundabout way of protection herself, she’d hurt her closest friend and come between two brothers. How had it gotten so out of hand?

She rolled onto her back on the mattress and ran her eyes down Chase’s note again.
Something came up at the restaurant. I’ll explain later.
What could possibly have happened at the restaurant at this hour?

Lacy gave up trying to sleep and rolled out of bed. Sometime after she slipped into slumber, Chase had removed most of her clothes and pulled the sheets up over her. The fact that he’d tucked her into bed and hadn’t tried to make love to her had her heart turning over even more. A few occasions in the past, they’d hadn’t even made it to the bedroom before he all but pounced on her. What was so different about last night? Is that what men did when they were in love? Chase had shown an endearing side of himself last night, one she’d never seen before. Their picnic by the Green River came close but that wasn’t really the same. Was that when she’d fallen for him? In the months past, Chase had done a damn good job of showing that animalistic side of him. The one that practically trembled while he peeled her clothes off then gave her no reprieve before taking her again.
 
Not that she was complaining. Lacy certainly enjoyed that side of him. But the part of him that refused to let her put up her walls and dug deep enough into her psyche to see the real her was what she cherished more than anything else.

 
Lacy pulled on a soft cotton robe and padded barefoot down the hallway. She flipped on the kitchen light and brewed some of the decaffeinated coffee she’d purchased last week. Coffee was the crux of her life but the last thing she wanted was to pump her baby full of caffeine. She figured a good compromise was to settle for some decaf.

She’d inhaled half the cup when the front door slowly opened and Chase stepped through.

“You’re up early,” he said in that rich baritone of his.

“I couldn’t go back to sleep.” She set the mug on the table. “What happened?”

He shook his head and trudged across the wood floor. “Trust me, you won’t want to hear about it.”

“That’s decaf,” she announced just before he poured some coffee into a mug.

He paused with the cup below his mouth. “Whatever,” he muttered, and then his throat muscles worked up and down as he took a long sip.

“Tell me.” Whatever happened had been more than just a routine check-in at work. The deep worry lines stretching across Chase’s forehead and the hard set of his square jaw spoke of an unpleasant experience to say the least.

The rickety dining chair creaked under Chase’s weight when he lowered himself. “Diane was the one stealing.”

The hot liquid she’d just sipped into her mouth got caught in her throat. A few coughs and swallows managed to keep the coffee from coming out her nose. After regaining her composure, Lacy set the cup down and looked at Chase. “Tell me you’re joking.”

His blue eyes stared into hers. “I wish I was.”

So why would he have to go down there this early in the morning? “She got caught breaking into the restaurant didn’t she?” Lacy asked as the realization hit her.

“My father caught her. She’d stolen Henry’s keys.”

Diane? The same rosy-cheeked, always-smiling woman was the one who’d been stealing food and money? Never would Lacy have guessed that Diane of all people was the one Chase had been looking for this whole time.

“I don’t understand,” was all she could say.

“Who knows what was going through her head. She didn’t have very much to say.”

Lacy lifted her gaze to Chase’s again. “You saw her?”

Chase nodded his head. “She was in handcuffs waiting to be taken away.” He paused to take a sip of coffee. “For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what to say to her. I kept getting the feeling that words would be useless.”

Lacy lifted a shoulder. “In some situations they are.”

“How could I have not seen it?”

She placed a hand on his forearm. “You did everything you could. Who in the world would have suspected Diane anyway?”

A snort popped out of his mouth. “Henry did.”

“You said when you talked to Diane she seemed just unlikely as everyone else.”

Chase shook his head. “If I would have talked to Henry sooner I might have been able to get to Diane sooner.”

“And then done what? Chase, stop beating yourself up. Things like this happen all the time. Diane was obviously very good at covering her tracks.” Even after talking about it, picturing Diane stealing was like picturing Santa Claus stealing. “The only thing you can do is be glad that it’s over and move on.” Then a disturbing though occurred to her. “What if she goes to jail? Her family won’t have any income coming in.”

Chase ran a hand over his scruffy face. “That’s what bothers me the most. I know it’s my father’s restaurant and it’s his decision to make. But I don’t think Diane deserves to go to jail.”

“She doesn’t.” There had to be something Lacy could do, some way to help this poor family who couldn’t seem to catch a break. She knew first-hand what it was like to grow up with practically nothing. “I think I’m going to give some of my mother’s money to them.”

Chase set down his coffee cup and glanced at her. “Diane’s family?”

“Yeah. She was just trying to take care of her kids. I can’t stand the thought of keeping all that money for myself, when there are others who need it more.”

Chase’s warm, callused palm settled on her cheek. The contact heated her from the inside out. “You have such a soft heart.”

“I can’t stand the thought of kids having nothing.”

They gazed at each other for a few intense moments. Then he removed his hand from her face. “To be honest, I don’t want to talk or think about Diane. Are you feeling a little better about last night?”

You mean when you said you were in love with me?
Did she dare bring that up in case he really meant it?

She tucked some free hair behind her ear. “I’m okay.”

He leaned back in his chair. “I don’t want to say I told you so, or anything.”

She narrowed her eyes at him then twirled her mug around. “At the risk of making your ego any bigger, you were right. I needed that.”

One corner of his mouth kicked up. “I knew it wasn’t something you’d do without being forced.”

She ran her gaze over the dented and chipped dining table. “I kept telling myself I should read it, but I don’t think I ever had any intention of doing so. Now I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, like I can finally let her go.”

The back of his index finger drifted down her cheek. “You should have let her go a long time ago.”

The delicate caress of his finger had her heart dancing inside her chest. He trailed it along her jaw line, and her mouth where he’d dropped his attention.
 
“Did you mean what you said last night?”

He cupped her chin and traced his thumb along her lower lip. “You mean about being in love with you?”

The feel of his rough hand on her soft skin made the words tumble over in her brain so she nodded.

“Of course.”

The words were said so matter-of-factly like she should have known without having to ask him.

“I know you love me, so you might as well say it,” he said without giving her a chance to reply. He grinned.

How was it he was always so sure of himself? For as long as she’d known him, Chase always seemed to know what would come out of her mouth before she even said the words. Like last night, he knew she needed that release from her mother before she knew she needed it. And now, he was so sure she loved him when she hadn’t told him.

“You already know I do.”

He pinched her chin. “Just waiting to hear you say it.”