Chapter Twenty
chapter-seperator
WAS SHE ready to discover the truth?
Gwynn turned her back to Cash sitting on the bench. Stacking her hands atop her head, she stared at the mountains in the distance. A few sun rays poked through the clouds, piercing the snow-drenched peaks like a Thomas Kincaid painting. If she copied the scene onto canvas, no one would believe it was real.
“In case it matters,” Cash added when she didn’t respond, “you don’t have to face the past alone.”
His words pierced her gloomy insides like the sun rays, and her eyebrows rose as she faced him. “You’d help me?”
“Of course. What kind of gentleman would I be to abandon you now?”
“A smart one.”
“A disobedient one.” Cash’s knee bounced several times. “When I arrived at the Davisons’ yesterday, Dani’s plea kept playing in my head, asking me to look for any signs that you might be Hadley. As I prayed for clarity and discernment, God told me to stand by you.”
She retook her seat. “Stand by me?”
“Yeah. That’s all He said.” Cash looked at her. “I haven’t done a good job of that since learning who you truly are. I’m sorry. I promise to start making up for it.”
Her eyes smarted. “Thanks,” she whispered.
“Things will work out.” Cash wrapped an arm about her shoulders and pulled her close. “You’ll see.”
Gwynn sank against his side with a groan. “But will things work out the way I want?”
“I don’t believe God brought you back into our lives just to send you to prison.”
She tucked her head under his chin, the warmth of his body spreading into hers. He smelled of wood and stain and fresh air. “How did you know to find me in the graveyard?”
“I was leaving Verdie’s Vittles, about to head the Davisons’, when I noticed a guy in a red plaid jacket and thought he might’ve been your guy in the red plaid jacket. I called to him, but he ignored me and turned down this side street. When I tried to catch up with him, he’d already disappeared.”
“He tends to do that.”
“Then I saw Charlie Parker standing on the sidewalk, staring into the cemetery. Staring at you.” Gwynn shivered and Cash rubbed her arm. “Charlie was one of your dad’s ‘partners in crime,’ wasn’t he?”
She nodded against his shoulder.
“Did he ever … hurt you?”
“No, thank goodness.”
“He disappeared after the authorities questioned him about the murders. Didn’t return until about six months ago.”
“I saw him on my way to the workshop Tuesday morning. I didn’t recognize him at first, but he seemed to recognize me, despite my denials. He started fishing for information.”
“Do you think he wants something from you?”
She pressed her mittened hands between her knees. “The money? I hid it but can’t remember where. Isn’t that what you also want?”
His arm stiffened around her shoulders. “Except in my case, the money was rightfully my dad’s.”
Yet Mr. Cooper had found it on her father’s ranch land, so technically it had belonged to Alex. What would Cash think about that, if she pushed the issue? “Will you take me to the ranch?”
“Your ranch? The AJ Ranch?”
“It’s not mine, but yes, if the crime happened there, and I witnessed it, then maybe that’s the first place I should visit.” And if she regained her memories, then they could find the money and then … what? Split it? Burn it? Give it away?
“There’s one problem.” Cash straightened, forcing her to sit up, and the cold air rushed in. “We don’t know who owns the ranch anymore. It went to probate since the title was in Alex’s name alone, and he had no remaining kin and no will. Had he left the ranch to your mom, it might have gone to the Forresters, considering Dani and Vivian were sisters, but he didn’t, so it didn’t.” Cash leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “The ranch eventually sold to an outsider, though no one ever moved into it.”
“It’s been sitting empty for almost a decade? That’s perfect.”
“No,” he said slowly. “Empty or not, we’d be trespassing if we snooped around without permission.”
“But if no one’s living there to catch us snooping …” Gwynn slipped her hands under her legs and swung her feet. “It’s not like we’d break in or anything. If the door’s locked, we’ll peek through the windows.”
He shifted on the bench to meet her gaze. “And if the door is unlocked?”
Gwynn looked up and away.
Cash chuckled. “I see your penchant for bending the rules hasn’t changed.”
“So … will you take me?”
His lips compressed, and he kneaded the back of his neck. “It might have to wait until after church on Sunday. I’m supposed to meet Gramps at the park soon, to help set up our kiosk for the Christmas Jam. That’ll take us well into the evening, and tomorrow I’ll be manning the booth all day.”
“And I fly back on Monday, so Sunday it is.” Gwynn stood, the invisible weight on her shoulders easing with this new plan.
“Is it bad form to pray we don’t get caught when we’re knowingly doing something wrong?”
“You don’t have to go with me.” She tugged him to his feet and gave a playful smile. “I just need your wheels to get me there. If you lend me your keys, then you can stay out of it altogether.”
“That’s all I’m good for, huh? A set of wheels?”
She poked his bicep through his coat sleeve. “Your strength might come in handy if the door’s stuck.”
Cash laughed, shaking his head. “It seems I’ll have to go, if only to keep you out of trouble.” Slinging his arm around her shoulders again, he pivoted her toward the street. “You owe me one, Hadley-Gwynn-Jacobs-Sadler. Hey, I know—you can help me set up for the jamboree.”
“I can’t show my face everywhere.” She ducked from under his arm as they turned down the sidewalk. “I might fool many people, but until my memories come back, I don’t want to bring attention to myself. After what you shared the other night, Uncle Russ now thinks our fathers’ murders might be a nasty case of greed and revenge, no other killer needed, but I’m not taking any chances.”
“All right. I can respect that.”
Good-natured shouts and laughter and the hum of power tools carried over the frosty air from Bentley Park. Cash took her mittened hand as they walked, like he’d done the other day.
“How about this?” he asked. “Do you recall the dance that finishes out the Christmas Jamboree every year? Promise you’ll save me a song or two tomorrow night.”
“That’s not a good idea, either.”
“Why not?”
“Because it prolongs the inevitable.”
“Which is?”
“You—me—going our separate ways.” She tugged her hand, but his grip tightened.
“Here I thought God was aligning our paths.”
“For closure.”
“Closure on some things. Open doors on others.” Cash held her hand to his chest and glanced at her sideways. “Don’t shut me out, Hadley.”
She wrenched free and upped her pace. “That’s the second time today you’ve called me by that name.”
“Doggone—I’m sorry!” He hurried after her and hooked a hand around her arm, coaxing her to a stop. Red stained his cheeks. “I’m sorry, Gwynn . But even though you go by a different name, you’re still … the same girl I fell in love with.”
“No, I’m not. It’s been almost ten years, Cash—we’ve changed.” She stared over his shoulder at the people going about their different tasks in the park. They’d moved on without her, and she without them. “You loved me then,” she murmured, “but you don’t love me as I am now.”
“You’ve changed for the better. How could I not end up loving you?”
Gwynn met his gaze, and he gave her a boyish grin. She rolled her eyes and continued walking.
“There’s still a connection between us you can’t deny.” Cash came alongside her and matched her stride. “Why else would I be so enthralled with a girl I thought I’d just met who lived two thousand miles away?” He pulled ahead of her, spinning about to walk backward. “Why else would I have felt like I’d known you for years when ‘reality’ said otherwise?”
“It doesn’t matter. I won’t put myself in a position where I hurt you like I did before.”
“Great. I admire a proactive woman. So, about the dance tomorrow night—”
“No, I don’t mean I won’t hurt you. I mean I won’t get close to you, where I could hurt you again.” She turned down an alley between two houses to avoid the park. Being with Cash would draw too much unwanted attention.
Cash followed. “I know what you meant. I’m choosing to ignore it and hope to convince you otherwise.”
“You’re impossible.”
He pulled her to a stop a second time and looked down at her. Her tummy tripped as usual at the jolt of his blue irises. “Are you seeing someone else?” he asked.
“Of course not.”
“But you love someone else.”
She snorted. “No.”
“You’re interested in someone else.”
“ No .”
His mouth crooked at one corner. “So, about this dance tomorrow night …”
Gwynn chewed the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling, but it must have reflected in her eyes because Cash grinned wide enough for them both.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’” He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and Gwynn inhaled a greedy breath of his woodsy scent. Backing away, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve got to go help Gramps, but I will see you tomorrow.”
She resumed her walk in the opposite direction, winding the ends of her scarf around her hands. Her emotions undulated like a Mallard caught in the waves made by a Boston Duck Tour.
Selfishly, she wanted to let Cash win her heart. To flourish beside him for as long as this season of life allowed. But what would happen come the next season of life? What if it brought more problems than solutions? What if she failed him? Or he came to regret choosing her, like her dad had with her mom? What if—
She made a face and yanked the scarf. How she wished she could shut off her brain!
“Lord, help me convince Cash that he needs to move on and choose another girl,” she grumbled, emerging from the alleyway half a block from the Davisons’ house. “And shield my heart so I’m not compelled to give in to his charm.”
Cash deserved so much more than she had to offer.