Chapter 26
He’d seen her standing outside the bank, smiling.
Laughing, actually—he’d heard her as Brody ran away.
Sweet, he’d thought, and for a few seconds, all the pain and anger had drained from her, and he saw the girl he’d once known standing there.
Then Miriam Sutton had attacked her. He’d been about to intervene, but Leah had stood up for herself, and then Dee had.
But he’d needed to say something to ensure that bitch never came after her again.
Dan was pretty sure that woman would be lodging a complaint with Uncle Asher, but he could cope with that.
“You okay, Leah?”
She nodded. “You shouldn’t have done that. Protected me, I mean.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not worth it, making enemies like her.” She was still watching Miriam Sutton walk away.
“You are worthy of my time every day, Leah. And worthy of my protection. I won’t stand for anyone speaking to you like she did.”
Her eyes moved to his face.
“When are you going to believe you are worth five of that bitch?”
She looked away again.
“That woman was born to hate. Don’t give her anymore of your time.”
“I guess old habits are hard to break. I don’t want that for Hudson,” she said softly.
“That won’t happen. He has people in his corner, plus Ally. She’s fierce.”
“I know,” she said, still looking down the street.
“When are you going to understand that people in Lyntacky are here for you, too, Leah? They are your friends and want to support you.”
She looked so small and vulnerable standing there. Dan wanted to hold her and tell her everything was going to be all right. Instead, he said, “Can we talk?”
She looked wary now. “About what?”
“I’m not discussing it here on the main street. I think we’ve created enough of a disturbance for now.”
She was clutching a bag to her chest. Dan knew what was in it because he’d been there when his family had discussed asking her to play.
“Please, Leah. Just give me a few minutes.”
“I’m meeting my uncle after Tai Chi. Is this about what was in my barn? Do you have news about that?”
“They have awhile to go yet. My mom’s at the Tai Chi, too, and yes, I can let you know what we’ve found out so far.”
She nodded, though he knew she was trying to find a good reason to walk away from him, and then she surprised him by saying, “Okay. What did you want to say to me?”
“Come on, we’ll get a coffee. I’m not talking here.”
She hesitated, so he began walking, and thankfully heard her footsteps following. Not close enough that their hands or arms brushed—no, there were at least two feet between them as they moved. They reached the Swing Through Cafe, and he nudged her inside ahead of him through the open door.
“Take the stairs up, and we’ll have privacy. At this time of the day, it won’t be busy.”
“I can listen here,” she said, stopping just inside the door.
“I don’t want to discuss your family’s business here,” Dan said and knew that would get her moving. Leah had grown up with people talking about her, and he knew she’d hated that.
“You want coffee?” Ryder asked as they passed him at the counter, his eyes giving away nothing of the curiosity Dan was sure he was feeling.
“Leah?” Dan asked. She nodded, and Dan held up two fingers to his brother.
They climbed, and thankfully no one was up here. He led her outside to a table on the deck overlooking the river and pulled out her chair.
“This is nice,” Leah said in a tight voice.
“Very. We worked hard to get this place where it is today.”
She shot him a look but didn’t question him further.
“What do you want to say to me, Dan? Have they found whoever is responsible?” Leah sat.
“We’ll get to that. I want to explain what happened seven years ago.”
“No.”
“I had just started on the force, as you know. I was a young rookie trying to prove myself,” Dan explained, ignoring her.
“Dan—”
“Just listen,” he said with more force than he’d intended. “Please.”
“I don’t want to talk about that time.” She regained her feet.
Dan did the same and grabbed her wrist so she couldn’t move.
“For us to have any kind of relationship, we need to talk about this. So please, sit and listen; that’s all I’m asking of you. I need to say this, and if you leave, I’ll follow and talk at you even if it’s in the main street.”
She jerked her wrist free and nodded. Leah then sat and crossed her arms. Closing herself off from him, Dan thought.
“I knew we were looking into your father long before we arrested him, but I was told not to say anything to you.”
She looked past him at the water below. But she was listening, and that was all he wanted from her in that moment.
“When I was told that we had enough to move on him, I asked if I could alert you and Cassie. My uncle said no because your loyalty may have made you tip him off,” Dan continued.
He’d asked his uncle yesterday if he could speak to Leah about what had happened back then, and he’d agreed. He’d also not asked questions, thankfully.
“Choosing between you, my girl, and doing my job tore me apart.” Her eyes came back to his.
“I knew it would hurt and scare you. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy on you and Cassie, but I thought with my help and that of my family and the community, we’d get through it after I’d done what I had to,” Dan said.
“And how was I to get through having people take my father away in cuffs?” Her voice was low and angry now.
“I may not have liked or respected him, but to watch that happen in our home was devastating. Then the feds went through everything, leaving the house in a mess. People I didn’t know, not even local cops, combed every inch of my things and then just left.
Cassie alternated between crying and shaking. ”
But not you, Dan thought. You’d have been the strong sister. “The feds took it out of our hands when they arrived, Leah. After that, they didn’t allow us near your house. The operation your dad was involved in was statewide. I tried to call you, but you wouldn’t answer.”
“Would you?” she shot back, her voice trembling now. “Our life imploded. Everything we knew was gone, and the one person I thought I could lean on felt like a stranger. Like a traitor.”
“Never a traitor,” he said, leaning closer.
Her throat worked as she swallowed, and for a moment he thought she might look away. Instead, her gaze held his, filled with old hurt.
“I know that now. Or at least…the part of me that can think straight does. But back then, all I saw was betrayal. And maybe”—she exhaled shakily—“maybe I was wrong to run before I let you explain. Maybe I was too quick to put all the blame on you. But I was drowning, Dan. Leaving was the only way I knew how to survive.”
Dan’s chest tightened. It wasn’t forgiveness, but it was more than she’d ever given him.
“I lied when I said I left to follow my dreams,” she added, softer now.
“I left because I couldn’t breathe here.
Because staying meant living with the whispers and the wreckage he left behind, and I wasn’t strong enough for that.
So when Cassie had a chance to go, I went too.
And for the first time, I wasn’t ‘that Reynolds girl.’ I was nobody, and it felt like freedom. ”
Dan could see the hurt she still felt. He’d known what people once said about the Reynolds, and he and his family had done their best to shut the haters down.
“When he was arrested, all I could think about was running because it felt like you, the only person other than Cassie who seemed to care about me, had betrayed me.”
“Did care about you very much,” Dan added.
“I needed to leave Lyntacky and the pain behind,” Leah continued.
“So when Cassie told me she’d met a tourist that summer, and he’d invited her to come visit, I knew I had nothing left to stay for, so I went with her.
She fell for him, so we stayed, and for the first time in my life, I was anonymous.
No one knew anything about me or my family. ”
“Me,” Dan said softly. “You had me to stay for.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I realized your job would always come first if you couldn’t even tell the woman you cared about what was going on.”
“Dammit, Leah, that’s not fair. I couldn’t,” Dan said. He’d done what he had to. His duty.
She looked down at the hands she now had clenched on the table. “I know,” she whispered. “The rational part of my brain knew that, but just once I wanted to be first in someone’s life, and I knew that would not be the case with you.”
“Leah, you never gave us a chance—”
“And I never will again. No man will have control over my happiness. Not you, or my father. Not anyone.” The last words came out whispered.
Dan heard the finality in them, and a fist clenched tight around his heart.
“We have to live in this town, Deputy, so let’s get on with doing that, but whatever we had is over and done with, and there will be no more sex.”
“We made love,” he said slowly.
“Whatever.”
Leah rose then and walked away from him again, and Dan let her. Her words burned inside his chest. No man had ever put her first. Had he? Or had he been too young to understand what she needed?
“What a mess,” Dan said, looking at the river. He watched one of the Slatters’s boats float by, full of tourists. He could hear their laughter from here.
“How’d that go?” Ryder nodded to Leah when Dan came back downstairs five minutes later. Leah was now seated with her uncle and, surprisingly, his mother.
“What?”
Ryder rolled his eyes. Dan got a blueberry-and-lemon scone out of the case and bit into it.
“No butter?” Ryder asked.
Dan ignored him.
“So, by that sour look on your face, I’m guessing things didn’t go well with the air clearing?”
“How do you know I was air clearing?” He took the mug of coffee his brother handed him.
“I came up the stairs with coffee and may or may not have overheard your conversation.”
“Which actually means you were eavesdropping.”
Ryder waved his words away. “You need to persist there, little bro. She’s hurting and still has the scars of her childhood, but you can be persistent. Youngest of five, you had to be. Plus, she’d be good for you.”
“You don’t know shit all about her, and suddenly she’s perfect?” Dan ignored the rest of his brother’s statement.
“I knew her before,” Ryder said, “and no one said she was perfect.”
“Knew who?”
“Where the hell did you come from? The door is that way, and I never saw you walk through it,” Dan said to Jay when he appeared.
“Libby’s making chocolate,” his friend said. “You look like you need a piece because your face is sour.”
Dan opened his mouth, and Jay threw a chocolate in, which surprisingly tasted good, even considering he’d been eating a scone.
“Good?”
“Banana, and I told her it tasted like banoffee pie,” Jay said.
“Nice to see you made an effort to dress up just to come into my cafe, Jay,” Ryder said.
His friend wore worn cutoffs with one leg longer than the other because it was ripped. His T-shirt had a stain down the front, and his hair was a mess and unbrushed.
“I have to dress nice to come in here?”
“I mean, just a bit of effort would be good so you don’t scare away the customers,” Ryder said. “You and Sawyer need JD’s style help.”
“I could wear a sack, and women would still love me,” Jay said.
Dan looked at Leah, who was smiling at something her uncle was saying. But just once, I want to be first in someone’s life. Those words hit him hard because while he’d had tough times in his life, people had always loved him. But not Leah. She didn’t feel like anyone but Cassie really loved her.
“Back to my question. Who did you know before, Ryder?” Jay asked.
“That would be telling,” he said, tapping his nose.
At least that was one thing about the members of his family: They never spilled secrets if they were important.
Dan’s eyes went back to Leah, and he wondered what to do about her.
He had to do something, that much he knew, because she was important to him and he wanted her in his life.
He just wasn’t sure how to convince her of that.