CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Cara
Several days later, I was in my childhood bedroom and having trouble falling asleep.
I’d gone to bed early knowing I had to get up in the morning and head back to Charleston.
The trip home to Wixby had been wonderful.
Edward and I had spent every possible minute together, but he’d had to work some, too.
When he was at the orchards, I mainly hung out with my family.
I also got caught up on some books I’d wanted to read, and I slept more than I had in a long time.
I was feeling more relaxed than I’d been in years. For the past several days there had been no practices to go to. I hadn’t had to hurry to get ready for a performance. I could just… be. The distance from Charleston had given me some much needed clarity.
I’d had the chance to meet with Mrs. Cason, my former dance teacher, and have a long discussion about what we both wanted or needed from a possible deal for me to buy her dance studio.
That had gone well, but I’d realized that my plan to dance for five more years wasn’t going to work.
She wanted to retire within a year or so.
I knew this was a great opportunity, and I was leaning more and more towards making a deal with her.
Just the thought of it was freeing. I loved dance, and I always would.
But it was becoming increasingly clear to me that I was ready for the next step in my career.
Teaching seemed to fit much more with my longtime goals than struggling to find another dance company at this point.
And teaching girls and boys to love dance like I always had? Well, that sounded perfect to me.
The past week had also made me feel like I was living in a bubble of safety.
I was home, surrounded by people who loved me, and I wasn’t having to deal with anything related to the Hart family.
There was no dodging Nora, or looking over my shoulder to make sure Monty was nowhere around.
It had been difficult talking to my parents about what was going on, but it had felt good to get it over with.
My dad had always liked Garrison, so I’d been worried about his reaction.
I shouldn’t have been. For a brief time, he’d had trouble believing that anyone in the Hart family could be capable of anything that wasn’t above board.
But the more he’d listened, the angrier he’d become.
And then he and Edward had bonded over their shared belief that I needed to get the hell out of Charleston.
Dad had been ready to grab a shotgun and head to the Hart estate immediately in search of Monty.
I’d talked him down from that. And Mom had several ideas on ways to put Nora in her place.
They were old school, ‘mean girl’ tricks she’d learned back in her pageant days, and there was no way I’d do any of them. I just wasn’t made that way.
By the time we’d finished talking about it, one thing was clear—no one was okay with me staying in Charleston until May.
At first Dad had insisted I come home immediately.
I had to remind him that I was a grown adult, and he couldn’t order me around.
It had been a bit tense. And it hadn’t helped that Edward was totally in agreement with him.
I was firm that the decision was mine, though.
We’d all talked it out and finally agreed that me ending my contract early and leaving in January was a good compromise.
Dad had also started working on an immediate shared calendar to make sure I had someone staying with me at least a couple of days a week each week until I came home.
Once I’d made the decision, I’d felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.
I knew I’d have to talk to Kelisha as soon as I got back, but I also knew she’d be supportive. Maybe even relieved.
So, changes were coming, and I was both nervous and excited. That’s why it had taken me so long to get to sleep. But once I fell asleep, I’d slept hard.
***
I rolled over in bed. Something had woken me up. I frowned and yawned. It was probably just a dream.
Then I heard the sound.
Someone was trying to get in my window. My heart started pounding, and I sat up, frozen, my covers strewn about me. In flight, fight, or freeze situations, my stupid body almost always chose the latter, and I hated it.
I bit my lip and tried to push myself out of the ‘deer in headlights’ reaction. I had to stop whoever was outside my window. If it even really was a person.
“It’s probably a possum,” I said to myself.
That’s when I saw the shadow.
It wasn’t a possum. I clapped my hand over my mouth.
A man was right outside my window, crouched in the huge old oak tree there.
His outline was clear, with the moon behind him, and visible through the sheer lacy curtains that hung there.
All kinds of thoughts started going through my sleep-addled mind.
First, I thought it was Monty Hart here to force me to come away with him and marry him. Second, I worried it was Eric Hightower. He was coming for me because his intention to kill me with those theater lights had failed.
And then something really important penetrated my foggy brain.
The curtains were moving with the nighttime breeze.
My window wasn’t closed.
That made me move. I got up, clutching the first thing I could find in my hand, and ran towards the window. I was in a fight to get there before the intruder could push his way inside.
“No,” I cried, as I saw one of his arms breach the curtains, his hand grasping the side of the window jamb. I rushed forward just as his head became semi-visible. I swung whatever was in my hand at his head as hard as I could.
It connected.
“Fuck!” the intruder yelled out.
Then I used all my strength to try to push him backwards while pulling my window closed.
“Ouch, shit! Cara! What the fuck?” the man hissed, and there was something about that voice that made me stop and listen over the pounding of my heart.
“Edward?” I hurried back to the window, breathing hard. “Edward?” I stuck my head through the curtains and gasped at the scene before me. “Oh my God.”
I’d pushed Edward out of my window completely, and he was in a precarious position, barely hanging onto one of the thick oak branches that almost touched my window.
“Help me,” he said, his voice strained as he struggled to hang on.
“Hold on.”
I turned back into my room and dropped whatever I’d hit him with. It plunked softly on the floor. I frowned and stared at it. It was my old teddy bear, long since relegated to sleep in an old wicker rocking chair I’d confiscated from the attic in my teen years.
I blinked at it for a second before looking for the old fire safety ladder my dad had insisted we all have in our upper story bedrooms ‘just in case’. We’d all thought he was over the top when he’d put them in our rooms several years ago, but I was glad to have it now.
“Here,” I said, dropping it out the window and affixing it to the edge of the frame like I’d been shown so many years ago. Dad had made us run a few drills, so I knew what I was doing.
Edward grasped it and pulled himself up until he practically fell through the window.
His large body hitting the floor made a decidedly loud thunk, and my eyes widened.
I ran over to the door leading to the hallway and stuck my head out, looking around.
Not everyone was home, of course, but I figured the sound was loud enough to draw someone’s attention.
I just hoped it wouldn’t be my dad. Our talk earlier today had gone well, but I wasn’t sure how excited he’d be to find Edward in my bedroom even though we were both twenty-five.
I ran back over to him. He was lying prone on the floor. He hadn’t moved since he’d fallen through the window. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, lying there breathing hard. “I thought… I thought I was going to hit the ground. I thought you were going to kill me.”
“Oh, come on. I hit you with a teddy bear, Edward.”
“What?” He sat up and stared at me. “That wasn’t… a baseball bat or something?”
“No.” I lifted up my bear to show him.
He frowned. “But it hurt like hell,” he insisted, rubbing the side of his head.
“Maybe it’s his eyes. They’re big and made of that hard marble glass stuff.”
He stared at the bear. “It’s really not cool to almost get knocked out of the window by a teddy bear.”
“Yeah,” I coughed a little to hide some laughter. I was starting to realize the whole thing was kind of funny. Now that I knew I wasn’t about to get murdered and all. And that I hadn’t killed Edward.
“You’re also scary strong. Declan was right. Who knew ballet dancers’ arms would be so strong? I knew your legs were, but your arms…”
“I mean, I do work out six or more hours a day, six days a week and have for over ten years.”
“Huh. When you put it that way it makes a little more sense.”
“Come on. Let me help you up. I’m sorry I almost knocked you out of the tree. Why didn’t you text me you were coming over?” I asked as I helped him up off the floor.
“I did,” he grasped my hand. “You didn’t answer.”
“Oh. I put my phone in ‘Do Not Disturb’ at ten each night so I can be sure I get my sleep before practice starts the next day. I haven’t added you to the list of people that it doesn’t apply to.”
“Makes sense.” He sat on the side of my bed, legs spread wide and pulled me to him. He rested his head on my shoulder. “I’m glad I didn’t die.”
I chuckled. “I don’t think you were in any danger.”
“Pretty sure I was,” he rubbed a spot on his head where the bear’s glass eye had hit him. It was already turning an angry purply-black color. It was obviously going to leave a bad bruise.
“What are you doing here, anyway?”
“You’re leaving tomorrow, and I couldn’t stand not to sleep with you in my arms tonight.”
I melted. “Come on,” I hopped up on my bed and patted the side next to me. “You just have to be gone before my dad comes to say goodbye in the morning, okay?”
He groaned. “How early does he get up?”
I bit my lip. “Really damn early. He’s a farmer, remember?”
He flopped back on the pillow next to me. “Ugh. This was stupid. You almost killed me tonight, and if I sleep through my alarm, your dad will kill me in the morning. The past couple of days should have been called ‘death by Hargrave’.”
“Oh, come on. It hasn’t been that bad. The worst part was having to convince him the Hart family is up to no good.”
Edward sat up and looked at me. “Were you at the same dinner I was? Because your dad threatened to quote, ‘fuck me up,’ if I ever made you cry again. I know Declan and Aidan have both said the same thing, but it had a different ring to it when it came out of your dad’s mouth.”
I grimaced. “That was kind of bad.”
“Hell, yeah, it was. I mean, I would do the same if I had a daughter, I’m sure, but still. I just wish he knew me better.”
“He does,” I soothed. “Believe me, if he didn’t think you were wonderful, there’s no way he’d let you back into the family.”
“And that was letting me back in?”
“Absolutely.”
“Oh. Well,” he got a pleased grin on his face, “that makes it okay then.”
“I know another way to make it okay,” I giggled and pounced on him, straddling his waist with my thighs.
“We can’t!” Edward hissed at me, sitting up and grabbing me around the waist. “If I’m caught in here after that talk we had, I think he might kill me.”
“Shh,” I said and started kissing him until the two of us fell back on the bed together.
And after a few minutes, he didn’t seem to care as much if anyone caught him.