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“Of course you were,” she said earnestly. “But you didn’t run. Rather than face the charges, my father skipped town and let everyone else pick up the pieces.”
Peter sighed noisily and the tortured look on his face said he knew that he, too, had let her down. “Carly, I can’t imagine all you’ve been through the past ten years. But no matter how much resentment you have toward your father, you’re a kind, forgiving person. I think if there’s a chance that your father is innocent, you’d want to give him an opportunity to prove it.”
She studied his face. Was Peter flattering her in the hope that her forgiveness would extend to him as well? Or did this man know her well enough to see inside her heart?
Carlotta wet her lips. “Did Daddy say he would call again?”
“Yes, but he didn’t say when.”
“Did he say where he was?”
“I asked, but he wouldn’t tell me. He did seem to be keeping up with local events. He, uh, knew about Angela and offered condolences.”
And did her father suspect that Peter wanted to rekindle their flame? Was he betting on Peter’s feelings for her to fuel Peter’s attempts to help him? A sick feeling settled in her stomach. “Does he know about me and Wesley, about what’s going on in our lives?”
Peter hesitated. “He didn’t say.”
She took a quick drink from her cup to mask the sudden tears.
Peter squeezed her fingers again. “He’s alive, Carly. That’s something. And I didn’t know your father that well, but it’s unfair for me to judge him for walking out on you, when I did the same thing.” His blue eyes were shadowed with pain. “I know how my actions have haunted me. I can only imagine that your father, too, has deep regrets.”
Her heart shifted in her chest. She desperately wished that her failed relationship with Peter wasn’t so entwined with her parents’ disappearance, because sitting here with him and feeling the hope radiating from him, she could be lulled into thinking that repairing her relationship with Peter and her relationship with her parents was possible.
Even desirable.
Did that make her an optimist, or an idiot?
“What do you say?” Peter murmured, and she had the distinct feeling that he was asking her to give him and her father both a chance to prove themselves.
5
Carlotta’s mind raced as she stared across the restaurant table at Peter, patiently waiting for her response as to whether she planned to tell the police that her father had called both of them. Unsaid words burned the back of her tongue—a decade’s worth of pent-up conversations she hadn’t been able to have with her father. Or with Peter.
How could you leave me? Where have you been? Do you think that I’m like a book that you can stop reading, put away for years and then pick up where you left off? There is a hole in my heart in the shape of you.
“Whatever you decide, Carly,” Peter said earnestly. “I’ll support you any way I can.”
Meaning that one word from her and Peter would either help Randolph Wren in his supposed quest for exoneration or nail him to the wall.
As often as she had wished her father safe, Carlotta had fantasized about seeing him squirm, seeing him publicly held accountable, robbed of his freedom—like his disappearance had robbed her of her freedom.
But while running out on his children was reprehensible, it wasn’t a crime. He and her mother had left Wesley with her, and legally, she’d been an adult. The sudden responsibility had been staggering, but she’d gotten through each day by telling herself that her parents would return before nightfall. Slowly the days had turned into weeks and months, then years, until one day she’d realized that their parents weren’t coming back and that she and Wesley were somehow, astonishingly, surviving. But every time she’d watched Wesley reach a milestone—winning first place in the science fair, struggling with his voice changing, getting his driver’s license, being fitted for his prom tux—her resentment toward her parents had magnified.
Sometimes she thought that she hated her parents. But was she willing to see them go to jail?
“I need to think about it,” she said finally. “I’m having a hard time trying to absorb everything.”
“That’s understandable,” Peter soothed.
“I’ll call you.” She folded her napkin and put it on her plate. “Thanks for the coffee, Peter.”
“I’ll walk you to your car.”
“I’m on Marta.” Carlotta doubted that Peter had ever ridden the city’s public train system—too many germs and no cup holders. “My car’s in the shop being painted from when I was side-swiped.” By the same person who had murdered Peter’s wife.
A similar thought must have gone through his mind because his mouth tightened. “Then let me drive you home.”
She hesitated.
“Maybe I’ll be able to recall something else from your father’s call.”
He had to know how irresistible that tidbit would be. “Okay,” she conceded.
After leaving several bills on the table, he guided her toward the mall exit nearest the valet stand. His hand hovered at the small of her back, grazing her often enough to dredge up memories of when they had made love as teenagers.
At the time, she’d thought she might combust from the sheer ecstasy of being in his arms. In their circle of friends, they had been the it couple: good-looking, rich and head over heels in love. Their future seemed golden. Carlotta hadn’t even considered a plan B. When her parents had skipped town and Peter had dumped her and the rest of her supposed friends had fallen away, she had been set emotionally adrift … a scared kid, ill-equipped to finish raising herself, much less a nine-year-old boy. How many days had she longed for Peter’s comforting presence next to her, like this?
Within minutes, Peter’s navy blue Porsche arrived and he held open the door of the low-slung decadent car for her. Carlotta lowered herself gingerly into the leather seat that wrapped her in a buttery soft cocoon. She reached for her shoulder belt, but Peter’s hand was already there, pulling the strap across her body and fastening the belt with a click. He smiled at her as if to say that if she stayed with him, he would make sure she was safe. Closing her door with a soft thunk, he strode around the front of the car, gave the valet a tip that would cover her lunch budget for a week, then swung into his own seat with practiced ease. They pulled away with the smooth growl of a perfectly engineered motor.
In the cozy intimacy of the two-seater, it was impossible not to be affected by Peter’s nearness, the way his long body sprawled in the seat, the way his thick blond hair fell onto his forehead, the precise angles of his handsome profile. She knew this man intimately and he knew her body just as well.
The one sobering image was visualizing Angela sitting in this seat only weeks before, unaware that her life would come to such an abrupt and tragic end. Although the woman had indulged some of her darker whims, she hadn’t deserved to die. And Carlotta was haunted by the knowledge that Angela had died knowing that her husband carried a picture of Carlotta in his wallet.
Perhaps in deference to the decision she faced, Peter didn’t press her for conversation and instead slid in a Jack Johnson CD and turned up the volume. Dusk was descending early on this ominously overcast day, prompting motorists to flip on their lights. A stiff wind ruffled the riotously blooming crape myrtle trees in the median, sending bright pink blossoms across the flared hood of the Porsche. Sunday afternoon traffic around the mall area was as heavy as her mood.
But soon the mellow music began to calm Carlotta’s ragged nerves and she laid her head back against the headrest, and closed her eyes.
She didn’t want to watch as they left the exclusive area of Buckhead and entered the more shabby section of the city where she and Wesley lived in a town house. She just wanted to listen to the music and imagine that her life had turned out exactly as she’d planned.
In her mind, she and Peter were married and on their way home to their sprawling residence in a gated community where they would relieve their nanny, then tuck in their beautiful children before retiring to the hot tub with a fifty-dollar bottle of wine and making love with a passion that contradicted how long they had been together.
A touch to her hand startled her and her eyes flew wide open. The music had dimmed and the car had stopped.
“We’re here,” he said quietly.
In the falling dusk, the car headlights illuminated a garage door with peeling paint and a driveway riddled with cracks and stray weeds. Embarrassment welled in her chest. She had let things go around the house. Wesley had repaired and cleaned the small deck in the back, but from the front it looked as if a low-class family inhabited the place.
If the shoe fits, wear it,she thought morosely.
Who was she kidding? If the shoe fit, she’d buy it with her employee discount.
Peter adjusted the rearview mirror and stared intently, then checked the side mirrors.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“It’s probably nothing. I just thought someone was following us.”
Her pulse picked up and she turned around in her seat. “You’re kidding.” Could her father be tailing them? Jack Terry? A loan shark? Good grief, the possibilities were endless.
“Like I said, it’s probably nothing. Or just a pesky reporter.”
“Have reporters really been following you?”
He shrugged. “A couple were parked outside the subdivision when I left this morning. Guess they wanted to get a shot of the bereaved husband. And I’m sure some of them aren’t quite convinced I had nothing to do with Angela’s … dying.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry? Like Detective Terry said, you’re the one who believed in me when no one else did. How can I ever thank you?”
She dipped her chin. “Your discretion in this matter with my father is thanks enough.”
“Carly,” Peter said, picking up her left hand. “It’s really none of my business but what did you do with the engagement ring I gave you?”
“I … had to sell it.”
He nodded. “As you should have. I suspect money was tight after your parents left.”
“It was. But actually, I didn’t sell it until a few weeks ago.” In the wake of Peter’s wife’s murder, the act of pawning the Cartier ring had been as necessary to her emotional security as to her financial security. Keeping it had made her feel as if she were leaving her heart ajar for him to walk back in.
“I see.” His voice was thick with disappointment.
“Peter, after running into you again … things were happening too fast between us. I had to do something to slow it down on my end. Pawning the ring helped me to sever ties to the past.”
He nodded again. “I understand. And I have no right to ask you but I hope that severing ties to our past doesn’t rule out us having a future.”
Her heart pounded furiously. How many nights had she lain awake dreaming of him returning to her like this, asking her to give their love another chance? “I don’t know about a future with you, Peter,” she said honestly. “As crazy as my life is, I can’t say anything for sure.”
He squeezed her hand. “Fair enough.” Then he nodded toward the dark windows of the town house. “Looks pretty quiet. Is Wesley working?”
“No. He’s spending the night with a friend.”
“Oh?”
The word vibrated with hope, sending a flush to Carlotta’s chest and face.
“I could stay,” he offered. “On the couch, of course. I don’t like the idea of you being alone tonight.”
It was the perfect excuse to be close to Peter, to spend time with him, for them to begin the process of getting to know each other again. He was the only person who could help her sort through this mess with her father. And truth be known, she didn’t want to be alone tonight. Plus she did have that one good bottle of red wine in the cabinet that she’d been waiting for an occasion to uncork.
She opened her mouth to say yes, but was distracted by the sudden appearance of headlights, then the revving of a diesel engine that brought Hannah Kizer’s big graffiti’d refrigerated van up next to them. The Goth-garbed and stripe-haired Hannah hung out the driver’s side window, arms waving, pierced tongue flapping.
“Do you know that … person?” Peter asked.
“Kind of,” Carlotta said with resignation. She lowered her window, half relieved, half irritated at her friend’s timing.
“What the hell happened to you?” Hannah shouted. “I called you back to tell you all about Coop making me a body mover, but your line was busy and then you didn’t answer all damn afternoon!”
“Lindy confiscated my phone.”
“The whore,” Hannah declared, then she narrowed her kohl-lined eyes at Peter. “Hope I interrupted something.”
“Peter gave me a ride home,” Carlotta said quickly, hoping Peter didn’t notice the open hostility rolling off Hannah toward the man who had broken Carlotta’s heart. “The Monte Carlo is in the shop.”
“I know,” Hannah said sourly. “I was going to swing by the mall and give you a ride, but I see Richie Rich beat me to it.”
Carlotta gave her friend a stern look. “Hannah, have you ever met Peter Ashford?”
“Only by reputation.” Hannah addressed Peter in a suspicious tone, “I attended your wife’s memorial service with Carlotta.”
“Peter, this is my friend Hannah Kizer.”
“Nice to meet you, Hannah.”
“Wish I could say the same.”
“Hannah!”
“It’s okay,” Peter broke in, putting his warm hand on Carlotta’s knee. “I’ll go. Will your friend stay with you tonight?”
Carlotta nodded.
“Call me to let me know what you decide.”
She was transfixed by the concern shining in his eyes. “I’ll call,” she murmured.
He leaned across the console and whispered, “I’m here for you, Carly,” then brushed a kiss near her ear.
The sound of Hannah clearing her throat rent the air. Carlotta gathered her purse and climbed out of the car, waving as Peter backed out of the driveway.
Hannah jumped out of the van and slammed the door. “Why the hell did you let him drive you home? His wife is barely dead.”
Carlotta frowned. “There’s no such thing as barely dead. And you’re being awfully judgmental for someone who makes it a practice not to date a man unless he’s wearing a wedding ring.”
“This is you we’re talking about. You don’t have my natural defenses.”
Or as some would say, her natural repellants. “Want to order a pizza?”
“I got an organic veggie lasagna in the back of the van. Will that do?”
“Sounds great.”
“Am I spending the night?”
“Would you mind?”
“Can I sleep with Wesley’s snake?”
“No. “
