скачать книгу бесплатно
Liam huffed out a laugh, pushing his agreement to the back of his mind where it was safer. “Lost? Tanya wouldn’t lose her way in the Amazon rain forest. She might have lost a little weight—”
“A little?” George snorted. “My Marian nearly had a seizure when she saw her. Wanted to know who Tanya was and why everyone was looking at her. You’re going to have to speak to Tanya, son. Find out what’s going on. She looks like she’s in some sort of trouble.”
Concern for the woman he’d once loved more than life itself squeezed Liam’s heart like a clenched fist around a piece of overripe fruit. “I’m not the right person to look after her. Not anymore.”
“Who says?”
“I say.” Impatience threatened and Liam fought to keep it in check.
He wasn’t the teenager who lost control anymore. That person was gone and a new man stood in his place. A man he liked. He refused to allow Tanya’s unexpected appearance to ruin the decent, law-abiding, law-enforcing person he’d become. He could control this situation the same as he did everything else in his life. With slow, sensible, levelheaded conviction.
Tanya would not topple him from his steady—albeit lonely—perch.
He looked to the open restaurant doors. “Look, we all know Tanya and what she’s capable of. Why she’s come back is none of my business...” He met George’s gaze and glared. “Or anyone else’s. I’m sure we’ll know what’s going on with her soon enough. After all, this is Templeton, and one person’s business is always everyone else’s, too.”
He stood, snatched his jacket from the back of the chair and his briefcase from the floor. “Look after yourself, George.”
Leaving his older friend staring after him, Liam strode toward the bar and pulled his wallet from his jacket pocket. He tossed a twenty and a ten onto the bar. “Keep the change, Caroline. I’m out of here before George brings over his backup...or should I say front woman?”
She frowned and slipped the cash from the bar. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” He tilted his head toward George and Marian’s table. “I’ve got my surrogate mum and dad over there watching out for me.”
She managed a small smile. “They care about everyone in the Cove. You know that.”
“Yeah, I do, and that’s why I’m leaving.”
“Can I ask what Tanya said? You could’ve cut the tension between you with a knife.”
Liam scowled. “Do you think anyone in here wasn’t watching us?”
Caroline smiled. “I doubt it.”
He shook his head. “I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, just keep your head...and anything else, intact. If what Tanya said is true...”
He stiffened, every inch of his body on high alert. “What did she say?”
Color stained Caroline’s cheeks and she smoothed her hand over her cap of short, dark hair. “Not much.”
“Caroline...”
“All she said was she’s back for good. That she has a new business in town.”
“A new business?” Liam’s heart picked up speed. Money. Business. So she hadn’t changed much beneath the surface, after all. “What sort of business?”
“She didn’t say. Look—”
“The last I knew, she worked in some big bank in the city.” He frowned. “She said it was her own business?”
Caroline nodded.
“Financial?”
“I don’t know.”
Liam took a step away from the bar. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Sure.”
Frustrated that he hadn’t asked Tanya a single damn question, Liam stormed from the restaurant and out into the fading sun.
He inhaled the air, letting it cleanse his mind of the unwanted curiosity about Tanya from seeping in. It didn’t matter what he’d said to George or anyone else, the moment Liam laid eyes on Tanya, he’d wanted to talk to her. Something initiated her return to Templeton and the unease in her eyes made him think she had nowhere else to go.
Yet she was opening a new business, which meant she hadn’t lost the ferocious ambition that had always burned inside her. But she could start a new business anywhere. Why the Cove? Was whatever had called her here something emotional, maybe? He clenched his jaw as the things he knew about her family and personal life ricocheted inside his head and heart.
If someone had hurt her, or frightened her into returning to the place she once fled, the place where her family had owned a fairground that reminded her too much of her Romany roots, how was he supposed to pretend it didn’t matter to him? This was a woman he’d once loved...had wanted to marry. He’d no more turn his back on her today than he would have then. But what if she wanted nothing to do with him, the same as she did when she left?
There was only one way to find out.
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_653998ce-221f-553b-ac26-f8bcf1f63612)
TANYA WRAPPED HER half-eaten burger in a paper towel and tossed it into the trash before snatching up her can of Diet Coke from the counter. Walking to the patio doors leading from her sister’s living room, she stepped out onto the balcony. Night had fallen and Templeton was lit in all its undeniable and beautiful glory.
The lights from Funland, the beach and the shops at the waterfront flashed yellow, green and red in the distance. Tanya leaned her forearms on the railing and stared toward the fairground. The screams and music drifted on the light summer breeze, sending icicles into her blood. She tightened her fingers around her Diet Coke can. What happened to Sasha there was only part of the reason Tanya had come back, but finding Matt Davidson was her top priority right now.
No matter how much the doctor told Tanya to concentrate on her happiness from here on in, Davidson was still out there and stood like a boulder between Tanya and a new future. A phantom preventing her from getting over what he’d done to Sasha.
Her sister had come when Tanya needed her most, yet when Sasha was dealing with the most traumatic, ugly experience any child could, Tanya had seen her sister as nothing more than a nuisance. Tanya’s heart twisted with shame, and tears burned. Instead of seeing Sasha as her best friend, her optimism and chatter about Funland and their grandfather had annoyed Tanya at every turn. She now realized her animosity toward her sister came from jealousy and resentment. The admission was especially shameful since Sasha was so effortlessly positive and friendly to everyone around her.
Tanya closed her eyes. Little did she know just how well Sasha wore her mask over a life ruined by the criminal who’d dared to touch her.
Opening her eyes, Tanya glared at Funland. What happened to Sasha wasn’t over, no matter how much she might wish it so. The piece of crap who hurt her was still out there and Tanya suspected Sasha thought of him daily. Sooner or later, Davidson would be found. She shivered against the icy chill that ran up her spine. Templeton wasn’t the picture-perfect place it liked to convey. Things were never what they seemed here, but at least now Tanya knew life was something to be shaped. People were hurt, disappointed and judged, and it was something she had slowly learned to accept through therapy.
Her biggest mistake had been allowing her mother’s fears to taint her own views of the Cove. Her mother had convinced her that love didn’t exist. Feeling afraid and uncertain, Tanya changed.
From being a young woman not unlike Sasha, Tanya turned into a fiercely driven, single-minded worker. Her mother’s words ringing in her head, Tanya left Liam behind and pursued money, assets and position. The only things that could really protect a girl. Working 24/7 had been a way to protect herself against the onslaught of disappointment she would face if she failed in her chosen career or relied on a man for her happiness.
It had been the risk of that dependency that had ultimately led to her breakdown...and why she had been arrested. Mental anguish had seeped into her mind when she wasn’t looking.
Tanya swallowed the tears clogging her throat. Little did she and Sasha know that her mother’s warnings were entirely based on trying to protect her daughters after finding out, years later, what had happened to Sasha.
Turning from the bright lights, Tanya sank into one of the two chairs around a small bistro table. She shut her eyes and Liam’s face appeared. What would he say to her when they next met?
People changed. She’d changed.
She’d be arrogant to think the same wouldn’t be true for Liam. Sasha described him as a tough lawyer with a soft center. A man the whole town held in high esteem. Yet Jay had said Liam was still single and living alone. Throughout the time she and Liam had been together, his adolescent anger toward his father had mellowed. Instead, it became his motivation to succeed and do good in this too-often-bad world. He was strong and powerful in court, and some of his cases had made the news all over the UK. He was a force to be reckoned with, but also a man of gentle and caring honor.
The combination was lethal. In and out of court.
The shrill and alien ring of the apartment buzzer shot Tanya’s heart into her throat. She stood and stared through the patio doors into the apartment. Only one person knew where she was staying. Drawing in a breath, she put her Diet Coke on the table and walked inside. She approached the front door and looked through the peephole. Liam stared along the corridor and Tanya roamed her gaze over his profile and upper body, before pulling abruptly back.
There was no mistaking his mood. His set face, hardened jaw and tense arm muscles straining against the confines of his dress shirt screamed of impatience. The tie he’d been wearing at the restaurant had been discarded, leaving the open V of the shirt showing a sexy smattering of dark hair. Dark hair she remembered running her hands over more times than strictly necessary...
Tanya silently counted to five. He’d loved her once and even though he never would again, he would surely hear her out, wouldn’t he? If she explained she left as abruptly as she did because she felt suffocated by Templeton, didn’t want to become reliant on him? Most of all, would he accept people made mistakes?
Taking a deep breath, she threw back the lock and opened the door, plastering on a smile. “Hi. This is a surprise.”
His gaze wandered over her face, his expression unreadable. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” She stood back and he brushed past her into the apartment.
Tanya slowly shut the door, taking a moment with her back turned to gather her senses and obliterate his scent from her nostrils. He smelled exactly the same. It was as though she’d never been away. But she had. She’d been away for a very long time...
She turned.
He stood across the room, in the center of Sasha’s living space, his broad chest rising and falling. Tanya swallowed against the dryness in her throat and forced her feet forward. “Do you want to sit down?”
“No.”
“Liam, I—”
“What happened to bring you back?”
She flinched. “What?”
“I said, what happened to bring you back?”
“I...” Words danced and bit at her tongue. “It was time.”
His eyes widened. “Time? You could have knocked me over when you walked into the Seascape earlier. It’s been years, and with Sasha leaving...” He shook his head. “I didn’t think you would ever come back to Templeton. Not ever. You hated it here. What was it you said to me? ‘Oh, sorry, Liam, I don’t belong here, Sasha does. I want more than a fairground as a legacy, let Sasha have it. Let her wallow in our sad Romany roots.’”
Her heart beat like a freight train. “Those were my mother’s words, not mine. She frightened me, brainwashed me into believing Templeton, you, Funland, everything would cause me nothing but pain if I didn’t get away from here.”
“And you couldn’t have told me that? We couldn’t have discussed it?”
She didn’t want to lie, but she couldn’t possibly tell him the whole truth. Telling him why she hadn’t come back before now would be too much, too soon.
Fisting her hands on her hips, Tanya lifted her chin. “I was younger then. So were you. What did either of us know about the real world?”
Their gazes locked and Tanya fought the tears burning her eyes. Despite her insistence she could do what had to be done alone as far as Davidson was concerned, she couldn’t deny the hope that, one day, she’d have Liam to rely on. She took her hands from her hips and raised them. “Look, I’m back.” Her lips trembled with the effort it took to smile. “And this time, I’m happy to be here.” His gaze hardened and Tanya fought the need to step back. “What?”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.”
He huffed out a laugh. “You never could quite manage to lie to me, which is probably half the reason you pushed a note under my door eight years ago, wishing me well with my life before you disappeared with no forwarding address, phone number or email.”
Resentment dripped from his words and Tanya’s hackles rose. “How can you still be so angry?” She stared at him. “After all this time?”
His cheeks darkened and he closed his eyes, tipping his face toward the ceiling. “Unbelievable.”
Tanya stared at his neck, relishing the way his Adam’s apple moved in such an entirely masculine way beneath his skin. He was built strong, intelligent and caring. All virtues that had scared her young self into running far away from him. “Please try to understand, Liam. I was starting to need you far too much, so I threw myself into my career. As my ambition grew, so did the barrier around my heart. I had to leave or risk hurting you more deeply than me leaving ever could.”
“You should’ve talked to me.”
It had been so very long since she noticed a man, she’d begun to think that part of her had been flushed down the toilet along with everything else in her life. Now, looking at Liam, it seemed her libido was still alive and well.
She cleared her throat. “A lot has happened for me in these past eight years. I assumed things had for you, too.”
“They have. I’m a lawyer now. I’m successful, well-known and respected. People don’t just barge into my life expecting me to drop everything, because everyone knows how damn busy I am.”
Tanya frowned. “I’m not expecting you to drop everything.”
“Yes, you are. Just as you always did.”
She trembled as anxiety over his coldness swept through her. “I’m not that person anymore.”
“No?” His gaze burned with resentment. “We’ll have to see about that.”
“Eight years is a long time. You don’t know me now any more than I know you.”
“I know you’re back for something. Something important.”
She forced her shoulders back, faced his accusations. “Fine. I want to start over.”
“Start over? With what? With the people you ignored or wouldn’t help? With me? With yourself?” He glared. “You might look different, but your eyes haven’t changed. Something’s eating you from the inside out, and if the only way for you to deal with it was to come back to the Cove, that something must be here. Am I right?”
Tanya’s heart beat fast. He always could read her like a damn book. “Maybe, but I’m not talking about that now. I didn’t come back expecting...” She shook her head and clasped her hands together to halt their trembling. “I just need a chance to start over. That’s all I’m asking for.”
A muscle flexed and relaxed in his jaw. “Fine. You don’t need me to help you start over. You can do that all by yourself.”
A pain jolted her heart, but Tanya gave a curt nod. “Absolutely.”
He ran his gaze over her face, pausing at her lips. “Good, because you can’t just waltz back into town and expect us to be...friends again.”
His assumption irked her. She huffed out a laugh. “We can’t even be friends? Well, fine, then I made a mistake assuming you’d talk to me, but I never expected you to drop everything. How was I supposed to know you’d be at the Seascape? When did I say anything about you being there for me during our three-minute conversation? You’ve clearly been having a two-sided conversation with yourself. Just like you always did when you were mad.”
Tanya gave a dismissive wave before marching across the open-plan space into the kitchen area. She grabbed the kettle from the counter. It trembled as she held it under the faucet.
“You’re in trouble, Tanya. It’s written all over your face. You need my help, and you expected me to fling my arms open in welcome, didn’t you?”
Her cheeks burned as his accusation struck like a knife blade across her heart. She slammed the kettle on the counter and flicked it on to boil. Inhaling a shaky breath, she faced him. “Fine. You’ve moved on, I have, too. I’m not back expecting anything from you or anyone else. There are things I want to do, have to do, and Templeton is the right place for them to happen. That’s it. I’m here because this is where I need to be.”
He studied her a moment longer before his eyes narrowed with distrust. “So nothing’s changed. Same Tanya. Same agenda.”
“Goddamn it, Liam.” She stepped forward and slapped her hands on the breakfast counter separating them, her temper snapping. “I am not the same Tanya, and believe me, my agenda is far from what it was when I was here before.”
