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“This claim of Garrett’s that Elise wanted her children to live with him can be nothing but a fabrication, and for him to drag us through this farce of—”
Hayden objected and the judge wearily rubbed his eyes. “That’s enough, Mayor. We all know your feelings on this. You’ve made them plain enough. Why don’t you return to your seat. Mr. Southerland, if you’d call in your witness, I’d like to hear what she has to say.”
Garrett didn’t bat an eye when Caldwell stepped down from the witness box, his brows pulled fiercely together as he looked Garrett’s way. Caldwell’s animosity didn’t faze him any more than it ever did.
But he waited, still, when Hayden stepped out of the courtroom for a moment. The second he was gone stretched Garrett’s nerves to screaming. But there she was. Walking back into the courtroom with Hayden. Looking cool and delicate in her filmy white ankle-length dress and straw hat.
Her eyes looked his way as she passed between the two tables where the opponents sat. Her husky voice trembled as she was sworn in, and when she stepped up into the witness box and sat down, he could see she was pale.
A pulse visibly beat in her throat. She rested her arms over the wooden chair arms casually enough, but Garrett could see the white knuckles from fingers curled too tightly over the ends.
“Now, Ms. White, why don’t you tell us how you came to be involved in this set-to.”
“Your Honor.” Hayden rose. “If you’d permit me to—”
The judge waved his hand impatiently. “Sit down, Counselor. I’m getting a headache from the lot of you. I’ve a good mind to ban attorneys from my courtroom. Ms. White?”
Darby turned her blue gaze toward Garrett. She gave him a look he couldn’t interpret, then slowly unfastened her fingers from the chair and folded them in her lap. She cleared her throat. Then, with spare words that Garrett could only admire after Caldwell’s verbosity, described her actions when the terrible collision had occurred outside of her workplace. She concluded with Elise’s last words.
Caldwell immediately pushed to his feet, making his chair screech against the floor. “Obviously, Elise was not in a stable frame of mind. And this woman’s word can’t be trusted, anyway! She’s involved with Garrett, for God’s sake.”
Caldwell’s attorney practically dragged his client back down onto his chair, his words fast and low. Finally Caldwell subsided and the judge turned to Darby, waiting.
“Mrs. Northrop was quite lucid, considering,” Darby answered Caldwell’s first point. “She knew her husband was…gone. She knew she wasn’t going to make it to the hospital. She’d been carrying Mr. Cullum’s business card in her purse. It was right where she said it would be.”
“Did she speak of anyone else other than Mr. Cullum?”
Garrett saw the telltale glisten in her eyes as she looked at Caldwell. “No,” she admitted quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“Any other people around who heard what she said?”
Darby shook her head. “The EMTs hadn’t yet arrived.” She swallowed, staring at her hands. “I kept administering CPR until they took over, but it was too late.”
“Then it’s just her word that Garrett didn’t make this up,” Caldwell burst out again. “They’re in this together! All to keep me from my own flesh and blood—”
“Enough, Mayor.” The judge’s command rang out. “I said we were keeping this informal, because I happen to like things that way. But one more outburst and I’ll hold you in contempt. Understand?”
“I…hadn’t met Mr. Cullum before the accident,” Darby said shakily. “But I know the children because of Smiling Faces. Garrett…Mr. Cullum, needed someone to help care for them, and I agreed.”
“Which is just what the report from Laura Malone said,” the judge commented. “How do you think the children are doing?”
Her lips parted, her surprise at the question evident to Garrett even if it wasn’t obvious to everyone else. “Quite well,” she said after a moment. “Considering. Their appetites are healthy, their sleep habits seem relatively normal. They’re active, curious children. Tad does have an ear infection right now, but he’s on medication for it and is improving.”
“Ear infections. My grandson is plagued with them.” The judge smiled slightly. “Thank you, Ms. White. You’re excused.”
Relief that the ordeal was over flooded through Darby. It was all she could do not to leap from the witness box. She rose and walked to the rear of the courtroom.
She didn’t know if she was expected to leave or not. But she didn’t want to go out into the corridor and face the curiosity of the reporters, if they were still hanging around. And her experience of reporters led her to believe that they would be.
So she quietly slipped into a seat in the back row.
“This is a difficult situation,” Judge March was saying. “Elise and Marc left no will, no provisions financial or otherwise for their children. The Northrops were, in fact, experiencing some financial difficulty as I understand it. But, as I said when we sat down here this morning, the welfare of the children is the only concern of this court.”
Ten minutes later it was over. Just like that. Garrett got to keep the children.
For a while, at least.
Caldwell stormed out of the courtroom, his attorney trotting unhappily after him. When the doors swished open, she heard the rapid-fire questions begin. In a smooth motion, the door whooshed closed, blotting out the voices.
She stood and waited while Garrett spoke with his attorney. Then the other man turned to Darby and shook her hand. “You did very well on the stand.”
She shifted nervously, feeling like a complete fraud, even though she had been strictly truthful about her account of the accident.
He smiled. “Not everyone does,” he assured her. Then his eyes narrowed for a moment. “I keep thinking we’ve met.”
Darby’s face felt stiff. She raised her eyebrows, lifting her shoulder casually. “Don’t think so.” It was all she could do to push out the words.
“Well. Anyway. Thanks. Garrett, I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ve got that meeting with Zoning tomorrow.”
“Make sure Carmel’s got it on my schedule.”
Hayden nodded, then he left. Leaving Darby alone with Garrett.
She looked anywhere but at him. “Mr. Carson is pretty upset.”
“So it seems.” He paused for a moment. “I wasn’t sure you’d hang around after the judge kicked everyone out of the place,” he finally said. “I’m glad I was wrong.”
“Courtrooms,” she excused weakly. “Not my favorite place.”
“Nor mine. Spent too much time in ’em when I was the reigning delinquent of Fisher Falls.”
“You?” Her gaze drifted over him. In a charcoal-colored suit fitted across his wide shoulders, his lean face once again clean shaven, his springy black hair brushed back from his face, he looked the very picture of uprightness and responsibility.
“I had a liking for hotwiring cars,” he admitted.
Her jaw loosened. “You stole cars?”
“I…liberated them from a certain owner with frequent regularity.”
“Mr. Carson’s cars?”
His grin was slow and utterly wicked. “Pretty and smart,” he said. “Come on. Let’s get outta here.”
She kept her smile in place with an effort. Please, let the reporters be gone. “Carmel is probably tearing her hair out by now.”
“She’d be saying that no matter how well things went. Figures it’ll keep me feeling guilty. But I’m not ready to go home. I thought we’d go somewhere for lunch. You know. Somewhere that doesn’t involve finger foods and sipper cups. You game?”
She moistened her lips. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“We need to talk about the kids.”
“We don’t have to go to a restaurant to do that.”
“Humor me.”
It was a mistake. She knew it. But looking at him, all she could think about at that moment was the way he’d tipped back his head into the mud the other day and laughed. “Garrett—”
He nudged back the brim of her hat. “The Overlook,” he murmured. “They have a dessert menu there that’ll make you cry. And if not that, at least lick your lips.”
She felt her ears heat, realizing she had pretty well done just that as she’d watched his mouth form his words. “I don’t know. I hear it’s a pricey place.”
“I think I can swing it,” he said dryly.
She pressed her lips together, looking away. “I…all right. But we really shouldn’t be out long. It wouldn’t be fair to Carmel.”
He nodded once, satisfied, and pushed open the door for her to pass through. She was so distracted by the hand he tucked against the small of her back that she barely remembered to adjust her hat as she walked out into the corridor.
But she needn’t have worried, because the wide hallway was empty. The spectators, reporters included, had gone and for a moment she felt weak with relief.
Garrett jabbed the elevator button and looked at her. “You all right? You look a little shaky.”
She managed a smile. “I must be hungrier than I thought. Didn’t smell my coffee this morning.”
He didn’t look convinced, but the elevator doors slid open and Darby stepped into the nearly full car before he could comment. Lunch hour was obviously calling to the government workers who populated the top floors of the pillared building.
The occupants shifted, making room for Garrett’s tall body, and Darby found herself wedged into the corner. She swallowed and looked up at the lit display above the door.
They had only three floors to descend, but it might as well have been twelve for the way the elevator seemed to grind along. She could feel her chest tightening, her lungs struggling for breath. Knowing what was happening didn’t help her to prevent it. A screaming knot rose in her throat, welling, swelling upward—
The doors slid open, passengers erupting around her into the lobby.
“Come on.” Garrett’s arm closed around her shoulders. “Outside.”
Suddenly she was outside. Fresh air filled her lungs. She felt sunlight on her arms, heard laughter from a passing group of office workers heading down the steps to the street.
She was pressed against Garrett’s side, her nose buried in his shoulder. “Oh, God.” She pushed away, as far as his arms allowed. Embarrassment burned inside her. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Let’s just get to the truck.” He guided her down the shallow steps. “Or maybe you’d rather walk. The Overlook isn’t that far from here.”
“Really? You wouldn’t mind walking?”
In answer, he shrugged off his suit jacket and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ve been known to put one foot in front of the other now and then.” He smiled faintly and took her arm, walking leisurely along the tree-lined sidewalk. “But don’t tell Carmel, or she’ll start refusing to fetch and carry for me.”
“I can’t imagine there is anything that Carmel would refuse you.”
“You haven’t seen our Monday-morning battles over who’s supposed to make the coffee.”
Darby managed a smile. He was deliberately trying to put her at ease. It was so utterly backward, and he didn’t even know it.
They walked on in silence. In and out of the shadows of the lacy leaves overhead. They crossed streets, left behind the business of the courthouse district, walking along a winding street that led gently upward. Past the park at the base of the waterfalls, past long, private drives that led to gracious older estates.
Estates like her aunt’s.
Like Caldwell Carson’s.
The road narrowed and Garrett moved to Darby’s left side, between her and the sporadic traffic. On the other side of her, a waist-high stone wall guarded the edge of the increasingly deep drop-off. Below, Fisher Falls lay like a sparkling jewel. Several yards ahead, she could see the discreet sign of The Overlook.
She ran her hand along the aging stone. “It is so beautiful here.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing.”
“Not bad,” she demurred. “Just hard to leave.”
“You’re planning on going somewhere?”
“Not if I can avoid it,” she admitted truthfully. “Didn’t you miss it when you left?” She lifted her hand, gesturing to the lush green beauty that surrounded them. “You must have. You came back.”
“I came back because Fisher Falls is on the verge of a construction boom. Business, Darby. That’s all it was.”
“Now you sound like my brother again.”
“What does he do?”
She shook her head slightly. “How do you know we’re on the verge of anything, much less a construction boom?”
“Trade secret.”
“In other words, you’re not going to tell me.”
“You tell me something about your brother, instead of avoiding it, and I’ll tell you about G&G.”
Darby stopped, pointing at the restaurant sign. “Well look at that. We’re here.”
Garrett wrapped his palm around her slender finger, feeling the little jerk she couldn’t hide. Darby no longer looked like she was going to pass out, but she was far from relaxed, despite the effort she’d been making to convince him otherwise. “You’re shivering.”
She looked up, above their heads. “We’re standing in the shade.”
“Don’t do that, Darby.”
She slid her hand out from his, her fingertips fluttering nervously to her throat. “I was just a little unnerved in the elevator. That’s all.” She tried to step around him toward the rustic-looking restaurant, but Garrett shifted, blocking the path.
“Unnerved. Seems a puny word to me. You got claustrophobic. You don’t have to hide it.”
“I’m not. I just…just— There were so many people inside the elevator. I…I was fine when we arrived, you know.”
He wouldn’t go quite that far, but it was true enough. She hadn’t been ready to climb out of her skin. “There were only a few people on the elevator when we took it up to the courtroom,” he allowed. “So it’s just overcrowded small places that get to you?”
Her cheeks were red, her eyes embarrassed. Evasive. “Something like that.”
