The Best Man's Secret, page 14
“Ya think, Sherlock?” she muttered.
He sighed. “I went for lunch to kill time while I waited for him, and he walked into the coffee shop. His picture was on the office wall, so I knew what he looked like, but he didn’t know who I was. I listened in on a very interesting conversation.”
As Dave relayed what he’d heard, Ashley felt her face getting hotter and hotter. “Reckless endangerment? But you saved my life! That guy had lost it. He had a gun and nothing to lose. I know he would have killed me once we got to Mexico!”
Dave raised his palms toward her. “You don’t have to yell. I know that.” His hands lowered to his lap. “Still, that doesn’t lessen the fact that I was responsible for you getting shot. I should have slammed his wrist harder into the floor. I should have hit harder to get him to drop the gun when I took him down, and that didn’t happen.”
“It was something no one could have predicted. In the end, I’m not that seriously hurt. In the big picture of a lifetime, this is just a blip.” She shrugged as some of the anger drained away. If it hadn’t happened, she would never have met Dave, and looking back, that would have been worse. “Who knows, maybe one day I’ll write a book about this.”
Instead of laughing, Dave’s face paled and he shrank back in the chair. “What do you mean?”
The moment she said it, she realized she’d made a mistake. “Nothing. It was just a joke.” She sighed. “The more I think about this, the madder I get. I think I’m just trying to reduce the tension. I could never write a book. I can barely write a grocery list.”
She waited for him to agree since he’d seen what was in her cupboards before he took over in the kitchen, but he didn’t.
“Tonight I’ll call and tell him I know what he was planning. There is no way I’m going to let him make a fool of me or have me declared mentally incompetent in court. Do you know what that would do to my job? I’d be put on permanent medical leave. They’d never allow a teacher who was deemed unstable to teach children.”
Dave nodded. “That’s true.”
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. “He was planning on using our past relationship, and my trust, for the publicity and the money. He doesn’t care that it would cost me my job. He was only going to do it for himself. For the money, and the publicity. There is no way I’m going to let him to destroy my life. I wonder if he even cares if he wins and I get any money at all. It’s all for his image as a great lawyer.”
Now she didn’t want to just call Steve. She wanted him to come over so she could scratch his eyes out. Or something equally gruesome. Of course she’d never do such a thing. She would have to do the opposite—work on forgiving him, because that was what God wanted her to do. Even though it would be hard to forgive Steve, it would be worse for herself to carry the anger. It was better for everyone, including herself, if she let it go.
She would have to work on that, and work hard. Just not today. Today she was mad.
“I’d rather you simply told him you decided not to sue, not that you’d found out why.”
“Why not?”
“He’s a smart man. After all, he’s a lawyer. If you tell him you know what he was planning, he’ll figure out how you found out. We didn’t actually have a conversation, but we did talk. He knew I heard the conversation, but since he thought I was a stranger, he didn’t care. He’ll make the connection, and I can’t let that happen. I can’t let him know it was me.”
This was it. The time to ask the reason for all his secrecy. She sucked in a deep breath. “Why not?”
He paused, and his eyes lost focus for a few seconds. He shifted slightly to one side and pressed one hand over the back pocket of his pants. “He said he was going to make it into a media circus, and he could still do it. I can’t get involved in something like that.”
He’d done it to her enough times now that she knew his pattern. She’d asked him to tell her something. In not so many words he said no, and the next thing he was going to do was to close the subject by leaving. Before he could stand and walk away, Ashley grabbed his sleeve and held on for dear life, forcing him to remain sitting. “That’s not good enough. I don’t understand. What have you done? Are you a secret agent or something?”
She hoped he would smile, but he didn’t. Instead, his eyes glazed over for a few seconds again. “No.” He shook his head. “Nothing that glamorous.”
Again, she waited for him to continue. He didn’t.
She released his sleeve. “Fine. Go.”
Instead of leaving, he raised his hands, cupped her cheeks, and leaned closer. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, then leaned forward and kissed her.
Ashley closed her eyes and kissed him back. She’d wanted this for so long, and now that it was finally happening, she didn’t want it to end. She slipped her arms around him and held him tight. He made a small groan, tilted his head a little, and kissed her more firmly.
Her insides turned to butter, and her heart raced. She’d never kissed a man like this, and she didn’t want to stop.
Much too soon, he pulled away. For a couple of seconds he gazed into her eyes, then slid his arms around her back and pulled her tight into a tender embrace.
She leaned into him, and hugged him back. Being locked in his arms felt better than her dreams, making her realize how long she’d wanted this. So as not to spoil the moment, she rested her head on his shoulder and enjoyed his warmth.
Until his phone rang in his pocket.
He released her, straightened, and answered it. He listened for a minute, agreed with the caller, and ended the call.
“That was my boss. I’ve got to go, something really important came in. He said he tried to call me earlier but he went to voice mail. I’ve taken so much time off lately he made it clear it’s payback time. I’ll be back for supper.”
Before she could regain her senses they were separated and he was walking across the room. The door closed behind him, followed by the click as he locked it, and was gone.
Ashley closed her eyes to try to relive the moment. She was falling in love with him, and she couldn’t let that happen. There were too many things about him she didn’t know, made worse by the fact that he outright refused to tell her.
Perhaps the worst of all was saying sorry before he kissed her, when she didn’t know what he was so sorry for.
Chapter 15
Dave had barely settled into his desk when his boss approached him.
Jerry dragged an empty chair to the front of his desk, and sat. “You had me worried for a while. I was ready to call Hank.”
Dave couldn’t even force himself to smile. “I’m okay.”
“You don’t look okay. Want to talk?”
Dave looked up into the face of his boss, and his most trusted ally. “I don’t know what to do. It’s never been this complicated before. This isn’t what I signed up for. Sometimes I wish I could turn back the clock, except I know I did the right thing.”
Jerry nodded. “I know. I’ve heard that so many times before. I want to say that it gets easier, but most of the time it doesn’t. At least for you, it probably will be over in about twenty years.”
Dave wanted to lower his head to the desk and groan. Or scream. Or cry. Or something. But that was too dramatic. Or maybe it wasn’t. Now, more than ever, he struggled with if it was okay to wish for someone to die.
“You haven’t told her, have you?”
“No. Our relationship isn’t at that point. Besides, I’m not sure how she’d take it. Too many people have lied to her about hiding stuff they didn’t want her to know. I don’t know how she’ll take it when she finds out I’m one more person with a secret life. Only with me, if something goes wrong it wouldn’t be just a few days of crying over split milk. She’d be just as dead as me. I can’t let her take that kind of risk.”
“What if she wants to take that risk with you?”
Dave stared blankly out the window, where the bright sunshine lit up a park below. A few older people were walking little dogs, and a group of small children was playing baseball. It was a world he couldn’t share.
“I can’t let her take that risk.”
“Why not? You’re a decent guy, you’ve got a good job as an accountant, and you go to church on Sunday. You’re a hero.”
Dave pounded one fist on the desk and stared Jerry straight in the eyes. “I’m not an accountant. I’m a teacher. I may be a decent guy, but there’s a price on my head. I never know if someone in the crowd has me in his sights so he can collect it. Sunday morning is the only time of the week I can relax and be myself, and not worry if some stranger in the crowd has found me. Every other minute of every other day, I’m always hiding my face and looking over my shoulder. I can’t do that to her.”
He let his forehead fall to the desk, and covered the back of his head with his hands. Five years ago, when he was on the witness stand telling the judge what he’d seen and heard, he wasn’t a hero. He’d been a normal guy doing his civic duty. Keeping drugs off the street. Keeping the kids in his class safe.
But it hadn’t ended there. The situation deteriorated, and after two attempts on his life, Dave was forced to go into witness protection.
He couldn’t drag Ashley into that kind of life. Or, if they found him, that kind of death.
“I can’t do this,” he muttered into the desktop.
He heard the scrape of the wooden chair dragging on the floor as Jerry stood. “Do you want to take the day off? I can do this reconciliation myself. I don’t mind.”
Dave shook his head, his forehead still pressed into the deskpad. “No. I’m here. I need something to do.”
“Want me to call Hank for you?”
He shook his head again. Unless he had a problem, he only needed to talk to his handler once a year. “No. I don’t want any more counseling. I’ve heard enough rhetoric about making the world a better place. I want my life back.”
“Sorry, bud. You did a good thing and you saved a lot of good kids by keeping many boatloads of drugs off the streets. I’ll leave you alone now. I need that file by five o’clock.”
Slowly, Dave righted himself, and turned on his computer. It was pointless to wish for things that couldn’t be changed. He knew he’d done the right thing. His testimony had saved lives. He would have done the same thing even if he’d known at the time that it would mean giving up everything he held dear. All he could do was trust in God to continue keeping him safe.
Tonight, when he got back to Ashley’s place he had to stop what was going on between them. He just wasn’t sure how to do that.
He thunked his head to the desktop again.
If only he could kiss her like that one more time.
* * *
A knock sounded on the door. “It’s me. Dave.”
“Come in,” she called.
The tinkling of his keys echoed, and the door creaked open. “I’m going to have to oil that,” he muttered, looking up at the hinge. He turned to rest a very fragrant smelling bag and a bouquet of flowers on the table beside the door, pulled out his cell phone, and began tapping at it. “Just making myself a note so I don’t forget.”
After a few seconds he returned it to his pocket, and turned around to pick up what he’d put down.
Ashley’s heart pounded. “I see what you’ve got. I think you spoiled the surprise.”
“Surprise? It’s not a surprise. I knew you’d see me when I walked in. I brought supper.” Grinning, he held up a bag from her favorite Chinese food restaurant.
She grinned back. “Not the food. The flowers.”
His smile dropped. “Oh. Those. What if they’re not for you?”
Not only did Ashley’s smile drop, so did her heart, into the bottom of her shoes. Her one shoe, anyway.
“Just kidding. Of course they’re for you. I saw you had a vase in the cupboard. I’ll be right back.” He left the food on the coffee table, but carried the flowers with him into the kitchen.
The delicious aroma reminded her stomach that she’d skipped lunch. It made a very embarrassing grumble at exactly the same moment as Dave appeared with a vase containing the flowers in one hand, and a couple of plates and cutlery in the other.
“I’m hungry too. Dig in.”
Ashley could barely contain her enthusiasm as she began to open all the containers. Dave hadn’t just ordered a generic dinner for two, he’d selected all her favorites.
Her hand froze, the spoon buried in the Almond Gai Ding.
He’d brought her favorite food. He’d brought flowers.
Suddenly she lost her appetite.
She turned to him, trying to steel her heart to be ready for his answer. “Why did you do this?” As she spoke she motioned her free arm to encompass the food and flowers.
He didn’t look at her as he spoke. He just kept piling food onto his plate. “I was working and didn’t have time to cook, and I was hungry. I put the restaurant into my address book a couple of weeks ago.” He paused and looked up. “I’ve got voice activated auto-dial in the car. You should try it. Bluetooth is cheaper than it’s ever been.”
“I don’t talk on the phone in the car. I let everything go to voice mail and check it when I stop the car.”
“So you’re an old-fashioned kind of girl. That’s nice.” He paused, then sat back with his plate. “Isn’t that an oxymoron? An old-fashioned girl with a cell phone. Just what defines old-fashioned anymore? Cell phones have been around for over twenty years in various forms and technologies, so that does make them old in a way, but when I think of old-fashioned and phones, I think of those big, black rotary-dial models. Do you know most kids don’t even know what a rotary dial phone looks like? And when you say the phone rings, when is the last time a phone with a real bell ringer was even available? It’s all been electronic ringtones for at least a decade.”
“You’re babbling. What is it you don’t want to tell me?” Of course, she’d learned the hard way there were many things he didn’t want to tell her. Now there was apparently one more to add to the list.
His eyes widened. “Why do you ask that?”
Ashley’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you answering a question with a question?”
“Busted.” He lowered his plate to his lap. “Did you call Steve this afternoon?”
“Yes.” She doubted the special treatment was to make her feel better about telling what she thought of Steve without getting specific on his devious attempt to get her involved in a court case. “It was hard not to tell him what a jerk he was about the court case without going into the reasons, but I still told him I thought he was a jerk in general.” She smiled. “It felt really good.”
“Good.”
She waited for him to comment further. All he did was sip his tea.
“What is it you don’t want to tell me?” Not that he would give her a list, but he probably could.
A thick pause hung between them until finally he answered. “I think it’s best if we stayed just friends. There are some things I need to think about, and I need space.”
This time she really lost her appetite. “Does that mean this is goodbye?”
He shook his head. “No. I still want to help you with everything while you’re laid up. I meant exactly what I said. I want to be just friends. Like, no benefits or stuff like that.” He set his plate down on the coffee table, and moved to sit beside her. Slowly, he lifted her plate from her numb fingers, also set it on the table, and clasped both her hands in his. “We can be friends, can’t we?”
Dazed, she looked into his eyes, down to his mouth, then back to his eyes. His pupils were dilated, even in the bright light, his full lips slightly parted.
He wanted to kiss her. She knew he did. She wanted to kiss him, too.
But friends didn’t kiss. Friends were...just friends.
She cleared her throat, but still her voice didn’t come out like normal. “Sure. Friends. We can do that.”
He dropped her hands, sat back, and reached for the remote with one hand and his plate with the other. “Good. I think MythBusters is on. Let’s watch it.”
Chapter 16
Dave checked his watch for probably the twentieth time. He pressed his hand to his pocket, feeling the bump that was his phone. He’d promised he’d call Evan with an update. If only he had one to give.
Any minute, Ashley would come hobbling out of the doctor’s office, only this time it wouldn’t be with crutches, but with a cane.
Today was the day the cast was scheduled to come off. Unless something had gone horribly wrong and no one noticed.
He didn’t want to hope that she would need the cast for another few weeks, yet he did. That would give him an excuse to stick around.
Since the day he’d told her they needed to be just friends, that was exactly what happened. If he hadn’t already been enough in love with her then, whatever had blossomed between them morphed into something that he’d only read about in books. They were more than friends. They were soul mates. They enjoyed the same books. They loved the same television shows. They both found the same things funny, and became angry at the same situations.
She’d even made him watch the goose movie again, and he’d sniffled like an idiot right alongside her.
He didn’t want to give that up.
He’d sacrificed everything in his life. His home, his friends, his family, his career. He couldn’t give up Ashley, too.
It was a mixed feeling of joy and terror he felt when Ashley hobbled into the lobby, a painful grin on her face, a cane in her hand, and the doctor behind, carrying the crutches.
Dave jumped to his feet and hustled over to her. “How are you? How does it feel? Do you feel shaky? Faint? Do you need help?”
