Lean on Me (7 page)

“Because I know who Allan’s best friend is and called over there right before I headed over here. Can’t claim great deductive reasoning on my part, but it worked.”

“Oh.” Funny how her mind went to breaking in and Mitch’s ran to a common sense solution. That probably said more about her than she wanted it to.

“So, we can leave.” He walked down the two stairs and grabbed her gear. It took another few steps before he realized she wasn’t following. “Or not.”

“The sign out front is a joke. There’s no exterminator. Allan just doesn’t want me in the house.”

Mitch shrugged. “Use your key.”

“He changed the locks.”

“I’m starting to see your point about Allan acting odd.” Mitch stared past her before refocusing again. “Any chance you’re on the deed and can get in legally?”

Putting her personal information out there made her twitchy, but she’d already shared about her mother. Opening up just a little more couldn’t hurt. If Mitch intended to use the rough aspects of her life to join in the gossip and hurt her, he would have done it already.

She ran her hand over the banister she’d once helped her mom paint. It was years ago, after her father died and before Allan came on the scene. Back then her mom talked about them being two strong women on their own. She made it all a game, made it seem fun and exciting.

Looking back, Cassidy wasn’t sure how they ever paid the rent or an electric bill. Mom’s secretary job at the local insurance company couldn’t have covered everything, but Cassidy couldn’t remember wanting for anything.

“Mom left the house to Allan, and before you read something into that bit of information and give it a stupid Holloway nickname, I told her to give Allan the house.” The need to justify welled inside Cassidy. “He fixed it up and until recently took great care of it. I wasn’t here, so there was no reason for me to have it.”

“You have your own money.”

What was one more confession on a day full of them? She’d opened the emotional door to him in ways she never dreamed possible. When it came to the nursery and the fertilizer mess, he deserved to know what drove it all.

“Had.” She kept the explanation to one word because she would say it without choking on it.

“Excuse me?”

She dragged her legs down the steps and joined him. “Let’s just leave.”

“Wait a second.” The bag fell from his arm and hit his boots. If it hurt, he pushed through the pain. “Tell me.”

She hesitated until nothing moved around them but the breeze and the scooping flight of a bird. When he didn’t show signs of backing down, she let all the exhaustion and anger run to the front of her brain. For so long she’d figured talking about it would make it worse, somehow increase how stupid she felt about the whole deal. But unloading might feel good and she was really tired of carrying this particular burden on her own.

“I lost it, but not by gambling or anything fun. My manager took my money. His dealings have been all over the news, though the lawyer one of my former sponsors hired kept my name out of it. Said it would reflect poorly on the company.”

“Idiots.”

She didn’t disagree. “He stole money from the accounts of most of his clients. He cleaned me out.”

The muscles in Mitch’s face fell. “You’re broke?”

“I have the pile of stuff you see right there and a little money, but not much. Not enough to survive.” She pointed at her backpack and bag she’d throw a few feet from the bottom of the stairs. “You’ve seen most of it before because you collected it at my makeshift campsite.

“My plan is to get a climbing guide job, but all of the posts are filled by this point in the season and we’re about to head into bad weather. Rick, that’s the guy’s name, managed to screw me with his timing, too, but I’ll find something to do until I can get the guide part started.”

“Where is he now?”

“Prison, and if your next question is about the location of my money, it’s gone. The police tracked down some but there’s a pool of victims and a wife who claims to be innocent. Getting my hands on any real settlement is close to impossible.”

Mitch let out a string of profanity. Only one of them came out clear enough to understand. “Son of a bitch.”

“That’s how I think of Rick. He handled my money while I traveled. The account statements I got looked real and had the right header but were fake. Somehow he kept it all hidden and working until the market turned then he couldn’t cover the regular client withdrawals and pay his own bills. He chose to keep his household running as long as possible and forego ours. I found out when I got back and my studio condo in Seattle was gone.”

Mitch reached out. He smoothed his along her arms, warming her chilled skin through her sweater. “Damn, Cassidy. I’m sorry.”

“It’s only money.” She kept repeating that mantra but she never believed it.

“No, it’s food and shelter. It’s security and the difference between having a cell phone and not. You don’t have anything you need and whatever Allan is doing means you can’t even stay here. I can only assume he doesn’t know, because I can’t imagine him abandoning you.”

“Me either.” Even through his haze of anger, she could see that Mitch understood all of it. How the loss of money spread out and infected everything, even the most basic of needs. The comfort that came from not having to explain wiped all the tension from her body. For the first in a long time the tightness inside her, from her stomach to her head, loosened.

In a flash the tiny lines near his eyes disappeared. His expression shifted from tense and disgusted on her behalf to open. The charming guy from that first day at the nursery returned.

“Good news is we can resolve part of the problem,” he said, smiling as he clearly warmed to the topic. “You’ll come and stay with me until we can get Allan to talk.”

The door on her mental wanderings and brief moment of calm happiness slammed shut. “No way.”

“We’re not arguing about this.”

Her thought exactly. “Yeah, I know.”

“I have an extra bedroom and heat. That puts you two steps ahead of where you are right now.”

The outside closed in on her. She didn’t know that was even possible. In a wide-open space, the air tightened and the trees and house rushed toward her. It was panic, pure and simple, and it skidded around the edge of her vision.

“Until the single women of Holloway stone me for being at your house. Yeah, no thanks. I have enough enemies.”

Not that she cared about having one more reason for people around here to hate her. This was about them. About the way her heartbeat crashed into her ribcage when she saw him and clogged her throat at the touch of his fingers. Two minutes in his house and whatever control she had would melt into nothing.

“I am not dating anyone other than you. We’re grown-ups. But the biggest point, and listen because I could not be more serious about this, Cassidy. I am not letting you sleep in the street. No fucking way. I don’t know what kind of guys you’ve known before, but that’s not happening with me.”

He’d managed to drop the fact she’d been tossing around in her head since the kiss. People night not think she had boundaries, but fidelity was a big one. She vowed never to be the other woman. Not even for him. Knowing he wasn’t with anyone else untied the knots on some of her resistance.

“I appreciate that, but—”

“Then it’s settled.” He balanced the backpack on his shoulder and held out a hand to her. “Let’s go.”

With each word from him the wall she’d built, the promises she’d made, crumbled. “This is a terrible idea.”

“I’m betting you won’t take money from me, even as a loan.”

Bile rushed up her throat at the idea. “Of course not.”

“Then your only other option is to move in. You can work off the rent at the nursery. As I said before, I know you can do the tasks since you’ve been doing them without pay. Only this time you’ll get income that will help you get back on your feet. There’s also the side benefit of me not pressing criminal charges against you for trespassing.”

The crash echoed in her brain as the last of the wall disintegrated.

“It will never work.” Even to her ears the denial sounded weaker.

“Why?”

There was no reason to dance around it. It wasn’t as if the attraction only ran in one direction. He’d made it clear in the way he touched her and the things he said to her that this, whatever it was zapping between them, was mutual. “You know why.”

“Because I want you in my bed and not the one down the hall?” The backs of his fingers brushed over her cheek. “Yeah, I’m not going to deny that. But you control that decision.”

“What will people say?”

“Do I honestly look like a guy who cares about that shit?”

More like the guy who took a woman’s self-control and smashed it to pieces at her feet with only a few sexy words. “Anyone ever tell you how you swear when you get grumpy?”

His eyebrow lifted. “Then stop pissing me off.”

Everything was so easy for him. For every argument, he had a counter. With every mistake she made, he came back with a workaround. The few men she’d let into her life never stuck around long. They came and went and she moved on. The lack of stability never bothered her before but now she wondered if that was because she couldn’t miss what she didn’t have.

She meant to put her hand on his chest but he shifted and it slid and landed on his flat stomach. “Mitch, your offer means more to me than I can say.”

“So, stop talking.” He dropped a quick kiss on her startled mouth. “Let me help.”

“I’m not good at accepting charity.”

“And I’m not good at living with people. Think how much fun we’re going to have.”

“I guess this means that yelling you promised will take place in the privacy of your house.”

“I’ll make a deal with you. Accept my offer and I’ll forget the yelling.”

“Deal.” Though she wasn’t sure she’d really won that one.

Chapter Eight

Mitch went back to the office only long enough to pick up some paperwork and head out again. Cassidy was waiting in the car, not knowing they were about to go on a quick shopping run for whatever essentials women needed and the ones he wanted—groceries and condoms. He’d almost made it out of his office without getting stopped. He turned the lock and closed the door…and ran right into Spence.

“You’re leaving early,” he said.

For a guy who spent most of his time outside, Spence sure was hanging around the office a lot lately. “Need to run an errand.”

“Is this errand called Cassidy?”

It was about her, and their dinner and his peace of mind. “I do have other parts of my life, you know.”

“If you say so.”

Since Spence wasn’t moving and people milled around them, Mitch decided not to fight the conversation. “Did you need something?”

“Just watching out for you.”

“I’m a little old to need help.”

Spence crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the office wall. “I find that stupidity doesn’t really have an age limit.”

Mitch wondered if he’d come off this annoying when he was trying to help Austin through his troubles with Carrie. “Go ahead. Say whatever you need to say.”

“I tried to talk to Allan today.”

But that was too much
. Mitch grabbed for patience. “About Cassidy?”

“No, the weather.” Spence scoffed. “Of course, Cassidy.”

“Want to tell me why you thought you needed to stick yourself in the middle of this?”

“Well, she’s trespassing on my property and has you tied in knots. Seemed like stepping in was the smart thing to do.”

“I’ve got this under control.”

“Haven’t seen your common sense this twisted up since Susan.”

Hearing his ex’s name tore through Mitch. She no longer had a hold on him like she once had, but the way she’d dumped him had left a well of anger he struggled to control. When other women walked into his life, he measured them by how close they came to Susan. Not that he wanted to duplicate her. It was the exact opposite. He vowed to bolt rather than walk down that road a second time.

With Cassidy he didn’t see Susan. On the surface, yeah. They both wanted out of Holloway at some point in their lives and craved something bigger from life. But the similarities ended there.

“This has nothing to do with Susan,” he said, knowing the truth of the comment as he spoke.

“You sure?”

“I’ve dated other women since Susan left.”

Spence mumbled something. “So you are dating Cassidy?”

Damn
. “Don’t twist my words.”

Spence glanced at the ground as he moved some gravel around under his shoe. When he looked up again, a new determination filled every inch of his face. “There’s a lot of talk about Cassidy and how she treated Allan.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Mitch hated that part. The woman he’d sat with at the diner and listened to at her mother’s grave was not spoiled or uncaring like the gossip portrayed her. The public story and the private pieces he’d put together didn’t match at all. He believed her but stray suspicions still bombarded him.

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

Spence meant well. Mitch knew that. “Trust me.”

“My problem isn’t with you.”

“You’ve made that clear.”

Spence nodded. “Good.”

* * *

Later that night Cassidy paced the loft area of the log cabin. Her bare feet padded against the hardwood floor as Mitch’s borrowed T-shirt swished around the top of her thighs. Darkness loomed outside the window by her double bed, but for the first in a long time she was inside, safe and cozy warm.

They’d shared a mouthwatering homemade steak dinner and relaxed at opposite ends of the huge sectional sofa after while some mindless show she’d never seen before played on the television. The evening showed her she could add cooking, good host and nice taste in houses to his already impressive list of positive qualities.

Sure, he hadn’t said much. Just sat there, flexing his fingers and flipping channels as soon as the first sound of a commercial dared come on. Nothing wrong with that since almost an hour of searching her brain for smart conversation had failed. She blamed his faded jeans and the navy tee he’d stripped down to after dinner. A woman could only handle so much hotness before she broke and Cassidy had reached the snapping point.

All that fighting off attraction earlier made her hungry now. He’d declared his kitchen hers for the length of her stay and, well, that ice cream she’d spied in the freezer just begged for a big spoon.

She peered over the loft railing. Mitch had gone to his room over an hour ago. A nightlight in the kitchen cast a soft glow across the open family room below. She could see every inch except the part right below her. Empty and just begging for a snack run.

Moving as quietly as possible, she placed one foot on the ladder rung then the other. The wood creaked but she kept going. She was halfway down when the buzzing started in her ears. She hesitated, trying to figure out if she’d tuned into the hum of the refrigerator and listened for another explanation. Since silence continued to sweep through the room, she chalked the internal noise up to an ice cream craving and went one more step.

Then she felt him. She ducked her head and peeked into the office space under the loft. Instead of a desk and bookshelves, she came face-to-face with Mitch. Make that face-to-incredible-bare-chest.

“Uh, hi.” She wrapped her fingers around the sides of the ladder in a death grip that made her palms ache.

He didn’t say a word. Just stood there with the water bottle partway to his mouth and his heated gaze stuck on her legs.

She lowered a hand and snapped her fingers. “Mitch?”

He blinked for what looked like a thousand times. Didn’t say anything, but at least his eyesight leveled out to about her neck. The dropped mouth didn’t close.

“I was getting a snack,” she said.

“I was thirsty.” His first uttered words came out slow with beats of silence between them.

“Should I go back upstairs?” She should run. A smart woman would stop this madness before it blossomed into something she couldn’t control. Then again, no one in Holloway viewed her as being all that bright. “Mitch?”

“You should get off the ladder before you fall.”

She stood about three feet off the ground, but decided not to point out she could jump and not even make a sound. Without another word, she climbed down, sighing in relief when her toes hit the floor again. Since seeing his face, her muscles jumped and her stomach took off in a wild spin, so being on stable ground seemed like a good idea.

But he still looked a bit iffy, kind of frozen and confused. “Are you okay?”

He hadn’t lowered his water bottle yet. “I thought you were asleep.”

Talking was good. Easy banter might break whatever trance held him so still. Not that she was looking. Heck, she was trying hard not to look but only an idiot would miss the flat stomach. And he had that sexy male thing with the pronounced collarbone that was entirely too lickable.

Yeah, this living together plan was a bad idea.

Rather than search her brain for something intelligent to say, she let the babble come out unfiltered. “I have to get used to a bed again.”

His eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?”

“I’ve been sleeping on the hard ground. A mattress always feels odd at first.”
Because that sounds normal.

“Really?”

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth to keep from wincing. “It sounds weird, right?”

“A little.”

A hard breath left her body. “It’s just that—”

“But kind of endearing.”

It was her turn to freeze. “Really?”

A sexy smile spread across his lips, complete with dimple and rows of perfect white teeth. “You are the toughest woman I know.”

That sounded like he viewed her as another guy. How incredibly…not flattering. “Is that a good thing?”

“Of course.” Those blue eyes narrowed. “Did I offend you?”

Not the right word, but something about his supposed compliment had her insides grumbling. “Every now and then a woman likes to think of herself as…you know, girlie.”

“Oh, you are all woman.” His gaze slid over the T-shirt, down to her thighs. “I’d be happy to compliment you on everything I see.”

She glanced down, stunned at how her shirt seemed to shrink as she stood there. The top cleared the important parts, but just barely. Then there was the memory that slapped her out of nowhere. She wasn’t wearing any underwear. She’d washed out her three pairs and had them drying on the windowsill above.

Oh my God.

With that little piece of news, she put one foot over the other, bringing her thighs together. She wasn’t naked, but close.

“I should probably go to bed.” Her voice sounded breathy in her head.

“Are you sure?”

There it was. The invitation. He dropped the decision at her feet and it took every ounce of strength inside her not to bend down and scoop it up.

“Yeah. I’ll just—” She tried to squeeze by him and their bodies touched. She didn’t even know they’d gotten that close.

His breath brushed across her hair and his hand landed on her hip. “Okay.”

Was it? “I’m trying to be smart here.”

He leaned in, his mouth hovering over hers. “You ever think maybe you could let your brain rest for a second and have your body take over.”

The heat from his body seeped into hers. “Ever since I met you.”

“When you decide to let that happen, you let me know.”

“Until then?”

His gaze searched her face as his finger traced the outline of her lips. “I’ll be waiting.”

Just as she leaned in, he pulled back. After a quick squeeze of his hand against her waist he was off. She watched him walked down the hall and wondered how she’d make it through the first night without going to him.

Water. She needed water. Preferably ice-cold water.

She walked into the kitchen. The note on the counter stopped her. Her fingers circled the cell phone sitting there as her gaze went to the bold print.

For your safety.

She traced her finger over the words and the number printed next to it. The phone beeped as she turned it on. A scroll through the contacts showed numbers for the nursery, Mitch, Allan, Travis, Spencer, the house, Mitch’s office and Darla.

Her heart flipped over as she glanced at his closed bedroom door. She’d have to be the one to make a move. He talked about her being strong. She hoped that was true.