Obsessed With You (20 page)

“
Are you all right?” Neil
asked.

“
I’m fine,” she said. She
forced a little laugh and waved at him.

Valentine’s Day stretched out
forever as Cathy went back into her cottage. She made a smoked turkey
sandwich and ate it in the living room. When she was finished, she
lay on the couch flipping the channels until she settled on an
episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” She dozed for a while, and
when she woke up the TV was blaring a Valentine’s Day commercial
for a drugstore on the coast.

Wasn’t Valentine’s over yet?
She glanced at the clock on the cable box. 5:13. Time for wine. Cathy
went to the kitchen and poured herself a big glass, then moved
through the channels until she found an episode of “Will and
Grace.” No worries about romance with that one since Will was gay.

She wondered what Aaron was
doing. She had no idea what his work situation was since he had
obviously left Peachtree Financial Consultants. Was it possible he
was dating again? Could he be planning a night on the town with
someone? Did he buy her roses and maybe a box of Godiva chocolates.
She loved Godiva, and Aaron bought her a box of mixed chocolates for
every occasion he could think of. Her birthday, Christmas, the day
they got engaged. She loved the rich gooey goodness of the
intricately formed chocolate pieces.

When she finished her glass of
wine, she got up and poured another big glass. It was past six by
then and it was dark outside. She started thinking about contacting
Aaron, but she didn’t have her phone anymore. She couldn’t call
him or text him.

But she could email him. What
would she say after all this time? She ran the possibilities through
her mind, from “Missing you” to “Where the hell are you?”

She sucked on her wine glass
until it was finished and she poured herself another. She was getting
close to drunk-emailing Aaron. “Will and Grace” was still on.
Apparently it was a special Valentine’s Day marathon, ironic since
there was no hope of any romance between the characters.

Cathy stared at her laptop on the
coffee table. It was her only form of communication. She sat up and
dragged it over in front of her. She turned it on and watched Grace
make an idiot of herself at the therapist’s office while it booted
up.

When it was finally booted up,
she checked her email. It had been nearly a week since she’d
checked it and the inbox was full. She didn’t bother to read the
incoming messages. She only had one thing on her mind. Email Aaron.
She opened up a Compose Mail window and wrote “Thinking of you
today.” That was all. Her wine-infused courage allowed her finger
to hit the send button. Then she sat back on the couch.

By that time, the wine had gotten
to her, so Cathy pulled the throw from the back of the couch down on
her and took another nap, this one fueled by too much wine.

She woke up to a knocking on her
door. Groggily, she looked at the clock on the cable box. It was
after nine. She stumbled to the door and opened it. Neil and Lindy
stood on her porch.

“
We tried to call you,” Lindy
said. “A bunch of times.”

Cathy tried to clear her head.
“My phone fell in the bay this morning,” she said. “I’m going
to get it replaced tomorrow. Aren’t ya’ll supposed to be at the B
and B?”

Lindy and Neil looked at each
other, then back at Cathy.

“
We’ve got to tell you
something,” Neil said. “It’s too important to wait.”

Chapter
Eighteen

Aaron sped down the highway
toward the coast. He would have liked to go without stopping, but
halfway there he was running on empty. He took the next exit and
pulled into a gas station. He filled his tank and used the restroom.
Before he got back on the road, he tried to call Cathy. He knew she
wouldn’t answer, and she didn’t. He left her a voice mail saying
that he knew who had set him up and to please call him back. Then he
sent her a text with the same message, then an email saying the same
thing. He was desperate for her to know the truth.

He finally pulled into his
driveway of the bay house at nine-thirty. A light shone from the
front porch and he silently thanked Neil for that. He only had his
duffel bag, which he threw onto the floor in the living room. Now
what?

Aaron went into stalker mode
again. It was Valentine’s Day and Cathy would likely be out with
her high school boyfriend or entertaining him at her house. Or his?
He couldn’t go barging in on her, as much as he wanted to. What he
had to say to Cathy was private, between him and her. No high school
boyfriends allowed.

He poured himself a glass of
scotch on the rocks and drank it down before he went outside with his
backpack and flashlight. The moon was only a crescent and offered him
no additional light whatsoever. He shined the light to the opening
and started down the path.

Chapter
Nineteen

“
I told you he looked
familiar,” Lindy said.

“
Are you sure?” Cathy asked
them, looking from Lindy’s face to Neil’s.

“
We’re sure,” Neil said.
“When Lindy showed me those photos of your fiancé, I knew it was
him right away. But I looked at a lot more before I decided one
hundred percent. Your fiancé is Richard Smith. He bought the house
next to you.”

Cathy was stunned.

“
I don’t know why he would do
that,” she finally said in a voice that was almost a whisper.

“
I know why,” Lindy said.
“Because he loves you madly, that’s why. He wanted to be near
you.”

“
But it’s kind of crazy,
isn’t it?” Cathy said.

“
Did you ever return his
calls?” Lindy said. “Did you ever let him talk to you again? I
think he wanted to be near you. I think he loves you completely.”

Neil looked at Lindy. “Or else
he’s crazy,” he said.

“
Or that,” Lindy said. “But
I don’t think so.”

“
I emailed him tonight,”
Cathy said. “It’s the first time I’ve tried to contact him
since I left.”

“
Did he email you back?”
Lindy asked.

“
Not the last time I checked,”
she said. She opened her laptop, which thankfully was only on sleep
mode, and pulled up her email. Lindy peered over her shoulder.

“
He hasn’t written back,”
Cathy said.

“
What’s that?” Lindy asked
putting her finger on the screen at an email almost at the end of the
page. “Isn’t that an email from Aaron?”

Cathy looked at Lindy’s finger.
She hadn’t even bothered to thoroughly look at her emails earlier
and there was one right there from Aaron, staring her in the face.
She opened it.

Lindy made no pretense of giving
Cathy privacy to read the email. She put her hands on Cathy’s
shoulders, peering over them.

“
Oh my God,” Lindy said
putting her hand over her mouth. “He knows who did it! I wonder who
it is.”

“
I need your phone,” Cathy
demanded. Lindy handed it to her. She called Aaron’s number. It
rang four times and then went to voice mail. She heard his voice,
asking her to leave a message, for the first time in months.

“
Aaron, I got your message. I
lost my phone. Please email me right away and I’ll figure out a way
that we can talk. Please.” She handed Lindy’s phone back to her.

“
You keep it,” Lindy said.
“You can use it until you get your phone replaced. I don’t need
it.”

“
Thank you,” she said giving
Lindy a hug. She called Aaron right back and left another message
asking him to call her on Lindy’s phone. Then she burst into tears.

Neil and Lindy both enveloped her
and she was in a protective cocoon. She could have stayed there
forever, but a glance at the clock told her that they were going to
miss their dinner if they didn’t get going.

“
I’m okay,” Cathy assured
them. “I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know what happened, if
anything. Try to have a good time.” She smiled at them. They looked
uncertainly at each other.

“
I’m serious, y’all. I’ll
be fine, especially since I’ve got a phone. I’ll call you if I
fall apart, I promise.”

It was after nine-thirty by the
time Lindy and Neil left. The B and B would be serving dinner until
ten. Cathy called her grandfather.

“
Hey, Grandpa, it’s me,”
Cathy said. “I’m using Lindy’s phone because I dropped mine in
the bay. I just wanted to make sure Lindy and Neil can get their
dinner tonight.”

“
Hey, hon. Hold on.”

“
Hey, Eileen,” Cathy heard
him call out. “Can Lindy and Neil still get their Valentine’s
dinner? They got waylaid.”

A second later he came back on
the phone. “She said Lindy already called her and she knew they
were running late. Are you okay?”

“
I’m okay,” Cathy said. “I
heard from Aaron. Well, I mean he left me a message. I’m trying to
get in touch with him.”

“
Good luck, hon,” he said
before they hung up.

Cathy threw herself back on the
couch. She didn’t turn the TV on because she couldn’t stand its
mindless chatter. Her own mind was scrambled enough. She kept Lindy’s
phone on top of her stomach and every few minutes, she checked her
email. Nothing.

She had been alone for ten
minutes when she heard a loud knocking at her door. Surely it wasn’t
Lindy and Neil, but who else would it be so late? She looked out the
peephole and Zachery’s face stared back at her. Damn. That was the
last thing she needed. She cracked the door.

“
I’m about to go to bed,
Zachery,” she said.

“
I just want to talk to you for
a minute,” he said. He sounded a little slurry and Cathy figured
he’d been drinking.

“
I’m too tired,” she said.

“
Just a minute,” he insisted.

She opened the door and stepped
out onto the porch.

“
You can’t do this to us,
Cathy,” he said coming close to her. She pushed him away.

“
I’ve already explained it to
you,” she said.

He tried to put his arms around
her.

“
Come on, now. Don’t you
remember how it used to be with us? We couldn’t keep our hands off
each other.”

“
You’re drunk and I’m ready
for you to leave,” she said turning to go back in the door.

Zachery pulled her back, then
pushed her against the porch wall.

“
No!” she screamed.

And then there was a noise so
loud from the dark yard that they both turned to look. A big bear of
a man came roaring onto the porch and punched Zachery square in the
face, sending him slumping to the porch floor.

Aaron turned his bay-blue eyes to
Cathy. “Are you all right?”

She stared at him, then down at
Zachery, then back at Aaron.

He opened his arms. It was now or
never. She took two steps toward him and he folded her to his chest,
holding her close against his thumping heart.

Cathy looked up at him, his eyes
so familiar but set in a vastly transformed face.

“
I love you,” she whispered
before her lips touched his and the current moved between them.

Chapter
Twenty

“
Do you think he’s hurt?”
Cathy said.

“
I think he’s passed out,”
Aaron said. “My fist to his face just helped things along.”

“
He’s pretty drunk,” Cathy
said. “I think he more fell on me than pushed me.”

“
It looked like a push from
where I was standing,” Aaron said. “What are we going to do with
him?”

“
I hate to do it, but I think
I’m going to call Neil and Lindy to help us. They’re probably
finished with their dinner by now. Hell, Lindy’ll probably get a
kick out of it.”

Cathy took Aaron’s hand and led
him inside. She poured him a scotch before calling Neil.

“
They’ll be right over,”
she said. “Lindy sounded excited.”

“
She’s a firecracker,”
Aaron said. “I like her.”

“
So who did it?” Cathy asked.
“I can’t wait another second to know.”

“
Marsha,” he said taking a
drink of his scotch.

“
Marsha?” Cathy said. “Your
secretary Marsha?”

“
Yep. Come sit by me.”

Cathy sat on the couch and Aaron
put his arm around her, pulling her close.

“
She worked at that first firm
I was at. She had only been there a week or so when I left and she
looked vastly different. She was thin and had brown hair. That’s
why I didn’t recognize her when she came to Peachtree. Plus, I
hardly knew her anyway.”

“
How did she know so much about
you?” Cathy asked. “Like about your special birthmark?”

Aaron laughed and she giggled
just a little.

“
I got pretty drunk at my going
away party at Deccio’s. Marsha was there and I ended up going to a
hotel with her. I barely remember anything after that. I passed out
and left early the next morning. But she called me and something
about the desperation in her voice and her refusal to take no for an
answer freaked me out and I changed my cell number.”