Open Skies (22 page)

The two women looked at each other. Tammy was just barely holding it together. It took everything she had to keep smiling and chatting, pretending that she was doing fine.

“Tammy,” Julie said in a soft voice. “Please talk to me. I’m here and you can tell me anything, anything at all. I’ll help if I can, or I’ll just listen. I’ll do whatever you ask or need.”

“I’m
fine
, Jules.” Tammy put on her brightest face and voice. “I’m just taking some time to get my head together. I’m really fine. Really.”

Julie’s eyes searched her face; Tammy was lying, she knew, but she couldn’t seem to break through her insistence that she was ‘fine’. Nothing she said or did got Tammy to open up or be honest. Julie was at a complete loss – she felt like she was talking to a stranger with Tammy’s face. There was nothing more she could say or do right now, she knew.

“OK,” Julie said and stood up. “Well, I have to get to work. If you need anything –”

“I’ll call. I know.” Tammy smiled, making sure to show all her teeth.

Julie paused, her hand on the door handle. “OK. Well, I’ll see you later.”

“Yep.”

Julie left, closing the door behind her. Tammy heard her footsteps walking away, toward the main building and she stood in the living room until she didn’t hear them anymore. Then she retrieved the blanket and pillow from where she had hidden them, crawled back on the sofa, pulled the blanket over her head and closed her eyes. She could only sleep during the day since the attack had happened, and she had sat up all through the night before, staring in to the darkness and shaking.

No matter what she told Julie, she couldn’t believe that she’d be fine ever again.

Julie went in to the restaurant to get a cup of coffee to take to her office. Rob Cathay saw her come in and he waved her over.

“Hi, Rob.” Julie sat at one of the scrubbed wooden tables. “How are things here today?”

“Good.” His blue eyes studied his boss. “How are things with you? And with Tammy?”

Julie shook her head.

“Still?” he asked.

“Yeah. She just – she just won’t talk to me. I don’t know what to do anymore.” Julie looked down and fought back tears. “I think she’s lying to me about sleeping and eating and doing OK. I really think she’s just hidden herself in that cabin and she’s sitting on that sofa day and night, in the dark, looking at the walls. I don’t know how to reach her.”

“Hey.” Rob touched her arm. “It’s OK. She’ll be OK, Julie. She just needs some more time.”

“She doesn’t even
cry
anymore, Rob. In New York, she couldn’t seem to stop, and here, she can’t seem to start. It’s like she’s completely frozen and numb. Shut down.”

“That happens with trauma, Julie. People pull back in to themselves, try to pretend that nothing happened and everything is normal.”

“I guess so.”

“Really. She’ll get better.” He took her hand. “This kind of thing, it only moves farther away with time. When she’s ready, she’ll talk to someone.”

Julie wiped her eyes and tried to smile. “I hope you’re right.”

“Listen, I’ll go over there this afternoon, to drop off some more groceries and stuff and check on her. Can you let her know I’ll be coming by at around one o’clock?”

“If you want, I can have Constance or Maria do it.”

“No, it’s fine. I like to go for a walk around the ranch after lunch.”

“OK.”

“So, I hate to ask, but are you feeling up to talking about the new cabins? We have lots to go through…if I could put off asking any longer, I swear I would.”

“I know, I’ve been useless for the past month on all of this, Rob. I’m sorry that you’ve been stuck dealing with everything on your own.”

“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about. Tammy comes first – everything else can wait.”

Julie glanced at Rob, and smiled at him for real. He was just such a
nice
guy, she thought, and not bad-looking, either, in an all-American-boy kind of way. Not her type, but she could see how his blond hair and blue eyes and dimples would appeal to women. His broad shoulders and strong, athletic physique were testament to his swimming and weight-lifting regime, and his body perfectly combined grace and power.

Add to all that the fact that Rob was actually sweet and kind, and great at his job as Head of Sales, and you had what some people called ‘a great catch’. Why nobody had caught him yet was a mystery to Julie. She had heard something from Mattie about a long-time girlfriend, but she had left the country for work and had no plans to return. That was the last that Julie had heard anything about Rob’s personal life.

“Thanks, Rob,” she said. “Let’s take this coffee and head in to the conference room, OK? I’ll go over the plans with you now, since I have to head to Colorado Springs this afternoon to look at bathroom fixtures for the new cabins.”

“Sounds good,” he said. “Let’s get to work.”

At just past one o’clock that afternoon, Rob walked over to Tammy’s cabin with a box of food, some clean sheets and towels, and some fresh flowers.

He stepped up on to the porch and knocked. He waited, listening. No movement inside. He knocked again.

The door opened now, and Tammy stood there in old sweat pants and a ratty sweatshirt, wrapped in a blanket. Her long black hair was tousled and her face was soft and lined with sleep. She stared at him with glazed eyes.

“Oh, my God, Tammy. I woke you up. I’m so, so sorry.”

She blinked at him. “Hi, Rob.”

“Julie said she’d call and let you know that I was coming over now, to drop off some stuff for you.”

She nodded blearily. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, she did. I must have fallen asleep, though.”

“I’m sorry… do you want me to come back later?”

“No, it’s OK. I’m up now.” She stepped aside and waved him in.

Feeling awful, he went in to the cabin and headed straight for the kitchen. He opened the fridge and was surprised to see that it was almost full. All the fruit and vegetables and yogurt were there; the eggs were untouched, the cheese and bread were both moldy. Had she not eaten
anything
over the past week? He opened the cupboards and saw that a few cans of soup were gone, but that was it.

Oh, God…she’s really not eating. It’s just like Julie said.

Tammy was watching him. He turned to her. “What are you eating, Tammy?”

She bristled. “Food.”

“What food? Nothing’s gone except three cans of tomato soup.”

“So, I had tomato soup.”

They regarded each other from across the room.

“I have some clean sheets and towels for you, too. I’ll leave them here, OK?”

“Great. Thanks for stopping by.” She gave him that fake smile.

Rob knew that he should go now, but he was having a hard time leaving Tammy like this. He’d seen photos of her on Julie’s desk and around her house long before Tammy had come to the ranch, and Rob had always thought that Tammy was the most drop-dead gorgeous woman he’d ever seen.

Her humor and love for life had leapt out at him from the picture frames, her smile vibrant and sassy and genuine. She had struck Rob as fearless and fun and amazing. The way that Julie talked about her just confirmed this: even when she wasn’t around, Tammy managed to make Julie loosen up and laugh. Just
talking
about Tammy changed Julie – that’s how strong her positive energy was. She was irresistible and outrageous and everything that Rob wasn’t, with his suits and safe job and predictable life of routine and calm.

The woman facing him now was flat and gray. Rob understood why, he really did. But the gap between the woman in Julie’s pictures and the woman in the living room was vast. It hurt Rob to see her like this; he couldn’t imagine what it must be doing to Julie.

“Tammy. Can I stay for a while? Have a coffee and talk to you?”

She looked startled. “What? Why?”

“Maybe you’d like some company? You’ve been closed up in here for a week.”

“I like it in here.”

“I’m sure you do… but maybe I can hang out for a little bit? Make some coffee and some sandwiches?”

“I’m sure you have work to do, Rob. You don’t need to babysit me. I’m fine.”

That word again,
fine
. Every single time he and anyone else had talked to her over the past two weeks, she was always ‘fine’. He looked her up and down and thought that she was about as far away from ‘fine’ as it was possible to be.

“OK, here’s the deal. I make you some food and you eat it. Once you do, I go.” His eyes were not letting go of hers. “I promise.”

She looked unnerved and backed up a few steps. “I don’t think – I’m not sure – I mean, I don’t really know you –”

“Tammy,” he said gently. “I’m not going to hurt you, I swear. I’m not going to touch you, or even sit near you. You tell me where you want me, and that’s where I’ll be. OK?”

That stopped her. She looked at him, her lovely face confused, her eyes still full of suspicion. “Really?”

“Really.” He turned from her now and started looking through the shelves for coffee. “I’ll make the coffee now. You want Cinnamon or Belgian Chocolate?”

She actually thought about it. “Umm. The chocolate.”

“OK.” He started to measure and pour. “Hey, you want to open that blind a bit? I can’t see much in here.”

Tammy walked over to the large window in the living room and tugged the blind up. She blinked and grimaced. Wow, that glare off the snow was bright.

She turned back to look at Rob again. He was bustling around the cute little kitchen, cutting the fresh bread he brought, adding some meat and cheese and a pickle on the side. The smell of coffee wafted through the air and Tammy became aware of how it smelled in the cabin: musty and stale. Her nose wrinkled and she opened the smallest window a bit. Rob turned around when he felt the cold breeze.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” he said. “Get some fresh air in here.”

Tammy stood by the window, her back to the astounding view, and watched Rob. She hadn’t noticed quite how gold his hair was –
well, it would take a bit of sun to make that show up, dimwit
– and how clear blue his eyes were. He was tall and broad and strong. He was handsome and had very white teeth and did good deeds for the housebound. He was, in effect, Captain America. Tammy stifled the sudden urge to giggle. Captain America in her kitchen, making coffee!

Rob turned and caught the look on her face: for a few seconds there, she actually looked a bit like the Tammy in the pictures. He examined her now, feeling anger rising in him. The faded bruises stood out far more clearly in the light, and he could only imagine how badly she must have been hurt for them to still be visible four weeks later. Julie had told him that she hadn’t even recognized Tammy under all the swelling and damage when she first saw her in the hospital; Rob totally believed it.

“OK, coffee’s ready.” He found two mugs. “What do you take in yours?”

“Milk and sugar, please.”

“OK.” He brought the cup over to her and set it on the low table. “You clear up this stuff and I’ll bring the sandwiches and a bowl of fruit. Maybe some water, too.”

Tammy moved the pillow to the chair and folded the blanket, shut the window again. Rob came to the sofa now, and she took an automatic step back. He pretended not to notice.

“There you go. You eat this, and I’ll make some more if you want.”

“Thanks.” She sat and reached for a sandwich. She saw that her hand was shaking and quickly pulled it back, tucked it in to the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

Rob saw it too. He sat down in the second armchair and picked up the sandwich she had been reaching for. He put it on a plate and set it down in front of her. “Here you go. Eat, Tammy.”

“OK.”

And she actually did. She ate the sandwich, then another, then another. She drank her coffee. She ate an apple for dessert and had a few glasses of water.

The whole time, Rob sat in the armchair across from her, sipping his coffee with milk and looking out the window. He didn’t talk, and didn’t expect her to, either. When she finished eating, he stood up silently and cleared the table. He washed the dishes and left them in the draining board. He wiped down the counters, and folded the cloth neatly.

Tammy sat on the sofa watching him. It felt surreal to her, this guy just showing up to make her coffee and lunch, then tidying up on his way out. She was starting to feel sleepy again, and she blinked hard.

He turned around now. In his hand he had a vase of flowers: yellow and red and white. She stared at them, puzzled. He brought the vase to the table, set it in front of her.

“For you,” he said. “Take care, Tammy.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

And he was gone. Tammy was left sitting on the sofa in a patch of brilliant sunlight, inhaling the rich chocolate aroma of the coffee and staring at the flowers.

In that moment, something shifted in her. For the first time in four weeks, she felt a small spark of something familiar. She realized it was joy.
I hope that you liked this sneak peek of 'Open Arms' (Open Skies #2). It is now available for purchase, and I hope you will consider buying it.

About the author

Marysol James is the author of the 'Open Skies' and upcoming ‘Fighting For Love’ series. She writes steamy, sexy, slinky romances which feature strong, complex women and equally fascinating men. Marysol is interested in producing well-written and passionate stories with characters who learn to let go of control and to trust – both in and out of the bedroom.

Her stories are very sensual (very!), and offer smart plots, a bit of humor, and lots of character development, so her books will appeal to readers who want emotional connection as well as sexuality.

When not writing, Marysol can be found swimming, doing yoga, listening to music and drinking coffee. To stay up-to-date with her, visit her blog at marysoljames.wordpress.com or follow her on Twitter (@marysoljames)