What The Heart Finds (18 page)

The town was calm, the
kids in school and the farmers out in their fields. A few people
milled in and out of the diner, but she didn't see anyone she
recognized.

She quickly shuffled
across the street and into the market, grabbing a hand cart and
stepping inside. It was blissfully empty for once. A young woman was
working the check out line, someone she had never seen before.
Someone who wouldn't even really knew who she was... even if the
rumors had spread.

Lena grabbed a few
basics. Apples, some bread, pasta and tomato sauce, instant oatmeal,
and eggs. Her hand cart was full when she rounded the bend into the
baking aisle.

She tried to make herself
keep moving. Get out of there as quickly as possible. But, she
reasoned with herself, baking was always a good way for her to relax.
Throw herself into something. Let the rest of the world fall away.
And if there was ever a time when she really needed an escape from
reality, it was then.

She walked up and down
the aisle, grabbing various things, then doubling back to grab things
she had passed over on the first time. The handle of the basket dug
into the skin of her forearm as she kept trying to pile more and more
items on top, everything teetering ominously.

“Yeah,” she
heard a voice say from the next aisle over. “Molly came over to
clean my house this morning. And she told me that Emily had called a
staff meeting over at the inn. Apparently that woman around town, the
high-brow looking one with all her business attire, broke into the
inn's computer system.”

Lena felt a dropping in
her stomach. She knew she should move, go up to the counter, pay and
get out before they saw her. But her feet wouldn't move. A sick,
self-loathing part of her needed to hear what they were going to say.
She needed to hear how bad her face was going to be covered in mud.
If maybe they were going to play it down. Or if they were going to
build it up to something monumental.

“No way,”
another voice hissed.

“Yeah,” the
first woman said, her tone firm and authoritative. The first branch
in the grapevine. She had all the power. “Emily caught her and
threw her out on her sorry butt.”

“Where did she go?”
the other woman asked, thoroughly engaged. “Wasn't her car
broken?”

“No one knows,”
the first woman said. “That's the weirdest part. She walked out
of the inn and just... disappeared. No one has seen her around this
morning. But I saw her car in Eric's shop when he had the door open
this morning. So she definitely didn't leave that way.”

“What could she
want in the inn's computer system?”

Lena could practically
hear the woman shrug her shoulder, raise a brow, lean closer. Here
came the death blow. “Well... the inn's computer stores all the
credit card information for all the guests who have ever stayed
there.”

“Oh my gosh,”
the other woman gasped. “She was trying to steal credit card
information?”

The other woman was
silent for a moment and Lena heard a few items fall into her cart. “I
said the first moment I set eyes on her that she was trouble. With
her cheap silk shirts. Who dresses like that on vacation unless they
are trying to not look suspicious?”

Lena started moving
toward the top of the aisle.

Almost out of earshot,
she heard the second woman ask, “Did Emily contact the
sheriff?”

Lena froze, her heart
hammering in her chest. Did she call the sheriff? Would there be
criminal repercussions for her actions?

“Not yet I don't
think. She's having someone over to work on the computer. See if she
managed to access the credit records before they bother Aiden.”

Lena took a deep, shaky
breath, moving up to the register and quickly throwing her items up
on the belt. She bagged her own things, hoping to cut down on long it
would take as the woman leisurely scanned her items. But even when
she was only half way through, she heard the women start making their
way to the register.

Her chest got tight as
she brushed her hair out from behind her ear, letting the strands
mask her face from view. At least she didn't look like herself. She
wouldn't as easily be recognized out of her usual clothes, with her
hair pinned back, with her heels. As long as she didn't look at them,
maybe they wouldn't notice.

“What is this world
coming to?” the second woman asked, putting a partition behind
Lena's groceries. “I mean... we have never had to worry about
thieves and criminals around here before.”

“I know. It's
scary. You cant trust anyone anymore. They don't even look like
criminals anymore. That girl walking around here with a stick up her
butt like she was better than all of us. Meanwhile she's trying to
rob us all blind.”

Lena was reaching into
her wallet when she saw motion a few feet behind the check-out girl.
She glanced up automatically, seeing Hank the friendly grocer there.
He looked at her for a split second like he was shocked to see her.
Then his eyes went sad, disappointed. He shook his head at her then
lowered his gaze to the floor.

Humiliated, Lean turned
back to the cashier, handing her all the money she had in her wallet
with shaking hands. Which was at least three times what her total
came up to. She quickly grabbed her bags, scrambling to get them all
in her arms as fast as possible.

She felt her face getting
red, ashamed, embarrassed.

The loaf of bread in one
bag slipped, falling to the floor. The woman behind her reached for
it, picked it up and held it out. “Here, honey, you dropped...”
Lena turned to reach for it, and the woman's eyes went wide. “Oh
my god,” she gasped.

The other woman, the
gossip-bearer, arched a perfect eyebrow. “That's her,”
she said, her voice full of accusation.

Lena left the bread,
turning and moving as quickly as possible toward the exit. “Miss...
you forgot your change...” she heard the frazzled-sounding
cashier yell out before the other women started to tell her the
story.

Lena ducked her head,
feeling the tears well up again. What was she thinking? Of course
people had found out. She hadn't even considered the rest of the inn
staff. A part of her had figured Emily wasn't really the kind to
spread viscous gossip. And she really didn't think Devon would even
believe it. But then there was Alec. And the servers. The kitchen
staff. And then, apparently, there was the maid Molly. Who did
private house cleaning as well.

The gossip wasn't the
worst part. She had dealt with more than her fair share of gossip
along the way. The nasty girls at her school who made fun of her for
being a nerd, who accused her father of being a drug dealer, her
mother a junkie and whore. There had been the dorm parties where
everyone called her a frigid bitch. Then, worse yet, the grown women
at work.

In her experience, the
grown women were always the worst. She had heard all kinds of
accusations flying at EM Corp when she had first been hired. Because
she didn't have experience. Just a degree and a pretty face. There
were the stories about being Elliott's long lost sister. Which was
absolutely absurd given the significant difference in appearance. And
when that one died down, there was the one about her being in a
lesbian relationship with Hannah. Or in a polyamorous relationship
with both Elliott and Hannah. Of which there were numerous sordid,
vivid tales about their sexual proclivities.

It wasn't the gossip. It
was the look Hank had given her. A look that didn't have a trace of
anger, but was dripping with betrayal.

Lena crossed the street
without checking first, getting out to the middle and almost being
hit by big pick-up truck. She turned her head, her heart dropping.
There in the front seat was Sam. And Anna. And there was a strange
disbelief in their eyes that said they knew. She looked away, tears
starting to run down her cheeks as she ran the rest of the way back
toward the garage.

“Hey,” Eric's
voice called as she almost ran into him. His hands went to her
shoulders, holding her still. “Where's the fire?” Lena
took a few deep breaths, trying to blink furiously through the tears.
“Lena,” he said, his tone soft. “Why are you crying
baby?”

Lena blinked harder. “I'm
not crying,” she objected, not convincingly.

He lifted a brow at her,
knowing she was lying, but not calling her on it. “Not
impressed with my food selection, huh?”

Lena sniffled once,
feeling her lip quirk up. “I was considering making a butter
and yogurt sandwich.”

“Those are the
best,” Eric smiled, reaching for the bags. He followed her up
the steps and into the kitchen, dropping all the bags on the island.
“You sure you're alright?” he asked, watching her move
methodically around the kitchen, putting things away in his almost
empty cabinets.

He hadn't ever considered
before what it would be like to have a woman around before. Walking
around his kitchen like she knew it. Like she belonged there just as
much as he did. He tried to stifle the thought that it was actually a
pretty nice thing to witness.

“I'm fine,”
she said, tears still clinging to her eyelashes.

“Darlin',” he
said, smirking. “if there is one thing I have learned from
being around women, it's that when a woman says she's 'fine'...
nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Okay,” Lena
said, turning away from him to put the eggs in the fridge. “then
I am resplendent. How about that?”

“You're a horrible
liar is what you are,” he said, coming around the island,
pulling the flour out of her hands, and wrapping his arms around her
from behind. Lena was in his arms with her back arrow-straight,
barely touching his body. Eric chuckled in her ear. “Just let
me hold you for a minute, woman,” he said, his tone teasing.

Lena sank back against
him, admittedly enjoying his calm strength. His warm breath toying
with the hair on the side of her head. His fingers pressed hard
against her belly. His arms tightened suddenly, holding her roughly,
almost painfully for a second before letting her go.

Lena fell forward
slightly, feeling more than a bit disappointed when she felt Eric
grab her hips and turn her, pushing her hard up against the counter
with his body. His hips slammed up against hers and she could feel
his erection, hard and insistent. Lena closed her eyes, wiggling her
hips against his, drawing a tense groan out of Eric.

His lips went to hers
then, pressing into hers hard, punishing. Lena sighed, opening her
mouth to him, tilting her head back, letting him overtake her
completely.

His hands slid down her
body, touching the sides of her breasts for a long minute before
dipping lower, cupping her ass and pulling her upward, suspended in
the air for one unbelievable second before dropping her onto the
island counter top.

Lena's hands went out
behind her, shoving the groceries away, before her hands went to his
waist, slipping up under his shirt and touching the muscles of his
belly. They tensed slightly underneath her fingertips and Eric's
teeth bit into her lip.

His hands moved from
where they were settled on her thighs, reaching between them and
stroking her heat trough her thin sweatpants material. Lena groaned,
sinking her fingers into the sides of his hips. His fingers slid
upward, moving quick circles around her clit. Her thighs went up,
begging for more. Her arms slapped down on the counter behind her,
steadying her, moving her upper body away from his. Eric's eyes
sought hers, deep and aroused. His free hand slid up her belly,
grabbing one of her breasts and teasing the sensitive point.

Lena's head fell back,
her hips moving against his hands, begging for more. Eric's hand
moved away then, moving up toward the waistband of her jeans and
starting to sneak under. His fingers got to the part of her skin
where there should have been panties before he stopped, leaning
forward and laughing humorlessly.

“What?” she
asked, sitting up straight, feeling self-conscious.

Eric pulled his hand out
of her pants, shaking his head. He moved away from her, holding up
his hand for her to see. It was covered in some kind of dried black
grime.

“Oh,” she
breathed out for a second, feeling her body's insistent throbbing
need for a second before she burst out laughing, throwing her head
back for a second. “Of course,” she said, looking him in
the eye, seeing the amused set to his face.

“I'll go wash up,”
he said, his tone half-amused, half-turned on.

“No,” she
said, smiling. She slid off the counter, her heat brushing up against
his hardness, sending a shock of awareness down her core. But she
stood up, moving past him, shaking her head. “You go back to
work. I have to put groceries away.”

“Baby,” he
groaned, his tone pleading. “you're killing me.”

She looked over her
shoulder at him, smiling devilishly. “Then maybe you should
make sure your hands are clean... before you start groping someone.”

Eric laughed, the sound
deep and sensual. “Point taken,” he conceded, moving back
toward the door.