Westin Family Ties. Alice Sharpe
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death.”
Talking about Emerson Banner made the hairs rise on Cassie’s arms. “He’s a greedy, nasty man,” she said with a shudder. Those cold eyes of his had drilled into hers too many times for comfort. “His wife isn’t any better. They know I wouldn’t harm Mrs. Priestly. She was so kind to me. Did he tell you how worried she was the last few days of her life? Maybe I should have done things differently, I don’t know. I’ve tried to figure it out.”
The tears that welled in her eyes were unwelcome reminders of the stress that had been building since that night when Mrs. Priestly had sent Cassie to check out the garden. It had culminated two days later when she went to awaken the elderly woman and found her window open, a pillow over her face and signs of a weak struggle before she lost her life. The monitor had been disabled. Cassie had slept ten feet away in the adjoining room while Mrs. Priestly died.
“Banner also told me they caught you trying to steal jewelry,” he added.
She raised her gaze to his. “You believe him?”
“Hell, no, I don’t believe him. Of course I don’t.”
“What else did he tell you?”
“Nothing good.”
She had the distinct impression he was holding something back. “Just say it,” she coaxed. “I can take it.”
“Vera Priestly changed her will the day she died. She added you to her list of beneficiaries. You’re going to be a wealthy woman.”
Cassie inhaled dry air. “Why would she do that? Who told you this?”
“Her son-in-law, and who knows why she’d do it, but it sure provides a hell of a good motive for murder, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Yes, if she cared about money, which she didn’t. Still, to all the people in Cherrydell, especially the Banners, she must appear a penniless pregnant woman living in the shadows and desperate for every penny.
“Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on,” Cody demanded. “Explain why a woman who didn’t know you that well left you a fourth of her estate.”
His tone of voice cut through her anxiety. “Wait just a second,” she said. “You don’t understand what’s been happening here, and I’m not going to stand by while you speak to me like I’m a stubborn idiot.”
Cody pulled his hat back on in a way always guaranteed to start a slow throb in her groin. “Pack up your stuff. It’s only a couple of hours back to Wyoming. We’ll call Sheriff Inkwell when we get home.” He dropped his hands and turned to the door. “I’ll go get the truck—”
“Cody, stop,” she said.
He turned back to her.
“Just stop. You can’t just throw me in the back of your truck. I’m not a stray heifer. We’re going to have to have an actual conversation about this, unless you want to continue to ignore it.”
“I’m not ignoring it,” he said, “I’m trying to prioritize. We have to get you away from here. If I’m going to have a child, I’d rather it wasn’t born in prison.”
“If? Listen, Cody Westin, there is no if.”
“I’m not the one who ran away.”
“Have you forgotten why I left?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten. But things are obviously different now.”
“Because having a baby is no longer an academic question? It’s a done deal so you’re going to step up to the plate, right?”
He narrowed his eyes.
She sighed deeply. They were right back where they started, except now another human being was involved. “We reached an impasse, Cody, you know that as well as I do. I wanted a family. You wanted to wait. Indefinitely. You asked me if I wanted a divorce and I said I’d think about it.”
“And you ran away instead.”
“No, I left to think about it. I packed a bag and drove away. What choice did I have? It was your ranch, your family—”
“Yours, too, Cassie.”
She took another deep breath. “I know. But that wasn’t enough for me, and you knew it when we got married.”
“But then you didn’t come back. You didn’t tell me where you were. You just disappeared.”
“That wasn’t the original plan,” she said, pacing because she couldn’t bear to stand still. “I just needed a few days to think and make some kind of decision. But then I discovered I was pregnant, and after our argument I didn’t know how to go home.”
“You could have driven down our road. That would have been a start.”
“And presented you with the one thing you made it clear you didn’t want?”
“I can’t believe this. I am not your father. I am not the kind of man who turns his back when things don’t go his way. You know that.” He narrowed his eyes again. “You didn’t think I could change, did you?”
She stared at him a second, then she nodded. “That’s not exactly true. I just knew if I came back pregnant you’d have to change, so I couldn’t trust that the change would be real.”
He rubbed his jaw as he stared at her, another gesture imprinted on her heart. “I seem to be in a no-win situation. All I really know for sure is you should have talked to me. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead.”
“I’m sorry about that, I truly am. I took the chicken way out.”
“When my detective reported someone else was using your car and identification, what was I supposed—”
He continued on but she couldn’t hear him over the roar in her ears. He’d hired a detective to find her? Of course—how else would he have found out about Emma Kruger? The news that he hadn’t sat on his pride ’til hell froze over as his father would have done came as a shock, and on top of all the other shocks of the week she felt her knees buckle.
And then his hands were under her elbows, supporting her, and his eyes showed concern. “Maybe you should sit down—”
“Maybe you should leave,” she said, stepping away from him, holding on to the back of a chair, unwilling to sit.
The silence stretched on until he took a deep, shuddering breath. “Come home with me now, Cassie. Let me help you through the next couple of months.”
“I know you want to help, but don’t you understand? I don’t want to raise a family with someone who resents me. I don’t want this baby to be my mistake and your burden. He or she deserves so much more.”
She turned away from him to give her eyes a rest. Looking at him was agony. To love him, to want him, and yet to know he didn’t really want the very center of her heart, the essence of her life…
Had she always wanted things Cody couldn’t give? Had she always been blinded by her own feelings?
“I don’t know what else to say,” he murmured.
“You’ve already said everything,” she said, turning back to face him. “It’s funny, I guess. I dreamed of the moment you would find me so many times. That you would hold me in your arms and beg me to come back, thrilled I was carrying your child. But you aren’t asking me to come back to you; you’re telling me I’m an obligation. You want me to come back so you’ll feel better, not because it’s what’s best for us.”
His gaze turned stormy. “I thought a lot about this moment, too, Cassie, and in my dreams you weren’t wanted for murder while holding our unborn child hostage to my inability to react exactly how you rehearsed it.”
She started to protest and stopped. Is that what she was doing?