“I’ll tell you a bedtime story,” he teased, his grin broadening. “Come on, the meeting starts soon.”

  She hurriedly gathered up all her folders and pushed them into her tote and then followed him from the room. “Sissy told me you are a stickler for punctuality.”

  “I am. So, how are you getting along here? Enjoying the job?”

  “Very much,” she replied. “The kids are wonderful and I really feel as though I’ve settled in well with the faculty. I thought I’d miss teaching young adults, but I don’t. The young kids are so willing to learn, almost joyful when something resonates with them. Cynicism comes with age, I suspect.”

  He didn’t disagree. The PTA meeting was being held in the library and they waved to Abby, who was already in attendance. Marnie held on to her nerves when she saw her and took a seat beside a couple of the other teachers, while Joss sat next to his sister-in-law. As far as meetings went, it was pretty run-of-the-mill, with the usual school issues being discussed and several items being held over until the next meeting. When it was over, she spent a few moments talking to the principal, Mrs. Santino, and saw that Joss and Abby were by the refreshments table. The majority of parents had already bailed, so there were only half a dozen or so people left in the room.

  Joss smiled when Marnie walked toward them, and she didn’t see the chair obstructing her, until she noticed Joss pointing to it just as she tripped. She quickly regained her footing, but wasn’t quite nimble enough to hang on to her tote and the folders flew out as the bag hit the ground, papers scattering around her feet. Joss and Abby were immediately in front and helped her pick them up. Then her panic set in.

  The folder!

  The pictures were spread out on the floor and it took about three seconds for Abby to say something.

  “What’s this?” the other woman asked sharply, holding one of the photographs.

  Marnie sucked in her breath and felt the color leach from her face. She looked at Joss, then Abby, blinking, her throat suddenly raw.

  “I wanted to... I mean, I can explain—”

  “This is a picture of my grandmother,” Abby said, cutting her off, her fingers crinkling the paper.

  “Marnie?” Joss said her name, clearly trying to soothe and understand simultaneously. “What’s going on?”

  “Explain what?” Abby demanded heatedly. “Why do you have a picture of my grandmother?”

  She looked around, saw that people were watching her. Then she swallowed hard, felt the words rise up, and then, somehow, fall from her lips. “Because she’s my grandmother, too.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Joss stared at her, trying to digest what she’d said. It didn’t make sense. How could Patience Reed be her grandmother? He took a couple of seconds as the truth banged around in his head.

  “Your mom?” he said, although he wasn’t sure how he found a voice. “This is about your mom?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “What’s going on?” Abby demanded. “Joss?”

  He looked at both women. Loyalty to his family dragging him one way, his feelings for Marnie dragging him another. And he was so torn.

  “I have to talk to Patience before I say anything else,” she replied and she picked up the papers and grabbed her belongings, tugging the crinkled picture from Abby’s hands. “I’m sorry, I have to go.”

  He watched her leave the room, staring after her, his heart banging so hard behind his ribs he was certain everyone could hear it. The people still in the room were regarding them curiously and he ignored their intrusive stares. “I should go and talk to her,” he said quietly.

  “Joss,” Abby said firmly. “What’s this about? What do you know?”

  Nothing. “It’s not for me to say. And honestly, I’d only be guessing.”

  “But you’re dating her,” Abby reminded him. “Surely you know what’s going on here? You must know something.”

  “Like I said,” he reiterated. “I’d only be guessing. It’s dark outside—I’ll walk you to your car.”

  Once they were in the parking lot, Abby asked again, “Please, Joss... I can’t go home and simply let this go unanswered. I need to know.”

  “I’ll go and talk with her, get her to call you and your grandmother,” he said. “That’s all I can do.”

  By the time he got to her place it was after seven. Mrs. Floyd was watching the girls, so he had a little time to find out what was going on and get some answers. He tapped on her door and when she opened it, he knew she’d been crying.

  “Can I come in?”

  She peered around him. “Is Abby with you?”

  “Of course not,” he snapped. “Come on, Marnie, we really need to talk. Please let me in.”

  She stepped aside and he crossed the threshold, waiting for her to close the door. She walked into the living room, sat on the edge of the sofa, and didn’t speak until he was sitting opposite her.

  “Yes,” she said, before he could ask a question. “Patience Reed is my mom’s birth mother.”

  He frowned. “You’re sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I hired a private detective to find her,” she replied, her hands clasped tightly together. “My mother knew her name and was about to start looking for her when she passed away. I continued the search and found her.”

  “Just Patience?” he asked, his suspicions amplifying as the seconds ticked past. “Or Abby, too?”

  “Both of them—anyone connected to Patience Reed.”

  Heat crawled up his neck. “You make it sound simple.”

  She shrugged. “It is.”

  “Then why keep it a secret?”

  “It wasn’t a secret,” she replied. “It just wasn’t anyone’s business.”

  One brow shot up. “Really?”

  She shrugged loosely. “I was looking for the right time to approach Patience and tell her.”

  “And were you looking for the right time to tell me?” he shot back. “Or did you think you could keep it a secret forever?”

  “It wasn’t a secret,” she replied quietly, reiterating her words. “It was personal. Private.”

  “And what’s been going on between us these past weeks hasn’t been personal and private?” he asked, annoyance settling in his limbs and climbing across his skin. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  He watched as she swallowed hard, as though every word was difficult. But he wanted answers. He wanted to know why she’d kept such an important thing from him.

  Because you don’t matter.

  And then the truth wound through him like a serpent, settling in his gut and leaving an acrid taste in his mouth. Joss looked at her, staring deeply into her blue eyes. Wanting...needing to know her motives.

  “Is this why...” His words trailed off, because he was almost afraid to hear her answer. Then he took a breath, harsher, offering some resilience to his fractured feelings. “Did you get into this thing with us just to get close to Abby, knowing she was my sister-in-law, knowing she was the link to your grandmother?”

  The fact she didn’t immediately deny it told Joss everything he needed to know.

  “No... I mean...yes,” she said and waved a hand. “I wasn’t thinking, you know. I was—”

  “Lying,” he said sharply and sprang to his feet. “And manipulating everyone. Including me. And my family. My kids, goddamn it!”

  “It wasn’t like that,” she said and stood. “Yes, Patience is my grandmother and I came to Cedar River to try and meet her, and I don’t know...to find out why she didn’t keep my mother...to maybe even get to know her a little. This thing between us, that hasn’t got anything to do with my wanting to connect with my grandmother.”

  “I don’t believe you,” he said, his chest filling with a kind of rage that was manifesting into hurt as the seconds passed. “I’m not sure if anything that comes out of your mouth is the truth.”

  “Joss, please,” she said as she took a step toward him.

  He stepped back instinctively. He knew what he wanted to hear. What he needed to hear. Because there was so much at stake. Their relationship. His daughters. The foundation of a family he was imagining would be theirs in the future. But all he saw when he looked at her now was lies and manipulation.

  “Can you look at me and tell me honestly that the fact Abby is my sister-in-law had nothing to do with us getting together? That when you found out my name you didn’t think it would be an easy way to make the connection to Patience?”

  She sucked in a breath. “No...yes...but not with any agenda.”

  “Oh, come on, Marnie,” he said and ran a hand over his face. “You gotta see how bad this looks. That’s why you agreed to stay at my house, isn’t it? That’s why you spent so much time with my kids, why you were so obliging. Baking cakes, helping them with their homework.” He laughed humorlessly. “You were looking for an angle, right? A way to meet Abby, and then meet your grandmother. Me and the girls were the perfect conduit for you, weren’t we?” He hurt so much as he said the words and he was so angry he could barely stand being in his own skin. “I wonder if you actually had any accommodation booked when you first arrived. Maybe you were hoping you could improvise once your car got wrecked. And there I was—the perfect chump—a uneducated grunt who didn’t have the smarts to figure out that you were manipulating everything and everyone!”

  “It wasn’t like that,” she said quickly, her cheeks ablaze. “I don’t think you’re a grunt. Yes, when you first told me your name, I knew you must have been related to Abby. I wasn’t sure how, at first. I knew she was married to Jake, but I didn’t have much information about his family. I just figured that—”

  “That if the surname was the same, then I’d do, right?” he asked, cutting her off. “Pretend as much as you have to, to get what you want?”

  “No,” she implored. “That’s not who I am. These past few weeks haven’t been about me trying to manipulate anyone, particularly you. We’ve become really close and that’s not me pretending anything.”

  “You mean sex?” he asked, his voice as hollow as his heart. “All sex does is cloud judgment. You lied to me,” he said simply. “Over and over. I’ve been honest with you since the first moment we met. The truth was all I expected in return—not some BS story about wanting a different life and running away from a cheating ex.”

  “All of that is true,” she said. “The thing with my grandmother was simply the catalyst I needed to make some changes. I did want a new life...and I found it, right here...with...with...”

  “With me?” he queried, finishing her sentence. He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think you saw an opportunity and you took it.”

  She moved forward and grasped his arm. “Joss, I’m sorry. But I can’t undo the past few weeks. I can’t undo the fact that Patience Reed is my grandmother, or the fact that you are Abby’s brother-in-law. They’re just the facts. They’re not feelings.”

  Joss looked to where her hand lay on his arm, felt the heat from her touch like it were a branding iron. He didn’t want to hear her talk about feelings. Not hers. Not his. He didn’t want her telling him how much she cared about his daughters and how much their relationship meant to her. Or how she hadn’t fooled and used him. He was too broken up and angry to hear any more.

  He shrugged off her touch and took a couple of steps away from her. “You have a rental agreement to live in this house. And you’re Clare’s teacher. Other than that, I don’t want you anywhere near my kids.”

  Or me...

  She turned chalk-pale. “You don’t mean that. The girls—”

  “Are my daughters,” he reminded her. “So, I get to decide who and what is best for them.”

  “Joss, can’t we talk about this?”

  “I’m all talked out,” he said flatly. “I told Abby I’d ask you to call her or Patience and sort this out. You do what you have to. As for us—we’re done.”

  With that, he walked out with what little strength he had left.

  * * *

  Marnie had never had a broken heart before. A cracked heart, certainly, from when Heath had cheated on her. When her parents divorced, she’d cried herself silly for weeks. And then, when her mom died, she’d experienced a deep and saddening sense of loss that was profound. But this...it was so different.

  “So, have you made contact with your grandmother?”

  It was Shay who asked. Shay who was the only person who understood her heartbreak, the only person she could turn to. Shay whom she’d called early Sunday morning after spending the past two nights staring at the ceiling and wondering how she’d managed to make such a mess of things. She hadn’t seen or heard from Joss. She hadn’t heard from anyone—and that made her feel more alone than she’d imagined possible. So, she’d called the one person whom she trusted completely, because she knew she wouldn’t get censured or criticized.

  “Not yet,” she admitted and held the cell phone to her ear. She didn’t want to video chat, didn’t want Shay to see her gray pallor or red-rimmed eyes. It was enough that her cousin knew she’d wrecked everything and spent the past thirty-six hours crying. “It all happened so fast and was so intense... I’m not sure how I’ll make contact now.”

  “What about calling this Abby person? Maybe set up a meeting?” Shay suggested.

  “Ah, Abby didn’t exactly seem thrilled to learn we shared the same grandmother,” Marnie replied. “I don’t think she’s ready to embrace the idea that we’re cousins.”

  “Nonsense,” Shay said gently. “She’d be lucky to have you. You’re my cousin and I adore you.”

  “You’re biased because we’ve been best friends forever.”

  Shay laughed. “And how are things with hot single dad?”

  “Terrible. I think I’ve blown it.”

  “He has to understand you were just trying to protect your grandmother.”

  “I think he suspects I was simply trying to protect myself,” Marnie said and sighed heavily. “And he’d be right. I should have told him about Patience the moment we became... I don’t know...more than friends. Now he believes I got involved with him to get closer to my grandmother and cousin. And maybe I did. Maybe I did and I was too much in lust with him to notice. He said sex clouds people’s judgment and he was right about that, too.”

  “Are you in love with him?” Shay asked bluntly.

  Marnie inhaled. “I think so... I mean... I...”

  “Is he in love with you?”

  Her throat burned. “I don’t know. I thought he might... I mean, I know he feels something. But right now he’s furious because he thinks I lied to him.”

  “You didn’t exactly lie,” Shay said encouragingly.

  “By omission I did. And I had plenty of opportunity to tell him. But I didn’t because I was afraid of losing him, which is precisely what happened, so I was right to be worried.”

  “So, what are you going to do?” her cousin asked.

  “Honestly, I don’t know.”

  “I wish I was there with you,” Shay said and sighed.

  “Yeah,” Marnie said. “Me, too.”

  When she ended the call, Marnie spent a couple of hours thinking about her predicament. To get her out of her funk, she did some classroom prep for the upcoming week and did some baking. By then she was tired of her wallowing and her own company, so she took a shower, got dressed and headed into town. She needed to do some grocery shopping.

  She was wheeling the shopping cart by the fruit and veg section when she heard her name being called. Marnie turned and noticed Ellie standing a few feet away.

  “Hey, there,” the other woman said.

  “Hi,” Marnie replied and then noticed the look on Ellie’s face. “I guess you’ve heard.”

  Ellie’s eyes wrinkled up. “News travels fast in my family. How are you holding up?”

  Marnie’s insides twitched. So, maybe not everyone with the surname Culhane hated her right now. “I’m okay. Kind of numb, I think.”

  “Everyone’s pretty mad at you,” Ellie said bluntly.

  “Everyone?” she echoed, feeling ill to the pit of her stomach.

  “Oh, you know, Joss of course, and Abby. And probably Jake because he’s Abby’s husband. I’m sure they’ll get over it once they’ve calmed down. We’ve all done stupid stuff in our life.”

  Marnie smiled, the first time in days. “I’m not so sure this will be forgotten easily.”

  “Sure, it will.” Ellie grinned. “He won’t like me saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway—my brother likes you, a lot. In fact, I’ve not seen him as happy with anyone since Lara...and he loved her more than anything.”

  Marnie’s heart skipped a couple of beats. The idea of Joss caring for her in the same way he’d cared for his wife was both thrilling and depressing—because if he did, why would he have said they were done? Done meant over, right? Done meant he didn’t want her hanging out with his daughters. Done meant he didn’t want to see her, touch her, kiss her?

  “Thank you for saying that,” she said and gave Ellie a swift hug. “But I probably shouldn’t talk about him behind his back, considering everything else that’s going on.”

  Ellie hugged her back. “Maybe. But Joss can be stubborn about things—a Culhane trait, I reckon. Anyway, if you need a friend to talk to, give me a call.”

  Once they parted company, Marnie continued with her shopping. She got home around four, driving past Joss’s house and spotting him by his truck in the driveway, the girls standing close by. She noticed how Sissy went to wave when she recognized her car, but the teen’s hand quickly dropped. Marnie’s heart sank even further and then she caught a glimpse of Joss watching her vehicle. She didn’t slow down any more, didn’t want to appear as though she was lingering in any way. Back home, she locked herself inside, pulled the drapes together and put her groceries away and was about to make her favorite herbal tea when she heard a knock on her door.