Sculpting Grace: A Light Romance Novel (Art of Grace Book 2) (47 page)

How could I refuse that offer? I headed inside, pausing to give my dad a quick hug to say hello. "Stay as long as you want, kiddo," he said to me as I bent down to wrap my arms around him.

"Thanks, Dad," I said back to him. "See you inside?"

He nodded. "I think we're doing meatloaf for dinner."

That, at least, put a shaky smile on my face. Meatloaf was the quintessential Dean family meal. I swore that my mother had an infinite supply of frozen meatloaf in a chest freezer somewhere, and she just pulled out a brick whenever she needed something comforting that would stick to the ribs of everyone who consumed it. I'd eaten countless meatloaf dinners growing up, and it always made me feel a little better, comforted.

Inside, I alternated between stuffing my face with my mom's delicious cookies and telling her about what brought me back home. My mom managed to keep her face fairly straight, clucking in sympathy when I told her about how I discovered Sanford's dirty secret by running into his fiancee.

"That's awful," she commiserated. "But don't worry, honey, you can stay here as long as you need. Your father and I are happy to have you."

Once I had tallied up the number of cookies I'd eaten and realized that I'd probably explode if I tried to get down another, I carried my suitcase up to my room. Walking into my childhood room brought back another wave of nostalgia, and I sank down on the bed, burying my face in the covers and inhaling that faint scent of off-brand laundry detergent that my mom always used.

I was home, and here, at least, Sanford couldn't get to me and fill my head with any other lies.

Still, it was impossible for me not to think about him, and our time together. The way he moved with me, the way he loved up my body - I still couldn't believe that he'd only done that because he wanted sex. Surely, there would have been an easier way to get it from someone? And besides, he seemed like a smart man - why would he risk problems for his marriage by having an affair with the woman literally living next door?

Eventually, despite the thoughts buzzing in my head, I drifted off into an uneasy doze. I didn't wake up until my mother called upstairs to tell me that dinner was ready.

The next couple days drifted by in a similar daze. I did some organization on my computer, but there wasn't much unfinished work for me to do. After all, I'd finished almost all the research for Sanford's home, and I just needed to wait for him to pay my bill that I'd left behind. After all, even if he didn't want me selling any of his items - and at this point, I was fairly sure that I'd turn him down if he asked, despite the tempting extra commission - I'd still make more than enough off of the work I'd done already to settle all my debts and be able to afford a nice vacation.

I didn't start looking for any vacation destinations, however. Somehow, that felt like putting the final nail in whatever Sanford and I had together, and I couldn't yet bring myself to do it. So instead, I just waited, helped my parents with uncountable numbers of little tasks around the house, and tried to not think about Sanford.

He wasn't making it easy, of course. Sanford called me a couple of times, even though I declined the calls. He sent me a couple of texts, as well, asking what I was up to - apparently, he hadn't realized that I'd run into his fiancee.

Well, he could figure out on his own that I knew his game, that the jig was up. I wasn't going to be his other woman. I deleted the texts without replying, and then blocked his number for good measure. I didn't want to take a chance on having my heart broken again, on having to listen to or read his lies.

I did call Della, asking her to stop by my house and check on Whiskers for me. She already had a spare key, and she promised me that she would swing by and make sure that he had adequate water, food, and a clean litterbox. "And I'm happy to keep on doing this, if you want to take a trip somewhere sunny and exotic for a week or two," she said to me when I spoke to her.

"Thanks, Della," I replied, not telling her about how I refused to kill that last, tiny little guttering spark of hope that still flickered inside my breast.

Hopefully, it would eventually extinguish itself, I prayed.

Since no one else wanted to get in contact with me, I started in surprise when my phone rang on the morning of my third day at my parents' house. I fished it out of my pocket, expecting to see Della's face displayed on the screen.

Instead, however, I saw a number that I didn't recognize. For a moment, I suspiciously wondered if Sanford might be calling me from a different number, but decided that I could still answer it. If it turned out to be Sanford, I'd just hang up on him immediately. For all I knew, it might be another potential client, another job to take my mind off of how my most recent one ended in heartbreak and disaster.

"Hello?" I said, after swiping across the screen and lifting the phone up to my ear.

Across the table from me, my mom glared at me for taking a phone call during breakfast. I stuck out my tongue at her, but got up and moved over to the living room.

"Hello - is this a Miss Elaine Dean?" I didn't recognize the voice at the other end, but it wasn't Sanford. I breathed a little more easily.

"Yes, I'm Elaine," I replied. "Who is this?"

"This is the Midtown Veterinary Clinic," the man at the other end of the line replied, and my anxiety rushed back into my brain. "You're listed as the owner of a cat, er..." The voice paused for a second. "Admiral Theodore Whiskers?"

"Yes, he's my cat. Why? What's going on?" Had something happened? Had Della brought him in to the vet? Why hadn't she called or texted me to let me know?

"Er, Miss Dean, are you able to make it over to us? It seems that your cat was in some sort of accident - the man who brought him in said that he was accidentally hit by a car-"

"Oh my god." My throat seized up for a moment. "Is he alive? What happened? Please, tell me that he's okay!"

"Miss Dean, I'm afraid that he's currently in surgery. Are you able to come here? The man who brought him in is saying-"

I wasn't listening any longer. "I'm coming, I'm on my way," I half-shouted into the phone, dropping it down onto the couch without even hanging up as I lunged back into the kitchen to retrieve my purse.

Still sitting at the kitchen table, my mom frowned up at me. "Honey, what's going on?" she asked, her cup of coffee still halfway to her lips.

"Whiskers is at the vet," I gasped back to her, snatching up my purse and fumbling around inside of it for my keys. "He got hurt, hit by a car or something. I need to go there, they said that he's in surgery-"

Thankfully, my mom understood how much my cat meant to me. "Go, go," she shooed me, waving her hands towards the door. "Don't let us stop you."

My father, at the head of the table, had even put down his newspaper. "Do you need me to drive you?" he asked, as if I was somehow incapable of driving because of this sudden news, like I was the injured one.

"No, that's okay," I said, already headed out of the kitchen. "I'll call you from the vet, okay?" I didn't wait for an answer before leaving.

I snatched up my phone from the couch and ran out to my car in the driveway. I jammed the keys into the ignition and gunned it out the driveway, my brain filled with horrible images of poor Whiskers, yowling and in pain, hit by a car and in agony-

"No, no, please," I prayed out loud to myself as I drove, trying to glare at the cars in front of me to mentally force them out of the way.

I'd already lost Sanford, one of the two men in my life. I couldn't bear to even think of losing Whiskers, as well.

I had to get there, had to make sure that he was okay. Whatever it took - I needed to save my cat.

How in the world had he even gotten out? Hadn't he been inside, or had Della accidentally opened a door or window or something and he'd slipped out? He usually knew enough to stay away from scary, dangerous things like cars, but I'd always wanted to protect him and keep him as an indoor cat, just because I feared that something like this would happen, that he'd get hurt and I wouldn't be there-

"Oh god, oh god, come on," I whispered. I knew where the vet was, and I blew across town, probably breaking half a dozen traffic laws, not even counting the speeding. Surely, any police officer would understand.

I came to a sudden stop in the veterinary clinic's parking lot, my tires screeching across the asphalt as I pulled into an open parking space and yanking the keys out of the ignition. Snatching up my purse and phone, I bolted out of my car, across the lot, and into the clinic.

"Whiskers!" I shouted out as I came inside, looking around as if my cat would be right there, just inside the door.

Behind the counter, the receptionist looked alarmed at this crazy woman bursting in and shouting at her about facial hair, but a pair of hands settled on my shoulders. "He's still in surgery," said a strong, deep, familiar voice - the last voice that I wanted to hear.

My heart pounding, although I couldn't say if it was out of anger or fear or love or some combination of the three, I turned around.

Chapter Twenty-Six

*

I heard the voice, and I immediately knew who stood behind me. A part of me wanted to close my eyes and ears, turn away and not confront him, but I knew that I couldn't give in and do that.

I turned, and looked up into Sanford's concerned, anxious, drawn looking face.

"I tried to call you, but you didn't pick up," he said, gazing down at me with far more compassion and kindness in his eyes than I wanted to see from him. "The vet said they'd try, too - they must have been able to reach you. I'm so sorry, but I promise you that-"

"You promise me what?" I snapped at him, anger suddenly welling up to run, red and sharp, through my concern and fear and panic. "That you're here to help? That you've told me the truth? That you aren't just using me?"

"What?" He blinked, and surprise entered his eyes. "Elaine, what are you talking about?"

"I'm telling you that you don't need to keep up the act any longer!" I yelled, aware that we were in public and that this was totally the wrong place to have this conversation, but forging ahead nonetheless. "I know your secret, asshole!"

"My secret?" He still looked confused, not yet comprehending that his whole tower of lies had crumbled. "I don't understand-"

"I talked to Valencia!" I said, throwing the name into his face like venom. "That's right - your fiancee! And she told me everything I needed to know about you, what a total scumbag you are!"

There, finally. I'd forced it out, and now I saw anger finally darken his face. "Valencia," he growled, and even though I'd been expecting it, I was caught off guard by the rage boiling just under the surface of his voice.

"That's right," I went on, driving the metaphorical knife blade of betrayal home. "And she told me about how the two of you are all nice and happy together, and how she's so glad that I've been cleaning up the house so that you two can move in together. That's why you hired me, isn't it? You just wanted me to get rid of all the junk, and then you decided that you'd go ahead and help yourself, too, since you're all that and I'm nothing-"

"Enough!"

The word hit me like thunder, and my jaw snapped shut almost unconsciously from the heat in his voice. For just a moment, Sanford's eyes blazed down at me, and he looked every inch the dark, avenging god of war.

"It's not like that," he said, after taking a moment to breathe in deeply. "Elaine, you've got entirely the wrong idea about this-"

"Yeah? What's wrong?" I asked. "That you're engaged? That you decided to help yourself to the little cupcake living next door because it was easy, a break from the diet food? That you've been lying to me, all this time?"

"All of it!" he snapped back at me, and for just an instant, I felt doubt flicker to life inside me. He didn't sound like he was ashamed or upset at being caught, not how I'd expected him to react when I confronted him. I'd expected him to apologize, or admit it, or maybe even try and beg to get me back, to keep on spinning out the lies.

I hadn't expected this anger.

Sanford kept on glaring down at me, and he opened his mouth to continue pressing his point - but then, before he said anything, he paused and glanced up over my shoulder. I didn't want to turn my back on him, not sure what he would do in this state, but I risked a quick look back behind me.

A man dressed in powder blue scrubs, with a pair of half-moon glasses pushed up on his balding forehead, had appeared from the doorway leading further into the clinic. "Miss Dean?" he asked, eyeing me rather suspiciously.

"Yes, that's me," I said, taking a step away from Sanford and towards the doctor. "I'm Whiskers' owner. Is he-"

The doctor risked a look past me at Sanford. "Would you rather discuss this in private?" he asked, clearly not sure what he'd walked in on but not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.

I glared back at Sanford, and then nodded. "Yes, please."

"Right this way, then."

I followed the doctor back into a scrupulously clean room, which must have been linked to the operating room. "First, relax," the man said once we'd reached the back room, turning back to face me. "Whiskers is still unconscious from the anaesthetic, but he should be okay. He had a minor fracture on one leg, but the bone didn't splinter or penetrate the surface of the skin, and we've put a cast on it to keep it in place as it heals."