See Megan Run (2 page)

Her mother didn’t meet her gaze. "I have a
proposition for you."

"And that is?"

"You have to understand that this will be the
only time you’ll have the upper hand."

Two rosy spots marred her mother’s
caramel-colored skin. Megan tilted her head. "You’re talking in
circles. I don’t understand what you are trying to say, so get to
your point."

"I want to deed the house to you."

Megan blew out a breath. Nicole wanted to
hand over her father’s house. Yeah, right. Nothing was that easy.
Nicole was working her way up to something, but Megan didn’t know
what. "At what cost?"

"The house wouldn’t cost you anything."

Jane chose that moment to come into the room,
and Megan bit back a sarcastic reply. Nicole took the glass filled
with ice and amber-colored liquid Jane handed to her. From the
relief on Nicole’s face it had to be alcohol. Lynne would have
pointed out that if her mother could drink before noon, why
shouldn’t Megan. She shivered at the thought of ever being like her
mother, or at least like the woman who had raised her. Nicole had
been cold and unforgiving. She had treated Megan more like an
inconvenience than a child she loved. If there was a God, the only
thing Megan would find similar between herself and her mother would
be the color of their eyes, a chocolate shade of brown. She met
those eyes so much like her own and asked, "What’s the catch, then,
since it’s not money you want from me?"

Megan caught Jane’s censorious eye, but she
was long past the point of caring. She wanted to know what her
mother planned to hold over her head for her father’s house.
Despite the years since he’d died, the house was still his. It held
the same furniture, the same paintings, the same color of paint.
She glanced beyond her mother and had to bite her lip. His pictures
no long adorned the space on the mantel above the fireplace. Their
wedding picture Megan could understand Nicole taking down. There
wasn’t an excuse for removing the ones of Megan and her father.

Once Nicole had drained half her glass, she
answered. "I want you here for my wedding, which means you’d have
to promise to stay for a month."

Megan waved away Jane’s offer of coffee. From
their conversation at the door she’d gotten the feeling Jane wanted
her to stay, and if her mother hadn’t been sitting there Megan
would have asked why. What was the purpose of closing the gap her
mother had created? But they weren’t alone, and Nicole was waiting
for her to reply.

"I own a business, a very successful one,
that I can’t abandon on a whim."

"Is there no one who can take over for you
while you are gone?"

No
 was the knee-jerk answer. But
she had Lynne. She had employees who could do just as well without
her hovering over their shoulders. "That’s the only
consideration?"

"I want you to give me another chance."
Nicole glanced at her drink. "I may have screwed up with raising
you."

Megan laughed at her mother’s choice of
words. "May have?"

She shook her head, already wishing the words
back. She didn’t want to get into an argument. Instead she thought
of her father and how she still missed him. Her hand went to the
locket under her blouse. At the moment, that locket was the only
thing she had left of her father. Would it be so bad to make
arrangements to stay? She looked at her mother and could see the
beginning of tears, as if Nicole were waiting for judgment. Yes, it
could be that bad.

"I’ll have to think about it. I have
responsibilities I can’t ignore just because you want me to."

Nicole blinked hard. "When will you
know?"

When I call you would be low, even for Megan.
"I can’t give you an exact time, but it’ll be by the end of the
week."

Her mother slumped. "That’s all I can really
ask for."

*****

Megan watched the house disappear in her
rearview mirror. The anger began to simmer beneath the surface.
Several deep breaths later it had only gotten worse. Her hand
tightened over the gear shift. Her mother was the same. The sultry,
humble act was wasted on Megan. Blackmail was the name of the game
now, using Megan’s loyalty to her father, just like the old
Nicole.

Megan hit the open road and threw her car
into high gear. She lowered the windows, hoping to cool the anger
now rising to the surface. "A month." The rush of air from the
window snatched her words out and up.

Megan already knew she couldn’t afford to buy
the house from her mother. She’d recently sunk most of the profits
back into the business—and into the new Camaro vibrating under her
as she hit seventy-five miles per hour. She knew she was going well
over the speed limit for the outskirts of Riverbed. Hell, most
people here didn’t go over forty miles per hour. Still, she pressed
her black leather pump harder on the gas.

What else should Megan have expected? The
woman she called her mother had thrown her out of the house over a
man. Now Nicole was unloading the burden of her dead husband’s
house to marry another one. It hadn’t escaped Megan’s notice that
Nicole hadn’t said who, only when.

"A damn month," she said again. Dead Man’s
Lake whipped by as the car roared down the road. The speed wasn’t
going to make her decision any easier. To be honest, once the words
left her mother’s mouth Megan had already decided she’d stay.

She didn’t have to like it.

She saw the curve in the road and took her
foot off the gas to let the car coast through the turn. She knew
these roads, had learned to drive on them, had hitchhiked her way
to freedom on them. No amount of years could extract that memory.
How she wished for a moment they could, and wished she didn’t
remember her father so vividly. Maybe, if she could forget, this
would be the last time she’d ever drive on these roads. It would be
the last time she’d ever feel this choking anger after dealing with
her mother. Wishes never came true no matter how hard you hoped
they would.

Since her mind was on other things, it was a
moment too late to slow down by the time she saw the
black-and-white leave its hiding place in the dip of the road as
she straightened out of the curve. She cursed it, along with the
anger she had let loose on the road. It took her another mile to
slow down completely. She reached into her glove compartment for
her license, registration, and insurance.

"
Well, I’ll be
. Megan Hazley."

Megan paused as the deep timbre of the voice
caressed her. The same memories she’d wished not to have a few
moments ago began to pull at her from a different side. First her
mother and now him.

Megan turned to the man she had thought would
be the first to leave Riverbed and her. She turned to the one
memory she secretly cherished of this godforsaken place.

"Mr. Blake." He stuffed his hands in his
pockets, making the badge pinned to his chest catch the light. "Let
me correct myself, Officer Aiden Blake."

*****

His day had been going pretty good until he
saw the silver Camaro pull out of Dead Man’s Curve at eighty miles
per hour. He stared down into Megan’s eyes, dark as chocolate,
keeping all her secrets from him like they always did. His stomach
clenched when he noticed that her skin, smooth and radiant, had
darkened, which made her seem much more beautiful than the
eighteen-year-old girl he remembered. The same one he’d given his
heart to, and the same one who’d left him. Yup, it was turning out
to be crappy day.

His hands tightened into fists in his
pockets. Aiden figured he could handle this two ways: play it cool
and let her off with a warning, or—a smile tugged at his lips—give
her hell.

"I clocked you doing eighty. That’s twenty
over the legal limit on this road."

Megan frowned in confusion.
 Good
.
She’d expected a different reaction to him seeing her. She probably
expected him to confess his undying love for her along with a
banner, balloons and the high school band. He would have, if it had
been twelve years earlier, but he’d come a long way from the boy
who worshiped her every step.

"Please, step out of the car."

"Aiden."

The one word came out as a plea. He also
heard the exhaustion, as well as the emotion, in her voice. The
sound of it made him pause a moment. If it had been anybody else,
he’d have had her handcuffed and in the back of the squad by
now.

"I need you to stand on the shoulder, for
safety."

Megan opened the car door in a huff and did
what he asked. She spread her arms out. "Are you happy now?"

Not since you left, he wanted to say. What
did that say about him? He leaned over and pulled her keys from the
ignition. "Did you want to die? Or just spread your remains in the
trees?"

"No, I didn’t." Megan crossed her arms. "Why
haven’t you asked why I’m here?"

"Because I know why." He feigned a look of
surprise. "What? You thought your coming back wasn’t going to hit
the gossip mill?" He could see on her face she had forgotten gossip
traveled at the speed of light here and, dammit, he noticed the
strain around her eyes. "Nicky break the news to you?"

Megan’s eyes narrowed. "You always could get
away with calling her that."

He stopped a few feet in front of her. Aiden
told himself he shouldn’t care. It wasn’t his business how she
reacted to the news. But the old him, the one who still knew how
soft her skin felt against his rough hands, the one who had made
promises he knew he’d never break, cared.

"Are you coming back for the wedding?"

Megan hesitated before she answered. "Yes."
She brushed her bangs out of her face again. "Yes, I’ll be here. I
really don’t want to be."

"Then why are you?"

"My dad would want me to have the house. My
dad..." Her voice wavered and she stopped talking. He didn’t speak
as she collected herself. "And Nicole, well, she’s Nicole." Disgust
filled her voice. "I’ve got things to do. Can you write me my
ticket so I can go?"

He stepped back more at the defeat in her
voice than anything else. "I’m going to let you off on a
warning."

"Thanks." She moved toward her car, and the
gravel crunched under her heels.

Out of instinct he reached to stop her and
knew it was a mistake the moment his fingers brushed her forearm.
He snatched his hand back, but Megan’s eyes widened, and he knew
she’d felt it, too. His day was getting worse by the moment.

"You need to drive careful. If Shep had
stopped you, he’d have had your car towed, just to make a
point."

A smile pulled at her plump lips, making his
gut twist again. She shouldn’t have been able to get that reaction
out of him. He crossed his arms to keep them from doing anything
else on their own. He had to do some type of damage control.

"How is your uncle doing?"

No derision filled her voice. Megan didn’t
know. He sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to tell her the
news.

"Good." Aiden shook his head, handed her the
car keys. He knew better than to get in the middle of Megan and
Nicky. The battle scars he still held proved any man shouldn’t.
"Well, I’ll see you then."

He stuffed his hands in his pockets, not
turning back, just shaking his head at the irony. They’d be kissing
cousins soon, family, the same reason she’d left him and
Riverbed.

Chapter 2

"I say it won’t kill you to stay," Lynne said
as she refolded the sweater. Her silver-streaked hair glinted under
the false light. Hair spray and gel held up the spikes.

"You don’t know my mother." Megan sifted
through the box that had just arrived. "We need more red
sweaters."

"Purple is the new ‘in’ color. And stop
staring at my hair."

"Well, I’m wondering if gravity even touches
you."

"Nope." Lynne took the next sweater handed to
her and started folding. "As usual, you’re avoiding the subject.
And since I do know you, your mother didn’t do too bad of a job. I
don’t know the full history, since you never talk about it, but
from what I gather, you loved your father, you loved that house,
and you’d love to stick your nose in your mother’s business for
spite. You have a mean streak you repress unsuccessfully."

"I do not."

"So, I’m guessing it’s just a coincidence
that you call me in at six o’clock this morning to fold, even
though you know how much I hate to fold, because you wanted this to
be a team effort." Lynne talked over Megan’s protest. "Even though
you could and rather prefer to set up by yourself."

Megan grinned. "But you fold so much faster
and better than I do. My efficient side is what made me call
you."

"Right."

Megan hesitated before she added, "I saw
Aiden."

Lynne stopped mid-fold. "Oh," She blinked.
"Oh."

"Yeah. He’s a cop now." Megan shook her head.
"I was speeding. He pulled me over. He stayed professional the
whole time."

Except when he touched me and the little
zing had nothing to do with keeping the peace
. She’d almost
forgotten zings existed; she only felt them from Aiden. However,
they shouldn’t mean anything, and they couldn’t. She’d left that
life behind a very long time ago.

"He didn’t look happy to see me. Matter of
fact, he was trying to bolt the moment he realized it was me."

"Remind me again, is this the same guy you
left at the altar?"

"I didn’t leave him at the altar." Megan
handed Lynne the last sweater in the box. "And you can’t make me
feel bad about it. It was for the best. He was too young. Hell, I
was too young. Way too young to get shackled down to him and
Riverbed."

"Sounds like you’re trying to convince
yourself."

Was she? "No, it’s the truth. I wouldn’t have
my business, and he’ll probably end up the chief of police after
his uncle retires." Megan picked up the empty box. "His uncle is
getting up there in age now, anyway."