He stood, snatched his jacket from the back of the chair and his briefcase from the floor. “Look after yourself, George.”
Leaving his older friend staring after him, Liam strode toward the bar and pulled his wallet from his jacket pocket. He tossed a twenty and a ten onto the bar. “Keep the change, Caroline. I’m out of here before George brings over his backup...or should I say front woman?”
She frowned and slipped the cash from the bar. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” He tilted his head toward George and Marian’s table. “I’ve got my surrogate mum and dad over there watching out for me.”
She managed a small smile. “They care about everyone in the Cove. You know that.”
“Yeah, I do, and that’s why I’m leaving.”
“Can I ask what Tanya said? You could’ve cut the tension between you with a knife.”
Liam scowled. “Do you think anyone in here wasn’t watching us?”
Caroline smiled. “I doubt it.”
He shook his head. “I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, just keep your head...and anything else, intact. If what Tanya said is true...”
He stiffened, every inch of his body on high alert. “What did she say?”
Color stained Caroline’s cheeks and she smoothed her hand over her cap of short, dark hair. “Not much.”
“Caroline...”
“All she said was she’s back for good. That she has a new business in town.”
“A new business?” Liam’s heart picked up speed. Money. Business. So she hadn’t changed much beneath the surface, after all. “What sort of business?”
“She didn’t say. Look—”
“The last I knew, she worked in some big bank in the city.” He frowned. “She said it was her own business?”
Caroline nodded.
“Financial?”
“I don’t know.”
Liam took a step away from the bar. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Sure.”
Frustrated that he hadn’t asked Tanya a single damn question, Liam stormed from the restaurant and out into the fading sun.
He inhaled the air, letting it cleanse his mind of the unwanted curiosity about Tanya from seeping in. It didn’t matter what he’d said to George or anyone else, the moment Liam laid eyes on Tanya, he’d wanted to talk to her. Something initiated her return to Templeton and the unease in her eyes made him think she had nowhere else to go.
Yet she was opening a new business, which meant she hadn’t lost the ferocious ambition that had always burned inside her. But she could start a new business anywhere. Why the Cove? Was whatever had called her here something emotional, maybe? He clenched his jaw as the things he knew about her family and personal life ricocheted inside his head and heart.
If someone had hurt her, or frightened her into returning to the place she once fled, the place where her family had owned a fairground that reminded her too much of her Romany roots, how was he supposed to pretend it didn’t matter to him? This was a woman he’d once loved...had wanted to marry. He’d no more turn his back on her today than he would have then. But what if she wanted nothing to do with him, the same as she did when she left?
There was only one way to find out.
TANYA WRAPPED HER half-eaten burger in a paper towel and tossed it into the trash before snatching up her can of Diet Coke from the counter. Walking to the patio doors leading from her sister’s living room, she stepped out onto the balcony. Night had fallen and Templeton was lit in all its undeniable and beautiful glory.
The lights from Funland, the beach and the shops at the waterfront flashed yellow, green and red in the distance. Tanya leaned her forearms on the railing and stared toward the fairground. The screams and music drifted on the light summer breeze, sending icicles into her blood. She tightened her fingers around her Diet Coke can. What happened to Sasha there was only part of the reason Tanya had come back, but finding Matt Davidson was her top priority right now.
No matter how much the doctor told Tanya to concentrate on her happiness from here on in, Davidson was still out there and stood like a boulder between Tanya and a new future. A phantom preventing her from getting over what he’d done to Sasha.
Her sister had come when Tanya needed her most, yet when Sasha was dealing with the most traumatic, ugly experience any child could, Tanya had seen her sister as nothing more than a nuisance. Tanya’s heart twisted with shame, and tears burned. Instead of seeing Sasha as her best friend, her optimism and chatter about Funland and their grandfather had annoyed Tanya at every turn. She now realized her animosity toward her sister came from jealousy and resentment. The admission was especially shameful since Sasha was so effortlessly positive and friendly to everyone around her.
Tanya closed her eyes. Little did she know just how well Sasha wore her mask over a life ruined by the criminal who’d dared to touch her.
Opening her eyes, Tanya glared at Funland. What happened to Sasha wasn’t over, no matter how much she might wish it so. The piece of crap who hurt her was still out there and Tanya suspected Sasha thought of him daily. Sooner or later, Davidson would be found. She shivered against the icy chill that ran up her spine. Templeton wasn’t the picture-perfect place it liked to convey. Things were never what they seemed here, but at least now Tanya knew life was something to be shaped. People were hurt, disappointed and judged, and it was something she had slowly learned to accept through therapy.
Her biggest mistake had been allowing her mother’s fears to taint her own views of the Cove. Her mother had convinced her that love didn’t exist. Feeling afraid and uncertain, Tanya changed.
From being a young woman not unlike Sasha, Tanya turned into a fiercely driven, single-minded worker. Her mother’s words ringing in her head, Tanya left Liam behind and pursued money, assets and position. The only things that could really protect a girl. Working 24/7 had been a way to protect herself against the onslaught of disappointment she would face if she failed in her chosen career or relied on a man for her happiness.
It had been the risk of that dependency that had ultimately led to her breakdown...and why she had been arrested. Mental anguish had seeped into her mind when she wasn’t looking.
Tanya swallowed the tears clogging her throat. Little did she and Sasha know that her mother’s warnings were entirely based on trying to protect her daughters after finding out, years later, what had happened to Sasha.
Turning from the bright lights, Tanya sank into one of the two chairs around a small bistro table. She shut her eyes and Liam’s face appeared. What would he say to her when they next met?
People changed. She’d changed.
She’d be arrogant to think the same wouldn’t be true for Liam. Sasha described him as a tough lawyer with a soft center. A man the whole town held in high esteem. Yet Jay had said Liam was still single and living alone. Throughout the time she and Liam had been together, his adolescent anger toward his father had mellowed. Instead, it became his motivation to succeed and do good in this too-often-bad world. He was strong and powerful in court, and some of his cases had made the news all over the UK. He was a force to be reckoned with, but also a man of gentle and caring honor.
The combination