A Southern Reunion
Cal braced his hands on the long butcher-block counter. “She came to see me in the stables, wanting to know what’s going on. I can’t tell her so I hope he explains things.”
Teresa glanced across the wide central hall. “But he doesn’t realize—”
“I know that.” He lowered his head. “If I tell her the truth, she’ll go ballistic and think I cooked up this whole scheme. I’m hanging on by a thread here, Teresa.”
Teresa put the tray in front of him. “We don’t have a whole lot of time left. Before that man dies, the truth has to come out, and I mean all of the truth. That’s why you’re here. You can help her. You can make her understand.”
“Like I did last time when she needed me and…I wound up hurting her?”
Teresa leaned over the counter, her whisper carrying through the high-ceilinged house. “No, this time you won’t hurt her. You had your reasons back then. This time, you’ll stay and show her the man you’ve become.”
Cal hoped he could do that. “But what if she doesn’t stay? What if she leaves again?”
Teresa wiped her hands down her apron. “Then you’ll go after her, Cal. This has to end, one way or another.”
The door across the way opened and closed and Cassie came into the kitchen. She looked at Cal then turned to Teresa. “Is that my father’s dinner tray?”
Teresa nodded. “I was about to let Cal bring it in to you, honey.”
Cal reached for the food tray, but Cassie tugged it away. “I’ve got it.”
“I’ll sit with you, if you want,” Cal offered, hoping to find some common ground. “No, thanks.”
With that, she lifted the tray and walked back across the hall.
Cal glanced over and realized the door was shut so he rushed to open it for her. Their eyes met but her expression never yielded. She went into the room, leaving him to close the door.
Teresa lifted her chin toward the stove. “Your dinner is ready if you want to eat now.”
“I’m not hungry,” Cal said. “I’ll come back later.”
He walked out onto the back porch, the crisp gloaming hitting him with a refreshing burst. He wasn’t sure he could do this. How was he supposed to stay here and run this place knowing Cassie was around day in and day out?
I’ve made a deal with the devil, he thought. Marcus Brennan always had some sort of deal up his sleeve. And this one was a real kicker.
But he’d made the deal, taking a big risk, so he could see her again and hopefully make up for the past. Well, that day had come and now he wished he’d just stayed up the road on his own place. He’d been content there, happy to work his land in solitude. He could leave now and go back to that solitude.
But then, he’d be leaving Cassie with a mess on her hands and a dying father on her conscience. He couldn’t do that even if she did think the worst of him.
So he stood and watched the sunset settling over the pines and pastures, his memories as golden and glistening as the rays falling across the distant corn fields. He remembered the first time he’d seen Cassie standing up on the second-floor porch, her long blond hair tumbling around her face, her expression haughty and full of dare. He’d pegged her for the spoiled princess, a rich girl who had a powerful father.
Forbidden and out of his reach.
He’d fallen for her right then and there.
Then he remembered finding her later in the stables, tears running down her face, her vulnerable angst over hearing her parents fight making her even more desirable because she needed him.
Their first kiss out underneath that old oak tree had been magical, like a soothing balm. It had brought him home to a place he’d been searching for all of his life.
He wanted to be back at that place. But he didn’t know how to find it again. Cassie had grown up in the years she’d been away. It was obvious she was a sophisticated woman who’d done things her own way. Maybe she’d outgrown those intense feelings they’d shared back then.
While he’d been standing in the same spot, waiting to rekindle something that could never be.
The back door banged open. “Cal, we need to talk.”
He turned to find her standing there, her eyes dark with a boiling rage. “What is it this time?”
“My father told me that I need to talk to you about the future of this plantation. What did he mean by that?”
Cal let out a long sigh. “What else did he tell you?”
She stalked to the porch railing. “Not much. I tried to get him to eat but he kept pushing me away.” Her shoulders slumped. “He seemed desperate to explain things, but maybe not sure what to do or say. He got upset and told me to leave. He told me to find you and come back in there.”
Cal rubbed a hand down one of the massive columns supporting the house. “Welcome to my world, darlin’. Some days he makes perfect sense. Other times he rambles and gets so agitated, we have to give him a pill to settle him down. It took me months to figure out the records and books.”
Cassie placed her arms across her chest. “Is that what he’s talking about?”
“Part of it.” He glanced back inside. “If you’ll come to the cottage with me, I can show you everything. All the files are in my office and on my laptop.”
She shook her head. “I have to wait for the night nurse. Let me go back in with him for a few minutes, okay? Maybe he’ll forget that he wanted to see both of us.”
“Okay. I’ll wait in the kitchen. Teresa has dinner ready. Did you eat?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Cassie, you have to eat.”
“I’ll grab something later.”
She opened the door, waiting for him. “Are you coming?”
He followed her. “It’s not like he and I haven’t gone over and over this. Sometimes, he comprehends things and sometimes he’s just not listening.”
“I noticed that,” she said, her head down, her expression grim. “He thought I was my mother when I first went in. Go ahead and eat and then come in. Maybe he’ll talk with both of us there and tell us what’s bothering him.”
He took her by the arm. “I have a better idea. Let Teresa sit with him a few minutes and you try to eat something, too.”
Teresa came out of the kitchen. “It’s on the stove and still warm. The sooner y’all eat, the sooner I can go to my room and rest.”
Cassie was too polite to make Teresa wait around to clean the kitchen. “Go ahead now. I’ll clean up.”
Teresa glanced toward the study door. “I’ll sit with him until the night nurse shows up. You need to eat your dinner.”
Cal watched Cassie’s face. She wanted answers right now. How could he explain all the workings of this place and make her see he was busting his tail to save it? Maybe it was time to just lay all the cards on the table and be honest. About the plantation, at least. But not about Marcus Brennan’s other ridiculous death-bed wish.
The exhaustion etching her face stopped him.
“Listen, you’re tired and it’s been a long day. Try to eat then we’ll go in and see him. After that you need to go upstairs and rest. We’ll start over fresh tomorrow. And I’ll be as honest as I can, about everything.”
He wouldn’t tell her about his own part in this, about all the things she didn’t know about her parents and what had happened on that fateful day so long ago.
What else could he do? He’d made the decision to go along with Marcus Brennan last desperate attempt to get his daughter back. Cal couldn’t stop it now. But he could tell her the truth regarding her heritage.
She would hate him even more, but he had to take that chance.
“Cassie, will you eat and then rest?”
She finally nodded. “I’ll rest after we visit him again, just to make sure he’s okay.”
“We’ll do that,” Cal replied, hating the defeat in her voice.
A few minutes later, they both sat staring at their half-eaten meals. Cal had talked to her about mundane things—the crops, the weather, a new foal that had just been delivered two days ago. She asked him about his mother—a subject he didn’t like to talk about.
Teresa came out of Marcus’s room. “I can’t get him to eat.”
“I’ll try,” Cal said, getting up.
“No.” Cassie pushed ahead of him. “Let me.”
Cal followed her into the room. “How ’bout we work together on it?”
She shrugged. “We can try.” Then she moved ahead of him into the room. “But the only way we can work together is to be honest with each other.”
Did she see it in his eyes? That he was holding back?
Of course she did. But Cal wasn’t ready to give up all the secrets buried on this old plantation.
CHAPTER FIVE
CASSIE TRIED TO COAX her father to take another bite of the beef stew. Marcus glanced at the spoon then back up at her. “I’m finished. Didn’t you hear me?”
Cal took the spoon from Cassie. “C’mon now, old man, eat something so I can give the night nurse a good report. You don’t want to have to resort to taking your meals through a tube, do you?”
Marcus turned from Cassie to send Cal a heavy scowl, his wizened face expanding until he almost looked young again. “You like being the boss around here, don’t you?”
“I’m not the boss,” Cal said, a spoonful of tender meat and thick gravy moving toward Marcus. “You’re still the man around here, so eat up and keep your strength.”
Cassie resented the way he’d taken over, but was glad to see her father listening to Cal. Marcus took two bites of the stew then fell back against the pillows. “I’m full.”
Cal gave him some water through a bent straw then glanced over at Cassie, the sympathy in his eyes raking her like talons. She didn’t want his pity. She wanted his honesty. But then, he’d been dishonest with her before. Why change now?
Marcus glanced at Cassie then turned to Cal, his gaze now hooded and shuttered. “You two speaking?”
“Yes,” Cassie said on a rush of breath. She refused to elaborate.
“We’re being civil,” Cal said. He shot Cassie a look that dared her to disagree.
“That’s not good enough,” Marcus retorted through a grumbling cough. “I need more than civil. I need you two to work together.”
“What did you expect, Daddy?” Cassie’s eyes locked onto Cal. “I found a lot of surprises here since I arrived this morning.” Had she only been here one day? It seemed as if she’d aged in those few short hours. She was bone-tired and weary and still in shock from all the revelations nipping at her like mosquitoes.
Marcus coughed again, prompting Cal to give him another sip of water. He looked up at Cal, another dark scowl on his face. But the expression in his eyes held trust and what seemed like a grudging respect. Cassie glanced at Cal and saw that same respect in his gaze, too. Something passed between the two men, something secret and sacred and scary.
Cassie’s resentment crashed in an ugly wave of green envy. Did Cal really care about her father? Or was this part of his plan? He’d never confirmed or denied her accusations. Cal had never been one for confirming or denying. He wasn’t great at conversations or confrontations.
Deciding to cut to the chase, she touched her father’s arm. “Cal says we need to talk. Are you up to that, Daddy?”
Marcus heaved a deep breath. “Of course I’m up to it. I’ve been waiting for this conversation a long time, Cassie-girl.”
She couldn’t take any more. Her nerves were twisted like fence wire and her head pounded like a herd of stampeding cattle. “Then tell me, please. Somebody tell me what’s going on, beside you being so sick. Besides Cal being back here. What is it?”
“We’re busted,” Marcus finally said, his once-blue eyes watery and piercing. “Camellia Plantation ain’t what it used to be.”
Confusion crashed with exhaustion inside Cassie’s head. “But it’s still here. Our home is still intact.”
She saw the lifting of Cal’s head and the widening of her father’s wrinkled brow. “Cal?”
Cal stood with his feet planted apart, his broad shoulders slung back as if ready to do battle. Until she looked into his eyes. The uncertainty of his gaze shattered her.
“Cal?”
“I brought Cal back to save the place,” Marcus said, his voice weak now. “He can give you the details.”
Cassie stepped back to stare over at Cal. “Is that true?”
Cal nodded. “Your daddy got in trouble in some areas and I’ve been fighting fires since I came back. That’s why I wanted to show you the records and files.”
“And?”
“And we’re leveling off but it’s gonna be a long haul.”
She pushed a hand through her hair. “Is this what you’ve been keeping from me?”
“Partly,” Cal said, glancing down at Marcus. “It’s hard to explain all of it.”
Marcus nodded. “He’s right, honey. I won’t be here much longer, Cassandra. That’s the truth. We don’t have much time. And I need you—”
“Daddy, don’t talk like that. I’m meeting with your doctors. I’ll bring in a specialist—”
“Don’t need a specialist. Just need to rest.”
“You can’t just give up!”
But her father was already drifting off again.
Cassie touched a gentle hand to his bony shoulder. “Daddy, how bad is it?”
Marcus opened his eyes, but the vacant darkness she saw in them caused Cassie to step back. He looked as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Gennie, I’m so sorry. I tried to forgive her. I really did, darlin’.” He coughed, his eyes wild now. “But she looks too much like you.”
He dropped back to sleep.
Cassie gasped and turned away, the tears she’d held at bay all day long pricking at her eyes. Was her father talking about her? Everyone told her she looked just like her mother and she’d always believed that was part of why he found it so unbearable to be around her.
Just the thought of it made her feel sick to her stomach.
When she felt Cal’s hand on her arm, she recoiled from the heat of it. “I’m okay. Just go.”
“No,” he said, dragging her toward the door. “No. You’re coming with me so we can discuss this. I should have explained first thing this morning when you got here.”
She couldn’t speak so she allowed him to get her out of that suffocating room. Once out in the hallway, she pulled loose of his grasp. “I was right. You’re going to take over Camellia Plantation, aren’t you? You somehow managed to get back in with my father and now you’re like a vulture waiting to pick his carcass. And you greet me at the door with…that woman. Is Marsha in on this with you, Cal? Is she?”
CAL COULDN’T BELIEVE the things coming out of her mouth. He’d done Cassie wrong all those years ago, but did she actually think he’d somehow managed to maneuver into position over her father’s deathbed? Chalking it up to shock and grief, he cut her some slack but he couldn’t get past his own frustrations and anger.
“You must really hate me,” he said, seeing what looked like hatred in her cold blue eyes. “You can’t honestly believe I’d be so cruel.”
“I don’t know what to believe,” she said, her eyes misty, her tone low and unsure. “I’m sorry, but I just wish—”
The sound of a car door slamming caused her to stop. “I’m going upstairs to my room.”
“Cassie, you need to go over the books with me. So I can show you that you’re wrong.”
Teresa stepped into the hallway. “That’s the night nurse. Cal, let Cassie get some rest. Tomorrow is soon enough to get down to business.”
“You knew about this, too?” Cassie asked the housekeeper, her voice rising.
“Honey, I know about a lot of things,” Teresa replied, lowering her voice as the back door swung open. “But until you’re ready to listen, it won’t matter what we tell you.”
Cal watched as Cassie went into debutante mode, her back going straight, her cool resolve slipping back into place while she closed her eyes to shut down the tears. “You’re right, of course. I’m exhausted and I’m not thinking rationally. I shouldn’t be lashing out at Cal. But tomorrow, I want the truth. From both of you. I mean it, Cal. If I don’t get some answers, I’ll have to figure it out for myself. But I’m hoping you won’t force me to do that.”
She nodded to the shocked woman standing at the door. “I’m Cassandra Brennan, Marcus Brennan’s daughter.”
The hefty red-haired woman stepped forward, apparently undaunted by Cassie’s cold demeanor. “I’m Sharon Clark. Your daddy mentions you all the time.”
Cassie’s manners kicked in to cover her discomfort and pain. She shook the woman’s hand. “It’s good to meet you. Can I go over his medication schedule with you before I go upstairs?”
“Of course,” the woman replied, clearly confused. “I’ll get his chart.”
Cassie nodded and followed the woman into the kitchen.
Cal shook his head at Teresa’s warning look then went out the back door, slamming it behind him.
Now he could put her out of her mind, the way he’d done so many times before. But he’d never be able to forget the indignant expression on her face when she’d accused him.
The woman would never trust him again. And he needed her trust now more than ever.
CASSIE WOKE WITH A START, shadows of dusk washing her bedroom in a golden-hued sheen.
Then she remembered how she and Cal had eaten an early dinner before she’d gone back in with her father. The night nurse had come in and they’d discussed his medications. Marcus had finally settled down for the night, so she’d come upstairs to rest and she’d fallen asleep. It was only eight o’clock.
She’d been dreaming about the day her mother died. She’d had this dream many times over the last few years. Two therapists and lots of long discussions hadn’t kept the dream away. Always inside the dream she was running from something she didn’t want to face.
Well, she didn’t want to face her father’s death and she didn’t want to face Cal ever again. He’d become a coconspirator with her powerful father and she wasn’t sure she could forgive and forget on that front. Just being back here a day had set her back years in emotional security. No wonder she was having nightmares.
She sat up, staring at the digital clock. Out of habit, she got up and went to the ceiling-to-floor window and stared out into the coming night. Not surprised to find a light on in Cal’s house, she thought back over their conversation earlier today. She knew Cal. Or she had once known Cal. The old Cal had probably been honest with her up until that horrible time when her world had fallen apart. He’d told her about his life before he’d come to Camellia, endearing Cassie to him even more. But his betrayal with Marsha had cut too deeply for her to think about that or to trust him now. Cassie had never understood why he’d turned to Marsha right after her mother’s death. She’d needed him then, but she didn’t need him now. Just knowing the other woman had been hanging around made her sick to her stomach.
Back then, she’d never given him a chance to explain. Now she needed explanations and suddenly, he’d become even more noncommunicative.
“I still know you, Cal,” she whispered now. “I know your heart. You always were a decent person.” Feeling mortified about the way she’d treated him, Cassie decided she couldn’t put all the blame on Cal. He’d at least stepped in to help her father when she wasn’t around.
Cal wasn’t one to lie and keep secrets even if she had accused him of those things, but his refusal to tell her everything right up front grated at her raw nerve endings like barbed wire. He’d betrayed her with Marsha all those years ago, but she’d never once asked him why. She’d been too hurt, too confused, to bother asking. So she’d just left.
But now, she’d come back and demanded answers to questions she’d long ago tried not to ask. No wonder Cal didn’t want to be honest with her. She hadn’t exactly been a model daughter. And she certainly hadn’t tried to fight for Cal’s love.
Maybe she still didn’t want to know the answers to those questions. But it did make her think about her part in all of this. Cal had never had a real home but he felt at home here. She couldn’t deny him that. And somehow, in spite of his horrible upbringing, he’d turned out to be a decent, hardworking man. Maybe he was trying to help and nothing more.
But what about her? Now that the dreams were coming back, she had to wonder if she’d held some deep dark secret locked away in her heart. Did she know something, something so horrible she’d buried it beneath her guilt and her pain?
“Impossible,” she whispered to the night. Grabbing her robe, she decided to head down to the kitchen to make a cup of chamomile tea. It was the only way she’d ever get back to sleep. She’d check on her father and see if the nurse needed a break.
She hurried past the two upstairs guest rooms at the center of the big square-framed house, then moved past the master bedroom—the room her parents had always shared. It was an enormous suite located on the opposite side of the house from her room. It took up that whole side of the house and mirrored her room since it also included a setting room, a dressing room and large closet and a bathroom.
Cassie smiled, remembering how she used to sit at her mother’s vanity and powder her face with Eugenia’s scented makeup puff. Eugenia would allow Cassie to put on a spot of lipstick, very sheer and pink, then go into her closet and pull out pumps and pearls and a pretty floral scarf. Cassie so wanted to be like her beautiful mother. She wanted to dress in the billowy, flaring dresses her mother adored or wear cute capris and cashmere sweaters with black flats. She wanted to wear her hair curled into a fashionable bob like Eugenia’s. Her mother had always dressed like a 1960s movie star, regardless of the fads or fashions. She’d been so young when she died—not quite forty years old. Marcus Brennan had married a woman fifteen years younger than him. A beautiful Southern belle who captured his heart and ruled over his domain with polite dignity. Cassie had tried all of her life to live up to her mother’s image.
“But I’m not you, am I, Mother?” Cassie asked the face staring back at her from the formal portrait of Eugenia, dressed in creamy silk and satin, that hung on the staircase wall. “I’ll never be you.”
Cassie’s designs reflected her mother’s grace and classic sense of style but she wasn’t sure she could ever capture the true essence of Eugenia Brennan. No one ever had.
Was that why her parents fought so much and yet loved each other so deeply? They’d both always held something back, something that no other human could discover or figure. But in the end, they’d always held fast to each other. Maybe in their most intimate moments, they’d all let their guards down.
Their saving grace.
Perhaps she should try that. Even with Cal all that time ago, Cassie had held back. She’d loved him but she’d never been completely sure of him. When they’d first met, he’d accused her of being a spoiled snob. And he’d been right in some ways.
But so wrong in others.
Her parents had loved each other in a way Cassie always envied. Until that horrible day so long ago.
She shivered then hurried past her mother’s brilliant blue eyes staring down at her, the light from a hall lamp illuminating the huge portrait like a shrine. Making her way to the stove, she switched on the muted overhead light, hoping not to disturb Teresa. She’d make her cup of tea, check on her father and go back upstairs to play with the designs she’d tried to sketch that afternoon. At least she might be able to get some serious work done. Maybe she’d take a look at the website and see how the current spring line was doing. With Easter just a couple of weeks ago, Cassie’s Closet should have a good retail month and a solid first quarter earnings. Not that she was a millionaire by any means, but she was making an honest living.
She’d need to keep doing that if she intended to help Cal and her father salvage this house and this land. But that would mean putting her plans on hold. No second boutique in Buckhead or Roswell and certainly no long-term plans to open one in New York, either. She’d have to put a tight rein on everything. And pray her anchor store held on and continued to thrive.
She grabbed the teakettle off the stove just as it started gurgling then poured the hot water over the tea bag in her cup. She’d always hated a whistling teakettle and she didn’t want to disturb anyone else. Settling onto a stool near the long counter, Cassie let the memories pour through her with each sip of the soothing tea.