LITMIR.BIZ

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gnaw my way clean through the bars and damn well eat them. They’d wait with bated breath to see what I would do next. Who I was and why I was with good ole George Cohen just about riled every damn person who looked, spoke or insulted me. No one wanted to offer me friendship until they got to know me and my so-called agenda.”

      Tanya huffed out a laugh. “Sounds about right.”

      “So what do you think I did to become the respected and loved person I am in the Cove today?”

      Tanya arched an eyebrow. “That’s quite a high opinion of yourself.”

      Marian narrowed her eyes. “Another thing we have in common.”

      Seconds passed...before she and Marian both grinned.

      Tanya laughed and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Marian Cohen.”

      Marian put down her mug and closed her hand around Tanya’s. “Likewise.”

      Tanya shook Marian’s hand and relaxed into her seat. She regarded the formidable woman across the desk with curiosity—and a hefty dose of determination. They’d reached a clear understanding, but that didn’t mean Marian could be trusted. Tanya cleared her throat and crossed her arms. “So...what else do you want to know?”

      Marian picked up her mug. “Nothing...for now. But I do hope you’ll come to me to talk when you’re ready.”

      “Why?”

      Marian took a sip of her tea. “Because I know why you’re back.”

      Unease lifted the hairs at Tanya’s nape, but she stayed perfectly still, her poise practiced and perfected. “Oh?”

      “You’re back because you’re running home. Sasha told me how much you dislike Templeton and you’ve made your derision pretty clear to me today. Why come back to the Cove unless you needed someone, or something, you knew would still be here?”

      Heat seared Tanya’s cheeks as Marian’s suspicions hit the bull’s-eye. Hadn’t she returned in the hope Liam would accept her apology and still be there for her? Hoped he wouldn’t just help her slip back into Templeton’s community, but help her find the man who hurt Sasha when she was a child?

      She swallowed and forced her gaze to Marian’s. “This was my home for twenty-two years, I have every right to be here. I want to start over and make up for some of the hurt my decisions caused. But more than anything, I’m back to get some answers.” Goddamn it, why the hell did I say that?

      Marian narrowed her eyes, all friendliness vanishing from her gaze. “Answers to what?”

      “I don’t want to talk about it.”

      Tanya’s heart picked up speed. She needed answers to everything. Answers to who she was. Answers to where the man who hurt Sasha now hid. Answers about the depth of Liam’s pain and what she could do to atone for the careless way she’d treated him and their love.

      Marian cleared her throat and stood, sliding her purse from the desk and hitching the strap onto her shoulder. “The Cove is a good and safe place for anyone needing protection and kindness, but both need to be earned. You’d be wise to let others in. Prove you can be trusted with their offers of help. Because, believe me, the offers will come.

      “When I came in here, I was prepared for a showdown with what I had been told was one hard-nosed ball breaker. You’re a pussycat. A pussycat whose eyes tell me she’s afraid of her own shadow. You’re afraid to admit you’re as vulnerable and scared as the rest of us. Take my advice. Take off the mask and let us see the ugly. We won’t run away, promise.”

      Tanya stayed perfectly still as she battled the trembling in her body. She would not weaken. She would not reveal a single indication of how much Marian had rattled her. The older woman ran her gaze over Tanya’s face and hair before giving a knowing nod and heading for the door.

      Counting the seconds, Tanya concentrated on breathing until Marian stepped out onto the street and closed the door behind her.

      Tanya released her held breath.

      Now what? Was Marian right? Did Tanya need to take off the mask and start making some confessions and apologies already?

      Her stomach knotted, but Tanya pulled back her shoulders. She would seek out the people she had ignored, rejected and judged. She would own what she had done and hope they accepted her apologies. If they couldn’t, then she would learn to accept that and do everything in her power to ensure she never acted cruelly again.

      It was time to take action in every area of her plans, not just with the Party Place.

      * * *

      IT NEARED SIX o’clock by the time Liam walked along the sidewalk toward his office. The day’s blazing heat had yet to subside more than a degree or two, and his shirt stuck to his back like paper saturated in glue.

      He stared at the facade of Tanya’s office. The blinds were drawn, as they’d been when he’d left for court hours before, yet he sensed her still inside.

      Indecision battled with common sense as he glanced at the closed front door. All afternoon he’d alternated between concentrating on what people were saying to him at the courthouse, to wondering what Marian’s visit with Tanya had been about. More important, what Marian had said to her. The stark vulnerability and pleading in Tanya’s eyes when he’d been at her apartment remained branded on his mind. Marian was a fireball of a woman who should come with a warning.

      Eight years ago, he wouldn’t have wasted a moment’s thought about whether or not Tanya could handle Marian. However, the Tanya of today was an entirely different matter. He understood she’d had her share of difficulties since she’d left the Cove, but concern she wasn’t fully over them continued to nag at his consciousness.

      He inhaled deeply and looked both ways along the street before he strode toward Tanya’s office. This was it. If he knocked on her door, he was in for the long haul. Whatever was really going on with Tanya, he would get to the bottom of it and help her...because whatever it was, it spelled trouble. That much he was certain of, even if everything else about her was causing a mess of feelings in his gut.

      He rapped his knuckles on the door before trying the handle just as Marian had that afternoon when she’d walked straight inside.

      The door was locked.

      Liam waited for an indication that the office was empty, but he only became more certain that Tanya was inside.

      He knocked a second time.

      Nothing.

      He stepped toward the window and peered through the small gap between the frame and the closed blind. An array of glass display cabinets stood side by side, waiting to be filled with whatever party planners filled cabinets with, as well as a rolled rug or carpet. He was about to pull back and get his ass over to his own office where it belonged, when a very female shadow passed over the cabinets. Judging by the curve of breasts he remembered only too well, Tanya had just made herself visible. He smiled. “Got you.”

      He walked back to the door and bent down, pushing open the letter box. “Tanya, open up. I know you’re in there. Look, I just want to talk to you, okay?” Liam darted his gaze over the gleaming white floor tiles and a stack of boxes. “If you’re still upset about the whole ‘tossing you on the couch’ thing, I’m sor—”

      A brief glance of black denim–clad legs whipped into his limited vision before a lock clicked. Tanya flung the door open with such force he nearly fell face-first onto her office floor. He gripped the doorjamb and straightened.

      Her sad, dark brown eyes bored into his. “You’re right. We do need to talk.”

      “Good, because—”

      “She’s right.”

      Liam frowned. “Who?”

      “Marian.”

      “Ah. She bulldozed

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