LITMIR.BIZ

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is forewarned.”

      “In other words, I need to start kicking butt in the same sweet-natured way you do.”

      “Exactly.”

      Tanya smiled. She could put her past mistakes behind her and start again. She could find Matt Davidson and lay Sasha’s ghosts to rest, as well as her own.

      Leah pulled out a bundle of files. “I happen to know a young lady who I think will be the perfect assistant for you and, no doubt, would be more than willing to start work straightaway.”

      “You do?”

      “Uh-huh.” Leah’s face turned somber. “She’s had a tough time and needs somewhere safe to work and figure out who she is. Not unlike you. I think you’ll be good for each other.”

      Ignoring the accuracy of Leah’s observations, Tanya frowned. “And does this girl have a name?”

      “She’s nineteen going on thirty. Lucy Walker. You remember her, right?”

      * * *

      LIAM STOOD AT his office window and glared at the building across the street. When he’d grabbed his morning coffee from Marian Cohen’s bakery a few hours ago, she’d taken extreme pleasure in telling him that Tanya would soon be changing one of the offices into a showroom for her new party planning business.

      Marian’s eyes had been wide with anticipation as she’d waited for his reaction. When he’d turned and met the not-so-subtle glances of others around him, it became all too clear news of Tanya’s return had spread around town like wildfire.

      He continued to glare at Tanya’s shuttered office windows as his mind drifted to the way Tanya had looked when she told him she never should have left. What was he supposed to do with that? In eight years he’d not received a single letter, phone call, text or email from her.

      He shook his head. So she had regrets. Didn’t everyone? That didn’t mean he wanted to go over old ground—and once his desire caught up with that mentality, his plan to meet someone new would be back on. It was damn annoying Tanya had chosen that particular office to set up shop. Or had she chosen it because she knew damn well he was stationed across the street?

      He whirled away from the window and paced his office for the twentieth time that morning. Papers littered his desk and he was due in court in less than an hour, but his brain was far from focused, which was entirely new. His job was his life, people’s welfare his main concern, which was why he could not allow Tanya to burrow under his skin. He couldn’t afford to trust her. She’d stood him up too many times when they’d been dating, chose work over everything—basically treating him as though he was little more than a sexual distraction whenever the mood struck her.

      He liked the man he’d become since she left. He liked the order, consistency and regimented stability in his life. It was Tanya who’d so easily provoked the anarchy and disorder that lingered just beneath the surface of his control. He would not, could not, go back to being that person again. She drove him nuts before and she would again.

      But goddamn it, he’d loved her. When she was alone with him...when they were together, she was softer, more hopeful and shared her dreams of one day getting married, having kids. Had those been lies?

      His gut told him no.

      He had to stop thinking about her and hold on to who he was without her.

      Liam picked up his cell phone and hovered his finger over Sasha’s number. He needed the truth. If Sasha told him why Tanya was back in Templeton—the real reason, not the flimsy excuse that she wanted to start over—maybe he would accept her being there and move on.

      It was driving him mad—the need to rush across the street and demand to know why she had come back to the place she used to call Devil’s Paradise.

      Before he could change his mind, he dialed Sasha’s number.

      As it rang, he walked back to the window. Goddamn it, why were her office blinds drawn? What was Tanya hiding in there? Or was she hiding, period? Leah Dixon had left about half an hour before...maybe he should forget talking to Sasha and track down Leah instead.

      “Hello?”

      Too late. Liam pulled back his shoulders. “Sasha, it’s Liam.”

      “I know. What’s wrong? Is Tanya okay?”

      Annoyance simmered in his gut. “Why do you ask that like I should know? Tanya isn’t my responsibility.”

      Sasha sniffed. “Well, for someone clearly trying his best to act like he doesn’t give a damn about Tanya, you sound mighty wound up about something.”

      “Do you know she’s setting herself up in an office right opposite mine?”

      She sighed. “Glad to hear she’s settling in okay.”

      “Settling in? Bloody hell, Sasha, I don’t want to have to look out my window at her every day.”

      She laughed. “Then don’t.”

      Liam shoved his fingers into his hair. “Are you finding this funny? I can’t ignore her. You know how I felt about her.”

      “I do. I also know she isn’t back to start something up with you again. You know Tanya. Can’t you just be her friend and not get involved? I love her, Liam, but who knows how long she’ll last in the Cove. I thought the Liam and Tanya train left town years ago.”

      Liam clenched his jaw. “It has... I’ve even had sex with other women.”

      “Funny.”

      “But that doesn’t mean it’s not thrown me through a loop seeing her again.”

      “This is the first time we’ve spoken in weeks. I don’t have to be Miss Marple to work out the reason you’re puffing and panting like an unfit athlete. She’s gotten to you already, hasn’t she?”

      He glared toward Tanya’s office. “Just tell me the truth. Why is she really here?”

      “She wants a fresh start.”

      He rolled his eyes and gripped the phone. “So she said, but why Templeton? The last I heard from her, via a damn note shoved under my door, she was getting out of Devil’s Paradise while she still could. This was the last place she wanted to be.”

      “People change their minds.”

      “Yes, but—” He stopped as realization hit him straight between the eyes, making the hairs at the back of his neck prickle with protectiveness. “This doesn’t have something to do with your leaving, does it? Is she here to finish whatever happened between you and your mum? The thing you told me you’d share with me one day but never did?”

      “Of course not, and don’t you dare bring that up with her, okay? It’s history.”

      “Does she see it that way, Sasha?”

      “Yes, she does. I’m not the reason she’s come home.”

      “Home? Is that your word for Templeton or hers?”

      “Hers.”

      He raised his eyebrows. Things must be worse than he’d imagined if Tanya now called Templeton her home. Frowning, he stared through the window once more. “Just give me something. I’m going a little crazy here.”

      “I can hear that.” Sasha’s exhalation rasped down the line. “Look, I thought you two were over. Tanya needs someone to trust while she finds her feet.”

      “Fine. I’ll look out for her, but there is no way I’m getting involved with her again.”

      “I understand. Look, Tanya will tell you what she wants you to know if, and when, she’s ready.”

      Liam turned his back to the window. “Has someone hurt her? Is she in trouble?”

      “Liam, please. It isn’t my place to tell you.

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