Cavanaugh’s Woman Read online

  “I’m sorry about that, Claire. Really sorry. I’ll put a new one in right away. Maybe I should have a plumber put it in because I’m not overly handy when it comes to this kind of stuff. I—”

  He stopped abruptly as she turned her head up to his. There was this look in her eyes he couldn’t begin to fathom. It was wild, and yet somehow centered, as if she were struggling to focus on something.

  “Rose,” she whispered.

  She’d said the name so softly, he wasn’t certain that he had heard her correctly. Thought that maybe it was just his heart speaking. “What?”

  She swallowed, her throat sore, her voice hoarse. Tears felt as if they were gathering inside her entire body.

  “Rose,” she repeated. “My name is Rose.” And then tears spilled out onto her already-dampened cheeks. “I remember. Oh, my God, I remember.” She covered her mouth with her hands, afraid that she would begin sobbing again. All sorts of emotions scrambled through her. “Andrew, I remember. I know who you are. I know where I am.”

  How long had he dreamed about this? Hoped for this? He was afraid to believe it was true.

  “Are you sure?” Andrew held her by her shoulders, anchoring her in place. “Oh, God, Rose, you remember?”

  Stifling another sob, she nodded. Words began to flow from her lips as quickly as the water had from the pipe when the shower head broke off.

  “Everything.” To prove it, she began to recite the events of the last day that she had been Rose Cavanaugh, excitement building in her voice. “The car, it went over the side. The door was stuck, I couldn’t get it to open. You know how you always had me lock the doors whenever I drove the car. It went into the water. I thought I was going to die there.

  “And then I finally got it open, but I was so far down in the water, I didn’t think I could make it back up to the top. I thought I was going to drown.” She blinked, trying to put the kaleidoscope of events swirling through her brain in order. “But I must have gotten out somehow.” She looked at him, shaking her head. “I guess I just blacked out. Someone stopped to pick me up. He drove me somewhere and then tried to…tried to…”

  “Don’t.” Andrew knew this was too much for her. He didn’t want her handling the ordeal in her fragile state of mind.

  But she shook her head, doggedly continuing. “He tried to rape me. I managed to get away before he could.” She closed her eyes, gathering the memories together. “I remember walking, just walking. I was cold and wet and scared and I didn’t know who I was.”

  And then she opened her eyes again, looking at him. Everything finally made sense after all these years. “I must have walked all the way to Lucy’s diner. She came running out when she saw me through the window. Lucy and her husband took me in. I remember being sick.”

  He listened, wanting to interrupt in a dozen places, knowing he couldn’t. She needed to get this all out at once. So she could finally put it behind her.

  “Lucy found me a place to stay and gave me a job.” A fondness entered Rose’s voice. The pair were the only two people she allowed into her life in all this time. “She and her husband have been very good to me.”

  Choked with emotion, Andrew felt as if his throat would close up. He’d come so very close to losing her. Too close.

  “Remind me to thank them.”

  She looked at him, seeing him perhaps for the first time, this man who had loved her all these long years. “You never gave up hope, did you?”

  “Never.” Still holding her on his lap, he closed his arms around her. “Everyone tried to tell me that the evidence all pointed to your body being washed out to sea. I didn’t care about the evidence. In my heart, I knew you were out there somewhere. And that I had to find you.”

  She felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her. As if she were a bird that was allowed to fly again after being tethered for such an extremely long period of time.

  “Oh, God, Andrew, I’m so glad to be home.” Fresh tears filled her eyes. “I’ve missed you. Even when I didn’t know it was you I was missing, I missed you. There was always a piece of me that wasn’t there.” And then, along with her memory came the reason for the argument that led to her departure in the first place. “You have to know that Mike and I never—”

  Andrew placed a finger against her lips, silencing whatever was to follow. She didn’t need to say it. He didn’t need to hear it.

  Love and gratitude filled every available space within him.

  “I know. And even if you had, it doesn’t matter. Do you understand? It doesn’t matter. Looking for you these past fifteen years has taught me what really counts and what doesn’t. And all that counts is having you home again.”

  Unable to contain her emotions any longer, Rose wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, kissed the man who had moved heaven and earth to find her when she’d been so lost.

  Kissed the husband she’d loved since the beginning of time.

  Moira looked on at the vast collection of people milling around in Andrew Cavanaugh’s backyard. She’d been to bigger parties. Despite the fact that there were people in the house, as well as outside, and that Teri had confided to her that practically the entire Aurora police force, active and retired, along with their families were in attendance, she had been at affairs where this party could have easily been tucked into a small corner.

  But Moira knew without being told that she’d never attended anything that was remotely happier in nature.

  No, she mused, taking a sip of her wine, not even that last Oscar party, the one where the best actress had gushed on for almost ten minutes to any and all who had the misfortune of crossing her path. That had been stylized happiness.

  This was quite different in nature. It was without pretense. Just plain, unadulterated joy. It made her happy just to be here, just to share the unabashed emotion that hummed throughout the area.

  She looked around for Shaw. He kept being drawn away, but she spotted him and made her way over.

  “Thanks for inviting me,” she said when she finally reached him.

  He looked up, as if he was surprised she’d found him. Shaw shrugged carelessly at her words. “Can’t take exclusive credit for this. It was really my father’s idea.”

  “And you wouldn’t have if he hadn’t told you to?”

  From where she was standing, there was no other way to interpret his words. What was going on? They’d made love just last night, as they had every night while she’d been filming here. But this afternoon, he was acting as if being around her was putting him out.

  He looked annoyed at her question. “I thought you might have better things to do.”

  “Something better than witnessing joy up close and personal?” she asked incredulously, looking back at the guest of honor. Rose Cavanaugh stood beside her husband. The two looked more like newlyweds than a couple that had been married over thirty-three years. “I don’t think so.”

  Shaw frowned. “You’re getting ready to leave tomorrow,” he reminded her.

  She was more than aware of that and more than a little sad about the prospect. She didn’t want to leave. Not this town, which contained memories for her of a happier time in her youth, not this family whom she was just getting to know and like—and not this man, who remained a puzzle to her but one whose pieces she wanted to reexamine at length.

  “That’s tomorrow,” she told him. “Today is today and I like living each day one day at a time.”

  He was doing his damnedest to distance himself from her, from the inevitable, and he wished she’d let him get on with it. “Nice motto.”

  The words had a sarcastic bite. Struggling against their sting, Moira forced herself to make allowances for his mood. She knew Shaw had to be going through a lot himself, what with his mother finally regaining her memory and finally returning to them in every sense of the word.

  But still, what he said hurt.

  She searched for a way to lighten the unspoken tension between them. “You know, when they
make the movie version of this, I think I’d like to play your mother.”

  Preoccupied, looking for an excuse to get away from her again, Shaw looked at her. “What?”

  She supposed it was more her profession than her nature that made her see things in a certain light.

  “Well, this has all the markings of a wonderful, feel-good movie.” She spread her hands out before her as if projecting a story on the screen. “Woman disappears, is presumed dead by everyone except for her loving husband who never gives up hope that she’s alive somewhere. And then he actually finds her. A winner at the box office every time.”

  “Don’t forget my part,” Rayne interjected, coming up behind them. “If I hadn’t stopped by that diner a couple of months ago, on the way to question a witness, none of this would have happened.”

  “We also have to give star billing to the showerhead,” Callie teased, coming up on the other side of them. One look at her face told Moira just how elated Callie was. But family never missed an opportunity to tease one another. “If it hadn’t come off and sprayed water in Mom’s face, her memory might never have returned and we wouldn’t have our happy ending.”

  Listening, Moira shook her head. “It’s amazing how life’s little coincidences dovetail together to make things happen.”

  “Yeah, amazing,” Shaw echoed, edging away. He spared Moira a glance. “If you’ll excuse me, there’s someone I need to talk to.”

  Before she could say anything, he’d walked off.

  Feeling a little awkward, she looked at Rayne. “Is it me, or is there a chill in the air?”

  “Yes,” Rayne confirmed, then elaborated. “There’s a chill in the air and it’s you.”

  Well, that certainly made things no clearer. “Excuse me?”

  Rayne paused to pick up one of the hors d’oeuvres her father had made. Fueled by triumph, he had handled every aspect of this quickly thrown together celebration and still managed to outdo himself. “Shaw doesn’t want you leaving.”

  She had strong doubts about that. “Well, he has a funny way of showing it. I would have said that he couldn’t wait for me to be gone.”

  “Then you would have been wrong,” Rayne told her simply. “Shaw doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but we’ve got him pretty well figured out by now. You’ve rocked his world when he didn’t want it rocked.”

  Moira was certain that the other woman was just trying to be polite and make her feel good. “And you’ve figured this out how?”

  “Trust me, a sister knows.” In a gesture filled with acceptance and camaraderie, Rayne slipped her arm around her. “He won’t admit it, but he and I got pretty close when he was trying to save me.”

  Okay, Moira thought, she was lost again. “Trying to save you?”

  Popping the rest of the hors d’oeuvre into her mouth, she grinned.

  “I was an A-number-one pain in the butt growing up. I blamed Dad for Mom’s disappearance and in short made life a living hell for him and the others. Shaw spent a lot of time trying to straighten me out.” The grin faded a little as she became serious. “That’s the kind of guy Shaw is. When he loves someone, he loves them completely, come hell or high water.”

  Moira felt as if she were intruding into something personal. “Why are you telling me all this?”

  “Because I know him and I know he has feelings for you. Deep feelings.” She picked up one more hors d’oeuvre, then paused as if studying it. She raised her eyes to Moira’s face. “The two of you are going to have to work this out for yourselves, but if you hurt him,” she added, “I’ll come after you.”

  “Thanks for the warning.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  Rayne was wrong, Moira thought as the other woman walked off to rejoin her fiancé. If Shaw cared, she’d know. Somehow, a part of her would know. And right now, he was freezing her out. Freezing her out so badly that it hurt. Yes, he’d extended his father’s invitation to her, but grudgingly so.

  And he had made himself fairly scarce throughout the party, acting as if she were already gone, instead of making the most of the time they had left.

  You didn’t do that if you cared about a person.

  With a sigh, she turned away. And spotted Shaw. He was talking to a woman she didn’t recognize. The woman was laughing at something he’d just said and she draped her arm around him. Possessively. Shaw made no effort to step away.

  Moira felt something squeeze inside of her.

  She looked around for her sister. It was time to go.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Moira looked at her watch. It was almost time to leave for the airport. Carrie had already called from her room, saying that she and Amy were ready and just waiting on her.

  And she was waiting on Shaw.

  All morning long, she’d felt as if she’d been holding her breath. He knew she was leaving today, so where was he?

  He’s not coming.

  Moira shut the voice out of her head, even though she knew she should be paying more attention to it. But there were some lessons that were not easily learned.

  Returning from the party last night, she’d spent the remainder of the evening waiting for Shaw to call. Hoping he would show up at her door.

  But he hadn’t.

  The rest of the night had dragged by, one microsecond at a time, until it was finally behind her and dawn was poking its way into the world. Amassing maybe fifty minutes’ worth of sleep over the course of the entire night, she felt like hell.

  That’s what you get for putting your faith in the old shell game, she upbraided herself as she’d artfully applied makeup to hide the dark circles under her eyes. Except, instead of a pea, you stuck love under one of those shells. Love, love, who’s got the love?

  Certainly not Shaw.

  She’d thrown down her eye shadow wand. It had bounced off the counter, leaving a light blue streak as it fell to the floor. Anger coupled with frustration as she bent to pick it up again. What had she been for him? A fling? A celebrity tryst?

  She knew she wasn’t being entirely fair to Shaw, but she didn’t much feel like being fair. Not when her heart was aching so badly.

  The moment she heard the knock on her door, she flew to it and flung it open, ready to forgive and forget because he had come.

  She struggled very hard not to let her smile fall when she saw that it was Reese standing on her doorstep and not Shaw.

  “Hi.” She gestured him into the room. “Come to say goodbye?”

  Reese looked uncomfortable as he entered the suite. His customary easygoing smile looked just a trifle forced. But there was a look of compassion in his eyes when he turned to look at her. It was clear he didn’t regard her as a movie star any longer, but someone who was real, with real feelings.

  “Yeah.” He ran his hand along his stubble, nervous, looking for words. “I wanted you to know that I really liked having you as a ride-along. And I appreciate that bit part—”

  “Walk-on.” The correction was automatic. She’d even seen to it that he’d had two lines to recite and to his credit, he’d done them well.

  “Yeah, that.” He beamed, relaxing. “I appreciate the chance. It was a real kick.”

  “Well, I enjoyed riding along with you. And I did learn a lot.” Maybe a little more than I’d bargained for, she added silently. “You can tell Shaw that for me when you see him.”

  “Sure, I’ll do that.” Reese shifted slightly. They both knew they were ignoring the elephant in the living room. He shoved his hands into his pockets, looking down at her packed bags. “Um, he asked me to say goodbye for him.”

  Well, that settled it. Shaw wasn’t coming. “He needs a ventriloquist?”

  Reese blew out a breath, shaking his head. “Ask me, my partner needs to have his head examined. But nobody asked me.”

  Moira smiled, understanding what the detective wasn’t saying and appreciating the silent message. She brushed a kiss against his stubbled cheek. “Maybe not, but it’s nice to hear, anyw
ay.” She stepped back to look at Reese. “Thank you.”

  He shrugged, as if his words were the least he could say and they both knew it. “Got anything you want me to tell him?”

  There was a great deal she wanted to say to Shaw, but not through a go-between. Besides, what was the use? Shaw had said it all by not coming to see her off. By not calling to try to make arrangements to see her again once this movie was under wraps.

  She shook her head. “Just goodbye, I guess. There doesn’t seem to be anything else to say.”

  Reese looked genuinely disappointed. “If I should ever get down to L.A.—” he began.

  “I’d be hurt if you didn’t look me up. Call me anytime.” Pulling a hotel pad over to her, Moira wrote down her private number as well as her cell number and her address. She tore off the sheet, then folded it in half and handed it to him. “Here. Just make sure this doesn’t fall into the wrong hands and wind up on eBay.”

  Taking out his wallet, Reese tucked the piece of paper behind several bills. “Not a chance.” Pocketing it again, he glanced toward the door. “Well, I guess I’d better get going.”

  Hooking her arm through his, she walked him to the door.

  “Go catch some bad guys,” she told him fondly.

  It wasn’t until she’d closed the door again and was fairly certain that Reese had made his way down the hall to the elevator that she let the tears fall.

  She allowed herself exactly three minutes of self-pity. Then, squaring her shoulders, Moira picked up the telephone to call her sister. There was a plane to catch. And the rest of her life to live.

  “So, you’re not going to ask?”

  Reese had spent the better part of the afternoon glaring at him, both in the office and in the car. So far, he’d done a fair job of ignoring the man. It hadn’t been easy.

  Shaw gripped the steering wheel, knowing he couldn’t avoid the topic any longer. “Ask what?”

  Annoyed, Reese blew out a long breath. “What Moira said.”

  Shaw stared straight ahead at the road before him. Traffic was light. “All right. What did she say?”