Want You Back Read online

  WANT YOU BACK

  Karen Whiddon

  Copyright © 2000 by Karen Whiddon

  Chapter One

  Jenny Reder froze, raising her chin defiantly as another rumble of thunder sounded. The sky was the color of slate, prickly and heavy with electricity, and the air held the threat of a downpour. The grim sky matched her mood.

  Straightening her shoulders, she increased her pace. This neighborhood was where she’d always wanted to live. Even as a small child, she’d loved the comforting, homey look of it. She still did. The majestic Victorian houses, most of them remodeled and painted in pastel shades of yellow, blue, and white, sat at the back of spreading, green lawns. Huge oaks, gnarled and sturdy with age, made a leafy cover over the sidewalk.

  A few houses down she could see the For Sale sign, bright yellow and blue.

  Why she was doing this she had no idea. Except that the Malvoran house hadn’t been up for sale since the time she’d almost bought it, two years ago.

  As she drew closer she saw that another, smaller sign marked Sold adorned the top of the For Sale sign. She knew an instant’s sharp sorrow, then an overwhelming feeling of relief.

  Not that she had enough money to buy the old house anyway. Even two years ago, when it had been a total wreck, it had taken all of her and Jake’s combined savings to come up with the down payment. Then Jake had vanished and—

  Ruthlessly, she cut off the thought. She’d learned a long time ago that it was non-productive to think of Jake. As busy as she was, with her own small CPA firm, Jenny didn’t like to indulge in non-productive thoughts.

  Checking her watch, she saw that it was nearly one. That meant her lunch hour was almost over. Even though she didn’t have to, Jenny stuck to a strict, one-hour lunch no longer than the one her secretary Monica took. She’d have to hurry if she wanted to make it back to the office on time.

  Just as she turned the corner, the sky opened up. She took off her high heels and ran, water sloshing on her hose and her skirt. By the time she reached her office, she was drenched—and grateful that she kept a worn pair of jeans and an old T-shirt in the storeroom.

  The phone rang just as she’d finished changing and was brushing out her sodden hair.

  Monica poked her head in the storeroom, grinning as she took in Jenny’s attire. “It’s Brenda Sue from the realty. She wants to talk to you about the Malvoran house.”

  For a second, Jenny simply stared, not quite certain she’d heard correctly. Brenda Sue had been the one who’d sold Jake and Jenny the Malvoran house two years ago. She’d gotten Jenny all of the earnest money back when Jake had disappeared and Jenny’d backed out of the deal.

  Would the house forever haunt her? Sometimes fate played too many weird tricks. “Did she say why? It’s already been sold.”

  Monica shrugged. “Pick up line three.”

  Feeling an unreasonable sense of foreboding, Jenny went to her cramped office and picked up the phone. Brenda Sue’s hearty, effusive greeting made Jenny’s stomach tighten.

  “You’ll never guess—I sold the Malvoran house!” Before Jenny had a chance to say she’d already seen the sold sign, Brenda Sue rushed on. “The new owner plans to make it into an upscale restaurant, if you can believe that. He wanted the name of a good accountant, so I gave him yours.”

  “Well, thank you.” Jenny tried to drum up some enthusiasm, though the thought of the beautiful old Malvoran house turned into some trendy eatery wasn’t all that appealing.

  “You’re welcome, honey. But there’s more. You’ll never believe who the new owner is. Let me tell you, it was a shock to me, too. I’m not sure how to tell you this—”

  The bell on the front door jingled and Jenny heard Monica’s hushed greeting.

  Brenda Sue giggled loudly in Jenny’s ear. “Someone you used to know bought the place.”

  Just then Monica poked her head around the corner, grinning broadly. “There’s a man here to see you,” she whispered, jerking her head toward the reception area. “A drop-dead gorgeous man. I asked him to wait but he said—”

  “Two years is long enough.” The familiar deep voice sent shivers down Jenny’s spine. She clutched the phone, trying desperately to listen to Brenda Sue’s chatter, though now she didn’t have to. She feared she already knew who’d bought the place.

  Then Jake Durham appeared in her doorway, grinning, his tousled blond hair and craggy face still devastatingly handsome. His tall, lean build, broad shoulders, and muscular arms made her office seem tiny.

  Despite her shock, she felt that old, familiar tug.

  “Afternoon, pumpkin.” His gaze traveled over her form-fitting jeans and faded T-shirt He flashed a grin, that same grin that had always made her melt. “Glad to see you haven’t changed at all since I’ve been away.”

  Pumpkin. He’d called her that because of her red hair and freckles. She’d thought it was cute, once. Now, the old endearment stung.

  Wishing desperately that she still had on her expensive, navy pin-striped suit, Jenny mumbled an excuse to Brenda Sue and hung up the phone.

  Monica, fairly new in town and unaware of the history between them, assumed that Jake was some old friend of hers, and vanished back to her desk.

  So Jenny stood, frozen. Staring at the man who, two years earlier, had left her standing at the altar, brokenhearted.

  His grin faded as she crossed her arms across her chest and looked pointedly towards the door.

  “I think you should leave.” She was proud that her tone was so composed, so coolly professional. As if her heart wasn’t pounding and her palms perspiring.

  “Leave?” He quirked one brow, an old habit of his that she used to find attractive. “I just got here. Have you had lunch? I thought we could—”

  “You thought wrong.” Since he wouldn’t take a hint, Jenny strode out of her office, knowing he would follow. Past an astonished Monica she went, to the front door. She yanked it open and held it, glaring at him, annoyed by his devil-may-care attitude. How dare he think he could waltz in here after two whole years, twenty-four months and ten days during which she hadn’t known if he was alive or dead. A lot of time had passed, all right; and it had taken all of those two years for her to heal her shattered heart.

  “Leave,” she ordered, her voice frosty. “You’re not welcome here.”

  “We need to talk.” His expression serious, he came up to her and laid his hand on her shoulder. “There are things I think you need to know.”

  In disbelief, she moved away from him, shaking his hand off. From somewhere, she summoned up a brittle laugh. “Nothing you have to say could possibly interest me. I’m dating someone now.” This she said defiantly, wondering what Howard would think when she told him about this.

  “Jenny-”

  “For the third time, I am asking you to leave.”

  Monica goggled at the two of them. Jenny had already resigned herself to the fact that her reaction to seeing Jake again would be all over town by tonight.

  He shrugged and strolled out the door. “We will talk, pumpkin, sooner or later.” Compassion and anger seemed to war in his expression.

  To show him how much she doubted that, Jenny yanked the door shut closed behind him with a loud thud.

  As she’d known it would, the phone started ringing shortly after seven. Everyone in the small East Texas town of Ater was too polite to call during the dinner hour, and evidently thought she’d be through eating by seven. In reality she hadn’t eaten a bite. How could she? Her stomach still churned from the shock of seeing Jake again.

  Jenny let her machine answer for her. By eight- thirty she had racked up nine messages, all from concerned friends or relatives, all wanting to tell her they’d heard the news. Including Howard Ater, son of one o
f the town’s founders and the man she’d been dating for the last eight months.

  She didn’t feel up to explaining to Howard. Not yet.

  Jake was back in town.

  As if she didn’t know. Now what was she going to do about it? Jenny buried her face in her hands, wondering if it was too late to call the accounting firm in Dallas which had offered her a job eight months ago.

  Running? Her? She had more of a right to be here than Jake did. She’d been born and raised in Ater, while Jake had only moved here shortly before they met. He’d hired on with Sheriff Prast, working as a second deputy. She’d taken one look at him and fallen in love. He’d felt the same way, proposing marriage only a month after they started dating and swearing eternal love.

  She’d believed him—oh God, how she’d believed him. She’d never been as deliriously happy as she’d been then. Planning the wedding, basking in the love he claimed to have for her, love that she returned tenfold.

  Then, the day before their wedding, Jake had disappeared. She’d been frantic, suspecting foul play, insisting the sheriff initiate a search. The entire town had been in an uproar. Until the note came two days later, with a Los Angeles postmark.

  It had been terse, brief and to the point. No endearments this time, no hint of what had happened, of why he’d changed his mind. He’d simply signed his name, without even the word love before it. Jenny still had that note, locked in her safe deposit box at the Ater bank.

  This time, she’d chosen someone totally different from Jake. Someone with roots in Ater, someone who wouldn’t hurt her the way Jake had. Howard might be unimaginative and uninspired, but he was reliable and steady. She thanked God for Howard, especially now.

  Loving Jake had been a mistake. He was the past. Howard would be her future.

  Thinking about this made her head hurt as well as her stomach. Though at nine, it was barely growing dark outside, she climbed into bed and fell into an exhausted and dreamless sleep.

  In the morning she felt better. Birds chirped merrily in the huge pecan tree outside her window and the sun beamed lemon yellow. So early in the morning that the oppressive heat and humidity of an East Texas summer hadn’t kicked in yet, it was Jenny’s favorite time of the day.

  She carried her coffee outside, along with the cereal bar that was her normal breakfast. So Jake had returned. So what? The man was nothing to her, she told herself fiercely. Nothing. If she ever needed reminding of that fact, all she had to do was get the note out of her safe deposit box and re-read it. All she had to do was remember the humiliation and the pain she’d experienced because of him.

  Thus fortified, she donned a severe, gray linen suit and left her tiny frame house at exactly seven- fifty a.m., just as she did every morning. She drove to work humming, hoping it was going to be a normal day. Well, she wouldn’t allow it to be otherwise.

  Monica, already at her desk, handed her a sheaf of pink messages. “They started calling nonstop around ten minutes ago,” she said with an apologetic smile. To prove her point, the phone rang again, lines one and two lighting up simultaneously.

  “Hold my calls,’’ Jenny instructed with a sigh, going back to her office and closing the door behind her. This was normally her slow time of the year, two months after income tax season. Now might be the perfect time to take that vacation she’d been thinking about for months, the one that involved a tropical island and sandy white beaches.

  But that would be too much like running away, the same as moving to Dallas.

  She’d just have to avoid him. It wouldn’t be easy, as small as Ater was. But it would be possible. As soon as she could make Jake understand that she didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

  But she had to wonder—why had he bought the Malvoran house? And what was this nonsense about turning it into a restaurant? Jake knew nothing about restaurant management. Or did he? If he’d been capable of lying to her about loving her, then who knows what else he’d lied about? For all she knew, he could have owned a chain of restaurants from coast to coast.

  Brooding, she jumped when Monica tapped on her door, then poked her head inside. “Can I come in?” With a weary nod, Jenny motioned her inside. Closing the door behind her, Monica dropped into the chair alongside Jenny’s desk and handed her another thick sheaf of messages. “Howard’s called twice. And the rest of town ... now they’re not only calling, several of our customers are waiting in the lobby, wanting to talk with you.”

  Jenny groaned. “Why me?” she muttered. “Why am I being punished like this? Why?”

  “Look, I heard the gossip about this Jake character,” Monica said. “Obviously, he’s bad news. But if you want to stop ’em from talking, you gotta be bold. Give them what they want You’ll have to make some sort of announcement, Jenny.”

  Now Jenny remembered why she’d hired Monica in the first place. “Thank you,” she said, feeling calmer than she had since Jake had appeared in the door of her office. “You’re absolutely right. All I have to do is tell whoever is in the lobby, and it’ll be all over town. Once they have what they want to know, they’ll leave me alone.”

  Monica eagerly nodded her agreement. Standing, she held out her hand. “Come on. Let’s go out there and get this over with.”

  Jenny didn’t budge. “Were you a cheerleader when you were in high school?”

  Surprise flashed across Monica’s guileless face. “How did you know?”

  “Just a crazy idea.”

  Wishing she had the younger woman’s energy, Jenny took her hand and allowed Monica to pull her into the reception area. As Monica had warned her, two women from the Ater garden club, one from the welcome wagon, and three from Jenny’s church filled every available chair. Perched on the edge of Monica’s desk was Nettie from the newspaper. The overpowering scent of seven different floral perfumes filled the air.

  They all began talking at once, growing louder as they competed with each other, trying to be heard. Bemused, Jenny attempted to listen for a moment. Then, wanting it over with, held up her hand.

  Immediately, they quieted, which gratified her. But the identical expressions of avid fascination each woman wore worried Jenny more than a little.

  “I don’t know why Jake Durham is back in town, nor do I care. Yes, it’s true he came to see me yesterday, but I showed him the door. I don’t intend to have anything to do with him whatsoever, so there won’t be anything to gossip about.”

  Myrtle Lundford gasped at her bluntness, but several of the other women actually seemed amused. Tulie Cameron, Brenda Sue’s cousin, laughed.

  “Sugar, I heard that Jake is hiring you to do his books for that restaurant he is opening up. Is that true?”

  Jenny swallowed. She hadn’t thought of that. While she could certainly use the business, she had no intention of doing anything for Jake, including his bookkeeping.

  “No, it is not,” she said, with as much dignity as she could muster. “Now if you will excuse me, I have quite a bit of work to do.”

  Monica, taking the hint, ushered the women to the door. Jenny watched as they trooped outside, then clustered in the parking lot, chattering like magpies.

  Grinning, Monica watched them and made a clucking sound. “Life in a small town, huh?”

  “You’d think I’d be used to it by now.” Jenny tried to think of anything she might have inadvertently left out. She didn’t think she had. She’d been succinct and to the point. No longer should anyone in Ater have any reason to wonder about her and Jake.

  Her and Jake. She would give anything if that simple phrase didn’t still have the power to hurt her.

  Well-satisfied after his meeting with the mayor, Jake drove again by the Victorian house he’d bought From the first moment he’d seen the Malvoran house, two years ago when Jenny had shown it to him, he’d known he had to have it. Known it would be his. Jenny had felt the same way and they’d scraped together enough money to put a deposit on it

  Back then he’d only planned to live in it, to
fix it up gradually as he raised a family with the woman he loved. But fate had intervened and his job with the DEA, which he’d resigned three months ago, had determined otherwise.

  He hadn’t expected it to take two years—nor, he thought with a wry grimace, had he expected the illness—the illness that had robbed him of so much more than dignity and time.

  He no longer was fit to be a husband for any woman, least of all a sweet, family oriented woman like Jenny. And she’d found someone else, someone to replace him. The thought felt like acid on an open wound, though he knew he should be happy for her. Wanted to be happy for her. After all, he no longer had any claim to her. Knowing this, knowing he had no right to want her, still he hadn’t been able to make himself stay away. She had haunted his dreams for two long years.

  Though sometimes he wondered if he were only torturing himself, he would make his home in Ater. Why? Because it had been the one place he’d found happiness, before fate had swooped down mercilessly and destroyed it. He hoped to find some measure of contentment. At least his enemies couldn’t find him here.

  When he saw that the Malvoran house was for sale, he’d bought it. An impulsive move, totally unlike him. He would go ahead with his plans to turn the grand old place into a restaurant because living in it without Jenny would be unthinkable.

  Ah, Jenny. Through the long two years, even when he’d been forced to live in filth, with the dregs of society breathing down his neck, all he’d had to do was close his eyes and he could see her. So lovely, so sweetly sexy. So pure and untouched by the kind of evil that he had been forced to associate with daily for his job.

  Still he’d thought he could return to her, once his time had been served and his job completed. Once he’d thought he might reach for the stars, once he’d believed Jenny would be his. Now he knew that would be impossible. He couldn’t give her the kind of life she deserved. Not now.

  So, taking what little he could, he would be Jenny’s friend, if she would let him. Not her lover, though he ached for her with every fiber of his being. Her protector maybe, but her friend most of all. He owed her that, if she would have him, as long as his being here didn’t endanger her.