Always & Forever (37 page)

Zach stood from his spot next to Patricia and ushered Lilly into the space. No one else said a word.

They’re probably afraid I’m going to break.

She sighed. “Thank you for coming to check on us.”

At her words, they all talked at once. Sentiments of sympathy flowed from every direction, and Lilly could only nod her head numbly. Their words flowed over her, not really making an impression. She said the reassuring phrases people say when they lose someone. Things to make the people around them, those untouched by loss, feel comfortable. “Thank you so much...Yes, I’ll let you know if I need anything...I agree, he’s in a better place.”

She wondered how long they would stay—how long she would have to pretend to be normal.

Patricia stood, walked to the kitchen, and waved Zach over to her. “Let’s get lunch dished up.”

Sarah sat next to Lilly and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I know this doesn’t mean much, but I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I was never close with my father anyway.” Lilly closed her eyes, forcing the tears to stay beneath her lashes. Her words sounded so cold. They were nothing less than the truth, but it broke her heart to speak them aloud.

Sarah sniffed next to her, and Lilly tried to tune her out, certain she would cry in front of everyone if Sarah started. A soft kiss against her cheek, and then Lilly felt Sarah’s weight leave the couch.

Someone thrust a tissue into her fingers, and Lilly dried the few tears that escaped despite her best intentions. “Thank you,” she whispered to James, realizing it came from him.

Zach returned with a mug in one hand and a bowl in the other. He set the mug on the end table next to her, and Lilly was pleased to see coffee in it. The contents of the bowl were more questionable. It looked like some sort of macaroni salad, but the smell of dill was so strong, Lilly wondered if she’d be able to gag any down.

She put a spoonful in her mouth. Mayonnaise coated each of the mushy noodles, and the dill was as strong as she thought it would be. She tried to be appreciative of the Woodbridges’ effort, taking a few more bites, but finally set it down in favor of the coffee.

She knew she concentrated on all these little issues so she wouldn’t have to think about her real problems—wouldn’t have to think about her father.

Bridget stood and grabbed Lilly’s bowl of mush, squeezing her shoulder gently. “I’m sorry,” she whispered into Lilly’s ear, “and I’m sorry for being so mean to you earlier.”

Lilly nodded and took another sip of coffee, hoping it could somehow warm the frozen place inside her.

A knock sounded at the door, and Zach answered it. Officer McMann stood on the other side.

“I don’t mean to intrude on a family gathering, especially not at a time like this.” His beefy face reddened and he rubbed a hand against his bald forehead.

“No problem, Officer,” Zach said.

McMann nodded toward Lilly. “I came to talk to Miss Price. Can we go somewhere private?”

Lilly waved that aside. These people knew all her secrets. Nothing McMann had to say would likely shock them. “What did you want to tell me?”

“I’ve been on the phone all morning with that detective from New York. He seems convinced you have motive for the crime, and I can’t talk him out of it.”

Lilly sighed. “I’ve been trying to talk him out of that line of thinking for years, Officer McMann. Too bad your luck is as rotten as mine.”

He walked toward Lilly and held out a folder to her. “I wanted to give you these back. We’re done with them, and maybe if you show them to Detective Spalding, he’ll feel a little inclined to look further than what he
thinks
he knows.”

Lilly flipped the folder open to see the pictures of her and Zach. “You didn’t get any leads on the stalker then?”

“Afraid not. The text yesterday came from a disposable phone and pinged off a tower in New York.”

“What?” Lilly’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand what that means.”

McMann shook his head. “Basically, the stalker was in New York when he sent that text yesterday, and we have no way to trace it.”

“Yes, of course. He’d have to be in New York, wouldn’t he? So that he could kill my—” Lilly choked down a sob and blinked rapidly.

McMann shifted from foot to foot. “Spalding wants an interview when you go back for the funeral. I told him about your problems here, including my suspicions about...” The officer broke off and looked around the room. “I mean, I told him about your little fall down the stairs the other day, and the text messages.”

Lilly shook her head once curtly. She knew that McMann thought Crandall had done something and she hadn’t really fallen, but Lilly couldn’t afford to have everyone discover the stairs story was a fabrication. Charles killing people in New York was bad enough. Lilly couldn’t let McMann approach Crandall now and risk harm coming to Sarah.

“I appreciate you standing up for me,” she said. “I’ll be sure to pass these pictures along to him.”

“You’re one of us now, Miss Price. Of course I’ll stand up for you.” McMann patted her shoulder. “I’m awfully sorry about your father.”

Lilly nodded, touched that he said she belonged in this little community. “Thank you.”

McMann left quickly, obviously as uncomfortable in the full house as Lilly. She wished everyone else would go away so easily.

“You had a threat yesterday?” Patricia asked after he left. “What was he talking about?”

Lilly took another sip of her drink. There was no help for it. They had to tell them about the message, but she left it to Zach to explain.

“You should have told us, son,” James said as fear crossed his normally calm face. “What if that psycho came after you or one of us? We could’ve helped.”

Zach sat down between James and Lilly, and she curled up against him. Although she understood James was scared, couldn’t they hash this out at another time? Maybe she could get away with being completely rude and go back to the bedroom.

No—she refused to embarrass Zach that way.

“There’s nothing anyone could do,” Zach replied to his father. “We took what steps we thought we needed to. We never anticipated anything like this.”

“Damn it, Zach.” Patricia slapped her hand against her leg. “This is getting seriously dangerous. Maybe Lilly’s problems are too big for you to handle. We could send her away, someplace nice and protected. We’ll pay for bodyguards. She’ll be okay, and you can move on.”

Lilly bit her tongue against the angry words resting there. Really, that kind of behavior from Patricia didn’t surprise her, but Lilly didn’t want to deal with her rudeness today.

Margaret glared at the younger woman. “I always knew you were completely tactless, Patricia, but what the hell is wrong with you?”

Patricia hugged her arms around herself and shook her head. “I’m trying to be realistic. I don’t want our family in danger because a killer is after Lilly.”

Zach’s arm tightened around Lilly’s shoulder, and his mouth dipped in a deep frown. “So that’s your solution? Send her away and move me on to one of your girls?”

Patricia put a hand on her hip. “For pity sake, Zach, don’t get in a huff. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m scared. We never had trouble like this when you were married to Victoria.”

Sarah’s gasp was the only sound in the deathly quiet room for several long seconds.

Zach’s entire body twitched. “No, Mother, I certainly didn’t have any of these problems with Victoria. She was perfect.” His voice dipped to a menacing whisper, and Lilly feared what he would say next.

“Maybe it’s time everyone left,” Lilly said, as she prayed for sanity to replace the cold hatred in Zach’s eyes. “It’s been a very tiring day.”

Zach looked at her and softened slightly. “I have to say this, honey.” His attention shifted back to Patricia. “Victoria was so perfect, she lied about being pregnant. Then, she carried on an affair with Curtis Crandall the last four years of our marriage. She refused to divorce me without an enormous payout, and I was too stupid to have her sign a prenup. So you’re right, Mother, my relationship with Lilly is nothing like that.”

Tommy stood up. “Victoria was with Curtis? What are you talking about?”

Zach spared a look of pity for his brother. “I’m sorry, Tommy. I never wanted you to know about it. I know he’s your friend, but watch him around your fiancée. He’s a bastard. At the party the other night he—”

“—really helped me out,” Lilly interrupted, placing a hand across Zach’s chest. If Zach voiced his suspicions here, someone might say something to Crandall. She couldn’t risk Crandall convincing the family she was in the wrong and provoked him by flirting with him. “We’re thankful he found me, but you should still stay away from him.”

Bridget put her arms around Tommy and whispered something in his ear. Regardless of what Lilly thought about Bridget personally, she’d help Tommy get over whatever betrayal he experienced.

Patricia sank into a chair and hung her head in her hands. “I didn’t know. Lord help me, I didn’t know. I thought you picked Lilly because it was too painful to date women like Victoria.”

Zach’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “I know you didn’t,” he said. “I didn’t want you to. But I
am
in love with Lilly. I know you’re scared.
I’m
scared, but I’m going to protect her.”

Lilly exhaled heavily. Zach wasn’t going to say more about Crandall, and it looked like he would forgive his mother. At least this rotten day wasn’t about to become worse.

Patricia caught Lilly’s eye. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that to sound so...” She shrugged.

“Don’t worry about it.” Years of Stewart’s indifferent treatment taught Lilly to ignore small hurts. “I know you’re worried about Zach’s safety. It’s okay.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about Curtis before?” Tommy asked. He seemed composed once again as he sat back in his chair, looking steadily at Zach. “There’s something wrong with him, isn’t there?”

Zach’s body thrummed against Lilly’s with renewed tension. “What makes you say that?” he asked.

“It’s just the way he is with women.” Tommy shook his head. “I’ve been worried about him lately. He keeps talking about this woman, how she’s perfect for him. He doesn’t talk about anything else anymore, and he gets this funny look on his face.”

“What woman?” Zach snapped.

This conversation headed in a dangerous direction. She needed to stop it before things got out of hand. She knew how convincing men like Crandall were. Charles once convinced her best friend that Lilly’s bruises were from her own clumsiness, even though Sherry knew better. Zach’s family would never believe that she wasn’t the one flirting with Crandall but the other way around, if he got a chance to speak with them.

“Well,” she said, “it was nice of you to come, but—”

“What woman?” Zach repeated, his icy voice cutting off Lilly’s words.

Tommy shrugged. “He won’t say. It scares me a bit, though. Reminds me of the time he tried to get with a girl right after Victoria’s death. We attended a party, and Curtis kept coming on to this one girl, even though she refused him several times. She finally threatened to call the cops, and I managed to get him away from her. Later, I found out he went to her house, made some threats when she refused to go out with him. She called the cops and they arrested him. He spent two weeks in jail.”

Zach glanced at Lilly, his eyes steely. “And you say he’s fixated on a new woman?”

Tommy nodded.

Lilly cringed away from Zach, fearing he had put everything together. Crandall said he wanted to be with her, but Lilly hadn’t understood he was crazy enough to mean it. If he had a history of this type of behavior, perhaps he had been serious about his threat to Sarah. She had to keep Sarah safe, no matter what.

“Everyone should stay away from Crandall,” she blurted. “Don’t talk to him at all. The man sounds like a creep.”

Zach’s mouth tightened at the corners, but he didn’t say anything.

James leaned forward in his chair. “I’m more worried about keeping you two safe from the stalker. You’re convinced it’s Lilly’s fiancé?”

Zach turned to his father. “The threats seem too specific to be anyone else.”

Lilly closed her eyes against her weariness. She didn’t want to deal with this anymore. It was all too much.

Zach’s arm curved around her shoulders, and he pulled her against his chest. At least he didn’t seem angry with her. She kept her eyes closed, listening to the rumble of his voice and the sound of his heartbeat.

In the end, no one came up with a better plan than engaging the security system at all times. Patricia finally calmed down when Zach explained about the undercover cop assigned to them and Sarah. They ran out of things to say eventually, and Zach’s family finally made their way to the door.

Sarah leaned down as she passed to pat Lilly’s arm. “I’m a phone call away if you need me.”

Savannah wrapped her arms around Lilly’s neck. “I love you.”

“Love you, munchkin.” Lilly kissed Savannah’s cheek and watched as she ran to Sarah.

Everyone else filed out the door, more words of sympathy on their lips. It was kind of them to come, but she was glad to see them leave.