Chain of Title (14 page)

This
proved it.  She really needed new friends.  Listening to the mindless gossip
and one-upmanship had nearly left her comatose.  In truth, they weren’t even
really her friends.  They were the wives of the men that kissed Frank
Chastain’s ass.  Shayna had once voluntarily played the part of Frank’s
socially connected wife, just as these women were doing for their husbands. 
Volunteering at the right charities, chairing the appropriate committees,
hosting fabulous parties and representing their husbands’ businesses as if they
were wearing giant placards, shilling up and down Main Street.

Shayna sighed apathetically,
as Mona droned on about the young wife of a local attorney that’d had the
audacity to wear the same dress to a recent benefit and not even act apologetic
about the heinous social breach.  Claire chimed in that she had heard this same
unpolished woman even had the nerve to work full-time and leave her children in
daycare, with
strangers
no less!

A distant voice remarked, “Maybe
she has her own career aspirations, or can’t afford live-in nannies to raise
her children like the rest of you.”

When all the jaws at the
table dropped and focused with stupefied stares at Shayna, she suddenly realized
she
had uttered the words aloud.  She smiled sweetly as the group
glanced nervously back and forth at one another.

Shayna simply didn’t care
anymore what these women thought about her, or much of anything else, for that
matter.

When she told Danielle that
the last three years had been good for her, it was no exaggeration.  She felt
as if a fog had lifted and she had clarity again, leaving everything brighter. 
Her
dreams and goals were now at the forefront.  Oh, there were no
recriminations due Frank.  He had been a good husband until the end, and she had
willingly participated in his dreams, pushing hers off to the side to collect
dust on a forgotten shelf.

Now, though, she was acting
on them.  As part of the divorce settlement, Frank had parceled out and deeded
almost ten-thousand acres to her that sat adjacent to her home.  She knew Frank
wouldn’t question it because of the location—he didn’t see any immediate
benefit to his bottom line.  The land was situated too far away from the Mt.
Pleasant Bridge and was hilly and mountainous in parts.  But Shayna knew
better.

She had hiked the area many
times, and had gone to the courthouse, having the aerial maps pulled.  It
wasn’t easy to see, but there was access to the yet-untainted wilderness from
the eastern side of Mt. Pleasant.  Her lips curled up softly at one corner. 
Even though she hadn’t used her civil engineering degree when she was younger,
it had definitely come in handy.

Then she frowned a bit.  It
had also caused fights over the years with Frank.  They simply didn’t agree on
the direction of development in Mt. Pleasant.  So, she had eventually removed
herself from the day-to-day operations and focused on her social obligations to
Frank and the business.

One of her stops before the
monotonous luncheon she now found herself a prisoner at had been to an attorney
in Engle, a nearby town.  She wanted to transform her acreage into a park or
preserve, with campgrounds, beaches, and hiking and biking trails.  Karol
Simpson had agreed to help her with the long list of legalities, and Shayna
felt a growing excitement and resolve in her belly, as her vision mapped itself
in her mind.

CCL Properties wasn’t going
to bulldoze everything.  She would see to it.  The residents of Mt. Pleasant
would have a beautiful, natural habitat that they could enjoy anytime they
wanted relief from the cold, hard steel of the city.

Shayna felt a tap at her arm,
and heard a throat clearing.  Caroline Beckwith was attempting to get her
attention.

“I’m sorry, what did you say,
Caroline?” Shayna asked, as she reluctantly pulled out of her musings.

Caroline looked furtively
around the table for support.  Then she refocused on Shayna.  “I said that I—well,
we
,” she motioned around the table with her meticulously styled,
blonde-dyed bob, “heard about what happened at Kincaid’s,” Caroline said softly
with a look of pity on her perfectly made-up face.

She must’ve gone to a
professional stylist and make-up artist just for this dumbass luncheon, Shayna
snorted to herself.  She continued to stare unblinkingly at the woman, who now
seemed to be growing uncomfortable at Shayna’s lack of response.  Then Shayna
shifted her focus to each of the other women seated at the table, and one by
one, they glanced away and at one another.  A throaty laugh slowly made its way
up and out of Shayna.  The group looked at her as if she had lost her mind. 
She reached for her glass, took a slow drink of her sparkling water, and set it
back down, smoothing out the tablecloth before her.

“Oh, I knew you would.  I’ve
no doubt provided
countless
hours of trivial discussions and meaningless
gossip among my—
friends
.”  She paused and assessed the nervous bunch. 
“I’m well aware that many of you think I was foolish to divorce Frank, and that
now that he’s made such a public display of his undying devotion to me I should
reconsider my decision.”  She saw Jana Stevens, Harper’s mother, purse her lips
and nod faintly while looking down into her lap.

“A man like Frank Chastain
doesn’t just drop to his knees for no good reason, Shayna,” Sara Jordan chided
discretely.

“Then maybe
you
should
marry him, Sara,” Shayna retorted.  “You could certainly live with him banging
a twenty-something, couldn’t you?  After all, that’s just what men do, isn’t
that what you told me?  I shouldn’t make more out of it, just let him get it
out of his system.  He’s a powerful man.  That’s what powerful men do, right?” 
Sara’s face shaded red.  Shayna’s unrestrained, all too public remarks had
begun to draw attention from nearby tables.

“Lower your voice, Shayna,”
Charlotte whispered next to her.

“Why?  Is Frank the only one
allowed to make a scene?” Shayna spat back.

“You have to know this has
been hard on him, Shayna.  The last few years have been tough on a lot of
businesses, and when half your money has been tied up and then is just
gone
,
well, it makes things a bit more difficult,” Charlotte said in a pompous
professorial tone.

Shayna looked around the
table, making eye contact with each woman.  She snorted loudly and started
laughing, causing palpable discomfort in the group.

“So, let me get this
straight, ladies.  The fact that I
took
half of Frank’s money has meant
that he can’t pull as many strings for
your
husbands—right?  Can’t oil
the wheels; can’t pay the kickbacks that keep you all in your Jimmy Choos,
Prada, and Chanel?”

Sharp inhales and exhales blustered
indignantly around the table.  Shayna slammed her hand on the table to the
resounding clatter of cutlery and fine china.  It was as if all the air sucked
out of the room at that moment.  Shayna continued in a low throaty tone.

“Allow me to set the record
straight.  I didn’t
take
anything.  I
earned
every
cent. 
Think of it as a return on my investment, beginning with
my
initial
investment that started Frank’s business in the first place, not to mention my
investment in a twenty-two-year marriage that ended when my
ungrateful
husband chose to humiliate me by banging his twenty-year-old receptionist.  A
situation I’ve no doubt
everyone
at this table
but me
knew about.
 You didn’t think enough of me to clue me in.  Don’t worry, though.  I
understand why you didn’t.  You simply wanted to maintain the status quo, not
to mention we were never really friends anyway—more like business associates.”

Shayna sat back in her chair
and drummed her fingers methodically on the table as the stunned group gaped at
her.  “I have participated in and perpetuated this charade long enough.  I
don’t want to play anymore.”  Shayna stood and gathered her purse.  Looking
around at the women she added, “By the way, you all owe me, so I’m sure you
won’t mind divvying up my bill.”

With that, Shayna turned and
cut through the high-end restaurant booked with Mt. Pleasant’s movers and
shakers.  She could already hear the whispers and feel the stares, but she
simply smiled, unperturbed, and strolled out as confidently as if she owned the
place—because if she wanted to, she could.

This
was a wonderful way to end what had been a frustrating day.  She had come home
and changed into her hiking gear, packed a small tent and some supplies, and
set off into the forest that she had become so familiar with over the last
three years.  Now she sat in a small clearing with a warm contained fire next
to her.  This would be a perfect area for future campsites, she thought, smiling
to herself.

Shayna fell back onto her
sleeping bag and let the starry sky swallow her.  It was something she could be
proud of when it was completed.  An image of Wes ghosted out of her memories. 
He would’ve been proud, too.  If he had lived, this was just the kind of thing
they would’ve dreamed of doing together.

They had planned for so many
adventures in the future, often times on evenings just like this, under a
twinkling sky.  It was common for them to take off for a night or two and sleep
under the stars.  They didn’t have a lot of money, so it fit their tight
budget.  But she knew they would’ve done it whether they’d had money or not.  She
and Wes had loved being outdoors.  When she’d been a young girl, she and her
brothers had spent many nights camping in the back yard.

She giggled at the ancient
memories, and then felt a rush of melancholy followed by a chill.  So many
things had changed, but then that was the
one
constant in life, wasn’t
it?

For the space of a breath,
she felt as if Wes was with her.  She did her utmost not to let him go, but
then he vanished.  She exhaled the breath she’d been holding and opened her
eyes.  How could she still miss him after all these years?  They had known each
other for such a short period measured against the whole of her life that it
seemed impossible he could still have a hold on her, but he did.  Simple as
that.

Wesley Edwards had been her
first
everything
, leaving his indelible imprint forever branded on her soul. 
They had loved each other unconditionally and with that all-consuming intensity
so easily afforded to the young and naive.  The what-ifs still bothered her the
most.  What if he had left his parents home ten minutes earlier or ten minutes later
that day?  What if he had stayed with her as he had wanted, and they had just
gone another weekend?

She felt the stony lump
forming in her chest.  Inhaling deeply, she shook her head and sat up.

The moonlight skipped across
mist hanging above Lake Indigo, carrying her gaze across to the cityscape
spread before her.  Sighing wistfully, her thoughts drifted to Frank.  She had
loved him, but it was so different from her first experience with that powerful
emotion.  How could it not have been?  Her heart had been shattered, leaving
her feeling empty and desperately alone.  Frank had shined his light into that suffocating,
bottomless pit, filling it with his energy and charisma, pulling her out of the
darkness.

He had waited for her after
one of the settlement hearings at the law firm, asking if she would like to get
a coffee.  After that came lunches, and then dinners followed by movies,
dancing, and the rest was history.  Frank had filled her days and nights as
much as possible, making certain she had little free time after her studies and
his work schedule to dwell on the past, or to meet other men.  He had
definitely wanted her all to himself, and he was a hard man to resist.  Not to
mention, she liked being needed again.

Frank had taken his time with
her, not pushing or making demands, just getting to know her, easing her from the
cold crushing grief back into the warm land of the living.  He had introduced
her to his world of formal affairs—high-end cuisine, haute couture shopping,
private jets, and destination vacations—and she’d willingly left her world, and
dreams, behind.

It was less painful that way.

To this day, she still found
it incomprehensible that the same man would willfully hurt her so deeply.  That
he had been cheating on her for almost two years.  No matter what he said, she
didn’t believe for a second, and never would, that he had only been with one
girl.

That was the insurmountable
problem.  She could never believe him again.  Everything he said was suspect now. 
Everything was tainted and stained.

Now, after the mutterings at
the luncheon earlier today, Shayna wondered if Frank’s new resolve to put their
marriage back together had more to do with business and financial concerns than
any personal commitment or remorse.

She exhaled and rested her
chin on her crossed arms and tented knees.  Rubbing her chin along her sleeved
forearm, Shayna recalled her morning with Sean.  He and Frank were clearly in a
pissing match.  She would respect Sean’s wishes for the time being and stay out
of it.  She didn’t really want to be involved anyway, but at some point there
might not be a choice.

A serene smile played at her
lips.

Sean Parker.

Shayna sighed dreamily.  What
an unexpected surprise he had turned out to be.  She understood now what had
drawn her to him from the beginning, aside from the obvious window dressing. 
He had felt
familiar
, comfortable, like becoming reacquainted with an
old lover, ever since that first chance meeting at Gaetano’s.  She hated even to
think it, but...he reminded her of Wes.  Sean didn’t physically look like Wes,
but his comportment, humor, smile—the way he looked at her, the way he touched
her—whispered of déjà vu.

She closed her eyes and shook
her head softly.  She couldn’t wait to see him tomorrow, but was glad she had
taken the rest of the day, and now evening, for herself.  The past few days had
weighed her down and she needed to clear her head and breathe deeply again.

Shayna didn’t know what her
future held, and for the first time in a long time, the not knowing was
exciting instead of debilitating.

She smiled confidently.

She was ready for anything.

****

Storing
the camping equipment in the garage, Shayna entered her kitchen through the
mudroom, toeing off her hiking boots and dropping her backpack on the built-in
bench seat.  She jumped when she heard a voice from inside the house.

“Shay?  Is that you?” she
heard Sean ask, as he rounded the corner.  He stopped dead in his tracks when
he saw her.  His expression was ineffable as he scanned her from head to toe, then
eyed her backpack and toppled boots.  She noticed him bite back a smile.  A
peculiar look animated his face.  “Were you...
camping
?” he asked
incredulously.

She couldn’t help but grin,
too.  Sean had never seen this side of her.

“I’m not as
girly
as
you think,” she teased with her hands parked defiantly on her hips.

“Oh, I can see that, Mountain
Jack,” he snickered.

Her eyes narrowed and she bit
at her lower lip.  “Are you making fun of me, Sean Parker?”

He shook his head, ardently. 
“Hell, no.  I think you look hot.”

She was about to quip back
when she realized he was completely serious.  “That’s only because you haven’t
gotten any for a couple of days.  Right now you’d think I looked hot rolled in
mud.”  His brow arched as she watched him undoubtedly picturing her naked and writhing
in mud.  She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“I just had no idea you still
went camping.  I know you said you liked it when you were a kid.”  He rounded
his hand over his whiskered chin.

“Yeah, I did.  Wes and I went
all the time, too.  Frank was never a fan, but these last few years I’ve gotten
back into it.”

“I’ve just never seen you
like this,” he commented in a warm tone, with a bewildered expression.

“Well, now you know
both
Shayna Montgomerys:  the one that likes dresses, heels and sexy lingerie,”  Sean
growled enthusiastically.  “...and the one that likes to
rough it
,” she growled
back, sexily, as she winked and smoothly slipped past him into the kitchen. 
She felt his hand cup her ass as she grabbed a glass and filled it with water. 
Tilting it back for a long drink, she turned to look at Sean.

“When did you get here?” she asked,
eyeing his rumpled clothing.

“Last night.”  He answered
her questioning look, “Yeah, I know, I got your message.  Although you were pretty
vague,” he chastised with a nod and narrowed eyes.  He closed in around her,
lifting her up onto the counter and positioning himself between her legs.  “I
haven’t seen much of you the last couple of days.  I missed you.  I thought I’d
catch you at home last night and we could make up for the way the morning
started.  I didn’t like you leaving pissed off yesterday,” he whispered as he
nipped at her ear, inhaling her scent.  “You smell like campfire and
evergreen,” he murmured, as he nuzzled against her, “and bug spray.”  He smiled
against her neck and she giggled.  “Wish I could’ve gotten here earlier.  I
would’ve gone with you.”  His kisses trailed down her neck and to her
collarbone where he pulled her shirt away to bare her soft, dewy skin.

Shayna moaned softly.  “That
would’ve been nice.  You could’ve gone skinny-dipping with me.”

He stiffened and his face
suddenly popped in front of hers.  “You went skinny-dipping?”  She bit at the
corner of her mouth and nodded at his lusty expression.  “Oh, I am so going
next time,” he said roughly.  Then his features shifted to concern.  “Wait. 
You were out God knows where,
alone
,
and
you swam naked?”  His
head started shaking.  “I really don’t like that.  You never know who’s out
there, Shay.”  He grasped her face with his hands.

She smiled reassuringly.  “I
stay on my property.”

His eyes narrowed.  “So you
were just outside around the house last night?” he asked, with a confused look.

She watched him for a few
moments, then said, slowly, “Um, no.  I own a bit more than the land my house
sits on.”  His brows pinched and his head cocked.  “I own about ten-thousand
acres,” she motioned with her hand in the direction of the large parcel.

His eyes trailed to where she
had been pointing and he gazed out the expansive array of floor-to-ceiling windows. 
A slow smile inched onto his face as a memory appeared to replay in his head.

“About six or seven years ago
some buddies and I used to mountain bike in that area.  We even climbed up that
mountain a few times,” he reflected, pointing at the peak.  Then his features
tightened and his eyes locked with hers.  “You’re not going to develop it are
you?” he asked in a hushed tone.

Shayna gauged his demeanor
and felt an unexpected rush of heat to her heart.  She swallowed and inhaled
deeply.

“I’ve pretty much hiked the
whole area,” she began.  “Can’t say I’ve climbed the mountain, but I have taken
my mountain bike back in there many times.”

She stared into his eyes for
a few seconds, reading him, then shivered at the whisper from the past that lifted
goose bumps on her skin.  “What would you do with it?” she asked tentatively.

He eyed her cautiously before
answering.  Then he stood straighter and looked contemplatively out toward the lush
landscape once again.  “I think I’d turn some of it public.  You know, have
bike trails, shelters for family reunions, probably some campsites and
definitely a beach, maybe two, a playground, that kind of thing.  I’d leave the
rest...undisturbed.”  He seemed to smile at a recollection.  “You know those
friends I told you about?  We found a way to get to that land from the eastern
side of the city.  It wasn’t easy, but we figured it out.”  He smiled
reflectively.  “I bet you could put an access road in there somehow.”  His eyes
narrowed and his lips twitched at the apparent diagram forming in his head.

Shayna felt the air rush from
her lungs and the moisture filling her eyes, before she had to look away,
blinking her tears into submission.  Then she felt a warm hand cup, and gently
guide her face back to pleading eyes.

“Don’t do it, Shay.  Don’t
develop that land.  You know your ex already has plans to make a mirror image
of Mt. Pleasant on this side of the lake, too.  Right?”  She nodded faintly. 
“Isn’t that enough?”

She stroked his square
shadowed jaw and the stubble against the sensitive flesh of her palm made her sizzle
everywhere.

“I’ve already made my
decision,” she licked her lips, “and I couldn’t agree more,” she choked out,
before clearing her throat.  “That’s why I met with an attorney yesterday, from
The Trust for Public Land, after I left your place.  She’s going to help me
turn it into a park and preserve.”  She watched Sean’s tense features lighten
and ease.

“No, shit,” he huffed
incredulously.  She nodded.  “That’s
exactly
what Mt. Pleasant needs. 
When CCL’s done bulldozing
everything
, it’ll be like an oasis.”  He
smiled admiringly at her and held her eyes with a heavy stare.  “Jesus, that’s
great, Shay. 
Really
, I mean it.  That’s great,” he murmured before
dipping down and kissing her tenderly and then hungrily.  He pulled her closer,
and she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.  His intent was hard and achingly
apparent between her legs.