Chain of Title (9 page)

She glanced away, breaking
the connection.  “It’s just something I’ve wondered about the past few years,
that’s all,” she said soberly, the wind sucked from her sails.

When he spoke next, it was
with a tone of regret and tenderness.  “Shayna,
we’ve
built something
remarkable here, and I’m not just talking about the city.  There’s no reason we
can’t build it back up.  It’ll take time.  I know that.  But our history is strong,
it’s substantial.  We made a helluva team, you and me.  There’s no reason that
we can’t work our way back to that.  I’ll spend the rest of my life making it
up to you, Shay. 
Not with words—with actions
.  Let me prove it to you. 
Give me the chance to show you.”

Shayna trembled from the feel
of his words, thick with profound emotion, touching her as if with his
hands.  She hesitated for a few moments, contemplating surrendering to the comfort
and familiarity of the past...the devil she knew.  But then she shook the settling
fog out of her head and sidestepped the serrated trap that would be so easy to
fall into, that would cut her again.

“You don’t have that kind of
time, Frank, and the reason you don’t have what you claim to want so badly, is
sitting on her inappropriately attired ass
right outside your door
,” she
said with mounting anger.  Shayna grabbed her clutch and stood to leave.

Frank called out as she made
her way to the door.  “I know you still love me, Shay.  I can see it in your
eyes—just now
and
yesterday.  That’s why you’ve done everything possible
to avoid me this whole time.  You know if we actually spent time together,
talked, tried to work through it, you’d want the same thing.  And
that’s
what you’re scared of.  It’s easy to write people off when you avoid them, when
you
refuse
to let them make amends.”

Shayna huffed at his calculated
dig and she pivoted slowly to face him.

In a calm, cold tone she asked,
“Who are you talking about, Frank?  You?  Or my mother?  Maybe it’s both. 
You’re both consummate liars.  I love how I’m the bad guy when it’s
you
that hurt
me
.  For some reason people think I’m obligated to give second
chances, just because some liar wants one.  It doesn’t work that way, not for
me, and you’ve always known that.”

Frank stood and, through
clenched teeth, fiercely warned, “History is a powerful thing, Shayna.  We have
a lot of it, and you should be more respectful of it.  Don’t think for a second
that I’m just going to walk away quietly.”

Her back stiffened at the echo
of the words Sean had spoken the night before.  She exhaled, sharply, and then deliberately
stalked toward Frank.

“You’re right, Frank,” she
said tenderly, as she reflexively reached out, brushed her hand down his silk tie
and then adjusted and straightened it.  “History
is
a powerful thing.” 
She smoothed the rumpled fabric at his broad shoulders and then looked him
squarely in the eyes.  “The important thing is knowing when
not
to
repeat it.”  She patted his cheek firmly and turned, walking away.  Opening the
door wide, she turned back and warned icily, “Stay out of my life, because if I
have to come back here, I won’t play nice next time.”

Purposely leaving the door open,
she strolled by Brittany’s desk and announced, “Take some advice from a woman
old enough to be your mother.  When you get to my age, which will happen much
sooner than you think, you’re going to realize that you were young for all of
about ten minutes of your whole life.  Don’t trade your youth for the promises
and predilections of an old man.  Trust me, they’ll change—and there will
always be someone younger willing to make the deal.”

Brittany’s eyes widened.  Shayna
turned to see Frank standing in his doorway, his features contorted in a
furious expression.  She smiled coldly, inclining her head at him, and then
turned, bidding farewell to George and Robert, who stood open-mouthed nearby as
she sashayed past them.

****

“Did
you have a good day?” Sean asked, as Shayna perused the evening specials.  “I
know I have.  I particularly liked the way it started,” he said, with heat in
his voice and an amorous expression, as she glanced up from her menu.

He had a grin, impossible to
wipe from his face, and it was infectious.  Oh, she couldn’t disagree with him. 
She wished every day could begin the same way.

“Sorry you were late getting
to the gym,” he said unconvincingly, as his hand snaked up under her silky gray
dress.  She shifted and squeezed her thighs around his large, strong hand under
the privacy of the linen-draped table.

“I’m not sorry,” she said
sexily.  Sean’s brows raised and he smiled warmly.  “Besides, I think it may be
time to switch gyms anyway.”  She sipped her sparkling water as his fingers
gently teased her through her lacy, silk panties.

“Really?”  He looked at her
for a moment and then nodded.  “Yeah, I think you should do that.  I liked
having you with me this morning at mine.  We could make it part of our morning
routine,” he said, kissing her cheek and curving his hand to cup her soft, heated
mound.

Just then, the server came to
the table and Sean deftly removed his concealed hand, unnoticed by the waiting
attendant.

“Are you ready to order?

“Hi, Jenny,” Shayna said with
a smile.  “I’ll have the chicken and truffle tortellacci, thank you.”

“Salmon,” Sean said handing
the menus to his staff member.  Shay squeezed more lime into her water and Sean
sipped his white wine.  “So, what’d you do today after we parted ways?” he
asked, clasping her hand and sweeping his thumb across her skin.

A basket of herb and kalamata
focaccia with seasoned olive oil appeared on the table.

“Oh, well, let’s see.  I attended
a charity meeting, went for a bike ride in the hills, stopped by the grocers,
read the paper,” she paused, “and paid a surprise visit to my ex at his
office.”

Sean noticeably stiffened,
his hand slipping away from hers and onto his lap.

“Why’d you do that, Shay?  I
don’t want you in the middle of this.  I can handle it myself.”  His eyes
narrowed and his lips tightened.

“Oh, I know you can.  Really,
I do,” she said, looking at him pointedly.  “I just felt like catching him
off-guard, the way he did me yesterday, that’s all.  I had some things to say.  I
hope that’ll be the end of it.”

She tore away a piece of warm
bread and dipped it sparingly in the seasoned oil.

“I’d rather you didn’t see
him at all, Shay.”  There was a hard look in his eyes and an edge in his tone.

She eyed him as she chewed
her bread and then swallowed.

“Sean, Frank and I share a
daughter.  We’ll always have that connection and there’ll be occasions when we’ll
see each other, when we’ll need to come together for
her
.  You know
that.”

Sean sat back against the
booth and assessed her for a few moments.

“Of course, I know that.  I
just really want you to limit it to
those
types of occasions, that’s
all,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Shayna puffed softly.  What
had Frank said during his private chat with Sean last night?  She already knew
it wouldn’t do any good to ask him again.  He would just refuse to answer and
change the subject, as he had last night.  Shaking her head slightly, she broke
his stare and turned to pick up her glass, taking a drink of sparkling citrus
water.  She didn’t want to talk about Frank anymore.  As she moved to tear off more
focaccia, a warm hand covered and held hers.

“What’re you doing this
weekend?” Sean asked, with a softened tone.

A playful grin inched along
Shayna’s lips.  “I don’t know.  Why don’t you tell me what I’ll be doing?”  She
looked at him provocatively.

His fingertips brushed the
side of her face, the gleam in his eyes evident.  “Saturday night I’m taking
you out to eat—not telling you where.”  He grinned, mischievously, and lightly skimmed
his thumb across her lower lip.  “Then we’re going dancing and heading back to
my place.  You’ll be spending the night, so pack a bag.  Then in the morning,
after we’ve hit the gym and had breakfast, we’re going to head down to the
marina.  I’m taking you out on my boat.  We can stop anywhere you want.  There’s
all kinds of great little places we can stop to eat or shop—the quirky kind.” 
He nuzzled against her ear.  “I know how much you love that sort of thing.” 
They giggled softly against each other.  “With the weather forecast, it looks
like we’ll be spending the night on the water.”

Shayna’s brows rose quickly. 
“I’m spending two nights in a row with you?”  It sounded perfect to her.

“To start with,” he said
dreamily, with his irresistible bedroom eyes.

Red-hot heat pooled between
her legs and the familiar throbbing began knocking impatiently.

She narrowed her eyes and
teased, “Well, it’s definitely worth considering.  I’ll think about it and get back
to you with my answer.”

Sean quickly cupped her chin
and kissed her.

Easing back, he whispered
determinedly, “Your answer is,
yes
.”  He winked and she nodded faintly. 
Just then, their entrées appeared in front of them.

Shayna inhaled deeply.  “Oh,
that smells delicious,” she moaned.  “I think Skip’s outdone himself tonight,”
she said exuberantly, as she spread her linen napkin across her lap, her mouth
watering and ready for the creamy truffle sauce.

Sean chuckled beside her. 
“Should I be concerned about you and Skip?” he asked, in jest.  “I know you
like a man who can cook.”

She placed her fork back down
on the plate and skimmed her hand along his square, shadowed jaw line and
kissed him deeply.

Whispering against his lips,
she cooed seductively, “I have no doubt you’ll be outdoing yourself later.”

Shayna
reclined on the aft deck of the boat, watching Sean inside at the helm.  He was
busy getting them settled for the night, and was running the motor that lowered
the anchor to the muddy bottom of the protected bay.  It was a perfect location
to spend the night gently rocked to sleep under the stars.

She breathed in deeply,
stretching like a cat, and let out a deep exhale, smiling contentedly.  The
last two days with Sean felt like the bubble of a honeymoon.  Nobody else
existed, and they were the masters of their own universe, where it felt like
anything was possible.  Shayna hadn’t felt like that in thirty years, had never
expected to again.  She had chalked it up to the intensity and inexperience of
youth, the first time she felt this way.  But here she was in the present, feeling
giddy, excited, and anxious to know what came next while not wanting to miss
what was happening right now.

She noticed Sean run his hand
through his wavy, dark hair as he scrutinized the navigation and weather
screens laid out in front of him.  When he had told her that he was taking her
out on his boat, she’d thought he’d meant his sailboat.  However, he had intentionally
kept quiet about the scale of the Tuscan Dream, hoping to surprise her with it
at some point.  And that he did.  The forty-foot cruiser yacht was beautiful,
with its upper and lower salons, skylights, and full-beam master stateroom with
a queen-sized island berth.  The design was open and contemporary, with
stainless steel accents, and a richly toned wenge wood interior.

He had taken them across Lake
Indigo to the Seneca River, where they converged with other water traffic. 
From there, they docked at marinas, going ashore to tour quaint little towns,
window shop, eat local fare and just enjoy each other’s company at their leisure. 
Now they were back on Lake Indigo, and the stars did their best to compete for
attention with the glare of city life in Mt. Pleasant.

“Do you want to go inside?”

Shayna chased her idle
thoughts away, and brought her eyes to focus on the handsome man in front of
her.

“No, not right now.  I like
it out here.  The stars.  The soft breeze,” she said, closing her eyes and
inhaling as the night air feathered against and tickled her skin.

She heard a soft chuckle and
felt Sean moving her forward so that he could wedge behind her and into the
corner of the sumptuously padded L-shaped seating, pulling her back to rest
between his legs and against his strong chest.  His hands held hers, and he
circled his arms tightly around her as he brushed his chin near her temple.

“The last two days have been
great, Shay.  I needed this.  I don’t do it nearly enough.”

“Has it been killing you not
checking in with
Dolph Lundgren
?” she teased with a gentle giggle that
rippled against him.

Sean had recently hired a
General Manager so that he could have a life outside of Gaetano’s.  The new
man’s name was Johan Svensson, and he added even further to the charm of the Mediterranean
restaurant with his uber Scandinavian good looks.  From what Shayna could tell,
he alone had increased the female foot traffic to the Italian restaurant.

Sean sighed resignedly, and
lifted her chin up, kissing and quickly nipping at her lower lip.

“Well, I know how you love
quirks, so I couldn’t pass him up.  His outstanding resume and references were
just a bonus and only marginally important in my decision,” he joked, shaking
his head and smiling.

“The ladies certainly love
him,” Shayna remarked.

“Oh, I’ve noticed.  My female
staff’s been tripping over themselves around him.”  He squeezed her closer and
whispered playfully, “Hopefully, you’re immune to his charms.”

Shayna shrugged.  “So far. 
Right now my thing is Italian men with the last name Parker, who take me out on
their boats for the weekend.”

“
Right now
, huh?”  He
tugged at her ear lobe with his teeth.

“Yeah, you know, that whole ‘living
in the moment’ thing,” she teased, pulling his arms tighter around her.

“Do you think there will ever
be a
moment
when you’ll want something permanent again?”

She could feel his warm
breath against her skin and the beating of his heart against her back.

“You mean—
marriage
?”

He nodded his head next to
hers.

She thought about it briefly
and then shook her head.  “Twice is enough for me.  I think my chain of title
is already long enough.”

Sean stiffened against her
and he seemed to have stopped breathing.

“Twice?  Chain of title? 
What’re you talking about?”

Of course!  He only knew
about Frank.  Why would he have ever thought she had been married before, when
she was even younger?  She sighed wistfully, as the old ache returned to her
heart and she prepared to dig the past out from the back of the deep dark
closet of her life.

“I married my first
husband—my first love—when I was nineteen...”

Then it was as if the inky darkness
in front of her lit up like a movie screen, and she watched it all unfold in
front of her.

“We met our first week at
college.”  Shayna laughed softly at the memory.  “He ran into me in the
cafeteria—literally—wasn’t watching where he was going, and both our trays and
everything on them ended up scattered and rolling across the floor.  He
apologized profusely and helped pick up the mess and then...well, and then we
were never apart after that.  The attraction was instant, intense, and
everything else followed very quickly.  We married the summer after our
freshman year.”

She stalled while focusing on
the poignant memories.  “My dad and brother’s
really
liked him.  His
name was Wesley Edwards.  We both wanted to be civil engineers and join the
Peace Corps.  Have adventures.”  She stared off into the distance, allowing the
past to seize her.  Then she closed her eyes, sighing at the acute disappointment
and heartbreaking loss.

“What happened?  Why didn’t
you stay married to him?” Sean asked in a pinched whisper.

Shayna inhaled deeply and
then opened her pained, gray eyes.

“Because he died.”

Sean inhaled sharply.  Before
he had a chance to ask, Shayna answered his next question.  “It was a car
accident.  He’d gone home to see his parents for the weekend.  I was supposed
to have gone, too, but I came down with strep throat a few days before, and was
just too sick.  Wes wanted to stay home with me and go a different weekend when
I was feeling better, but I insisted he go.  His mother was terminal with
breast cancer.  I didn’t want him to miss any final ‘good’ moments with her
before the drugs and pain took them all away.  He loved her so much, and I know
he felt torn about what to do.  I kept insisting that he needed to go,
not
wait
, if he waited he could end up regretting it for the rest of his life. 
I didn’t want that on my conscience or his.  So, very reluctantly, he went.”

The old guilt seeped back in
and she became unusually quiet, seeming to have drifted off, no longer
present.  Sean squeezed her gently to bring her back to him.  Shayna breathed
in sharply.

“Did he get to see his mother?”
Sean asked with a hint of anguish in his voice.

At that exact moment, Shayna
knew she had fallen in love with Sean Parker.  Of course,
he
would ask
that question.  The same horrible fate had befallen Concetta Parker.  Sean
knew.  He understood.

“Yes, he did.  The accident
happened on his way back to school.  A truck crossed the median.  Hit him head
on.  He never had a chance.”

“Did the other driver fall
asleep or something?”

“No.  He was drunk—and
driving a
beer
truck.  Ironic, huh?  Or maybe not so much,” Shayna said
bitterly.

Sean gently brushed away a lone
tear from her cheek.  “That’s why you don’t drink, isn’t it?”

She nodded numbly.  He enfolded
her with his body.  “Christ, Shay, I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head.  “It
happened a long time ago.  But it’s still impossible for Wes to ever be knocked
off the pedestal I put him on.  He didn’t live long enough to make any
mistakes.”

She choked back an unexpected
sob, and more tears fell.  It had been so long since she had talked about her
first love, so long since she had felt his presence, but she did tonight.  At
that moment, she could’ve sworn she even smelled his scent.

Sean held her closer and gave
her time to regain her composure.

“There must’ve been a
wrongful death suit?  Surely someone had to have paid for what happened?” Sean
asked, with a mixture of anger and worry.

Shayna let loose a soft,
mirthless laugh.  “Oh, you can’t even imagine how quickly that company wanted the
image of their truck and logo pulled off of every news station.  The bad
publicity was stunning in its scope.  They wanted to settle quickly and at almost
any price, just to make it go away, so that they could start their new spin
cycle.  You know, about all of the
good
that came out of Wes’s death,”
she quipped sarcastically.  “So they implemented and funded various programs
about
responsible
drinking, school campaigns, television advertising and
blah, blah, blah.”

Shayna shook her head,
exhaled loudly, and sat forward, stretching her back and rolling her shoulders
in an attempt to relieve some of the mounting tension.  Then she felt Sean’s
hands massaging her tight muscles, and she could feel the bruising emotions
begin to melt away with each squeeze and tug.

“Wes’s father and I had to
sign nondisclosure agreements of course—never discuss the amount or details of
the settlement.  She snorted in disgust.  “I was independently wealthy before I
even turned twenty-one. 
Blood money
,” she spat out angrily.

Sighing loudly, Shayna stood,
feeling Sean’s hands slide down her back and reluctantly release her as she
made her way across the deck.  Leaning against the railing, arms crossed, her
eyes skipped across the lazy waves speckled in starlight.

“I would’ve traded it all to
have him back, to have gone with him that day, or to have let him stay with me
like he wanted.”  Inhaling deeply and releasing a shuddering exhale, she shook
her head clear of the old anguish and guilt.  “Since that was never going to
happen, I decided to help my family.  My dad had always worked so hard for my
brothers and me; I didn’t want him to worry about money anymore.  I paid off
his house and truck.  Set up an account for him with ‘funny money’ to use
anyway he wanted.  I wanted him to move out of Aurora—get away from that town
and that damn house with its memories, but he refused.”

Suddenly, strong warm hands
glided smoothly down her bare arms, encircling her and wrapping her in soothing
warmth.

“Did it have something to do
with your mother?”

Exhaling resignedly, Shayna
soberly replied, “Yes.  He kept waiting for her to come back.  I don’t know why
he believed that she would, why he would want her back, why he couldn’t just
let her go and move on with his life.  He deserved so much more, so much better
than
her
.”  Pulling Sean’s arms tighter around her, she glanced up to
the stars and intentionally shifted from the topic of Abigail Montgomery.  “I
paid off my brothers’ college debts and car loans, too.  Scott was single and
bouncing all around trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life,
but Jackson was married, with his first baby on the way.  So, I bought him and
Emily a nice house so that she could stay home with their baby, the way they
both wanted.”  She paused, reflecting, and reliving a moment in the past.  “And
then, in time, I gave the rest to Frank, to start the business.”

Sean stiffened against her.

“He took your money?” he said
with obvious distaste.

“We were married, Sean.  I
looked at it as
our
money and
our
new business.  We were a team. 
And it turned out to be a pretty good investment, wouldn’t you say?”

“I know, but...” he snorted
softly and trailed off.  “He was already forty when you married him—didn’t he
have his own money by then?”

Shayna understood that no
matter what, Sean would always dislike Frank.  Nothing could ever change that.

“Like it or not, Frank helped
me through one of the worst times of my life, Sean.  I know our marriage didn’t
have a happy ending, but it did have a happy beginning.”  She could feel the
tension begin to ease in Sean’s body.

He shifted his weight around
her, turning her to face him, and he spoke with a thick timbre, “I know I
shouldn’t feel this way, let alone say it, but I’m glad you didn’t have a happy
ending with him.”  He nuzzled against her ear and his hot breath heated her
skin.  “Because you deserve better.  You deserve a happy ending.”  He kissed
her cheek and squeezed her even closer to him.  The meaning in his words clear,
her heart fluttered against her chest.  “Maybe third time’s the charm, Shay,”
he rumbled seductively, next to her ear.