Cherishing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 3) (23 page)

T
he week crawled along
, and Jonah faced each day with a measure of dread.

On Christmas Eve, he got home and found a note on the door.

I’ve cleared out

Left the key on the counter

Call or text if you need me

Jonah frowned. She left no address or even the name of the hotel. He thought about tracking down her landlord but stopped himself. If she wanted him to know where she was, she would have told him.

Vivienne invited him over for cocktails with some friends, but Jonah’s mood didn’t permit company. The empty house echoed with Shannon’s presence. After only a few weeks, he grew accustomed to her cackling laugh, her lopsided smiles, and the sound of her shuffling across the wood floors in her slippers.

Jonah could hear her and feel her—even though as he looked around, he knew he was alone.

He had put up the tree and planned to haul out the decorations tonight. Shannon printed out a recipe for mulled cider and put it on the side of the refrigerator. The prime rib he ordered from the butcher took up an entire shelf in that same fridge. He’d have to roast it or waste a hundred and fifty dollar’s worth of meat.

Or he could take it to his parents’ tomorrow and let Miranda do something with it.

Christmas at his parents. The dread hit him full force.

Jonah poured himself a drink and stared at the fire he built to warm the room. As it burned, it grew hotter, chasing the chill from everywhere except his heart.

S
hannon determined not
to steep in self-pity. No, she didn’t have her beautifully decorated apartment with a tall, twinkling tree, and she didn’t have Jonah—probably never would have him again.

But on Christmas morning, Shannon did have Olivia, filled with homemade pancakes and unwrapping her presents on the sofa of her long-term stay hotel room. Let It Snow played on radio, boosting her cheer. She found a potted evergreen at the grocery store and strung it with ribbon for her hotel living room.

She also had a kitchenette where she cut out sugar cookies to bake in the so-far unreliable oven. The first batch burned in a matter of minutes, but with the temperature adjusted, Shannon hoped for improvement with batch number two.

“Thank you for the sweater, Mommy.”

Olivia came in and hugged her mother’s waist.

“You’re welcome, sweetie. I wish you had your doll here with you. She could try hers on too.”

Shannon had found a matching hoodie and leggings set for Olivia and her American Girl doll.

“I can do it tomorrow. What else are we making besides cookies?”

“I ordered Christmas dinner from Central Market, so we can heat that up for lunch in a little bit. And, I bought tons of Christmas movies on DVD. I brought games from…home.”

She’d actually taken the games Jonah bought for Olivia’s visit at his place. As angry as he was, she had to hope he wouldn’t have her arrested for theft. The pang of sadness threatened her with tears, and she slapped it down. Maybe the day veered from what she imagined, but this was her family Christmas, nonetheless.

Olivia’s bright blue eyes set on her with expectation, and her joy returned. Jeff and Taryn offered to have her over to their house for Christmas, but Shannon gave them a quick no. Glomming on to their holiday would only depress her further.

Last Christmas, she and Kid had hunkered down in a rented trailer with the damp cold seeping in. At least today, she was warm and Kid-free, with fridge full of good food. This was still her best Christmas ever.

“I’ll pick a movie. Where are they?”

“In a bag next to the couch.”

Shannon finished placing her sugared Christmas trees and Rudolph heads on the parchment-lined cookie sheet and slid them into the oven.

After she set the timer and stepped into the living and dining area, she saw the face of her phone light up on the table, and her shoulders slumped.

“Jeff, hi. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too. What are y’all up to this morning?”

“We ate breakfast, and Olivia opened her gifts. I’m baking some cookies, and we’re about to put on a movie.”

“That sounds like fun. So, you’re good then?”

Shannon sighed. One day, her life would inspire more than pity. “I’m great actually. It’s our first real Christmas together, and we’re having a good time.”

“I’m glad.” Relief flooded his voice. “Can I talk to Olivia for a minute?”

“Sure.”

Shannon called her over to speak to her dad and went into the kitchen to check on the cookies that didn’t need checking.

Jeff must have thought she’d spend the day curled up in the fetal position, turning Olivia’s Christmas into a wake for her relationship with Jonah. He could give her more credit than that.

She missed Jonah, and she worried about her baby. But Shannon had picked herself up from worse. Motherhood cut off wallowing as an option. She wrung out the heartache and threw it away. Her destiny didn’t include that kind of love. She accepted that, and she accepted the love she did have. That would have to be enough.

J
onah grumped
his way through Christmas Day, answering his mother’s question about Shannon with a curt, “She’s spending the day with her daughter.”

Vivienne harrumphed right back, “Maybe you should call her.”

Jonah glared. “Maybe you should stay out of it.”

“I think we should all stay out of it,” Sheila advised, brightly.

Jonah sniped his response. “Try not to sound so chipper, Mother.”

“Jonah, whatever went wrong—it was inevitable. Lick your wounds and move on, but don’t take it out on everyone else. You’ve been firing verbal bullets at everyone all day—even at Miranda.”

“I apologized to her, and I’m sorry if I’m poor company. I’m going to take a walk.”

Jonah jumped up from his chair and hurried out the back door, around the back patio, and down to the expanse of lawn behind the house. The massive oak tree stretched its skeletal branches overhead.

“Jonah!”

His father bounded down the stone steps toward him.

“What the hell did she do?”

Bashing his head into the trunk of the oak appealed to him more than answering his father’s question.

“Shannon and I had a fight. Don’t worry about it.”

“I won’t if you keep your nonsense to yourself. It’s Christmas for God’s sake.”

“I never knew you had such sentiment for the holiday.”

“Your mother loves Christmas, and you’ve turned the day into a bitter funeral for your relationship with that woman.”

“Am I not allowed to be upset just because you and Mom hated her?”

“Keep a lid on your ill humor. That’s all I’m asking.”

“Fine.”

“Now, there’s something else I mean to ask you about.”

Jonah eyed his father warily. “What?”

“Why are you investigating some guy named Aaron Godfrey?”

“Dammit. I should have known better than to trust Dan.”

Dan Krueger, Moran Financial’s head of security, had probably run to Jonah’s father as soon as he made the request for a background check on Aaron three days ago.

“I’m looking into something.”

“It seems Mr. Godfrey is from the tiny town where Shannon lived.”

“Listen, over the weekend, we found out that Shannon’s ex-husband was shot and killed by his friend—that’s Aaron. On our way out of the station, we ran into him, and I didn’t get a good feeling. I want to find out who he is.”

His father shook his head. “If that’s all you want to say, fine. Dan has your report.”

“My guess is that so do you.”

“Dan works for me.”

The redundancy of his father’s reminder piqued him. Everyone in the company placed their loyalties squarely in the corner of the big boss.

“Can you save me a meeting with Dan and give it to me?”

“I have it in my office. When you’re done pouting out here, come inside, and I’ll get it.”

Sitting on the couch in his father’s office half an hour later, Jonah scanned Dan’s report and sipped a cognac. Frankly, he had expected worse than Aaron’s spotty work history and occasional arrests.

Kid Nelson spent long stretches of time in prison for burglary and assault. Aaron had some drunk and disorderlies, a couple of misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana, and DUI from ten years earlier.

Maybe he wouldn’t be the horror he suspected, which didn’t lessen Jonah’s anxiety for some reason. Jonah picked up his phone and dialed Dan. Sure, it was Christmas, but the security man owed him.

“Please tell me this isn’t some emergency. I’m watching A Christmas Story with my family.”

“No. I wanted to see if there was anything that you didn’t put in the copy of the report you gave my father. Thanks, by the way. I expected that my request would remain between us. Not you, me, and my father.”

“He’s the one who signs my checks.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when my father retires.”

“Hold on, let me go to another room…I’m sorry, but when the check on Godfrey brought up some of the same names and places as the check on your girlfriend, I clued him in. Everything I found is in the report.”

“Did he know Shannon and her ex-husband before she moved here?”

“Was that your concern?”

“My concerns are my business. Can you answer my question?”

“No. I didn’t even find anything to suggest they knew each other that well. Godfrey occasionally ran with her ex-husband—the second one—but that dates back to when Shannon was in rehab. Nelson didn’t seem like the kind to let another man sidle up next to his wife.”

“The police report from Kid’s shooting says they argued over a woman.”

“It doesn’t specify beyond that. I can question Aaron, but you told me not to make contact.”

“I still don’t want that.” Jonah thought it over and figured he could always call the detective himself on Monday if wanted more information. He didn’t need Dan reporting everything to his father. “So, this is done. I’ll let you get back to your family.”

“Thank you.” Dan’s brusque tone still didn’t make Jonah feel guilty.

Instead, his mind turned over what to do next. Did it matter why Aaron and Kid fought? All that mattered was that Shannon had slept with Aaron. Acid burned in Jonah’s chest.

Now that Aaron knew about the pregnancy, he might try to contact her, and Jonah couldn’t protect her.

Shannon might not need his protection. Nothing in Aaron’s history suggested he might be violent like Kid. Of course, he did kill a man last weekend.

Jonah’s blood pressure spiked. He didn’t even know where Shannon was staying. Fingers flying before he could stop them, he texted her.

> At which hotel are you staying?

He waited a ten minutes, downing another drink. No answer.

> I just want to make sure I can reach you

This text garnered an immediate response.

>> U just reached me

She had a point.

> Let me know if Aaron contacts you

>> None of ur business anymore

> It is if he harasses you. The baby could still be mine.

>> That’s what police are for

> The police are inept

>> leave it alone. If I need anything, I know where u are. I’ll be back home soon

> When?

>> soon

>> I have to go Liv’s here

Jonah thought about Shannon’s little girl, and regret pricked his conscience.

> Tell her Merry Christmas

He waited, but Shannon didn’t respond. He swirled his snifter in his hand. Would Jeff tell him where she was?

He couldn’t stalk her. If she didn’t want to tell him, he had no right to dig around and find out. Somehow, Jonah had to let her go. After her betrayal, he should want to let her go, but he still didn’t.

He closed his eyes and dropped his head on the back of the chair.

“Get out here,” Vivienne’s voice penetrated the booze and misery wafting around him. “Mom wants to take a family photo.”

Jonah set the glass on the edge of his father’s desk and rose, his family obligations calling to him.

J
onah’s prediction came true
. Aaron had called her. Lindsay gave him her number. Shannon didn’t return his voicemail. Assuming he called her from a cell phone, she texted him—so angry that she had to communicate with him, her hands shook.

> Doing the test this week. Should know by next week if this is any of your business

On top of all her personal chaos, Shannon had to make arrangements for Kid’s body. A county clerk pointed her to a local church that helped pay for indigents and people whose families couldn’t afford funerals. Shannon contacted them for assistance—easy enough since she didn’t have much money on her own—and they’d paid for his cremation.

Packing up his ashes to send to his cousin, Shannon said her final goodbye. Death reduced the man who caused her endless grief to less than the size of a shoe box.

She paid for the Priority Mail Express service and dropped him off at the post office, throwing up beside her car before she drove away. The entire ordeal had a horror movie quality that Shannon couldn’t wait to leave behind.

Then, Wednesday came. She and Jonah didn’t speak again after Christmas Day except to confirm their arrival time for the paternity test. Once there, Jonah didn’t talk to her except to say, “Hello,” and sit on the opposite side of the waiting room until the receptionist called their names.

Jonah went first, and when he was done, he left—without a word. Shannon pulled out her phone and re-read Jonah’s Christmas texts again. If she thought he worried about her and still cared about her, she saw no signs of it.

Then, they called Shannon, and she went back so strangers could draw blood and run the test that would change her life.

She stayed in the clinic for a bit, feeling woozy after the blood draw. They gave her some juice and told her to wait until she felt better.

Finally, after another twenty minutes, she felt more like herself and slogged out to the parking lot.

Jonah leaned on a post outside the front door. “What took so long?”

“Nothing.” As much as she’d longed to talk to Jonah, now, she didn’t have the energy.

“You were in there for a while. Did something happen?”

“No. I have to go,” she muttered and scurried past him.

“Wait, Shannon.”

She turned. The wind kicked up, and she wrapped her arms around herself, clutching her shoulder bag. Jonah stepped toward her with a pitying look that only served to enrage her with its condescension.

“What can you possibly have to say to me, Jonah? Gonna call me a scheming bitch again? Or are you feeling sympathetic right now, so you’ll save your insults for later?”

He ignored her anger and addressed her softly. “I thought you’d be coming out right after me, and when I got to my car and I still didn’t see you, I thought I’d wait and check on you.”

“Don’t check on me, Jonah. Don’t worry about me. Don’t look after me. I’m doing all of that myself right now, and you know what? It’s not that bad.”

The tears building in her eyes betrayed her words. It was worse than that bad, but she handled life nonetheless.

“I don’t know what you want from me, Shannon. You’ve done this thing, and I can’t stop thinking about it, but I worry about you. You don’t have anyone. I have to make sure you’re okay.”

She held her hand up to her brow, shielding her eyes from the sun behind him so she could read his expression—the furrowed brow and mouth gaping with worry.

“If I tell you I’m fine, then I’m fine.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t care what you believe.”

“Why are you angry at me? Because I care?”

“No. Because you don’t. Not really.”

“That’s not true. You have no idea—none—how much I…care what happens to you.”

Shannon snickered. “You care what happens to me? What—like a puppy you’ve dropped off at the shelter? If I end up on a kill list, Jonah, are you going to come back and get me? Fuck you. Don’t text me or call me with your ‘concern’ for what ‘happens’ to me.” She crooked her fingers in derisive air quotation marks.

“God, after all that’s happened, I’m still trying to take care of you, and you don’t give a shit.”

“I’m a big girl, Jonah. I’m not looking for you to take care of me. Worry about yourself. Don’t you have to rush back to the office and your daddy? You wouldn’t want to be late.”

Jonah’s nostrils flared. The pain she inflicted with her verbal blow didn’t give her the anticipated satisfaction.

“Then, what do you want?” He clipped.

“Nothing. Not like this. Not from you.”

Shannon stepped back and turned toward her car. When she didn’t hear him follow, she assumed she left him standing there. Whatever.

Jonah was a big mistake, but she’s going to love this baby regardless. He still thought her a charity case, sitting around waiting for his rescue, or his money, or what he had to give her. He didn’t get that she had only ever wanted him to know her, love her, and appreciate her. In the end, he thought no better of her than his parents did.

She needed distance from him and his kind, but she might not get it. All this time, she thought having Jonah be the father would solve her problems—even if they stayed apart. Now, she knew that wasn’t true.

W
orn out from the day
, Jonah hesitated before answering the call from Trevor, but he figured the day couldn’t get any worse.

He was wrong.

“We have to meet up.”

“I can’t. You can’t believe the day I’ve had.”

“No. This can’t wait.”

“I don’t have any more money for you, Trevor. I’ve done all I can.”

“This isn’t about money. Not everything is about money!” The young man raised his voice in distress.

“Alright! Calm down.”

“When you hear what I have to say, you won’t be asking me to calm down.”

“Then tell me.”

“Not over the phone.”

“If you want me to see you, you need to spill it, now. Over the phone.”

“I’m your brother.”

T
he twenty-four
-hour breakfast joint half-way between Dallas and Fort Worth had a coat of grime that told Jonah not to order anything until he got a hepatitis booster.

“You’re not going to eat?”

“Uh, no. I want you to tell me why on earth you think you and I are brothers.”

“I had a therapy session with my mother today. She told me that she lied—to me, my sister, my dad, or…” Trevor sighed. “The guy I thought was my dad. To your dad. She lied.”

“Not possible. My father told me that she had a paternity test done. He must have seen the results himself. You can’t fake those results. Trust me.”

His new knowledge of court-approved paternity tests depressed him.

“I don’t think she faked anything. She had the test done, but she lied about the results.”

His father had said he saw the results, hadn’t he? Jonah squinted at Trevor and shook his head.

“Or she’s lying now.”

“Why would she lie now after all these years?”

Jonah didn’t want to point out Arianna’s obvious mental instability and didn’t need to. Trevor read his face and frowned.

“My mother isn’t so crazy that she’d make stuff up. Not when she knows we could just go get another DNA test done.”

“Maybe.” Jonah sighed. The lab could run another test on his sample, and then he and his entire family could appear on an episode of Maury Povich.

“I’m going to talk to your—our—father, but I didn’t want to do it without talking to you first.”

“Wait. That’s not a good idea. Did you ask your mother why she lied?”

“She said she thought I’d be better off with his interference.”

“But not his money. He paid her millions over the years.” For once, Jonah wondered if he could believe what his father told him about why he paid. Had he suspected Trevor was his?

“Yeah, but he owed her. I didn’t even know that the money wasn’t from her own investments until your dad quit paying.”

“You never knew anything about my dad?”

“No. Not until he quit paying. Mom said she didn’t want the money to control me and that your dad thinks everyone else is as in love with his money as he is—and that the money is all anyone ever wants. I think she really loved him, which is stupid. All he did was use her and then toss his pennies at her like that made up for everything.”

Jonah defended his father instinctively. “That’s not all there is to him. He’s a powerful man, and people do try to take advantage of that. You don’t know what it’s like to be target for fortune-hunters and—”

“Yeah, so tough to be so rich.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Even without meaning to, people can get seduced by the money, and it makes them do shady things. They lie, and they trick you. You never know what someone really wants from you. You can’t trust people sometimes.”

“Seems like you should be able to know what’s real and what’s not if you’re not so caught up in being rich that you can’t see it. Can’t you trust yourself?”

No quick retort materialized for Jonah. He sipped water carefully through the straw he’d unwrapped, noticing spots on the plastic cup.

“Look, don’t stir my dad’s hornet’s nest until I have a chance to talk to him. If you go to him first, he’s going to be on the defensive. I’ll talk to him.”

Trevor narrowed his eyes. “Will you really?”

“Have I ever said I was going to do something and not done it?”

“No. You haven’t. Sorry.”

Something Trevor said earlier hit him. “You never talk about your sister. Have you mentioned any of this to her?”

“I didn’t grow up with her. She stayed with my dad, and I lived with my mom. We’re not close. I hadn’t even seen her until a few months ago when Mom started having her problems. She and my mom barely speak.”

“That never seemed weird to you that your dad hardly spoke to you and that your mom didn’t speak to your sister.”

“I knew mom had an affair and that my dad kicked her out. I figured it was fallout from that. My dad wasn’t sure I was his, and I don’t think he ever got over it. It’s all I’ve ever been told. On some level, he must’ve known the truth.”

“I’m sorry that you had to grow up that way. We’ll get this sorted,” Jonah promised. “I need to go, but I’ll be in touch, okay? Hang tight, and don’t do anything.”

The brokenness of a family went on and on. Jonah thought about Shannon and the tenuous relationship she had at times with Jeff. They got along—sort of—and co-parented—sort of. Olivia rolled with the punches, but it can’t be easy for her. Now, Shannon faced the same situation with him or with Aaron.

No wonder she was so pissed off all the time—even if she’d done this to herself.