Caught Between a Lie and True Love (Caught Between series Book 1) (26 page)

As they approached, the girls looked up, and the guilt on their faces increased.

“Mom,” Starr started.

Paige put up her hand for silence. “We’ll discuss this when we return to Gram’s.”

Hope pushed to her feet and silently led them all home. As Brody and his teen veered off toward his house, Paige followed her own daughter up the sidewalk toward Gram’s front door.

The teen turned to her as though she was going to say something, so she gave her what she hoped was her sternest look. “Don’t say a word, young lady.”

“But Mom.”

“Don’t
but mom
me. What you did was inexcusable and you know it. Who put you up to it? Your grandpa? And how could you involve Hope in your scheme? When Matilda learns of this…” Paige took a deep breath, so angry she was ready to cut Jeb out of her life forever. Tears spiked her eyes. “You know what you’ve done, don’t you? When Matilda learns about this, she’ll take Hope away from Brody.”

Starr’s gaze deepened with concern, and she hung her head. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“Why would you do something so despicable? Why would you cheat people out of their money?”

“Hope wanted to go home,” she whispered sorrowfully, and Paige realized that she was as much to blame for this as anyone else.

But still, it was inexcusable, and Starr needed to be punished.

“This is Hope’s home now. Here with Brody, her grandma close by.”

Starr raised her head, her eyes bright with tears. “What about us?”

The front door swung open and her dad loomed in the open doorway. “Buttercup—”

“Oh stop it, Dad.” She pushed Starr the final few feet into the house, then slammed the door behind them. To keep out the rest of the world. To keep their private business private. “You knew it was wrong, right from the start. And now two innocent little girls are going to get hurt.”

“Wrong?” His face darkened as he glared at Starr. “They’re not as innocent as they appear.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and faced him. “And what do you mean by that?”

“
They
blackmailed
me
.”

Her arms dropped slack to her sides. “What?”

“That’s right. The moment your kid found out I wasn’t really a handyman, she came after me like an All Star conman.”

Gram shuffled into the front entrance, her face plied with makeup, her large purse slung over one arm. “Well, what did you expect? The girl hasn’t done anything that others in the family haven’t already done.”

“That doesn’t make it right.” Paige crossed her arms over her chest. “You are going to work off your debt to Gram and Mrs. Style.”

Gram snapped her purse closed, her keys in one hand. “So you decided to stick around for a while and make sure I deposit my money into the bank?”

Paige stilled and backed up her temper before she said something foolish, like
yes, forever if you’ll have us
. “We’ll be here only long enough for Starr to work off her debt. But there will be plenty of time to collect your jars and take them down to the bank.”

“Maybe I changed my mind.” With her heels tap-tap-tapping against the shiny hardwood floor and her mouth thin, Gram headed for the front door. “Well, we better head to town. Don’t want the new Mayor to be late for his own acceptance speech.”

That turned Paige’s attention elsewhere and she glanced at her watch. “You mean it’s over?”

“Yep.” Jeb took a step toward the front door, then turned back. “I realize now that Matilda only nominated me for Mayor so Brody would fail.”

“Then you’ll withdraw?”

“It’s too late for that.” He suddenly reared back and glowered. “If you should be mad at anyone, it’s Matilda.”

“Matilda has been nothing but nice to me.”

He took a step closer. “I never meant for you to be hurt.”

She looked away, to the side. “That’s what you always say.”

“I don’t care about myself, but it breaks my heart that you’re in love with Brody, and that means that Brody’s failure will break your heart.” His glower deepened. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll set that manipulating woman straight.”

“Forget it, Dad. As soon as Starr works off her debt, we’ll be gone.”

And it broke her heart to break her daughter’s heart.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Delores stood in the empty church, her wedding gown squeezing her abundant curves while she scarfed down an ice cream bar to settle her pre-wedding jitters.

An hour later, she was still alone, the half-empty box of bars clutched in her arms, the wrappings strewn about her like dead, beached fish.

Her stomach gurgled, uncomfortable, and the longer she waited, the heavier she felt. She was bloated, gassy, and gross, no way to be on her wedding day or wedding night

And it was all Paige’s fault.

Why had the woman come back to town now? A week later, and it would’ve been too late because Delores would have been Mrs. Brody Jackson.

For the thousandth time, she glanced at her watch.

By now the vote was over, the ballots counted, and Brody and his opponent—that cunning shyster who had bedazzled everyone in town—should be on the stage at Town Hall. The poles hadn’t been going in Brody's favor, so she feared Jeb would be their new Mayor.

It was all Brody's fault for focusing on his bratty daughter and Olivia’s whore-of-a-granddaughter instead of on the Mayor’s race.

If the FBI had come sooner, the ugliness ahead could have been avoided. Instead, at what should have been the happiest day of her life, there would now be chaos.

First Lady
…

She felt something wet on her bosom and she looked down to see vanilla ice-cream and chocolate smeared across the bodice of her beautiful gown. Appalled, she dropped the box onto the floor, and tried to scrub away the telltale signs of her gluttony.

The stain spread, and anger consumed her.

Brody was late for their wedding and the longer she waited, the more she ate, the heavier she felt, the more pissed she got. And then it occurred to her…she’d been so focused on getting rid of Paige that she’d forgotten to tell Brody what time to show up at the church.

Stupid, stupid, stupid
.

The door at the back of the church opened, and two men in suits and dark sunglasses stepped out of the sunlight and into the shade. They stood there for a moment as the doors closed behind them, not bothering to remove their sunglasses, apparently letting their eyes adjust to the dark. When they spotted her, they headed her way.

“It’s not too late. It’s not too late,” she whispered. There was still time to prove that Paige and her family were frauds. Still time for Brody to see the error of his way, get down on both knees to beg for her hand in marriage—and she wasn’t going to make this easy, the man would definitely have to beg—and then she’d be standing up on the stage with him.

Of course, it upset her that in the process, she would hurt Olivia. But there were always casualties in every war.

“Mrs. Peabody?”

“That would be Ms. to you.” She licked her sticky fingers, reached down to pick up the ice-cream bar box off the floor, and grabbed another bar. Unwrapping it, she pierced them with a narrow eyed look. “You two with the FBI?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

God, she hated being called Ma’am. It made her feel dowdy and old and bitchy and uncooperative. “You were supposed to be here yesterday.”

“It took longer to clarify your information than expected.” They peered around the empty church, then back at her wedding gown. “Have we come at a bad time?”

“Every moment around here is bad.”

“Where is our prisoner?”

She gulped down the last of the bar, crumpled the wrapper in her hands, and tossed it to the floor with the rest.

As the next First Lady, she’d be revered by the islanders. “Come on, I’ll take you to the man you want to arrest.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Brody stood to the side of the stage as Jeb gave his acceptance speech, and knew that his world was about to crater.

Since Matilda had come on stage, she hadn’t looked at him or Hope once. He imagined she was gloating big time, and if he could see her face, he wouldn’t like what he saw.

Beside him, Hope slipped her small hand into his. “I’m sorry, Brody.”

He glanced down at her, sorrow squeezing his heart. “What happened to Dad?”

She shrugged and looked away, but not before he saw tears in her eyes. “If I have to go live with Grandma, I’m sure she won’t let me see you. We’ll be strangers again.”

He cursed under his breath and squeezed her hand, hoping to reassure her that everything would turn out. It had to. “I’m not giving you up, Hope. You are my daughter. I know we’ve had our differences, but I’d do it all again. My only regret is that I missed the first thirteen years of your life. I’m not missing the rest.”

She gave him a wobbly smile and as he turned his attention back to the podium, his gaze landed on Matilda.

The older woman was watching them, probably gloating about her win. But there was something unrecognizable in her gaze. Something that almost looked like compassion.

She whispered something to Jeb, then headed their way. With a loving gesture, she brushed the back of her hand across Hope’s cheek.

Brody felt Hope’s hand in his tighten, and he tightened his grip back.

But Matilda came to stand beside him, not saying a word as she joined the crowd in clapping at something Jeb had just said.

Out the corner of his mouth, he said, “I don’t want to, but I’ll fight you every inch of the way. Hope should be with me and if you weren’t only thinking of yourself, you’d know that.”

And then Matilda did the only thing she could to surprise Brody. She turned to face him and apologized.

“I sorry to the both of you. I promise to be a better grandma to Hope and a friend to you.” She started to babble, but Brody was so surprised, he’d stopped listening.

Finally, he tuned back in as she said, “I guess I missed my daughter so much, I wanted to make up for being a failure as a mother, and I thought I could do that with Hope. I know I probably sound silly, but it feels so good to let it all out.”

She took a deep breath, leaned closer, and lowered her voice. “I’ve been in love with Harry for quite some time now. I didn’t want to admit it to anyone else, but there it is. And I’ve been so stupid about it. He asked me to marry him, but I turned him down.”

Brody tried to contain the hope awakening in him. “What are you saying?”

“If he’ll still have me, I’m selling my house so I can travel across the Mainland with him.” She shifted her gaze from Jeb, to Brody and Hope. “Please forgive me for being such an idiot.”

“Of course,” Brody and Hope answered in unison, and they smiled at each other, so perfectly in unison that it gave Brody hope for their future together as father and daughter.

“I hope you’ll let me see my granddaughter on occasion.”

Brody nodded and squeezed Hope’s hand. “You bet, Matilda. I’d like Hope to spend time with you and get to know you. And then maybe we can all become the family we should have been in the first place.”

The tense expression on her face relaxed and she leaned toward him until they were touching shoulders. “I wish I had been on your side, Brody. You would have made a wonderful Mayor, probably even better than Jeb.”

“It’s okay,” he replied softly. “I did it all to prove to you that I was good enough to raise your granddaughter.”

They exchanged smiles, and with a nod in Jeb’s direction, Matilda left the stage and headed through the crowd toward the Judge’s motorhome.

“Wow,” Hope said beside him, and all Brody could say in return was, “Double wow.”

But a few minutes later, a commotion in the crowd caught his attention.

Brody watched Delores push her way through the crowd, two men in dark suits and even darker sunglasses following close behind. She was wearing what used to be a white wedding gown. There was chocolate smeared across the top, and the bottom of the skirt was coated in a layer of street dust.

As she raised her arm to point at Jeb, Brody got a bad feeling in his gut.

“That’s him,” she called out. “That’s the man you want to arrest. He’s scammed half the old ladies on the island out of their retirement funds.”

And while the FBI jumped onto the stage and handcuffed their prisoner, Delores hitched her skirt up to her knees, and in a very unladylike, totally un-Delores-like move, clambered onto the stage and headed for Brody.

“He’s a conman, Brody, which means that you’re Mayor by default. I’ll be a very good First Lady for you.” She paused and smiled, obviously pleased with herself, then with a sour tilt of her mouth, hooked a thumb at Hope. “But she has to go. I have a boarding school all picked out.”

In a flurry of bedraggled skirts, she turned, hopped down off the stage, and headed for Paige.

Hope tugged at his hand, her eyes wide open. “Do something, Dad, or I swear, I’ll step up my badness, rob a bank, and start calling you Brody again.”

Holding tight to his daughter’s hand, Brody started after Paige.

They were in this together, for better or worse.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

As Matilda worked her way through the crowd, she heard a commotion behind her, but she didn’t turn around. She was focused on getting her man, and she was letting nothing—nobody—interfere.

Earlier she’d seen Harry escort Lisa into the motorhome, and she hoped she wasn’t too late.

Lisa was a nice woman, even if she was a porn star, and Harry was obviously infatuated with her. She couldn’t blame either of them if she lost Harry to Lisa. It was her own damn fault.

But she was going to fight for him and prove that she was the woman he really wanted. It was all she could do now.

As she approached, the motorhome door swung open, and Lisa stepped out. She was wearing high heels, a short skirt that showed off her lethally long legs, and a halter top that sagged at the cleft between her breasts and left little to the imagination. No doubt, she’d had Harry’s tongue hanging out of his mouth.

How could she compete with that?

A pang of grief hit her hard in the chest, robbing the breath from her lungs, and the starch from her matronly shaped body. She forced herself to put one foot in front of the other.