location from their only brother?”
Exasperation tinged her tone. “I already explained. A lawyer’s first obligation is to his client.”
“Yeah, right. A nonexistent client.”
She nodded coolly, as if giving him a point in a debate. “I can’t find the record of who hired him. He was paid in cash.”
“How convenient.”
Jake ached to clench his fists. He didn’t, fearing if he did he might follow through and punch the wall. Instead, he forced his tone to remain crisp and precise. “And maybe, just like your father, you’re keeping the truth from me now. Maybe you know exactly who hired your father to split up my family.”
She flinched. If he hadn’t been a sizzling mass of emotions and so eager for her to go before she could witness his pain, he’d have admired the gumption it took for her to look him in the eye. But right now, all her courage did was feed the flames of his rage and resentment.
Cassidy locked gazes with him, as if she expected him to read her sincerity. “I’d like to make up for what my father did.”
Her concern only stoked his anger. He didn’t want her help, her pity or her compassion. He couldn’t bear for her to know how much her father’s silence had hurt him. And he was too proud to tell her how hurt he’d been when she’d left for college and never once called him. Or how just her presence flayed open old scars and brought the hurting back.
Jake needed to be alone, needed time to lick his wounds. “This isn’t your concern.”
“I was concerned enough to bring you the box.”
“So you salved your conscience, Sunshine.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Ah. The nickname had memories for her, too. Had he struck a nerve?
Long ago Jake had learned to fight the world with the tools he’d been given—a quick mind and a ruthlessness that was revealed whenever he felt under attack, his back to the wall. He needed time to think, time to recover from the raw emotions churning his gut, and he sure as hell didn’t need Cassidy here.
He allowed an edge of rage to penetrate his tone. “Go back to your safe little lawyer’s world. The world your daddy picked for you. He’s probably rolling over in his grave right now.” Jake scowled at her. “We both know Frazier wouldn’t have wanted you here with me.”
At his hurtful words, she raised her chin and softened her tone, but steel braced her spine. “What do you want?”
He couldn’t let those eyes see into his heart, see the scars he’d have sworn had healed until she walked through the door. He didn’t want the memories that sliced through him. He didn’t want to remember what it was like to want her.
Never again would he let her fool him into believing she cared about him. He was no longer an innocent boy just out of a state home, but a grown man who’d seen enough betrayal and deceit to know the world could be ugly.
When she didn’t budge, he made his voice glacial. “I don’t want your help. I don’t want you in my home. I don’t want you. Is that clear enough? Blunt enough?”
Cassidy’s pale face turned whiter, leaving blotchy red patches of anger and humiliation on her cheeks. Her lips narrowed, their fullness pulled into a taut line of distress. As she stood, she didn’t say a word. With surprising strength, she lifted the box, turned it upside down and dumped the contents onto the floor at his feet.
Papers, a diary and photographs spilled into a messy pile. Jake ignored the papers and watched Cassidy, finally realizing he’d gone too far. But he couldn’t find the words to say so. Too many conflicting emotions made his mouth dry, and words of apology stuck in his throat.
With her head high, her shoulders back, her chin up, her spine ramrod straight, Cassidy strode from the room with the empty carton. And although Jake had gotten exactly what he’d intended, he felt no triumph. She’d left him with an empty house and an empty heart.
CASSIDY WOULD NOT SOB. Not here where he might see her. So she held her breath all the way out of Jake’s house and down the walk. She didn’t dare inhale until she reached her car. Finally as tears tightened the back of her throat, she took air into her starving lungs in one big rush.
She would not cry for the boy she’d once called a friend. She would not spill tears over the harsh man who’d replaced him. She would not think about the reasons that caused the confident young friend she recalled to turn into the cynical man she’d seen today.
She would not cry.
No, you’ll just run away, her conscience needled her.
He told me to leave so he could brood in private.
He was your best friend. A good friend. How could you leave such an intriguing hunk alone when there are so many other possibilities?
He was like a big brother.
Didn’t you ever think of consoling him? All that wonderful anger could be put to good use.
Sure. I’ll just sprinkle fairy dust over him and he’ll turn from an old friend into the perfect lover.
I see you prefer crying.
I’m not crying.
Cassidy tossed the box into the car and angrily wiped away the solitary tear running from the corner of her eye.
That Jake had grown into such a handsome man hadn’t surprised her. She’d always admired his whiskey-colored eyes, olive skin and black hair. But during the past ten years, he’d grown another few inches, towering over her five foot eight, and his features had sharpened. The hollows under his cheekbones had grown deeper. His eyes glittered with an intensity that almost made her shiver. The changes in his eyes bothered her the most. Eyes that she recalled as warm and friendly as a puppy’s now burned with amber fire. Even outside in the breezy Gulf air, she could still recall their blazing heat.
However, she would not think about the pain of betrayal she’d seen in his eyes when she’d told him that her father had had the answers that he’d so desperately sought. If only her father were still alive so he could explain his actions. Despite what Jake thought, she knew her father had been a good man. He must have had an honorable reason for his seemingly inexplicable actions.
Cassidy had never told Jake that her father had insisted that she follow her dream of college and law school and had discouraged her from considering Jake as anything more than a friend. Jake would have assumed that his poor background and lack of family and education were the reason Frazier had insisted that his daughter attend college as she’d always planned. And Cassidy couldn’t hurt Jake with something he’d had no control over.
Even at eighteen she’d understood why her father wanted her to follow her dream of becoming a lawyer and not give up like Cassidy’s mother had. Her parents had married during law school. After her mother had become pregnant, she’d dropped out of school, and while she’d always intended to return, she never had. Her mother had put her dream on hold—and then she’d died. And her father insisted that Cassidy put her education first.
So she hadn’t let herself become
