later when Abigail knocked at the door and slipped into the room, holding up a rolled linen napkin.
Blessed woman! This was a staged visit if ever Karan saw one. She seized the opportunity with both hands.
“Got to run, Mom.” Popping up from the chair, she hurriedly gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. “I’m taking a chance even being here with my restricted driving privileges.”
Seriously restricted.
Karan caught Abigail’s gaze on her way out and that one winked cheerily.
Then Karan was skimming down the staircase and out the front door. She had reached her car when her cell phone vibrated. She was almost afraid to look, fearing that her getaway wasn’t a clean one after all, but the display revealed a welcomed caller.
“Good morning, Susanna.” Karan cradled the phone against her ear and slid into her car.
There was a relieved sigh on the other end. “You sound completely awake for the crack of dawn on a Saturday. I would never have called you at this hour, but your message said—”
“No worries. I wanted this day off to an early start.”
“Really? Does this have to do with your first visit to New Hope? Tell me what happened.”
“It’s official, Suze. I’m in hell.”
A beat of silence. “Things didn’t go well yesterday?”
Karan turned at the end of the drive. “Whew, I’m back on the road and I wasn’t caught. Made a quick pit stop at my mother’s—”
“Are you crazy?”
Karan was about to reply that her mother had that affect on her as Susanna well knew, but Susanna didn’t give her a chance.
“I was in that courtroom, Karan. I saw Judge Jenny in action. Why would you give her a reason to send you to lock-up and throw away the key? Do you want to be incarcerated?”
“Actually might be the lesser of two evils at this stage of the game.”
“Things didn’t go well yesterday.” Not a question anymore.
Karan braked to slow her descent and maneuver a switchback curve, enjoying the way the sun dappled the road through the overhead trees. She had a flash of memory of how much this road had once felt like coming home. It had been one of the reasons she and Charles had decided to buy a place so close to Karan’s parents. She liked the welcoming feeling, and he’d liked the idea of being close to family.
Of course, her father had been alive then.
And she and Charles had been in love then.
“Let’s just say things didn’t go as expected,” Karan said. “You will never guess who’s a director at New Hope.”
“Not someone else who has it in for you, I hope.”
“Charles.”
“Your Charles?”
Karan chuckled. “That’s exactly what my mother said. Yes, I’m afraid. My ex—Charles.”
“Oh, you really are in hell.”
“Officially. Jack set me up, Suze. I know it. That rat. Mr. Police Chief probably felt the need to pound his chest and entertain his new wife by torturing her high school nemesis. Honestly. Don’t you think there should be some sort of statute of limitations on retribution?”
“That’s silly. Jack was trying to help you out. Are you sure he knew about Charles’s affiliation?”
“Quite sure.”
“Then he probably thought you were better off with Charles than Judge Jenny. That’s all.”
Karan gave a harrumph, unwilling to concede the point yet unwilling to argue. While she had dated Jack, her involvement with the man had ended in college. Susanna, on the other hand, had married her high school sweetheart, Skip, who had happened to be Jack’s best friend. That friendship had lasted right until Skip had died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma barely three years ago.
“Let’s move past Jack,” Susanna coaxed. “I want to hear everything about Charles.”
Karan knew exactly what Susanna was trying to do. She was too firmly entrenched with Bluestone Mountain society nowadays to be comfortable with this little trip down memory lane. She worked for Jack’s wife. Maybe not technically, but they both worked for the same management company, so they inhabited the same workspace forty-plus hours a week. Susanna didn’t want to discuss anything to do with Frankie Cesarini. And as Karan was on a time frame, she conceded with a sigh and let her best friend win this round.
CHAPTER SIX
“MAN, IT’S A DIFFERENT WORLD out here,” Charles whispered into the morning calm, his voice the embodiment of contentment.
The words were out of his mouth before he could catch them, inviting a reply and intruding on this alternate reality, where the only sounds were from nature. The forest buffered civilization, and though Charles knew Route 42 was out there somewhere, all he could hear was the current splashing over rocks and lapping the hull of the boat as this mountain tributary rushed toward the river.
The sun had been steadily rising. The light filtered through the trees on the riverbank and shone off the water, making him peel away a layer of clothing as the early-morning chill yielded to a perfect summer day.
Charles supposed he had Karan to thank since she’d introduced him to hiking on Devil’s Path so long ago.
Karan?
The thought of her came at him sideways. His fingers froze on the grip of his fishing rod.
How the hell had she intruded on his perfect day?
Okay, so maybe she’d been the first one to lead him on an expedition through the craggy trails of this mountain range. The high peaks and deep gaps themselves had spawned in him a love of the Catskills that didn’t look like it would be wearing off anytime soon.
Charles could also argue that growing up on the flat terrain of Florida had primed him for a change of scenery. That was, after all, exactly why he’d chosen Van Cortlandt College. To finally live somewhere with real seasons, although his mother always swore after a few winters up here, he’d come home again appreciating Florida’s temperate climate.
He hadn’t proven her right yet, and Karan had absolutely no place in his quarterly weekend trip with fellow anglers during the middle of trout season.
Or anywhere else in his life, for that matter.
He was relieved for the distraction of the inevitable reply when it finally came.
“Damned straight it’s another world,” Jay said. “Personally, I vote for not returning to the real one.”
Matthew gave a snort—laughter maybe.
That’s the way it always
