Her Hometown Redemption. Rachel Brimble

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СКАЧАТЬ weeks.” She pulled back and held Tanya at arm’s length. “Lucky for you, I’m more than ready to help you out with that. So...where do you want me?”

      Tanya smiled as optimism bloomed. “Thank you.”

      Leah smiled. “You’re welcome. Now...” She leaned down, picked up one of the boxes and laid it on top of another. “Where’s that knife? I could do with slashing something.”

      Shaking her head, Tanya surrendered to the inevitable. Leah was a tiny five feet one inch, but known around town as one of the toughest nurses in the hospital’s ER. More the fool anyone who chose to cross her, and Tanya knew that included her.

      She walked across the office, snatched up the knife and handed it to Leah. “I need an assistant. Know anyone willing to work with a woman half the town despises?”

      Leah slashed open the box. “First of all, you need to start acting as though coming back here fills you with delight from the inside out. Then, and only then, will people accept you’ve come back for a fresh start. If not, they’ll make themselves known to you as potential adversaries. Either way, forearmed is forewarned.”

      “In other words, I need to start kicking butt in the same sweet-natured way you do.”

      “Exactly.”

      Tanya smiled. She could put her past mistakes behind her and start again. She could find Matt Davidson and lay Sasha’s ghosts to rest, as well as her own.

      Leah pulled out a bundle of files. “I happen to know a young lady who I think will be the perfect assistant for you and, no doubt, would be more than willing to start work straightaway.”

      “You do?”

      “Uh-huh.” Leah’s face turned somber. “She’s had a tough time and needs somewhere safe to work and figure out who she is. Not unlike you. I think you’ll be good for each other.”

      Ignoring the accuracy of Leah’s observations, Tanya frowned. “And does this girl have a name?”

      “She’s nineteen going on thirty. Lucy Walker. You remember her, right?”

      * * *

      LIAM STOOD AT his office window and glared at the building across the street. When he’d grabbed his morning coffee from Marian Cohen’s bakery a few hours ago, she’d taken extreme pleasure in telling him that Tanya would soon be changing one of the offices into a showroom for her new party planning business.

      Marian’s eyes had been wide with anticipation as she’d waited for his reaction. When he’d turned and met the not-so-subtle glances of others around him, it became all too clear news of Tanya’s return had spread around town like wildfire.

      He continued to glare at Tanya’s shuttered office windows as his mind drifted to the way Tanya had looked when she told him she never should have left. What was he supposed to do with that? In eight years he’d not received a single letter, phone call, text or email from her.

      He shook his head. So she had regrets. Didn’t everyone? That didn’t mean he wanted to go over old ground—and once his desire caught up with that mentality, his plan to meet someone new would be back on. It was damn annoying Tanya had chosen that particular office to set up shop. Or had she chosen it because she knew damn well he was stationed across the street?

      He whirled away from the window and paced his office for the twentieth time that morning. Papers littered his desk and he was due in court in less than an hour, but his brain was far from focused, which was entirely new. His job was his life, people’s welfare his main concern, which was why he could not allow Tanya to burrow under his skin. He couldn’t afford to trust her. She’d stood him up too many times when they’d been dating, chose work over everything—basically treating him as though he was little more than a sexual distraction whenever the mood struck her.

      He liked the man he’d become since she left. He liked the order, consistency and regimented stability in his life. It was Tanya who’d so easily provoked the anarchy and disorder that lingered just beneath the surface of his control. He would not, could not, go back to being that person again. She drove him nuts before and she would again.

      But goddamn it, he’d loved her. When she was alone with him...when they were together, she was softer, more hopeful and shared her dreams of one day getting married, having kids. Had those been lies?

      His gut told him no.

      He had to stop thinking about her and hold on to who he was without her.

      Liam picked up his cell phone and hovered his finger over Sasha’s number. He needed the truth. If Sasha told him why Tanya was back in Templeton—the real reason, not the flimsy excuse that she wanted to start over—maybe he would accept her being there and move on.

      It was driving him mad—the need to rush across the street and demand to know why she had come back to the place she used to call Devil’s Paradise.

      Before he could change his mind, he dialed Sasha’s number.

      As it rang, he walked back to the window. Goddamn it, why were her office blinds drawn? What was Tanya hiding in there? Or was she hiding, period? Leah Dixon had left about half an hour before...maybe he should forget talking to Sasha and track down Leah instead.

      “Hello?”

      Too late. Liam pulled back his shoulders. “Sasha, it’s Liam.”

      “I know. What’s wrong? Is Tanya okay?”

      Annoyance simmered in his gut. “Why do you ask that like I should know? Tanya isn’t my responsibility.”

      Sasha sniffed. “Well, for someone clearly trying his best to act like he doesn’t give a damn about Tanya, you sound mighty wound up about something.”

      “Do you know she’s setting herself up in an office right opposite mine?”

      She sighed. “Glad to hear she’s settling in okay.”

      “Settling in? Bloody hell, Sasha, I don’t want to have to look out my window at her every day.”

      She laughed. “Then don’t.”

      Liam shoved his fingers into his hair. “Are you finding this funny? I can’t ignore her. You know how I felt about her.”

      “I do. I also know she isn’t back to start something up with you again. You know Tanya. Can’t you just be her friend and not get involved? I love her, Liam, but who knows how long she’ll last in the Cove. I thought the Liam and Tanya train left town years ago.”

      Liam clenched his jaw. “It has... I’ve even had sex with other women.”

      “Funny.”

      “But that doesn’t mean it’s not thrown me through a loop seeing her again.”

      “This is the first time we’ve spoken in weeks. I don’t have to be Miss Marple to work out the reason you’re puffing and panting like an unfit athlete. She’s gotten to you already, hasn’t she?”

      He glared toward Tanya’s office. “Just tell me the truth. Why is she really here?”

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