The Librarian's Secret Scandal

“How did the quilting group find out about that?” he asked.

“I was friends with your sister Maisie back then.” She sent him a challenging look.

His older sister could get a little overbearing sometimes. “She does love a good tabloid tale.”

“She tried to turn me into one.”

“Sorry, but she didn’t have to try very hard.”

“I’ve changed since then,” she said, sobering.

“I’m starting to see that,” he said, making sure she saw he meant it.

Soft satisfaction made her eyes glow warmly and she resumed her concentration on driving.

“Why did you do it?” he asked.

“What? Behave that way?”

“Yes.” He didn’t want to hear any more about her sailing trip.

“You didn’t grow up in my household.”

Her father was a minister and her mother didn’t work. “Too strict?”

“Strict. Judgmental. Relentless. Yeah. Nothing I did was good enough. So I thought it’d be neat if I showed them what bad really was.”

He heard the regret in the form of sarcasm in her tone. “You wish you hadn’t done the things you’ve done?”

“Not everything. The safari was a great experience. So was rock-climbing and jumping from planes and even sailing, except for the company I had.”

Her hands adjusted on the wheel again, and now she seemed to be getting upset. He didn’t want to upset her, especially since he was enjoying this, and her. He didn’t question her further.

Looking ahead, he noticed they were almost at the outskirts of town.

“Will you just drop me off at the sheriff’s office? I have a Jeep I use for work there. I can drive that until I take care of my SUV.”

“Sure.” A few minutes later, she pulled to a stop in front of his small office, a redbrick building with white trim and a sign that said Honey Creek County Sheriff.

“It’ll be interesting explaining this to my deputies,” he said, more to keep her from leaving before he could ask her out on a date.

“If any rumors start that I had a tryst in Deer Lodge, I’ll know where it started.” She smiled, but he could tell she didn’t want that to happen.

“No deputy of mine would do that, and I certainly wouldn’t. I’ll just stick with the truth … I met this beautiful woman at Montana State Prison….”

She started laughing. Once again, the sound reached into him, this time strumming a stronger infatuation.

“Yeah, that would stir up a few questions.” She grew somber as she said it.

“Nobody needs to know we met there. I’ll just tell them you totaled my SUV.”

He loved the flirtatious glint in her eyes. “And you can tell them I wrecked you for any other woman.”

“You might have.”

Her eyes blinked in response, an indication of the flurry of thoughts, and, he hoped, some warming emotions his reply had set off.

“Do you have any plans Friday night?” he asked.

Her smile came and went on her face, as if the idea first tantalized her and then made her shy away. “You’re asking me out on a date?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“No … well, yes … I mean, you’re the sheriff.”

“Amazing, isn’t it? Me, sheriff of Honey Creek County.”

“I don’t mean that. It’s just … you’re … And I’m …”

“I’m a man and you’re a woman. Are you trying to tell me you’re …” He lifted his eyebrows and let his expression finish his meaning, even though he was teasing.

“No!”

“Then go out with me. Dinner. Friday night. I’ll pick you up or we can meet somewhere. Whatever you’re most comfortable with.”

She stared at him. And then turned and looked through the windshield.

“Come on. It’ll be fun. I can already tell,” he coaxed.

“I don’t know …”

“I promise I’ll behave.”

Finally she looked at him.

“Friday night. Seven o’clock,” he said.

Again, she seemed to waver between accepting and not. “I don’t think now is a good time. With all the talk around town.”

“All the more reason to go out with me. It’s like you said, I’m the sheriff. It’ll be good for people to see you with me.”

“Or bad for you to be seen with me,” she countered.

“I don’t care what people say. It’s the truth that matters.”

Her eyes grew soft with warming affection. Just what he wanted to see. He grinned. But she was going to turn him down. He could tell.

“Think about it,” he said.

She smiled a little and nodded. “I will.”

“Think hard.” He smiled.

She laughed, as soft as the look in her eyes. Damn, he liked her.

He opened the truck door and stepped out, turning to face her. “At least I know where to find you.” The library.

“Don’t you dare.” But her lovely smile proved she was kidding.

“See you soon, Lily Masterson.”

The last thing he heard before closing the door was another warm laugh. Feeling good, he headed for the office with a little extra verve in his step.

When he reached the door, he looked back. She hadn’t pulled into the street yet. She was still watching him with a soft smile. And that told him all he needed to know.

Chapter 2

“One of the boys at school asked me if I was as good as my mother.”

Damn. Would it ever stop?

Lily looked across the truck at her fourteen-year-old daughter. Her blue eyes and black hair mirrored her own. May was only five-four for now, but she’d probably grow another four inches to match her height, too.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. I walked away.”

“Good girl. What comes out of people’s mouths isn’t important unless it’s true.” Realizing that’s what Wes had told her, she shook off thoughts of him. “It’s your actions that mean more. You show them who you are. You don’t crumble.”

“You’re always saying that,” May retorted.

“Arguing and getting into fights isn’t the way to handle this.”

“But it’s true, what they’re saying about you.”

“Some of it used to be true. It isn’t anymore. They’ll see that eventually, as long as we don’t let them beat us down.”

“I don’t know why you wanted to come back to this stupid town. It sucks here.”

“Watch your mouth.”

“Everyone thinks you’re a slut.”

“Well, I’m not. And I told you to watch your mouth.”

“They call me a slut, too.”

Lily gave up. “You aren’t a slut.”

“I don’t have any friends because of you!”

That broke her heart in two. “You have Peri.” She was a cute little redhead that May said was an outcast like her.

“Peri is a dolt.”

Pulling to a stop in front of the school, Lily watched May’s face go grim with dread.

“Hold your head high and do well in your classes. You’ll meet some friends who won’t judge you the way the others do.” When May didn’t move to get out of the truck, Lily said, “Go on. You’re better than this, May.”

May turned her head and looked at her. “I don’t like it here.”

“We aren’t moving. We just got here.”

With a heavy sigh, May opened the door and hopped out.

“I love you,” Lily said.

May looked at her and didn’t say anything before slamming the truck door. Lily watched her until she disappeared inside the school building, and then drove away.

That was the hardest part about all the talk in town. She hated what it was doing to May. But they’d get through it. The talk wouldn’t go on forever.

She headed for Main Street. Bonnie Gene Kelley had called this morning and Lily had agreed to meet her. Parking, she got out and started walking down the street. Bonnie Gene had an uncanny ability to pry out whatever was bugging her. It had been a week since the hearing and still Lily was having trouble dealing with seeing Brandon in person.

Walking down Main Street, Lily was vaguely aware of people turning their heads to look at her. She passed the Corner Bar and jaywalked across the street toward the West Ridge Hotel. Next door was the Honey-B Café, where she’d agreed to meet Bonnie Gene. For once they weren’t meeting at Kelley’s Cookhouse, the restaurant Bonnie Gene and her husband ran.

Bonnie Gene was one of two people in town Lily trusted enough to call friends. She had stuck by her through everything over all these years, starting out as more of a mother figure, but as Lily grew older, their friendship had grown. She was the only person who knew about Brandon.

Lily wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. As soon as Bonnie Gene discovered she’d testified at Brandon’s hearing, she’d picked up on how badly it was affecting her. And Bonnie Gene didn’t take no for an answer once she made her mind up about something. So, whether Lily liked it or not, which this morning she didn’t, she had to meet her friend for breakfast before heading to the library for work.

The thought of eating breakfast soured her stomach. She’d just die if the parole board decided to release Brandon after the agony of her testimony. He hadn’t done a very convincing job pleading his case. As far as she was concerned, he’d been cold and deliberate, stating that he’d received treatment while incarcerated and he was reformed and ready for society. He’d even had a plan. Move back to his hometown in North Carolina and work for his dad’s remodeling company.

Ready for society. More like ready to hunt down more women in society. He’d just come out of a fifteen-year drought. Surely he was eager to assuage his evil cravings. She hoped the parole board hadn’t been fooled.

Pushing open the door to the café, Lily looked around for Bonnie Gene and spotted her at a table, waving a hand, her dark brown hair brushing her shoulders. For a sixty-four-year-old, she still looked good. Lily went toward her, dreading having to talk about Brandon. She sat across the table, seeing Bonnie Gene’s light brown eyes soften with sympathy. Sometimes sympathy was worse than anything else. She wished people would just treat her like a normal woman.

“I’m all right,” she almost snapped.

“Don’t get all defensive with me,” Bonnie Gene said. “I know what this is doing to you.”

Lily felt her shoulders sag and she leaned back in the chair. A waitress stopped by the table.

“Nothing for me,” Lily said.

“Two Western skillets,” Bonnie Gene told the waitress. “And some good strong coffee.”

“I’m not hungry.” Especially for Honey-B’s ham-and-cheese-laden Western skillet.

“You have to eat.” Then to the waitress, “Two skillets.”

The waitress glanced once at Lily, then scribbled the order and left. Lily wondered if that look was because of the rumors rather than Bonnie Gene’s bulldozing.

“You’ve been doing so well up until now,” Bonnie Gene said.

“I’m fine.”

“There you go again, all defensive. It’s okay to be upset about this, you know. Anybody would be.”

“I’m over it.”

“You’re strong and you’ve done well with your life. You never let it get you down, but seeing him in person like that…”

She’d overcome the trauma of her rape, but now it felt as if she were going through it all over again. Reliving it.

“What was it like seeing him again?”

Lily angled her head with a do-you-have-to-ask look. Bonnie Gene was trying to get her to talk.

“I mean, how was he toward you?”

“Actually, he never looked at me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he seemed uncomfortable that I was there.”

“Really?”

She nodded.

“What if he was?”

“He was acting.” For the sake of the board.

“I’ve heard some criminals get that way at their parole hearings.”

“That’s a crock.” She’d never believe Brandon was miraculously cured. Anyone who could do what he’d done to her and have no remorse couldn’t possibly be normal, even after spending so long in prison. Especially after that.

Bonnie Gene looked at her for a while. She didn’t have to say anything. She was still worried about Lily. “When do you find out what the parole board decides?”

“Any day now.”

“No wonder you’re such a mess. Not knowing must be killing you.”

It was, but she’d get through it. She would.

“You sure you’re going to be all right?”

“Yes.” She wouldn’t have it any other way. “Promise.”

Bonnie Gene smiled. “You might have been a wild child before you left this place, but you were always strong. Not too many women could recover to the extent you have.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. Survival is a pretty good motivator.” It had been for her.

The waitress reappeared with coffee and another long look at Lily. Lily ignored her until she left, lifting the cup and taking a tentative sip. It went down all right. That was a good sign.

“Somebody told Maisie Colton that you dropped Wes off at the county sheriff’s building last week.”

Lily looked at Bonnie Gene. Great. Just what she needed.

“She asked him why,” Bonnie Gene said.

Remembering what he’d said, she wondered if he’d stayed true to his word. She hadn’t seen him around town since that day, despite all his charm in asking her out. But maybe he wasn’t on a timetable. He was a man, after all. And it had only been a week.

“What did he say?” she asked.

“That you ran into him outside of town.”

She couldn’t help smiling. That wasn’t exactly a lie. Montana State Prison was outside of town.

“That’s what I thought,” Bonnie Gene said, and Lily knew her smile had given her away. “Spill it, girlfriend.”

“There’s nothing to spill. I wasn’t paying attention and I ran into him and wrecked his SUV so I drove him to work.”

Her friend’s mouth dropped open. “What? You got in a wreck? What happened?”

“I wasn’t going fast, only about twenty miles an hour.” Which was pretty fast in a parking lot.

“What happened?” Bonnie Gene repeated.

Lily didn’t want to tell her too much. What if it got around town?

“Come on. It’s me.” Bonnie Gene pointed at herself and looked injured. “You ran into our hunky sheriff and you didn’t even tell me.”

“It was no big deal.”

“Did he ask you out?”

“Bonnie Gene …”

“Oh, this is getting good. Where were you when you ran into him?”

Lily cocked her head, not wanting to talk about this. She’d much rather lie and get on with her day. But it was so hard lying to Bonnie Gene, her one true friend through everything.

The waitress returned with their food and left.

“Where?” Bonnie Gene demanded, scooping up a forkfull of eggs.

“Outside of town.” She pushed her eggs around on the plate.

“Wes just said that to protect you.” Lily watched Bonnie Gene’s eyes and knew she was starting to figure things out.

“When did you run into him?” she asked.

“A few days ago.”

“What day?” Bonnie ate more eggs, chewing and looking at her expectantly.

Darn it! “A week ago.” She hesitated. “Today.”

Bonnie Gene swallowed as her puzzle came together. “A week ago today? Was it the day of the parole hearing? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Wes driving his SUV since….”

“Oh, all right. It was the parking lot of the prison, okay? He doesn’t know why I was there, though, so don’t be spreading any rumors. I don’t want anyone to know.”

She set her fork down. “Honey, have I ever failed you yet?”

Lily relaxed. “No. I’m sorry.”

“You’re just a little rattled right now. I understand.”

Before Lily could respond, a woman appeared next to their table. Her pear-shaped body was stuffed into peach-colored stretch pants and a dark purple T-shirt that clung to rolls of fat. Shoulder-length red hair framed angry pale green eyes adorned by too much makeup.

“You have a lot of nerve,” she said to Lily.

Lily tried to place the woman but didn’t recognize her. She looked at Bonnie Gene, who shrugged her shoulders.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t remember me,” the woman said.

Oh, no. Another piece of her past was about to rear its ugly head.

“Karen. Andy Hathaway is my husband?” The woman said it like a question.

Then memory came rushing back. A brief affair packed with lots of naked writhing at a downtown hotel. Andy Hathaway had been hung like a Hoover hose.

And, my oh, my, was she uncomfortable now. “Karen, I …” What could she possibly say? Sorry for humping your husband? But it was so long ago..

“Save it. You think anybody is glad to see you back? I don’t know why you bothered.”

“It’s been a long time,” she said, knowing it was feeble.

Sure enough, that only managed to anger Karen more. “It would be better if you left town. I never wanted to have to lay eyes on you again after what you did.”

“I can understand how you feel, but—”

Karen leaned over and pointed her finger in front of Lily’s face. “You don’t know the first thing about how I feel.”

Lily moved her head back as Karen jabbed her finger too close.

“You didn’t give a rat’s ass how I felt back then and you don’t give a rat’s ass now. I want you gone from here.”

Lily wanted to tell her she was being ridiculous after so much time had passed.

“Lily’s not the same as she was before she left,” Bonnie Gene said.

“You stay out of this. It’s none of your business.”

“Karen … I don’t know how to say this but … I’m sorry. I really am.”

Karen’s mouth tightened until her lips turned white. She picked up a glass of water from the table and tossed it toward Lily’s head. Water splashed and ran down her hair and face. She wiped her eyes and looked up at Karen.

“I want you gone, you hear me?” Karen hissed, and then turned her back and marched out of the restaurant.

Still numb, Lily noticed the entire café had gone silent and everyone was staring at her.

“Does she really think she can make you leave town?” Bonnie Gene asked. “Seeing you must have really riled her.”

Dabbing her face with a napkin, Lily didn’t know what to say to that. She felt bad and yet … there wasn’t a thing she could do. People started whispering around them.

“You ready to go?” Bonnie Gene asked.

“Yeah. Now would be good.”

Bonnie Gene put down enough cash to cover their check and stood. Taking the napkin with her, Lily followed her outside, wiping the front of her shirt.

“Good thing it’s just water,” Bonnie Gene said.

“Yeah, it could have been a gun.”

She exchanged a look with Bonnie Gene.

Lily pushed the library door open and dug in her purse for her ringing cell phone. The strap slipped down her arm, causing her to adjust her hands like a juggler. She found the phone.

“Lily Masterson?” a woman queried.

“Yes.” She slung her purse strap back over her shoulder. It slipped back down to her elbow, nearly yanking the phone away from her ear.

Some days nothing ever went right.

“This is Karla Harrison from Montana State Prison?” the caller said, her inflection rising at the end.

The mention of the prison stopped Lily’s breath and a tiny shock wave made her stomach turn and her heart jump into faster beats. She stopped walking.

“Yes?” She remembered the woman. The victims’ officer who’d walked her to the parking lot.

“Is now a good time to talk?” Karla asked in an overly gentle tone, as if she had to walk on eggshells in order to talk to a poor, helplessly traumatized woman.

Lily hated being treated like that. She started walking again.

“Of course.” This was turning out to be a real crapper of a day. She kicked her office door open. It bounced against the stopper and swung back toward her, tapping her arm and knocking her purse off her shoulder again.

“The parole board has reached a decision in Brandon Gates’s hearing.”

Now consumed with apprehension, Lily walked to her desk and sat down, letting her purse slip to the floor beside her chair. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but they’ve decided to release him. You’ll be getting a letter in the mail.”

“You’re releasing him?” How could they?

“It was the board’s decision.”

Apprehension morphed into outrage. “What did they base it on?” Prison overpopulation?

“He went through treatment while he was incarcerated and according to the board, has a valid plan for reentering society.”

“Plan?” she all but shouted. Valid plan? It was maddening. “What plan? A rapist tells you he’s moving to North Carolina and that’s enough for you to set him free?”

“The board is very careful when they make decisions like this, Lily. Please try and understand that. They wouldn’t have released him if they didn’t think he’d do his best to stay rehabilitated.”

“I don’t believe for one minute that he’s rehabilitated.” A hundred images assailed her, all of them from the endless hours she’d spent in that cabin. Tears burned her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Masterson. I know this is hard for you. If you’d like I can give you the name of a good counselor near your home town.”

“I don’t need a counselor,” Lily snapped. “Stop talking to me like that.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Masterson, I—”

“When?” Lily swallowed the lump of hurt in her throat.

“Excuse me?”

“When will he be released?”

“Next week. Friday. It’s all in the letter.”

Lily never hung up on anyone, but today she did. She ended the call and held the phone in her palm, staring down at it, shaking, lost in a maelstrom of old pain and a deep sense of injustice.

She wiped a tear that had slipped from her eye.

There was no punishment that would change what she’d endured, both during her assault and after. The month that followed it had been the worst, with no one to turn to and nowhere to go that felt like home. No wonder she’d tried to obliterate the experience with a one-night stand. It wouldn’t have been her first.

Having sex with a stranger had been a mistake, an attempt to somehow minimize what had happened to her. Instead, that last wild night—like so many she’d had before her rape—had done the opposite. It had made her feel dirty and cheap and had thrown her into a severe state of depression.

Hearing a sound, she looked up to see Emily, her assistant, standing in the doorway. She blinked her eyes clear.

“You okay?” her assistant asked with a worried frown.

“Yes. Fine.” Lily held up the phone. “Just a personal call.”

Emily didn’t look convinced. “We got a couple of boxes of books from a donor yesterday.”

“Good. Let’s get going on sorting them.” She could use the distraction right now. Putting her phone down, she stood and moved around the desk.

Brandon Gates was going to be released. It didn’t seem real. It was so unfair.

“They’re all romance novels. I don’t think we have enough room for all of them.”

Lily forced a smile. “We won’t keep them all. Just the ones in good condition.” She passed Emily and headed out into the main library.

Karla’s news hung inside her like low, dreary fog. It was what she’d been dreading since the hearing. Her worst fear had come true. Would he really go to North Carolina? Or would he risk going back to prison to come and find her? That would be very stupid, unless he thought he could get away with it. Lily had to smother a shiver with the thought of him finding her. And she hated that, her reaction, what he was still capable of doing to her.

Did he know she’d lived in Honey Creek back then? She’d never told him that night, but maybe he found out later. Did he know she’d moved back?

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Emily asked.

Lily had forgotten her assistant had followed her. “Yeah.” She bent to pick up a few books from the first box and turned to place them on a table in alphabetical order by author name.

“Who were you just talking to?”

She sent a look over at Emily, letting her know she was prying too much.

“Sorry,” Emily said.

The sound of someone behind them made Lily turn. So did Emily.