“Oh … God…”
Abruptly, she thought of her last conversation with Thom, the one that had revealed a truth that made things easier, not harder, to live with.
This shit with Duke in there?
It was so much worse than Thom falling in love with the woman he would later spend the rest of his life with. That had hurt, yes, but at least that particular ex of hers had proven to be the good guy she’d always believed him to be.
No family, she thought bitterly as she went out to her car. Duke must have a very different definition of the word.
Getting in, she slammed the door and gripped the wheel, and blinked hard—although whether that was from hurt or anger, she didn’t know. Wrapping her arms around her stomach, she couldn’t believe she’d invited that liar over to her house … welcomed him into her bed … woken up next to him just this morning with all kinds of delusions of intimacy…
Snagging her phone from her bag, she went into recent calls and hit the one that was at the top.
G.B. answered on the second ring. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t think so … actually, no, I’m really, totally not.”
“Cait—” His voice broke. “Cait, I’m really sorry. If I’d known you were seeing him, I would have told you. He’s evil … he’s an evil guy.”
Holding the phone up to her ear, she didn’t fully focus on the parking lot in front of her, or the sun that was just about to set behind the JCPenney up ahead, or the couple who were walking hand in hand in front of her.
“G.B., I need to know something,” she said in a dull tone.
“Anything.”
“I need to know where he lives.”
She was absolutely going to confront him, but it was going to be in person, not over the phone. She wanted the satisfaction of seeing his reaction when he found out that he’d been caught in his lies.
“Where am I … where … am I…”
As Cait heard the words leave her lips, she thought … God, she’d said the same thing the night this had all started. Instead of being in search of a hair salon, though, she was out in the boonies, driving along rural roads that were not marked, in search of a farm.
Didn’t exactly narrow things in this kind of neighborhood—
Cait slammed on the brakes, the Lexus grabbing onto the pavement and stopping just before a turnoff that had a mailbox reading, RR 1924, next to it.
Swallowing hard, she wondered if she was really going to go through with this—namely, wait for Duke to get home and confront him in person.
The decision was made once and for all as she thought of G.B.’s expression when Duke had come out of nowhere at the grave site. G.B. had been shocked not just because she’d been seeing someone else—but rather because he’d known what it meant; he’d known the man she’d been fooled by.
Someone capable of lying about whether or not he had a kid? A brother who was alive and well?
Nothing was out of bounds.
She turned in and started down the dirt path, going past acres of shorn cornfields that would no doubt imminently be turned over for planting season. The farmhouse that first appeared was quite large, a brick construction of sturdy, ageless style. She went by it, as she’d been told to do, and kept on the road, eventually coming up to a squat ranch that had a decade-old car parked off to one side and a picnic table underneath a pine tree on the other.
Stopping right in front, she got out and looked around. Then she marched up to the windowless door and knocked.
Heart pounding, she had no idea who was going to answer the—
The stench of pot smoke that greeted her was enough to make her cough. And sure enough, as she looked past the skinny, happy-looking guy between the jambs, she saw two different bongs, a plastic bag full of weed, and enough lighters to start a bonfire on a pitted coffee table.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd he did drugs.
What a f**king winner.
“Hi,” the man said. “Are you Cathy?”
Like he’d expected someone by that name.
“No.” Anger sharpened her tone. “Does Duke Phillips live here?”
“Yup, this is his place and I’m his roommate—what can I do you for?”
Lies, drugs, and a roomie.
You know what, she thought. This was bullcrap. Duke didn’t deserve some confrontation. The best thing she could do, the only thing she should do, was take care of herself.
Cait just shook her head. “Nothing, actually.”
As she pivoted away, he said, “You here to see Duke? He’s due home any minute. You want to wait? I’ve got some cold pizza.”
“No, thank you.”
“Who should I tell him was here?”
“Nobody. I just took a wrong turn, but I’m going to fix that.”
Cait went back for her SUV, and was rather proud of herself. No tears. No sobbing. No hysterics.
She did, however, feel like the stupidest woman alive—
“Wait! Hold on!”
She closed her eyes as she put her hand on her door. “Yes?”
The guy came loping over. “Seriously. You came here to see Duke, right? I mean, no one comes out here without a reason.”
Cait cocked a brow. “Actually, fine. You can tell him that the joke’s up. His brother told me all about him, and I’ve just come from the mall, where I saw Duke with his son. So he’s not to call or come by to see me ever again.” She opened her door and hopped into her seat. “Oh, and you can throw in a ‘fuck off’ in there somewhere while you’re at it.”
As she started her engine, the pothead backed off with his palms up, like he was afraid she might mow him down in her bid to get back to civilization.
Clearly, he hadn’t smoked out all his brain cells.
Chapter Fifty-four
When Duke pulled his truck up in front of the Appaloosa Way condo, he put things in park, but didn’t cut the engine.
Nicole had been entirely too grateful when he’d called her on the way home from work and offered to take the kid out for a mall crawl and a talking-to. And maybe because of that, he didn’t want to go inside even though she wasn’t due home from her shift for another couple of hours.
Some lines, he didn’t want to cross.
Others … might be okay.
He looked across the seat. The boy was sitting there like a bump on a log, lanky arms linked across his pigeon chest, his long hair in his face.
“So do we understand each other,” Duke said grimly.
“What,” came the grousing response. “Like you takin’ me out for a burger’s gonna make me—”