I took my backpack from his hands and the box from the back of his truck, struggling to hold both of them and figure out a way to make it up the front porch.
Riley only shook his head and then stole the items right from my hands, easily balancing both. “It’ll make me feel better. What if Princess Whiskers Wannamaker attacks you for leaving her alone for so long?”
Thankfully, it was dark, so Riley didn’t notice when I blushed. “I should have never told you her full name.” Their relationship was so speedy that I never met Henry’s new wife, but if I had to judge her on her ability to name a cat, we had different taste. I was embarrassed for Whiskers. No way would I call the poor thing Princess Whiskers Wannamaker.
I also had a ton of guilt because until Riley mentioned it, I completely forgot the cat. Poor Whiskers. Feeding and loving the cat was technically the only reason I’d returned to Pelican Bay. My vacation to Maine shouldn’t have included a mini vacation to Florida. If my new sister-in-law was the world’s worst cat namer, it made me by far the world’s worst cat sitter.
“I feel bad we’re back so late because you have to work in the morning,” I said as Riley followed me up to the house lugging my stuff. I was failing everywhere. “You have to get up early tomorrow and catch bad guys and I plan to sleep until noon.” I added further insult to injury as I searched for my brother’s key ring.
Riley needed a good night’s sleep, but I didn’t want our time to end. Doing what was right and doing what I wanted battled in my head. I always made the right choices, but was it so wrong to do something for myself once every ten to fifteen years? Should I invite him in… to stay?
We kissed on the beach, but Riley never tried to take things further, even though we shared a big king-sized bed in the condo. What did that mean? And did I want more with him? Did he want more with me?
I felt like a teenager having a crush again. My heart said yes, but my brain was freaking the hell out at the idea.
It didn’t end well between Riley and me the first time. Mostly because I left in the middle of the night and boarded a bus set for Tennessee three hours before we planned to meet and leave together. I couldn’t take Riley away from the Jeffersons. He loved his family. I considered it the one unselfish thing I’d done in life.
I also took responsibility for my part in the leaving him fiasco, but I didn’t know if Riley had forgiven me. Hell, I wasn’t sure if I’d forgiven myself. He talked about me staying in Pelican Bay but never said if he wanted me to stay.
Ten years ago, my actions made perfect sense, but looking at them with the lens of time they no longer looked so cut and dry. I needed to get away from Pelican Bay as fast as possible to leave my parents and their constant fighting. I never stopped to think of the good I left behind with them.
Riley deserved the world. I didn’t want to drag him low with me if I couldn’t make it on my own. But was that really the case? What if the opposite happened, and we both thrived?
Or what if we hadn’t left at all?
Could I really have been a member of the Jefferson clan this entire time? Would they have accepted me as one of their own?
I’d be packing Riley’s lunch and giving him a kiss as he walked out the door before he raced off to work. He told me he didn’t get to do most of the fun stuff like his brother until he finished training, but he made it sound like an action-packed job. Even if he said he mostly ran the office. His job required a lot more adventure than dispatching trucks, especially in our hometown.
And one problem remained. While we were older and more mature, we were still Riley and Cassandra, and it was still Pelican Bay. I left for a reason.
“You coming?” he asked, already more than halfway up the sidewalk.
“Right,” I said, charging after him with a newfound determination. I hadn’t made a decision on any of my questions, but I’d at least get the front door open so he didn’t have to keep holding my box. “Sorry, I’m still adjusting to the time change.”
It wasn’t my best excuse. Sue me.
Riley looked at me with his eyebrows narrowed, and when I reached him beside the door, he put the back of his hand up against my forehead as if he was checking for a fever. “Same time zone, babe.”
Right.
Shit.
“Fine, it’s helicopter lag. Whatever.” I located the keys in my purse and pulled them out, letting them jingle together. Why my brother needed seven keys for different things was beyond me. I put a dab of pink nail polish on the one I needed for the door and couldn’t wait to see his expression when he saw it. Hopefully, I’d be more than halfway back to Tennessee by then.
A jolt hit my heart. Why did returning to Tennessee sound so horrible?
Riley stepped to the side, allowing me to unlock the door for him. I pushed the key in the hole, but as I did, the door opened with a slow creek. “Um, Riley.”
He took one look at the slowly opening door and pushed me behind him. “Back to the truck,” he said, dropping the bag and box to the porch.
Riley pushed me all the way to the door of his truck, opened it, and dug around in the glove box. When his hand emerged, he held a small black weapon. Leaving me, Riley turned and put his body between me and the house as if he expected it to reach out and bite us.
“You had a gun in your truck the entire time?” Why was he carrying a weapon? And why did an office manager of a security firm need to carry a gun in his glove box in the first place?
Something about Riley’s job no longer added up.
But I had bigger issues at hand. I’d have to interrogate him later.
