Page 28 of Cord

I find myself smiling and thinking how kind the people are here. If I had Cord’s life, I’d never want to leave. It’s more than just a town that makes good food or has down-to-earth people. It’s the community he’s part of.

When I’m done with lunch, Emma May waves me over to the white tent. She’s talking to an older man with silver hair.

“Can you help Mr. Cartwright with his office cleanup? A lot of glass blew into his place. He’s worried about cleanup since some of his information is sensitive in nature.”

“Sure,” I take the broom from her and give the older man a bright smile. “Point me in the right direction.”

He has a sweet, grandfatherly vibe that instantly puts me at ease. “You can call me Henry. I’m the town lawyer. Try not to hold it against me.”

“I’m in corporate,” I answer, chuckling.

As soon as I step into the waiting room of his office, my shoes crunch on glass. I immediately start gathering what I can with the broom, trying to make a walkway. His office was clearly one of the harder hit buildings.

“Always wanted to go that route. Never did,” he says, righting a turned over filing cabinet with dozens of manila folders leaking from it. “Me and the wife ended up settling in Courage County, and she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her, so we stayed. She was my home.”

“She’s been gone a while?” I ask softly.

He nods, eyes moist behind his round glasses. “Over a decade now. Feels like yesterday. Every single morning, I still wake up and reach for her side of the bed. That’s the cruelest part of the grief. For six hours every night, I forget. Then I wake up, and I have to remember all over again.”

I can’t imagine living with that kind of pain and if something happened to Cord, no, I can’t even contemplate a future where we’re not together. We have to be. I need to tell him that. I need to let him know he’s my whole world. “I can’t...that’s so sad. I’d just feel so sad all the time.”

He shakes his head. “I’ll see her again. Death is only a brief intermission in our love story.”

I nod, holding onto his words. I wonder if that’s why my dad has never remarried. He never even dated after my mom’s death. I’ve asked him several times if he’d ever considered it, and he always tells me that there’s only one woman he’s ever loved.

It takes us almost two hours, but we manage to get the glass swept up, and furniture upright. There are still hundreds and hundreds of folders scattered everywhere. Evidence this man has been working in the town for decades.

I gather them, pausing when I see Cord’s name. I know I probably shouldn’t look, but Henry is in the bathroom, and I’m dying to know what’s inside of this folder. I pause when I see the words post nuptial and quickly scan the document. This doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t he talk to me about this?

Before I can think more about it, Cord is on the sidewalk. I see the smile that lights up his whole face when he spots me, and it makes my gut tighten. I quickly hide away the file. I don’t have time to pocket the papers even though I want to. I make a mental note to help out at Henry’s office tomorrow, so I can get a good look at this paperwork.

He’s inside a moment later. He greets me with a kiss and calls me beautiful despite the fact that I have to look like a hot mess right now. He surveys the office that’s still nowhere near clean. “You did good work today.”

Henry comes from the bathroom and nods to my husband. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to take my wife home,” Cord says, and the look in his eyes makes me shiver. I know that look. It means a long night with lots of orgasms for me. Whatever is in the filing cabinet, it can’t be too bad...can it?

Chapter 14

Mira

“This doesn’t make sense,” I murmur the next day as I thumb through the pages of the post nuptial. Cartwright is out grabbing us sandwiches for lunch while I volunteered to keep sorting the paperwork for him. Really, I just wanted a chance to review what Cord was trying to put into place. It’s a post nuptial agreement that favors me. It basically makes sure that he can’t touch my money.

I’ve read through all the paperwork twice when I get a call from the private investigator. I already know there’s nothing to tell. It’s obvious that Cord has no intention of taking advantage of me financially.

“Did you find anything?” I’ve used Slate countless times over the years to look into people as part of business dealings. This is the first time I’ve ever pulled him into a personal matter, but it doesn’t change the fact that we consider each other friends.

“He’s in massive debt,” he says and names a figure that’s shocking. Most people wouldn’t be able to pay off that kind of debt in a lifetime.

“For what?” I think of Cord’s old truck and the cabin he built with his own hands. It’s not like he has a closet full of designer clothing or an obsession with having the latest tech. He’s just an ordinary guy.

“He’s financed a lot of cash multiple times and then, nothing,” he blows out a breath. “No sign of how it gets spent. If I had to make a guess, he’s probably into something shady. But he has no arrest record yet, so if he is, he’s keeping it quiet. With guys like this, it’s usually just a matter of time before they get caught. Watch your back. He might be dangerous.”

“Thanks, Slate,” I say rather than explain to him that my husband isn’t dangerous. Or at least, he’s not dangerous to me. But how is it that he’s carrying that amount of debt? It’s not typical outside of a failed business venture or a huge house loan, and Slate said it was cash.

I spend the rest of the day puzzling over it. I want to ask Cord about it, but I never get the chance because he’s on one of the nearby mountains with the other men. He’s helping stranded people to safety which is exactly the type of person he is. So, why does he have all of this debt? And more importantly, why has he hidden it from me?

“All I’m saying is I wouldn’t have kicked a guy with that kind of anatomy out of my bed. That’s all,” Sadie says, biting into her donut and wrinkling her nose. They’re store bought, and it’s obvious that everyone here thinks they’re not nearly as good as hers.