Free Heartless by Cheryl Douglas Page A

Jimmy’s. She had no claim on him, but it still
hurt to know she’d misread his signals.
    “I think you’d
better go,” she said, quietly.
    “Damn it,” he
said, reaching for the phone. “At least let me see it.” He clenched the phone
in his hand before looking up at her. “This isn’t what it looks like. She was…
a friend from high school. I ran into her at Jimmy’s and we took a minute to
catch up.”
    “A friend, huh?”
Ashley crossed her arms over her chest. She knew she didn’t have the right to
act like the resentful girlfriend, but Derek awakened every jealous tendency
she possessed. “You sure that’s all she was?”
    He closed his eyes
and tipped his head back. “Jesus, that was thirty years ago. What difference
does it make now?”
    Ashley reached for
the coffee he brought, trying to feign interest in something other than his
response to her next question. “So she was more than just a friend?”
    “Yeah, she was my
girlfriend, okay?”
    She reached for
the phone, giving him no choice but to relinquish it. The image wasn’t as clear
as Ashley would’ve liked, but it was obvious the woman in question was
beautiful and apparently not afraid to flaunt her killer body. “Heather?” It
was the only girl he’d mentioned to her from his high school days.
    He frowned. “Yeah,
I’m surprised you remember that.”
    “I was hoping you’d
tell me I was wrong, that it wasn’t her. It would make it easier to buy your
story that you just ran into each other by chance.”
    She knew Mike was
using this image to try and make Derek look bad, and unfortunately, it was
working. Given Mike’s biased opinion of Derek, she knew she couldn’t trust her
son to be honest about what he saw, but she didn’t know if she could trust
Derek either. Fifteen years was a long time. People changed, and she couldn’t be
sure that the honest, trustworthy guy she remembered hadn’t been replaced by a
bitter player with a penchant for well-endowed blondes.
    He raked his hands
through his hair. “You’re sayin’ you don’t believe me?”
    “Honestly, I don’t
know what to believe.” She was in the impossible situation of having to choose
between the man who claimed to care for her and the sons who were trying to
protect her from choosing the wrong man.
    Derek started
pacing back and forth across the tile floor. “I can’t believe this. You’re not
even willing to give me the benefit of the doubt?”
    She wanted to,
more than anything, but how could she take his word over her own son’s? “Did
you go home with her?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear his answer, but she
knew she had to ask.
    He released a
gusty sigh before turning to face her. “Would I be here if I had?”
    Just because he
was here now didn’t mean he hadn’t been in Heather’s bed last night.
    “Why are you
here?” Pushing him away seemed like the safest option. She needed time to think,
and she couldn’t do that if he was here hovering, trying to convince her he was
telling the truth.
    “I thought I’d
finish that fence for you.”
    That was the Derek
she knew and loved. Always willing to help a friend or neighbor in need,
whether they asked for his help or not. “Look, I know you don’t owe me an
explanation. There’s nothing between us—”
    He held his hand
up to silence her. “We both know that’s a lie. There’s been somethin’ between
us since the day we met. How long are we gonna go on denyin’ it?”
    She knew he was
right, but she wasn’t ready to define it. Did she love him, like him, respect
him…? Was she willing to risk her relationship with her boys on the off chance
he may decide to abandon his life in Arkansas to try and build a life with her
in Tennessee? There were still so many unknowns, not the least of which was the
woman in the photo.
    “I just need a
little time to think…”
    He took a step
toward her. “I’ve given you fifteen years to decide how you feel about me.”
    She knew if