Page 29 of Unveiled

Chapter Fifteen

Tatum was hurt and angry and a million other things, but by the time she heard Rush’s phone, she realized what she’d done. She’d used his vulnerability against him. The very thing she accused him of.

Exactly what Dale had done to her. I’m no better than Dale. She turned to apologize and beg forgiveness because that was a shit thing to do. Hurt or not, there was never an excuse for wielding someone’s openness against them.

Rush had the call on speaker with his back to her, but she heard Mark’s voice clear as a bell. “We got trouble, turn on the news.” Rush searched for the remote. The edge to Mark’s voice knocked the wind out of her. She found the black rectangle first and pushed the red button. As the screen came to life, she was looking directly into her own eyes. It was her, just with lighter hair and about a year younger. Luckily the sofa was right there or she would’ve landed on her ass when her knees gave out.

A cacophony of sounds assaulted her.

Mark’s disembodied voice floating from Rush’s phone.Rush cursing.Dale droning on about how she ran into the woods in the night. Cyrus calling her his daughter-in-law and insinuating he was worried for her well-being.

The sounds started warping and melding. Her vision blurred. It felt like she was sinking under water. Drowning. The last thing she heard semi-clearly and comprehended was Rush telling Mark he had to go and then his phone hit the hardwood floor. Tatum was so deep in her head, the room disappeared.

“Where are you, Babes?” She was being shaken almost violently.

“Don’t make me throw your ass in the pool, because I will if you don’t come back to me in about two point five seconds.” She floated upward when she started to become aware of her surroundings once again. No, not floating, lifted.

“Rush.” Her words were soft, and things were still out of focus, but coming back to normal.

“Yeah, Babes. It’s me, I got you.” Rush lowered himself down with her in his lap again. He seemed to like that for reasons she could analyze later, right now she had to. . .

“I’m not married, I swear.” Dale told the reporter they were married. Rush already questioned her marital status so that news clip wasn’t going to reassure him.

“I know Babes, I think I’ve known all along. I’m sorry I wouldn’t listen.”

“How is it that you know now, when Dale and Cyrus all but confirmed your suspicions?”

“Because you were with Mark and Charlie when he claims you both ditched the big wedding and got hitched by Judge Chambers. And you were here with me when you supposedly ran into the woods. But I knew it before, because you told me you weren’t. I was just doing as you pointed out, reverting to my old ways.”

She buried her face in his neck and inhaled deeply. His spicey scent soothed her. “I’m sorry about that. I should never have used that against you. You trusted me with it, and I threw it in your face the second I was hurt.”

“Yeah, same. I should’ve trusted you. We’re both a mess, but hey, we can be messy together.”

Silence reigned for a while, but then she remembered everything that was said on television. “What am I going to do? Cyrus insinuated I was unstable and ran off into the woods during our honeymoon, leaving Dale devastated. The world thinks we’re married. That means he can do whatever he wants with the funeral home and I can’t stop him. If I don’t turn up, I’ll be declared dead, but if I do, I’ll be locked away. Maybe I should get a lawyer, protest their marriage claim, and then worry about the sanity one later. If I can prove they’re lying—”

“That’s going to be hard right now. They have a marriage certificate signed by a judge and witnesses. . .and you. If you protest, they’ll just refer back to Dr. Coopman.”

“Wait, me?”

“Yeah, we didn’t know the Blankenships would hit the five o’clock news, or claim you ran off. But we dug up the marriage certificate earlier.” Rush looked sheepish.

“So that’s why you believed. . .”

“Yeah. Wecompared it to the notes you’d written while here, and if it’s fake, it’s a damn good one. It’s more likely you signed it at some point thinking you were signing something else. My guess is they slipped in a blank sheet or two when you were handling your parents’ legal affairs and your head wasn’t on business.”

The more she thought about it, the sicker she got. Cyrus and Dale had been playing the long game. “What am I going to do?” Tatum heard the despair in her own voice. It still didn’t relay the level in her heart. Maybe she should just go back and let them lock her up. It was preferable to being married to Dale, and maybe in time, she could prove she wasn’t crazy. Let him have the funeral home for whatever reason he wanted it, and maybe he’d let her slink away.

“We,” Rush emphasized the word. “Are going to find out what they’re running and shut it down. Get the funeral home secure, get that sham of a marriage off the books, and prove that everything they’re trying to say about you is lies.”

“How?”

“Mark and Charlie will be here at nine. We’re going to hammer out a plan to end this shit. Charlie’s using her connections, both legit and not, to gather dirt on the Blankenships. In the meantime, do you want a bubble bath? I’m drawing.” Despite everything that had just happened, Rush’s smile caused flutters in her stomach.

It was time she faced the facts. Whether they had a future or not, she was in love with him, period. She had already admitted it to herself, but her brain was at war with her heart. They barely knew each other, and she was right smack dab in the middle of a steaming pile of shit. What’s the saying? The heart wants what the heart wants. A sigh of relief coursed through her body at accepting her admission. She hadn’t said it aloud and didn’t know if she’d ever be able to tell him, but accepting it herself helped.

It also hurt.

A ball of tension moved through her, upsetting that sense of calm she’d just found. She was in love with a man who ran hot and cold at the drop of a hat. A man who by his own admission didn’t know squat about how to be in a real relationship, but less about being alone. A man who now held her heart and soul in his hands and didn’t even know it.

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