Page 12 of Too Close To Call

I’d have to stay for a while. There’s no guarantee Case will see me. A determined spark of stubbornness lights in my chest. Carina is right. I felt so guilty for what I did that I never fought for Case. It was like I was punishing myself by giving him up. But not anymore. I’m not going to let him ignore me like he did last time. I’ll have to wear him down. There’s only one reason I’ll throw in the towel.

“What if he can’t get over that Daisy isn’t his?”

Carina’s gaze softens. “What if it isn’t too late and what if he falls in love with Daisy because of the incredible kid she is? Can you live with not knowing?”

I lean back on the couch as my mind races. Is it possible? Could he love me again? “Damn, I hate it when you’re right. You know me too well.”

“That’s what BFFs do. So… what’s your plan?”

CHAPTER 5

CASE

The bottle in my hand is halfway to my lips when my front door opens and closes. That’s not surprising. My family and friends never knock, but it is unusual for anyone to visit this late.

My Uncle Rod walks into the kitchen and stops, puts his hands on his hips, and quirks one brow. “What the hell are you doing home? You just left.”

Placing my bottle down on the gray and white marble countertop, I scratch my head. “I know you weren’t working the late ferry, so how did you know I was home? I mean, I just walked in the door.”

“Stop stalling. You know gossip central is always at work on the island. You’re supposed to be in Charlotte. What happened to send you running back home?”

I tilt my head and crack my neck. Hearing him refer to me running home doesn’t sit well. “It didn’t work out, and I came home.”

“I need more words, Case. What happened?”

That’s a good question. I haven’t even processed everything myself. With a heavy sigh, I know he deserves the truth. My uncle has always been my sounding board and my confidant in most everything through the years. In this instance, though, not even Rod knows what all went down when I left racing. Mostly because I couldn’t talk about it and, in a weird, twisted way, I was protecting Tori. I still don’t want to talk about it, but I need to.

Rod shakes his head and meets my gaze, not willing to be brushed off. “No. Not buying it. Okay, Case, I didn’t push for answers when you left a very successful and lucrative career, which you loved, by the way. Dale had just died, and we all knew how much you loved the man. But I see you’re hurting. Something happened to send you back home this soon. You’d never blow off a responsibility like this charity race without a damn good reason. Talk to me, son.”

My uncle isn’t going to let this drop, and he may be right. It’s well past time to come clean. With everything. “Want a drink?”

“Whatever you’re having.”

I grab another bottle of water from the fridge. “Let’s go sit outside on the deck.”

I hand him the bottle and sigh. “This is going to take a while.”

The moon reflects off the ink-black ocean water while making the cresting waves shimmer. I bought this house shortly after returning to the island because of its location. It’s oceanfront and situated between my parents and my uncle. But not too close. There’s at least half a mile between us.

The house is almost a hundred years old and needed significant renovation, which took me over a year to complete. It gave me something to focus on at a time when I didn’t need to be in my head. Working on my Z/28 and my home kept me sane those first few years. No matter how many times I told myself she was better off without me, a part of me just wouldn’t let go. But now? Knowing what I do, I feel like a bigger idiot than ever. She’d accused me of using her and her dad to further my career, but now I wonder who was using who. Had our relationship been a lie? Did she ever love me? Was that why Dale didn’t want us together? Did he know? Then my thoughts go dark. Did Dale use Tori to keep me in line with his way of thinking about everything? Oh, my God, what if Tori was the reason Ryan and Cindy divorced?

We sit in high deck chairs facing the ocean with a small table between us and rest our feet on the railing. My stomach is at war just at the thoughts in my brain. “Do you remember Tori Hamilton?”

“Dale’s daughter?” Rod asks.

“Yes,” I reply, and then let it all out. I start with falling in love with Tori and keeping it secret for years. The crash and feeling responsible for Dale’s death, and Tori’s emotional outburst sending me out of her life, ending our future together. When I finish, there’s silence for several moments.

With an irritated sigh, Rod asks, “Why? We’re your family and we love you. Why the hell didn’t you tell us? You needed us and you shouldn’t have been going through all that heavy shit alone.”

I shrug and look over at the man who’d been a another father to me. I knew he would be hurt, just like I know the rest of my family will be too. There had been many times I needed them, but was too closed off in my own misery to let them in. “At the time, I wasn’t thinking. I’d checked myself out of the hospital because I wanted to see Tori. I knew she needed me. I mean her father, a man she loved and idolized, had died. When she accused me of killing her dad and told me she never wanted to see me again, I saw what my presence was doing to her. I left because it’s what she needed. I stayed away because I believed when I crashed into his car that day that I… killed him.”

How could a relationship survive something like that? It couldn’t. Ever. The memory would have always been between us. I have no doubt forgiveness would have developed, but in the back of her mind, I would always be the reason her father was no longer with her. Now, all that’s messed up with her sleeping with Ryan. Did she just need me out of the way?

“What changed? Why don’t you believe that now?”

“I saw Tori while I was in Charlotte earlier today and found out Dale had a massive heart attack and that’s why he ran into the wall. Apparently, he was already gone when we hit.”

All those years I felt the weight of his death on my shoulders. I can’t put all the blame on Tori, she did try to get in touch with me. I do know she came to the island twice, but the guys brushed her off while I hid out in my office. Yeah, I’m not proud of that move. Then there were the letters I returned, unopened which was another stupid ass thing to do.

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