Caught Off Guard Read online

  Silver Springs had changed a lot over the years. It was no longer the small, sleepy town it had once been. The legalization of dockside gambling brought in several casino boats to the neighboring city, and with them came the people. Compared to Baton Rouge, the city was still small, but the population had quadrupled in size from the years of Veronica’s childhood.

  Still, despite the changes, it felt like home. The changes were a good thing, too, because Veronica had made her own changes over the years, and she didn’t intend to stop now. She doubted that the woman she had become, the woman she intended to be, would have fit in with the sleepy town she remembered as a girl. But the Silver Springs of today definitely held promise.

  So did her store. No doubt it would add the spice to her life that she looked for. Veronica gazed around feeling all her second thoughts, all her doubts, begin to melt away. For the first time in her life, her parents weren’t there to tell her what to do, her husband—God rest his soul—wasn’t there to make decisions for her. She was doing what she wanted to do, taking her life into her own hands, and it would work. She would make it work.

  Romantic Illusion. The idea had come to her in the second year of her marriage and continued to roll around and build in her mind until she decided to make her dream a reality. In the day and age where sex had become an open topic, similar stores had begun popping up all around. They were stores that catered to the sexual exploits of people, stores more commonly referred to as porn shops. But Romantic Illusion would be nothing of the sort.

  Oh, Veronica knew it would be seen as such at first. She had prepared herself for her store to be lumped into that classification. At least in the beginning, until her customers became familiar with the merchandise she carried. A porn shop, Romantic Illusions would not be.

  Her store would cater to couples, to love, and not simply the fun between the sheets. As the name of her store said, she'd cater to romance. She had added “illusion” to the name, because it was indeed only an illusion if the romance wasn’t in the heart.

  She couldn’t put romance in one’s heart. She didn’t kid herself into believing that she could. She could help one set the right atmosphere, the right semblance, to draw out the romance, which lived inside. The rest was up to the couple.

  As a believed to be straight-laced girl from the rich side of the tracks and a widow to boot, Veronica knew she was the last person anyone would expect to open such a store. It seemed too bold and brazen for someone like her, and it no doubt would have been ten years, or even five years, ago. Heck, two years ago it would have been a stretch. Not anymore. In taking hold of her life, so many changes developed as well. Interests that had been buried, desires gone unrecognized, needs gone unfulfilled pushed their way to the front of her mind and she latched onto them as a directional arrow to her future.

  She finished hanging the sign over the display of luxurious powders, glitters, and sprays, steadied herself on the three-foot ladder, and admired her handy work. The sign—a picture of a couple standing naked beside a claw foot bathtub, their hands beginning an obvious exploration of the other’s body—would definitely draw attention.

  Satisfied, she stepped down from the ladder just as she heard a knock on the glass of the front door. The store wouldn’t open for another three days. A sign outside said as much. Still, she’d had several people knock inquiring about her merchandise during the weeks she had been inside the store preparing for the opening. They had all been tourists and she had to politely send each of them on their way, but it was nice to see the store already generated attention.

  As she stepped into view of the door, she saw it wasn’t a tourist knocking this time but Lacy Fergus. Veronica smiled, always happy to see her old friend, and unlocked the door.

  “I figured I would find you here.” Lacy stepped inside, her high heels clicking on the tiled floor, breaking the silence of the building.

  Veronica hadn’t noticed the silence. She had spent the morning working while lost in her thoughts, and it hadn’t bothered her. Yet, she found she welcomed the interruption of the quiet atmosphere now.

  “There’s still so much to do before Saturday.” More than she realized, she silently admitted, but she would get it done.

  “Where is Judy?” Lacy asked of the young college girl Veronica had hired. “Isn’t she supposed to be helping you?”

  “She is, but she has a full day of classes at the Junior College on Wednesdays. She won’t be here until late this afternoon.” And by that time, Veronica would probably be too pooped to do anything but hand over the responsibilities to Judy. “I was thinking, I should have saved room for a bed and moved in here instead of the house.”

  “You better not. Not after I worked my tail off this week finding you an apartment. Those are getting scarce around here these days.” Lacy walked to the counter, set her briefcase by the register, and turned back to Veronica with a triumphant grin. “But I found one, and I think it’s exactly what you’re looking for.”

  Though she didn’t want to say as much, Veronica had her doubts. This wasn’t the first time since Lacy took over Veronica’s apartment hunting that her friend had been certain she found the perfect place. Veronica told Lacy exactly what she was looking for time and again. The problem was that Lacy’s idea of perfect was huge, expensive, and glamorous while what Veronica wanted was simple, practical, and cozy.

  “It’s a condo.” At the look that Veronica knew must be on her face, Lacy held up a finger. Her nails were perfectly manicured and painted a conservative shade of brown. “I know you said you didn’t want anything big, and it’s not. It has two bedrooms, a bath and a half. The half bath is downstairs of course—a decent size combination living and dining area and a patio that’s shaded by a couple of beautiful oak trees.”

  Veronica busied herself by rearranging a rack of women’s lingerie. She didn’t want to appear too interested, although it seemed her words had finally gotten through. “Where’s it located?”

  “It overlooks the back nine of the Green Leaf Golf Course.”

  Any hope that had been building in Veronica’s heart at Lacy’s description of the condo was instantly washed away. The Green Leaf area was a new addition to the town. Off the beaten path, it offered peace and solitude with a bit of the country feel. It was also where the new crème de la crème of society was finding their resting ground.

  “I don’t know, Lace...” She let her words trail off as she turned to face her friend, trying hard not to let her skepticism show.

  “Drive out there and take a look around when you get a chance.” Lacy unbuttoned the jacket of her gray business suit to reveal more of the white silk blouse she wore underneath.

  Veronica couldn’t help but be amazed at how comfortable her friend looked in the suit. She had worn similar suits many times in her life. She owned a closet full of them. And on more than one occasion lately, she had toyed with the idea of starting one heck of a bonfire with all of them.

  Over the years, she came to hate the stuffy, binding, conservative clothing she and so many of her acquaintances wore. Veronica had curves and what good were curves when she couldn’t show them. These days, she preferred the sexy to the conservative, the comfortable to the classy. Give her a choice between a suit like Lacy’s and crop top and shorts, and she would take the shorts any day. Besides, the crop top would show off the bellybutton ring she had gotten just before moving back to Silver Springs.

  “You haven’t been out there since you’ve been back, have you?” Lacy continued. “These condos are new, and many are still under construction. There’s a section of the complex that will be reserved for golf packages and corporations but the rest are available for lease. The area is great! It’s quiet and cozy, just like you said you wanted, and even though it overlooks the golf course, it isn’t pricey or elaborate.”

  Veronica had to laugh. It was easy to see how Lacy had become one of the top realtors in Silver Springs. She did know the right things to say to sell a person on a pla
ce. Or was it to sell a place on a person? Which ever it was, Lady was doing it right, because she found her interest growing and her skepticism fading.

  Lacy leaned her back against the counter, her hands resting on the Formica on either side of her hips, her ankles crossed. “Will you at least check it out? I’ll go out there with you if you want. I can get the key, and we can walk through it together.”

  “Okay,” Veronica agreed. She didn’t miss the way her friend’s shoulders slightly lifted and fell in a sigh of relief. Lacy had always been one who strived to please. She also recognized the moment she gained the upper hand and knew when to accept small victories and change the subject.

  “Have you heard from your parents lately?”

  Her parents. Yeah, Veronica had heard from her parents. She wouldn’t be surprised if half the town of Silver Springs had overheard her last conversation with her father. “Dad isn’t too happy with me right now.”

  “Because of this store?” Lacy guessed correctly.

  “This store and the house in Baton Rouge, my decision to sell and move back here. Heck, Lacy, sometimes I think he’s unhappy with me for even being born!”

  “You knew when you decided to open this place that he would be less than thrilled.”

  “Because a woman like me has no business owning a place like this,” Veronica said, mimicking her father’s tone and the exact words he had spoken so many times in the past few months. “I’m tarnishing the family name. How dare an Abbott be involved in such trash? Do you know that he actually threatened to revoke my trust fund if I attempt to use a single penny of it on this business?”

  Veronica had been shocked to hear such words from her father. Not that she really cared about the money. She didn’t need it, and if she played her cards right, she never would. Though she had been born rich, married rich, and even widowed rich, money didn’t mean as much to her as she supposed it should have. She learned early on that the old cliché about money not buying happiness was oh so true. Happiness was found in living, in doing things you enjoyed, in spending time with those you love. Having money, especially loads of it, often wrought more unhappiness than it brought. Her husband’s life had been a prime example of that. Heck, her life had been too...until now.

  “Can he do that?”

  “Oh, yeah, he can do it. Dad isn’t a stupid man. He also isn’t one to relinquish control. The money is mine, but he’s the executor of the account. He can monitor every dime I take from it, know exactly where it’s spent, and what it’s spent on, and believe me he does.”

  “Is that going to cause a problem?” Lacy asked, the concern in her expression also sounding in her voice. “Not being able to use any of the money for the business.”

  “Not at all.” Veronica walked behind the counter and rested her elbows on the top. “I hadn’t planned to use it anyway.” She had no need to. Robert’s death left her in a better than good financial standing without dipping into her own money. Between the money they’d had in their joint bank accounts, his life insurance policy, and the money she received from the Baton Rouge Police Department because Robert had in fact been killed on the job, she could easily live with no worries. “It’s just Dad’s way of continuing his attempt at controlling my life. He’s never let go, Lace. I may have moved out years ago, got married and lived hundreds of miles away from him, but his strings on me have remained strongly tied.”

  “But I’m untying those strings now,” she said with utter conviction. “I got rid of the first one by moving back here. Dad didn’t like that one little bit. He wanted me to stay in Baton Rouge. I think he expected me to lock myself in the world that Robert and I had built together, only I would continue living it without Robert.”

  And wouldn’t that have been fun. Yeah, right. The life she and Robert built together, the friends they made, it had all revolved around the Police Department. The women she knew—not one of which she could truly call a friend—were all wives of cops just as she had been. Oh, they stuck by her immediately after Robert’s death, but it hadn’t taken long before they began to drift away. Veronica no longer fit in. She became a cop’s widow instead of a cop’s wife. She served as a constant reminder to the women of what could happen to their own husbands. It was a reminder that none of them wanted.

  “But since you moved anyway—”

  “He now expects me to fall into the world that he and Mom left behind here. He wants me to stay in the house, live off my inheritance, and attend bridge meetings twice a week until I find another man who has more money in his bank account than I do, who will marry me and give him the grandchild he so desperately wants. He wants me to become my mother. That’s what he’s always expected from me…to live exactly as she does, the lady of the house and servant to her man.”

  “So that’s why you’re looking for a apartment instead of staying in the house. I thought maybe your parents were planning to move back to town, too. Or that your decision had something to do with the fire.”

  “No. Thankfully my parents seem to be completely satisfied in Florida.” Veronica prayed they would stay that way. As long as they were happy in Florida, she only had to contend with them over the phone and during visits every few months. Having them two states away would make it easier for her to build the new life she was looking to construct. “The crew they hired to do the repairs on the house did a superb job. There’s no trace there was ever a fire of any kind.”

  “You know, a lot of the credit for that goes to the Fire Department. It was their quick response and skill that kept that fire from being far worse than what it was. You should have been there that night. Watching them in action, it was pretty amazing,” Lacy said, wonder and admiration rang in her words. “I never thought I would say this, but it was a good day for the Silver Springs Fire Department when Dean got hired and an even better day when he became one of their captains.”

  Butterflies Veronica thought had gone dormant long ago took flight in her stomach. “Dean Wolcott?” she asked, unable to hide her surprise. How could she have forgotten about him?

  “You didn’t know he was a firefighter?”

  Shaking her head, Veronica lowered herself onto the stool behind the register. “I had no idea.” So the rugged and carefree boy—young man really, who had been twenty-two the last time she remembered seeing him—had grown up to become a part of the Silver Springs Fire Department. Wonders never ceased.

  The times she visited Silver Springs since leaving for college had been brief and filled with her parents and their friends. Putting Dean Wolcott in that crowd would be the equivalent of tossing a rat in a cage of kingsnakes. She had often wondered what happened to him but there had been no one to ask without raising suspicions. Finally, she simply pushed him from her mind. He was a man who didn’t travel in the world in which she lived, and though the gossip vine had been pretty heavy with tails of his latest adventures in school, the vine seemed to break once they reached their adult years.

  Had the wild and crazy boy she remembered turned into a responsible adult? Veronica actually found herself hoping he hadn’t. His bad-boy persona had been one of his main attractions. And his eyes...oh, she remembered his eyes all too well. The promises of adventure, excitement, of teaching her things that would make a nun blush that she had seen in his eyes.

  Everyone had childhood secrets and her crush on Dean Wolcott was hers. No way would she have ever admitted it to anyone. Not even Lacy. In truth, she hadn’t even admitted it to herself except when she was alone, locked in her room late at night and dreaming of a life so different than the one she lived. Now she was building that different life. Wasn’t she? And a man like Dean Wolcott would certainly fit to spice things up.

  Veronica wasn’t looking for a relationship as much as simply someone to spend time with and have loads of sizzling, sweaty sex. Her husband had been dead for two years and she sunk into two years of celibacy. Well, almost. She had one hot encounter with a guy in Baton Rouge several months ago. The only one-night stand
she’d ever had in her life. While the idea was exciting, the sex hadn’t been. He had never been interested in exploring, in taking the time to thoroughly enjoy the experience. Instead, the sex had reminded her much of the sex she had with Robert…sweet, gentle, and quick. Boring!

  Sex with Dean Wolcott, on the other hand, would be nowhere near boring. She was certain of it. Always had been. That had been part of the reason she had been so afraid of him as a young girl. She knew he could show her things she would never experience anywhere else, things that she burned to experience now.

  “It’s pretty amazing how much people change when they grow up,” Lacy said with a laugh that mirrored her amazement. “He definitely didn’t turn out anything like I expected him to. Shoot, the whole town expected him to spend his adult life behind bars. And you, God, look at how much you have changed! The sweet, little innocent girl turns hot, sassy, and sexy. News at eleven.”

  Veronica didn’t crack a smile at her friend’s poor attempt at humor. “I want to see him.” She realized she actually voiced the thought and quickly added, “To thank him...them, the firefighters, for putting out the fire so quickly. Maybe I’ll take them a thank you basket or something.”

  Lacy looked around, a wide mischievous grin spreading across her lips. “From the store? And exactly which items would you include in a basket for a crew of beefy, bad ass firefighters?”

  Veronica laughed, seeing her friend’s point. She would look like a complete idiot, or worse, showing up at a fire station with a basket of romantic goodies for a group of men she didn’t know—men who had the reputation of being some of the toughest, bravest, and manliest on Earth.

  Lacy walked around the store looking like a woman on the prowl. “You could toss in one of these.” Her grin widened as she held up a jar of shimmering gold body dust. “Oh, and one of these.” She moved to a display of sex games for couples a few steps away and selected a box. “Jump Me Checkers, now that sounds like a lot of fun. And what’s this?” She put the game back, moved to another display, this one of instructional books. She held up a book titled Romance for Dummies and Veronica thought her friend’s face was going to split from the size of the smile that one brought out. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”