Page 28 of Christmas Homecoming Secrets

SIXTEEN

J ade had stepped inside Heather’s home and immediately been hit by the fumes—and the color of the room. A deep red covered the walls and Jade closed her eyes for a moment. Lord, please be with Heather. She’s hurting so terribly bad. “Heather? You here?”

Where else would she be? The bathroom? The back bedroom? She knew Heather had used her spare bedroom as a studio when she had been painting before. Maybe she’d started using it again.

The couch had been pushed away from the wall and was covered with a black tarp. The floors that had once been a pretty taupe colored carpet were now just plywood.

What was Heather doing? “Heather!”

Jade’s phone rang and she realized it had been ringing for several seconds. She snatched it. “Bryce.”

“Hey, how are you doing?”

“I’m at Heather’s. Let me call you back in a bit.”

“Okay, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve got the journal. Listen, I’m real concerned about Heather’s mental state. Frank was worried, too. It was one reason he wanted to postpone the wedding.”

Jade shot a glance toward the hallway. Still no sign of her friend. She lowered her voice. “Postpone, not call off?”

“Calling it off apparently came later. But she knew and she was extremely upset.”

“She knew.” And she hadn’t said a thing to Jade—or anyone else.

“Listen, watch your back with her.”

Jade huffed a short laugh. “You’re kidding, right? This is Heather.”

“I know. And she’s been through a lot. She may not be thinking clearly.”

Well, that was true enough. “What exactly does his journal say?”

“I haven’t read it yet. I’m paraphrasing what Lisa told me. I’m heading back to town and should be there in about twenty minutes. I’ll read some more and try to get the full picture.”

“Okay. I’ll call you and let you know how it goes here.”

He hung up, and Jade walked toward the back of the house. “Heather?” Worry churned within her. Heather had known Frank wanted to call off the wedding. Had she kept quiet because she had hopes he would change his mind? Or…what?

Footsteps in the hallway reached her, and Heather rounded the corner to enter the den, paintbrush in hand, towel over her shoulder. “Ah! Jade?” She pressed a hand to her heart then pulled an AirPod from her ear. “You scared me to death. What are you doing here?”

“I came to check on you. I’ve been calling your name for the past few minutes. I guess I know why you didn’t answer.” She let her gaze roam the room. “You’ve been busy.”

“You told me to paint.”

“This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but…”

“It’s a horrible color, isn’t it?” Heather set the paintbrush on the tarp covering the sofa and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking.” She gave a small laugh. “Frank hated the color.”

“So, why?”

“Because it would have made him mad.” She looked away, then back, fury darkening her eyes. “He was going to call off the wedding.”

“I heard.”

Heather blinked. “You did?”

“Lisa found his journal and read a bit of the entry where he said he was calling it off.”

Her face paled. “Lisa had it? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“So, you knew about the journal?”

Her friend hesitated. “Yes, but he never intended anyone to read it. Those were his private thoughts and feelings.” Heather raked a hand over her hair, pushing a few strands behind her ear. “I can’t believe he left it with her.”

“He didn’t intentionally leave it with her.”

“But he did, and she found it and read it, right?” A short scoff. “What else did he say?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think Lisa read the whole thing, just that part. She gave the journal to Bryce this morning.”

“And has he read it?”

“No, he just picked it up. Forget the journal. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it was embarrassing!” Heather paced to the kitchen and back. She stopped at the bookshelf she’d moved away from the wall and picked up a picture of her and Frank. “I’d already been left at the altar once, and now this? I couldn’t believe it. I thought he was finally—”

“Finally what?”

“Nothing! It doesn’t matter now.” She replaced the picture and looked down at her hands. “Excuse me a minute while I go wash this paint off.”

“Heather—”

“Just give me a minute, Jade, okay?”

Jade raked a hand through her ponytail. “Fine. Sure.” Heather disappeared down the hall, and Jade walked to the couch, then back to the front door, her rubber-soled shoes quiet on the plywood. She returned to the couch and dropped her face into her palms.

When she opened her eyes, she spotted something on the plywood that didn’t look like it belonged there. A large brown stain.

Coldness settled in the pit of her stomach, and she didn’t like where her mind went.

But she couldn’t help it. She’d seen stains like that before.

Jade walked into the hallway and heard the sink in the hall bathroom still running.

She hurried to the kitchen and retrieved a plastic baggie and a pointed knife.

Kneeling at the edge of the stain, she stuck the tip of the knife into it, carved out a small sliver of the wood and slid it into the baggie. Then she pinched the edges shut and stuffed the bag into the inside pocket of her jacket.

“What are you doing?”

Jade spun. Heather stood at the entrance to the den, drying her hands on a towel.

“Nothing.” She stepped forward trying to hide the knife on the floor. “Just trying to figure out your vision for this room.”

Her friend’s gaze dropped to the floor, and her jaw tightened. She tossed the towel onto the covered sofa and shoved her hands into the pockets of her painting smock.

“Why did Frank want to call the wedding off, Heather?” Jade asked. “I thought things were great with you guys.”

Heather narrowed her eyes and barked a bitter laugh. “You really don’t know.”

“I really don’t know, so why don’t you quit being so vague and fill me in?”

“He wanted to call off the wedding because he was in love with you!”

Jade froze. Her heart pounded. Disbelief coursed through her veins. With eyes locked on Heather’s, she shook her head. “No. That’s not true. We were just friends.”

“You’re so naive.”

“Heather,” Jade said softly, “did you kill Frank?” Heather’s left hand rose fast, and Jade found herself staring at the weapon in it. “How could you?” she whispered.

“I didn’t want to,” Heather said, “but he gave me no choice. He didn’t even have the decency to tell me himself. I had to read it in his journal.”

“What?”

“He left it sitting on his kitchen table. I thought I’d sneak a peek and see what I might get him for a wedding gift. Only you can imagine how surprised I was to find out he didn’t want to get married after all because he was in love with you.”

Jade shook her head. It couldn’t be true. “He never gave the first clue that he felt anything more than friendship for me.”

“And get this,” Heather said as though Jade hadn’t spoken.

“He only asked me to marry him because he felt sorry for me for getting jilted. I almost took that book and threw it at him, but decided not to let him know right off that I knew. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I wasn’t going to just sit by and let him humiliate me.

” She swiped a tear, but her eyes remained hard, and Jade was starting to believe her friend, her partner, the woman she’d entrusted her life to numerous times, might actually kill her.

“Frank cared about you. He always did.”

“ Cared about me? He was supposed to love me!” A sob slipped from her and she drew in a slow breath.

“He came back the next day after asking me to marry him and said he’d made a mistake.

He actually apologized and said he shouldn’t have done that.

While he felt sorry for me, he couldn’t marry me.

The problem is, I’d already told my mother and grandmother.

I begged him to let it play out for a few months, then if he wanted to call it off, I’d agree.

I thought surely I could make him fall in love with me by then.

When he kept up the charade, I thought I’d succeeded—except when you were around.

You want to know something else he said in his journal?

Just before he walked in the room, I read that the more he thought about the engagement, the more he thought it might bring you to your senses, that you’d see what you were losing and ask him to reconsider. ”

“What?” Jade couldn’t help the sharp cry.

“As we got closer and closer to the wedding, Frank’s cold feet turned into frozen blocks of ice—and so did his heart.”

Jade wasn’t sure what to say, how to react—or even what to think. Most of her attention was on the gun in Heather’s steady grip. “I’m so sorry,” Jade said. “I really am, but please put the gun down and we’ll work something out.”

A sigh slipped from Heather. “If it was anyone but you saying those words, I might go for it. But I know you, partner , and I know ‘working something out’ means me going down for Frank’s murder. And that’s not going to happen.”

* * *

Bryce’s heart pounded. He’d pulled into the parking lot of the office he’d rented but hadn’t set foot in since returning to Cedar Canyon, to sit in the car and read through just a bit of Frank’s journal.

When he read, “I have regrets. A lot of them,” his blood pounded and his lungs tightened. Sasha moved closer and nudged him. “It’s all right, girl. Give me a minute.”

“The biggest being I kept a secret from a friend,” Frank had written.

“Jade asked me to have Bryce contact her, but I knew why she wanted to talk to him so bad. He’s Mia’s father.

If he comes back, I’ll lose Mia and Jade forever.

It’s wrong of me, I know that. I should tell him, but it’s been five years.

Almost six. How do I tell him after all this time?

” Another entry. “He’s coming home. It won’t be long before he’ll run into Jade and learn about Mia.

Once Jade sees him, she’ll tell him. And they’ll figure out that I’ve lied to both of them.

I’m a horrible friend. I’ve got to come clean and pray everyone can forgive me, but how can they?

” One more. “I know that if I have more time, I’ll be able to win Jade’s heart.

I want to love Heather, but I don’t. It’s Jade.

It’s always been Jade, but how do I break that to Heather?

I’ve really messed up and don’t see a way out that won’t hurt a lot of people.

” Last one. “Heather’s changed. I’m not sure what’s going on with her, but there’s no way we’re getting married.

I just need to man up and tell her. Soon.

Because Jade isn’t showing any inclination that my getting married is bothering her in the least. I think she may be a lost cause.

Regardless, I still can’t marry Heather.

I’m telling her tonight. She’s not going to take it well, and frankly, she’s been so unstable lately, I’m worried about what she might do. ”

He’d read enough to know that Jade could very possibly be in danger. He dialed her number and set the phone in the mount on his dash while the Bluetooth kicked in.

When it rang four times before going to voice mail, he put the SUV in Reverse and backed out of the parking spot, worry for Jade making his palms sweat. Heather’s house was only about five minutes from him.

Unfortunately, a lot could happen in five minutes.