Page 2 of Now You See Him
Chapter
Two
I t had been two weeks since Tina had uprooted her life and moved to her beautiful country home in Pennsylvania, and she loved every moment of this new life that she’d envisioned the first time she’d laid eyes on the For Sale sign.
That morning, sunrise was accompanied by a thick rolling fog that settled over the yard.
Despite the early fall weather, bright beams filtered through her wide windows, filling her hallways with brilliant light.
The sunsets were highlighted with the hooting owls and the quiet rustling of trees that bordered the property.
Tina wandered the rooms, imagining what she would do with the few empty spaces that were on the second floor, or she’d enjoyed the solitude of her front porch as peace settled into her bones.
The backyard was another blessing of a space.
There was so much potential beyond the narrow, serviceable deck.
Maybe she’d put in a garden next year, and a fire pit.
There was always an option of including a pergola with a trellis.
Despite how grateful she was for the home that was now hers, she was increasingly aware of how dysfunctional her relationship was with Logan.
All of her future plans didn’t include him.
What was even more irritating was that he was beginning to stick to her like glue, swearing up and down that the house that they’d bought, the one that she’d wanted, was plagued by an evil spirit.
Sure, the basement door opened every once in a while, or the lights flickered here and there.
There was also a draft that would sometimes come out of nowhere, but that was all par for the course.
Despite its extensive upgrading and renovation, the house was old, and there was absolutely no reason for Logan to become like human Velcro.
Okay, there two weird things that she couldn’t explain away.
The first was that when Logan wasn’t in the room with her, Tina sometimes felt like she was being watched.
Any time she sat in her office alone, it was almost as if she felt his presence in the chair behind her, silently assessing her every move.
There were even moments when she was thinking about him and she felt a cold prickle at the base of her neck, the brush of a hand against her lower back before he’d show up.
Then there were her dreams.
The first one happened a few nights prior, and it stunned her to full wakefulness, drenched in sweat, her thighs clenched together, her clit swollen and aching.
She chalked it up to her menstrual cycle and the fact that she hadn’t had sex with Logan in months.
But then she’d had another dream that was even more intense than the last. Desperate hands, a wet mouth on her pussy, and the desperate sound of Logan begging her to stop.
As if he wasn’t the one she was having sex with.
She was starting a new life with a man. Marriage, sex, babies—it was all swirling around in her subconscious…right?
Truthfully, even at the start of her relationship with her fiancé, she hadn’t reacted to Logan with the kind of intensity she experienced in her dreams. She couldn’t really remember a face, but sometimes she’d wake with flashes of a tattoo fluttering in the corners of her mind.
She leaned back in her office chair and looked around the small bedroom she’d converted into her personal workspace.
The house had six rooms, including the primary suite, and she’d snagged the last one on the left side of the second floor.
Since she’d moved in, she’d purchased an armchair, a coffee table, and a new standing desk for herself.
Logan had agreed to work from a room on the other side of the second floor since they both had demanding jobs that required them to be on calls all the time.
But that didn’t stop him from interrupting her.
She was about to shut off her laptop to take a break for lunch when there was a knock on her doorframe. She looked up to see Logan dressed in pressed slacks, a button-down shirt rolled to his elbows, and a tie that hung loose around his neck.
“Hi,” he said, his grin perfect and sparkling as always. “I was about to break for lunch downstairs. Are you interested?”
“Sure,” she said. She stood and followed him out the door, and down the hall. “What are you interested in eating?”
He led the way down their wide refinished staircase to the first floor. “We don’t really have much in our kitchen, so we probably have to order from that pizza place again or go to town to get groceries.”
Tina narrowed her eyes at Logan’s back. “Okay, if you know we don’t have groceries, then what were you planning on eating?”
He grinned at her over his shoulder, his attempt at charm failing miserably. “Well, since you used to do the groceries back in New York, I was hoping you’d be willing to go out and bring back some stuff.”
“Logan,” she said with an exasperated sigh.
He crossed the great room into the kitchen and removed a seltzer from the minifridge. “What? I have a call in thirty minutes, and by the time you get back, we can eat together.” He pressed a hand to his chest and held his tie down as he chugged from the can.
“Why couldn’t you go if you knew that we needed groceries? Or why didn’t you tell me last night, so we made the trip together?”
“More convenient this way,” he said with a shrug.
It was more convenient for him, she thought. More convenient for Logan.
She didn’t have it in her to argue with him, so she walked over to the hooks next to the front door and picked up her purse. Thankfully, she’d tucked her phone in her pocket and didn’t have to run upstairs to grab it.
“I don’t know if I’ll be back in thirty,” she said.
His sheepish smile slipped from his face. “What? Why? It shouldn’t take you that long.”
“If I’m going out for groceries, I’ll run a few more errands as well.” She twisted the front doorknob and stepped onto the porch. Then, with a bit of bitterness that she hated she harbored for this man, she said, “I hope you don’t hear any basement activity while I’m gone.”
The guilt intensified when she saw his face go ashen right before she shut the door behind her.
That was cruel of her to mess with him like that, and she’d never been cruel to Logan before.
At one point in their relationship, they fit.
They worked together like two ambitious people who were able to operate in separate orbits next to each other, like two gears in a well-oiled machine.
Even though he’d manipulated her into going, the crisp breeze was beautiful, and the trees were just starting to show color at the tips of their leaves. Maybe some fresh air and a bit of wandering was what she needed to shake her mood.
Using her GPS, she decided to go to the sandwich shop first. She took her time driving down the back roads that cut through the brush and trees that canopied over her car.
Tina rolled her shoulders back, as if shrugging off the weight she’d been carrying all week, and put down her windows so that she could feel the bite of air against her cheeks.
Tina pulled into the small gravel lot next to one of the sandwich shops that she’d seen the last time she was in town. There were a few cars parked against the building, so she snagged an open spot towards the back.
When she walked into the shop, she took in the wood paneling, the temperature-controlled glass case with hunks of raw meat, and the family pictures that lined the walls.
There was a chalkboard that hung over a small cash register with a selection of sandwiches, some familiar to her and some she’d never heard of before.
A woman stood behind the register with a net over her cap of graying brown hair.
She had deep grooves around her mouth but kind eyes.
She was speaking to a man whose back was facing Tina.
When the woman spotted Tina at the door, she smiled.
The creases around her mouth intensified with the easy greeting.
“Hi honey, what can I get ya?”
“Oh,” Tina said. “Um, do you actually have any recommendations? I’m new in town.”
“The Spicy Italian,” the man said. His voice was gravel deep, and Tina’s lower back tingled at the sound. It was the sound that she’d expected to accompany her wet dreams since her first night in Pennsylvania.
He turned, and Tina had to press her lips together to stop from gasping.
Good lord, she didn’t know that Pennsylvania made mountain men out of raw sex appeal. He looked like he belonged in her fantasies. He wore flannel, because of course he did. The sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and he had a tattoo snaking down one forearm.
A familiar tattoo. She just couldn’t place where she’d seen it before.
His hair was thick, black, and disheveled. The color was nearly the shade of his eyes. He had a chiseled jaw covered in scruff. It was nothing like the clean-shaven angular features that Logan possessed.
“T-the Spicy Italian,” Tina stuttered. “That sounds great.” She turned to the woman behind the register. “I’ll have a regular-size Spicy Italian, and then a Turkey and Swiss on rye.”
“You got it, honey,” the woman said with a smile. “Give us a minute and I’ll ring you up when it’s ready.”
She turned away from the register with a slip of paper and walked towards the back.
“Welcome to town,” the man said. “I’m Derrick.” He held out a hand for her to shake. Tina took it, and nearly melted at the feel of his calluses against her palm.
There was a tickle of guilt in the pit of her stomach at the thought of finding herself drawn to someone other than her fiancé. Meanwhile, she hadn’t felt anything for Logan in so long. She’d have to think about her response to this stranger at a later point in time.
“Tina,” she finally responded. “And thank you for the welcome.”
“Are you staying in town?”
Tina was about to tell him that it was none of his business, but then she remembered where she was. This type of lifestyle was different from New York, right? People were going to ask questions. She couldn’t snap at everyone who was curious. “I bought a place up Mountainview Drive.”
There was the sound of metal and glass crashing against the tile floor. Tina whirled to see that the woman who’d stood behind the counter had dropped a large bottle of water that she’d been removing from one of the beverage fridges against the wall.
“Oh my god, are you alright?” Tina asked.
“Fine, fine,” she said, then her panicked look darted to Derrick before she spun on her feet. “I’ll be right back. Gotta get this cleaned up.”
“Was it…something I said?” Tina asked. Her laugh sounded forced, awkward in the moment. Especially since Derrick’s mouth had set into a grim line.
“Mountainview Drive,” he said. “The one that’s off Garden Court?”
“Ah, why do you ask?”
“That used to be my brother’s home,” Derrick said quietly. “I’m the one who sold it to you. Tina Dubey, right?”
Tina’s eyebrows shot up nearly to her hairline. “Oh.” Her mind raced as she tried to piece together the details from the home sale. “Derrick…Sutter? Your brother’s home. That’s right. I’m so sorry about your loss…”
Derrick shook his head. “It’s quite alright. It’s been about a year. The house has been gutted and renovated since then. I did most of the work myself.”
“Well, the finishes are beautiful. And I’ll make sure I treat it with the respect it deserves.”
Derrick stared at her for a moment, the dark hues of his eyes deepening.
“If there is anything you need, anything that comes up, I’m happy to swing by.
” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a card.
Tina didn’t even realize people still had them anymore, but she took the cream-colored card from his fingertips and looked at the block print words on the front.
derrick sutter. sutter construction, renovation and repair. His phone number and an email followed on the second line.
“I appreciate it,” Tina said carefully. “I mean, everything looks brand new. The only problem we’ve had is with the old hinges on the basement door that keeps opening?—”
“Old hinges?” Derrick asked. “No, I replaced all the door hinges and the doors.”
Then why was the basement door swinging open periodically? Tina was about to explain that he had to be mistaken when the woman behind the counter approached the register with a broom and a plastic bag filled with what looked like two sandwiches.
“Here you go, honey,” she said, her tone kind and hurried. “This one is on the house. A welcome gift to town.”
“Oh no, you don’t have to do that,” Tina argued even as she reached for her phone.
The woman waved a hand in her direction. “Nonsense,” she said. “It’s my family business. We are happy to welcome new blood to town.”
Tina looked at Derrick, who shrugged, then back at the woman. “Well, thank you. I appreciate it.”
She waved a hand and began mopping up the glass shards. “Derrick, your crew’s order is almost done, too.”
“Thanks, Colleen,” Derrick said. He nodded in Tina’s direction, his mouth set in a polite smile. “It was nice meeting you. And please call me if you need me. Seriously.”
There was something in his tone that had her pausing. “Oh, ah. Okay. Thanks.” Then she pushed the door open and stepped out into the parking lot again.
The door had new hinges. She’d have to go check for herself.