Page 95 of Almost Dead (The Cahills 2)

“Well, when it is, promise you’ll keep me in mind?”

Her persistence was awe-inspiring. “As I recall, you already gave the attorneys your business card,” Cissy reminded dryly.

“I’m a bitch on wheels,” Sara admitted with an embarrassed laugh. She shot a glance at the unmarked police car with its burly driver. “What’s going on there?”

“The police are watching the house just in case Marla shows up.”

She snorted. “I’m surprised the press aren’t camped out here too. One of ’em came to my door, wanted to know if I’d give an interview. I said sure.”

Cissy blinked. “You agreed to an interview?”

“I didn’t give away your family secrets, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s not like I know anything, but I thought maybe if they put my name on the news, I’d get some free publicity out of the deal.” To Cissy’s look of consternation, she said, “I must have been beyond boring, because it never even aired. I spent the whole time telling them how great you and Jack were and how unfortunate it was that you had to deal with all the bad publicity, and then I asked, oh, by the way, did I mention that I sell real estate? They didn’t go for it.”

Cissy almost laughed. Then Sara asked, “You going somewhere special?” She was looking over Cissy’s choice of dress.

“Meeting with those same attorneys over estate issues.”

“Ahh.” She looked hopeful.

“I’m not selling the house, Sara.”

“Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but never say never.” She glanced over at Jack’s Jeep, which was parked on the street in front of the house, across from the unmarked car. “Looks like Jack’s back. Is he part of the protection, or is it more than that?”

“Maybe a little of both.”

She nodded. “Well, he’s a great-looking guy, and he loves his kid.”

“We’re working things out,” Cissy said.

“So all that talk about divorce was just—talk? You never intended to go through with it.”

“I had every intention of going through with it,” Cissy responded heatedly. “But things have changed.”

“Can I ask how?”

“All this with my mother…losing my grandmother…it’s kind of put things in perspective, you know? Makes you ask yourself, What is family? What’s important?”

“But you said Jack was having an affair.”

“I was wrong.”

“Oh.” Sara’s brows lifted.

Cissy could tell she didn’t believe her. Well, fine. She didn’t have to. It wasn’t up to Cissy to convince Sara that she’d made a mistake. That just because women looked at Jack in “that way” didn’t mean he acted on their unspoken invitations. Maybe it was because Sara herself liked Jack’s company, became flirtatious and animated when he was around, that she was reacting now as if Cissy were burying her head in the sand.

“I’d better go,” Sara said, moving away from Cissy’s car. “Tell Jack I’m glad for both of you. And I hope things get resolved with your mother soon too.”

Cissy watched Sara hurry back to her house, steamed for reasons she couldn’t fully explain. She searched inside herself and realized it was because of the way Sara treated her. As if she never really mattered. Sara had a tendency to negate Cissy’s importance without even realizing it. It was as if she’d deemed Jack the prize and Cissy unworthy of his love, or even his interest. As if she expected Jack to wake up one day and recognize he’d made a mistake—that Cissy was too young, too inexperienced, too unsophisticated for the likes of Jack Holt.

And some of Cissy’s own insecurities where Jack was concerned had been triggered not only by Sara’s attitude, but by others’ attitudes as well. Larissa, for instance. She’d supposedly been Cissy’s friend, but that had all been a fantasy, she saw now. Larissa had merely put up with Cissy because she was married to Jack, but like Sara, she’d dismissed Cissy as a serious threat for his attentions. Sure, Cissy was married to him. Yes, she’d borne him a son. But Jack was out of her league: older, wiser, and too intelligent to want to seriously be with her “till death do us part.” Both women felt that it was only a matter of time until Jack was back on the market; Cissy could tell.

And she’d damned well almost followed through on their expectations!

Now she shook her head in disbelief. Had she been so affected, so unsure of her own worth, that she’d believed as they did?

Jack had told her that she was on a search for unconditional love, a product of her uncaring mother, selfish father, and remote grandmother. Maybe he wasn’t that far from the truth. Cissy had certainly let other women feed into her insecurities about his love for her.

Pulling out of her drive and heading into the city, Cissy realized that blaming Jack for cheating had almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy. She was sure he would cheat, she’d expected it based on his father’s and brother’s history, and therefore she’d pushed Jack away so hard that he damned near slept with Larissa. Then she’d compounded her error by kicking Jack out of the house and demanding a divorce!

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