Tangled in Tinsel: The Celebration Series, Book 1

What the hell was I doing? I sank to the floor behind my closed bedroom door, clenching my eyes as I tried to get my raging hormones under control.

Shit! Shit! Shit! That was absolutely the hottest thing I had ever had done to me. I tried not to imagine what would have happened next and instead tried to listen for signs that he had left.

For over an hour, I sat on the floor and listened to him moving around in the living room and office area. One time he paused just outside my door, but after a moment, he had returned to the living room. Finally, I heard the front door close.

I banged my head against the door behind me twice before I tried to get to my feet. My butt was numb from sitting on the hard floor for so long, and when I stood, I shook out my legs to get the blood flowing again. Of course, the blood was still flowing to other parts of my body.

I tiptoed out to the living room to make sure that Thad was gone. There was no way I could face him right now—or ever if I had my way. Thankfully, the room was empty, and I released the breath I had been holding.

I turned to study the wall. While I had stayed locked in my room, he had finished up the work. I cringed as I realized I was going to have to thank him for all his hard work.

I did manage to hang my new curtains in my room all by myself even though they were a bit crooked. I also got most of my furniture back into place in the living room. By eight, I was exhausted and took a long shower before climbing into bed.

The entire time I worked, I forced myself not to think about Thad, or the way his hands had felt on me as he’d held me against the wall. It had been my fault, I knew it. I had pretty much forced him to tell me what he had been thinking. Damn, what he had been picturing in his mind had been blazing hot.

By the next morning, I had decided I needed to seek him out and apologize for blowing up in his face. We were going to be neighbors for a while, and I didn’t want to have hard feelings between us. I knew that we could be friends, as long as we kept our hormones under control. I should explain to him my thoughts on getting involved with a married man; maybe that would calm the lust in his eyes.

Yeah, right! I snorted to myself as I rinsed out my coffee cup. What I did know was that I could not be alone with that man anymore, ever.

My first task for the day was to look over my finances and see how much money I had to play with. I sighed as I thought about the fact that twelve months ago, I’d had all the money in the world I needed, and now it was gone. I had no doubt that my mother was rolling over in her grave. This was the first time in eight years that I was thankful she had passed. I couldn’t imagine her dealing with the embarrassment of what my father and Kevin had done.

My second job was to call the alarm company and have one installed. I was a woman on my own, and I would spare no expense to make sure my home was secure. Speaking of which, I needed to have the front porch light looked at. Thad had replaced the bulb yesterday, but it still didn’t work.

That led me to my third task, I needed to stop by the tavern and see if Dabby knew of anyone who could help me finish the wall and maybe refinish my wood floors.

After spending an hour reconciling my accounts and seeing that I still had a fair amount that I could use to fix up the house, I called the alarm company. I set up an appointment with them to come out and take a look at my house, and they recommended that I touch base with the police department to see if they had any restrictions or permit requirements.

It was after two when I finally got into the tavern and got a chance to talk to Dabby. As soon as I told him what I needed, he’d picked up the phone and made a call. Before I finished my lunch, he had it all worked out that someone would be out at my place later in the day to finish the wall and give me an estimate on my floor. He told me they even said they’d look at the light for me.

I stared at the front door to the police station. Please don’t let him be in there, please don’t let him be in there, I repeated over and over again. With a deep breath, I pushed open my car door and approached the main entrance.

When I pulled the door open and stepped inside, I experienced a host of emotions so quickly that I felt dizzy. I was shocked to see Thad with his arms around another woman. Jealousy zapped so hard through my body that my hair should have been standing on end. The green envy quickly switched over to such an anger that it seethed deep inside my gut.

What a freaking playboy! The man was married, and here he was with his arms wrapped around some hussy a day after he had made a play for me—and did I mention that he’s married?

I didn’t try to hide my disgust from him—or from her for that matter—and I was glad that I was able to get my answer and exit the building within a couple of minutes.

I blinked back tears as I rushed to my car and heard Thad yell my name. My steps faltered at the sound of his voice, but I had to get away from him.

He caught up to me and I listened to his explanation, but his words meant nothing to me and I told him so. Yeah, I accepted his apology, and he was right, I did take part in that wild and crazy lust-filled moment just the day before, but I’d be damned if that was going to happen again. The moment his hand grabbed my arm, my resolve began to slip. I stepped away so he wasn’t touching me anymore.

“I’m not interested in anything more from you. We are neighbors, and that’s all.” My hands shook as I spoke, and I crossed my arms to hide them.

“Casey,” he reached out for me again, and I threw my hands up.

“Officer Wagner, if you touch me again I will file a report. I’m not interested in your advances. Do you get that?” I spat the words out through gritted teeth. Pain and acceptance crossed his features.

He stepped back, holding his palms out towards me. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to upset you. Fine, if that’s what you want. Fine.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and gave him a sharp nod before I spun away and climbed into my car. I had to wait for him to step back before I could pull out. He put his hands on his hips and lowered his head.

He had more women than he knew what to do with. Did he appear upset because he got caught? Did Corrine know? With a small town like this, how could she not know?

When I arrived home, Dabby’s friend was waiting for me in the driveway. I was so thrilled to see an older man and not some young stud climb out of the shiny pickup truck.

“Ms. Lowe,” he greeted me as he eyed my car, “I’m George Morrison. Nice ride you got here.”

“Mr. Morrison, please call me Casey, and well,” I gazed at my vehicle, “it’s a piece of my past, nothing special.”

“Casey, it is. Call me George.”

Over the next thirty minutes, we talked about the work I needed done, and shortly after that, he went out to his truck, gathered some tools, and got to work sanding the wall and getting it ready to prime.

“You said Thad helped you out with this?” George asked over his shoulder as I sat at the kitchen table and filled out a few forms I needed to hand in at work the next day.

“Um, yeah,” I said briefly as I glanced up and went back to what I was doing. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about Thad.

“He did a great job. Why didn’t he finish?” It was a harmless question, but there was no way I was going to tell him that I couldn’t be alone with the man, ever again.

I gave him an indifferent shrug, “He had to work today, and our schedules were a bit out of whack, so I figured it was easier to get someone else to finish up.”

He nodded. “He’s a fine boy, that one. Takes good care of his family.”

I guess he didn’t know he was a cheating menace. “Yes, he is nice.”

“We were all taking bets that you and him would hit it off.” I stared at his back with my mouth hanging open. They did what?

A strangled laugh fell from my lips, “He’s not my type.” Why would they take bets? Was the whole town crazy?

His wide shoulders rose and lowered. “Yeah, I guess I heard that news, too.”

I sat up straighter, “What news?”

He peeked over his shoulder and I could see his ears turning red. “Um, that you, um, have a girlfriend.”

Laughter almost exploded out of my mouth, and I covered it with my hand to suppress it. “Oh, okay. Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.”

“Oh, no. Doesn’t make me uncomfortable at all. See, my daughter lives your lifestyle, so I’m used to it. I don’t understand it much, but I accept it for what it is. It’s a shame, though.”

“Why is it a shame?” Was he talking about his daughter or me?

“Well, we all had high hopes that Thad would finally find someone who was good for him. We were hoping you would be it.”

I stared at him. Did he not know that Thad was married? I glanced at the sink; maybe I shouldn’t drink the water here.

“Well, that’s about all.” He brushed his hands over his worn jeans. “All you need to do now is apply a nice even coat of primer on this area and then you will be ready to paint.” He glanced around the room. “The color on the other walls really warms the place up.”

“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say as I was still reeling from his earlier comments.

“I’ll call you tomorrow with a quote on the floor. I don’t think it will be too much.” He gave me a wink, “I might even give you a discount if you think about going on a date with Thad.”

My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. I knew they had to have. “Excuse me?”

His deep laughter rumbled, “I’m just kidding about that, but I will give you a call tomorrow with the price.”

I followed him to the door, and he told me he would replace the light this weekend when I was home again. A few minutes later, he climbed into his truck and left. As he pulled out of the driveway, a police vehicle came down the road. I stepped back into the house and watched as they stopped side by side and chatted. When I saw George point back to my house, I quickly closed the door.

I spent the next two hours priming the walls and then cleaning up my mess. The entire time I battled with myself to not remember what had happened the last time I had been standing in front of this certain wall.

I was starting my job the next day, and I settled into bed early that night to read for a few minutes when my cellphone rang. I grinned, feeling lighter than I had all day when I saw Brandy’s picture on my phone.

“Man, I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear your voice until I saw you calling me. How are you?”

Brandy laughed with me. “I knew that. That’s why I’m calling. How are you doing? How is the house fixing going? You get frisky with the sexy police officer yet?”

“Brandy! He’s married! I have no plans to get frisky with him.” I was too embarrassed to tell her that I had already quite literally been frisked by him.

“Fine, I get it. No married men.” She sighed, “Um, that’s kind of why I’m calling.”

Her voice had grown serious, and I knew she was calling because of Kevin and my father. “What happened?”

“As you probably remember, the sentencing was today,” she reminded me. Yeah, in the back of my mind, I had known that, but I had chosen not to think about it.

“Okay, what did they get?” I steeled myself to hear their punishment. I knew my father deserved to go to jail and Kevin too, even more so, but he was still my father and I felt torn.

She inhaled noisily, “Your father got a year in prison and then a year on house arrest.”

Two years of punishment, that’s all he got. “What about Kevin?”

Brandy hesitated. “Kevin got a year of house arrest,” she finally blurted out.

“What? He only got a year? And it is under house arrest? You’re kidding me!” I sat straight up in bed as I practically yelled my response.

“Yeah, I know. I can’t believe he’s not going to see the inside of a jail cell.” She paused, “I’m sorry about your father.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, “He made his choices, Brandy.”

“Yes, he did, but I know you two used to be close.” Her voice was soft as she spoke.

“Yeah, well that was a long time ago, before he stole all that money and pissed it down the drain.” I plopped back against my pillow, banging my head on the wall. I glanced in the corner to see my bedframe still leaning against the wall. Someday I was going to get that put together.

Brandy and I talked for a few more minutes, and then she wished me luck on my first day at work. It was because of all that my father had stolen and then gambled away that I had lost my inheritance. When the investigation came out, all of our assets were frozen, even mine, and I hadn’t done anything wrong besides being stupid.

I lay in bed staring at the backs of my eyelids, trying to come to terms with the fact that my father was now a convicted felon and would be going to jail. As for Kevin, he didn’t deserve a minute of my thoughts—not after he had taken advantage of my father, and of me.