Candace’s pulse was pounding in her ears. Seeing his car go by…was that enough? Dammit, she wished she had Evan’s phone number. “Why were you there, Macy?”

Dead silence on the other end for at least ten seconds. “I met Ghost there late that night.”

Ho. Lee. Shit. “Ghost? How did that happen? I never gave him your number.”

“Did he ask for it?”

“Yeah, on the way to Dallas. I thought there wasn’t any way you could be interested.”

“We ran into each other at the sushi bar. It was the evening you guys got back from the concert. We talked, and he got my number. He called after he got off that night and asked me to meet him there.”

“Macy, I don’t know which has shocked me more…”

“I know, okay? I didn’t want to get Jameson in trouble, and I was scared. But it was him, and it’s not fair that he’s getting away with it. I haven’t talked to Ghost about this at all.”

“He must have not seen anything, or Brian would have been all over it. Where were you?”

“We were sitting in the parking lot in my car. I figure James was waiting for us to leave, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t know what had gone down between James and Brian and I had no idea he was about to trash the place, you know?”

Candace remembered she hadn’t talked to Macy that night. Macy really hadn’t known to look for anything suspicious. “I would ask what you were doing in your car, but obviously not much if you noticed my brother driving by.”

“It did not go there,” Macy said adamantly. “We just talked.”

“Uh-huh, and are you still talking?”

“Talking. Yeah. That’s all.”

“I can’t even imagine carrying on a serious conversation with that guy, but whatever.”

“There’s something about him…”

“Hey, you don’t have to explain. I’m not going to torture you over your decisions like you did me.”

“I’m so sorry,” Macy wailed.

“I’ll tell you what. If you’ll go tell this to the police, all will be forgiven. I’ll go with you, if you want. James was angry and lashing out, and he’s my brother, but you didn’t see Brian and how heartbroken he was. James owes him, big time. Maybe I can talk Brian into not pressing charges if James pays him for the damage. Maybe an I’ll-drop-mine-if-you’ll-drop-yours deal.”

“I would feel so much better if he did that.”

“I can’t promise it, and that’s up to him. But no matter what, Macy, you have to follow through.”

Macy sniveled. “I know.”

“In fact…do you want to go and talk to him now?”

“Not particularly.” Candace could definitely understand that. The thought of seeing him set off flocks of what felt like hummingbird wings in her own belly. “He’ll hate me too for not coming forward sooner. It’s been almost three weeks, but it’s been eating me up.”

“I’m pretty sure he’ll be so happy to finally get some closure that he won’t even mind all that much.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Candace hadn’t realized the parlor was open already. When she and Macy pulled in, it looked good as new, and upon entering the only difference she could see was the flat screen TVs hadn’t been replaced yet.

Janelle greeted them with a big smile, coming forward to give Candace a hug. Ghost looked up from the tattoo he was working on and met Macy’s stare with a lascivious grin. Candace couldn’t resist giving her a hidden nudge with her elbow. Love was indeed a strange thing.

She didn’t see Brian anywhere, but his truck was parked outside.

“Is he here?” she asked Janelle quietly.

“In his office. I daresay it would be fine for you to go on back.” She winked at her.

Taking a deep breath, she tore Macy away from the object of her desire and steered her toward the back.

Brian looked up from his laptop as they entered, and the yearning that filled his expression when he saw her was all she needed to know how hellish these past weeks had been on him. It was a fight to keep the burn of tears out of her eyes. He rose out of his chair as if pulled by puppet strings and crossed the room to wrap her in his arms. “God, it’s good to lay eyes on you,” he murmured, his lips near her ear.

The familiar warmth and solidity of his body was something she didn’t want to release. Ever. She buried her face in his shirt and inhaled his scent as deep into her lungs as she could. “I miss you.”

“I just…fuck, I don’t know what to say. I didn’t expect to see you.”

Candace glanced at Macy, who was biting her lip in apprehension. “I’ll be glad to talk, but right now, Macy needs to tell you something.”

Brian looked at the other girl as if he’d forgotten her presence. “Oh, hey, Macy.”

“Hi. Um…I’m just going to blurt this out.”

He gave a perplexed chuckle. “All right.”

“I can place Jameson at the scene the night this place was trashed. I was in the parking lot. I saw him drive by, and he also parked a little ways up the street.”

“Holy sh— Are you sure?” He looked as if he wanted to grab her in a bear hug and twirl her around. Candace noticed she left out the details of why she’d been here, and he was beyond questioning it.

“As far as seeing a face, or a license plate number, no. But it was a black SUV with a sticker on the back windshield, right where his Baylor sticker is.”

“Son of a bitch.” Then he winced, glancing at Candace. “Sorry, I know that’s your brother.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“I need to call Evan.” He turned and headed for the phone, but stopped dead in his tracks when Candace placed a hand on his arm.

“I need to ask you something, Brian. I understand you’re angry. And I have no idea if this will work or not, but I thought we should approach you first. If Jameson would agree to drop his charges against you and pay you for all of the damages, would you not press charges against him?” For a second, disbelief filled his expression, and she rushed on before she could lose him. “It would do nothing but help our situation. You’d both get out of trouble, you’d get compensated, and…it might help relations between us and my family.”

His brows dipped low over his eyes. “Yeah, and what about that? Are you saying I’m out of the picture if I don’t go along?”

She swallowed and shook her head. “No, I’m not. I’ll understand if you need to do this. It’ll hurt watching you tear each other apart, because the fact remains they’re a major part of my life, but so are you. I can’t turn my back on either of you. I need you to all coexist without driving me to drinking, and this is the only way to make that a possibility. Like I said, I haven’t talked to Jameson and I don’t even know if he’d be susceptible. But if he’s confronted and told his ass is about to go down, I think he’d do just about anything to get out of it. He’s scared to death.”

“Good,” Brian grumbled. “But you don’t seem to realize how hard it’s going to be for me to let this go. I’ve been through hell these past three weeks, Candace. We’re all still exhausted from getting the place open again. Accepting payment for my troubles and turning my back…it’s going to feel like he’s buying us off, when what he needs is to suffer like we have. It’s not just me. It’s all of them out there too.”