Text Message

By Tessa Brookfield

Deceit, passion and a secret that will destroy.

One woman, two men, one truth and a text message that changes everything.

All Hollie wants is to find a meaningful relationship with a man. A man she can connect with emotionally, not just physically. Hollie doesn’t exactly have the best track record where it comes to men, and when her obsession takes over she lands herself in the middle of a scandalous secret held between two men. A secret that has been buried deep within them for years. The deception is real and the lies are unthinkable.

Kane Pierce holds the biggest secret of all and risks losing everything if the truth comes out, including the woman he loves.

Will the heart of a compassionate woman drive two men to face their hidden secrets? The ultimate question is...

Can they handle the truth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tessa Brookfield
• Release date: Oct 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9780994942005

Book preview

Chapter One

I pulled my purse out from behind the counter and fished out my phone. Two hours left.

The customers that strolled through the doors at Cal’s had turned into a game for Cora and me. With Cal’s being a high-end men’s suit retailer located on Madison Ave., the men that strolled through our doors had deep pockets or wanted others to believe they did. Along with deep pockets came, in most cases, arrogance and a whole new level of cockiness. Cora and I had made it a game of sorts. As they perused we would say our responses to four questions, Married? Age? Real deal? Possibility? Real deal meaning, to drop three grand or more on a suit they had the pocket book to back it or dropping three grand on a suit would set them back and was just a front to appear to be something they weren’t. The answer to the possibility question would be solely based on if there was an immediate physical attraction. In other words, hot or not. That question was thrown in for my benefit only. Cora was happily married to Cal Stienburg, who also happened to be the owner of Cal’s. Was our game shallow? Maybe, but not near as shallow as some of the men that walked through the door of Cal’s. They came in all kinds. From cheaters, to extremely intelligent, to those that appeared to be down to earth and hadn’t let their good fortune go to their head. From my observations, those ones seemed to be few and far between. It was all purely speculation on our part. Oh, and then there were the ones that were with gold diggers, just like Angie. Young prizes that would walk in on the arms of older men. Seriously, we are talking beautiful women that gave men whiplash. They were with these older men that, in some cases, were old enough to be their dad. Yuk! Masterful opportunists with their hands buried deep in the pockets of wealthy men. No doubt just waiting for them to kick off. It was sad but true. You’d be surprised how much of that you saw in New York.

The next part of the game was the fun part. As we assisted them with finding suits, ties, shirts or whatever they were shopping for, we would try to figure out the true answers to our questions without outright asking. It helped pass the hours of the day and it seemed to help with sales. I didn’t like to call it being flirtations, I preferred the terms friendly and great customer service. Even with Cora being happily married she still played along. It made for fun days at work and it was good for one hell of a laugh.

Cora joined me behind the counter. It had been a slow afternoon, and with it being a Friday the time felt as if it were at a standstill.

What are your plans for after work tonight, Hollie? Cora asked as she tucked her dark hair behind her ear to get it out of the way as she began sorting through her sales receipts. Cora didn’t have to work on the floor. As a matter of fact, she didn’t have to work at all. She did it because she enjoyed it. Cora and I, her whole family actually, had grown close over the years. I considered the Stienburg’s to be my adopted family. I adopted them due to the fact that my own family was, well, less than desirable and royally fucked up.

Cora seemed to have had a good day, judging by the stack of receipts she sorted through. After my sales not having been so good today, I was thankful that I wasn’t paid solely on commission. Cora having a good day just meant that more of our customers that strolled through the door of Cal’s were older. Cora was forty-three and had two teenage daughters that I absolutely adored, Amber and Avery. As for myself, I just turned twenty-eight, not married and currently single. I’d encountered my fair share of losers—enough to last a lifetime. How sad was that? Twenty-eight and I’d felt like I’d scraped the bottom of the barrel with my pick ‘ins already. It seemed to be what I attracted. At times it felt as if I were nothing but a big loser magnet.

Throughout the day Cora would assist our more mature gentleman customers, while I assisted our customers that were more in my age range. Okay, there weren’t too many in the late twenties to early thirties range so my range went close to forty. The age question of our game was an important one as it would determine who was up. Like I said, it was all just for fun so don’t judge.

I work tomorrow morning so home it will be for me. I answered Cora.

Home, on a Friday night at nine o’clock?

You bet. I need my beauty sleep.

She shot me a cockeyed look, Please, Hollie. You could go days without sleep and still look gorgeous. How are you ever going to land yourself a man if all you do is go home to sleep?

I’m going to land one when the right one walks through that door. I pointed to the big glass double doors at the entrance of the store. "I’m just waiting for a, no, thirtyish, yes, definitely." I laughed.

Cora laughed, too. Go on. Go home, it’s quiet here. I’ll close up.

I grabbed my purse. Thanks.

"Cal said he’ll pop in tomorrow morning for a bit, I’ll see you on Monday. Dave and Julie will be working with you tomorrow. Go on home and get some sleep. You never know, your no, thirtyish, yes, definitely, might walk through the door tomorrow."

I only play that game when I work with you, I told her.

No you don’t. You play it solo, too, I know you do. She smiled.

It’s not the same. I laughed.

Good night, hun.

I pulled open the door returning a goodnight as I walked out.

I was greeted by Kitty rubbing up against my leg with her tail stretched high. I know. Kitty. How original, right? Kitty keeps me company. After I’d moved out of Rick’s place and had gotten my own place, I saw Kitty in a pet store window one day. I just had to have her. She reminded me of one of those little, white fur balls from the toilet paper commercials. She was an impulse buy, and at the time I was considering my future as a cat lady. Rick was my last big mistake. I’d met him one night after work while out for drinks with Dave and Julie. Long story short, we dated, I moved in, he cheated…end of story. Now it was just Kitty and me in this dinky, little one bedroom apartment.

We moved to New York when I was in my early teens. Dad had landed himself a big executive job with a company called Pierce Enterprises, so we uprooted our lives in Baltimore and moved. It wasn’t long after that, not even a year maybe, and my parents split up. Mom wanted to go back to Baltimore, but I didn’t want to go. I had met new friends and I really liked it here. I liked it a lot. So, Mom left, and I stayed with Dad. For the longest time I was so angry with her for leaving, that was until I learned the reason why she left. Dad had been having an affair with some young thing from the office. When I thought back, I remembered Mom and Dad always arguing. Even before we left Baltimore neither one of them seemed happy, but to cheat? So, they divorced, and I was blessed with a gold digging stepmother that tried way too hard to be my friend. As soon as I finished school I was gone, outta there. Dad made sure I always had a decent enough place to live and always made sure I had money in the bank. I liked to call it his guilt money. Every now and then when I’d check my account balance I’d find his guilt money there. I kept it and would spend it. Why wouldn’t I? To top it all off, Dad and Angie had blessed me with a little brother. Blake. I didn’t see any of them all that often. Dad was so wrapped up in his new family that it seemed too much of an effort to make time for me. It was most likely because I made it difficult, he continued to try though. He still kept close tabs on me through Cal, especially since I’d left Rick and moved out on my own. He knew Cal and Cora well. They had been friends for years, which is why they took such good care of me. It was the one good thing, possibly the only good thing that came out of it all.

When I’d decided to move in with Rick, Dad tried to talk me out of it. ‘You’re too young, you don’t need to be moving in with no boy,’ he’d told me. As if I was going to listen to him. Now I kinda wished I hadn’t been so pig headed and would have listened. I guess hindsight’s twenty twenty. Mom remarried, then divorced, again. After successfully conquering another failed marriage she took up drinking as a hobby, at least that’s how it appeared to me. I tried to go visit her once a month or so, but lately it had turned into once every couple of months. It was for no particular reason other than I just didn’t feel like it, and the guys she dated were losers. Not what I wanted to be around. Mom and I seemed to have a lot in common where it came to men. The apple sure didn’t fall far from the tree.

Based on all that, I had the perfect foundation for starting a successful life on my own. That right there was complete sarcasm. What I ended up with was a foundation laid with a lying, cheating dad who threw guilt money at me every now and then and a mom that after all these years still held so much hate toward him. So much so that I could only take her in small doses, with the doses getting smaller and smaller.

Mix all that together and the end result was Kitty and me in a small, one bedroom apartment, me with a job at a men’s high-end suit retailer, a bullet proof shield I resurrected from within to block out the intrusion of any feelings toward a man, and to top it off I’d developed extreme trust issues. That was my life in a nut shell. My job, I actually liked. A big part of that was because of Cora and Cal. I felt they were more family to me than my own ever was, but you know what? It was okay because I was in New York and I loved it here.

I tossed my keys into the blue dish that sat on the table just inside my door. An expensive, decorative, cobalt blue dish that Angie had given me as a house warming gift. A dish! She gave me a fucking dish. A silent gesture that told me she had free will to spend Dad’s money. It blew me away that Dad questioned why I didn’t like her. For a smart man he failed to see the big picture and all the little things that led one person to develop a disliking for another.

I scooped Kitty up into my arms and dropped myself onto the couch. Well, Kitty, how about a little TV? She nestled in beside me with her head tucked in tight against my arm. I gazed down at her and thought maybe it was time I try to meet someone before I turned into a cat lady and Kitty turned into two cats, then three cats. Yep, maybe it was time to get out there and get a real life. The only problem was that when you believed you were incapable of having a meaning relationship you’d already be starting behind the eight ball. I ran my hand down Kitty’s back. Yes, I think it’s time to at least try.

Chapter Two

The morning chill caused a shiver to run over me as I pushed the key into the lock of Cal’s back door. From November on were my least favorite months. I hated the cold and all the uncomfortable visits that came with this time of year. I looked forward to when April would roll around and you could then taste the warmth of the summer months moving in. Somehow though I always managed to swallow my pride and put on a happy holiday face in order to meet all my family obligations, as painful as that was.

After hanging my coat in the back room and tucking my purse under the counter, I flicked on the lights. Whenever Cora or Cal had me open I always made sure I arrived a good half hour before the store opened. Dave wasn’t scheduled to start until nine thirty, and Julie would be in for eleven.

I straightened up the ties on the tie table, then made my way behind the counter to start up the computer, which I had to stop doing when my phone started ringing. I fished it out of my purse and stared at the screen as Dad displayed across it. I inhaled a deep breath before hitting talk. Hi, Dad.

Hi, Holl. How are you?

I’m good. How are you? If the awkwardness of our conversations didn’t tell him what we had become, I believed him to be more whipped than I had thought. Even with all the years that had passed I just couldn’t seem to let it all go, no matter how hard I tried. That was me, I always had a hard time forgiving anyone that had ever hurt me. You only get one shot with me so you’d be wise to tread lightly if you were ever going to cross me. Second chances were something I didn’t give.

Good, good. I wanted to make sure you were coming to Angie’s birthday next Saturday.

I was conscious of my eyes rolling. Is that your way of telling me I have to come, Dad?

I’d like to think you would want to come.

Dad…

Look. I didn’t call to fight with you. I’d really like you to come. I’d like to see you, Hollie.

Dad, I’m at work. I have to go. As bitter as Mom still was toward Dad I was just as bitter toward Angie. I didn’t like her, and I didn’t want to like her. She knew Dad was married when they had their fling, and she never backed down. She couldn’t get the smell of money out of her nose and as a result she turned my family upside down. Low and behold she’d gotten what she wanted and in the process she ruined my family.

Well, it’s next Saturday at our place. I hope to see you. Blake would really like to see you, too.

I felt myself about to snap. Dad, don’t do that.

Saturday, don’t forget. I love you, Hollie.

The line went dead. I snapped. Games! He’d resorted to playing games to get me to be more involved in his life. ‘Blake would really like to see you’. I hated Angie and I held a lot of resentment toward my father, but none of that was Blake’s fault. I carried a hefty amount of guilt for not making an effort to see him more often. After all, he was my half-brother, he just so happened to have a bitch for a mother. Not his fault. I guess some things were harder to let go of.

Not at all how I wanted to start my day, by feeling guilty for not wanting to do something that I should. As angry as I was I knew I was going to go. I always did. Not for her, but for Dad. I might not have agreed or liked the things he’d done, but bottom line he was my dad.

I ran my hand along the mannequin’s arm as I made my way to unlock the front door. I couldn’t shake the funk I was in. I knew if I didn’t find a way to get out of it, it was going to be a long day. It was about quarter after nine when my first customer of the day walked in. I laughed at myself when I rattled off yes, forty-five, yes, nope in my head. I guess I do play solo. If the first answer was a yes – Married? That was it. Game over. Cheating was forbidden in my books, but it somehow seemed to surround every facet of my life. I was sure that was where my extreme trust issues came from. As I made my way out from behind the counter Dave entered from the back room. Good morning, Miss Hollie.

Morning, Dave. I tossed him a quick smile before continuing toward my customer who was browsing our new selection of dress shirts. They were the ones that just came in last week. Good morning. Is there something I can help you find?

He glanced at me for a brief second, then turned his attention back to the shirts. He was a stocky man dressed in jeans and a black coat. It was harder to guess on a Saturday as the customers tended to be more relaxed in what they wore. You couldn’t necessarily get a gauge for the depth of their pockets with being dressed so casually.

Good morning. Just need a white dress shirt.

Is there a size I can help you find?

He rooted through the white shirts. Nope, got it. I think I’m all set.

Great, right this way. I led him to the checkout counter and rang him through. I wasn’t one of those pushy salespeople. It would only backfire and piss our customers off. The customers that came to Cal’s knew what they wanted. If he had wanted a new tie to go with his new shirt he didn’t need me suggesting it.

How’s it going, Miss. Hollie? Dave asked as he leaned his backside against the counter to face me.

Fine, how are you? Dave was a sweet, older man in his sixties. He retired a few years back from his office job and quickly learned that he wasn’t the stay at home type, so now he sells suits to rich guys for fun. You couldn’t tell he was in his sixties, while he was visibly older he was definitely young at heart. He wouldn’t bat an eye at joining Julie and me for a drink after work on a Friday night, and he was always a hoot.

Oh, I’m not bad for an old guy. A few more aches and pains than I had yesterday.

Well, old or not I’m glad I get to spend my Saturday with you.

Aww, sweetheart, I’m an old guy that gets to spend my Saturday with two young beauties. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Such a charmer. I said as I sat down on one of the stools behind the counter and continued on with our conversation.

The morning was slow but had picked up in the afternoon. Cal had stopped by, just like Cora had said he would. He didn’t stick around for long, just long enough for a quick check in. Julie had been at me all day to go out for dinner and drinks tonight with her, Marty and a few of their friends. Marty was Julie’s other half. I knew what she was trying to do. She and Cora were in cahoots trying to find me a man, and Marty had a few single friends that they’d been trying to hook me up with. I gave in and agreed to go. What harm would there be in meeting some new people? Especially given my decision last night to find a real life for myself other than travelling down the path of cat lady. I thought, what the hell. A night out would be fun.

Dressed in jeans, my black, sheer top and black, high boots I waited for Julie’s call. She was going to call when she and Marty were here, and I’d meet them downstairs in front of my building. I no sooner sat down when my phone rang. I made my way downstairs and found them waiting for me right outside the front door. I opened the rear car door, and I wasn’t sure if I was pissed or intrigued. Marty and Julie sat in the front. In the back seat sat a man who I presumed to be Marty’s friend. He greeted me with a warm smile. I was sure I smelt a set up. Julie knew I wouldn’t have gone if I thought it was going to be like a blind date. I was okay with it being a group thing, but at the moment I wasn’t sure what I thought about it.

Hi, Holl. Julie turned herself in the seat so she was facing me. Her green eyes were gleaming with pride, she sure was proud of herself for concocting this…I wasn’t even sure what it was. I climbed in, pulled my seatbelt over me and discreetly gave her the stink eye. At least I hoped it was discreet. She’d gotten the message. I could tell by the way her gaze dropped from mine and the way she nervously tucked her fiery red curls behind her ear.

Holl, this is Blaine. Blaine, Hollie. He turned and extended his hand. He had blonde hair—a bit longer than I preferred. He had facial hair—it was nicely kept, but not my preference, and I couldn’t tell how tall he was because he was sitting. He did have beautiful blue eyes though. In a matter of seconds I had him sized up and it wasn’t working in his favor. I extended my hand to his, Hi. His hand was all sweaty and clammy, kinda gross actually.

It’s nice to meet you. Julie and Marty talk about you all the time.

I turned my gaze back to Julie who had an ear to ear grin plastered across her face.

How’s it going, Holl? Marty interjected before shifting the car into drive and squeezing out into the flow of traffic.

The drive was awkward to say the least. Julie’s attempt at keeping conversation going was excessive, which made the entire drive there quite painful.

Marty parked the car just outside a bar located on 35th Street. It looked to be a pub type bar and didn’t appear to be overly busy. Blaine climbed out of the car and walked around to my side to open my door. I wasn’t the type of person that expected a man to open doors for me I was quite capable of opening them myself. Thank you. I smiled. He wasn’t overly tall—shorter than what I preferred. Not that it really mattered because I was only five foot four myself, but I preferred a taller man. I stopped myself, realizing how shallow I really was. I didn’t know anything about him, but had found a number of things I didn’t like