Split Decisions: A Southern Romantic-Suspense Novel - Charlotte - Book Two Read online

  “Now, we eat.” Caycee lifted her chin toward the waiter. “We’ll figure out everything else later.”

  The server hadn’t disturbed them since Caycee shooed him away the first time he approached the table. Now, as she glanced up, he quickly made his way to them. It was as though they were his only patrons. After accepting their order, he was off again.

  Dinner was delicious, and Caycee had been correct about one thing: Jordan would have enjoyed this restaurant. She would have to remember it if they ever returned to New York together. Not much of a possibility, Jordan hated the city more than she did. He hardly ventured into Charlotte anymore.

  The service was considerably better than their little hole-in-the-wall diner. But Jaynee suddenly ached inside. The thought of their favorite restaurant reminded her of Jordan. It was where she’d informed him she was coming here, where she hadn’t been completely truthful with her reasons. She needed to get back to the hotel and call him.

  She and Caycee had talked for hours, but it was time to leave. “Well, Caycee, it’s been a lovely evening, but I really should return to the hotel. It’s late, and Jordan promised not to go to bed until I called.”

  Caycee’s eyebrow shot up as if the answer were simple. “So, call him on your mobile.”

  “No. He won’t be able to sleep until he knows I’m safe and sound at the hotel.”

  “So lie,” she offered matter-of-factly.

  A short laugh burst out of Jaynee’s mouth. “Uh…no, I don’t lie to Jordan.”

  “You lied about coming to New York.”

  “No, I didn’t. I have a book signing and several PR engagements. I just didn’t tell him about you.”

  “Right…” Caycee paused for effect. “Jaynee, I’m the one person you can’t lie to. Remember that. Let’s go.” She stood, dropped several hundred-dollar bills on the table, and then led the way toward the exit. Jaynee started to protest, but Caycee glared at her. “You can order dessert. Let’s go to your hotel.”

  Jaynee suddenly felt threatened, by her own self nonetheless. She wondered briefly if she could hurt herself. Could her alter ego actually mean her harm.

  Caycee didn’t have to wait for a cab; the host had one waiting. She slipped the man a tip, and he bowed his head a notch in appreciation.

  Jaynee gave the cab driver the name of the hotel and they were off. She saw his glance back and forth between the two of them, as if he’d never seen twins before. Jaynee could only imagine what it would be like if she let her hair down and removed her glasses. They, of course, were spitting images. Even their color and style was identical. No one would be able to tell the difference. Unless of course she lifted her bangs to reveal the small scar the bullet had left when it exited her skull.

  Caycee silently followed her to the elevator, only speaking once inside. “You look nervous, Jaynee. It’s not as though you’re bringing a gentleman back to your hotel. It’ll be like a slumber party.”

  She huffed lightly. “Why do you want to come up?”

  “You don’t want me to?” Caycee sulked, her lip jutting out a fraction.

  Jaynee covered her mouth to hold back the laugh that threatened to escape at Caycee’s southern-girl pout. It was funny to see it attempted on her. Though, Johanna had also tried. “I didn’t say that… I just wondered why. And by the way,” she laughed again, “the sulky look doesn’t work on me, only unsuspecting males.”

  “I’ve been alone a long time, Jaynee,” Caycee said, ignoring her. “It’s as if I have a sister, someone who can finally understand me.”

  Jaynee smiled. She did understand. Jordan had really become her best friend. She didn’t have much family. She had her older sister-in-law, Melissa, whom she loved. Rachael too, but they’d never been close. She had her cousins, but she only saw them a couple of times a year. Lately, Johanna had become her best girlfriend, but she was too young to appreciate some discussions, and as a preteen, she was becoming completely self-absorbed. She’d heard mother-daughter relationships went through a trying period where the daughter pulled away, but if the mother was patient, the daughter, would eventually return, closer than before.

  Jaynee used her card key to unlock the door and pulled out her iPhone to call Jordan. She glared at Caycee, a warning to remain quiet. Caycee made a gesture of locking her lips and throwing away the key, which brought a slight smile to Jaynee’s face again.

  How strange to be with someone who completely understood you. Liked the same things you liked, laughed at the same things you did. It was surreal, to the say the least.

  The phone rang only once before Jordan’s deep southern drawl answered, “Hey, darlin’. I was starting to worry.”

  Chapter Ten

  (Caycee)

  Caycee watched Jaynee as she reclined on the bed, pulling her leg underneath her. Her face transformed the moment Jordan answered her call. The pure love was evident in Jaynee’s eyes, and she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy.

  Jordan’s baritone voice on the other end was as sexy as she’d remembered as he proclaimed his relief to receive her call. No doubt, he’d been worried. His wife was in New York, a huge city all alone, or at least as far as he knew. He could never fathom whom she was actually with, and she wondered if that information would provide him peace or anxiety.

  She eavesdropped—not that she had a choice—as Jaynee described her evening as honestly as possible, noticing she detailed everything except for the company she’d kept. She rambled on about how much he would love the steakhouse.

  The conversation wound down after a few minutes of Jaynee professing her love along with a promise that she would call him tomorrow evening. Caycee could just pick up Jordan’s whispers in return, and she felt a sinking feeling in her gut. When had someone ever cared about where she was or when she would return? The fact of the matter was…there was no one. Never had anyone cared as deeply as Jordan did for Jaynee. If she died in her apartment, no one would notice. At least not until the stench permeated into the neighbors’ perfect lives. She could be missing for weeks and no one would notice, let alone care.

  Jaynee hung up the phone and turned to Caycee. “So, why did you want to come up?”

  “I told you…it’ll be like a slumber party. Remember those with Rainey when we were growing up. Of course, we always preferred her house. Our house was nasty, and Lidia was a tyrant.”

  Jaynee grimaced at the memory. “That’s for sure. Remember the time we came home from working all night and she hadn’t removed the dishes from the table, let alone washed them, then insisted it was our night to do dishes.”

  She couldn’t help but notice that Jaynee was referring to her memories in the plural, as if she were two people back then and probably wondered if she were actually going mad.

  Caycee nodded. “Yeah…and when we questioned why we had to do dishes when we hadn’t even eaten at the house, she’d come over and started pounding on us. I also remember the remark that’d ticked her off, ‘Are you finished yet? I need to get done so I can go to bed; it is a school night after all.’ Dad had said she was never angrier than at that moment, but she didn’t know what to do when she didn’t get a reaction.”

  Jaynee’s eyes turned glassy again. “Why do you really think he did it, Caycee?”

  She didn’t have to ask; she knew Jaynee was referring to their father’s suicide. She swallowed hard, inhaling a deep breath before speaking. “He was lonely. The thought of waking up another morning with that woman who didn’t love him, who would take half of his retirement if he left her, sent him to the brink. Of course, I think a major part in his decision was the fact he wasn’t thinking rationally. She had filled that prescription for sleeping pills, and he still hadn’t slept for almost five days.”

  Jaynee simply nodded, unable to frame a coherent answer, it seemed. Her head fell forward, and then she moved it back and forth, as if she didn’t understand.

  To give Jaynee some peace, Caycee continued to try to explain, “After three days, t
he synapses at the back of your brain start to detach without REM sleep, and you literally go insane.” Jaynee’s cheeks quivered, looking as if she might have a breakdown, so she quickly changed the subject. “He loved us, you know. He wasn’t in his right mind. He never would have taken his life if he’d been thinking rationally. He simply couldn’t come up with a better solution at seven in the morning, knowing his evil wife would return at any second.”

  Jaynee locked eyes with her again. “Do you think this is really happening? Do you think we are both truly here? What if there’s really only one of us, but we’ve been living two lives? We would think the other was here, talking to us, wouldn’t we?”

  Caycee burst out laughing. “You read too many books.”

  Jaynee’s glower told Caycee she still didn’t discount her hypothesis. “Maybe. But doesn’t MPD explain this? Isn’t it possible I rented your apartment on one of my trips to New York and started living two lives? Maybe I just thought we were both at the restaurant tonight, and really it was only me.”

  “Or me?” she reminded Jaynee with a raise of her eyebrows. “Where’s your laptop? I know you have one. And not just because I am you, because you’re a writer.” She chuckled at her own cleverness.

  Jaynee slipped off the bed and retrieved her laptop from her attaché case. She booted it up while she made her way back to her spot.

  “When did you start coming to New York?” Caycee asked.

  “Hmm, the first time? About twelve and a half years ago, after I finished my first book,” Jaynee answered, her eyes confused as she searched Caycee’s face, trying to understand where she was going with this question.

  “You were pregnant, right?”

  “Yeah,” she said hesitantly.

  “Google my name for the same time. You would have been about four or five months pregnant, right?”

  Caycee could see the light dawn in Jaynee’s eyes as her fingers sped across her keypad.

  “I’d been singing for about two years at that point and was on tour and had a gig in Daytona Beach over Spring Break. Pull it up.” Jaynee did as instructed. Several YouTube videos popped up of live performances. Jaynee clicked on the first one, which Caycee knew there had been over a million views. Jaynee clicked on the link and waited as the video loaded. Caycee heard her voice come through the speakers after a few seconds; Jaynee recognized their voice, too. Of course, it was nothing she’d ever sung before, Jaynee only liked country; this was pop. Jaynee’s eyes grew wide. She obviously hadn’t thought of looking on YouTube for information on her other half. “You see the date?”

  Jaynee bobbed her head.

  “There’s no way we are the same person…” Caycee remembered the outfit she’d worn to the concert; no way could she have hidden even a four-month pregnancy. “Unless you really don’t have any children at home…wanna call Jordan back and ask to speak to the kids?”

  “No… I think you’re correct. I’m merely trying to field through all of this information.”

  “Let me ask you something?” Pursing her lips, Caycee thought about her question. “Aren’t you curious? About my life…about the road not traveled? I saw your eyes when you watched me on stage. I know part of you wanted that life, because I did…and I went and got it. Don’t you ever wonder?”

  Jaynee sighed. “Maybe that part of me left with you, because honestly, I can’t imagine myself in that life.”

  “But what if you could? What if you could live a different life for a week? Go anywhere you want. Do anything you want. I purposely keep myself out of the limelight now. They’re used to me at the steakhouse because I go there practically every evening. But you could make appearances. Heck, I could probably even get a gig if I tried, maybe a non-profit thing. Would you like to do it?”

  Jaynee narrowed her eyes. “What are you suggesting?”

  “You know…like the movie Parent Trap, we could switch lives for a week.”

  “And…you…would…be…with…Jordan?” Jaynee said each word distinctly, cautiously. “No way! No, I couldn’t allow it.” She closed the laptop and set it to her side.

  “It’s not like I would sleep with him, Jaynee. I could just see what I missed, having children, being a wife and mother.”

  Jaynee gave her head a brisk shake. “I said, no!”

  “Wow, are you afraid? Afraid Jordan might like me better?” she teased.

  She rolled her eyes this time, obviously not amused with Caycee’s taunting. “No, and don’t try to manipulate me.” She released a long breath. “You don’t understand. You couldn’t keep away from him for a week. And besides, it would be wrong. We’d be tricking Jordan—all my family. It’s wrong.”

  Caycee resisted rolling her eyes right back at her. “It’s not wrong. We are the same person, Jaynee. But what do you mean I couldn’t keep away from him?” She couldn’t imagine Jordan forcing his way on his wife. “I’ll tell him it’s that time.”

  Jaynee shook her head again. She was acting like a child. “He knows it’s not that time. He always knows when it’s my cycle, so he doesn’t bother trying.”

  “He can’t go a week without sex?”

  “It would be well over a week by then and, no, we barely go three days.”

  “You’re kidding.” But observing the resolve in Jaynee’s demeanor, she knew she wasn’t. “Really…how often are we talking about here?”

  Jaynee shrugged as a dismissal, as if the topic were only remotely interesting. “Three to four times a week.” But then she released a nervous laugh.

  “After eighteen years? That’s unheard of. Wow!” Caycee wasn’t giving up, though. “I’ll tell him my cycle got confused…what with hanging out with your agent for a few days. It happens.”

  Again, Jaynee shook her head.

  “Stop that,” Caycee ordered. “You’re acting like a child. Just think about it, Jaynee. I won’t pressure you, but I think you owe me this. And, I think it would be good for you. After all, you were Googling your name for a reason. I don’t think you’re as content as you claim.”

  Jaynee’s expression turned then. Her face reddened and her eyes filled slightly, but she wasn’t sad; she was angry.

  Caycee knew this look all too well. She held up her hands in surrender. “Hey, sorry, didn’t mean to offend you. Just think about it, okay?” She stood and walked to Jaynee’s side of the room. “If not, we can be friends, right? Maybe eventually you can introduce me as your long lost twin; that way I can at least be an aunt.”

  Jaynee’s forehead creased as she contemplated such an unveiling. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it; that’s all I can promise. I have a signing tomorrow afternoon, but I’m free for dinner tomorrow night. Do you want to meet again?”

  Caycee smiled. “I’d like that. Call me when you’re finished.” She paused in front of Jaynee, then leaned over and hugged her. “Whatever this is, Jaynee. I’m glad to have someone I can call family in my life again. It’s been a long time.” She meant every word, but also secretly hoped it would help Jaynee understand the reason for her request. She turned and let herself out of the hotel room without another word.

  Not that Jaynee would allow her, but now that she was out of the room, Caycee deliberated her request while the doorman hailed her a taxi. Would she really want to step into Jaynee’s life for a week? Was she better off not knowing what could have been? She hopped into the waiting taxi, and for a second, didn’t hear the driver’s request. After giving him her address, she sank back in the seat.

  When she entered her lobby, she went straight to her mailbox. She didn’t get much mail here, mostly personal bills she didn’t want her manager to see. All her fan mail and normal bills went to Ben’s office. He paid for everything out of her business account, but she liked to keep some things personal. She flipped through the junk mail, but stopped cold on a letter addressed to her.

  Carefully written in block letters, was her name across the envelope with no return address. She knew at once she shouldn’t read it, but curi
osity got the best of her. Warily, she tore at the seal, cautiously sliding her finger across the opening so as not to get a paper cut. She held the envelope away from her as she opened it, careful not to inhale in the event it contained white powder inside. She unfolded the notebook paper and noticed the same block letters.

  Caycee, why have you forsaken me? I am the only one who loves you, the only one who will ever love you. Night after night, I wait for you to choose my love. Please, I am begging you. I can’t stand to see you with another. Choose me before it’s too late. Yours forever.

  She glanced around the empty vestibule, as if someone could be hiding in the twelve-by-twelve corridor that only contained mailboxes and a recycling bin that shredded junk mail. Although no one was on either side of the glass doors leading to the lobby or the elevators, she felt exposed, as though someone had been watching her. She strained to see the street through the lobby doors, but her farsighted vision was horrible. She could see something directly in front of her face, but could barely make out a face a few feet away from her.

  The envelope didn’t have a postmark, so someone had been able to slip it into her box. Was this a threat? Should she call the police? How would they trace it? What had he meant by the words choose him? Had he been watching her at the restaurant?

  She sprinted through the glass doors and pressed the button for the elevator, waiting patiently for the doors to open. Clearly, she had the slowest elevator in existence. Once she reached her floor, she hesitantly stepped out, watching for anything suspicious, and then made her way down the corridor to her apartment.

  As soon as she opened her door, music assaulted her, and she backed her way out the door, so as not to turn her back on an intruder. She hadn’t left the stereo on, and even if she had, it wouldn’t have been tuned to a soft jazz station.