Heartsong Cottage (26 page)

That startled a disheartened laugh from Shannon. Gentle and loving Rose Cicero devoted her life to healing, not bruising. “If you decide to do that, let me know so I can watch, would you?”

“Absolutely.”

Nevertheless, by bringing up the issues of trust and truth, her friend had managed to worsen Shannon's despair rather than soothe her. The tears began to flow once more.

“Oh, honey.” Rose clucked her tongue and reached for a tissue. “You just let it all out.”

“I can't. I'd be here crying until closing, and Honey would kill me.”

“Cry fast.”

This time her laugh held real amusement. “Oh, Rose. I didn't expect him to be happy about it. I hoped, but I didn't expect it. He's got baby baggage.”

“Yes, he does.”

“I'm afraid I've fallen in love with him.”

Rose grabbed a tissue and in a maternal manner dabbed at Shannon's tears. “I'm not surprised. Daniel is a lovable man when he's not being an idiot.”

“What am I going to do?”

“Well, the truth becomes undeniable eventually, which means he'll come around.”

“Maybe not without a paternity test shoved beneath his nose.”

“If he continues to be an idiot, yes.”

Shannon told her about his threat to spill all to their friends.

“A gold-plated idiot,” Rose observed.

“I decided to try to get out ahead of it by telling everyone first.”

“Good plan.”

“I started with you.”

“As well you should. We're best friends. I have your back, Shannon. So, how are you feeling? Fatigue? Nausea? Have you chosen an obstetrician yet?”

Basking in the glow of friendship warmed Shannon's heart and her spirit calmed. At the end of her break she returned downstairs with a bandage over the wound on her heart. The sight of the newcomer entering the pub ripped it right off again.

Well, this blows.
Daniel hung a jacket and a backpack on one of the coatracks beside the door and sauntered to the bar as if nothing had happened. Just seeing his face again rekindled her fury. Of all the nerve.
Who the heck does he think he is?

He found an open spot at the bar—not an easy feat tonight, especially for a man of his size. He met her gaze with aplomb. “I'd like the Oktoberfest on tap, please.”

Shannon wasn't one to make crude gestures, but at that moment, her middle finger wanted badly to flip. She settled for hooking her thumb over her shoulder toward the sign hanging on the wall behind her that read:
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE.

The slightest of nods and uptick at one corner of his mouth acknowledged a hit. However, he didn't leave. Instead, the confounded man waited until she'd carried a tray to a table, then walked around behind the bar and poured himself a brew. Shannon stuttered when she returned. “I want you to leave.”

“This is a public house. I'm the public.”

“Do I have to call the sheriff?”

“I don't care if you're the owner. Zach Turner isn't going to throw me out of this bar. Will you take a break and talk with me, Shannon?”

He was right about Zach. He wouldn't throw Daniel out, and she wouldn't bother him with a call. Icicles hung from her response to his request. “No.”

He nodded, as if that's exactly what he'd expected. “Okay. In that case, I'll stand here and drink my beer and enjoy the show. Your performer is a very nice guy. He and I fished the same stretch of Angel Creek earlier. He has some wild stories to tell about his days in a rock band.”

Shannon fumed. How could he simply stand there and talk as if nothing had happened?

As she struggled to find the perfect putdown, a table signaled for another round, giving her an excuse for retreat. What did he want? She couldn't read that look in his eyes. The fury that had lasered from them last time they'd been together wasn't there, but neither was any other emotion she could identify.

She had to be careful here, she decided as she pulled the tap and golden ale flowed into a pint glass. She couldn't afford to show an ounce of vulnerability. Strategically, that would be a serious misstep. Righteous indignation was the order of the day.

Wasn't it a good thing that looking at him produced an abundance of that particular emotion?

For the next half hour, she did her best to ignore him and counted herself lucky that the combination of Halloween and live entertainment had brought in the crowd that kept her busy enough to do so.

She was so busy, in fact, that she didn't notice that Daniel had abandoned his place at the bar. Her back was to the stage when the singer made an announcement.

“We are going to switch gears here for a moment. I want to welcome a guest to the stage who has a special message for our wonderful barkeeper.”

She almost dropped her tray as Daniel's soulful voice rang out across the tavern, launching into the classic Brenda Lee song, “I'm Sorry.”

His mesmerizing gaze never looked away from her as he called himself a fool and asked her to accept his apology. By the time he sang about love being blind, she stood there with a hand covering her mouth, fighting back tears. As the last note faded away, Murphy's erupted in applause and cheers. From the table directly behind her, she heard Chase Timberlake say, “Well, I'm totally screwed. I'll never manage an apology as good as that one when I do something stupid.”

Daniel had certainly managed to suck the wind out of the sails of Shannon's anger, that's for sure.

His gaze remained steady and locked on hers as he waited for her reaction. She didn't give him one. Her mind was spinning, and she could barely think. Vaguely, she heard shouts for an encore. His lips twisted wryly, then he finally looked away and nodded toward the musician. A moment later, he followed up Brenda Lee with Frank Sinatra's “What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry.”

By the time he repeated the line lamenting making her cry, Shannon recognized the emotion fluttering to life in the pit of her stomach. Hope, spiced with a little joy. When the final note of the song faded, Daniel—along with everyone else in the pub—looked toward her.

The man had been a jerk, no doubt about it, but no one was perfect. She had to put herself in his position. Would she have reacted differently had their situations been reversed? Following a long moment of hesitation, she lifted her hands, fluttered a smile, and slowly applauded.

An answering smile bloomed across his face.

“Very prettily done, Mr. Garrett. Sit down and have a beer and we'll talk after closing time.”

The crowd clapped and cheered and Daniel called, “A round for the house on me.”

 

Chapter Thirteen

Daniel tried not to watch the clock, but it proved to be a struggle. He wanted all these people to leave so he and Shannon could hash the situation out.

At least the grovel had gone well.

During the week he'd been away, he'd had plenty of windshield time to analyze both his feelings and his missteps. He'd taken Gabe's advice to heart and directed his thoughts toward planning the apology he needed to make. Nothing he'd come up with had risen to the necessary level of grovel until the guy whom he'd ended up fishing the same stretch of creek with this morning mentioned he'd be playing tonight at Murphy's. The idea had occurred to Daniel just as a twelve-inch rainbow took his fly.

He'd taken it as a sign.

Finally, Shannon announced last call, and fifteen minutes later, shut and locked the door behind the last straggler. She flipped off the red neon
OPEN
sign, then turned to face him. “Was your trip successful?”

“Yes, it was. I chased down a runaway in Minneapolis. Got her home to her parents before too much harm was done.”

“That's wonderful news.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Okay. Well, I actually feel pretty good. I have more energy than I've had for quite some time.”

“That's good. I'm glad. So, can we talk about the baby? I'd like to attempt to explain why I went off on you the way I did.”

“That's rather obvious. You thought I was lying.”

“No, actually, I didn't think at all. That was all emotion talking, one emotion in particular—fear. I failed to protect my child. I failed to save my wife from her monsters. The weight of those two crosses has had me crawling on my knees for a decade. But lately, I've found my feet again. My balance isn't worth a damn—I wobble more than a college kid on a spring-break binge—but I've managed to stay upright. Your news knocked my feet right out from under me again.” He paused, then shook his head. “Actually, I don't know that the metaphor sufficiently expresses my terror. When you told me I was going to be a father again, my testicles drew all the way up to my liver.”

Her lips flirted with a smile, which he found encouraging, so he pressed on.

“Apparently, the vasectomy didn't take. That happens more than most men probably realize. The reason I got one is because I never wanted to experience the pain of losing another child, so when you told me about the baby, I panicked. I was an ass.”

“I won't argue the point.”

He nodded his acceptance of her comment. “I managed to work my way past that initial reaction, and I thought about it—about us—a lot while I was away.” He grabbed the backpack he'd hung beside his jacket, and removed the gift he'd bought at an airport gift shop—a fluffy brown teddy bear.

Shannon started and her cheeks went pale. Her reaction caught Daniel by surprise. Did she think this was a good-bye gift?

Quickly, he handed her the bear and declared, “It's the first gift of many I intend to give our child. Shannon, I won't run away. I won't abandon you and the baby. I may never
not
be afraid, but I won't let it rule me again. You've given me a second chance, one I've never expected would come my way again. I want you to know this chance, this baby is precious to me, and I'm going to treasure him or her.”

She dragged her stare away from the stuffed animal and met his gaze, an expression on her face he couldn't quite read as she said, “I'm glad to hear that, Daniel. It relieves a significant worry of mine.”

“Good. But I'm not finished. Let me say all of it while I'm on a roll. I'm warning you that I'm an old-fashioned man. I think it's best for a child when his mom and dad are married. I'm going to want to marry you.”

Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to speak, but he forestalled it with a finger against her lips. “Something else I realized while I did all of my self-analysis. I'd want to marry you even if you weren't carrying my child. I'm in love with you.”

“Daniel,” she said, taking a step away.

“No. Don't say anything. That wasn't a proposal. A woman like you deserves a better proposal than that. It's a piece of this five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle that is a relationship. We build it one piece at a time. It takes some trial and error and time to fit new pieces onto the board, and you can't try to force them where they don't belong. If you do, you'll just have to go back and fix it. But if you work at it diligently and with care and consideration, you create a beautiful picture.

“So, Ms. O'Toole. In my estimation, we have the corner pieces in place and the straight edges, too. I'm ready to start working on filling the picture in. Are you?”

The look in her whiskey-brown eyes warmed him like a shot of the Jameson on the shelf behind the bar. A husky note of emotion sang through her voice when she said, “The puzzle piece that has my heart—I know where it goes. Right here. I love you, too, Daniel.”

She stepped into his arms—where she belonged.

*   *   *

Daniel awoke the morning of November third more at peace than he'd been in a decade, and certainly happier than he'd ever dreamed of being on this day of all days. His gaze lit on the teddy bear sitting propped on the top of Shannon's dresser and he actually smiled. He was ready to face the day, ready to put this significant anniversary behind him. Ready to seal the scar on his heart with a kiss and look forward rather than behind him. All because he awoke with Shannon snuggled against him.

“Good morning,” she said sleepily.

“You know what? It actually is.”

Her gaze softened. “What time are you meeting Hope?”

“Nine o'clock.” Daniel's tradition of spending the anniversary of his son's abduction and murder with Hope Romano had begun when her daughter was missing. Hope's flat rejection of his offer to end the practice following Holly's return had proven to be an extra blessing because it had led him to being here, today, with Shannon. “Honey, I know you have a lot on your plate, but if you can carve out the time, I'd love for you to spend the day with us, too.”

“Of course I will.”

On a previous anniversary in Eternity Springs, Daniel had discovered that he found mountaintops with a view to be the perfect place to spend the day. This year, since the weather appeared to be cooperating, the plan was to take a Jeep up to a high meadow on land Cam owned up on Murphy Mountain. There was an easy hike up to a rock promontory that gave a spectacular view of the valley below.

Hope was ready to go when they arrived at her house promptly at nine. “I'm so glad you're coming with us,” she said to Shannon.

“I am, too,” Shannon replied.

“Do we need to stop somewhere and pick up a little more for lunch?” Daniel asked, reaching for the picnic basket Hope carried.

“No. I packed enough for a dozen people. I suspected Shannon might accompany us.”

“Good.”

Hope gave directions, and soon they were climbing out of the valley on a little rutted road that Daniel never would have found on his own. As they ascended, the two women chatted quietly about town events during the upcoming holiday season. Daniel's thoughts drifted back in time, and his mood grew subdued.