Meghan's Wish (Love and Danger) (6 page)

He grabbed her wrists and brought their joined hands between them. “When I realized you were gone, I was a wreck. I didn’t understand why you’d left me, taken Fiona with you.”

Meghan’s heart squeezed with remorse.

“I stayed there for a year, hoping you would come back. I filed missing persons reports on you and Fiona. I got fired from my job. I couldn’t function. Then the next Christmas, I remembered the gift I’d been trying to get for you. I wanted Ricky to go down for the fires, so you would be free to go home to Largo. I figured I could still give you that.”

Tears ran unchecked down her face. “But instead, you went to jail.”

“Yes.”

“I’m so sorry, Liam.”

“I’m not. I still want Ricky to pay for what he did, but you’re free now, Meghan. You’ve got your family back. That’s all I ever wanted.”

“For me? You did that for me?”

He nodded. “Merry Christmas.”

“That’s the greatest gift anyone could ever give me.”

“I did it because I love you. I still love you, after everything, Meggie.”

Liam had sacrificed himself so that she might find happiness again. Meghan was overwhelmed with this man, and the lengths that he’d gone to for her.  What had she done in return?  Abandoned him, lost faith in him.  “How can you ever forgive me for what I did to you?”

“I already have, Meghan O’Connor.  You came back to me.  That’s all that matters now.”

She bowed her head in gratitude for this love. She had her husband, she had her family, she had her home. Now she just needed her daughter to be well again.

~~~

It was after two in the morning when Meghan got back to Becky’s house and let herself in the side door, walking up several steps to the kitchen. She’d come home from Liam’s so Fiona wouldn’t realize where she’d been.

She needn’t have bothered.

Fiona sat at the kitchen table in Becky’s zebra stripe bathrobe. “Where were you?” she asked.

Meghan felt her cheeks heat, moving to the counter to put down her purse. “I was with your father,” she said, as if they’d been shopping for groceries. “What are you doing up?”

“I don’t feel good.”

Meghan flipped on the overhead light and knelt before Fiona, her anxiety slipping into overdrive. Fiona’s skin was waxy and pale, her eyes glassy and unfocused. Meghan held her hand to Fiona’s forehead and felt the fever inside.

“How’s your belly?” she asked, lightly prodding the girl’s abdomen.

Fiona flinched. “Full and yucky.”

“You should have woken Aunt Becky.”

“I was going to, if you weren’t home by two thirty.”

“How long have you been sitting here?”

“Since midnight.”

Guilt sucked at Meghan. “Come on. Get dressed. We’re going to the hospital.”

“Mom?”

“What?”

“Can we call Dad, too?”

She nodded, reaching for the phone. “I’ll call and have him meet us there.”

~~~

They’d been at the hospital for five hours.

Patty O’Connor sat with her back to window, morning sunlight streaming in around her. The waiting room was painted an unfortunate yellow, with rust-colored furniture and black plastic tables.

At least we had some privacy here, compared to the downstairs waiting room, with its huddled masses of humanity.

Liam paced the length of the space in front of her, periodically stopping to talk with Meghan or refill his coffee. Patty bristled at his presence, though the reason for her discomfort no longer had anything to do with class or status, and everything to do with regret.

For every kindness he displayed toward her daughter, and every soft word he spoke to Fiona, Patty O’Connor knew she had made a terrible mistake.

Not with trying to keep Meghan and Liam apart. They truly were too young for that type of relationship. But in the years since then, when she could have stepped forward to make Liam’s life better, she had not.

She’d been too bitter, too angry, too sad. Her daughter was gone, had up and walked away without a word fifteen years earlier, and all because of him. Liam’s arrival back in Largo infuriated Patty, because he hadn’t brought her beloved girl back home with him.

She uncrossed her legs and crossed them again, watching her ankle bob up and down with the swing of her hip. Perhaps it was a kindness that Liam hadn’t told her she was a grandmother. Certainly, it would seem that way now.

A nurse walked into the waiting room, catching Meghan’s eye. “She’s asking for you.”

Becky and Tom had gone to the cafeteria, which left Liam and Patty alone. Liam sat at the opposite end of the room, leaning forward over his knees, his hands covering his face.

God, I will tell Liam the truth if you help Fiona get better.

Her foot stopped its bouncing, and her eyes began to burn. Her own selfish prayer was her undoing.

He was a good man, after all, a husband to her daughter, a father to her granddaughter. With every ounce of courage she possessed, Patty crossed to the coffee maker and took a Styrofoam cup, her hand shaking as she poured the hot liquid.

“Liam, I have something I need to tell you.”

~~~

“What are you doing here?” Meghan asked. She was standing in the hospital corridor outside Fiona’s room.

Ricky held his sheriff’s hat in his hand, and he fingered the brim. “I was looking for you. I stopped by Becky’s twice today, and no one was there. I called her cell, and she said you were here.”

“Fiona wasn’t feeling well.”

“Is she okay?”

“She has leukemia. We’re not sure yet what’s making her feel so bad today.”

Ricky’s face fell. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why were you looking for me?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I had a nice time with you last night. I just wanted to say hello, see if maybe we can do it again sometime.”

Meghan stepped back. “Listen, Ricky, I think you should know that Liam and I are back together.”

“Oh.” He shrugged. “Just like that?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“So, you leave dinner with me at, what…” he looked at the ceiling, “…like eight o’clock, and you end up in bed with your ex-husband on the same night?”

She jerked her head back. “That’s none of your business.”

“Sure it is, Meghan. I’m the sheriff in this town. I’m the good guy. But for some unknown reason, you just keep going back to that loser, ever since we were kids. Why? Answer me that. Do you get turned on by scum bags with rap sheets or something?”

“Stop it.”

“Or maybe you just like a guy who destroys the things you care about.” He stepped closer to her, into her personal space. “Because I can do that too, Meghan.”

She saw Liam a second before Ricky did, his hands already yanking Ricky backward and away from her, spinning him around to connect his fist with Ricky’s face. It was his cheekbone that made the sickening crack, though two of his teeth were also knocked loose by the blow.

“Don’t you touch my wife, asshole.”

Ricky staggered to his feet, his cap on the floor, his hand on his bleeding mouth. “You just assaulted an officer, and you’re still on parole. You’re going back in, Wheaton.”

“The only person who’s going to jail is you, Ricky,” said Liam.

A uniformed state police officer approached from the end of the hall. “Ricky Powell, you have the right to remain silent.”

Patty followed behind the officer, her eyes weary as she approached a confused Meghan. “The night of the fire at the old mill, your father and I were coming home from a concert. I saw Ricky riding his bike a block from the river, with a gas can tied to the book rack.  Then we saw the flames shooting up from the old mill.”

Meghan’s jaw dropped. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

She watched as her mother worked to get the words out. “I thought it was odd. But the Powells were friends of ours. I thought there must be an explanation.”

“What kind of explanation, Mom? Boys will be boys, burning down buildings and such?”

Patty hugged herself tightly, her eyes glassy and red. “I thought it was just some kids playing around. I knew Ricky might have been involved, but…”

“
But he was one of us
,” said Meghan. She stepped closer to her mother, baring her teeth. “And when Liam took the blame, you figured that was okay, too.”

Patty held up her hands. “Loraine Spaulding said she saw him with that pocketknife earlier in the day. So he must have been at the old mill that day.”

“He was there, mom.” She walked over to Liam and held his hand in her own. “He was there with me.”

Tears fell down Patty’s cheeks as she nodded. “When you two ran away, you took my whole world with you. I could barely be a mother to Becky, barely function. Then Liam came back alone. He wouldn’t tell me anything. I hated him. I had so much anger. He wouldn’t help me find my baby girl.” She was openly sobbing now.

Liam stepped forward, placing his hand on Patty’s shoulder. “I didn’t know where she was, Patty.”

Patty cried harder. “I know, I know. Can you ever forgive me?”

“That depends.” He looked at her with kindness in his eyes. “Will you be a good grandma to Fiona?”

“I will.”

“Let her date whoever she wants.”

“I will.”

To Meghan’s astonishment, he nodded.

“You did what you thought was right at the time,” said Liam. “That’s not so hard to forgive.”

The doctor appeared in the hallway. “Mr. and Mrs. Wheaton, can I have a word with you, please?”

Meghan tensed at his serious tone.

“It’s okay,” he said, smiling widely. “I have good news.”

~~~

2013

The Christmas tree glowed with tiny colored lights, enchanting the living room with its fresh pine scent. The family was gathered in the large formal dining room, every leaf in the table to accommodate the crowd.

“Hush up now, and let the old Jewish woman say grace,” yelled Rhea, chuckled erupting around the table. She held out her hands, Fiona on one side of her, Chip Wheaton on the other.

“I love it when you say grace,” murmured Fiona with a smile, nudging Rhea with her shoulder.

Rhea cleared her throat and closed her eyes. “Dear Lord, thank you for the food that we are about to eat, for the turkey and the stuffing, the cranberry sauce and the sweet potato casserole with the mini rainbow marshmallows. Thank you for the glorious wine, and for the blanket of fluffy white snow outside our window. Thank you for my family, for this new home we share, for your good grace that brought us together and filled my heart with love. Thank you for Fiona’s good health, for baby Oscar’s blue eyes, for his mama’s sweet smile and the love that she shares with her generous husband. A year ago, Lord, you sent us a storm.” She shimmied her shoulders. “But you gave us your guidance to get through it, pulling together with those we love, who we had somehow managed to lose along the way. We thank you for your blessings, Lord. Amen.”

“Merry Christmas, Rhea,” said Meghan, who was holding baby Oscar in one arm at the table. He’d been born just a week earlier. “Everyone, Liam and I have some news we’d like to share.”

“Already? Oscar’s not even a month old.” said Chip, earning him another round of laughter.

“No, no.” Meghan smiled, meeting Liam’s eyes over the table. “Oscar had a doctor’s appointment today, and they gave us the result of his HLA typing.”

Everyone froze. Fiona had been doing exceptionally well on the new medication, which had succeeded in putting her back into remission. But there was still a chance she would need a bone marrow transplant one day.

Tears began to fall down Meghan’s face, and reached for Liam’s hand. “He’s a perfect match to you, sweetie. Six out of six alleles.” A cheer went up around the table, and Fiona’s eyes glowed with joy.

“It’s a Christmas miracle,” said Patty.

“Just another reason to love my baby brother,” said Fiona. “That has got to be the greatest gift I could ever receive.”

Meghan felt tears slip down her cheeks.

The greatest gift of all is love, and each of us is blessed with it in abundance.

She turned to her husband, his knowing eyes glistening with tears. “I love you, Liam.”

“And I you, Meghan O’Connor.”

~~~

Thank you for reading
Meghan’s Wish
.

~~~

Also by Amy Gamet

Meant for Her

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