Secrets Gone South (Crimson Romance) (32 page)

It seemed the whole crowd held a collective breath.

“What did you do to get away, Aspen?” She dreaded the answer but they had to know.

“Well,” she said with pride. “You’re going to think this is very smart of me. First I stole their phones. Then I closed the door and shoved a dresser in front of it. I had Flint’s nail gun ready so I could nail the door shut all the way around really fast. They’ll never get out without help. Ever. And before I left—I almost didn’t think of this part—I cut the cable outside so they couldn’t send any emails.”

Relief set in, at least on some level. She hadn’t killed them.

“That was very smart of you, Aspen. I don’t think I would have thought of that.”

“And you’re real smart, being a doctor and all.”

“Well, thank you, Aspen. What is it you want me to do about Flint and Erie?”

“Can you go over and un-nail the door, once Will and I are gone?”

“Sure. I’ll be happy to.”

“That should be soon. I wonder where the helicopter is? Hey. Where’s Rayford?”

Arabelle opened her mouth to say he was checking on it but there was a scream, a dropped bullhorn—and a gunshot.

She began to run. No book club girl, book club husband, brother, or senator daddy could have stopped her.

“Arabelle, no!” Luke was hot on her trail. “We don’t know what’s happened.”

She didn’t care. She was going in that shop, even if she had to steal an axe from one of those fire trucks and chop down the door. She’d gnaw through the wood with her teeth or steal Rayford’s gun and shoot the lock.

She stopped in front of the door and raised her fists to pummel it but, miraculously, it opened.

And Will stepped out.

She screamed a primal hysterical scream and began to run her hands over him.

“Are you hurt? Did she shoot you? Let me see! There was a gunshot.”

He caught her hands. “I’m fine, Arabelle. I’m okay. When they grabbed her, Aspen’s gun went off. The bullet landed right in the middle of a cross on a section of that altar I’ve been working on.”

He was okay. He would live. “And Aspen?” she asked. “They didn’t hurt her? Please, don’t let them have hurt her.”

“No,” Will said and took her in his arms. “The EMTs have got her. They’ll take care of her.”

“I was so scared,” she said.

“I know.” He started to move her toward the steps. “Let’s get you back to the farmhouse and into bed. I’ll call Dr. Vines to check on you.”

And suddenly, she was calm again. “No.” And she knew what she had to do.

Will looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“I have some things to say and I’m going to say them while I’ve got a bullhorn, a TV camera, and all these witnesses.”

“Arabelle—”

“No.” She continued to speak into the bullhorn. “You’re about to tell me it’s been a bad day and I don’t need to make any proclamations. Well, it has been a bad day but it’s been a bad few weeks, too. We had plenty of bad before but it’s been
hell
ever since you said you couldn’t forgive me and we had to separate.”

“Arabelle, please don’t—”

“Will Garrett, will you shut up and let me speak? I can remember a couple of times when you were bound to have your say so don’t interrupt me again.”

His eyes scanned the silent, still crowd but then he looked back at her and nodded.

“You are a sweet, forgiving man but you couldn’t forgive me for keeping your son from you. And I know why. You couldn’t forgive me because I wasn’t sorry.” A gasp when through the crowd and she turned to them. “That’s right. Avery is my biological child—mine and Will’s. While you all thought I was at Doctors Without Borders I was in Switzerland having Avery. I tried to tell Will once but I didn’t try hard enough. I gave my baby up for adoption because I thought it was best for him. Then something horrible happened and I got a second chance.”

“Arabelle! Darling!” Her father was coming toward her with his arms open.

“Hush, Daddy! Luke, stay back. Lanie, I love you. I do. You’re my sister. But I’m up here straightening out my life and I’ll get to you and that nosey book club later. That’s right.” She looked from Tolly to Lucy to Missy. “I’m one of you now so I can say rude things about you like you say about each other.”

She turned back to Will. “You were right. After I got Avery back, got my second chance, I would have done anything to keep you from finding out. I was only sorry I got caught. But I’m sorry now. I was a fool. You’re the best father a boy could have.”

Will shook his head. “I’m not sure—”

“Be sure. Because it’s true. But there’s something you’re wrong about—it was about why I never wanted anyone to know Avery was mine. I never bothered to tell you the truth even though it’s something you would have understood. You think I wanted to keep the secret because I was afraid of what people would think about me having an illegitimate child. It was never that. I was afraid that if Avery ever found out that I’d thrown him away, he’d hate me.”

“Oh, angel girl.” Will pulled her against him and she let him. “He could never hate you. And you didn’t throw him away. I’ve been doing some thinking. You were alone and scared. You did what you thought was best at the time. I’ve made mistakes too. I was way too hard on you about it.”

“It was wrong. I can’t undo it but I can be sorry.”

“I have things I wasn’t sorry for too but I am now. I knew you were grieving for your friends and your lost time with Avery but I never tried to help you at all. I thought I was the only one who’d lost anything.” He smiled that sweet dimpled smile. “I think we’ve both been too concerned with what we’ve lost to appreciate what we have.”

She traced one of those dimples. “I learned something today when I heard Lanie talking to … to …” She let her eyes leave his to meet Lanie’s. “To
her
little girl. I know how to tell Avery so he’ll understand.”

“Is that something we can do together?” Will asked.

“Yes. We’ll do it regardless of our circumstances. But I hope we’re going to do it together as a family in these magnificent woods of yours, in that house.” She pointed to the house that had become home in her heart. “I don’t know if you can forgive me. I don’t even know when I fell in love with you. But I did.”

“Oh, Arabelle.” His heart was in his eyes. “There’s nothing left to forgive. And I’ve always been in love with you.”

And the citizens of Merritt broke into applause.

“Let’s go get our boy,” Will said, “and go home.”

• • •

Later that night, Arabelle curled up on the sofa and watched her husband patiently show their son how to work the pedals of the wooden truck that was his birthday present. Being a smart and artistic child, he caught on quickly, but he preferred to have his daddy push him around. Jiffy rode in the car seat in the back. When Avery fell asleep sitting up in the truck, Will lifted him out.

“Want to take him up to bed?” he asked.

She held out her arms. “I think I want to hold him a little while. Will laid him in her arms and threw another log on the fire. Then he came to hold his wife and lay a hand on his son’s cheek.

“You missed another birthday,” Arabelle said sadly, as they stared down at Avery’s sweet sleeping face.

“No, I haven’t missed a thing. How could I have, when I’ve got everything?”

They kissed for a moment, and then a moment more. And then again.

When Will looked up, he laughed and pointed to the windows that showcased the grove of pines and cedars that was as pretty as any mountain range or ocean on the planet.

“Arabelle, look! It’s just for you!”

The grove was all the more beautiful with the scattering of snowflakes glistening in the moonlight. And she laughed with a joy she thought she’d never feel again.

Eight years later

Avery Garrett climbed out of his bedroom window and walked carefully down the catwalk that led to his tree house. He wanted to run so he could feel like Tarzan swinging through the trees but his mom had said if she caught him running one more time, he wouldn’t be allowed to go to his tree house alone—a privilege that had only been granted to him a few months ago when he turned ten. His dad had given him a solemn look that said,
Do as she asks, pal. Don’t point out that the guardrails are almost as high as your head.
She only asks because she loves you.

Dad would never say such a thing out loud but he didn’t need to. They understood each other; Avery couldn’t remember a time when they hadn’t.

But there had been a time when he was a baby when they didn’t even know each other. He’d always known that though he didn’t remember it. The way the story went—according to his parents—there had been a short but very sad time when the two of them had gotten lost from each other and lost from him. Even though he knew every part of the story by heart, they still told it pretty often. Sometimes they showed him the pictures of Sheridan and David, who they said had loved him very much and had taken good care of him. Dad always said that Mom hadn’t wanted to let Sheridan and David adopt him but had thought it was best for him back then. And Mom would say Dad had not known about him because there had been some big misunderstandings but he had been so happy when he found out he had a little boy. Then Dad always said there was nothing lost that hadn’t been found.

Whatever. Avery didn’t care as long as they didn’t get lost from each other again.

He opened the door to the tree house, which might be just about the best place in the world. It wasn’t just a shaky little box in a tree. His dad was the best builder in America, probably even the whole world, and he’d built the tree house just for Avery. It was like a real house with lights, round windows with shutters, and a sleeping loft with a pole you could slide down. Some TV people wanted to put his little house on a show about tree houses but Dad said it was Avery’s and he was the one who had to decide about that. Avery hadn’t made up his mind yet.

As much as he liked it, he couldn’t spend much time in his tree house today. There was a party going on for his parents’ anniversary down by the gazebo that Dad had built for Mom. Even though they had never had a divorce, Mom and Dad had had two weddings. Avery didn’t remember either one but he’d seen pictures of both. For the anniversary of the wedding that had been at the farm where Uncle Luke married them, Mom and Dad always took a little trip. This party was to celebrate the wedding they’d had a few months later at the church with Mom wearing the dress that Grandma had gotten married in and all the book club ladies in the wedding. He’d been a ring bearer at that one but instead of carrying a little white pillow, they’d tied the rings around his old pal Jiffy’s neck.

So he couldn’t hang around up here long. Mom had sent him up here to get the games that they kept in the big wooden box that he and Dad had made together. His part wasn’t very good though his Dad didn’t know that, just like he didn’t know those pictures of his hanging above the fireplace weren’t anything but baby scribbles.

Once he’d asked Mom why Dad, who seemed to know everything else, didn’t get that.

She’d hugged him like she loved to do and said, “Blind love, my child, blind love. You don’t have to understand it. Just bask in it.”

Grownups were really strange sometimes. He could draw way better trees now. He liked to work on wood things because it was fun doing stuff with Dad but he liked drawing better. Hard to say if drawing was as good as playing baseball.

He filled up the mesh bag he’d brought with balls, bats, and horseshoes but there wasn’t room for the Frisbees or the NERF balls. Looked like he’d have to make at least one more trip. Maybe his cousin John Luke would be here by now and could come back and help him. He opened the shutter of the window and looked out.

Yep, his cousins were here—Emma, John Luke, and Clarice. He didn’t see his grandparents yet but Uncle Luke and Aunt Lanie were carrying boxes from Heavenly Confections. He hoped she’d brought some fudge.

Beau and Lulu Bragg were here, too, plus Nichols and Riley Scott, and Eva and Chuck Kincaid.

For the longest, he’d thought they were his cousins too. Once when he’d tried to get it straight, Mom had laughed and told him not to try too hard. “They’re your cousins by love because their mothers are my sisters by love,” she’d said.

Grownups. Ha. Coach Nathan and Mr. Brantley were cooking stuff on the big brick grill. Beau and Lulu’s dad was down there, too, but it looked like he was mostly drinking beer and hanging out. Sometimes Avery ate a real burger and sometimes he ate a veggie burger like Dad. He liked both.

Oh, gross. Mom and Dad were hiding behind a tree kissing. They didn’t know he could see them from up here.

Two more cars pulled up—his grandparents and who was that? Oh, neat! Nobody told him his Little League coach, Mr. Polo, was coming. His wife, Miss Bailey, worked at his mother’s office and their kids were Allan and Porter. They walked over to say hello to Mr. Tiptoe, Miss Carol Jane, Miss Annelle, and Miss Lou Anne. Mayor Rayford went over to shake Grandpa’s hand and help Grandma with her picnic basket. Avery had learned to stay away from what Grandma brought unless Susie cooked it.

Eva’s granddaddy, Mr. Charles, had brought Eva’s pony but they’d all be allowed to ride—well, all but Emma, Beau, and Chuck. Chuck was too little but Miss Caroline was holding him up so he could pet the pony’s nose. Of course, Beau and Emma were too big for a pony now. Beau was good at football and baseball. Avery was pretty sure they’d hit some balls later, and maybe Mr. Polo would tell some stories about when he used to play for the Yankees.

Avery was relieved when he saw his mom go to the table where Aunt Lanie, Miss Missy, Miss Tolly, and Miss Lucy were putting out the food. That meant she wasn’t kissing anymore. Another car pulled up—it was Kirby and he had a woman with him. Avery didn’t know if it was the same as the last one. He couldn’t keep up with all that.

Oh, no! His little brother and sister were sneaking toward the food table. Quick as could be, his sister grabbed a pie from the edge and they jumped under the table with it before anyone saw them.