Sugar Creek (37 page)

“Because what?”

Should she tell Edna the rest, which had almost just come spilling out of her? Oh hell, maybe she should just get it on the table once and for all. Given what a staunch believer Edna was in family, maybe she would understand and even respect Rachel for it. “Because…the
truth is, I’ve just come through a big scare where I almost lost my job due to downsizing. But I just found out I get to keep it, and it’s a huge relief because…well, you know Mom and Dad and Noah aren’t exactly great with money, even when they have some. But I
am
. So if they—or, say, you—ever need it, I’ll have it.”

Edna just looked at her for a long moment, her face grave. Finally, she said, “Rachel, that ain’t your responsibility.”

She met Edna’s gaze. “But it’s my worry.” She swallowed, then went on. “I mean, I worry, you know? And you should be glad I do, because to be honest, worry is the only thing that’s kept me
here
this long. Worry over your knees and…” She looked Edna in the eye and finally just asked her. “Tell me the truth. Did you really hurt your knees? Or was that just a ploy to get me here, to spend time with me?”

Edna made a disgruntled face. “Of course I hurt my dang knees. Ain’t you seen the way I been hobblin’ around here? You think I move slow as Christmas for fun?”

“Well—there is some belief in the family that you…make up stories about your health just to get us to come see you.”

Edna gave her head a matter-of-fact tilt. “If it worked out that way a few times, who am I to complain? But yes, darlin’, I
really
hurt my knees. Tripped over a dang rake in the yard and they ain’t been the same since. And if I’d known about this job scare of yours, I woulda called on somebody else. Figured you’d tell a person if you really couldn’t come.”

Rachel just sighed. It was true. From the very beginning, she’d had that option and she hadn’t taken it. “I guess I have a soft spot for you, old woman.”

Edna pursed her lips. “Guess it’s perty clear I got the same for you, too.” The room went quiet but for the ticking of the old grandfather clock in one corner—until
Edna went on, full steam ahead. “But back to this business about you thinkin’ you need to provide for the whole damn Farris clan, well…you listen to me, and you listen good. If that’s the only reason you’re leavin’ Mike Romo here, it’s a damn foolish one.” Then she was back to pointing her fork at Rachel again. “The other point of my story is that a girl’s lucky to find a good, honest, lovin’ man. By the time my engagement to Giovanni ended, I was hurt more than I knew I
could
be, and I realized exactly how fortunate I was to find such a good man in Edward. And you’ve found just as good a man, in my opinion, in Mike. And I’ve seen the way ya look at him, and I know there’s more in your heart than you’ll admit, even to yourself.”

Rachel let out a breath. Then swallowed. She didn’t deny anything. Somehow, at the moment, she couldn’t. Edna had always been so good at seeing inside her.

But that still didn’t change the situation. “Okay, so he’s good, and honest. As for loving, though, I don’t know. He’s never said anything about loving me.”

However, at this, Edna just shrugged. Like it was nothing. “Men. They’re idiots that way. Don’t mean they don’t feel it.”

“Doesn’t mean they do, either.”

“Then maybe you oughta tell him first and see what happens.”

“Tell him what?” Rachel asked.

“That ya love him, you silly girl.”

Rachel just blinked, her stomach churning. “Well—I don’t know that I do. I mean, I’ve never…felt that for anyone. And besides, we live seven hours apart and I don’t see him moving to Chicago or me moving back to Destiny any time soon.”

Edna pinned her in place with a glare. “Are you tellin’ me—
truthfully
—you couldn’t be happy in this town if Mike wanted to build a life with you here?”

Whoa.
If Mike wanted to build a life with her here?
It
was hard to fathom. Kind of. And she suddenly felt the words in her gut. The possibility. And…oh Lord. The shocking truth was—maybe, just maybe, it would change everything inside her if it were really true.

But again—why should she think he wanted that? He’d never said so. Again, if she’d lost her job, maybe she’d be willing to…wait, to see what happened with Mike. But it was a hell of a lot to risk on a man who’d plainly told her he didn’t fall in love. They’d only known each other for six short weeks.

So she simply replied, “I don’t know. It’s a complicated question. And, thankfully, one it doesn’t look like I’ll have to answer since
he’s
never asked it.”

Looking tired now, Edna just shook her head. “Ya know, you can lead a horse to water, but ya can’t make it drink. If you can’t see what’s starin’ you right in the face, then there’s nothin’ more I can do. I do believe you and Mike might be the two most stubborn people I’ve ever met.”

Rachel sat outside Mike’s house in her car, waiting for him to get home. But he was late. And that was giving her too much time to think. The outcome of Edna’s story still blew her mind—she’d never once imagined Giovanni was cheating! And it saddened her to realize how deeply the affair with Giovanni had affected Edna, in lifelong ways. But more than that, Rachel’s focus wandered to all the stuff Edna had said about her and Mike, like they were some kind of star-crossed lovers or something.

Checking her watch, she saw he was more than twenty minutes late.
Wherefore art thou, Officer Romeo?

And in the meantime…was Edna right? Could she really be in love with Mike? Was he really as good and true as Edna thought? Truer than Giovanni? Was she somehow really meant to stay here, in Destiny?

And could she truly let go of the vow, the capability, to provide for her family if needed? How would it feel to
give up her job, the thing that so defined her in her own mind? And would it
be
like that, like giving something up, or might it somehow be…maybe
freeing
just to let it all go?

The questions were so big they almost overwhelmed her.

Because…maybe, just maybe there was some part of her that…wanted that. Every day with Mike. Time with Edna, and the girls. A simpler, quieter life. A life that revolved not around money or working but around…love. A whole different kind of security than a person could ever get from a job. And maybe even a type of happiness you couldn’t reap from any career.

But as another ten minutes passed, she started to get pissed, thinking more about the fact that he was standing her up than whether she should stay in Destiny. God,
was
he? Standing her up? That wasn’t like him, but then…Edna had never thought it was like Giovanni to be gallivanting all over Italy, either. And she’d only known Mike a short time, hardly long enough to be certain whether something
was
or
wasn’t
like him.

The later the hour grew, the more angry Rachel became. Her stomach churned. How dare he? It was bad enough to be stood up—much worse to be stood up at a guy’s
own house
. After all, how hard was it to just come home? Where else did he have to be?

A lump grew in her throat. He really wasn’t going to show. Because of the weird tension she’d felt between them the other night? Or just because something better had come up and making her mad didn’t matter since she was leaving tomorrow anyway?

Shit, it hurt. She didn’t like to admit that—she’d been back to being strong, tough Rachel—but it just plain hurt. Pretty damn bad.

Hell. She didn’t have to take this. She didn’t have to sit here feeling wounded and disregarded and embarrassed.
And to think, just a little while ago, she’d honestly been wondering if Edna was right and she should say those three little words to Mike.
I love you.
She still didn’t feel like an authority on the subject, but the fact was, she’d begun to wonder if it was true, if she’d actually fallen in love with the big lug.

But that didn’t matter now. He didn’t even care enough about her to show up.

Well, she’d had it with this. Her bags were already packed and sitting by Edna’s front door. And she didn’t have to wait until tomorrow to leave. She could just leave now. Tonight.

Starting the car, she turned around in Mike’s wide gravel driveway, tossing a little of it up when she peeled out onto the road. She was heading back to Edna’s to get her bags. And then she was getting the hell out of Destiny once and for all.

Mike drove toward his house, still fighting mixed emotions.

Should he ask her to stay? What would she say? Would she take him seriously or brush it off without really considering the gravity of the question? And hell—was he ready for such a big commitment anyway?

The only thing he knew for sure was that he was running late—because there had been a part of him that, like last night, almost didn’t want to see her again. It was hard knowing it would be the last time, and the truth was, he didn’t want to say goodbye.

But then he’d pulled himself together and gotten in the car to head home. Because come what may, he
had
to see her again. He
had
to. Because…he was pretty damn sure now that he was in love with the woman.

Just then, an Amber Alert came over his radio from dispatch. A little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes had just been abducted from her home north of Chillicothe
in
a late-model purple Mustang believed to be stolen from a Cleveland suburb.
Holy shit.

The abductor was believed to be Ronald Maitland, who had recently done repair work at the family’s home. He had two previous convictions for sexual abuse of a minor and a long record of misdemeanors like petty theft and various traffic violations. Authorities were uncertain where Maitland might be heading.

And Mike didn’t know where he was heading, either—but he thought he knew the road the asshole would take to get there. All his senses went on red alert. The son of a bitch had been going on practice runs. Down country roads. To stay off the main roads and interstates.

Mike was already on Meadowview Highway—it led to his house. And no matter how fast Maitland drove, he couldn’t be here yet. But soon probably.

As Mike found a spot to wait, he called dispatch and told them what he suspected, instructing them to alert all surrounding municipalities that the car had been seen speeding through this area twice in the past six weeks. He even asked for a roadblock to be set up at a rural intersection a few miles down the road, ASAP. He wished he could call Rachel to let her know he’d be later than he already was, but there was no signal here, so he’d just have to make her understand afterward how important this was.

And that’s when he spotted it—that damn Mustang! It was headed right toward him, just like he’d known it would be the moment he’d heard the Amber Alert. He’d be damned if Ronald Maitland got away from him this time.

As usual, the car was flying—so fast that Mike automatically feared for the child’s safety above and beyond the abduction. The second it passed, Mike gave chase, siren blaring, blue lights cutting through the dusky night air. He kept up, on every damn twist and turn, cussing the guy all the way.

And then the unexpected happened. The Mustang started to lose control.

Mike used his brakes to keep from hitting the other car, and he prayed the guy would get command over the vehicle and not kill the little girl. The Mustang slid off the road onto the flat land running alongside this particular stretch, and Maitland struggled to get the car back on the pavement. But he’d been forced to slow down—a lot, so Mike pulled alongside him to prevent him from re-entering the highway. Both cars still went around sixty, but the Mustang would soon have to stop because a large tree grew directly in its path just ahead, and with Mike boxing him in, the landscape prevented driving around it.

Finally, the Mustang braked to a halt. A good twenty yards from the tree—Maitland had seen the inevitable coming, Mike guessed. His heart hammered in his chest as he radioed for backup, bringing his own car to a stop, as well, flanking the Mustang’s rear fender. And he would have liked to
wait
for that backup, but he had a feeling if he did, Maitland would get away. And he couldn’t have that. He had to act now.

Through a speaker in his cruiser, Mike instructed Maitland, “Stay in your car.”

As he cautiously exited his own, gun drawn and tazer at the ready, he spotted the little girl in the backseat crying—and their eyes met through the back window. Oh God, she looked so scared. All he wanted in the world was to save her. All he wanted was to promise her everything would be all right.

And his heart broke as he thought of Anna. Whom he’d failed to save. And the memory stole his thoughts…for one crucial heartbeat.

He saw the barrel of the semi-automatic weapon jutting from the driver’s side window for only a split second before everything went black.

A
s Rachel sped around a bend in the road, the blue glow suddenly filtering the dusky air caught her off guard, making her slow down. Squinting to peer up the highway, she realized it was coming from a cop car, stopped up ahead.

She braked further as she approached, and then she saw—oh, dear God—a body in the road. Lying there. Still.

Lord, was that blood? Every muscle in her body tensed as she drew closer, horrified, petrified.

And then…oh, shit. Was it—was it…?

God, no—it was Mike!

No! No no no no no.

This couldn’t be happening! It couldn’t be real! “
Mike!
” she screeched, slamming on her brakes and jumping out of the car.

As she ran to him, she heard herself screaming, “Nooooo!” Her legs went numb beneath her, yet she kept
moving, racing toward where he lay stretched out on the pavement, eyes closed, the pool of blood surrounding his head growing, spreading. Oh God!
Oh God!

Without thinking, she dropped to her knees. Her whole body shook and her heart threatened to crumble in her chest. “Mike! Oh God, Mike!”

She grew vaguely aware of tears streaming down her face as she bent over him, pressing her hands to his chest.
Please don’t be dead! Please, please, please.
But—oh! His heart was beating!
Thank you, God!
It was as if the very knowledge breathed fresh life into her.

Only—what now? She already knew her cell phone didn’t get a signal here, damn it. Yet—Mike’s police radio was right in his car. She was just about to run to it, to try to figure out how to work it, when she heard sirens in the distance, growing rapidly closer.

“Thank God—they’re coming,” she told him anxiously, even though he was unconscious. “Help’s on the way.” Her breath ragged with fear, she touched his heart again, just to ensure them both he was still alive. “It’s gonna be okay, I promise,” she whispered. “Because it has to be.”

But God, there was so much blood! Too much! A body shouldn’t lose that much blood. What if he…what if he…?

Oh God, no. Just…no. He couldn’t die—he couldn’t.

More tears fell—she had to wipe them away to see. She simply kept stroking his chest with her hand, feeling the warmth of his flesh, feeling the very strength of him—praying that strength was enough to carry him through. “Please don’t die, Mike,” she sobbed. “Please don’t die. I love you.”

Rachel sat in the hospital room, watching Mike sleep.

He was going to be okay.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, God.
She’d been thanking God for an hour now, every time something went right or she got a piece of
good news. In times like these, she figured you couldn’t be too thankful.

Logan was outside in the hall making calls—to Mike’s parents, to Grandma Romo, to Chief Tolliver—and Edna was with him. But both had left her alone with Mike for now, and the longer she sat there, the more she realized what a blind, in-denial idiot she’d been.

In response to the thought, more tears fell. That had continued happening for the past hour, too—every few minutes she started up again.
again. Damn it—you managed not to cry for all these years, and now you can’t seem to turn it off.

So it had turned out that Mike was the only thing in the world that could make her cry—whether it was because the sex with him made her feel so complete, or because she was scared to death he was going to die. Or maybe it was also because of the startling revelation consuming her now: He was
the one
. The man for her. The man she couldn’t live without. The man she could love forever. She, who’d never even
wanted
that. And now she supposed she was crying because she’d been such a fool, and because she’d been so afraid she would lose him when she’d seen all that blood, and—Lord, it was just a lot to take all at once.

When his eyes fluttered open, she jumped to her feet. “You’re awake!” Oh, it was so good to look into those beautiful eyes, still so warm and brown.

“You’re here,” he said softly.

She stepped up to the bed and took his hand, careful not to jar his IV. “Of course I’m here.”

He blinked, looking around a little, seeming to get his bearings. “Did they get the girl back?”

Of all the things he could ask, that was the first question. Edna was right—he was such a good man. “The state police managed to stop him at the roadblock you ordered. The little girl is safe and sound.”

He breathed a visible sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

“And you’re gonna be okay,” she informed him. “There was a lot of blood, but turned out the bullet just nicked your shoulder.” The memory of that blood made tears well behind her eyes again, but she tried to hold them back. Still, her next words came out between shaky, gaspy sniffles. “You…hit…your head…on the road…too…but it’s only…a bump.”

“That would explain why it hurts like a son of a bitch,” he said. Then he squinted at her, looking confused. “Are you
crying
?”

“No,” she lied, despite that she was clearly sniffing back tears.

He tilted his head on the pillow propped beneath it. “Looks like it.”

“Well,” she said, “it’s been an upsetting evening.”

Just then, his face took on an odd, troubled expression and he whispered, “Jesus Christ.”

“What?” she asked, worried.

“Do I still have on underwear?”

Okay, maybe it was the pain medication making him ask, but Rachel was about to appease him by peeking under the covers to check—when a plump, cheerful nurse in Hello Kitty scrubs hurried in. “You sure do,” the nurse said. “All the girls in the ER really enjoyed ’em, too.”

“Hell,” he muttered, letting his eyes fall shut.

Rachel waited as the nurse checked Mike’s vital signs, told him the doctor would be in soon, and bustled right back out. Then she lifted the edge of Mike’s sheets to see what the heck was going on, and—oh God. He had on the leopard print boxers. “You wore them? For me?”

Mike just gave her a look. “Don’t make a big thing of it.”

But it
was
a big thing. For Mike anyway. And though Rachel had planned on waiting until he felt better to tell him this, she couldn’t. She’d already waited too long. And she was pretty sure he hadn’t heard her at the crime scene. So she just blurted it out. “I love you!”

His jaw dropped and he simply stared at her—but she didn’t care. She had to get this off her chest, once and for all. “The moment I saw you lying in that puddle of blood, I realized that if you died, I’d fall apart, I’d never get over it. I’ve been a fool not to tell you sooner. And I’m scared to death to be telling you right now, but at the same time, it’s all right, because…I have way more fears than I ever let most people see, and…and you’re the man who can help me get past them. You’re the man who can take them all away.” Wow, what a mouthful. But she’d said it. And it was out there now, no taking it back.

Mike just blinked at her a few times, and she couldn’t read his face. Her heart felt like it would beat through her chest. But finally, he said, softly, “Give me your hand,” so she did.

Then he looked her in the eye. “I don’t know how to say stuff like this, and it might come out better if I waited until I wasn’t being pumped full of drugs, but…I’ve been feeling…the same way. And when I think of you leaving town…aw hell, it makes me feel shitty.”

Ah, her charming silver-tongued devil. She just smiled. “Are you asking me to stay, Officer Romeo?”

Mike closed his eyes briefly, then let out a breath. “Damn it, woman,” he said, “I’m asking you to marry me. Probably not the way you envisioned it, but it’s the best I can do right now.”

Oh! Oh God! “Yes,” she said. She didn’t even need to think about it. Her thoughts had scarcely gotten that far, but the second the words left him, she knew that was what she wanted more than anything in the world. More than her job. More than her old life in Chicago, something that, she realized fully now,
had
truly run its course. She wanted it even more than the financial security she’d clung too for so long. “Yes, yes, yes,” she repeated.

He actually looked a little surprised. “Really?”

She nodded, squeezing his hand.

“Ow!” he said.

Damn, the IV. “Sorry.” She released her grip. Then got back to the point. “I never thought I wanted to marry
anyone
, Mike, but now I do.”

A wary expression took over his face. “Not because I’m lying in a hospital bed in leopard underwear looking pathetic? Because if that’s why, I take my proposal back.”

She tilted her head and gave him an indulgent smile. “That’s not why.”

“Then…why?”

“Because I like to argue with you. And laugh with you. And flirt with you. And because you make me crazy in bed—and wherever else we do it. And because you’re a good man.” Just like Edna had said. “A
really
good man. Who I want to run the orchard with. And grow old with. And have lots of sex with as soon as you get well.”

Somehow her Officer Romeo still managed to look completely arrogant, even now, as he said, “Get in bed with me, Rachel.”

Glancing toward the door to make sure a doctor wasn’t about to come rushing in, she carefully pulled back the covers and climbed in next to him. Oh God, it felt so good to be near him again, pressed up against his warmth.

Their faces were but an inch apart on the pillow when Mike said, more tenderly than she’d known he could, “For a guy lying in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound and a bump on his head and embarrassing underwear on…hell, I think you just made me happier than I’ve ever been. I love you, honey.”

Mmm. The words melted down through her warm and sweet—the best words any man had ever said to her. Pressing her hand gently to his bare chest, she leaned over for a kiss.

They both moaned lightly as their mouths met, and
Rachel felt it in her chest, and she couldn’t help kissing him again, and again. Until he shifted, rubbing against her in such a way that she realized he had a hard-on—even now.

“Holy crap,” she said.

“That’s right, woman. Even in a hospital bed, after being shot, and under the influence of pain medication, I want you. That’s how damn crazy you make me.”