Love Blooms

by Jo McNally

  But Lucy had given him a month, so he still had some time. Feeling the pressure, we was working his way through the How to Grovel suggestions from Dr. Find-Love, just in case one might work.

  Go big. Sometimes it takes a really grand gesture to soften her heart. Find something she loves (a place, a song, a movie) and figure out a way to really wow her with it.

  It had taken three phone calls, including one with Logan on the line, to convince Nikki Taggart to go along with his grand gesture. It probably didn’t hurt that his plan presented a free and painless way for her to get her convertible back, but Nikki never would have agreed if Logan hadn’t spoken up on Owen’s behalf. How long she’d actually keep the secret from Lucy was anyone’s guess, so Owen was doing his best to speed things along. It was taking a whole lotta money, too, but he’d set aside some savings while serving.

  “Owen!” Finn O’Hearn shouted his name loudly enough that heads turned. Finn downed the pint of dark beer in his hand. Judging from his slightly sloppy grin, Owen suspected that wasn’t Finn’s first of the day. The Irishman waved Owen over and slapped him on the back. “How the hell are ya? Come meet my fellow countryman. We Irish have to stick together on yer Independence Day shenanigans, you fekkin’ rebels.” He introduced Owen to Father Joseph Brennan from St. Vincent’s Catholic Church. The priest was an inch or two shorter than Owen, with a bright smile and a pint of dark brew in his hand.

  “Good to meet you, lad!” Father Brennan held out his free hand. “You’re the groom chasin’ after our runaway bride, right?”

  Finn laughed at Owen’s expression. “Newsflash—there’s nothin’ goin’ on in this town that the good Father doesn’t know about.”

  Owen blew out a long breath. He wasn’t used to so many people being in on his personal business. His mother always insisted that nothing good ever came from sharing news outside the immediate family circle. The people in Rendezvous Falls had different ideas. He did his best to smile at the kind-eyed priest.

  “That’s right, Father Brennan. If you can send up a prayer or two for me, that’d be great.”

  “Call me Father Joe, or just Joe if you prefer.” Joe waved to a waitress walking by. “Mary, love, bring us a round o’ Guinness when you get a chance...” He glanced at Owen. “Unless you prefer somethin’ else?”

  “I’m more of an ale drinker.”

  Joe nodded. “No worries. Mary, make it two Guinness and a Smithwicks for Owen here.” He gestured toward the tall cafe table behind him. “Come join us, lad. As for the prayer, I’ll definitely ask the good Lord to do His will, not mine. I cannot be takin’ sides, you understand.”

  “Of course.” Owen wasn’t that big a believer in church stuff anyway. War did that to a person sometimes. He didn’t expect any religion to provide answers to all the whys he carried around inside him. Whenever he’d thought about seeking those answers from some all-knowing entity, all he felt was white-hot anger, so he’d stopped trying a while ago. Better to seal up that emotion for another day. Or forever, if possible.

  Finn changed the subject to sports, and that was a subject that felt a whole lot safer for Owen. Baseball season was in full swing . The three men debated the merits and prospects for several teams. Their beers arrived, and Owen approved of the Irish ale Father Joe had ordered for him. When the two Irishmen started talking about the sports of their homeland however, like rugby and something called hurling, Owen only half listened. He was watching the crowd. He told himself he was looking for Lucy, but truth be told, he was also doing his soldier thing again—gauging the perimeter, looking for anything out of place, marking the exits. It was stupid, but old habits were hard to break.

  He intended to be out of there before dark, because he and fireworks didn’t mix. But Lucy didn’t arrive until the sun was settling low on the hills ar. She came with Logan, Piper and their kids, Ethan and Lily. Young Lily was clutching Lucy’s hand and giggling about something. Then she spotted Owen and dragged Lucy his way.

  “Mr. Owen! I didn’t know you were coming tonight! Isn’t it fun? Wait until you see the fireworks! They’re mag-fis-sent!” He furrowed his brows, trying to decipher the word. The cute kid had proven to have a passion for big words, whether she could pronounce them or not.

  “Oh, you mean magnificent. Yes, Lily, I’m sure they will be.” He hoped to be long gone by then, but it was getting darker by the minute. He was running out of time, but he couldn’t leave now that Lucy had just arrived. “It’s good to see you, Luce.”

  She looked straight into his eyes, her face carefully neutral. Her pink hair was tucked behind her ears. He felt as if he was being examined somehow, as if she was looking right into his soul. “It’s a surprise to see you, but it looks like you’ve made friends in town already.” She nodded at Finn and Father Joe. Her voice dropped. “I know how you like to hang out with your bro-pals.”

  Was that a jab at how much time he’d spent with the guys in North Carolina after he’d returned? And how little time he’d spent talking with her, despite her begging him to talk about Afghanistan? He deserved it, of course, but he couldn’t help getting defensive.

  “My bro-pals don’t tend to leave me high and dry at the altar.”

  Her face flushed, but before she could speak, Father Joe jumped in.

  “Now, now. I’m guessin’ there’s lots of talkin’ to be done between you two, but ’tisn’t the time or place.”

  Logan moved Piper in front of him to shield her from the increasingly large and rowdy crowd. Finn looked around the patio as if suddenly realizing how packed it was, then he stood, pulling his chair out for Lucy.

  “Have a seat, love. I’ll grab another chair for Mrs. Taggart here, and then I’d better go see if my bride-to-be needs help inside at the bar. The place is getting pretty lively.” He patted Owen’s shoulder, almost whispering as he passed, “I believe you’re supposed t’be groveling, my man, not snarlin’.”

  He nodded in response, staring at the table in silence while Lucy sat with a heavy sigh and the Taggarts pulled chairs in for themselves and the children. The waitress stopped and took their orders for drinks and a few shared appetizers. As she walked away, Owen steadied his voice and leaned toward Lucy.

  “Sorry if I was a dick before. But Father Joe’s right. We really should talk, Luce.”

  She kept her voice low like his. “Didn’t I talk enough the first day you got here? What more is there to say?”

  “You talked. I didn’t. Not really. We haven’t had an honest-to-God conversation since the wed...” He paused, grimacing at the truth. “Since well before the wedding. Can’t we just sit down and...converse with each other?”

  He heard the whine of the rocket well before the soft boom echoed over the lake below them. His brain told him it was a normal practice shot for the fireworks, to check the wind direction. But his body reacted, just for a heartbeat, as if...as if that rocket was incoming. He tensed, looking to the sky. He saw the receding colors of the sunset and the small white puff of smoke from the exploded test shot. Relief flooded his veins, and he sat back, glancing around to see who noticed.

  Logan and Piper were laughing over something Ethan had said. Lily was sitting in Father Joe’s lap, drinking her lemonade. No one had noticed his mini panic attack. No one except Lucy.

  She was staring at him with heavy concern darkening her eyes, and her hand reached out to cover his. Her head tipped to the side and she mouthed a silent question. You okay? He swallowed hard, then nodded.

  “Yay! Fireworks!” Lily shouted. “But I didn’t see it—where did it go?”

  “That was just a test, sweetheart.” Father Joe was answering Lily, but watching Owen as he spoke. Maybe Lucy wasn’t the only one to notice his reaction after all. “In just a few minutes, we’ll have lots of fireworks lighting up the sky. And those big bangs going off. Are you ready?”

  Nope. Definitely not ready.

&
nbsp; But how could he escape at this point? The crowd had overflowed the patio into the parking lot, with people setting up folding chairs by their cars to watch the show. He was going to have to figure out a way to block out the explosions. Go somewhere else in his mind. Maybe no one else would notice his stony silence while they were oohing and ahhing.

  “Oh, my God!” Lucy startled everyone by jumping to her feet. “I forgot something! I forgot...to call my sister. Yes, I promised her I’d call today. I have to go...”

  Piper frowned. “Can’t you call her from here?”

  “Oh...uh... I forgot my phone in my room. I need to go back.” She grabbed Owen’s hand and tugged him out of his chair. “Owen, I saw your Bronco was here. Can you take me back? Right now? We could...um...have that talk.”

  “But Miss Lucy, you were texting on your phone in the car on the way here. Remember?” Lily looked sad. “If you go now, you’ll miss the fireworks.”

  And finally, Owen got it. Lucy was doing this for him. She was coming to his rescue. And he wasn’t too proud to accept it. He felt a surge of hope. Lucy stared at Lily, panicked for a second, then she gave the most artificial laugh he’d ever heard.

  “Yes, Lily, but that was a different phone. I have...two phones...and that one...doesn’t...”

  He finished for her. “Is that the phone that doesn’t have your contacts in it? So you don’t have Kris’s number? That number’s in the other phone, back at the inn, right? I’ll take you...”

  Lily started to speak, but Father Joe beat her to it. “Sometimes I have the wrong phone with me, too. You don’t want your sister to worry, Lucy. You two go on. Lily can tell you all about the fireworks later.”

  Lucy grabbed Owen’s hand and pulled him away from the table, calling over her shoulder. “I would love that, sweetie. Tell me in the morning, okay? Come on, Owen. The least you can do is give me a ride back to the inn.” Another fake laugh. “But don’t get any ideas. I’m still not changing my mind about you...”

  Logan and Piper looked baffled, but they didn’t say anything. Father Joe waved and gave Owen a conspiratorial wink. Good thing he’d given up on his pride tonight, now that both Lucy and the good father were feeling sorry for him. They made their escape from the Purple Shamrock parking lot just as the sky lit up orange in the rearview mirror with the first volley. She reached for the radio and cranked up the volume on the Foo Fighters, almost drowning out the thunderous booms over the lake.

  He had no idea where he was going. He just drove, going up the hill and away from the fireworks. The silence beneath the pounding music was heavy. He turned onto a side road that still wound upward. It wasn’t until he’d nearly crested the top of the hill that he started to relax. He huffed out a soft laugh.

  “I have no idea where we are.”

  And wasn’t that the whole damn problem?

  * * *

  “THAT MAKES TWO OF US.” Lucy pulled her phone out of her bag. “Let’s see if we have a GPS signal up here.” She scowled at her screen. “It’s not looking good. We can just keep driving and then retrace our route in half an hour or so.” The car slowed, and she peered through the darkness to a small sign announcing “Rendezvous Falls County Park—Hike to the Falls—Open Sunrise to Sunset.”

  She looked over at Owen when he turned onto the narrow gravel road. “I didn’t know there was an actual Rendezvous Falls waterfall. Makes sense, I guess. But it’s past sunset. It’s closed.”

  “Do you really think the county is patrolling this little park on the Fourth of July? Stopping makes more sense than just blindly driving into the dark in the middle of nowhere.” She saw the flash of his grin. She forgot he was a Man with a Plan. Driving aimlessly went against everything he believed in. Getting lost was not Owen’s idea of a good time. The park had a name. Therefore, if he stopped here, he wasn’t lost. She struggled to hold in a grin of her own.

  The driveway opened to a small graveled parking area with a lone floodlight on a tall pole in one corner. The light was just enough to show a small open-sided pavilion and a few scattered picnic tables. And no other cars. He parked and turned off the engine. Their hands collided as they both reached to turn down the volume on the radio. He grinned ruefully in the light of the dashboard. “Stopping here makes more sense. Blindly running away isn’t really a solution to a prob...”

  He caught himself. “I’m talking about me, not you. I didn’t mean...” He groaned, half to himself. “I planned on being out of there by the time the fireworks started. Figured I’d sit in my room with my noise-canceling headphones on and be fine. Rather than emasculating myself in front of everyone by freaking out over a loud noise.”

  “You don’t need to explain. I’ve heard that a lot of combat veterans don’t like fireworks.” The dash lights faded now that the car was off, leaving only the ghostly gray glow from the parking lot light. They saw a distant burst of green light beyond the trees, and heard a deep boom from the valley. “Do you want me to turn the radio back on?”

  “No. It’s far enough away now. I don’t like it when it’s close enough that you feel the thud in your chest, but I can handle this.” He turned in the seat to face her. “Thank you, by the way. I don’t know what made you do that, but...thanks.”

  She knew this man well enough to know when he was about to break, and she’d seen it in his eyes back at the Purple Shamrock. He’d been right on the edge, and she had to do something.

  “Do you remember that Halloween weekend we spent in New Bern? We took the ghost walk tour, and there was a power failure while we were in the old cemetery? Remember how dark it got?”

  Lucy had a horrid fear of the dark, especially in a cemetery.

  He chuckled. “I think I still have the scars from where you sank your fingernails into my arm.” She swatted at him, which just made him laugh louder. “What? It’s the truth! That’s when I found out Lucy Higgins is afraid of the dark.” He looked out the windshield at the dimly lit lot. “Oh, shit. Does this place bother...?”

  “No. I’m fine. As long as that one light stays on.” She leaned her head back on the seat. “That night in New Bern, you turned on your phone’s flashlight, and called out to people around us asking them to do the same. You told everyone that I had some mysterious vision condition and wouldn’t be able to walk without lots of light. No one even questioned you, even though the cemetery didn’t have that many lights before the power went out.” She rolled her head to look at him. “You were a hell of a lot more convincing than I was with my crazy two-phones story just now.”

  “You did okay. Father Joe helped. But...why did you do it?” Another distant boom rolled through the night. “You’re missing the show.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve seen fireworks before. And I’ve owed you a rescue since New Bern. Now we’re even.”

  “I have no idea what we are, Luce, but I don’t think it’s even at all. I honestly don’t know who owes what.”

  A red glow rose above the trees, followed by a series of explosions. The inside of the car felt suddenly too closed in and warm. Too close...to him. She grabbed the door handle and pushed it open. “Let’s check this place out.” She hoped he didn’t mind going outside, because she couldn’t stay there.

  “Uh...yeah, sure.” He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a sturdy black flashlight and a bizarre light of some kind attached to straps. He turned on the flashlight, and tossed the strappy thing in her direction. “Put it on your head. I know it looks goofy, but it works. Marcus gave it to me as a gag gift when I left the Army. It’s like a miner’s light, shining from your forehead.” He got out of the car, then walked around to where she stood, trying to untangle the straps. “Here, let me...”

  He quickly slid it over her head. The straps were like a helmet, holding the light in place. When he pressed the button, everything in front of her lit up in white light.

  “Wow.” She turned her h
ead back and forth, sending the beam of light sweeping across the mowed park lawn. “This thing is awesome!”

  “It’s supposed to be for working on a car engine and stuff like that, but I’ve never used it.” He tugged the strap tighter around her head, securing it with the Velcro tab. “Looks like it was made just for you.” Another burst of fireworks glowed beyond the trees. She reached up to touch his hand, and he smiled. “I’m fine. Distant explosions were normal background noise over there.”

  “But you’re not over there anymore.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  NO, HE WASN’T over there anymore. But too many times it felt like over there was still inside him. Especially with explosions lighting up the sky.

  Lucy looked up at him, nearly blinding him with that wide circle of LED lights on her forehead. She quickly looked away when he winced, mumbling a quick apology. He couldn’t see her face past that light. Couldn’t read her eyes. But he felt the compassion in her words. His first instinct was to recoil from it, the way he had from that light beam from the headlamp she was wearing. Except...he knew that dodging this topic was one of the things that blew up their wedding. He’d pushed her away the entire two months he’d been home before that, telling himself it would be easier after the wedding was over. After they’d moved in together. After he’d started work at the family business. Always after...until all of a sudden she was gone.

  She mistook his silence for more of the same, turning away with a defeated sigh. “Let me guess...you don’t want to talk about it.” Her headlamp lit up a picnic table in front of her and she headed for it. He hurried after her, grabbing her arm and gently turning her. She blinded him again by looking up, then swore and looked away.

  “You’re right, Luce. I don’t want to talk about it. But you clearly need me to, at least a little. And maybe I need to do it. I don’t know.” He released her and sat on the edge of the table, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to figure out what to say. “It’s not exactly dinner conversation, you know? And if you haven’t been there...” She sat on the seat below him, carefully keeping the headlamp aimed away. Her whole body seemed to be paying attention to him, though. He could sense it in the tightness of her shoulders, the careful tilt of her head. She was letting him talk at his own pace. The woman who’d always waited for everyone and everything was still willing to wait for him. He swallowed hard, determined to give her what she needed.