He shrugged. “She did have a lot of issues with a lot of people in this town. Even Darby said he’d had a run in or two with her.”
“Yes, but she was just a bitch. I don’t think she was someone who could physically harm someone.”
“Maybe she got involved in something. I mean, the woman had an affair and a baby from that affair while she was married. She seems to be good at being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Vivian could hardly wrap her head around it all. “I can’t believe they’re both gone.”
Sam reached behind his back and pulled his holster and gun from the band of his pants. “Here.”
“Sam!” She looked around to see that no one was there. “Put that away.”
“I want it on you at all times.”
“I could get in trouble with that.”
“You could save your life if it comes to it. I have three more and I’ll make sure all of you have them if I have to.”
“I don’t like this.”
He motioned again for her to take it. “Do you know how to use it?”
She gave him another steely look. “I was married to a solider. There isn’t much I can’t do with a gun.”
He smiled. “Okay then. Just keep it on you—in case.”
“I don’t want this with the girls around.”
“Well, tomorrow you won’t be with the girls. Use it to protect Clayton.”
Her hands shook as she took the gun and set it on her lap. “With all due respect, I don’t think he’s going to look at me having a gun as a good thing.”
“I know his wife was killed with one. But, damnit, Vivian, I don’t want anything to happen to you or him—and especially those four girls. Until I know more, take it.”
She nodded and slid the holster into the back of her pants just as Sam had. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“All of you are my family. No one—no one—gets hurt.”
Vivian moved to kiss him on the cheek. “I love you. I can’t imagine my life without all of you in it.”
He rested his hand on hers. “You’re never going to have to. Now I have to get back to work. Believe it or not, you’re the next of kin. Stella’s and Frank’s ashes will be sent to you when the investigation is over. But I butted my way into the communication loop as your lawyer.”
“I hope Adam covered that bill,” she joked.
He smiled. “Paid in full.”
Vivian closed her eyes tightly and took a moment to collect her thoughts. What a time for everyone to decide she was actually Adam’s wife.
~*~
Vivian kept the gun that Sam had given her secured. The last thing she wanted was for the girls to find it. And she wasn’t really sure what Clayton would think either.
As they packed for their night away, she slipped it into her suitcase and then locked the bag before putting it in Clayton’s car.
She had dropped the girls off at Amelia’s earlier that morning and now Clayton gave the girls instructions to help their grandmother.
For the first time they would be alone for two days and they’d be alone all night. Already her heart was pumping faster in her chest. Tonight Clayton wouldn’t be just sleeping in the same bed. There would be no boundaries. They’d be alone and anything was game.
She rested her hand on her stomach. Funny, she couldn’t remember being this nervous when she was seventeen.
Clayton looked at her. “Are you okay?”
She smiled. “Giddy. Nervous.”
He took her hands in his. “I am too.” He moved in closer to whisper in her ear. “I haven’t had to buy condoms for years. I’m sure the clerk thought I might have a heart attack.”
She laughed easily as he pulled her into his arms.
“I’m ready,” she said softly.
“So am I.”
They’d promised they wouldn’t make plans. Everything would be spontaneous. Breakfast in Oklahoma City was more spontaneous than Vivian had expected.
“Brock said there was some little dive near the courthouse,” his voice was steady as he drove down the street. “He says it’s old, run down, and has amazing biscuits and gravy.”
Vivian laughed. “We drove this far for biscuits and gravy?”
“Hell yeah.” He slowed the car. “There it is!”
He quickly pulled the car into a parking space on the street.
“I love that little things like this excite you.”
Clayton unbuckled his seatbelt. “I’m glad. I like to take little adventures like this. Have you ever played the game where you flip a coin and heads you take a right and tails you take a left?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do when we leave. We have all night for playing games.”
As they headed across the street, he took her hand. She loved this no-nonsense man who fed children knowledge, who doted on his daughters—and hers. He was hurt so deep inside, yet he could opt to love again. She’d be lucky if he’d have her for the rest of her life.
As he plowed through a plate of heart-stopping biscuits and gravy, she thought about his reaction to Frank’s death. He’d been concerned, which she’d expected. But his compassion had touched her even further. The man didn’t know Adam, or his parents, and yet he’d always had a kind word, which was more than she could say.
She hadn’t told him about the gun, but he knew that Sam was worried about her safety. Clayton promised nothing would happen to her, but she didn’t know what that really did to him inside if he knew about the gun.
His wife had been stalked by a fourteen-year-old boy, who eventually killed her. Was he as carefree about it when she’d friended him as he seemed to be hearing that maybe Frank and Stella Monroe had been murdered? Or was this his calm to keep her calm?
He’d had no problem leaving his girls with his mother-in-law. And equally, she felt as safe leaving her girls with Sam and Amelia.
Maybe she was overreacting to nothing. Frank and Stella had nothing to do with Adam’s death. And she had nothing to do with their deaths.
She didn’t feel endangered and she wasn’t sure why Sam felt the need for her to have that stupid gun.
She thought better of it. Sam was a lawyer. His job was to question everything and to be a bit skeptical until he had the right answers. He didn’t have those yet.
“Are you going to eat? Or better yet, talk during this meal?”
She looked up from her French toast and smiled. She hadn’t eaten any of it and he’d cleaned his plate. “Sorry. I’m thinking too much about Stella and Frank.”
Clayton set his fork down and reached for her hand. “Do you want to go out to Florida and see what we can do? Dorothy is here. I can use her as much as I need to.”
Vivian smiled. “No. I don’t want to do that. I need to let the police do what they’re going to do and I’ll make sure they are laid to rest respectfully.”
“If you change your mind…”
She shook her head. She wouldn’t change her mind.
He gave her hand a squeeze, then picked up his coffee and took a sip.
Vivian sat and admired him. His sandy hair was tussled and he hadn’t shaved in two days since he’d had time off and yet he was absolutely gorgeous. There was no need to ever wonder what if they’d met years ago. Circumstances brought them to where they were, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she could have been this happy years ago.
When the waitress brought the check, Clayton pulled dollars from his pocket and set them on the table. He then pulled a quarter from his pocket.
“Game on,” he said as he flipped the coin in the air, caught it, and covered it on the back of his hand. “Heads we go right. Tails we go left.”
She smiled. “Okay, let’s go.”
As they stepped out the door they both looked left and right.
“Left, there is a book store. Right, it looks like the court house across the street and down the street maybe a museum or something,” he said.
She looked at him. “What did the coin land on?”
“Heads. So we go right.”
She laughed. “Of course it did. There is a book store over here,” she said pointing left. “What good is a court house on a vacation?”
But Clayton didn’t laugh. In fact, his eyes widened and his face grew very serious.
“We said no plans.”
She nodded. “Right.”
“Because we play by all the rules.”
“Yes,” she drew the word out slowly.
He ran his hand over his unshaven jaw. “Everyone expects us to do everything by the book—always.”
“You’re starting to freak me out.”
Now he laughed. “No. I don’t mean to. Hear me out.”
He paced in a small square in front of her.
“What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done in your life?”
She thought for a moment. “Honestly, it was kissing you.”
He smiled at that. “Ditto.”
“You want to kiss me here?”
“More than you know. But…” He stopped in front of her, took her hands in his, and got down on one knee. “I know what to do in the court house.”
She’d stopped breathing. She’d stopped blinking. Clayton finally stood back up and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“I didn’t even say anything.”
“You did. I know what you meant. You want to get married?”
His smile was back. “Yes.”
“Oh, I don’t…”
“Unplanned.”
“But the girls…”
“We can let them dress up for a reception or something. They wanted us married.”
“They want a brother.”
He nodded as he let his hands slide from her shoulders to her hands. “I know.”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
“Listen, I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think someday I’d do it anyway. And Amelia and Penelope both ran off and got married after only a few weeks of knowing Adam. Now they’re going to get married again. You and I’ve known each other a few months now. Let’s get married first.”
“I don’t know.”
His eyes lost their gleam. “If you don’t want to, I understand.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to.” She thought a moment about it. “You know what it is?”
He shook his head.
“It’s not planned.”
“That was some of the point. Not all of it, but…”
“No. I mean people wouldn’t expect it. That freaks me out.”
“Then forget I said it.”
“No. Let’s do it. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to feel life. I want to know that I could do the craziest thing on a whim.”
The corner of his mouth turned up into a smile. “You think this is crazy?”
“Yes. And I want to marry you.” She began to feel the giddy tingle build inside of her. “I want to marry you now.”
“You’ll marry me?”
“I’ll marry you.”
“I’m heading right. The coin said so.”
“Who am I to argue with logic like that?”
Chapter Eighteen
Two hours after walking into the courthouse and getting an open time slot to get married, Clayton was having Vivian browse rings at a small jewelry store a few blocks away.
“I don’t know what I want,” she said browsing bridal sets.
One thing she didn’t know about her husband was what kind of disposable income he had for such things. She would imagine he didn’t have any, yet here he was saying, “Choose anything.”
She looked at big stones, little stone, and colored stones. She tried on high-end rings and small ones that her mother would have called canhardlies, as in you could hardly see a stone.
The very last set she looked at was a his –and- hers set. Matching gold bands with the woman’s being thinner.
“That’s it. That’s what I want.”
“Gold bands?”
She looked up at him and he was smiling. “Yes. Is that okay?”
He pulled her into his arms. “I mean this as an absolute compliment. One of the things I like best about you, Mrs. North, is you’re a no frills kind of girl.”
“You’re right, I’m not.”
He pressed a kiss to her lips and bought her the simple set of gold bands.
Clayton figured if they had set out to have an unexpected day they had certainly succeeded. He hadn’t woken up that morning thinking that by the end of the day he’d be married. But he was—and he couldn’t have been happier.
He was finding immense joy in watching her look down at the gold band he’d put on her finger. She gazed at it as other women would gaze at a gaudy diamond. But not his wife. She liked simple and he loved that.
His wife.
He loved the very sound of it in his head. Never did he think he’d remarry, but for the first time in two years he felt absolutely whole.
A part of him wanted to call their date night short and go home to tell the girls that they were in fact sisters. The very thought made him chuckle.
Vivian turned her head to him. “Why are you laughing?”
He took her hand and interlaced their fingers. “I can’t wait to tell the girls that they are sisters.”
She rested her head against the back of the seat. “They are going to be so happy.”
He contemplated the question to her. “Do we go to them or continue on with our evening?”
Clayton caught her smile. “Don’t think I’m some kind of slut, but I don’t think I can hold out much longer.”
“I would never think that of you.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m feeling the exact same way.”
He wasn’t one to speed, but he was sure he’d have gotten a ticket as he pulled up in front of the old house.
He turned off the car. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to know a house was empty.”
Vivian tucked her lips between her teeth. “I’ll bet sometime from sixteen through nineteen you were glad.”
He laughed easily as he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers. “You’re right. But as a grown adult—I’m pretty happy.”
“Me too.” She flung open her door. “Let’s go.”
Clayton pushed open his door and stepped out into the street. “Grab your bag. I don’t want to have to come out here for anything.”
She laughed as she grabbed her bag and then ran to the front door to open it.
With the key in her hand she pushed open the door, dropped her bag on the ground, and waited for Clayton to follow. She quickly pushed it shut and locked it before she found herself pushed up against it.
Clayton’s mouth was hot on hers as he pushed his body hard to hers. Her breath came out in a moan against his mouth.
Her heart beat an erratic rhythm against his as his hands slid over the curve of her bottom, pulling her even closer—if possible.
Vivian tangled her fingers into his hair. How could she have forgotten how amazing it felt to have a man pressed to her with his desire evident in his touch and constricted by his clothing?
He moved his hands to the buttons on her shirt, making quick work to expose her beneath.
Clayton lifted his head to look at her and a deep growl came from his throat as he moved his lips down her neck toward her breasts that heaved beneath his lips.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself to breathe in the moment. As he cupped her in his hands and exposed her delicate skin beneath the pads of his fingers, she let out a hum of delight.
“You’re beautiful, Vivian.”
“You’re going to kill me with all of this attention.”
He raised back to her lips and took her mouth. “I plan to pay a lot of attention to each part of you—forever.”
She swallowed hard. “Take me upstairs before I lose my mind.”
~*~
The air had swirled between them
for nearly the past two hours as Clayton and his new wife explored this very personal part of their marriage.
Passion like nothing Clayton had ever felt burned inside of him as he rolled from atop of his new wife who still gasped for air.
He looked over at her sweat slickened body, appreciating every curve of her. The marks that marred her skin from the birth of her daughters only made her more precious to him.
“I’m glad we waited for that,” Vivian said on a sated breath.
“I can’t believe we did.” He rolled to his side and brushed a strand of her hair aside. “We’re going to have to learn to be more quiet.”
She laughed and her white teeth shined in the dim room. “I promise.” She turned to look at him. “What time is it?”
“Dark.”
She laughed again and he realized he could just get drunk on the sound of it.
“Is it bad that I want to tell my girls goodnight?”
“No. C’mon, let’s go down and find something to eat. I could use some water.”
He walked into the bathroom and pulled down a towel, wrapping it around his waist as she pulled the sheet off the bed.
The house was eerily dark he thought. They would need some motion lights when they moved in—and a gate at the top of the stairs.
“I’ll go get our bags and our phones,” he said giving her rear a pat.
He could hear the refrigerator open as he moved toward the front door. Noticing the front porch light was turned off, he flicked the switch to turn it on. He knew Sam had put it on a sensor. Maybe it had stopped working. He’d have to look at it tomorrow.
As he picked up his bag he noticed the door wasn’t locked. He was sure they’d done that too. They must have been in one hell of a hurry to leave the door unlocked.
With a flick of his fingers he secured the deadbolt and headed back to the kitchen with their bags.
Outside the wind began to blow and he could see the now bare trees sway in the moonlight outside the kitchen window.
“I found chicken nuggets,” Vivian said with a smile.
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