by Karen Harper
Char was amazed how warm she felt just because she was with Matt. It was still cold outside as they hurried around the back and side of the building toward his car.
“Is my truck here, too?” she asked as he put her in the passenger seat and closed her door.
He came around and got in. “It didn’t burn, but Sam evidently pushed it off the ravine into the river valley, which I’m sure he was very familiar with from shooting and burying sick beavers for Orlando, who must have known about the toxic water. I’ll bet Bright Star had disobedient cult members waterboarded with that water, too, including Lee.”
Her fingers shook as she fastened her seat belt, so he helped her. They kissed, holding hands, lingering despite their rush. It had been a bumpy ride so far but she was expecting better. Her truck, new tires and all, didn’t matter. Jemmie mattered, Grace and her new baby mattered, Matt mattered. And she was alive and free. A surge of joy coursed through her. She felt almost dizzy with it.
Char told him, “I hope there wasn’t a note left behind that said ‘Your Fired.’”
“I guess that was Orlando’s wishful thinking about me for not backing Royce on the fracking.”
“At first, he wanted to get rid of you so he could take your place with Royce, and when that didn’t work, maybe he didn’t dare to try it a second time. So he decided to become your partner by saving me—after he had me taken.”
“We’ll explain everything to Royce as soon as we can so he can clean up the toxic water mess.”
“At the very least,” she said, as a great wave of relief surged through her, “Orlando’s going to get a note that says, ‘You’re Fired!’”
31
“Feeling any better?” Matt asked Char as she came into his kitchen, wrapped in his big terry-cloth robe that came almost down to her ankles. She’d soaked in his tub for almost an hour.
“Achy, exhausted—but happy. And hungry.”
“I want to put something on that big bruise on your temple, but your wish is my command. That is, if you like grilled cheese sandwiches. That, and grilling outside in decent weather is about all I’m good at—for food.” He put his arm out as if to formally escort her while she scuffed along in his huge slippers. “Your table is waiting this way, mademoiselle.”
He guided her into the living room and pulled out a folding chair for her where he’d set up a card table for them before the fire. He’d fixed them hot cider toddies and added chips and pickles next to the grilled cheese sandwiches on what appeared to be good china plates.
“I do have some things to recommend me,” he said as he seated her. “Even if your life has been in chaos since we met. Char, I’m so sorry you’ve been through this terrible kidnap ordeal.”
She nodded, unable to speak for a moment. Her eyes welled up, but she didn’t want to cry. He sat, too, so they were kitty-corner, touching arms.
She’d told him about her ordeal. He’d said he could kill Sam with his bare hands if they found him. But now, she forced all that from her mind.
“This looks wonderful,” she told him. “By the way, you do, too. Can’t say the same for myself with this blooming black-and-blue eye.”
He turned her face toward him, lifting her chin with a gentle hand. He leaned over and kissed her thoroughly, expertly, then pulled back a few inches. “Sweetheart, this has all been so quick and crazy. And it won’t get better for a while with Gabe taking your statement in the morning, so you have to relive it all. Later you’ll have to testify against Orlando and Sam.”
“Royce won’t want all the bad publicity for Lake Azure or the fracking. I know you value his judgment.”
“He won’t change my mind. Not about cleaning up the pollution. And no one will change my mind about you. Remember, I told you he was talking about a wedding, visiting our kids someday when he visited here. And that wasn’t a smoke screen. He wasn’t in with Orlando and Sam—I just know it.”
She nodded but she still wasn’t sure. Of course, she’d like to believe Matt was a good judge of character, because he loved her. Right now, he looked so nervous that she almost wanted to comfort him. She bowed her head and said a silent prayer of thanks for her safety—and a plea for Jemmie’s, too. Gabe had phoned to say that Sam had taken Jemmie by force from Adela, but Gabe had the Highway Patrol looking for him and Amber Alerts were out in a tristate area.
Matt covered her clasped hands with his big one. A cut hand, a sore head—both felt instantly better when he touched her.
“I’m not finished,” he said. “I’d like to think we’re only beginning, you and I. If we wouldn’t horn in on Grant and Kate’s big day next month, I’d ask you to marry me right away and we could celebrate with others later.”
Wide-eyed, she stopped with her sandwich halfway to her mouth. “Kate and Tess would kill me if they couldn’t fuss over our wedding and help with the reception,” she whispered. She rolled her bloodshot eyes. They hurt, too, but once again, she felt suddenly better than she’d felt in days, weeks—ever. This man was serious, and she was so in love.
“Well, you know,” she went on, “they say the middle child is always a problem, and that’s me.” She was surprised she wasn’t hungry for food now, just for him. She put the sandwich down. “We could elope, then have a ceremony or a renewal of vows, or at least a party later. But—but you haven’t exactly asked yet, so I shouldn’t—”
“You should. I like the way you think, Ms. Lockwood. So let me buy you an engagement and a wedding ring to seal our deal, and we can drive to the big city—Chillicothe or even Columbus—to find a judge who marries people who just can’t wait. Like you said, we’ll do things our own way.”
Holding both her hands, he went down on one knee. “Charlene Lockwood, I love you and always will. So, will you have me for your husband, to have and to hold, from this time forth, through good times and bad—”
“We’ve already had the bad,” she said as she pushed her chair back to stand and he rose to meet her. “To have and to hold, yes. Yes!”
He laughed, lifted her in his arms and spun her. Their reflection whirled by in the windows, the happiest, craziest-looking couple with their whole lives ahead of them—together.
* * *
At nine the next morning, Gabe borrowed Matt’s office at the lodge for Char’s deposition. Matt had finally got through to Royce, who told Matt he had proposed to Veronica last night. Matt told Char that he’d wanted to share the same news with Royce, but he’d kept that quiet. He knew Royce would try to take over, throw money at them for a wedding planner and a big shindig. They had vowed to tell no one until after Kate and Grant’s wedding.
However, Matt had explained to Royce about Sam and Orlando’s partnership. Royce had claimed he was shocked. He was now on his way to Cold Creek, driving himself, no less. But he’d said it was not to help Orlando lawyer up, but to see if Char was really all right.
The better phone call, Char thought, was the one from Gabe telling them that Sam McKitrick had been arrested by the State Highway Patrol after a high-speed chase near St. Louis. They’d put down stop sticks, and Jemmie was shaken but unharmed. Sam had claimed he’d driven ninety miles an hour because he thought they were being chased by Taliban, so he was going to play the PTSD card again. But, Gabe said, with Char’s testimony, he wouldn’t get away with it this time. Best yet, Gabe said he’d tell Adela and Mandy Lee right away that it was safe for them to go home and wait for Jemmie’s return.
When Char emerged from her long meeting with Gabe, Matt was waiting. “Royce is here,” he told her. “Can you handle talking to him after all that with Gabe?”
“Mr. Rowan, you are speaking to a woman who can escape from perilous situations.”
“And can leap buildings at a single bound? Bend steel in her bare hands—and make someone who was a workaholic and thought he might be a confirmed bachelor willing to giv
e anything up for her. Okay, let’s go see Royce.”
After they said goodbye to Gabe, they held hands and walked down the hall. Royce met them at his office door with a big hug for her. “Sorry you had to go through all that—any of that, Charlene,” he told her. “I swear I read Orlando wrong, and it makes me wonder what else I could have screwed up on. Thank God, you’re safe. I’ll do what I can to make things right, make it up to you—to both of you. Sit, please,” he said, giving Matt a quick one-armed hug before going back to sit behind his desk, facing the two of them. He gripped his hands so tightly together on the polished wooden surface his fingers went white.
“There’s more, Royce,” Matt said, sitting in the chair beside hers. “There is proof, though final tests are yet to be made, that the old Hear Ye fracking site is leaking toxins into Cold Creek in the valley below.”
Royce clenched his hands into fists. “My foreman or Orlando never said so. You—you’ve called someone in? Has it gone public? I—I can’t believe it. That’s all I need around here with the hard feelings about Lake Azure you’ve worked so hard on smoothing over.”
“I put off having the water formally tested when Char was taken. I’d like to know if you want to be part of the testing and recovery effort, take responsibility and charge of that. So far, we have one test and dead beavers with toxins in their systems. Green Tree’s only guessing so far, and we can buy more time with them, make them back off while you fix things, because in Pennsylvania, they were accused of polluting water themselves before demanding it be tested. I don’t think that’s the case here. My guess is that Bright Star knew there was a problem and planned to blackmail you—but made the mistake of telling Orlando, who sicced Sam on him in a phony setup of a meeting. Then Bright Star either fell or was pushed. But that’s all the past now. If you—we—work on cleaning it up completely and quickly...”
“I like that ‘we’ there. Could you be my local liaison to work on that? I’m not saying you have to buy into the fracking itself. I’ll honor your opinions on that, though I think it’s the wave of the future, something this country needs to fight the bad guys who try to hold us hostage with foreign oil—sorry to talk about hostages, Charlene. You see, Matt’s been like a son to me, and I’m sorry Orlando thought he could ruin that—either replace Matt or get in at the same level. And I’ve got to admit, Matt, it hurt me how close you were to Woody McKitrick, an employee, a mountain man. But, I swear,” he insisted, holding both hands up, “I had nothing to do with his fall off that cliff.”
Tears in his eyes, Matt nodded. “I know, Royce. I always knew. But I need to talk over your offer about liaising the pollution cleanup with Char. We plan—in the near future—to work together and that comes first, you see.”
“I do see. Hell, my fiancée is a country girl herself, so I may just buy her a house here in Lake Azure for a wedding present.”
“Maybe,” Char said, “she’d like to help me in the summers if we could arrange to have a camp for mountain kids here at Lake Azure, after school’s out in June for all of them, of course.”
They all stood. Royce came around his desk and hugged her again. He put one hand on her shoulder, one on Matt’s. “This woman drives a good bargain, my boy. If you don’t hire her for that camp project here, I just might. Camp Azure—I like it. How about, maybe put it down at the west end of the lake with a minilodge so we don’t rile our owners, though I bet you could convince some of them to chip right in, Char—if I can call you that. And we’ll be sure the mountain kids can swim safe in Cold Creek soon as possible, too.”
Char kissed Royce on the cheek. Matt had been right about him all along, not a bad man, just one who needed help and love, like any human being, no matter how rich or poor. Orlando had betrayed him. But surely better times were ahead for him and Cold Creek, too.
One month later
“Oh, this wedding photo of all of us is my favorite,” Tess cried, thrusting it in front of Char’s face. “What do you think?”
“Love it, but there’s another one here I like better,” she said, and started sifting through the pile of pictures from Grant and Kate’s wedding on the coffee table.
The six of them were drinking leftover champagne from the wedding in front of the low-burning fireplace at Grant and Kate’s, who had returned from their honeymoon earlier in the week.
“Wow,” Tess said, looking up from a photo to Kate and Grant. “One look at this and you seem even more tan now. That Caribbean sun must be something, even in the winter.”
“Oh, these tans are out of a bottle,” Grant said with a grin. “I just didn’t want flak from Gabe and Matt if we came back lily-white, like we never got out of bed.”
Everyone laughed at that, but Matt’s narrowed gaze snagged Char’s. Some days, since their private wedding in Columbus, they spent more time in bed than out. Or on the hearth rug. Or the couch, in the shower, or—
“You’ve got a bit of mountain tan,” Kate told Char, interrupting her fantasy. “Sun off the snow up there’s given you good color from visiting your growing brood of students. Then, too, I’d say every time Matt looks at you, you blush, so maybe that’s it.”
Tess leaned in again to study Char’s cheeks. “Oh, what’s that on this gold chain around your neck?” she asked, giving it a little tug. Out popped Char’s diamond engagement ring and a thicker, solid gold wedding band on the slender chain.
Kate sucked in a sharp breath. Tess squealed. Both men riveted their gazes on Matt, who shrugged, smiled, then lifted his champagne glass to them and drained it.
“Well,” Char said to Matt, snatching back the chain and pulling it up over her head, “cat’s out of the bag, my love.”
“And the rings are out of your boobs!” Tess cried. “When? You didn’t! Without us?”
“It was just before Kate and Grant’s big day, and we didn’t want to upstage that.”
“As if anything could have,” Grant said and rolled his eyes. “We have what—two hundred photos here and gifts we haven’t even unwrapped yet—including gag gifts from long-dead Adena that suddenly appeared at the entrance to the mound.”
But Tess and Kate weren’t being distracted or dissuaded. As Char unclasped the gold chain and slid both rings off, she explained. “We’re holding a special announcement dinner at the lodge soon, and I hope both of you will help plan a reception later.”
“Wait. Wait,” Matt insisted, and scooted closer on the couch to her. While her sisters leaned forward to watch, he slid both rings on her finger, then took out his wallet and, from behind his driver’s license, pulled out a gold wedding band, which Char put on his finger.
Grant and Gabe clapped while Kate and Tess cried.
“So,” Gabe said. “How was your honeymoon?”
“We do plan one—a formal one, I mean,” Char stammered.
“It’s continual. And more to come,” Matt said.
“So will the reception be at the lodge, too?” Tess asked.
“I think we’ll combine a renewing of vows with an outdoor reception at the far end of Lake Azure, where Royce is going to help us build a summer camp for mountain kids,” Char told them.
“If we have it outside,” Matt said, “we think folks like the Hansons, Fencers and McKitricks might feel comfortable enough to come, too. Casual all the way. I hope to have a couple of horses in our new stables by then, so maybe we can have some gentle rides for the kids, balloons...”
“Well, you always did do things your way, Char,” Kate said, getting up to come over and lean down to hug her. “I used to despair you’d ever mind me when Mom went out to work, and, as the oldest of us, speaking for her, I know she’d be very happy with the man you’ve chosen. Will you call Dad and tell him?”
“I did last week. He was really pleased to hear Matt’s working hard to help his boss—his friend—Royce Flemming, turn Cold Creek back into a c
lear creek.”
Kate disappeared into the kitchen for a moment, then came back in with a bouquet of flowers in a small vase she put in Char’s hands. Then she threw a handful of rice over Matt and Char.
Everyone laughed and cheered. “I feel better now,” Kate said.
“I knew the six of us would stick together no matter what,” Tess said. “We’re all going to sit right behind you when you testify against Gordon Orlando and Sam McKitrick. And I don’t believe that other, terrible phony, Bright Star Monson, will ‘Rest in Peace.’ Grace says she thinks the cult will disband, and she can’t wait to move back here.”
“They’re going to split up the cult money Bright Star left behind,” Gabe added. “He was going to meet Royce Flemming to demand more money over the pollution—and Orlando had Sam grab him instead.”
“Well—” Tess picked up as if they were a tag team “—when Grace gets her share—and it’s supposed to be quite a bit—I still plan to put Kelsey and Ethan in my day care for free. Same fee for any offspring from my two best friends in the world, my sisters.”
Tess, Kate and Char stood to form a little circle of entwined arms. Gabe grinned, Grant winked and Matt looked so happy Char thought he might cry. The men stood behind their women, arms around their waists in a group hug that Char wished she had a picture of, but she’d keep this treasured moment always in her heart.
The Lockwood sisters had finally all come home.
* * * * *
Author’s Note
I have greatly enjoyed writing this trilogy about the Lockwood sisters and their struggles to find their places in life and the men to love. It’s an interesting task to combine suspense with romance, but then there is always a lot of suspense in romance, let alone in the other trials of life.
Fracking worked well as the background conflict in this book, since it is a process that breaks up rock and literally fractures the ground to force out gas and oil. Other kinds of fracking are at work in people’s lives—broken marriages, broken family ties, splits in the community that force emotions and rash deeds to the surface. Fracking is growing in Ohio and areas sitting on shale, but there is much dissention over its good and bad results. I have a huge folder of articles about fracking in the Midwest and far-flung places.
