by Lori Wilde
Carol Ann looked slightly affronted, but sat back down beside Sandra.
Sandra patted Carol Ann’s arm. “It’s okay. We can see her next visiting hours. Why don’t we go get some eggs in the cafeteria?”
Natalie followed the nurse into the ICU area, and she found herself wishing that Dade were here.
What for? It’s not like he was her boyfriend or anything. He was just a sexy boarder that she’d kissed a couple of times.
Oh, you liar. Are you trying to backtrack now? Chicken.
She still remembered how fabulously wicked she’d felt slipping her arm around his hard-muscled waist in the waiting room right in front of everyone and retrieving her panties from his back pocket. How crazy to be turned on over something so simple.
Provocative.
He was provocative and he aroused unfamiliar emotions in her. Emotions she was eager to explore.
Okay, so maybe she did have more expectations from him than she should. Being with him felt good. So good it scared her.
The nurse showed her to her great-aunt’s private room. Delia lay propped up in bed, her head resting on a plump pillow. Tubes were everywhere—IVs, monitors, catheters. Natalie’s heart stumbled as it hit home how close they’d come to losing her, could still lose her. Her aunt wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Delia’s skin was ghostly pale, but her eyes were sharp and bright. “Natty,” she whispered, and motioned her closer.
Natalie moved to the bedside and took her great-aunt’s hand. It felt too cold. She rubbed it between her palms. “You gave us quite a scare.”
“Scared myself.” Delia laughed weakly.
“I can’t imagine what you went through, lying there on the floor all alone.”
“But I wasn’t alone,” Delia said. “Frank was with me.”
Natalie cocked her head. Uncle Frank had been dead for ten years. She had heard that sometimes when people were close to death they saw deceased loved ones. She squeezed Delia’s hand.
“I could hear him so clearly, talking to me as if he were standing right beside me,” Delia went on. “But the main problem with a ghost is that they can’t help you up off the damn floor.”
Natalie laughed. Even sick and in pain, Delia was still feisty.
“When you love someone, they never die,” Delia said. “They’re always with you in your heart no matter what. Just as your parents live on in you, Natalie.”
“Shh, don’t talk. You need your strength. Rest. Just rest.”
“It’s just like the way you feel about Dade,” Delia went on.
“What are you talking about, Auntie?” Natalie put a hand to her face.
“You love him. He loves you. Cupid has drawn back his bow, flung his arrow. There’s no escape.”
“Do you really believe in love at first sight?”
“I do,” Delia said vehemently. “I know it’s out of fashion to believe in such things, but I know it to be true.”
“I’m scared of what I’m feeling. It’s so strong, but how can you ever be sure?”
“Just listen to your heart.” Delia tapped Natalie’s chest. “Your heart knows the truth.”
“I barely know him.”
“That’s not true. Your souls speak to each other. You know him, deep down inside. You’ve always known him on a cellular level.”
She’d never heard her aunt talk like this. “Are you telling me that you believe in reincarnation?”
Delia shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I do believe in soul mates. Someone meant just for you. Dade is your soul mate.”
“But how can you know that for certain?” Natalie asked, sounding shriller than she intended.
“Well, for one thing I almost died, so indulge me. It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay. Just stop being so damn scared.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“What if I’m not and you let him get away? You’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Girl, do I have to spell it out for you? Give yourself to that man. Seal the bond.”
“Are you telling me to have sex with him?”
Delia nodded slowly. “A man isn’t fully bonded to a woman until he makes love to her, but once he’s made her his, if he’s the right one, he’ll move heaven and earth to be with you.”
“That’s a pretty generic statement and a bit sexist.”
“Hey, I’m an old broad and I broke my hip. That means I get to say what I think.”
Natalie kissed the back of Delia’s hand. “What if I make love to him and it turns out he’s not my soul mate?”
“Well, he is, but just on the off chance that I’m wrong, then at least you will have lived a little, and had a big adventure. If nothing else, you deserve that. But for heaven’s sake, use protection, sweetie. Even with a soul mate you don’t want to make little ones until you’re ready for them.”
“You’re being a busybody, you know that?”
“That man of yours saved my life, Natty. You should hear the nurses raving about him and if you just give him half a chance, I know he’ll save yours.”
MEET ME @ the B&B dining room.
Dade looked down at the text message from Natalie and smiled. He pocketed the phone and turned his motorcycle for Cupid’s Rest. Chantilly’s was closed on Sundays and he’d been out driving the roads around town since dawn, pretending to be Red, trying to imagine where his friend might have gone and why. It had been a full week since Dade had first arrived in town and he was no closer to finding Red than he’d been the first day.
He parked the Harley and rushed up the steps, excited to see her again. How had she gotten under his skin in such a short amount of time? It seemed impossible, but he couldn’t get to her fast enough.
There was no one in the lobby. Odd. There was usually someone at the front desk during the day. The place was eerily quiet. Maybe Natalie had gotten rid of everyone and she was waiting for him in the dining room wearing something sexy.
His mouth watered as he opened the dining room door.
“Surprise!”
Dade stared at the people in the room, stunned by the party streamers, noisemakers, confetti, and huge red velvet cake positioned in the center of the buffet table. The room was packed with people he did not know. He recognized Pearl and Zoey and Junie Mae. A lot of the folks he’d met at the hospital, but he couldn’t remember all their names. Lars was there and so were Gizmo and Jasper.
His chest seized up. It felt like an ambush.
A banner strung across the back of the room read “Dade, You’re Our Hero.”
Inwardly, he groaned. What the hell was this?
“Look at him,” someone said, “he’s so surprised he can’t speak.”
True enough. No one had ever in his life given him a surprise party. In spite of the banner, he still wasn’t sure what the surprise party was all about.
“What’s this for?” he asked. God, he was out of step with these people, this life. Too surreal. It was too surreal. As if he had walked into one of those sappy Hallmark commercials.
“We wanted to thank you,” Junie Mae said. “For saving Delia’s life.”
“No thanks needed,” he said gruffly, and eyed the door he’d just come through. It was only three feet away. Three steps and he’d be out the door.
But before he could make a break for it, Zoey linked her arm around his elbow from one side while Junie Mae grabbed him on the other and they dragged him toward the buffet table that held Jordan almonds in fancy crystal cups, chocolate chip cookies and punch, cut-up veggies, chips, dips, and little sausages wrapped in crescent rolls. Piggies in a blanket, Red called them.
“We’ve got homemade ice cream too,” Pearl called from across the room.
Someone, he thought it might be Jasper, started singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”
Friggin’ hell. He wasn’t jolly, nor was he particularly good. He’d just picked an old lady up off her floor and taken her t
o the hospital. That’s all. No big deal.
But apparently, the entire town of Cupid thought it was a big deal.
People were slapping him on the back and shoving a plate in his hand and pushing food at him, and all he wanted to do was run.
Then he spotted her.
Natalie.
Standing quietly in the corner, snapping pictures and watching him with loving eyes. She looked so pretty in a red shirt with pink flowers on it and faded blue jeans. Her hair was pulled back into a swingy ponytail and she wore lipstick the color of fresh watermelon. He licked his lips.
Ah, damn. She was the one thing that could stop him dead in his tracks.
Slowly, she moved toward him in her halting gait that stabbed him in the gut, and the world seemed to stop spinning. Everyone around them disappeared and it was just the two of them.
Her smile lit him up inside, smooth and hot as Kentucky whiskey. “Surprised about the party?”
“You gotta watch out for stuff like this. It could give a guy a heart attack.” He rested a palm over his chest.
“You’re upset?”
He flicked a gaze over her sexy body. “Not upset. Disappointed.”
“Disappointed?” A tiny frown marred her brow.
“I thought you were inviting me over for you.”
“Oh!” Her eyes rounded and her laugh wobbled. “I didn’t mean to mislead you.”
“It’s okay.” He waved a hand like he was batting away a sticky cobweb. “Just had my hopes up since we didn’t get to finish what we started before Junie Mae interrupted us.”
“My family and friends wanted to do something special for you.” She inclined her head toward the crowd lined up at the buffet table. “Cupidites are rather fond of surprise parties.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
She ducked her head, gave him a sidelong glance. “So I gathered from the expression on your face.”
He jammed his hands in his pockets, hunched his shoulders. His fingers closed over the bullet casing bracelet. It was his touchstone. Grounded him. Reminded him that Red was the only one he could truly trust.
“You’ve never had a surprise birthday party?” she asked.
“I can count on one hand the number of birthdays I’ve celebrated.”
“Your parents didn’t believe in celebration? Was it a religious thing?”
“My parents believed in only one thing.”
She cocked her head. “What’s that?”
He shouldn’t tell her the truth. It would bust her safe little bubble. “The crack pipe.”
She gave a whispered gasp. “Your parents were drug addicts?”
He shrugged.
She looked startled, as if realizing just how little she knew about him. “Oh, Dade.”
“It is what it is.”
She reached out a hand to touch him. “I can’t imagine what that must have been like.”
He stepped back before her fingers could graze his hand. Undo him. “Save the pity, darlin’. I don’t need it. Got over that shit a long time ago.”
She stood there looking at him with so much compassion and understanding that it made his stomach hurt. She felt sorry for him.
“I don’t need your pity,” he muttered.
“You’re right.” She held up both hands, and then glanced down at her right leg. “I know how irritating pity can be. So come, let’s enjoy the party.”
Someone had put music on to play and Adele was singing “Crazy for You.”
“I’m not a celebration kind of guy.”
“Then you’ve come to the wrong place.”
You can say that again.
He belonged in this place like a badger in a newborn nursery. He was out of place, out of time, out of step with her community. He wasn’t used to people caring about him. The closest thing he’d ever come to a real family had been the SEALs, and even they had cut him loose after he’d been injured. He had to admit that after he was discharged, he felt a little betrayed and a lot adrift. It reinforced the message he’d learned as a toddler.
You can’t depend on anyone but yourself.
Daring to care left you vulnerable. So he’d concluded that it was better all around not to care or depend on anyone. Red was the only exception to the rule.
“I still need to talk to you,” he said. “In private.”
Natalie put a hand on his arm. “You’re the man of the hour.”
“Which means?”
“You have to mingle.”
Dade groaned. “I gotta schmooze?”
“You do. You’re a hero. And you have to have some of Pearl’s red velvet cake. She’ll be offended if you don’t.”
“Okay.” He fixed his gaze on her lips. God, he felt like a fool, but damn him, he’d turn cartwheels in a pink tutu if it would please her. “I’ll schmooze.”
“Twenty minutes. Give it twenty minutes and then slip away and meet me at the duck pond.”
“Twenty minutes,” he repeated.
So Dade mingled to please Natalie. He ate cake he didn’t want to eat, drank punch he didn’t want to drink, and made small talk with strangers he didn’t want to talk to—people who thanked him repeatedly for saving Delia’s life.
He felt a stab of jealousy that Delia had so many people who cared about her. How did Delia manage it? No doubt it was something you were born into. Family. Home. Love. It was a circle of support that a guy like him could not hope to break into.
He took a bite of cake while Carol Ann was bending his ear. Natalie caught his eye and winked. Thank you, she mouthed silently.
He felt her smile all the way to the center of his spine and he smiled helplessly in return.
“What was Natalie like as a kid?” he asked Carol Ann, deciding to make good use of being held hostage.
“She was such a serious little thing, but that was understandable of course, considering what happened to her parents. She came at life like it was a problem to solve. She still does. The child doesn’t know how to relax.” Carol Ann motioned toward Natalie. “Look at her right now, helping Pearl bus the dishes.”
“What happened to her parents?” he asked.
“No one has told you?”
He shook his head and Carol Ann launched into the gut-wrenching story of how Natalie’s parents had died.
“And the rescue workers found her dragging Zoey down the mountain in her lap.” Carol Ann finished, her eyes tearing up. “Her parents’ plane crash was one of the biggest tragedies in Cupid’s history.”
Dade’s breathing was fast and shallow. He clenched the plastic fork so tightly in his fist that it broke with a crisp snap. Poor girl. Poor kid. Shit, and here he thought he’d had it bad. He wasn’t the only one who’d suffered. Selfish. He’d been selfish to assume his hurt was bigger than anyone else’s.
And the way she’d overcome it. He was damn proud of her. She was some kind of lady.
Yeah, she’s way too good for your shaggy ass.
Carol Ann kept talking about Natalie, and he was so hung up on hearing stories of her childhood that it was only when the conversation shifted to Zoey that Dade realized he was late for his rendezvous with Natalie.
“Could you excuse me?” he asked Carol Ann.
“Oh, surely. Please do know how utterly grateful we are to you for what you did for Delia.” She touched his hand, smiled at him as if she truly meant every word.
“You’re welcome,” he said because he didn’t know what else to say. He had to get out of here. Had to meet Natalie.
He slipped through the crowd and out the back door. The smell of honeysuckle was ripe in the late afternoon air and full of promise. He tried not to look too eager, but he couldn’t stop himself from rushing across the yard and unlatching the back fence.
There was Natalie beside the pond, tossing bits of bread to the ducks.
His entire body lit up.
She didn’t glance up as he approached.
“Hey,” he said, all the breath leaving his body
at once.
“Hey yourself.”
“Thank you for the party. I should have said that earlier. It was . . . nice.” He was surprised to find he meant it.
“You don’t have to lie.”
“I’m not lying. I’m just . . .” He paused, scratched the back of his head. “This is all new to me.”
“It’s new to me too,” she whispered.
“What? Throwing surprise parties?”
“No.” She stared him straight in the eyes. “Feeling this way.”
His throat went desert dry. “Your aunt Carol Ann told me about your parents. I’m sorry, Natalie.”
“Why? You didn’t cause the plane crash.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
She shrugged. “It made me who I am.”
“Our past does shape us.”
“So,” she said, tossing the last bit of bread to the ducks and dusting her fingers together. “What did you need to talk to me about?”
“This.” He toggled his finger back and forth between them.
“Us?”
Us. We. Words he was unaccustomed to using. “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
“Oh?” Her voice squeaked, but she tried to look composed.
“I haven’t told you the full truth about me.”
Alarm creased her brow. “Which is?”
Dade hesitated. Was this the right thing to do?
“I’m listening.”
He swallowed. Just say it. “I’m Red’s foster brother.”
She blinked, absorbing what he’d said. “You know Red Daggett?”
“Besides being foster brothers, we were also in the Navy SEALs together.”
She said nothing for a long time.
He shifted his weight, interlaced his fingers. C’mon, say something.
“So you came to Cupid looking for him?”
“Yes.” Slowly, he explained about the Mayday text.
She reached out to run a hand over his upper arm. “This isn’t pity,” she said. “But empathy. There’s a difference. I don’t feel sorry for you. I understand about loyalty.”
“You’re not mad at me for lying to you about who I am?”
“Not at all. I understand. Family comes first and Red is your family.”
He nodded. “I’m putting all my trust in you here. Red’s message was unmistakable, I was to trust no one.”
