84
Annie took one look at him and just walked right into his arms.
Like it was the most natural move in the world. Turner’s arms closed around her, and he cuddled her close. Smoke-scented hair and clothes and all.
“I’m sorry, Annie-Belle.” His hands were warm on her back. His chest was strong pressed against her. Annie just laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
Just forgot the fire for a minute. Forgot all the worries she’d had to face over the last few weeks, first with the eviction letters, the court process, the storm, recovering, Izzie shot, Jake being missing, Delancey McKellen. Everything.
Why couldn’t she just take a few minutes to forget about all of that?
“I just want everything to go back to calm and normal, Turner. I’m not so sure that’s too much to ask.”
“I know.” He wrapped strong hands around her waist. And lifted until her lips were level with his. “I wish I knew how to make it that way for you. There’s nothing else in the world I want to do more than make the world better for you.”
Her stomach dropped out of her at the intensity of his words.
It wasn’t just mild attraction or physical lust in his tone. Far from it.
He was looking at her almost the same way Houghton looked at Mel.
Annie didn’t know what to do now.
So she did the one thing her heart was telling her to do.
Annie leaned closer. And kissed him.
85
Annie had kissed him. Not the other way around.
He wanted her to do that a few more times tonight. But he wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to push. Whatever happened between them had to be on her timetable.
He’d wait. He’d wait forever for that woman. Last night had just cemented that.
It wasn’t just lust he was feeling for her. But he wasn’t ready to put it into words.
They hadn’t known each other long enough to figure that out yet.
Turner arranged the meal around the nice dinette that had been in Clay’s suite. It was the one right next to his, and Mel had put her there. Probably on purpose. Clay liked big furniture and places to sit. Maybe Houghton hadn’t been messing with him.
Clay didn’t go in for extremely expensive furnishings. Of all the family suites, it was probably the best suited for a woman with three small children. There were two bedrooms, each with king-sized beds. There were plenty of places for her family to sleep.
While she supervised the boys dressing, he called down and requested a crib from the front desk. When it arrived, they were halfway through the meal. He had the staff place it in the room next to the bed where Annie would sleep.
He took the chair nearest the door and just watched the family around him. Her sister was quiet humor, but there was a wariness in her eyes that was very similar to Annie’s. He wondered at it. Mel had hinted Annie had had a troubled upbringing—she and Izzie both—and it made her hesitant to trust someone. Especially men who had power over others’ lives.
He knew he had that kind of power, theoretically, but Turner had never thought of himself that way before. Maybe he did seem just like that. It explained her hesitancy with him.
He watched her quietly as she took care of her three children with an ease he admired. He liked kids, but she had three small ones to keep up with. Her sister helped, but it was obvious that Annie was Mommy.
Turner found Mommy-Annie fascinating, too.
She was more open and relaxed with her children than she even was with her friends. He loved her laugh. It was perfect. She was perfect.
Well, perfect for him.
Turner had to figure out a way to make her see that, as well.
86
Something had changed in the way he was looking at her. It was still just as hot. Scorching enough to burn right through her. But there was a softness around his eyes. A gentleness.
Just when he looked at her.
He seemed fascinated by the boys, engaging them in conversations about everything from airplanes and helicopters to Seeley’s favorite topic—dogs.
Turner didn’t have a dog because he was looking for the right dog. He hadn’t found that dog yet, he said.
Seeley wanted to know just what the perfect dog was.
Turner apparently took the challenge seriously. “The perfect dog is one who fits me. I want one who can come to work with me and can sit with me at home. One who goes on long walks.”
“Plays fetch,” Solomon said. He was always slower to warm up to strangers.
“Does tricks. Plays with me,” Seeley added. He really wanted a dog. Eventually, she would get him one. Once they were fully settled at their new place.
New beginning.
Syrus started barking and woofing. Turner’s eyes widened at the volume, and then he laughed. Just laughed at her son’s antics. An uncomplicated enjoyment of her son.
A little vise went around her heart at how he looked right there with her children and sister surrounding him. He did just sort of fit. It wasn’t awkward with him there at all.
Not like she would have thought it would be.
Turner Barratt was comfortable with family. She’d seen that about him before. Someday, he’d find a woman and have that with her. A twinge went through her at the knowledge that it wouldn’t be her.
A part of her wished it would. Wished she had the right to cuddle up next to him, while the boys sprawled around, just watching a movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Wished it could be that easy.
Then again…a part of her wondered why it couldn’t be.
Three little faces turned toward her, obviously wanting dessert. The chocolate chip cookies tempted them all. Annie smiled as she remembered the words of Turner’s assistant that first day. The man was a sucker for cookies. She paused as she looked at each of her children. Then her sister.
Any decision she made in her life affected them. She’d known that from that first evening the boys had been given to her. Had had that thought foremost in her mind for almost two years.
Had she let that keep her from making decisions that were good for her? Denying herself what she needed emotionally, closing herself from everyone but the boys, Josie, and her friends? Staying safe?
She’d been on dates in the last two years. Men she worked with, men she liked. None had made her feel like this. At all.
That thought had her rocking back on her metaphorical heels.
Maybe she’d been using the boys for the last two years as the excuse to not even try?
That was more than she wanted to think about.
“One cookie apiece. Then the three of you are going to bed. Mommy has things to do tonight, and you’re already up way past your bedtime.”
She was going to put them to bed, and then she was going to take an hour or two to actually think about what she wanted from the rest of her life, too. Outside of her boys and Finley Creek Gen.
Maybe there was a way she could make things work with a man like Turner, too.
87
Thinking about herself and what she wanted and why she did the things she did had only served to confuse her and make her question everything she valued and everything she was doing. Damn it.
One thing she’d decided for sure. She wanted to make certain everything she did was what was best for the boys.
Getting involved with the mayor of Finley Creek probably didn’t fit that criteria. Being right in the center of everything that happened in this city was not something she was comfortable with—for her, or for the boys. That was not something she would ever say was best for any of them.
Getting involved with Turner, who happened to be the mayor, was a different thing. He was kind, first of all. Strong. Passionate about what he believed in. He’d never hurt her or the boys. She was certain of that. She trusted him in that regard. How much of a big deal that was had sunk in around two that morning.
She didn’t think Turner would ever physically harm her or an
yone who didn’t attack him first.
He’d held Syrus almost gently last night when her son had fallen asleep in Turner’s arms. He’d looked at him with a look of wonder Annie knew so well.
Men like Turner were meant to be fathers.
That thought had rocked her right then and there.
It had had her agreeing to whatever he’d suggested at that moment. It hadn’t been until he was kissing her lightly after Josie and the boys had gone to bed that she realized she’d agreed to go with him the next morning.
To see the damage the fire had caused.
She was on the clock for a half-shift, so she had until two. Plenty of time.
She was going to spend those few hours with him, and then decide if what she was thinking was completely crazy or not.
All thoughts of her potential new relationship with Turner flew out of her head when they pulled into her neighborhood and set eyes on Harley’s home.
It was practically ash now. Firefighters were still on scene, keeping it contained.
Keeping it from spreading.
Harley had lost everything. She might not like him—he really was a jerk—but she hadn’t wished this on the other man.
He’d lived in that house for eighteen years.
Annie felt sick. Nothing remained of it but smoldering ashes. Turner slipped his hand around hers as she stepped out of his car and faced the destruction. Her gaze turned to her own home, two doors down from Harley’s.
Everything in her yard looked just fine. The door was still closed, and her windows still boarded up.
Just as she’d left it.
A TSP car pulled in behind Turner’s Lincoln SUV.
It looked so out of place in her little neighborhood. Well, the Lincoln did. The patrol car, not so much. Unfortunately.
People were gathering outside in front of Harley’s yard. Now they looked toward Annie and the two men who flanked her.
“Jake? What are you doing here?”
“I’m going to be asking a few questions around the neighborhood, honey.” He shot Turner a suspicious look. “Figured I’d start with you and the Hendersons, since you were the ones to first call in the fire.”
Annie had a feeling the two men knew each other better than they were letting on. Something about the look in Jake’s eyes when his gaze had landed on Turner’s hand around hers. Annie hadn’t even realized he still held hers.
“Do you know what happened at Harley’s yet?” Annie asked, shivering despite the late August heat.
“A candle was left burning. We’re trying to determine if it was deliberate or not. Most likely it wasn’t. Borlin’s an ass, but he’s not stupid enough to try insurance fraud.” Jake pulled Annie closer, forcing Turner to release her hand.
Annie suspected he’d done it deliberately.
Jake always had been a bit like a rabid rottweiler whenever she or Izzie had been interested in a man. He took protective to the next level, and always had, since Izzie had almost gotten herself into some serious trouble when they’d been fifteen or so.
But Turner just shot Jake a challenging look and stepped closer. Until his hand was on the small of her back.
She felt a bit like a chew toy between two border collies at the moment.
“I need to grab a few more things for the boys,” she told Turner. “We’re not even staying here tonight. I’m sending the boys to Nikkie Jean’s while Josie and I finish packing everything.”
“So soon?”
Soon? Annie shot him a look. “We have to be out of here by the day after tomorrow.”
88
After Turner took Annie back to her boys and sister, he went looking for the one person who could help him understand what had just happened. Annie should have had at least another month before she moved. Two would have been more reasonable. That she didn’t have that wasn’t making sense.
Someone was jerking people around. And using his office to do it.
And they hadn’t bothered to inform him.
Powell read the letter quickly. Turner watched her expression darken as she reached the bottom. “Technically, it’s legal. A bit dirty—they are offering the lowest minimum allowed by law, under the shortest time frame. The exact opposite of what I’d do. But I’m also not in the business of taking people’s homes to build shopping plazas. But it’s not illegal, exactly. Just unethical. And highly dirty of this Boethe committee of yours. I’d file a stay on behalf of the five families affected. I can handle that for you. On their behalf. But I’ll need to represent at least one of the families directly. Think your non-girlfriend will let me?”
“I...don’t know. She seems resigned. Says she needs to focus on her kids first. Says that all that matters is that they have a roof over their heads. She’s renting a ranch in Barratt County. Plans to move as much over today as she can. Does she actually need to be living in the house to fight the seizure?”
Powell shook her head. “Then, we’ll talk to another neighbor or two. Get your toothbrush and bleach. You’ll need to give them that handsome politician’s smile of yours and do a lot of baby kissing. Then step aside so the real brains in the family can take over.”
“Gee, thanks, Powell. What would I do without you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t plan on giving you the opportunity to find out. Let’s roll. I want to catch your girlfriend while we still can. Consider this my one foray into charity work of the year.”
Turner snorted. Powell did more charity work than she did legal. She just didn’t let anyone know that.
Yeah, he was rather glad to still have her around. Not even a tornado could stop his little cousin without a fight. She was just the woman to help Annie.
Giving Annie thirty days to vacate had just pissed him off enough to bring out the big guns.
89
Annie had one pair of giant, identical men carrying boxes to a moving van, one set of boy-girl seven-year-old twins helping the boys “pack,” Josie carrying smaller boxes, along with Annie herself, a pair of pregnant women who were allowed by their giant, identical men to lift anything that weighed less than a loaf of bread and nothing else, plus one Izzie MacNamara to supervise everything. Izzie still wasn’t supposed to be lifting anything. She was supposed to be at her apartment in bed, having just been paroled, as she’d put it, that morning.
Into Nikkie Jean and Caine’s custody, as Izzie had put it. No one at the hospital had thought she was ready, but Izzie had insisted. Rafe had gotten involved, reminding everyone that it was Izzie’s right to decide for herself—and then he’d had Jillian push her to the entrance.
Where Caine and his uncle had been waiting. They had effectively abducted her.
Jake had given his full approval, having packed a bag for her and dropped it off at the hospital for Nikkie Jean.
Izzie was grumbling, but Annie knew her friend had been touched by how much everyone cared about her. It just wasn’t easy to show that sometimes.
Caine had insisted that Izzie take care of herself and not overdo it. He had bluntly told Izzie and Annie that he was adopting them as their big brother, and that that meant they had to listen to him when he talked.
Caine had carried Izzie from the car to her front porch swing as gently as if Izzie were made of glass. Annie fell a bit in love with him herself in that moment. Nikkie Jean was a lucky, lucky, lucky woman, that was for sure.
Nikkie Jean was making more hints about doing a nature-vs-nurture research article on the two almost identically dressed brothers and staring at them like they were bugs under a microscope. Nikkie Jean was needling them now.
They were in her yard, carrying out the couch, when a fancy Lincoln pulled in behind Caine’s huge truck that was currently getting loaded down with the boys’ beds. A Lincoln she recognized. Annie’s breath caught and she actually shivered.
Like an idiot.
Annie’s eyes were drawn to the man when he stepped out of the driver’s seat.
She would recognize him anywhere.
Rafe called out a greeting.
A small woman next to him stepped forward. Annie looked at her fully for the first time. Powell Barratt’s face was printed on real estate signs and billboards all around the county. And Barratt County, as well.
Barratt County was a new start for her and her little family. Caine had even offered her a position within the Barratt County ER if she wanted to work closer to home. It had better hours by far. With a matching salary to what she currently made and more chances for advancement. A supervisor’s position, eventually. If she earned it. The offer was more than tempting.
After the adoption was final, she was seriously going to consider it.
Barratt County could be the fresh new start Annie wanted for all of them.
Maybe putting Boethe Street and Finley Creek—with the exception of Izzie, Josie, and her friends, anyway—behind her was exactly what Annie needed to do to fully recover from the storm her life had become since the moment her father had been arrested for almost killing her and her mother when she was twelve.
It was something to consider. In the meantime, there was a blue-eyed man looking right at her. Waiting. Annie stepped toward him. “Turner?”
He didn’t exactly feel like he was bearding the lions, but it was close. Everyone, even the two toddlers running circles around Izzie’s feet, had stopped to stare at him and Powell. “I need to speak to you or one of your neighbors regarding an injunction.”
Annie stepped toward him, stopping only to lift her youngest son. She came toward him, a fair-haired toddler riding on her hip. Syrus just blinked at Turner and gave a shy wave. Turner smiled and waved back.
She looked damned beautiful. His fingers curled. Turner wanted to touch. He wouldn’t lie to himself. That was what he wanted most of all. Simply to touch her.
“Why? What’s going?”
Walk Through the Fire Page 24
