“She deserved it. She always slides through,” she said without looking at him.
“I’ve noticed.”
She glanced at him and smiled.
“You were right last Saturday when you said I lied when I canceled our wedding. I did, but it was done with the best of intentions.”
“The road to hell—”
“Yeah, it is,” he agreed before she could finish. “I vowed the night Ben was killed that I would never marry, never put a wife through what Connie went through. If nothing else, I’m a man of my word. I didn’t count on meeting you in a small town in Oklahoma a year later. I tried not to love you, but I couldn’t stop, and I thought it would be okay.”
“I understand that.”
“Can you hear what he’s saying?” a woman in the crowd asked.
“Something about killing and never marrying,” a man answered.
“Hush!” It was Aggie, and she didn’t sound pleased. “Why don’t you folks go home where you belong? This is family business, not Desperation.”
“Sounds like desperation to me,” another man replied.
“Go home, Gerald,” Aggie told him.
Morgan waited while people began filing out of the office and left. When everyone was gone except the Claybornes, Ernie and Hettie, he dared a glance at Trish and kept his voice low. “There’s more. Last June, John—” He hadn’t meant to say the name.
She reached out and touched his hand. “I’ve already figured out who it was, Morgan,” she said in a whisper. “I’ll never breathe a word to anyone.”
Nodding, he took a breath. “In my defense, I only let you think your tour was the reason for canceling the wedding because I wanted to shield you from what could happen. I should have told you about Ben in the beginning. I should have told you about John. That was wrong. I know that now.”
She nodded, her face solemn and revealing nothing.
“There’s more.”
“All right.”
“When you told me you were pregnant, I didn’t know what to do. I’m an honorable man, Trish. Responsible. Marriage wasn’t what I had in mind, not with what happened in the past, and I admit that I was relieved when you said you’d do it on your own. It’s all been tearing me up. I wanted to keep you safe, and I believed that marriage would put you in harm’s way. But I can’t let you have the baby alone.”
“It’s been difficult, I’m sure.”
“Worse than watching Ben die.” His throat closed, and he had to force himself to continue. “But it wasn’t that I didn’t love you. In fact, that only made it harder.”
Several seconds ticked by before she spoke. “None of us knows the future, Morgan. Not a lawman, not a teacher, not any of us. Anything can happen. Or not. We might live long, happy lives, we might not. But we make the best of the time we’re given, without dwelling on what might or might not happen.”
“I realize that now.”
“If I had known, if you had told me about Ben and John, I would have taken the risk, knowing whatever time we had together would be worth it, whether days, years or a lifetime.”
“Yeah. I just never saw it that way. Not until yesterday. And now I understand that there are no guarantees. I need to grab happiness and hold on to it.” He’d come to the end of what he had to say, but he wasn’t finished. Not yet. “That’s what I wanted to tell you tonight. Now I have something to ask.”
Her movement was almost imperceptible, but he noticed that she moved away. “What’s that?”
“What can I do to make things right?”
He watched her closely for signs of anything. Would she tell him he would have to step out of her life, their baby’s life, and go on without what he expected would be his greatest joy? He held his breath as her eyes filled with tears.
“Oh, Morgan,” she said, the tears spilling onto her cheeks.
When she covered her face with her hands, he moved without thinking and took them in his hands. “I need to know.”
Taking a deep breath, she looked into his eyes. “I want to be your wife. I want us,” she said, removing her hand from his to touch where their baby grew, “to be a family. A real family, not one where the husband immerses himself in his work, never sharing the ups and downs of the job or of life, but neither talking about them constantly. I want a partnership, where we help each other through the tough times and grow in both the good and bad ones.”
He nodded, hoping, if given the chance, he could succeed. He knew only that he could try.
“What do you want?” she asked.
He didn’t need to think to answer her. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, however long that might be.” But he wouldn’t stop there. This was the time. “If you’re willing to have me—risk and all—will you marry me?”
It was as if the sun had broken through a wall of dark clouds when she smiled. “I think I just might.”
He ached with joy, but he wasn’t finished. “And you’ll help me when I fail to live up to the kind of husband and father I want to be?”
“I will.”
“And you’ll tell me if I’m keeping things to myself about something that’s happened or not happened?”
“I will.”
“And you’ll marry me?”
Her face glowed with happiness. “I will.”
He pulled her toward him, but she put up some resistance. “What?”
“Will you call Stu and tell him to let us out now?”
He tipped his head back and laughed. “I will.” And then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her the way he’d wanted to from the very first time he’d met her, unrestrained, with a heart filled with love and no fear. They’d be a family, Trish, him and their baby. He’d be the best father he could be, with a little help from Trish. That’s all he’d ever wanted, and now it was his. All it had taken was honesty. And love.
“I told you they’d get back together,” Hettie. said.
“Did I ever say they wouldn’t?” Aggie replied with an indignant sniff.
Kate sighed. “Oh, hush, you two. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Morgan regretfully ended the kiss and turned to look at the three women. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, ladies. I should’ve known I could count on you.” Holding Trish close, he glanced at the windows where the smiling faces of friends and neighbors were pressed to the glass as Ernie flashed them a thumb’s-up. Morgan laughed again. “And that includes everyone in Desperation.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6059-1
THE LAWMAN’S LITTLE SURPRISE
Copyright © 2010 by Roxann Farmer.
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The Lawman's Little Surprise Page 18
