She was released from the hospital on Thursday, with strict instructions from her doctor to get plenty of rest. Ellen and Ryan continued to hover over her bed, as if afraid to let Riane out of their sight. Sophie fluffed pillows and baked cookies and brought magazines Riane never got a chance to read.
News of the abduction, the shooting, and the death of her abductor, had been plastered all over the news. For three days it was the lead story on the local stations—things like that just didn’t happen in Mapleview. The incident even garnered national coverage because the victim was Senator Ellen Rutherford-Quinlan’s daughter. Despite the media frenzy, no one seemed to have made the connection between Riane and Gavin Elliott, which was at least something for which she could feel grateful.
Arden and Shaun came to visit the day after she arrived home from the hospital. The second reunion between the two sisters had been more natural, and more emotional, than the first.
“I was so afraid I’d found you only to lose you again,” Arden said tearfully.
Riane had cried, too, feeling incredibly blessed despite recent events. It wasn’t so hard, she realized, to open up her heart to this extended family that she’d never known she had. And both Ellen and Ryan had seemed genuinely pleased to meet their daughter’s older sister and Arden’s fiancé.
Still, Riane couldn’t help feeling as though there was something left unfinished.
Three days later she was in the solarium, stretched out on a wicker chaise lounge with both sets of French doors open to allow the cool breeze and the scent of spring flowers into the room. Her arm was still in a sling, and although the pain had lessened somewhat, her sense of restlessness had not.
Sophie brought her a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade and a plate of oatmeal-raisin cookies. “I can’t just sit around eating all day,” Riane complained. “I’ll get fat.”
“You need to put on a few pounds,” Sophie told her, fluffing the pillow from the end of the lounger, replacing it beneath Riane’s feet. “If that wind picks up any, it’ll blow you away.”
“I hardly think that’s likely.”
Sophie huffed. “You haven’t eaten a decent meal since you’ve been home. Since Mr. Logan left town.”
“My lack of appetite has nothing to do with him,” Riane said firmly.
“And he calls here every day for a report on the local weather,” Sophie muttered sarcastically.
“He called?” Riane asked, annoyed at the sudden flutter of excitement in her belly.
“Every day since you’ve been home.”
Riane paused with the glass of lemonade halfway to her lips. “Why?”
Sophie shook her head. “Why do you think? Because the man’s in love with you.”
“If he loves me, why hasn’t he come to see me?”
“Because men are idiots. Men in love are even worse. And that’s just what I told him, too.”
Riane couldn’t help but smile at the assessment. Sophie had strong opinions, strong emotions, and she never hesitated to express either one. She didn’t doubt that Sophie had told Joel exactly that. Riane’s smile faltered. Regardless of what Sophie might have said, Joel was still in Pennsylvania and she was here.
“He nearly wore a hole through the floor in the waiting room while you were in surgery,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “As if we didn’t know that you could survive a little gunshot wound.”
“Little gunshot wound?” Riane said indignantly. “I could have been killed.”
Sophie shook her head again. “Not my girl. She’s tough. Too stubborn to let a bullet take her down.”
Riane laughed. It felt good to return to some sense of normalcy after the craziness of the past couple of weeks.
“Now that’s a sound I haven’t heard around here in far too long,” Ryan said, coming into the solarium from the family room.
“What are you doing home in the middle of the day?” Riane demanded.
“Just came by to check on my favorite girl,” he said, bending to kiss her cheek. “How’s the arm?”
“Stiff.”
Sophie snorted. “How much longer are you going to let her play up that scratch?”
Ryan grinned and sat on the lounger beside his daughter, taking her uninjured hand and squeezing gently. “As long as she wants.”
Sophie retreated into the main part of the house, shaking her head the whole way.
“What I want,” Riane told him, “is my files from the camp. I’m going crazy just sitting around here day after day.”
“Everything’s on schedule,” Ryan assured her. “You have a very capable staff who are finally getting a chance to prove themselves because you’re not around to do everything.”
“I like doing everything,” Riane said mutinously.
“I know. You’re a control freak, just like your mother.” Ryan’s tone was affectionate.
“I’m not a control freak,” Ellen denied, following her husband’s path into the room.
Ryan chuckled.
Riane turned to her mother, eyed the red silk dress and jacket Ellen was wearing. The suit Riane knew she wore whenever she was about to tackle a controversial issue in the Senate or just generally needed to boost her self-confidence. “Where have you been?”
“I had a press conference this morning.”
“Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Control freak,” Ryan said again.
But this time Ellen smiled at him, and in her eyes was a wealth of emotion—gratitude, affection, relief.
“I resigned my seat in the Senate.”
Riane sat up abruptly, winced at the resultant pain that lanced through her shoulder like a hot blade. She swore under her breath and sank back into the thick cushion. “Because of me,” she said weakly.
“No,” both Ellen and Ryan denied in unison.
Riane wasn’t convinced.
Ellen sat down on the end of her husband’s lounge chair. “Because it was what I needed to do.”
“You think Joel will take the information about my adoption to the press?”
“My decision had nothing to do with Mr. Logan.”
“But you love your job,” Riane protested.
Ellen shrugged. “Now I’ll find another job to love.”
Riane couldn’t help looking skeptical.
“I happen to know of a law firm that has an opening,” Ryan said. “There’s even a corner office with a pretty good view.”
“My office?” Riane asked.
Ryan smiled. “It’s not your office until you take the job, and we both know you’re not going to.”
“But—”
“No ‘buts,’” her father interrupted. “I’ve already given your job—and your office—away.”
Riane blew out a frustrated breath.
Ellen reached over to take Riane’s hand, cradling it between both of her own. “You have to decide what you want to do,” she said gently. “Not what you think we want you to do.”
“I don’t know what I want,” Riane admitted.
“Do you want Joel?”
Riane looked down at their joined hands, drawing strength from the unquestioning support of her family. Even now, after everything that had happened, neither of her parents was trying to influence her decision. Whatever mistakes she’d make in her life would be her own, but she knew they would always stand by her. And it was that knowledge that gave her the courage to answer her mother’s question.
“Yes.”
“Then go get him.”
“Why should I have to go after him?” Riane demanded sulkily.
“Because you’re the one who walked out,” Ellen reminded her.
“He’s the one who hightailed it back to Pennsylvania.”
“I think he blames himself for what happened,” Ryan said. “And believing that, he wouldn’t think he was welcome to stay.”
It was something Riane hadn’t considered but realized she should have. Joel had
been instrumental in uncovering the truth about her adoption, and in doing so he’d brought Gavin Elliott into her life. Rational or not, she knew him well enough to know he’d feel responsible for the events that had followed.
The realization gave her hope. Maybe he wasn’t staying away because he didn’t want her but because he felt guilty about what had happened in that motel room. And he wouldn’t feel guilty if he didn’t care about her.
“Do you love him?” Ellen asked gently.
Now Riane smiled. “The first time he kissed me, I felt as though the ground was actually trembling beneath my feet.”
Ryan shook his head. “I don’t need to hear these things about my little girl.”
Ellen only smiled back at her. “Go get him.”
“Now?” Riane asked, startled.
“Why not? If you sit and think about it, you’ll think of a hundred reasons why you shouldn’t go. Follow your heart.”
“You’re really okay with this?”
“I think the one thing I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks is that I have an incredible daughter. She’s beautiful and strong and exactly the kind of woman I hoped she’d be someday.” Ellen leaned forward and took both of her daughter’s hands in hers—a gesture of support, a symbol of unity.
“It takes a very special man to appreciate a woman like you, and I think you’ve found him.”
So Riane went to Pennsylvania to find him.
Eight days had passed since the incident in the motel room. Eight nights in which Joel watched over and over again as Riane threw herself in front of the gun. He awoke from those dreams with the warm stickiness of her blood on his hands.
In a futile attempt to banish the torturous memory, he worked harder and longer and slept less. But he couldn’t forget the image of Riane on that stretcher. Pale, almost lifeless, the blood continuing to spill out of the hole in her shoulder.
When the doctor had come out after the surgery to tell Riane’s parents that she was going to be okay, he’d done something he couldn’t ever remember having done before. He’d put his head in his hands and he’d wept.
He’d experienced loss before. His mother, his grandmother, his sister. His career. His wife. Max. He’d never felt the heart-wrenching agony he’d experienced every single moment that Riane was behind the closed doors of that operating room.
Even when they’d told him that she’d be okay, he wasn’t convinced. He wouldn’t believe it until he saw her with his own eyes. And so he’d waited until visiting hours were long over, and he’d sneaked into her room.
She’d been sleeping—sedated. Her hair dark against the pristine white pillowcase, her face pale. Her shoulder was bandaged, an IV protruded from the back of her delicate hand.
He’d reached out tentatively, brushed her hair away from her face, rubbed his knuckles gently across her cheek.
It wasn’t enough. That single glimpse, that single touch, wasn’t nearly enough. But he forced himself to be satisfied—to walk away. She was going to be all right. He had no right to ask for anything more.
And so he got into his car and came back to Pennsylvania.
Back to a home that was empty without her. Back to a bed that carried a lingering trace of her scent no matter how many times he changed the sheets.
Damn it—even now, even in his office, he could smell her. That slightly musky scent that clouded his senses. He shook his head, scrubbed his hands over his face, rubbed his tired eyes.
Maybe he needed a vacation. Mike had been on his case since he’d come back from West Virginia to take some time off—to get away. But there was nowhere he wanted to go without Riane.
He opened his eyes again, and she was there.
He blinked, certain she would disappear as quickly as she’d appeared, but the image remained.
“Hello, Joel.”
He ignored the sudden rush of his pulse, the tightening around his heart. He’d promised himself that he could get over her, but he needed more time. It had only been a few days. He hadn’t even started to heal.
“Riane.” Her name was little more than a whisper on his lips. Or maybe it was a plea.
She stepped into his office, closed the door behind her. She was so beautiful, even with her arm in a sling and her face tired and pale, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.
He swallowed, searching for something to say, finally settling upon, “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to see you. I need to know why you left.”
“My job was done.”
“Is that all I ever was to you?” She sounded casual, as if it was simply idle curiosity that prompted the question, as if his response didn’t really matter.
He wished he could be as cool, but his heart was breaking all over again just looking at her. “You know better than that.”
“I thought I did.” She shrugged. Again, very casual. “But I didn’t think you’d take off without saying goodbye, either.”
“Is that why you’re here—because I didn’t say goodbye?”
“I’m here because I never got a chance to thank you.”
“Thank me?”
“For saving my life.”
“Saving your life?” Joel wondered briefly if he was having some out-of-body experience because nothing she was saying made any sense to him.
“You came after me…you found me. Even though I walked out on you. And I wanted to thank you for that.”
“Christ, Riane. He shot you. He could have killed you, and it was all my fault.”
“How was it your fault?”
“I led him to you,” Joel said, even now horrified by the realization that she’d nearly died because of him. That the life of this precious, beautiful woman could have ended because he’d been unable to put aside his personal quest for vengeance.
Joel shook his head, guilt gnawing at his insides. “He probably hadn’t even thought of you in the past twenty years until I started asking questions.” He broke off, appalled. “I’m sorry. I keep forgetting—”
“That he was my father,” Riane finished for him.
“He was your father,” Joel repeated. “And I killed him.” Even if she could somehow forgive him for everything else, how could she ever get past that fact? How could he ever get past it?
“He would have killed you,” Riane said. “And me. I wish I could forget it. I wish I could pretend it wasn’t true.” She managed a wry smile. “It was devastating to learn that the people who raised me weren’t really my parents. Although I know now that I was wrong to ever have thought that. They are my parents—in every way that counts.”
“I’m glad you worked things out with them.”
“There are a lot of things in my life that I still need to resolve, but I’m working on them.”
He just nodded.
“That’s the real reason I’m here,” she admitted softly. “To see if we can resolve what happened between us.”
“I didn’t realize it was unresolved.”
“When we were in the ambulance—on the way to the hospital—I thought you said you loved me.”
Joel didn’t respond. There wasn’t any point in admitting his feelings, opening up his heart.
But she wouldn’t accept his silence. “Did you say it?”
He swallowed. “Yes.”
“Did you mean it?”
“Why are you bringing this up now?”
“Because I need to know if it’s really over between us or if maybe we could start again.”
“It’s over.”
She looked away quickly, but not before he saw her eyes fill with tears. He hated himself for hurting her, for doing so callously and deliberately. But he knew it was for the best. So he braced himself, prepared to watch her walk out the door. To walk out of his life, taking his heart with her.
Riane stopped in front of the door, hesitated.
Just go, he pleaded silently. Now. Don’t make this any more difficult.
She turned back abruptly,
her eyes glittering. Not with tears now, but anger. “Do you really expect me to believe it’s over?”
She retraced her steps across the room until she was standing in front of him again. “My life has been turned completely upside down over the past several weeks, and even though there were times I wanted to pretend none of this really happened, I never wished it away because through all of this chaos I found you.
“You made me believe that everything that’s happened doesn’t change who I am. And if I’d never found out I was adopted, I would never have known how desperately my parents wanted a child—how much they cherish me because they couldn’t have children of their own. They gave me love and security. They taught me to be confident in who I was and what I wanted.
“You taught me to accept who I am, to be proud of who I am. And, damn it, you made me love you.”
He didn’t have time to catch his breath, to even think of a response, before she was plunging ahead again.
“So if you can look at me and tell me that you don’t care about me—that you don’t love me, I’ll believe you. And I’ll go. But don’t you dare tell me you don’t want me because you think you know what’s best for me.
“Maybe you’re not the kind of man I envisioned myself spending my life with. I’d be willing to bet I’m not the type of woman you were looking for, either. But the fact of the matter is that I think we’ve found something pretty special together, and I’m not willing to throw it away because you have some warped sense of nobility.”
If he’d had any doubts before, he didn’t now. She wasn’t the type of woman he’d been looking for. He hadn’t wanted anyone; he hadn’t wanted to admit he needed anyone. It wasn’t until that moment—when she’d looked him in the eye and practically shouted that she was in love with him, almost daring him to dispute it—that he realized she was exactly what he needed.
And the tightness that had settled into his chest when he’d driven away from West Virginia finally began to ease.
Joel wasn’t sure if she’d finished her speech or if she’d just run out of breath, but she was silent now. He’d never loved her more.
“Are you done?” he asked, pushing his chair away from the desk and rising to his feet.
Riane nodded.
“Then maybe you’ll shut up for a minute so that I can say something.”
Some Kind of Hero Page 23
