Special Delivery (Mountain Meadow Homecoming 1)

by Laura Browning

  When he didn’t turn she swallowed past the lump choking her. Turning on her heel, she grabbed her coat from the hall tree and hurried to the door. She had gambled and lost. The story was far-fetched and based on the word of a dead man. Stoner Richardson would never admit his part, and she couldn’t remember any of it. Yet she asked Evan to believe the absolute worst of his own father.

  Jenny was empty. She had nothing left. Nothing at all.

  Chapter 10

  Evan was still trying to process everything when Jenny grabbed her coat. The lack of expression in her eyes bothered him. The front door opened. He had to stop her. He was across the living room and into the front hallway in a few long strides. With one hand on her arm and the other on the door, he prevented her from opening it any farther.

  “Don’t go,” he ground out. “Please, Jenny.”

  She dropped her bag and he reached for her, pulling her against him.

  “How you must hate my family,” he stated. “How you must hate me.”

  “No,” she protested, before admitting, “I did for a while. Then when I came home, I realized I wasn’t the only one damaged by all this. You hurt, too, but I thought telling you would make it worse.”

  Her hands crept up until they fisted in the cashmere sweater he wore. Her trembling became shudders and she cried as if her heart would shatter. Evan kicked the door closed and held her, rocking her against him as he had Noelle over the past two days. And it struck him just how traumatic this past week must have been. He remembered her face when she’d walked in and seen him holding Noelle, so at ease with the infant, as if she were his own. They’d had their own baby…or would have.

  Evan’s eyes closed and his throat tightened. He stroked Jenny’s hair and back, and when her crying didn’t stop, he carried her into the living room and sat on the couch, her slight weight curled against him.

  “It’s going to be all right. I promise. Everything will be all right.” And then he lost it too and tilted his head back against the back of the couch. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes, but he continued to soothe her. “Don’t, honey. Please, forgive me. Forgive me for seeing what they wanted me to instead of believing the girl I loved.”

  She touched his cheek. “Don’t, Evan. Don’t cry.”

  “I want to see her grave in the morning. Will you take me?” He needed the reality of it.

  “Yes.”

  They stared at each other, their breathing uneven and choked. He inhaled her scent and closed his eyes. Like being fourteen all over again, he experienced the same overwhelming attraction and remembered what heaven was like the first time he’d kissed her.

  “I want you, Jenny,” Evan said in a shaky voice. “Is that bad…to want you right now?”

  “No.” He read passion in her golden eyes. It might have been twelve years since he’d last seen it there, but he had no trouble recognizing it. “I can’t think of anything except getting you skin to skin.” He growled. “I need to feel you. I need to heal you…and me. My feelings never left, they just got twisted. Our parents twisted what was a wonderful, beautiful thing, and I fell for it.” The pain poured from him, but Jenny held him. He needed his catharsis as much as she had.

  “When you came back, looking so cool and unapproachable, it just reinforced all the lies my father fed me. I attended your party to taunt you. I wanted to make you pay for all the suffering I had gone through.” He stopped and buried his face against her hair, a shudder of remorse shaking through him “How can you even stand to look at me?”

  “I love you,” Jenny said. “It never went away for me either. It just…froze…like me. I haven’t been with anybody since…”

  “Don’t,” Evan stopped her. “That doesn’t count. You weren’t a participant, you were a victim, and Jenny…There is no statute of limitations on sexual assault in Virginia if it involves a felony.”

  She laid a finger across his lips. “Not now. We can talk about it later.”

  Evan ran his fingers through her short hair. “Come upstairs with me.”

  She nodded, and he carried her up the wide steps, not setting her down until they were inside the master bedroom. He slid her coat down her arms and kept his eyes on her face as he undressed her. They stopped often to kiss, heat flooding him like he was a kid, but his body no longer belonged to a lanky eighteen-year-old. A thick mat of hair covered his muscled chest and stomach. Hers was no longer the rounded form of a teen. She was fine-boned, sculpted, more slender in her arms and legs, and more voluptuous through her breasts and hips.

  He touched her in wonder, rediscovering and arousing new hunger. When they were both naked, he lifted her and wrapped her legs around him. She excited him as no other woman ever had. He held her with his hands splayed on her back as he bent to kiss her throat then her breasts. His erection pressed hard and throbbing against her belly. A flush of desire stained her cheeks and made his own arousal skyrocket.

  “I don’t want to wait, Evan. I need to feel you inside me.”

  He lifted her higher. “Then put me there, Jenny,” he rasped.

  She reached between them, guiding the tip of his cock to where she was already slick and wet. They both groaned as they touched. He pushed inside, completing and healing them, and he wanted it to last forever.

  * * * *

  Tyler bounded into the kitchen the next morning and plopped himself at the table. Jake paused in playing with Noelle while Holly added the finishing touches to cheese omelets.

  “Doc Jenny’s car is out front,” Tyler informed them, “but I don’t see her anywhere.”

  Jake’s gaze collided with Holly’s as she carried Tyler’s plate to the table. Jake said, “I think she said something about checking back in on Evan this morning.”

  Tyler shrugged. “Whatever. Seems kind of weird, though, to park in front of our house.” He shoved a bite of omelet in his mouth, smiled, and polished everything off in record time. After gulping his glass of orange juice, he announced, “I have to go. I told the Tarpleys I’d be over first thing this morning.”

  “Don’t forget we’re supposed to help Evan at two this afternoon,” Holly called after him.

  They waited just a heartbeat after the door shut behind Tyler before they were both running to the living room window to look out front. Sure enough, Jenny’s car sat where she’d parked it last night for dinner. Holly chewed on her lower lip. “I hope everything’s okay.”

  Jake put an arm around her shoulders. “I hope everything’s better than okay. The fact her car is still sitting there is a good indication it is.” He sighed.

  “What’s wrong?” Holly asked in sudden concern.

  Jake looked woebegone. “I bet he doesn’t have to wait two weeks or more to…you know.”

  Holly sputtered with laughter. “Jacob Allred! You’re not supposed to think about your friends doing that.”

  “All I can think of is doing that, except I’m not allowed to with the woman I love.”

  Holly felt a blush heat her cheeks and glanced at the baby resting in her arms. “Noelle’s asleep again. We could try some of those creative alternatives like last night.”

  “I thought you’d never suggest it.” Jake’s hot gaze dropped to Holly’s breasts, and he whispered in her ear. Her eyes widened and she smacked him.

  “Jake! That’s just wrong.” But there was a twinkle in her eye. Oh, yeah, she was on board with a little playtime, and so was he, as his body was making more than obvious.

  He followed her upstairs, his eyes admiring her derriere. As soon as she closed the door to the nursery, he arched a brow. “How about a shower?”

  Holly frowned in confusion. “All right, but I thought you wanted to…”

  Jake grinned. “I do, but we can play in the shower. It’s big.” His hands were already plucking at the zipper of her robe as he slid it down with a snick that echoed in the silence of the room. “You have far too many clothes on.”

  He loved the w
ay her lids dropped over her vivid green eyes. His fingers stripped the robe from her and then slid the straps of her gown off her shoulders. When the material caught on her breasts, he leaned forward to tug it away with his teeth.

  “Oh…Jake…” she whispered.

  With a soft growl he carried her into the bath. While he adjusted the shower with one hand, he caressed her with the other. When the temperature suited him, he stripped off his clothes and stepped with her under the steamy spray. Lord! He was afraid he’d come before they even got started. The steamy heat made her milk let down, a drop of pearly liquid hovering like dew on her nipple. He licked it away with his tongue, smiling as Holly gasped and clasped her fingers in his hair.

  Jake cupped her bottom, pulling her hips against him so his cock nestled against her while he bent to cover her mouth in a deep kiss that left them both panting.

  “Touch me, Holly,” Jake muttered against her lips. “These next weeks can’t go by fast enough.”

  She wrapped her hand around his shaft and stroked while he fondled her breasts and teased her nipples. Her touch made his legs tremble and he leaned against the shower wall, his skin attuned to the glide of her hands, and the pulse of the shower spray. When she knelt in front of him and covered him with her mouth, Jake lost control, his fingers twining in her hair as he climaxed.

  He sagged against the shower wall, then felt for her arm. After pulling her to her feet, he hugged her tightly.

  “What about you?” he muttered. “This can’t be all about me. I don’t want it to be.”

  Holly put his hand on her breast. “Then touch me here.”

  He smiled. “Gladly.”

  * * * *

  Jenny and Evan made love almost until dawn, their bodies never seeming to get enough of each other. After the first time, when they couldn’t think of anything but getting as close as possible, Evan mentioned birth control and the fact he had nothing. Their eyes met in the glow from the reindeer still lit on the front lawn, and what he saw in hers told him it didn’t matter.

  “I want to give you another baby,” Evan whispered at one point during the night. He pictured her growing large with their child, a child he’d move heaven and earth to protect this time.

  He watched her, worried it might be too much, too soon. When she smiled, her feelings shone through. “Yes, Evan. This one conceived at Christmastime.”

  Her smile transformed him, making him feel years younger. He kissed her on the forehead, and they slept. Now a new day had arrived, one he hoped would bring them even closer together.

  “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

  Jenny stretched and sighed with contentment, then groaned. Like him, her muscles must have been protesting at all the ways they’d moved and bent last night. “What time is it?”

  “A few minutes before nine. Don’t move. I have to get something, but I’ll be right back.”

  He walked naked to the dresser on the other side of the room, grabbed what he was after from the top drawer, and sauntered back.

  “You’re beautiful.” Jenny whispered.

  Evan laughed. “I’m glad you think so. Now close your eyes.”

  Jenny did, a small smile playing around her mouth. He turned her hand up, setting the ring on her palm. She swallowed, and her hand trembled. “Okay. Now you can open up.”

  She stared into her palm where a simple marquise-cut diamond in a white-gold setting rested, the cool metal already absorbing the warmth of her skin. She said nothing. Tears gathered in her eyes and she blinked. “Evan?” she choked.

  This was so much more intense than he’d imagined, but then everything between them had always been intense. “It’s the same ring I planned to give you twelve years ago. I kept it. My grandmother gave it to me to give to you. I had it sized. I don’t know if it will still fit, or if you even want it. God I’m making a real botch of this.” He stared at the case. “Marry me, Jenny. Please. As soon as we can. We’ve already wasted so much time. And if this ring brings back too many bad memories, we’ll buy a new one for a new start…”

  She touched his lips with her finger. “It’s perfect.” She slid it on and found it still fit. “It does bring back memories, but only good ones, Evan.”

  He crushed her to him. “I love you so damn much I ache with it. I wish I could melt into you so we would never again be apart.”

  “That sounds like a serious illness, but fortunately, I know just what to prescribe.”

  “And what would that be, Doc?”

  “A regimen of love, kisses, regular sex, and maybe a few of our own squirming bundles of blankets will do the trick. But I think it fair to warn you there is no cure, so the treatment must continue your whole life.”

  He lowered his mouth to her. “And beyond,” he whispered.

  They ate breakfast in bed, licked the crumbs off each other, and made love one more time before they showered together.

  “Take me to see Hope,” Evan said once they were dressed. He had to face this one part of their past. Jenny had lived it, but he needed to know it in his own way so they could move forward.

  “Okay,” Jenny agreed. “It’s a hike up the hill behind my house, so I’ll need to stop and change.”

  He nodded. “Grab some clothes so you can spend the night here. We’ll go to church in the morning.”

  When they at last climbed the hill, Evan’s hand trembled as he knelt, traced his fingers over the engraving, and read the words underneath. “Like our love, born too soon. You will always be our best and brightest Hope.”

  His voiced cracked. Evan struggled with the emotions buffeting his big frame, but in the end he lost. His broad shoulders shook and he covered his face with his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. If I had only believed in you.”

  Jenny leaned over him and wrapped her arms around his back. “We can’t live with what might have been. We have to move forward. We have a chance to start again. We have Hope. We have her inside us.”

  Evan pulled her onto his lap. Jenny wiped his face and held him until he found the inner core of strength that had helped him get through so many other rough spots. He smiled and blew a breath out between pursed lips. “‘Wow!’ as Tyler would say. If anyone in my office saw me now, they’d have me committed once they got over the shock.”

  Jenny smiled. “No. They’ll love the new-and-improved Evan just as much as I do.”

  He touched the tiny headstone again. “Let’s get married soon. I want to start a family,” he glanced at her with a wry expression, “if we haven’t already.”

  Jenny glanced at her watch. “It’s almost noon. You told Jake and Holly to come over at two.”

  Evan glanced at his own watch. “Shit! I don’t have a scrap of food in the house.”

  “You mean the toaster pastries we had for breakfast won’t be enough?”

  “Smart ass.”

  They walked hand in hand down the hill and drove to Tarpley’s. As soon as the door jingled and Susie Tarpley saw the two of them hand in hand, she bustled around the counter and gave them both a big hug.

  “This is a sight for sore eyes. Oh heavens. Jim,” she called to her husband. “Come here. You have to see this.”

  Evan and Jenny blushed as every eye turned their way. Jim rounded a corner and his lean face broke into a wide smile. “Evan Richardson and Jenny Owens. And is that a ring I see on her finger?”

  Susie held Jenny’s left hand. “It is.” Her knowing gaze lifted to Evan. “Your grandma’s, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Evan answered. “We’ve taken a few detours, but Jenny’s agreed to be my wife.”

  “That’s wonderful, son,” Jim Tarpley clapped him on the back. “I’ll take that as a sure sign all’s gonna be right with the world this Christmas.”

  “What can we help you with?” Susie asked.

  Jenny grimaced. “Everything. I’ve seen his kitchen. There’s no food in it, and we have guests coming over in less than two hours
.”

  Tyler poked his head around the end of the aisle. “I’m one of them, and I’m starving.”

  Jenny sent Evan to get drinks, and Tyler followed him with a cart. As Evan added two bottles of wine and a twelve pack of beer, the boy commented, “I like ginger ale. Since you and Jenny are engaged now, like Jake and Holly, does that mean Jenny’s car was outside our house all ni…”

  “So where is the ginger ale?” Evan interrupted as he clapped a hand over Tyler’s mouth. He grinned weakly as Pastor Calloway’s wife walked past, her lips pursed, but Evan hoped that really was a twinkle in her eye.

  * * * *

  Jake was installing a peephole in the front door when his cell phone rang. He saw the station’s ID.

  “Jake here.”

  “It’s Ernie. Look, I know you’re off this weekend, but I thought you should be aware we’ve had some more activity with the nativity.”

  Jake rolled his eyes at Ernie’s attempt at a play on words. His boss should try the stoic route. It worked for Jake. “More toilet paper?”

  “No. This time someone stole the baby Jesus and the manger from the Presbyterian church, but that’s not all.”

  Jake sighed. “There’s more?”

  “Yep. Our thieves also got away with Mary and Joseph from the Baptist church.”

  “What makes you think we’re dealing with the same thieves? Couldn’t it be rival church-lady gangs? I heard they’ve been moving along the interstate.”

  Ernie was laughing so hard from the other end Jake had to hold the phone away from his ear.

  “Oh Lord, Jake. Anyway, the church ladies have formed a posse. A mixed group from both churches is out canvassing the neighborhoods.”

  Jake slapped the phone back against his ear. “I’m sorry. Did you just say ladies from both churches are together canvassing town?”

  “Yes.”

  This was bad. There could be bloodshed. “I’ll get my uniform and be right in. I think I still have a couple of flak jackets in my storage building. I’ll bring those and the billy clubs too.”