Taming His Montana Heart
Page 20
“You could have been killed. If you hadn’t taken that man down, he would have kept firing.”
“Maybe. I didn’t enter the house until backup arrived. That’s when I saw the children.” His mind’s eye slipped into the past. “They were holding onto each other and crying. They looked so alone.”
“Grandma wasn’t comforting them?”
“No.”
“And the children saw everything.”
It wasn’t a question but he shouldn’t be surprised. After all she had her own experience for comparison.
She brought his hands to her shoulders. “Did it hit you all at once or did reality slowly envelope you?”
“Both I think. I threw up when I saw where the bullets had landed. I couldn’t sleep for weeks.”
“Because you were having nightmares.”
“Nightmares in which I shot the children.” No one was ever supposed to know that, but the confession eased his mind a little. Who better equipped than her to understand?
“In mine,” she said, “I kept trying to resuscitate my mother. There was so much blood.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Shaw, now is about you. I had my turn.”
Yes, she had.
He needed to keep going, wanted to. “My fellow officers told me I’d eventually put things in perspective. I’d simply been doing my job. The children were all right.”
“Thank goodness.”
“Yes. For several months I forced myself to go to work, but I couldn’t stop the tapes from playing. Knowing how close I’d come to killing two children. They sent me to see a shrink, but I could only tell him so much.”
“That’s what happened to me. I couldn’t even tell Mick everything. Only you know. And the wolf.”
The wolf.
“I don’t care if what I said doesn’t make sense.” She sighed. “What I know is that I feel free. Opened up. I hope you feel the same way.”
Now that he thought about it, tension was seeping out of him, sliding off into the winter air. “I’m getting there.”
She gifted him with a small smile. “That’s what life is, one step at a time.”
“You’re right.”
Her smile grew. “Of course I am.”
He kissed her forehead. “Knowing I had no choice but to take a first but different step is what drove me to accept my uncle’s offer. I couldn’t do… nothing. I needed to be productive.” He paused as a new thought took hold. “To make Lake Serene into a place people want to come to.”
“Lake Serene is magical.”
Although he agreed, he chuckled. “Not everyone feels that way.”
She gave a dismissive wave. “Because they don’t take the time to let the wilderness speak to them.”
“Speak. I love how you put it.”
“Thank you—for the compliment and for confiding in me.”
He’d done more than confide. He had no doubt he’d turned a vital corner in his emotional health. “It was easier than I thought it would be, liberating.”
“I felt the same way when everything was coming out of me.”
“That’s good. In fact it’s perfect.”
“Now there’s a vote of confidence,” she said. “I’d give anything to be able to stay here all day and maybe tomorrow. Make love. Go for walks and search for paw prints and maybe see him.”
When he blinked and brought her into focus, he realized she looked as emotionally done in as he felt. “I wish we could too. Maybe in a few days…”
“I’d love that.”
Chapter Twenty
Because it hadn’t snowed during the night, the snowmobile didn’t need to be wiped off. They loaded their belongings onto it and locked the cabin door. However, instead of taking off, they slowly approached the trees where the wolf had been. Haley took pictures of the prints the animal had left. Shaw called her attention to an indentation with dark grey hairs in it. She had no doubt the wolf had bedded down there. After she snapped more shots, they backed away while looking all around. There was nothing left to do except return to their respective responsibilities.
Yesterday and this morning had exhausted her. Just the same, she’d embrace any opportunity to return to the bed they’d shared. Now that they’d made love, she felt comfortable turning her body over to him and exploring his. Their relationship was still taking form. It might always be like that, but she loved where it was now—even with what they’d dumped on each other.
No, especially because of what they’d shared.
As she pulled up her pants legs in preparation for getting on the snowmobile, something struck her in the back near her shoulder blades. She started to whirl around only to nearly lose her balance on the uneven ground. Another something landed in the same place.
Shaw, standing about fifteen feet away, grinned as he reached for another double handful of snow.
“What—hey, no fair!” She scooped up her own weapon and started patting it into a ball. “Absolutely no fair!”
“Doesn’t matter. I couldn’t resist.”
Neither could she. Shaw turned out to be a rapid-fire expert. However, he didn’t take enough time to compact his snowballs. As a result many of his missals fell apart before they reached her. She could have crouched behind the snowmobile but then she wouldn’t be able to see her target. Her front was getting snow-plastered but more of her snowballs were landing.
“I’m your boss.” He announced, swiping snow off his chin. “You’re not supposed—”
“I’m off the clock. I can do anything I want.”
Their fight might have continued if they hadn’t started laughing. Before long she couldn’t stop giggling long enough to keep making snowballs. She tried scooping up snow and throwing it at him, but it didn’t work. Even when he advanced on her, looking like the abominable snowman, she couldn’t get her act together for the tears running down her cheeks.
“Now you’re in trouble,” he warned.
She tried to backpedal only run into the snowmobile. “I’ll tell. I’ll tattle.”
“To whom? You’re at my mercy.”
She dodged to the side as he launched himself at her. Unfortunately, her attempt to escape buried her in the snow. He plopped beside her, scooped up a double handful of the white stuff, and deposited it on her head. “Ready to surrender?”
“Not fair.” By rolling on to her side, she managed to free one arm. Her other arm was beneath her.
“There’s no fair in snowball fights.” He helped her onto her knees. “I’m shocked you don’t know that.”
She started wiping snow off herself. “Just wait until next time. I’m the queen of sneak attacks. You’ll never know when I’ll strike.”
He dug under his collar for the snow there. “Then I guess I’ll have to keep an eye on you all the time.”
All the time. “Promise?”
His smile kept growing as he drew her against him. “If you want me to.”
“I want.”
Her admission slipped through her and became her truth. She planted her gloved hands on his cheeks and shook some of the snow off her hair, making sure it landed on him. They’d only known each other for a short time and their romance had barely begun, but this complex man was already the most important person in her life. Beneath his considerable physical strength and intellect lay scars only she knew about. He wouldn’t have revealed the scars to her if he didn’t trust her.
Trust.
“I don’t regret anything I told you.” She saw her breath and felt his warmth. “I want you to know that.”
His smile slowly faded, replaced by contemplation. “I feel the same way. The only thing I can say is the time had come.”
“An end to bottling things up inside us. The beginning of—something.”
“Something? I’m not interested in trying to give what we have going a name. I just want it to happen.”
“Evolve?”
“And grow.” He kissed the tip of her upturned nose followed by
touching his lips to her forehead. “Thank you for being you.”
“And thank you for being you.”
*
Their words had been enough—for now. There was still much they needed and wanted to say, but there was no need to hurry. After all, Lake Serene was their home. One day at a time they’d grow closer, deeper. More in love with this land and with each other.
More content than she remembered ever being, Haley tightened her hold on Shaw’s waist and pressed herself against his back. If the snowmobile never needed gas, they’d glide over the snow until the sun set, until the moon painted the land in pale blue. By then they’d have made a circuit around the lake, stopping to take pictures of the creek weaving around snow-frosted boulders and downed trees. They’d have spotted elk and located a beaver mound, come across a bear’s den.
Still holding onto Shaw’s back, she straightened and looked to her left and right, even behind her. Because he was keeping to a slow pace, she could make out the individual trees. Her understanding was that the bear’s den was on the side of a hill. Since they were on level ground and nearing a meadow it wasn’t realistic to expect to see where bear cubs and their mother spent the winter, but she could imagine.
She couldn’t say when whimsy shifted into awareness, just that one moment she was mentally picturing a pair of cubs wrestling with each other. The next she was looking at—
“Shaw!”
The snowmobile stopped. “I see him.”
The wolf was standing near a large downed evergreen not a hundred feet away. Watching them.
“What’s he doing here?” Shaw asked as he turned off the machine. The wilderness’s wind-whispers barely registered.
She nearly didn’t respond, nearly listened to the voice of reason that said this couldn’t be happening but was. “Maybe he’s been following us.”
“Staying in the trees, keeping pace with us.”
“Curious. Nosy.”
“Is that it?” Shaw directed his question at the motionless predator. “Or did you decide to do something that—got inside us somehow and unlocked…”
Shaw didn’t need to finish. They’d each revealed secrets, detailed their separate traumas, acknowledged flaws, exposed what they’d once believed would forever remain inside them.
Maybe the wolf was responsible and maybe he had nothing to do with what had happened in the cabin. It really didn’t matter. What did was that she and Shaw had trusted each other with the truth.
“I want to take a picture,” she said. “One that’s just for us.”
“You don’t want to show it to anyone?”
“No.”
“Good.”
The wolf hadn’t moved since they’d spotted it. As she drew her smartphone out of her snowsuit pocket and snapped several shots, she was tempted to thank the predator for being so accommodating. It was crazy to think she could get close enough to touch him, but she could imagine.
Still holding the phone, she mentally got off the snowmobile and started toward the wolf with Shaw beside her. The wolf’s ears swung forward as he waited for them.
Shaw’s hissed breath brought her back to reality. What she’d dismissed as part of the shadows around the downed tree separated itself from the shadows and joined their wolf.
A second predator. Smaller than the first.
A pair.
Just like her and Shaw.
The End
Find out what happens next in….
The Montana Lakeside series
Book 1: Romancing the Montana Bride
Buy Now!
Book 2: Redeeming Her Montana Love
Buy Now!
Book 3: His Montana Rescue
Buy Now!
Book 4: Saved by the Montana Hero
Buy Now!
Book 5: Taming His Montana Heart
About the Author
Vellla Munn writes contemporary and historical romances to satisfy the insistent voices in her head. She’s convinced she has the best career in the world. Also thanks to those voices, she no longer has any other marketable skills.
She’s had more than 50 books published and is beyond exited to have joined the Tule Publishing family with a contemporary romance series set at Lake Serene, Montana. The series draws on her love of the wilderness as backdrop for new beginnings and love.
Vella lives in rural Oregon, is married, has two sons, and four grandchildren. She’s owned by two bossy dogs and is working on her master’s degree as a certified hermit. email: vellamunn@gmail.com
Visit her website at www.vella-munn.com
*
For the latest news from Tule Publishing, visit our website at TulePublishing.com and sign up for our newsletter here!