by Toni Blake
Starting the car, she turned around in Mike’s wide gravel driveway, tossing a little of it up when she peeled out onto the road. She was heading back to Edna’s to get her bags. And then she was getting the hell out of Destiny once and for all.
Mike drove toward his house, still fighting mixed emotions.
Should he ask her to stay? What would she say? Would she take him seriously or brush it off without really considering the gravity of the question? And hell—was he ready for such a big commitment anyway?
The only thing he knew for sure was that he was running late—because there had been a part of him that, like last night, almost didn’t want to see her again. It was hard knowing it would be the last time, and the truth was, he didn’t want to say goodbye.
But then he’d pulled himself together and gotten in the car to head home. Because come what may, he had to see her again. He had to. Because…he was pretty damn sure now that he was in love with the woman.
Just then, an Amber Alert came over his radio from dispatch. A little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes had just been abducted from her home north of Chillicothe in a late-model purple Mustang believed to be stolen from a Cleveland suburb. Holy shit.
The abductor was believed to be Ronald Maitland, who had recently done repair work at the family’s home. He had two previous convictions for sexual abuse of a minor and a long record of misdemeanors like petty theft and various traffic violations. Authorities were uncertain where Maitland might be heading.
And Mike didn’t know where he was heading, either—but he thought he knew the road the asshole would take to get there. All his senses went on red alert. The son of a bitch had been going on practice runs. Down country roads. To stay off the main roads and interstates.
Mike was already on Meadowview Highway—it led to his house. And no matter how fast Maitland drove, he couldn’t be here yet. But soon probably.
As Mike found a spot to wait, he called dispatch and told them what he suspected, instructing them to alert all surrounding municipalities that the car had been seen speeding through this area twice in the past six weeks. He even asked for a roadblock to be set up at a rural intersection a few miles down the road, ASAP. He wished he could call Rachel to let her know he’d be later than he already was, but there was no signal here, so he’d just have to make her understand afterward how important this was.
And that’s when he spotted it—that damn Mustang! It was headed right toward him, just like he’d known it would be the moment he’d heard the Amber Alert. He’d be damned if Ronald Maitland got away from him this time.
As usual, the car was flying—so fast that Mike automatically feared for the child’s safety above and beyond the abduction. The second it passed, Mike gave chase, siren blaring, blue lights cutting through the dusky night air. He kept up, on every damn twist and turn, cussing the guy all the way.
And then the unexpected happened. The Mustang started to lose control.
Mike used his brakes to keep from hitting the other car, and he prayed the guy would get command over the vehicle and not kill the little girl. The Mustang slid off the road onto the flat land running alongside this particular stretch, and Maitland struggled to get the car back on the pavement. But he’d been forced to slow down—a lot, so Mike pulled alongside him to prevent him from re-entering the highway. Both cars still went around sixty, but the Mustang would soon have to stop because a large tree grew directly in its path just ahead, and with Mike boxing him in, the landscape prevented driving around it.
Finally, the Mustang braked to a halt. A good twenty yards from the tree—Maitland had seen the inevitable coming, Mike guessed. His heart hammered in his chest as he radioed for backup, bringing his own car to a stop, as well, flanking the Mustang’s rear fender. And he would have liked to wait for that backup, but he had a feeling if he did, Maitland would get away. And he couldn’t have that. He had to act now.
Through a speaker in his cruiser, Mike instructed Maitland, “Stay in your car.”
As he cautiously exited his own, gun drawn and tazer at the ready, he spotted the little girl in the backseat crying—and their eyes met through the back window. Oh God, she looked so scared. All he wanted in the world was to save her. All he wanted was to promise her everything would be all right.
And his heart broke as he thought of Anna. Whom he’d failed to save. And the memory stole his thoughts…for one crucial heartbeat.
He saw the barrel of the semi-automatic weapon jutting from the driver’s side window for only a split second before everything went black.
Give me my Romeo.
William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet
Eighteen
As Rachel sped around a bend in the road, the blue glow suddenly filtering the dusky air caught her off guard, making her slow down. Squinting to peer up the highway, she realized it was coming from a cop car, stopped up ahead.
She braked further as she approached, and then she saw—oh, dear God—a body in the road. Lying there. Still.
Lord, was that blood? Every muscle in her body tensed as she drew closer, horrified, petrified.
And then…oh, shit. Was it—was it…?
God, no—it was Mike!
No! No no no no no.
This couldn’t be happening! It couldn’t be real! “Mike!” she screeched, slamming on her brakes and jumping out of the car.
As she ran to him, she heard herself screaming, “Nooooo!” Her legs went numb beneath her, yet she kept moving, racing toward where he lay stretched out on the pavement, eyes closed, the pool of blood surrounding his head growing, spreading. Oh God! Oh God!
Without thinking, she dropped to her knees. Her whole body shook and her heart threatened to crumble in her chest. “Mike! Oh God, Mike!”
She grew vaguely aware of tears streaming down her face as she bent over him, pressing her hands to his chest. Please don’t be dead! Please, please, please. But—oh! His heart was beating! Thank you, God! It was as if the very knowledge breathed fresh life into her.
Only—what now? She already knew her cell phone didn’t get a signal here, damn it. Yet—Mike’s police radio was right in his car. She was just about to run to it, to try to figure out how to work it, when she heard sirens in the distance, growing rapidly closer.
“Thank God—they’re coming,” she told him anxiously, even though he was unconscious. “Help’s on the way.” Her breath ragged with fear, she touched his heart again, just to ensure them both he was still alive. “It’s gonna be okay, I promise,” she whispered. “Because it has to be.”
But God, there was so much blood! Too much! A body shouldn’t lose that much blood. What if he…what if he…?
Oh God, no. Just…no. He couldn’t die—he couldn’t.
More tears fell—she had to wipe them away to see. She simply kept stroking his chest with her hand, feeling the warmth of his flesh, feeling the very strength of him—praying that strength was enough to carry him through. “Please don’t die, Mike,” she sobbed. “Please don’t die. I love you.”
Rachel sat in the hospital room, watching Mike sleep.
He was going to be okay. Thank you, thank you, thank you, God. She’d been thanking God for an hour now, every time something went right or she got a piece of good news. In times like these, she figured you couldn’t be too thankful.
Logan was outside in the hall making calls—to Mike’s parents, to Grandma Romo, to Chief Tolliver—and Edna was with him. But both had left her alone with Mike for now, and the longer she sat there, the more she realized what a blind, in-denial idiot she’d been.
In response to the thought, more tears fell. That had continued happening for the past hour, too—every few minutes she started up again. again. Damn it—you managed not to cry for all these years, and now you can’t seem to turn it off.
So it had turned out that Mike was the only thing in the world that could make her cry—whether it was because the sex with him made her feel so complete, or because she was scared to
death he was going to die. Or maybe it was also because of the startling revelation consuming her now: He was the one. The man for her. The man she couldn’t live without. The man she could love forever. She, who’d never even wanted that. And now she supposed she was crying because she’d been such a fool, and because she’d been so afraid she would lose him when she’d seen all that blood, and—Lord, it was just a lot to take all at once.
When his eyes fluttered open, she jumped to her feet. “You’re awake!” Oh, it was so good to look into those beautiful eyes, still so warm and brown.
“You’re here,” he said softly.
She stepped up to the bed and took his hand, careful not to jar his IV. “Of course I’m here.”
He blinked, looking around a little, seeming to get his bearings. “Did they get the girl back?”
Of all the things he could ask, that was the first question. Edna was right—he was such a good man. “The state police managed to stop him at the roadblock you ordered. The little girl is safe and sound.”
He breathed a visible sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
“And you’re gonna be okay,” she informed him. “There was a lot of blood, but turned out the bullet just nicked your shoulder.” The memory of that blood made tears well behind her eyes again, but she tried to hold them back. Still, her next words came out between shaky, gaspy sniffles. “You…hit…your head…on the road…too…but it’s only…a bump.”
“That would explain why it hurts like a son of a bitch,” he said. Then he squinted at her, looking confused. “Are you crying?”
“No,” she lied, despite that she was clearly sniffing back tears.
He tilted his head on the pillow propped beneath it. “Looks like it.”
“Well,” she said, “it’s been an upsetting evening.”
Just then, his face took on an odd, troubled expression and he whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
“What?” she asked, worried.
“Do I still have on underwear?”
Okay, maybe it was the pain medication making him ask, but Rachel was about to appease him by peeking under the covers to check—when a plump, cheerful nurse in Hello Kitty scrubs hurried in. “You sure do,” the nurse said. “All the girls in the ER really enjoyed ’em, too.”
“Hell,” he muttered, letting his eyes fall shut.
Rachel waited as the nurse checked Mike’s vital signs, told him the doctor would be in soon, and bustled right back out. Then she lifted the edge of Mike’s sheets to see what the heck was going on, and—oh God. He had on the leopard print boxers. “You wore them? For me?”
Mike just gave her a look. “Don’t make a big thing of it.”
But it was a big thing. For Mike anyway. And though Rachel had planned on waiting until he felt better to tell him this, she couldn’t. She’d already waited too long. And she was pretty sure he hadn’t heard her at the crime scene. So she just blurted it out. “I love you!”
His jaw dropped and he simply stared at her—but she didn’t care. She had to get this off her chest, once and for all. “The moment I saw you lying in that puddle of blood, I realized that if you died, I’d fall apart, I’d never get over it. I’ve been a fool not to tell you sooner. And I’m scared to death to be telling you right now, but at the same time, it’s all right, because…I have way more fears than I ever let most people see, and…and you’re the man who can help me get past them. You’re the man who can take them all away.” Wow, what a mouthful. But she’d said it. And it was out there now, no taking it back.
Mike just blinked at her a few times, and she couldn’t read his face. Her heart felt like it would beat through her chest. But finally, he said, softly, “Give me your hand,” so she did.
Then he looked her in the eye. “I don’t know how to say stuff like this, and it might come out better if I waited until I wasn’t being pumped full of drugs, but…I’ve been feeling…the same way. And when I think of you leaving town…aw hell, it makes me feel shitty.”
Ah, her charming silver-tongued devil. She just smiled. “Are you asking me to stay, Officer Romeo?”
Mike closed his eyes briefly, then let out a breath. “Damn it, woman,” he said, “I’m asking you to marry me. Probably not the way you envisioned it, but it’s the best I can do right now.”
Oh! Oh God! “Yes,” she said. She didn’t even need to think about it. Her thoughts had scarcely gotten that far, but the second the words left him, she knew that was what she wanted more than anything in the world. More than her job. More than her old life in Chicago, something that, she realized fully now, had truly run its course. She wanted it even more than the financial security she’d clung too for so long. “Yes, yes, yes,” she repeated.
He actually looked a little surprised. “Really?”
She nodded, squeezing his hand.
“Ow!” he said.
Damn, the IV. “Sorry.” She released her grip. Then got back to the point. “I never thought I wanted to marry anyone, Mike, but now I do.”
A wary expression took over his face. “Not because I’m lying in a hospital bed in leopard underwear looking pathetic? Because if that’s why, I take my proposal back.”
She tilted her head and gave him an indulgent smile. “That’s not why.”
“Then…why?”
“Because I like to argue with you. And laugh with you. And flirt with you. And because you make me crazy in bed—and wherever else we do it. And because you’re a good man.” Just like Edna had said. “A really good man. Who I want to run the orchard with. And grow old with. And have lots of sex with as soon as you get well.”
Somehow her Officer Romeo still managed to look completely arrogant, even now, as he said, “Get in bed with me, Rachel.”
Glancing toward the door to make sure a doctor wasn’t about to come rushing in, she carefully pulled back the covers and climbed in next to him. Oh God, it felt so good to be near him again, pressed up against his warmth.
Their faces were but an inch apart on the pillow when Mike said, more tenderly than she’d known he could, “For a guy lying in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound and a bump on his head and embarrassing underwear on…hell, I think you just made me happier than I’ve ever been. I love you, honey.”
Mmm. The words melted down through her warm and sweet—the best words any man had ever said to her. Pressing her hand gently to his bare chest, she leaned over for a kiss.
They both moaned lightly as their mouths met, and Rachel felt it in her chest, and she couldn’t help kissing him again, and again. Until he shifted, rubbing against her in such a way that she realized he had a hard-on—even now.
“Holy crap,” she said.
“That’s right, woman. Even in a hospital bed, after being shot, and under the influence of pain medication, I want you. That’s how damn crazy you make me.”
My man’s as true as steel.
William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet
Epilogue
Rachel stood with Edna in her kitchen, watching her take an apple pie from the oven. As always, even the mere scent filled the little house with deliciousness.
“Do you think if you gave me lessons,” Rachel asked, “I could learn to make apple pie as good as yours?”
Edna patted Rachel’s hand where it rested on the counter. “I doubt it,” Edna said. “We can give it a whirl, but lucky for you I won’t be goin’ anywhere for a while.”
Winter had passed into spring at the orchard that bore a new sign and a new name: the Farris-Romo Family Apple Orchard. Rachel and Mike hadn’t gotten married yet, but revising the sign had just seemed like the thing to do, for many reasons. Besides, Mike was there as much as Rachel these days, to keep both women from doing too much heavy labor. Meanwhile, Rachel had put her creative skills to work on a website, and by the time the fall harvest rolled back around, there would be family activities and cider making on weekends and a small store, featuring a display case with Edna’s pies, apple butter, apple sauce, and whatever else Ra
chel could talk her into whipping up. Edna still wasn’t crazy about all the changes, but it was a concession she’d been willing to make in exchange for Rachel and Mike becoming her partners.
And it had finally hit Rachel that if she really wanted to restore pride to the Farris name, well, how better to do it than working together with Edna and Mike to make the old orchard thrive in a whole new way?
As for the wedding, they were waiting until they had time to plan something big—for two reasons. Rachel had decided that if she was actually going to get married, she wanted to do it in a fabulous gown, with her close friends at her side. And she and Mike both thought it would be a good idea—even if daring—to force the entire Farris and Romo clans into the Destiny Church of Christ at the same time. And if it turned out to be the biggest brawl Destiny had ever seen, they’d be able to escape on their honeymoon to Italy and forget all about it.
“Rachelllll!” The back screen door of Edna’s house slammed as Mike walked in with a scowl on his face. “I found that damn cat of yours helping himself to my breakfast cereal this morning!”
“Well, I guess you shouldn’t leave your cereal around where you know there’s a pushy cat.” They’d adopted Shakespeare at Rachel’s urging—Mike had claimed it qualified as the traditional Romo engagement gift—but so far they hadn’t broken any of his bad habits. Yet Rachel didn’t mind—she’d discovered she liked having the big fat feline curl up next to her on the sofa at night. As for Mike, she was still trying to win him over on that.
“It’s one thing to share my house with you, another to have to share it with that dumb cat,” he griped.
And Rachel said, “Growl, growl, growl.” She really thought Mike needed a pet. And she thought she and Shakespeare made a pretty good start on replacing the family he’d all but lost. And she’d once seen him scratch the cat behind the ears when he hadn’t known she was watching—she’d learned Mike was often more bark than bite.
