“Look at this library!” she exclaimed. “There must be 10,000 books in here.”
She was so cute when she was excited. Actually, she was cute all the time, but even more so when she was excited. She walked over to one of the shelves and pulled out a book.
“Oh my gosh! Look at this, Samuel. This is a first edition Hemingway.”
I stood next to her and got a whiff of her perfume, and I caught myself leaning in towards her neck trying to savor the scent. She looked so damn soft in that sweater. Like a kitten. I just wanted to hug her and bury my face in her chest. I was doing a lousy job of concentrating on the book, but she didn’t seem to notice. She replaced it on the shelf and looked up at me and smiled.
“Where to?” she asked.
“Have you ever slept with Matt?” I asked. It was a question that had been bugging me since Stacy had made her remarks.
“No. Matt’s just a friend,” she said, not the least bit offended. “He’s very sweet, but it’s just not there.”
“It is for him.”
“I know. But I’ve been very honest with him about my feelings.”
I needed to kiss her. The feeling was as overwhelming as it had been in the Tower and in the hospital and in her kitchen that morning when I’d kissed her. Don’t be a worm. Don’t be a worm. I thought maybe if I said it like a mantra, I could ward it off, but it wasn’t working.
“You’re driving me crazy,” I finally said.
“Why?” she laughed.
“I don’t know,” I said, irritated with my total lack of self-control. “It must be that sweater.”
“Yeah?” She looked down at her chest and my eyes followed hers. “Whale I guess it’s worth every penny I paid for it,” she laughed. She looked back at me and held my stare.
“You’re doing this to me on purpose, aren’t you?” I said.
Maddie burst into a huge grin. “God, you are adorable!” she said, and she moved in close to me and pulled my face down to hers and kissed me on the lips.
If she’d had any idea how in love with her I was, she never would have done it, because once I started, I couldn’t stop. I ran my hands over her soft sweater, up her back and over her shoulders, then down again, holding her close to me as I bore down with my lips on hers. It was a long drawn-out kiss, urgent and uninhibited, expressing all the pent-up feelings that had been building for the last month of working so closely with her.
And to make matters worse, Maddie was every bit as assertive in her return of my advances. I’d counted on her to be the one to put a stop to it, but she was making no effort whatsoever to bring the kiss to a conclusion. If anything, she was spurring it on.
“Whoops,” someone said from the doorway. “Sorry.” Two couples were taking a tour of the house.
And just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. But not without its consequences. I was hugely aroused, and there was no way to hide it. Maddie had been pressed up against me so she had to have felt it.
“You need to stand in front of me,” I said.
Maddie pressed her body against mine. “You mean because of that?” she laughed.
“Yep.” I put my arms around her and nuzzled her neck. “Probably for the rest of the night.”
Maddie laughed out loud. “Can we go home?”
We waited until my excitement died down enough for me to be seen in public then we left the library.
“Don’t get close to me or touch me until we’re out of the house,” I warned her.
* * * *
We’d sneaked out of the party without so much as a goodbye, and we were holding hands and laughing as we ran to the Suburban. A cold front had come in and the temperature had dropped 20 degrees since we’d gotten to the party, and the wind must have been gusting to 30 miles an hour.
Maddie huddled herself under my arm and I wrapped my coat around her, but every time the wind blew, she would squeal, “Oh my gosh! It’s freezing!”
We got in the car and Maddie blasted the heater and we took off down the caliche road back towards the entrance. She was sitting over there intentionally chattering her teeth like a little kid, and she was so irresistible that I finally couldn’t take it any more. I stopped the car abruptly and put it in park, then I climbed into her seat and kissed her.
Maddie was laughing, and she wrapped her arms around my neck pulling me closer. We got into a serious kissing session which I have no doubt would have ended in sex, had car lights not been coming right towards us. I cut it short with one last kiss and got back in my seat, but for the rest of the drive home, I couldn’t even look at her without practically laughing because I was so happy to be with her.
She’d put the radio on an oldies station and she was singing at the top of her lungs to the Bee Gees, Stayin Alive, in the same high-pitched voice as the guy that sings it.
I was laughing, telling her to shut up, and every time I’d say it she’d sing louder. When the song was finally over, she rested her head back against her seat and laughed out loud. “I love the Bee Gees,” she said.
I pulled into my driveway and turned off the motor. “I hope so. I’d hate to think you’d be singing like that to something you didn’t like.”
“Sometimes I do,” she said. “Let’s go to my house.”
I was going to open her door for her but by the time I got around there, she was already out of the car.
“You in a hurry?” I teased.
“Maybe.”
“Me too,” I said, and we both took off running.
I was dragging her by her hand and we were both laughing so hard we were practically falling over. We started working to get each other’s clothes off before we even got inside and by the time we got back to the bedroom, there wasn’t much left to peel off.
And there she was. Standing right in front me.
“Landra.”
Maddie screamed and I pushed her behind me. She had her hands on my back, and I could feel her soft sweater against me as she peered over my shoulder.
“Well, you two didn’t waste any time,” Landra said. She was holding a revolver at her side, and her eyes were completely void of emotion.
Two things went through my mind. Number one, there was no way I was going to let Landra hurt Maddie. And number two, this wasn’t like the last time. I had complete control of my senses and my motor skills, and there was no way in hell that I was going to have my ass kicked by a woman again. It was going to take a lot more than a 38 to bring me down.
We were standing at the foot of Maddie’s bed, me in my underwear and socks and Maddie in her underwear and sweater and Landra was only five or six feet away. I didn’t even have to think about what I needed to do. In one motion, I shoved Maddie to the ground, assuming she’d have the sense to crawl out of the line of fire, and I lunged at Landra. It was obvious that she wasn’t familiar with her hardware or she wouldn’t have been holding the gun to her side in the first place. And in the time it took her to react to my advance, I was already too close for her to get the gun high enough to shoot anything but my foot or leg.
Even as I was crash tackling her, I could hear Maddie talking frantically in the background, “This is Madeline Griffin. I live at . . .”
Landra sailed back a good five feet, and the gun went off, but I’m not sure if it was before or after we hit the ground. I landed on top of Landra and I gripped her wrist and banged her hand on the ground until she dropped the revolver, then I pinned her down with my knee in her chest and picked up the gun.
Maddie was off the phone and at my side. “The police are on their way,” she said.
“Here. Take this,” I said, trying to hand her the gun.
“I don’t want that!” Maddie said, holding her hands up in the air.
“Just take it in the other room,” I suggested, and she took the gun and held it out from her body between her finger and thumb and left the room.
Landra was yelling obscenities and fighting to get out from under me, but there was no way she could get
away.
“It’s a little different when I’m not fucked up, isn’t it,” I said. I was glad I got the chance to redeem myself. The way she’d kicked my ass before had been a real thorn in my side.
I picked her up roughly and twisted her arm up behind her back the same way Niki had done to me on several occasions, then I marched her out through the house.
There were clothes strewn all the way from the bedroom to the entryway – pants, shoes, shirt, jacket. Maddie had gotten dressed again, but I was still in my underwear.
If there’s one thing about the Hollywood Park Police Department, its that they’re on the ball, and by the time we got to the front door, they were already pulling up to the house.
I held on to Landra until they got the cuffs on her. The police lights had alerted the neighbors that something was going down and they were all outside, looking at me in my underwear. Maddie went in and returned with my pants and shirt, and I dressed right there in front of everyone and God.
I spotted Mrs. Howard huddled with the Johnses at our property line and after I’d given my statement to the police, I made my way over to them. I shook Mr. Johns’ hand and then his wife’s, and then I turned to Mrs. Howard and gave her a bear hug.
“You’re going to be okay,” I told her. “We’re all going to be okay.”
I let go of her and she patted my cheek. I could tell she’d been crying, but she managed one of her toothy grins.
“I love you like a son, Sam.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Howard.” I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ve got to get back over there,” I told her.
She nodded and patted me again.
“What kind of muffins are we having tomorrow?” I asked.
“How does sweet potato sound?”
“Sounds great. See you in the morning.”
It was another hour before the police left and all the neighbors had gone back home. I put my arm around Maddie and we went back inside her house. She was walking in front of me, leading me back to her bedroom.
“What a psycho,” Maddie said.
“No kidding. I wonder why she came back,” I said.
Maddie turned around. “I was talking about you. What were you thinking, tackling her like that? She could have killed you.”
She put her arms around my neck and I pulled her close and hugged her.
“No girl is going to kick my ass twice,” I informed her.
I nuzzled my way into her neck and kissed it, and she let her head fall back giving me full access, then I moved down further and rubbed the side of my face against her sweater.
“Keep that on,” I said.
I scooped her up and carried her back to her bedroom and I laid her on the bed. I looked at the clock.
“Is this still our first date, or is it already over?” I asked.
Maddie laughed. “What difference does it make?” She was unbuttoning my shirt and kissing my chest.
“Because I can’t tell you how much I love you unless the date’s over.”
She moved her lips to mine. “In that case . . . it’s definitely over.”
Epilogue
I never did go on that vacation, but I found something even better to spend my money on. Unfortunately, Maddie’s finger had gotten too swollen to wear it.
We were sitting on a bench on the school playground, and I had my hand on Maddie’s belly.
“Did you feel that!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah. She’s going to be a soccer player,” I said proudly.
Maddie shook her head and rubbed her tummy. “A ballerina.”
“A kick boxer.”
Max came running up. “Mommy chase me!”
Maddie groaned. “Mommy’s too tired. Ask your dad.”
“Come on, Daddy. Chase me!” he said, enthusiastically.
I roared like a lion and charged the kid, and he took off laughing and screaming while I chased after him.
Oliver was at the controls of his new remote control airplane. I could hear the little motor buzzing as it circled in the sky over my head.
“How’s it going, Oliver?” I called out.
“Good. Can we set it to do an eight?”
“A figure-eight? Sure.”
It was his brand new birthday present that he got for turning five, and I’d sat up all night putting the damn thing together. I took the control and changed the setting and the thing started climbing as it went into a figure-eight pattern. The plane had almost completed the bottom of the eight and I was getting ready to hand the control back to Oliver, when Maddie put her arm around my waist. Just looking at her made me smile.
“We need to go to the hospital,” she said.
The announcement shattered my concentration and I dropped the control box just as the plane was heading towards the top of the eight. Oliver looked from the control box to me, and I got a sinking feeling. I picked up the box, and it was even worse than I’d feared. A part had broken off and it was impossible to steer the plane manually. The little plane made it to the top of the eight, but it never did turn. The damn thing just kept going and going, farther and farther, until it was just a speck in the sky.
Oliver crumpled to the ground in a heap. I scooped him up and held him while he cried on my shoulder.
“We’ll get you another one,” was all I said.
I wondered if it was too early to start grooming Oliver to be my partner.
Family Counsel
Book 2 of the Samuel Collins Series
Picking up where Advice of Counsel left off, attorney Samuel Collins is learning the ropes of fatherhood, with a kindergartener, a toddler and a newborn on his hands. As he performs a balancing act between his thriving law practice and his newfound parental status, Sam quickly discovers that looking out for #1 is a thing of the past. With new neighbors, new clients, and new relations vying for his attention, Samuel finds a common theme of family recurring not only in his personal world, but in his business dealings, as well. But when Felicia Armstrong, Maddie’s long lost cousin, unwittingly gets him involved in a family dispute that could cost him his life, Sam will need all of his wits about him to keep safe everything he holds dear.
Family Counsel . . . Catch up with the old cast of characters, and meet some new friends and neighbors along the way.
Available in paperback and on Kindle at http://amzn.com/B00MJLYDOW.
www.debratrueman.com
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Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) Page 36
