Finally Forever

by April Zyon

  “Of course I will,” he said softly. He’d put his cup aside, and now reached out to hold her hand gently in his. “I should be thanking your mother, though. She was the one that kept my mama from going off the deep end after Pops passed. If not for Kristin, I honestly think we would have buried Mama not long after.”

  Alison nodded and squeezed Joshua’s hand. Holy cow, his hands were like a man’s should be—rough and work-worn. She looked down at his hand holding hers and let out the sigh she had been holding in. “Now I hope that she does the same for my mom. With Rhys finding Gwen and spending so much time with her, Mom has far too much time on her hands. Part of why I didn’t leave town for the shoot.” She stroked her thumb over the back of his hand. “How are you holding up, Josh? All in all?”

  “I should be asking you that,” he muttered, making a face. “It was hard the first year, everything was a mess, and with most of the family out of the state, it was tough. It’s gotten better, except for Mama of course. I’m just glad she’s finally coming out of it. It hurt, physically hurt, to see her like that. She was always the strongest member of our family, and to see her so.” He shook his head. “Broken. She was broken. They were so in love that I didn’t think she’d make it through his death. Now, you’re turn, pipsqueak. How are you holding up? Is there anything I can do?”

  “Oh you know me,” Alison said a bit too sunnily. “I’m dealing. It’s life, you know? It was a shock to see Dad pass the way that he did, but…” She frowned and looked down. “It still doesn’t feel real. I mean, I knew that it was going to happen, but not like it did. I thought that Mom and Dad were going to live until they were like a hundred or something. But yes, it will be okay. I’m okay.” She looked at their joined hands for a moment and very quietly whispered, “Broken is a good term. I think that’s Mom. She’s pasting the happiness on her face, and I think she genuinely is happy because of Rhys finding Gwen, but I still hear her crying sometimes at night and it breaks my heart.” She was all over the board and knew it, but she was dancing around because she had too much to say.

  She felt the squeeze of his hand on hers. “Alison, you know if you ever want to just talk, I’m always here. Bottling this up isn’t the way to go. Trust me on that one, I know. I tried that for a long time, but finally, it exploded out of me. I won’t push, ever, but if you feel like just talking about your dad, your mom, whatever, I’ll be there to listen. Your mom will come out of this in time. I can’t say when because I just don’t know. Each person is different, and each deals with loss in their own way. That I do know.” He gave her fingers another squeeze just as Donna arrived with her food.

  Alison didn’t want to let go of his hand, but she did. Pulling back had been harder than she had thought it would be and she nodded. “Thank you for that, Josh. I appreciate it, and I might take you up on it sometime.” She took a breath and added, “I don’t bottle anything up. You should know that about me by now.” Except for this latest issue. Her stalker. A person she hadn’t told anyone about, not even the cops. She knew that Rhys was going to have a heart attack when she finally told him, but she hadn’t wanted to bother others, and she’d just thought it was some teen being an idiot or something. Until now. Things had gone from bad to holy-shit terrifyingly horrid.

  “That’s true enough, you usually are pretty damn vocal.” Sitting back, he picked up his fork and dug into his meal. Joshua made little humming noises as he chewed, and actually looked embarrassed when she just stared at him. “What? I like the food,” he said, ducking his chin.

  She reached out. Lying her hand on his, she said, “I like it. It’s a good thing to hear that someone is enjoying food. It is after all for more than giving us nutrition and energy. Food is meant to be enjoyed. And heck, here at Milly’s, it’s always good.”

  “True enough. You should eat, Alison. You’re way too skinny,” he said with a wink, teasing her about the same shit he always had. He took another bite, and for a second, she thought he might hum again, but he seemed to be forcibly restraining himself. He did bounce a little in his seat, though. A close second on the humming was her guess.

  Alison then began to eat. She too made a happy sound in the back of her throat, her eyes closing slightly with sheer happiness in her heart, and in this case, her stomach. After she had eaten half of the plate, she sat back and sighed. “Man, that’s good, however, there is far too much of it on the plate. Maybe I should have ordered a half, but goodness, it’s hard to turn down the food here.” She couldn’t help watching him. For the hundredth time in the last week, she wondered just why he was still single. God only knew that the women of town tossed themselves willy-nilly at him, and still, he was single. It just didn’t make sense at all to her.

  He paused in the act of licking his fork and slowly lowered it down to his plate. “What? Do I have something on my face? It’s totally possible given how I tend to eat food I like, but come on, just say something. Why are you looking at me like that, Alison?”

  “Sorry.” She shook her head and before she could stop herself, asked him, “Why are you still single? I know that there have been many of the women in town that have tried to, well, you know.” Catch him, wrangle him, something. He had a steady stream of women that wanted him, and she knew that he dated from time to time, but had never gotten serious with anyone.

  His expression was complete and utter shock. “Uh,” he said slowly. Lifting a hand, he rubbed at the back of his neck and shrugged as his cheeks went pink. “I guess I just haven’t found the woman that’s meant to be mine. Like my parents, like yours, hell, even like Rhys, that’s what I want. I want someone that is my perfect other half. Someone that is there when I need her, but has her own life and does her own thing. I don’t want a doormat. I want someone strong, independent, and yet.” He sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  God, she wanted to be that person. She wanted to jump onto his lap and make him notice her, but she didn’t. She was actually impressed that she was able to keep to her seat and not do what she was feeling. “She’s out there, Joshua. I just know it.” Alison wanted to be her! God, she wanted to be the woman that he would come home to every single night, but she couldn’t bring him into the nightmare that was her life right now. She had far too much going on. Not to mention, sadly, there was danger in it now, and that bothered her. A lot. Dammit, she was going to have to talk to Rhys, who would demand she take it to the sheriff, and then everyone would know because his administrative assistant was the biggest gossip ever born. Fabulous.

  “I know who she is,” he stated soberly. He pulled out his wallet and dropped a bunch of bills on the table. “I just hope she clues in to the fact that I’m waiting on her as much as she’s waiting on me. Be kind of nice to be on her radar, even for a moment.” He slid out of the booth and stuck his Stetson on his head. “You need a lift anywhere?” he asked her.

  “Well, if you know who she is, why in the world are you cooling your heels?” Alison asked as she looked up at him. Shaking her head, she said, “No, no, I don’t need a ride. I have my car.” Good lord, he was a beautiful man, and the sun that came through the windows hit him just right and highlighted just how wonderfully put together he was. With the red and black flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the jeans that were obviously well-worn and broken in…and then the Stetson. Goodness, she loved a man in a cowboy hat. “Seriously, Josh, if you know who she is, you should toss her over your shoulder and run off with her. Life is far too short to wait for some broad to get her head out of her backside.” She was jealous as hell of the woman and didn’t even know who she was.

  “You really think that a modern woman with a career and a life all her own would appreciate that rather barbaric approach? Come on, Alison. Would you want the guy of your dreams to just throw you over his shoulder and carry you off to his cave?” He looked like he was considering it, but also didn’t look wholly convinced about it either.

  “You can bet your chaps that I would, if I was too
blind to see that I was cared for.” She hesitated, thought of her stalker, and re-evaluated. “Wait. Nix that. Never mind. It would be bad to be kidnapped like that.” She went pale and her hands shook. “I think that maybe just the man of my dreams walking up to me, holding out his hand, and asking me to see him. I think that would be best.” Out in the open, not hiding in shadows, sending her emails and now worse. Sending her dead animals and putting the flowers she placed on her father’s grave that morning onto her car seat. Yep, right out in the open was good.

  “Alison, honey, what’s going on?” he said. When she looked up, Joshua was much closer, concern etched all over his face. “Let’s get out of here and then you are going to tell me why the fuck you just went whiter than my mama’s sheets.” He put a gentle hand on her elbow and steered her toward the door. Pushing out into the street, he guided her along until they found a bench. With a light push, he got her seated, his large body settled in next to her. “Talk,” he said.

  Chapter Three

  “It started seven months ago,” Alison whispered. The heat of Joshua surrounding her comforted her. “I got the first email while I was in Bali. I was on a shoot and I got this terrible email from an unknown person telling me that he was my soulmate, that he had been looking for me all of his life. Of course I didn’t answer it, but deleted it. An hour later, I got another one, and then another. A week after the first one, they turned from sweet and flowery to angry, resentful, and terrifying. I brushed it off and simply ignored it.” She took a breath and licked her lips. “When I came home, it got worse. The first dead animal was a crow. Attached to it was a note that said that crows were harbingers of destiny, telling me that I would soon have a transformation, and he was going to be responsible for it.” She toyed with Joshua’s hand. “Then it was a baby kitten, one that had been born on the ranch. It had gone missing, and we just assumed that the mom had carried it off because it was the runt.” She shrugged. “And then old Henry, you remember him, right? The beagle that Dad bought from your guys’ ranch?” She felt the tears falling heavily now. “That was horrible. The sight will never leave me,” she whispered. “And then today.” She swallowed hard. “I visited Dad’s grave today and put poppies on his it. When I came out of the salon, they were on the passenger seat in the SUV with a note.” She pulled the note from her purse and passed it to him. It was a handwritten and said simply, “You will soon be reunited with your daddy since you won’t see me.”

  He crumpled the note and moved to wrap an arm around her shoulders. Joshua pulled her to him and held her close, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. “I’m going to guess you haven’t told anyone about this besides me. If you’d told your brother, there would be one guy very dead somewhere. I also know you haven’t told the sheriff because word would have already made the rounds through town.” He squeezed her closer to him. “I’m going to drive you home. No arguments. You can just say your truck was acting up, and when Rhys comes to collect it, it will work fine, so you can just give him a shrug and smile. He’ll buy it. But I’m not letting you get into that truck, especially if this psychotic freak was anywhere near it.”

  “I don’t even know how he got into it. I lock the doors. Always, especially since all of this started. When I got in, the doors were locked. The alarm never went off. Whoever he is, he’s good.” She didn’t argue about having him take her home. She hadn’t wanted to get into her vehicle either. She took a deep breath and added, “No, I haven’t told Rhys about it, and I certainly haven’t taken it to the sheriff. I have filed reports with my firm, and with law enforcement in Bali, and then in San Francisco, but nothing. No one has said anything other than it had to be a fan. So, yeah.” She sighed. “Thank you for listening and letting me cry all over you.” She brushed her hand down his shirt and apologized for making him wet with her tears.

  “Don’t even worry about it,” he said softly. “You need to tell Rhys, Alison. He needs to know. The man can, or knows someone who can, figure out who this guy is. Knowing Rhys, he’ll keep it quiet from the sheriff. We all know that his receptionist is a big-mouthed gossip, and he won’t want everyone knowing about this. You have to tell him because, if this guy comes after you, he needs to have a clue to make sure you stay safe. You have to be safe, Alison. I’d miss you way too fucking much if something happened to you, honey.”

  Alison laughed and shook her head. “What, you would miss me teasing you and giving you a hard time?” She leaned her head back and looked up at the skies. “I knew today when I got that note I would have to tell Rhys, but I really hate to do it. Especially now with things going so well with him and Gwen. I don’t want to distract him because that would be just crappy of me.”

  “Of course I’d miss you,” he said quietly. She felt him stroke a finger down her cheek. “I kind of like having you being a royal pain in my ass. Keeps life interesting, and it keeps me from getting too full of my fine self.” He got up and looked down at her. Then he held out his hand to her and waited silently.

  “Well, someone needs to help keep you in line, mister.” She was brought up to her feet with a small tug, tripping on her own feet and into him. He was taller than her by about a foot, but as she looked up at him, she realized just how perfectly they fit. God, if only she was the one he was looking for. “Rhys is at Gwen’s tonight, so thankfully, I don’t have to worry about telling him until tomorrow.” She blurted the first thing that she could scramble and come up with instead of doing something she wanted to do, like reach up and pull him down to kiss her. Yep, that would be all kinds of bad.

  “It gives you the night to think about how you want to tell him at least,” he said softly. “Your mom’s at my place, though, so you’re going to be alone out there. I think you should come home with me and just hang out for the day. We could go for a ride or go for a swim or something. Anything to keep you from brooding, and I know you’ll brood if you’re left alone to your own devices.” Joshua slipped his arms around her waist in a loose hold. “What do you say?”

  She shouldn’t. Alison knew that she shouldn’t. She needed to tell him no and opened her mouth to do just that, but instead heard herself saying, “I need to stop by my place to get a suit. I seriously doubt that I still fit in the one from when I was ten, you know.” She went red. Good lord, she hadn’t meant to tell him she would come home with him! It was far too dangerous. Dammit. “I shouldn’t, though,” she added as an afterthought. “I mean, what if this freak is watching me? He might get the wrong idea and come after you. That just wouldn’t do at all.” She wanted to lean into him, she wanted to lean on him and rely on him, but he had a woman out there that he was already smitten with, someone that he loved. Allison knew she couldn’t get him hurt in the process of making sure that she was safe. That wouldn’t be fair of her at all.

  “So what if he is watching?” he asked. He rolled his eyes at her. Stepping back, he pulled his Stetson off and dropped it onto her head. “You’re coming home with me, period. We will stop by your place to get you a suit, but you’re damn well coming to the ranch. Now, come along, Ms. Hollister. I need to sweep you off to your carriage for the day.” He put a hand to the small of her back and guided her to his truck. Opening the door, he got her in and shut it behind her. As he did, she could have sworn he’d muttered something about how he should have just tossed her over his shoulder.

  ****

  Getting out of his truck, Alison fished her keys out of her purse and walked toward the door. “Thanks again for the ride, Joshua, but are you sure about this?” She still had on his Stetson and God help her, she wanted to keep it. She looked up at him and saw the way he was looking at her. “Josh?” She had finally found her keys, closed her hand over them, and pulled them free of one of the seemingly bottomless pockets in her purse. “Hey, what’s going on in that mind of yours?” She didn’t step closer to him, but instead began to walk toward the house. “Come on, walk and talk, bub. You got me spilling my guts. Now it’s your turn.” She had turned to put the key
into the door when she saw it. Blood. Just the smallest of smears, but it was very obvious that it went into the house. “Oh God,” she whispered, and then, “Oh God, Mom!” She hastily shoved her key into the lock, praying that something hadn’t happened to her mom.

  “Stop!” Josh grabbed her arm and tugged her back from the door. “Your mom’s at my place, I swear it, but you need to calm down, Alison.” He had her arms trapped in his hands as he stared down at her. When she stopped fighting him, he loosened his grip and rubbed her arms gently. After a moment, he turned to look at the door, bending over and shaking his head. “Looks like it’s just a little bit. Whoever did this likely cut themselves trying to get through the door.” He turned her key in the lock, but there was no sound of it clicking. “Alison, do you have any weapons in the house? Guns, hunting rifles?” he asked as he straightened and backed up a little. He turned his head to look at her. “Honey, weapons, any in there I need to know about?”

  “They are all locked in the gun safe. You know how Daddy was and how Rhys is. They are fastidious when it comes to weapons safety.” The fact that the weapons safes were built into the base of the beds in Rhys’s room and her mother’s room was beside the point. They were hidden for a reason. “Oh God.” She finally had it click in her brain. “No, Joshua, you are so not going in there. We should go over to the bunkhouse and get a weapon from there or call the sheriff, but you can’t go in there unarmed. I wouldn’t get over it if something happened to you.” Which was the God’s honest truth. She might have to give him up to another woman, but at least she knew he would be alive and happy.