Harlequin Heartwarming May 2016 Box Set

by Rula Sinara

  In spite of being sick with worry, the image made him smile. “She’s an amazing woman.”

  “You’re in love with her, aren’t you? It’s not just because of the baby that you want to marry her, am I right?”

  She was bang-on. He nodded. “Crazy mad in love with her.”

  Annie beamed. “Have you told her?”

  “No. I didn’t think she was ready to hear it.”

  Annie reached across the counter, gave his hand a reassuring pat. “You should have told her as soon as you figured it out. If you had, you might be married by now.”

  He wasn’t so sure about that. “I think I started falling for her when you and Eric got married.”

  Annie hesitated, as though giving some thought to what she was about to say. “I’m going to let you in on another of Emily’s secrets, but if you tell her I told you this, I will put a hit out on you.”

  He laughed. “I’m good with secrets.”

  “Emily had a major crush on you in high school. I’ve never snooped in her things, but I remember seeing her journal from time to time when she accidentally left it open on her desk.”

  Interesting. “What did she say?”

  “If you want specifics, you’ll have to ask her yourself.”

  And he might, if she ever spoke to him again.

  His phone ringing startled both of them. He checked the call display. “It’s work,” he said. “I have to take this.”

  “Of course.”

  He held it to his ear. “Evans here.”

  “Jack, it’s Lonnie Gable.”

  “How’s it going?”

  “Just letting you know I picked up the garden-gnome bandit.”

  He groaned. This was not something he wanted to deal with right now, but he didn’t have a choice.

  “Where are you now?”

  “Taking her into the station.”

  Her? That was unexpected. “Who is it?”

  “Emily Finnegan.”

  “Did you say...never mind. Put her in a cell. I’ll be there as quick as I can.”

  “In a cell, sir? I’m not sure—”

  “You heard me, Lonnie. I’m on my way.”

  Annie was watching him closely. “Everything okay?”

  “One of my patrol officers picked up the garden-gnome bandit. It’s Emily.”

  She stared at him with a blank expression for a full three seconds, and then she burst out laughing.

  “Emily... Oh, my. This is too funny,” she gasped. “My sister is not a thief.” She dabbed the corners of her eyes with a paper napkin. “Will that officer...” More laughter. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She drew in a deep, unsteady breath. “Is he really going to put her in a cell?”

  One sure thing about a well-trained police officer, he or she always followed a command. Jack nodded.

  “Well, that’s one way to catch a wife.”

  Annie was still chuckling to herself as she walked with him to the front door. Her amusement was not contagious. Quite the opposite, in fact, and as Jack drove away, he found himself hoping he hadn’t made things a lot worse than they already were.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  EMILY PACED FROM one side of the small space to the other. Lonnie Gable hadn’t had much to say during the drive to the station, and after they arrived, he simply escorted her into a cell and closed the door. Locked it, to be precise. She’d checked.

  “Am I being arrested?” she had asked.

  “Not at this point.”

  “Then you can’t lock me up. It’s unconstitutional.”

  He had gazed at her through the bars, as though this wasn’t the first time he’d heard that statement. “You be sure to tell Chief Evans that when he gets here.”

  “Jack... I mean, the police chief is coming to see me?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Don’t I at least have the right to a phone call?”

  “That’ll be up to the chief.”

  “This is ridiculous. I’m going to hire a lawyer.” She saw him smile as he walked away. “You’re not going to get away with this,” she called after him.

  Left to her own devices after he disappeared, Emily realized he hadn’t taken any of her belongings. She still had her black cross-body shoulder bag with her phone in it. She took it out and turned it on, cringing at the number of missed messages that had piled up throughout the afternoon and evening. Even if she did feel like talking to someone, who would she call? Fred had always been there for her but she hadn’t been able to convince herself to call him today. He had been flirting with Rose Daniels, for heaven’s sake, and as far as Emily was concerned, Rose was at the center of this mess. She was the enemy, and Fred had no business fraternizing with her. She wasn’t ready to face her sisters yet, or even talk to them on the phone. Oddly enough, sitting here by herself and having time to reflect, she realized her father was the one person she truly wanted to see. She needed one of his special hugs, to hear him say everything would be okay in that way only a father could. A mother might be able to do that, too, but Emily wouldn’t know.

  She rubbed her temples. This sounded like a pity party for one. And then she heard Jack’s voice, and her mind went blank.

  * * *

  JACK STARED INTO the contents of the cardboard box that Lonnie Gable had left on his desk. He then glanced at the small flashlight and a printout of the most recent map Emily had posted on her blog. He brought up her blog on his phone and compared the bulleted list with the stuff in the box. All but three of the items were there.

  “She’s in the lockup?” he asked the rookie patrol officer.

  “Yes, sir. I mean, Jack. And not too happy about it.”

  “I’m not surprised.” He suspected he was in for an earful about having her put in a cell, but considering her actions today—going AWOL after accusing him of ruining her life and then skulking around town with a box of contraband—giving her a chance to cool her heels had been in order.

  Officer Gable cleared his throat. “She insisted she didn’t steal any of this stuff. Said she was putting everything back where it belongs.”

  How Emily came to be in possession of a boxful of other people’s junk was of no interest to him. Right now, he had Emily Finnegan exactly where he wanted her, and he wasn’t letting her go until she heard him out. “I appreciate this, Lonnie. I can take it from here if you’d like to get back out on the road.”

  “Sure thing. Let me know if you need anything.”

  The main door clicked shut and automatically locked after the young officer returned to his cruiser, leaving Jack alone in the after-hours quiet of the station. He eyed the door to the lockup. The Riverton police station had two cells, and they didn’t see a lot of action. The occasional young fellow who got into a fisticuffs after the bar closed on a Friday night and needed a place to sleep it off, or the occasional kid who’d been caught shoplifting and needed to be taught a lesson. Jack knew with absolute certainty that a maddeningly meddlesome reporter pregnant with the police chief’s baby was a first. He had no idea how he was going to start this conversation, but Emily saved him the trouble of having to think of something to say.

  “This is ridiculous,” she snapped when he walked in. “Did you really tell Lonnie Gable to lock me in a cell?”

  He had, and for now he intended to leave her in there. He didn’t trust her not to bolt, and he didn’t trust himself not to kiss her senseless. Not confident he could talk and keep a straight face, Jack merely nodded. She was standing near the back of the cell with her hands on her hips and a menacing gleam in her eyes, dressed entirely in black from head to toe.

  “What right do you have to lock up an innocent person?”

  He took his time crossing the corridor, stopping mere inches from the bars.

>   “Are you going to let me out?”

  He shook his head.

  “No? Why not? How long do you plan to keep me in here?”

  He chose his words carefully. “Until you listen to what I have to say about your mother and Rose.” And because he couldn’t resist, he added, “And until I find out why you’re skulking around town like a cat burglar so you have something to blog about.”

  Her face, already an angry shade of red, turned even darker.

  “I did not take those things just to blog about them. There’s a perfectly logical explanation, but do you think that wet-behind-the-ears rookie would listen? No. He said I needed to save it for you.”

  Jack was enjoying this far more than he had any right to.

  She crossed her arms. “Maybe I’ll put a story about police harassment on my blog.”

  He grinned. “It’s a free country.”

  “This is not funny. A friend’s dog took all those things, and I was helping her out by returning them.”

  Right now he cared less about garden gnomes than he had five minutes ago, but maybe if he let her tell her story, she’d be more inclined to listen to what he had to say.

  “And this friend is...?”

  “I can’t tell you.” She turned away from him. “I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone. She’s elderly and she lives on her own. Her dog goes out at night, and he started bringing those things home. She didn’t know where he was getting them, but I did because I’ve been blogging about them.”

  “Are we talking about Mable Potter’s dog?”

  Emily swung back to face him. “How did you know?”

  “I saw him on the loose a couple of nights ago and was planning to talk to her about him.”

  “Oh.” She was losing some of her bluster.

  “How’s Mrs. Potter doing these days?” Jack asked.

  “I’m worried about her.” Emily frowned. “She’s getting forgetful, and I’m not sure she should be living on her own anymore. I’m going to give her daughter, Libby, a call. She lives in Minneapolis and doesn’t visit her mother very often. I just hope she doesn’t think I’m being a busybody.”

  “I’m guessing she’ll be glad to know someone’s looking out for her mother.”

  “Mrs. Potter won’t be happy. She’s afraid they’re going to put her in a home. That’s why I offered to help her, so no one would find out about Banjo being a thief.” Emily seemed calmer now that she had shared the story. “Do you believe me?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Now will you let me out?”

  He wanted to. More than anything he wanted to put his arms around her, but he knew she wouldn’t let him.

  “Emily, you need to know that I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you. I was as surprised as you were when I heard that Rose had come back to Riverton, and I only just found out for sure that her mother was also—”

  “No! Don’t say it. I can’t talk about this with you. Not like this, not here, not now. I need to talk to my family first.”

  “Fair enough.” He desperately wished he was the one she wanted to lean on, but he understood her need to be with family. He pulled out his keys and swiped the fob over the electronic keypad. The cell door swung open. “I’ll drive you out there.”

  “I’ll call Annie.”

  “I’ll drive you.”

  “My car—”

  “It’ll be fine where it is. I have a feeling you’ll want to spend the night at the farm anyway. You can call me in the morning and I’ll run out and pick you up.”

  “I’ll figure something out, but thanks.” She tried to sweep past him, head high.

  “Emily,” he said, catching her by the shoulders. He needed to heed Annie’s advice.

  “What?”

  “You might not want to hear this right now, but I need to say it. I love you. I want to marry you. I want to make a home with you, and I want to have this baby with you.”

  She stared at him. He held his breath as he waited for her response, feeling some of her tension fall away.

  “I...”

  He waited.

  Her voice was barely a whisper. “I really need my family right now.”

  “Okay.” For now, he would have to be content with the knowledge that he had been her high school crush, and confident that Annie was his ally and would have an easier time talking sense into her sister than he would. Right now it was the best he could hope for.

  * * *

  EMILY DRIED HER eyes for the umpteenth time and tossed the soggy, crumpled tissue onto the pile in front of her on Annie’s kitchen island. “I can’t believe our mother was in Chicago all this time. It’s not that far away. She never once came to see us, or let us know she was okay.”

  Her father sat next to her with his arm around her shoulders. “She wasn’t okay, Emily. Not really.”

  “Did you know that’s where she was?”

  “I had a pretty good idea. She was from Chicago, and she never really fit in here in Riverton. The farm was as foreign to her as Iraq was for me.”

  Emily loved this home and this town so much, making it impossible to believe others might not feel the same.

  “She loved you girls. She really did, but motherhood didn’t seem to come naturally to her.”

  He squeezed Emily’s shoulder and smiled at Annie and CJ, who sat across the table, both with red-rimmed eyes. Annie seemed to be taking the news in stride, though, as she did with everything. So far CJ had been uncharacteristically quiet.

  Emily sniffled. “The news report I read said she was homeless, that she was a drug addict. Did you know about that?”

  He nodded grimly. “I can’t say exactly when it started, but I realized soon after I came home from Iraq that she was using prescription drugs. Or maybe abusing them would be a better way to describe it.”

  “Then her doctor must’ve known about it.”

  Thomas Finnegan heaved a sigh. “If only it had been that simple. Turned out she was driving to various towns and getting other doctors to write prescriptions. That was before the days of storing medical information on a central computer, so she was able to get away with it. We—your grandparents and I—staged an intervention and tried to get help for her. She left shortly after that.”

  Emily reached for another tissue.

  “I had to make a choice,” he said. “It was either her or the three of you, and I chose you.”

  That got the waterworks flowing again, and she noticed that even Annie looked a trifle teary.

  “What about Rose?” CJ finally broke her silence. “Did you know we had a sister?”

  “No, I didn’t. Not that there’s much I could have done for her. She’s your half sister, but not my daughter.”

  “I feel so sorry for her,” Annie said. “She seems like a nice kid who’s never been able to catch a break.”

  “She lied to us,” CJ reminded her. “Rose Danvers indeed.”

  “And our mother is dead because of some lunatic Rose was going out with,” Emily added.

  Annie wasn’t swayed. “She was scared. And like it or not, she is our sister. Jack told me she was in and out of foster homes all her life. Can you imagine? We were lucky to have Dad to take care of us, but most of the time, she had no one.”

  “I get why she came to check us out,” CJ said. “But I don’t see why she had to move here. That’s just plain creepy.”

  Emily agreed, and it was beyond annoying that Rose had already caught Fred’s attention. “It’s definitely creepy,” Emily said. “And she was flirting with Fred at the restaurant today, and now he says he’s thinking about asking her out.”

  “So?” Annie asked.

  “So...she’s not right for him.”

  Annie wasn’t letting her off th
e hook. “Could it be you’re a little jealous?”

  What a ridiculous question! Except it had some validity to it. She had never seen Fred as a love interest, but she valued his friendship more than any worldly possession. “What if we stop being friends?” she asked.

  “Emily, you know that’s never going to happen,” Annie said. “Unless you do something to put a strain on it.”

  Emily blew her nose and added another tissue to the pile. “I won’t, but that doesn’t mean I have to welcome Rose with open arms.”

  “Well,” Annie said, “I’m going to do what I can to help her out. She found a room in town, but I’m going to suggest she come and stay here for a bit. As family,” she said firmly. “Not as a guest.”

  Thomas patted her hand. “I’d say that’s very generous of you, Annie, and I’m not surprised. You’ve always had a big heart. And as for you,” he said, turning to Emily, “you say you’ve been waiting all these years for your mother to come back, and now part of her has. Getting to know Rose will give you a chance to get to know your mother, too. Deep down, she was a good person. Now that I know who Rose is, I can see some of those qualities in her, too. I know all of this comes as a shock, but I hope you and Cassie Jo will follow your big sister’s example and give her a chance.”

  Emily laid her head on his shoulder. “I’ll try.” She reached across the table for CJ’s hand. “We both will.”

  “Thank you,” he said. “Now, it’s late, and I’m going to turn in.”

  “Me, too.” CJ stood and stretched. “I’m spending the night in the stable so I can keep an eye on that mare.”

  After they were gone, Emily helped Annie clear off the table.

  “What about Jack?” her sister asked.

  “What about him?”

  “He and I talked earlier tonight, and he’s completely devastated about this.”

  “I know.”

  “He told me he’s in love with you.”

  “He told me, too.”

  “And?”

  Emily sighed. “I told him I wasn’t ready to hear it.”

  “Emily! The poor guy. How long are you going to make him suffer?”