3, 2, 1...Married!

by Sharon Sala

  “Will you be all right until I get back?”

  She caught her breath. “You’re coming back?”

  “If you’ll let me.”

  She hesitated, then sighed. Let him? Lord, yes, she’d let him. She’d let him come back, and hold her, and kiss her, and—

  “Yes.”

  “Hold that thought,” Jake said.

  She could have sworn he winked and grinned, but then he was gone. She closed the door, started to lock it then hesitated. He said he’d be back. She shrugged and started toward the bedroom.

  But what could she do while she waited?

  Her gaze fell on her laptop computer. That’s what. She could write. It ran on batteries, as well as electricity, and the screen was well lit. It would be like watching TV in the dark.

  Jewel had been waiting outside the dance, knowing that when the evening was over, Jake would be one of the last to leave the building. Then, to her dismay, he’d come waltzing out the door with that woman in his arms, and it had been all she could do to stand still. When they’d disappeared into the shadows, she’d followed instinctively. She saw him stop, then heard their whispers, then almost cried aloud when he took the little bitch in his arms. Hate spilled, burning away whatever sense of fair play she might have, in her need for some sort of revenge.

  When it thundered suddenly, she jumped, startled by the sound. Sprinkles of rain began falling on her face, and she started to leave, but moving now would reveal her presence, so she was forced to wait for them to make the first move.

  Finally, they began to run toward shelter, with her following a distance behind. But when Jake went inside Hallie O’Grady’s cabin, something inside Jewel Franklin snapped. Rain was falling harder now and still she stood at the cabin’s perimeter, waiting to see if he would come out. When the lights suddenly went out, she groaned aloud, unable to believe that woman had accomplished something in only a few days that she’d been trying to do for two years. It took several moments for her to realize that Jake hadn’t turned out the lights in her cabin, but that the power was out everywhere.

  Her shoulders slumped. It was time to give up. Although she’d planned to stay a full five days, it wasn’t going to happen. Not now. Rain poured down her face, streaking her carefully applied makeup and plastering her hair to her head.

  “Damn, damn, damn,” she muttered, and started to leave when she saw a small orb of light in Hallie’s cabin.

  Moments later, Jake came out on the run with a flashlight in his hand. She stepped back against the cabin wall, watching as he ran past her. Again, she started to leave when she saw another light, only this time, it stayed inside the cabin.

  It was her.

  Jewel paused, staring through the window to the woman beyond. When she was honest with herself, which wasn’t often, she would admit that the only thing that had ever been between her and Jake Miracle was her own persistence. But coming here again had been a last resort. She’d craved reassurance that she was desirable, but all she’d gotten was another rejection. She must have Sucker tattooed on her forehead. Why else did she keep picking the wrong men to fall for? Back home, she’d been screwed, then screwed up. The police had warned her that the chances were slim of ever finding the gigolo who’d stolen her credit card. And here, only a few yards away, was the woman responsible for ruining what was left of her dreams. She might not be able to do anything about the creep back home, but she could do something about Hallie O’Grady. She glanced around the area, making sure that no one was in sight, and then stepped up on the porch.

  The rain was loud upon the roof and Hallie was focused on the story unfolding on the screen before her. She didn’t hear the footsteps on her porch, or the slight squeak of hinges as Jewel Franklin slipped inside. It wasn’t until a cool draft of air hit her face that she thought to look up.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m going to teach you a lesson, you little tramp,” Jewel cried, and came at her with her fists doubled.

  She landed belly first on the bed on top of Hallie. Although Hallie was undersized, both in weight and height, her Irish blood was up. For every blow she took, she gave one back. In the midst of flailing arms and kicking legs, they rolled off of the bed, taking part of the bedspread with them.

  Hallie’s head hit the floor only seconds ahead of her laptop. The corner of the laptop hit the back of her head and she went limp.

  It was the absence of light, rather than sound and motion that stilled Jewel’s anger. The shattered lamp was on the floor, but the candle was nowhere in sight. Lightning flashed outside the window, giving her a brief, but startling, look at what she’d done. Hallie O’Grady was facedown on the floor—and she wasn’t moving.

  “Well, hell,” she muttered, and leaned down, making sure the bitch was still breathing.

  She was.

  Satisfied that she’d gotten her point across, she dragged herself to her feet and ran to the door. Without looking back, she ran out into the night, slamming the door behind her.

  Lightning flashed again, revealing a thin tendril of smoke coming from beneath the bed, but Hallie was in no condition to see it.

  A minute passed, and then another and then another.

  Jewel Franklin was in her cabin, considering the wisdom of packing it in. Now that the heat of the moment had passed, she knew she would be found out. So she’d probably blacked the little bitch’s eye—so what? She wasn’t anxious to leave now, in the dark, in the rain, but it was more enticing than facing Jake Miracle’s wrath.

  The thunderstorm was passing, but the gray tendril of smoke beneath Hallie’s bed had grown until the room was full of it—thick, acrid and black as a devil’s heart. Hallie came to consciousness choking and coughing. She opened her eyes just as the nearby mattress exploded into flames.

  She screamed out in horror, then rolled to her knees, suddenly gasping for air. She had to get out! She had to get out! But her head hurt so bad, and oh God, oh God, where was the door?

  Disoriented and in danger of passing out again, she ran, but when she felt the cool, slick surface of the porcelain sink instead of rain-washed air, her chances of survival dropped. She’d run through the wrong door.

  The scream was faint, but it was enough to bring the couple next door outside. Within seconds of seeing the flames through Hallie’s window, they started to shout.

  Jewel heard the commotion and ran to the window.

  “Oh, no,” she mumbled, and bolted outside, moving with the others who were congregating at the fire. This wasn’t what she’d meant to happen. All she intended to do was make a point, not kill her.

  Jake was on his way back to Hallie’s cabin when the security lights above him suddenly flickered, then came on full force. Before he had time to rejoice in the return of power, he heard screams and shouts and the sound of breaking glass. He’d just left his brothers in the house, so he knew they would still be awake. He grabbed his radio and started to run.

  “Luke! John! This is Jake! We’ve got a problem. Over.”

  “This is John. What’s up? Over.”

  Jake came around a shed on the run. When he saw the flames and realized the location, his heart nearly stopped.

  “There’s a fire at cabin ten. You know what to do?”

  Twice more the radio crackled, but the messages weren’t for him. He knew his brothers would follow procedure. The men would be roused. The old pumper truck in the shed was kept full and waiting for the occasional grass fire that ranchers had to contend with. But this was far worse. Flames were coming out a window. All he could think was, please God, don’t let her be inside.

  He was almost there when Jewel suddenly appeared before him, grabbing at his arm and screaming incoherently.

  “I didn’t mean…it was all her…”

  “Not now,” he said, and shoved her aside.

  There was a wet washcloth on the edge of the bathroom sink. Hallie plastered it to her face and dropped low to the floor on her belly. She tried to
stay calm, picturing the floor plan in her head, then began crawling on her elbows and knees toward what she thought was the door. Except she crawled into a table, then moments later, a chair toppled over on top of her. The faster she crawled, the more light-headed she became. When she bumped into a wall and the door wasn’t there, she groaned inwardly. The heat inside the cabin was becoming intense. The shirt on her back was starting to smoke and she could smell her own hair beginning to scorch.

  Oh God, oh God, don’t let me die…don’t let me burn.

  She was past needing help. What she needed was a miracle. She reached out, feeling along the baseboard and trying to reorient herself within the room when suddenly something came crashing in over her head. Glass shattered around her as a heavy thud vibrated the floor near her feet.

  She screamed out Jake’s name, and then suddenly he was there, lifting her in his arms, and passing her through a window to someone outside. People were shouting and running in all directions as she was carried away from the fire to the porch of a cabin across the way.

  Her eyes were burning, her lungs were filled with smoke. She kept choking and coughing as tears washed down her face, and in the midst of it all, she felt Jake’s arms around her, lifting her up, then carrying her away.

  “Jake!”

  Jake turned. Luke was running toward him.

  “Ambulance is on the way,” Luke said. “Is she all right?”

  “I don’t know,” Jake said. “She took in a lot of smoke.”

  Suddenly, Hallie’s fingers were around his wrist.

  “Okay,” she gasped, then coughed again.

  The sound of her voice was such a relief he started shaking.

  “You handle this,” Jake said. “I’m taking her up to the main house.”

  He moved as quickly as he could, aware that his brothers were as capable of coping with this as he would have been, maybe even more so, considering his state of mind.

  “Oh, God,” Hallie gasped, then coughed again. “Thought I would die.”

  “Don’t talk,” Jake said, as he rounded the corner and hurried up the porch steps of the main house.

  Moments later, they entered. She was vaguely aware of moving through rooms and hallways, and when he laid her on a bed, she started to cry.

  Her tears were nearly Jake’s undoing. He ran into the bathroom, liberally dousing a bath towel with water and carried it dripping back to the bed.

  “Mess,” she moaned. “Making a mess.”

  “Just shut up, woman,” he muttered. “The only thing that matters is you. Do you hurt? Are you burned?”

  His words were harsh, but his touch was gentle as he laid the wet towel on her skin.

  “My head hurts.”

  Jake felt through her hair, frowning when he felt a large knot.

  “What happened? Did something fall on you?”

  And then she remembered. “It was Jewel.”

  He rocked back on his heels, stunned.

  “What the hell do you mean, it was Jewel?”

  “After you left…she burst into my cabin. She—”

  Jake grabbed her arm. “Are you telling me that she came in uninvited and started a fight with you?”

  Hallie nodded.

  The expression on Jake’s face went flat.

  “She hit you?”

  “Yes. Then we rolled off the bed. I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up in a room full of smoke.”

  Jake stood.

  “I left something in the truck. I’ll be right back.”

  Before Hallie could blink, he was gone. He needed his two-way, but he’d given it to someone at the fire just before he’d broken in her window. Seconds later, he was at the truck. He reached inside, retrieving the extra he kept inside.

  “Luke! John! This is Jake. Over.”

  “This is John, go ahead. Over.”

  “I want Jewel Franklin brought to the house immediately. I don’t give a damn what she says, just get her up here. Over and out.”

  The ambulance arrived only moments ahead of John and Jewel. John was grim-faced and silent, and Jewel was blubbering at the top of her lungs as the paramedics raced through the house toward the bedroom where Hallie was lying.

  It was obvious by the disdain on John Miracle’s face that she’d already confessed to the fight, but she kept swearing she’d meant her no harm. Certain that she was being brought to the house to be arrested for murder, she fell to her knees with relief when she saw Hallie was still alive.

  “I didn’t know…I didn’t know,” she kept sobbing. “It must have started from your lamp when we rolled off of the bed. I didn’t know.”

  Jake looked at Hallie. “It’s up to you,” he said shortly. “If you want my opinion, at the least, file charges of assault.”

  Hallie shook her head and then moved the oxygen mask aside long enough to speak her piece.

  “Take her away. I don’t ever want to see her again.”

  Jewel crawled to her feet, shaking with every breath.

  “No…I mean, yes…I won’t…I mean, you won’t.”

  The paramedic took the mask out of Hallie’s hands and put it back over her mouth and nose.

  Hallie inhaled deeply as Jake leaned down and brushed a kiss across her soot-stained forehead. For a second, their gazes met and locked, and in that moment, Hallie knew her life had just taken a turn.

  Then Jake pulled back and stared Jewel straight in the face. When he took a step toward her, she shrank back in fright.

  “Get,” he said.

  “I was leaving tomorrow anyway,” she began.

  “Now.”

  Her eyes widened apprehensively. “Please, just let me—”

  He doubled his fists.

  She turned and ran.

  John started after her, then turned to Jake.

  “The fire is out.”

  “Not all of them,” he muttered, and turned to Hallie.

  His shoulders slumped as he watched them carrying her out of the house on a stretcher. There was a knot in his belly that had nothing to do with pain. Tonight he’d come too close to losing something precious. Unconsciously, he splayed his fingers across his chest, willing his heartbeat to a slow, steady pace.

  Then the paramedics stopped and one of them called out.

  “Hey mister, she wants to know if you would come with her.”

  Jake blinked and then shuddered. “Oh, yeah,” he said softly, then thought of the mess they had to deal with here.

  “Go on,” John said. “Luke and I can handle whatever comes up.”

  Moments later, they were gone.

  Several hours and a bath and a shampoo later, Hallie was thanking God for being alive. And after hearing a doctor announce she’d suffered no lasting effects of the smoke, she’d ordered Jake not to call her family, then drifted off to sleep. Against his better judgment, he’d done as she asked. And even after she’d gone to sleep, he couldn’t bring himself to leave. She looked so small and helpless lying there in that bed, and he’d come to so damn close to losing her before they’d had a chance to begin. Needing to touch her, if only to assure himself she still breathed, he lifted her fingers to his lips.

  “When you wake, honey, we’ve got some talking to do,” he whispered.

  Hallie sighed in her sleep. For Jake—for tonight—it was answer enough.

  “I had Carol get you some clothes, since all your belongings were destroyed. Hope they fit,” Jake said, and laid the bag on the side of her bed.

  Hallie shoved a shaky hand through her hair and managed a smile.

  “Thanks, but I don’t suppose you thought to get a hairbrush, too?”

  He dug through the bag, then came up with one in his hand.

  Hallie reached for it and then winced.

  “Let me,” Jake pleaded.

  She sighed and turned her back, giving him full view of her head.

  “It’s a mess of tangles,” she warned him.

  “I’ll be easy,” he said, and he wa
s.

  Slow, easy, stroke after stroke, he brushed until the tangles were gone. Then he pulled a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt from a sack.

  “Need any help with these?” he asked.

  She blushed. “I think I can manage.”

  “There’s some underwear in there, too,” he added. “Carol went by the sizes of everything you had on, which, by the way, went in the trash.”

  Hallie sighed. “Even my boots?”

  “No, they’re in the closet. If you’re sure you don’t need help, I’ll wait outside. When you’re dressed, I can take you back to the ranch.” Then he added. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. Please know that you’ll be receiving full restitution for all your lost belongings. Just give my secretary a list and I’ll see that the insurance company gets it.”

  She nodded.

  Then he groaned and took her in his arms. “Maybe this isn’t the time or the place, honey, but I don’t intend to let another minute pass without telling you something. For a while last night, I thought I’d lost something very precious—something I was just beginning to explore.”

  “Oh Jake, I—”

  “Wait,” he begged, then took her hand. “I think this is where I need to make a formal statement of intent.”

  She grinned. “Why?”

  He leaned closer until his breath was fanning her cheek.

  “Because if you stay, I intend to make love to you. I figured you deserved, at the least, fair warning, so this is it. And if you’re not interested, then say the word, and I’ll have you on the next plane to your home.”

  It was all Hallie could do to remember to breathe.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “Well, what?” she muttered.

  “What’ll it be—a plane ticket or the ranch?”

  “I don’t want to go home,” she said.

  He sighed. “Thank God.”

  “So I’d better get dressed.”

  He gave her a lingering look, then nodded. “I’ll be waiting.”

  Chapter 6

  Hallie slid into the seat of Jake’s truck and leaned back with a sigh, watching as he ran around to the driver’s side and got in. She kept trying not to stare at the man who’d saved her life, but he was too much man to ignore. His shoulders alone spanned almost half the length of the seat and the muscles in his legs strained at the denim fabric of his jeans. His dark hair was cut short and only half-visible beneath the brim of his gray-belly Stetson. His profile seemed solemn, almost angry, and she wondered if his anger would spill over onto her.