A Treasure for the Trooper: A Fuller Family Novel (Brush Creek Brides Book 9)

by Liz Isaacson

  A Treasure for the Trooper

  Brush Creek Brides: The Fuller Family, Book 9

  Liz Isaacson

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  ONE YEAR LATER

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

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  Sneak Peek! A Date for the Detective Chapter One

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  “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

  Acts 3:19

  Chapter One

  Dawn Fuller couldn’t stop her foot from bouncing. Her knee went up-down, up-down, up-down over and over, increasing in rate and intensity with every passing second. She kept her eyes on the ground so her hair would fall over her shoulders and hide her face.

  The horrible scent of rubbing alcohol and the stringency of other medical products assaulted her, and she couldn’t wait to get out of the women’s clinic. Her stomach roiled, and she hoped it was all from nerves, that the test she’d just taken would be negative.

  Though she was definitely living up to her label as the “wild child” of the Fuller family, she couldn’t imagine walking into her conservative parent’s home and telling them she was pregnant.

  Only twenty-six and without a husband—or even a boyfriend anymore—Dawn simply couldn’t fathom bringing a child into the world and attempting to raise it.

  Please, she prayed, though she felt like a complete loser for lifting her voice to the Lord. Please let it be negative. She wasn’t sure what God could do now. He was all-powerful, but he couldn’t un-make a baby that would’ve been conceived seven weeks ago.

  Dawn pressed her eyes closed, her desperation surging up her throat and making her gag. How long did it take to read a pregnancy test? She’d been waiting for at least ten minutes, or so she thought. Since she’d suspected she was pregnant, every minute felt like a lifetime.

  “Dawn Fuller?”

  Her eyes snapped open and she stood like she’d been shot out of a cannon. “Here.” She cursed herself for practically yelling like she was in school and needed to be marked present. She approached the curly-haired woman wearing pink scrubs, her feet like lead and her heart thundering in her chest.

  “Here you go, sweetie.” She handed her a sealed envelope and looked past Dawn like the slip of paper inside wouldn’t be life-changing. Yes or no, whatever the test said, Dawn’s whole life would change.

  “Tara?” the nurse called, and Dawn slipped out of the women’s center and back to her car. It took all her courage to slide her fingers under the flap of the envelope and rip it open. She pulled out a single third-sheet of paper that had a bunch of letters on it Dawn didn’t understand.

  She did, however, understand what NEGATIVE meant.

  Sobs shook her shoulders, her body, and she crumpled over the steering wheel with gratitude and relief shattering through her. After the storm had blown itself out, she straightened, pushed her hair off her face, and looked out the windshield.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she tried to settle herself. She needed to make the one-hour drive back to Brush Creek before she was missed.

  She scoffed at herself. “No one even knows you’re gone.” She started the car to get the air conditioning going, and set herself north and west along the two-lane highway. She’d gone a couple of miles when her tears hit her again.

  Thankfully, there wasn’t anyone out here in the middle of the day, and if her car went over the center line a couple of times, it was fine. She loved driving fast in the middle of nowhere, and the soft roar of the wind as her two-seater cut through the atmosphere helped to calm her.

  She glanced down at her speedometer and realized she was driving just a bit too fast, even for her. Easing up on the accelerator, she focused back out the windshield again. Movement caught her eye, and she slammed on the brakes as a deer bounded in front of her car.

  Dawn screamed, yanked the wheel to the right as the deer went left, and watched in slow motion as her car left the road and soared into the ditch.

  She braced for impact, her fingers so tight against the steering wheel. The deafening sound of bending metal on scrunching metal tore through her ears. The car came to a stop and steam rose from the hood, obscuring her view.

  Dawn breathed, her adrenaline so high she could barely do much more than basic bodily functions. Pain cascaded through her body, stemming from her leg. Glancing down, she found her calf stuck between the crumpled metal and the seat. Blood stained her shorts and dripped down to her shoeless foot.

  Her stomach lurched. She’d never been able to stand the sight of her own blood and a whiteness covered her vision.

  She tried to pull her leg out, but it was stuck. She tried to open the door, but that was stuck too. The air conditioning blew hot air now, making it hard to inhale. Panic built inside her, and she needed to get out of this car. Now.

  Her fingers scrabbled for something. Something to let her out.

  A moan came from her mouth, building into a scream. She pounded against the window, her gaze falling to her leg. The air left her body. She couldn’t pass out here. No one knew where she was.

  “Phone,” she moaned, but she had no idea where her purse was. She tried the door again, to no avail.

  The mania inside her faded to nothing, and she slumped against the headrest. She touched her leg, and her fingers came away sticky. Her stomach swooped, and she welcomed the unconsciousness as it swept toward her.

  “Hold on!” someone yelled through the glass, and Dawn had enough energy to open her eyes and look out the window. But the gorgeous, mature face of McDermott Boyd was the last man she wanted to see.

  She moaned again as the handsome State Trooper hurried around the back of the car to the passenger door. He ripped it open and peered inside. “Are you—?” He blinked, his dark eyes registering his surprise and delight. “Dawn?”

  Dawn let her head flop to the opposite side. She didn’t want McDermott to see her like this. Didn’t want to explain anything to him. She’d grown up with the Boyd family, and though McDermott was a Brush Creek native too, it was his little brothers that were Dawn’s age.

  No matter what, he knew what kind of woman she was. What kind of woman you used to be, she told herself as he pulled her across the seat.

  She screamed as white hot pain shot through her, and she looked into McDermott’s panicked and concerned face before she blacked out completely.

  The next time she woke, the smell of toast met her nose. Whoever had put bread in the toaster and slathered it with butter really knew her. “Mom?” She tried to push herself up and found her left leg achy, but bandaged.

  “Leave her be,” a man said in a soft, pleasant voice, and Dawn’s eyes flew to the sliver of light coming from the doorway. “Go on, now. Go see what Nana Reba wants you to do for dinner.”

  The pitter of little feet sounded, and the
n McDermott opened the door holding a plate of toast and a glass of something she hoped was orange juice.

  “Hey, you’re awake.” He set the food on the bedside table and switched on the lamp there. “We’re at my house.” He chuckled and jostled his powerful shoulders in a squirmy sort of shrug. “Well, it’s my Nana Reba’s house, but we live here.” He sat in an armchair in the corner, near the foot of the bed. “Me and my daughter. We live here with her.” He seemed to realize that he’d started rambling a bit, and he pressed his mouth into a thin line.

  “What happened?” Her head ached and she touched her forehead. There were no memories there. How in the world had she gotten to McDermott Boyd’s house? Why had he brought her toast? Why was her leg injured?

  “You don’t remember?”

  She sifted through the soft thoughts in her head. “I…don’t remember.”

  “What’s the last thing you do remember?” He still wore his trooper uniform, but had discarded the hat so she could see his dark hair that he kept cropped close to his scalp.

  “I, uh….” Dawn leaned back against the headboard. “I was in Vernal.”

  He nodded, his eyes never leaving hers. The light was too dim to read too much into his expression, but Dawn didn’t like the appraising way he watched her. She felt like he was more cop in the moment than an old friend.

  She didn’t want to be friends with him anyway. He was a perfect gentleman, a great dad, and a widower who’d lost his wife in the worst way possible. She was a complete wreck of a human being, and she could barely look at him without a river of shame tumbling through her.

  Dawn closed her eyes to block out his handsome features. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

  “You don’t know what you were doing in Vernal?” He must be able to get people to tell him anything with a honeyed voice like that.

  “I can’t remember.”

  “Well.” He sighed and she imagined him stretching his long legs out in front of him. “You were driving back from something in Vernal, and a deer ran across the road. You braked to miss it, swerved, and went into the ditch.”

  Dawn’s eyes popped open. “And you saw that?”

  “I sure did. I was about a half a mile behind you and I saw you go off the road.” His right eyebrow quirked. “You were driving pretty fast.”

  Dawn didn’t remember that, but she did like to speed in general, so she didn’t contradict him. “You brought me back to your house?”

  “You asked me to.”

  It was her turn to quirk her eyebrows, and she even added a scoff. “I don’t think—”

  “I pulled you out of the car, and you passed in and out of consciousness. I asked you if you needed to go to the hospital, and you begged me not to take you.” He looked over to the door as it opened. “C’mon, baby. You can come in.”

  A blonde angel skipped into the room and went over to her father. She leaned into him, shy and forward at the same time.

  McDermott looked at Dawn but didn’t introduce his daughter. “She wanted to make you toast. So we’ll leave you to rest and eat. I had your car towed to Mick’s, so I’ll drive you home whenever you want.” He took his daughter’s hand and led her out of the room, the doe-eyed child still silent as she went with her dad.

  As soon as the door snicked closed, Dawn swung her legs over the side of the bed. The toast, once appetizing, was cold now, and she needed to get out of this room, this house, before she allowed that beautiful man to care for her.

  “He already has,” she muttered to herself. The thought that he’d be interested in her beyond making sure she got home safe was laughable. In any case, Dawn wasn’t interested. Not anymore. She needed to get her life together before she could even think about bringing someone else into it.

  But if you were ready, she thought as she stood and tested her weight on her injured leg. Maybe you should take a closer look at McDermott.

  Chapter Two

  McDermott fully expected Dawn to come out of the spare bedroom within ten minutes. It took her seven. He stood from the couch where Nana Reba had turned on a movie about ponies and magic for Taya.

  “I’m ready,” Dawn said.

  McDermott plucked a ball cap from the hat rack next to the front door and went to help her. Of course he knew Dawn Fuller. He’d grown up with the Fuller boys, and Kyler was his best friend all through high school. Dawn was several years younger, but so beautiful now that she was all grown up that McDermott’s thoughts were going in a dozen directions.

  He put his hand on the back of her elbow, and a zing shot into his shoulder. Oh, boy. He wondered if she felt it too, or if he was being overly sensitive because it had been traumatic to see that car go careening into a ditch earlier that afternoon.

  “The first step is big,” he said in a quiet voice as he pushed open the door and let her go first. “Be back in a few minutes, Nana. Taya, you can stay up until I get back.” He held onto her all the way to the car. Since it was still spring, it was already dark though it was only eight o’clock.

  “You sure you’re okay?” he asked once she was settled and he’d started the car. “You don’t need to go to the hospital?”

  “There isn’t one here anyway,” she said. “And I’m not going back to Vernal.” She clenched her arms around her midsection, and McDermott could read body language better than most. “I live above the bookstore.”

  Case closed, he thought. He put the car in drive and eased out of the driveway. The silence between them felt full of awkwardness, so he said, “How’s Brennan doing in California?”

  “Fine.”

  “The wedding was nice, even if they had to move it to the fire station.”

  “Yep.”

  McDermott cut her a look out of the corner of his eye as they passed under an orange street lamp. She seemed like she’d probably be okay if he left her alone tonight. Still, something nagged at him, and he hoped he wouldn’t come off as a creeper.

  He pulled into the bookstore parking lot and peered at the building. “Here?”

  “My door is around to the left.”

  McDermott steered his cruiser over there and sure enough, a door sat there he’d never used. Not that he went to the bookstore that often in the first place. He put the car in park and the locks released.

  “So I’d feel more comfortable if I knew you weren’t going to be alone,” he said. “Do you live with someone? A roommate?”

  She swiveled her head toward him, her sky-blue eyes searching his. “No. I live alone.”

  “I’m worried you might have a concussion. Or need help.” He looked at the door. “Can you call one of your siblings? Your parents?”

  Dawn looked at him like stop being such a cop, but he couldn’t help it. “I’m fine, McDermott.”

  “So you’ll call someone in your family if you need help. I’d feel better—”

  “I’m not calling one of them.”

  Surprise moved through him, but he kept his face completely placid. “Would you like my number so you can call me?”

  She snorted and started laughing, quieting quickly when he continued staring at her. “Oh, you’re serious.”

  “I’m serious,” he confirmed. “You went head-first into a ditch. I got you out quick, and your leg just had a flesh wound. I watched you for signs of a concussion and didn’t see any, but I’m worried about you being alone.”

  “Fine.” She made a big show of rifling through her purse and pulling out her phone. She practically slapped it into his palm, but he’d dealt with a lot of difficult people in his twelve years working for the Utah Highway Patrol.

  He put his number into her phone and handed it back. “All right. Let’s get you upstairs.”

  “I can manage.”

  He chuckled as he unbuckled. “Wow, you’re really trying to be alone, aren’t you?” He went around and met her at the door, where she had the key nearly in the lock.

  She opened the door and looked up at him, angry fire in her eyes. “I lik
e being alone.”

  McDermott tucked an errant curl behind her ear. “Oh, sweetheart. I can tell a lie when I hear one.” He nodded toward the tall staircase. “Want me to carry you? That’s a lot of steps.”

  Her teeth ground together and she said, “You are not carrying me.” Shuffling into the building, she started up the stairs, one at a time. He stayed behind her in case she lost her balance, and they navigated to her apartment one painfully slow step at a time.

  Her door wasn’t locked, and she turned in the open doorway. “Thank you, McDermott. I’m clearly safe and inside my apartment. There are no more stairs. You can go.”

  At least she’d said thank you. But McDermott didn’t want to go. He forced himself to back away from her, lift one hand in a goodbye wave, and watch as she practically slammed the door in his face.

  A chuckle started in his chest as he pounded down the steps and went back to his cruiser. Dawn Fuller was a feisty one, and her reputation as the wild child Fuller certainly seemed true. He hoped her memory would come back soon enough, and he hoped he’d be able to run into her around the police department.

  He often did, as she cleaned the building late in the evening and he sometimes went back to his office after Taya went to bed. As he slowly drove home, he realized how Dawn had cropped up in his life over the years.

  “Maybe she’d go out with you,” he mused as he scanned Oxbow Park as if he was on duty. As if Oxbow Park was even under his jurisdiction, which it wasn’t.

  He’d had a rough time getting a date since his wife’s death, mostly because he hadn’t tried until recently. It had been so long since he’d looked around town for a date, that he didn’t realize how slim the choices were. So many of his former classmates had left town or gotten married, and there weren’t a whole lot of eligible women in town his age.