“Maybe because the average person’s thermostat is set higher than yours?” Noah suggested.
She scowled at that but finally conceded, “Maybe.”
His mouth tilted up. “I’ll concede there’s a cold draft coming up from below.”
Cait laughed at him. “If you’re finding it refreshing, we could buy you a kilt.”
“The hell we could.” They’d reached the elevators, where they had turned back during his last walk. “I think I can make it all the way down to the windows.” He stole a sidelong look at her. This struck him as a good time to move them past the declaration of true love to something more tangible. Hopeful. “I suppose I’ll always be turning the heat down and you’ll be turning it up,” he said casually.
The whites of her eyes showed. “Well...Colin and I argue every day about the air-conditioning in his SUV.”
Noah chuckled, pleased that a laugh no longer sent a stab of pain through him. “Then there’s those cold feet in bed every night.”
Her shyness made him think she’d noticed the way he leaned a little on those two words: always and every.
Why wasn’t he panicking?
Maybe because he’d already been there, done that and gotten over it? Even so, he couldn’t help marveling at how ready he was, how sure he wanted this woman and this woman alone for the rest of his natural life.
He was more worried about her side of things. He wanted to believe she meant those three little words, I love you. But he couldn’t help having moments when he wondered if her emotions hadn’t been swayed by the euphoria of the rescue, mixed with a heavy dose of guilt and gratitude. Noah especially hated the idea of gratitude.
They reached the tall windows at the end of the corridor. The view looked over the unattractive roof of a wing of the hospital, but included a slice of the butte. He couldn’t swear he could see the angel from here, but he liked to think so.
“Do you mind if we sit down for a minute?” he asked.
“Of course not!” Cait rushed to maneuver the damn IV pole and clutch his elbow to help support his weight as he cautiously lowered himself onto the bench upholstered with brown plastic. He couldn’t decide if the damage to his gut was what hurt most or the cracked rib.
He hadn’t really needed the rest, though, which meant he was making some real progress. God, to get out of there.
Problem was, he didn’t want to go home alone. He didn’t know how city council members and her brother would see it, but he desperately wanted Cait going home with him.
They sat in silence for a minute. He gave it some time.
“Did you mean it?” she asked finally in a small voice.
He turned his head and saw how big and smoky her eyes were. How anxious.
Noah reached for her hand and relaxed when she met him halfway and held on tight. “Mean what?” he asked.
“The getting married part.”
“Yeah.” That came out gruff. “I meant it.”
“We haven’t actually known each other that long.”
“Is that how you feel?” he asked carefully. “That you don’t know me well enough to make that kind of commitment?”
“Well...no.” She blinked a few times, as if surprised at herself. “I guess I’m thinking more about you. You were so...anticommitment. You have to admit, this is a big turnaround for you.”
“Cait, you know there’ll be problems if we try to just live together. Or even date for any length of time.” From her changing expression, he could tell that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “I’m saying we’ll go that route anyway, if you need time.”
She stared at him, as if trying to see deeper than anyone ever had. “But...what about you?”
“I’m thirty-five years old. You’re right. I’d never thought the word marriage in connection with myself before. It wasn’t long after I kissed you the first time when I started thinking it. You remember when I gave you the grand tour of my house?”
Color heightening in her cheeks, she nodded.
His body stirred at the same memory making her blush. What happened at the end of their tour, when they’d reached his bedroom.
“You said something about decorating one of those front rooms as a nursery. I had a vision. You were pregnant.” He smiled faintly. “You were on a ladder putting up wallpaper covered with fluffy yellow ducklings. I thought I had to have lost my mind, because, damn it, I wanted that. All of it.”
The intensity in her eyes had softened as he talked. “I want that, too,” she said softly, maybe a little tremulous. “I looked at that house made for a family, and at you, and I felt all those things I’d sworn I wouldn’t.”
He let go of her hand so he could put his arm around her. “So why the hesitation?”
“I just don’t want you to feel like you have to do this.”
Noah shook his head, his stubbly cheek rubbing against her hair. “Don’t be ridiculous. I never do anything I don’t want to.”
Cait giggled, a watery sound. “That’s what Nell said.”
“Smart woman.”
They sat in contented silence, at least on his part.
It was a minute before he had a disturbing thought. “You’re not going to have to choose whether you have your mother or your brother at our wedding, are you?”
Her breath huffed out. “Oh, there’s a thought.”
“Damn it, you shouldn’t have to make that kind of choice.”
Cait tilted her head back. “Then I won’t make it. I want to get married here, in Angel Butte. If my mother refuses to come...well, that’s her choice. I do love her, but...did I ever tell you about the last time I talked to her?”
She did then, expressing the disappointment she’d felt, which had become tangled up with the sharp-edged knowledge that her mother had been capable of abandoning one of her two children without any apparent regrets.
His arm tightened around her. “How much of a relationship you want with her is up to you. I’ll be polite.”
She managed to reach his chin with a kiss. “Thank you.”
Neither of them moved. For a man usually too restless to do nothing but sit, he was completely happy to stay right where they were.
“If I’m patient,” Cait said thoughtfully, “I ought to be able to get a job with one of the other cities in the area.”
Jolted out of the mindless contentment, Noah straightened so he could see her face. “What are you talking about? You have a job.”
“Yes, but you know George has already started a campaign to get rid of one or both of us.”
“And what? You think we should surrender without a fight?”
“No! I’m trying to plan ahead, that’s all.”
Noah shook his head. “If either of us has to resign, it’ll be me.”
“What?”
He didn’t know if he liked the shock on her face or not. “You heard me.”
“But—”
“I’m an elected official, Cait. At most I might run for one more term. I make a damn good living. I have a career, and it isn’t city government. Urban planning is your career. I repeat, if we lose, I’ll go.” He watched her mouth open and close a couple of times. “And, no, don’t even think about arguing.”
“It’s just... You’d do that for me?”
She sounded piteous, which pissed him off.
“I love you,” he said. “Believe it.”
To his astonishment, tears welled in her eyes. With a muffled wail, she threw herself at him, then cried out again and tried to retreat. “Oh, no! I’ll hurt you!”
“No.” God, it felt good, having both arms around her, breathing in the tang of her hair, being able to close his eyes and see the stunned belief on her face. “Trust me, Cait.”
“I do.” She snuffled, gulped
and repeated more strongly, “I do.”
* * *
AT HER SUGGESTION, the morning after Noah’s surgery, Colin had spread the word at city hall that it would be a few days before the mayor would be ready for visitors. He’d been flooded with cards and flowers. Three-quarters of the bouquets had been distributed to other rooms. His PA, a really nice woman, had timidly appeared but not-so-timidly refused to tell him about any city business going undone, any phone or email messages.
“If I can’t deal with it, it will wait,” she said firmly. Seeing Cait’s expression, she winked.
Noah glowered, but he couldn’t move her.
Colin was the second-most frequent visitor. Cait was amazed he could find the time, since two days ago he had announced his candidacy for sheriff. She suspected that, from there on out, he would be campaigning every waking moment when he wasn’t at work, trying to make up for so much lost time spent protecting her. Poor Nell. Although Cait was grateful she hadn’t cost her brother too much. He still had almost five months until the election.
Obviously a whole new can of worms had been opened by the discovery that someone in the district attorney’s office had been taking bribes either to throw cases or come up with excuses not to prosecute them in the first place. Colin kept Noah apprised of the continuing investigation, reminding her that not only had Noah almost been killed, his father had been the murder victim who’d started all this.
Thinking that felt surreal. All those years ago, as the curious child peeking between fence boards, how would she have imagined what the fallout would be? Or that she would end up in love with the son of the man whose grave was covered by newly poured concrete?
“Yeah,” Noah said, when she told him what she was thinking. “It feels like a circle. I’d never have come to Angel Butte if this wasn’t Dad’s last known address. I’m here because he died here. You’re here because of your brother and he’s here for the same reason I am. Which means he and I have something in common.” He grimaced. “Much as I hate to admit it. He’s a stubborn son of a gun who wanted to clean up this town and stayed even when a lot of other senior officers in the department left.”
Touched by his admission, she stroked his forehead. “Are you sorry you didn’t hire him as chief?”
He hesitated, then grinned when he saw her bristle. “Yes and no. Do I think he’d have done a hell of a job? That I could have worked with him? Yeah, I do. But if he wins this election, he can accomplish even more. So I’m thinking it’s worked out for the best.” He tried to see into the future and shook his head. “If he and Raynor are able to cooperate, they can transform law enforcement in this county.”
Her forehead crinkled. “You don’t think they can?”
“You know better than I do. Raynor is a closed book to me. And your brother and I still have a ways to go.”
She opened her mouth to tell him about the two men walking the hospital corridors, deep in conversation, but didn’t have a chance. There was a rap on the half-open door, and the curtain rings rattled as someone started to push them aside.
To her horror, three people walked in. Earl Greig, Beverly Buhl and Kevin Alseth, the unlikeliest trio of city council members she could have come up with.
Cait snatched her hand out of Noah’s, which earned her a sardonic glance from him.
She studied them arranging themselves around the foot of the bed. Earl, suspicious, conservative and pragmatic; Beverly, full of boundless optimism, always ready to leap without knowing where she’d land; and Kevin, far and away the youngest, a newcomer to town, an attorney who was politically liberal. Cait would have guessed that Earl and Kevin didn’t speak when they weren’t absolutely forced to. Was it chance they had arrived at the same time?
“You’ve certainly put Angel Butte on the map,” Kevin said. His tone was dry.
Cait winced. When she’d shown Noah the copy of People magazine with an article about them, he’d been livid. Unfortunately, despite her refusal to answer questions and Colin’s wooden statement representing the police department, the reporter had pieced together a reasonably accurate story.
Noah’s eyebrows rose. “It was entirely unintentional. Not quite the publicity we want for our city.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Beverly beamed at them both. “A mystery, a heroic mayor, romance! They even included a picture of the angel with a sidebar about her history. Tourism will boom.”
Noah scowled at his visitors. “Shall I park myself on the sidewalk every day so the tourists can snap pictures of me?”
Earl snorted. “Not looking the way you do.”
“Actually, you look better than I expected,” Kevin remarked.
“I’m told I should be able to go home by Tuesday.”
Beverly expressed her delight. Noah suggested he should be back in the office by Thursday or Friday. Cait controlled her instinctive protest.
They all looked at her.
“I know I’ve missed quite a bit of work, too,” she said.
Earl frowned at her. “You had a shock, young lady. Of course you needed to recover.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“I suppose George has been burning up the phone lines,” Noah said irritably.
Cait stared at him in disbelief. He couldn’t wait until the battle came to them? Oh, who was she kidding? Of course he couldn’t. She’d let herself forget how blunt and aggressive he was.
And—maybe he was even right. Why should they be embarrassed?
Beverly sniffed. “George doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body.”
“Not that romance is suitable in the workplace.” To Cait’s dismay, that was Kevin.
Earl studied them with narrowed eyes. “Miller seemed to think you were just shacking up.”
Even without touching him, Cait could feel the way Noah’s big body tightened.
“We’re engaged to be married,” he said flatly.
Earl was built like a fireplug, stocky and strong. She couldn’t imagine he’d ever been a handsome man. She’d had the occasional, uncharitable thought that his face made her think of a frog’s. With his lips thinned, that was even more so.
“You planning to stay on at city hall?” he asked her.
She lifted her chin. “Yes, unless politics makes it impossible.”
Earl looked at Noah. “You?”
He stared right back. “I was elected, wasn’t I?”
“Well, then,” Beverly murmured.
Everyone ignored her.
“Don’t see a problem with it,” Earl rumbled. “George is just sulking because he isn’t getting his way. I can tell you he doesn’t speak for any of the rest of us.”
“That’s true.” Kevin smiled. “You might call us a delegation, sent to assure you that you have the council’s support.”
“You know I’m not always happy with every decision you make,” Earl contributed, “but at least you’re aboveboard. A businessman.” He gave a sharp nod. “And you, Ms. McAllister, have finally lit a fire under some butts. Last thing I want is to see you go.”
She couldn’t think of anything to say but a pleased “Thank you.”
“Thank you all for coming,” Noah said. “You’ll all be getting invitations to the wedding.”
Beverly beamed again. “Oh, what fun!”
“Best be soon,” Earl said sourly.
Kevin cleared his throat. Cait thought he was disguising a chuckle.
The three of them departed. Listening as their footsteps receded down the hall, Cait finally let herself look at Noah.
“I hate to sound like Beverly, but...oh, my.”
Noah grinned. “What’d I tell you?”
“I thought I’d have a heart attack when you said that about George.”
“You know the saying about taking
the bull by the horns.”
“The bull being Earl?”
“Who else?” He frowned. “Although, squat as he is, I’ve always thought he looked more like...”
Cait began to giggle, Noah to laugh.
“Damn. Earl Greig approves of me. As my mother used to say, will wonders never cease.”
Melting inside, Cait moved from the chair to the bed so she could very carefully lay her head on his broad shoulder. “I hope they never do,” she whispered.
His arms closed around her, the one trailing the IV line. “Never,” he said in a low, almost harsh voice. “Never.”
Cait spread her fingers on his chest, over the thin, faded fabric of the hospital gown, loving the vibration of his heartbeat. “Earl did say one thing I liked,” she ventured after a minute.
“How soon can we make it?” Noah asked.
Laughing, Cait lifted her face so that he could kiss her. In the aftermath, as he nuzzled her, she said, “You do realize our wedding will be a media event? Hmm. Maybe we can sell the right to take photographs for some obscene amount like movie stars do.”
“I could say some obscene things about that,” Noah suggested.
“Um.” She nibbled on his lower lip. “I love you, Mayor.”
“Ditto, Ms. McAllister,” he said, and tugged her to lie fully beside him so that he could seriously kiss her.
* * * * *
Look for the next THE MYSTERIES OF ANGEL BUTTE story by Janice Kay Johnson.
ALL A MAN IS will be available in March 2014 from Harlequin Superromance.
Keep reading for an excerpt from A RANCH FOR HIS FAMILY by Hope Navarre.
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Superromance.
You want romance plus a bigger story! Harlequin Superromance stories are filled with powerful relationships that deliver a strong emotional punch and a guaranteed happily ever after.
Enjoy six Harlequin Superromance stories every month!
Harlequin Superromance January 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Everywhere She GoesA Promise for the BabyThat Summer at the Shore Page 27
