Romancing the Wallflower

by Michelle Major

  Erin looked around the streets of Crimson, with the shops still brightly lit to take advantage of the Oktoberfest crowds. She hadn’t seen so many people converge on downtown since last year’s Christmas festival. “It’s huge,” she said, clapping her hands. “I knew it would be, but I’m so happy for David. He worked hard to make this event a success.”

  “Apparently lots of people like beer and German food.” Melody smiled. “When are the beer contest winners announced?”

  Erin glanced at her watch. “In about ten minutes. Let’s head to the grandstand. I want to be there when his name is called.”

  “The supportive girlfriend,” Melody said, gently elbowing Erin in the ribs. “It’s a good look on you.”

  Suddenly there was a commotion on the sidewalk in front of them. Melody gripped the stroller as Erin grabbed Elaina’s hand, pulling the girl toward the side of the brick building.

  A moment later, Joel Martin stood directly in front of her, and she gasped as she saw the flash of a blade in his hand.

  “You did this to me,” he said, his voice an angry snarl.

  Erin’s throat went dry even as her heart pounded in her chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispered as she pushed Elaina behind her. “Please put away the knife.”

  “The hell you don’t,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “My old lady kicked me out because of you. My kid don’t want to talk to me. Your boyfriend made sure I lost my job at the tire store, and now I got nothin’.”

  She could see a crowd beginning to form in a wide circle around them, and met Melody’s gaze behind Joel’s shoulder. “Elaina,” she whispered. “Go to your Mommy, okay?” She started to give the girl a gentle push but Joel stepped forward.

  “Don’t move,” he shouted. “You don’t get to tell no one what to do tonight. Not until I’m done with you.”

  The little girl buried her face against Erin’s leg with a whimper, and Erin saw Melody’s face turn white as ash.

  “I can’t talk to you when you’re waving a knife at me,” she said, willing her voice to be calm. “Please let the girl go to her mom. She has nothing to do with this.”

  “You and your damn kids,” he muttered. “You think you’re so great, like you rule the school.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think—”

  “All this started with that stupid McCay boy. His mama was a hot little piece, but I didn’t want nothin’ to do with the kid. Now I’ve got the sheriff breathing down my neck every time I turn around, and my life is in the toilet.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said automatically. Was there anything she could say to this man that would stop his tirade?

  “I’m going to make your boyfriend sorry for messing with my life. You’ll all be sorry if you don’t help me fix it.”

  Erin swallowed. She hadn’t realized David had been in contact with Joel since that day at the community center. What had he done to make this man so angry?

  “What can I do?”

  She could see more people beginning to gather around them. One man called for Joel to set down the knife, but Joel only brandished it more erratically. Where was Cole Bennett or Melody’s husband, Grant, when she needed him?

  “You gotta talk to Danielle. Get her to take me back. Tell her I’m a good daddy and I got a right to see my son.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Tell her,” he shouted, taking a menacing step forward. At the same time, the crowd parted and Grant Cross muscled his way into their small circle.

  “Drop the knife,” he commanded, his gaze white-hot.

  “Back off,” Joel answered, slashing at the air with the weapon.

  Elaina let out another little cry and whispered, “Daddy.”

  Before Erin could stop her, the girl tore away from Erin’s embrace and ran toward her father. Grant’s attention switched from Joel to his daughter as he moved forward.

  Joel thrust out the knife again, just as Elaina ran past. The girl screamed as the blade sliced into her side. Then she crumpled to the ground.

  Erin heard another scream that she recognized as Melody’s.

  Joel was momentarily still, clearly shocked by what he’d done. In those few seconds, Grant made his move, grabbing Joel’s wrist and twisting it away from his body. Although Joel struggled, the knife clattered to the ground, and Erin kicked it out of reach. Cole came through the crowd and slapped cuffs on Joel, reading him his rights as Grant bent to his daughter, calling for an ambulance.

  Erin rushed toward Melody, who had pulled Lane out of the stroller and was elbowing her way through the crowd to get to Grant and Elaina.

  The next few minutes were a blur. Erin took the boy from Melody, who maintained more composure than Erin could have ever imagined. Joel was taken away by another deputy, and Cole turned his attention to crowd control, instructing onlookers to give the Cross family space. Two EMTs were on the scene soon after, and Elaina was placed on a stretcher, then into an ambulance.

  Erin handed Lane to a tearful Melody and promised to call Melody’s parents and come to the hospital.

  As the ambulance disappeared around the corner, Erin felt her knees start to buckle. A strong hand wrapped around her shoulders, and Cole led her to a bench outside one of the nearby shops.

  “Is Elaina going to be okay?” she asked, fighting back tears. The EMTs had loaded the girl into the ambulance, but she’d looked so pale against the bright streak of blood staining the front of her unicorn T-shirt.

  “The blade penetrated high,” Cole said, rubbing a hand over his face. “We’ve got to hope it didn’t hit a lung or major artery.”

  Nausea washed through Erin, forcing her to bend forward and swallow hard to keep from throwing up all over Cole’s shiny black work boots.

  “I should have never let her dash away from me,” she whispered.

  “Don’t blame yourself.” Cole reached out a hand and squeezed her shoulder. “Joel Martin might be pissed about his life, but he had no business with that knife.”

  “He reeked of liquor.”

  “Probably high on something, too.” Cole sighed. “I know you want to get to the hospital, but I need to ask you a few questions first.”

  “Of course. Let me call Melody’s parents, then I’ll talk to you.”

  Cole nodded. “I’ve got to do some crowd control and make an announcement to keep everyone down here calm.” He looked out toward the center of the park. “I can already see the news moving through the crowd. Are you going to be okay?”

  Erin wanted to scream that she wouldn’t be okay until she knew Elaina would recover, but nodded instead.

  Cole studied her a moment longer. “My squad car is parked at the curb. If you want to avoid talking to people, I can put you in there for some privacy.”

  “I’m fine. Go on, Cole.” As he walked away, she managed to get her phone out of her purse. Unfortunately, her hands were shaking so badly she couldn’t hold them steady enough to access Melody’s parents’ number in her contacts. Tears spilled onto the phone’s screen, and she tried to blink them back. Now was not the time to lose it.

  She finally made the call, her heart breaking as Melody’s mother began to sob loudly on the other end of the line. She spoke to Melody’s father, who remained calmer and promised to get his wife to the hospital.

  She’d just returned her phone to her purse when David raced up to her and hauled her into his arms. “Did that scumbag hurt you?” he asked, breathless as he held her tight against him. “I’ll kill him if he hurt you.”

  She wanted so much to sink into him and take the comfort that he offered. Instead, she pulled back. “Did you get Joel fired from his job?”

  “What?” David seemed confused by the question.

  “Joel said we’d ruined his life and that you made
him lose his job.”

  His gaze turned steely. “Yeah, I talked to the guy who owns the tire store—told him he needs to pay attention to the sort of people he hired.”

  She moved away, out of the warmth and safety of his embrace. “Why would you do that?”

  “You’re kidding, right? I did it because the guy screwed with my sister, then his son bullied my nephew.” He held out his hands. “Clearly tonight is evidence that Joel is a loose cannon. I figured he’d move on if he didn’t have a job. You’d already told me his girlfriend had kicked him to the curb. I didn’t like the idea of him being anywhere near Rhett or you during the after-school program or still in town when Jenna returns.”

  It felt like her heart had taken a direct hit. “I shared the information about Danielle Rodriguez in confidence. If you had concerns about Rhett’s safety while under my care, you should have come to me about it.”

  “What would you have done?”

  “Assured you that I had things under control,” she answered, trying to ignore the fact that he hadn’t denied having doubts about her ability to keep his nephew safe.

  “Like things were under control tonight and a little girl ended up in the hospital?”

  “That wasn’t my fault,” she insisted, even though she’d said almost the same thing to Cole minutes earlier.

  His blue eyes turned hard. “Are you saying it’s mine?”

  “I’m saying that by trying to control everything without talking to me, you put me at risk.”

  “I was trying to protect you,” he said, his voice tight.

  There had been a time when Erin believed she needed a man to take care of things for her, and she still wanted someone to rely on in her life. But not like this. She’d just come to realize her self-worth and wasn’t about to let anyone, even David, diminish it now.

  “I don’t need you to protect me,” she whispered. “I need—”

  “Join the club,” he muttered, walking away several steps before stalking back to her. “My sister didn’t want my help. My mother thinks she can handle everything just fine without me. I thought you were different.”

  “I thought you believed in me,” she countered.

  “I do.”

  She shook her head. “Not if you’re going behind my back to handle things that involve me. That isn’t trust.”

  “It’s how I take care of the people I love.”

  Silence stretched between them, fraught with tension.

  Was she included in the people he loved? Was he actually trying to say the words she longed to hear? She shook off her curiosity because the whole thing was twisted now.

  “You didn’t think I could handle it.” Her voice shook as she said the words, but she tipped up her chin, refusing to ignore the crux of the problem.

  “You’re a kindergarten teacher,” he said, as if that explained everything.

  She felt her eyes widen and he quickly added, “You have no experience dealing with people like Joel Martin.”

  “Really?” She stepped forward and jabbed her finger into his chest. “You think I don’t see bullies working at an elementary school?”

  “He’s more than a bully, and we both know it.”

  “And apparently because I’m just a kindergarten teacher, you don’t have to share things with me.”

  “I never said just.”

  “I know what you meant.” She shook her head. “I’ve got to give a statement to Cole so I can get to the hospital.”

  “I’ll drive you.”

  “No. Tonight is important to you.”

  “Not as important as you.”

  She studied him for a moment, willing those words to be true. But everything he’d said to her earlier seemed to refute that. Even the way he’d used the word love seemed wrong.

  “I thought you were different,” she whispered. “I thought you believed I could handle anything. That I was strong and capable.” She gave a quiet laugh. “You made me believe in myself. And now...”

  “Now what?” He moved closer, but she didn’t back away.

  “Now I can’t go back to who I was before. I want more, David. I deserve more.”

  “I thought I could give you that.”

  She lifted her hand and trailed her fingers over the rough stubble that shadowed his jaw. “I did, too. We were both wrong.”

  Then she turned and hurried to where Cole Bennett waited next to his patrol car.

  “Everything okay?” the sheriff asked, one brow raised as he watched the place she knew David stood behind her.

  “No,” she answered honestly. “But it will be. I’m ready to answer your questions.”

  * * *

  “You won!” Tracie raced from behind the bar and threw her arms around David when he finally made it back to Elevation after Oktoberfest ended for the evening.

  There was a loud round of applause from the bar’s patrons, many of whom had come to Elevation to celebrate after the event.

  He gave them a half-hearted wave and tried to muster a smile, but his insides were churning with a mix of guilt and regret. He’d beat out two dozen other breweries to win top honors at the festival and a nationally known distribution company had approached him about bottling not only his Altitude IPA, the award-winning beer, but two of his other more popular selections.

  He couldn’t care less.

  “What’s wrong?” Tracie asked when she took in his expression. “Did you hear an update on the Cross girl?”

  “As far as I know, she’s still in surgery.” Bile rose in David’s throat as he spoke the words. The knife blade had nicked Elaina’s right lung, and she’d been rushed into the OR as soon as she arrived at the hospital. Cole Bennett had driven Erin to the hospital, then come back downtown to oversee the end of Oktoberfest, but David knew the sheriff would be back with the family and the Crosses’ friends now, waiting for word on the little girl.

  “She’s going to be okay,” Tracie whispered, with more confidence than David felt.

  “It was my fault.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “If I hadn’t antagonized him...”

  “You didn’t put the knife in his hand or tell him to come after Erin.”

  “I knew he was unstable and a drug user. I wanted to mess with his life, to make him angry for his role in Jenna’s relapse and how he’d treated Erin. I should have let it go.”

  “You couldn’t have known how he’d go off.”

  “No,” David agreed, “but it doesn’t change that he did.”

  He’d told Erin he wanted to protect her, and that was true, but it had been anger fueling him when he’d interfered with Joel Martin’s life. Now an innocent girl was paying the price for David’s mistake.

  Elaina was the same age as Rhett. His nephew had talked about the girl several times, and David couldn’t imagine what that family was going through right now because of him.

  “David.”

  “I’m fine, Tracie,” he said when the bartender continued to study him. “Don’t worry about me. Get back to work. I need to go upstairs and check on Rhett.”

  She watched him a few more moments. “I’m still happy for your success tonight,” she said, squeezing his arm as she moved past him. “You’ve worked hard for it.”

  One of his regular customers walked by and patted him on the back. “Nice work tonight, McCay. Why don’t you come to the back room and have a celebratory drink with us? One of the ladies is asking about you.”

  “Thanks, Brad.” David forced a smile. “I’ll be over in a minute.”

  This had been his life before Rhett and Erin, and up until a few weeks ago, he’d been happy with it. Or at least he hadn’t realized what he was missing. He’d been given a taste of how much better his life could be, but somehow he’d managed to muck up the whole thin
g before he’d even had a chance to truly claim it.

  Maybe this was all he was meant to be. The local brewery owner who’d share a couple drinks with patrons or a few hours with a willing woman before retreating to his solitary existence.

  No harm, no foul. Nobody got hurt.

  Which didn’t explain the searing pain that burned across his chest, refusing to ease.

  Brad turned and gestured to him, hitching his thumb at the cute blonde standing at his right side. The woman offered David a slow, sexy smile full of promise. The exact kind of promise he needed to numb his brain and his body and forget about the things he couldn’t control and what he’d lost because of it.

  * * *

  David slipped into his apartment later that night—or in the early morning hours of the following day, to be exact. He’d stayed at Elevation until closing but had refused the lovely blonde’s offer of a nightcap in her hotel room.

  His life might be in the toilet, but he was no longer the man he used to be—the one who would flush it away with no thought of the consequences.

  Cole had texted to say Elaina was still in surgery, so David grabbed a pillow and blanket from the side table and started to make up his temporary bed on the couch.

  Once Jenna returned, he’d have his apartment to himself again. He had visions of Erin spending the night here in his big bed and the thought of waking up after a full night’s sleep wrapped around her body still made his heart clench. After tonight, he wasn’t sure his fantasies would ever become a reality.

  “Uncle David?”

  Rhett stood in the doorway to the hall, sleepily rubbing his eyes.

  “Hey, buddy, why aren’t you asleep?”

  “Is Elaina going to be okay?”

  “The doctors are doing everything they can for her,” he answered, moving toward the boy. He crouched down until they were at eye level. “I know she’s a friend of yours.”

  Rhett nodded. “She was my girlfriend but then she started dating Micah from the other class. We’re still friends, though. Her favorite color is purple.”

  “Then let’s go out tomorrow and buy her a get-well gift that’s purple.” He lifted the boy into his arms and walked toward the bedroom. “Do you have a different girlfriend?”