Rae was doing her best to only take shallow breaths. “Also disgusting,” she added.
“Yeah, that, too,” Sully agreed with a laugh.
Securing Starlight’s reins to the rear of his truck, Sully got in behind the wheel. All four of the windows were down.
This was going to be a long trip, he thought.
* * *
“Sure took you guys long enough to get here,” the sheriff declared. The sound of the approaching truck had alerted him, and he’d left his office to meet Sully and Rae and their prisoner. “I was just about to go looking out for you. I figured something must have happened.”
“Mulcahy here cornered Rawlings on horseback,” Sully explained, getting out of the truck. On the other side, Rae had done the same. “I tied the horse’s reins to the back end of the truck and didn’t want to take a chance on having him collapse trying to keep up,” he explained.
“Hey, you don’t owe me any explanations after catching Wynters’s killer,” Rick told him.
“Hey, what about me?” Rawlings cried. “This smell is sickening!”
Moving to the rear of the truck, Sully yanked the prisoner out. “Actually, it was a joint effort,” he told the sheriff, deliberately ignoring Rawlings complaints. “Mulcahy here got the drop on him. I just provided backup.”
Sully’s narrative surprised her. But she never took credit for things she felt she wasn’t due. “Sully provided more than just backup, Sheriff.”
But Rick stopped her right there. “It’s late, you two. I’m not in the mood to try to play Solomon here. We’ll sort it all out in the morning. I just want this lowlife behind bars,” he informed them.
Taking hold of the protesting Rawlings, he marched him into his office. Heading to the rear of the station, he brought him to the jail cell, which rarely saw any traffic. When it did, it was usually one of the two town drunks, there to sleep it off before going home.
Rawlings was the first killer to be housed within the cell.
The door was locked despite Rawlings’s vehement protest.
“How’s Gabe?” Rae asked once Rawlings was secured and the money locked up in the sheriff’s rarely used safe.
The sheriff laughed. “Madder than a wet hen just about now,” he told them. “The doc patched him up. I figure a couple of days’ bed rest, he’ll be better than new. Gabe’s got a hard head. It takes more than having a rock thrown at it to cause any damage. Speaking of which,” Rick said, taking a closer look at Rae. “You look like you didn’t fare all that well in the confrontation you had. Rawlings?”
Rae waved her hand at his question. “I’m okay,” she said dismissively.
Sully acted as if she hadn’t aid anything. “I’ll bring her over to the doc,” he told the sheriff.
Rick nodded. “I was just about to suggest that,” he said. “Davenport’s waiting for you at the clinic. He kept the doors open.”
Taking her hand firmly in his, Sully escorted her out of the sheriff’s office. “I’ll see you in the morning,” Sully promised the sheriff.
Having whisked Rae into his truck, he drove her over to the medical clinic.
Arriving there, he got out quickly and rounded the front of the truck. He opened the door on the passenger side, but before Rae could step out, he picked her up in his arms. Holding her, Sully closed the door using his back.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
She made one attempt to get Sully to put her down, but when that effort failed, she realized that she felt a little too weak to attempt walking into the clinic on her own.
“Practicing,” he said, answering her question.
“Practicing?” she repeated, confused. “Practicing for what?”
His grin looked lopsided. “You ask too many questions,” he told her.
Going up the steps to the clinic, he didn’t have to knock. Dan was waiting for them.
“Last exam room,” he told the duo.
Rae picked up her conversation as if there’d been no pause.
“That’s because you never answer anything,” she insisted. “Like with Rawlings. You never explained how you managed to track him down. You’re from the big city,” she pointed out, not buying his tracking explanation.
“Yeah, and I spent every summer hunting with my grandfather,” he told her.
She shook her head. “I’m having trouble visualizing you shooting animals.”
“That’s because we didn’t,” he told her. “We just hunted them. Once we tracked the animal down, we went on to another challenge. It was tracking the game that was exhilarating. Tracking sharpened a lot of skills.”
“Well, I for one am glad you sharpened them. Otherwise, Doc here would be in his bed right about now, getting some much-deserved sleep,” she said, looking around Sully’s arm at the doctor.
Dan looked at Sully. “Was that a veiled expression of gratitude or a put-down?” he asked, amused.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you,” Sully said as he walked down the corridor. “She takes a lot of figuring out.”
“Good luck with that,” the doctor told him with a laugh. “I’m still trying to figure out mine.”
“Hey, you two, I was banged up,” Rae protested, speaking up. “I didn’t lose my hearing.”
“We’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” Dan told her. “Last room, Sully,” he repeated.
“On our way,” Sully responded.
“I can walk,” Rae protested.
“I know, but humor me,” Sully said, smiling at her. “There’s less resistance this way.”
Reaching the room, he went inside and deposited her on the exam table. She expected him to step back, but he remained right beside her. Did he expect her to make a break for it? she wondered.
“Are you up on your tetanus injections?” Dan asked.
She paused, trying to remember the last time she’d received one.
Dan nodded, as if conducting his own internal conversation. He had his answer.
“If you have to think that long, then it’s been too long. I’ll give you a booster. I have to get the serum from the front room,” he told them. “Stay right here. I’ll be right back.” In the doorway, Dan gave her a pseudo-warning look. “Stay put, all right?”
Restless, edgy, Rae shifted a little on the exam table. Sully moved closer to her. “You heard what the doc said.”
“I’m staying put,” Rae protested. Saying the words reminded her that he’d be doing just the opposite now that he’d caught Wynters’s killer. She felt a sadness spreading out within her. “But you’re not.”
His brow furrowed as if he didn’t know what she was talking about. “I’m right here,” he pointed out.
“No, I mean in Forever,” she told him. “Now that you found the killer and the money, the case is solved. There’s no reason for you to stay here any longer.”
She’d seen the look on his face. He thrived on this kind of challenge. And Forever averaged a case of this magnitude once in a lifetime. Sully would be bored out of his mind inside a week.
“Are you kicking me out, Mulcahy?” Sully asked her innocently.
“No, of course not.” But she couldn’t very well tie him up, either, Rae thought. “I just know when something’s over.”
“Well, my dad always told us that when one door closes, another one opens.” She continued looking at him, waiting for him to make his point. “I’m not exactly a math wizard, but I’d say that you’re two ranch hands short right now.”
She still didn’t understand what he was saying—and she was afraid to jump to any conclusions because the disappointment would be too great.
“Wynters is dead and Rawlings is going away for his murder, so I’d say your math was pretty good,” she told him, “but—”
Patiently, Sully tried again. “Didn’t you mention that this w
as your busy season? Something about those yearlings needing to be saddle broke and trained?” he asked.
Her eyes never left his as a kernel of hope popped somewhere within her.
“I said that, but...”
Sully pretended to pick up on the word but.
“Then you don’t need help?”
“Of course I need help,” she cried, “but...”
He didn’t let her get any further. The woman definitely talked too much.
“Then I’ll stay and help,” Sully said. “Unless you don’t want me to.”
“It’s not a matter of my not wanting you to do something,” she protested. He had a career and a family waiting for him. “It’s—”
Sully cut her short. “Fine, then it’s settled.” Moving a wayward strand of her hair from her face, he grinned. “I’ll stay.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “Are you ever going to allow me to finish a sentence?” she asked.
There was an amused, teasing look in his eyes. “That all depends.”
“On what?” she asked. The man was making her crazy, she thought.
As he stood there, looking at her, his eyes were all but making love to her.
“On whether or not it’s going to be something I want to hear,” he answered.
She could feel laughter bubbling up inside her. But she tried not to let it surface just yet. Not until they were really alone together. “You certainly do have a lot of conditions.”
Sully laughed, amused. “I’m a Cavanaugh. It comes with the territory. Now stop trying to change the topic. Do you want me to stay and help out until after you finish up with those yearlings?”
“Of course I want you to stay.” To work with all my yearlings from this day on. “But your family probably needs you back.”
“My family’s flexible,” he assured her, taking her hand in his. “I’ll stay to help out, and once that’s done...we’ll see,” he told her.
“Okay if I come back in now?” Dan asked, looking from one to the other. “Is the debate about whether he stays or goes over?” the doctor asked as he came into the room a little farther.
“Of course you can come in. Sorry, didn’t want to make you think you needed to wait to get in one of your own exam rooms,” Sully apologized.
“Sounded like pretty much of a life-or-death conversation to me,” Dan said, washing his hands again and putting on a fresh pair of light blue gloves. “All right,” he said, turning around to face Rae. The doctor picked up the syringe. “Are you ready for this?”
She slanted a look toward Sully and for once didn’t suppress the smile that rose to her lips. “I’m ready for anything,” she told him.
Sully did his best to suppress the laughter he felt building within him—until they were alone together.
“You heard the lady, Doc,” he said, his eyes on Rae’s.
“Then let’s get started,” Dan urged his patient.
She looked at Sully, and for a second, their eyes met and held.
“I think that maybe I already have,” she said in a voice that was only loud enough for Sully to hear.
Epilogue
It seemed to her like there were Cavanaughs, either by birth or by marriage, in every single nook and cranny within the spacious two-story house and its extensive backyard. They’d all turned out to welcome Sully back. His uncle Andrew was throwing the party for him, Sully told her as if it was no big deal.
And to him, it wasn’t. He took things like this for granted, she thought. She’d never had the opportunity to take anything like this for granted, because for her there had been no parties.
She’d been apprehensive about meeting these people when he told her about the party, but within the first few minutes at his uncle’s house, they had somehow managed to put her at ease.
All of them.
To a person.
Her apprehension melted away as if it had never even existed. She started to enjoy herself after that.
In truth, time seemed to just fly by even as she savored every moment.
“Well, what do you think?” Sully asked Rae when he could finally pull her aside some five hours into the party.
“I think you have more family than any ten people I know,” she said wistfully.
Sully laughed. “You’re probably right. At the time, it felt really good to get away. I needed to,” he confided. “But it feels even better now to get back here.”
There was something to make her smile everywhere she looked. Smile and at the same time feel envious of the man beside her.
“If I were you,” she told him, “I would have never left.”
“It wasn’t my family that was the problem,” Sully reminded her. “It was the work.”
“The case you were working,” Rae corrected. “But all that’s behind you. And watching you back in Forever, hunting for Wynters and then his killer, just shows me that no matter what you say, police work is in your blood. Just like the Cavanaughs are,” she added with a smile, glancing around the immediate area. There were so many different faces, she felt overwhelmed. “How do you remember all their names?” she marveled, trying to recall the names of the couple in the corner and drawing a blank.
“Gradually. It’s work,” he admitted. “But it’s a labor of love.”
She smiled, watching as Andrew paused to brush a kiss on his wife, Rose’s, cheek in passing. “You don’t know how lucky you are,” Rae told him softly, still scanning the crowd.
“Oh, I think I know,” Sully said, looking at her.
“I’m really going to miss this when I go back,” she said honestly.
“Then why don’t you stay a little longer?” Sully asked. He looked at her hopefully.
She really wanted to, but she felt she couldn’t. Miss Joan was counting on her. “I asked Miss Joan for a week off, and it’s been a week. I can’t just leave her high and dry like that.”
“Well, maybe not so high or dry,” Sully speculated.
She looked at him, puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, I talked to Miss Joan, too,” he told her, slowly feeling his way around the subject he was about to broach. “I asked her if she had any contingency plans.”
“Contingency plans?” Rae repeated. It made no more sense to her the second time than the first. “What kind of a contingency are you talking about?”
He threaded his fingers through hers. “Like if you took longer getting back than you initially thought—and she said yes, by the way.”
“She said yes,” Rae echoed, still somewhat mystified.
“That she had a contingency plan,” he prompted.
“And exactly what do those plans involve?” Rae asked.
“She’d get Roy Washburn back to run the ranch. He did really well while we were otherwise engaged,” he reminded her, “and Miss Joan thinks he’s itching to run a place on his own, without his brother looking over his shoulder all the time.”
“So if I stayed an extra week, everyone would be okay with that?” Rae asked uncertainly.
Sully grinned at her. “Absolutely.”
She played it out a little further. “How about if I decided to stay a month?”
“That, too,” Sully told her with slightly more enthusiasm.
Rae rolled it over in her mind. “Well, it wouldn’t be for a month,” she decided, half talking to herself.
Sully looked at her, alert. “Why not?” he asked.
She thought the answer to that was self-evident. “I wouldn’t want to wear out my welcome,” she told Sully.
Right before her eyes, Sully’s smile turned downright sexy.
“Oh, you wouldn’t wear out your welcome in a month,” he assured her. “Maybe in fifty years, but not anything less than that.”
Rae laughed, thinking he was making a joke.
“Now you’re just teasing me.”
“No,” Sully answered quietly, his eyes meeting hers. “I’m not.”
“What are you saying?” Rae asked, afraid to allow her imagination to run away with her.
He looked at her for a long moment. And then he could have sworn that he heard Miss Joan’s voice in his head, telling him to Man up, boy, and speak your piece. Tell her what’s in your heart. You owe that to her. She’s not a mind reader, you know.
Right as always, Miss Joan, he thought.
Taking her hand, he drew Rae over to the only area that for the moment was not overflowing with members of his family.
“What I’m saying is that I don’t want you to go,” he told her. “I asked you to come out here with me for an ulterior motive,” he admitted.
“What motive?” she asked, confused.
“To see how you’d react to my family. To see if you like them,” he said honestly.
“You thought I wouldn’t like them?” she asked incredulously. “These people? When I was a little girl, it was just my dad and me. I used to pray all the time that one day a family would just somehow magically appear. A family that my dad had just forgotten he had. But he hadn’t and it didn’t—and then I lost him, too, and wound up alone.
“Meeting your family and pretending, just for a moment, that they were my family, is like hitting some sort of an impossible jackpot,” she told him. And then, replaying her words in her head, she waved them away. “You probably think I’m crazy.”
“No, I don’t,” Sully told her. “And you don’t have to pretend that they’re your family—”
She felt her color rising to her cheeks. “I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t—”
She tried to turn away, but he caught both of her hands in his, drawing her around. “Because they can be your family—if you’re willing to put up with me.”
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