Melissa McClone – A Mistletoe Proposal: Marry Me under the Mistletoe / A Little Bit of Holiday Magic / Christmas Magic in Heatherdale (страница 21)
He had to wait a minute for an answer.
“My first recollections of life were of a loving mother and an absentee father. He lived to go hunting. If he wasn’t at work, he was out at the shooting range with his best friend Frank, who was also a hunter. I hardly saw him from season to season and hated it every time he walked out the door with his rifle.
“Frank was married, and he abandoned his family to hunt, too. I knew people got killed hunting and begged my dad not to go. He’d just pat my head and tell me to be a nice girl for Mommy. After he’d leave, I’d run to my room and pray and pray he wouldn’t die.”
“Andrea—” Rick was devastated.
“One day my fears came true. He and Frank got shot by accident. Frank died and Dad was hospitalized for a gunshot wound in the arm. While he was recovering, that was the longest time he ever spent at home. But it wasn’t a happy time for me or Mom, because that’s when he started drinking.”
Rick grimaced, imagining her pain.
“He cried for his friend all the time. It felt like he loved Frank more than he loved me and Mom. When he got better, he didn’t stop hunting. He went again and again with hunting friends. Every time he walked out the front door, my heart died a little more, but I knew my pleas would never stop him.
“By my teens I realized he didn’t love us like he loved hunting. He provided for us, but with insight I saw that he was so selfish, he always put us last. Mom did the only thing that made sense and divorced him. She’d always had the shop to run, and that was her solace. We had peace after he left.
“The only reason I had a visit from him the other night was because he needed a place to stay and didn’t want to pay money to go to a hotel. His third wife doesn’t like his hunting either.
“You know what he left me for a Christmas present? Another can of bear mace.”
What Rick was listening to made him ill.
“When I met Gunter and fell in love, I was so glad he didn’t hunt or do any dangerous sports. I knew my marriage would be ideal because he’d always be there and always come home to me and the family we planned to have. But he died, too,” she said in a pained voice that ripped up Rick’s insides.
On a groan he reached for her. After wrapping his arms around her, he rocked her for a long time, never wanting to let her go. But slowly she eased away from him and wiped her eyes.
“I’ve had enough of death and the pain of worrying. Meeting you has proven to me there are other men out there who can attract me. Perhaps one will become special, but he won’t do any of those thirteen most dangerous jobs you talked about, maybe not even the first thirty.
“When I see how well Tessa handles your work, I marvel. Maybe being born into a firefighter’s family makes all the difference. More important, she knows she comes first in your heart and is loved beyond everything. She’s very lucky. I’m quite crazy about her. That makes this extra hard, because she’s at the age where she wants and needs a mommy, but I can’t allow her to become attached to me.
“So, as much as I’d like to lie in your arms and feel alive again, I know of the terrible price that will have to be paid the first time I learn you’re off to another fire. I simply wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
He shook her gently. “There has to be a way for us to work this out, Andrea.” Rick couldn’t conceive of not being with her. After hearing about her father, all he wanted to do was love her.
She shook her head. “You know there isn’t. Admit that having felt the sparks with me, you’ll meet another woman out there who makes you happy again. She’ll love you without fear of how you make your living and she’ll love your daughter. Best of all, she’ll give you more children.”
Rick moaned, trying like the devil to process everything she was telling him, but something still wasn’t connecting.
“I happen to know she’ll consider it a privilege to be loved by you. You’re a remarkable man, Captain Jenner. Fearless. Honorable.”
“Don’t set me up to be something I’m not.”
She laughed sadly. “Tell that to the birds. I’m going to try to forget you, but it may not be possible. Nevertheless I intend to go my own way once Chase Hayward is caught in the act. Now I’m going to slip out your front door and meet Mother at the house. You need to eat and sleep. Tell Tessa my mommy needs me and I had to leave. She’ll understand that.”
Andrea kissed his jaw and left the den. He followed her to the front door and watched her drive away. Rick could have gone after her, but knew this wasn’t the right moment. There was a fight going on inside her. He needed to give her more time, but one thing was certain. No way was he going to let her walk out of his life.
Hours later he put Tessa to bed, then lay down on his own waiting for Benton to phone and tell him that the Hansel and Gretel shop had a nocturnal visitor. But the call never came. It meant Chase had something else in mind. For the rest of the night Rick wrestled with his thoughts, wondering what his next move might be.
The man had hated Rick for years. For him to go to the shop and ask Andrea on a date was a premeditated move on his part to bait Rick. The lowlife had probably been stalking her every move.
Rick’s gut told him Chase meant to harm her. Maybe he didn’t plan to set the shop on fire, but this night would have given him the perfect opportunity. He’d been in the cubicle of the E.R. when the doctor had told Rick he wouldn’t be able to go back to work for a couple of days.
Armed with that knowledge, Chase probably had something much more evil in mind while he assumed Rick was still out of commission. The fear of what he might be planning brought him to his feet in a cold sweat.
He checked his watch. Five-thirty a.m. Without hesitation he phoned Benton with his newest suspicions. After they made a plan, he hung up and got dressed, opting for his hiking boots and parka. He left Sharon the message that he’d had to leave early for work.
One way or another he was going to beat Chase at his own game. It was only a matter of time.... He’d promised Andrea he would protect her and her mother. He wouldn’t be able to breathe until Chase had been caught and put away.
Instinct prompted him to drive over to Mrs. Bernard’s home, but he parked alongside a group of cars three blocks away at an all-night shopping center. The streets were dry. Armed with his licensed concealed weapon and binoculars, he stole through a series of people’s backyards, some with snow, others where the snow had melted.
He climbed a leafless tree in order to keep watch without being detected. Someone intentionally looking for him might see him, but that was a chance he had to take. Rick braced himself against a sturdy limb and ate a couple of granola bars while he waited.
* * *
After a nearly sleepless night, Andrea and her mom left the house at nine in her mom’s car. Andrea left hers in the garage. Since she would be putting on a parcel service uniform later, she’d dressed in jeans and a sweater she could wear under it without problem.
She knew that if Chase Hayward had tried to get into the shop last night, Rick would have notified her by now. She was thankful he hadn’t yet tried to burn their business down.
En route they stopped for bagels and coffee before they let themselves in the back door. Over breakfast Andrea eyed her mother through tears. “If anything happened to you...” She couldn’t finish the thought. “You’re the bravest person I know, Mom. I’m practically falling apart over this situation, but you remain fearless. How do you do it?”
“I’m as nervous as you are deep down.”
“To think that firefighter would hate Rick enough to want him dead.” Her voice shook. “I can’t bear it.”
“Chase’s jealousy of Rick is a terrible thing now that it’s out of control. But the police and the fire department are all working on this case. I have faith he’ll be caught. Don’t you?”
Andrea couldn’t swallow the rest of her bagel. “Yes, but it’s all so hideous. Rick risks his life every day, and now he has to worry that someone’s after him with a vengeance. Now it’s put him and the shop in danger, including my mother.”
“We’re being protected, honey, but none of us is exempt from the ugliness of this world.”
“I know, but this must be so awful for him. I don’t know how he goes on.” She jumped up from her chair. “What if he dies?”
Her mother stood and put an arm around her. “I have a feeling you’re remembering that agonizing time when you were in the accident. Such deep-seated pain can color your emotions for a long time. Just remember you’re not in that situation now and Rick is very much alive. Hold on to that thought.”
“I’m trying.” She sniffed. “Tell me about Rex.”
“We’re going to dinner and the ballet tonight.”
“I know. I guess what I’m asking is, how do you feel about him?”
Her mom smiled at her. “I like him a lot. We’re going out tomorrow night, too.”
“And Saturday night?”
“Yes.”
“I’m so pleased for you, Mom,” Andrea said with a slight glistening in her eyes.
“Oh, darling, it will happen for you, too,” replied her mom.
* * *
Minute by minute the neighborhood came to life—people leaving for work, other people out walking their dogs, kids headed to school. By eight-thirty he noticed more traffic. Several vans for satellite TV, a moving van.