For the second time in two months, the mayor issued a press release informing the residents that Sheriff Roger Jensen tendered his resignation and Seth Collier would replace him and serve out his term. He was sworn in again, and this time he invited Natalia to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Now that he was officially the sheriff of Wickham Falls, Seth had a long, in-depth conversation with Andy about his attitude, his inability to supervise those under him and said it would be the last time he would speak to him about his conduct. He informed him that his next reprimand would be in writing, and the final dismissal. He told Andy they had to work as a united team to combat the town’s drug problem because he could not do it alone and that he was going to recommend he attend a conference in the state capital addressing the opioid crisis. Andy appeared remorseful and thanked Seth for giving him another chance.
Mother Nature had conspired to punish the region with torrential rain and two F-1 tornadoes; the first forced the mayor and the Chamber of Commerce to cancel the Fourth of July three-day celebration, and the second was in mid-August. Mineral Springs sustained greater property damage than Wickham Falls and volunteers were dispatched to assist the neighboring town.
Seth returned home late one night to find Natalia on the porch waiting for him. Leaning over, he kissed her. “What are you doing up so late?”
“I wanted to show you this.” She handed him her cell phone.
Seth read the text message from her ex, and her response. He had asked for her address because he wanted to return Oreo. “Why show me this when you’ve already sent him your address?”
“We’re practically living together so I don’t want him to show up and then I’d have to explain why he’s here.”
Seth kissed her again. “Don’t worry, babe. I promise to behave.”
She smiled. “You better behave. Daryl would love a confrontation so he can sue you.”
“When is he coming?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Why tomorrow, Natalia?”
“He said he’s going on vacation and doesn’t want to board Oreo. I called Henry to ask him for the day off.”
“I’m scheduled to work tomorrow but I’ll take off in case you need backup.”
“I don’t think I’m going to need backup,” she said.
“I’m still taking off.”
“I’m going upstairs to shower and get ready for bed. Are you coming?”
“Not yet. It’s the first time in days it hasn’t rained, and I want to do a little stargazing.”
He ruffled her hair. “Don’t stay up too late,” Natalia said.
“I won’t.”
* * *
Natalia came down off the porch when a shiny black town car pulled up in front of her rental. Her heart rate increased when the driver got out and opened the rear door. She held her breath when the man she never believed she would see again stepped out and walked toward her.
She ignored the cut of his light gray suit, imported leather slip-ons, silk tie and custom-made shirt with monogrammed cuffs. He was thinner and his hair grayer than she’d remembered. Daryl Owens wasn’t as handsome as he was attractive. Fastidious almost to a fault, he had standing appointments for haircuts and facials, and his dark brown complexion radiated good health.
Natalia folded her hands at her waist. “Where’s Oreo?”
Daryl placed a foot on the first step and angled his head. “You look good, baby.”
Her eyelids fluttered wildly. “I’m not your baby. I asked you where my dog is.”
“He’s with a friend.”
Natalia struggled not to lose her temper. “Liar! You told me you were bringing Oreo.”
“I said that because I knew you wouldn’t see me otherwise.”
“You’ve got that right! I wouldn’t have, and I never want to see you again!” Natalia was screaming at the top of her lungs and she didn’t care who saw her or heard her.
Daryl mounted the steps and held her upper arms in a firm grip. “Calm down, Natty. I know you’re upset about Oreo but please let me explain.”
“There’s nothing you can say that I need to hear. Now take your hands off me.”
“I will, but hear me out first.”
“You heard the lady. Take your hands off her.”
Natalia and Daryl turned, as if they’d choreographed the move beforehand, to see Seth coming toward them. She had been so engrossed in arguing with Daryl that she wasn’t aware Seth had come out of his house.
Daryl glared at him. “Who’s asking?”
Seth stalked Daryl like a large cat. “I’m not going to tell you again to take your hands off her.”
His fingers loosened slightly. “And if I don’t?”
“Don’t start with him, Daryl,” Natalia pleaded softly.
The dapper lawyer narrowed his eyes. “Why? Is he going to beat me up?”
“I’m not going to give you what you need for causing my fiancée so much pain, which is a good thumping. As the sheriff of Wickham Falls, I’m going to arrest your fancy ass and after you spend the night in our lockup, you can plead your case to our judge. I want to caution you that folks around here don’t take kindly to you assaulting their doctor.”
Daryl dropped his hands as if her arms suddenly had become heated metal. “You’re her fiancé?”
Seth cupped his ear. “I don’t hear an echo. You heard right the first time.”
Daryl snorted. “If she’s your fiancée, why isn’t she wearing a ring?”
Seth approached Daryl and towered over him. “She told me about you taking off with her ring and the dog. And because I didn’t want her to relive that trauma I plan to give her an engagement ring the day before we’re to be married.” A sardonic smile twisted his mouth. “Your driver is waiting, and make certain he doesn’t speed on the way out of town because we impound the cars of speeders.”
“Have a nice life,” Daryl spat out.
Seth put up two fingers. “Deuces, clown.”
Natalia’s knees were shaking so hard she doubted whether they would support her and sank down to the top step. She did not want to believe the audacity of her ex coming from Philly under the pretense he wanted to return her pet when he actually wanted a reconciliation. And Seth compounded it with a lie that they were engaged, and there was no doubt Daryl would return home and spread the rumor that she was engaged to be married to a lawman in a town that barely made the map. She spoke to her mother two or three times a month and at no time had she mentioned she was involved with a man.
As the car slowly maneuvered away from the curb, she watched the taillights until it disappeared from her line of vision. Natalia shrank when Seth folded his tall frame down next to her. “Why did you lie to him?” The question was flat, emotionless.
“I had to say something to get him to leave and take what I told him as sheriff to never come back”
“I don’t need you to fight my battles.”
“You think not? He continued to manhandle you even after you told him to take his hands off you.”
“You didn’t have to tell him we were getting married. You did to me what I’d allowed Daryl to do to me. And that is to make decisions for me because he thought he knew what was best. And knowing him, he’s going back to Philly and telling everyone he knows that I’m engaged. Then my family is going to blow up my phone with questions that I can’t or won’t answer.”
Seth stood and glared down at Natalia. He was in an emotional tumult because he had allowed Natalia to break through the wall where he had kept women at a distance since his divorce. Not only had he fallen in love with her, but he also wanted her in his life—for all time. When he’d told her ex that they were engaged, he wanted it to be true.
“You’re going to have to make up your mind, Natalia. Either we’re in this together or we can go back to being neighbors.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Natalia asked.
“Get what?”
“We’ve never talked about marriage. In fact, neither of us has ever mentioned it.”
“That’s because you’ve never given me an opening.”
She gave him a wide-eyed stare. “Oh, now you’re blaming me.” Natalia shook her head. “No, Seth. This is not on me. You talk about how I’m your fiancée, and then expect me to go along with it. I’m not one of your deputies or men under your command in the Marines where you give orders and expect them to be followed without question. I wasted too many years with a man who deemed it was his right to bend me to his will, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to have a rerun with you.” Turning on her heel Natalia walked into her house, leaving Seth to stare at the space where she had been.
* * *
“Why do you look as if you’ve lost your best friend?”
Natalia closed her eyes and struggled to keep her emotions in check. It had been more than three weeks since the two men she’d known intimately had walked out of her life. “I have.”
Mya moved over to sit next to her on the love seat. “Seth?”
“Yes.”
“Talk to me.”
Natalia she told Mya everything about her relationship with Daryl and how she was given a second chance at love when she met Seth and then about his confrontation with Daryl. “He didn’t have to tell Daryl we were engaged to be married when it’s the farthest thing from the truth.”
“You think not, Natalia?”
“It’s a lie.”
“It’s not a lie,” Mya insisted. “He’s in love with you and he does want to marry you.”
“That’s not the point. The problem is he never asked me what I want, just like Daryl never did. I don’t intend to share my life or my future with a man who believes he knows what’s best for me.”
“But he does want to marry you,” Mya insisted.
“How do you know this?”
“Seth stopped by the house one night and I overheard him talking to Giles about how much he loves you and that he’s finally found the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with and she just happens to be his neighbor.” Natalia clapped a hand over her mouth. “Has he told you that he loves you?” Mya asked.
“Yes. Once when we were making love and men will say anything in the throes of passion.”
“What about you? Have you told him you love him?”
“No.”
“Why not, Natalia?”
“I didn’t want to ruin what we have. No, had. Every time I tell a man that I love him, he takes it as a signal to crap all over me.”
“Why are you lumping Seth into the same category as those other losers?”
“Thrice burned, thrice shy.”
“That’s a lot of bologna and you know it. Sometimes, we have to kiss a few frogs before we find our prince. Believe me, I’ve kissed more than my share of frogs before I realized Giles was a keeper. Last month we began trying for a baby and hopefully by this time next year we’ll give Lily a brother or a sister.” Mya reached for Natalia’s hand. “Now I want you to promise me that you’re going to give Seth a chance to come to his senses before you write him off completely.”
“Why is it that I’m so secure as a doctor, but I’m a mess when it comes to dealing with a man?”
“Do you think it’s easy for a man?”
“No, but I don’t think I’m being difficult. Asking him to consult me before planning our future is a perfectly reasonable request.”
“I don’t think you’re difficult, Natalia. Just promise me you’ll not write Seth off until the two of you are able to work things out.”
“It’s already been three weeks.”
Mya smiled. “Give him another week, and if he doesn’t come around, then you’ll know it’s over. But if you do get back together, then I’d like you to consider having me as your matron of honor.”
Natalia eased her hand from Mya’s. “If things work out and I marry Seth, you will be my matron of honor.”
Natalia pressed her cheek to Mya’s. “Thanks for hearing me out.”
“That’s what sisters are for.”
She left Mya’s house and scanned the road for oncoming cars and then dashed across. Natalia didn’t know if Seth was at home because no light shone through the windows and his pickup was parked in the driveway adjacent to hers. He garaged the Charger, so she didn’t know if he had taken it out.
She felt better now that she had talked to Mya. And as promised, she would give Seth another week before relegating him to her past as she had with the other men in her life.
After walking up the steps to the porch, she went completely still. A dark figure rose from the chair and she detected the familiar scent of Seth’s cologne. There was enough illumination from the light over the door to see his expression. Their three-week separation had taken its toll. His face was thinner, and there were new lines bracketing his strong mouth. “We need to talk.”
She nodded. “Yes, we do.”
“May I come in?”
Natalia unlocked the door and held it open. “Yes. We’ll talk in the living room.” Natalia sat on the edge of the love seat staring directly at Seth who’d folded his body down to an armchair. She missed him so much that she felt like weeping. It wasn’t only his lovemaking, but the way he always made her feel protected whenever they were together. And she missed that they were so cognizant of the other’s moods. She knew when he’d had a rough day at work or felt his frustration in trying to identify who was supplying the drugs that were slowly destroying lives.
* * *
Seth curbed the urge to cross the room and sit beside Natalia. A sad smile twisted his mouth. “Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve last been together?”
Natalia blinked slowly. “No.”
“Three weeks, four days and approximately fourteen hours.”
She laughed softly. “What about the minutes and seconds?”
“I lost track of those.”
Natalia quickly sobered. “What do you want to talk about?”
Seth sandwiched his hands between his knees. “I want to apologize for being presumptuous. For assuming because we were sleeping together that if I proposed marriage you would accept it without question.”
“You still don’t get it, do you? You’ve never proposed, Seth. How can I accept or reject your proposal if you don’t ask?”
His hands tightened into fists. “What do you want me to do?”
Natalia gave him a long, penetrating stare.
“For an intelligent man, you can be really obtuse. Ask me properly, Seth.”
“Ask you what?” he asked.
“I need to hear you propose to me.”
Seth didn’t want to believe he had wasted three weeks pining for Natalia when all he had to do was open his mouth and ask her to become his wife. He had told her he loved her, but it was apparent that wasn’t enough. “Natalia Rachel Hawkins, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife and hopefully the mother of our children?”
“Hey, how do you know my middle name?”
“I’ll tell you after you give me your answer.”
“Yes, Seth Collier, I will marry you and have your babies.”
Seth moved over and sat next to Natalia and placed tiny kisses all over her face. “I ran your license plate through our database with a protected server and found out everything I needed to know about my beautiful, sexy neighbor.”
She giggled. “That’s snooping.”
“No, it’s not. I had to find out what I was in for once I decided I was going to snap you up before the other guys in The Falls hit on you.”
“That wasn’t going to happen because you had me when you offered to help me paint Chandler’s kitchen. I knew then that you were a keeper.”
Seth kissed her forehead. “I promise never to make a decision for us without running it past you first.”
Natalia pressed her mouth to his. “I’m going to hold you to that promise.”
“Do you want an engagement ring now or at the rehearsal dinner?”
“I’d like one to celebrate our first anniversary.”
Euphoria swept over Seth and he felt slightly light-headed. He had waited for Natalia to come to him day after day, night after night, while stubbornness and false masculine pride kept him from approaching her. Then he knew if he didn’t take the initiative and apologize for doing to her what her ex had done, he would lose her forever.
“What about dates? We have to decide on one before we call our folks with the news?”
“I moved here on Saturday, May 1, so why not the first of May next year?”
“Then May 1 it is.”
“I’d like Mya and my sister to be my attendants.”
Seth smiled. It was apparent Natalia had already planned their wedding. “I’m going to ask Giles to stand in as my best man and Roger as a groomsman. By that time, he should be svelte enough to fit into a tuxedo without popping the buttons of the vest.”
“I love you so much. Kiss me, darling, to seal the deal.”
“I remember when you first said that to me, we wound up in bed making love,” Seth said, reminding her of when he’d committed himself to her physically and emotionally.
“And it was the first time you told me you loved me.”
“And it won’t be the last.” Seth kissed her and then whispered in her ear what he wanted to do to her.
Natalia giggled in anticipation. “No! That’s nasty!”
“Good nasty or bad nasty?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go the bedroom so I can find out which one I like best.”