Chapter 32

Derek leaned against the headboard of the bed in one of Gran’s guest bedrooms, obediently sipping more herbal tea. There were some battles no man was meant to win. Trying to convince his grandmother that he was well enough to stay in his own home was one of them. Trying to refuse her herbal tea was another.

A steady stream of visitors had come throughout the afternoon. Hank McLean and his wife had just left. Adrian and Tracy Vinton had been there half an hour earlier. But so far the one person Derek really wanted to see hadn’t come.

Gran reappeared in the doorway. “You’re not getting much rest with all of your friends dropping by to see how the hero is.”

“I’m not a hero, Gran. And I’m getting plenty of rest. I don’t remember the last time I spent a whole afternoon in bed, doing nothing but eating and drinking tea. I should be at home. There’s a lot I need to—”

“Your dog and livestock are being cared for and your vegetables are being watered and weeded. There is nothing you have to do that someone else isn’t gladly doing for you. You can stay right in that bed for a couple of days. Until the doctor says you can go home.”

Derek suspected the doctor, in this regard, would say whatever his grandmother told him to say. No more and no less.

The doorbell rang. Gran sighed. “Here are more friends to see you. Shall I send them away?”

“That would be rude, and you’re never rude.”

Gran shook her head at him before leaving the bedroom doorway.

Derek chuckled. His grandmother was enjoying her role as nurse and protector way too much. Perhaps he needed to get hurt more often so she could fuss over him.

“Although this herbal tea is for the birds.” His gaze fell to the cup in his hand. He would much prefer a bold cup of coffee or even a tall glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon. He wasn’t going to get either of those, so no point asking. He chuckled again.

Soft footsteps in the hallway announced the approach of his next visitor. He looked to see who it would be. His breath caught when Brooklyn stepped into view. She looked tired, but at least she’d come.

Even though their eyes had met, she still rapped on the doorjamb. “May I come in?”

“Sure.” He pushed himself up against the pillows at his back.

She took a couple of steps into the room, then stopped again. “They whisked you away so fast this morning, we didn’t have any time to talk.”

“I know.”

“How are you?” She motioned toward his torso, the bandages hidden beneath his T-shirt.

“I’m good. How’s Alycia?”

“She’s good too. The doctor checked her over. A few scratches and a bruise or two. Nothing serious.” Brooklyn offered a tentative smile. “She was afraid at first that the other girls would be angry with her for spoiling the campout. But they’re not. They’re just glad she’s okay.”

“Good.”

Her expression tightened. “Why didn’t you tell me what Mac Tompkins did?”

“I couldn’t. You were worried enough.”

“You were already hurt. You shouldn’t have been out there.”

“Of course I had to be out there. I love the kid.” He hadn’t planned to say those words, but they were the truth. He loved Alycia—and he loved Alycia’s mom. More every day. There wasn’t much of anything he wouldn’t do for the two of them.

Brooklyn didn’t seem to have heard him. “If you hadn’t found her . . .”

“If it hadn’t been me, it would have been somebody else. And I didn’t really find her. I ran into her.”

“At first I was angry,” she said softly. “I blamed you for not being with her. That wasn’t fair of me.”

“I disappointed her. I know that.”

She looked him square in the face. “Let me finish, Derek. I . . . There’s a lot I need to say.”

“All right.”

She took a few more steps forward, bringing her to the foot of the bed. She didn’t look away from him, although he suspected she wanted to. What he wanted most was to get out of the bed and hold her in his arms. He could. He was clothed. But he had the good sense to wait.

“I haven’t . . . I haven’t trusted hardly anyone since Chad walked out on me. I didn’t want to trust. I was convinced that we were better on our own, just me and Alycia.” She took a breath, her shoulders rising and falling. “But I was wrong. I needed others. I need others.”

You need me, he thought.

Something flickered in her eyes, as if she’d heard the words he hadn’t spoken. Then she continued, “I didn’t come back to Thunder Creek because I wanted to. I came back because it was my one real chance to make a better life for Alycia.” Another breath in and out. “So I was determined to make the best of what I thought was a bad situation.”

Again he had to resist the urge to go to her, to shelter her, to comfort her.

“But over the summer, there was Ruth and all of her friends and Zach and Lucca and Pastor Adrian and Tracy and so many others who made me feel that I belong.” Unshed tears glittered in her eyes. “And there was you.”

There was no resisting it now. Derek tossed aside the sheet and got out of bed, ignoring the jab of pain that the sudden movement caused. He didn’t stop until he stood before her. He moved to take her in his arms, but she stopped him with the palm of her hand against his chest.

“You and all of the people who welcomed me home, you all made me see that it wasn’t a bad situation, the way I’d expected it to be. You, all of you, made me part of a three-strand cord.”

He gave his head a slight shake, not following her exact meaning.

“It’s a verse in the Bible. I read it just last week. It didn’t mean much to me at the time, but after Alycia and I got home from the doctor’s, I remembered it and I finally understood what God had been telling me.”

He waited. As much as he wanted to hold her, needed to hold her, he sensed it was important that he let her say what she’d come to say.

“It says, ‘If one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.’” Tears slipped from her eyes.

With the pads of his thumbs, he wiped them away.

“God is the first and most important of those strands, and I’m the second. But my daughter, my friends, my neighbors, my community. All of them are that third important strand. They were all there to help me when Alycia and I first got to Thunder Creek, and they were there to help me when I needed my car repaired and my house cleaned and fixed and when I needed a job. They were all there yesterday when Alycia went missing. I wasn’t alone. Not for a moment of it.”

He loved her. He loved her vulnerability. He loved her courage. He loved the tremble in her chin and the determination in her eyes.

“But mainly that third strand in those verses is you, Derek. You made me stronger. You lifted me up. I didn’t want to trust you, and yet somehow I couldn’t keep from it, no matter how hard I tried not to.”

He’d waited long enough. He drew her close and kissed her. And if he could have his way, he just might never stop.

A hundred different emotions exploded inside of Brooklyn as Derek kissed her. All of them amazing and wonderful and magical. She didn’t resist or try to pull away. She knew now that this was where she belonged.

It was Derek who drew back first, but he didn’t go far. His hands rose to gently cup her face, and his gaze locked with hers. “Brooklyn, I never realized how fast someone could become essential in my life. You haven’t been back three months yet, but you . . . you . . . You’ve got to know how I feel about you.” He stopped, searching her with his gaze.

“How do you feel about me, Derek?” she asked, hoping he would say it, fearing he would say it.

“I love you, of course.”

“Of course?”

He kissed her again, more forcefully this time, stealing her breath away. When he broke the kiss at last, she couldn’t have stood without his hands holding her arms.

“Brooklyn, I want to be by your side, helping you do whatever you choose to do. I admire you. I admire your courage and your determination. I admire the way you mother Alycia. I couldn’t care less about your land or what you choose to do with it. I just want to be a part of your life. Of yours and Alycia’s lives. I love you. I love you both.”

Strange. She’d known, walking into this room, that she had fallen in love with him. She’d even believed that he might love her or at least that he might learn to. But now that he’d said the words aloud, she couldn’t believe she’d heard right. She was afraid she’d imagined it all.

Uncertainty flickered in his eyes. “Do you think you could ever love me?”

“It’s too late,” she whispered. “I already do.”

He gathered her close again, not kissing her, just holding her tight. She closed her eyes and melted against him.

“Brooklyn, I want to love you the way you deserve to be loved.” He rubbed his cheek against her head. “And I don’t think that means we’ll never be mad or argue with each other. We’ll disagree again. Maybe often. I know you can be stubborn. So can I. But that cord that binds us won’t break. Not ever. I’ll never leave you, no matter what you say or do. I’ll always think of you first. That’s a promise.”

Tears returned to her eyes as she pulled back to look up at him. “You’ll think of me.”

“I’ll think of you. Always.”

His promise touched a secret place. No one except God—and she hadn’t believed that for most of her life—had thought much of Brooklyn Myers, the girl who’d been abandoned by mother, by father, by husband.

But Derek thought of her, and he would go on thinking of her. He saw her and loved her.

Like balm on an open sore, she felt his words heal the remaining wound in her heart for good.