When Darren put his foot on the first porch step, Libby let the screen door fall shut in his face.
“You’ve got the wrong address.” She was determined not to show her fear.
Darren grabbed the door. “I don’t think so.”
“Think again, O’Malley.” She reached for the doorknob. No sooner had she grabbed it than she heard him step onto the porch.
Before she could get inside the house he was there, grabbing her shoulder with one hand, quietly but firmly closing the door with the other.
“Let go of me!” She spoke as loudly as she dared. At this point she wasn’t willing to risk the consequences of awakening Nicole or her father. She wasn’t seventeen anymore. She could take care of this weasel on her own. To break his grip, she raised her arms, then brought them down hard.
“Libby! Would you be reasonable? I don’t want to hurt you, I just want to talk to you.”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
“Says you, but I don’t buy that, Libby Bateson. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past few weeks, about that last night we had together.”
“I thought you said you didn’t remember. You were so drunk you passed out.”
“So I did. Was that why you left? That must have been quite a walk. We were miles from your farm."
He was fishing for information. He still didn’t remember. Libby clung to that hope and tried to ignore the way his eyes fell to the front of her T-shirt, then lowered to her denim shorts and down her legs.
Just the touch of his eyes made her feel sick. She pressed her back against the smooth wood of the front door. He was standing way too close. The sight of his face only inches from hers, the faint scent of his breath behind the more obvious smell of stale beer brought back sordid memories.
He’d been drinking. Not so much that he couldn’t drive, or walk straight, but enough. Again she fought for control, not wanting him to see the fear that pounded in her ears and dampened her palms.
“Get away from me, Darren."
“Now, that’s not what I remember you sayin’.’’ He leaned an arm to her left, against the side of the house, then moved in so near she had to turn her head to avoid his lips touching her skin.
“You have a pretty poor memory. I said that and a whole lot more. Not that you paid any attention." She tried to slip away to the right, but he put his other arm up to trap her.
“We did make out that night, didn’t we? When you left Chatsworth, I have to admit I never thought twice about the story that went around—that you had run off with Owen Holst. I never dreamed you could have been pregnant. With my child."
“Don’t call her that! You’re not her father.” The lie came automatically to Libby’s lips. She’d never developed a plan for this moment, never suspecting in her worst dreams that it would ever come to this. She was supposed to have been gone, long gone, before the possibility even occurred to him.
Clearly, he didn’t believe her. “Why didn’t you tell me, Libby?”
“Because there was nothing to tell.”
“Are you saying Nicole inherited her athletic ability from Owen?” Darren managed to make this seem completely ludicrous. “And what about the shape of her face? Just like mine, you can’t deny it.”
“That proves nothing.”
“Maybe a blood test will.”
She would not panic. “Where does your wife think you are right now? Have you told her your theory? And how about your children?”
His thin mouth hardened. “You are vicious, aren’t you? No, I haven't told her, but I will if I have to.”
“There’s no reason to tell anyone,” Libby said quickly. “As long as you leave now and never bother me again.”
He shook his head. “I just don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell me? When it happened, I mean. I had a right to know.”
Libby looked at him with total disbelief. “You raped me, Darren. Why the hell would I tell you anything?”
“I raped you?”
Libby heard the forced incredulity in his tone. So he had known all along. Or at least suspected. For a moment she let the hatred flow freely through her, glaring at him with all the vitriol she had stored over the years. “You tore my clothes. Bruised my body. Ignored me when I begged you to stop. I was only a kid. A kid who’d just lost her mother and brother...”
He took a step back, holding out his hand. “It wasn’t like that. You wanted it, Libby. You can’t say you didn’t. You were crazy about me.”
“I was crazy, all right Crazy to have given you the time of day. But then I paid the price for my mistake, didn’t I?” She’d thought she was past the pain of that night, but now she felt as though she could cry forever, she was so bitter and angry.
Darren kept at her. “So I am her father.”
“You must be hard of hearing, O’Malley. I distinctly heard the lady say you weren’t.”
Gibson. But it took a moment for Libby to find him. He blended into the shadows with his dark jeans and T-shirt. Only his blond hair stood out in the faint porch light. Now he stepped through the screen door. He wasn’t that much taller or bigger than Darren, but in that instant he dwarfed the other man.
“What the hell are you doing here, Browning?”
“I was coming to say thank you.” Gibson’s gaze slid toward Libby, his expression softening slightly. “My parents are with Allie. Her fever finally broke.” He put himself between her and Darren, placing a protective arm around her shoulders.
His voice, when he spoke to Darren again, was thick. “Looks like I’ve arrived just in time. What are you doing here, O’Malley?”
“Libby and I have something to talk about. Private business, if you can take a hint.”
Gibson shifted his eyes to Libby. “Is that true?”
“No. I asked him to leave. I want him to leave.” To have Gibson by her side was such a relief, but how much had he heard of their conversation?
Gibson dropped his arm and moved forward, corralling Darren.
“We didn’t finish our business,” Darren said, leaning around Gibson to point at Libby, even as he stepped backward.
“Our business is more than finished. It never started.”
“But if Nicole is my—”
Gibson grabbed hold of Darren’s collar and tipped the other man’s head so that Darren’s cap fell to the ground. “You don’t have the situation figured out yet, buddy. You committed a crime against this woman. If she wanted she could land you in jail. Think about how your wife and kids would feel about that.”
The breath caught in Libby’s throat He’d heard enough. He’d heard everything. Pent-up rage hardened the planes of Gibson’s face and she hoped Darren didn’t push him to do something they’d all live to regret.
Although Darren was definitely in the weaker position, his eyes flashed aggressively. “She couldn’t prove anything. Too much time has gone by.”
Gibson tightened his grip, jerking Darren slightly forward. Libby noticed him clench his other hand into a fist, and prayed this wasn’t about to disintegrate into a fight or worse.
“Well, I for one,” Gibson growled, “am willing to back her story.”
“And so am I.”
Good Lord, it was her father, standing at the front door. The escalating noise must have woken him. In his arms he had a rifle. Pointed directly at Darren’s head.
“Furthermore, I’m perfectly capable of pulling this trigger and saying that I only did it to protect Libby. Heard some noises out on the porch and found you attacking her.”
“You’re crazy,” Darren whispered, but his cracking voice revealed his fear.
“No. I’m not” The older man stepped forward and brought the gun within inches of Darren’s blue cotton shirt. “Maybe I was before. Hell, I must have been. Not to have protected her...to have kicked her out of the house when she needed so much help...”
His eyes flashed over to Libby, and she saw the full agony of his remorse. A sudden movement from Darren snapped his attention back to the present.
“Watch what you’re doing there, O’Malley. Cause it would sure ease my mind to settle this score tonight. A few years too late, but better late than never.”
Libby held her breath, praying he wouldn’t pull the trigger. The men in her life were out of control, and she didn’t know how to contain them. She tried to issue an order for her father to put away his gun and for Gibson to stop clenching his fists, but, as if she were paralyzed, the words wouldn’t come.
“You’re not going to shoot me,” Darren said. Still, he backed off.
“I don’t know if I would count on that if I were you.” Gibson looked as though he would gladly take the gun from her father and finish the job himself.
Darren shifted widened eyes to Libby, silently pleading for her intervention. The sight of the man, frightened and humiliated, struck her as hilarious. Libby felt laughter break out from the back of her throat. Was she going crazy? She’d never seen anything less funny in her life. Yet she couldn’t seem to stop the inappropriate convulsions as they took possession of her body.
Her laughter proved the final straw. Darren, too, seemed to draw the conclusion that she’d snapped. Like a victim in a horror film, a fearful revulsion reshaped his features. He took a few more hesitant steps backward, then turned suddenly and fled to his truck. Libby could hear herself still laughing hysterically as he swung the vehicle around and drove furiously back down the lane.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Libby?” Gibson said about half an hour later, sitting in the rocker next to Libby. Her father had gone back to bed. They were finally alone, with only the stars and the slip of a quarter moon for company. “God, it kills me that you went through all that on your own.”
“I was only seventeen and I was ashamed. I guess I thought it was partly my fault.”
“Oh, Libby.” That she could possibly have blamed herself for what Darren had done broke his heart.
“It was awful, but it happened a long time ago.”
Maybe. He was only finding out now, though. And bad as learning out about the rape was, trying to understand Henry’s reaction was even worse. “I still can’t believe your father kicked you out because you were pregnant. Did he know you’d been raped?”
Her long sigh stabbed his conscience. “The signs were there. I guess he chose to ignore them.”
God, his head hurt with the enormity of this. Darren had known Libby- had lost her mother and Chris. What kind of creep preyed on a girl like that?
Yet he couldn’t heap all the blame on Darren. He’d been so hard on Libby since she’d come home, condemning her for leaving her father and not telling Darren about their child. Damn, the woman deserved a medal.
“Dad wasn’t himself when he ordered me off the farm,” Libby said. “After the accident he went a little crazy. I don’t want you to blame him, Gibson. He needs you. You’re his neighbor and his friend. Just about the only person around here who still talks to him.”
“That’s why you wouldn’t tell me why you left, wasn’t it? You were protecting him....”
“He has no one.” Her voice choked. “At least, he won’t when we’re gone.”
Here was the crux of the problem. Agitated, Gibson rose and paced the length of the veranda. Then he stopped in front of her, choosing his words with care. “But you don't have to go anymore, Libby. Don’t you see?” He pulled her up beside him.
“How can you say that, after all you heard tonight?” She yanked her hands away and whirled out of reach. “Now that you know the truth, you must see I can’t raise Nicole anywhere near that man.” She stared out over the railing into the vast night sky.
Gibson came up from behind her, tentatively raising his hands to knead the taut muscles at the back of her neck. “I can understand why you were scared Libby, but if you look at it logically, you don’t have to be afraid of Darren. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose if the truth comes out. His reputation, his wife, his children—they’d be the ones to suffer, much more than you or Nicole.”
At his mention of her daughter’s name, he felt her muscles tighten. “I can’t take that chance. I can’t have my little girl finding out that the only reason she’s alive is that a man raped me. She’s only seven, Gibson. When she’s older she’ll have to know the truth. But not now. And not like this.”
“We can protect her together, Libby. You, me and your father.” He pivoted her until she faced him. With one finger he tipped her face upward.
“I love you, Libby.” He saw her bottom lip tremble at his declaration, but he didn’t stop. He had a lot to get off his chest.
“I’m sorry for all the hurtful things I’ve said since you've been back. I figured that you’d suffered in the years you were away, but I had no idea how much.”
“It’s—”
“Shh. Let me finish. I also want to apologize for getting angry when you criticized the way I was raising Allie. I was lashing out at you because you were right, and I was angry at you for that. I let my guilt about what happened to Rita stop me from being the kind of father I should’ve been.”
He stopped when Libby pressed a finger to his lips. “You’re a good father, Gibson. Just a little blind occasionally.”
He caught her finger and kissed it. God, but she was sweet. And strong. And more beautiful than anything he could imagine. He’d spent the past week trying to pretend she was gone, steeling himself for the inevitable, but it had only taught him one thing. He couldn’t let her go—he needed her too much already.
He placed a hand behind her neck and dipped his head, pausing when his lips were just a hair’s width from hers.
Her lips parted ever so slightly, and he captured them with his own. The warm, sweet kiss acknowledged that she, too, had needs. He welcomed her arms as they came around his neck and tightened his grip on her. Holding her like this was all he’d wanted for so long now.
“Gibson?”
He covered her mouth with another kiss, didn’t want to let her talk—she’d only come up with more excuses why they couldn’t be together. She was a physically strong woman, but in that moment she felt so frail in his arms.
He ran his hands up and down her, trembling at the gentle swell of her hips. He’d never felt an emotion to match this. So much desire and love, splitting and then merging, like two forks of a river.
“Trust me to take care of you, Libby. You and Nicole. I’ll protect her like she was my own. Believe me, I'll never let Darren hurt her, in word or deed.”
“Oh, Gibson.” A sob choked her and he cradled her to his chest.
“I love you, Libby. We belong together.”
“I l-love you, too. But I can’t let people go on believing Owen is Nicole’s father. It isn’t right.”
“I agree.”
“Then, what will I tell them?”
“That it’s none of their business. You held out against my badgering long enough. A few nosy neighbors shouldn’t be much trouble.”
She laughed softly against his chest.
“Anyway,” he said, smoothing the hair from her cheek with the back of his hand, “after a couple of years they’ll be so used to thinking of her as my daughter, the question won’t even come up.”
“Your daughter. I like the sound of that.”
So did he. Nicole, too, was precious to him, and he was more than happy that the woman and the child came as a package. He pulled Libby to his chest again. She belonged on this land, just as he did. She’d left it only because she’d had no choice. “So you’ll stay?”
She looked up with tears in her eyes but a smile on her lips.
“I’ll stay.”