BOOKER COULD HAVE SWORN the little Nissan that passed him a few minutes earlier was the truck he’d seen Katie driving around town. But it had to be someone else, he told himself, most likely someone staying in the cabins farther up the mountain. Katie was probably at home with her new baby. She had no reason to be out in the middle of the night, no reason to be anywhere near the farmhouse….
Pulling up the collar of his leather jacket against the chill wind that whistled through the trees around him, he shoved his hands in his pockets and kept moving. He’d been walking for nearly an hour, but the passing miles had done little to soothe the old aches, the ones inside that he thought he’d outdistanced. He felt dark, sullen and, for the first time in a long while, he was craving a cigarette.
Headlights appeared as a vehicle came around the bend in the road up ahead. Booker hunched deeper into his coat and waited for it to pass. If it had been going the other way, he would have stepped off the road into the trees, as he’d been doing all night. He had no intention of drawing anyone’s attention. He was too angry to ask anyone for a ride, too angry to need anyone. He just wanted to be left alone.
The truck passed before he realized it was the red Nissan he’d seen earlier. Standing in the road, he turned to glance behind him. The person he’d briefly glimpsed behind the wheel had certainly looked like Katie….
Whoever was driving threw on the brakes. The truck came to a sudden stop, then the gears shifted and the engine whined as the driver backed up.
A moment later, Katie rolled down her window and stared out at him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, not at all sure he was happy to see her.
“What do you think?”
He didn’t know what to think. Katie hadn’t come to the farmhouse since she’d moved out. “Where’s Mike?”
“At his house, I guess.”
“And the baby?”
“In here with me.”
“Isn’t it a little late to be taking him out?”
“Someone had to find you.”
He zipped up his jacket. Now that he’d stopped moving, the air felt even colder. “I can take care of myself.”
She let her breath go in a dramatic sigh. “To be honest, I’m beginning to wonder about that, Booker. The ‘T’ in your middle name must stand for trouble.”
When she smiled, he felt a responding grin twitch at the corners of his mouth—but resisted the lightening of his mood. “You’re not the first person to draw the connection.”
She peered in her rearview mirror. “Are you going to climb in before I get rear-ended?”
The wind whipped his hair across his forehead. “I’m not good company tonight, Katie.”
“I’m not asking you to entertain me. I just want to know you’re home safe so I can sleep. And maybe I want to hear why the police think you’ve stolen another car.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Maybe?”
“If it’s not going to upset me.”
Booker’s momentary levity disappeared. “Are you afraid I did it?”
She seemed to sober, too. “I know you didn’t, or I wouldn’t be out here.”
She meant it—he could tell—and the fact that she trusted him seemed to press back the darkness and the cold.
“Why are you walking?” she asked.
“Let’s just say Orton wasn’t as excited about giving me a ride home as he was about hauling me down to the police station.”
“I don’t like that man.”
“That makes two of us.”
Headlights bore down on them as an approaching car rounded a bend farther up the mountain. “Someone’s coming up behind you,” he said. “You’d better get going.”
Katie gave the truck some gas, but only enough to pull over, out of the way. “Come on.” Her voice carried across the road. “Delbert’s about to have a nervous breakdown.”
Booker raised his voice above the engine of the advancing car. “He’s not asleep?”
“He’s pacing a hole in your kitchen floor, muttering over and over that you’ll be home soon.”
“Oh, boy.” Finally overcoming the stubbornness that had driven him all day—the last hour especially—he waited for the car to pass, then jogged over and climbed in next to Troy. Immediately the comforting smell of fabric softener and baby powder enveloped him and made him feel more like the man he’d been for the past few years than the angry child of the first twenty-five.
Maybe everything was going to be okay. Maybe he was what he thought he was and not what he used to be….
“Baby’s asleep, huh?” he said, staring down at the tightly wrapped bundle that was Troy.
“He likes the movement of the truck.” Katie turned the Nissan around and headed toward the farmhouse. After a few minutes, she looked over at him. “So where did the car come from?”
“What car?” he asked, stalling.
“The car the police found in the gully.”
He shrugged.
“You don’t have any idea?”
He turned to stare out at the dark trees moving past his window. “I guess it was abandoned—more or less.”
“And the police now realize this?”
“That’s why they let me go.”
“What about the robbery at Jon Small’s?”
“Orton still seems to think I had something to do with it, but they didn’t find any evidence linking me to the robbery when they searched the farmhouse or my shop. They don’t have any witnesses, no one who so much as saw my truck in the neighborhood that night.” He propped his elbow on the window ledge, shifting so he could see her better in the darkness. “They can’t arrest me on suspicion alone.”
“Good.”
Booker checked her ashtray, halfheartedly hoping for a toothpick, and was surprised to actually find one.
Her eyes flicked his way when he opened the wrapper and stuck it in his mouth, and she smiled again, but she didn’t say anything.
“What’s Mike doing tonight?” he asked a few seconds later.
“I haven’t seen him.”
She fell silent, but the expression on her face indicated she was deep in thought.
“What are you thinking about?”
She pulled into the drive and cut the engine. “Mike.”
“You’ve been together a lot lately.”
“Yes.” She bit her lip, as if she had more to say, and Booker braced himself for what was probably coming next. You know I’ve been in love with him my whole life, Booker. Now things are changing between us, and I wanted you to know I’m hoping to marry him in a few months. I feel I should tell you, just in case last night meant something to you. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea about what happened….
Briefly Booker closed his eyes at the memory of watching Katie nurse. The incredible purity of a mother’s love for her child, and the intimacy of being a witness to it, had touched him deeply. He’d almost told her right then that he was still in love with her, that Troy might not be his baby but he knew he could be a good father to him.
Obviously, he’d been delusional to think she might welcome such a confession. Rebecca had said Katie wasn’t responsive to Mike, but he couldn’t imagine why she wouldn’t be. Mike was everything she’d always wanted. She must have figured that out.
Clenching his jaw, Booker forced himself to look at her. “What about Mike? You got some kind of special announcement to make?”
Her chest rose as though she’d just taken a deep breath. “Yes, I guess I do.”
He’d been expecting it, and still the impact of that admission hit him hard. He wished he could let her ease her conscience and then reassure her that he had no false hopes. But he wasn’t capable of it. Not tonight. He felt too open, too…vulnerable. And he was afraid he might embarrass himself again by trying to convince her that he could make her happy—like he’d tried to do once before.
“I’d rather skip this next part, if it’s all the same to you. But I hope the two of you will be happy,” he said. Then he got out and headed for the house, hoping she’d give him a break and leave it at that.
KATIE SAT IN HER TRUCK long after Booker disappeared into the house. She’d been on the verge of telling him that she’d finally realized the difference between the crush she’d had on Mike Hill and falling in love—that Booker had been the one to show her what falling in love was all about. Only she had to explain her feelings over the past two years and she didn’t know exactly where to start. He hadn’t given her enough time to get her thoughts sorted out.
Inside the house, she saw Booker, then Delbert, walk past the window as they talked. Booker was obviously reassuring Delbert, calming him down. Katie knew Delbert was going to be okay when he appeared again. He was smiling and moving toward the stairs, probably on his way to bed.
The kitchen light went off. Booker didn’t even glance out to see if she was gone. Then the porch light went dark, too. He was turning his back on her, sending her the signal to go home. But she wasn’t ready to leave. She kept remembering the night Booker came to her door to ask her to marry him—and wondered if she had the courage to take the same risk.
Her heart began to pound as she unbuckled Troy and got out. She thought Booker might snub her on principle. Simply for revenge. She deserved it after what she’d done to him. But deep down, she didn’t believe he was that petty. And she owed him the truth, even if he no longer returned her feelings.
“Here we go,” she murmured to Troy as she carried him up to the door. Her stomach muscles tensed as she knocked. After having lived in Booker’s house, she felt she should be able to walk right in, as if she belonged here, and hated feeling as though she was now being shut out.
She heard someone approach.
“Please let it be Booker,” she whispered to herself. If Delbert answered the door, chances were he’d hang around to see her and the baby, and then she didn’t know what she’d state as her purpose for knocking in the middle of the night. She certainly didn’t want an audience when she told Booker how she felt about him.
Fortunately, when the door swung open, the full moon behind her lit the face of the man she wanted to see. Barefoot and bare-chested, Booker looked so good he made her mouth go dry.
He didn’t turn on a light, and she was glad. The darkness seemed to lend her some security. “You left before I could finish,” she said.
“In case you didn’t notice, that was intentional.”
She hoisted Troy higher. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
He took the baby from her and set him inside the house, out of the wind, but he didn’t invite her in. “Why would I want to stick around to hear you tell me you’re in love with another man, Katie? You’ve wanted Mike since you were little. I’ve heard it all before.”
“That’s just it,” she said. “Mike and I are only friends. I’m not in love with him.”
Distrust lingered on Booker’s face, but he was watching her closely. “Since when?”
“Since I fell in love with…since I fell in love with—”
“Who?” he prompted.
Cursing herself for being such a coward, she swallowed hard and forced the word out. “You.”
Gently pulling her inside, he closed the door. Katie could hear the clock ticking over the stove and smell the familiar scent of Booker’s kitchen, and felt as though she’d just come home. The next few seconds would tell whether or not that was really the case….
“Katie, nothing’s changed,” he said softly. “I have a record. Your parents hate me. I’m still the same man you walked away from two years ago.”
“I know that.”
“And?”
“Leaving you was a mistake, Booker.”
He ran a finger down her cheek, moving lower to brush lightly over her bottom lip, and she wished he’d kiss her or…or something.
“Well?” she said, her arms aching to hold him.
His dark eyes lifted to hers.
“This is the part where you respond,” she told him. “Preferably with something similar to what you said two years ago.”
He leaned close, pressing his lips to her neck. Katie felt an answering flutter in her belly and knew she had come home—to Booker.
“Refresh my memory,” he murmured, his breath warm on her skin as his mouth moved up to her ear.
She let her hands skim over his bare chest and muscular arms and finally settle securely around his neck so she could pull him fully against her. “You said, ‘Marry me, Kate. I know I can make you happy.”’
“I did?” He kissed the corners of her mouth before kissing her more deeply.
“I think you were right. You can make me happy. I’m starting to get happy already,” she said. “Let’s go upstairs.”
He chuckled, then sobered when he looked down at Troy. “Isn’t it too soon?”
“Doctor said to wait a month.”
“How long’s it been?”
“A month.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s been twenty-eight days since Troy was born, but I’ve never been very good at math.”
He gave her a sexy grin. “Me, neither.”
Lifting Troy by the handle of his infant seat, he slung an arm around her shoulders and led her to the stairs. “Let’s see if we can make you downright ecstatic.”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU wouldn’t make love to me,” Katie complained almost as soon as she opened her eyes the following morning.
Booker yawned and drew her closer. “I guess I’m better at math than I thought.”
“You’re overprotective, you know that?”
He scowled and rubbed the stubble on his chin lightly against her shoulder. “Come on, you’ll ruin my reputation.”
Katie rolled her eyes and rose up on her elbows. “You’re such a big softie. I can’t believe you have anybody fooled with that big, bad biker stuff.”
“And I can’t believe you’re complaining about last night,” he said. “We did almost everything I could think of. I should get extra points for creativity.”
Katie couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. “It was good,” she admitted. “Very good.”
“It must’ve been. You were screaming so loud I thought you’d wake Delbert.”
She gave him a playful kick. “I wasn’t screaming.”
“That was me?” He looked boyishly handsome with his mussed hair and sleepy smile.
She laughed. “Just tell me you were saving the best for last.”
When she snuggled closer, she could tell his body was ready to take her up on her offer, but she knew he wouldn’t act on it until he was sure he wouldn’t hurt her.
“Ask me that in a week or so.”
“A week sounds like forever.”
“Is it long enough to plan a wedding?”
Katie propped her chin on his chest. “I don’t see why not. We don’t have to invite very many people. My parents won’t even come.”
“Does that bother you?”
She drew light circles on his shoulder. “I wish there could be peace between us, but I’m not going to let that stop me from being with you.”
“Do you want me to talk to them, try to work things out?”
“I’ll do that.” She found his hand and entwined their fingers. “Are you sure you can forgive me for the past, Booker?”
“I say we start with a clean slate.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Which means—”
Troy wailed then, and Booker rolled away to look over the edge of the bed. “I think our baby’s hungry,” he said, scooping him out of his infant seat and settling him between them.
Our baby…Katie kissed Troy’s soft cheek and laughed when he immediately began to root for her breast. “Which means what?” she said, returning to their earlier conversation.
“Which means you forget about Ashleigh. And you believe me when I say I didn’t sleep with her.”
Katie stared at the man she loved. “You went home with her.”
“But we didn’t do anything.”
Could that be true?
Even if it wasn’t, they’d both made mistakes. If he could forgive and forget, she could, too.
“I wouldn’t have gone home with her if we’d been together. You know that, don’t you?” Booker said. “I would never cheat on you, Katie.”
She admired the clean lines of his face, the wide brow, the high cheekbones. “I know that,” she said, happier than she could ever remember being.
Troy’s squirming grew frantic, and he began to cry in earnest.
“I think someone’s growing impatient.” Booker shifted to allow her more room to maneuver.
“He needs to be changed.”
“Did you bring diapers?”
“I brought a diaper bag, but it’s in the truck.”
“I’ll get it while you feed him.”
“Booker?” Delbert called. Judging by the closeness of his voice, he was standing directly outside their door.
Booker had just gotten out of bed and was pulling on his pants. “What?”
“Is Katie in there with you?” He sounded confused.
Booker raised his brows at Katie, as though requesting her permission to tell Delbert what he must already know. She nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “Why?”
“I want to hold the baby again.”
“The baby’s eating right now,” Booker told him. “You can hold him when we come down for breakfast, okay?”
Delbert agreed, but Katie didn’t hear him move away.
“I think he’s still out there,” she whispered.
“Is there something else?” Booker asked.
“Yes…”
“What?”
A long pause, then, “Someone called for you last night.”
Yawning, Booker yanked a T-shirt over his head. “Who?”
“Um…can you come here?”
“Why?”
“I want to whisper it.”
Katie felt her eyebrows gather and glanced at Booker questioningly. “That means it was a woman.”
“Just say it out loud,” Booker said, sitting on the edge of the bed while pulling on his boots.
“Her name was Chevy,” Delbert said. “Chevy, like the car. She has a car name. Isn’t that funny, Booker? She wants to come over. She wants to see you.”
Katie struggled to sit up while keeping Troy at her breast, but Booker pressed her gently back against the pillows. “Relax,” he murmured, and leaned across Troy to kiss the top of her head.
“Go ahead and call her back,” he told Delbert.
“Me?” Delbert said.
“Yeah. Why not?” Booker got up without bothering to lace his boots, and put on a ball cap.
“What do you want me to say, huh, Booker?” Delbert asked. “What should I say?”
Booker’s eyes rested on Katie, and she watched him slowly grin. “Tell her I’m getting married.”