Boone

by Emily March

Tenderly, he cupped her cheek. “Hearing you say that makes me very happy, Hollywood. I’m glad I brought the journal along.”

  “I am too.”

  “Nevertheless, before we move along, I want to circle back to the strength issue, because I see something different, and I think you need to hear about it. Hannah, I don’t think you’re ready to embrace the wuss. I think you don’t want to be strong alone. You want someone to be there for you. You want someone you can lean on when you need support.”

  She tilted her head as she considered that. “You may have a point.”

  “After this little walk of ours, I’m certain of it. And this is my response. I’m here.” He poked his chest with his index finger. “I’ve got broad shoulders, and I’ve spent the past five years sinking deep roots. I won’t blow over. Lean on me, Hannah. When you’re tired of being strong, lean on me. If I had my guitar with me, I’d break out into that seventies tune by Bill Withers. We all need somebody. Let me be your somebody. I will be there whenever you need me.”

  “You are really very sweet, you know.”

  “Thank you. I think.”

  “Sweet as Sarah’s strawberry pinwheels, in fact.”

  “Now you’ve done it. I’m hungry.” He held out his hand toward her. “We should probably make our way back to camp. Lunch will be delivered soon.”

  “Sounds fabulous.” She placed her hand in his, and they turned to retrace their steps through the meadow. Before they entered the forest, she said, “Boone, I find your broad shoulders attractive for many reasons, but I want to be honest with you. While you’ve been busy sinking roots, I’ve been sleeping. I’m slowly waking up from a three-year nap. I’m just beginning this living business. It’ll probably take me a bit of time to figure it out.”

  “That’s okay.” He laced their fingers and brought her hand up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. “Take all the time you need. But promise me you’ll stay in Eternity Springs while you’re doing your thinking. Give this thing between us a chance. Give me a chance.”

  “I don’t know if that’s smart. I may have shed a bag or two, but my cargo hold is still packed full. It’s not just you. It’s Brianna too. That may be a hill too high for me to climb, not without a lot of time and therapy, anyway.”

  “I understand baggage, Hannah. Believe me. See, I’m a multitasker. While I’ve been sinking roots, I’ve also been sorting through my baggage. I promise you that you won’t find a better place to unload. No one will rush you. You’ll have all the time you need to tackle the task. And as far as therapy goes, you could go to the ends of the earth, and you won’t find a better counselor than Celeste Blessing.”

  She wanted to say yes. She yearned to say yes.

  She was afraid.

  But she wanted to live. She wanted to keep the color in her life.

  She wanted Boone McBride and the chance at happiness he offered.

  But right this moment, she needed to take a step back. The man would steamroll right over her if she allowed it. So she avoided making any agreement by teasing, “Oh, I know what’s going on here. You just want to earn your wings.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Your Angel’s Rest blazon. You’re such an overachiever, McBride. It’s not enough for you to be Brianna’s light. You want to be my light too, and earn your wings.”

  “I won’t argue that. So what do you say?”

  She dropped his hand, lifted her arms, and laced her fingers behind his neck. “I say is that a Zippo in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

  He snorted.

  Encouraged, she added, “I’ll be the candle, and you can light me up.”

  His silver eyes glittered as his hands slid around her waist. “Did you really just say that?”

  “Too much corn? Unfortunately, I don’t have your smooth-talking gift, Boone. Flirtation does not come naturally to me, and I’m rusty at romance.”

  “I disagree. No rust on you, Hollywood. You might not use words to flirt, but those eyes of yours? They say more than War and Peace.”

  “War and Peace?”

  “Longest novel that comes to mind at the moment.” He held her gaze, his own steady and sure. “So that’s a yes? You’ll stay in Eternity Springs?”

  He was strong. “You’re a steamroller.”

  “No. I’m a lawyer.”

  She’d have to be strong to be with him.

  “Say yes, Hannah.”

  She pursed her lips. “You promise you’ll be patient with me?”

  “Sweetheart, when it comes to you and this relationship we’re building, I have the patience of a saint. Say yes.”

  I am strong. “Yes.”

  Triumph blazed in his expression.

  When he yanked her tight against him, his eyes alight with a wicked gleam, Hannah added. “There’s nothing saintly about you, Texas.”

  Just before his lips captured hers, he murmured, “Aren’t you glad?”

  Happiness rose within her right along with desire. The blaze of it all but blinded her. Yes.

  * * *

  The next few weeks passed in a sleep-deprived and sexually sated haze of happiness for Boone, as he and Hannah officially became a couple to his friends in Eternity Springs. Their welcome to Hannah as the town’s newest resident could not have been warmer. In a development that both pleased and annoyed him, Boone sometimes found himself competing for her time.

  The babysitter brigade happily endorsed and encouraged the romance, which aided Boone’s attempt to find a balance between “couple” and “family” time. He was careful not to foist too much motherhood on Hannah. Yet with every day and week that passed, she assumed that role more and more often.

  Toward the end of July, as the nanny’s start date approached, Hannah moved in with Boone to free up Serenity Cabbage for the nanny, Serena Whittaker. In early August, Hannah joined Boone, his nanny, and his daughter on the trip to Las Vegas for Tucker and Gillian’s wedding vow renewal. That’s when the beans about Brianna officially spilled to his sisters. With his parents due home from their cruise less than two weeks later, he trusted them to keep their mouths shut that long.

  What he didn’t anticipate was his mother having Facebook-friended Gillian’s mother. She posted a candid shot from the festivities, including one of Boone bending down to kiss Hannah while he was holding Bree. Luckily, he was tending to the two AM feeding when his mom’s ship-to-shore phone call occurred, so he was already awake, and the ringing didn’t disturb Hannah.

  He told his mother the whole story. She honestly seemed as excited about his relationship with Hannah as she did about Brianna joining the family.

  Boone’s parents arrived back at DFW in the middle of August on a Friday morning. They didn’t leave the airport before taking the next flight to Colorado, arriving in Eternity Springs in time for Brianna’s bath.

  Nana was in heaven. Hopeful mother-in-law-to-be struck just the right chord with Hannah too. They stayed for three nights and bought a small vacation home before returning to Texas. Boone was okay with that. He wanted Brianna to know her grandparents.

  The day following his parents’ departure, Boone met with a client in his office in downtown Eternity Springs. After listening to Benjamin Karr’s request, Boone slowly shook his head. “Ben, you don’t want to do this.”

  “Sure I do.” The gray-haired man lifted his chin and spoke with belligerence in his voice. “It’s a good cause. Do you know they rescued almost three hundred dogs last year? And the people who run it are all volunteers. They’re good people.”

  “So is Melissa.”

  Ben scowled. “She had them take away my driver’s license!”

  Boone hesitated. Hannah might like to call him a smooth talker, but he wasn’t so certain. Meetings like this one required that he dust off persuasive skills honed by years of argument before a jury and now gone rusty with disuse. “Ben, you love your daughter, and your daughter loves you. Melissa isn’t trying to punish you. She’s trying to do what’s best fo
r you and everyone around you. You’d be devastated if you ever inadvertently caused harm to another. You know it. She knows it.”

  “Anybody can hit a deer,” Ben defended glumly. “Happens all the time.”

  Boone chastised him with a look.

  “It’s my arthritis, my hip. I just need to change my medicine, and I’ll be able to move a little quicker.”

  “That’s between you and Doc Cicero. I’m your lawyer, and I’m advising you that disinheriting your daughter due to this disagreement would be a mistake. I’ll draw up a new will if that’s what you insist, but I want to be perfectly clear. I will not defend you in a vehicular manslaughter case.”

  “Manslaughter!”

  “Deer aren’t the only things that dart into the road. How old are your grandchildren, Ben?”

  The octogenarian glared at Boone for a long moment before dropping his chin to his chest. “Damn it, it’s hard to get old.”

  Boone knew his client well enough to silence the better-than-the-alternative quip some people might have appreciated. Benjamin Karr was a proud man. Losing his driver’s license was a blow to his independence, and Boone respected that. “You are managing better than most, Ben. May I make a suggestion?”

  Ben shrugged.

  “Write a check to the boxer rescue group, and add the Uber app to your phone. We have half a dozen drivers in the area now. They’ll get you where you want to go PDQ as a rule. You won’t have to depend on Melissa or anyone else’s schedule.”

  Harrumph. “My girl told me about Uber. Sounds expensive.”

  “You can Uber for six months for what it would cost you to have me rewrite your will.”

  “You’re just a thief in a fancy suit, aren’t you, McBride?”

  Boone grinned and lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender.

  Ben sneered at him, then sighed heavily, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone. “Since this is just a consultation, and you’re not billing me for the time, would you get me set up and show me how it’s done? This Uber thing?”

  For just a moment, Boone zoned back to the Fort Worth courtrooms where he’d tried murder cases. This is what I’ve come to professionally?

  Yes, it is. And you, Boone McBride, are a blessed man.

  Twenty minutes later, Boone watched from his window while Benjamin Karr climbed into the back of a high school senior’s Jeep for a ride home. He returned to his desk, thinking he’d knock out revisions on a real estate contract he was doing for Celeste when his office phone rang. “Busy morning,” he murmured as he answered the call. “Boone McBride.”

  “It’s me,” Hannah said. “Do you have a few minutes if I stop by?”

  “For you? Always.”

  “Good. I’m downstairs now. I’ll be right up.”

  Now, this was the way he liked to keep busy at the office. Boone heard her footsteps on the stairs as he opened his door, and when she first came into view and glanced at him with those big blue eyes that this morning glittered with happiness, his heart did a little doo-wop.

  She’d taken the two AM feeding this morning and forgotten to turn down the monitor. He’d woken to the sound of her cooing praise at Bree and calling her “my little love.” Boone had wanted to vault onto his feet, do a fist pump, and shout “yes.” Instead, he’d waited for her to get the baby to sleep and return to bed, and then he’d made slow, sweet love to her.

  He was so far gone over Hannah Dupree that there was no coming back.

  “Hey, Hollywood. This is a nice surprise.”

  “I saw Ben Karr leaving, so I hoped you’d have a few minutes.” She paused to kiss him—no quick buss, but the real deal—then breezed into the office and took a seat in his guest chair.

  Boone reached behind him and locked his door. Hannah had visited his office a few times, but he’d never made love to her here. Time to break in his desk.

  Hearing the distinctive click of the lock, Hannah shook her head. “None of that, McBride. I’m here on business.”

  “Monkey business?”

  She chastised him with a look, then gestured toward his chair. “Have a seat.”

  Well, well, well. The woman was full of surprises today.

  She reached into the tote bag she carried and pulled out a manila folder. She slid it across his big desk.

  “What’s this?” he asked, flipping it open.

  “A business plan.”

  Boone looked up from the pages and met her gaze. Damn, but those eyes of hers sparkled. He arched a brow. She explained, “Claire and Gabi and Caitlin helped me write it.”

  All three women operated businesses in Eternity Springs. Claire Lancaster owned Forever Christmas. Gabi Brogan owned Whimsies, a gift shop. Caitlin Tarkington owned Gingerbread House, a day care center. “Oh, yeah?”

  Boone looked back down at the file and scanned the page. Maternity Springs. Hot damn! “What are you proposing here, Hannah? Cut to the chase for me?”

  “A partnership. I invest my own money, and I have a controlling interest in the business. I want to manage it, and I want the space next door to the Christmas shop.”

  Boone’s head jerked up. “That property isn’t on the market.”

  Self-satisfaction glimmered in her grin. “It will be tomorrow—unless I exercise the purchase option I agreed to this morning with Celeste.”

  “Location. Location. Location,” he breathed. That spot was perfect for a children’s store.

  He slammed the folder shut. “It’s a deal.”

  “You haven’t read my plan.”

  “Don’t need to.”

  “What sort of businessman are you?”

  “I’m not a businessman. I’m a lawyer and a lover.” He swept the file off the desk onto the floor and reached for her, glad he had an extra-large desk. However, if he was going to start conducting business in the office with Hannah, he probably should bring in a couch.

  Feeling like a million—no, ten million—bucks, he hummed his way through the chamber of commerce luncheon at noon. As he sauntered back to his office afterward to prepare for his two o’clock appointment, he whistled “We Are the Champions.” Reaching his building, he bounded up the stairs, unlocked his door, and stepped right over the pile of mail the postman had slid through the mail slot.

  “No time for losers,” he sang as he stooped to pick the envelopes up.

  One in the middle of the stack gave him pause. WAGGONER, THOMPSON, AND COLE. “Huh.”

  In the past, receiving a letter from his old law firm had driven him to drink, but he’d put that old ghost to bed with Brianna’s adoption. Right?

  So why was apprehension slithering up his spine like a rattlesnake?

  He reached across his desk and removed a letter opener from the drawer. Propping a hip on the desk, he slit the envelope open and removed a letter. Recognizing Ashleigh Hart’s handwriting, he almost tossed the paper in the trash. No, it was time to move on. Time to finally forgive.

  He scanned the page. His stomach took a tense roll. So Ashleigh had news related to Bree? What was it about this woman and the children in his life?

  He picked up the phone and placed a call to his former law firm and requested to be put through to his former friend.

  “Boone?” came her hopeful voice a few moments later.

  “What do you have to tell me about my daughter?”

  “First, I’m going to talk about Mary. I’m sorry, Boone. I’m so very, very sorry that I interfered in the adoption. I have attempted to atone in what ways I can, and I pray every day that you will find it in your heart to forgive me.”

  Boone closed his eyes. “Why did you do it?”

  “Because I wasn’t in my right mind. We never told you that I had a miscarriage, Boone. I really wanted the baby despite the trouble in our marriage. I knew when I lost it that Joe and I wouldn’t make it. I mourned my baby and my marriage and I was jealous of Mary. You loved her and she was going to have her baby. It made me crazy. That’s why I meddled. It’s no excuse, but
it’s the reason. I’m terribly sorry.”

  Boone sighed heavily and rubbed the back of his neck. What a crappy set of circumstances. People acting badly all the way around in those days—himself included. “I forgive you. I hope you’ll forgive me too. I was wrong to shut you down when you tried to talk to me, Ash.”

  “My heart was broken. It’s still broken.”

  “You should pay a visit to Eternity Springs. This place works wonders on broken hearts. Now tell me what you know about Brianna?”

  As Ashleigh relayed the story, Boone felt the blood drain from his face. No! No. No. No! Be damned if he’d let this happen. No way. Period.

  Hannah would cut and run, and he couldn’t blame her.

  No way was this gonna happen. Neither he nor Hannah was going to lose another child.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hannah couldn’t believe she’d had office sex. Morning office sex. This, after middle-of-the-night sex. The man was an animal.

  And she loved that about him. She loved a lot of things about Boone McBride. His shoulders and his smile. His generosity and the way he filled out his jeans. Definitely the way he went gooey over Bree. The truth was, she was more than a little in love with the whole enchilada.

  It scared her. She’d never dreamed that she would fall in love again, certainly not in a minute and a half, which is about how long this summer seemed to have lasted. Days that dragged by before she’d arrived in Eternity Springs now flew past in an instant. Who knew that living life rather than slogging her way through it could alter time?

  She was falling in love with Boone McBride. Even more frightening, she was mush for Brianna Claire. The pair had brought light and color back into her world, and Hannah’s senses reeled with the pleasure of it. She loved it. She loved.

  Which meant her vulnerable heart was at risk again.

  Hence, the scary part.

  However, now was not the time to dwell on fears. She had shopping to do!

  She’d turned down Boone’s invitation to join him at the chamber luncheon because she already had a lunch meeting with Celeste at the Angel’s Rest Boutique. Hannah was buying an entirely new wardrobe, and Celeste was giving her first shot at recent arrivals.