by Hope Ramsay
He wanted her. With a deep and frightening need that he’d never felt before. What if something happened to her? He’d fall apart. She was the key to the gate in the wall around his heart. If he lost her, he might never be whole.
The sound of tires on gravel reached his fevered brain just as he was fumbling for the hem of her T-shirt. She pushed him back gently, her eyes wide and dark, her lips plump and kiss-swollen. He read the promise in that look. She wanted him as much as he wanted her.
But there was trouble out there in the driveway in the form of two Magnolia Harbor police cruisers, which came rumbling up to Kerri’s house with their blue lights flashing.
“Shit,” he said, peeking through the sheer curtains at the front window.
“What the hell?” Kerri came running from the back porch and stopped when she saw Noah. “Oh, hello,” she said, smiling. “Did you come to help us womenfolk?”
“I did,” he said.
“Uh-huh.” Kerri’s gaze shifted from Noah to Lia and back again. “I was wondering what was taking you so long.”
“And now you know,” Lia said, stepping across the room and picking up the Browning.
“Is that wise?” Kerri asked.
“What?”
“I don’t think you want to go pointing that thing at the police.”
Lia let go of a long sigh. “I guess. But I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“Leave this to me,” Noah said.
“He did come to protect us womenfolk,” Kerri said as Noah stepped through the door and out onto the porch.
Daddy and Ethan emerged from their separate cruisers. Neither one of them had changed into their uniforms.
“Noah, what the hell are you doing out here?” Daddy asked.
Noah was tempted to say something like “protecting the womenfolk,” but he already knew that at least one of those women was perfectly capable of taking care of herself—a thought that was kind of seductive. So he smiled. “What’s the problem, Daddy? I’m not allowed to come out here to visit friends?”
His father’s lips pressed into a thin line that he’d seen a million times. He was furious. “I’m here looking for Lia DiPalma. She’s been accused of assault and battery.”
“If anyone committed battery it’s Bud Joyner. Do you want to see Napoleon’s X-rays?”
“This isn’t about a dog, Noah.” The scorn in Daddy’s voice was loud and clear despite the fact that it had always been about a dog. Just maybe not Napoleon.
Noah jutted out his chin. “No? Okay, we can talk about Kate. She doesn’t want to be with Bud right now, okay? And that’s her right. But here’s the thing, Bud doesn’t have a right to fire off a gun at someone’s turned back and then threaten to shoot an innocent dog.”
“What?”
“That’s what happened.”
“According to who? That woman?”
“She has witnesses.”
“Oh really? The fire chief says she came after him and stole his gun. I’m going to need to search the house.”
“Not without a warrant. You got a warrant, Daddy?”
Daddy shook his head. “What is it with you? You were out at Bud’s place. You saw his face. He’s filed a complaint and he’s accused Lia of stealing his gun. So stand aside.”
“No.”
“What?” Daddy seemed truly nonplussed. “Do you want me to arrest you too?”
“Of course not. I just want you to listen to what the witnesses have to say.”
“Get out of my way.”
Noah stood firm, coming face to face with his father.
“Goddamn it, Noah. Why do you always have to be like this?” Ethan said from his place at the bottom of the porch steps.
“What way?”
“I don’t know, difficult or something. You manage to ruin everything. We were having a good time, and then you have to go get mixed up with this woman. She’s no good; can’t you see that?”
He was tempted to explain exactly what Lia had done for Ethan this afternoon at the game, but that would have undone all the good things that had happened. Damn it all, maybe Ethan had a point. Why did it always seem that the good things got ruined?
Usually by Daddy.
“Kate was perfectly happy until that woman turned up,” Ethan said. “And she’s been hanging out with Abby playing softball. She’s probably the one who convinced Abby that it was okay to get mixed up with that Grant Ackerman, who’s another outsider and troublemaker. That woman’s done nothing but stir the pot since she arrived. Now don’t make me pull my gun on you, okay? Because I will, I swear it.” Ethan unsnapped the safety strap on his holster, which looked a little stupid on his hip with him wearing his First Responder Softball T-shirt and all.
The door to the house opened. “How about we don’t pull out any weapons, okay?” Lia said, coming onto the porch with her hands above her head. “If you need to arrest me, go on and do it. Bud’s shotgun is inside.”
“No, Lia. Don’t do this,” Noah said, turning toward her. The sadness had returned to her eyes and that almost broke his heart.
Daddy stepped up to her and yanked her hands behind her back and roughly bound her with one of those disposable plastic wrist restraints. Then he marched her down the porch steps while he recited her Miranda rights.
Noah was powerless to stop this. Anything he did would make matters worse. And nothing could change what Daddy had just done.
It was just like that day when Daddy hit Duke in the front yard. The damn dog had bolted from the front door, right under the truck’s wheels. Daddy had been driving too fast because he’d been mad as hell, ready to punish Noah for what he’d done that day—striking out on purpose.
But then the dog got in the way and died, and then Daddy was mad at Noah for that too. Yeah. He could blame Duke’s accident on Daddy. He’d hit the dog. But Duke’s death was all on Noah. Things would have been different if he hadn’t struck out that day.
Right now it was hard not to see a parallel in the day’s events.
Once the facts were known, Lia wouldn’t be charged with anything. But she’d be widely condemned. That job she’d been wanting, working for the Heavenly Rest congregation, was now probably beyond her reach. Who would want to hire someone—an outsider—who’d beat up Santa Claus?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lia was hauled off to the Magnolia Harbor police station, where they frisked her before taking her fingerprints and a mug shot. They shoved her into a ten-by-ten cell with a couple of bunk beds and a toilet in the corner. She was the only person in the cell, and as the minutes stretched into hours, it was hard not to feel lonely in there.
She had no idea how long she’d have to wait before someone bailed her out. Could that even happen on a national holiday? She doubted any judges or courts were open.
So she lay down on the bunk and reviewed her actions over the last few hours. She wouldn’t have changed any of them. This was not her fault.
She kept telling herself this, even though a part of her—much bigger than she wanted to admit—was ready to take the blame.
It had always been her fault, not just with Whiskers, but there was the time she’d called the family of the landlady to tell them the woman was going senile and needed help, and they evicted Mom. And the time she’d sassed a teacher for keeping Justin in detention one afternoon for no good reason and got detention herself, making it impossible for her to babysit her brother. And the worst transgression of all—the bad report card that had made David so angry that Mom moved out.
When you added it all up, the main reason Mom moved from town to town was because Lia got into trouble.
“What the hell’s wrong with me?” she asked the cinder block wall.
And just like that, a voice in her head said Nothing. And for some odd reason, she trusted that inner voice. Maybe she’d gotten into trouble but all she’d ever done was try to help people. Whiskers, the old landlady, her brother, Kate Joyner, a lot of sailors over the years,
including Roy Tate, and even Prince. She did not deserve to be in jail. It was not her fault.
The tears filled her eyes, and she sat on that narrow bunk for a long time as they spilled down her cheeks, until the well from which they’d come dried up.
And when her eyes were dry, she decided she would never leave Magnolia Harbor. She made a solemn promise to herself and to God and anyone else that might have been listening, because she swore out loud.
She was not budging. Not this time.
And just as she came to this life-changing affirmation, Ethan Cuthbert came strolling down the narrow hallway on the other side of her prison’s bars. He wore his uniform and had obviously showered. He opened the steel door with a clank.
“You’re free to go,” he said in a tone that was anything but friendly.
“I’m free? No charges?”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “No. Noah found the county prosecutor out on the golf course and, with the help of Kate and Kerri, convinced him that no crime had been committed. He’s not going to file any charges.”
Lia stood up and followed Ethan out into the main police station, which wasn’t much more than a big room with a handful of desks filled with computer equipment. And in the middle of the room stood Noah and his father. Greg Cuthbert had also showered and donned his uniform. But not Noah. Like her, he was still wearing his softball T-shirt.
His shoulders were rigid, and it didn’t take any kind of special intuition to feel the enmity between father and son. But she didn’t care about the negative vibe in the room. She was like Prince. If she’d had a tail, she would have wagged it.
He’d come to rescue her and that was a first. No one had ever rescued her before. She was the one who usually did the rescuing.
Noah held out his hand, and she took it, jolted by the warmth of his palm. “Let’s get out of here,” he murmured, giving his father a totally badass look before he turned and pulled her through the double glass doors of the MHPD headquarters.
“I’m going to take you back to Howland House, we’ll collect your stuff and the dog, and we’ll just leave. Right now. Today,” he said as they reached the sidewalk. His car was parked at the curb.
“I’m not leaving,” she said.
He turned, surprise on his face. “What?”
“Noah, I’m not leaving Magnolia Harbor. If I go now I’ll be doing the exact same thing my mother always did. She never stayed long enough to see what might have happened. She just assumed the worst.”
“Yeah, well, in this case it’s probably wise to assume the worst. You saw the look on Daddy’s face. He’s furious about what you did. About how you’ve questioned Bud’s integrity. And he won’t be alone. Do you have any idea how many friends Bud Joyner has in this town? Starting with my father. People are going to talk about this. Even if the prosecutor refused to file charges, that doesn’t mean you’re free. The gossip will kill your reputation. You won’t get that job at the church. You’re done here.”
She blinked at him, the momentary surge of happiness ebbing away. She’d been in this place dozens of times before, listening to Mom explain all the reasons why she couldn’t stay and fight whatever had happened.
Not once had Mom ever come to Lia’s defense. Not once had Mom even come to her own defense. She’d just run. That’s what Mom did. She ran away.
And Lia wasn’t a runner.
“I’ll figure it out. Micah is a good friend. He’ll help me.” She said that with one-hundred-percent confidence. She had no doubts about the Rev. He’d defend her against any gossip his church board might consider. And even if he couldn’t salvage her situation, she could still count him as a friend. And Kate and Kerri had gone to the limit for her. So she could count on them too. The situation wasn’t nearly as bleak as he thought.
She was confident she could turn things around. And besides, she would never know unless she tried. That was the thing about Mom; she ran instead of trying.
But standing there looking up at Noah, Lia had a lot of doubts about him. He didn’t want to live here. He’d made it clear. He had a gazillion issues with his father. So why should she be so surprised that he wanted to leave now that things had gotten ugly?
And really, she hadn’t known him for more than a handful of days. Not nearly enough to follow him off to Charleston or wherever. Mom would have done that too.
Damn. Her chest squeezed, and she knew right then that she might have fallen in love with him if he’d been willing to stay. She wanted to fall in love with him, especially after he’d come to rescue her—twice. But not if he wasn’t ready to stand and fight for her.
What kind of rescue was it if he only wanted to run away?
“Thank you for getting me out of jail. But I’m not running away,” she said. “And I’m fine. I can take care of myself. It’s not far to Howland House. I’ll walk.”
She turned her back on him and strode away like a sailor on parade, with her head high and her shoulders squared. And if her eyes filled up with tears yet again…well, there wasn’t anyone there to see because he didn’t follow her.
* * *
Momma’s neighbors on Redbud Street always turned Independence Day into something like a block party. They cordoned off the street and set up lawn chairs and barbecues and drank copious quantities of beer until it got dark enough for the fireworks that the town set off over the harbor. The best viewing was down on Rafferty’s deck, but you had to have a reservation for that. Up here on Redbud Street, the view wasn’t so great. But the party started when it was still light out.
Noah was not in a party mood though. As the afternoon faded to evening, he sat in a cheap lawn chair in the middle of Momma’s postage-stamp yard. He’d been sitting there long enough for the Heineken he’d opened after he got back from the jail to get warm. Momma was sitting up on the screen porch rocking in her chair and watching him like a cat waiting to pounce.
They were not speaking to one another right at the moment. She was angry because he came back from the police station and packed his bag. He would be leaving in the morning. And he’d pleaded with her to come with him.
She refused. And the only reason he was still here was because Abby had gone missing. She hadn’t come home after the softball game, and she hadn’t answered any phone calls or texts. She was probably with Grant. But he wasn’t about to leave Momma alone the way he’d done the other night when he’d made love to Lia.
His whole body flushed. Lia. Just thinking her name made his emotions go nuclear.
He drained the last of his beer, crushed the can, and resisted the urge to toss it on the weedy grass like some kind of redneck. “You gonna sit out there sulking all night?” Momma asked from the porch.
“I might.”
“Abby’s not going to leave until the summer is over. You know that, don’t you?”
“Well, I guess that’s a good thing since you aren’t leaving either.”
“I can take care of myself.”
But she needed help even if she didn’t want to admit it. He blew out an angry breath. He was deeply worried that Abby would make the wrong decision. And then he’d have to live with the guilt. And possibly, years from now, she’d blame him.
“What if she decides never to leave?” he asked.
“Then it’s her decision. You told me you liked Grant.”
“I do. Which makes it worse.”
What was it about the women in his life? They all wanted to stay in Magnolia Harbor, even the one who’d just been unfairly arrested by the chief of police. He just couldn’t figure them out.
He needed another beer so he pushed down on the arms of the rickety lawn chair, and the wobbly leg cracked, dumping him on his backside.
Momma laughed.
He scrambled up from the weeds, brushing sandy dirt from his ass. “That wasn’t funny, you know.”
“Oh Lord, yes it was. It was like God giving you a kick in the butt.”
He climbed the porch steps and opened the screen door. �
�What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re a darn fool, Noah Cuthbert, if you can’t see what’s right in front of your eyes.”
He settled into the second rocking chair. “Okay. Here it comes. The motherly talk in which you explain to me that it’s possible for me to find happiness here in my old hometown where my daddy just arrested my…” He let his voice fade out because Lia wasn’t his anything.
“Son, if you want to figure out whether you’ve got something important going with that woman, you’re going to have to figure out a way to stay here. She isn’t budging, and I don’t blame her.”
“But why?”
Momma leaned back in her rocker for a very long moment. “Because Magnolia Harbor is a wonderful place to live. And Lia’s been looking for a forever home for her whole life.”
He drummed his fingers on the rocking chair’s arm. Momma’s words weren’t any kind of revelation. That was the sad part. But how could Lia stay when Bud had fired a shotgun at her, and Daddy had arrested her for defending herself and Kate Joyner? Why would she want to stay here?
“Is it just that you miss the surgery?” Momma asked, pulling him from his thoughts.
“What?”
“The surgery. Is that what you miss?”
Oh crap, Momma was talking about something else altogether. He thought about it for a while, and it dawned on him that he didn’t miss the referral center in Charleston. It was a big complex that charged people too much money for what they did. The customers were uniformly rich, and while the surgery was challenging, the atmosphere was kind of antiseptic.
The truth was, every morning for the last week, he’d looked forward to walking into that clinic on Magnolia Drive. Part of that was Lia and her never-ending pots of coffee. But it was more than that. The pet parents who showed up were mostly people he’d known his whole life and that made him feel…warm or connected or something. Like he was part of a community. You just didn’t get that in the big city.