Healing the Lawman's Heart

by Ruth Logan Herne

  God has made all things beautiful in His time...

  The pretty verse from Ecclesiastes gave her a wake-up call. She put her hand on his sleeve. “Thank you. Thank you for not listening to me and coming to work anyway. And switching your meeting. And being really strong so I didn’t have to do all the hammering.”

  He laughed. “My pleasure. See you Thursday.”

  “Yes.” She got in her car and pulled away, oblivious to the fact that the car was cold, and the back window took a while to defrost properly, because she was going to see Tanner Reddington again in thirty-six hours. And that felt real good.

  * * *

  Dust-covered hair. Flecks on her glasses. Smudges on her cheek. Tanner had to resist the urge to gently rub the nail putty from Julia’s skin. He held back, but just barely, and as she swung the door wider to let him in Thursday morning, her hand grazed his arm.

  He offered the box of doughnuts as a diversionary tactic because she looked far too cute and sweet, and since he hadn’t expected to see her first thing, it was more for his own peace of mind. “I figured sugar would make us work faster. And I thought you had an appointment.”

  Her eyes went wide. “It got changed to late afternoon.” She frowned at the box of doughnuts, then brought her eyes back to his. “Thank you for the generous offer, but I think I’m going to pass for the moment. There’s coffee around back.”

  “You brought a coffeemaker?” He set the doughnuts down, grabbed her shoulders and kissed her cheek. “Now we’re talking. Although I wouldn’t be opposed to getting us one of those fancy coffees from Tina’s Café.”

  She looked taken aback. By the coffee talk or the impromptu kiss?

  Tanner wasn’t sure, but he peeled his jacket off, hung it out of the way and pulled the door open as Luke Campbell and Marty carried the saws in. They set up two staging areas on opposite ends. “Luke and I will work up here.” Marty shoved a pencil behind his ear and kept his eyes trained on the line he was drawing. “You and Tanner can take the backsaw, Jules. You want to work on room one, two or three?”

  “We’ll do room one,” Julia replied. “And I guarantee we can get it done quicker than you two.”

  Luke exchanged a look with Marty. “Is she serious?”

  “Appears to be.” Marty’s dry voice gave no indication if that was good or bad. “Tanner, are you any good?” Marty arched a brow in his direction. “Because it appears your girl here just threw down the gauntlet.”

  “My girl? My construction partner, you mean?”

  “His girl?”

  Tanner’s query had come out as a mild question. Julia’s resembled a cartoon-style pterodactyl squawk, and that deepened her father’s grin. “Let’s see who’s squawking at lunchtime.”

  Julia cut.

  Tanner nailed.

  The nail gun and saw didn’t allow much conversation, but every now and again their eyes would meet...

  And lock.

  She blushed each time it happened, and he liked seeing the color rise in her cheeks, because then she’d make a face, as if warning him off. But five minutes later it would happen again.

  Late morning, she raised a hand and called a halt. “Coffee, boys?”

  “I’ll make it.” Luke finished nailing a two-by-six into place and headed around to the back.

  Marty started to stretch but stopped short. “We’ve got company.”

  A woman stood just beyond the door, staring inside. Her loose coat flapped in the cold, wet, windswept day. She looked startled that they’d seen her, and turned away, but Julia was through the door in a flash, inviting her in, out of the cold. Tanner’s protective side flared.

  What was she thinking? She didn’t know this woman. And neither did he and he worked this area all the time.

  Midthirties. Disheveled. Brown hair, midlength, unwashed. Clothing in disarray. Old, worn, scuffed shoes and purse, a purse she hugged to her body as if protecting her life savings. She probably was. She glanced around, skittish, and when her eyes met Tanner’s she shrunk back as if the intensity of his look unnerved her.

  Luke came back into the room with two coffees and saw the new arrival. “Gracie Jayne? What are you doing down here? You okay?”

  She looked half relieved and half embarrassed to see him, and Tanner felt like a slug for his instant rough assessment.

  Luke crossed the room quickly. “What’s happened?”

  “My man’s gone again.” The rueful note in her voice said this wouldn’t be a big surprise to Luke. “He won’t be back this time because he met with trouble down I-95 and didn’t make it through.”

  The look on Luke’s face said he knew that Gracie Jayne’s man—whoever he was—had died.

  “I heard there was going to be a clinic for women here, and after all these years of never expecting anything, it seems I am.” She opened her coat and the roundness of her belly underscored her words. “I think it should be soon, but I don’t know for certain because it’s never happened before.”

  “Have you seen a doctor?” Julia asked.

  The woman shook her head.

  “Then you’ve come to the right place.” Julia’s gentle tone and soft smile offered reassurance, but then she indicated the construction site with a wave of her hand. “We’re not open here yet,” Julia explained. “Can you come to my main office, Gracie Jayne? It’s off Lower Lake Road, near Kirkwood.”

  Disappointment dulled the woman’s features. She shook her head. “A friend brought me down the hill, and then the bus brought me to the edge of town. I walked the rest.”

  She’d walked almost a mile in this cold, drenching rain to find help, and there was none available. Sympathy welled inside Tanner, but it was cut short by Julia’s brisk, friendly voice. “Well, I have a car and I’m not afraid to use it. Come on, I’ll drive you over to the office. By the time you need a follow-up appointment, we’ll be open here.”

  “You’d drive me?” Eyes wide, Gracie Jayne stared at Julia. “You wouldn’t mind?”

  “Why would I?” Julia grabbed her jacket as she spoke. She gave the men a look that said she was done for the morning, and opened the door. “When we’re finished I’ll bring you back to the bus stop or to your friend.”

  “But you have things to do.” The woman looked around, as if wondering how Julia could just up and leave in the middle of the project. “Won’t your boss get mad?”

  “She is the boss, ma’am.” Tanner aimed a respectful and encouraging look toward Julia. “We’re just the hired hands.”

  “And this is what you do when you’re not doing police work?” She peered up at Luke and he lifted his shoulders.

  “It’s always good to help a friend.”

  His words made Gracie Jayne smile. “It is. Well.” She pulled the thin, large coat around her middle. “I’ll be on, then. With...?” She looked toward Julia as she groped for a name.

  Julia stuck out her hand in welcome. “I’m Julia Harrison, the midwife for the practice here.”

  As the woman’s eyes widened in respect, Luke stepped forward. He handed the troubled woman a card. “Gracie Jayne, if you need anything, anything at all, you call me.” He pointed to the base of the card. “My number’s right there.”

  “I have it already.” The admission seemed to make her uncomfortable. “From before.”

  “Well, that’s all behind us now.” Luke’s gentle tone offered solace. “And there’s room down here in the valley for you. You know that.”

  She made a face. “The thought of coming down doesn’t look too easy after so many years of being up.”

  Tanner had learned the meaning behind her words his first year in Troop A. The back hills and mountains of the Southern Tier hid a fair share of secrets. He’d never patrolled the uplands, he’d been in the lake valley and Clearwater from the begin
ning, but Luke and his brother Seth had done mountain patrol for years. With lots of privacy and little access, twentieth-century stills had turned into twenty-first-century meth labs and drug rings. Part of the new task force’s job was to shut them down, a daunting assignment. As soon as one shut down, another flared up on the next mountain over.

  “I’ll meet you guys later.” Julia gave them a brisk wave as she opened the door for her new patient. “One o’clock, okay?”

  “One’s fine.”

  Tanner faced Luke after they left. “Is she part of the mountain drug link?”

  Luke shook his head. “No, but the man she used to live with was. Gracie Jayne is from a very nice family over in Olean, but she got mixed up with a loser in college, dropped out and decided to join a group of New Age hippies in the hills. That led to a drinking problem. She hooked up with Billy, and got herself on a wheel that never stopped turning long enough to break free. Maybe now that will happen.”

  “Is she still drinking? With a baby on the way?”

  Luke shook his head. “She stopped about five years back, but never was able to reconnect with her family or friends. Her past embarrassed her and her family isn’t the ‘forgive and forget’ sort.”

  Marty interrupted. “Tanner, you wanna work on our room or keep going on room one?”

  “I’ll keep going here.” He gave each man a straight-on look. “But the race is off.”

  Luke laughed. “I suppose that’s fair.” He glanced toward the parking lot, and Tanner noted his concern.

  “You worried about Grace or Julia?”

  “Julia’s pretty good at taking care of herself,” Luke replied. “I’m concerned about Gracie Jayne,” he admitted. “She didn’t look right. And we never call her Grace,” he went on. “Her parents called her Gracie Jayne and she kind of clings to that. So I never shorten it.”

  “Point taken,” Tanner acknowledged.

  “Pregnancy can take a lot out of a woman,” Marty offered as he set the next two-by-six into place on room two. “Without good nutrition and medical help, well...” His face reflected the truth in his words. “It can be life-draining.”

  Life-draining.

  Tanner weighed that expression as he bent over the saw at his end of the room. He’d never thought of having children in those terms. He’d assumed pregnancy to be a normal inconvenience, until everything went wrong in Ashley’s sixth month, and then he was certain that someone had done something wrong. What if they hadn’t? What if having babies wasn’t as simple as he thought it should be?

  The thought humbled him.

  The sound of Marty’s saw and Luke’s hammer put him back in work mode, but he couldn’t get Gracie Jayne’s worried face out of his mind.

  Something stirred inside him, a note of empathy wrapped in compassion. Another baby coming into imperfect surroundings. Usually that thought made him wince at what he’d already lost.

  But today, something deep inside made him want everything to go well for the tired woman and her unborn child. He switched on the saw, and after ninety minutes of frenetic wall-building, he found he was only a couple of studs behind Luke and Marty. They combined forces and helped him finish off the joining wall between rooms one and two, then called it a morning.

  Luke clapped Marty on the back as he grabbed his thick Buffalo-plaid flannel from a hook in the back alcove. “I’ve got to pass on lunch. I promised Rainey we’d have lunch together when I was done here, so I’m heading home. Great working with you guys.” He shook Marty’s hand, then Tanner’s.

  “Sure you don’t want to tag along, Luke?” Marty asked. “I’m buying.”

  “Thanks, but no. Can’t break a promise to the wife.”

  He strode off, humming, and climbed into his SUV.

  Luke Campbell was living the American dream that eluded Tanner, but as he climbed into his car, he wasn’t struck with the cumbersome, old weight of another man’s good fortune, because the thought of gathering at The Pelican’s Nest with Julia—and Marty, he inserted quickly—seemed too right to let old shadows darken it.

  Chapter Six

  Tanner turned north out of the parking lot, aimed for Kirkwood and pulled into the restaurant parking lot just ahead of Julia. Seeing her heightened his anticipation. He waited despite the cold, wet wind while she got out of her latest rental vehicle and walked toward him with a bright smile.

  Something moved inside his chest. Her expression shone with joy, despite her wretched week and the ex-husband woes. She looked calm and happy, and seeing her joy made him want to feel the same way.

  Calm down, Romeo. You’re suing one midwife for malpractice and interested in another? Aren’t you worried she’s going to hate you when she finds out?

  “How’d you guys do?” she asked him, her blue eyes bright and engaging, as if talking to him meant something. It dawned on him again that he wanted it to mean something.

  “Rooms one and two are completely roughed in and ready for electric, plumbing and wallboard.”

  “Sweet!” She high-fived him and he realized he really wanted a hug, but she’d think him crazy, wouldn’t she? “Let’s grab a table. Dad’s about to turn into the lot, and this wind is wicked. And try not to notice when he flirts with Laura, because he thinks he’s being the most discreet man on the planet, which is, of course, laughable.”

  “Your dad and Laura?” Tanner looked across the half-full dining room, and sure enough, Laura D’Allesandro wasn’t looking around the room. Her gaze was locked on the window, on the tall, broad-shouldered guy striding in from his farm truck, shoulders back, head high. “Gotcha.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Julia’s smile said she’d shared the secret carefully, knowing she could trust him and that made him feel even better.

  “How’d everything go with Gracie Jayne?” he asked as they walked to an empty booth. The scent of sweet red sauce, grilled meat and something cinnamon-spiced made his stomach jump for joy. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until this moment. “Will she be okay?”

  Julia wavered. “We’ll be praying that baby to safety over the next few weeks.”

  “Something’s wrong.”

  “I can’t really say anything, but I’ve got concerns. Right now, I’m just thanking God that she came down the mountain to find us. A lot of the folks in the hills are so private that they deal with birth and death on their own, and no one ever hears a peep. This is better.”

  “You think it’s still like that up there? I figured a lot of the stories I’ve heard are rural legend.”

  Julia slid into a booth and faced him. “I know it’s like that. Hence the clinic. And the motto, One Woman, One Baby.”

  “Marty!” Laura D’Allesandro’s surprised greeting interrupted their conversation, and cut through the noise of the busy lunchtime crowd, as if she hadn’t watched his progress across the parking lot with eager eyes. “I’ll be right over, Julia and Tanner are on the left.”

  “Wonderful.” Marty’s face lit up when she greeted him, and they exchanged smiles across the room, which said more than words ever could. “I’ll be here waiting.”

  Color brightened her cheeks. Her smile deepened. “I’ll be there soon.”

  Tanner looked at Julia. He grinned. So did she, but then she put her napkin on her lap, demure, while her father moved their way.

  Marty slid into the booth next to Julia, nudged her over and gave Laura a hearty grin when she dropped off his coffee a minute later. “You know me well.”

  “I’m starting to.” Laura smiled and set fresh cream on the table.

  Their attraction threatened to interfere with lunch, but Julia took the matter in hand. “Laura, can I have a broiled chicken salad with Parmesan-peppercorn dressing, please, a diet soda and no bread.”

  Her father rolled his eyes. “You’re absolut
ely beautiful, Julia. There’s no reason in the world for you to go on a diet. Tell her, Laura.”

  “Why should I when you just did?”

  “Which means I should stay out of things that aren’t my business,” Marty acknowledged.

  “Right.” Laura’s smile softened her reply, and then she looked at Tanner. “The special, right? Rigatoni and meatballs with the famous Martinelli red sauce?”

  “And leave room for the lemon pie Marty’s had on his mind for the past two days,” Tanner drawled.

  He half expected Marty to look embarrassed or flustered, but instead, Marty smiled at Laura, and said, “The pie didn’t have my full attention, of course.”

  Laura blushed. Julia’s mouth dropped open. She hurried to close it and looked at Tanner.

  He muttered, “Well done. I should be taking notes.”

  Marty winked at Laura, and as she hurried back to the counter area, he shifted his gaze to Tanner. “Wouldn’t hurt you youngsters to learn from a seasoned veteran. Wasting time is generally in no one’s best interests.”

  Julia burst out laughing. “Go, Dad!” She nudged his shoulder.

  Marty shrugged as he stirred cream into the hot fragrant coffee. “At this stage of life, if God sees fit to send me a second chance, I’m old enough and smart enough to take it.”

  Marty didn’t meet Tanner’s eyes. He didn’t have to. Tanner knew exactly what the older man was saying.

  “Hey, guys.” Tina came by to drop off waters and Julia’s soda. “How’s the clinic remodel coming?”

  “Progress.” Tanner uttered the single word as if it was the most wonderful thing in the world. “We have rooms.”

  “Awesome!” Tina grinned approval. “And just so you know, there’s an extra lemon pie in the back I saved for my faves. Which would be you. And the entire Campbell clan, of course.”

  “Tanner and I have already staked our claim. Julia on the other hand...” Marty sent her a look that said she was being silly.

  Julia shrugged him off. “I will allow myself one piece of pie on Sunday. That’s my reward for eating healthy all week.”