Heartwood

by Catherine Lane

  Still Nikka said nothing. Maggie tensed. Why wasn’t she getting in her face?

  “I can bury you.” Lea’s voice was cold as steel.

  “But I will bury you.” Finally. The reply was perfect, but it came from the last person Maggie had expected.

  Nikka and Maggie both jumped back as Beth, who barely came up to Lea’s chest, slid in between them. Her eyes blazed behind her black glasses, and her body shimmered with strength.

  “Ms. Walker.” Lea’s voice turned silky smooth. “I’m so glad you’re here. There seems to have been a terrible misunderstanding, which we can rectify at once. Just meet with me—”

  “A long time ago, I knew another bully. Worse than you even. I let him convince me of things that weren’t true. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that happen again. I’ve no idea what’s going to develop from here on in, only that I withdraw my business from your firm. You’ll be hearing from my one and only lawyer.”

  She wound her arm first through Nikka’s and then Maggie’s before they walked through the door to the courthouse. Josie jumped out of the car to hurry after them.

  “What are you looking at?” Lea lashed out at Josie when she passed.

  “Nobody.”

  Maggie squeezed Beth’s arm. No truer words had ever been spoken.

  The late afternoon sun sparkled off the river at the Riverside Inn and Resort like a band of diamonds. When they stepped inside the empty lobby, Germaine, the handsome concierge, waved to them with both hands.

  Looks like I’m back in grace, Nikka thought. All it took was a kidnapping, a weekend on the run, several hours in court, and a new attitude.

  Her gaze drifted to Maggie, who walked one step ahead of her. With her long legs, floppy hair, and energy that knew no bounds, she was the reason that Germaine and the business owners in the Springs no longer hated Nikka. Maggie had also been ready to bite Lea’s head off earlier just to protect her. A warmth that was beginning to feel familiar seeped through her.

  Nikka grinned. The morning couldn’t have gone better. Everything was filed; Kerry and Collier had been notified and had given assurances that the website for Beth Walker Revealed and the book itself would be pulled down as soon as humanly possible. Beth had returned triumphantly to Fern House to find it hers again. Josie had danced around the room, pointing to things and places that she had read about in Dawn’s diary.

  Why, then, had Maggie been so quiet since the courthouse? She of all people should be walking on air. Both Josie and she had their roles, but Maggie had been the one from the start who had figured out what was going on and had never given up—she was able to make the hard choices when everyone was against her.

  “Well, hello, you two,” Germaine said. “I hear congratulations are in order.”

  “Who called you from the courthouse, Jane or Manny?” Maggie asked.

  “Both.” Germaine laughed. “Within minutes of each other. So it went well?”

  “It did.” Nikka smiled.

  Maggie still wasn’t looking at her.

  “Here, let me get your stuff.” Germaine opened a door to a side office and darted inside while she continued talking. “When Maggie called this weekend, we cleared out your room. I hope we got everything. Oh wait, your little suitcase isn’t here. I’ll just run upstairs for it.”

  As soon as Germaine had left, Nikka reached out to Maggie. Every other time they had touched, Maggie’s arm had tensed with excitement, but now it just lay limp in her grasp.

  “Hey, is there something wrong?”

  Maggie shook her head.

  “Come on. I know you well enough by now. You say whatever is on your mind. What’s stopping you now?”

  “I’m not sure I want to know the answer.” Her tone was strangely serious.

  “To what?”

  “Okay, so when Lea asked you about coming back and making you partner, you didn’t say no. In fact, you didn’t say anything. Beth was the one who said no, and I was just wondering…” She searched for her next words and finally just shrugged.

  “If I was considering it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How could you think that? I told you that I didn’t want what she was offering anymore.”

  “I know, but—”

  Nikka squeezed her arm. “You want to know why I didn’t answer. One, I was too busy thinking you were right. You had Lea pegged from the start. She’s a flat-out criminal.”

  Maggie slid her hand up and grasped Nikka’s arm. The connection was electric.

  “Two, I was making a to-do list in my head of all the things that I can pass on to the DA so he can write up an indictment against Lea.”

  “A to-do list?” A little smile formed at the edge of her lips. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, I do it all the time. I thought I had broken the habit, but apparently I was wrong.” Nikka glanced around the still-empty lobby and pulled Maggie away from the open space by the front desk to a more protected one by the fireplace. “And crazily, three, I was thinking about when I would do this.”

  She dropped a hand to Maggie’s hip and pushed slightly.

  Maggie groaned and took a step back.

  Nikka slid into the space. The push-and-pull continued until Maggie was pinned against the fireplace with no escape. Not that Maggie seemed to be looking for one. Nikka slid in so close that they were just inches apart, eye to eye, nose to nose, mouth to…

  Her lips were soft and yielding and parted instantly as Nikka found them. Maggie moaned, and Nikka trembled in response. Desire rippled through her and dug in deep below her belly. A tongue darted across her lips. Maggie’s touch was exquisite, and the kiss leapt to new heights.

  Nikka slid her hands up Maggie’s back and crushed them even closer. Maggie’s breasts were full and firm and promised a thousand other pleasures. Still Nikka couldn’t get enough, and she slipped a leg between Maggie’s, bringing them even closer. Every part of them melted into each other. She had no idea where she ended and Maggie began.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity locked in each other’s arms, they pulled away. Their breaths came in gasps, and Nikka licked her swollen lips.

  “I got my wish,” Maggie said simply.

  “I didn’t.”

  Maggie’s eyebrows raised in an unspoken question.

  “I didn’t know a kiss like that existed. So how could I wish for it? I—”

  Maggie grabbed her face with both hands and crushed their lips together again. Hard and soft all at the same time. Nikka melted in her arms.

  When they finally broke apart, Germaine was back by the desk, Nikka’s little case on its slick surface.

  “See? I told you.” Germaine stared at them with wide-eyed amusement. “The Springs changes everything. You just got to know when to grab it.”

  EPILOGUE

  When I was nearly twenty-two, I tore all the ligaments in my right ankle. Looking back at it now, I believe it all started when Mr. Thompson, the dentist from the City, insisted that he wanted a showstopper of a house, and my boss—

  Beth’s fingers froze on the keys of the computer; the blinking cursor sat there by the last s, not moving. No reader would want to hear about her and Dawn that way. They didn’t want old Beth looking back at events that had happened so long ago they could have happened to someone else.

  Readers wanted young Beth, before the ankle injury, before she knew who she was. When love was shiny and new, and the future was still a mystery.

  Beth snapped the laptop closed and riffled through a shelf above the desk. She pulled out one of the new composition books that Josie had brought up on her last visit. The cover was a baby-blue. She ran a finger across the smooth surface. Dawn would have loved the color.

  She grabbed a shiny mechanical pencil out of a Citrine pencil holder that Home at Heartwood had sent her when Nikka had renegotiated the contracts with the town. She clicked the bottom, and lead magically popped out of the point. After all these years, she finally had her enchanted
pencil.

  Yes, much better.

  Maggie had just left for her run in the woods. Training for another crazy climb, she’d be gone for a while and then be back to make her dinner, complete with pineapple happy faces. Maggie had branched out to poodles made from broccoli and penguins from tiny eggplants. Now Beth chuckled every time they sat down to dinner.

  Rehiring Maggie had been her first act when she got her life back. And it had proved to be her best move—laughter everywhere. Even if the scale ticked upwards every time she got on it. Dr. Harvey had congratulated her on her good health, but she couldn’t button any of her pants anymore.

  Beth rubbed a hand down her new pajama jeans—looked like jeans, felt like pajamas and no button. Easy answer to the problem, if Maggie stayed, that was. She was making noises about moving to the City so she and Nikka could be together full-time.

  “Grab love when you can,” she had told the girls when they had cautiously brought the scenario up. “You never know how long it will last.”

  They nodded and smiled, but so far nothing at all had happened. The logistics of what Maggie would do down in the City and how Nikka would run a business and a relationship out of a small condo had loomed too large. They were electric when they were together, but Beth had firsthand knowledge of what could happen to true love when logistics got in the way.

  So, when the building that used to house Hank’s real estate office came up for sale, she had snapped it up. What had Nikka’s father said when he came out to help repair the deck? It pays to plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

  She could give Nikka an office in town, and Maggie could stay on at Fern House. Their lives would go into overdrive once Nikka added the negotiations for the Hollywood movie deal for Don’t Waste Your Wishes to her plate. And then there was that Broadway producer who was sniffing around, talking about turning Heartwood into a musical. So many reasons to bring Nikka to the Springs…for good.

  The pencil felt cool and heavy in her hand. She positioned it right above the paper, and excitement ran through her. The tingling that surged from the tip of her finger to her toes felt exactly like falling in love. This was her way back to Dawn…and to herself. The pencil flew across the page as the words poured out of her.

  A small bell jingled as the front door of the Good Neighbor real estate office swung open. I cringed at my desk. The bell was a happy sound, but its tingling reminded me that my life was not my own…

  ABOUT CATHERINE LANE

  Catherine Lane started to write fiction on a dare from her wife. She’s thrilled to be a published author, even though she had to admit her wife was right. They live happily in Southern California with their son and a very mischievous pound puppy.

  Catherine spends most of her time these days working, mothering, or writing. But when she finds herself at loose ends, she enjoys experimenting with recipes in the kitchen, paddling on long stretches of flat water, and browsing the stacks at libraries and bookstores. Oh, and trying unsuccessfully to outwit her dog.

  She has published several short stories and novels.

  CONNECT WITH CATHERINE:

  Website: www.catherinelanefiction.wordpress.com

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/catherinelaneauthor

  E-Mail: claneauthor01@gmail.com

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