“What can you tell us about the situation that would help the EMTs?” Cade asked. “This is Jackie Scott, your admin, right?”
Marshall didn’t release his hold on her. She knew it couldn’t possibly be comfortable for him, balancing on the crutches, but he didn’t seem to want to release her. Andie decided she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Yes. She took some kind of medication, but she wouldn’t tell me what. I don’t know what time she took it, only that it seemed to really kick in about ten minutes after she showed up, slurring her speech and slowing her movements. Whatever it is, I don’t think she took a fatal dose—on the other hand, she also sustained a full center of mass electric current straight into her back, too, so I can’t say how the two things will interact. She was trying to kill herself.”
“Any idea why she chose Wynona’s kitchen as the location where she wanted to kill herself?”
Andie felt Marshall’s chest move as he gave a long exhale. “Apparently she wanted to apologize to me before she killed herself. She was driving the SUV that hit me.”
Andie lifted her head to stare at him. Now she really had no qualms about tasing the woman. If she had the chance, she might even want to shove in her backup cartridge and do it again.
Who knew she could be so bloodthirsty?
“Your secretary is the one who ran you down? Why?”
“It’s a long story,” Marshall said. He sounded tired and sore and, if she wasn’t mistaken, deeply sad. She hugged him harder, and after a startled moment, his arms tightened around her in return.
“She wanted to keep me from coming into work so I didn’t link her to embezzlement in the department,” he said to Cade. “I think she knew we were close and decided she would rather die than go to jail.”
“Sounds to me that’s where she belongs, but we’ll get her to the hospital first and stabilize her condition. I’ll need full statements from both of you, but why don’t you go into the other room and sit down while the EMTs take care of things here? You’re probably ready to fall over, aren’t you?”
“No. We’re good here, as long as we’re out of the way.”
The police chief didn’t seem to care, returning to talk to his other officers as the EMTs began to load Jackie onto a gurney and wheel her out. Jackie spotted Marshall as the EMT was rolling her out and started sobbing harder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry,” she moaned repeatedly.
Marshall gestured for the stretcher to stop and he approached her on his crutches. He reached down and squeezed her hand in a gesture of compassion that brought tears to Andie’s eyes.
“I know you were trying to help your boy. I get it,” he said. “I just wish you’d come to me first instead of handling things the way you did.”
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled again. “I don’t want to go to jail, Sheriff.”
“Just focus on getting better right now. There were extenuating circumstances. We’ll get you a good attorney and go from there.”
Andie didn’t want to feel sorry for the woman. She could have killed Marshall and had caused him severe pain. But it was difficult not to experience some empathy as the EMTs rolled her out, still crying.
When they left, Cade handed the Taser back to Andie with the probes reloaded. “You’d better hang on to this. I don’t think we need to keep it in evidence,” he said. “Anyway, we know where to find you if we need to take a look at it again.”
“Will she be all right?” Andie asked.
Cade shrugged. “The hospital will probably pump her stomach, unless she can tell us what she took and how much.”
He took their statements in the den with a crisp efficiency she appreciated. Ten minutes later he was on his way to the hospital to talk to Jackie and the house was empty again except for the two of them.
She felt nervous suddenly, which seemed ridiculous after everything that had just happened.
“How are you doing?” Marshall asked.
“I don’t feel like I need to throw up anymore, so that’s good. How about you?”
He was quiet. “I wouldn’t mind just holding you again.”
That was exactly what she needed. Without hesitation she rose from her chair adjacent to the Christmas tree her children had decorated and onto the sofa next to him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her halfway across his lap, then buried his face in her neck.
He was trembling. Her big, tough, wonderful sheriff was trembling. When he spoke, his voice was rough. “I’ve never been so scared in my entire life as when I saw you standing there in the hall when Jackie was waving that .38 Special around.”
Wasn’t it just like him, to be scared for her but not for himself? “Nothing happened. We’re both okay. It sounds like Jackie will be okay, too. At least now you know who hurt you.”
“That was some serious kick-ass Taser action.”
“Not much to it. Just aim and fire at the red dot.”
A low laugh rumbled through him. “You did it, though. Some people wouldn’t have the nerve, but you just marched right in and went for center of mass. Remember last night when I told you I thought you were the most courageous woman I’ve ever met? Yeah. That.”
She swallowed hard. She had a long way to go before she could fulfill that expectation of herself, but she wasn’t about to argue with him.
“I lost my head when she moved the gun from herself to you. I couldn’t let her hurt you.” She paused, her pulse abnormally loud in her ears. “Not before I had the chance to tell you how much I love you.”
She heard his quick intake of breath against her and lifted her gaze to find him looking down at her with a fierce, wild joy.
“What happened to me being the worst possible man in Haven Point for you? I know you don’t want to be with another LEO, and I get it, I do. I don’t know how to change that. I can try to do something else, but I’m afraid I would be miserable.”
That he would even consider doing something else touched her deeply. A soft, sweet peace seeped through her, pure and lovely and healing. There simply wasn’t room for both love and fear in the same heart, she thought.
“Tonight when you were ready to launch yourself at her, broken leg and all, I realized I can’t separate that protector out. I wouldn’t, even if I could. It’s part of you—a huge part. Without it, you wouldn’t be the man I love.”
His eyes darkened with emotion and he lowered his mouth to hers. The tenderness in the kiss staggered her.
“I love you, Andrea. You should know, I’ve never said that to a woman before. I’ve never even wanted to. Only you.”
She couldn’t say the same—nor would she have wanted to. She had loved another man first. Jason had come into her life at the perfect time, to show her for the first time in her life that she was someone worthy of love.
Their marriage hadn’t been perfect, but it had produced two amazing children and had helped her become the woman she was now, someone strong enough to be deeply grateful that she’d been given the chance to love again.
She kissed him and they stayed in the embrace, kissing and touching by the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree her children had decorated, until she was restless and achy and they both were breathing hard. This was not a bad position for a man with a broken leg, she decided. They could certainly figure out how to improvise...
The alarm on her phone suddenly went off and she groaned. “That’s telling me I have ten minutes before I have to go pick up Chloe at the bus stop,” she said.
He made a sound that somehow managed to mingle disappointment and understanding. His mouth found hers again, but right before he kissed her, he drew back, his eyes wide. “With everything that’s happened, I can’t believe I haven’t told you yet!”
“Told me what?” she asked, sitting up beside him and trying to run a hand through the hair he had me
ssed.
“It’s been one hell of an afternoon. I had only been back at the house fifteen minutes when Jackie came over. Before that, I was next door, talking to Herm and Louise and to Christopher.”
“What?” she exclaimed. “Oh, Marshall! How did it go?”
“Good. Better than I ever imagined. I have a son.” His wondering smile made her want to cry, happy tears this time. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I needed to tell him. Yes, you were right. I have a feeling I’d better get used to saying those words.”
There was so much promise in his voice, she shivered.
“It’s a huge relief to have it out there. He seemed...okay with it. Herm and Louise are, too. We’re having a DNA test as soon as we can arrange it, but I don’t need to see the results to know the truth. I don’t think he does, either.”
“Oh. I’m so happy.”
“He’s a troubled teenage boy. Everything won’t be roses all the time, I’m afraid, but I can’t wait to get to know him.”
He paused, his expression both pensive and endearingly tender. “You know, the whole time I was there talking to Herm and Louise and Christopher, all I could think about was telling you. I guess that’s what you do when you’re in love.”
“Oh, Marsh,” she whispered.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the day Jackie ran me over might have been the luckiest day of my life. Without it, I never would have let you into my life, never would have discovered just how much I needed you. And not just you. Will and Chloe and Sadie and Mrs. Finnegan, too.”
How could she ever have believed him cold and unfeeling? He had all this tenderness and love inside him, just waiting for him to feel comfortable enough to let them out.
“It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas, isn’t it?” she said.
“The very best one ever.” His gaze held promise and possibilities. “Until next year, anyway. Something tells me that from here on, everything will just get better and better.”
EPILOGUE
“ALL RIGHT, GIVE IT to me straight, Miss Chloe,” Marshall said. “I have it on great authority that my Christmas tree last year was the second-best tree in town. I’m hoping to move up in the ranks this year. What are my chances?”
His seven-year-old stepdaughter pursed her lips and gave serious scrutiny to the tall and bushy blue spruce that took up an entire corner of their den.
“It’s so big. I don’t know. It’s like twice as big around as the one Will and me did for you last year. I hope we have enough lights and ornaments.”
“Are you kidding?” Christopher exclaimed from the floor, where he and Will were untangling string after string of lights for Marshall to twist around the branches. “How could we possibly not have enough ornaments? You’ve been cutting out paper snowflakes since the Fourth of July!”
“I have not,” she retorted. “Remember? I made all the paper hearts for the wedding, so I didn’t even start on snowflakes until after that.”
“Okay. Fine. Since September.”
Marshall smiled, remembering all those hearts strung around the stone patio in the backyard, where they’d had their reception—just two days after he and Andie signed the papers buying his grandmother’s house from Wynona.
He couldn’t think of that day without his own heart wanting to burst out of his chest. Random snapshots of that day seemed permanently implanted in his mind, his own little mental slide show he could take out whenever he needed a break from the tough job of county sheriff.
Standing in the front of the little church in Haven Point with Christopher by his side as his best man, palms sweaty and nerves zinging.
His mother in the front row, holding Uncle Mike’s hand and already sniffling into a tissue.
His sisters, Cade, Elliot, his aunts and all the people he loved filling the other rows.
And then Andie. His amazing, beautiful Andie, walking down the aisle with an uncharacteristically solemn Will on one side and sweet, pretty Chloe on the other, all three of them prepared to merge their lives with his.
He thought he couldn’t possibly ever be as happy as he was in that single moment, watching his future walking toward him—but every single day since had been even better.
Even when his kids were squabbling.
“I had to start making snowflakes in September,” Chloe insisted to Christopher. “We have fifty trees to decorate.”
“Exaggerate much?” Christopher said. Though his words were a little snide, he smiled when he said it.
Chris adored Chloe and Will. As soon as Marsh accepted that he couldn’t imagine any future without Andie and her kids, he had been concerned at first that it wasn’t fair to introduce two new young children into the picture when he was still trying to forge a relationship with his son. Christopher didn’t seem to mind, though. He seemed to get a kick out of both of them and had relished the chance to have younger siblings for the first time.
“We have to decorate this huge tree that’s as big as two other trees,” Chloe said now, ticking her count off on her fingers. “I have one in my room. Will has one in his room. You have one in your room in the attic. Mom has one in her new office over the garage. How many is that?”
“Still not fifty,” Will pointed out helpfully. “That’s only five.”
“I also cut out about a billion snowflakes for Grandma Charlene and Grandpa Mike and for Grandma Louise and Grandpa Herm and I made some for Aunt Wynona and Uncle Cade and for Jazmyn and everybody.”
“If we don’t have enough snowflakes for our tree, we’ll know it’s because you gave them away to everybody else in town,” Christopher teased.
“If we don’t have enough, Chloe can just make more,” Will said. “She’s superfast and she has paper in her room and can get more from Mom’s office.”
“Who can get what from my office?”
After they had been married a year, was his heart still going to pound like this every time he saw her? What about two or ten or twenty? He turned to find Andie coming in, cheeks a little pink from the short walk outside from her new office.
Christopher’s room had been carved out under the eaves in the old house. He loved the slanting ceiling and the dormer windows. It was small, but that didn’t seem to bother him, since half of his stuff was still at his grandparents’ house next door, where he still spent plenty of time with Herm and Louise.
Marshall couldn’t believe they’d managed to find room for everyone—including Mrs. Finnegan and Sadie, who right now were both curled together on the rug watching the proceedings.
He was still considering building on to the little house. They were a family of five—plus two pets—and bursting at the seams. The yard was big enough they could easily build on to the house. He was thinking about adding a bigger family room in place of this den and a couple more bedrooms.
For now, it worked. He was never happier than when he pulled into the driveway, knowing his family waited for him inside.
“I said Chloe can get more paper from your office if she needs more snowflakes,” Will said.
“Why on earth would she possibly need more?” Andie asked, eyes wide.
“We’re hoping she doesn’t,” Marshall assured her. “We’ll know in a few moments, once I finish with these lights and you all can start decorating the tree.”
Andie moved into the room and inhaled deeply of the tree’s heady fragrance. “Oh, wow, it smells fantastic in here.”
“The smell is about the only good thing about a real tree,” Christopher groused. “Unraveling these lights is a pain.”
“It might be hard, but you guys are doing an amazing job.” She placed a hand on the teen’s shoulder and Marshall could tell it pleased him. Andie was amazing with his son. Whenever Christopher was in a mood, missing Nikki or simply being a surly teenager full of
hormones, Andie could invariably tease a smile out of him.
“I still don’t know why we couldn’t just get another artificial tree for in here,” Chris said now. “I’ve always had artificial trees and it’s tons easier. You just pull them out of the box and plug them in.”
“New family, new traditions,” Marshall said.
“Exactly.” Andie backed him up. “Since this is our first year as a family, isn’t it fun to try a few different things so we can figure out which traditions we want to keep in the coming years together?”
“Last night was so fun!” Will said. “I loved when we went swimming and then cut the tree down at Evergreen Springs. My favorite part was the sleigh ride.”
“I liked the hot chocolate we had with Jazmyn and Ty,” Chloe said. “Especially the little tiny snowman marshmallows.”
“Those were cute,” Andie agreed.
“You had fun, too. You were lucky,” Will said wistfully to Christopher. “You got to cut down the tree. Next year I get to use the chain saw, right?”
Marshall winced at the idea of Will with a dangerous power tool. “We’ll have to see on that one, kid. I think I’m ready for the next light string.”
“What this party needs is some music,” Andie declared. “Christopher, can you stream some on your phone to the speaker?”
“Yeah, if you can come help with the lights. We have, like, three more strands.”
They traded places and Christopher found some kind of edgy rock version of “Holly Jolly Christmas,” then he followed it up with some classic Sinatra and a bluegrass duet about angels crying on Christmas Eve that had always made Marsh’s mother cry.
It was the perfect night, he thought as his family worked together to decorate their tree.
As he reached high to hang the star on the top of the tree, he couldn’t help thinking how his life had changed since that snowy December night a year earlier when Jackie Scott thought she could solve her problems with a stolen SUV.
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