by Debra Webb
All Chase wanted was one more chance with her. One last opportunity to make their lives turn out the way they should have all along. He loved her. He wanted her more than anything else in this world. He wanted to have children with her. A brother or sister for Shane.
He’d all but told her so already. He doubted that small town life would ever be enough for Caroline now. She’d always wanted to see the world. Lucy’s Branch didn’t have anything more to offer now than it had eight years ago. Chase let go a weary breath. Unlike Tristan, Chase had nothing spectacular to offer Caroline. He wasn’t particularly well-to-do financially; he didn’t have a fancy job or car. He was just a small county sheriff.
Chase’s gaze moved back to the slick guy trying to sway Caroline’s heart. “Come back to me,” he murmured, hoping God was listening. “I need you. We all need you.”
Caroline glared at Tristan. “There’s nothing else to say. I appreciate your apology, but it doesn’t matter. It’s over. I’m not going back.”
Fury glittered in Tristan’s eyes now. “Is it him?” He nodded toward the diner. “You’re leaving me for him? Some small-town hick sheriff?” He laughed. “I can’t believe this.”
It was Caroline who experienced the jolt of fury this time. “You don’t know anything about Chase Garrett,” she said hotly. “He’s a better man than you’ll ever dream of being. Now take your fancy car and slink back to St. Louis and the lovely, dumb as a post, Heather.”
“I swear,” Tristan said, making one last ditch effort. “It was simply a mistake. She seduced me. I’ll never let anything like that happen again.”
Caroline shook her head. “You had your chance, Tristan. You dropped the ball.” She snagged her keys from his hand. “I’ll arrange for my things to be shipped. Goodbye.”
She turned her back on him and started toward the diner.
“You’ll wake up one of these days and realize what a mistake you’ve made, Caroline.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” she shouted without looking back.
“You’ll never be happy in Lucy’s Branch,” he warned.
That remark made her falter for half a second. Summoning her resolve, she kept on walking. Whatever her future held, she was walking away from that part of her past once and for all.
~*~
When Sunday morning came, Caroline was not ready. She’d called Sherry and Julie and said her goodbyes. Henri had made a special farewell dinner. Shane had drawn a picture just for her. A couple dozen folks from around town had stopped by to have their say—which in no way included goodbye. They still insisted that she would take over the clinic and they would be so happy to have her back where she belonged.
But she couldn’t stay.
There was no way to know if what Chase felt for her would last. Her own feelings were a turmoil of mixed emotions. She wanted to go. She wanted to stay. She’d spent the last eight years avoiding risk when it came to her heart. Tristan was better off without her. She’d never really loved him anyway. And rat that he was, he deserved a life partner who truly loved him.
Would she ever find happiness as Sherry and Julie had? Who knew? But, right now, she had to go.
“Well, looks like you’re all set.”
Henri, Shane clinging to her legs, met Caroline at the front door. Chase appeared from behind Caroline and took her suitcases. Henri had insisted she spend her last night with them.
“I guess I am,” Caroline managed in spite of the lump welling in the back of her throat.
Henri hugged her fiercely. “Come back to see us, child. Don’t stay away so long this time.”
Tears spilled past Caroline’s lashes despite her best attempts. “I will,” she promised.
Shane tugged on her pants leg. “Who’s gonna be our doct’r when you go?”
Caroline crouched down and gave him a hug. “I’m sure someone really special will come along.”
Shane pouted for a second. “My daddy told me you was spec’hel.”
Caroline’s heart skipped another beat. “Well, that’s only because we’ve been friends for a very long time.”
Shane nodded. “Okay.”
Caroline mussed his hair and stood. She forced a shaky smile. “Thanks, Henri.”
She hurried out the door, knowing Chase followed with her luggage. But she had to go now or she wouldn’t be able to. And she had to go. She just couldn’t stay and take the risk.
Chase loaded the luggage into the trunk and came around to the driver’s side door to stand directly in front of her. Caroline suppressed the urge to jump into the car and speed away.
“Drive safely.”
Caroline swiped her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Will do, Sheriff.”
He laughed a choked sound. She managed a weak smile.
“Let us hear from you.”
She nodded and turned to open her door.
Chase grabbed her and pulled her to him. He kissed her hard. Need and desire swirled inside her, mingling with the other already dizzying emotions tugging at her. But most of all, regret welled inside her. Regret for what she would never have.
When he at last drew his mouth away, he held her against his chest a moment longer. “If you ever change your mind, I’ll be waiting.” He released her and walked away.
Caroline stood there, stunned, and watched him go.
Driving away was the hardest thing she’d ever done. She cried all the way to town. At Doc’s office, she stopped and stared at the lonesome clinic. Surely they would find someone who would take over the clinic. Someone who cared about the people in this town. Someone who knew them.
Someone like her.
Caroline shook that thought away. She couldn’t stay. How could she go backwards? Take that risk? What if it was a mistake?
Gathering her courage, Caroline drove out of town. Just when she thought she had her tears under control, she saw the wedding chapel in the distance. She drove up to the small building and parked. The minister’s car was there. Cleaning up, she supposed. Or maybe preparing for another wedding.
Weddings. She hiccupped a sob. Everybody was happily married except her. She was a mess. She didn’t know what she wanted. She was leaving the only man she’d ever loved because she was too afraid to risk her heart.
If she gave her heart to this man, to this town, and it didn’t work out...
Caroline shook her head. She and Chase’d had their chance and now it was past.
She closed her eyes and reached for calm. She would get over him eventually.
Yeah, right.
Maybe in the next lifetime.
~*~
“I can’t believe you’re going to just let her go,” Henri fussed. Her hands braced on her hips, she paced back and forth in front of Chase.
Chase threw up his hands. “What do you want me to do? I all but begged her to stay.”
“Did you tell her that you love her?” Henri demanded.
She’d always been able to see through him. “I didn’t come right out and say the words,” he hedged. “But neither did she.”
“You’re a fool, Chase Garrett.”
He frowned. His heart was breaking here. He didn’t need this grief from Henri, too. “What is it you think I can do?”
“Go after her,” Henri told him. “Tell her you love her. If you leave now you can probably catch her before she gets out of town.”
Chase started to argue, then he thought of the way it felt to make love with Caroline. The way that only she completed him, made him feel whole.
He was out the door and in his Jeep in ten seconds flat.
Inside, Henri snagged up the phone. “Chase is going after Caroline, pass the word. We need to show her how much we want her to stay.” Henri hung up and dialed the next number. She wasn’t going to sit back and let this happen all over again.
~*~
Unable to help herself, Caroline got out of her car and headed into the chapel. She had to see it just one more time. Something deep inside her told her
that this was one thing she had to do before she left for good. She felt compelled to go inside. It was the strangest thing. It was as if she didn’t, something really bad would happen.
Caroline pushed open one of the double doors. As she suspected, the minister was busily making some sort of preparations. The chapel wasn’t decorated, but she supposed there could be something planned. Just her luck, she couldn’t even have this one final moment alone.
He looked up and smiled. “The ceremony isn’t until noon,” he explained.
“I...I just wanted to look for a moment.”
“Go right ahead.” He went back to his work and Caroline stood there...just watching.
Finally, she shook her head and chastised herself for feeling the need to stop here. She was being ridiculous, she decided as she turned back to the door. Pushing out into the daylight she held back the tears that wanted to brim once more. Enough, Caroline, she ordered.
“I was hoping I would catch you.”
She looked up to find Chase waiting on the steps. She shivered with feelings she could no more control that she could the turning of the earth. “I just stopped to stay goodbye to...to the minister,” she improvised.
Chase nodded.
“Well.” Caroline forced a smile. “Goodbye.”
“Don’t go.”
She halted on the second step, even with him. Her gaze met his. “I have to go.”
“I love you, Caroline. I don’t want to lose you again. I want to spend the rest of my life with you making up for the past.”
God, she was going to cry again.
“We can’t change the past,” she murmured, her voice strained.
“You’re right. We can’t. But we can make the future. And I want to make it with you.” He dropped to one knee. “Stay. Be my wife.”
Caroline smiled, unable to hold back the tears now spilling down her cheeks. “I love you so much, Chase. But I’m afraid.”
He pulled her down to sit with him on the steps. “I can’t guarantee you that we won’t have hard times, Caroline. And maybe there’ll even be times when we’ll both be convinced that we made a mistake. But I can guarantee you that I’ll love you and you alone for the rest of my life.”
The sound of vehicles arriving drew her attention to the long sloping drive that led from the highway down to the meadow surrounding the chapel. Dozens of cars and trucks rolled into the parking area.
People streamed out of the vehicles and came toward them. Henri and Shane led the drove. Both Caroline and Chase stared in complete surprise.
“Thank God for those pesky cell phones or we might never have found you two,” Henri said as she and Shane stopped a few feet away. She leveled a gaze on Caroline. “We don’t want you to go, Caroline. We need you here,” she added, her voice thick with emotion. “If you won’t stay for Chase, stay for us.”
“That’s wight,” Shane put in, nodding his head adamantly.
“Stay, Caroline,” another voice added.
“We need you!” echoed through the crowd.
Caroline looked back to Chase. He smiled. “Looks like you’re outnumbered,” he offered gently.
She nodded. “I guess I’ll have to stay.”
“Is that a yes?”
Her smile trembled. “That’s a yes.”
“Well, in that case,” the minister said from the door. “Come on inside and we’ll make this official.”
Caroline met Chase’s gaze. He nodded. They rose together and followed the minister inside and down the long red-carpeted aisle. The crowd moved in behind them, filling the pews.
“Dearly beloved,” the minister began.
The rest of his words were lost to Caroline as she looked deeply into the eyes of the man she loved. The man she had always loved. The man she’d waited her whole life to marry. Right here in this very chapel. It wasn’t until her name was mentioned that she turned to the minister once more. “I do,” she said, pledging her heart and the rest of her life to Chase Garrett.
“And do you, Chase Winston Garrett, take Caroline for your wife. To have and to hold, to love and to cherish until death do you part?”
“I do.” That Garrett smile cut loose, full wattage, on her then. “I definitely do,” he added.
“By the power vested in me by God and the great state of Tennessee, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Caroline closed her eyes as Chase’s mouth covered hers.
In the deepest recesses of her soul she knew that they would be together...forever.
Epilogue
“Julie.”
Julie looked up when Caroline called her name. It was Friday and Julie was her last patient. Thank God.
Julie pushed out of her chair with difficulty. “I’m coming. I’m coming.”
Caroline had to smile. They’d found out months ago that Julie was having twins. She definitely looked it at this point.
“I swear, Jules, if you get any bigger we’re going to have to buy special chairs.”
Julie patted Caroline’s growing belly. “I wouldn’t be making wise cracks, my dear, you’re no slim Jim yourself.”
Caroline pressed her hand to her own belly. Chase had felt the baby move for the first time last night. He was ecstatic. Shane couldn’t wait for his baby sister. They were pretty sure at this point that the baby was a girl.
“Okay, I’ll cut the fat jokes,” Caroline agreed.
“Whew!” Julie huffed by the time she’d made it to the exam room. “Just tell me these boys aren’t coming until after tomorrow. I don’t want to miss Rob’s wedding.”
Caroline arched a skeptical eyebrow. “Sherry can tell you that I have no control over that decision. They will come when they come, friend.” Caroline looked forward to Rob’s wedding as well. She’d worried when Julie and Zac first married that Rob might never find happiness. But the couple who’d bought Caroline’s grandmother’s house had remedied that problem. The lady of the house had a lovely, single sister who fell in love with Rob on sight.
“Well, I tell you what, Jules, you keep your feet up tonight and tomorrow morning and you might just make it to that wedding.”
Julie smiled. “Good.”
“Oh,” Caroline said abruptly. “Did you hear the other good news?”
“What news?”
“Marvin asked Henri to marry him and they’ve set the date for late next month. A Valentine’s Day wedding.” Caroline smiled, happiness blooming in her chest. “Looks like we’ll be going to the chapel yet again.”
“I’m not complaining,” Julie put in. “Going to the chapel is one of the best parts about living in this town.”
Caroline nodded her agreement. “It’s legendary.
In a secret place in her heart Caroline knew that she and her friends would live happily ever after, and the legend of the wedding chapel would live on.
One day their children would be going to that same chapel.
Image:debra.png
DEBRA WEBB, born in Alabama, wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. It wasn’t until she spent three years working for the military behind the Iron Curtain—and a five-year stint with NASA—that she realized her true calling. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. Since then she has penned nearly 100 novels. Visit her at www.debrawebb.com .
Recent Books by Debra Webb:
DIRTY, Pink House Press
ANYWHERE SHE RUNS, St. Martins Press
EVERYWHERE SHE TURNS, St. Martins Press
FIND ME, St. Martins Press
NAMELESS, St. Martins Press
TRACELESS, St. Martins Press
MISSING(The Colby Agency), Harlequin Intrigue
VOWS OF SILENCE, Harlequin Books
Table of Contents
Chapter one
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Eight
Chapter E
ight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue