Love Draws Near

by Cynthia Hickey

  “I have enough money to make them look at me however I want them to.” He clenched his jaw. “They’ll treat you with respect.”

  “Out of fear. Not because they want to.”

  “It doesn’t matter to me. We’ll move somewhere else and start over. Somewhere the people are stuck in the nineteenth century.” He stood, realizing he was almost begging her. “We’ll talk more when you’re feeling better. I’ll come back later, before visiting hours are over. I’ll check on your truck.”

  She nodded and turned her head.

  Lance stopped at the nurse’s station and found out that in addition to multiple cuts and contusions, Cindy had a bad concussion. That had to be why she said the things she did, he thought. They enjoyed each other. Their time at the creek and the dance proved it. He just had to get through her wall of defense and let her realize it to.

  He headed home for a few hours of sleep before checking in with his mechanic. The adrenaline of finding her, the excitement of the dance, it all faded away and left him exhausted.

  At home, he headed upstairs to his room without speaking to anyone and fell, fully clothed on top of his costume on top of the bed.

  7

  “What?” Cindy raised her bed and stared into Lance’s face that afternoon. “Someone cut the brake line?”

  “That’s what my mechanic said.” Lance’s face looked as if set from stone. “Who would do that to you?”

  She picked at a loose thread on the blanket. “I don’t know. Most people leave me alone.” Oh, she was going to make sure Geneva paid for this. She’d get a court order to have her and her daughters thrown off the Hopkins land. Cut her brake line? Try to kill her? The woman was growing desperate with Cindy’s quickly approaching birthday.

  “You’re lying.” Lance hit the mattress to get her attention. “You know full well who cut the line, don’t you?”

  She shook her head.

  “I can’t help you if you aren’t honest with me.”

  “I don’t need your help. I so appreciate you coming to find me, I really do. It was the sweetest thing. But, don’t you see? We cannot be anything. It’s best you go.”

  “No.” His face darkened.

  “What?” Was he serious?

  “I’m not going. Not permanently, anyway. I’m headed to the mechanic to have him continue work on the truck and I’ll be back here first thing in the morning to take you home.” He gave a definitive nod and marched from the room.

  Ugh. She rested back against the mattress. Lance knew more about her health and hospital stay then she did. What happened to patient doctor confidentiality? She pressed the button for the nurse.

  “Are you all right, Miss Hopkins?” Nurse Alice bustled into the room, her uniform straining over a plump middle.

  “I need to speak with my doctor, please. Right now.”

  “He’s making his rounds, Miss—”

  “Now.” Cindy lifted her chin.

  “I’ll see if I can find him.” The nurse left the room.

  Ten minutes later, Doctor Rhodes entered. “How’s my patient?”

  Stay firm, Cindy. “Please do not share any of my medical conditions or release time with anyone other than myself.”

  “I assure you that I have not.” He tilted his head. “Why are you asking?”

  “Because someone seems to know more about me than I do. Perhaps one of your nurses has loose lips.”

  “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. This goes against hospital policy.” He took his second glance at her chart that day, made a notation, and left with promises to see her in the morning before ten.

  She slapped her hands against the mattress. What did Lance see in her? With Geneva at the helm, the farm and the surrounding land had virtually fallen into ruin. It would take a lot of work for Cindy to get it back to its former glory.

  Didn’t Lance have enough work of his own? Wasn’t his schedule full of…whatever rich ranchers did with their time? Even if she was the woman for him, she didn’t have time for a relationship. She had to make sure Geneva paid for trying to kill her and left the farm.

  She pressed the button for the nurse again. “Were any of my personal things brought in?”

  “Why yes. They’re here in this closet.” She handed Cindy her purse.

  Cindy dug for her cell phone. The battery was dead. “Do you have a charger? I need to make an important call.”

  “I’ll see if anyone at the desk has one.” The nurse returned almost immediately with a long cord and plugged it into the wall. “The hospital doesn’t like cell phone use in the rooms.”

  “I can use the phone here, but the number I need is in my cell phone.” Cindy scanned her contacts, then pressed the number for her lawyer.

  “I’m asking for that safe place now,” she said, filling him in on what had happened to her the night before.

  “Would you like me to start an investigation?” He asked. He gave her the directions to a cabin on the mountain.

  “You’re my fairy godfather. Thank you.”

  He laughed. “I don’t know about that. Are you sure you’ll be okay up there by yourself? You don’t have a vehicle, food, clothes…”

  “I’ll manage, thank you.” She hung up. He was right. She had no way to get to her safe place without asking for help. And the only person she could fully trust was Mr. Barnhart and Lance. Since she’d told Mr. Barnhart she could do things herself, she had no choice but to eat crow and ask Lance for assistance.

  She really did need a fairy godfather or mother and a troop of mice to help her. Sadly, real life wasn’t a fairy tale and Cindy had an evil stepmother who wanted her dead. All Cindy needed now was a plan.

  First, a vehicle. Second, the place to live. Third, send Geneva to jail, or hell, whichever came first. She dug through her purse, taking stock of what she had. “Nothing. Not even a lipstick.” Most of the contents must have fallen out during the truck’s roll down the mountain.

  With a lump in her throat as big as the state of Arkansas, she called Lance. “I need you to do something for me,” she said when he answered. “I know you aren’t entitled, especially after the things I said, but I need you to go my home when Geneva isn’t there and pack up a few things.”

  “This sounds serious. I’m at the mechanics. Let me finish up here and I’ll come back there. You can explain to me what this is all about.”

  “I know I’m asking a lot, but—”

  “I’ll do anything, Cindy. I’m your prince, remember?”

  She smiled, even though she could feel her heart breaking in two. She was using Lance and he was letting her. Silly, blinded man.

  ~

  “Luckily this was a popular truck around here,” the mechanic said. “We’ve enough extra parts to put together that this truck will look like it just drove off the showroom floor in a month.”

  Lance frowned. “Is there any way you can have it finished sooner?”

  “Impossible. That’s putting a rush job on it as it is.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” He’d find Cindy a rental.

  After making the arrangements for a car to be delivered in the morning to the hospital, Lance headed back to see what Cindy needed. At first, he’d wanted to tell her no. That she couldn’t send him away to ask him to come back an hour later. But, that lasted as long as it took him to take a breath. He’d go to the moon and back if she asked.

  In her room, he sat in the uncomfortable vinyl chair and listened as she told him about her fears regarding her stepmother. “You don’t think Ana and Natalie are part of this?”

  Cindy shook her head. “No, they haven’t the sense God gave a goose. They just do whatever their mother tells them. But Geneva threatened me the night of the dance. Subtly, but I got the hint. Now, this.”

  “Okay. Tell me what you need.”

  “My room is the small one at the back of the house so it’ll be easy to get into. There are suitcases under the bed. Shove in as many things as you can. In my dresser is an address
book. I’ll need that.” She scrunched her mouth in thought.

  “Why not just let me buy you new things?”

  “No, I want my own things. I haven’t much. Geneva took just about everything away when I was younger.”

  Lance wanted to wring the older woman’s neck. “There’s a car being delivered in the morning. Where will you go?”

  “Higher up the mountain.”

  “Let me go with you.”

  “No. It’s best I go alone. She won’t find me if I’m the only one who knows.”

  “But, you aren’t. Someone gave you the directions to this sanctuary, am I right?”

  Her eyes widened. “Well, yes, but—”

  “You need someone to protect you.” He took her hand in his. “Let me be that person.”

  She studied his face, then nodded. “As friends only. I want to set up a trap for Geneva that will put her behind bars.”

  He grinned. “That, I will gladly help you do.” He stood and lightly kissed her forehead, right beside the bandage. “I’ll go watch the house and sneak in the moment Geneva leaves.”

  “She won’t be there now. She plays bridge every afternoon.”

  Of course, she does. Lance had never met such a lazy person before.

  ~

  Geneva wasn’t home, but the silly-minded Ana was. Lance hunkered behind some azalea bushes and waited until the girl went around to the front of the house. Then, he darted to what he hoped was Cindy’s room.

  The window popped open easy enough. He smiled, thinking of all the times she probably snuck out to go read by the creek.

  Thankfully, the bedroom door was closed. He glanced around the simple, but clean room, then knelt and pulled two suitcases from under the bed. Battered and worn, they were vintage and probably worth some money to collectors.

  He opened the cases on the bed, then opened the drawers in the dresser. There was no closet. He tossed everything that would fit into the cases, including the little pink address book. Glancing around, he spied a small wooden box and added that, plus an unfinished romantic suspense novel. He couldn’t see another thing Cindy would need other than toiletries and heading to the bathroom would be pushing his luck at not getting caught. He’d buy her a toothbrush.

  Footsteps sounded outside, then stopped at the door.

  Lance glanced around the room, then tried sliding under the bed. No way his six-foot frame was going to fit. He’d just popped back up when the door opened.

  Ana’s eyes widened, right before she emitted a squeak and fainted.

  Wonderful.

  Lance scooped her up, his knees buckling just a bit at her weight. He peeked into the hallway and, not seeing anyone, carried her to the nearest bedroom. All pink and frilly, it had to be hers. He laid her on the bed, then whispered, “It was nothing but a dream. Think only of…your prince.”

  Really? Could he get more corny?

  He hurried back to Cindy’s room, latched the very full suitcases closed, then tossed them out the window. Glancing outside to make sure no one was around, he climbed out and slid the window closed. He’d no sooner grabbed the suitcase handles then he heard the cock of a gun.

  “Well, Mr. Moore.” Geneva stood there, a pistol aimed at his head. “I almost shot you. What in heaven’s name are you doing climbing out of Cindy’s bedroom window? And why do you have suitcases?”

  “She asked for a few things…uh, while she’s at the hospital. I knocked, but no one answered.”

  “Ana is home.” She uncocked the weapon and lowered her hand. “That’s an awful lot of things for an overnight stay. Isn’t Cindy being released tomorrow? Her nurse said she was.”

  Big-mouthed nurse. “I’m only doing what a friend requested. Why don’t you and your daughters come over for dinner tomorrow night? I’ll inform Grandpa and the chef. I’m sure Cindy could use a quiet night to recuperate.”

  The suspicious light blinked out in her eyes. “Why that is wonderful news, Lance. Are you thinking of choosing one of my beautiful daughters as your wife?”

  “They’ve as good a chance as anyone else around here.” Which wasn’t a lie, since Cindy wasn’t technically around. “I’ll see you tomorrow night at seven.”

  Now, to inform Grandpa. Who wouldn’t mind since he had his eye on the Hopkins land.

  Lance shuddered on his way to his truck which he’d parked on a side road. Nothing in the world was worth getting too close to the piranha Hopkins and her offspring. Yet, here he was, committing to an evening with them in order to help Cindy. He chuckled. He’d do it all again if he had to.

  8

  Cindy waited just inside the hospital doors for Lance. She stood from the wheelchair as he jogged across the parking lot, his hands clutching the handles of her suitcases. She smiled. He truly was a wonderful friend.

  “You got them,” she said the moment she joined him outside. “Any trouble?”

  “Ana saw me and fainted.” He set the suitcases down and opened the trunk to a silver Corolla. “Hopefully, she’ll think she was dreaming. Then, Geneva caught me climbing out your window, so I invited her and her daughters to supper tomorrow night.”

  “What did you tell her about me?”

  “That you were spending another night in the hospital.” He closed the trunk and handed her the keys. “I’ll follow you, okay?”

  She nodded and glanced around them, fully expecting to see Geneva come storming across the parking lot. With no sight of her, Cindy made her way painfully around to the driver’s side and got in before digging the instructions to her temporary home from her purse. With it on the passenger seat, she started the car and drove away.

  A glance in her rearview mirror showed Lance following. She turned toward Miller Mountain. Her heart pounded and her hands shook as she approached where she’d gone over. Tire marks marred the asphalt. Flattened vegetation showed the path she’d taken. Mercy, she was lucky to be alive.

  Thoughts of the dance, and how it had felt in Lance’s arms, breathing in the scent of him, swaying to the music, rushed back to her at sight of the large outbuilding. She could see just the roof over the trees as she drove past.

  Half an hour later, she turned down a barely used dirt road and stopped in front of a cabin that couldn’t be more than two hundred square feet. She smiled, having seen tiny houses on television. Well, it was plenty big enough for one person and one of the most charming things she’d ever seen.

  She shoved open her door and shuffled toward the cottage-style cabin. The door opened easily and she stepped into a room paneled with pine. Everywhere she looked was pine. The small kitchen counter was varnished pine, complete with a bark edge. A tiny bathroom with a galvanized trough for the bottom of the shower and a compost toilet was placed on the other side of a wall that was lined with shelves.

  Two lofts provided sleeping space, one at each end. There was no way Cindy could climb the ladder in her condition. Hopefully, the small sofa folded out into another bed.

  “Wow. This is small.” Lance set her suitcases right inside the door. “I’m not sure you’ll have room to unpack what little you have.”

  “I’ll manage. I think it’s perfect.” A tiny closet stood next to the sofa. She’d manage just fine. The only problem she saw was how to spend her days until her birthday.

  Lance still stood just inside the door. “Good thing I packed your book. There’s no television.”

  She laughed. “A person doesn’t need TV.”

  “It helps. Let me run up to the house and get you some food.”

  Why hadn’t she thought of that? If she wasn’t already exhausted from her aches and pains, she’d have gone with him. As it was, all she wanted to do was sleep. “Thank you.”

  After he left, she dug out a pain pill from her purse, curled up on the sofa, and fell asleep, not waking again until she heard the crunch of tires on rocks. She sat up and peered out the window, relieved to see Lance’s truck. What would she do if Geneva found her? Cindy was in no physical condition to do mu
ch of anything.

  She swiped her hair from her eyes and groaned as she got to her feet. Every muscle in her body protested at the movement. She opened the door to allow in Lance who carried several grocery bags.

  “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I brought whatever I could find.” He plopped the bags on the counter. “Would you like help putting them away?”

  “No, thank you. I need to know where everything is. You’ve done enough.”

  “That sounds like you’re trying to get rid of me.” He leaned against the ladder leading to the loft and grinned. “We’ve been here before.”

  She winced. They certainly had. Last time she sent him away, she’d called him back because she had no one else to help her. “I see a coffee pot. Would you like to make some?” There really wasn’t room in the tiny kitchen for both of them, but if he helped her until she begged to rest, he might leave willingly. “Once I’m back on my feet, Lance, you’ll have to forget about…us. I can’t concentrate on a relationship right now. There’s too much going on in my life.”

  “Having someone along makes the ride less bumpy.”

  She sighed and reached for a can of soup from one of the bags, then set it on a shelf.

  “Let me. You look as if every movement hurts.”

  “It does.” She took a seat on the sofa. “Thank you.”

  “Stop saying that.” He frowned. “I want to help you. More thanks aren’t necessary. Seeing you alive and well is all the thanks I need.”

  She watched as he quickly put the groceries away, then started making coffee. He was the handsomest man she’d ever seen in his short-sleeved plaid shirt and faded jeans. He might have a big bank account, but he dressed like a working man and looked good enough to grace the cover of a romance novel.

  Her thoughts shouldn’t go there. She glanced down at her bare feet. Her flip-flops had been tossed to the side when she’d laid down earlier. Calloused feet, suitable to a girl of her stature. She sighed and tucked them up under her. Someday, she’d have the means to have pedicures and sculpted nails. All she had to do was make it to her birthday. She leaned her head against the back of the sofa and closed her eyes.