Riverbend Road

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “Mom didn’t lose me,” she pointed out. “I’m still here for her to fuss and fret over and I plan to be for a long time.”

  “How is your mother doing?” he asked after a moment.

  “I think it’s been tough as she tries to adjust to being a widow, but she seems to stay busy with her friends and her hobbies. She misses my dad, even though she really lost him two years before he died.”

  Cade’s jaw tightened and a shadow flashed in his gaze. If she hadn’t been looking at him closely, she might have missed it. A second later he became expressionless, his features as remote and stony as that mountain face up there. “The last few years weren’t what anybody could call normal.”

  He always had the same reaction when anyone brought up her father. That dark shadow, the sudden tension, and then the careful concealment of his emotions. She didn’t know if it was grief or anger...or something else.

  There was something about her father’s shooting two and a half years earlier that Cade refused to talk about. No matter how she tried to probe, he always shut her down until she finally got tired of the brick wall.

  The night was too lovely, too perfect, for her to ruin it by trying again. She wasn’t in the mood so she decided to change the subject.

  “If you want the truth, she’s a little annoyed that she now has three children who are over thirty—or close to it, anyway—and she doesn’t have a single grandchild to show for it.”

  “You’re not thirty yet.”

  “Almost. I reach that momentous milestone this fall.”

  He shook his head. “How can that be? Seems like just yesterday you were riding your little pink bike with the white basket and you and Wyatt were begging Marshall and me to let you come down to the river to fish with us.”

  She was nearly thirty years old, but was she happy?

  Her life had become something she never expected. Back when she rode that pink bike and used to put baby dolls in the basket, she had wanted different things. She wanted to be a wife, a mother, and to have a job where she helped people. It seemed so silly now but when she was young she had dreamed of opening up an ice cream shop—because what made people happier than ice cream?

  Did that girl even exist anymore? Wynona helped people, the way she always wanted, but not the way she had planned. And, she had to admit, they weren’t often happy about her help.

  She went to work every day at a job that no longer seemed right for her, then came home to an empty house. Something needed to change.

  “Life has a funny way of rolling on,” she said. “Before you know it, you wake up and you’re almost thirty.”

  “Let’s do our best to make sure you get there—which means no more crazy stunts like you did this afternoon.”

  The good food and the bite of creamy strawberry cheesecake she had tried mellowed her enough that she finally decided she should speak her mind.

  “I can’t understand why you’re freaking out about what happened today. I’m a police officer. It’s my job to put it all on the line for the people of Haven Point. Yes, this is a nice, quiet town but we both know that could change in a second. Look at my dad. His life changed forever in an instant because of one stupid junkie with a stolen handgun.”

  It was exactly the wrong thing to say. He tensed again, as he always did when she mentioned her dad and the shooting. He set down his fork as if he’d suddenly lost his appetite.

  “Yeah. You’re a police officer. My police officer,” he growled. “It’s my job to make sure you don’t take unnecessary risks with your life or with civilians. The fire department was only minutes away and they were far better trained than you to extricate the boys safely.”

  The implication that she might have endangered the boys more somehow by rushing to get them out sent her temper flaring. “I made a judgment call—which is, again, exactly my job! We spend every day going with our instincts. Pull over this car for speeding, not that one. Stop to see what the suspicious-looking teens are trying to hide from me at the lakeshore. Take a chance and run into a burning building before the whole thing topples over. I have to be able to do my job.”

  “You have to be able to do your job without harm—to you or to anyone else.”

  Now she was hurt as well as angry. “I thought I had been doing that for the last two years. If you don’t trust me and my instincts, maybe you ought to make the weeklong suspension more permanent.”

  “Maybe I should,” he retorted.

  His words were like a hard slap from a low-hanging branch on the trail, shocking, painful and totally out of the blue. Okay, maybe she was beginning to think it was time she considered a different career path but she didn’t need to hear it from her chief of police—or her friend.

  She took pride in her job. She was a Bailey, with all the honor and responsibility that went along with that. She had lost her father to the job and her beloved twin brother. A great-uncle somewhere on her family tree had been killed in a shoot-out with railroad outlaws.

  She worked hard, she was never late, she tried to treat the people she served with respect and courtesy.

  Apparently that wasn’t enough for Cade Emmett. She rose from the table. “Are you saying you want to fire me? What’s stopping you?”

  He rose as well, eyes dark with regret. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

  “Seriously, don’t let any sense of loyalty to my father because he was your mentor or obligation to Marshall because he’s your best friend stop you. If you don’t think I can do the job, fire me and find someone you can trust.”

  To her deep mortification, her voice wobbled on the last words and she felt tears threaten. The events of that long, exhausting, traumatic day seemed to press in on her and she suddenly felt as hot and frightened as she’d been crouching in that burning barn.

  “I don’t want to fire you, Wyn,” he answered. “You’re my best officer and we both know it. You’re coolheaded in a crisis, you’re dedicated and you genuinely care about the people of Haven Point. I respect all my officers or I wouldn’t have them working for me, but if I had to pick one of them to have my back, it would be you.”

  “Then why are you making such a deal about what happened today? I saved two boys’ lives and all you’ve done is yell at me!”

  “I thought you were dead. Don’t you get that?”

  Her breath caught at the raw intensity in his voice and she stared at him.

  “When I rolled up to the scene and didn’t see you, I thought you were inside that barn and we were going to find you burned to a crisp, along with the kids.”

  The words seemed to vibrate through the night, through her. She felt light-headed suddenly, as if she’d just run down to the lake and back.

  “I had the situation under control,” she whispered. She couldn’t seem to take her gaze away from his, from those blue eyes that blazed with searing emotion.

  “If something had happened to you on my watch, it would have destroyed me.”

  Destroyed him? His word choice rocked her. Yes, she might be the officer he wanted at his back in a crisis but losing her would have destroyed him? What did he mean?

  She let out a shaky breath. “Nothing happened. I’m fine.”

  “Your family has lost enough. Wyatt. Your dad. The Baileys have given more than their share, don’t you think?”

  Ah. So it was about her family. “You were only worried about facing Charlene if something happened to me.”

  “I didn’t think once about your mother, trust me.”

  “Marshall, Katrina or Elliot, then. They can all be pretty formidable.”

  “This has nothing to do with your family. I was worried about losing you.”

  She didn’t know how to deal with this serious, intense Cade Emmett—and she was quickly losing her slippery grasp on the feelings she tried so
hard to contain around him. In desperation, she made a lame attempt at humor.

  “I get it,” she said, forcing a smile, though she was pretty sure it trembled at the edges. “It’s tough to find qualified cops willing to work for the paltry wages in Haven Point. You would have had to go through all the interviews, the pesky background checks, calling referrals, then finally training someone new. It’s a pain.”

  “I wish this was only about the job,” he said gruffly.

  He was almost close enough to kiss her. Just another step. She swallowed and licked her lips, willing him to take it.

  She had saved two lives today. No matter what he said, she knew she had done the right thing, showed a shaky but resolute courage that would have made her father proud. She had done it for the boys’ sake, not because she wanted recognition or a commendation but surely she deserved something for her effort.

  He wouldn’t kiss her first, she suddenly realized—and not because he didn’t want to. The complete certainty of that left her dizzy. Cade wanted to kiss her but he would never take that first step. His job was everything to him, his chance to become more than just another worthless, lazy Emmett.

  She would simply have to take that step for both of them. Who said she couldn’t claim her own reward?

  Before she could talk herself out of it, she moved that final few inches between them, stood on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his.

  He stood frozen for only a second and then he made a low, almost desperate sound in his throat and returned the kiss with a fierce hunger.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  FINALLY.

  Everything inside her seemed to sigh, to turn soft and gooey.

  His mouth was warm, determined, and tasted like strawberry cheesecake and mint and Cade.

  She had wondered forever what it would be like to kiss the man. Now she knew—just as she knew that one taste would never be enough.

  She had guessed somehow that he wouldn’t be one of those sloppy, take-charge, my-way-or-nothing guys and she was absolutely right. He teased at her mouth, seduced her, seeming to know instinctively just what she liked.

  He made that low sound in his throat again and pulled her closer and she couldn’t believe she was really here, kissing Cade Emmett on a magical June night. She wrapped her arms more tightly around him. She couldn’t get close enough and everything about him seemed to make her ache with longing.

  The men she tended to date the last few years could be summed up in one word: safe. They were nice guys, mild-mannered, nonthreatening. She could trace the reason she gravitated toward them to one horrible night in her life when she had been helpless and afraid.

  She dated them once or twice and it was easy to keep them at arm’s length.

  Not a single one of those men in five years had ever made her feel as if the world was new and bright and wonderful, as if she were new.

  Cade wasn’t safe. A woman would be foolish to make the mistake of thinking he was. He was hard, dangerous, and could overpower her in a second, regardless of all her self-defense training.

  Despite that, she wasn’t afraid for an instant. She wanted this moment, this night, to go on and on forever while the globe lights gleamed overhead and the river rushed by beyond the trees and she was aware of each precious beat of her heart.

  * * *

  SOMEWHERE IN THE murky corners of his brain, warning bells were sounding but Cade ignored them.

  Wynona was soft, warm and tasted like heaven—like vanilla and plump strawberries and luscious, sinful cream.

  He couldn’t think straight when she sighed under his mouth, when she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her delicious curves against him.

  She was so tough most of the time, brisk and no-nonsense in her uniform, and he found it incredibly seductive to know that beneath all the layers she showed to the world hid this warm, sweetly enthusiastic woman who trembled when he kissed her and kissed him like she couldn’t get enough.

  He couldn’t either. He wanted more and more and more. He wanted to lay her down on the warm, moonlit grass and lose himself inside her.

  Some careful barrier he had never fully been aware of seemed to have toppled between them. The risky situation today—those terrible moments when he had been so terrified of losing her—had shattered it into ruins.

  He felt some weird inevitability, as if they had both been holding their breath for a long time—years, even—waiting for this moment.

  She murmured his name against his mouth on a sigh and the breathless sound of it rippled down his spine as if her fingers had trailed over each ridge.

  He wanted them there, her fingers on his skin, everywhere. Forget the grass. He would take her inside where he had a big, comfortable bed. They could spend all night exploring each other, learning each other’s secrets and celebrating that she was so gloriously alive.

  Anticipation and hunger coiled inside him and he was just trying to work out the logistics of moving them both in that direction when his phone suddenly rang, the sound ringing through the night like a freaking piercer siren.

  He froze, his breathing ragged and his thoughts tangled. She went still as well, blue eyes hazy with desire.

  All too soon, his brain kicked into gear and reality crashed into him like an 18-wheeler. He mentally churned through every swearword he knew and none of them seemed nearly strong enough. What was he doing? This was Wyn in his arms. His officer, his friend, John Bailey’s daughter.

  He was so totally screwed.

  All these weeks and months and years of keeping his attraction to her under control and he threw everything away the moment her soft, tantalizing mouth touched his.

  Yeah, she had kissed him first—for about half a second before he had devoured her.

  He closed his eyes, wishing more than anything that they could stay wrapped around each other out here on a sweet June evening and forget the rest of the world existed.

  The phone rang again, a harsh reminder of all the responsibilities he had just ignored for a few fleeting moments of lust.

  “I...need to take that.”

  She eased away from him, her eyes still a little unfocused and her mouth swollen and lush from his kiss. She looked tousled and aroused and his body surged with hunger.

  “Oh. Um. Right.”

  She leaned against the table while he pulled his phone out of the pocket of his cargo pants. He knew from the ringtone it was the police station.

  “Yeah? Emmett here.”

  “Sorry to bug you when you’re off duty, Chief. This is Jesse Fisher. Officer Fisher,” the earnest rookie corrected himself. “I just got a call from Kelli Hansen down at the boat rental place that a couple from Nevada never brought their fishing boat back and they’re not answering their cell phones. Their vehicle’s still in the parking lot. Even though it’s only just past nine and they’re only an hour beyond the time they were supposed to return, I’m wondering if we should start a search party, them being tourists and all.”

  For about half a second, he had a hard time figuring out why he should care about a couple of tourists from Nevada when he could be kissing Wynona Bailey under a star-drenched sky but he forced himself to shove the thought aside.

  His job. His town. He needed to focus on the needs of the people of Haven Point, not on his own frustrated longing for a woman he could never have.

  “Have you called Chief Gallegos?”

  “Not yet, sir. I wanted to check with you first.”

  Jesse was green, just a year out of POST. Like Wynona, he had good instincts. Unlike her, he was afraid to act on them.

  “Let’s start with Chief Gallegos. Have him send a couple of volunteer search-and-rescue boats to check out our side of the lake. More than likely, they ran out of gas or flooded the engine and are trying to row her to the marina. Or t
hey could have headed up to Shelter Springs and lost track of the time. Before you call the volunteer searchers, check with the marina up there and see if they’ve seen a boat matching the description.”

  “Good idea. So call the Shelter Springs marina then send out the volunteer search and rescue if they haven’t heard anything from them.”

  “Let’s start with that. Call me if the situation changes. I can be there in five minutes if you or Chief Gallegos decide you need me.”

  “Got it. Thanks. Sorry again to disturb your downtime.”

  He didn’t want to think about how much worse he might have made the situation if Jesse hadn’t disturbed him. He ended the call and, dreading the next conversation ahead of him, turned to face her.

  “Wyn—”

  She shook her head. “Don’t say it. Don’t apologize or say what a mistake this was.”

  “I have to. Mistake is too mild a word for what this was. I was out of line to kiss you. So far out of line I can’t even see the freaking line from here.”

  Damn it. Why did she have to look so delectable there in the moonlight, with her lips swollen, her eyes soft and needy, strands of hair sliding out of her sexy little updo thingy.

  He frowned, trying desperately to remember all the reasons he couldn’t kiss her again.

  “I’m the police chief, you’re my officer. If the mayor or anybody on the city council found out about this, we would both lose our jobs.”

  “You seriously think I would blab to McKenzie?”

  “She’s your best friend, isn’t she? You’re going to be her bridesmaid in a month.”

  “That doesn’t mean I tell her every time I tangle tongues with a guy!”

  Just how often did she tangle tongues with a guy? The question was none of his business but he still wanted to know.

  He suddenly realized he had no idea if she was dating anyone. How was it possible that they worked so closely together and he didn’t know more about her romantic relationships? Some detective he was.

  She often teased him about his love life—which wasn’t nearly as active as everybody else seemed to think and had shriveled to nonexistent in recent months for reasons he couldn’t have accurately identified—but she shared next to nothing about her own. The omission might have been intentional on her part, but then he hadn’t asked, either, for the simple reason that he didn’t really want to know.