Dread shivered through her as she gazed down at hastily erected light scaffolding and banks of cameras. The moment she’d tried to avoid for so long had finally caught up with her. Missy Marie’s return to the public eye.
She could already hear the questions. The accusations. The demands to know where she’d been for the past three years. The eagerness to learn what she and Doc had done with all the money they’d ripped off.
She could hear, too, the avid curiosity about why she’d chosen to stage her reemergence at the Bar-H, with an assistant U.S. district attorney at her shoulder.
Her wire-tight nerves stretched another torturous notch. This would ruin Evan. The media would have a field day with the fact that one of the government’s hottest young prosecuting attorneys was involved with a criminal. Lissa cringed every time she pictured the gleeful headlines that would splash across the tabloids.
She’d thought about denying their relationship, but she suspected neither the media nor Evan would let her get away with that. He certainly hadn’t tried to hide how he felt from his family. If they’d had any doubts last night, the casually possessive kiss he’d greeted Lissa with this morning when she stumbled into the crowded kitchen for coffee would have banished them.
Lissa latched onto the memory of that kiss to keep from thinking about the ordeal ahead. She was still reliving it when Evan rapped on the open door. His smile reached out and wrapped her in understanding and a love that kicked the crowd downstairs right out of her mind.
“Ready to face the music?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”
“You look terrific,” he murmured, his eyes gleaming as he took in the costume she’d chosen for Missy Marie’s first public appearance in three years.
Since Lissa had left Paradise for the hospital in Phoenix with only the clothes on her back, the Henderson women had taken a hand in outfitting her for this momentous occasion. Sydney, with her filmmaker’s eye for color and contrast, had decreed that the turquoise blouse and silver concho belt Evan’s mom had offered looked perfect with her own black silk broomstick skirt. Molly had contributed the brand-new cowboy boots Sam had bought in hopes of making a rancher out of her one of these days. Lauren had come up with an exquisite pair of handcrafted silver-and-turquoise earrings.
Lissa had done her own hair and makeup. The heavily mascaraed, overpainted sex kitten with the mountains of teased curls was gone forever. She’d applied lip gloss and blush with a light hand, then swept her tawny mane up into a casually sophisticated twist. At the last minute, she’d brushed her bangs back from her face so they didn’t hide her eyes. She wasn’t hiding anything anymore.
Especially how she felt about Evan.
The love she couldn’t hold back anymore throbbed through her voice as she gave him a last chance to salvage his career.
“You don’t have to go out there with me. I can handle it.”
His arms slid around her waist. “You can handle anything, Ms. James.”
Evan allowed himself one kiss, one long, intensely satisfying kiss, before he sprang the news of Marsh’s arrival on her.
“Before we go downstairs, I think I should warn you that you’ll be sharing the spotlight,” he said with an apologetic smile. “Marsh just got here…with Doc.”
She went rigid with shock. “What!”
“Customs picked him up a couple of hours ago, trying to cross the border with a fake ID. He, uh, had planned to meet with a stockbroker in El Paso to discuss his investments.”
Doubt razored into Evan’s gut for the second or two it took Lissa to recover from her shock. She’d fallen under the slick promoter’s spell once. Did she harbor any residual feelings for the man?
The scorn that flashed in her eyes told him exactly what kind of feelings she harbored.
“Why in heaven’s name did your brother bring Doc to the Bar-H?” she fumed. “He should have thrown him in jail and dropped the key down a sewer!”
“Well, I needed Dawes here to cut the deal I worked out with the Nashville D.A.”
“Deal!” She pushed out of his arms, spitting fury. “You worked a deal for that worm?”
“In exchange for a minimum sentence of seven to ten years, your ex-manager has agreed to plead guilty to extortion and mail fraud…”
“How big of him!”
“…and admit you knew nothing about his scams,” he finished calmly.
That took the wind from her sails. Her mouth opened, snapped shut, dropped open again. Grinning, Evan hustled her back into his arms.
“I figure it’ll take a couple of months for Arlen’s arm to heal well enough for him to escort you down the aisle. In the meantime, we’ll use Doc’s confession to reverse the judgment against you and decide where we’re going to get married. If we do it here, we’ll fly Reverend McNabb and his wife out so he can perform the ceremony.”
Ruthlessly Evan took advantage of her stunned speechlessness to press ahead.
“Josephine and Charlie called this morning, by the way. Jo’s volunteered to bake the wedding cake. She said to tell you she has this great recipe for an upside-down angel meringue, whatever that is.”
Lissa’s expression set laughter dancing in his heart.
“I know. It sounds pretty wild to me, too. But I can’t think of anything more appropriate for an angel who’s about to turn her life upside down all over again by marrying me.”
“Who…?” The word spiraled into a squeak. Swallowing, Lissa started again. “Who said anything about marriage?”
“Well, Arlen for one. He let me know at the hospital he takes a dim view of any man messing around with his daughter. My mother, for another. She told me I’d be crazy not to get a rope around you as soon as I can. Then there’s Reece and Marsh and Jake and…”
She stopped him by the simple expedient of slapping a palm over his mouth. Trapped behind the silken barrier, Evan planted a kiss on her warm, soft flesh.
“Never mind your brothers’ take on the situation,” she said breathlessly, removing her hand. “Just tell me what you think.”
“There’s no thinking involved, sweetheart. I fell in love with you so hard and so fast, my head still hasn’t caught up with my heart.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of!”
Framing her worried face in his hands, Evan smiled down at her.
“All I know is that I want to spend the rest of my life with you…in our own special Paradise. Marry me, Lissa. Next week. Next month. Whenever you’re ready and Josephine has that meringue whipped up.”
The woman who strode out onto the flagstone patio some time later bore little resemblance to the country singing sensation once known as Missy Marie. Her hair was sliding free of its sleek twist. No trace of lipstick tinted lips that looked slightly swollen. Her lids weren’t painted with the dramatic colors she once favored. Yet her brown eyes shone with a private joy that had photographers adjusting their lenses and grabbing for special filters to capture her glow.
She crossed the patio without even glancing at the handcuffed figure standing off to one side, guarded by two U.S. marshals. When she took her place behind the bank of microphones, five broad-shouldered Hendersons closed ranks behind her.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2833-7
THE HARDER THEY FALL
Copyright © 2000 by Merline Lovelace
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* Code Name: Danger
† Holiday Honeymoons
** Men of the Bar H
‡ Fortune’s Children: The Brides
§ Destiny’s Woman
The Harder They Fall (Intimate Moments) Page 17