Todd shook his head. “Nah. I realized you were something special the first minute after you went a round with Bullwinkle and came out making a joke. And when you got angry for Danny. And when I kissed you and you lit me up inside.”
“Oh,” she said, all breathy. Girlie parts—singing a chorus.
Todd picked up the boots and put them on her lap.
The tan suede was soft under her fingers. “Nice boots.”
“They’re for hiking,” he said with a smirk. “Good for traction and long, slow walks in the woods.”
She swallowed hard, finding it hard to stop the flutters in her body. “You plan on hiking a lot?”
“Not alone, I hope.” Myriad emotions crossed his face, then a slow burn of awareness started from his lopsided smirk, straight to his eyes, and they positively smoldered.
“I’m not exactly the nature type, as you know. I might get lost.” She tried to sound innocent.
He stood and took her with him. The boots clunked to the floor, but she didn’t care. She tipped her head back.
“I won’t let you get lost.” He pulled her flush against the hard planes of his body and she sucked in a ragged breath. “I’ve never been to New York City before. Maybe you can show me around your neck of the woods.”
Tara wound her arms around his neck and nuzzled his scruff as he let out a sexy growl. The sound sent tingles to her toes. “Not yet. I’ve got two weeks before I have to be in Toronto.”
Todd tilted his head and captured her lips.
Maybe she could have love and a career, after all. And maybe her next song would be “What’s to Come.”
About Nicole S. Patrick
Nicole S. Patrick has always loved to read, and in her teenage years, she “borrowed” her mom’s books to sneak away and become lost in the world of romance. After more than ten years in the corporate world of tech recruiting and HR management, she decided to stay home and raise children. But with so many romantic stories and characters floating around in her head, when the kids napped, she was compelled to put those words on a page and pursue this crazy dream of becoming published. Nicole writes romantic suspense and her heroes are those alpha males in uniform. She lives in New Jersey with her real-life hero, her husband, and her two sons.
* * *
For more information about Nicole, please visit her online at:
@NicoleSPatrick
www.NicoleSPatrick.com
Part V
To Love and Honor
Julie Rowe
* * *
College sweethearts, Drew and Davina thought they’d be together forever, but after Davina catches Drew in a shower with a naked girl, she runs as far and as fast as she can. Away from him. Angry with her for not trusting him, Drew tries to date other girls, but realizes too late that Davina is it for him. She’s long gone.
When a friend’s wedding gives Drew the chance to apologize and make things right, he shows up at her door with his hat in his hand. Davina opens her hotel room door expecting to see her college roommate on the eve of her wedding, not Drew babbling about a misunderstanding and starting over. She finally gives him the response he deserves for breaking her heart, a bloody nose.
Drew’s not giving up. He intends to show her he’s her man, no matter how long it takes or how long he has to grovel. Davina is worth it.
* * *
Dedicated to ~
My daughter Megan, whose bravery and perseverance humbles me every day. I love you.
Copyright © 2015 Julie Rowe
To Love and Honor
by Julie Rowe
Moose Creek, Maine, hadn’t changed a bit.
Davina Hobbs drove through the small town and noted the same businesses lining the main street as six years ago. The drug and grocery store, drive-in diner and barber shop.
The only thing that was different was the name of the county sheriff, Drew Cavendish.
Which was why she drove through town making sure to keep under the speed limit. Getting pulled over by Sheriff Cavendish was not an experience she wanted on this little pleasure trip.
She’d been to Moose Creek only once with her then boyfriend, the same Drew Cavendish. She’d been so in love with him, so certain they would make it.
Until the day she caught him with a naked girl in his shower.
It still hurt to think about it. The shame and embarrassment at discovering he was just like all his football-playing friends who went from girl to girl to girl. Yet he’d begged her to listen to him, to take him back. After a week, she’d finally relented and went to see him, only to find him kissing yet another girl.
That was it. She was done.
She’d never spoken to him again.
Now she was driving through his town, on the way to a wedding where she would most likely have to look at him with whoever he was dating.
She made a silent vow to be the most law-abiding citizen Moose Creek had ever had.
If only her college roommate, Viv, and her fiancé, Gabe, had chosen a city venue for their wedding. Davina would have felt more comfortable with more escape routes available. The single road leading up to the inn hosting the wedding didn’t allow speeds of more than thirty miles per hour. Hard to beat a hasty retreat when you had to dodge potholes.
Fifteen minutes later, The Loon Lake Inn appeared. The parking lot was already half-full with cars and trucks bearing license plates from several states.
No police vehicle in sight.
Davina blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
She went inside, registered at the desk, and made small talk with an elderly couple who were in the lobby. Agnes and Albert were Gabe’s great-aunt and great-uncle and seemed excited about the wedding. When Davina told them she was Viv’s college roommate—yes, the one that went on to be a doctor—they shook her hand repeatedly. Viv had talked about her more than once, said she was an important doctor in the city. Davina tried to explain that chief coroner wasn’t all that big a deal—she dealt with dead bodies more than live ones—but they refused to believe her. It was…cute and sort of fun.
By the time she got to her room, she was smiling.
How long had it been since she felt anything but stress and loneliness? Months?
She really needed to get out more.
She settled for a hot shower and a comfortable summer dress to wear to meet up with Viv and Gabe.
A knock on her door had her smiling again. Viv was early.
Davina opened the door, preparing to give her friend a long hug, but it wasn’t Viv in the doorway.
It was Drew.
An older Drew than the man she remembered.
This one was wearing a sheriff’s uniform and had his hat in his hands. The broad shoulders, long eyelashes, and boyish smile were all the same, though. He looked in as good a shape as he’d been in college.
The impact of seeing him in her doorway, only a couple of feet away, was a blow to her chest. She’d thought the wound long healed, so why did it hurt so much to breathe?
“Hey, Davina,” he said, that smile drawing a couple more wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “I was hoping we could chat.”
Chat? He wanted to chat?
The last time she’d talked to him—six years, one month, three weeks, and two days ago—he’d been in the arms of a very naked, very wet woman as they’d exited a shower.
She’d waited five entire seconds for him to begin to explain. Five seconds in which she endured the smirk of his naked playmate while he stared at her blankly then said, “Honey, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.” No remorse in his expression. No regret.
That one phrase damn near killed her. A spear to her heart. There were so many less painful ways to break up with a girlfriend than having her discover you with another woman in flagrante delicto.
Six years ago, she’d been thrown into a pit of despair.
But she wasn’t that shy, too-smart-for-her-own-good, naive girl anymore.
Today, the s
mile on his face pissed her off and lit an unholy fire in her gut.
Davina pulled her arm back and punched him as hard as she could in the nose.
He stumbled back, his hands going to his face. “What the…” He pulled his hands away. A small trickle of blood rolled down to drip off his lip. He wiped at it, stared at the red then looked at her with wide, shocked eyes.
“Chat?” she demanded. “You want to chat? How about we talk about what a two-timing asshole you are? Or maybe we could discuss your lousy way of dumping your girlfriend? Huh?”
“You do realize you just assaulted a sheriff?” he asked, his voice incredulous.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re lucky I didn’t kick you in the nuts.”
“I never cheated on you,” he said, a little muffled by the sleeve he was using to stop the bleeding. “I didn’t know who that girl was.”
“Well, your hand on her ass told a different story.”
“She walked into the shower and grabbed me. I couldn’t get her out of there without putting my hands someplace.”
“So you chose the crack of her butt?”
“My hand slipped!”
“Really?” she said, enough sarcasm dripping off her words to burn a whole through metal. “So did mine.”
She slammed the door, engaged the lock, and glared at it. If he knocked again, she wasn’t going to be so nice.
What the hell just happened?
Drew stared at the closed door like it shielded the secrets of the universe. All he’d wanted was to talk, maybe offer an apology for what happened six years ago and get one in return for Davina not believing him.
Hoping for a fresh start was probably a little more than was realistic, but a punch in the face hadn’t been on his radar at all.
Drew pulled his hand away from his nose and looked down at himself. Jeez, he was covered in blood and it was still dripping off his face.
With one last look at Davina’s hotel room door, he headed toward the lobby and the nearest exit. Three steps into the lobby, he knew he’d made a mistake. It was full of incoming wedding guests, including an elderly couple related to the groom.
Agnes and Albert looked up from their wedding invitation as he walked in.
“Good heavens, Sheriff, sit down before you fall down,” Agnes said.
“Agnes, he can look after himself,” Albert told her. He took a second look at Drew and grunted. “Or maybe not.”
“He’s bleeding,” she yelled, one decibel below a scream. Agnes pinned her glare on him and said, “Sit.”
Drew sat.
Noelle, who was manning the check-in desk, rushed over with a box of tissues and handed him a couple.
Agnes put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “You look like you’ve bled enough for two men.” She turned her glare on the clerk. “What room is that nice lady doctor in?” She snapped her fingers a couple of times. “Davina. Please ask her to come take a look at Sheriff Cavendish’s nose.”
Drew had to hide his smile behind his shirtsleeve. “Thanks, Agnes.” He was happy to milk her interference for all it was worth. “It’s still bleeding.”
“Did you arrest the idiot who hit you?” Albert asked, looking around. “Did you call for backup?”
Drew winced. There were way too many police and crime dramas on TV these days. “Um, no. I tripped and whacked my face on a doorknob.”
Agnes stopped her fussing and Albert stopped looking for someone large enough to have beat Drew up to stare at him with their jaws open for two long seconds.
“A doorknob?” Agnes’s voice was high with disbelief.
A commotion near the entrance to the inn caught his attention. A flurry of people were arriving with luggage. Albert backed out of the way, leaving the newcomers with a clear view of Drew in his blood-splattered shirt.
Two women mixed in with the crowd gasped his name and came rushing over. Leanne Mosby and Tammy Strickland were far more dangerous than any small-time crook. They were both divorcees looking to find a new man to call their own. They’d set their sights on him last year and had managed to become quite a nuisance to him and his whole office. He’d move, but this was his hometown.
Did the two of them have a bet going on as to who would land him?
Leanne was a blonde with manicured fingernails that were long enough that he wondered how she did anything at all without them getting in the way.
Tammy was a brunette who was too skinny for the massive rack she displayed in low-cut, tight shirts that left nothing to the imagination.
Leanne hip-checked Agnes out of the way with a skill that would have made any NHL hockey player proud. She put her hand, and her dazzling sharp nails, on his neck. Tammy scooted around behind him, grabbed his arm, and turned him toward her.
Leanne tightened her grip on his neck while Tammy yanked harder on his arm, both complaining to the other that they were helping him.
At this rate, they were going to cause more damage than the punch to his face.
“This is the medical emergency?” an irate female voice asked.
Davina. Thank God.
“He looks like he’s got all the helping hands any man could want and then some,” Davina drawled.
Leanne smiled—at least he thought it was supposed to be a smile—and said in a throaty voice, “It’s just a little nosebleed. No need for everyone to panic. I’ll take the sheriff home and wash his shirt for him.”
“My house is closer,” Tammy said. “And I have a brand-new washing machine that takes half the time yours does. He should come with me.”
Davina started laughing loud enough to draw everyone’s attention. And kept on laughing until she was bent over and gasping for air.
Davina wouldn’t have believed this situation was happening if she hadn’t watched it unfold. Drew Cavendish was about to get ripped in half by two desperate and dateless housewives.
The blonde sneered at her. “Laughing at an injured man is despicable.”
“I don’t know who you are,” the brunette said with her nose in the air, “but this isn’t funny. Can’t you see he’s hurt?”
“With nosebleeds,” Davina told them, “it almost always looks worse than it is. Besides, I’m the one who hur—”
“Is the doctor,” Drew interrupted.
“You two heifers get your hands off the sheriff,” Agnes ordered, her eyes flashing with anger. “Neither one of you has the smarts God gave a squirrel.”
The two women sputtered, but didn’t let go of Drew.
“How dare y—”
“What a rude thing to sa—”
“You’re choking him,” Davina interrupted, looking at the blonde’s hand on his neck. “You might want to let him go before you murder your precious sheriff.”
Drew’s face had turned a dark red.
Both women released him and stepped back with gasps of worry and incoherent apologies.
Drew coughed and sucked in air with more effort than was strictly necessary.
Drama king.
Agnes took over, flapping her hands at the two women. “Go on now and let a professional deal with the situation. All you two are doing is causing a scene.”
Davina had to work to keep the smirk off her face as she came around to look at Drew’s nose. She pulled his wrist and bloody sleeve away from his face. Blood dripped slowly.
She grabbed a couple of tissues, put them in his left hand then picked up his right hand and brought it up to the bridge of his nose. “Pinch here. The bleeding should stop in a few minutes.”
Drew mumbled something, but it came out garbled.
Before Davina could ask him to repeat it, Agnes clicked her tongue at him. “You sound like you have a mouth full of marbles, Sheriff. Best to stop talking until the worst is over.”
Worst what? Two women were fighting over who was going to take him home. Most men would be happy in his situation.
“Poor man.” Agnes shook her head. “You work too hard.” She turned to D
avina and said in a conspiratorial tone, “He doesn’t get enough sleep having to deal with criminals and silly geese like those two who were yanking on him like a wishbone.”
Drew sighed with exaggerated patience.
Davina bit her lips to prevent smiling. “Oh?”
“Nag him half to death, they do. I’ll bet that’s why he tripped, too tired to see where he was going.”
She had to stifle a snort. Is that what he’d told people? “Perhaps if he just picked one, the rest would leave him alone. Or does he prefer to keep his options open?”
“Oh no, Sheriff Cavendish doesn’t date.”
That seemed unlikely. “Really? Why not?” She looked him over. It was impossible to miss his mouthwatering muscle tone. She shouldn’t needle him, but she couldn’t help observing in a fake concerned tone, “He seems handsome enough and has a good job.”
“You’d think the world was his oyster,” Agnes agreed, then leaned closer and said, “For a while there, the townsfolk wondered if he liked men more than women.”
Drew choked and coughed until his breathing wasn’t much more than wheezing.
Davina smacked him on the back with a couple of gratifying thumps.
“But finally,” Agnes continued, “the sheriff told everyone how he’d lost the love of his life to a misunderstanding. He’s still pining for her.” She shook her head. “Very sad.”
“There’s always two sides to every story,” Davina replied, pulling some wet wipes from her first-aid kit and wiping the blood from Drew’s face. “Maybe the woman in question discovered him cheating on her.”
His brows came down in rebuke.
She frowned right back at him.
Agnes shook her head. “I can’t believe that. I’ve seen the sheriff turn down every woman in town, including a recent wealthy widow and several attractive younger ladies who would make a good wife for a sheriff. Good girls who are smart, but also want to stay home and raise a family.”
Timeless Vows: Five Tales of Love (Timeless Tales Book 4) Page 18