Michael followed, going behind the counter and looking over the area again.
“I’ll come in tomorrow and talk to your teachers. There’s nothing more we can do here now,” Logan decided.
Michael crossed to the door and switched off the light, then walked with Logan down the hall. “The school is updated but old. I’ve debated about getting an estimate on a security system, but it’s never been necessary. But after this break-in, I’m sure someone will bring it before the board.”
“I hate to see Willow Valley change, but we’re getting bigger. Now some people do lock their doors. It’s reality.” Logan checked his watch. Eleven o’clock. Even if he didn’t have to interview Mrs. Konnecut, it was too late to pick up the evening where he and Meg had left off.
Michael locked the front door of the school. “Cal said you and Meg Dawson were having dinner when he called you.”
Logan swore. “I might as well have taken out an ad. I’d like to know where Cal found out in the first place.”
Michael grinned. “It seems a friend of his wife talked to Meg when she was buying a dress for the occasion.”
Logan shook his head.
“So you and Meg are going out now?” Michael asked, his interest obviously more than casual.
“That’s my intention,” Logan responded, jealousy pricking at him. He had no doubt if he was out of the picture, Holden would make a move of his own.
Michael shrugged. “Just checking. She’s an intriguing woman.”
“That she is.” Logan wasn’t about to discuss anything about himself and Meg.
The two men descended the steps and went to their cars. Logan called to Michael, “After I stop at Mrs. Konnecut’s, I’m going to the office to file a report. If you think of anything else you think I need to know, I’ll be there.”
Michael opened his car door. “Good luck.”
“With Mrs. Konnecut?”
“With Mrs. Konnecut and with Meg.”
Logan didn’t quite know what to say to that, so he got into his car. He couldn’t ever remember a rival wishing him good luck. Either Michael Holden was a genuinely nice guy or a man to watch. Logan decided he’d better watch.
Only a few minutes of daylight remained when Meg saw Logan’s car coming down the lane. He’d dropped her off last night with a quick but thoroughly devastating goodbye kiss that she’d felt long after he’d gone. The evening had been exciting and perfect up until the moment when Logan’s cell phone had beeped. She could read his disappointment as they’d hastily ended their date as much as she could feel her own.
Yet maybe Providence had intervened. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to get involved with Logan any more than she already was.
“Looks like you’ve got company,” Ned remarked with a sly wink as he hung a lawn chair on a hook in the garage. When he’d told her he wanted to clean out and straighten up, she’d offered to help to keep herself busy. Her uncle added, “We can finish this tomorrow.”
“Maybe Logan’s here to visit you and Lily.”
Her uncle chucked her under the chin. “You’re a lot younger and prettier than we are. I don’t think there’s any doubt as to who he’s here to see. But Lily and I will be inside if you two younger folks need the wisdom of a few years.” Ned waved to Logan as he walked toward the back door.
Meg rounded her uncle’s car and met Logan at the path to the house.
She smiled.
He smiled.
Then he pulled her into his arms for a hug. “Do you know how difficult it was to leave you last night?”
“I can guess.”
He rubbed his chin against the top of her head. “I was tied up all day today at the school.”
Leaning back in his arms, she asked, “Did you find out anything more?”
“Not much. Nothing else was missing. Mrs. Konnecut thinks she saw a blond teenager in jeans, but she admits her cataracts make her unsure.”
“You don’t have much to go on.”
“No, but Michael thinks scuttlebutt will produce information.”
“The kids respect him. If anyone knows anything, they might tell him outright.”
Logan shook his head. “They won’t snitch on each other. Not at that age. It’s their code of honor.”
Silence fell between them. Logan’s gaze left hers, drifted over her nose, settled on her lips. “What do you think of Michael Holden?”
It was the last question she expected. With a shrug, she said, “Michael is—”
“Meg! Logan! Come here quick. Something’s wrong with Lily,” Ned yelled from the porch, waving his arms.
Meg and Logan both took off at a run. Logan got to Lily first. The older woman was sitting on the sofa, as pale as the white doily on the coffee table. Perspiration stood on her forehead, and she clutched her chest.
Logan helped Lily stretch out on the sofa. Pulling the afghan from the back, he covered her with it. Then he said to Meg, “Open her collar. I’m going to make sure the rescue squad is at home base. If not, I’ll take her to the hospital myself.”
Ned stood by, helpless, his face stricken, as Logan made the call. Afterward he slammed down the phone and crouched down beside Meg’s aunt. “Hold on, Lily. They’ll be here in about four minutes.”
It was the longest four minutes of Meg’s life. She and Logan encouraged Lily, making her as comfortable as possible as Ned held her hand. Logan went outside when he heard the siren. In a matter of minutes, paramedics examined Lily, touched base with the doctor at the hospital, then transported her to the rescue van. Logan drove Ned and Meg to the hospital in Lynchburg.
After what seemed like an eternity in the waiting area of the emergency room, Ned dropped his head into his hands. “Meg, what am I going to do if something happens to her? She’s my life!”
Meg laid a comforting hand on her uncle’s shoulder although her fears mirrored his. She couldn’t imagine life without her aunt. “She’s a fighter. You know that. Heart attacks don’t have to be fatal. There’s so much medicine can do now.”
Logan had been calm and collected since Ned had called to him. He stoically sat next to Meg, waiting with them. Abruptly he stood. “I’ll see what I can find out. Flashing a badge might help.” He strode off before Meg could thank him.
When he returned, he said, “They’ve taken her up to the coronary-care unit. Doc Jacobs is already up there.”
Meg felt tears prick her eyes. “Did you call him?”
“From my car after the paramedics arrived. I thought a friendly face might help.”
Trying to blink the tears away, Meg said, “Thank you.”
Logan curved his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go upstairs.”
A nurse motioned Ned and Meg to a small private waiting area. Doc Jacobs stood by the sofa.
Logan said, “I’ll wait outside.”
Meg took his hand. “I’d like you to stay, but it’s up to you.”
He rubbed his thumb across the top of her knuckles. “Whatever you want.”
Doc Jacobs cleared his throat. “I spoke to the cardiologist. He was called back to the emergency room. He’ll be glad to talk to you later if you’d like.” The doctor gestured to the sofa. “Why don’t we sit?”
Ned sat but said, “Just tell us, Doc.”
Logan guided Meg to the cushion beside her uncle.
“Lily did have a heart attack, but we believe the damage is minimal. We are, of course, going to watch her very closely, especially the next twenty-four hours. She is stabilized for now, and I’m hoping that status won’t change. But the human body is unpredictable. The cardiologist wants to wait until tomorrow before he makes a decision about further tests.”
“Will she have to have a heart bypass? You’ve got to do everything you can….”
Compassion glowed in Doc’s eyes. “We are doing everything possible. And we’re taking good care of her. You can go in to see her, but only for fifteen minutes. I’ll be able to answer your questions better tomorrow, and so will the c
ardiologist. I want you to stay calm so Lily stays calm. Understand?”
Both Ned and Meg nodded.
“All right. Then let’s go tell her to rest so she doesn’t think she’s the one who has to take care of everyone else.”
Meg and Ned followed Doc to the cubicle where her aunt lay. After kissing Lily, holding her hand for a few minutes and murmuring hopeful thoughts, Meg said to her uncle, “I’ll let you spend the rest of the time alone with her.”
Meg stepped outside the cubicle and immediately started shivering. Winding her arms around herself, she put one foot in front of the other and walked toward the waiting area. She stopped inside the door and leaned against the wall.
Logan stood at the window, looking out but not seeing. He recognized the tightness in his gut as the worry that had haunted him all the days he hadn’t known Travis’s whereabouts. Lily and Ned were as integral to Willow Valley as the World War II monument in the park, as Gibson’s Grocery, as the willow trees that had given the town its name. Logan knew nothing in life was permanent. His years as a cop in Philadelphia, Shelley’s pregnancy and death, Travis running away, had proved to him again and again that life could turn on a dime.
But somehow the stability of his life in Willow Valley was connected to the people who lived there. And to think of Willow Valley without Lily…
He heard footsteps and turned in time to see Meg sag against the wall. Without a moment’s hesitation, he hurried to her and enfolded her in his arms. “Has something happened?”
She shook her head against his shoulders. Her breathing was uneven, and he knew shock had set in. Stroking her hair, he said, “Let it out, Meg. It’s okay. Just let it out.”
When sobs shook her, he held her tight.
He couldn’t tell her everything would be better in the morning, because he didn’t know if it would. So he offered her his physical strength, a shelter for the moment, and hoped that was enough.
Finally, she raised her gaze to his. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
“But I have to be strong for them. I can’t—”
“You are strong. You’ve had a shock and you’re afraid of losing someone important to you.” He wiped the tears from her cheek and tugged her toward the sofa. Keeping his arm around her shoulders, he sat with her and waited, never before feeling so protective about a woman.
By the time Ned returned, Meg had composed herself. The straightening of her spine, the squaring of her shoulders, signaled her dependence on Logan for support was about to end.
When Ned came in, she immediately went to him and hugged him. “She’s going to be all right. She has to.”
He nodded and swiped at the moisture in his eyes. “I’m staying here tonight. Why don’t you let Logan take you home?”
“No, I’m staying here with you.”
Logan took a deep breath, knowing he was about to fight an uphill battle. “Now, wait a minute. Both of you. How are you going to take care of Lily if you get run-down?”
“Logan, we don’t want to be a half hour away,” Meg explained.
He offered a solution. “There’s a motel—”
“I’m staying right here,” Ned said stubbornly.
“And I’m staying with him,” his niece agreed.
“You two are a pair.”
Ned put his arm around Meg’s shoulders. “Family has to stick together.”
Logan shook his head. “All right. But at least let me get you some pillows and blankets.”
Meg smiled weakly and took Logan’s hand. “Those we’ll accept.”
Logan looked at Ned’s arm around Meg, her hand entwined with his, and he felt Lily’s presence though physically she lay in another room. He experienced a connection with all of them, a connection he’d really never felt before. Suddenly he had the urge to include Travis in the circle. But he didn’t know how.
The sun hadn’t yet broken the horizon when Logan took the elevator to the coronary-care unit the following morning. When he entered the waiting room, he found Ned stretched out on the long sofa and Meg curled up on the shorter one. She lay with her hands tucked under her cheek, her elbows close to her body as if she were cold.
Logan set the carrier of coffee, juice and food he’d bought on the low table littered with magazines. Then he pulled Meg’s blanket up to her chin, annoyed with himself for thinking about touching her creamy skin and kissing her pink lips when she obviously needed attention of another kind. This was not the time to think about steamy nights, long, wet kisses and satisfaction of his physical needs. Except he couldn’t help imagining it and longing for it.
When he smoothed the blanket under her chin, her eyes opened. She propped up on an elbow, trying to orient herself.
Logan crouched down beside her. “Hi, there. Did you get much sleep?”
She smiled. “I’m used to sleeping in strange places. Though usually they’re hotel rooms.”
He couldn’t resist leaning forward and sealing his lips to hers. He meant it as a light, caring gesture, but it took on a life of its own.
Kissing Meg took him on an adventure of self-discovery. He never knew he could need so much, or expect so much, or want something so elusive that the sensation almost terrified him. Even here, kissing her on a waiting-room couch, time stopped, the universe spun and dawn broke through the black night. She’d brought light into his life…and forgotten passion.
After breaking away, he tenderly caressed her cheek.
She ran a hand through her hair and sat up. “I’m glad Uncle Ned finally fell asleep. The doctor let him sit with Aunt Lily through some of last night. Those two can’t bear to be separated from each other.”
“I checked at the desk. Your aunt is sleeping comfortably.” He lifted the box from the coffee table. “So how about a little nourishment?”
She wrinkled her nose as if eating was an abhorrent thought.
“Come on. I have a few fast-food breakfast sandwiches and doughnuts.”
She looked at the waxy bag with a little more interest.
“Chocolate honey glazed?”
Logan laughed. “Ah-hah. I’ve discovered the woman’s weakness.”
“Addiction. I rarely turn down chocolate.”
He opened the bag and lifted out the chocolate doughnut and handed it to her. “I’ll remember that.”
Meg couldn’t remember a man ever bringing her breakfast. Logan was dressed in his uniform, his dark brown shirt and tan slacks looking crisp and pressed. “Thank you.”
“For stopping for coffee?”
“No. For being here. Last night. This morning. I don’t know what’s going to happen but…” Her voice caught.
“Hopefully your aunt is going to recover, and life will go on. Will this change your plans for returning to D.C.?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see.”
Logan’s jaw tightened. He picked up one of the coffees, flipped off the lid and took a few sips. Then he capped it again. “I have to get going. I told Michael I’d drop by the school. My presence might shake up whoever stole the money. I don’t want anything worse to happen.”
“Worse?”
“If this was a prank, that’s one thing. But if someone needs money, the crime could escalate. I don’t want that to happen. So I’ll probably be giving a few lectures on solving problems by looking at all the options rather than taking the easiest one.”
“Have you talked to Travis about what happened?”
“He was too occupied with a new CD and headphones.”
“Does he know you’re going in to school today?”
“No. And he’s not going to like it, but he’ll have to live with it. Call me if there’s any news about Lily.”
Logan seemed to have distanced himself. Because of talk of her leaving? Yet he knew she couldn’t stay. She was already making lists, preparing herself to get back into circulation. The reception for the Native American Museum Fund in three weeks would be the perfect opp
ortunity. “The cardiologist said he’d be here around eight. We should know more then. I’ll call you.”
Logan studied her for a few moments, and she felt self-conscious. What was he thinking? What was he feeling? More than desire?
He nodded to the doughnut. “Don’t forget to eat.”
“I won’t.”
He left then, and she felt…alone.
The late-morning sun shone on Meg and Lily as they sat on the front porch two weeks later. Meg examined her aunt’s face, looking for telltale signs of fatigue or overexertion.
“Uncle Ned will be out here in five minutes to check if you’re getting chilled. Are you sure you don’t want a sweater?”
Lily frowned. “I love that man dearly, but he’s driving me crazy.”
Meg chuckled. “You gave us quite a scare.”
“I know, but I’m very fortunate. If I take the heart attack as a wake-up call, I can be healthier than before.”
The cardiologist had kept Lily in the hospital for a week. At the end of that time, he’d ordered a stress test. The results were encouraging. He’d also ordered a nutritionist to counsel Lily and a cardiac-rehab specialist to explain the types of exercise that would benefit her the most. But life-style changes never came easily.
“Uncle Ned seems to like the new diet.”
“Don’t you try to pull the wool over my eyes, young lady. He might not mind eating turkey instead of roast beef, but he misses his sweets. I know he snuck off to the bakery yesterday.”
“And how do you know that?” Her aunt was right, but Meg felt a certain loyalty toward protecting them both.
“Because when he came home, he had powdered sugar on his shirt!”
Meg laughed. “Uncle Ned should know after all these years he can’t hide anything from you.”
“What he should know is that he shouldn’t try.” Her aunt pointed to the lane. “Look who’s coming.”
Meg didn’t have to look. She knew the sound of the sedan’s tires on the gravel. The truth was she was perturbed with Logan yet had no right to be. She’d called him from the hospital the day after Lily had been admitted to tell him her aunt’s condition. He’d called and spoken to Ned twice since then, not asking for Meg. Meg had decided she wasn’t about to call him.
The Sheriff’s Proposal Page 12