A Treasure for the Trooper_A Fuller Family Novel

by Liz Isaacson

  “10-4,” the dispatcher said. “Bus coming from Brush Creek.”

  McDermott’s heartbeat increased with every mile that flew beneath his tires. He saw the accident up ahead, and he grabbed the radio receiver. “On-site. Looks like a 10-54.” Livestock—in this case, cows—on the road.

  He eased to a stop behind the vehicle with smoke lifting from the hood. He couldn’t see a human being anywhere, not even in the car, and if the driver really was intoxicated, they could be anywhere.

  With anything.

  McDermott spoke to the radio again. “10-23, dispatch. There’s no one here. Getting out to look around.”

  “10-4,” the female dispatcher said. “Camera is on and transmitting.”

  McDermott flipped the switch that would send all transmissions to the receiver he wore on his shoulder, and the last syllable of her sentence sounded there. He got out of the car slowly, standing behind the open door to scan the empty highway with this smoking car.

  It had obviously hit one of the cows still crossing the highway without a care in the world. How far could someone have gotten in ten minutes? Especially if they were intoxicated?

  “Hello?” McDermott called, keeping one hand on his weapon. He let his other hand hang loose as he approached the car and peered in the backseat. Empty. The driver’s door was open, indicating someone had been here at some point. The blood on the front fender confirmed everything he’d suspected.

  He pushed the button on his shoulder. “10-20, mile marker seventy-two. I’ve got a vehicle here, obviously hit a cow. No human presence. Driver’s door open.”

  “So a 10-57?”

  “A hit and run with a cow,” he said. A siren sounded behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder, the red lights adding to the colors of the wilderness.

  The grass down the road rustled, and McDermott stalled, trying to listen. But with the siren, he wouldn’t be able to hear. He stepped cautiously that way, his mind circling Taya and begging the Lord to keep him safe if he encountered an intoxicated driver.

  After several steps, he heard a distinct moan, and he waved at the ambulance to slow and stop, which they did. He pointed to the left side of the road, the grass there definitely being disturbed by something.

  “Nothing back here,” he called to Ed Moon, the paramedic who got out on the passenger side. Max Robinson joined him, and McDermott added, “I think he may be down there.”

  They hung behind him as he inched closer to the side of the road and looked down into the ditch. A man lay there, his eyes closed as if he were asleep.

  “Hey,” McDermott barked, causing the man to open his eyes. “State Trooper McDermott Boyd. Are you okay?”

  He groaned, and his glazed eyes rolled back in his head.

  “I’ve got two paramedics here,” McDermott said. “Is it safe to come down there? You have any weapons, knives, guns, anything like that?”

  Another moan.

  “I think he’s pretty out of it,” McDermott said. “Let me check ‘im first.” He went down the incline, dislodging dirt and gravel as he kept his boots from sliding. “Hey,” he said again. This time, the man didn’t stir at all.

  “Blood on his face,” he called. “He’s unconscious.” He patted him down, checking for sharp objects or anything that would injure the paramedics as they administered to him. “He’s clear.”

  Ed and Max came down, carrying their heavy bags, and got to work. McDermott called in their arrival and the discovery of the man. “Did he give a name?” he asked dispatch.

  “Negative.”

  McDermott watched as the paramedics lifted him onto a board and brought him up to the bus.

  “Cleaning up,” he radioed to dispatch. “I’ve got a 10-51.”

  “10-4 on 10-51.”

  McDermott went back to his cruiser as the ambulance turned around and went back to Brush Creek. He wished he was on his way too. He texted Nana Reba that he’d encountered a snag that would keep him for another hour and got a message back without a single capital letter or punctuation mark.

  He smiled at his grandmother’s stunted use of technology and settled into to direct traffic around the wreck and wait for the tow truck to get the car out of the way.

  His phone chimed and he glanced at it since there weren’t any cars on the road at the moment.

  Dawn’s name made his heart stutter-step in his chest.

  Nana Reba said you’re going to be late. Everything okay?

  He wasn’t sure why Nana had let Dawn know about his tardiness. They weren’t supposed to be getting together tonight.

  Fine, he tapped out. A car approached and he pocketed his phone so he could do his job. He waved them around the wreckage, glad when a tow truck with Mick’s red and blue logo showed up and Mick himself got out.

  “McDermott,” he said. “We’ve really gotta stop meeting out here.”

  McDermott smiled and said, “You should come over for dinner after this.”

  “Yeah? What did Nana Reba make?”

  “I don’t know; haven’t been home yet, but I’m sure it’ll be something you like.” Mick was a single dad too, but his wife was still alive and remarried. They lived out in Nielson’s Grove, north and west of Brush Creek.

  Mick had a daughter a couple of years older than Taya, and he only saw her on the weekends. Since McDermott often had to take care of traffic accidents, he’d become good friends with Mick over the years.

  He got the car hooked up and ready to roll in record time, and McDermott followed the tow truck through Beaverton and into Brush Creek. When he pulled around the corner and entered the cul-de-sac where he lived, he found Dawn’s sedan parked in front of the house.

  It was then that he realized he’d never responded to her text.

  Chapter Six

  Dawn was just going to wait in her car. Just to make sure McDermott made it home safely. She wasn’t even sure why she was so worried. But Reba Sholes had never texted her before—Dawn wasn’t even sure how the older woman had gotten her number.

  But she also peered through the curtains to check on the neighborhood, and Dawn had been sitting in front of the house for three minutes before Reba came out and insisted she come wait inside the house.

  So she sat on the couch when McDermott pushed through the door that led into the kitchen. The steady sound of his boots on the tile brought relief to her, and the low cadence of his voice made her shiver.

  She’d been toying with the idea of telling him about the reinvention of herself over the past year. She knew she’d have to tell him what she was doing in Vernal that day she’d gone off the road, and she wasn’t sure how he’d react.

  But she wanted him to know, because he’d shared important things with her. Personal, intimate things about how he missed his wife, how he prayed before he left for work each day and thanked God each evening when he returned safely. His devotion and love for his daughter was evident in everything he said, everything he did.

  Dawn marveled every time he texted her, or asked her out, or held her hand that he really seemed to like her.

  He appeared in the doorway that led into the kitchen, still wearing his trooper hat with the flat brim and all his accessories around his waist. He was singlehandedly the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on, and she leapt to her feet.

  “You’re okay.”

  “Sorry I didn’t respond. I was directing traffic around this accident.” He entered the living room but leaned against the corner of the wall that led down the hall to the bedrooms. “What are you doin’ here?”

  “Oh, uh, nothing.”

  He didn’t believe her, if the mischievous glint in his eye said anything. And it did. A lot. “Worried about me?”

  So what if she was? He was a state trooper, for crying out loud. His wife had been killed on the job. “Maybe,” Dawn said.

  Something heated passed between them, and McDermott took off his trooper hat and went over to the hat rack by the front door to hang it up. “Want to go for a wal
k?”

  “It’s got to be a hundred degrees outside,” she said.

  “The sun’s on the way down.”

  She scoffed. “It doesn’t get dark until almost ten, McDermott. Nice try.”

  His fingers brushed hers. A feathered touch. Light. There, then gone. She wanted him to grab ahold of her hand and claim her as his. She wasn’t sure when her thoughts had started derailing, but it was probably about the time she’d decided to tell him the truth about her past.

  “Are we still on for the fireworks on Friday?”

  “You’re not working them?”

  “I’ll wear my uniform, yes,” he said. “But I’m not officially on duty.”

  “It’ll just look like you are.”

  “Right,” he said. “You’d be surprised how well that keeps the peace.”

  The thought of curling up next to him in the park with hundreds of other people actually appealed to Dawn. She couldn’t believe it, and that alone was a testimony of how far she’d come since her own accident last year.

  “Yeah, we’re still good for that.”

  “Taya and Nana Reba are comin’ too.” He lifted his hand and ran his fingertips along her neck.

  Dawn shivered and let her eyes fall closed. His touch was magical, and it sent her heartbeat into a tizzy. “Let’s go for a walk,” she blurted, stepping around him and heading for the front door.

  He called into his grandmother and then joined her on the porch. “We could drive,” he said. “Your car has air conditioning.”

  “Drive where?” she asked.

  “Just drive,” he said.

  Dawn wasn’t sure she could be in charge of a vehicle and talk to McDermott the way she wanted to. “Will you drive?” She held out her keys.

  He narrowed his eyes for just a moment and then took the keys. “Sure.” Ever the gentleman, he opened the door for her, and she ran her hands along her shorts, already sweating. Once he got in and got the car started, the air cooled quickly.

  He drove north, toward the strawberry fields and parked in the shade of the huge trees that grew along the river up here. A riverwalk ran along them, and it went all the way down into town, to Oxbow Park. But he made no move to get out of the car.

  “It was just an accident tonight,” he said. “A vehicle meets livestock accident. One car. Guy was drunk.”

  “Did you see it?”

  “No. Dispatch called me to it.”

  “Is the guy all right?”

  “Ed and Max brought him to the hospital here.” He shrugged. “I can check on him tomorrow.” He stared out the windshield, and she wondered what he was seeing in his mind.

  “Why did you ask me out so much?” she asked, twisting toward him and tucking her leg under her body.

  He swung his attention to her. “You’re Dawn Fuller.”

  She scoffed for the second time that night. “That means nothing.”

  He tucked a curl behind her ear and it took everything she had not to lean into him. “You’re beautiful. I’m attracted to you.”

  “And?” Because if there was one thing Dawn knew, attraction only went so far.

  “I like spending time with you. I was right, you know. We get along real nice.” He leaned his head back against the headrest and gazed at her with a melty, soft look in his eyes. She’d seen him do such a thing several times before, and it made her feel…loved.

  “But you didn’t know that before,” she said. “And you asked me out relentlessly for twelve months.”

  He smiled, not quite the reaction she’d been expecting. “You were kind to me when Amelia died,” he whispered. “You brought sandwiches and you didn’t ask me how I was doing.”

  Dawn started to relive the memory as he continued. “You cried, and your voice choked when you said ‘I’m so sorry, McDermott. I can’t bring her back, but I would if I could.’ And you sort of flung the plate of sandwiches on the counter, and you hugged my mom and dad, and you even had a toy for Taya.”

  Emotions teemed just below Dawn’s skin. She looked away, out through her passenger window. “That was a long time ago, McDermott.”

  “I remember it like it was yesterday.” He brushed his fingers along her knee, finally settling them in hers. “I was out of it for a while after the funeral. Probably a year or so. That’s what my mom says, at least. I didn’t want to date anyone for another year. And then I started thinking about it. I went out with a few women. You were always right at the top of my list, but it was like you were unreachable. Until the accident. After that, I knew I wanted you even though I kept trying to find someone else.”

  “I probably only made the sandwiches so I would have something to eat too,” she said, his words reverberating around inside her mind, filling her ears, swelling in her soul. I wanted you.

  You were always right at the top of my list.

  He chuckled. “Right. Because you don’t like cooking much.”

  She nodded, still unable to look at him though she gripped his fingers with all the strength she had.

  “I have to tell you something,” she said. “It’s about the accident.”

  “All right.”

  She glanced at him quickly, but it proved to be too difficult. He was so kind, so handsome, so faithful. Could he even fathom her carelessness?

  “I can’t do it here,” she said, releasing his hand and getting out of the car. Though it was hot, the shade made the air cool enough to breathe, and Dawn didn’t feel so trapped.

  He joined her and they wandered down the riverwalk toward his parents’ strawberry fields. The ripe scent of the berries floated on the air, and the sound of the river rushed alongside them.

  “I was in Vernal that day to get a pregnancy test,” she said, going straight for the bullseye. McDermott said nothing but gathered her hand in his again. “See, for a while there, I lived up to my reputation as the Fuller wild child. I had a lot of boyfriends, and I made a lot of mistakes, and that was the biggest one.”

  Several steps were taken before he asked, “Were you pregnant?”

  She shook her head, the emotion and relief from that day still as fresh as ever. “No, the test was negative. I was so happy about that, I was crying. Everything was all shook up, and remember how I told you I like to drive too fast? Well, with all of that combined, I didn’t even see the deer until it was too late.”

  He released her hand and put his arm around her waist, drawing her closer to him. Pausing, he took her into his arms. “That must’ve just been the cherry on top of a terrible day.”

  Feeling safe and secure in his arms, she wound her arms around him too and pressed her cheek over his heartbeat. “I said no to you for a long time,” she said. “I’m sorry about that, but you have to understand I wasn’t in a place to be dating. I’ve been working with Pastor Peters to get back on the right track, and I think I’m getting close.”

  “You’re already there, Dawn.” He inched back and looked down at her. “You’re one of the nicest, kindest, most sincere people I’ve ever met. You help others. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

  Her eyes brimmed with tears. “But you don’t know—”

  “And I don’t need to,” he said. “I can see it, Dawn. You shine when I look at you. Like an angel from heaven.”

  She snorted and hiccupped all at the same time. “Is that a pick-up line?”

  He laughed, the sound flying up into the tree branches, which held it and echoed it back to them. “No, sweetheart. It’s how I feel about you.”

  Dawn felt like she’d just gotten off the tallest, wildest roller coaster in the world. She’d told him, and he hadn’t judged her. Hadn’t asked her who she’d been sleeping with. Didn’t even seem to care that she wasn’t as inexperienced as she should’ve been. How could he be so patient with her? So forgiving of ugly things?

  She managed to say, “I sure do like you, McDermott, even if you don’t shine when I look at you.” She gazed up at him, her eyes traveling from his to his mouth. She licked her lips i
n anticipation of kissing him out here where it smelled like strawberries and sunshine.

  He leaned down and she tipped up on her toes, and the first touch of his lips to hers made stars burst behind her closed eyes. So maybe there was a shininess to him she hadn’t seen until now.

  He kissed her gently, increasing to a more firm, demanding stroke, the same way he did with everything. He pulled back much sooner than she would’ve liked and whispered, “This is okay? It’s not too soon?”

  Dawn simply responded by kissing him again.

  Chapter Seven

  McDermott had been dreaming—while awake and asleep—about kissing Dawn for a solid six months. The real event was twice as intoxicating as anything his mind had been able to come up with.

  She tasted like mint and sugar, and he simply could not get enough of her. He felt himself falling at a rapid pace now, and he forced himself to breathe in deep through his nose and pull away. A gust of wind kicked up at the same time Dawn giggled and laid her head over his heartbeat again.

  A squirrel of embarrassment ran through him at how quickly his pulse pounded—surely she’d hear it. He decided he didn’t care. Holding her in his arms, close to his heart, was right where he wanted her, and he enjoyed the moments while he could.

  “We should get back,” he finally said. “I told Nana Reba we wouldn’t be gone long, and I was already late.”

  She practically shot out of his embrace. “Of course. Yeah.” She smoothed her hair down like it had gotten rumpled during their kiss and someone would know.

  “Plans tonight?” he asked.

  “It’s Wednesday,” she said. “I was thinking of going to the family dinner.”

  “Oh, right. Those are on Wednesdays.” He wondered if she’d ever invite him to one, but he didn’t ask. Just because she’d kissed him didn’t mean she was ready to introduce him to the whole family or talk about diamond rings or where they’d live once they were married.

  McDermott’s thoughts spun wildly as he drove back to his place. He couldn’t believe he’d catapulted himself to marriage already. He’d just barely kissed Dawn, and she’d just told him a heavy truth.