TRUE HERO: A Romantic Suspense Novel (True Hearts Series Book 1)

by Susan Owensby

  Noticing the twelve-inch scar on his chest, one that nearly matched the one on his face, only heated me more. Left me hungry, for more. My eyes went from the scar to his other peck. The sight had me nearly salivating at the mere thought of licking that beautiful nipple. Traveling down to the rock-hard abs with the dark hair that led from his chest to below his belly button had me mentally sighing in pleasure.

  “You like what you see so much Freckles, that I have you sighing out loud, huh?” Jonah looked at me with a heated stare, licking his own lips.

  No f’ing way! No, no, no. I am a nut case. I swear I am. Didn’t I just think about sighing?

  I looked into his eyes and felt his burning gaze bore into mine. I sighed again without restraint this time. What the hell did I have to lose? Right? Realizing that I needed to stop this, I grabbed the pillow next to me and put it over my face and said, “If you are going to stay here, you cannot walk around half-naked. I just can’t take it. Hell, there isn’t a woman alive that could take it.”

  He started laughing so hard but tried to muffle it for Sam’s sake causing him to snort. I peeked out from behind my pillow and dropped it. His laugh was so contagious that I couldn’t help but join in. When we finally pulled ourselves together, I felt so exhausted but so good at the same time. It felt right that he was here. I felt safe. So, I relaxed back on the pillows and watched as he pulled out the cot Frank had brought by. That set off another round of giggles from me. He just stood there looking at the cot, scratching his head, perplexed at what he was looking at. This time I snorted and put my hands over my face to try and calm down.

  The cot Frank had so generously loaned Jonah couldn’t be any longer or wider than me! There was no way he could sleep on it. But I saw a determined look in his eye and stilled my laughter. Oh, this was going to be good. I just knew it. He messed around with that silly cot for like twenty minutes laying in every positon known to man. Some part of his body would always hang off at odd angles. I really thought I was going to die from laughter.

  When he finally gave up, he proceeded to fold it back up all nice and neat. He walked to the front door, opened it ever so gently, took it onto the porch, lifted the cot over his head and heaved it with all of his might. It went soaring through the air and landed with a loud clang of metal. I was so surprised that I stopped laughing to concentrate on what he was doing.

  He quietly came back in the door, grabbed one of my pillows and promptly lay down on the floor. All he said after that was, “Fucking Rangers.”

  I couldn’t contain it anymore, I had never laughed that hard in my life. Tears ran freely down my face and I started to hiccup. I was jostled by something hitting me in the face. Stunned for just a second, I looked down. It was the pillow he had taken from my bed. Confused I looked to where he was and he just sat there as if he was Sam. Pouting. Arms crossed and sitting Indian-style. I couldn’t take it. I didn’t think I could laugh anymore and my side was hurting from it already. I picked up the pillow to muffle my hysteria at what he looked like.

  “Really, Freckles? Seriously? You are having the time of your life laughing at my predicament huh? I tell you what, if you do not stop laughing, I am going to come up there and sleep right next to you on that itty-bitty couch and then you can see what it’s like to not have enough room to move,” he huffed at me.

  That got me. In my bed. Well, now that I thought about it that could be awesome. No, no, Ally. No. Picturing us trying to sleep on this pull-out bed, without touching each other, set off a new round of giggles. I looked at him and he stared at me with his mouth hanging open.

  “Come on, Jonah. You cannot sleep on the floor, for crying out loud. Promise to behave yourself and we will see if we’ll fit,” I offered quickly not thinking about how it sounded.

  “Oh Freckles, I guarantee, we will fit perfectly. Trust me on that one,” he said with a Cheshire grin, while wagging his eyebrows up and down. Laughing again, I patted the bed next to me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jonah

  After a week of awkward moments, we seemed to have settled into an established routine like a well-greased machine. Ally loved the quiet early morning hours and she always drank her coffee at the tiny kitchen table while I got Sam up and ready for school. She had made me a list of foods he did and didn’t like for all meals, including his lunch for school. After I read the short list of foods, I was shocked, and decided that I would try to get Sam to eat better, at least in the mornings.

  He was a growing boy. Cereal and milk was not going to cut it. I had almost given up, but on the fourth day I made my mom’s famous bacon and egg sandwich on buttered toast with extra ketchup and Sam was hooked. Each morning after that, I tried a different meat and topping choice on the sandwich. Cheese, ham, sausage, tomato and even avocado and the kid ate every bite. Ally was astounded and complimented me on breakfast skills and for getting Sam to widen his variety of protein intake.

  Everyday had been pretty much the same and so were the nights. The nights? The nights were all mine. Pure torture, a living hell. Yeah that old song kept going through my head. I honestly didn’t know how long I was going to be able to hold out behaving as a gentleman. We always went to sleep talking and we each took turns listening to the other’s stories of growing up. She learned all about my parents and siblings and how back then it always seemed like a madhouse, but I wouldn’t change anything for the world.

  When it was Ally’s turn, she only talked about Sam and then her grams. Her grams had raised her from a very early age when her parents died in a car accident. She was only three years old at the time and had very little memory of them. It was obvious Grams had been the center of her world growing up and her rock.

  She would never say exactly where she was raised just in the Mid-West. Sometimes when she talked about Grams her eyes misted over, breaking my heart. She had no other living relatives, so she and Sam were on their own. The two musketeers, she said proudly. I wanted to wrap her in my arms so many times and tell her that she would never be alone again. But whenever I did try to reach out to her, she would shake her head and tell me she was fine. She was still learning to trust me. I would not blow this with her.

  Every morning I woke to her curled up on my chest, snoring away. Yep, Ally snored like a freight train. That however was not the problem. The problem came in the form of her rubbing against me while she slept. Lord have mercy on my soul. She was like a cat. Stretching, sliding, rubbing all over my body. I had learned most of Ally’s tells and knew when she would be waking soon. At that point, I would gently lay her back on her side of the bed. Then sigh while I stared at that beautiful face for a moment before heading to the bathroom like a teenager in high school to take care of business. After my shower, she would be awake and ready to get her routine underway.

  Around the end of the second week, I took her for a checkup on her ankle and to have the stitches removed from her hand. She still couldn’t put her full weight on her ankle but had learned to get around a bit with the crutches. Frannie came most days to stay with Ally and do laundry and cleaning, while keeping her company. I came back whenever Frannie had to work. I made dinner and I helped Sam with his homework each evening. That kid was awesome.

  I overheard Ally talking to Frannie one day about how she had ruined her surprise for Sam by missing Little League signups. It meant so much to her to give that surprise to him. I called Shane and told him the situation. As always, my baby brother came through by bringing me the paperwork and uniform. Ally was ecstatic and flung herself at me and held on for dear life. Of course, I ate up the attention by the spoonful. All she had to do was fill out the paperwork, then Sam was a part of our team, The Wordly Wild Cats.

  After giving her the uniform, I was going to head out, so she could have this moment with her son, but she said, “Oh, hell no! You stay right here, mister. I will give him the uniform. But you give him the hat and tell him all about you and Shane being his coaches. Sam is going to flip when he finds out. You have
earned your right to share this with us. Hell, I want you to share it with us,” she stated emphatically.

  Sam was over the moon about learning to play baseball and told us he was going to school tomorrow to tell everyone that The Flash was his coach. It was one of the best days of my life. Sam hugged Ally and then ran at me for all he was worth and jumped into my outstretched arms. That’s a feeling I could ride whenever I felt off.

  I only left her for a few hours each day, but if I didn’t get out of here soon, I would not be responsible for what I would do when she turned into the snuggling cat that never failed to make a certain part of me purr. A man could only fucking take so much. Frannie called to tell me that they were taking Sam to dinner and movie and he would be staying the night with her. Well hell. I had to get out of there and pull myself together, regain some control. Then an even better idea hit me so I called Frannie back and told her my plans. Frannie was thrilled and said, “About damn time, son!”

  Frannie came to Ally’s early so I could run out and arrange for our date. The date we never got to go on because of the storm. We both needed and wanted this. Ally was going stir crazy, being cooped up for weeks so I had come up with a plan. I just crossed my fingers that I could get all the details set with only a few hours to accomplish them. It would be pricey too, but my girl was certainly worth it and more.

  I had never been the romantic type, but with Ally I found myself wanting to please her in ways that I never had with any other woman. Was I trying to impress her? Maybe just a little bit, but what I wanted was to give her something special that we could both look back on with fond memories. To accomplish everything though, I was going to need a little help. Shane came immediately to mind but I dismissed it quickly because he would take the opportunity to make jokes. So, I called my baby sis, Shayla.

  After calling Shayla and telling her of my ideas, she came up with a few of her own to help her poor older brother, who was a little dense when it came to the area of romance. I chuckled at her idea initially, but then a light went on and I realized if we could pull it off, this would definitely be a night to remember. I whispered to the man above for good vibes and got the show on the road.

  As I thought back over the last three years, there had been many woman in my life but I never stayed with just one woman for long. I never felt the need to or the want. But since that very first time I met Ms. Ally Black and she asked if she could have me forever, I knew I was doomed. She avoided me at all costs for years and wouldn’t even wait on me in the diner. I had become so frustrated that this woman would have nothing to do with me, it kind of gave me a complex and I decided that I would throw myself into rapid dating to try and to rid myself of my obsession with her.

  It never did work. I continued going to the diner for meals several days a week, hoping that she would finally talk to me. The town had even started a bet, when a couple gossiping little old ladies from the quilt club were eating lunch and one commented, “Honey, take a picture it lasts longer.” I had sat there with my chin on the table and stared at them. “Don’t think we haven’t noticed the way you have been pining over each other for years now. What’s wrong with you boy that you just don’t go ask her out?” I couldn’t reply. They were right. Why hadn’t I just asked her out? Well, for one, she hid from me whenever I was there. Would never wait on me and I just let her get away with it. I knew she felt the same attraction as I did, so what the hell was the real problem?

  It was me. That realization had been a bitter pill to swallow. I was scared. But of what? Commitment for the first time in my life? Maybe. That was certainly part of it. There had never been another woman to make me feel like a crushing high school teenager before. I wanted this woman and the thought of her rejecting me, did a number on my ego. Rejection was not something I ever had thrown at me before. So basically, I pussied out and the cat and mouse game played on.

  The ladies later told me they started a bet with their husbands who were in a poker club and it just grew from there. Soon half the town was placing bets on whether I would ever get the balls to finally ask her out and whether she would agree. The bet took on a life of its own and was one of the most embarrassing things in my life. But at the same time, it was kind of funny and I had used it as another excuse to not ask her out. But now I was in it for the long haul. She was mine. I would make her mine. There was no turning back and I didn’t want to.

  After spending quality time taking care of her and her son, Sam, over the last few weeks, it was clearly cemented in my heart now. They were going to be my family. They were my family. Sam was an amazing, smart-witted young man and he seemed to beam with excitement with every word that came out of his mouth. Ally had done an amazing job of raising the boy on her own, but a boy needed a father and a man for a role model. It would be my honor to be that man for him. By the grace of God, I would be that man. We would be a family. I just knew it in my heart and gut. This was meant to be.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ally

  What the hell was going on? That was all that ran through my mind in that moment. Jonah hadn’t said anything about leaving. I was excited that we were going to have the house to ourselves for a change. Nervous, but excited too. Now feeling disappointment settling into my stomach, I looked over at Frannie, who had been busily running around doing a few chores and packing a bag for Sam. It had been quite a while since he had been there and tonight was extra special since Grandpa Frank was going to take them out to dinner and a movie. At the time, I couldn’t help but feel a bit envious of my own child, which just further compounded my nice, big, pity pot I made for myself.

  Hearing the shower running in the bathroom, I frowned and wondered what Frannie was doing. Grabbing my armpit torture devices, fashioned by the devil himself, I got up to investigate what she was doing in there. Sam just had a shower last night, so it couldn’t be for him. It puzzled me greatly. As I rounded the corner to our tiny bathroom, Frannie picked that moment to come flying out and almost knocked me down. I wobbled but was able to steady myself. I heard some colorfully mumbled words said under her breath.

  “What are you doing, young lady? I have not called for you yet. Get your booty back to the couch and I will be there in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Go on! Get going now!” she said to me sternly.

  Taken aback by Frannie’s odd behavior and feeling a bit chastised like a five-year-old, I carefully turned myself around and went to sit upon the couch. I hated that damn couch. I had been living on the damn thing for weeks now. Stuck in the stupid house. I couldn’t drive anywhere. Had to rely on other people for everything. Well by damn, I was tired of it. I wanted to get out of the house. Thinking of the fresh air just a few steps away, I got up as quietly as possible and headed for the front door. Ally, you are a grown woman and if want to go outside and sit, then go ahead and quit being a baby about it. What could they do to me? Hmmm, spank me? Hmmm, that might be a delicious spanking, if it came from Jonah. What the hell was I thinking? Just go before Frannie comes out.

  I knew I had a battle when I got to the damn door and forgot how badly it squeaked when it was opened. Fuck! Come on don’t be a wuss. You got this just go. I grabbed the door knob firmly in my hand, slowly lifting it in a strong but slow swing and had the door open with minimal squeaking.

  Looking up at the ceiling, I whispered, “Thank you, God.” And gave him a thumbs up signal. Freedom was within reach. Now for the screen door. Scooting closer for the old monster of a door that swung out and not in, would be a bit trickier. Got it! Boom baby, look at me go. Almost home free! Leaning on the screen door a bit, so I could try and hop down the step on my good ankle, I twisted just enough and was about to hop when I heard it. No, no, no… It couldn’t be!

  Looking up at the same moment that the loud engine was gunned again, caused a sinking feeling to hit the pit of my stomach. I was looking directly into the eyes of my stalker. I called him that now, because this was most assuredly not coincidence. A shiver ran down my spine, causing me to
stand as still as a statue. Mother fucker! He must have been watching from somewhere and knew Jonah had left. What the hell was I going to do? Frannie and Sam were both here and I had to protect them. I had to get back in the door now!

  Keeping my eyes on the man, as I tried to slowly back up with crutches, wasn’t easy. I immediately bumped into something that impeded my progress and I shrieked. Fuck me! I looked back out the door and he was laughing at me? Son of a bitch! Frannie chose that moment to put her hands on my shoulders to steady me and hush my fear.

  “Shhhhhh,” she said quietly, looking behind her indicating that we needed to not let Sam know anything was going on. I nodded my head to her in understanding. God, I loved this woman.

  “Ally dear, I want you to back up slowly so I can get a good look at that coward in the van,” she ordered on a whisper.

  Shocked, I looked at her and she just shook her head and motioned for me to move. I moved. How in the hell did she know about the guy, let alone the van? A terrible ear piercing squeal of the tires reverberated the air and at the same moment I heard a familiar click from where Frannie stood me. Frannie stood with the screen door propped open. When the hell did she have time to do that? Her feet were spread apart, her arms were raised in front of her. I had to precariously lean to one side to see what she was doing. There she was in all her amazing mama bear glory holding her prized Glock, safety off and ready to go. Shocked, I just stood there admiring this stunning badass, spitfire of a human being, protecting us with a big smile on her face. Hell, I would have been scared of her too, no wonder they took off like a bat out of hell. The sight was glorious and frightening at the same time. Mentally though, I was fist pumping the air screaming. Yeah! Take that assholes! Woooohooooo! Granny’s got her gun baby!

  After they left, she turned to me after she locked up the door. The look on her face made me feel like crawling under a rock, in a hole, under the bed, anywhere to get away from the trouble I saw brewing her eyes. She was ready to yell. I closed my eyes just waiting for it, hunching my shoulders in shame. Then suddenly I heard the crinkling of bags and something hitting the bed. Twice. I was still too chicken to open my eyes.