by Jennie Marts
From the smile he and Megan exchanged, it appeared that she’d become more than just his nurse.
He cuddled the dog to his chest. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see this little girl, though. Thanks so much for taking care of her.”
“Of course, but how did you know I had her?”
“I was worried about her and sent Megan over to pick her up. She said she found your note on the refrigerator saying you’d taken Bruiser. I knew she was in good hands with you.”
“But how did you get away that night? When we went back in the morning, one of the guys was dead in my living room, and you were nowhere to be found. I was so afraid they’d found you and killed you.” Her voice faltered with emotion.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you where I was. I couldn’t tell anyone. I saw on the news that they found that guy dead in your apartment, and I didn’t know what to think. I can assure you he was alive when I left.”
“But how did you get out of there?”
“A combination of adrenaline and luck, I guess. I heard them searching your apartment, and I could tell they were in your office, so I tried to make a break for it. I stepped out of your bedroom and could see the door was standing open. But evidently only one guy was in your office, and the other one was standing in the living room between me and the door. I used to play football in high school—offensive lineman—I don’t know if I ever told you that. But my old football days came back to me, and I tucked in my shoulder and charged the guy. I knocked him to the ground, then ran out the door. I heard the other guy yelling, but I didn’t stick around to hear what he said. I just kept running.”
He must have noticed the badge clipped to Mac’s waist because he looked up at him. “I might still have a pretty good tackle, but I assure you I didn’t kill that guy.”
“Sorry. This is my friend, Mac,” Zoey said, introducing him to Teddy and Megan. “He’s a police officer with the Pleasant Valley PD, and he helped catch the guys that did this.”
“I know you didn’t kill him,” Mac said, after shaking Teddy’s hand. “His partner shot him. Evidently he’d been skimming off the company’s dollar. He was supposed to get rid of him and Zoey both and make it look like Zoey was the one who shot him. Two birds with one bullet.”
Teddy’s face paled, and he rested his hand on Zoey’s arm. “Geez. Thank goodness you got out of there.”
Zoey took his hand. “No. Thank you. You saved me. I would never have gotten away if you hadn’t warned me. You saved my life, and I can’t thank you enough.”
Teddy grinned. “You risked yourself to take care of my dog, so we’ll call it even.” He looked up and winked at Megan. “And hey, it all worked out pretty good for me. I kept trying to win this gorgeous girl over with coffee and my witty charm, and I guess all it really took was getting stabbed in the gut.”
Zoey laughed. She squeezed his hand, then stood to go. “I’m so happy for you.” And she was. She was filled with a deep affection for this big teddy bear of a guy who had risked his own life to help her. “We’ll let you rest. We can talk more later. I’m just so glad you’re all right.”
He set the dog on the floor, pushed up from the recliner and pulled her into another bear hug. “I’m glad you’re all right, too.”
She looked up at him. “Hey, we found the evidence. That was pretty smart hiding the flash drive in my stapler.”
He chuckled. “I’d hoped that you’d found it. I tried to hide it in plain sight. Megan’s been sneaking into my office looking for a pink stapler the past several days. When she said she couldn’t find it, I had a feeling that you’d somehow gotten hold of it.”
“I did. It was on my old desk. That’s probably why she couldn’t find it. The cleaning people must have put it back. Plus, I took it that first day. And we used that evidence to arrest Sal this morning. It was everything we need to put the Cavelli brothers away.”
He gave her a high five. “Yes. Score one for the bean counters.”
She laughed. “All right. We’re gonna go. You rest. I’ll call you later this week.” Before she left, she gave Megan a quick hug. “Thank you for taking care of him.”
Megan grinned. One of those goofy grins that revealed her feelings for Teddy clearly on her face. She shrugged. “It worked out for me, too.”
Zoey’s steps were light as they left the house and climbed into Mac’s car.
She turned to him with a smile. “I feel good. Like everything’s really going to work out.”
He chuckled then picked up her hand and brushed his lips across the back of her knuckles. “So, where do we go from here?”
“Do you mean where are we going to drive to in the car or do you mean where do we go from here?”
He shrugged. “Take your pick.”
She let out a deep sigh. “Gosh, I guess I have some big decisions to make. I can tell you that I’m moving out of that apartment. There’s no way that I’m sleeping in that bed again, and there’s not enough bleach to get the blood of a dead guy off my floor.”
“Where will you go?”
“Welllll, I’ve been thinking about moving up into the mountains—to Pleasant Valley. I know my grandparents would love that, and I’ve found something of interest that I’d really like to explore there.”
He chuckled. “Is that right?” He gazed out the front window of the car for a moment, as if weighing his thoughts, then turned back to her, sincerity in his eyes. “As long as you’re making big decisions, I have another one for you to consider.”
Her pulse quickened and butterflies formed in her stomach. “You do?”
“I do. But hold on.” He got out of the car and ran around to her side.
The butterflies in her stomach went crazy as he opened her door and bent down on one knee. He grinned at her, that adorable handsome grin that did funny things to her insides.
He picked up her hand. “I’ve never done this before, so I wanted to do it right. I know things have been crazy the past few weeks and we haven’t known each other all that long, but I can’t imagine my life now without you in it. And I feel like my heart knew you the minute we met. It recognized you as the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
He took a deep breath. “Zoey Allen, will you marry me?”
Stunned, she sat speechless, not knowing what to say. This is not how she did things. She was a planner. She made lists. She weighed consequences. She didn’t jump into spontaneous choices.
He smiled. “I can see your wheels turning as you’re trying to formulate a decision. I know your hands must be itching to create a spreadsheet or at least make a list. But there’s no formula or equation when it comes to love. I know you like things neat and orderly, but love is messy and crazy and spontaneous. It doesn’t fit into a tally column of pros and cons. It just is.”
He pressed her hand against his heart. “The only thing I know is that my heart belongs to you. We don’t have to get married today, or even tomorrow. But I want you to come home with me. To let me love you and make you laugh every day. To let me make you breakfast and grilled cheese sandwiches for the rest of your life.”
“You do make a pretty mean grilled cheese sandwich.” She grinned, her heart soaring. “I do like things organized, but in the last month, my life has gone from calm to chaotic, and it’s been the best, most frightening, most wonderful month of my life. I don’t need a spreadsheet to know that I love you with all of my heart, and all I want is to get tangled up in a beautiful messy life with you. Yes. I will marry you.”
A gorgeous smile filled his whole face, and he stood up and pulled her from the car, crushing her against him in a tight hug.
Then he kissed her, tenderly, sweetly, and with so much love she felt like her heart would break. He pulled back and brushed her bangs from her eyes. “I love you like crazy.”
“I love you, too.” She grinned up at him. “Just so you know, I’ll probably have your sock drawer and your spice cabinet organized before the end of the week.”
“I’ve recently been thinking my socks needed more organization.”
She laughed. “And you know I’m going to plan the hell out of our wedding. Like down to the last cupcake.”
Laughing, he dipped his head, speaking between soft kisses. “Yes, I know. Good thing I like cupcakes.”
A fierce and overwhelming love filled her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed against him.
He pulled back, cupping her chin in his hand and gazing into her eyes. “Let’s go home and get messy.”
THE END
Check out all the adventures of the Page Turners book club:
Another Saturday Night and I Ain’t Got No Body
Book 1 of the Page Turners Series
On Amazon
Easy Like Sunday Mourning
Book 2 of the Page Turners Series
On Amazon
Just Another Maniac Monday
Book 3 of the Page Turners Series
On Amazon
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to Carolyn V—
an honorary member of the Page Turners Book Club
Because she loved the Page Turners and they made her laugh
Rest in peace, my friend
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I must always thank my husband, Todd. For believing in me, for supporting me, and for loving me through it all.
My family means everything to me and I thank my sons, Tyler and Nick for their support of my writing career.
A special thanks goes out to my mom, Lee Cumba, for her invaluable support of this book. Thanks Mom, for listening to hours of plot lines and working through countless ideas of how to make this story better.
I have an amazing group of proofreaders and beta-readers, who will drop everything and read my books as soon as I call. Each has their own skills and they find commas, legal issues, plot holes, and logistical impossibilities. My books benefit greatly from their keen eyes, support, advice and grammar knowledge. Thanks to Carla Albers, Lee Cumba, Terry Gregson, Linda Kay, and Mona Egger.
I am blessed to be surrounded by an awesome group of writers who continuously offer guidance, support and critique help. I would be lost without the friendship and support of Michelle Major, Lana Williams, and Annie MacFarlane.
Big thanks goes out to my editor, Alyssa Linn Palmer for coming through for me in a pinch and for her great editing skills.
I cannot say enough about The Killion Group and their amazing work with my covers and marketing material. My thanks goes out to Kim Killion and Jennifer Jakes for your fast and efficient work. I value your creativity, your advice and most of all, your friendship.
My biggest thanks goes out to my readers! Thanks for loving my stories and my characters and for asking for Mac’s book. I am making each of you an honorary member of the Page Turners Book Club! And I can’t wait to share the next Page Turners novel with you.
If you enjoy small town contemporary romance with hot cowboys-
Try the Hearts of Montana series.
In Tucked Away (Book 1 of The Hearts of Montana series), Charlie Ryan is a city girl who inherits a farm in small town Montana and when she gets there, she finds a lonely teenager girl, a goat named Clyde, a hunky cowboy, and a place she finally feels like she can call home.
Chapter One
A bead of sweat trickled down her back as she stared into the cold brown eyes of her captor. A gold ring pierced his nostril. He snorted, his breath forming a circle of condensation on the window. She laid on the horn again, hoping this time to scare the beast away. He stood there, unfazed, staring at her and swatting flies away with his tail.
“Nice bull.” Keeping her voice low, she pulled on the handle and gently pushed open the car door a fraction of an inch. The huge black bull, roughly the size of a small pickup truck, pawed at the ground, then put his head down and rammed the side of her bright red rental car.
She let loose a scream of terror and frustration. The car held all of her worldly possessions, packed in a few liquor store boxes and a couple of Louis Vuitton suitcases, her last shred of dignity tucked into one of the side pockets.
Charlie Ryan had spent the last hour trapped in a car that reeked of stale French fries, her silk blouse clinging to her damp back, desperately rethinking her decision to drink that large iced tea. Why had she ignored the sign reading, last services for 200 miles? Who knew that meant gasoline? She thought it meant cell service, and her phone had died hours ago as she’d crossed the never-ending flats of the Midwest, driving toward her new home and the promise of a fresh start.
Nothing was going as planned. Her dreams, once as bright as the pristine Montana sky, had faded like the paint on the large red barn standing sentinel over the Tucker farm. But this was too much. She’d had enough bull in her life, and she was getting out of this car.
Groaning, she looked around in desperation for a way out. An old two-story farm house sat at the end of a dusty driveway. The front door, and her means of escape, a mere twenty feet away.
She pulled her black designer pump from her foot and beat it against the window. Its ineffectiveness against her captor equaled its poor choice as driving footwear, evidenced by the large red blister forming on her right heel.
She studied the beast. His shiny coat seemed to glisten in the afternoon sun. Horns protruded two feet off either side of his huge triangular block of a head, and his neck was thick as a tree trunk. She leaned closer to the window and noticed his horns dotted with red bits that looked like blood, but were probably flecks of the paint that used to be on her rental car door. A large scar extended several inches above and below his left eye. The scar, combined with the way he stamped his foot and shook his enormous head at her, told her this bull meant business.
Turning away from the animal, she tried the ignition once more, hoping the tank had been visited by the services fairies and magically filled with gasoline. What little fumes were left in the tank had sputtered out just as she pulled into the driveway and coasted to a stop in front of the house.
She would have to think about that coincidence later, but for now, the car battery still worked, so she depressed the button to roll the window down a few inches. Hot, dry air, smelling of what she assumed was hay, wafted into the car, and the bull, alerted by the sudden movement, slid his tongue up the window, leaving a shiny trail of saliva filled with bits of grass.
Charlie screamed again as his tongue, finding the opening in the glass, snaked into the car, as if searching for the source of the fast food scent. She continued to shriek as she alternately whacked at the huge tongue with her shoe and tried to roll up the window.
Having rid her car of the offensive appendage, she now heard the blessed sound of an engine and turned to see a blue and white pickup pulling into the driveway. She registered a black cowboy hat and dark hair as the truck rumbled past her in a cloud of dust. The window was wide open, the radio blaring guitar-picking country music, and a tan, muscled arm rested against the faded blue paint.
The truck pulled to a stop in front of her car, and she sighed with relief. How low had her life sunk that her hero had just arrived in an ancient pickup sporting a decal silhouette of a naked woman wearing high heels and holding a shotgun, an NRA emblem, and a bumper sticker that read ‘Git Er Done’?
The door of the truck opened. As one cowboy boot hit the ground, Charlie had a moment of fear, wondering if she was now in more danger being stranded alone in the middle of nowhere with a three-toothed redneck who fully believed in his right to bear arms.
She reached to depress the door locks, then remembered she had locked the doors earlier when the beast had first charged the car. She was now pretty s
ure a bull couldn’t open a car door with its hoof, but it was a moment of panic, and she wasn’t taking any chances.
The rest of her hero emerged from the truck and any thoughts of door-opening cows left her head as she took in the sight of this man. He epitomized the term hot cowboy, standing well over six feet tall, wearing faded Wranglers, a sleeveless western shirt, and the aforementioned black cowboy hat.
He was tan and had the solid muscles of someone who spent his time outdoors working hard instead of indoors working out. He rested one of those muscled arms on the open door of his truck as he appeared to survey the red car containing a sweaty blonde being held captive by a twelve hundred pound bull.
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About the Author
Jennie Marts loves to make readers laugh as she weaves stories filled with love, friendship and intrigue. She writes for Entangled Publishing and reviewers call her books “laugh out loud” funny and full of great characters that are “endearing and relatable.”
She is living her own happily ever after in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, two sons, two dogs and a parakeet that loves to tweet to the oldies. She’s addicted to Diet Coke, adores Cheetos and believes you can’t have too many books, shoes or friends.
Her books include the contemporary western romance Hearts of Montana series, the romantic comedy/ cozy mysteries of The Page Turners series, and her latest hot hockey player’s series, the Bannister Brothers Books.