“I just downloaded his e-mail. He’ll be arriving in Sacramento around eleven. I told him we’d meet him at the airport.”
She felt queasy at the thought. “What if I don’t recognize him?”
“Once you see him—”
“I can’t remember anything about him.” Panic surged up inside her. “How can I go back to Arizona with him if I don’t know him?”
“Let’s just take it a step at a time.” He rose, moving away from the bed. “It’s an hour and a half from here to the airport. I thought we’d head down the hill early, get breakfast in Placerville.”
“It’s barely past eight. I’d rather stay here, with you.”
His arms crossed over his chest, his gaze fixed on her still warm in the bed. “That’s not a good idea, Teresa.”
Her real name on his lips stroked her like a caress. She wanted to hear it again and again, whispered in her ear as he kissed her. Made love to her one last time.
He turned toward the door. “I want to get on the road in half an hour.” He closed the door behind him.
Her heart heavy, Teresa pushed back the covers. In Elizabeth’s pajamas, she gathered up her jeans and one of the hand-me-down sweatshirts. The Christmas sweater had been laundered since she wore it last, but the thought of wearing it hurt. It represented her old life, the one she no longer welcomed reentering.
Showered and dressed, with the sweater and the sketch pad in a plastic market bag, she joined Jack in the great room. She’d left the drawing of her on the bed, a promise kept.
Jack pulled on his parka. “Do you have the ankle bracelet?”
She’d forgotten it entirely, hadn’t looked at it since that day she’d hidden it in the bathroom drawer. “I don’t want it.”
As they wended their way down Jack’s road, she stared out the window, biting her lip to keep from crying. She half hoped the rockslide would give way again, blocking their path to the highway. But the crew Dawson had hired had done their job well, reinforcing the mountainside against a repeat rock fall.
They stopped for breakfast in the town of Placerville, El Dorado’s county seat. She picked at the waffle she’d ordered, finally pushing it away. Jack didn’t do much better with his ham-and-cheese omelet, eating less than half of it.
They climbed back in the car and continued down the road. The pine trees of the higher elevations gave way to oaks and rolling grassland, and grief weighed more and more heavily on Teresa’s shoulders.
They pulled into the airport parking structure at ten-thirty. After he turned off the engine of the Suburban, Jack looked at her, and in the dimness she met his gaze, drinking in his beloved face. She saw the naked need he’d tried to hide and something else she doubted he would ever admit. Not when another man would soon be touching down to claim her.
She jolted with a sudden realization. “Why was I wearing a bracelet with another woman’s name?”
Jack’s brow furrowed as he considered her question. “Your mother’s name?”
“My mother’s name is Louise.” Then another tantalizing bit of trivia popped into her consciousness. “Mia is Italian for ‘mine.’”
The realization made her uneasy. Had her fiancé given her the bracelet? Branded her as his? When Jack climbed from the Suburban, her heart picked up its pace. She couldn’t bring herself to open her door, and waited for Jack to come around to do it.
As they stood just outside the terminal’s security checkpoint, her tension wound up even tighter. She gripped Jack’s hand, praying that the flight would be late, that it would be canceled. That Robert would call Jack’s cell to say he wouldn’t be coming after all. But the nearby displays told her the plane was on time.
At a quarter after eleven, the foot traffic exiting the secure area thickened. Teresa huddled even closer to Jack, watching the faces of every man striding toward them, terror overwhelming her. When they walked past her without recognition, she felt a brief relief before the next man approached.
Then a man with blue eyes, curly blond hair and a ready smile emerged from the crowd. Spotting her with Jack, he hurried toward them. Just as she’d feared, she didn’t know him, and when he grabbed her away from Jack to hug her, she nearly screamed. Only a sharp breath in kept the horror from spilling out.
Then the stench of cinnamon hit her, rolling in waves off Robert as he held her close. With the rank smell, the memories crashed into her mind—fists punching, feet kicking, a snarl of rage spewing obscenities. Her begging for mercy as Robert struck her over and over.
Now she did scream, twisting out of his arms and flinging herself toward Jack’s safety. “I remember,” she gasped out. “It was him. Robert’s the one who beat me.”
She glanced up at Jack, saw the murderous look on his face. She heard running footsteps and looked over her shoulder to see Robert dashing away—up the walkway, back toward the gates and into the secure area. The TSA agent shouted at him to stop, but Robert kept running. Two other agents joined the chase, surrounding Robert and restraining him. “Sweetheart, baby,” Jack murmured as her shaking body all but fell apart. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”
Beyond them, airport security had escorted Robert to a table in the security checkpoint. “I remember everything now. I have to talk to them, tell them what he did.”
He held her close, his breathing soothing her. “I want you to know—I would have followed you. I would have been on the next plane to Phoenix.”
“To make sure I was okay?” she asked, not wanting to hope for too much.
“To make sure you loved him.”
“I don’t. I might have once, but after what he did to me, it killed any chance I could love him again.”
She could feel Jack’s relief as the tension left his body. “Then I have to tell you…” His arms tightened around her. “I love you, Teresa. With all my heart. I want you to be with me forever.”
Joy burst inside her at his admission. She reached up to cradle his face in her hands. “And I love you, so very, very much.”
He kissed her then, and she could feel his deep love for her with that silent contact. She reveled in the miracle he’d given her—her old life back and a new one just as precious.
Epilogue
It wasn’t a white Christmas at her parents’ home in San Antonio, but her first holiday as Mrs. Jack Traynor was a joyful one nonetheless. Her family was a small one—just her mother, Louise, and stepfather, Harold, an aunt and uncle and two young cousins. No sisters or brothers. Her father, the dreaded monster of her nightmares, had died ten years ago in prison.
It had been a year of healing for both her and Jack. She’d recovered nearly all of her old life, remembering family and friends, her favorite students. She’d returned to Goodyear long enough to allow the school district to find a long-term substitute. During that time she’d said her goodbyes and packed up her house. Two weeks later, she moved in with Jack.
Although it hadn’t happened overnight, Jack had at last come to terms with his wife’s murder. By the time of their summer wedding, he could enjoy sharing his memories of Elizabeth, could laugh about her crazy sense of humor. He’d told Teresa more than once how much Elizabeth would have enjoyed meeting her.
It had been difficult for Teresa to allow back into her mind what had happened with Robert. He’d been the reason she’d become estranged from her parents. After spending half a dozen years with an abuser herself, her mother had sensed something wrong with Robert, but Teresa had refused to see.
Robert had changed so gradually, attentiveness becoming obsessive control until every aspect of her life was under his thumb. From what she wore to what and how much she ate to how short her hair should be all became part of Robert’s domain. And as that control increased, Teresa couldn’t see that it was tipping over into the danger zone.
When he finally exploded that night in Tahoe, beating her unconscious, she never saw it coming. When she woke up in Jack’s house, she retreated behind the same walls she’d used to protect herself wh
en her father hit her. Except this time the walls were absolute, blocking everything from her conscious mind.
Once she told the police what had happened with Robert, they put together the rest of the details—that he’d panicked, fearing he’d beaten her so badly she was dying and that he had to get rid of her body. It was sheer luck that he’d dumped her so close to Jack’s road and that Jack came along when he did.
It took her mother to explain why cinnamon had triggered her memories. Her father had had a fondness for cinnamon candy, using it to mask the smell of alcohol on his breath. Teresa had come to associate the scent with her father’s fists. Robert’s spicy aftershave had cemented that mental connection.
But that was all safely behind her. Now it was Christmas again, and Teresa sat curled up on her mother’s sofa, watching Jack playing Chutes and Ladders on the floor with her two cousins, eight-year-old Mason and six-year-old Natalie. She could swear he was enjoying the game more than the kids.
Stripping off her apron, her mother sat beside her. “I remember when I gave you that sweater.”
Teresa smiled, smoothing a hand over the red sweater with its cheery snowman. “The Christmas before I met Robert.”
Her mother gave her a worried look. “I hope you’re not still thinking of him. You ate so little at dinner.”
Her hand on her belly, Teresa caught Jack’s eye. He raised a brow, nodding toward her mother.
Teresa took her mother’s hand. “Sorry, Mom. I’ve just been feeling a little queasy.”
Her mother’s worried look faded, replaced by a look of sheer bliss. “I’m going to be a grandma.”
She nodded, hugging her mother tight, then relinquishing her to Jack. While her mom hurried off to the kitchen to tell her younger sister the news, Jack took Teresa in his arms, settling on the sofa with her.
“Have I told you today how much I love you?” he murmured in her ear.
“At least a dozen times,” she responded, laughing. “But you haven’t reached your quota yet.”
“I love you, Teresa Traynor. With all my heart, all my soul.”
“And I love you, Jack Traynor.”
She kissed him, reveling in his love, in the miracle of their life together.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1673-4
HER MIRACLE MAN
Copyright © 2008 by Karen Sandler
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