by Josie Belle
“What is she doing out there?” Summer asked. She grabbed her mother’s good hand and squeezed. “If she’s going to kill us all, why doesn’t she just get it over with?”
The grumbling sound of a truck broke through the silence. There was a squeal of tires and the sound of someone braking hard. Maggie ducked low to peer out the window through the front of the ambulance’s cab.
“It’s a truck!” she cried. “Someone is here. Oh my god, it’s Tyler!”
Summer let out a shriek and she bent down next to Maggie to see. “It is him!”
Both Blair and Dot turned to look out the window, too. Tyler’s truck went by, spitting gravel as it whipped past them.
The back door was yanked open and there stood Sela, holding a gun. “Out! All of you! Out!” Dot glanced from the canister in her hand to Sela, but the woman was too quick for her. “Try it and I’ll shoot you where you stand.”
Dot dropped the oxygen.
Tyler’s truck swung back around. Maggie glanced up to see him get Sela in his sights. He stomped on the gas and headed straight for them.
“Is that boy insane?” Blair cried. “He’ll kill us all.”
“Oh, no, you should see him drive, Mama,” Summer breathed. “He’s amazing.”
Sela looked as if she wasn’t sure whether to run or not. Then she took up a shooter’s stance and fired off three shots at the truck barreling down upon her.
“Tyler!” Summer shrieked.
Still he kept coming. Sela had no choice but to run around the side of the ambulance to get away. Maggie knew she only had seconds to act. She jumped out of the back of the ambulance, feeling the wind from Tyler’s truck push her back against the vehicle as he sped by. She rounded the opposite side from Sela and headed for the driver’s side door.
She yanked it open and yelled, “Hang on!”
She turned the key in the ignition and shifted into drive just as she felt the cold metal barrel of a gun being pressed into her left temple.
“Shut the engine off now,” Sela said. She was standing just outside the ambulance in the open door Maggie had neglected to shut in her haste to start the engine.
Maggie’s hands shook as she reached for the key. The sound of a siren ripped through the night as a patrol car with flashing lights raced toward them.
“You’ll never get away,” Maggie said. She didn’t turn the engine off, hoping the siren would distract Sela enough to give her a chance to put it in drive and hit the gas.
“Sela Cassidy won’t, but Blair Cassidy will. Once I kill her and take her identity, I can start all over someplace far away,” Sela said. “With my new identity, I’ll get all of my money back.”
“Don’t count on it,” a voice said from behind her.
Sela whipped around just in time to take an oxygen tank to the side of the head. She dropped like a stone. Summer stood over her looking ready to hit her again if she so much as batted an eyelash.
Dot was on top of Sela, snatching her gun away and fastening cuffs to her wrists. Both Tyler and Sam had parked their cars and were coming toward them at a run.
Maggie switched off the engine, for good this time. Her knees were knocking so hard she didn’t think she could stand, so she let Sam push the door all the way open and grab her.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said.
Tyler was squeezing Summer as if he’d never let go. Dot was standing with one foot on Sela.
“Help!” a voice called.
“Oh, Mama!” Summer cried.
They all hurried around the ambulance to find Blair stuck in the back, trying to get down without using the arm that was still in the sling. Tyler reached forward and plucked her down, setting her on her feet.
“You have excellent timing, Mr. Fawkes,” Blair said.
He gave her a shy smile. “Please call me Tyler. Since I am going to be marrying your daughter and all, it only seems right.”
“What?” Summer asked.
“You heard me,” Tyler said. He frowned at Summer. “You love me and you need me and I do not want to hear that you have to think about it or any other nonsense. We were made for each other. That’s that, and we’re getting married.”
“Oh, Tyler.” Summer threw herself into his arms, and he kissed her as if his very life depended upon it.
Chapter 26
Sam put his arm around Maggie and pulled her close. “There must be something in the air.”
“Post–Valentine’s Day insanity,” Maggie said. “I’m pretty sure.”
“Either that or they’re onto something,” he said.
Maggie glanced at Sam and saw a glint in his eye that she couldn’t interpret.
“Hey, Sheriff, she’s coming around,” Dot said.
Sam let go of Maggie and strode over to where Sela was lying on the hard ground. He scooped her up and carried her into the back of the ambulance.
“I’ll ride with her,” he said. “Can you drive?”
Maggie nodded. She glanced down at her hands. They had stopped shaking, so she was pretty sure she could manage it.
“I am not getting into the back of that vehicle again,” Blair said.
“There’s no need,” Tyler said as he and Summer broke off their passionate clinch. “I’ll take you to the station.”
“Thank you,” Blair said. She hesitated, and then reached forward and patted his arm like she was patting a stray dog that she wasn’t quite sure was friendly. Tyler actually blushed.
Blair and Summer climbed into Tyler’s truck while Dot climbed into the back of the ambulance with Sam and Sela, who was still a bit loopy, with a growing knot on her head. Sam took a minute to hook Dot up to another oxygen tank as she started coughing and wheezing from the exertion of tying Sela up.
When he gave her the thumbs-up, Maggie closed the doors. She pressed her head against the cold metal for just a moment, grateful that they had survived a situation that could have gone tragically wrong.
After she climbed into the driver’s seat and buckled her seat belt, she started the ambulance and pulled out of the woods, turning down the road toward town. She was so relieved that they were alive, she almost turned on the siren, but good sense prevailed and she chose to hum a happy melody instead.
• • •
“And then what happened?” Ginger asked.
A day had passed since the fire and the showdown in the woods. They were all at Michael and Joanne’s, who had insisted that everyone come over for dinner so they could hear the story of Maggie and Sam’s adventure firsthand.
Michael had brought home a huge deli platter, and the rest of them pitched in with side dishes and dessert.
“Apparently, Tyler heard on his scanner that Summer’s house was on fire and he came rushing to the scene, but when he saw that the ambulance was leaving in the opposite direction of the hospital, he got suspicious and called Sam. That’s when they gave chase,” Maggie said.
“I think I will be in debt to Tyler forever for that one,” Sam said.
“After the cavalry arrived, we took Sela and Dot to the hospital to be checked out,” Maggie said.
“And when they were given the all clear, Dot went home and Sela was arrested for the murders of Terry Knox and Bruce Cassidy,” Sam concluded.
“Incredible,” Michael said.
He handed Joanne a plate of food and went to fetch her a beverage.
Maggie had always like Michael, but watching how solicitous he was of Joanne endeared him to her all over again. She remembered how fragile she had felt after Laura was born and how the helping hands of her sister, mother and husband had gotten her though those first few terrifying weeks.
Joanne was sitting on the couch with the baby in the bassinet beside her. When the baby started to fuss, she went to put her food aside, but Sam stepped close and said, “I�
�ll hold the baby for you. You need to eat.”
Joanne gave him a weary but grateful smile. Maggie watched as Sam picked up the tiny little bundle and cradled it in his arms. He walked around the room, smiling down at the petite infant, and Maggie felt her heart ache. He would make such an amazing father.
“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” Roger said. He was sitting on the love seat beside Ginger. “How did Sela convince Terry to impersonate Bruce?”
“Yeah,” Pete said. He was standing at the kitchen island with Claire while they loaded their plates. “He had to be an accomplice to the real Bruce Cassidy’s murder, didn’t he?”
“We may never know,” Maggie said. “Sela is recanting the confession she made to us right before she tried to kill us. She’s saying that the whole thing was really Terry’s idea and that he threatened to frame her for her husband’s murder if she didn’t flee to Europe and mail postcards saying that she and Bruce had moved there and weren’t coming back.”
“But that story doesn’t fit Terry Knox’s profile,” Sam said. “His personal history is that of an easygoing, odd-job guy who was never in trouble with the law and kept his life fairly simple. We’re hoping that some sort of evidence can be found at their old residence to implicate Sela in the murder of Bruce Cassidy.”
“Where does this leave Blair Cassidy?” Pete asked. “Was she even really married?”
“No,” Sam said. “Bruce used his fake identification for the marriage license, making it null and void.”
Maggie and Ginger exchanged a look.
“Does this mean she’ll be staying in town?” Ginger asked.
“Last I heard she was looking forward to planning the nuptials for Summer and Tyler,” Sam said. “Apparently, Tyler is quite the successful dabbler in the stock market and is much more well-off than Blair imagined. She is now welcoming him into the family with open arms.”
The baby stretched and yawned, and a tiny fist popped out of her swaddling. Sam caught it between his thumb and index finger and watched in fascination as her little fingers wrapped around his finger. He glanced up and said, “She’s got quite a grip. Have you two picked a name as yet?”
Michael and Joanne exchanged a glance. Maggie could tell it was the nervous look of parents who weren’t sure how the name of their baby was going to be received.
Joanne cleared her throat. “Because she took her sweet time in the making and in the arriving, we decided to name her the very thing that she taught us: Patience.”
“Oh,” Claire cried and clapped her hands together. “That’s perfect.”
Maggie stood and moved beside Sam to look down at the sleeping infant. With her round cheeks and rosebud mouth, she had certainly been worth the wait.
“She looks like a Patience,” she said. “Claire’s right. It’s perfect.”
“Agreed,” Ginger said.
Sam glanced up from the baby to Maggie and said, “Isn’t she something?”
Maggie felt her heart squeeze hard. She could tell by the look on his face that this was something Sam really wanted. A baby, a family of his own—and he would be so good at it.
“All right, Collins, you need to hand over that baby,” Roger said. He stood and held his hands out.
Sam turned his back to his friend as if he were refusing. “Get your own baby.”
“Mine won’t let me hold them anymore,” Roger said. “Teenagers, huh. They think they’re too manly for a snuggle.”
“Fine,” Sam said as he handed the baby over with obvious reluctance.
Roger returned to the couch, where he and Ginger cooed over baby Patience. Pete and Claire, meanwhile, seemed content to keep a safe distance in the kitchen.
Maggie glanced at the couples around them. It was so nice to be together in the Claramotta’s snug little house, sharing a potluck dinner, celebrating not only the arrival of the new bundle but also the fact that she and Sam had survived their encounter with a killer.
It was in that moment that Maggie knew what she had to do. It was only fair, and she owed it to Sam to do the right thing.
Chapter 27
Maggie was quiet on the ride home, trying to choose her words carefully. She wanted to say what she was thinking in just the right way so that Sam would understand. As they passed the town green, she noticed that the gazebo was still lit up with the strings of red and white that Sam had surprised her with on Valentine’s Day. She took it as a sign.
“Sam, pull over, please,” she said.
He glanced at her in surprise but did as she asked.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Are you not feeling well?”
“No, I’m fine,” she said. “Would you walk with me?”
Sam looked past her out the window. When he saw the gazebo, he smiled. It was a grin full of mischief, and it made Maggie’s heart rate kick up in response.
“It’d be a pleasure,” he said.
He parked the car and hurried around the front to her side. He opened the door and took her hand to help her out. The green was silent this time of night and Maggie watched their breath puff out in the cold night air as they strolled down the path together.
“If you’re looking to dance in the gazebo, I don’t have any music queued up,” Sam said.
“That’s okay,” Maggie said. “We’re going to talk.”
“Uh-oh.” Sam’s steps faltered.
“What’s the matter?” Maggie asked.
“When a woman says she wants to talk, it never goes well,” Sam said. “Never.”
Maggie kept moving forward, but Sam had suddenly become an anchor, holding fast to the concrete and not budging. Maggie tugged on his arm, but he was immovable. She turned back to find him fiddling with his phone.
“What are you doing?” she asked in exasperation.
“Texting the guys for advice,” he said.
“Seriously?” she asked.
“I’m scared,” he said. He gave her a comically nervous face, and Maggie felt her insides pinch at the thought of life without him.
“Come on,” she said. “Be brave.”
She looped her arm through his and Sam obliged by putting his phone away and walking with her. She could feel him watching her but she didn’t look at him until they were stepping up into the gazebo.
Once they were in the gazebo, Maggie felt as if butterflies the size of bats were fluttering around inside of her. She knew what she had to say, but how?
Best to just get it done, she figured.
She turned toward Sam and took his hands in hers. As they stood looking at each other, Maggie drank in the face that had come to mean so much to her. She was in love with Sam Collins—of that there was no doubt.
Their story had begun on the elementary school playground in this very town. It had wound its way through their adolescence and into their young adulthood, where Maggie had first learned what being in love meant. Then their story turned on them, causing heartbreak for the both of them. But miraculously, it included second chances and falling in love again. Theirs was a rich story. And now it would change once more.
“Sam, I have to tell you something,” Maggie said. She hesitated.
“You can tell me anything,” Sam said.
He was looking at her in that encouraging way he had, as if there was nothing she could ever do or say that would make him care any less for her.
She licked her lips, and then words she had no intention of saying came out of her mouth, “About what I said before, you know, when I was freaking out before you got the call about the fire at Summer’s house, yeah, well, I changed my mind. If you want a baby, I’ll do that . . . with you.”
Sam dropped her hands and stepped back. Then he put his right hand over his chest. He looked pale and weak like he was having a heart attack.
“Sam? Sam, are you okay?”
&
nbsp; He staggered back a few paces and then slumped onto one of the benches that lined the interior of the gazebo. Maggie hurried to his side. She sat beside him and threw an arm around him to support him.
“Sam, what is it?”
“I just . . . I don’t . . . I thought you were going to dump me,” he said. “And now you want a baby?”
“No!” she cried. “I don’t want a baby. I thought you wanted a baby. I thought I was going to have to cut you loose so you could find someone younger to have a family with, but then I decided that I’d rather do the family thing all over again with you than lose you.”
He turned in the seat to face her. He looked at her with such tenderness that Maggie felt her throat close up. “Maggie, I have to tell you, I love babies and I love kids, but I don’t want to have any.”
“What?” Maggie asked. She sat up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I love kids and all, but I have nieces and nephews. And if we had a kid now, I’d be in my sixties when it got out of college,” he said. “Maggie, I don’t think I have the stamina for that.”
“But I thought . . . when I saw you with Patience, you looked so happy,” Maggie said. “I thought you wanted kids and a family of your own.”
Sam leaned back against the rail and drew her close.
“You and Marshall Dillon are all the family I need,” he said. “Except—”
“Except?”
“How do you feel about a dog?” he asked. “I’d really like a dog.”
Maggie leaned into him, feeling a sweet sense of relief sweep through her. “I’d love a dog.”
“Really?” Sam asked. He sounded as excited as a kid.
Maggie nodded. She knew she was grinning like an idiot, but she was so relieved she could barely stand it.
“I guess there’s only one thing left to talk about then,” Sam said.
“What’s that?” Maggie asked.
Sam rolled out of his seat onto one knee in front of her. “I know this goes against every bit of advice we gave Max, but I can’t wait, I have to do it now. Maggie, will you make me the happiest guy in St. Stanley and beyond and marry me?”