by Phoebe Conn
“I did,” Catherine claimed proudly. “Now come on, let’s get out of the paramedics’ way.”
Kids had begun to gather in the parking lot and crowded around the ambulance when Luke was carried out on a stretcher. “Is he gonna die?” Max called out.
“Hell, no,” Luke shouted.
“A few stitches and he’ll be fine,” Catherine assured them. She crossed the street with Toby, and while he failed to drive with Luke’s manic speed, they arrived at the County/USC Medical Center only a moment behind the ambulance.
“I don’t like coming here again,” she said.
“There’re not that many trauma centers operating anymore, and Luke is a bloody mess.”
“I could have done without that.”
“Sorry, but I’m not happy to be here again either,” Toby complained.
“Just drop me off. I want to stay with Luke.”
Toby dug a business card out of his wallet. “Here’s my number. Call me if you need anything, a midnight snack, donuts at dawn, a ride home in the morning, whatever.”
“Thanks, Toby.” Catherine leaned over to kiss his check. “Oh, there is one thing. In the morning, will you please tell Pam what happened? I’ll need to buy a new pot for the plant, but I don’t want it thrown out.”
“You got it,” Toby assured her.
Catherine left his truck to follow the paramedics inside. She caught up with Luke’s stretcher and reached for his right hand.
“I’m not leaving you.”
Luke tried to smile, but winced. He was close to blacking out, but squeezed her hand. “Good. I want you to stay.”
She bent over to kiss him. “Hang in there, hero.”
Luke didn’t feel much like a hero, but he liked hearing it. His left arm felt as though it were on fire from his fingertips to his shoulder. The paramedics shifted him from the stretcher to a treatment table, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he were in the same room where Nick had died.
He tried to sit up, but a whole crowd of medical personnel appeared to hold him down. The bright light hurt his eyes, and he shut them tightly. “Just sew me up. I want to go home.”
They numbed Luke’s pain, but Catherine couldn’t bear to watch the doctor stitch up his flesh. She kept a firm grip on his hand but looked the other way. A nurse cleaned off her face and brought her an icepack for her cheek, but she cared little about being bruised from Dave’s blow.
It was early morning before Luke was released, and they were both too tired to think clearly. “I can call Toby to give us a ride to Lost Angel to pick up my car,” Catherine suggested, “or we could just take a taxi to my house and worry about our cars later.”
“Call the cab,” Luke urged. “I can do without Toby today.”
Luke’s left arm and shoulder were so heavily bandaged, he could hardly move, but he slept easily in Catherine’s bed knowing she was cuddled by his side. They didn’t get up until late afternoon, when hunger made further sleep impossible.
“Do you still have the steaks?” Luke asked.
“They’re in the freezer. Do you feel well enough to sit out on the patio while I set up the grill?”
In truth, Luke felt sore all over from the fight, but unwilling to appear an invalid, he rolled to the side of the bed and sat up. “Sure, I don’t feel nearly as bad as I look,” he lied. But after Catherine had showered and dressed, he entered the bathroom and swore when he discovered another black eye.
He made it out to the patio under his own power, while Catherine was busy lighting the charcoal. “I hope you won’t mind my coming to dinner without a shirt, but even if I had one, I don’t think it would fit over the bandages.”
Catherine kissed him rather than complain. “Even if you may look as though you were hit by a train, you still look awfully good to me. Besides, we’re outdoors rather than in the dining room, so we needn’t worry about maintaining the proper decorum.”
“That’s a relief.” Luke felt right at home in her backyard, but after watching Smoky chase butterflies through the colorful flower beds for a moment, he pulled her note from his pocket. “The last time I was here, there was something you wanted to tell me. You wanted to talk last night too. We’ve got plenty of time now.”
Satisfied the charcoal was burning nicely, Catherine sat beside him. “Maybe you ought to eat first.”
“Is it that bad?”
Catherine had been too frightened in the last twenty-four hours to think of the baby, but now she was resigned to telling him the truth. “It’s all in your point of view.”
Luke nodded to concede the fact. “Well, I’ve already acknowledged being an idiot where you’re concerned; but maybe you’ll overlook it. You want to get married?”
Shocked, she sat back in her chair. “You’ve asked me some startling questions in the past, but that takes the prize. You’re still running on adrenalin. You need to wait a few days and then decide if you really want to propose.”
“You see what I mean about a dance? If I move forward, then you move back. You said you’d never turn me away.”
That he recalled her promise made her smile. But when he’d given her such an off-hand proposal with no mention of love, she was reluctant to accept. She loved him dearly, but a one-sided marriage would never last.
Luke pushed his chair away from the table and patted his thighs. “You’re too far away. Come here.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t. Just come here and sit,” he coaxed.
Willing to at least give it a try, she left her chair, carefully eased down into his lap and smoothed out her skirt. “Let me know if this gets uncomfortable.”
Luke hugged her with his good arm. “No, it feels great. I’ve really missed you. I’m sorry for getting so lost in my own misery that I wasn’t there for you. It won’t happen again.”
“Is that a promise?” she murmured wistfully.
“Absolutely. No matter what you need, I’m your man.”
“Thank you.” Catherine took a deep breath to force out the words. “I’m pregnant.”
“What?” Luke would have leapt to his feet had her weight not held him down. “Are you sure?”
“Sure about being pregnant, or sure the baby’s yours? Yes on both counts.”
Stunned, Luke felt as though the breath had been knocked out of him. He braced himself, but the thought of having a child with her brought only a curious warmth rather than the expected agony. His lengthy silence prompted Catherine to leave his embrace, but he pulled her right back down again.
“No, stay with me. I was careful, so it’s no wonder I’m surprised.” In truth, he was completely overwhelmed by the prospect of fatherhood. “Give me a minute to get used to the idea; then tell me what you want to do.”
Catherine combed his hair softly with her fingertips. “If you loved me, my first choice would be to marry you and raise a family. But if you can’t—”
“Of course I love you,” Luke cried. “I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind from the first maddening day you walked into my office and gave me such a hard time. If I’d had any sense, I would have known you were the woman for me right then.”
She rested her cheek against his silvered hair. “I love you too, but a man really ought to mention love when he proposes.”
“Thanks for the tip.”
“I hope you won’t need it, but Luke, if our having a baby together is going to be too much for you, please say so now.”
He could still feel how Marcy had felt in his arms when they’d brought her home from the hospital; refusing to allow her tragic death to spoil their future, he choked back the poignant memory.
“Because of Marcy, you mean?”
Sitting back, she saw the threat of tears in his eyes and gently kissed them away. “Yes. I wouldn’t have done this to you, but it truly was an accident.”
“I know, I was there, remember? But there’s nothing accidental about us. We’ve made choices all the way, and except f
or the brief lapse into idiocy when I told you good-bye, I happen to believe they’re the right ones.”
He hugged her again tightly. “I admire the way you remember Sam. From now on, I’m going to focus on the happy memories too, rather than dwell on the pain.”
It made her proud to think she’d taught him such a valuable lesson. “Thank you, but I do have one more confession. I’m about as impulsive as an abalone, but I just couldn’t resist you.”
He laughed and ignored the resulting pain in his chest. “I have the same problem with you.” He hadn’t been so wonderfully content in years, but then his stomach began to growl.
She eased off his lap. “I’m starved too. I’ll get the steaks.”
As she started toward the house, she caught sight of Joyce turning away from her side gate. “Joyce, wait, come on in. I want you to meet Luke.”
“Are you sure?” Joyce entered and crossed the grass with tiny steps.
Luke grabbed hold of the table to haul himself to his feet. “How do you do? Please excuse my appearance. I got into a knife fight last night, but I intend to avoid them in the future.”
Startled, Joyce stopped several feet from the deck. “I thought maybe you’d been in a car wreck. Who won the fight?”
“I did. The other guy’s in jail,” Luke replied with a ready grin.
“Oh, Catherine, even with a black eye he’s cute.”
Luke laughed at her compliment. “Thank you, but I hope to look a lot better by the wedding.”
Joyce squealed and hurried to give Catherine a hug. Then she whispered, “I told you he might be thrilled.”
While that hadn’t been precisely Luke’s reaction to news of a baby, Catherine’s joy shone in her smile. “I want you to help me plan. I’ll give you a call in a couple of days.”
“I’ll look forward to it.” Joyce hugged her again, waved good-bye to Luke and nearly skipped out the gate.
Catherine went in the house to get the steaks. The coals glowed with the perfect heat, and she put the meat onto grill. “This seems so incredibly normal.”
Luke walked over to her and slid his right arm around her waist. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“Yes, especially after last night. What do you think will happen to Dave?”
“The Lady in Red was becoming a celebrity, so some hotshot attorney will take the case for the publicity. He’ll liken Dave to Zorro, who only killed those who deserved to die. Who knows, he might go free.”
“Zorro is a fictional character, so that might not work,” she chided. “You’re also forgetting Dave tried to kill you. Won’t a jury have to find him guilty of attempted murder?”
“Maybe not. I hit him first, and we were fighting over you. A clever attorney could spin our rivalry into quite a romantic tale. I was also his therapist and obviously totally ineffective. That’ll also help Dave’s defense.”
“I can’t tell if you’re being cynical or optimistic.”
“A little of both, I’m afraid.” He nuzzled her neck and placed a teasing kiss in her ear.
She giggled. “Are we really moving back east?”
“No, I’ll stay at Lost Angel. I was just trying to outrun myself again, something you once warned me against. California’s home, and it’s still a good place to raise kids. I keep thinking your Sam must have been a hell of a man. If we have a boy, would you like to name him Sam?”
Catherine burst into tears. “Oh, Luke, that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re a hell of a man too.”
He drank up her eager kisses and then whispered, “I’m sorry not to have offered a more romantic proposal, but at least I get some things right.”
“Well, you sure got me,” she whispered against his lips.
Her next kiss convinced him that, together, they would survive whatever tragedy came their way, and better yet, create all the joy they would ever need for a blissfully happy future.
About the Author
New York Times bestseller Phoebe Conn loves to read and began writing her own novel as a fun project for a summer vacation. By the time she returned to teaching in the fall, she had begun her own mythic journey into the land of romance. Where Dreams Begin is her thirty-fifth book. With more than seven million copies in print of her historical, contemporary and futuristic books written under her own name as well as her pseudonym, Cinnamon Burke, she is as enthusiastic as ever and still loves writing.
She loves to hear from fans. www.phoebeconn.com and [email protected]
Look for these titles by Phoebe Conn
Now Available:
Defy the World Tomatoes
Loving him could be an adventure that gets her killed.
Defy the World Tomatoes
© 2010 Phoebe Conn
Darcy MacLeod’s Army brat childhood drives her to sink roots as deep as the plants with which she works. As part owner of a nursery/gift shop in Monarch Bay, she’s well on her way to her dream. Though she’s haunted by the lingering fear that her one chance for true love has come and gone.
When Griffin Moore asks her to landscape his sumptuous new estate, she’s entranced by the internationally renowned pianist’s air of mystery. Yet as she is inexorably drawn into his bed, her instincts tell her that secrets lurk behind his sophisticated mask.
With her carelessly styled hair, grubby overalls, and hands that see more dirt than an earthworm, Griffin finds Darcy a refreshing ray of light in his shadowy world. His globe-trotting concert schedule makes him the perfect Interpol informant—and makes a permanent relationship too dangerous to risk.
Their passion rivals the music of the great classical masters, but even as Darcy dips a toe into Griffin’s extravagant world, darkness reaches out to strike a dangerous chord. And Darcy must fight to keep her second chance at love—and her lover—alive.
Warning: Contains meddling friends, high adventure, down and dirty sex, and a couple who make beautiful music together—in bed and out.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Defy the World Tomatoes:
Griffin waited for Darcy in his driveway. “I don’t mean to shock you, but unlike most men, I actually enjoy reading directions. Let’s go on out to the terrace. I’ll read the notes with the diagrams, and you can assemble the kite. It’s shaped like a dragon with a long, notched tail. It’s very colorful. I hope you like it.”
“It’s your kite,” Darcy reminded him, but when he pulled it out of the package, she couldn’t help but be impressed. “Start reading, I want to see this thing in the air.”
“First we have to unroll it.”
“All right, I’ll hold the tip of the tail while you walk backwards, and that ought to do it.”
“Hey, I thought I was giving the directions here.”
“Sorry. I’ll keep my mouth shut,” Darcy promised.
“Well, not all the time, I hope.” Griffin soon had the dragon stretched out across the terrace. He checked the directions again and sorted through the accompanying dowels. “These go in the head and wings. Do you see the slots that hold them?”
“Slots?” The dragon was red and breathing orange flames. Darcy felt along the sides. “They’ve got to be here somewhere. This is your kite, after all. Why don’t I read the directions while you attach the dowels?”
“Don’t complicate things. Just get busy.”
Darcy raised a hand. “Let me see that diagram.”
Griffin stepped beyond her reach and hid it behind his back. “Come and get it.”
“No way. You’re the one who wants to build the kite, remember?”
“An excellent point.” Giving in, Griffin knelt beside her. “Maybe they didn’t sew this one together correctly at the factory.”
He was mere inches away and studying the kite’s construction rather than tormenting her. His lashes made shadows on his cheeks, and he was quite appealing when he was in a playful mood, but none of it seemed real to her. It was all just a trick, and he probably wouldn’t stop until he’d convinced her that she actually wa
nted to move Defy the World clear out of town.
Then she grew curious. “Why do you need a recording studio if you’ve stopped rehearsing?”
“Later. Here we are, the slots open on the other side. Hand me the first dowel.”
Darcy slapped it into his hand. “Tell me.”
“Let’s get the kite in the air first.” Griffin slid in the dowels, then attached the string. He stood and shook out the kite, then looked up at the cloudless sky.
“Is there some trick to getting this thing in the air?” he asked.
“You’ve never flown a kite?” Darcy stood and moved out of his way.
“I began playing the piano at five and just looked up a couple of months ago. There’s a whole lot I’ve missed, including the art of kite flying.”
Darcy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but she imagined he must have been a very serious little boy indeed. “You need to run while you let out the string, and the wind will carry it aloft for you.”
Griffin looked around to judge the distance. “If I stay on the terrace, I shouldn’t be in any danger of falling off the bluff.”
“Go for it,” Darcy encouraged. She watched him cross the terrace in an easy lope and when he turned back into the breeze, the kite bounced upward. “That’s it, just let out the string.”
Griffin fumbled with the reel, then caught it and laughed when the kite rose steadily into the air. The wind whipped the dragon’s long tail and serrated wings, pushing it higher. “Wow, it looks like a real dragon, doesn’t it?” he shouted.
“It sure does. Now just move back a little and keep letting out more string.” She raised her hand to shade her eyes, then walked across the terrace to where she could observe Griffin as well as the brightly colored kite.
She remembered the kids who had played in the high school band as being rather nerdy. Not that she’d been Miss Popularity, but at least she hadn’t always had her nose in a book. With Griffin’s looks, no one would have ever called him a nerd, but it saddened her to think he must have missed out on a lot of the fun of growing up.