by Emily March
“But I won’t be there to see it!” He shoved his fingers through his hair. “Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand what’s happening here, Jenna. I have all these questions spinning around in my heart.”
His heart? Not his mind?
“Jenna . . .” He took both her hands in his. “Jenna, I need answers, and I’m afraid I’m not going to get them in Queensland.”
She closed her eyes against the turmoil his words created inside her. What if she took the risk? What if she believed—
Cam’s excited voice interrupted them. “There you are. We’ve been looking all over for you. Neither one of you is answering your phones.”
“What’s the emergency?” Devin asked, frustration in his voice.
“No emergency. News. Great news. Jenna, Daniel has been trying to reach you. The FBI in Nashville has your stalker in custody.”
“What? Oh, my . . .” She covered her mouth with her hands and swayed as her knees went a little weak. As Devin caught her elbow and steadied her, she asked, “Who is he?”
“He’s someone connected to the surgeon,” Cam replied. “Daniel has all the details. Devin, why don’t you show her to Flynn’s office and she can return his call. I’ll tell Zach where to find us. I know he’s as curious as I am.”
“But the sendoff . . .” Jenna said. “Devin you need to . . .” He placed his finger atop her lips. “Mitch won’t miss me. And I’m not missing this. C’mon. This way. We can reach it by going around through the garden.”
Flynn Brogan’s office was more workshop than traditional office space, with gleaming stainless steel work tables and an array of tools to leave most men of Jenna’s acquaintance drooling. Devin escorted her to a chair and as she pulled her phone from her evening bag—silenced for the wedding—he moved a chair close to hers and straddled it.
She drew a deep breath, and then placed the call. Daniel answered on the third ring. “Congratulations, Jenna. You can once again order a pizza without any hesitation.”
“Who did this? Why?”
“Is Devin with you?”
“Yes.” She glanced toward the door as it opened. “Cam and Zach too. Shall I put you on speaker?”
“Good idea. The Callahans and I are up at Jack’s. You’re on speaker here. Sounds like we have the whole team together, which is fitting. Jenna, I think the most efficient way to do this is to allow me to summarize first, highlighting the pertinent details. Then I’ll take questions. Okay?”
“Of course.”
“Your stalker is Jonathan Reid.”
Jenna blinked. Her gaze flew to Devin’s. The name meant absolutely nothing to her.
“He is sixteen years old. The connection to you comes through Dr. Snelling and the boy’s father. Allan Reid had secured financial backing for his medical-device startup from Snelling, and the deal fell through when Mrs. Snelling filed for divorce. Reid lost his shirt, and the family lost their home. A mention of you during his ranting in the aftermath led to his son’s obsession.”
“Sixteen,” Jenna said. “That means he was fourteen when this started.”
“Yes. Thirteen when they lost their house.”
Jenna took a moment to digest that information. Stalkers were invariably disturbed individuals, and she’d expected her stalker to be young due to his use of doxxing and swatting. But . . . fourteen?
Daniel turned over the conversation to Mark Callahan who explained how they’d tracked the boy down. Honestly, her thoughts wandered as he spoke of digital footprints and technologies about which she had no knowledge or interest.
It was over. Reilly was safe. Reilly was safe.
She came back to the conversation and realized that Mark had concluded his explanation. Zach and Cam were asking questions. Devin was looking at her. She smiled shakily at him. She was having a hard time taking this all in.
“Do you have any questions for us, Jenna?” Jack Davenport asked.
“What’s going to happen to him? To Jonathan?”
“That remains to be seen. Unfortunately, Jenna, you are not the only person he has tormented. We turned over evidence of three more victims. He’s a troubled young man.” Daniel added, “Something you need not worry about . . .he won’t be allowed near a computer for a very long time. And now that his issues are known, he’ll get help.”
“Good. That’s good.” Her thoughts drifted off again as she tried to imagine the Reid’s reaction to their son’s arrest. Then something Daniel said jerked her back to attention. “. . . to apologize for missing Jonathan Reid the first time.”
“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa,” Jenna interrupted. “Excuse me. Daniel. Please. I’ve been fighting this for two years. You guys have found him in less than a month. And you did all this . . . went to all this effort . . . just because . . . because . . .”
“You’re our friend, Jenna,” Jack Davenport said. “We value friends in Eternity Springs. You are part of our family.”
The Eternity Springs family.
A knock on the door sounded and Gabi Brogan stuck her head into the room. “Mitch and Elizabeth are about to leave if you all can join us.”
Zach nodded. “Thanks, Gabi. I think we’re about done here. Last word, anyone?”
“Yes!” Jenna said. “The last word . . . words . . . are mine. Thank you. On behalf of Reilly and myself, from the bottom my heart, thank you. You all have changed our lives, and that is a gift beyond words. So . . . thank you.”
Her mind fired in spurts and sizzles just like the sparklers she held a few minutes later, ushering the bride and groom into the car that would carry them to their honeymoon bower. It was over. Over. Over.
The following day at the tiny Bella Vita Isle airport where she watched Devin hug and kiss first his sister and then his mother, the words played a litany through her mind. It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.
He shook his father’s hand, they pounded each other’s shoulders, and then Cam pulled him into his arms for a hug. “Fair winds and following seas, son.”
“Thanks, Dad. Love you, too.”
Both Lori and Sarah had tears in their eyes when Devin went down on his knee to speak softly to a sobbing Michael for a few moments before hugging him long and hard.
Michael turned to his mother for comfort when Devin rose and finally looked at Jenna.
It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.
“Well, Jenna,” he said in a voice that was gruff with emotion. “Tell Reilly I know he’s going to love Ms. Jenkins—she’s the second-grade teacher.”
“I’ll do that.” She worked to keep her tone light.
It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.
“I . . . um . . .” He tossed his parents a pleading expression.
Sarah took the hint. “Michael, let’s pop into the store and buy some snacks for our flight. Cam, here come the Romanos. You should go help them with their luggage.”
“Why would I want to do that? Lucca is younger than me.”
She hooked an arm through his elbow and dragged him off. Lori shook her head sadly at her older brother, and then turned to follow her parents, saying, “I need to buy a paperback for the flight. A romance. With a happy ending.”
Devin muttered a curse. “She’s such a smartass.”
“She loves you. They all love you. You are blessed in your family.”
“I know,” Devin said, watching them go. “I know. My growing family.” Then he turned back to her and said, “I can’t tell you how much comfort it gives me to know that you’ll be there to watch over them. I trust you’ll take good care of my ladies.”
“You have my word on it.”
“I think this is why it happened . . . the wrong number. I think we were meant to help each other.”
Not meant to love each other?
It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.
“I believe you’re right.”
His lips twisted. “Believe. That reminds me. With all the excitement last night, I didn’t get a chance t
o say goodbye to Celeste. Though knowing her, she’s liable to be on my flight in the seat next to me.”
“She’s flying back with the Brogans. She told me last night. She said she has pictures of a house that is coming onto the market that she wants to show me. One she thinks I should buy.
“Oh, yeah? Are you ready to buy a house in Eternity Springs? Put down permanent roots there?”
“Maybe. We’ll see. I told her I might be interested in a rent-to-own scenario. See how Reilly does in school before I commit to a house. If it’s the perfect house for us, I’d hate to miss out on it.”
“Where is it? In town?”
“On the lake. Next to Boone McBride’s house, I believe.”
Devin scowled. “Why are we talking about houses? Why are we talking at all?”
He closed his lips over hers, and just for a moment she allowed her senses to steep in the taste of him, in the firm warmth of his masculine form, in the scent of salt and sand and sea that clung to him. For just a moment, Jenna allowed herself to kiss him goodbye.
Then she pulled from his arms and put the first few feet of distance between them. “Thank you for a lovely cruise, Devin Murphy. Safe travels as you continue your journey.” Jenna turned and left him. It was time to take her broken heart home to Eternity Springs.
Nineteen
Labor Day Weekend
* * *
Boone McBride eyed the half dozen boxes, each big enough to hold a full-grown St. Bernard, that were lined up in his next-door neighbor’s living room. He softly whistled. “Wow. Exactly how do you code the billing for this, Dr. Stockton?”
“Oh, hush. This was a labor of love.”
“Appropriate on this Labor Day.
“Hey, we are all about labors today.” Jenna fussed with one of the bows, then took a step back and surveyed them with a critical eye. “I think we’re good, don’t you?”
“Well, little lady,” he said in an exaggerated Texas drawl, “I think we’re safe from getting them mixed up.”
“That was the idea.” All the boxes were wrapped in glossy white paper and tied with big red bows. Rather than use tags to indicate which box was intended for which couple, Jenna and Reilly had played Picasso and decorated the paper on each box with permanent markers, drawing not only names but other details to personalize each one. “I loaded one box at a time and we wrapped and decorated it before starting another box. It wouldn’t do to mix them up.”
“That would not be good,” Boone agreed. “So, are you ready for me to start loading them into the Jeep?”
Jenna glanced at the clock. “Yes please. Thanks again for the help, Boone.”
“Glad to do it. That’s what neighbors are for.”
As Boone carried out the first box, Jenna began gathering up the rest of what she’d need for the afternoon. She had sold her extended cab pickup along with the fifth wheel last week, and she had a nifty Jeep in her driveway and a new trailer on order to replace the behemoth they no longer needed to live in.
Boone quickly returned for the second box and then the third. He saw the tote bags she’d filled. “Those going too?”
“Yes, they’re the entries we received at the clinic this week and more entry blanks.”
His brows arched and then he laughed. “Brick’s idea to turn this whole thing into a contest was brilliant.”
“Wait until after today. He has his entire family ready to whip out their checkbooks to find out the baby news. Before he’s done, Brick will have raised enough money to build an entire new school, much less fund the expansion.”
All of Eternity Springs had been invited to the Back-to-School event to celebrate the beginning of the school year. The highlight of the party was to be the update on the school expansion fundraising contest that Brick Callahan had announced at the Fourth of July party and subsequently dubbed the “Maternity Springs” contest. The update consisted of a gender reveal moment for each expectant family.
Two of the couples had elected to receive their happy news in private. Three wanted to share their big moment with family and friends. Cam and Sarah were being old-fashioned about the news.
“A gender-reveal party?” Cam had repeated in a voice laced with disgust when Sarah had shared the idea with him during their last prenatal appointment. “No. That’s not natural. That’s a personal, private moment meant to happen when we take our first good gander at the squiggling little rat and see what sort of equipment he’s got.”
“I’m not giving birth to a squiggling little rat.” Sarah’s lips had twitched with amusement. “Gender-reveal parties have become quite popular the past few years.”
“Yeah, well, so has kale. I rest my case.”
Despite his traditional views, Cam had been amenable to the idea of participating in the Labor Day fundraising event. Today, they’d be opening a box filled with yellow and green balloons. Lori was going to be disappointed. She was almost as excited to find out whether her baby was expecting an aunt or an uncle as she was to learn the sex of her own child.
The past month had been a busy one for Jenna. She’d loved the house Celeste had shown her upon her return from Bella Vita, and she’d negotiated a six-month lease with an option to buy. Her license to practice medicine in Colorado was approved the first week of August and she’d begun seeing patients immediately. The joy she found in the process revealed the truth that she’d hidden from herself during their months on the road—she loved her work, loved her profession, and she’d missed it rather desperately.
She’d also missed Reilly rather desperately, but the healthy, joyful boy she’d visited at the Rocking L to share news of their stalker’s apprehension had made every lonely moment worth it. Eternity Springs had certainly worked its magic on her son.
She was still waiting for that healing magic for herself. She missed Devin. He’d cut a big jagged hole in her heart when he’d returned to Australia, and it wasn’t going to heal overnight. Maybe now that Reilly was home from camp and her loneliness not so acute, the intensity of the ache would soon begin to dull.
Reilly burst into the room from the backyard, Sinatra close on his heels. Both dog and boy raced in mad circles around the remaining boxes. The two were all but inseparable. Jenna wondered how both of them would manage the stretch of separation necessitated by the school day.
“Is it time to go yet, Mom?”
“Almost. We’re loading up. Why don’t you make sureSinatra has plenty of water and put up the doggie gate?”
“Can’t I take him with me? I’ll watch him really close and keep him on his leash and he’ll behave. I know he will. Besides, we’ll be in the park.”
“No, my love. You’re doing very well with his training, but there will be too many people in the park today. He’ll be happier here.”
“But Mo-om!” he whined.
She gave him her stern mother look. “Tend your dog.”
Ten minutes later, she and Reilly pulled out of their driveway and followed Boone’s truck. The park was already crowded upon their arrival. The Chamber of Commerce had been set up accepting entries and donations for the contest since mid morning. Brick and the other fathers-to-be were out working the crowd.
“This is kinda fun, isn’t it, Mom?” Reilly observed.
“It is.”
“Michael is really excited. He hopes he’s going to get a brother and a nephew.” He looked at her closely then sighed heavily. “You never give away anything, Mom.”
She laughed, shifted the Jeep into park, and then reached into her tote for her wallet. She pulled out a twenty. “Here, go make a donation and a guess.”
“Blue or pink?”
“Your guess.”
He scrambled out of the Jeep and took off. Approaching the Jeep with Zach and Savannah Turner’s box in his arms, Boone asked, “Does he ever slow down?”
Jenna lifted Cam and Sarah’s box from her back seat, then smiled warmly up at Boone and laughed. “Only when he’s sound asleep.”
At that mom
ent, Reilly let out a loud squeal. Alarmed, Jenna turned toward the sound—and went numb. The box slipped from her fingers and fell to the ground. Unprepared, Boone stepped right into the middle of it.
A yellow balloon bulged from the hole his foot had made.
“Seriously?” Devin said, his arms full of Reilly. “I come all this way for the big surprise, and get yellow?”
All that yellow and Devin was seeing red.
He was jet-lagged, exhausted, feeling light in the pocketbook after purchasing the last-minute ticket, and hungry. For Jenna. And thirsty. For Jenna.
And she shows up all sunny and grinny with Mr. Next-Door Neighbor. Devin grumbled. “I need a beer.”
His big surprise was looking like a great big mistake. All flustered, Jenna had barely glanced at him as she fussed over repairing his parents’ box before the cat climbed any further out of the bag, so to speak. After that, the hoards spotted her and her boxes and descended, and Devin had no chance for any sort of private conversation with her at all.
His decision to travel to Eternity Springs for the big baby-reveal extravaganza had come after a phone call with his sister during which she’d expressed her deep regret that he wouldn’t be there in person to share the big moment. Then he’d called home to talk to his folks and Michael at a time when his brother’s BFF was over to play.
Talking with Reilly about his time at camp and hearing his enthusiasm for life in general had made Devin feel like a million dollars. Neutralizing the threat that had been Jonathan Reid had made a significant difference in
Reilly’s life. While Devin had been busy patting himself on the back, the boy began talking about his mom and their new house and new neighbor. Devin learned that McBride got out and threw a football with Reilly almost every afternoon. Before Devin quite knew how it had happened, he’d been on an airplane back to the States.
He watched the box opening spectacle with sincere interest. Brick made the whole process entertaining. The Garretts had a boy on the way, as did the Turners. A bouquet of pink balloons sailed out of the Brogans’ box. It was too fun to watch his parents’ reaction to the news that they had a granddaughter on the way. And Lori . . . well . . . she beamed and got teary-eyed, and if Chase smiled any wider he’d have broken his jaw. A niece. I’m going to have a niece.