Now she’d let him down, as well. He’d reached out to her as best he could and she’d told him what he offered wasn’t good enough, maybe because she’d been scared of not being enough for him.
But she knew better than that now. A confidence flowed through her like a calming breeze blowing in off the ocean. With that calm came the surety of what to do next.
It was time to fight for the man she loved, a man she loved for his every saintly imperfection.
* * *
Rowan had always been glad to return to his clinic on the mainland. He’d spent every Christmas here in surgical scrubs taking care of patients since moving to Africa. He welcomed the work, leaving holiday celebrations to people with families.
Yet, for some reason, the CD of Christmas carols and a pre-lit tree in the corner didn’t stir much in the way of festive feelings this year. A few gifts remained for the patients still in the hospital, the other presents having been passed out earlier, each box a reminder of shopping with Mari.
So he buried himself in work.
Phone tucked under his chin, he listened to Elliot’s positive update on Issa, followed by a rambling recounting of his Australian Christmas vacation. Rowan cranked back in a chair behind his desk, scanning a computer file record on a new mother and infant due to be discharged first thing in the morning.
One wing of the facility held a thirty-bed hospital unit and the other wing housed a clinic. Not overly large, but all top-of-the-line and designed for efficiency. They doled out anything from vaccinations to prenatal care to HIV/AIDS treatment.
The most gut-wrenching of all? The patients who came for both prenatal care and HIV treatment. There was a desperate need here and he couldn’t help everyone, but one at a time, he was doing his damnedest.
The antibacterial scent saturated each breath he took. Two nurses chatted with another doctor at the station across the hall. Other than that, the place was quiet as a church mouse this late at night.
“Elliot, if you’ve got a point here, make it. I’ve got a Christmas Eve dinner to eat.”
Really, just a plate to warm in the microwave but he wasn’t particularly hungry anyhow. Visions of Mari in that red gown, cloaked in total confidence, still haunted his every waking and sleeping thought. He’d meant what he’d said when he told her it didn’t matter to him what clothes she wore. But he was damn proud of the peace she seemed to have found with being in the spotlight. Too bad he couldn’t really be a part of it.
“Ah, Rowan, I really thought you were smarter than me, brother,” Elliot teased over the phone from his Australian holiday. The background echoed with drunken carolers belting out a raucous version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
“As I recall, our grades were fairly on par with each other back in the day.”
“Sure, but I’ve had about four concussions since then, not to mention getting set on fire.”
A reluctant smile tugged at Rowan. “Your point?”
“Why in the hell did you let that woman go?” Elliot asked, the sounds of laughter and splashing behind him. “You’re clearly crazy about her and she’s nuts about you. And the chemistry… Every time you looked at each other, it was all I could do not to shout at you two to get a room.”
“She doesn’t want me in her life.” The slice of her rejection still cut so much deeper than any other.
“Did she tell you that?”
“Very clearly,” he said tightly, not enjoying in the least reliving the moment. “I think her words were along the lines of ‘have a nice life.’”
“You’ve never been particularly self-aware.”
He winced, closing down the computer file on his new maternity patient. “That’s what she said.”
“So are you going to continue to be a miserable ass or are you going to go out and meet Mari at the clinic gate?”
At the gate? He creaked upright in his chair, swinging his feet to the floor. “What the hell are you talking about? You’re in Australia.”
But he stormed over to look out his office window anyway.
“Sure, but you tasked me with her security and I figured some follow-up was in order. I’ve been keeping track of her with a combo of guards and a good old-fashioned GPS on her rental car. If my satellite connection is any good, she should be arriving right about…now.”
Rowan spotted an SUV rounding the corner into sight, headlights sweeping the road as the vehicle drove toward the clinic. Could it really be Mari? Here? Suddenly, Elliot’s call made perfect sense. He’d been stringing Rowan along on the line until just the right moment.
“And Rowan,” Elliot continued, “be sure you’re the one to say the whole ‘love you’ part first since she came to you. Merry Christmas, brother.”
Love her?
Of course he loved her. Wanted her. Admired her. Desired her. Always had, and why he hadn’t thought to tell her before now was incomprehensible to him. Thank God for his friends, who knew him well enough to boot him in the tail when he needed that nudge most.
Thank God for Mari, who hadn’t given up on him. She challenged him. Disagreed with him. But yet here she was, for him.
The line disconnected as he was already out the door and sprinting down the hall, hand over his pager to keep it from dislodging from his scrubs in his haste. His gym shoes squeaked against the tiles as he turned the corner and burst out through the front door, into the starlit night. The brisk wind rippled his surgical scrubs.
The tan SUV parked beside the clinic’s ambulance under a sprawling shea butter tree. The vehicle’s dome light flicked on, and Merry Christmas to him, he saw Mari’s beautiful face inside. She stepped out, one incredibly long leg at a time, wearing flowing silk pants and a tunic. The fabric glided along her skin the way his hands ached to do again.
Her appearance here gave him the first hope in nearly a week that he would get to do just that.
“You came,” he said simply.
“Of course. It’s Christmas.” She walked toward him, the African night sky almost as magnificent as his princess. She wore the bracelets he’d given her, the bangles chiming against each other. Toe-to-toe, she stopped in front of him, the sweet scent and heat of her reaching out to him. “Where else would I be but with the man I l—”
He pressed a finger against her lips. “Wait, hold that thought. I have something I need to say first. I love you, Mariama Mandara. I’ve wanted you and yes, loved you, for longer than I can remember. And I will do whatever it takes to be worthy of your love in return.”
“Ah, Rowan, don’t you know? You’re already exactly what I need and everything I want. God knows, if you get any more saintly you’re likely to be raptured and I would miss you so very much. I love you, too.”
Relief flooded him, his heart soaking up every word like the parched ground around him absorbing a rain shower. Unable to wait another second, he hauled her to his chest and kissed her, deeply, intensely, hoping she really understood just how much he meant those words. He loved her. The truth of that sang through him as tangibly as the carols carrying gently through an open window.
Ending the kiss with a nip to his bottom lip, Mari smiled up at him. “I had a far more eloquent speech planned. I even practiced saying it on the way over because I wanted the words to be as special as what we’ve shared together.”
“I hope you trust I love you, too.” He only wished he had a more romantic way of telling her.
“I do. You showed me.” She tugged the ends of the stethoscope draped around his neck, her bracelets sliding along her arm. “I just needed to stop long enough to listen with my heart. And my heart says we’re perfect for each other. That we’re meant to be together.”
“Then why did we give each other such a hard time all these years?”
“We are both smart, dedicated people with a lot to offer, but we sho
uld be challenged. It makes us better at what we do.” She tugged his face closer, punctuating the words with a quick kiss. “And if I have my way, I’m going to challenge you every day for the rest of my life.”
“You have mesmerized me since the moment I first saw you.” Desire and love interlocked inside him, each spiking the other to a higher level.
“That’s one of the things I love most about you.” She toyed with his hair, which just brushed the collar of his scrubs.
“What would that be?” He looped his arms low around her waist.
“You think my baggy, wrinkled wardrobe is sexy.”
“Actually, I think peeling the clothes off of you is life’s most perfect pleasure.” He brought them closer together, grateful to have her in his arms, determined never to let this woman slip away from him again.
“Well, then, Dr. Boothe, let’s find somewhere private to go so you can unwrap your Christmas present.”
* * * * *
If you loved Rowan’s story, don’t miss a single novel in THE ALPHA BROTHERHOOD series from USA TODAY bestselling author Catherine Mann:
AN INCONVENIENT AFFAIR
ALL OR NOTHING
PLAYING FOR KEEPS
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One
Dave Firestone was a man on a mission.
The future of his ranch was at stake and damned if he was going to let scandal or whispered rumors ruin what he’d spent years building. It had been months now since Alex Santiago had disappeared and Dave still felt a cloud of suspicion hanging around his head. Time to find out one way or the other what the law in town thought of the situation.
He climbed out of his 4x4, tugged the collar of his brown leather jacket up around his neck and squinted into the East Texas wind. October was rolling in cold, signaling what would be an even colder winter. Nothing he could do about that, but Dave had driven to the border of his ranch to get at least one part of his life straightened out.
A tall man wearing a worn, black leather coat and a tan, wide-brimmed hat was patching the barbed-wire fence that separated Dave’s ranch, the Royal Round Up, from the neighboring ranch, the Battlelands. Behind the man in black, another man, Bill Hardesty, a Battle ranch hand, unloaded wire from a battered truck. Dave nodded a greeting to Bill, then focused his attention on Nathan Battle.
Nathan looked up as Dave approached. “Hey, Dave, how’s it going?”
“Going fine,” he said, because Dave Firestone never admitted to having a problem he couldn’t solve. “I went by the main ranch house and Jake told me where I could find you. Didn’t think I’d find the town sheriff out fixing fence line.”
Nathan shrugged and glanced out over the surrounding land before shifting his gaze back to Dave. “I like getting out on the ranch. Gives me a chance to think. Clear my head. My brother does most of the heavy lifting on the Battlelands, but I’m a full partner and it feels good to get back to basics, you know?” Then he grinned. “Besides, Amanda’s on a remodeling binge, getting ready for the baby. So we’ve got one of Sam Gordon’s construction crews at the house all the time. Being out here…” he said, then sighed in pleasure. “Quiet.”
From his spot on the truck, Bill snorted. “Enjoy it while it lasts, boss. Once that baby comes you can kiss ‘quiet’ goodbye forever.”
Nathan chuckled, then said, “Just unload the wire, will ya?”
Dave ignored the byplay. He wished he’d found Nathan alone out here, but he was going to have his say whether Bill was listening in or not.
Things had changed a lot around Royal in the past few months, Dave thought. Nathan and Amanda were married and expecting a baby. Sam and Lila were expecting twins. And then there was the reason Dave had come to see Nathan on his day off.
The disappearance of Alex Santiago.
He wouldn’t claim to have been friends with Alex, but he’d never wished the man harm, either. This vanishing act of his was weird enough to keep the people in town talking—and most of them were talking about how Dave and Alex had been business rivals and wondering if maybe Alex hadn’t had some help in disappearing.
Dave had never been one to give a flying damn what people had to say about him. He ran his life and his business the way he saw fit, and if people didn’t like it, screw them. But like he’d just been thinking, things had changed. Irritating to admit that gossip and the threat of scandal had chased him out here to talk to the town sheriff, but there it was.
“Yeah, I get that. My foreman’s the best there is, but I like doing ranch work on my own, too. Always have,” Dave said, snatching his hat off to stab his fingers through his hair. “And I hate to ruin your peace and quiet…”
Nathan hooked his pair of wire cutters into the tool belt at his waist and looked at Dave. “But?”
“But,” Dave said, with the briefest of glances toward Bill, who wasn’t even bothering to hide his interest in the conversation, “I need to know if you’ve got anything new on Alex’s disappearance.”
Scowling, Nathan admitted, “I’ve got nothing. It’s like he dropped off the face of the earth. No action on his credit or debit cards, either. Haven’t got a clue what happened to him and, to tell you the truth, it’s making me nuts.”
“I can imagine,” Dave said and tipped the brim of his hat back a bit. “It’s not doing much for me, either.”
Nathan nodded grimly. “Yeah, I’ve heard the whispers.”
“Great.” Just what he wanted. The town sheriff listening to rumors about him.
“Relax.” Nathan waved one hand at him and shook his head. “I know what the gossips in this town are like, Dave. Hell, they almost cost me Amanda.” He paused for a second as if considering what might have been. Then he shook his head again and said, “If it helps any, you’re officially not a suspect.”
He hadn’t really thought he was, but it was good to hear anyway. It didn’t solve his problem, but knowing that Nathan believed in his innocence was one less thing to worry about. Dave knew how it must have looked to everyone in town. He was among the last people to have seen Alex before he went missing. And the argument they’d had on Main Street had been witnessed by at least a dozen people.
Plus, it was pretty much common knowledge around Royal that Alex had snapped up the investment property that Dave had had his eye on. So yeah, Dave had been furious. But he hadn’t wanted anything to happen to Alex.
“Glad to hear you say that,” Dave finally said. “In fact, it’s what I came out here to ask you. Feels good knowing I’m not a suspect, I’ll admit. But it doesn’t
change how people in this town are looking at me.”
He’d been in Royal three years, and he would have thought people would know him by now. But apparently, one whisper of juicy gossip was all it took to have people looking at him with a jaundiced eye.
Nathan dropped one hand to the top of the fence post and said, “People talk, you can’t stop it. God knows I’ve tried. And in a town the size of Royal, that’s about all they’ve got to do to fill the time, you know? Doesn’t mean anything.”
“Not to you, maybe—and I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong,” Dave told him. “But I’m trying to land a contract with TexCat and—”
Nathan chuckled and stopped him. “No need to say more. Hell, Texas Cattle is legendary. Everyone in the state knows about Thomas Buckley and how he runs his company. The old man is such a straight arrow…” He broke off. “That’s why the concern over the gossip.”
“Yeah, if Buckley hears those rumors, I’ll never get the contract with him to sell my beef.” Scandal could sour the deal before it was made, and damned if Dave would let that happen.
TexCat was the biggest beef buyer in the country. But it was a family-run company and Buckley himself ran it along the narrowest lines possible. No scandal had ever touched his company, and he was determined to keep it that way. So if he got wind of rumors about Dave now, it would only make all of this more difficult.
“Ol’ Buckley is so worried about what people think,” Bill pointed out from his spot on the truck, “I hear he sleeps in a three-piece suit.”
Dave frowned and Nathan shot Bill a look. “Is that wire unloaded?”
“Almost,” Bill said and ducked his head as he went back to work.
“Sorry,” Nathan said unnecessarily, then grinned. “Everybody’s got something to say about everything around here. But you already know that, don’t you?”
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