She nodded. “Reading the journal entries makes me feel as if I know him. He cared about people. He’s beginning to feel very real.”
“Remember, there could be warts there, too.”
She looked up at him. “I sense ambivalence.”
He leaned down and kissed her, almost reverently this time, and the sensations were warm and tender beyond anything she’d ever felt. She looked up into his eyes. Intense now. The green in them seemed even more pronounced. She lifted her good hand and traced his mouth with its wry smile and up to the faint lines around his eyes that told her his life had not always been easy.
Her arms went around his neck and his tightened around her shoulders, the warmth of them drifting through her body. Their bodies pressed together and she felt the restrained passion and strength in his. She trembled from its impact as they both stood there.
She wanted him. She needed him. She knew he wanted the same, and yet she knew he was restraining herself. “I said I was just driving you home,” he whispered as if reading her mind.
“I know,” she said, her innate honesty prompting the confession. “But we both knew...”
She didn’t finish the sentence. His mouth came down on hers. His lips were smooth and strong and yet so very gentle. But then the gentleness turned into need that met her own.
His kiss deepened at her response and her body gravitated toward his. She felt him throb against her, and fires began to glow inside.
His body shuddered. He broke off the kiss. “Are you sure, Andy?”
“Yes,” she said simply and knew she meant it.
“I do have protection this time.”
“I thought you might,” she replied. She might regret this tomorrow, but now it felt right. Very right.
Without any additional words, she led him into the bedroom, leaving Joseph outside as she closed the door. Nate slowly undressed her, then she slipped his shirt over his head. Her hands ran up and down his chest and lingered at the scar.
She leaned against him and memories were alive between them. Still painful but somehow lessened in intensity by the sharing.
Then they were on the bed. She wasn’t aware of which one of them had initiated the move. Or had it been in tandem?
He kissed her, so slowly, so tenderly she thought her heart would explode. “Sure?” he asked in a husky whisper.
“Oh, yes,” she said, amazed at her answer and even more amazed that it was true.
He gave her that slow smile that always warmed her, then his hands caressed her body. Slow and seductive. He kissed her again, touching her lips with feather-like gentleness. His fingers cradled her breasts and moved downward, and she felt a warmth so sensual, so exquisite she could barely keep from crying out. He worked more magic as his hands moved down and touched the most intimate part of her body. The warm puddling inside turned into rivers of fire.
She was a mass of writhing nerve ends when he arched his body above and she pulled him down to her.
He entered her slowly, tentatively, and she moved shamelessly against him as she savored the feel of her body against his taut, hard one. He moved sensuously, slowly, like a dance building to a climax, each movement deepening the craving that was growing inside. Heat flooded her as his rhythm increased and he probed deeper and deeper until she thought he could go no farther, then bursts of pleasure rolled from her deepest core.
He collapsed on her and turned so they were side by side as echoes of sensations still rumbled through her.
He kissed her and she felt tears behind her eyes. She didn’t know why. But then they started coming, trickling down her face.
“I haven’t cried in a long time,” she said.
“Are they good tears or sad ones?”
“Good, I think.” Then in a stronger voice. “I know.”
He smiled and it was one she thought she would always remember. “Then, cry,” he said with a voice so tender it prompted more tears. He stroked her face while the tears came faster.
Nate just held her as they poured out for the first time since she’d woken up in the hospital after the attack. They came as she mourned Jared. She realized they were unlocking the grief and guilt bottled up inside.
Lying there, wrapped tightly in Nate’s arms, she started to feel whole again. She would always have images of Jared, of the others, of that day in Afghanistan darting in and out of her head. She knew enough of PTSD to know that. But now maybe she could live with it. Live. Not just exist.
She held on to Nate while the tears dried. She stayed there when he stood. “Don’t move,” he said and left, returning quickly with a wet cloth and Joseph on his heels. Nate sat next to her, washed the tears from her face, then kissed her again. “You’re beautiful, you know.”
“I think my face is red, along with my eyes,” she said critically.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said as she nestled in his ready embrace, resting her head against his chest. She ran her hands against his suntanned arms. There was so much strength in them, so much strength in him.
Nate looked down at her, concern in his eyes. Concern and a caring that made her heart melt. “I don’t want you to regret anything.”
She touched his face. Ran her fingers over the angles, then through the chestnut-colored hair. She wanted him again. He made her feel safe, and she’d needed that. But there was more. So much more.
Heat.
She’d had the latter with Jared. Lightning and thunder, too, but they’d never shared the easy companionship she’d felt with Nate since the day she’d arrived. There was the lightning, but there was also the soft evening sky.
Guilt struck her again like a rushing, swollen river. How could she...even think that?
Nate’s arms tightened around her, and she realized he knew exactly what she was thinking. But then, he had since they first met.
She leaned her head against his heart. “I...”
“I know,” he said softly.
“He saved my life,” she said. “He moved in front of me.”
He was silent for a moment, then his arms tightened around her. “For a reason,” Nate said. “He wanted you to live. He’ll always be a part of your heart. But there’s room in there for others, as well.”
“It’s been so quick...”
“I’ve been told it happens that way some times,” he said in a slow deep voice. “I saw it with Josh and Eve, then Clint and Stephanie. I didn’t think it would happen to me. But the moment I saw you...”
“It took me a week,” she said. “Almost.”
He grinned. “There’s them that are fast and them that are slow.”
He stayed another hour, just holding her. He didn’t promise anything.
She didn’t want promises, and with that weird understanding of his, he seemed to recognize it. It was enough at the moment to talk of little things, the music they liked, the books they read and the dreams they’d had.
It was midnight when he finally dressed. They both had long days ahead, he with the construction job and she with meetings. She put on her long T-shirt she wore at night and walked him to the door.
“You think anyone...”
He reached down and kissed her. “I wouldn’t lay odds against it,” he said.
She felt her face flame.
“They’ll pretend they don’t,” he added helpfully.
She shoved him playfully.
“I’ll call you tomorrow when I finish up. Maybe we can have dinner at the Rusty Nail.”
She nodded.
“No regrets?”
“No,” she said and was startled that it was true.
* * *
ANDY WOKE AFTER a dreamless night. The sun was streaming through the window and she looked at the clock. Seven. Joseph looked up from his place at the end of the be
d and crept closer, wanting a hug. “Ah, Joseph,” she said, opening her arms as he inched into them.
She lay there for several more minutes, then rose. No nightmare. No dreams. She took a deep breath. What had happened last night? Magic? A huge mistake? Joseph gave her a big dog grin.
She quickly dressed in jeans and a shirt, fed Joseph, made coffee, then left for her morning walk up the mountain. Joseph gave up his usual dignified manner and ran in circles once they left the front door. They headed for the mountain trail. She would really love to go to the falls, but today was going to be busy. She had tonight to look forward to. Would the magic still be there?
The mountain had become her confessor, her comforter, her peace. It seemed especially beautiful this morning. The sky was bluer, the air fresher, the wildflowers brighter. Even Joseph seemed to have a special energy. Perhaps he had sensed that something had changed with her.
She didn’t know whether it would last, whether something so fast could have staying power. Maybe it was like a display of fireworks. Spectacular but short-lived.
For a moment, grief struck her. “I won’t forget you,” she whispered into the air. “You were my first love.” She remembered what Nate had said last night. Jared would always be a part of her. She took a deep breath.
A sudden breeze touched her face, ruffled her hair, but it didn’t seem to rustle the trees. A bird sang a sweet note. She stood still.
Peace filled her. “You’re here, aren’t you,” she said, and tears crept into her eyes.
Joseph whined next to her. She reached down and touched him. “It’s okay,” she said.
And it was. She looked down at the town. It looked different from the first time she’d glimpsed it. Then it was just a pretty town. Now she could pick out places that meant something to her, people who had befriended her in such a short time and the man who had given her a gift last night. They all had. They had believed in her when she didn’t believe in herself.
“Goodbye, Jared.”
She turned and left.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
TWO WEEKS PASSED in a blur. Andy didn’t have time to think about the evening with Nate, nor did they have more than a few minutes together.
She missed the dinner at the Rusty Nail she and Nate had planned the night they’d made love in the cabin. The script committee meeting had lasted late into the night and she had to stay. It started a pattern that continued.
Time wasn’t only her problem; it was also Nate’s. He and Josh finished their construction job and immediately started building the sets for the pageant with Craig and other volunteers. They also had the inn and the tourism guests to consider.
Publicity for the pageant had already started. Reality struck everyone then. Covenant Falls was committed, and failure would really damage the effort to draw tourists or business to the town.
The pageant committee had originally planned to hold the pageant on Friday night to introduce Covenant Falls to the incoming tourism-related guests, but the committee had asked that it be changed to Saturday to draw a larger crowd and perhaps entice out-of-town people to come early and eat at Maude’s or one of the saloons.
With the pageant moved one day later, Josh and Nate had to rearrange activities for their incoming guests. They decided to hold a dinner at the inn on Friday night. Entertainment would include Clint and members of the high school choir singing traditional American and Western songs.
Making things even more complicated, Nate and Josh decided to open the inn to the general public the week of the pageant. Requests for reservations had come in from people in outlying areas who’d heard about the pageant, checked the internet and found the Camel Trail Inn.
They dropped into the community center to tell her. “We decided it was better to have a packed inn than empty halls when the tourism folks arrive,” Nate said when he and Josh dropped by the community center where Andy was stationed. “But it means additional work for Ethel and Susan, who are already shorthanded since nearly everyone in Covenant Falls is in the pageant or has some role in its production.”
“I have faith,” she said.
“I’ll take some of it,” he said.
“I also have news,” she said. “Stephanie found two camels and decided to make them her contribution to the pageant. She either took us seriously or thought it a good joke on us. She swore, though, that they were gentle and would come with a handler. The script committee is, well, a bit puzzled about what to do with them.”
The phone rang. Someone from the prop committee wanted to know about the weather next week.
“Should be good, according to the long-range weather report,” she said. “I’m checking on it daily.”
No sooner than she’d hung up, the phone rang again. She listened, then said, “I’ll pass the suggestion on to the props committee. It’s a good one, thank you.” She sighed and looked up at Nate. “I seem to be the go-to person for everything between heaven and earth.”
“What was that about the prop committee?” Nate said.
“The actor for the brother—Liam—wanted to make sure he would have a snake to bite him.”
Nate started to laugh. “Since that’s in the realm of my responsibility, I’ll see what I can find in the way of deadly snakes. I do have some remarkably creative members of the high school drama club on my team.”
“I think we can do without a real one,” Josh said.
Nate grinned. “Josh has a reason for caution. He had a close encounter with a rattler at the cabin. It bit young Nick and Amos.”
“The cabin? My— I mean, your cabin?” she asked Josh.
“Yeah, but not to worry,” Josh said. “I think it had been hurt by an eagle or something and crawled under the porch. Eve shot it. No relatives that I could find.”
“That’s comforting,” she said, but her tone wasn’t quite as sure as the words.
“How are the programs coming?” Nate asked, changing the subject.
“Ah, the programs,” she said. “I finished the copy with Susan’s help. Eve approved it but you should take a look at it before we start printing them. Al’s office staff will be printing them and handling the folding.”
Josh shook his head. “I’ll never understand how you charmed that old bas— I mean, pillar of the community.”
Nate chuckled. “I think I know how. I ran into a few nurses in Iraq. You did not want to cross them,” he said, then added, “I’ll take a look at the copy, but if Eve approved, I’m sure I will. She’s the boss on that aspect.” He moved toward the door. “We have to go. We just wanted to make sure you weren’t being overworked.”
“I am,” she said, “and the pay is really pitiful.”
“But it put a sparkle in your eyes,” Nate replied.
Josh raised one of his eyebrows. “I don’t think it’s the piles of paper that did it, my friend.”
“Don’t forget the snake,” Andy said, smiling sweetly.
“Snakes and camels,” Josh mumbled as the two men walked out. “They’ll want pet vultures next.”
“Great idea,” Andy called from her desk.
After they left, she realized she was grinning like an idiot.
* * *
THE SCRIPT WAS still being written and rewritten. The first half was completed but no one could quite agree on dramatic elements in the second. Sara brought more entries from later journals. One mentioned Angus hiring a man to travel to Santa Fe, buy mules and bring back supplies. His name was Samuel Cates.
Sara said, “He didn’t return from the second trip and everyone thought a gang of outlaws got him. It was sad. He had a wife and son. I think they left.”
Andy decided to kill any mention of a mule train. “I really don’t think Josh and Nate will go for it,” she said. “Not with the camels munching their way through the street
s.”
Sara laughed. “I don’t know how or where Stephanie found them, but they do add a certain...”
“Quirkiness?” Louisa, the drama teacher, offered.
“Welcomed or not,” grumbled Al, who had wandered into the room. “Seems she should’ve asked.”
“Kids will love it,” Sara chided in a gentle voice.
They went onto another scene then, an emotional one in which Angus sends his daughters to school in the northeast, where there was less discrimination.
“Why not his son?” someone asked.
Sara shrugged. “From the photographs, he looked as if he could take care of himself. Maybe thought he could better handle it.”
But he couldn’t, and that was also included in the script.
At the end of the evening, they felt they had the last half of the pageant. There would be a lot of drama intertwined with the growth of the town, the coming of the Civil War and the loss of half the men who had lived in Covenant Falls and, finally, the fight for statehood.
After the meeting, Andy decided to stop by her “office” to run off copies of the script changes. The entire cast was meeting the next day. She glanced at her watch. It was nearly ten and the building was empty.
She was locking up when Nate drove up and stepped out of the car. His hair was rumpled. He wore jeans and a brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looked so darn appealing she wanted to jump his bones right then and there.
But when she looked closer, she saw the lines in his face, particularly around his eyes. There was worry in them. She knew how much the upcoming weekend meant to him and Josh. They had bet everything on it, pouring even more money into production and promotion.
She stood up on tiptoes and kissed him.
“I have a bottle of wine,” he said. “I’ve been driving around with it for the past few days.”
Andy was tired, bone weary, but she nodded. She would much rather be with him than stay up reading until she fell asleep. That was what she had been doing to keep the old demons away. “I have the Bucket,” she said. “I drove over from the Monroe house.”
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