“You’ve done a great job with May. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my days with the two of you. It’ll take some time, but I want us to be a family.”
“Oh, Dad.” She cried and he got up to lean in for a hug. She couldn’t ask for anything better.
A few days after coming home to Wes’s house from the hospital, Lily was beginning to wonder if she was overstaying her welcome. Wes had brought her here, but now that Karen had been caught and Brandon was dead, there was really no reason for her to stay any longer.
Wes hadn’t mentioned anything about what her dad told her. Not that she was worried. She felt more like pinching herself. Having a man like him love her seemed surreal. Too good to be true. But why hadn’t he said anything? Did he not want to marry her after all? Had he only said that to her father because of the drama surrounding her injury?
She hobbled downstairs after taking a late-afternoon nap. A news program played on the television. Stormy weather was on the way.
Wes was at the kitchen table, poring over his notes. He looked up and smiled.
“I was going to come up and wake you if you didn’t come down soon,” he said.
“Really?” She looked around the house. It was too quiet. “Where are Dad and May?”
“They went out for a while.”
“Out?”
“Yeah. Grandpa-and-granddaughter time.”
That made her smile. “Where did they go?”
“They didn’t say.”
“Huh.” She supposed that wasn’t odd. Maybe it was the way Wes told her, as if he were trying to be nonchalant.
He pushed his chair back and stood. “You hungry? How about we go out for dinner?”
“You want to go out?”
“Yeah. Let’s go down to Kelley’s. You feel up to it?”
“Uh…sure.” Actually, she felt great. She was moving around without crutches now. She limped, but at least she was getting better. But he was acting funny.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Nothing. I just feel like going out. We’ve been cooped up in this house for days.”
He’d gone to work, though.
“Okay.” She looked down at herself. Baggy jeans and a long-sleeved, ribbed, white T-shirt. All she needed were shoes and those were by the door.
She put them on and eyed Wes as she made her way out the door. He was smothering a grin.
“What are you up to?”
“Nothing. I’m hungry.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “For more than food.”
They hadn’t made love since she’d been shot. It would hurt too much, according to him anyway. But maybe not now. After dinner, if…
Wes opened the passenger door of his SUV and helped her inside. His cell rang as he climbed onto the driver’s seat. He answered and his mood sobered.
“Detective Isaac,” he said, glancing at Lily. He seemed surprised.
She waited while he listened.
“Then Tina was telling the truth,” he said after a few moments, and then more minutes passed while he listened again.
“Thanks for letting me know.” Shortly thereafter, he ended the call.
“What happened?” Lily asked.
“That was the detective who worked the Tina Mueller case in Atlanta,” he explained. “He said a woman came forward and confessed to killing Tina’s stepfather. She was fifteen when he kidnapped her and kept her in the basement.” Wes looked over at her, his face revealing what the detective must have told him about what Tina’s stepfather had done to the girl. Kept her for a sex slave in his basement. “Tina managed to leave a butcher knife in the basement for the girl, and the next time the stepfather came down for one of his visits, the girl killed him. Just before that, that same night, he beat up Tina, who saw the girl kill him and helped her cover it up. They were afraid of being charged with murder.”
“What happened to the girl?” Lily asked.
“She went back home and told her parents that she ran away. She didn’t tell anyone about Tina’s stepfather.”
“What will happen to them now?”
“I don’t know. They can probably prove self-defense. Tina gave the girl a knife so she could defend herself.”
Lily wondered if Tina would come back to Honey Creek. Would the town support that? After what Lily had endured, she didn’t hold much hope for the woman.
Wes parked down the street from Kelley’s. There were a lot of cars out tonight.
“Everybody must have decided to go out for dinner tonight,” she said, and then she eyed him and wondered again. What was he up to?
He opened the door for her and she entered. Kelley’s was packed.
Bonnie Gene appeared, smiling from ear to ear. “It’s good to see you up and about, Lily. Come here. We have a table ready for you.”
Bonnie Gene led her to a table in the middle of the restaurant. Lily sat, but Wes remained standing. Only then did Lily notice the occupants of the tables surrounding her.
Finn. Damien. Mary and Jake. Maisie and her entourage of friends. Maisie smiled and waved but it appeared forced. She wasn’t enjoying herself. Lily smiled back anyway. Then she saw May and her dad. May giggled and Lily slid her gaze up to Wes.
“Grandpa-and-granddaughter time?” she queried.
He grinned and reached into the front pocket of his jeans. “Lily Masterson,” he said, loud enough for everyone in the now-quiet restaurant to hear. “There’s no other woman for me.”
He held out a ring. The elongated garnet center stone was flanked by two round diamonds. Simple but elegant.
She looked from it to Wes.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
She sprang to her feet, putting most of her weight on her good leg, and wrapped her arms around him. Planting kisses on his mouth and all over his face, she could only laugh her joy.
“It took you long enough,” she teased.
“Is that a yes?” he said between kisses to his mouth. “Yes!”
Everyone in the restaurant cheered. It was a homecoming. At last she was accepted. There was nothing in her closet to hide, and nothing to run from. She was home.
With special thanks to Jennifer Morey for her contribution to THE COLTONS OF MONTANA.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6615-9
THE LIBRARIAN’S SECRET SCANDAL
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*All McQueen’s Men
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