Watching for Willa
Page 21
If only things could have been resolved sooner, Willa thought, aching for Linden Leahy’s family.
“Any change in the Porter woman?” Zach asked, as if he’d been having similar thoughts.
Pruitt shook his head. “But I do have some notes on Roger Elias. He sends his best wishes, by the way, but he’s still a bit rattled that you’d had doubts about him.” The detective scratched the tip of his nose and referred to his notes. “Oh, it seems that bruise on his cheek was self-inflicted after an altercation with a young woman he’d picked up at a bar. He apparently misread her signals, and decided he’d rather have people think he’d been clumsy rather than, er, struck out.”
Zach rolled his eyes. “Isn’t there anyone out there who isn’t having problems with their love life?”
Willa intercepted Detective Pruitt’s wry look and smiled.
“As for Fraser,” the policeman concluded, slipping his notebook back into his jacket, “it’s my understanding that he’s wiring certain funds to your bank today. I, of course, don’t know what any of that means, but told him I was happy to pass on the message. By the way, he speaks of you with nothing short of reverence.”
“Only because I’m not sending his butt to jail,” Zach countered with more than a little bitterness.
“It’s all turned out.” Willa had heard him speak of Felix Fraser several times in the past twenty-four hours, and knew his sensitivity over the man’s actions would linger for some time. “We can afford to be generous.”
“Well, that’s all I have to add. Anything more I can do for you folks?” the detective asked, beaming.
“Yes, ticket the laggers on your way out,” Zach replied, looking for all the world as if he were serious.
Shaking her head, Willa thanked the man for all his help and escorted him out.
When she returned, she wasn’t surprised to find someone entirely different waiting for her. Zach’s strong, bold features had softened, the shadows were gone from his eyes, and when she accepted the hand he extended in invitation, his care in tucking her close to his side made her feel like the most cherished being on earth.
“What am I going to do with you?” she whispered hoarsely, tapping him on the chin. “How can you be such a sweetheart with me, and such a terrorist with nearly everyone else?”
“I’m not in love with everyone else. With anyone else. I love you.” He took her hand again and pressed a kiss into her palm. “Tell me you’ll marry me and you can spend the rest of our lives trying to reform me.”
This wasn’t a new proposal. He’d been attempting variations on the same theme since their trip to the hospital in the ambulance. And she’d loved hearing them all. But she hadn’t given him an answer yet, and was aware of the tension building in him.
“I know you love me,” he said, his intense eyes searching hers.
“With all my heart. More than I thought it possible to love again.” That was true, too. Last night when she’d felt A.J. so close, it was as if he had been watching over her, trying to reassure her, until she and Zach had been reunited in the ambulance. Then his presence had drifted away like candle smoke. It had been so sweet, and a little sad.
“Then what’s holding you back? Is it the fact that we’ve known each other for only twenty minutes?”
Once again she shook her head, but she could smile this time, loving the humor that was beginning to creep out of him at odd moments. “That I’ll leave for my family to fuss over.”
“Then what?”
She sighed. “I just wanted to give you time to be out from under the pain medication and be thinking clearly. I wanted you to be able to change your mind if necessary, and be certain that it’s not a case of pity that’s making you say this because I’ve lost my house and every remembrance of my life before meeting you.” Although the pain was building in her throat, she had to get all the words out. “I want you to be sure that I’m not going to be another of your projects.”
“Projects?”
“Yes. An obsession you tackle in a book the way you deal with your fears one by one. I don’t want you to wake up one morning and…be over me.”
He shook his head, his gaze sweeping over every inch of her face. “I can’t believe you think that’s possible. Let my beautiful queen go? My brave, stubborn lady who tried to protect her broken, haunted king, a king who tends to see dragons and conspiracies around every corner?”
“I’m not a marble statue on a board, Zach. I’m just a woman dealing with her own losses and fears, and trying to regain some faith in building again…dreaming again.”
She watched as his gaze shifted to her throat, saw his eyes darken as he viewed again the ugly bruises, felt his fingers tremble against her, and his eyes amazingly brighten with the moisture she’d seen several times in the past twenty-four hours.
“You’re my sanity, Willa. My beacon in the darkness. I know I can’t offer you a conventional marriage with a husband who works nine-to-five, mows the lawn on Saturdays, takes the kids on camping trips and teaches them to swim in the local swimming hole.”
“The last thing I want is for you to be someone you can’t be or don’t want to be,” Willa rasped, dismayed that he thought she could want a stereotype—worse, a robot.
“Then love me, stay with me,” he choked out, lowering his cheek to hers. He whispered urgently into her ear, “Say you’ll be my wife, my lover and friend. My partner. Help me get through the nights when the shadows lurk too close. Lead me out into the sun and let me watch your smiles and laughter. Say it and spend the rest of our lives watching me thank the day you stormed my castle. Be my dream.”
Why had she doubted he’d meant it? Because she’d believed as the novels warned, that “human beings never enjoyed true happiness in this world”? Well, none of those authors had ever seen the way love was radiating in Zachary Denton’s eyes.
“Be mine,” she whispered, drawing his mouth down to hers.
And oblivious to the injuries and close calls they’d experienced on their journey here, they clung to each other and eagerly sought the magic and ecstasy that Willa realized would be uniquely theirs.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6268-6
WATCHING FOR WILLA
Copyright © 1995 by Helen R. Myers
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