by Sylvie Kurtz
"Okay, okay, I get the gist." Gus threw up his hands. "You get the tree and trimmings over there. I'll find the skates."
Logan sprinted down the aisles, loaded his arms with a three-foot potted spruce, a string of lights, a package of wooden ornaments. Then he saw her. The angel with the long brown hair and smiled. "Sam."
Sam would be with them, too.
Calm descended over him.
Everything would be all right.
Gus came teetering his way weighted down with boxes, a tube of bright red wrapping paper and a roll of tape. "Ready?"
As he looked out into the night, at the snow falling, a sense of peace settled over his broken heart, healing him. "Yeah, I'm ready."
* * *
As the elevator doors opened, the nurse on duty looked up from her station.
Arms overloaded, Logan plowed past the nurse's desk—dog, tree, presents and all. Behind him trailed the two cops who'd arrested him, Gus, Eve, Sasha, Bobby and his family, half the lunch ladies from the middle school, kids and parents Beth had touched over the years with her kindness. How they'd all come to join the police caravan, he didn't know, but they all braved the night and the snow to let Jamie know Santa hadn't forgotten him, to let Beth know how much they cared for her.
"Hey! You can't come in here. Visiting hours are over." Face pinched, the nurse skittered around the desk and trotted behind him.
"We're not visitors. We're Santa's helpers."
"Dogs aren't allowed in this building."
"She's not a dog. She's a hero." Max licked his cheek. Logan smiled down at her. The red bow around her collar jiggled. She swiped his coat with her tail.
"Security! Someone call security!"
"Good idea." Logan threw back his head and laughed. He couldn't remember when he'd felt this good, this alive. "The more the merrier."
At the door of Jamie's room he stopped and looked at Beth. She and Jamie lay side by side on the bed. Her arm and head bent protectively over her son. Both their eyes were closed. His heart filled with overwhelming happiness. They were alive. They were healthy. And he loved them. His chest felt too small, and his vision started to blur.
"Beth."
She blinked awake, and her eyes rounded with surprise. "Logan?"
"Yeah, Logan." He smiled—a wide, open-from-the-heart smile and moved aside to show the troop waiting impatiently behind him. "And company. Merry Christmas, Beth."
"You don't know the trouble he's caused to give you and Jamie a Christmas," Gus said. "He tried to break into my store, he did."
"No!" Beth's hand covered her mouth.
"Sure did." But Gus didn't sound mad at all. His gray mustache twitched with delight.
"Got arrested for his trouble," Eve chimed in.
"Logan?" Beth looked at him wide-eyed.
"Mr. Ward! Mr. Ward! You brought Max."
At the sound of her name, Max squirmed in his arms. Logan placed her at the foot of the bed and she scampered up to Jamie, dousing his face with canine kisses.
Awkwardly Jamie tried to scramble out of bed only to have his mother settle him back down. "I knew you'd come. I told Mom you'd take us home."
Then the room filled with people and noise. Like a hive, they buzzed, surrounding Beth and Jamie with cheer and good wishes. "Surprise!" "Merry Christmas, Beth!" "Are you surprised?" "So glad you're feeling better, Jamie." "Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas!"
Beth took it all in, openmouthed and silent. Tears ran down her cheeks.
Bobby bounced on Jamie's bed. Logan orchestrated putting up the tree. Sasha and Bobby's mother decorated the tree. The lunch ladies wrapped the boxes in the hallway.
Then Logan dimmed the room lights, and the tree lights dazzled on. "Merry Christmas, everyone!"
"Wow!" Jamie said.
"For you." Logan handed Jamie his presents—skates, a mask and a stick.
"Skates! Just like I wanted. The mask is so cool!" He turned to his mother. "Mom, you gotta take me skating now."
"Soon, Jamie, soon." Her voice was choked as she reached for her son.
She looked up at Logan and mouthed, Thank you.
"We're not done yet." He took the box Gus handed him and placed it on her lap.
She alternately batted at the tears sliding down her cheeks and ripped at the paper over the box of pots and pans. "Oh!"
"I know they're not the kind you like—"
"They're perfect." She hugged the box to her chest. "Thank you."
"Why is she crying?" a small voice asked.
"She's happy," an older one answered.
Logan reached inside his jacket and brought out a small package. Beth scooted to the edge of the bed and accepted the box. Jamie was busy trying on his mask with Bobby's help. "I'm sorry, Beth, about everything. I tried to save—" he lowered his voice "—the house, but it was too late."
"I know."
Her hands shook as she brought out the frame from the box. Jim. The picture of Jim that had sat on the mantel in the living room.
"The frame melted," Logan said, "but the picture was intact."
Beth launched herself at him, sobbing into his shoulder. Her heart overflowed. First the miracle of Jamie's recovery. Now Logan there, for her, and on his face, the sight she'd never thought she'd see—a real smile.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Oh, no." Her lips quivered and her vision blurred again. "You did everything right. I don't know what to say."
His fingers weren't quite steady as he held her by the waist. The frown creasing his forehead made her suck her breath in. In his eyes she saw uncertainty. Her hands tensed on his shoulder.
"Say you'll marry me."
Shock made her gasp. Of all the things she'd expected him to say, this was the last. "Marry you?"
"Yes, please, Beth. I need you. I love you. You gave me back my life, and I want to share it with you and Jamie." He swallowed hard. "Sam, she loved Christmas. Everything about it. The lights. The colors. The whole Santa scene. But mostly she loved the giving, Beth. I'd forgotten that. It took Jamie's accident to make me remember. She wanted to make people believe, to make them smile. I want to see her every day in other people's smiles."
"Oh, Logan." Joy spilled out of her in a mixture of laughter and tears. She clutched her hands around his nape and brought his face down to hers. She kissed him with heart and soul and finally understood she'd lost nothing and gained everything.
Jim wasn't in the rooms of the house they'd shared. He wasn't in the photographs, in the clothes, in the details of her memory. He was in Jamie's eyes. He was in the people whose lives he'd touched. The essence of the man he'd been lived on in her heart. She would never forget him.
Having loved a good man like Jim only made loving someone else a more precious gift. One she was finally ready to accept.
"What did you get, Mom?"
She leaned back from her embrace, looked at Logan straight in the eyes and smiled. "A family. I got a family."
He pulled her against him and his body shuddered, his breath whooshed out, his love melted around her.
"Yuck, mushy stuff," Bobby said and pulled the sheet over his face.
Wearing his goalie mask, Jamie giggled. "Knock, knock."
"Who's there?" Logan said, smiling widely. His eyes twinkled with joy. She'd been right, the man was gorgeous when he smiled. No photograph could hold a candle to the real thing.
"Amory."
"Amory who?"
"Amory Christmas and a happy new year!"
"Hear, hear!" someone piped in.
Between the laughter and the tears, the crowd spontaneously broke out into song. Hand in hand, Logan and Beth joined in.
Epilogue
Thanksgiving a year later.
Jamie and Logan walked into the garden-like kitchen, shaking snow from their boots. The scent of roasting turkey filled the room and enticed growls of hunger from Logan's stomach. Sniffing madly, Max trotted straight to the oven and shot Beth a pleading look.
"We found one, Mom." Jamie's coat fell to the floor, his hat and gloves followed in quick succession, marking his path. "We found the perfect Christmas tree."
Logan smiled at her. "A six-footer with the perfect conical shape."
"You don't say." She set two mugs of hot chocolate on the table along with a plate of gingerbread men.
She squealed as Logan grabbed her by the waist and waltzed her around the kitchen.
"Oh, no. You guys aren't gonna get mushy again, are you?" Jamie asked, stuffing a cookie in his mouth.
"Yeah, we are. Very mushy." Logan dipped her and planted a loud kiss on her lips.
"Ew, gross."
She laughed. "We don't have time for this. The guests will be here any minute."
Logan chuckled. "They won't mind."
"Have I told you how much I like to hear you laugh?"
"Tell me again."
"I love you, Logan."
"I love you, too." He waltzed her into the hall. "More and more every day."
He stopped at the living room doorway, holding his wife tightly in his arms. They'd furnished the room with an eclectic collection of treasures found at garage sales and lovingly refinished. The walls were cream, the wallpaper a subtle print, the floor a cordial polished honey. A fire glowed in the hearth, throwing warmth and welcome.
There in this house, the dream he'd thought forever lost had finally come true. He placed a hand gently over Beth's stomach, over the child growing in her womb. This baby would be an Easter present to celebrate the rebirth of their hearts.
A family. His family.
Never had he imagined he could be so happy, so content. "Where do you think we should put the tree?"
"By the table."
From frames on the small occasional table by the window, Sam and Jim smiled their approval.
The End
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HIDDEN LEGACY
A Romantic Suspense Novel
Excerpt from
Hidden Legacy
A Romantic Suspense Novel
by
Sylvie Kurtz
Bestselling Author
Her long legs ate the road, and even with his conditioning of daily workouts, he found catching up to her difficult. She sprinted as if the devil licked at her heels. But it wasn't him she feared. The knowing hit him like a brick and he stumbled for half a step, swearing as he regained his balance.
She should be afraid of having been caught. She should be afraid of spending time in prison for her crime. She should be afraid of him, of the questions he'd ask her. But as he caught up to the long-limbed woman he'd known intimately, he realized something else made her fly over the narrow sandy shoulder. Something greater than her fear of breaking the law, greater than her fear of punishment, gave her wings.
She'd bolted to survive.
But from what?
Was that what had happened six years ago, too? What had she been running from then?
"Juliana!" His cry huffed raggedly as he overtook her.
"No! Go away."
Just as he grabbed for her, she sidestepped. With a lunge, he tackled her. They fell. He twisted in the air, catching the brunt of their impact with the ground, then kept rolling into the shallow ditch, pinning Juliana beneath him and the Nadyenka Sapphire between their bodies.
"Let me go." Breathing hard, she struggled against his grasp like a woman possessed. "You have no idea what you're doing."
"Then explain."
She sobbed now as she struggled. Great big sobs filled with fear, desperation, and anguish. "I have to get home. I have to get home. Please, Lucas. I have to get home."
He anchored her into the ground with his weight, while she bucked for freedom. Holding both her hands, he twined his fingers with hers and stayed the movement of her arms with his forearms. He stilled the motion of her head by placing his face against hers, cheek to cheek. "Shhh, shhh," he whispered in her ear, giving in to the strong urge to calm her, comfort her, take care of her. "It's all right, Jewel. Whatever it is, I can help you."
"No, no." Her breath puffed against his nape. "You're only making things worse. Let me go, please, let me go."
Her tears spread hot against his cheek, melting something inside of him, flooding him with the peace that had evaded him for so long. He understood now the restlessness that had hounded him since his transfer back to Boston six months ago, fueling in him the unsettling urge for stability and familiarity. The dreams, starring Juliana, that had come with unnerving regularity should have given him a clue. Her proximity had been the reason for his fretful sleep, his impatient days.
And even though she'd just stolen his most precious possession, his heart suddenly ached for the tenderness she'd once showed him, for her seductive kisses, for the softness of her body moving in rhythm to his. Sliding cheek against wet cheek, he moved his head until their lips met. He tasted the saltiness of her tears, the anguish in her sobs, and desperately tried to alchemize both into the trusting bond they'd once shared.
She gulped and gave a small cry that could have been regret or longing, but she remained unyielding. Maybe there had never been as much between them as he'd believed. The thought saddened him, but the tenderness remained. Juliana was no thief. She had a reason for her unlikely action, and he would get to the bottom of it.
He stared into her eyes, now more gray than blue. They reminded him irrationally of thunder on a stormy day. He should have fought for what was his, shouldn't have let her walk away just to save his male pride. He caressed her cheek with his own, gentled his voice. "Why are you running? What are you afraid of?"
She closed her eyes. Torment etched into her features, distorting them. Her chest heaved beneath his.
"Talk to me, Jewel."
"Let me go."
"I can help you."
She shook her head.
"We can work this out. Let me help you."
"Please, Lucas."
"I can't. There's too much at stake. I know you didn't steal the Nadyenka Sapphire for yourself. Who did you steal it for?"
Her eyes opened wide. "How—"
"It's not your style. Who coerced you into this?"
"I don't know."
"Trust me."
"I don't know. I really don't know."
"What's he holding against you?"
She turned her face away from his and struggled once more. He absorbed her blows, letting her tire herself out. Sensing he was on the right track, he kept up the pressure of questions drilled with precision.
"What's he holding against you, Jewel?"
"Nothing. He's holding nothing. Now let me go!"
"Blackmail? Is that it?"
"No!"
"He has pictures of you in a compromising position with some public official, and you're terrified he'll publish them?"
"No!"
"You cheated him on an original piece, on an appraisal, and now he's buying your silence with this theft?"
"No!"
"You fenced some of the other pieces he's stolen, now he's threatening to expose you?"
"No!"
A car whizzed by, shivering the grass above them in its backwash.
"Then what, Juliana? You're not the sort of woman who'd compromise her ethics for a stone, no matter how big or how valuable the damned sapphire is. What does he have on you that would make you break the law, make you take the chance of spending time in prison, make you run the risk of destroying your career? It has to be something big, something priceless. For the life of me, I can't think of anything you'd be willing to give up your precious lifestyle for. You certainly weren't willing for me."
Pain twisted in her eyes. He'd pushed too far, made his point too personal. But hell, this was personal. He'd lost her six years ago and still didn't know why. If he didn't catch the Phantom, he stood to lose the only proof to his lineage to Dunavia. He stood to lose all the hard gains he'd made in his career. Old Rules-and-Re
gs, his squad supervisor, wasn't going to give him many more chances to botch this case before passing it on to "abler" hands.
And now that he'd found Juliana again, he wasn't sure he wanted to let her go.
"What's he holding against you, Juliana?"
She whispered something.
"What?" he asked, bending his head closer to catch her response.
"My daughter."
The words came out on a thin thread of voice. He thought he'd misunderstood them, but the truth was wide and frank in her eyes, which shifted from gray to deep blue. He stared down at her as if seeing her for the first time.
Juliana had a child? His heart contracted with pain. Juliana with another man? His mind couldn't quite click the picture in place. Ridiculous as it sounded, he hadn't thought another man could tame her. He'd unconsciously waited for her to realize the fact and come back to him.
"What?" he asked again, more to jump start his stalled brain than because he wanted her to repeat her unexpected blow.
She cried harder now, and her sobs resonated inside him, making him share her torture. "He's got my baby. I have to get home before he calls. I have to give him the Sapphire, or he'll hurt my daughter. Please, Lucas, let me go."
Kidnapped. Her child had been kidnapped. Now everything made sense. To save his baby, he would have given up the sun and the moon, stolen the Seven Wonders of the World—he'd have done anything.
He lightened his weight on her, but didn’t set her free. "You need me."
Hidden Legacy
A Romantic Suspense Novel
by
Sylvie Kurtz
~
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Hidden Legacy
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