Prisoner of Love

by Cathy Skendrovich

  It had been rough at first, since she had no clue how to be a restaurateur. But she Googled “how to run a restaurant,” took a couple management classes at the community college, and then dove in. She became so busy she nearly forgot her broken heart, until the wee hours of the mornings, when she woke for no apparent reason with tears on her cheeks and an ache in her chest. But she’d thrown herself into getting the sandwich shop off the ground, and soon the pain nearly subsided. Nearly.

  After she added an online catering business, Two Hearts became so popular that Lucy wooed her friend Jane away from the accounting firm to help. The two women ran the businesses into the black, seeing positive money flow straight to their respective bank accounts.

  If not for the lack of Jake in her life, she would have been the happiest person on the planet. She was at last living her life exactly the way she wanted. She answered to no one but herself, and realized that she could stand on her own two feet without the presence of a man in her life. But she still wanted one man.

  She read the newspaper accounts of the Farelli drug ring being broken, read that the drug lord would die in prison appealing his case, which had yet to be heard. She looked for news of an inside informant. Nothing. Not a mention of Jake. Or herself. He’d dropped out of her life, if not her memories.

  It just figured that when she finally fell in love, the road to happily ever after refused to be wide and clear. Oh, no. She would be the one person run off that road, left at its side to hobble back into single-hood.

  The jangle of the restaurant’s front door announced a latecomer who was ignoring the sign that said the café was now closed. Sighing, she made her way to the front counter. Before she even rounded the doorway, she pronounced in her most official voice, “We’re closed now. We don’t serve dinner. Sorry. If you’d like to come back tomorrow—”

  “I want the manager’s special. Lucy Parker to go.”

  She ground to a stop, head bouncing up at the gravelly-voiced announcement. When she met the sparkling, sardonic, brown eyes of the speaker, all the menus slid from her lifeless hands.

  It was Jake. Standing before her in her restaurant. Smiling at her as if it had been twenty minutes since they’d last spoken, and not six, long, heartbreaking months. Looking sexier than ever, with collar-length, dark hair combed back neatly from his forehead, and just a hint of stubble covering his chin and riding his upper lip. That body she’d loved to touch covered in thigh-hugging denim and a long-sleeved, plaid shirt.

  She stared at him across the space. And remembered all the calls she’d made to him, all the calls that had been denied. The messages that had told her he wouldn’t talk to her. The responses that had cut her to the quick with their coldness.

  “You didn’t answer my calls.” She saw something like remorse flicker in his eyes. She took a steadying breath. “You never once called me. All those months I waited for you, and not once did you let me know how you were doing, what was happening.”

  “I told you it would be a colossal—”

  She gave a jerk of her head. “You could have at least talked to me!” Her voice rose at the end. Horrified at the amount of hurt she felt when this reunion should have been happy, Lucy spun around so he couldn’t read the emotions on her face.

  “Oh, hell, Luce,” Jake cursed. He strode around the counter and, taking her in his arms, pulled her tight against his body even though she stiffened at his touch. His hands stroked her hair. Smoothed down her back in an attempt to comfort, yet she remained ramrod straight within his arms. He whispered, “I’m sorry. So, so sorry,” over and over, kissing the top of her head between apologies.

  But the warmth of his body and the sound of his voice seeped past the barrier she’d erected against the pain of his rejection. This was Jake, and he was here. Whatever he’d done or hadn’t done these past months, he was still Jake, and she still loved him. So she wrapped her arms around his neck in a stranglehold and burrowed into the comfort of his arms.

  “You hurt me, Jake. When you wouldn’t talk to me, you hurt me. I didn’t know what was happening, and I missed you so much. I thought you’d left me for good.”

  He rocked her back and forth. “I told you it would be a mess, Lucy. I had to fight long and hard to get them to believe me. I broke a lot of laws. I killed a federal agent, remember? And then, during all this bullshit they were slinging at me, the weirdest thing happened. I received an envelope in the mail from a bank in town. I must have been the beneficiary on an account Jerry set up. When I checked into it, guess what I found?”

  Not really listening, still stunned that Jake was here, holding her, Lucy shook her head against his chest.

  “A hundred-thousand dollars.”

  That caught her attention. She pulled back in his arms. He was grinning. Grinning and nodding. “Yep, it was Jerry’s take from Farelli. I stared at it for at least five minutes. Even expected the IRS to jump out at me and say ‘Gotcha!’”

  “Wh—what did you do with it?”

  “I handed it over to my captain. It sure as hell helped exonerate me, since the bank clerk identified Jerry as the one who’d taken out the box. So here I am. My department and the feds cut me a deal. They effed up and listened to information from a murdering madman for over a year. They had to take accountability for their own mistakes. I love you, sweetheart. I was always coming back to you.”

  He’d come for her. He’d been cleared, and he’d come for her. After so many sleepless nights, so many tear-filled, lonely days, he’d returned. Jake Dalton had come back to her, and he’d said he loved her.

  After those words she’d been dying to hear for all these months, she raised her eyes. They coursed over his beloved face, noting the long, dark hair with no more ugly red and the crinkle lines at the corners of those beautiful brown eyes. She found worry, maybe even insecurity, in their depths. What did he have to worry about? Didn’t he know she’d loved him all this time?

  At last she spoke, her voice hoarse. “So you’re free? No jail?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I was offered the Golden Finger with full twenty-year retirement benefits, even though it hasn’t been twenty years, and I took it. They’d screwed me over royally and it was their way of making amends. I will have to testify, and my retirement hasn’t kicked in yet, but I’m free.

  “Crime fighting has lost its appeal for me. When you can’t tell the good guys from the bad, and you lose faith in the system, it’s time to take a hike. So I did. Question is, have you moved on with your life? Have you…met someone else? When I didn’t talk to you and I left you with so much time…maybe you figured you wanted someone new?”

  Ah, so now the lack of communication made sense. She cocked her head as realization dawned. He’d handed her the chance to find another man. He thought she’d give up on him. That she’d tire of waiting for him. But he didn’t know her heart like she did. Because even though she might have moved on in her mind, her heart, her one-man-forever heart, had still held out hope.

  And then the new Lucy, the independent, sexy Lucy with the designer glasses and studio haircut, the one who could fight off a drug dealer and open a new restaurant all by herself, had an idea. A surefire way to convince this wonderful, vulnerable man that her feelings for him had never waned.

  She reached out and grabbed his hand. She turned to the stairwell and yelled to Jane, “Lock up, Jane. I’m going up,” and towed him behind her up the stairs.

  Spring’s early evening shadows fell across the bed in her brick-walled apartment over the Two Hearts Café, making it appear later than it actually was. Foot traffic in the square below, with its accompanying voices, drifted up through the opened windows of the bedroom.

  With her head resting on Jake’s shoulder and one hand rubbing along his smooth chest, Lucy decided that talking was highly overrated.

  Their actions over the past hour had spoken the volumes they’d been unable to say. The tender way he’d held her, the hesitant, reverent way in which he’d made love to her, had
told her more than all the words in Webster’s dictionary how much she meant to him. And she’d shown him just how much she missed him, loved him, and needed him in her life. She wanted to show him again, actually.

  “You keep doing that and you’re gonna wake him up.” His voice rumbled lazily under her ear. That was exactly her objective. Jake had returned to her, had at long last shown his feelings, and she couldn’t get enough of him. She had to celebrate their love. So she continued with her hand and leg coordination exercises, until he made good on his prediction and rolled on top of her.

  He stared down into her eyes and she felt her head spin just from being in his arms again. It would always be that way with him.

  “I want you awake. I don’t want to waste another moment apart. I love you, Jake.” Her voice was thick with emotion.

  Holding her gaze, he slid into her, and Lucy was complete. She pulled him close, close enough to feel his heart beating against hers. Close enough to hear his voice rumble in his chest.

  “Then marry me, Lucy Parker.”

  She blinked. He’d asked her to marry him. He’d asked her to marry him! After all this time apart, after all the months of tears and loneliness, he’d come back into her life and asked her to marry him. She didn’t even have to think about it.

  Craning upward, Lucy began raining kisses all over his beloved face, punctuating each with a gleeful “Yes!” She felt him heave a sigh, and marveled that he’d been nervous about her answer. Silly man. She shifted beneath him, and only then did he begin to move within her, slowly at first.

  Without breaking eye contact he increased the tempo until that familiar tension began to build. And then, just before they reached the brink, he lowered his mouth scant inches above hers and whispered, “I love you, Lucy Parker.”

  It was the start of their forever. Together.

  The End

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  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks go to my editor, Vanessa Mitchell, for seeing the potential of the story and not resting until she pulled the best out of me. You are my mentor.

  Thank you also to Katie Clapsadl, my publicity editor, for setting me up for success in the social media world.

  Thank you to my very good friend Pat Elliot, who helped me find just the right word in many an instance. Your vocabulary knows no boundary!

  Lastly, a special thank you goes to Orange County Sheriff Clay Cranford, who spent time explaining undercover investigation procedures to me. He went above and beyond, so any mistakes or inaccuracies within the book are purely my own.

  About the Author

  Cathy has always loved writing, but that pesky thing called Real Life cast writing into the backseat for years. Now she has reunited with her creative passion, and devotes every moment she can to all the plots and characters milling about in her imagination. She admits she finds story plotlines in everyday occurrences going on around her.

  When she’s not writing her special mixture of romance and humor, she likes to travel, read, and take long walks with her husband (the inspiration for her happily-ever-afters). Cathy looks forward to many years of writing for readers’ enjoyment.

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