by Liliana Hart
“You are toast my friend. Here’s to seeing if you can turn the lesbian to a lover of men and make me ten thousand dollars richer,” Dylan said, lifting his beer.
He stopped with the beer halfway to his mouth when he heard the band stop in mid chord and the sound of a spoon hitting a wine glass. He almost dropped his beer to the floor as he watched Anna climb up on the tall mahogany bar with Brian’s help, her long legs exposed for everyone to see.
“Hello…When did this turn into Coyote Ugly?” Mitchell asked.
“Shut up. What’s she doing?” Dylan stood up to get a better look and to run to the rescue if need be.
Anna looked around at the crowded room and knew she’d lost her mind. There was no turning back now. She’d already stopped the band and crawled on top of a six foot bar. There wasn’t any chance in the world that she’d gone unseen and could just sit back down like nothing had happened.
“Could I have everyone’s attention please?” she asked, though everyone’s eyes were riveted in her direction, her father’s included. Sorry, Dad.
This was a far cry from the girl she was two months ago. Panic seized her and she tried to relax before she ended up hyperventilating or worse, throwing up on some poor innocent patron. Mel gave her a thumb’s up sign and she took a deep breath.
“Um, hi. Most of you have known me my whole life, and if you don’t you’ve probably been talking about me the last few weeks anyway.” She paused for the chuckles she heard in the crowd.
“I’ve got a few things to say. I need to say them in front of all of you but they’re mostly directed to one person.”
She scanned the crowd and found Dylan’s eyes. He was standing towards the back of the room, the love shining so plainly on his face she didn’t know how she could have possibly doubted him.
“As you all know, I’ve been seeing Dylan Maguire for several weeks now. Off and on,” she added. “He’s told me on several occasions that he loved me, but I didn’t believe him. Why would someone like Dylan Maguire want me? I asked myself that question over and over again. I didn’t trust him enough to think that he could be sincere.”
Anna watched as Dylan started walking slowly to the front of the bar. “I’ve been selfish, and I almost let my past decide what my future should be.” Tears coursed down her cheeks slowly. “I’ve finally come to the realization that my future is with Dylan, the good and the bad. I want to live my life with him and cherish every moment we have together. I want to apologize for the countless hurt that I’ve caused him over the past weeks, which I’m sure you’ve heard all about,” she said with a watery laugh.
“But most importantly, I want to tell him that I love him, and hopefully, I haven’t blown all my chances. I’d hate to have gotten up here and made a fool of myself for nothing. I promise I’ll never run again and to stay with you as long as you want me.”
Anna kept still and watched Dylan’s reaction with bated breath. He stood with his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels slightly, his expression somber. The air in Shiney’s was thick with anticipation, and several women blotted their damp cheeks with napkins.
“I guess I have something I need to say also,” Dylan said as he walked up closer to Anna and held out his hand for her to grasp. He squeezed her shaking hand gently, knowing how much it had cost her to make a public announcement like that.
“I’ve spent many weeks chasing this woman around town, much to the delight of most everyone in this room. I never thought that love was something for me. It was something that happened to other people in other places. But then I met Anna, and from the first moment she walked into my life I knew she was the one for me, and I’m not afraid to say it scared the hell out of me.”
He looked around the room to all the familiar faces that had become family to him over the past years and knew he’d never wanted to be anywhere else.
“So with that said, I’m also not afraid to do this here with all of you as witnesses. This way you don’t have to hear it secondhand,” he said winking at Douglas Howard.
He pulled the square blue box he’d been carrying around in his pocket and held it up so everyone could see. He slipped the top off and let the black velvet ring box slip into his hand. He heard the gasps and sighs from everyone in the pub, but Anna’s eyes stayed glued to his, love shining in their depths.
“Anna Hollis,” he said. “To respond to your earlier statement, I’ll want you forever. Not even the next fifty years will be enough to satisfy my love for you. I’ve loved you since the first moment I laid eyes on you. Will you marry me?”
He flipped the top of the ring box open and displayed the beautiful diamond sitting inside it. A token of his love forever. He watched the tears fall faster and her hand closed over her mouth in surprise. All she could do was nod her head in response to his question.
“I take that as a yes?” Dylan asked, slipping the ring on her finger.
The room erupted in applause as Dylan swung Anna down from the bar and enveloped her in his arms. Their lips found each other easily, and the passion ignited just as it always did when their bodies touched. He picked her up and swung her in a slow circle, never taking his lips from hers and feeling dizzy with love.
Dylan felt the hand on his shoulder just as he placed Anna back on the floor. He turned and saw Jack waiting for his attention, and he remembered he hadn’t asked Jack’s permission to marry Anna as he’d prepared to do when he’d first bought the ring.
He was surprised to see Jack stick out his hand. “Congratulations, son,” Jack said, pulling them both into a hug. “You two sure were slow about this. I’m not going to live forever you know, and I would like some grandbabies before I get too old.”
“We’ll definitely take your request under consideration,” Dylan said, smiling broadly. Hopefully, they’d already gotten started.
The crowd surged around them and he saw familiar faces congratulating them. What he didn’t expect to see was Veronica lean over to hug Anna and wish them both well.
“Thank you, Veronica,” Anna said graciously.
“Make sure you come by the boutique when you’re shopping for your trousseau. I’ve got some things that will make your honeymoon interesting,” she said with a wink.
Veronica went over to stand by Brian and ordered another drink. The two of them put their heads together so they could hear what the other was saying, and Dylan turned around in time to get hugs from both Mel and Mitchell.
“Geez, it’s about time,” Mel said. “Now I can go back to my boring life and actually get a little work done now and then.”
“Amen,” Mitchell said. “You two have worn me out. I think my vacation is going to come sooner rather than later.”
Mitchell ushered Mel out of the crowd so they were isolated against a corner of the bar. It looked like he wasn’t going to let Jeff put too many moves on Mel without him butting in to remind Mel that he’d been in her life first. There was no way Mitchell could win that bet. Mitchell was as fascinated with the complexity of Mel as he had been with Anna. The poor guy didn’t have a chance.
Dylan led Anna to the door of Shiney’s planning to make an escape so he could get her alone. He’d been dying to make love to her for weeks and now she was in his grasp forever. The crowd followed them out, cheering and wishing them well as they made their way to his truck.
The explosion rocked all the buildings that lined the Towne Square, and fire and metal shot into the air with the force of a cannon.
Dylan threw Anna to the ground and covered her body with his own, others around them doing the same.
The heat was intense but mesmerizing at the same time. A twisted column of metal sat in the same place that Anna’s car had been earlier in the evening. People were beginning to get up and watch the display, more exciting than the Fourth of July Parade they held every year.
“My car,” Anna said, shock setting in. “My beautiful new car.” Her eyes were dilated and her body was shaking with small tremors.
“Some fireworks,” Mitchell said, as he came up to stand next to Dylan.
“Yeah, and I think I know who’s responsible,” Dylan said angrily. “Anna, I want you to go home with your father and take Mel with you. I want you to promise me you’ll stay inside until I get back. Don’t go anywhere else,” he demanded. “Do you promise?”
Anna was frightened enough to take his words to heart and not argue. He only had her safety in mind, but she wasn’t too sure she was the only one in danger.
“Where are you going?” Anna asked, following him and Mitchell to his truck.
“I’m going to finish this. Tell Sheriff Haney to call me on my cell phone. Tell him I know who’s behind this.”
“Dylan,” Anna yelled. “Be careful. The Willis house burning down was because of me. I don’t think this person particularly cares who gets hurt. But I think they’re determined to hurt someone. I don’t want it to be you.
Dylan kissed her hard, and Anna watched as they drove away, her heart in her throat. She made the call to Sheriff Haney, but she hung up when she saw his cruiser already pulling up to the crime scene and went to tell him the news.
Chapter Fifteen
Dylan followed his gut and sped through the old streets of Paradise, looking for the tiny house he’d only seen once before. He passed Mel’s house on the right and Mitchell’s a block further on the left, but still didn’t recognize the one he was looking for.
“Come on, which one is it?” he asked, searching for any familiar signs.
“Look,” Mitchell said and pointed to a house at the end of the block. The porch light came on, and someone was standing at the front door hurriedly locking up.
Dylan skidded to a stop in front of Janet’s house, startling her into dropping her keys. She was dressed and ready to go out, and you never would have guessed by looking at her that she’d just blown up a hundred thousand dollar car.
“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” she asked, playing it cool and walking over to her car. “You’ve just caught me on my way out, so I won’t be able to chat for long.”
“I think you might just have to make the time,” Dylan said.
Mitchell walked up to stand on the driver’s side, blocking any escape she might have had.
“So tell me why you did it,” Dylan said. “Anna’s never done anything to hurt you, so why would you try to kill her?” He watched her eyes dilate quickly, and then she gained her composure, blanking her face of any expression.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Obviously you two have lost your minds. What, did Anna turn down your proposal and now you think I had something to do with it?”
“No, actually she didn’t say no. She said yes. In fact, we made a public announcement. It was a shame you had to miss it.”
“That’s all very exciting, but what does this have to do with me?”
“You know, it’s funny. After Anna told me she’d been run off the road, I tried to think of everyone possible that had a black car, and no one came to mind. Except the time you had to drive your mother’s car to work when your’s was in the shop. I wonder if we could match the skid marks at Paradise Crossing to that car.”
He saw Janet’s eyes widen in fear. “And then I began to go back and think of everything that had happened. The morning the Willis’s house burned down, you were the only one that knew where I was going. Mitchell wasn’t in the office yet, and you told me you’d give him the message. And then the notes, Janet. How very unoriginal. I can’t believe you thought a note would keep Anna away from me.”
“Of course I didn’t think they would keep her away from you, but I needed to scare her enough that she’d question whether or not you were worth it.”
“Why? You could have killed her. And I have to say, my first reaction after that car exploded was to do my own brand of murder. Consider yourself lucky.”
“I never would have killed her. I knew exactly what I was doing. I was just going to scare her away from you. As to why… I’ve worked for you for four years, ever since you opened the office here, and yet you’ve never paid me the attention I deserved. I would have done anything for you, Anything!” she screamed.
“I never worried because I knew that you’d use your whores for pleasure, but you never attached yourself to any of them. You always came back to me. Until Anna. It was an insult to parade that dowdy, boring slut in front of me after everything I’ve done for you.”
“Janet, I thought you were my friend.”
“Just what every woman wants to hear, Dylan. The just friends speech.”
“We could have been, Janet.” Dylan paused when Sheriff Haney pulled up behind his truck and hopped out quickly. “But needless to say, I think I’m going to have to fire you. I love Anna, and her safety means everything to me. I’m sorry that I didn’t know how you felt. But I can’t change my feelings.”
“Miss Porter,” Sheriff Haney said. “Does this belong to you?” He held up a woven silver bracelet linked together with small diamonds. A bracelet that Dylan and Mitchell had seen on her wrist countless times.
Janet kept her mouth shut and continued staring holes into Dylan’s chest.
“You know, the car explosion had the same MO as the fire at the Willis place. A match and a gas soaked rag that led to the fuel tank. I’m sure it wouldn’t be any trouble at all to tie the two crimes together.”
Janet turned her gaze to the sheriff, eyes hate filled and hard as granite.
“I believe you’re going to have to come with me, Miss Porter.” Sheriff Haney cuffed her wrists behind her back and led her to his cruiser. She never made a sound, but her stony silence spoke volumes.
“Life is always interesting in Paradise,” Mitchell said, slapping Dylan on the back. “I can honestly say I’ve never been bored since moving here. Speaking of that, I believe you have a new fiancée who’s waiting anxiously for you.”
“No, I’ve been waiting for her my whole life. I just didn’t know it.”
Epilogue
“Cut that out woman. Just once I’d like to make it to a nice soft bed before you start ravishing me.”
“Excuse me,” Anna said. “I believe it was you who picked the grass and the airplane and the wall and the creek behind the house and the…”
Dylan put his hand over her mouth and tried to look stern. “We haven’t been married more than twenty-four hours and already you’re back talking. You know you’re supposed to be a submissive, obedient servant. I distinctly remember hearing that part in our vows.”
“I must have been sleeping through that part,” Anna said with a cheeky grin.
Dylan smacked her on the bottom and turned to look at the place they would be spending the next couple of days holed up in before they left for their honeymoon in Hawaii. Anna’s house was finished and it was spectacular. It already felt like more of a home than his ever had. Probably because Anna was there to share it with him.
“Are you sure you don’t mind living here?” Anna asked. “I hate for you to put your house on the market if you don’t want to.”
“Anna, that house was just a place to live. It didn’t mean anything to me. This house was the start of our whole relationship. I never want to live anywhere else.”
They looked at the beautiful cottage surrounded by trees and a creek, a water wheel attached to the side of the house made it seem as if it came out of a fairytale. Its size was deceptive, for inside they had all the room they’d ever need, including the houseful of children they’d already started on.
He hoped the town wouldn’t talk for too long about Anna giving birth only seven months after their wedding night, but he couldn’t have been more excited to start their family.
Dylan swooped Anna up in his arms, the feel of her snug against him sending jolts through his body. He never tired
of the feeling. “You know, the bed is an awfully long way from here, and I hear it’s not good for expectant mothers to be on their feet for long periods of time.”
“Well it just so happens I prepared for your lust crazed ideas,” Anna said, nodding her head in the direction of the trees.
Dylan burst into laughter as he saw the sleeping bag nestled in a pile of leaves under a big oak tree. “That’s more like it. I’d hate to waste any valuable time by walking all the way to the bedroom.”
“You know I love you, Anna,” he said, laying her gently on the ground.
“Show me,” she said, opening her arms to welcome the delicious weight of his body against hers.
And he did.
Here’s an excerpt of DANE, Book 1 in the MacKenzie Brothers Quartet by Liliana Hart.
Available Now, and FREE!
Chapter One
There were those who said Dane MacKenzie would never amount to anything. That he’d spend his life drifting aimlessly from one thing to the next, never to settle down or take on an ounce of responsibility. There were even some who said he’d end up behind prison bars or six feet under ground. He’d been closer to both than he cared to admit.
Dane had the body of a brawler and ready fists, but there were some folks—usually women—who claimed the smile that graced his sensuous lips when those fists connected with another man’s flesh was enough to make any woman want to take a walk on the dark side. Though he wasn’t as bad as he used to be, his reputation remained the same.
He was a man with appetites. The ladies could attest to that as well, for he’d left many broken hearts in his wake. But no matter what the pleasure—whether it be brawls or seduction, violence or compassion—he always put everything he had into what he wanted.
What was the point of playing if you weren’t going to win?
He pulled the P.O.S. car he’d rented off to the side of the road at the top of a hill, just past the Now Entering Surrender, Montana sign that sat weathered with age and slightly crooked. It had been ten years since he’d been home. Sure, he kept in touch with his brothers. They got together once a year for a vacation and again at Christmas. But always somewhere else. He hadn’t set foot in Surrender since the day he’d thrown his bags in the trunk of his car and sped out of town.