Lawman Lover
Page 25
“Where is Michael?” Jesse asked, breaking the silence and addressing her question to Steve. “Why isn’t he here?”
Steve’s gaze shifted to Amanda. “I think he’s waiting for you to call. He’s blaming himself for your father’s death, and he’s afraid you blame him, too.”
“He shouldn’t blame himself,” Jesse stated firmly. “It was...better this way. Father could never have...” Her voice broke, and she began to sob. Steve moved to die sofa and drew her into his arms.
Amanda got to her feet. “Jesse’s right. It was better this way. I’m going home.”
“It would be better if you stayed here,” Steve told her. “Michael arranged for a police officer to stay outside, to keep the media away.”
Amanda nodded slowly. She hadn’t considered that, although she knew she should have. The phone here had hardly stopped ringing, though the callers had gotten only the recording. She’d somehow forgotten just how big this story must be, because of her father’s nomination.
The prosecutor surfaced again briefly, feeling a certain satisfaction. He’d gotten so close to his dream, close enough to know what he’d lost. Justice had been served. The prosecutor was satisfied, but the daughter mourned.
Amanda started up the stairs, wanting only to lose the warring sides of her in sleep. Jesse’s voice called out to her, demanding that she call Michael. She would, but not now.
“MICHAEL?”
“Where are you—at Jesse’s?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in a half hour.”
Amanda put down the phone and looked out the kitchen window into the big yard. The sky was just starting to lighten, and as she watched, the first birds were coming to the big feeder that hung from a tree in the far corner. It was one of those clear cylindrical feeders, and Amanda could see that it was empty. She could hear her mother’s voice, telling her and Jesse that it was very important to feed them at this time of year because they were busy building nests and mating.
She found the big bag of sunflower seeds in the garage and filled the scoop, then carried it out across the yard to the feeder. Two chickadees twittered and flew off to a safe distance, then returned quickly when she had filled the feeder and backed away.
The sky was slowly turning gold and pink. The tulips and daffodils in a nearby bed were drooping, glistening with a heavy dew that had soaked her feet, as well. She stood in the middle of the yard, watching the daylight come, until she heard the distinctive sound of the Porsche’s engine. Then she ran around to the front of the house, holding up the wet hem of the robe she’d borrowed from Jesse.
Michael was just getting out of the car when she saw him. His dark hair was still tousled from sleep—or perhaps a lack of it—and his face was shadowed by a day’s growth.
She walked toward him, taking her time now. And when she got closer, she could see the wariness in his eyes, the vulnerability he was unlikely to show to anyone else.
She flung herself at him. molding herself to him, wanting to get closer than was possible. And as she did, she felt and heard his sigh of relief.
Epilogue
“I guess I’m glad I’ll never have to put my theory to the test,” Michael said, leaning close to her in order to be heard above the din.
“What theory?” Amanda asked.
“The way I figured it, if anyone could get away with murder, it would be an experienced homicide detective. But since you won, I won’t have to find out.”
“I’m sure Neal would be happy to hear that,” she responded dryly. “It might cheer him up a bit.”
Amanda smiled as she looked around the big living room, overflowing with happy people. Everyone but her had been so certain she would win. One poll had them dead even, but another had shown Neal to be slightly ahead. And now it appeared that she had not only won, but had in fact won by a fairly substantial margin.
Then the crowd grew quiet for a few seconds, as numbers flashed on the screens of the TVs they’d set up in various locations. Amanda drew in a sharp breath as she saw some of the numbers, then she understood just how she had won.
Wild cheering erupted in one corner, just as her roving gaze found them. Mary Walters, Elaine Barker and Tina Jacobs Workman. They were hugging each other and, at the same time, receiving the congratulations of others in the crowd. They’d done just what they said they would do: register the large number of unregistered voters in the Bottom, and then get them to vote for her. And those votes, it now appeared, had made all the difference.
Beside her, Michael chuckled. “Not exactly the constituency you expected, is it?”
She laughed and began to wade through the crowd. Her campaign manager was there before she was, finally ready to believe in the work done by Mary and Elaine and Tina. And equally important, he and the party would never again write off the Bottom.
She hugged each of them in turn: even Elaine, though she still hadn’t come to terms with what Elaine had once done. “You three won this for me, you know,” she told them sincerely.
Their proud smiles told her they did know, and that they also knew the political power they’d achieved in the process. Even Mayor Teddy, the party’s senior leader, was bestowing his bear hugs on them.
She wasn’t certain that she believed it yet. The past months still felt like both a nightmare and a dream. If it weren’t for Michael and Uncle John, she doubted that she could have survived it. John had become her anchor when the past threatened to overwhelm her, and Michael had always been there to lead her to their future. And yet, her father’s ghost continued to haunt her at times. Jesse had proved to be better at accepting both the bad and the good in him than she herself had been.
Michael had startled her at one point by quoting a line from Macbeth, stating with some pride that he’d actually played the Scottish king in a school play. “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.” To Michael—and to Jesse—her father’s suicide had been the best way out of a horrible situation.
And Mayor Teddy, acting on a plea for help from his old housekeeper, Mary Walters, had somehow managed to pull some strings to keep Elaine out of the inquest that had followed her father’s death and his confession.
Neal Hadden had wasted very little time before trying to suggest that her father’s crime somehow made her unfit for office. And then, when that didn’t seem to work, he tried to defeat her by insinuating that she couldn’t be objective because of Michael. It was at that point that Amanda had finally agreed to marry Michael right away, in a small ceremony attended only by family and close friends.
She stayed along the fringes of the crowd now pressing against Mary and Elaine and Tina. These were party activists, and to them, the women who’d pulled off such a coup were of more interest at the moment than she herself was.
Only when it was all over had Amanda learned from Michael that Tina had known about her father and Eve. Her gratitude for Amanda’s help with her brother was the reason she’d tried to keep her secret. And Mary had known, as well, because Elaine had told her long ago. She, too, had hoped to protect both Amanda and Jesse from the truth.
But the biggest shock to Amanda had been John. Only a short time ago, he’d confessed to her that he’d suspected her father had been using his house to carry on an affair. Michael had been right—as he usually was. John had withheld some information.
She started back across the room, seeing Michael and John deep in conversation. It pleased her to know how much John liked Michael, accepting him as her own father would never have done.
Then Jesse appeared before she could reach the two men, grabbing Amanda’s arm and dragging her off to a quiet corner while Steve went to join the men.
“We’ve decided to do it,” Jesse stated.
“Are you sure?”
Jesse nodded firmly. “We called a Realtor today, to put our house on the market I feel like I’m doing it for Mother. You know how much she loved that house.”
Amanda hugged her, breathing a quiet sig
h of relief. The subject of the family home had been the one dark cloud on her personal horizon—besides, of course, the possibility that she might be out of a job.
She couldn’t live there herself, because Michael was too happy in this house. And until now, Jesse had resisted the idea of moving into the house where their father had died, even though both she and Steve loved the place. It had seemed that after more than a hundred years, the wonderful old house might have to pass out of the family.
Jesse’s decision was, Amanda thought, yet another indication of how far she’d come in these past months.
The two women made their way to the men. Michael slid an arm around her waist and kissed her. “Talk about perfect timing. John was just telling me that the first snowstorm is predicted for later this week.”
They were leaving tomorrow for their delayed honeymoon. Michael had chartered a yacht for a leisurely cruise through the Caribbean.
Jesse told John and Michael about their decision to move into the family home, and Michael hugged Amanda. “Well, that does it, then. It’s smooth sailing all the way for you, lady.”
For a while, anyway, Amanda thought, but didn’t say. The bumps in their future would become apparent soon enough, when they both returned to their jobs. But she knew now that they could handle it.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5115-1
LAWMAN LOVER
Copyright © 1999 by Saranne Hoover
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Erotic fantasies of him inundated her....
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Books by Saranne Dawson
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Copyright