by Holly Rayner
Liquid shot out of the can.
Colt heard a man curse and then emit a loud groan of pain.
Colt acted quickly. He whirled around, already lifting his arms into a defensive position as he turned. He stepped in front of Marissa, to guard her from whoever had groaned. As he turned, he lifted his hand up, sliced it through the air, and brought it down hard against his attacker’s forearm, which he could now see was holding a gun.
As all of this happened, Colt took in the figure’s appearance and realized that the attacker was Vance Jenkins.
He heard I was here, Colt thought. He heard I was in Peabody, and he came to find me.
I can’t let him hurt Marissa.
Vance was doubled over, with one hand up in front of his eyes to protect himself from another round of spray. His other hand—which Colt had hit—was now empty. Colt looked down and saw the gun lying on the sidewalk. I knocked it away from him, Colt realized quickly. But he may have another.
I can’t give him time to pull it out. I have to act now.
With Marissa’s safety on his mind, Colt threw himself on top of Vance, who was still doubled over. Colt’s weight knocked Vance off of his feet, and together the two men fell to the ground. Vance struggled beneath him.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Colt told the writhing criminal. “You might as well not even try.” He made sure that he had Vance’s arms and legs safely pinned before he glanced quickly over his shoulder at Marissa, who had her phone in her shaking hands. “Call the police,” he instructed.
“Already on it,” she said.
For the next five minutes, Colt listened to distant sirens as they got louder and louder. By the time three patrol cars screeched to a stop next to where Colt held Vance, doors along the block were opening up, and people were stepping out onto their front stoops.
“Stay back!” the police told the approaching onlookers.
Half a dozen police officers joined Colt in pinning Vance down. Colt made sure he didn’t release Vance’s arms until they were safely in cuffs. Colt didn’t want to take any chances.
Vance had gotten close to fulfilling his promise to Colt—the promise he’d made almost a full year earlier: “You’re going to pay for this.”
He’d gotten close—very close—but he had not succeeded.
“I saw everything!” a woman said from the stoop of the house next-door to Marissa’s parents. “I caught it all on film! That man on the ground had a gun!”
“Stay back,” the officers continued to advise the public, as they hoisted Vance to his feet and dragged him toward a waiting police car.
Several officers began conducting a search of the surrounding area, fanning out to look behind bushes, mailboxes, and boulders for any accomplices that Vance may have brought with him.
Colt scanned the surroundings too, but he didn’t see anyone else approaching. His gaze landed on Marissa. Her face was pale, and she was hugging herself.
He watched as an officer picked up Vance’s gun in a gloved hand and deposited it into an evidence bag. With the gun under control and Vance cuffed and inside the police car, Colt allowed his muscles to relax. The adrenaline coursing through his veins eased up a bit. He walked purposefully over to Marissa and wrapped her in his arms.
He was glad that they had discussed their situation. He knew they’d each had things to say to each other, and the words that had passed between them had been important to say.
But the reality of having a gun nearly pointed at his head had delivered a shock to his system. His head and heart felt completely clear, and he realized that on some level, he and Marissa didn’t need words.
No amount of discussion could ever prove to her how deeply he cared about her.
He felt her heart beating as he held her. She trembled in his arms. He rubbed her back and let all of the emotion that he felt for her pour out of his soul and wash over her. He sensed her warming up to him. Her body relaxed, and she allowed herself to be held. For the first time since he had arrived in Peabody four days ago, he felt that they were communicating in the way that they needed to—without words.
That’s the way it was, with Marissa.
It’d been that way since he first met her.
He continued to rub circles on her back.
All around him, people were moving, hustling from one place to another. He was vaguely aware of more police cars arriving, and even an ambulance. He knew that soon he’d have to give a statement to the officers and press charges against Vance.
But for the moment, he only wanted to hold Marissa.
He wanted to pour his soul out to her. He felt her cheek against his chest and her arms around his waist. She gripped him with just enough pressure to let him know that she needed him to keep holding onto her.
“I’m right here,” he whispered. “And I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to keep you safe.” He stroked her hair and then let his hand rest on the side of her head. She nestled in closer to his chest, and he could feel her warm breath against the fabric of his shirt.
“It’s all over,” he said. “They have Vance now, Marissa. This is a good thing… this is good. We’re safe, now. We’re all safe. Vance is going to go to jail for a long, long time.”
She kept holding him.
Her breath moved his shirt. He felt each of her inhales and exhales. He continued to rest his hand on her head. “It’s okay,” he said. “You did a good job with that pepper spray, you know.”
He felt her nod.
“He’s not going to try to hurt us again, Marissa. We’re safe, now.”
He felt more of her muscles relax. She seemed to comprehend that Vance was no longer a threat.
He wanted to continue holding her for as long as it took to help her feel completely safe, but an officer interjected and asked Colt to fill out a statement. Another officer pulled Marissa aside.
While Colt filled out paperwork, he kept looking toward Marissa. She stood only ten feet away, working with a clipboard and pen that the police officers had handed her, but the distance felt too far. Finally, the officers departed and the onlookers returned to their houses. Linda, who had joined them on the sidewalk, held a crying Joshua out to Colt. “I think he needs to know that his daddy is okay,” Linda said, as she passed the baby up to Colt.
Colt cradled the crying baby in his arms and kissed the top of his head. He rocked Joshua gently, and soon the infant settled down.
Linda was hugging Marissa and speaking in a hushed tone. “I saw it all from the window. I was so frightened. Your father called 9-1-1. We took Joshua to the back bedroom… We just didn’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Marissa said. It was the first time Colt had heard her speak since the attack. Her voice sounded stronger and steadier than he expected. “Colt took care of me,” she said.
Colt felt Marissa’s eyes on him as he soothed Joshua.
He wanted Marissa to know that he wanted to take care of her and Joshua always. Though he wasn’t the best with words, he knew he had to try to tell her his intentions.
But how? he wondered, as he heard Linda begin asking Marissa for more details about the incident that had just occurred.
Chapter 20
Marissa
Marissa could barely concentrate on her mother’s questions.
“What did he want? Was he going to rob you? What did he say?” Linda asked. “We never have robbers in this neighborhood. And in broad daylight, too! It just doesn’t make sense.”
“He wasn’t trying to rob us,” Marissa said softly, as she watched Colt kiss Joshua on the nose.
Colt loves our child, she realized.
He really didn’t know I was pregnant.
He didn’t know how alone I was.
He left because he didn’t want to put me in danger. It wasn’t that he didn’t care…
She grinned dreamily as Joshua scrunched up his face in that tell-tale way that meant he was making a mess in his diaper.
Colt whispered
to his son, trying everything he could to help the boy settle down. But Joshua was getting fussier now, despite Colt’s attempts to soothe him.
Marissa spoke to her mother. “He was a man from Colt’s past,” she said. “They have a history. It’s a long story.”
She still had her eyes pinned on Colt and the baby, and Linda followed her gaze.
“You two have more to talk about, don’t you?” Linda asked.
Marissa nodded, glad that her mother knew her well enough to read her expressions so accurately. “And I think Joshua needs a diaper change,” she said.
“What are grandmothers for?” joked Linda. She was smiling as she walked to Colt and whisked the baby away.
As Linda departed with Joshua, Marissa eyed Colt. “You really love him, don’t you?” she said.
“How could I not?” Colt asked. “He’s my son.”
Colt led Marissa to the front porch swing and held it still while she sat down.
Marissa searched Colt’s eyes. “You were really only trying to protect me by leaving the States. I see that, now.”
Colt nodded. “Vance has never been one for making empty threats. I knew he meant to act on his words. He wanted me to pay for putting his father in jail.”
“So, you had to leave,” Marissa said, looking down and watching his boots pace on the porch in front of her. “You didn’t want to.”
“Not even a little bit,” Colt said, shaking his head as he took a step toward her. “Believe me, all I wanted was to be closer to you.” Marissa tilted her chin so that she was looking up at him. “You don’t have to say that just because I got pregnant, you know,” she said. “I don’t want you to be here because you feel bad for us or feel like you need to rescue us. I’ve never been one to take handouts.”
Colt nodded. “I know that,” he said. “And that’s not why I’m here.”
Marissa broke her gaze from his and looked down the quiet street—the street she’d grown up on. “I know that I must just seem like a small-town girl to you, Colt. I’m not wealthy like you are. I don’t rub shoulders with the rich and famous. I don’t travel the world or own a yacht.”
Colt chuckled. “Who said anything about owning a yacht?” he asked.
She looked back at him. “After you disappeared, I started to learn more about you. I read everything I could—all the articles, magazines, newspapers, gossip websites… I read everything I could. You’re a billionaire, Colt, and I’m just a teacher from a small town.”
She took him in—in all of his perfection. He looked so out of place standing on the worn front porch.
“This isn’t where you belong,” she said. “That’s why it feels so surreal to see you here in Kansas with me. It’s hard to process it all. It’s hard to know how we’re going to proceed… but I just want you to know that you don’t have to say you love me just because of Joshua. If you want to arrange…” she hesitated. It was hard to speak, but she forced herself to go on. “If you want to arrange for split custody, we can do that. Don’t feel that you and I have to be together.”
“But we do have to be together,” Colt said emphatically.
She shook her head. “No—we don’t. I know it’s unconventional, the way we’ve started this family, but we can make it work. We can both be Joshua’s parents, even if you and I… even if you and I aren’t together.”
He shook his head. “You’re not understanding me,” he said. “I’m not saying that we have to be together because of Joshua—or because of what social conventions dictate. I could care less about social conventions. I’m saying we have to be together because—” He stopped short and rubbed the back of his neck. Then he sighed. “Look, I’m not very good at this… trying to put things into words. The way I feel has always seemed to be so much bigger than words. But I’m going to try, okay?”
Marissa nodded.
He was silent for a moment, and she knew he was trying to arrange his thoughts. Finally, after a long pause, he spoke.
“When I was a senior in college, I almost died out at sea. My parents were with me. Neither of them made it. I was out in the ocean, alone, for hours before the coast guard reached me.”
His statement surprised Marissa. She’d read about his near-drowning, online, but she hadn’t expected him to bring it up at that moment.
Where is he going with this? she wondered.
“When I was out there in the water, I felt like the ocean stripped layers away from me,” Colt continued. “It’s so hard to explain—I’m not talking about my clothes, Marissa. I’m talking about layers of my being—me—Colt Thorpe. First, my status in society went. I’d grown up wealthy, but as I struggled to stay alive, I saw so clearly that I wasn’t my wealth. My money didn’t define me. Do you know what I mean?”
Marissa nodded. She listened intently as Colt continued.
“My personality went next… my habits, my likes and dislikes, my memories… none of that was me. At one point, I even forgot my name. Colt Thorpe. It didn’t belong to me anymore. I felt far, far away from it. Yet, I was still there. I was more me than I’d ever been before.”
“What was your identity?” Marissa asked. His story captivated her.
“My essence—my core being—was a purpose,” he said. “I felt it so clearly. I was a purpose, and that purpose was to love. That was what kept me alive. I realized that I had a choice: to give up and drown, or to fight and live. The only thing that made me want to live was that sense of purpose. I didn’t understand it then—it was just a feeling.”
He reached out for her hand. “For years, I tried to hold onto that feeling. I returned to normal life, and those layers of identity were added back on. But even as I felt my status and personality cling to me again, I knew what was beneath it all. The ocean showed me my core. I carried that knowledge with me, hoping to one day understand.”
Colt stroked the back of her hand, ever so softly. “And then I met you,” he said.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her whole body fluttered with a million tiny butterflies. She could hardly believe the words that she was hearing.
“Me?” she whispered.
He nodded. “You said I don’t belong here… and I have to admit, I do feel a little out of place.” He looked around the small, worn-but-quaint neighborhood. “But even though these aren’t the surroundings I’m used to, and even though, yes, you and I are different in many ways, I do think I belong here.”
He sat down next to her. She felt as if everything she’d hoped for, after meeting Colt, was now coming true. He wants me, she thought. He wants to be with me, and Joshua.
She couldn’t speak. She could barely breathe.
Colt continued. “I belong with you, Marissa—wherever you are, I want to be by your side. I want to be with you and our son.”
Her lip quivered with relief. All of the pressure she’d felt resting on her shoulders was now being lifted. If Colt wanted to be with her romantically, that changed everything.
A smile began to spread on her lips, and she felt her eyes begin to sparkle. She felt as if the lights had been dimmed, on the entire world, and only now they were being turned on.
Everything looked brighter.
A sense of excitement and giddiness filled her heart, just like it had during the first evening that she’d spent with Colt.
“Colt, I have to warn you, I’m terrible at going on dates.”
He laughed at her playful statement. “No, you’re not,” he said. “I’ve been on a date with you, remember?”
She shook her head. “Meeting by chance at a whiskey sampling booth is hardly a date.”
“Oh?” he laughed. “I thought for sure it qualified. Well, then, I guess I owe you a first date. I happen to know a very romantic spot, here in Peabody.”
Marissa leaned in closer to him. “Pete’s Fried Chicken?” she asked. “I think calling that place romantic is a bit of a stretch.”
Colt shook his head. “Nope,” he said mysteriously.
She narrowe
d her eyes playfully. “The diner? Colt, they’re only open for breakfast and lunch, but if that’s what you have in mind, I’d happily go. They do a fantastic short stack of blueberry pancakes.”
“That does sound good,” Colt said, reaching for Marissa’s other hand and weaving his fingers between hers. “But that’s not the place I had in mind, either.”
Marissa tried to think what Colt might have up his sleeve, but she was at a loss. “I give up,” she said. “Where are you planning to take me on our first real date?”
“I was thinking about a candle-lit picnic under your favorite tree.”
“The oak tree?” Marissa asked.
Colt pulled her hand up to his lips. He kissed the back of it and then said, “It’s a special place, and you love it.”
“I do,” she sighed happily. “And—Colt?” She looked right into his eyes and let her teasing tone fall away. “What you said, about finding your identity out there in the ocean… I understand.”
He nodded. “I knew that you did.”
“These prairies are oceans of grass, and I’ve been trying not to drown in them,” she said. “When I was growing up, and I went out to that tree, I felt what you’re talking about. I felt all the unnecessary parts of me being stripped away, until I was only left with that same sense of purpose that you’re talking about. When I met you, there was something about you that I connected to. Now I know what that was. I guess, all this time I’ve been focusing on our differences, but we’re not that different after all, are we?”
Colt stood up and gently helped Marissa to her feet. He released her hands and wrapped his arms around her back in a loving embrace.
She reached up and curled her arms around his strong neck. “I love you, Colt,” she whispered.
“I love you, Marissa,” he whispered back.
Their lips met. Marissa savored Colt’s kiss. She’d missed the taste and feel of him. She wanted the kiss to last forever. As they parted, she reminded herself that she’d have thousands more opportunities to enjoy the feel of Colt’s lips on hers. Colt was in her life to stay.