by Laurel Greer
“I know,” she whispered. Knowing she owed Ryan Rafferty her life sat crazy wrong. How was she supposed to dislike him when he’d done something so selfless? But more importantly—had he not, had the firefighters taken longer to get to her, would she have been burned worse? Or succumbed to oxygen deprivation?
Oof. Nothing like almost dying to remind a girl she didn’t want to die. And that she really wanted to spend her life with the man sitting next to her with a sexy beard and a jaw clenched so hard he was probably close to chipping a tooth.
“How did you burn your hands?” he asked.
She went to put her right hand over his where it gripped her left arm, but she could only rest it there. Her fingers were immobilized. Frick. It wasn’t going to be easy to work over the next while. And training the Lab puppy due to arrive soon—so much for that. “A piece of scrap lumber fell in front of me as I was crawling out. I pushed it out of the way.”
A garbled protest escaped his lips.
“I’m sorry,” she said weakly.
“Yeah, well, so am I. You were reckless, and I can’t even handle that. But you’re hurt. And I feel awful for being pissed off. But I am. So damn angry.”
She blinked in surprise. “You are? You don’t seem it.”
“I’m a hell of an actor when I’m in a hospital, Maggie. I had months of pretending I was calm when I was sick to my stomach about losing the love of my life. And now I found you, and was starting to think I might just be lucky enough to have a second chance, and this happens?” Digging his hands into his hair, he flopped against the back of his chair and swore. “I can’t lose someone else.”
Her throat threatened to close over. From fear instead of the smoke inhalation, not that it was a better option. She sucked in a breath. “Right. I—of course. That makes sense.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What makes sense?”
She loved this man so much. And she’d managed to remind him of the terrible price of love, and now he wasn’t going to want to risk it. Right when she’d figured out her feelings, and that she was ready to take the leap. “That you wouldn’t want to be with me.”
“When did I say that?” Disbelief warred with the exhaustion lining his mouth.
“You didn’t need to. I screwed up. This afternoon, with leaving, and then with the fire... I get it.”
“Oh, love. You don’t.”
Hope leaped in her soul. “You’re okay with this?”
“With you running into a fire? God, no. But with loving you? Obviously. Affection isn’t a balance sheet. Not in a healthy relationship anyway. We’ll make mistakes, miscommunicate. You’ll even risk your life, apparently, though I could do without that one again.”
She chuckled, wincing as the sound strained her tender throat. Talk about feeling like the worst case of strep ever. “First and last time I pretend to be the fire department. Promise.”
Ah, crud, her search and rescue buddies were going to give her no end of grief for this. Rule one was never undergo a rescue unless it was safe for the rescuer.
She watched him scan her bandages and tubes, trying to figure out how to get close. In the end, he pulled his chair as near to the bed as he could and rested one hand on her abdomen and one on her elbow. “Your brother’s in the waiting area. He’s taking it pretty well, but still...”
“Oh dear.” She shut her eyes, concern trickling into her belly. She’d been so worried about Ruth’s letters and Asher’s reaction, not to mention getting hauled out of a blazing building by her sister’s ex-boyfriend, that she hadn’t had time to process the impact on Lachlan’s business. “Do they know what happened?”
Asher scrunched up his face in sympathy and gave her a short explanation involving the plumber, a space heater and an unnecessarily contrite ten-year-old. “A comedy of errors. Except it’s not funny at all.”
“We have insurance,” she assured him. Her voice weakened with each word. She really should stop talking, but too much needed to be said. To him and Ruth. And thanking her brother and friends for delivering her a well-deserved kick in the rear earlier today, making her realize it was time to move beyond her past and find love with people who actually loved her back.
Had she figured out her crap earlier, they might have avoided a near tragedy.
Her eyes stung. Her poor brother. Just because they had insurance didn’t mean he wouldn’t be broken up about the fire. “We can fix the damage,” she said, for her own sake as much as Asher’s.
He rubbed a circle on her stomach and reached up with his other hand to stroke her cheek. “This is devastating, Maggie. There’s no need to pretend otherwise.”
“It’s not pretending. It’s...moving forward from something awful.”
A smile flickered on his weary lips. “Maybe it’s time to apply that to the rest of your life, too. You can’t control how your parents or your ex-boyfriend treated you. But you can decide to live fully despite them.”
Warmth—truth—flooded her bones. “Yeah, I can.”
Happiness spread from his lips to encompass his whole face. “You won’t regret it. Loving someone... Building a life with them... It’s pretty damned awesome. Even with the painful parts.”
She breathed in courage and nodded.
“You and your family are going to have to rebuild, and I want to be there with you through it,” he said. “I just want the chance to love you. Will you let me?”
“It’s not about the two of us, though. It’s about the three of us. We need to have this conversation with Ruth, too. If we’re going to commit, I want to hear from her that she’s good with it.”
He nodded and slipped out of the curtain, and a minute later Maggie’s arms were full of tearful girl.
“Shh,” she soothed, stroking Ruth’s hair with the hand not hooked up to monitors and IVs. “Baby, shh. All’s well.”
“I’m sorry.” Ruth’s words were muffled against Maggie’s neck.
“Me, too. I’m sorry I scared you and your dad, and I’m sorry I was too scared to be brave about loving you two. I... I was worried that if we got to the point where your dad and I were talking about forever, that I’d fail you. That I’d be a crappy mom. You had a pretty great Papa, and I wanted to be sure I lived up to his example.”
“You’d be the best mom,” Ruth mumbled. She jerked to sitting, eyes wide. “I mean, if you want to. If you and Dad were talking about that. About forever and stuff.”
Maggie smiled. Her eyes got wet again, but she didn’t bother trying to wipe away the moisture. “I don’t think we’re quite ready for rings, yet. But you’re okay with the idea that we might get there?”
Ruth nodded. She unclenched her fist and produced a folded sheet of loose leaf. She carefully flattened it. One side was a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet on the parts of a plant cell. The other was covered in slanted, blue script. The work of a man who’d been trying to record his thoughts during his lunch hour or preparatory time, no doubt.
Ruth held it out to Maggie.
Asher drew in a sharp breath and took the sheet. “Maggie’s thumbs are out of commission for a couple days, peanut. I’ll hold it. Where’s the important part?”
Ruth pointed at the start of a sentence about halfway down the sheet.
Stay open to love. Don’t let your pain stop you from enjoying all the minutes you’re given. If you follow in my footsteps in one way, Ruthie, let it be that one.
“He said it to me, but if he was here, he’d say it to you, too,” Ruth insisted.
A sob racked Maggie’s chest. Oh, man. Having Ruth and Asher share their past and invite her into their future was too much to handle. But she was done questioning it. If they were willing to give it, then she was clearly worthy to receive it.
Ruth’s eyes widened to stricken. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she rasped. “You’re treating me like family. I’m n
ot used to that. Or I told myself I wasn’t anyway. Because my brother, of course, and Marisol and the baby, and Emma and Garnet and Caleb—” Her life was full. She already had a chosen family, and she wanted to add Asher and Ruth. It was time to focus on returning all that love rather than mourning the love she’d never get from her parents. Her future could be more than animals and lonely nights. It could be spending years and years laughing with and loving these two precious people.
She looked at Asher. His eyes were damp behind his glasses. Unable to touch his face or hands and connect in the way she craved, she smiled. “Family first, right? Can that—can it include me, too?”
He brushed her hair back and kissed her forehead. “It already does.”
Epilogue
March wind nipped its cold teeth at Asher’s face as he waited in the small spectator area at the bottom of the ski run. Maggie, bundled in a down-filled fuchsia parka, snuggled with her back to his front and held Jackson’s loose lead. The dog wore a coat and neoprene booties and eyed the snow suspiciously, as he’d been doing since it started falling in November.
Asher stood with his arms ringed around Maggie—for warmth with the side bonus of getting to hold her. She gripped his forearms. Her mittens covered her scars, which had faded in the months since the fire. He couldn’t tear his gaze off the small, turquoise-clad figure at the top of the run. “Good grief, I think I’m as nervous as she is.”
And not just over Ruth’s race.
“I know you are,” Maggie agreed, turning her head briefly to smile up at him.
You don’t know the full reason. Dipping his head, he kissed the skin right below the rim of her knit hat. The dog twisted around them, never letting them forget who had really brought them together.
Winter had flown by. A lot of time spent helping out the Reids as they rebuilt the barn. And he’d been so damned proud watching Ruth learning how to ski and fully catching the race bug. Caleb and Garnet had surprised them all with an impromptu January wedding, making Asher wish said wedding was his wedding... And every day was made better as he fell further in love with Maggie. He’d even managed to surprise her with a quick trip to see his parents and David a few weekends ago. They’d braved a New York cold snap—Ruth had toured Maggie around all their favorite Brooklyn haunts. Asher had strolled behind them, in his usual state of amazement as the daughter he adored and the woman he loved bonded and shared.
While there, he’d had a capital-T talk with his mom, followed by one with Ruth. And so long as Caleb showed up on time with the sign Ruth had made, he’d be having a capital-T talk with Maggie, too.
“Caleb and Garnet are supposed to be here by now,” he grumbled, nerves panging.
“Ruth’s up next—are they going to make it?” Maggie asked. “Did they text you or anything?”
He scanned the crowd, reluctant to take his eyes off his daughter from her place in the race lineup. He was about to scuttle his plan when he saw Caleb wending his way through the small crowd, holding a sign in one hand and towing Garnet along with the other. Asher waved an arm to get their attention before turning back to Ruth. She’d been living and breathing skiing since the mountain’s season opener. No way was he missing a second of her first race.
Caleb and Garnet caught up to them in a flurry of Gore-Tex and woolen scarves. Garnet readjusted her floppy blue hat and clapped her gloved hands together. “We didn’t miss her, did we?”
“You just made it.” Asher motioned with an arm at the top of the run, where Ruth was lining up her skis and talking to one of her coaches. He put a gloved hand on the dog. Jackson had made enough progress with his anxiety that he was working successfully in Maggie’s literacy program at the library, but still wasn’t a fan of the crowd noise at ski races. They usually left him at home, but it only felt right he be present for the plan Asher and Ruth had cooked up.
“Sorry,” Garnet said. “My morning sickness was heinous today.”
His jaw dropped at the same time Maggie jolted to attention. They both stared at Garnet and Caleb, who were hand in hand, grins brighter than the sun reflecting off the snow.
“Uh, mazel tov,” Asher said, blinking.
“Morning sickness? Are you kidding?” Maggie exclaimed.
“Nope,” Garnet replied. “I would not kid about being sick as a dog. Oh, there goes Ruth! Forget I said anything.”
“Crap!” Maggie whirled, and all attention was back on the dark brown pigtails streaking down the hill.
“Look at our girl go,” Asher said, pride rushing through him. He’d congratulate his brother and sister-in-law with more exuberance as soon as his daughter was no longer careening down a mountain on two waxed planks of fiberglass.
Garnet cupped her hands around her mouth and jumped up and down, shouting encouragement. Asher joined in, yelling Ruth’s name and ringing the cowbell that he’d bought special for the occasion. The dog leaned against Asher, and didn’t jolt too badly.
Ruth skied like she’d been born to do it. Partway down the hill, she caught an edge, and Asher’s heart almost stopped, but she recovered and regained her rhythm, finishing her last couple of turns. She crossed the finish line with a huge grin on her face. She took off her helmet and bounced on her skis, waving her arms in the air at her family.
Asher led the way to the area where the skiers were corralled. His boots crunched on the hardpack, and he squeezed Maggie’s hand. She was right by his side. Just where she should be.
“Dad! Maggie!” Ruth had removed her skis and was jumping up and down. “Look at my time! My personal best. Even though I caught my edge. That was my goal, and I did it.”
He hugged her tight, wincing as the helmet and skis she was carrying thunked into his back. “You did, honey. I’m so proud of you. Way to work hard.”
Everyone else congratulated her, and her smile grew that much wider. And when Maggie and Asher congratulated the parents-to-be again and Ruth deduced in seconds that she was getting a new cousin, Asher thought she’d float up to the clouds.
“Nice sign, Uncle Caleb,” Ruth said slyly.
Caleb held it out to her, the Go, Ruth, Go colored in bright turquoise Sharpie to match her jacket. Garnet’s doing, no doubt. “Want it for a keepsake?”
“I do.” She shoved her skis and helmet into Asher’s hands. Grabbing the sign from her uncle, she shot Asher a conspiratorial look. “But that’s not what I would s—”
He held a finger to his lips and Ruth stopped talking. Maggie, who’d been squealing off to the side with Garnet about the pregnancy announcement, must have noticed the sudden shift in conversation, because she turned her head, expression curious.
“Go for it,” Asher whispered to Ruth. He jammed Ruth’s skis in the snow, hung her helmet over one of the tips with a strap and dug in his pocket for his part of the surprise. Jackson sat obediently next to Ruth, as if he knew what was happening.
Nodding, Ruth opened up the false front of the sign to expose a new message. She held it under her chin and stared at Maggie with pleading eyes. “Will you?”
Maggie gasped. So did Garnet, Caleb and half the nearby crowd, for that matter.
Smiling softly at the shock in the brown eyes he wanted to wake up to for the rest of his life, Asher flicked open the ring box and got down on one knee in front of Maggie, his daughter at his side. “Will you marry me?” he said, in time with Ruth’s, “Will you be my mom?”
Maggie dropped to her knees in front of him and took them both in her embrace. Mischief danced on her lips. “What took you so long to ask?”
* * *
Don’t miss the previous titles in Laurel Greer’s Sutter Creek, Montana miniseries:
From Exes to Expecting
A Father for Her Child
Holiday by Candlelight
Their Nine-Month Surprise
Available now from Harlequin Special Edition!
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Slow Burn by Caro Carson.
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The Slow Burn
by Caro Carson
Chapter One
“Which one of us is going to invite the hot fireman to join us at the pub?”
Tana McKenna heard the question, sort of, as she frantically scrolled through the calendar on her phone. Urgency made her all thumbs.
A too-long, too-silent pause made her look up from the screen. Her friends were all staring at her.
“What?” Tana grasped for the last thing she’d heard. “Something’s hot?”
“Not something. Someone.” Ruby, an executive assistant at Masterson University, lowered her voice and leaned a little closer. “Wait until you see who is teaching the CPR class tonight.”
Next to Ruby, the university’s diving coach giggled like a Shirley Temple GIF. “Oh, my goodness. For once, I am so happy that we have to get certified every year.”
A third member of the Masterson University faculty lowered her voice, too, leaning in as if they were conspiring together in the hallway of the academic building. “We should all flunk this evening. Get him to come back next Friday, too.”
Tana kept what she hoped was a polite expression of interest on her face while trying to add nine months to today’s date. Her brain wouldn’t work. Her stomach was in knots.
The diving coach giggled again. “We can tell him we need extra tutoring during happy hour to prepare.”
Everyone was smiling. These women, Tana’s new friends at her new job at Masterson University, were making the effort to include her in their conversation. Tana didn’t want to be rude, so she nodded along on autopilot as her brain raced.