Elusive Echoes (15 page)

Sean rubbed his hands over her bare arms to
warm them. "Do you want to go inside?"

Mel's only indication she had heard him was
to shake her head. "I was going to have the baby in the hospital
and then just leave it. I knew that was technically abandoning the
baby but I knew it would be safe in a hospital. Nice and anonymous.
When Nick found out I was pregnant, that wasn't going to happen. He
kept me hidden. I had the baby, a little girl, on Christmas Eve, in
the dirty apartment Nick was keeping us in. His girlfriend at the
time helped me deliver her."

Cold assaulted Sean from the inside out and
he shivered violently. A baby born outside of a hospital might as
well not exist.

"They left me behind to clean up the mess
I'd made," said Mel flatly. "And they stole my baby girl. I don't
even know what she looked like. I only know she was a girl because
Nick had wanted her to be a boy. And he had no problem expressing
his—disappointment." Mel broke contact with Sean.

Sean was raw. His voice was raspy, choked
with emotion he couldn't get in check. "He hit you?"

"It was mostly verbal."

Mostly, not only. Sean clamped his jaw hard
rather than spew the vulgarities crossing his mind about the man.
He wanted to hunt him down. Only Sean's own response wouldn't be
mostly verbal.

But there was more to the
story, he realized, forcing his attention back on Mel. She
continued speaking, her voice flat. She sounded emotionally numb.
"I'm pretty sure Nick and his girlfriend sold my baby. And, God
help me, I let them, because all I could think—pray—was that
wherever she ended up, it
had
to be better than being with me. It wasn't until
much later that I realized he could have sold her to monsters who
would hurt her."

Sean stared, frozen, unable to move. Horror
gripped him; for the baby, for the girl Melanie had been, needing
to make such a choice. "Mel." He could barely get her name out.
"All this time, you've been holding onto this. Did you think I
wouldn't understand?"

"How could I expect
you
to understand
when
I
didn't?"

Sean closed the gap between them again. He
caught her hand and laced his fingers through hers. Trembling, he
brought her hand to his face, pressing it against his cheek while
he held her with a look.

"I love you, Melanie Grace Mitchell. I
always have and always will. Nothing is ever going to change that.
Do you understand me?"

Very slowly, she curled her fingers to clasp
his tightly. "I love you, too," she whispered. "Always."

Turning his face, Sean pressed a hard kiss
to the back of Mel's hand.

Chapter Nine

Somewhere out in the world, Mel had a nearly
fourteen-year-old daughter, whom she had never been allowed to see.
Sean held onto that intellectual fact as a means to keep the
cauldron of swirling emotions inside him from boiling over. Truth
be told, he had no idea how he felt about Mel's revelation. If he
stopped now to analyze his feelings, no doubt he'd only over-think
the whole thing as he normally did with unsettling news. He did
know his feelings for Melanie Mitchell hadn't changed, except to
maybe deepen. They certainly hadn't diminished. Nothing would ever
destroy his love for her.

He had no idea how Mel had survived during
the years she'd been gone. But at least now he understood why she'd
been a stranger when she'd returned home. He couldn't make those
years go away but he would darn well make sure she never had to
live through anything like that ever again.

Sean's hand lingered on Mel's knee after he
helped her into the passenger seat of his pickup. He wasn't sure if
he meant his touch to be comforting to Mel or if he was seeking
reassurance from her. Maybe a degree of both.

She brushed her fingers over his knuckles,
met his gaze and smiled. The band of uncertainty squeezing his
heart up into his throat lessened its grip. She understood him. She
always had.

****

Sean started the pickup and pulled on the
headlights. The high beams cut a path ahead of them as they drove
toward the main road in silence. Mel could tell he was still
disconcerted. She didn't know how to change that. She supposed it
was just something he would have to work through. For now, she held
tight to his words of love and prayed the rest would come.

Just after he turned onto the main road, she
recognized the trail leading to the land he'd shown her earlier.
"Sean, stop! Please."

He maneuvered the truck to the side of the
road and rolled to a gentle stop. "Did you forget something?"

Mel shook her head. Then she nodded. "Yes.
Yes, I did." She breathed in deeply, aware that she was about to
risk everything. She pointed to the twin ruts. "Can we go
there?"

Sean raised an eyebrow, obviously mystified,
but he put the pickup in reverse and aimed them onto his property.
He drove with caution, avoiding the deepest of the ruts, stopping
when the track dwindled to nothing. He cut the engine but left the
lights on. Then he shifted in his seat and waited.

Mel slipped the ring box from her purse.
Sean's expression turned wary.

Drawing in a deep breath, Mel set the box on
the seat between them. "I didn't open this. I know what it is
because your father told me." She took a deep breath. "I'm not
going to put your ring on, Sean."

He inhaled sharply and his body tensed. She
laid her hand on his arm and squeezed, knowing he probably thought
the worst, but she needed to do this for both of them.

"Come with me." Mel opened the door and
jumped out. Picking her way through the tall grass to the front of
the truck, she stopped in the glow of the headlights and looked
back. She could only pray he'd follow.

Sean got out of the truck more slowly. His
steps faltered a few feet away.

"I know it's dark now." Her heart felt like
it was in her throat and she could hear her voice held a breathless
quaver. "But I'm hoping you'll help me see something." Mel turned
and stepped against him until she could feel the heat of his body
on her back. When he still didn't move, she pulled his arms around
her waist and held them in place. "When you come home, you pull in
the driveway. You stop right here. What do you see over there?"

He drew a deep breath. When he spoke, his
voice was as shaky and uncertain as hers. "The front of a
house."

"What does the house look like?"

"I . . . don't really know. Mel . . . what
is this?" He tried to turn her in his arms but she leaned back
instead.

"Do you want some help?" she asked, looking
upward over her shoulder.

Sean hesitated then gave a barely
perceptible nod.

"Brick and stone? Or logs?" she asked.

"Logs and fieldstone?"

Mel smiled when he responded to her
prompting. "One story or two?"

"Two." His answer came easier this time.
Some of his tension left.

"With a long front porch?" Some of her own
tension lessened.

"Yeah, all the way across, maybe around to
the side."

"Look." Mel gestured vaguely in the general
direction of the imaginary house. "Someone's waiting for you at the
front door. What does she look like?"

His breath caught but he recovered quickly.
"She's the most beautiful girl in the world. She has hair the color
of sunshine and eyes that reflect the sky." His arms tightened
around her slightly. He pressed a kiss just below her left ear.

Mel turned inside his embrace. "I like this
dream you're showing me, Sean. I like it a whole lot." Standing on
her toes, she kissed his neck, his jaw, the side of his mouth.
"Please tell me there's still time for me to share this dream with
you."

He swallowed. "Melanie," he whispered.
"There's all kinds of time."

"I'm not going to put your ring on,
Sean."

He closed his eyes, pulling in a long,
steady breath before he opened them again.

She kissed the corner of his mouth once
more. "But if you put it on me, I'll never take it off."

Framing her face with his fingertips, Sean
leaned toward Mel, hesitated, searching her eyes. Mel let down her
barriers, hoping he could find what he needed as she met his
look.

With a groan, Sean captured her lips in a
fiercely possessive kiss. He backed her up against the front of the
truck, repositioning her head and angling his own for a deeper
kiss. Her arms stole around his waist and she hugged him close as
the hunger that had been gnawing at her for years took over.

The feral growl that started low in his
throat sparked a flash of longing that radiated straight from her
core and rushed through her body like a starburst.

His lips were hot and soft, demanding and
giving. But she wanted much more than those lips she knew so well.
She wanted the whole package; one often ornery, frequently funny,
sometimes infuriating, always loving cowboy named Sean McGee.

When Sean retreated, he grabbed Mel's hand
and led her to the passenger side of his pickup. Setting his hands
at her waist, he easily lifted her up onto the seat. Then he
reached beyond her for the box she had left on the seat.

"This belonged to my mother." He opened the
box and slid the ring out, holding it so she could see the heated
fire of green emerald, the cool ice of white diamonds. His gentle
laugh was a little breathless. "There's a story that goes with it,
that I'm sure Dad will tell you when he sees you wearing it." He
paused. "Melanie, will you let me put this on you? Will you wear it
and agree to marry me? It can be tomorrow, next week, next year,
ten years from now. Whenever you're ready. You're worth waiting
for. I've never loved anyone the way I love you."

Had she thought she would be ready for this?
Her heart thumped painfully and squeezed into her throat and her
chin quivered as tears filled her eyes. Her breath hitched and she
couldn't pull in enough air to speak. For answer, she held out her
shaking left hand, and despite her tremors, he slipped the ring
onto her finger.

"We've waited so long already," she
whispered, hooking her arms around his neck. "What do you think
about January?"

"Happy New Year?" He leaned in and took her
lips again, pushing her backward onto the seat and crawling in
after her.

His body provided warmth against the cool
October night, but Mel generated heat to match from deep within.
Sean nuzzled her neck, spinning sensations that rocketed into her
center, stirring the yearning of years and the emotions of decades.
She snaked her arms around his back and arched into him. She knew
the exact moment his slow burn became a recklessly ignited fuse
that mirrored her own. And she reveled in the knowledge that she
had sent him there.

No, they hadn't had the connection Sean had
craved that morning, but it was present now as two hearts welcomed
each other home.

****

Sean cradled Mel next to him. Her breathing
was a series of deep sighs. Every so often, contentment rose from
her throat in a soft purr. He didn't know how long they lay on the
seat of his truck, but he wasn't in a hurry to break that long
awaited connection.

Eventually, he began to feel the wash of the
autumnal mountain air and he knew they'd have to get up. Calm began
to edge in and with it came reason. Then memory.

No
!

He raised himself, abruptly
pulled away from her, knowing it was already far too late to be
doing so. He should have done this first. Before anything
happened.
Stupid! Stupid!

He slid out of the pickup cab and stooped to
retrieve pieces of abandoned clothing. His hands shook for very
different reasons now. He hauled on his jeans. Finding his shirt,
he pulled it over his head, tossing Mel's clothing in her
direction. Without bothering to locate his boots, he left her,
pushing the door closed to protect her from the mountain chill. The
grass was damp and cold beneath his bare feet as he walked to the
rear of the truck. He stood in the dark, resting his forehead on
the cap. The cold breeze washing over him was tropical in
comparison to the chill in his gut. What had he just done to
her?

Her approach was nearly silent, but he felt
her moving up behind him. Her arms began to sneak around his waist
but he jumped forward and slammed into the truck. Away from her
touch.

"Don't, Mel. Don't touch me just now."

She snatched her hands back. "What is it?
What's wrong?"

The fear in her voice was obvious and it
killed him. He had to touch her after all. He whirled, tugging her
against him, his hands sliding up her back. "Mel, I'm sorry. I'm so
sorry. I went at you like a runaway train and—"

"But I liked that! I want to do it again."
She wiggled against him and giggled. "Only . . . maybe not in the
truck next time. As exciting as that was, we're not kids anymore,
are we?"

Her words and movements made
him think of everything he'd always wanted to do with her. But he
had to maintain sanity now. "Listen to me, Sweetness. We
didn't—
I
didn't
use anything. Protection—I didn't use a condom."

She went completely still.

"Mel." He leaned back but it
was too dark to see. She was so quiet. "
Melanie
?"

Man, he was losing his mind with this woman.
Silently, he cursed himself for his stupid, insensitive
selfishness. She'd accepted his marriage proposal. That hadn't
given him license to go so far with her. What was he thinking?

She drew a shaky breath. "It's okay. Sean,
it's okay. I'm healthy, you're healthy. We're going to get married.
And it's not the right time of the month for me to get
pregnant."