Hatfield and McCoy (25 page)

As always …

When he touched her, the world spun, and split, and lightning seemed to sizzle. And then it came, the moment when the stars burst and the sky seemed to go a glorious gold, and then to blacken again.

As always …

There was the desperate scramble to breathe again, the sheen of perspiration that bathed them both like a lover's dew …

As always …

His arms came around her, warm, tender, inviting. She kissed his hand and lay still, savoring their love, and their life together.

No words came to either of them for the longest time. It was too beautiful. It was spring. They were nearing their first wedding anniversary, and both of them were content to hold one another.

But then McCoy shifted at last. He ran his hand over the growing contour of her stomach.

“You're sure our little McCoy is okay?”

She smiled. “Quite sure.”

“Are you sure you don't know what it is?”

“Yes, I do. It's a baby,” Julie said solemnly.

He made a face in the darkness. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

She shook her head. “I don't know.” She did know. She was convinced it was a boy. But she wasn't going to tell McCoy. He was going to have to be there with her in the delivery room and find out for himself.

“Have you thought more about names?” he asked.

“Yes. If it's a boy, we should call him Hatfield. After all, he'll have McCoy for a last name. He can be Hatfield McCoy.”

“Do you really want him growing up with that name?” McCoy rolled to his stomach and stared at her very seriously, as if warning her that their child could fight his way through school because of it. “And what if the baby is a girl?”

“Well, we'll just call her Hatfield, too,” Julie told him, very seriously.

“Julie—”

“Then again, I'm fond of Robert. Not a Junior. I like Bobby. When he grows up, he can be a Robert if he wants. Or a McCoy.”

He smiled, and kissed her. “Mrs. McCoy, you do know how to flatter your man.”

“I try,” she said serenely.

“Well, we do have about two months left to decide,” he said, and then he sighed. “But we've got to get going now. Brenda expects us there by eight.”

“And we really have to be there on time?” Julie asked. She didn't like being late, but it was so nice here tonight. They were living in the town house in Washington most of the time—it was necessary for McCoy's work. And Julie loved roaming the various libraries and archives to find years-old scandals and murder cases for her stories.

But both of them loved to come home. Rusty could run around the mountains. They could both breathe again, really breathe.

They could go anywhere, she thought. Anywhere in the world. This would always be home to them both.

They didn't need to say it. They knew it.

“We can't be late. Brenda is having a surprise anniversary party for us, and if I know it, I'm sure that you do. Petty will be there, and Patty, and Timothy—and from what Brenda said, I think that those two are going to have an announcement of their own.”

Julie started to bound up. It wasn't easy with her stomach in the way. McCoy gave her a hand. “Patty and Timothy!” she exclaimed.

There was a teasing light in McCoy's eyes. “You didn't guess?”

“Not for a moment. How wonderful!”

“Yes, I guess so. Anyway, we've got to get going.” He pulled her to her feet. “Hop in that shower, ma'am. I'll be right behind you.”

He was right behind her. She smiled as the water cascaded over her. Life was really so good. They still argued. Everyone argued.

But she was never afraid anymore. She knew that he was with her, and she knew how deeply he loved her.

Both of them had put to rest the ghosts of their pasts and found something precious and rare. Not many people were so blessed. She had never imagined the danger between them, but they had met it, and the reward had been more than life, it had been this wonderful love.

“Hurry,” McCoy warned her later, pulling on his jacket. “You know, I heard that it might get a little chilly tonight. I'll throw our coats in the car, too.”

Julie patted powder on her nose. “No, bring the raincoats.”

“Julie, there wasn't a cloud in the sky all day long—”

She turned around, smiling sweetly. “Please?”

And McCoy, watching his beautiful imp of a wife—who now, quite admittedly, did resemble a little blond blimp—had to smile.

And shrug.

And kiss her lightly on the lips.

“All right, my love, raincoats it is.”

And later that night, when the last of the guests were leaving Brenda's, huddled against the drizzling raindrops, McCoy set his hand into the pitter-patter that was falling down. And he laughed.

His life was incredible. Wonderful, incredible.

And beyond that, it even had special advantages!

A Biography of Heather Graham

Heather Graham (b. 1953) is one of the country's most prominent authors of romance, suspense, and historical fiction. She has been writing bestselling books for nearly three decades, publishing more than 150 novels and selling more than seventy-five million copies worldwide.

Born in Florida to an Irish mother and a Scottish father, Graham attended college at the University of South Florida, where she majored in theater arts. She spent a few years making a living onstage as a back-up vocalist and dinner theater actor, but after the birth of her third child decided to seek work that would allow her to spend more time with her family.

After early efforts writing romance and horror stories, Graham sold her first novel,
When Next We Love
(1982). She went on to write nearly two dozen contemporary romance novels.

In 1989 Graham published
Sweet Savage Eden
, which initiated the Cameron family saga, an epic six-book series that sets romantic drama amid turbulent periods of American history, such as the Civil War. She revisited the nineteenth century in
Runaway
(1994), a story of passion, deception, and murder in Florida, which spawned five sequels of its own.

In the past decade, Graham has written romantic suspense novels such as
Tall, Dark, and Deadly
(1999),
Long, Lean, and Lethal
(2000), and
Dying to Have Her
(2001), as well as supernatural fiction. In 2003's
Haunted
she created the Harrison Investigation service, a paranormal detective organization that she spun off into four Krewe of Hunters novels in 2011.

Graham lives in Florida, where she writes, scuba dives, and spends time with her husband and five children.

Graham (left) with her sister.

Graham with her family in New Orleans. Pictured left to right: Dennis Pozzessere; Zhenia Yeretskaya Pozzessere; Derek, Shayne, and Chynna Pozzessere; Heather Graham; Jason and Bryee-Annon Pozzessere; and Jeremy Gonzalez.

Graham at a photo shoot in Key West for the promotion of the Flynn Brothers trilogy.

Graham at the haunted Myrtles plantation, Francisville, Louisiana.

Graham and the Slushpile Band playing the Memnoch the Devil Ball at the Undead Con in New Orleans, 2010.

Graham with dear friend, actor Doug Jones.