Heartsong Cottage (10 page)

Imagine what he might do if he found her. Found them.

No, she didn't want to imagine it. It didn't bear thinking about. He'd left cut-up stuffed-animal pieces on her pillow, for goodness' sake! She'd never prove it, just like she'd never prove that he murdered Ted, but she knew it. In her heart of hearts, she knew it.

She'd seen it in his eyes as he'd stood as pallbearer for his friend.

She couldn't tell Daniel. Nor could she remain in Eternity Springs. Not with a child. Not around Daniel Garrett's friends.

Plop. Plop. Plop.
She gathered a second handful of pebbles. She'd have to grab her nest egg and flee. Maybe she could find another little mountain town in which to live. Maybe she should try a beach town this time around. Or a city. Philly or Phoenix or Farmington.

Plop plop plop. Come inside with me. Dance with me. Sing to me again.

Actions have consequences.
Plop. Plop. Plop.
Ripples upon ripples upon ripples.

I'm going to be a mother.

A tentative combination of fear and delight fluttered in her heart like hummingbird wings.

She wouldn't have chosen this path on purpose, but she couldn't regret it. She wouldn't regret it. What she needed to do was to figure out a way to live with it. How to live with him or her.

And maybe with Daniel? What if …

For a few minutes, she allowed herself to daydream. Since Flynn and Gabi's wedding, she'd asked a few discreet questions about Daniel Garrett around town. Everything she'd learned about him reinforced her first opinion of the man. He was a good person, a real hero to a number of people. He was loyal and smart and determined. He was a man of his word. If she'd set out to get pregnant on purpose, she couldn't have picked a better father for her baby. If only he made his living some other way. Why couldn't she have slept with an accountant?

No, that might actually be worse. Who knew if her false documents would hold up beneath an accountant's scrutiny?

Daniel Garrett wasn't an accountant. He was a detective.

A detective who'd kept looking for Holly Montgomery for years. Who wouldn't give up. Who never gave up.

Maybe you could ask for his help.

The idea drifted through her mind like an angel's sigh. What if she told him? What if he tried to help? What if …

She remembered the look in Russell's eyes at the funeral.

No. She wouldn't be responsible for another man's death.

She tossed the last three rocks into the creek, her mood going bleak. Could she even keep her baby safe? Maybe the most loving thing to do would be to tell Daniel and offer him custody, but everything inside her rebelled at the thought.

Well, this was a problem she wasn't going to solve today. She didn't
need
to solve it today. She had plenty of time to figure out the best thing for all three of them.

In the meantime, she'd better get back to work.

Rising, Shannon dusted off her hands and bent to scoop up her backpack just as a sound reached her ears. The hair on the nape of her neck rose. What sort of animal made a noise like a crying child? There had been a discussion about it at Murphy's one night. Maybe a wildcat? No … something less threatening. What was it?

“A fox,” she recalled just as movement on the other side of the creek caught her attention. Her mouth gaped in surprise. Not a wild animal, but a wild child. The boy was seven or maybe eight years old, and he was sobbing his heart out.

He was running straight for the creek.

Shannon frowned. Why was a child alone in the forest? He was darting straight toward the waterfall. Did he see where he was going? This might not be Niagara Falls, but a headlong tumble off the creek bank could cause a serious injury. Concern rolled through Shannon. Her gaze swept the little meadow. There … maybe fifteen yards away, the stream was narrow enough for her to cross. She began moving that way even as she called, “Hello? Hello! Little boy! Are you okay?”

Shannon took a running start to leap across the creek and angled her pursuit to intercept the child. “Stop!” she shouted. “Please stop!”

This time, the boy heard her. He slowed, allowing Shannon time to place herself between the water and the boy. “Whoa … whoa … whoa,” she said, grabbing him by the shoulders. “There's a big drop-off. You need to be careful. Honey, who are you? Why are you out here by yourself?”

“I'm running away! I don't like it here. I don't want to be here anymore.” He lifted tear-filled big brown eyes to Shannon. “She's fighting with him and it's because of me. I didn't mean to do something stupid. I just wanted to talk to my friend Jeremy. I'm so lonely here. There's no TV!”

Shannon placed a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. “What's your name, honey?”

“I'm not supposed to tell!”

Oh. Shannon didn't like the sound of that. She hoped this was simple stranger-danger protocol, but her own circumstances made her suspicious. But before she said any more, another figure burst from the trees. An attractive blonde wearing expensive jeans and a tight red sweater exclaimed, “Benjamin Robert, you are in so much trouble. You scared me to death!”

“Mommy.”

Upon seeing Shannon near her child, the woman's face flushed with alarm. Shannon removed her hand from the boy's shoulder, lifted both hands palms up, and took a step backward in her effort to be nonthreatening. “I was worried he was going to run over the edge.”

“I'm sorry, Mommy,” the boy said. “I shouldn't have used his satellite phone to call Jeremy. I was bad.”

“You made a poor decision.”

“He yelled at me.”

“Yes, and he shouldn't have done that.”

“You yelled back at him.”

“Yes.”

“It's just like at home. It scared me.”

“Oh, honey.” The blonde wrapped her arms around the boy. “I'm sorry. We shouldn't have yelled.” She met Shannon's gaze and her lips lifted with an embarrassed smile. “I'm afraid our family disagreement spilled beyond our boundaries.”

Shannon's gaze skimmed over both the woman and child, searching for bruising or other signs of abuse. Nothing was obvious, but clothing could hide a lot. Quietly, she asked, “Do you need help? I have a car. It's not far from here. Half an hour along that path and it will be mostly downhill.”

“Help? Oh, no. Thank you. We're fine.”

“We're not fine!” the boy said. “There's nothing to do here! Do you have TV, lady? Or Wi-Fi?”

The blonde released a frustrated sigh and gave her son a stern look. “Enough.” To Shannon, she explained, “My husband wanted a back-to-nature holiday, but I'm afraid the isolation here takes some getting used to for city folk like my son and me. We'll adjust. We just need to give it some time. Honey, we need to get back to the house. Daddy will be wondering if we got lost.”

“He is not my daddy!”

“Stepfather, then.” The blonde's voice held an unmistakable note of warning. She extended her hand toward Shannon, her manner flustered. “Thank you so very much for watching out for my boy. It frightens me to think of what might have happened to him. He had no business being on that mountain trail all alone.”

“The Rockies do require respect,” Shannon said. Casting a smile toward the boy, she added, “I came here from the city, too. It took me a little while to adjust to life in the mountains. But the outdoor life does have much to offer if you give it a chance.”

“Fishing is stupid,” the boy said with a shrug. Sullenly, he added, “It's really stupid not to have Wi-Fi.”

Shannon experienced a wave of sympathy for his back-to-nature stepdad. She'd bet ten dollars that this boy was one of those children who'd been given his own smartphone or tablet before he could walk.

His mother gave Shannon an apologetic smile. “Colorado has been a bit of a culture shock for us. I didn't think this was the best place for our vacation, but my husband insisted.”

“Well, if you decide you simply can't do without creature comforts, you should ask your husband to bring you over to Eternity Springs. Angel's Rest Healing Center and Spa has Internet and offers half-price spa services on Wednesdays through the end of October.”

“Really? Well, we might need to look into that. Thanks. You know, a little pampering sounds wonderful. I'll see if I can't talk my husband into taking us to … Eternity Springs, you said?”

“Yes.” Shannon figured she might as well play ambassador. “In addition to Angel's Rest resort, we have fabulous shopping. You'll want to visit Vistas art gallery and our wonderful art glass shop, Whimsies. Heavenscents is our handmade-soap store. I highly recommend the lavender bath melt. Whatever you do, don't miss the strawberry pinwheel cookies at our bakery, Fresh.”

“Cookies?” the boy repeated. “Do they have chocolate chip?”

Shannon nodded. “With big hunks of chocolate. And…” She paused dramatically, then added, “We do have Wi-Fi readily available.”

“Mom, can we go?”

The woman's smile was a little strained. “We'll see. It truly does sound lovely. I'll see if I can talk my husband into a trip. Although he's not going to want to reward your bad behavior, son.”

“I'm not going fishing! I'm not going to touch worms and those eggs are slimy. Tell him, Mom.” He pointed and announced the demand. “There he is now. You tell him!”

The blonde winced and glanced nervously over her shoulder. Shannon followed the path of the little brat's finger toward the man who emerged from the trees. When he spied them, he came to an abrupt halt. Time seemed to stand still as his gaze locked on Shannon's.

Her stomach dropped. The nausea that accompanied her mornings of late stirred and her sandwich threatened to come up.

“He doesn't look happy,” the blonde observed.

No, he doesn't.

In fact, Daniel Garrett looked furious.

 

Chapter Five

Married.

Daniel Garrett was married.

He had a wife. A stepson.

Why, the lying, cheating, sorry son of a swamp rat.

You slept with a married man.

Shannon sucked in a quick breath at the realization. Her gaze flicked to the boy and then to his mother. To Daniel's wife.

OMG. I'm the other woman!

It went against everything she believed in. It violated her core beliefs.

She was going to have a married man's baby.

Dazed and shaken, Shannon only vaguely noticed when Daniel's wife took hold of her son's hand and said, “We'd better go. Thanks again.”

The blonde tugged the boy toward the edge of the forest where Daniel stood beside a boulder almost exactly the same height as he was. Shannon watched them go and wanted to dash off in the other direction. Pride kept her rooted her to her spot and provided fuel for her actions as she lifted her chin and shot Daniel a contemptuous look.

He said something to the boy, then he and his wife exchanged a few words. The blonde wrapped her arms around Daniel's waist and gave him a hug. Mother and son then disappeared into the trees.

Once his family departed, Daniel faced Shannon. She tilted her chin even higher. He glanced back into the trees, then again at her.

His mouth set, his expression grim, Daniel Garrett headed her way.

*   *   *

What a cluster. What a train wreck. What a colossal screwup his decision to bring Linda and Benny to Colorado had been. The kid was unhappy. Mom was unhappy. Daniel was downright miserable.

What the hell had he been thinking? Just because the idea of spending a few weeks in a remote no-frills mountain cabin sounded like heaven to him didn't mean an eight-year-old boy raised on iEverything would see the appeal. He should have realized that just because a boy had never been fishing didn't mean he'd fall in love with the activity when he had the chance.

Face it, Garrett. You don't know eight-year-old boys from hedgehogs.

No, his experience ended at age four, didn't it?

Daniel gritted his teeth. He'd had a list of worries involving Benny a mile long, but having the kid run off into the woods hadn't been on it. It almost required an act of God to get the boy to put down his electronics and leave the cabin. When Daniel discovered Benny chatting away on the sat phone, he'd lost it.

Guilt rolled through him like a wave. He seldom raised his voice. He never raised it with children or women. Why today?

At least when the boy decided to take off, he'd had the sense to follow a trail. If he'd dashed into the trees in a different direction, he could have easily gotten lost. Daniel's expertise lay in tracking children through the maze of adult depravity, not through a forest of pine and fir and aspen. All he needed was to have to call in the authorities to find a missing kid—one who was already in the news for being missing.

Not that what had just happened was a whole helluva lot better. Benny had managed to lead him to the one person in Colorado whom Daniel least wanted to see.

Wasn't it just his luck?

Not that he hadn't imagined running across her dozens of times in the past six weeks. He'd imagined seeing her out hiking in the woods—in tight little short shorts and a midriff-baring top. And sunning herself beside a mountain stream—topless. And lying beside him in bed—naked.

Instead, he found her standing in a meadow with a chip the size of a boulder on her shoulder.

Dammit, Garrett. Could you be a bigger dumbass?

He should have taken Linda and Benny to New York City or San Antonio or San Francisco. Hell, he never should have accepted this job to begin with. He was a detective, not a bodyguard. The skill sets were different.

So what if ten years of close association with evil had left him heartsick and soul weary and ready for a change? If he wanted innocence, he should have gone to work at a scrapbooking store or taking baby portraits.