His Heart Aflame (Beach Haven Book 2) (10 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Under normal circumstances, the drive from Chicago to Beach Haven took about two and a half hours. In Maggie’s case, it took closer to three because her old Honda simply couldn’t handle the kind of speed required for highway driving. She put-putted along at an embarrassingly slow pace, trying to ignore the dirty looks and obscene gestures of the drivers passing her.

I think I just got the finger from a little blue-haired granny
, she thought, amused.

She should have taken the time to get an oil change or at the very least check the air in her tires. But it had been hard enough convincing herself to wait until morning.

Sean was in love with her.

She almost felt as though she could fly to Michigan on the strength of that knowledge. He loved her. He had heard her whispered words in the barn that night, and he loved her as much as she loved him. Screw
Battle of the Brides,
Lindsay Newman and Devon Rock and all of their very lovely money; Sean Jackson loved her.

She’d begged Alex Hale not to say a word to him, and the older woman had agreed. A moment later, Maggie had thought to beg her not to tell Sean’s mother, and Alex had also agreed to that, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

So here she was, jolting along in a seventeen year-old clunker that rattled and shook at any speed over 50 mph, making her slow but determined way back to Beach Haven to tell Sean the truth about her feelings. To tell him how sorry she was for lying. To explain why she hadn’t come back earlier. To ask him for another chance.

To tell him that he was going to be a father.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she took the exit for Beach Haven and bounced across the old drawbridge on the way into town. There was something about this place that made her feel like she was coming home, even though she had only been here for such a short time.

Pedestrians turned to glare at her as she made her very noisy way down the crowded streets. In the month since she had been here, the tourist season had hit in full force, turning the sleepy little beach town into a buzzing hubbub of people in summer clothes and bright sunburns, carrying too many shopping bags and trying frantically to get their money’s worth of fun out of their summer vacation here.

Maggie wondered whether her car would break down or she would find a parking spot first. One way or another, she was done driving.

She recognized Ronda’s Place and spotted Jackson Auto Repair just beyond it. For just a moment, she debated running into the restaurant first for one of Ronda’s famous omelets; no, she decided, she needed to talk to Sean first. She’d hit Ronda’s after, as long as her conversation with Sean didn’t make her lose her appetite.

Her car made a pitiful little sound when she turned off the engine in the parking lot of Jackson’s, almost like a human sigh of relief. She stepped out and stretched for a moment before making her way inside.

A dark-haired, middle-aged woman stood behind the counter. “Looks like you got your car here just in time,” she observed. “I can have one of the guys take into the back right away.”

“Actually, I’m not here because of my car. I’m here to see Sean Jackson.”

The woman looked her up and down, and Maggie saw the light of recognition in her eyes. For a crazy second, she imagined that she heard Wagner’s
Ride of the Valkyries
playing somewhere, and she knew without a doubt that this must be Sean’s mother.

“You’re Maggie,” The woman said.

“Yes, Ma’am.” She held out her hand.

Suzanne Jackson looked at her hand and very slowly raised her own for a quick handshake. “I’ve heard about you. Wondered if I’d ever get a chance to meet you.”

“Is he here?”

“Sure, he’s here. He’s in the back, working. I’ll be sure to tell him you stopped by.”

Okay, then. Maggie hadn’t bargained on having to get past a gatekeeper. “Please, Mrs. Jackson, I drove all the way from Chicago to see him.”

“Next time, you might want to call first and save yourself a trip.”

Ouch.

“Hey, Ma!”

She felt her heart speed up at the sound of his voice ringing out from somewhere down the hallway. “I need you to call Jacqueline Davis and tell her the Jaguar isn’t going to be ready by four,” he called.

“Will do!” Suzanne sang out, shooting her a look that spoke volumes about her opinion of Maggie.

Then he appeared around the corner, and Maggie’s heart leaped into her throat. He was better-looking than she remembered, even with smudges of dirt and grease on his face, and even the bulky coverall he wore couldn’t disguise the body that she still ached to touch.

His smile faded when he saw her. “What do
you
want?”

“Ten minutes of your time. Please. I just want to talk to you, Sean.”

“I’m busy.”

“Sean. Please.”

“I am not interested in hearing anything that you might have to say,” he said firmly.

She crossed her arms and glared right back at him.

“Oh, for God’s sake, just listen to her,” Suzanne burst out. “She won’t leave unless you do. Use my office to hear her out, and send her on her way.”

“Fine.” He seized her upper arm and half-dragged her down the hallway into a tidy little office, where he dropped into a desk chair and scowled up at her. “You have five minutes, so start talking.”

“Sean, I am so sorry--” she began, but he waved her words away.

“You drove a long way if that’s all you’ve got to say, Maggie. Go home and marry your actor.  Maybe you’ll get your own reality show this time.”

She swallowed. This wasn’t going well at all. She’d expected him to be angry, but not this angry. “I’m not marrying Devon.  I don’t love him.  I’m done with him and Lindsay and all that whole mess.”

“How sad for all of you.”

“Sean, you can’t leave Beach Haven,” she said, trying a different angle.  “This is your home.”

He jumped to his feet, towering over her. “Who the hell do you think you are?” he demanded. “You have no right to come in here and tell me what I can’t do. Especially since it’s all your fault I have to go. What did you think was going to happen to me after you used me as part of your little publicity scheme? Oh, let me guess -- you didn’t think it through, did you? Just another shortcut to money and fame, right?”

“How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” she cried.

“A million. Two million. Who knows? I will never be able to believe you. You’re nothing but a liar, Maggie.”

She drew a shaky breath.

“I really fell for you,” he said, more quietly. “I thought we might actually have some kind of a future together. But it was all just a game to you.”

It was gradually dawning on her that she really had wasted her time coming here. He may have loved her at one time, but that love had been replaced by so much anger and resentment that she was just going to have to accept the fact that she had lost him. Still --

“I’ll leave,” she told him. “I’ll go back to Chicago, and you’ll never hear from me again. But don’t let me be the reason you run away.”

“I’m not running away.”

“Yes, you are. Sean, this town is your home. Your
family
. They love you. Okay, so a couple of buttheads believed a bunch of stupid lies, but this --” she waved her arms to include the garage and the small town “-- this is where you belong. This is what you’ll be leaving behind if you go.”

He crossed his arms and continued to glare.

“I’ve spent my whole life running away whenever things got too difficult,” she said quietly, more to herself than to him. “I’ve been looking so hard for the next big break, the next opportunity, that I never took the time to finish anything. I never needed reality shows or lots of money; I just needed to be strong enough to do the right thing, to stick with something, anything, just once.”

She felt hot tears building up in her eyes as she looked up at him again. “Sean, you do the right thing
all the time
. You’re strong enough to make the right choices, and you’ve got a whole town full of people who will stand behind you, no matter how long it takes you to get back on your feet. If you run away now, you’re just . . . taking the easy way out. A shortcut. You’re acting just like me. And you deserve better than to be like me.”

“Maggie--”

“Don’t. I only came here to say good-bye because I didn’t get a chance before now. I’ll go back to Chicago and I’ll stay out of your life. Just promise me that you’re not going to run away from Beach Haven because of what I did to you.”

“I--I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I ask.” She turned on her heel and walked away from him, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill.  He didn’t try to follow her, and she didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved. She could see him standing in the doorway of his family business, watching her get into her trusty little Honda, and she offered up a silent prayer that please, please, please let the car start just this one more time.

She was rewarded with the sputtering roar of the engine, and she threw it into gear to back out of the parking lot onto the busy street. Somehow, the warmth and cheer had gone out of the early summer day while she talked with him, and she could see ominous dark clouds rolling in from the west.

Terrific. Just what I need
, she thought.
Looks like the sky and I are both going to have a good cry together on the way home.

Chapter Twenty

It took every ounce of strength Sean had to stop himself from chasing her out into the parking lot and stopping her before she could get into her car. She was right, of course; leaving Beach Haven was the coward’s way out. He couldn’t tell her that he wasn’t leaving because of the rumors and dirty looks; he had to leave town because everywhere he turned, he saw something that reminded him of her.

He leaned his forehead against the cool glass of the window and closed his eyes, trying to forget the way his skin tingled every time he touched her. It wasn’t love, he told himself.  It was just desire. Plain old ordinary lust. He couldn’t love a woman he couldn’t trust, and he just couldn’t trust Maggie. Not after all of her lies.

“That took
chutzpah
for her to come here,” his mother said from behind him.

Sean smiled in spite of himself. His mother was forever trying out new words and he wasn’t quite sure she truly understood them.
“’Chutzpah’?”
he echoed.

“Guts. Spunk. Courage. Balls.”

“My mother did not just say ‘balls’.”

“Chutzpah
.”

“Fine, so it took courage to come apologize to me. Or maybe she’s just a really good actress. Since when are you on her side?”

Suzanne held up both hands defensively. “I’m not on anybody’s side!” she protested.

Sean turned away again to stare at the empty parking lot.

“I just think that maybe you owe it to yourself to listen to what she has to say,” his mother said quietly.

“I thought you didn’t like her, Ma.”

“I don’t
know
her. But I know my son, and I’ve never seen a woman get to you like this before.”

“She lied to me. About everything. She was willing to stand there and let me lose my job, my reputation, everything that’s important to me. Maggie Reynolds doesn’t care about anyone but herself. I can’t trust her, Ma. I just . . . can’t.”

“Can’t trust her? Or can’t forgive her?”

“Is there a difference?”

“You’re the only one who can answer that, Son.” Suzanne patted his cheek and walked away, leaving him there to stare unseeingly at the fat raindrops that had begun to splatter against the glass.

Outside, tourists were scattering to get out of the rain. They ducked into shops and restaurants, or dashed down the sidewalk toward the hotels as thunder rumbled ominously from the west. Absently, he checked to make sure he had his pager attached to his belt; a spring storm like this could easily whip up into something far more dangerous.

Sean’s stomach growled noisily. Thunderstorms always made him hungry. And if he was going to be perfectly honest with himself, he really hadn’t been eating well in Maggie’s absence. He’d tried, but everything seemed to taste like sawdust, even his favorite dishes from Ronda’s Place. He thought about running down there now for one of Ronda’s trademark grilled cheese sandwiches, but reconsidered when he remembered that he had met Maggie there for the first time.

Damn it, now she’s ruined my favorite restaurant too!
Sighing, he pushed himself away from the glass and headed back into the back to finish the tune-up on Jacqueline Davis’ Jaguar.

He heard the tones go off. “
Beach Haven Fire, prepare for dispatch,
” the woman’s voice said.

“Gotta go, Ma!” he shouted, sprinting out the door and around back toward his truck as the rest of the call came through.

“Car-tree PI, corner of 102nd Avenue and Forty-Sixth Street.”

He felt like cheering because he finally had something interesting to take his mind off of Maggie, and was immediately ashamed of himself.
PI
stood for “personal injury.” Only a ghoul would cheer over something like that.

Griswold and Hale radioed in that they were each taking a truck. Sean called in after them, alerting them that he would be going “direct” -- in his own personal vehicle.

The corner of 102nd and Forty-Sixth was notorious, especially on rainy days like today. The two roads met up at an awkward angle that really impaired visibility, and the fire department was usually called out for an accident here every couple of months. Most were relatively minor, but some created the kind of accident scenes that left him with nightmares for months afterward.

He slowed as he approached the corner, where a small crowd had gathered around the two fire trucks. As he hopped out of his truck, Griswold looked up and waved him back, trotting in his direction.

“Back in your truck, Spiffy,” he ordered.

“Why?”

“You’re not responding to this one. We’ve got it under control.”

Sean looked back and forth from the crowd to his commanding officer, and comprehension slowly hit him. “It’s Maggie?” he asked.

Griswold nodded.

“How bad?”

“Hard to tell. Looks like she had a blowout and skidded off, sideswiped a tree. She’s -- hey! Get back here!”

Sean ignored him. Maggie’s beat-up old Honda was a mangled mess, its passenger side crushed in against a large oak tree. He could see two of his fellow firefighters working to open her door, and Alex Hale had climbed into the backseat to stake care of Maggie.

Alex looked up when he peered in at them. He looked at Alex, suddenly afraid to look at Maggie.

“How are we doing in here?” he asked.

“Doing good,” Alex told him. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Is that Sean?” Maggie’s voice sounded surprisingly steady.

“It’s me, Maggie.” Swallowing, he forced himself to look at her. She had a few scratches from the broken glass, but seemed relatively unscathed. Alex had fastened a C-collar around her neck just in case of any neck injuries, which meant that Maggie couldn’t turn her head to look at him.

“Tire blew out,” Maggie mumbled. “Airbag went off. Stupid.”

“That stupid airbag saved your life,” he pointed out.

“No, I meant I was stupid to come here.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

“You’re both stupid,” Alex chimed in. “Now, Maggie, I want you to stay where you are when they get that door open. Let us do all the work getting you out, okay?”

“I’m not hurt, Alex. Just stuck.”

“Humor me. We’re going to send you to the hospital anyway, just to get you checked out.”

“But--”

“Maggie.”

Something passed between the two women. A look of silent communication. After a moment, Maggie bobbed her chin in a gesture that would have been a nod without the bulky collar.

Before Sean could ask any questions, he was shoved roughly out of the way as the others finally managed to remove the crumpled door. Maggie started to climb out by herself, but one sharp word from Alex convinced her to let the firefighters help her out of the wreck.

He’d responded to countless car accidents over the years, but this was the first time he remembered ever feeling so useless. He couldn’t remember even the simplest steps of basic First Aid. All he could do was stare helplessly as others took care of her and prepared to lift her into an ambulance. 

“Wait!” he cried. “I need to talk to her.  Just for a second.  Maggie, I’m sorry. I’ve been a jerk. I . . .” his voice faltered. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m a mess--”

“You’re beautiful,” he repeated. He caught her hands in his own and looked down into her scratched and dirty face. “I believe you. I believe you about everything. I’m so sorry I sent you away. Please, give me another chance.”

“You’re just freaking out because my accident scared you.”

“Well, yeah. But it’s more than that. When I saw your car and thought that . . . when I thought that I might never get a chance to see you again, to hold you, I realized something. I don’t want to be without you, Maggie. I need you.”

He leaned in closer until his lips were nearly touching hers. “I love you,” he whispered, and gently kissed her.

She kissed him back, as much as the bulky C-collar would allow. After a moment, he pulled away and swiped at a stray tear on her cheek. “I’m going to follow you to the hospital,” he told her. “And when they’re done, we’ll talk, and we’ll figure everything out.”

“There’s more to figure out than you think,” she whispered. “I didn’t just come to Michigan to apologize. I came to tell you that I’m pregnant.”

He looked up to see Alex nodding at him. Maggie bit her lip, watching him closely.

“Maggie --” He tightened his grip on her hands and tried to control the goofy smile that he felt spreading across his face. Then, the smile was gone and he straightened up to look around at the crowd of faces around him. “What the hell are you people waiting for?” he bellowed. “Get this woman to the hospital -- now!”

“I need to tell you one more thing,” Maggie called out.

He gaped at her. Good lord, what else could there be?

“I love you too, Sean. With all my heart.”