Love's Taming (The Love's Series) (23 page)

“It means I don’t go asking my partner about what is making him sad.”

“Oh Jesus, Shane. You don’t have to lose your man-card just to ask a friend what all has been happening in his life!”

Tired of talking about Matt when he really wanted to be buried in her, he moved to her side of the coffee table, crawling over her body as she lay back on the floor. “Want to know more about my man-card?” he asked, effectively pinning her underneath him.

Giggling, she admitted, “Oh yeah. You can show me your man-card anytime you want.”

*     *     *

The next morning
Shane was gone when Annie awoke, but by the time she was out of the shower he was back in the kitchen with pastries from Mrs. Greenwald. And he brought plenty for Leon and Suzanne as well.

Kissing him goodbye, she watched as he headed out of the door to work as she walked down to the clinic. Smiling to herself, she could not help but think how right this felt.
It’s as though he belongs here. With me. In my life.

As soon as she walked through the door of the clinic she was immediately surrounded. Leon took the pastries out of her hand while Suzanne grabbed her other hand and pulled her into the room.

“So spill, chickie. How was meeting the family?” Leon asked while shoving a bear claw into his mouth.

Annie laughed, “Well, it was interesting. They hadn’t seen him in a long time, so it was pretty emotional. But other than that, they were really nice.” She noticed Suzanne’s sharp eyes focused on her intently. “Honestly, Suzanne. It was good. His family is very much like mine. Speaking of mine, I need to call my mom.”

“Of Lordy, I can hear the wedding bells already once Momma Donavan gets hold of this information,” Leon joked.

“That’s why I have been putting it off. But when she finds out that I’ve met his family, she’ll have a fit!”

The front door chimed signaling the start of another day as the three hustled to get ready.

*     *     *

Shane looked over
at Matt where he was talking on the phone and taking notes in one of the many files they had strewn across their desks. As he hung up the phone, Shane said, “Let’s get out of here man and have some lunch.”

Once in the diner down the road, Matt looked over at Shane and said, “Okay, go for it.”

Surprised, Shane asked, “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been lookin’ at me like you’ve wanted to ask me somethin’ all morning. Stop screwing around and just ask.”

Chuckling as he shook his head, he admitted, “You’ve always known me. Guess that’s what made us good partners.” Pausing for a moment to think about what he wanted to ask, he finally just went for honesty.

“Look, last night Annie wondered about you and I had to admit that we haven’t really had a chance to catch up. I realized that while I was dealing with my own shit, you were back here with a life that I don’t know about. And…you seem quieter. You were always up for a good time and now …I don’t know…like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

Matt sat for a few minutes and Shane let the comfortable silence flow between them. Their food was delivered and they began to eat. As their lunch was almost finished, Matt began to talk.

“It was hard when you went under, but I knew you. I knew after the rescue of your friend’s woman, you were determined to do anything to shut down that pipeline. Had a couple of partners while you were under. They were good. Not you, but good enough. I just kept thinkin’ that I had not only lost my partner but my friend as well, so I kind of shut down. Stopped going out as much.”

Shane sat listening as he got the feeling that there was so much more to the story than what Matt was saying.

“I met someone.”

That got Shane’s attention. He was about to ask to hear more, but realized that it must have ended badly for Matt’s reaction to be what it is. So he let the silence speak for him once again.

“Met her at a bar mixer one night, but she wasn’t a bar troll. Nice girl. Hell, drop-dead gorgeous. Real smart…a lawyer in the city. We got together and stayed together. Dated for six months.”

“I had no idea, bro.” Shane hung his head for a moment. “Fuck. I missed so much!”

“Yeah, well, some things are better missed,” Matt said ruefully. “Met each other’s families. Even talked about marriage, although looking back, it was more of a one-sided conversation. My side.” He self-consciously rubbed the scar on his face.

Again the silence at the table spoke volumes. Shane knew that whatever was coming was not going to be good.

“I got the cut on my face when I was off duty and having to break up a bar fight. A drunk asshole broke a bottle and took a swipe at me like he thought he was in some goddamn wild-west movie. For a while, it looked really bad – stitches, all red and swollen. She didn’t handle it well. Wanted me to quit the force. Said the scar upset her to look at it. I figured when it healed, she’d be fine. Then the typical started happening. She had to work late. Missed our dates. Said she had too much goin’ on.

“Then I find out she’s sleepin’ with one of the lawyers in her firm. I won’t go into details about how I found that out, but it wasn’t pretty. We had a fight and she told me that since my face was no longer handsome, she just couldn’t see herself with me.”

Shane reared back as though slapped. “What the fuck?”

Matt just nodded. “Yeah. That was a year ago, so it’s not like it was recent, but since then I don’t socialize as much.”

“That’s fucked up man. I am sorry as hell I wasn’t here.”

“Nah. It’s all good now. I focus on the job and find a bar chick to bang when I need to. Just not lookin’ for anything like your sunshine.”

Shane smiled at the thought of his copper-headed spitfire. “You’ll find it one day. The real deal, not some two-bit skank who wouldn’t know a good man if it bit her in the ass!”

The conversation turned over to the cases on hand. “You did good work while under, Shane. We got convictions on most of those mother-fuckers that you sent our way.”

“Yeah, but I never made it to the top. I knew about the prostitution angle that we helped shut down but the dog trade, well that was something that I was just getting’ into when to prove loyalty I had to sacrifice Sarge and that led me to Annie…and the rest is history. But honest to god, Matt, I couldn’t have taken much more without losing my soul.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. We may not have shut them down completely, but we hurt ‘em bad. We may even be able to keep diggin’ to find out where they house the dogs.”

Walking out of the diner to go back to the station, Shane said, “I’m meeting Annie’s parents this weekend.”

Matt kept walking although his dour look was replaced by a grin. “Looks like one of us just might be gettin’ married.”

Shane clapped him on the back but couldn’t help but smile as well.

T
he following Saturday
morning found Shane, Annie, and Sarge in his truck heading to Jefferstown. The trip would take a little over an hour so he spent the time filling her in on his conversation with Matt.

“Oh Shane. That is horrible. I can’t imagine having to live with knowing that you gave your heart to someone so shallow. And he is still so handsome. The scar doesn’t take away anything from the man inside!”

Shane laced his fingers with hers as he glanced at the beautiful woman sitting in his truck.
Pure, fuckin’ sunshine. All the time.
He brought her fingers to his lips, kissing them lightly.

As they drove into the driveway of the suburban home that was so similar to Shane’s parents’ home, they saw several cars already parked.

“Who all is going to be here, babe?”

Sighing deeply, she answered, “I have no idea.”

The door flung open before they were able to get to the front porch. “Annie,” her mother yelled as she hugged her daughter tightly. The tiny, red-headed woman then turned to Shane with a huge grin on her face. Grabbing him in a hug as well, she said, “You must be Shane. How nice to meet you!”

Shane and Annie smiled over her mother’s head before being interrupted by a booming voice. “Ruth, let the man breathe.”

Annie’s mother let go of Shane, then turned, yelling loudly into the house. “Well, if you’d get out here to greet guests, I wouldn’t have to drag them in to get a welcome.”

A large man came onto the porch catching Annie as she jumped into his arms. Shane watched as father and daughter hugged, finding himself thinking of his own father. Mr. Donavan then turned to shake Shane’s hand and the two men sized each other up. Shane figured he must have passed the test when Mr. Donavan suddenly grinned and said, “You can call me Harvey and this woman who’s been huggin’ on you is Ruth. Come on in son and have a beer.” Shane winked at Annie before disappearing into the house.

Once inside, they were met with several members of Annie’s family including grandparents and a few aunts, uncles, and cousins. As soon as she could get her mother alone she rounded on her.

“Mom, did you have to invite so many people? I wanted this to just be about us.”

“Oh darling, you don’t get to come home that often and everyone wanted to see you.”

“You’re not fooling me. The minute you found out I was bringing Shane with me, you were on the phone. Mom, this is embarrassing.”

“Nonsense dear.” Her mother walked over to envelope her in a hug once more. “Honey, I know you think I just want to plan for a wedding and grandchildren, but it’s not just that. You work so hard. You always have. You’re driven, goal oriented, and you never stopped until you became a vet with your own practice. But honey, there’s more to life and I want you to have that too.”

Returning her mom’s hug, she could feel the sting of tears threatening to fall. “I love you mom. He may just be the one.”

Straightening to her full height, which was only the same five foot two inches that Annie was, she announced, “Well, then let’s go feed our men!”

The afternoon was spent in a similar fashion to the weekend before at Shane’s house with the exception of Harvey stealing Shane away to his workshop for a while.

Shane looked on with interest at the intricate woodwork that Harvey created. “These are amazing, sir. I’ve admired this type of work on houses that I drive by but confess to not having ever thought of who made them and how they were made.”

“It’s kinda like your children. You do the best you can but never quite know how they’ll turn out. Now take my Annie. She’s a hard worker. Decided years ago to be a vet and she’s never strayed from that path. I worry about her though.”

Harvey rubbed his hands over a few of the wood pieces that he had made, allowing his rough hands to smooth along the curves. “Without sounding like a cliché, can you tell me about what you do, Shane? I know you’re a detective and Annie indicated that you were undercover for a while. But son, all I really know is that shortly after meeting you, my daughter got shot at in her own clinic.”

Shane nodded, knowing this conversation was going to be coming at some time. “Sir, my father was a policeman. Worked vice for a number of years in Richland and was killed in the line of duty before I could join him on the force. It’d been a dream of mine to work beside him. Instead, I had to bury him before I had that chance.”

He paused and noticed that Harvey had leaned against the workbench heavily, as though that information weighed on him.

“I worked the streets before becoming a detective and moved into vice as soon as I could. I had one goal, and that was to take down as many drug dealers as I possibly could.”

Harvey nodded but said nothing, so Shane continued.

“An old friend of mine had his fiancé kidnapped by some dealers and we barely got her out alive. I decided then that it was time. I went undercover, but honestly I thought it would last six months to a year at the most. Two years later, I was dug in deep but still not at the top. Then it got personal with Sarge here,” he said as he rubbed Sarge’s ears, “And that’s when I met your daughter.

“Never meant for her to be involved. Never meant for any harm to come to her. Truthfully, never meant to see her again after she helped me the first time with Sarge. But I couldn’t stay away.”