Chapter Ten
T
he meeting with the landowner turned out to be far more stressful than Maureen had anticipated. He was stubborn, opinionated and, even worse, very ignorant about the environment
However, after much talk and assurances from Maureen that his Dominicker hens wouldn't quit laying after the seismograph holes were shot and that his water well wouldn't be poisoned, he softened and agreed to let the crew do their work. The old man even invited her to stay for lunch, and Maureen ended up eating a plate of cabbage and corn bread and fried salt pork before she finally thanked him and bade him goodbye.
By the time she returned to the rig site, Adam was still gone. Maureen decided it was all for the best. Whenever he was near, she couldn't think straight. And that was the one thing she had to do now.
Quickly, she gathered up her few belongings and sat down to write him a note.
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It was late afternoon before Adam finally managed to wind up his meeting with the tool pusher and drive back to the site where he'd left Maureen sleeping early that morning.
The moment he realized her pickup truck wasn't parked beside the little trailer, he got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. She should have been back hours ago.
As soon as he stepped inside the makeshift living quarters, he saw her note propped in the same spot he'd left his earlier. Like a hungry hound, he snatched it up and began to read.
Adam, you'll be pleased to know everything is okay with the landowner now. He was tough, but I don't think you'll be having any more problems with him.
As for me and you, I realize we can't keep going as we are. I can see I'm making you unhappy, and that's the last thing I want for you. You deserve much more than I've been able to give you.
I'll be catching the charter back to Ruidoso tonight.
Maureen
And after that? Adam wondered wildly as he gripped the small piece of paper. Why hadn't she said more?
I
realize we can't keep going as we are.
What in hell was she planning to do? Leave Ruidoso and Sanders? Leave him?
Grimly, he tossed the note into the trash, grabbed his duffel bag and slammed out of the little trailer.
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Mercifully, the skies between Oklahoma City and Ruidoso had cleared, making the trip in the small twin-engine plane smooth and uneventful.
For a while through the flight, Maureen tried to concentrate on the extra work she'd brought with her, but after several minutes passed and she was unable to focus her thoughts on one word, she put the test reports back in her duffel bag.
With little more than two hours of sleep the night before, she felt close to being punch-drunk with exhaustion. Yet she knew trying to. sleep would be just as futile as trying to work. So that left Maureen with nothing to do but stare out the window at the great plains below and try to come to terms with the agony in her heart.
She could no longer deny that she loved Adam or even that he loved her. Last night, she'd heard it in his voice, felt it in his fear, tasted it in his kiss. But was he really ready and willing to let his fiancée's ghost die?
Maureen groaned inwardly, then leaned her head back against the cushioned seat and closed her eyes. Who was she kidding? she wondered. The issue wasn't with Adam anymore. It was with herself.
For ten years, she'd carried the ghost of her baby daughter in her heart. For just as long, she'd hated herself for allowing her to die and hated David for not being the man she'd believed him to be. She'd refused to find the courage to put the tragedy behind her and make a future for herself. She couldn't blame Adam for doing the same thing.
“Ma'am, you'd better buckle up,” the pilot called back to her. “We're almost at the airport.”
She thanked him, and as she fastened the black safety strap across her lap, a soft smile tilted her lips. For the first time in ten years, she knew what her heart needed most and she knew with utter certainty what she had to do.
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When Adam drove up the mountain to Maureen's house, it was growing close to midnight. Through the curtains, he could see one lone light burning in the living room, yet even if the house had been dark, it wouldn't have stopped him from climbing the stepping stones and banging his fist on the front door.
“Maureen, it's me, Adam! Open up!”
Several moments passed without a response, so he tried the knob and found the door unlocked. The moment he stepped inside he felt as if someone had slammed him in the gut with a broadax. Boxes and bags were piled everywhere. Mounds of clothes and books and knickknacks filled the couch and chairs.
Adam turned cold then hot as fury and fear rushed through him like a runaway freight train. She was leaving! Damn it, how could she do this to him? To herself?
“Maureen!”
Her name bellowed from his lips and this time he got a faint answer from a room in the back of the house.
“I'm in here, Adam.”
He followed the muted sound down the hallway to the room he knew she'd chosen for her bedroom. When he entered the open door, he saw much the same mess he'd found in the living room. Clothes,
shoes, books and linens were piled and draped everywhere.
Spotting the movement of her arm in the walk-in closet, he started across the room. As he did, he noticed the picture of baby Elizabeth and the small quilt was lying on the corner of the bed along with a few other odds and ends. The sight of the objects made him wince inside. He knew she'd been hurt as no woman should ever have to hurt. But that was behind her now. He had to make her see reason.
“Maureen, what the hell are you doing?”
She looked up to see him standing in the doorway of the closet. He wasn't wearing a hat and his dark auburn hair shone like bronze beneath the glare of the lightbulb. A lock of it fell onto his furrowed brow, and as her gaze traveled downward, she noticed his face was as rigid as a piece of granite. Exhaustion and anger shadowed his eyes and his lips were nothing but a flat, grim line. But he'd never looked better to Maureen, and it was all she could do to keep from smiling at him. Even more, to keep from flinging herself into his arms.
“I'm packing,” she said as casually as she could manage.
“Packing? Packing? It was only a few weeks ago I helped you unpack! Are you never going to quit running away, Maureen?”
She stepped out of the closet and tossed an armful of clothes onto the already loaded bed. “Who said anything about running?”
“Nobody had to! I'm not blind, Maureen. You left Oklahoma like a scalded cat just so you wouldn't have to face me!”
With her hands on her hips, she tilted her chin up
and looked him in the eye. “I had some thinking to do.”
A sneer twisted his features. “And I guess you decided running from me like a coward was the easiest way out Where are you going? Back to Houston?”
“I never want to go back to Houston.”
Confusion suddenly flickered in his eyes. “Then where are you going?”
Adam's eyes drifted up and down the length of her as she gave him a negligible shrug. She was wearing a simple dress of pale blue cotton. Buttons started at the low neckline just above her breasts and ended at the hemline at her ankles. The sight of her luscious curves fueled the need boiling inside him.
“I'm not sure if the place has a name. If I heard it, I don't recall it. Anyway,” she went on as she turned and picked up a sweater from the end of the bed and tossed it into a nearby box, “it's somewhere in the mountains and the owner had the goofy idea that a couple of carpenters could turn the house into a home.”
Suddenly, his hands were on her shoulders and spinning her around to face him. “Maureen, are you...playing with me?”
She couldn't hold herself back any longer. She chuckled softly and stepped into his arms. “Only for the rest of my life.”
Adam's arms crushed her to him and for long moments he held her fast against his pounding heart. “How did youâI thoughtâoh, God, Maureen, I thought you were leaving me.”
She shook her head resolutely. “Last night, I didn't want to admit what has been staring me in the face
for a long time. I love you, Adam. I don't want to live my life without you.”
The air whooshed out of him on a groan of triumph, then, his expression grave, he tilted her face up to his. “You've been adamant about not wanting to marry or have children. Have you really changed your mind?”
She swallowed as an overwhelming surge of love filled her throat with tears of joy. “Oh, Adam, I guess I'd been living in the past for so long that when I met you I didn't know how to look toward the future. And then when you tried to make me see how things really were, I was afraid to try to look or plan or hope.”
With a groan of disbelief, his head fell back. “So why didn't you stay at the rig and wait for me? Your note impliedâI didn't know what the hell to think. The past five hours traveling home has been pure torture!”
“I'm so sorry, Adam. But I was going through some torture of my own. Last night when you told me about Susan, I couldn't help but think you weren't over her, that you couldn't possibly love me. And then I realized I couldn't hold it against you for carrying her ghost around all this time. I've been doing the same thing with Elizabeth's memory.”
His head lowered and his eyes searched hers. “Oh, Maureen, I haven't loved Susan for a long time. In fact, now that I've fallen in love with you, I'm not sure what I felt for her was true, adult love. We were both very young, and I think I was consumed with the idea of being grown up with a wife and children of my own. When Susan's death took that dream away, I didn't have the courage to try to find it again. Not until you came along.”
Her arms tightened around him and she pressed her cheek against the beat of his heart. “This afternoon I realized losing you through my own stubbornness would be much worse than losing you through an accident or illness.” At his sudden chuckle, she tilted her head back to look at him. “Is that so funny?”
His thumb and forefinger gave her chin a little tweak. “You've already tried to kill me down in South America and you couldn't manage to do it.
That ought to prove I'd be a hard man to get
rid of.”
Laughing, she lifted her hand and touched his face. He was the most gorgeous, exciting man she'd ever met, but that was only a part of why she loved him. He understood her. He needed and wanted her and he would always be there for her. Just knowing that melted her heart with a joy so pure and sweet she wanted to weep.
“So when can we move to your house?” she asked. “As you can see, I've already started packing. Are the carpenters finished yet?”
His grin was full of sensual promise. “If they aren't already, we'll run them off and finish it ourselves.”
“And what about getting married? Do you want a big ceremony with your family or...” She stopped abruptly as he began to laugh. With a puzzled frown, she asked, “You do want to get married, don't you? Or
are you playing with me now?
”
The look he shot her said he couldn't wait to get his hands on her. “Of course I want to get married, darling! You're going to be my wife, and we're going to have as many children as God will allow,” he said soberly, then with a joyous chuckle, he added, “I was laughing because I suddenly realized why we happened to meet up again here in Ruidoso.”
Puzzled, she shook her head. “There's nothing odd about my coming here. I work in the gas and oil business. Sanders needed a geologist and your fatherâ”
“No! No! It wasn't any of that. It was that damn bridal bouquet!”
Maureen stared at him as if he'd just lost his mind. “A bridal bouquet! What are you talking about?”
“My sister Anna. I came home from South America to attend her wedding. At that time, my ankle was still in a cast, and when she tossed her bouquet, I couldn't get out of the way fast enough. I ended up catching it! Hell, I should've known something like this was going to happen to me!”
Maureen burst into laughter. “Oh, Adam, you catching the bouquet, that's hilarious! Do you still have it? I'd love to see this piece of fate that brought us together.”
He shook his head and grinned. “No. I tossed it to my cousin Caroline.” His eyes suddenly widened as he looked down at Maureen. “Dear Lord, I wonder what's going to happen to her?”
With a contented sigh, Maureen went up on her tiptoes and raised her lips to his. “I can only hope it's as wonderful as this.”
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