See Megan Run (22 page)

"He promised he’d love me forever." Megan
closed her eyes, not able to look at herself. "We were sitting
under the oak tree. The one by the house. I asked him to carve our
names in the tree. He said he didn’t have to. He put his hand over
his heart and said as long as his heart was beating it was mine to
keep." There was that damn catch in her voice again. She steeled
her resolve and added, "Forever doesn’t exist, so he lied to me."
The only thing her head and heart agreed on. Forever could be
twenty years, a day, an hour. Tomorrow wasn’t promised to
anyone.

Megan couldn’t stop it. She thought of her
father. Her father had promised he’d be there forever, and he lied.
The men in her life had a habit of doing that. "The only thing
that’s forever is the hole he’ll leave. And I’ve already been
walking around with one hole inside me. I don’t need another one
with Aiden’s name written all over it."

The tears came with a vengeance. She tried to
suck in a breath to keep them in, but they were falling fast, in
big fat drops. Megan looked at her friend and realized she’d picked
the hard way without knowing it. "I’m going to ruin the dress."

"No jokes, Megan."

She loved Aiden, and not being able to see
him was already breaking something inside her. The feeling brought
the memory of her mother walking around the house, a shadow having
more light.

Megan felt herself on the brink of the same
road. She wasn’t going to let that happen to her. "So, I cannot
love him anymore, and I will stop it now, before it gets ugly."

"You have now. You have right this second.
And really, how comforting will the future be, knowing you could
have had those moments to keep you warm instead of nothing at all."
Lynne shook her head. "And I always thought your elevator went to
the top floor. You really are an idiot."

Megan laughed. "Aren’t you supposed to say
something comforting and make me see the error of my ways? Not call
me an idiot."

"The first part was as philosophical and as
mushy as I’ll get." Lynne shrugged. "But you are an idiot if you
don’t go back and get him. That ‘his heart will always be yours’ is
stuff greeting card manufacturers make money off of. Corny as hell,
but he means it."

Megan wiped her face. "For future reference,
never do another intervention."

Lynne smirked. "I don’t think I’ll have
to."

*****

Aiden kept his eyes closed and feet propped
on his desk even after he heard the door to the precinct open and
close. Then light shone behind his eyelids when something hard as a
rock made contact with his head.

"Ow!" He had to blink a few times for his
vision to clear. "Shep, what was that for?"

"Megan."

Aiden’s shoulders slumped. He had hoped to
avoid this conversation with his uncle. "She was leaving. I didn’t
see—Ow." Aiden stood from his desk and met his uncle’s glare with
his own. "Don’t hit me again."

Shep nodded. "Finally. Now tell me. What were
you thinking?"

"She was leaving, and I..." He let the
comment hang between them.

"Not that. Mr. Samuel practically had a
play-by-play of how your car was parked and what went on. I’m
talking about when you let her go."

He didn’t have a real answer for that, so he
went for the cliché. "If you love something, you let it go."

Shep was silent for a moment. "Son, that’s
complete crap. Did you read that in a fortune cookie?" Shep shook
his head and shoved the keys at him. "Here. It’s your turn for Dead
Man’s Curve. I hear your Uncle Butch is finally leaving town. You
can at least hit him with a ticket."

"Why?"

"I’ve only been back two days, and I’m tired
of seeing you mope. It’s not fitting. Go on." Aiden smiled at him.
"Git," Shep said louder.

Aiden grinned, knowing that was the closest
to words of wisdom he’d ever get from his uncle. "Thanks," he said
before he let the door shut behind him.

He pulled his sunglasses from his shirt. He
needed to leave town anyway. Everywhere he went reminded him of
her. The old and the new memories segued together. At this rate,
he’d be bitter by next year.

He folded himself into the car, and before
his thoughts could stray too far he’d parked under the tree on Dead
Man’s Curve. He pulled the radar gun from under the seat and waited
for no one to break the speed limit.

This was worse. Now he was left with his
thoughts. The same ones that had made him stay away from her the
day she left. Aiden figured it was better for all parties if they
didn’t say goodbye. He was sure to make a fool of himself. He’d
been close to begging. Pathetic. He’d been very close to making the
same promises to her as before. Worse than pathetic.

He’d been holding onto her for twelve years.
It was time for him to let her go. He planned to, as soon as he
could forget her. Maybe if Shep knocked him up side the head hard
enough he’d get amnesia. Not a bad idea. No. He’d eat Nicole’s stew
at Thanksgiving. That should do it. If he was honest with himself,
nothing could wipe her from his memory.

He glanced down at the car keys and squinted.
He wondered if Shep would get mad if he made a day trip in the
cruiser. It wouldn’t hurt to see if Megan made it home safely. Also
to see if he could talk Megan into letting him buy her lunch. From
there he could find a jewelry store and propose. This
if-you-love-something-let-it-go thing wasn’t working for him. Did
it work the first time, twelve years ago?

His thoughts were interrupted by the radar
beeping wildly in his hand. He frowned, but sat up in his seat.

His heart literally stopped when a silver
Camaro whipped into view. Before his reflexes could kick in, the
car skidded to a stop. He held his breath. The door opened and one
high heel stepped out, then another, and there Megan stood.

His uncle must have knocked something
sideways in his brain this time, because otherwise Megan was
crossing the road in a dress too tight to be legal, her hips
swaying left and right.

Just in case she was real, he opened the door
and stepped out. He tossed the radar gun onto the seat and crossed
his arms. He’d play it cool, because beneath the heartache he was
pissed. She’d left him. Again. The knowledge didn’t stop his pulse
from racing. He was sick in the heart and in the head. Seeming to
not have a care in the world, she leaned against his car.

"Officer Blake."

"You were doing a hundred."

The corner of her mouth twitched. He ignored
the impulse to taste it. "Really."

"I’m going to have to arrest you."

The smirk stayed. "I forgot something. I was
kind of in a hurry to get here."

"You have the right to remain silent." He
reached for her wrist and slapped his cuffs on it. "Anything you
say..."

Megan sighed. "God, you are as bad as I am."
She sucked in a breath and then let it out slowly. "I love
you."

The words stopped him. She’d never said it.
Even when they were young those words had never crossed her lips.
He’d known she loved him, but it wasn’t the same as hearing her say
it. Shep could have hit him a million more times and it wouldn’t
have left him as dumbfounded as hearing Megan say she loved him.
His hand let go of the cuffs. The best thing he could think of was,
"What?"

"I…love…you." She spaced the words out.
"Brace yourself. I’m going to make some promises to you. It may
only happen once or twice, depending."

She took another step toward him. "I’m going
to buy the empty shop on Third Street, and I’ll travel to the main
shop sometimes, but I won’t really have to. Lynne is going to take
over there. She was really ecstatic when I told her. That’s neither
here nor there. What’s that saying?" She squinted her eyes beneath
her bangs. "Ah, yes, home is where the heart is. You’re here. This
is home. So?"

He reached for the other end of the cuffs. He
smiled when her eyes widened. He slapped it over his wrist. "Say it
again."

"Cocky, now, aren’t you?"

"Say it again."

She glanced down at their hands cuffed
together. "You do have a key for this?" He narrowed his eyes. "Not
romantic at all, are you?" She smiled. "Okay, I love—"

He didn’t let her finish. He pulled her to
him and kissed her until he heard the sound he’d needed to hear for
the past seven days. She sighed and moaned at the same time.

"A good thing I’ve always loved you."

She placed a hand over his heart. "I know."
She kissed him back before saying, "Seriously, do you have a key
for this?"

He chuckled, then pulled her against the car.
She melded into him, feeling right, as if she were meant to be his.
"I might have a key." And because he knew she was his, forever, he
kissed her again. He wasn’t about to let Megan run. Again. Nope,
not this time.

Bio

Melissa Blue’s writing career started on a
typewriter one month after her son was born. This would have been
an idyllic situation for a writer if it had been 1985, not 2004.
Eventually she upgraded to a computer. She’s still typing away on
the same computer, making imaginary people fall in love.

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