“I’m not hungry—” the idea of food made her stomach heave “—but a drink would be nice.”
“You want some alcohol in it? A little something to take the edge off?” he cajoled.
She smiled wanly and shook her head. “Just a soda would be fine.”
Juan Carlos nodded. “You got it, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”
When he left, Payne gestured for the other two to leave the room, as well. He walked to the window and looked out over the city, clasped his hands behind his back. “Do you know that I’ve been wrong more in the past week than I have been in the past decade?”
She chuckled tiredly and resumed her vigil by Jay’s bed. “Then you’re still right a hell of a lot more than the rest of us.”
“Be that as it may, it’s been quite…humbling.” He shot her a smile over his shoulder. “According to my wife, I needed it.”
She grunted. “Sounds like a smart woman.”
“She is,” Payne told her, affection lacing his voice. “You actually remind me of her. You both have that same sort of pluck, determination.”
He’d married someone like her? Charlie thought, amazed. She’d pegged him for a king-of-his-castle kind of guy with a wife who deferred to him and made him feel even smarter than he already was.
Hmm. It looked as though she could be wrong, as well.
“I was wrong not to hire you,” Payne said. “You are a first-class agent who would make a fine addition to any team. I’d like you on mine.”
Charlie blinked, surprised. He couldn’t have shocked her any more if he’d been trying. Honestly, since Jay had been hurt she hadn’t given a thought to any job…even the dream one she’d been so certain she wanted.
“You don’t have to answer now,” he said. “Just think about it.”
She nodded, unsure of what to say. He hesitated, seemed on the verge of saying more, then evidently thought better of it and turned to go.
“You said you’d made two mistakes,” Charlie reminded him. “What was the other one?”
He grinned. “Not warning Jay about you,” he said. “Not that it would have done any good, but…” He shrugged a goodbye and then ducked out the door.
Done any good? Charlie thought. What did he mean by that? Exhausted, she laid her head against the back of Jay’s hand and drifted off to sleep once more.
After all, she was going to need her strength to kill him when he woke up.
JAY BECAME AWARE OF his surroundings a degree at a time. He blinked, his eyes gritty and dry, but didn’t have any luck bringing the world into focus. He could hear a machine dinging next to him, felt something over his mouth and noted the air tasted funny.
Probably because his mouth was parched, he decided, more thirsty than he’d ever been in his life. A hand held his—soft and small—and the scent of green apples slid into his nostrils.
Charlie!
Panic punched him in the gut and he sat bolt upright, tearing the thing off his face, swinging his feet over the side of the bed.
“Jay!” she said, her voice strained but recognizable. She gently pushed him back down and shushed him. “It’s okay,” she soothed. “You’re going to be all right.” Her voice broke at the end and she buried her face in his neck, put her arms around him and held him close.
The fire, Charlie… He remembered getting her out, remembered being afraid to look at her.
“Charlie,” he rasped. “You…okay?”
“Shush,” she said. “Don’t try to talk. Your throat is burned. And yes, I’m o-okay.”
She didn’t sound okay—she sounded like she was crying.
He rubbed his eyes, making another attempt to see. He blinked and the room slowly appeared, fuzzy at first, but clearer by the second.
He drew back to look at her. Her eyes were puffy and red, the lashes clumped together as though she’d been crying a lot. There was a bruise on her cheek, a scratch on her forehead, but otherwise she appeared perfect.
The relieved breath that eased out of his lungs hurt more than he expected, but it was worth it. He smiled down at her, slid a finger along her cheek. “Kill…Andrew for…hurting you,” he rasped.
She chuckled softly and shook her head. “I’m going to kill you for going into that damned library,” she said. “There were firemen there! In special little suits designed to keep them from burning to death! You should have let them handle it, damn you.” Her face crumpled into a sob. “You shouldn’t have risked it, not after…not after Baghdad.”
He should have known that she’d find out the truth one way or another and was too relieved that she was okay to consider being angry. He’d been so frightened, so terrified that something had happened to her. That she’d been hurt.
It had put everything else into perspective.
At some point over the last few days, Charlie Martin had become his gravity, the thing that tied him to this world, and though he didn’t understand it—wasn’t even sure he altogether liked it, for that matter—he couldn’t deny it.
How bizarre that it had taken a girl who could cut him off at the knees to be what ultimately grounded him.
He drew her to him, savored the feel of her nestled in his arms. “It’s…all right,” he said. “I…had to save…you. I…couldn’t bear it…if…”
She pulled back and looked up at him. “I would have done the same thing for you,” she said. “And then you’d be the one lecturing me for reckless behavior.” Her gaze softened. “But that’s what heroes do, isn’t it? And you’re mine.”
“I’m…going to…quit my job,” he rasped.
Her eyes widened.
“What? Why?”
“Because I can’t…work for men…who underestimate you.” And he couldn’t. She was brilliant. She was brave. She was strong. She was…wonderful. Everything he’d never known he wanted. And more.
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears and she trailed her fingers lovingly over his face. “Well, you can’t quit,” she said. “I’ve told them that we’re going to share your apartment instead of me getting my own in the building when I come to work for them.” She bit her lip. “I figure we’ll have more opportunity to make each other scream if we’re cohabitating.” She peeked at him from beneath lowered lashes. “Does that work for you?”
“That depends. Are you willing…to make…an honest man…of me?”
She beamed at him, her heart in her eyes. “I’ll wheel you down to the hospital chapel right now if that’s what you want.”
Jay laughed, though it hurt, and shook his head. Oh, no. He wanted the whole shebang. “White dress. Flowers. Parents. Friends. Honeymoon.” He squeezed her hand, swallowed so that he could say it without pausing. “I love you, Charlie. When I thought…” He shook his head and shrugged helplessly and knew he wouldn’t have been able to finish the sentence even if his throat hadn’t been so damned raw.
A tear spilled down her cheek. “I love you, too, Jay. So much that it scares me,” she admitted, as though it was a mortifying weakness.
“Then we can be…terrified together. And that’s damned sure…better than…apart.”
“I can’t argue with that,” she said. Her hazel eyes glimmered with humor and she tucked her chin against her chest as though imparting a conspiratorial secret. “And we both know I would if I could.”
“True enough.” He laughed silently and shook his head.
He was marrying this wonderful creature, Jay thought with equal parts joy and awe. She was going to be his.
His.
All because of Truffles the Yorkie.
Epilogue
One month later…
“LOOK AT THEM,” Aggie whispered, nodding her head in Jay and Charlie’s direction. “He can’t take his eyes off her.”
Smokey knew the feeling. “She makes a very fine bride.”
And it was true. Charlie’s dark hair had been swept up in an arrangement of soft curls and the dress she was wearing had belonged to her mother. For reasons that had been kept private, she’d broken with tradition and had her grandfather and brother give her away. Her father had missed the wedding, but had arrived later, with a bit of feet shuffling and a shamed face, at the reception. He’d spoken to the bride and groom and, though Smokey had been afraid there for a moment that Jay was going to be throwing another punch that might end with him incarcerated again, ultimately it had ended fine.
Everything had, really.
Truffles had been returned safe and sound, Josie had taken Jasmine’s place and gone to work for Aggie—and was currently enrolled at the local community college on “scholarship.” Burt—who’d had no clue that everything that had happened was as a direct result of Jasmine feeling he’d been slighted—was manning his station at the front gate, still searching the skies for UFOs, of course, and Taffy and Andrew Betterworth were in jail, unable to make bond. Jay and Charlie had survived the fire and were now married, and Aggie had done Smokey himself the greatest kindness by firing him so that he could court her properly without feeling weird about it.
Which was just as well, because he was about to propose to her.
He was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
“Aggie, would you walk with me?”
She smiled up at him and threaded her fingers through his. “Of course.”
“Have you ever been to Cade’s Cove?” he asked.
Her eyes lit with warmth and nodded. “Once,” she said. “Many years ago.”
“It’s my favorite part of the Smokey Mountains,” he said. “It’s peaceful, serene, and the wildlife thrives there, more so than in any other part of the park.”
They strolled into the church parlor and he led her over to a little Queen Anne sofa. “Really?” she said. “I didn’t know that. This is a lovely room,” she remarked, looking around. “How did you know this was here?”
“I saw it earlier,” he told her. Only because he’d gone looking for it. He’d wanted a quiet place to make his plea. “Anyway, there’s a white clapboard church over there that’s still in service today.”
“I had no idea.”
He slid down onto one knee in front of her and pulled the ring from his pocket. “How would you feel about marrying me there?”
Aggie’s mouth rounded in a silent O and she looked from him to the ring then back again. “Y-you want to marry me?” she repeated.
He grinned up at her, took her hand and slipped the diamond over her left knuckle and into place.
“Fervently.”
Aggie placed both hands on his face and drew him to her for a kiss. She smiled against his lips. “If I’d known the way to get you to propose was to fire you, I’d have done it a long time ago.”
“It’s a shame I don’t know how to be insubordinate,” he teased.
“That’s because you’re a good man, Smokey Burkhart, and it’ll be an honor to be your wife.”
And it would be an honor to be her husband.
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459219151
Copyright © 2012 by Rhonda Nelson
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