A Sheriff in Tennessee (21 page)

Klein admitted the truth to himself. From the first moment he'd dubbed her Izzy he'd been steadily falling in love with the bright, brilliant, sweet and uncertain girl beneath the skin of this beautiful woman. But now that he'd allowed his past to ruin the present, would he ever be able to convince her that they deserved a future? Klein had no idea, but he did know that he had to try.

“Let me make everything all right for you.”

The anguish in her eyes tore at his heart. “You can't make everything all right, because
I'm
not all right. In here.” She tapped her head. “There are some people even you can't help. I have to go away and change how I see myself.”

She was leaving. Panic nearly choked him. Gabe Klein who never panicked about anything. Desperate, he took a chance.

“I know that you love me, Izzy.”

She dropped her makeup bag on the floor. Tubes, bottles and brushes scattered everywhere. She didn't seem to notice. “Who told you that?”

“I opened my eyes and saw the truth in yours. Open your eyes, Izzy. See me.”

Her gaze touched his face like a caress. “I always have.”

“Then, you know why I lost my mind and behaved like a complete asshole.” She raised her brows but she didn't disagree. “I let the past into our lives. I won't make that mistake again.”

Thoughtful now, she gathered the scattered lotions and potions into her bag, then straightened and tossed the bag into the suitcase.

“I wish I could say that I believe you, but I don't. I do love you. But until you believe that you deserve to be loved, you'll always be waiting for me to hurt you. The way Kay Lynne did. The way your mother did. Like countless others have. I can't live that way. And I don't want you to, either.”

“So you'll make me live without you? That's not living. I've been wandering for years, searching for a home, wondering what was the matter with me because I couldn't seem to find one. And all along it was because I hadn't found you. This is home. But only if you're in it.”

Tears filled her eyes as she crossed the room. She kissed him—sweetly, gently—goodbye. He didn't know if he'd survive her walking out that door, but he knew he couldn't watch. So he moved to the window and stared at the immovable mountains.

“There are some things I've got to work out for myself.” She took a deep breath. “I've been sick for a long time now, Gabe, and it's time I admitted it.
I'm
the only one who can make me right again. And until I am, I can't come back.”

He spun around. “You're coming back?”

Her smile was a shadow of the one he adored,
but it was a smile, and his heart leaped with hope. “You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Of course I'm coming back. As soon as I truly believe that you want me.”

“I do.”

“But I don't believe it in here.” She tapped her chest. “Because in here, I'm still the stupid fat girl who doesn't have a friend.”

He wanted to hold on to her and never let her go. But he could see that she had to learn the truth on her own. Only then would she let the past die.

He had a past that needed to die, as well. He had to trust that she'd come back. He had to believe that she loved him and that he deserved it.

“For me you'll always be the bright and brilliant light that came into my life and made me whole.”

“And you'll be the funny, handsome, sexy guy who saw me as more before I ever did.”

“Do you know that I love you?”

“I know that
I
need to love me…before I can accept that you do.”

The door closed, and once again Pleasant Ridge was just a pretty town in Tennessee.

I
SABELLE
A
SH RETURNED
to Pleasant Ridge as summer faded toward fall. She looked a bit different, but the biggest change was inside her.

She no longer felt weak, out of control, ugly—for the most part. There would always be days when the past sang a seductive song. But over the past few months she'd learned to see Izzy in the mirror instead of Belle.

Of course the tabloids had shrieked all her secrets, but by the time she emerged from the private facility to treat eating disorders, the past was passé. She no longer had anything to hide, and she no longer cared about hiding it.

She'd spent some time in Virginia. Her father was doing well. But the place that had once been home was home no longer.

Home was here; home was him.

Izzy slowed her car on Longstreet Avenue. Everything appeared exactly the same. No doubt because the mayor had been informed it had better be.

The show had been a resounding success, and Chai Smith's plans to remodel downtown were nixed by Danny and the producers. To receive the money for the next season, Pleasant Ridge had to be left alone, at least on the surface. She wished
she could have seen Chai's face when he heard that all his sparkling plans for improvement would have to remain just plans.

Izzy drove through town and onto Highway B. She had taken Klein's words of love along with her and held them close to her heart. Eventually she'd come to believe that she deserved to be loved exactly as she was.

But had the months apart shown him the same truth she'd learned? Or had he wallowed in the past rather than whittled it away?

She turned into Klein's driveway and got out of the car. Clint's eager bark greeted her from the porch. Just like the old days. She hoped.

“Hey, Izzy. Long time, no see.”

Her heart stuttered, then thundered. Klein leaned out a second-story window. His hair was white with drywall dust, and he had paint on his nose. Obviously he hadn't been idle while she'd been away.

The second their eyes met, she blurted, “God, I missed you.”

His smile told her the same truth it always had. Everything was going to be all right.

“Come on up here. I've got something to show you.”

She didn't need to be told twice. Clint followed her mad sprint upstairs at a more sedate pace. Klein met her on the landing.

“You look exactly the same,” he murmured.

She laughed. “Gabe, I gained ten pounds and I cut my hair.”

He stepped closer and ran a big, beautiful hand
over her shorn head. Her hair wasn't much longer than his now.

“What will Danny say?”

“Not one damn thing. How I look has nothing to do with who I am or how I do my job.”

“Hmm. Seems I heard that somewhere before.”

“Me, too. I just didn't believe it.”

She wanted him to touch her, to hold her, to marry her. But she wasn't sure how to ask. She should have known that with Gabe Klein she wouldn't have to.

“I need your opinion on something.” He led her to the room next to his and pushed open the door. “What do you think?”

Tears sparked her eyes. She threw herself into his arms.

He'd figured out exactly how to tell her everything she needed to know. He'd bared his heart and buried his past. Their future was plain to see.

“I think yes,” she whispered, and then she kissed him.

Clint walked into the room, sneezed at the smell of new paint, circled three times on a rug the shape of a bunny, then collapsed in a heap of skin and bones beneath the brand-new crib.