Against the Night (40 page)

Rachael leaned over and hugged her. “I’m staying in Ellie’s guest wing—what could be nicer than that? I’m seeing a counselor to help me deal with everything that’s happened. Mr. Bixler thinks he may have some TV work for me, and Rick…Rick is here.”

As for the last, Rick Vega was clearly in love with Rachael.

Though her sister wasn’t ready for a relationship, Amy had a feeling Rachael was at least half in love with the handsome detective who had been there when she had needed him so badly.

Yesterday, Ellie had loaned Amy her car so she and Rachael could go down to the Kitty Cat Club for what turned out to be a surprisingly tearful goodbye.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Babs said, hugging Rachael hard, her cheeks wet and glistening. Honeybee had thanked Rachael and Amy for helping with little Jimmy, and Rachael had promised to visit him as often as she could.

Tate Watters had walked them back to the car. “I’m going to miss you both.” Leaning over, he kissed Rachael’s forehead. “Whatever you end up doing, I know you’ll do great. Linda and I wish you the very best.”

“Thanks, Tate.”

He looked over at Amy. “So you’re heading back to Michigan.”

She nodded. “Mom and I are flying out in the morning.”

“What about you and Johnnie? The way he feels about you, I can’t believe he’s letting you walk away.”

Amy’s heart twisted. She forced herself to smile. “It was just a fling for both of us.”

Tate scoffed. “Could have fooled me,” he said, clearly not believing it. But Amy had known how the relationship would end the first time she had seen John Riggs—sitting in the back of the Kitty Cat Club, looking like a hungry lion who wanted to eat her up.

And so the week passed. She and her mother were packed and ready to leave in the morning. She hadn’t seen Johnnie in days, had tried not to listen for the sound of his Harley roaring up the drive. She tried not to wish he would come for her, carry her off and never let her go. She tried not to ache for him.

How much worse would it be, she thought, when he was thousands of miles away instead of right next door?

Seated in the chaise lounge out on the deck, the floppy straw hat she had bought in Belize perched on her head to keep out the sun, Amy tried to block him from her mind. She had to get over him, had to look toward the future. It was a summer fling, nothing more. It had to be.

Still her heart ached with the need to see him, to feel his arms around her. But Johnnie was a loner, a man who needed no one and would never allow that to change.

She wiped away a stray tear and looked up as her mother approached.

“Hello, sweetheart. Can we talk a minute?”

Amy pasted on a smile. “Sure, Mom.”

In a pair of navy shorts and a red knit top, her mother sat down in the chaise next to hers.

“So…are you looking forward to going back home? You’ve got a good job waiting for you. And I’m sure you’ve missed your friends.”

Amy glanced away. “It’ll be nice to see them again.”

“But it would be far nicer if you could stay right here in Los Angeles with Johnnie. Isn’t that right, honey? Isn’t that what you’re thinking?”

Her throat tightened. “I love him. That hasn’t changed. But we both know it wouldn’t work.”

Her mother reached over and caught her hand. “That’s what I thought, too…in the beginning. But after seeing the two of you together, after knowing what the two of you have faced together, I don’t see it that way anymore.”

“Why not?”

“From the day you met John Riggs, you’ve stood shoulder-to-shoulder with that man. You convinced him to help you find your sister. You went all the way to Belize to bring her home. You carried your own weight with the toughest sort of men, and I would bet that you won their respect. I know you think you’d be a liability to Johnnie, that you would somehow be in his way. But that just isn’t true. John Riggs would be the luckiest man on earth to have you by his side. And I think you should tell him so.”

Fighting to hold back tears, Amy shook her head. “I couldn’t, Mom. He’s never even said he loves me.”

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you. That man would lay down his life for you. He loves you. I know it.” Her mother pressed a fist over her heart. “I know it right here.”

Amy wiped a tear from her cheek. “What if you’re wrong? What if that isn’t the way he feels about me at all?”

“Then you’ll finally know the truth, and you’ll deal with it.” Hannah stood up, and Amy stood and went into her arms. “I tried to stop your sister from doing what was right for her. I won’t do that to you. Think about what I’ve said.”

Amy nodded. She’d think about it. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Johnnie Riggs since she had seen him in the back of the Kitty Cat Club.

Johnnie heard a knock at his door. A key grated in the lock and the door swung open.
Ellie.
He looked up from where he sat on the sofa staring out the windows, seeing nothing but the haze that hung over the city like the pall hanging over his heart.

Sitting there with a beer in his hand he hadn’t even started to drink.

“So here you are, home at last.” Ellie walked toward him, sat down in the chair beside the sofa.

“I had some work to do in my office.”

“Really? I’ve heard that Harley of yours racing off early every morning. You’ve been staying out half the night and from the looks of you, you aren’t getting any sleep.”

He rubbed the three-day growth of beard along his jaw. “So I’ve been busy.”

“Rubbish. You’ve been pining away, running around on your Harley trying to escape your own foolish self, hanging out in the bars so you don’t have to think about the woman next door.”

“Fine, if that’s what you want to believe.”

“Oh, that’s what I believe, all right. I think you’re crazy in love with Amy and too damn stubborn to do anything about it.”

He sat up a little straighter, raked a hand through his disheveled hair. “I know you’re trying to help, Ellie, but the truth is it wouldn’t work out. Both of us knew that from the start.”

Ellie stiffened. She had a way of looking down her nose at him though she was shorter than he was. “Why ever not? In case you haven’t noticed, that woman is perfect for you. She marched through the jungle with you and your soldier buddies, didn’t she? And I’ll bet she never once complained. She helped you save Rachael from that no-good Wes Henley. She loves your car and riding with you on your Harley. I’d venture to say the two of you are matched just as well in bed. Am I wrong?”

The tips of his ears burned. “None of your damn business.”

“No, but your happiness
is
my business. I love you, Johnnie. You’re the son I never had and I know you better than you know yourself. Why are you so afraid to take a chance?”

Frustration filled him. “She’s a kindergarten teacher, for chrissake, Ellie. Look at me.” He stood up, his dark hair rumpled, his black clothes wrinkled, the eagle tattoo standing out on his arm. He looked like the mercenary he’d once been. “She loves kids. If we…if we were together, she’d want some of her own. What kind of father would I be?”

“Probably a great one, since your dad was such a loser. You won’t want to make the same mistakes with your own family.”

Something tightened inside him. Secretly, he’d thought about having children. He just never really believed it could happen, not for him.

“Amy loves you,” Ellie continued, beating at him harder than any drill sergeant he’d had in the Rangers. “Surely you know that.”

His voice roughened. “I know.”

“Then damn it, do something about it before it’s too late. You’re never gonna get another chance, Johnnie. Not with a woman like Amy.”

He swallowed past the tightness in his throat, sank back down on the sofa, tipped up the bottle in his hand and noticed the beer was warm.

Ellie stood up from her chair. “For God’s sake, Johnnie, at least think about it!”

Johnnie made no reply. He’d think about it. He had no choice. Ellie was right. He was in love with Amy, over the top in love. And because he loved her, he couldn’t take the chance he’d hurt her. He was better off leaving things alone.

Thirty-Six

Amy looked up at the clock on the wall, saw it was almost midnight. First thing tomorrow morning, Johnnie was driving her and her mother to the airport. Ellie was supposed to do it, but something had come up and she had asked Johnnie to take her place.

Her heart squeezed. Their final goodbye would be at LAX, one of the busiest airports in the world. Thousands of people milling around, jostling them, giving them not an ounce of privacy. Amy couldn’t bear it. She had to see Johnnie one last time and it had to be tonight.

Her mother was right. She couldn’t leave without letting him know the way she felt. She couldn’t go back to Grand Rapids without making her feelings clear. What Johnnie would say, she couldn’t begin to guess.

He was home, she knew. In the past week, she had become so attuned to his comings and goings she knew every time he left the house, mostly on his Harley.

Dressed in jeans and a white cotton blouse, a pair of gold hoops in her ears and sandals on her feet, she headed for the guesthouse. Her mouth felt dry but her palms were damp. Inside her chest, her heart was throbbing dully, aching with every slow beat.

There was a light on in the living room, the soft glow leaking from the windows over the kitchen sink. Gravel crunched under her feet as she determinedly headed for the stairs leading up to the porch. She didn’t know what she would say to him, only knew that the moment she saw him, her heart was going to crumble. She was nearly to the stairs when the door swung open and Johnnie walked out. His jaw was clean-shaven, his hair damp and shining from a recent shower, a clean black T-shirt stretched over his powerful chest. He looked so handsome and dear, so beloved, she almost lost her courage, turned around and ran back to the house.

She straightened her spine and forced herself to smile. “Hi,” she said lamely.

“Hi.” His voice sounded gruff. In the light creeping out of the windows, she could see something in his eyes she had never seen there before. It was uncertainty, she realized. And something she thought looked like pain.

“I wanted…wanted to talk to you,” she said, frozen where she stood, working to keep the smile in place. “If…if you have time.”

“Sure, I ummm… Truth is, I was on my way over to your place. I…ummm…wanted to talk to you, too.”

She tried not to hope. Hoping was a dangerous, heartbreaking thing to do. “You were?”

He nodded, his eyes moving over her, returning to her face. “There were some things I wanted to say, things I should have said before, but I… Ah, hell…” Her eyes widened as he came down the stairs, strode over and hauled her into his arms.

Amy clung to him, trembling, wishing so hard that she could make him change his mind, make him want to be with her as much as she wanted to be with him.

She broke away, took a step backward. She had to say it now or she would never say it at all. “I’ve been thinking, Johnnie. I know you think we’re too different, that it couldn’t work out between us, but—”

“I think it could work,” he said, his eyes still on her face. “I think it could work, you know, just fine. Better than fine. I think it could be terrific.”

Her heart slowed, seemed to stop. “You do?”

“Yeah, I do.”

She made a little sound in her throat as he scooped her back into his arms and just hung on.

“I love you, baby,” he said against her cheek. “I love you so damn much.”

Her eyes filled. “Ask me to stay,” she blurted out, surely the wrong thing to say but she couldn’t keep the words locked up inside. “Oh, Johnnie, please ask me to stay.”

His hold tightenen around her. “Stay with me,” he said gruffly. “I don’t want you to leave. I don’t ever want you to leave.”

The tears in her eyes slipped onto her cheeks. “I’ll never leave. Not ever. I love you too much.”

He was trembling. She couldn’t believe it. He eased back a little and brought his hand up to cradle her cheek.

“Marry me,” he said softly. “Will you, baby?”

Love for him swamped her. A smile bloomed on her lips and fresh tears spilled over. “I’d love to marry you, Johnnie.”

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, the sweetest, sexiest, most tender kiss she had ever known. Amy let the thrill of it wash through her.

By the time the long kiss ended, everything seemed to have settled back into its rightful place. She looked up at him, her heart filled to bursting. “I can get a teaching job out here,” she said, smiling and wiping her eyes. “I know you have to work nights a lot, but I don’t care. I’ll wait up for you. I’ll be waiting when you get home.”

He kissed her again, more softly this time. “I don’t have to work late that often. I just do it because I get lonely.”

An ache slipped through her. Going up on her toes, she planted soft kisses all over his face. “Not anymore, Johnnie. You’ll never be lonely again.”

“We can have kids if you want. I don’t know what kind of father I’d be, but—”

“You’ll be a wonderful father—the best.”

Johnnie kissed her. “Your mother isn’t going to like it.”

Amy laughed. “Coming over here was her idea.”

He grinned. “You’re gonna marry me, right?”

She laughed. “Right.”

“How about tomorrow?”

Her throat ached. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything. What I can’t understand is why it took me so long to figure things out.”

Amy went back into his arms and Johnnie just held her. She didn’t know what had happened to change his mind, but she wasn’t going to question fate.

Johnnie swept her up and carried her back inside the house. Instead of dreading tomorrow, she was looking forward to the future as she never had before. Amy reached up and pulled his head down for another slow-burning kiss.

Epilogue

Johnnie slowed his Harley and pulled off the dirt road beneath the gnarled branches of an old oak tree. They were taking a day trip up the coast. He had a friend who owned a piece of property in the hills above Santa Barbara, the perfect spot for a picnic. They’d been married two weeks. The best two weeks of his life.