Betting on Hope (34 page)

She needed sleep. She pulled the curtains closed and glanced back at Pebble’s door. The flowers were gone.

Hope surged inside of Maggie like a spark from a tiny struggling flame . . .

Pebble had been watching. She’d known he was out there. And one day, maybe she would open the door.

Maggie fell asleep thinking about new days and starting fresh.

“What is wrong with you?” Bo asked him.

“Nothing,” Tru growled as he pulled a bale of hay off the trailer and walked past Bo to the storeroom.

“Don’t give me that. You’ve been acting weird all day. Come on, Jarrod’s cooking and he sent me down here to haul you up to the house if I had to.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Hey, either you come up there and we talk, or Jarrod’s going to come down here and talk. And big brother will not be happy. And neither will little brother, because I’m starving. And after what I had to go through today, being interviewed and tortured isn’t making me your best friend right now. You owe me, buddy.”

Tru glared at Bo, then dropped the hay where he was. “Fine. Let’s go.”

They headed up to the house and Jarrod had just placed chicken-fried steak and potatoes on the table. When they walked in, Solomon wagged his tail from beneath the kitchen table waiting for any stray table scrap to accidently drop to the floor for him—or for Pops to hand straight to him.

Pops sat at the head of the table waiting for them. He kept looking at the door after they’d entered.

“Maggie?”

All three of them stared at each other. Jarrod hiked a brow and mouthed, “Where is she?”

Tru shrugged. “Gone,” he said.

“And why is that?” Jarrod asked as they all sat down at the table. “I got the feeling you were crazy about her the other day when she helped us with the calf. Looks to me like you’re being a fool if you let this woman get away.”

It had been a long, hard day. Tru was mad at the world and not really in the mood to talk but he could not keep his secret any longer. “I can’t have kids, that’s why.”

“Wow,” Bo said, his fork stopping midaction. He laid it back down on his plate.

Setting his tea back on the table, Jarrod studied him. “From the treatments?”

“Yeah. Maggie deserves more than I would be able to give her.”

“Tru, has it occurred to you that you should let Maggie decide what she wants?” Jarrod asked.

“Yeah, man, that’s a hard blow, but Maggie’s in love with you. It is written all over her face. Now I understand what was wrong with her today. Why she looked so sad every time she looked at you.”

Tru glared at his brothers. “I’m doing what is best for Maggie.”

Jarrod shook his head. “You’re doing what is best for you. If you don’t let her choose, then you don’t have to face her rejection. You need to fix this. Maggie deserves better.”

That had Tru standing and walking toward the door to leave. Pops followed him, stopping by a picture on the wall of him and their grandmother. She’d been gone for over ten years, but she and Pops had had the real deal.

He pointed at her picture. “Best. For me.”

Tru knew it was true. Pops patted Tru’s shoulder. “Maggie.”

Tru stared at his brothers and they both looked at him like he was the shortest stump in the forest.

“Only you can make the call and fix this,” Jarrod said.

“Yeah,” Bo added. “It’s your life. But Tru, you’re not being fair to either one of you. I’m not saying I’m ready to jump into the pond, but I believe you owe Maggie the truth.”

Tru left then, walked out and went home. But the questions rolled in his head like thunder. Had he taken the easy way out?

And should he have let Maggie decide?

Truth was, if he let Maggie know the truth, then he had to face the hard truth that she could feel sorry for him, and that was something he just couldn’t take.

Maggie woke at seven, loaded her overnight bag into her car with the rest of her stuff, and headed for home. Back to the city and her apartment.

She had a checklist of things to do.

Forget Tru Monahan was at the top of the list.

Talk to Amanda and tell her the truth. She’d felt terrible not letting her in on what had really happened in Wishing Springs—not for her show but for her as a friend.

Start getting her two bedroom apartment ready for Jenna, whom she planned on picking up the next weekend. She was encouraged that Jenna was staying with Peg and Lana long enough to make some decisions about contact with the Hansons and Hope. Adoptions were so different than they once were and Maggie felt better about Jenna’s choice after she stepped back. Just like Tru told her, she had been making choices for Jenna based purely on emotion. Emotion that involved her need to keep a mother and child together, because she herself longed for her own mother to have wanted her. Maggie admired Jenna more now though than even before. Right or wrong, in her heart of hearts Jenna believed this was the right choice. And it hadn’t been made lightly.

And then once more on her list: Forget Tru Monahan.

Maggie stopped at a gas station in town before heading to Houston.

She went in to grab a soda, hoping a little sugar would perk her up. And right there splashed across three different tabloids were pictures of her and Tru.

Maggie’s mouth fell open at what they said. Scrawled across one: Monahan Finds True Love—Only to Be Dumped by Scheming Columnist. One claimed she was an
alien.
But the last one was of them hugging outside the hospital the day Jenna had had the baby. She was crying and the headline read: All Hope Lost—Cancer Drug Results Reveal Champ Can’t Father Children.

Maggie stared at that. Then she picked it up . . .

Tru was an idiot. He’d said it before and he’d say it again.

He tore out of Pebble’s parking lot and headed through town hoping to find Maggie saying good-bye to some of the friends she’d made. He figured Clara Lyn and Reba’s were the first stops on his way out to Over the Rainbow.

He was breaking the speed limit as he passed the corner gas station and caught a glimpse of her car. An electric shot of joy jolted him as he slammed on the brakes then did a U-turn and drove in front of her, blocking her exit.

She was storming out of the store as he pushed his door open.

“Maggie, we need to talk.”

“That sounds like a good thing for us to do, except I think I’ve told you everything there is to know about me.”

She was hotter than a firecracker, he realized a little late.

“Mag—”

“Nope, just hold on there. I don’t know how I missed this. How I could have read all about your background and cancer at such a young age after you told me and then missed this detail.” She slapped a paper at him. Her gaze singed him. “Is this true?”

He fumbled with it and saw it claimed she was an alien. He almost laughed, but something warned him maybe now wasn’t the time for that. “No,” he said instead.

“Good to know. How about this one?”

“Ow,” he said, as she slapped him in the chest with another one. It claimed he’d dumped the scheming columnist. “No. These things are not true, Maggie. What is wrong with you? Those rags are worthless.”

Her eyes glittered and he saw tears. “How about this one?” She pushed the last one at him.

He was so startled by her tears he almost dropped the paper. He stared down at the headlines and his heart took a roller coaster ride over the edge of a cliff as the words jumped out at him: All Hope Lost—Cancer Drug Results Reveal Champ Can’t Father Children.

“That one is the truth, isn’t it, Tru?” Her words dripped with accusation.

He couldn’t lie to her direct question. Somehow the story had been leaked or some reporter had put two and two together with childhood cancer and infertility and was simply shooting out a story that happened to be true. Either way, Maggie knew.

“Yes, it’s true,” he answered gently, not wanting to cause any more pain to fill her gaze.

“You love me, don’t you?”

Her question startled him. “Huh?”

She slapped a hand to her hip. “Tru Monahan, I swear you had better level with me because I have just about reached the end of my patience. You
love
me.” She stepped toward him. He backed up. “Say it.”

He bumped into his truck and stopped. She didn’t. She walked right up to him. If he lived to be two hundred, he’d never understand the female brain. “Yes, Maggie, I love you.”

“I knew it! And all this time you put me through this torture.” Sparks reignited in her eyes.

“Maggie, help a guy out. I came to talk to you to try and tell you the truth.”

She was standing so close their toes were touching.

“You lied to me. You love me and yet you didn’t tell me about the cancer drug. You didn’t tell me about the children.”

“The lack of children. I couldn’t do that to you. You told me you loved me, but you want a houseful of kids. I can’t offer you any of your dreams, and I found it out after falling for you.”

“
You
are the answer to my dreams. I want the man I love first. The man I trust. The man who makes me not feel alone anymore. I need him. I need you, Tru. I need and want you first. And then we’ll see what our future holds.
If
you want a future with me?”

“Do I want you?” Tru didn’t wait, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a fierce embrace. “Do I want you? How does forever sound? Maggie, I need you so bad. I want you like I want air and sunshine. Honey, I’ve got no hope without you. I’m nothing without you.”

Maggie’s soft lips trembled and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh, Tru, I’m so in the same boat.”

“Kiss her, for cryin’ out loud,” Clara Lyn’s distinctive twang carried on the wind.

Tru looked up and Maggie turned her head and they spotted Clara Lyn and Reba standing outside the Cut Up and Roll along with several ladies in plastic beauty capes and in various stages of beauty applications. Including the formidable form of Bertha, hands on hips and a plastic cap on her head.

“Well, go on, now. Don’t just stand there,” Clara Lyn called, laughingly. “I’ve got to get this perm solution off of Bertha’s hair or she’ll be bald. And no one wants to make Bertha bald—it’d just make her mad.”

Bertha cocked her head to the side, her lips pinched. She still looked more like a drill sergeant than a nurse. “Kiss the man, Maggie. You know you’re wanting to.”

Tru reached behind him, opened his truck and pulled Maggie into a semblance of seclusion. “Maggie, I want you to be my wife more than anything, but you have to be sure. We can adopt. We can do whatever you want. But you have to be sure.”

Maggie was smiling. She couldn’t help it. This was really happening. “All I’ve ever wanted was to have a family that loved me. And Tru, that starts with you, and then we work our way up from there. Now, please make everyone happy and kiss me.”

That amazing, beautiful smile bloomed across his dear face and warmed Maggie through and through. “For the rest of my life,” he said, and then he lowered his head and kissed her. And he took his time, long and slow because they had forever . . . across the street, claps and whoops sounded and horns blared.

And flashbulbs went off too, but Maggie and Tru couldn’t have cared less. They were finally home, lost in their love . . . and found because of it.