Just a Memory (44 page)

"No," she said, drawing in a jagged breath. "They told me I didn't get to the phone on time. I thought I failed you."

"No, Caro. You were wonderful. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

She lifted her other hand and stroked his cheek. "It's really and truly you?"

"Yes, sweetheart." He turned his head slightly and kissed the palm of her hand. "When you left the cabin, I was so afraid you would never know I love you, but I do, Caro. I never should have let you leave without telling you." He stepped closer. "I love you so much." He leaned down and kissed her lips gently as he held her hand against his bandaged chest. He didn't want to let her go. Not ever.

"Oh, Mac, I love you!"

He kissed her again and the love and desire he felt for her led him to deepen the kiss. She opened to him as he had waited so long for her to do.

"The first time I held you in my arms, you came punching and screaming–the day your store was burglarized, remember?" he asked moments later. She nodded. "You're not going to do that tonight if I put my one good arm around you and hold you?"

"Never again," she answered as her arms found their way around his waist.

He slid his uninjured arm down her back from her shoulder to her hip and pressed her intimately against him so she could feel the masculine proof positive that he was very much alive. She shivered.

"Come on back to bed. I'll warm you up," he offered as he reached for the belt on the robe she wore and tugged gently. "You won't need this. Trust me."

She offered no resistance and the robe fell to the floor. Her skin looked like white porcelain in the moonlight.

"Let me love you." He lifted his hand and she slipped hers into it. He led her over to the bed. With Mac leaning on his good elbow, she pulled up the covers over both of them, much like she'd pulled the old bloody bedspread over them both in the cabin. She nestled down beside him and lifted her arm around his waist.

"I'm sorry, Mac."

"For what?"

She raised up and looked down at the sling. "I hit you before I got out of the bed." She gasped and covered her mouth with her fingers. "Your shoulder, does it hurt? It won't start bleeding again?"

Mac tugged her down to hold against him. "Not a chance." He kissed her gently. "I can do without the punches 'cause I have to admit that hurt, but…."

"Oh, Mac, I'm so sorry." She stretched up and kissed him soundly.

"It'll be okay, but I will need physical therapy." He kissed her again and then nibbled at her lower lip. "I'm hoping you'll want to sign on as my personal therapist."

"Mac, I'm not a therapist. I'm a costumer, a tailor and seamstress." She moaned softly when he trailed kisses across her cheek to her neck. He found the hollow at the base of her throat and flicked his tongue there, and could feel her rapid heart rate. "What were you saying, Mac?"

"I love you, Caro. I'm asking you if you'll marry me and have me as Terri's father and maybe as the father of a brother or sister or two."

Carolyn bit down on her lower lip. She laid her hand on the side of Mac's jaw and gently lifted his face until she could see it in the dim moonlight. "Oh, Mac. No."

Mac's eyes widened and he stared at her. "What do you mean
no?
I love you and you just told me that you love me."

"With all my heart," she whispered. Tears welled in her eyes.

"Then marry me and live happily ever after with me."

"But what will it mean to be married to a man like you and face the kind of life all the time I've lived the last couple of months? I'd go crazy with worry and I…I couldn't put Terri in that kind of jeopardy. She's already lost one father."

"I couldn't put either of you through that, darling. No, I'm done with the special force. Even if my shoulder does heal one hundred percent this time, I already turned in my badge. Once the trials are over, I'll be free and clear of my past with no danger stalking me or you and Terri."

Carolyn drew a deep breath and smiled. "You won't regret it later and hate me for making you leave?"He shook his head. "No way. You didn't make me leave, my shoulder did, but it was time. I'd found you. And Terri, too. The two of you mean more to me than my job ever did. Ever could."

She raised her arms to hug him, but remembered in time she could not, at least not without hurting him. She laughed. "I can't wait for your shoulder to heal." She slid her fingers into his hair and kissed him.

"That makes two of us. After the trials, while I wait, I intend to stick around Lakehaven. In fact, I thought I'd see if they could use a permanent Chief of Police…a guy who turns forty in another month and who's got one shoulder that's going to be a little stiff for a while."

A broad smile burst out on her face. "Do you mean it?"

He nodded. "Do you think you and Terri would like living out here at the lake?"

Carolyn rose up on her elbow and kissed him. Taking the initiative, she deepened the kiss until their tongues danced for joy. She gently pressed his head back down against the pillow until he was lying flat and she was leaning over him. She bent her knee and raised it over his thigh. She laid her free hand on his stomach and moved it lower.

"Does that mean you'll marry me?" Mac asked when she'd ended the kiss on his lips and was kissing her way to new territories.

She raised her head and smiled at him. "Yes, I'll marry you. This past month will be just a memory. And I'll love you always," she promised as she closed the short distance between them and made them one.

Ms. Carroll has felt a passion for writing ever since she received a daily diary as a child. But she had to wait until she was well past the age of fifty to live her dream of filling her days with writing. In addition to a paperback and three hard cover novels, many of her short stories and non-fiction articles have been printed in national magazines. Also, she has published over a dozen eBooks and contracted four audio books which have not yet been produced.

Lois Carroll earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature, a master's in Theater, and taught in a Mid-western state university before moving to the beautiful Finger Lakes Region of New York, where she lives with her husband.