Love Inspired December 2014 - Box Set 1 of 2: A Rancher for Christmas\Her Montana Christmas\An Amish Christmas Journey\Yuletide Baby (70 page)

“I just wanted you to know...my offer still stands.”

Chapter Ten

M
y offer still stands.

Heather looked in on her sleeping children, tucking their blankets up under their chins and brushing a soft kiss on each of their precious brows. She triple-checked the locks on all the doors and windows and then settled down on the couch with a cup of tea, drawing her legs up beneath her.

Had Shawn really offered to marry her? She couldn't help but feel she'd somehow coerced him into making such a rash proposition. She hesitated even to call it a proposal. Heather scoffed and shook her head.

Adrian hadn't only muddled her life and potentially put her children in danger, but now he was messing with Shawn's head.

Shawn O'Riley didn't deserve to be a part of this drama, and yet in typical Shawn fashion, he'd willingly thrown himself right into the middle of the storm to help her.

He had already changed his whole life around for the sake of little Noelle—and all without a single complaint, which just magnified his goodness and strength.

And now he was ready to embrace her and her children and make them a permanent part of his life for no reason other than to keep them safe. Even though they'd never talked about it, she knew Shawn well enough to know he took marriage seriously. Shawn was a forever kind of guy.

But marriage to her? How could he even imagine it? Of course he wouldn't think of her children as a burden, as she expected most men would. He might worry that he wasn't good enough for them, but he'd never consider them a problem.

But dealing with an abusive and criminal ex-husband and stalker who posed a certain threat to their lives? No one would want to take on that kind of responsibility.

No one but Shawn.

She'd really believed he was joking when he'd first brought up the subject of marriage. A pastor marrying the local divorcée. Yeah—
no
. They would be the talk of the town, and not in a good way. She couldn't imagine how his congregation might respond to him allying himself to her in such a serious and irrevocable way.

Impossible. Outrageous.

But the fact remained that he
had
asked her to marry him—in earnest—and he'd reiterated that offer before she'd left.

He'd even run down a thorough and practical list of reasons why their getting married was a good idea. To protect her from Adrian. To be able to formally adopt all their children. To create a more stable home environment for them.

If she married Shawn and moved to his ranch, the children would all have a mom, the best dad ever, a yard with a fence—split-rail and not white picket, but a fence—
and
a dog. Oh, and however many other animals Shawn happened to be keeping. She'd seen pigs, goats, horses, cats and chickens.

The picture-perfect family.

She choked on her tea.

Marrying Shawn would be anything but picture-perfect. He had enumerated every potential benefit of their possible
collaboration
—except for one, and in Heather's mind it was the most important aspect of all.

Shawn had said nothing about love.

Glaring red flag there. Heather had never imagined she would be in the position of receiving a marriage proposal ever again in her life—nor did she believe she'd ever want one. But a marriage without love?

She'd already been there, and with disastrous results.

Not that there was any comparison. Adrian was all about himself and his own needs and desires. He thrived on hurting people. Shawn never thought twice about willingly sacrificing his own convenience for the good of another person. The proposal itself was just further proof of that.

But marriage?

That was asking too much of him. She couldn't allow him to sacrifice
that
much for her, no matter how tempting it sounded. No matter that his idea—when viewed purely pragmatically—had merit to it.

She couldn't look at marrying Shawn as anything more than a practical consideration even if she wanted to.

The truth dawned on her with such clarity that she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it until now. Her fingers were shaking so fiercely that she was rattling her teacup and had to set it on the table before she spilled the hot liquid on her lap. She placed one palm against her racing heart and the other over her lips.

She couldn't marry Shawn—not because there was no love between them, but because there
was
.

She was in love with Shawn.

When had it happened? Somewhere along the way Shawn had stealthily tripped the switch that opened her heart to trusting again—feeling again. She didn't just appreciate Shawn for all the things he'd done for her—she had fallen in love with him.

Wow. How had she not seen this one coming?

She'd been preoccupied with Adrian, that was how. She still was—sitting here in her living room, half afraid to sleep for fear Adrian would try to break into the house after dark. Assuming he knew where she lived and that he would slink around in the dark. Adrian's usual MO was to face up to situations right in the light of day and charm his way through them. But prison could have changed him, and she had no way of knowing for sure.

She wouldn't be worried if Shawn were here. His strong arms and warm embrace were her safe spot.

She suddenly wanted to accept his offer of marriage more than anything in the world. Which was, of course, why she couldn't.

A platonic relationship wasn't ideal, and it certainly wasn't anything she'd ever seen in modern America, but it could work. Might work. Maybe—if they were both committed to adopting and raising their children with only feelings of friendship and respect between them.

But living with the man and loving him when he didn't return the sentiment? That was just plain crazy.

Rap. Rap. Rap.

Heather jolted to instant alertness, her heartbeat pummeling her rib cage as adrenaline surged through her.

Was someone at the door?

No, it wasn't the door. At least not the front door.

She must have drifted off daydreaming about Shawn—or rather, mulling over the reasons the two of them could never be together.

What time was it?

She fished the cell phone out of her pocket, but before she could check it, she heard the noise again.

Rap. Rap. Rap.

It definitely wasn't the front door. It sounded like the sliding glass door in the back through the kitchen.

Adrian.

He was here. It was time to end this nightmare.

She dialed the police with shaky hands. As she waited for the emergency operator, she jogged down to the end of the hallway where the kids' rooms were located.

She spoke in quiet tones as she explained the situation to the emergency operator and rattled off her address.

“Please hurry,” she ended, hoping she didn't sound as frantic as she felt.

She slipped into Missy's room and scooped the sleeping girl into her arms and then brought her into Jacob and Henry's room and deposited her in bed next to Henry.

“Jacob, honey, wake up.” She shook her elder son's shoulder.

“Mama?” he asked sleepily. “What's wrong?”

“That bad man we talked about? He's here. Mama needs to go talk to him. The police are on their way. I want you to watch over your brother and sister. Stay in this room and lock the door when I leave. Don't open it for anyone but me. Do you understand?”

Jacob's eyes went wide but he squared his shoulders and nodded.

“Yes, Mama. I'll take care of them.”

“I know you will, my brave boy.” She took his face in her hands and kissed his cheek. “It's going to be okay, honey. The police are going to get this guy and put him back in jail so he can't bother us anymore.”

She hoped—prayed—that the words were true.

Please, Lord. Watch over the little ones.

She should have listened to Shawn when he'd suggested she not return to her house, or at least she should have found somewhere else for the kids to stay. But she really hadn't believed Adrian would come here. Not in the middle of the night, anyway.

She wouldn't let the regrets take over. The truth was, she was tired of running away. She wanted to confront him and get it over with. If he realized she wasn't afraid of him anymore, he would no longer have any power over her. That moment couldn't come soon enough.

She pressed her cell phone into Jacob's hand. “I've already called the police, but I want you to hang on to this, just in case. Dial 911 for an emergency, all right?”

“Mama?” Jacob's voice was shaky and his lower lip quivered. Heather's heart turned over.

“We're going to be fine, honey.” They were. They
were
. She was going to make it happen.

She closed the door and waited until she heard Jacob turn the lock. She wished she believed her own words—that she knew for sure it would be okay. But she didn't know. Only God knew.

She concentrated on evening out her breathing. It wouldn't help for her to hyperventilate and pass out in front of Adrian. He needed to see her at her best so he'd know for certain that she wasn't afraid of him.

She'd come to Serendipity to start a new life, and her nightmare had followed her here.

It was time to put that nightmare to rest once and for all.

She shoved out a breath and turned the corner from the bright living room to the darkened kitchen. She pressed forward, hugging the wall, trying to see outside the glass door without giving her position away. There was no more than a sliver of pale moonlight, just enough to cast ominous shadows across the lawn. She strained her ears to hear anything out of place, but all she could hear was her own breath, which sounded incredibly loud against the silence.

She frantically filtered through her options. Adrian was lurking somewhere around her house. She was fairly certain he'd been trying to open the doors rather than knocking on them, which meant he was attempting to sneak into her house under the cover of darkness rather than announcing himself in the daylight.

But where was he now?

Even if she knew his location, she had no clue what her next move should be.

She wished she'd thought to borrow Queenie from Shawn for a couple days. Having a dog around the house would be a detriment to stalkers.

The police couldn't possibly be far off. She just needed to stay quiet until they arrived and pray that the younger children didn't wake up. They would be so frightened. Poor Jacob had put on such a brave face for the sake of his foster siblings, but she knew he was hunkered down in the bedroom scared half out of his wits.

She despised Adrian for that—for harming her children.

“Heather!”

Adrian's voice sounded as if it was coming from the vicinity of the kitchen window, which she confirmed when he banged his fist against the glass.

“Heather. I know you're in there. I can see you.”

Her hair stood on end and alarm skittered like an icy finger down her spine. She struggled to keep hold of her shredding composure.

He yelled and slammed his fist into the glass once again, hard enough to make the pane rattle. That had to hurt his hand, but he didn't flinch. Which meant he'd been drinking. If he kept it up, he'd not only break the window, but he'd wake up the children for sure.

She'd given her cell phone to Jacob, so she couldn't check the time. How long had it been since she'd called the police? Surely they should be here by now. Hadn't they said they were going to keep a cruiser running by her house on a regular basis? Even if they weren't in the neighborhood at the moment, this was a small town. How long could it take?

Where were they?

Adrian had seen her, so there was no sense hiding any longer. She stepped out from behind the wall and looked straight into the window over the sink, glaring at the man who'd single-handedly made her life so miserable.

The face looking back at her through the cloudy, opaque glass reminded her of a dark, fairy-tale version of the evil queen's magic mirror. Adrian's sunken eyes burned into her, his scowl black and menacing. His wild hair and beard combined together to form something truly ghastly.

She should have been terrified. There was a time when she would have been. And though she was not foolish enough to discount the wild-eyed, not-quite-sane reflection in his countenance, she was not afraid.

Not of him. Not anymore.

He reached up to pound his fist into the window again and she didn't even hesitate. He was going to wake up her children, and then she was going to get really angry.

Adrian wasn't here about the children. He wanted her—and he was going to get her. Without considering where her actions would lead, she marched to the sliding door, flipped the lock, flung it wide and stepped through, closing it tightly behind her.

“You want to see me? Well, here I am. What is it you have to say to me?”

She'd heard of people's jaws dropping in surprise, but she'd never literally seen it. Not until now. Adrian was staring at her as if she'd sprouted wings.

“Well?” she challenged, instinctively going on the offensive. “I'm waiting. What are you doing here?”

He stood gaping for another beat before he regained his senses. Then his brows lowered over cold blue eyes.

“No,” he countered, his voice low and menacing. He craved fear almost as much as booze, and he was searching for it now. Trying to provoke her. “The real question is what
you
are doing here. Did you really think you could just walk away from me, Heather?”

She had. And she'd been mistaken in that. She couldn't hide from her past. He was staring her right in the face. Icy dread curled around her stomach but she ignored it.

“We're divorced, Adrian. And I have a permanent restraining order against you.” She strained her ears for the sound of sirens but heard nothing.

Adrian sneered. “You think a piece of paper is going to stop me, you little piece of trash?”