The Family Man (13 page)

Bonnie yelled back a few choice words, enough for Sara to determine that she was thankfully sober today. In fact, from the look and sound of things, it was the driver of the yellow Corvette, in his golf shirt and khaki shorts, who seemed to have tossed back a few.

Just great.

“Everyone, calm down. An officer will be here shortly, and we’ll get everything sorted out.”

“I don’t need any cop to sort this out,” the man said. “I can do that myself.”

Before Sara could even guess what he was about to do, he whipped a handgun from inside the car and pointed it at Bonnie.

Sara uttered a curse and raised her hands slowly, palms forward, to about waist high. “There’s no need for that. It’s just an accident, nothing for anyone to get hurt over.”

Sara’s heart jolted as he pointed the gun in her direction.

“Nothing to get upset over? I just bought this car
two days ago. And now this piece of white trash not only ruins it, but my vacation as well.”

Granted, Bonnie wasn’t on Sara’s Christmas card list, but she didn’t deserve this jerk’s treatment of her.

“Sir, you need to put down the gun,” Sara said with her firm cop tone.

“Or what? Maybe I get rid of the trash and the nosy bitch at the same time.” The man lifted the gun and pointed it right at Sara’s thundering heart.

Adam caught himself whistling as he stepped out of Hearts and Flowers Florist. He’d allowed himself nearly a full day to let regret or the urge to flee hit him, but neither had. He liked Sara, really liked her. And unless something changed, he wasn’t interested in seeing anyone else.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d bought a woman flowers. That, in and of itself, told him how attached he was becoming to her. A hint of worry poked at him, but he shoved it away. Sara wasn’t Jessica. Damn it, he wanted to be truly happy again. And right now, Sara made him happy.

He placed the flowers, a mixture of kinds and colors, on the passenger seat of his car and headed for home. He needed a shower before he went over to Sara’s, bouquet in hand.

As he approached Palm Street, he noticed cars pulled off to both sides of the road. Must be a wreck. When he drove closer, however, he noticed a man
with a raised handgun. Crap, this wasn’t good. He faced two people. One appeared to be Bonnie Shouse, she who had perfected the art of barhopping. He couldn’t identify the other person until she took a step sideways, placing herself between the man and Bonnie.

He hit the brakes as his heart pounded.

Sara.

The horror of the Humvee accident scorched him. Pain seared his leg like he was reliving his injury all over again.

No! This wasn’t Iraq. But, oh God, he was staring at another nightmare in the making. Only this time, he was going to prevent it.

He slammed his gearshift into Park and leapt from the car. Sirens blared somewhere behind him, but he wasn’t about to wait for the uniforms to arrive. He was ending this now. He skirted the opposite side of Bonnie’s truck, spotted her bags of groceries in the back. Thankfully, she preferred bottled beer to cans. He filched one bottle, gripped the neck and made his way to the front fender of the passenger side. Corvette Guy was too preoccupied waving his gun around and with the alcohol he’d consumed to notice Adam.

Two patrol cars, with sirens screaming, rounded the corner. They distracted the gunman, and Adam lifted the bottle, ready to throw it at the guy’s head. He wouldn’t miss.

But movement from Sara froze him. He opened his mouth to yell at her to stop, but nothing came out. He’d swear everything shifted into slow motion as she barreled toward the man and dived for his lower half. As they both fell toward the ground, a shot rang out. Adam’s whole body jerked as if he’d been the one shot.

Please, no. Not again. His breath felt sharp and painful as he waited to see blood pooling next to Sara.

But no blood appeared. Instead, he heard her curse as she shoved the guy’s face into the pavement and yanked his arms behind his back, cuffing him while ignoring his shouts of pain.

The patrolmen rushed past Adam, and still he couldn’t move. It wasn’t until Sara rose to her feet, dusted herself off and caught his eye, surprise showing in hers, that he came out of his horrible trance. One of the patrolmen asked her a question. When she looked away, Adam turned and somehow retraced his steps to his car.

He sank into his seat just as the last of the energy left his body. He’d watched Sara’s life hanging in the balance, and again he’d been unable to protect her. Sure, she’d been able to handle the situation herself, but that didn’t make him feel any less helpless. And what about next time? He couldn’t lose someone else he loved.

That thought caused his breath to catch. He looked back at her a few more moments as she talked with her fellow officers, letting the truth of it sink in.
Damn if he hadn’t fallen head over heels for Detective Sara Greene.

She might hate him for leaving after what she’d just been through, but he couldn’t sit here watching her with a man who might have ended her life. He was not going there again, no matter how much he hated the idea of never being with Sara. Why had he thought he’d gotten past the old scars?

Because he’d wanted to believe he had.

He didn’t start shaking until he got halfway home. When he pulled in to his driveway, he had to sit in the car for a good five minutes to get himself under control. Even after he went into the house, he couldn’t settle down enough to eat or sit still. Nervous energy flowed through him like lightning looking for something to strike. Finally, he changed and headed out for a run, hoping to exhaust himself beyond the ability to think.

The pounding of his feet against pavement did nothing to help the anxiety and anger flooding his veins. Just like he had with the guy who’d hit Sara during the bar fight, he wanted to beat the living daylights out of Corvette Guy for putting her in harm’s way. He stopped at the entrance to the beach parking lot and thought back to the day they’d taken the girls there to fly Lilly’s new kite. Something had moved inside him that day, some dormant hunger to connect and be needed. Only now did he realize the full extent of it.

Should he walk away for good this time? Could he even do that at this point? The intense desire to check on her, just to see if she was really okay, ate at him. She wouldn’t have to know. Her house was only a few blocks away from where he now stood.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he started jogging in that direction. When he made sure she was okay, really okay, maybe he’d have the willpower to walk away for good.

Maybe not.

If fate had been smiling at him, Sara would have been in the yard where he could get a glimpse of her and go. But despite her car being in the driveway, he saw no sign of her. Knowing he might not have the strength to leave if he got too close, he approached the side door anyway.

He knocked. After a few moments, she opened the door. He’d planned to ask if she was okay. Instead, he stepped across the threshold and pulled her into his arms, kissed her with an intensity he hoped didn’t scare her but which he needed.

She kissed him back, fiercely, full of her own need.

“Where are the girls?” he managed to ask.

“Ruby took them to a movie.”

The final word was barely across her lips when he scooped her up and carried her to her bedroom. They were naked in seconds and joined soon thereafter. They made love with a power and drive he’d never
felt, like they both only had minutes to live and this was the last thing they wanted to experience in this life.

When they finished, they lay in a sweaty heap, arms and legs tangled together. He refused to break contact with her. Despite his spent state, he already wanted her again.

“Where did you go earlier?” she asked after they’d both had time to catch their breath.

Adam searched for a lie and grabbed the first one his brain stumbled over. “I figured you’d be tied up for a long time, reports and all that.”

“Oh.”

He hated the sound of doubt in her voice, but what was he supposed to do? He shouldn’t even be here, in her bed again. What happened to his walking away?

He endured the silence until he couldn’t stand it anymore. He swallowed and divulged at least some of what was bottled up inside him. “When I saw him pointing that gun at you, it scared me to death.”

“Have to admit, it scared me, too.”

Adam lifted to his elbow and looked down at her, the incredible, beautiful woman he was pretty sure he loved. “Then why do you do it?”

“Someone has to.”

“But why you?”

She stared up at him, searching his expression as if looking for deeper meaning. “Because I like helping
people. Because I’m good at figuring out who did what.” She smiled. “I play a mean game of Clue.”

He lay back down and stared at the ceiling, wondering…If she had any other job in the world, would he still be debating with himself over maybe staying with her long-term?

“I should go before your girls get home.”

This time, she raised up on an elbow and looked down at him, pushed strands of hair behind her ear. “I don’t want you to go.”

She ran her hand across his chest, causing him to grit his teeth. She had to know what it did to him, how powerless he was to resist her.

They made love again—the sweet and tender kind. The kind where you drifted off to sleep afterward in a blissful haze.

At least until a nightmare woke you.

Adam jerked awake, sweating, his heart pounding. The damn dream had found him again. Only this time, it wasn’t Jessica whose lifeless face stared back at him in that Humvee. It was Sara’s.

S
ARA WOKE SUDDENLY
, prepared to defend the girls against whatever danger had roused her. It took a few postsleep seconds to remember the girls weren’t home and that Adam was with her. At least he had been.

She glanced toward the open bedroom door just as he disappeared down the hallway. She grabbed a
robe and threw it around herself as she followed him. It wasn’t the side door she heard clicking shut, but rather the one that led to the backyard. She found him standing at the edge of the deck, his face pointed into a strong westerly wind that promised a storm later.

“What’s wrong?” Even in the half-light, she could tell he was sweating.

He was quiet for so long, she didn’t think he was going to answer. Finally, he heaved a deep breath.

“Just a bad dream.”

It had to be a pretty bad dream to propel him out of bed and out of the house. She thought of how she’d told him earlier that she liked to help people. At this moment she wanted to help no one more than him. Because instinct told her there was something deeper to this dream than a one-time product of the subconscious.

She slid her hand into his. “Tell me about it.” She said it so softly the wind nearly stole her words. Only the slight squeeze he gave her hand told her that he’d heard.

Again, it took him several long moments to decide to reply. “I told you I was in the army. Did two tours in Iraq, among other hot, dusty places.” He stopped, then inhaled deeply before letting the air out again. “I met a girl, an aid worker. Jessica. She was beautiful, funny, didn’t once complain about how hot it was or how crappy the food was sometimes.” He paused again and looked up at the sky despite the fact clouds had obscured the stars.

“And you fell for her,” she said, trying her best not to let him talking about another woman bother her.

He nodded.

But he wasn’t with her now, so something had happened. Nothing good.

“We were in a caravan, taking Jessica and some other aid workers to a village outside Kirkuk. One minute we’re all laughing at each other’s dirty jokes, the next we hit a roadside bomb.”

Sara squeezed his hand more tightly, knowing where this story was going now. She nearly told him he didn’t have to continue, but she suspected he needed to say it all out loud, that maybe he hadn’t told anyone.

“I only remember seeing one thing before I passed out. Jessica’s lifeless eyes staring back at me.”

“Oh, Adam, I’m so sorry.”

“I woke up five days later, and they told me I was the only one to survive in our Humvee. And I don’t know why.”

Sara slid around in front of him and raised her hand to his cheek. “There doesn’t always have to be a why. Bad things just happen sometimes. There’s no rhyme or reason.”

“But it shouldn’t have happened to her. I was the one in the uniform, the one carrying a gun. I was the one who should have been cut in half, not her.”

“It’s not your fault.”

He met her eyes. “I know that in my mind, but my
heart never got the message.” He lifted his hand and caressed her cheek. “That’s why I live my life the way I do—carefree, no responsibility, no attachments.” He looked at her in a way that made her feel loved and sad all at the same time. “That’s why it’s hard for me to be with a woman who puts herself in harm’s way.”

Sara stepped closer and placed her hand on his chest. “But you’re still here.”

He sighed. “I keep telling myself to stay away, and I can’t.”

After what he’d just told her, Sara didn’t want for his words to make her happy. But they did. Maybe he felt as intensely for her as she did about him. Maybe despite both of their reservations, they could make this work. The fact that she loved him blossomed in her mind like a field of beautiful flowers.

“I feel the same way.”

He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her against the length of his body. “I don’t know if I can worry about the safety of someone I care about again.”

Sara leaned back to look up into his eyes. “This isn’t a war zone in the Middle East.”

“But you’re a cop, and cops get killed all the time.” He framed one side of her face with a strong hand, a hand that had explored her body only a short time ago. “I’ve seen you dive off a pier and get punched in a bar fight. And today you were nearly shot.”

“But I wasn’t. Lots of police officers go their entire careers without serious injury. And sometimes people go to a restaurant and get gunned down. It doesn’t mean we all stop going out to eat.”

He let go and took a few steps, then leaned his palms against the deck railing. “It’s not the same.”

“You’re right, it’s not.” She thought about her next words, considered whether she should say them, finally decided she had to be honest if there was any hope for them. “But it’s better than living my life superficially.”

He looked back at her. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”

“Isn’t it?”

Adam returned his gaze to her dark yard and shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Just because you lose someone doesn’t mean you cut yourself off from the world and stop caring.” She searched for the words to get through to him, to break the shell he’d erected around himself. Or had she already cracked it? Is that why he’d even told her about Jessica? He cared, whether he wanted to or not. She just didn’t know how much.

Sara moved to the railing and leaned back against it next to Adam. “I could have chosen the same path as you, but I decided to take the other fork in the road.”

“You lost someone?”

“My mom.”

“What happened?”

“She left when I was young. Just packed her bags and left me and my dad behind. Dad raised me on his own. He was a life-long cop, Memphis patrol. A real guy’s guy, you know. But he did the best he could to raise a girl.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“He was. But he never got over Mom leaving him, always thought she’d stroll back into our lives someday. Believed it until the day he died. I never quite forgave her for that.”