Tomorrow's Promise (The Hawks Mountain Series) (7 page)

They rode in silence for a while. The deserted road made travel easy. The only other car they saw was a white SUV parked on the side of the road. A breakdown no doubt. Since no one stood near the car, Faith assumed they’d walked the mile to town for help. Recalling her walk yesterday, a wave of sympathy for the car’s driver washed over her.

Cole cast a casual quick glance at the car. “Out of towner.”

She frowned. “How do you know that?”

He smiled. “Georgia plate.”

Feeling a bit foolish, she didn’t reply. Instead, she stared out the passenger side window at the passing scenery. Realizing her preoccupation with the sights around her was nothing more than a way to put off the inevitable, Faith swung around in the seat to face him and took a deep fortifying breath. “Cole?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been thinking.” She paused for another breath. “If it’s still available, I’ll take your job offer.”

“Good.”

She didn’t like the satisfied smile that accompanied his one-word reply. Had he set a trap that she’d just sprung it with herself in it?

COLE DROPPED FAITH off and left to pick up Lizzie at Becky’s house. Faith went to her bedroom, kicked off her shoes, and changed into more comfortable clothes. After throwing her discarded clothes in the hamper, she headed to the kitchen to start the coffeemaker. The least she could do after all the running around he’d been doing for her was to offer Cole a cup of hot coffee when he got back. Once the coffee was brewing, she scanned the refrigerator for something for supper.

As she walked from the bedroom and into through the living room, she came to a sudden stop.

“What the—”

Books littered the floor in front of the bookshelf. One of Lizzie’s favorite pastimes was to pull the books off the shelf, and, if not caught in time, she would rip the pages out. Since the books came with the house and belonged to Doc Amos and Harriet, Faith kept a close eye on her daughter whenever she was near the shelf. Evidently, Granny Jo had not been as vigilant, but Faith couldn’t be upset with her because she hadn’t warned her about Lizzie’s book-destroying tendencies.

Time later to speculate on how it had happened. First, she had to clean up the mess. Faith picked up the books, checking each for damage and, relieved to find them all intact, she placed them back on the shelf.

“What’s going on?”

Cole’s voice stopped Faith in the midst of grabbing the last few books and sent that familiar flush to her cheeks. She turned to him. Clutching her teddy bear in one arm and the other arm wrapped around Cole’s neck, Lizzie grinned down at her.

“Granny didn’t know about my daughter’s penchant for books.” Faith put the last of the books in its rightful place, then went to Cole and took Lizzie from him, undecided whether to reprimand Lizzie or hug her. Since scolding so long after the transgression seemed nonconstructive, Faith settled for the hug. “Hey, sweet girl.” She kissed Lizzie’s cheek. “Did you have a nice visit? Are you hungry?”

“Granny said she fed Lizzie supper, so there’s no need for you to worry about that.”

Lizzie squirmed to get out of her mother’s arms. Faith headed into the kitchen and set her daughter on the floor. The child immediately ran to the box Faith had filled with her few toys.

“Thanks for picking her up for me.” She tore her gaze away from his and grabbed the coffee carafe. “I was going to make coffee. Do you have time to stay for a cup?”

He smiled, and she felt her knees turn to water. “Coffee would be great.” She tried not to watch as he dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. The man would put any woman’s heart to pounding, but she had to fight that before she fell into another man’s charm-trap.

Thankful for something to do, Faith turned to the task of making a pot of coffee. When the pot was set up and had started emitting gurgling sounds that indicated the brew cycle had started, she busied herself with getting out cups, spoons, sugar, and cream and placing them on the table.

As she worked, she was very aware of Cole’s intense gaze following her every movement. Heat radiated through her body. She fought off the feelings.
Just stop it, Faith! You invited the man to stay, so if you didn’t want him here, why did you ask him to have coffee with you?
It wasn’t that she didn’t want Cole here. She did, but at the same time, he scared her. Or was it that she scared herself? No man, not even Sloan, had ever affected her so strongly.

By the time the coffeepot gurgled its last, Faith no longer had an excuse to avoid Cole. She poured two cups of the hot, fragrant brew and carried them to the table.

He sipped at the black liquid and sighed. “This is just what I needed.”

That he drank his coffee black didn’t surprise her. She’d learned in the brief time she’d known him that Cole didn’t seem to have patience for skirting around an issue. The run-in with the town drunk the day she’d arrived in Carson came to mind. He did what he saw as right and made no excuses for it. Oddly, she liked that. If nothing else, she always knew that he cared what happened to her and Lizzie.

He set his cup down and studied her for a moment. “Are you sure you want the job I offered you?”

His question surprised her. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

Cole shrugged. “Well, you didn’t seem too eager to take it at first. In fact, I sort of thought you just didn’t want to work for me, and then all of a sudden you accepted it.”

Faith looked into her cup and stared blankly at the milk bubble floating on the surface. How did she answer this without telling him he was right—that she was afraid of being close to him, afraid she couldn’t control her growing attraction to him? That she didn’t trust him, but even more important, she didn’t trust herself?

“I—” Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Lizzie about to eat something she’d found on the floor. She jumped up and rushed to her daughter and took away what looked like a piece of dirt. “No, Lizzie. That’s yucky.” Lizzie’s bottom lip protruded and started to quiver. “How about a cookie?”

Faith carried Lizzie to the cabinet and got her one of Granny Jo’s cookies, then set her in the highchair next to the table. Cole leaned his chair back on two legs. “So why did you come back here to a little town where you had to know that jobs would be in short supply?”

Good grief! The man went from one impossible question to another. “It was time.”

“Why?”

“Why did you come back?” she asked, hoping to turn the tables on him so she wouldn’t have to go into the details of her life after leaving Carson.

Cole wasn’t stupid. He realized immediately what Faith was up to. But he decided to go along with it . . . for now. Maybe if he opened up to her, he could get her to open up a bit. His gut told him something was bottled up inside her that was poisoning her thinking, and, if he could, he wanted to help her get past it.

He dropped his chair back down on four legs, and then leaned his forearms on the table. “A while back, my dad, Sheriff Ainsley, had a cardiac incident and decided to retire.” He grinned. “I have a feeling that my mom had something to do with his decision. So, while she packed for their move to Florida, he called me and asked me to fill out the remainder of his term as sheriff. I had already made plans to leave the Richmond PD, and I was more than ready for a change of scenery, so I agreed.” He held out his hands. “And here I am.”

Faith stared at him silently for a moment. “Why don’t I believe that’s all there was to it? Why were you ready for a change?”

Cole didn’t answer immediately. Talking about his breakup with Diane still irritated some tender nerves. But the pain had more to do with his injured pride than with the loss of a loved one. He’d come to realize that he’d loved the idea of starting a family a lot more than he had loved Diane. He’d also come to understand that his incredibly urgent need for a family was in hope of assuaging the horrible effect his job as a homicide detective had on his emotions.

He’d seen too much of the darker side of life. Memories of the wonderful life he’d had as a child had lulled him into believing that a family of his own could erase the images of the horrendous things he’d seen in the line of duty. It was only after Diane left that he’d decided to cut himself off from law enforcement and go into teaching. Unfortunately, his father’s health put that plan on the back burner for a while.

“Cole?”

Faith’s voice roused him from his memories. He looked into her eyes and saw understanding there, but he still couldn’t bring himself to say more. Then she covered his hand with hers and before he knew it, he started talking, and a few minutes later, the entire story was out there in the open.

“And that’s my story.”

Faith couldn’t speak. Her heart ached for this strong, honorable man. Why was life so unfair? All she could think of was how desperately Cole wanted a family while Sloan had thought of her and Lizzie as a burden he had to shoulder, but found easy to ignore. Finally, all she could bring herself to say was, “I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged off her sympathy. Then he turned his hand to enclose hers and looked deep into her eyes. “Your turn.”

Chapter 7

FAITH STILL WASN’T sure she wanted to bare her past to Cole, but he’d been up front about his, so she took a deep breath and searched for the words to start. “When I graduated from high school, I had lots of dreams that didn’t include staying in Carson. As far as I was concerned, this town held nothing but stagnation for me. So, the day after I got my diploma, I packed my bags and bought a bus ticket. I didn’t have much money, so I bought one for the largest city I could afford to travel to—Atlanta, Georgia.”

Cole nodded. “You’re not the first young person who felt that way.”

“I’m also not the first young person who made that mistake.” Faith smiled ruefully.

“Mistake? How so?”

Cole’s prodding niggled Faith, but she also knew that without him pushing her into talking, her story would have ended here. While gathering her thoughts, she brushed the cookie crumbs on Lizzie’s highchair tray into a pile. Lizzie immediately swept the pile onto the floor.

“Lizzie!” Faith got up and snatched the broom and dustpan from the broom closet. She swept the crumbs up and deposited them in the trash. “Okay, little girl, it’s time for you to get down.” She lifted her daughter from the chair and set her and her teddy bear on the floor, then gave her some blocks to play with.

Retaking her seat at the table, she avoided Cole’s gaze and sipped at her coffee.

But it didn’t deter him. “You were saying?”

The man was relentless. “Where was I?” she asked, stalling again.

“You’d moved to Atlanta,” he supplied with a knowing smile.

“Oh, yes. Atlanta.” She set the cup down and wrapped her suddenly cold hands around it to absorb the warmth. “I hadn’t really thought any of it through, and when I got off the bus in Atlanta, I realized I was almost out of money, with no job prospects, and nowhere to live.” Lord, but that sounded so stupid now. No one with half a brain left home without a plan. “I went to a small coffee shop to think about what I’d do next, and I met a man.”

Cole sighed and shook his head.

“What?”

“I don’t see this ending well.”

Faith slumped in the chair. Shame washed over her. “It didn’t.” She glanced at Lizzie where she sat on the floor totally unaware of the conversation going on above her. “Except for Lizzie. She’s the one good thing that came out of my mistakes.”

Cole’s glance moved to the little girl. “I can’t argue that point.” He looked back to Faith. “So what happened after you met this man?”

“Nothing good. One thing led to another, and I ended up moving in with him. A few years later, I discovered I was pregnant. It took me almost two years to wise up, but by then, his drug-dealing buddies had killed him. I had Lizzie to think of, and raising her in a big city had never appealed to me, so coming back to Carson was the only thing left for me to do.” The memory of the police coming to her door and telling her Sloan had been killed still sent chills chasing over her. Her whole body had begun to shake.

Cole enclosed her hand in his. “Why did they kill him?”

Faith shook her head. The warmth and strength emanating from his hand stopped her trembling. A soothing flood of peace replaced the rekindled fear. “I’m not sure, but I imagine it was over either drugs or money. Sloan made it a point to keep anything he was involved in to himself, but I had my suspicions.”

Cole squeezed her hand. “Well, that’s all over with. There are people here who love you and will protect you and your beautiful daughter.”

Faith knew he meant he’d protect her, but she didn’t believe him. She didn’t have the luxury of believing another man and putting her and Lizzie’s welfare in his hands.

A streak of late afternoon sunlight shafting through the kitchen window fell across the table between them, separating them as effectively as a brick and mortar wall.

LATER THAT EVENING, Cole looked around his living room and frowned. Having been raised by a mother with a compulsion to put everything where it belonged, and then having served in the Marines for four years, being neat had become second nature to him. His meticulous living room, as well as his entire house, hardly personified the stereotypical single bachelor’s living quarters, and definitely not the look of a home that needed a housekeeper.