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“I love you,” I hollered after me.
“Love you too,” said Cord, winking.
“Hey,” Beau snapped at him.
He held up both of his hands. “Like a cousin, man. Chill out.”
Beau blew me a kiss, and I walked out into the sunshine. I surveyed the property as I went, incredulous that a place this beautiful might really be mine. As much as I tried to steel myself against getting my hopes up, I couldn’t help it. Add in that Cord seemed as happy as I was about learning we might be cousins, and it made it even better.
When I was younger, I’d dreamed of having a big family, which was kind of ridiculous since it was just my mom and me. Then, just me. Given the few relationships I was in hadn’t lasted very long, I didn’t hold out much hope for having kids either.
It felt like a dream when Beau said, “I want to marry you and fill that big house that’s about to become yours with as many children as I can convince you to bear.”
I looked at it in the distance, imagining how great it would be to raise children in it. It was almost too perfect, not that I’d let those kinds of thoughts ruin my day.
Beau and I were getting married. It would take a bit for me to get used to the fact we were. I could count on him to remind me, though. Probably at least once an hour.
I loved himsomuch. It was like once I allowed myself to admit it, the floodgates had opened and my entire body was filled with love for Beau.
When I stumbled on a rock, I realized I should be paying attention to the ground in front of me instead of letting my mind drift. Still, even after stubbing my toe, I felt better, happier, more content than I ever remembered in my life. If I didn’t think I’d trip and break my neck, I’d skip the rest of the way to the house.
For a split second, I thought the arm that snaked around my waist was Beau’s. But he didn’t smell like well whiskey. When the man covered my mouth with his hand and stuck a gun in my side, I had a feeling I knew exactly who it was—Jimmy Rooker.
“Keep walking,” he said, jamming the gun harder into my side. “That’s it. Just stay nice and calm, and this will all be over before you know it.” His hand moved slightly, and I opened my mouth, biting down as hard as I could.
He cried out, “You fucking bitch!” but didn’t let me go or stop walking. He did move his hand away from my mouth.
At the same time, the phone I had in my pocket went off with the sound of an alarm.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Reminder,” I blurted, hoping it would stop. It did.
“You scream, and this gun goes off here and now. You’re nothin’. Just a blip on the radar of somethin’ I’ve been waitin’ on my whole life. Once I get rid of you, everything you see will belong to me. The way it should’ve been all along.”
“It was you who tampered with Manley’s car, wasn’t it?” Thinking about what the man in the restaurant had said.
“Damn ol’ asshole. Spent his whole life trying to find the slut he got pregnant.” He laughed. “And then, when he finally does…BAM…he’s already dead, and so is the piece of shit offspring they had. That was one of the best days of my life, I’ll tell ya.” He pressed the gun harder. “Then you come along just when I thought everything was tied up in a nice little bow. All that was left was gettin’ rid ofJunior. I had no idea he’d tell his bitch of a mama. I should’ve, though. Fuckin’ Mama’s boy. Since she was the one who ran the slut off, who knew she’d want anything to do with the likes of you?”
All at once, Rooker froze. I stumbled at his abrupt stop, but he kept his arm around my waist.
“Keep your head down, Sam!” I heard Decker shout. “Let her go, Rooker. Take a look around you. If you don’t, ten bullets are gonna hit your worthless piece-of-shit brain simultaneously. You’ve got to the count of three. One, two—”
Jimmy pushed me away from him, and I fell to the ground. When I looked up, Beau was racing toward me. He got between Rooker and me, picked me up, and ran. I heard one shot fired as he carried me into the woods, and nothing after that.
When he got to the bank of the pond, he set me on a bench near the edge and fell to his knees in front of me.
“My God,” he moaned, wrapping his arms around me. I could feel the dampness from his tears. “Samantha, my love. I almost lost you.” He repeated those words over and over again while we both held each other and cried.
“Beau? Sam?”I heard Cord calling our names. Beau eased away from me, and I moved his hair from his forehead. His pupils were dilated, and his expression anguished.
“I’m okay. I’m fine,” I said. “Come back to me, Beau.”
“I’ve never been so afraid of anything in my life,” he said right before I brought my lips to his.
“Not even teaching me to drive?”
He smiled, at least, and immediately kissed me again, our mouths devouring as our hands traveled the length of each other’s bodies, as if touching each other proved we were both okay.
