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The relief that slipped over his face spoke clearly of how much he loved Rachel and wanted her to be happy.
“Rachel.” Sally called her name when she was a dozen feet away, and Rachel turned. Sally couldn’t tell what was going through her mind, but it didn’t matter. Striding straight to her, Sally threw her arms around Rachel’s shoulders and hugged her tightly. Apparently surprised, it took her a few seconds to relax and return the embrace.
“I’m so glad you’re here.” Sally stepped back. “Did you change your hair color?”
Rachel laughed uncertainly. “Only about four times in the past nine months.”
Sally brought her hands to her hips and studied Rachel’s deep auburn tresses with caramel highlights. She shook her head. “Well…I love it!”
Rachel’s eyes welled with tears, even as her lips curved in a tremulous smile. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do to make things right.”
Sally held up her hand. “We’re not going there. You’re here. Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet.” She dragged her by the hand to a row of tables that had been set up adjacent to the work area. “Ellen, this is my best friend, Rachel Maguire. Also engaged to Luke’s brother. Rachel, I’d like you to meet Ellen Mathias. Ellen and Daniel own this place, and they’ve been incredibly kind to Jen and me.”
Ellen shook hands with Rachel. “Thanks for coming. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“It’s an honor to be here, actually. You and your husband are heroes,” Rachel said. “So, I came to work. What can I do?”
“You’re in luck. In the cabin next door, there’s a bunch of women, and a couple of men, working their butts off to get lunch prepared for all these people. You’ll have to introduce yourself because I don’t know half of them. Seems there are people here from all over the western United States who came to do something nice for us just because we ended up in the news. The idea takes my breath away. I’ll have to pay this forward for a long, long time.” Ellen stopped talking and pressed her hand over her mouth, but a sob escaped anyway.
Sally put her arm around Ellen’s shoulders. “It’s okay. You’re entitled to shed a few tears—we all are.” She glanced to where the men worked and caught Luke watching her.
He gave her a thumb’s-up and she nodded.
“Look, Ellen. They’ve started to notch the logs and stack them. You’ll be back in your home in no time.”
Ellen straightened and smoothed her hair away from her face. “You’ll have to excuse me, girls. I wouldn’t be so darn emotional if I wasn’t pregnant.”
“What?” Sally couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay. You’ve been holding out on me. Rachel, I’ll catch up with you later, okay? Right now, I’m going to find a nice, shady spot for this pregnant lady to sit.”
“Say no more. Congratulations, Ellen.” As Rachel strode by Sally, she grabbed her hand and squeezed. The happiness radiating from her gave Sally a rush of warmth.
Soon, the assembly of cooks and food preparers were filling some of the tables with every kind of salad, pasta, Jell-O fruit concoction, bread, sandwich meat and dessert. A round, loud-voiced man, with an apron Sally was sure used to be white, manned a huge outdoor grill on which cooked chicken, hamburgers and hotdogs. Stacks of paper plates and plastic utensils lined the end of each table. One person after another carried pitchers and jugs of iced tea and lemonade to spread around the empty tables where people would eat. Sally left Ellen sitting with her feet up, enjoying a quiet moment and a cold drink.
Jen and Bridgett were passing out ice-cold bottles of water to the sweating workers starting to break in anticipation of lunch. Sally’s gaze drifted to Luke, who was working on flooring with Garrett, Jonathan and a half-dozen other men she hadn’t met. The walls of logs were going up around them as they worked. Obviously engrossed in his project, Luke didn’t look up.
“Well, sweet thing, you’ve become quite a celebrity. If you can leave your adoring fans for a minute, I’d like to have a word with you.”
The voice sent cold chills up her back as she whipped around.Sheriff Mike Connors. Jen’s father.Standing across the table from her—the very last person she wanted to see. What was he doing here? She wouldn’t have pegged him as a Good Samaritan. With a narrowed gaze, she stared at him. “Really, Mike? It just so happens I have a word for you.Leave.”
“Is that right? Where’s my daughter, Sally? If you won’t hear what I have to say, maybe I’ll go talk to the kid.” He started to walk away.
“No,” Sally screamed. The decibel level, coupled with the alarm in her voice shut down the rumble of the crowd as if she’d turned a spigot. She sensed dozens of eyes on her and a collective holding of breath.
Darting around the table, Sally placed herself directly in front of him. No way was he getting close to Jen. “Don’t you dare go near her.” Each word was punctuated by rage, the likes of which she’d never felt before.
“All right.” He grabbed her arm roughly and jerked her close enough his breath blew on her face. “It’s entirely up to you, sweetheart. Let’s you and me find a nice quiet place to be alone.” Still gripping her arm, he started to tug her farther from the line of tables.
Sally’s stomach lurched at the thought of being alone with the man, and he seemed oblivious to the fact everyone within a thirty-foot radius was listening to his every word.
Luke was a blur of motion as he slid between them, forcing the sheriff to let go of her. Slamming his palms against Connors’s chest repeatedly, Luke walked him backward until a dozen feet separated them from Sally. Luke’s right hook caught the sheriff already off balance, and blood spurted from his nose. The powerful punch spun him around, and he sprawled face down in the dirt.
A spattering of applause went up. Sally glanced around and found Garrett standing on one side of her, Travis on the other. Ten feet behind them, Matt lifted Jen and set her on his shoulders.
So…this is what it feels like to be surrounded by friends. She’d tried to keep herself and Jen from being noticed by the wrong people for so long, their friends had been few. Sally almost didn’t recognize the feeling of total safety that suddenly became a living force inside her.
Luke yanked the sheriff to his feet, and Connors swayed unsteadily.
“You broke my nose. You just made the biggest mistake of your life, you fucking squid.”
