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“Maybe some other time.” Quinn gave them a cheeky wave and waltzed out the station door with her lawyer.
Owen turned to the sergeant at the desk. “Why is she being released? She kidnapped two people and tried to shoot me.”
The sergeant gave a nervous glance over his shoulder. “Guess she used her get out of jail free card. You two better move along. We’ll call you if anything further is needed.”
“Yeah, right,” Owen muttered but took Sophie’s hand and led her outside into the early evening sunshine. As soon as they were on the front steps, he turned to her. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s not your fault. We’ll figure out later how it happened.” She’d give Micky a call and see what he could find out with his connections at the police department. Right now, she had a different question. “What did you mean about a deal?”
He heaved out a sigh. “I got Quinn to agree to give you an exclusive interview. A day in the life of a fixer for a drug smuggler kind of thing.”
“You did?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How?”
“We were on the roof. Quinn was out of bullets and options. I wasn’t.” A slight grin appeared on his face then. Sophie reached out and put her hands on his cheeks.
“Thank you for that.” She was touched that he’d thought of her and her career at that moment. “But I think I have plenty of fodder for a great story already when I tell how I was kidnapped from the newspaper offices.” She leaned in until their lips almost touched, wanting his kiss so much.
“Wait,” he said, putting some space between them. “We need to talk first.”
“Before even one kiss?” she asked, trying to gauge what he was thinking. He wasn’t walking away from them. She felt confident of that, so she could wait—a little longer and impatiently—for his kiss.
“Yes,” he said, looking incredibly serious for a man she’d once accused of not taking life seriously.
She’d been so wrong about him then. Now, she understood him and loved everything about him. “Let’s go to the park.” She pointed just down the street to a shaded area with a fountain in the center. It seemed just the right sort of place for a discussion about their love. Because that’s what it was going to be if she had anything to say about it.
And she had plenty to say.
THIRTY-FOUR
Owen matched his stride to hers, controlling his pace. Part of him wanted to run to the little park and pour out everything inside him as quickly as possible. But it had taken him years to get to where he trusted someone enough to finally speak up, so he needed to do this right.
And then, they’d get to those kisses she wanted. Lots of them. Enough to fill up all the hours for the next weeks, and the coming years if he was lucky.
“How about that bench?” She pointed to one under a blooming magnolia tree. Pink petals were scattered on the seat and the nearby ground. A romantic setting for what she hoped was the beginning of their happy ending. “Seems a nice place.” She smiled at him, and he lost his heart to her all over again.
“That’ll work.” He sat next to her with the manilla folder in his hands. Finding the right words to express his feelings was tough for him, so he’d gone with visuals. He just wished his art skills were better or that he’d had access to the digital vision boards they’d used at the resort. If only he’d taken a chance then and made his board a true reflection of his feelings toward her. Instead, he’d treated it like a joke and hurt her.
Not this time. This time he’d get it right, even if it scared him to talk about what he wanted. Unlike his family, he knew she wouldn’t use his feelings against him. He could tell her, honestly and openly, that she was his future. His love, the one person he wanted by his side.
That was motivation to open the folder he carried and pull out the various sheets of paper and pages he’d torn from magazines he’d found while waiting in the squad room.
“I’m not much of an artist,” he said as he handed her the first sheet and took a deep breath. “But I think you’ll get the idea.” It was a drawing of an office door with the words McCormick Protection and Investigation written on it.
“Your own company?” she asked, studying the picture before meeting his eyes. “Who are you protecting and what are you investigating?”
“Anyone who needs security, but I want to make the primary focus journalists who are working in dangerous situations to get their stories,” he explained. He’d spent the past two years since leaving the Navy trying to decide how to best use his skills. Working with Sophie had shown him what his future career could be. And he wasn’t afraid to share that with her because he knew she’d understand and accept it. “I’d make sure they were safe, and I’d put to use what I know about investigating to assist them in digging for information and making their deadlines.”
“I don’t think anything like that exists, but it’s absolutely needed,” she said. “I know I’d like to have someone like you in my corner.”
“You’ll always get first dibs on my time and skills. Always.” He made that commitment to her.
“Always.” Sophie repeated the word softly. “What’s next?” She pointed to the next paper in his folder. It showed skyscrapers in the skyline of a city.
“This is for when you make it big and the offers pour in to work for major newspapers,” he said. “You’ll have to move to a bigger city then, and I want to be right there with you, helping you.” Owen paused, gathering his courage for what he needed to say. “Loving you.”
She smiled at him, the slightest flush on her cheeks. “I want you there with me, too.”
He thought about kissing her senseless and forgetting about what else was in the folder, but he knew that he needed to lay it all on the line. She deserved that from him. He pulled out another page from a magazine. It was an ad for tourism in Costa Rica that featured a couple ziplining through the jungle, snorkeling just off a beach, and dancing the night away under a star strewn sky. He silently handed it to her.
