AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t care about sorry.”
“No, you don’t.” Smiling, she laid a hand on his cheek. “But I’m sorry anyway.”
“You could move in with me now.”
“I wouldn’t feel right or easy leaving the ladies alone, not when it really does look like he’s coming.”
“I can move in with you.”
He would, she thought. He’d hate it, but he would.
“The house is as secure as it can get. And tomorrow I’m going to ask Jen to give me some self-defense refreshers. Listen to me, okay? Because I’ve thought a lot about this. Maybe he could have killed me before. I wasn’t prepared—and still, maybe not. He killed Nina, but he took her by surprise, and she was sick, and she was tiny, Miles. But now I am prepared, and he won’t surprise me. And I’m stronger than I was. More? I’m pissed.”
“All of that’s good, Morgan. And still.”
“The police are patrolling the street. I’ve got a deputy following me home from work every night. I expect we’ll have a cop or a fed camped in the living room if he gets as far as the Vermont border.”
“If he gets that far, I’m camped there with them.”
“Deal. And don’t be mad, but I need him to come. I need this over and done. I want to look at wedding dresses and bouquets, decide onwhat song we want for our first dance, and pick just the right shade of lilac for your morning coat.”
“You’re going to do all of— What? No.”
“I was saving the lilac to throw you off. This seemed like a good time. Now let’s close Rozwell away, and go home.”
“Fine. No lilac.”
“Well, if I go with peonies with lilacs, maybe just a little one for a boutonniere. Then I start thinking about delphinium and sweet peas or tulips and spirea. Don’t get me started.”
“Of things I want to do, getting you started on bouquets comes close to dead last.”
Outside, he took her hand again, and thought he could smell the first real hint of fall in the air. “How about ‘Stand by Me’?”
“You want to watch a movie tonight?”
“Not the movie. The song. First dance. Because I will, and you damn well better do the same.”
Her stress dropped to make way for the gooey she felt inside. “You have been thinking about wedding stuff.”
“The stuff occasionally crosses my mind.”
“I accept your song nomination—it’s a really good one—if you’ll accept the lilac sprig if I go there.”
“Just a sprig?”
She held up her thumb and index finger to indicate small.
“I can sign on to that.”
She turned into him, wrapped around him. “I love you, Miles.”
“Another thing you damn well better.”
Later, while they slept, Rozwell crossed into Wisconsin driving a Dodge pickup he’d bought for cash off a used car lot in St. Paul.
He’d made some plans.
Morgan dealt with the packages that came, the charges to her account, reported them. And kept her own log of them.
