“That’s not what I was told,” Riordan said, and then got in his car and led the way off the property.
Blake’s gut was in a knot as he went inside to see what damage they’d done. Cabinet doors and drawers were open, room doors were ajar. And the gun cabinet was empty. He went through the house closing doors and drawers, putting things back to rights as best he could, and then locked the front door on the way out.
He drove back to Eden with one thought on his mind. Which member of his family had blabbed about the location of the rifles? And why? What did they know? Were they trying to point a finger at someone else by being too forthcoming? He couldn’t imagine which one of them would do it, but he was going to find out.
*
Bowie was dreaming of his father. He could see him standing in the tree line just beyond the garden, talking and waving, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying. Thinking he needed to get closer, he started forward just as a loud explosion erupted behind him. Before he could turn around to see what had happened, his father’s image began to fade. Then he heard another sound, like the crack of a gunshot, and his father was gone.
He woke abruptly, only to realize the explosion he’d heard was thunder, and the gunshot, a bolt of lightning. And he was in Talia’s bedroom, but she was gone.
He rolled out of bed and headed toward the front of the house, following the scent of fresh-brewed coffee. Talia was standing at the kitchen sink, looking through the window and watching it rain.
He walked up behind her and slid a hand around her waist. It bothered him that he could so readily feel her ribs, and he didn’t know where to start to help her heal. “Are you okay?”
She nodded as she leaned back against him.
“I woke up, thinking I needed to check on Dad. It will take a while for me to get out of that habit, I guess.”
“Is there anything you need to do? I’ll do it for you if I can, or take you to do it,” Bowie said.
“No, there’s nothing. I prepared for this day a long time ago, but I forgot to plan for what I would do without him.”
Bowie kissed the back of her neck.
She turned to face him.
“You’re sure you still want to resurrect this relationship?” she asked.
He heard the uncertainty in her voice and frowned.
“Yes. I want to grow old with you, Talia. All I ever wanted from you was for you to love me.”
She traced the curve of his jaw, brushed a thumb over his lower lip, then reached behind his neck and pulled the band from his hair. The long dark strands fell over her hands and down on to his shoulders.
“I’ve been trying to tell myself that wanting to make love with you now is inappropriate so soon after my father’s death, but when I woke up and saw you lying beside me, I was reminded that I had given up enough. It’s time to live for me. I’m not pretty anymore, but my heart still beats the same for you. Will you make love to me, Bowie?”
It was, to Bowie, tragic that she thought she had to ask when the sight of her still made his heart race.
“You will always be beautiful to me,” he said, and swung her up into his arms.
He carried her back through the house and into her room, kicking the door shut behind him. The moment he put her down she began to strip.
He came out of his clothes erect and aching, and took a condom out of his wallet. The last thing she needed was to get pregnant before she got well. Wind was blowing rain against the windows as he slid into bed beside her. He heard her sigh as she put her arms around his neck.
“Oh, Bowie, please, tell me I’m not dreaming.”
He brushed a kiss across her lips, then ran the back of his finger against her cheek.
“Not a dream. Just a beautiful reality for both of us, and I am so damned scared I’m going to hurt you, I can’t think.”
“The pain of the last seven years nearly killed me. I want to feel whole again. I want to remember what it’s like to feel joy.”
He groaned beneath his breath as he took her in his arms. This he could give her, knowing full well it would be just as healing for him.
Thunder rolled above them as he centered his mouth on her lips. Holding her in his arms like this wiped out the pain of believing she didn’t love him, easing the loneliness of the past seven years and giving him something he’d thought he would never have: a family with the only woman he had ever loved.
Their kisses quickly awakened an urgent need for more. Her skin was so smooth and soft, just as he remembered, and when he cupped her breast, the moan that came up her throat vibrated within him.
It was joy.
Talia couldn’t contain her elation. She kept stroking his face, then his arms, across the back of his shoulders, marveling at how wide they’d become. He’d left her as a teenage boy and come back a man. When he slid a knee between her legs, she shifted to let him in, then exhaled slowly as the hard length of him filled her.