Crossing the line

Chapter Twenty-One

July 1999

After that one amazing night, life fell into a comfortable and pleasant routine for Wyatt and Tabitha. Things were easy and uncomplicated, and for the most part Wyatt entered into his early twenties as a very happy man.

Once they graduated, Wyatt went away to the police academy, and Tabitha stayed in Garnet, but fortunately for them, it only took him four months to finish. That had been a long, hard time for both of them, and even having his sister there with him didn’t make it any easier to be separated from Tabitha when they had been inseparable for years.

But he made it through and was able to go back home to his girl.

Then Wyatt worked, and Tabitha worked, and in between they found time to do it as often as possible, just like she had promised. The one downside was they had made such a habit of keeping their relationship secret, they still hadn’t told her mother or his father that they had been madly in love for years now and were likely going to get married one of these days.

“Are you actually gonna watch the fight tomorrow?” Wyatt asked as he came out of the bathroom in the Chicago hotel room they had rented for the next three nights.

“I’ll be there. Peeking at it through my fingers.” Tabitha grimaced from her place on the bed where she sat reading. She set her book on the nightstand and frowned at him. “Why can’t you go back to boxing?”

“MMA is more challenging. Anyone can dominate a boxing ring, but it takes a real athlete to rule the cage.” Wyatt shrugged. “And Clay loves it. If ever there was a sport for a man who loves their ground game as much as him, MMA is it. You know, Jasper thinks we could both get UFC contracts by next year, maybe sooner. Wouldn’t that be something? Those fellas make so much money. I’ll buy ya a house. A big one and—”

“Wy, I don’t need a house. Why are you always trying to buy me things?”

“Fine, I’ll buy me a big house and then force you to live in it.”

She rolled her eyes. “And what’s your daddy gonna think of you living in a big house with me?”

“I think I’m twenty-one years old, and it don’t really matter what my daddy thinks ’bout it,” Wyatt said sarcastically. “And it matters even less what your mama thinks, ’cause between you and me—”

“Don’t.” Tabitha cut him off. “She’s sick, Wyatt. You have to remember that.”

“So you’re just gonna waste away in that place, taking care of your mama until she drinks herself to death? Is that what you really want for yourself?”

“Please.” There was a wild thread of desperation in Tabitha’s voice that was common whenever the subject of her mother came up. “Don’t ruin our night. You rented this fancy hotel room. I wanna enjoy it, not fight with you.”

“What does your mama think ’bout you coming to all my fights?”

“I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m dating Clay.” Tabitha grimaced. “That’d be like doing it with my brother. Still, convenient that your fights are usually on the same night as his. Do you ever get jealous Clay’s are the last ones of the night?”

Wyatt shook his head. “Nah, I like letting him be last. He deserves the glory.”

“Then why do you do it?” Tabitha asked with a frown. “You’re always on a dang diet. You never get to eat ’cause you’re fighting in a weight class you’re too big for. I don’t understand why if you ain’t after the glory.”

“Bloodlust.” Wyatt showed his teeth in one of those mock fighter grimaces that always graced posters.

Tabitha giggled. “You are crazy. You’ve always been crazy, and spending all your vacation time and days off traveling across the country for this MMA stuff sure ain’t helping the cause.”

“I do it to get you away from Garnet and have you all to myself.” Wyatt tossed his towel aside and crawled onto the bed. “And I make more off the fighting than I do working for my dad, just so you know. A lot more.”

“And what’re you gonna do with all that hard-earned money?” Tabitha arched an eyebrow up at him when he stopped to hover over her.

“Spoil my girl rotten.”

She hit his arm. “Crazy.”

“Crazy sexy.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Admit it.”

“Well, I sure ain’t denying it.” She tilted her head, letting her gaze run over him for one long moment. “Might as well enjoy what you got to offer since you’ll probably come back to me bruised and battered tomorrow.”

“Hey, now, don’t be underestimating me. I got this guy. Easy.” Wyatt was more than confident about the fight tomorrow. “If I can take Clay, I can surely take him.”

“Yeah, but you can’t take Clay. I’ve seen him beat you plenty of times.”

“It’s fifty-fifty.” Wyatt frowned down at her. “You doubting my abilities?”

“I think you’re cocky,” she countered. “Scares me sometimes.”

“That’s a personal insult.” Wyatt grabbed both her hands before she could move to deflect him. Then he fell down on top of her, pinning her with his weight. “I may have to punish you for that.”

Tabitha screeched and fought his hold when he leaned down and licked at the curve of her neck. She shivered because her neck had always been extrasensitive. “Stop!” She giggled. “It tickles.”

He pulled aside her nightgown—a long, silky green one he had bought her for Christmas last year. Then he leaned down and sucked one taut pink nipple, making Tabitha gasp and arch under him.

“Now say sorry,” he said with a grin when he lifted his head.

Her breathing was already low and raspy, but she still managed to quirk an eyebrow at him. “What do I get if I do?”

“Say it and find out.”

“I’m sor—” Tabitha stopped abruptly when Wyatt kissed her before she could finish apologizing.

He forced her nightgown up past her hips while they kissed. Then he pulled back to tug it over her head. He groaned as he looked down at her. She was naked save a pair of skimpy panties. “Oh, baby, you are so hot. I’m gonna fuck you all night long.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to have sex before a fight.”

“Who told you that?” Wyatt asked and then kissed her again before she could answer.

This wasn’t the first time they’d done it since they got to Chicago, so slow seduction was shoved to the wayside in the name of hard driving need and desperation. He was feeling aggressive with the excitement of the coming fight, and Tabitha met him step for step as he pushed off her panties and then took her in one hard thrust while holding her hands above her head.

Tabitha bowed to the pleasure, shouting his name when her eyes slammed shut. Then she wrapped her legs around his hips and moved with him, as with each hard thrust Wyatt loved her and took from her and gave all of himself in the process. The whole time he kept her pinned down, and she didn’t fight his domination of her, which turned him on even more.

His strokes were powerful and fast. Their breathing was harsh between choked cries of bliss. Tabitha stiffened under him; then a shudder seized her entire body as she came with long, surrendering moans of pleasure. He could have held out longer, but hearing her had Wyatt reaching for her beneath the veil of ecstasy. He bit his lip when the coil sprang free, and the warm, tingling feeling of his orgasm spread through his body, taking the last of his tension with it.

When it passed, both their chests heaved. Wyatt leaned his forehead against hers and swept his thumb over her wrist where he was still holding her down. Then he became gentler, placing kisses against her cheeks, her temple, and then down to her ear before he sucked one tender lobe into his mouth. Tabitha was the only girl he knew who didn’t have her ears pierced, and he liked it like that.

Tabitha slipped her hands from out of his steely grasp when it loosened. She ran her fingers through his hair and down his back that was sweaty again despite his shower. Then she wrapped her arms around him, holding on to him tightly. “You make sure you beat this fella you’re fighting tomorrow. I don’t want you getting hurt. Promise?”

He pushed up and gave her a wide smile. “I promise.”

Wyatt’s sister came to a lot of the fights, but not all of them. Jules’s life was even more hectic than Wyatt’s. She was competing all the time in judo, working at the sheriff’s department, and in between all that somehow studying for a law degree.

It was little wonder Tabitha and Wyatt’s sister had never hit it off. Jules probably thought Tabitha was the laziest person on earth for simply working at Maple’s and taking care of her mama. The rest of Tabitha’s life sort of revolved around Wyatt. It wasn’t a bad reality. It was what most people did, just lived and loved and got by, but Tabitha couldn’t help but feel unaccomplished when she was around Jules, who was far too ambitious to be human.

Which was the reason Tabitha was very happy the Chicago fight was one Jules had to skip for her own competition in California. It made a far more relaxed atmosphere for all of them. Tabitha went out to eat twice with Clay, Wyatt, and their coaches before the fight on Saturday night. She didn’t get to eat out much, so she really enjoyed it.

Clay and Wyatt’s fights were always like a little adventure for Tabitha. She would’ve likely been one of those people who lived out their whole life without leaving her hometown if wasn’t for Wyatt insisting she was his good luck charm and bringing her along.

Yet, even with the adventure, when it came time to watch Wyatt’s fight, Tabitha found herself sitting front and center, invisible in a sea of drunk, violent hungry men and squealing fight groupies. She had learned to dress simply in jeans and a T-shirt, so she fit in but wasn’t prone to draw attention to herself. She deliberately didn’t wear makeup and tied her hair back in a bun to hopefully detract from the bright color that she knew made her stand out.

She still got some unwanted attention, but Tabitha was good at nothing if not being aloof and silent until the drunk assholes moved on to one of the girls who were a little more outgoing and open to being hit on. She had sat through three fights already that night, and each one was bloody and painful to watch. MMA was very different fighting than boxing. Wyatt and Clay had moved up from the smaller fights that had little rules and were just survival of the fittest to more organized MMA fighting, but even in this arena, the lure was the no-holds-barred battle between two men who knew how to truly hurt their opponents.

Wyatt really was certifiable, and Clay along with him. Tabitha almost felt guilty for being the catalyst that brought those two together as friends. It was the collision of their combined ambitions and testosterone-fueled need to conquer that led to Tabitha sitting in this seat waiting for Wyatt to come out.

His opponent was first, because Wyatt was the more popular fighter. Tabitha studied him once he entered the cage after the fanfare and had to admit this young fighter looked nervous. He wasn’t nearly as big as Wyatt, who had been forced to get into a sauna at a local gym for a good hour and half this morning and then starve himself for the rest of the day when he stepped on the scale in their hotel room and found out he was four full pounds over weight class despite months of dieting. He was always so close he actually traveled with a scale in his luggage.

Wyatt slipped in at a half pound under the light-heavyweight upper limit. How very unfortunate for his opponent. The other fighter was far from being small, but Tabitha knew Wyatt’s body better than anyone, and this man just wasn’t as toned or broad. Plus, he lacked Wyatt’s unbending confidence that was more than obvious when he came out from the other side of the small arena.

The noise the crowd made was insane. She actually winced at it as she stood on her toes to see Wyatt. For some crazy reason, he had donned the persona of the “The Deputy,” and he pulled it off as only a man who was born to perform for the masses could. He played to that stereotype of those scary Southern cops you never wanted to get stopped by.

Truth was, Wyatt let more people off on tickets than anyone. Jules was the deputy these folks should be scared of. She wrote twice as many tickets as Wyatt, and she only worked part-time.

Tonight Wyatt wore a deputy hat and tan shorts to match, but his muscular chest was bare and shiny with oil. So silly. Tabitha giggled when she saw him throw up his arms and get the crowds worked up into a frenzy. She covered her face with her hands when he tossed his hat out into the crowd. She knew Clay was somewhere visibly cringing over Wyatt’s antics.

Wyatt threw that hat every time, but it was only the first one that was his real deputy hat. He told Tabitha his father had lost his mind when he found out Wyatt used his uniform hat as a prop for his fighting. Now the hats were just costume hats.

When he walked past her seat in the front row, he grabbed her and kissed her full on the lips. He did it every time, and there wasn’t once that Tabitha’s cheeks didn’t flame in embarrassment. She didn’t know what she was going to do if he did make it to the UFC and started fighting in front of such large national crowds.

“That’s my girl.” Wyatt looked every bit the mean, intimidating fighter he was supposed to be as he pointed to the guys on either side of her. “I better not catch y’all looking at her.”

“Oh my God.” Tabitha rolled her eyes, speaking loudly to be heard over the crowd. “Really, Wyatt?”

Wyatt growled in response, showing his teeth in the same menacing way he had in the hotel room the night before.

Tabitha couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head. “Crazy.”

“You love me,” Wyatt said without remorse.

“I guess.” Tabitha gestured to the cage. “Ain’t ya got a fight to finish?”

“Sure enough!” Wyatt threw up his arms again, and the crowd screamed in response.

He made his way up to the cage, and when Tabitha sat down, she noticed the two men on either side of her had made an effort to sit as far from her as possible. Her cheeks were still flaming, and the nerves about the fight sure didn’t help.

Wyatt flexed his fingers that were covered in fingerless gloves. He rolled his shoulders and bounced in place, suddenly all business now that he was in the cage. The referee walked to the center and then stopped to stand between the two fighters. When he stepped back, Wyatt and his opponent came together, touching gloves and then bouncing back quickly.

They circled each other, reminding Tabitha of something one would see on the Discovery Channel—two big, powerful animals, keeping their distance but waiting for the first one to pounce and fight to the death for dominance. Tabitha wasn’t surprised Wyatt was the one to make the first move. He jumped forward like a viper and caught the other fighter with a hard right hook that made her wince in sympathy. The fighter stumbled but punched back. Wyatt dodged it, ducking low and then catching him in the side.

The other guy jumped backward toward the cage, and Wyatt kicked him, his bare foot barely grazing his chin. There was a kick in retaliation, and Wyatt doubled over, but he didn’t fall. Something about that must have bothered him. He had a perfect fighting record. There had been many fights that had ended in the first few minutes.

Wyatt darted toward the left of the fighter rather than directly at him. Tabitha gasped out loud when he came at the cage with such velocity he was able to jump up, almost appearing to run across it sideways and using it for elevation, before delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to the head that knocked the other fighter to the mat. Then Wyatt was on him, falling to his knees and punching him in the face so hard Tabitha cringed.

The referee had to pull Wyatt back.

The other fighter was unconscious when they did.

Tabitha knew enough about this sort of fighting to understand the significance of a real knockout rather than a technical one. Wyatt would surely be admiring his stats for the next two weeks. The noise level was ridiculous. She had never heard a crowd go so crazy over a fight.

“He used the cage for a roundhouse!” The guy behind her was screaming. “That was un-fucking-believable!”

The hollering in that arena really was earsplitting.

“That was amazing!” The man next to her got in Tabitha’s face, having obviously forgotten Wyatt’s threat. “I’ve never seen anything like that before! Did you see that shit?”

“I did.” Tabitha nodded, unable to help mirroring their enthusiasm. It had been an astounding feat of athleticism. “It really was amazing. It was like he walked sideways on the cage! Like magic!”

Now she was sad his sister hadn’t been there to see it. She hoped one of his coaches had someone taping it. They’d taken to recording Wyatt and Clay’s fights to analyze later. It was a wonderful moment in their history and made all the more exciting when Clay ended the last fight of the night in less than four minutes with another knockout.

Both men were still pumped when Tabitha met them after the fight, surrounded by the promoters and fans.

“I ended my fight a full minute faster than you, motherfucker,” Wyatt was shouting over the heads of the people surrounding him and Clay. “You owe me a hundred bucks.”

“Shut up, asshole!” Clay shouted back and then flipped him off for good measure. “I’m fighting guys thirty pounds heavier!”

“That ain’t a lie!” Wyatt threw up his hands and then shouted, “It was an incredible knockout, man. I’m so fucking proud of you! Tab!”

Tabitha stumbled back when Wyatt broke out of the crowd and came at her, still fueled on the adrenaline of not just his fight, but obviously rooting for Clay’s as well. He swept her off her feet and kissed her.

“Did you see Clay nail Jayston?” Wyatt’s voice was unnaturally loud, as if all the screaming had made him temporarily deaf. “Man, the second he got him to the mat he had no fucking chance! He’s got a concussion for sure. I’ve felt Clay’s right hook when he’s angry. I know that poor bastard is hurting.”

“It was a great fight.” Tabitha wrapped her arms around him and kissed him again. “Yours wasn’t half-bad either. That roundhouse—wow!”

Wyatt’s smile was wide and pleased. “Pretty badass.”

“Very badass,” Tabitha assured him. “Like a man with a vendetta.”

“Oh, hush.” Wyatt laughed. “You know you ain’t supposed to be talking about my vendettas. Kiss the hero of the hour. Once more.”

“Okay.” Tabitha lifted her arm while hanging on Wyatt, who was still holding her off her feet. “Clay, come on over here!”

Wyatt laughed. “You better not!”

“I did take him to the prom,” Tabitha teased.

“Wyatt,” coach Jasper interrupted them. “The promoters want you and Clay to go out and sign some autographs. You can bring Tabitha.”

“Oh God, that’s not good for your ego,” Tabitha said with a laugh. “It’s already too big to be tolerable.”

Wyatt kissed her again rather than argue and then put an arm around her shoulders. He was still sweaty, but Tabitha didn’t care. She curled into him when he placed a kiss against the top of her head and said, “Let’s get this publicity shit done. Then I need a steak and my girl alone in our hotel room—in that order.”

Tabitha snorted. “Glad to know the steak takes precedence.”

“I haven’t had a decent meal in a week,” Wyatt retorted indignantly and then pulled up short so fast Tabitha would have fallen if he wasn’t holding on to her. “Dad!”

Tabitha stiffened next to him when she found herself tilting her head back to look at Sheriff Conner dressed casually in jeans and a blue T-shirt. The white-hot surge of fear was all-encompassing, and she instinctively pulled away from Wyatt only to be held in place when Wyatt’s arm tightened around her.

“What the heck are you doing here?” Wyatt sounded as shocked as Tabitha felt.

“I thought I’d surprise you. I never get to see yours or Clay’s fights and—” Sheriff Conner’s gaze darted to Tabitha, but he didn’t look that shocked, which meant he probably saw Wyatt kiss her before his fight and had an hour to get over his surprise. “Tabitha, right?”

Tabitha looked to Wyatt uncertainly but then mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

His father looked away for a moment before he turned back to them and shook his head as if still battling with it. “The fights were great. Unbelievable. That roundhouse—”

“Thanks, Dad.” Wyatt sighed and looked behind him, as if searching for Clay, and then huffed in defeat. “Listen, I probably should’ve told you before now that Tabitha and I have been seeing each other. It’s just been a bad habit—keeping it secret, but that don’t mean—”

“How long?” the sheriff interrupted him.

“Huh?” Wyatt frowned.

“Seeing each other. How long’s it been going on?”

“Oh, um—” Wyatt’s eyebrows scrunched as if he was trying to remember. “Like, ninth grade.”

“What?” The sheriff looked genuinely shocked now. His dark eyes grew wide in horror. “You’ve been dating this girl all that time and didn’t think to mention it to me? What the hell, Wyatt?”

“We really do need you out there,” coach Jasper interrupted them and then pulled back with a gasp. “Well, howdy, Sheriff. Didn’t know you were coming.” Then he turned back to Wyatt and Tabitha. “When did y’all tell him ’bout you two?”

“Just now,” the sheriff mumbled. “Ninth grade. Really?”

“Oh,” Jasper said slowly and then winced at Wyatt. “Sorry, but we do need them out there.”

“Go.” The sheriff waved them off. “We’ll talk later. It was a great fight, Wy.”

“Thanks,” Wyatt said uncertainly as he pulled Tabitha with him. “See you in a little bit. We’ll have a late dinner.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dinner wasn’t that much fun.

Nothing had been said about Tabitha and Wyatt’s lying. His father made a genuine effort to be polite to Tabitha, but Wyatt noticed he asked her a lot of probing questions that were disguised as dinner chatter. Wyatt could hear the suspicion in all of them, but he didn’t stop them in fear of Tabitha catching on to his father’s cop-like tendency to be on the lookout for something wrong.

The line of questioning went something along the lines of:

“How’s your family?”

“Your mama still out of work?”

Tabitha answered most questions with simple two-word responses. Then fell silent besides Wyatt until his father started in again.

“Do you ever see your brother? Or did you have a falling out with him after that nasty fight he got in back when y’all were still in high school? No? Good, I hate to see things like that come between family.”

That last bit of questioning was what tipped Wyatt off that he was in a whole world of shit where his father was concerned. They were a fairly modern family, and Wyatt was twenty-one, not like his father could bitch about him sneaking off to do it with his girl in Chicago.

The rest, however, was a huge issue.

“You staying the night, Dad?” Wyatt asked uncertainly once dinner was over, and they walked out of the hotel steakhouse.

His father shook his head. “Uh, no, I wish I could. Got to get back to work. Just came in to watch the fights. Yours was amazing too, Clay. I can see why your coaches were excited. You’re looking at a big UFC contract for sure. You both are.”

“Thanks.” Clay looked over to Wyatt. His eyes were wide, and there was an obvious communication that said he had gotten the same vibes Wyatt had off his father. When he spoke again, his voice was distant. “Too bad you can’t stay.”

“Yeah, too bad.” His father stepped forward and shook Tabitha’s hand. “It was nice getting to know ya, darlin’. Maybe you can come over for dinner sometime soon.”

“Yes, that sounds nice,” Tabitha agreed softly. “Soon.”

“Wyatt, can I borrow you for a minute before I catch my cab to the airport?”

“Sure.” Wyatt lifted his arm off Tabitha’s shoulders, because he had felt the need to hold her through something he knew was making her nervous as hell. “Clay, you’ll walk Tab up to our room, won’t ya?”

“Yeah, no problem.” Clay gave Wyatt another wide-eyed look that said very clearly, open your dang mouth and I will beat you until you pop. “Call me later.”

Wyatt nodded. “Got it.”

Wyatt stood next to his father as they watched Tabitha and Clay walk up to the elevators. Clay pushed the button, and it opened automatically. Once they stepped in and the doors closed, his father said, “You did it, didn’t ya?”

“Did what?” Wyatt decided playing stupid would hold off the evitable for about two seconds.

“I had this moment while I was investigating it where I considered Clay. I remember Tabitha had this cut on her head, and I thought, now there’s a real sweet-tempered, very pretty young lady, and someone could lose their mind if her brother had done something to her. I knew she and Clay were close, but then I thought, nah, Clay ain’t a hothead. It just wasn’t his personality.” His father turned around and arched an eyebrow at Wyatt. “You, on the other hand.”

“Do you want me to answer this line of questioning?” Wyatt was taller than his father now, and he made a point to stand to his full height. “Or maybe I need a lawyer first.”

“Jesus Christ, Wyatt!” his father shouted loud enough to make people walking by turn around and look at them. “What the hell were you thinking? You could’ve killed those boys!”

“I ain’t admitting to anything. You’re just assuming,” Wyatt countered as he made a point to look around and lower his voice. “Thanks for that.”

“Did you do it? I just wanna know.” His father leaned in closer, studying Wyatt intensely. “You know what? No, I don’t want to know. I don’t like that girl. She’s very pretty, but you’ve got to know she’s bad for you.”

“You and Jules make a perfect pair,” Wyatt growled back before he could think better of it. “Why don’t you just go on and join the club?”

“Jules knows ’bout this?” His father threw up his hands. “Y’all must think I’m a real fool. To think of all those years I left you home, thinking I had great kids who wouldn’t do a damn thing behind my back. Now I find out you’ve been living some kind of criminal, secret life—”

“Okay,” Wyatt interrupted him with a glare. “You are talking ’bout something that happened one time when I was just a kid. Now if you think I’m gonna stand here listening to you berate me, or more so, berate Tabitha, when I have lived my whole life to make you happy. It ain’t happening.”

“Do you know what sorta family she comes from? Addictions like that are genetic. She’ll end up just like her mother. I’d bet my badge on it.”

“Excuse me, sir,” Wyatt said mockingly, “but fuck you. You don’t know her, and you’re judging her for something she ain’t even done. That ain’t fair by anyone’s standards.”

His father sputtered. “You do this, and—”

“And what? You’ll disown me? Take my badge?” Wyatt laughed bitterly. “You can have it. In case you didn’t notice tonight, I don’t need that job. I was doing it to help you, old man.”

His father pulled back in horror, his eyes wide and stunned. For a long moment he stood there speechless. “Who are you?”

“I have one rule in life.” Wyatt held up his finger and raised his eyebrows. “No one’s allowed to fuck with my girl. You do that, and things are gonna get real tense between us. Now you think ’bout that on your flight home. I’m going to bed.”

Wyatt turned to leave, his heartbeat throbbing in his ears as he walked toward the elevators. Then he stopped and turned around. “You bet your ass I did it,” he shouted across the lobby. “And I’d do it again.”

Stunned speechless and shaking with nervousness, Tabitha sat shoulder to shoulder with Clay on the bed. Clay was the only person in the world she could be completely silent with, and neither of them would sit there trying to make conversation out of obligation.

Wyatt opened the door faster than they anticipated. Tabitha jumped up. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Wyatt said quickly, making it obvious he was hiding something.

“Liar!” she shouted in accusation. “He hates me.”

“No one could hate you,” Wyatt said softly.

“Wyatt—” Tabitha folded her arms, for the moment unimpressed with his blind love for her. “Come on, tell me what he said. If he has an issue—”

“It wouldn’t matter if he did.” Wyatt walked over to Tabitha and pulled her into his arms. He kissed the top of her head despite the fact that she was unyielding and still hadn’t uncrossed her arms. “I love you. I would never let someone come between us. Even him.”

Clay’s voice cut through the silence. “Did you tell him?”

Wyatt pulled back, looking at Tabitha and deliberately ignoring Clay’s question. “You wanna get married? Like tomorrow morning while we’re still here?”

Tabitha let out a laugh of disbelief. “What?”

“I got a fat locker-room bonus that says I can buy you whatever ring ya want.” Wyatt looked at her earnestly. “I love you. Marry me, Tabby.”

“You really are crazy.” Tabitha could tell he was serious, and she was equal parts horrified and elated. “My mama—”

“Marry me,” Wyatt pressed rather than let her spout off excuses. “Then we’ll deal with the fallout together. Clay can stand as our witness.”

Tabitha turned to glance at Clay, who looked as flabbergasted as she felt. “Is he serious?”

“I—” Clay paused and then shrugged. “Yeah, probably.”

Tabitha looked back to Wyatt, seeing the firm set in his shoulders and knowing he wasn’t going to drop it. Then she considered her life and tried to imagine somehow living the rest of it without Wyatt. No way. It wasn’t something she was able to wrap her mind around, even in her worst nightmares. Marriage was going to happen eventually, so she just shrugged. “I suppose now’s as good a time as any.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Two days later Wyatt came home and started packing up his shit. He didn’t say a word to his sister or father. He just went into the garage, grabbed as many boxes as he could carry, and then headed to his room. He started throwing anything he couldn’t bear to part with into them.

He was twenty-one. He was married. He had over eighty thousand dollars saved from fighting and working as a deputy. There was absolutely no reason why he should be living in this house anymore.

It made sense to Wyatt, but his family was a little too hardheaded to give in.

“Wyatt Fredrick Conner!” Jules pounded on his door hard enough to shake the frame. “You open this damn door right now!”

“Fuck you, Ju Ju!” Wyatt shouted back.

“Don’t think I won’t take a sledgehammer to it!”

“Go for it!”

“Wyatt,” his father broke in, obviously much more calm and rational than Jules. “We both said some things we regret. Come out here, and we’ll talk it over.”

“I don’t regret any of it,” Wyatt growled as he glared at the door. “You don’t like my girl, fine! I don’t need y’all.”

“You take that back!” Jules sounded completely indignant. “You hurt Daddy’s feelings. He told me what you said!”

His father huffed loud enough to be heard through the door. “Look, Wyatt, you think I don’t get it, but I do. You’re young. You think you’re in love and—”

“I think I’m in love.” Wyatt gaped at the aged wood for one long moment before he jumped forward and unlocked it. He jerked the door open and held up his hand, showing off the gold ring Tabitha put on his finger the day before. “Check that out. She ain’t my girl anymore. She’s my wife. Now I’m gonna go off with her and start my own dang family. Got it?”

Jules’s face noticeably drained of color, and then she turned around and launched herself at Clay, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. She punched him hard enough to make Wyatt flinch in sympathy.

“You let him marry her?” Her voice had stopped being shrill and was low and dangerous instead. “You know she makes him stupid.”

Clay let out a laugh of disbelief and held his hand up to Wyatt. “You’re acting like I could’ve stopped him.”

Jules turned around and went after Wyatt as if understanding Clay’s reasoning.

Wyatt had the common sense to shove the door forward and block her. It gave him a two-second head start. He was halfway into his room when Jules tackled him from behind. She wrapped an arm around his neck, choking him.

“Get her off me!” Wyatt threatened in raspy voice because she was doing a very effective job of cutting off most of his air supply. “Or I swear to God, this is gonna be the day I hit her back. I’m officially sick of her!”

“Okay, come on, you two.” Their father came forward and struggled to pull Jules off him. “Let him go, Juliet. This ain’t the way to talk this out.”

“She’s crazy!” Wyatt pulled at her arm and coughed when he was finally able to breathe a tiny bit easier. “And you give me hell ’bout being hotheaded?”

“You’re both hotheaded!” Their father struggled with Jules, who was wrapped around Wyatt like a crazed monkey. “This is Grandpa’s gift to y’all! I’m being punished for something. Goddamn it! Let him go!”

“I missed my brother’s wedding.” Jules let out a sob in his ear. “Even if he had to marry her, I was still supposed to be there.”

“Is she having girl problems again?” Wyatt barked and then grunted in pain when Jules still managed to hit him in the side while clinging to him. “Ouch! Why is she allowed to hit me, and I ain’t allowed to retaliate? If she’s training for the Olympics, I think that’s the time when I can fight back and—”

Wyatt stopped bitching and started coughing when his father finally pried Jules off him, holding her off her feet while she struggled. That was no small feat. Jules was nearly six feet tall and solid muscle.

When she dropped to her feet, all three of them stood there breathing hard. Clay was standing in the doorway, just watching them have a family meltdown.

Jules flipped her long hair back from where she was bent over, clutching her waist, and narrowed her eyes at Wyatt. “Did you really marry her?”

“No, I stuck the ring on my own finger,” Wyatt said sarcastically.

His father held up his hands in a form of surrender. “Wyatt—”

“If you’re gonna say something negative ’bout my wife—”

His father gave him a long look. “Nah, I ain’t gonna say anything bad ’bout her. I don’t really know her, do I?”

Wyatt caught the underhanded jab and arched an eyebrow. “Can’t really blame me for keeping it a secret. Look what happened when you did find out.”

“I think I’m being very understanding under the circumstances.” His father’s voice was calm, but Wyatt could hear the underlying anger. “Can we go downstairs, have a cup of coffee, and discuss this?”

“What’s there to discuss?” Wyatt snorted. “Not like I’m going back on it. I’m a man of my word. I promised Tabitha till death do us part, and I meant it.”

“How ’bout your living arrangements?” His father gave him a hard look. “Have you thought ’bout where you’re going to take her and set up shop?”

“Well, no, but—”

“This is a big house. Maybe y’all could live here until you find something more permanent.”

“What?” Jules turned their father. “You’re just gonna accept it?”

“He made a commitment to this girl.” Their father shrugged before he cast another quick glare at Wyatt. “A really big one.”

Jules choked. “But—”

“Why doesn’t she like her?” his father asked Wyatt accusingly. “That makes me very apprehensive.”

“’Cause she’s crazy.” Wyatt let out a manic laugh as he lifted a hand to his sister. “You saw what just happened.”

Jules went after him again, but their father caught her before she could attack. He wrapped a large arm around her waist, holding her back. “Calm down! I wanna know why you don’t like this girl your brother married. Give me a solid reason before we go starting something with him again.”

“She makes him stupid.”

“But what has she personally done to make you dislike her?”

Jules paused before she rolled her eyes. “Well, nothing, but—”

“Tabitha’s actually a very nice, responsible woman, and she has loved Wyatt unconditionally for a long time,” Clay cut in, reminding them he was still there. “I’m inclined to agree with Wyatt. It ain’t nice for y’all to be judging her ’cause of where she came from. That’s like judging me.”

“That’s very true. It’s unfair.” His father surprised Wyatt by sounding genuine, which made the first flowers of guilt blossom inside him.

He sighed and gave his father a look. “I didn’t mean to call ya an old man in Chicago.”

“It’s all right.” He shrugged and looked from Wyatt to Jules. “Most days y’all make me feel old.”

“I’m sorry,” Wyatt said solemnly. “And about what happened back when we were kids—”

“We’re just gonna pretend you never mentioned it.” His father cut him off with a stern look. “If I heard something like that, we’d be dealing with a lot bigger crisis than you going off half-cocked and getting hitched.”

That seemed to give Jules pause, and it was obvious his father left out that part of their confrontation in Chicago. Her eyes were wide and horrified. Even from across the room, he could feel her fear for him.

“Maybe coffee is good,” she whispered.

Wyatt nodded in agreement. “Fine.”

“Well, okay then.” Their father turned to leave without another word.

Clay, Jules, and Wyatt hung behind when he walked down the hallway. It wasn’t until they heard his footfalls on the stairs that Jules reached out and hit the back of Wyatt’s head. “You told him?”

“I knew it,” Clay growled. “I fucking knew it.”

“You’re married now. Fine.” Jules leaned down, putting her face in her hands and speaking into her fingers. “I want you to promise me you’ll never get stupid for her again. That you’ll be the man our father raised you to be.”

Wyatt gave his sister a long look. “What you don’t seem to realized, Ju Ju, is that I’ve tried my entire life to be that man. They’re just really big shoes to fill.”

Jules dropped her hands and gave him a half smile. “I guess it’s a good thing you’ve got huge feet. Am I supposed to say congratulations?”

Wyatt laughed. “It’d be nice.”

Jules threw up her hands in defeat. “Congratulations, Wy Wy.”

Tabitha turned the ring on her finger. She pulled it off and tilted it toward the sunlight filtering in through Wyatt’s bedroom window. She studied the inscription, feeling a smile tug at her lips despite everything.

July 19, 1999 Forever

“Having second thoughts?”

Tabitha looked up at Wyatt, and her smile grew wider. “No, just trying to figure out everything. I still haven’t told my mama yet. I think she’s doing better and—”

“Tab—” Wyatt started.

“Don’t. I know,” she whispered and looked back to her ring. “How’d your family take it? I noticed you waited till they were all gone to come and pick me up.”

“Nah, they were fine.” Wyatt’s smile was strained, but Tabitha pretended not to notice, especially when he said, “My dad offered to let us set up camp here till I can buy us a house. I reckoned it’d probably be a good idea to take our time and find a place we both liked.”

“Really?” Tabitha stared at him in surprise.

“Yeah.” He pulled off his T-shirt and then crawled into bed next to her. He propped his head in his hand and stared at her. “What’d you think?”

Tabitha looked at her ring, feeling the insecurities well up inside her. “I dunno if I’d be comfortable here. Jules doesn’t like me, and—”

“She likes you fine,” Wyatt argued.

Tabitha rolled her eyes in disbelief. “Gimme a few days.”

“A few days.” He frowned, and the hurt was obvious in his voice. “Why?”

“I’m just waiting for the right moment. If I tell her wrong, she’ll start drinking more, and—”

“She’s always going to drink more,” Wyatt said in a gentle but firm voice. “You know that, Tabitha.”

“Who will she have to take care of her if I move out?” Tabitha spoke her biggest fears without looking at Wyatt. “I feel like I’m abandoning her.”

“Is she a nice person?” Wyatt asked her with a wince when she looked up at him. “Has she ever done anything that gave you an indication she is deserving of all this devotion you have to her?”

“She’s sick,” Tabitha said in misery. “She’s very sick, Wyatt. You have to be gentle with people who are ill like my mama is.”

“Oh God.” Wyatt looked past her and stared at the wall as if searching for patience. “You know there are groups for children of alcoholics. Maybe—”

“No,” Tabitha said before he could finish.

“I don’t want fight with you.” Wyatt took the ring from her and then picked up her left hand and slid it back onto her finger. “What if we took a honeymoon? I got some sick time.”

“Really?” Tabitha asked in disbelief, because she knew he used all his sick leave and vacation time for his fighting.

“Okay, well, no, but I got an in with the sheriff.” Wyatt gave her a smile. “Let’s go somewhere. You tell your mama, and then I will take you anywhere in the whole dang world you want to go.”

Tabitha liked traveling a lot. She had a creative soul, and new places fueled her imagination. “That would be nice,” she had to agree. “Maybe New York. I love when your fights are somewhere with lots of lights. I bet New York is incredible. Would that be too expensive?”

“Nowhere is too expensive for my girl.” Wyatt used his hold on her hand to bring it to his lips. He placed a kiss against the inside of her wrist. “I’d take you to the moon if I could.”

Tabitha giggled. “You’re so silly.”

“Silly, crazy in love with my wife.” Wyatt moved his lips up to the inside of her arm. “Not sure how many lights you’re gonna be able to see when I refuse to let you out of the room.”

“We’ll get a room high up so we can see them from the bed,” Tabitha suggested as she rolled onto her back, letting Wyatt continue to kiss his way up her arm.

“This is why I married you.” Wyatt tugged her blouse aside and kissed her bare shoulder. “You’re a very smart woman.”

She stroked his hair, that he’d been keeping extra short because of the fighting. She used her hold on it to lift his head and force his lips to hers. He parted for her, letting her slip her tongue into his mouth. She hummed in happiness, enjoying being the aggressor.

She pushed on his shoulders. He caught the hint and rolled onto his back, bringing Tabitha with him. She ran a hand down his muscular bare chest, marveling for the moment that this beautiful man was her husband. For a woman who had been born with a dark cloud hanging over her head, it suddenly felt like the tides were changing.

She leaned down to press her lips against one small nipple, and Wyatt’s breath caught. He tangled his fingers in her hair. Tabitha glanced up, seeing that he was watching her. She gave him a mischievous smile and moved lower, licking playfully at the deep ridges of his abdominal muscles that were truly impressive. She tugged at the button to his jeans and then lifted her head to lick at her lips.

Wyatt gave her a hot look. “Sexy.”

“That ain’t a lie.” Tabitha glanced back down, admiring him as she pulled down his zipper. “Do we got time before your sister gets home?”

“Heck, yes,” Wyatt groaned when Tabitha cupped his erection through his underwear.

She pulled them down and then licked at the head of his cock, savoring the salty tang of precum. Then she took him in her mouth, making Wyatt jerk under her. His fingers tightened in her hair when she pushed his jeans and underwear farther down and then started sucking him in earnest. She used her hand too, stroking and taking him in her mouth over and over until Wyatt was making those low grunting sounds of pleasure that always made all the fine hairs on Tabitha’s arms stand on end.

She thought she was going to do it until he came, but he arched under her after a few minutes and urged her to lift her head. She looked at him in question, and he said, “Come here.”

Tabitha grinned and crawled over him. When Wyatt reached for the hem of her blouse, she helped him pull it off. While straddling him she unzipped her skirt as he leaned up and undid her bra with practiced ease.

Then she jumped up and stood up on the bed over Wyatt, her feet on either side of his hips. She kicked her skirt aside and dropped her bra over his face. Wyatt laughed, pushing her bra away to reach up and tug on her panties. Once he’d gotten them off, he tossed them to the floor and tilted his head to get a good look at her standing naked over him. Tabitha arched an eyebrow when she saw where his gaze was lingering.

“What are you looking at?” she asked with a giggle.

“I’m looking at you,” he countered with a smile. “Come sit on me, pretty girl.”

“Subtle.” She laughed harder but did as told and straddled him again, this time taking her time to slide down his cock when she did it. She took him in slowly, letting her head fall back as the pleasure of being stretched and full washed over her. “Oh, Wyatt.”

Wyatt grabbed her waist and arched his hips up at the same time, taking her the rest of the way with a hard thrust that made her gasp. She had been so tense since they’d gotten back from Chicago, but it all evaporated away to a misty memory as she started moving over him.

She leaned over him and placed her hand on the pillow by his head. He used his hold on her hips to guide the slow, lazy thrusts in and out until they were both breathless and moaning into each other’s mouths when Tabitha leaned down and started kissing him.

More often than not, their sexual escapades were wild and frantic. They were short on time. Wyatt was pumped from a fight. Tabitha was stressed from her mother. There were a million reasons why they would come together in a clash of rambunctious pleasure to escape.

But slow was nice too.

Tabitha came twice before Wyatt groaned under her. She opened her eyes, watching as his head jerked back against the pillow, exposing the tight, corded muscles of his neck. His eyes were squeezed shut, his jaw clenched as his hips jerked up in a distinctive rhythm.

When he grunted, “Tabby,” she felt it all the way down to the core of her being.

She loved this man so much it was hard to wrap her mind around most of the time.

Then it was over, and Tabitha fell over him. She stroked his hair and just lay there connected with him. It was such a peaceful, beautiful moment Tabitha wished they could just stay in his room forever and hide from the world.

“You wanna do it again?” Wyatt asked after several long minutes.

Tabitha lifted her head and smiled at him. “Sure.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tabitha’s car was in the shop, but the repairs were so expensive she had been procrastinating on picking it up. Wyatt said he’d buy her a new one, but if they were really going to buy a house, she thought that might be a waste.

She had lots of money saved. She just got nervous when she had to spend it. The thought of handing fifteen hundred dollars over to that mechanic was making Tabitha break out in a sweat, even if rationally she knew she had enough.

She wasn’t going to starve. She could pay for the dang car.

This was the internal conversation she was having with herself as she worked on her final closing duties for Maple’s before Terry drove her home.

“Come on, girlie. This place is clean,” Terry said as he walked out from the back. “You keep rubbing at those lottery displays, and there won’t be any glass left.”

“Fingerprints.” Tabitha leaned down and sprayed at the bottom corner where some child had left their mark.

“Nope.” Terry stopped in front of her and then leaned down to grab her arm. “Put the bottle down, or I’m going to have to initiate an intervention. You’re the biggest neat freak I’ve seen in all my days.”

“Fine.” Tabitha broke out of his hold and unlatched the lottery counter door to put the cleaning supplies away.

She saw the cigarettes were out of order and turned to fix them, but Terry slammed his hand down on the glass. “It’s eleven o’clock. Hal’s waiting for me.”

“I just cleaned that,” she snapped at him.

“You need help.” He laughed. “I’m gay, and I’m telling you that you’re too damn neat. That’s a problem.”

Tabitha held up her hands and then let it be because she knew she probably had a problem where that was concerned, but if Terry had grown up in the house she had, he’d like things nice and orderly too.

She picked up her purse and slipped it over her shoulder. “Thanks for the ride. I’m going to pick up my car tomorrow.”

“You’ve been saying that since before you left for Chicago.” Terry looked at her in concern when they started toward the back. “Do you need money?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m getting it tomorrow. I promise.”

“If you say so,” Terry said in disbelief as he reached into his pocket for his keys.

They stopped at the alarm, and he set it. Then they made the quick dash for the back door. Tabitha gasped when they stepped into the night air. Wyatt was leaning against his patrol car, his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing his uniform, but his hat must’ve have been tossed into the passenger seat.

“What the heck—” she started with a smile.

“I reckoned I could save Terry a trip and give my wife a ride.” Wyatt shrugged as he smiled back at her. “I’m on break.”

“Well, okay.” Tabitha shrugged as she turned back to Terry. “Guess you’re getting to Hal faster than planned.”

“Works for me.” Terry shook his head as he looked over to Wyatt. “I surely can’t believe you two got married in Chicago. I bet Jules lost her mind missing it like she did.”

“Nah, she was fine with it.” Wyatt beckoned Tabitha over. “Come on. Y’all took longer than I planned. I need to get back to work.”

“Talk to your wife ’bout her cleaning problem,” Terry said as he walked over to his car. “I’m staying the night at Hal’s place. Call me if you need a ride.”

“Thanks.” Tabitha practically skipped over to Wyatt.

Seeing him after work was a nice surprise, and she stood on her toes to give him a kiss when she got to him. “This was sweet of you.”

“You need a car.” He arched an eyebrow at her. “I’m heading over to Kennedy’s place tomorrow and paying for you to get it back.”

“No, I’m doing it. I have the money, Wyatt.” She walked around to the other side of the car. “I’m just being stingy.”

“What’s mine is yours.” Wyatt got into the driver’s side and then unlocked her door. “You need to start getting used to it.”

“I’m working on it.” She got in and pulled the door closed. She tossed her purse on the floor next to his hat and then buckled her seat belt. “How’s work tonight?”

“Slow.” Wyatt started the car and backed up. “Too slow. Never a good sign. When it gets this slow, that means something’s ’bout to go down.”

“Yeah? What’s that? Cop superstition?”

“Just makes me nervous. If something’s too good to be true, it usually is.” Wyatt always drove really fast, and Tabitha noticed the police cruiser exacerbated the problem. He tore out of the parking lot as he said, “I need to get back. I don’t like my dad out in the field by himself. He’s supposed to stay behind his desk doing sheriff things and leave the grunt work to us deputies.”

“He ain’t ever stayed behind that desk.” Tabitha laughed. “Ask anyone in Garnet who broke a law in the past decade.”

“I know.” Wyatt sighed. “Stubborn bastard.”

Tabitha gave him a knowing look. “You love him.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

With Wyatt driving, they got to Tabitha’s road really fast. “Oh, stop here,” she said when he turned down it. “I’ll walk.”

“At eleven at night?” Wyatt gave her a look. “No.”

“It’s not that far. I’ll be fine.”

“Tabitha, no, I can drive you to the door.”

“But, you can’t—”

Wyatt slammed on the brakes so hard Tabitha was suddenly glad she took the time to put her belt on. She put her hands on the dashboard and looked at him in shock.

“You haven’t told her yet?” Wyatt barked, his light eyes wide in fury.

“I said I needed a few days!”

“Tonight. Now.” Wyatt gestured to the road. “I’ll drive to your house, and we’ll both go in there and tell her before I go back to work.”

“No,” Tabitha said with determination. “I’m not ready.”

Wyatt threw the car into park, which Tabitha knew was a bad sign. Then he leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. “Tab, I have tried to be understanding.”

“No, you haven’t,” she argued. “It’s been three days since Chicago. I’m not like you. I can’t just shout it at my family and expect them to get over it. I need a little time. You have to see that about me and understand it. Please. I’m begging you not to turn this into an issue.”

“It’s an issue,” Wyatt assured her with a glare. “A huge fucking issue. If you don’t let me go in there and tell her, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” She laughed in disbelief. “What are you going to do, divorce me? You asked me to marry you rashly, and I agreed because I want to be with you. I’m just pleading for some time to handle my mother. That’s it, and then we can go and live in whatever house you wanna live in and—”

Wyatt ran a hand through his hair and dropped his head back against the seat. “Tabitha, I love you, but you have to know you’ve got a few things you have to find a way to deal with. Being totally codependent is one of them.”

“Hello!” She laughed again. “You ain’t perfect, Wyatt. You have the worst temper and—”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have agreed to marry me then!”

“I didn’t say that. I’m saying that no one’s perfect. I love you for who you are. Why can’t you do the same for me? I’m trying.”

“Just get out, then.” Wyatt gestured to the door. “You wanna walk in the dark for a half mile, fine, do it. I’m sick of trying to help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves. You know, my father’s right. You are your mother, and I’m the only blind asshole who doesn’t see it.”

Tabitha pulled back. Her eyes filled with tears before she could even find the words to express her absolute horror at the insult. She couldn’t even breathe past the hurt. Desperate for air she fumbled for the handle and opened it. She picked up her purse and stepped out of the car, all the while waiting for Wyatt to say sorry. Her mind just couldn’t accept that he would say something so terrible and not immediately apologize for cutting her that deeply.

Sometimes Wyatt said dumb things, but he never meant them.

She was still expecting him to make it better when he backed up and turned down to the main road. Then she stood there in stunned disbelief, feeling eleven all over again. It was like that afternoon when she’d burned all her stories with the first, terrible realization that heroes weren’t real. Tabitha stayed where she was, crying in the darkness for a good twenty minutes, waiting for Wyatt to come back.

He never did.

By the time Tabitha got home, she was a mess. She was tired from working and broken from the fight with Wyatt. She stumbled up the steps, hearing the music rattle the walls. She groaned and looked heavenward. God must have a real vendetta against her.

She took a moment to wipe at her face and even reached into her purse for her mirror. She looked at her reflection in the porch light. The horrible part of being a redhead was that crying always showed on her face long after the tears subsided. There was no way to hide it, so she didn’t even try.

That was how badly Wyatt had hurt her.

She didn’t care what anyone on the other side of that door thought. She walked in to find her mother passed out on the couch. Brett and Vaughn were arguing over something in the kitchen. She was hoping they wouldn’t notice her, but with the night she was having, she wasn’t surprised when they did.

“What about Tabitha?” she heard Brett whisper as she walked in. “Will that work?”

Vaughn looked at her for a long moment and then shrugged. “Hell yeah, it’ll work.”

Brett stepped into the living room. “What the heck happened to you?”

“Leave me alone,” she mumbled as she walked toward her room.

“Hey, now.” Brett came forward and grabbed her arm. “Don’t be like that. You can talk to your brother.”

Tabitha stared at him, wondering if she had somehow stepped into an alternate reality. One where Wyatt was mean and Brett was considerate. “What?” she asked in complete disbelief.

“Come on, sit down.” Brett led her over to the other sofa and pushed her into it. “Something happen at work? You get fired?”

“I don’t have any money, Brett,” she said defensively.

“I’m not asking for money. I’m asking why my sister is crying.” Brett sounded so earnest it was still messing with Tabitha’s sensors. He turned around and took the glass Vaughn handed him. “Here, try this. It’ll take the edge off.”

Tabitha shook her head and pushed it away. “I don’t like this stuff.”

“One time in your life won’t kill ya.” Brett laughed.

“No, I suppose not.” Tabitha took the drink and sniffed it, hating the smell of vodka. “I guess I might as well, since he thinks I’m like her anyway.”

“Who thinks that?”

“No one.” Tabitha took a drink and grimaced over the burn. “I don’t like it.”

“You haven’t even tried it.”

Tabitha leaned back against the couch and took another drink. Then she looked to her mother, who was blissfully passed out. Just once it’d be nice to know what it felt like to completely escape from the world that hurt her. The glass wasn’t that full. It was mostly vodka and a little orange juice. She downed it in one shot and then looked at the bottom. “Why’s it grainy? Did you use rotten orange juice?”

“It’s fine.” Brett waved off her concern. “So do you wanna talk?”

“No, I wanna go to bed.” Tabitha stood up and waved off Brett’s offer to help. It was too strange to be dealt with. She’d think about it tomorrow when she could breathe again. “Night.”

“Night, Tab.”

She wanted a shower, but she never got naked when Vaughn was in the house, so she went to bed instead. She fell down against her lumpy mattress and stared at the ceiling, feeling like her world was caving in around her. She was still in utter shock over Wyatt saying what he did. As she pondered it, the ceiling looked like it really was spinning.

Maybe she was falling into an alternate universe.

If she did, it might be a good thing. If everything in the alternate universe was opposite, maybe Tabitha would be lucky. Though, even as she thought about it, she knew she had been lucky. She had a beautiful husband who loved her.

Or she thought so anyway. Maybe it had all been a lie.

The room spun more forcefully, and Tabitha’s stomach lurched. This booze was terrible stuff. She was going to be legitimately sick. She jumped up and then pitched to the ground immediately as if her legs weren’t working. She had to crawl to the door, and she fumbled with the lock, because everything was blurred and uneven. She could barely get her hand on it, let alone get it open.

When she did finally manage to unlock it, the door opened by magic, and she blinked up, seeing Vaughn looming over her, dark and menacing, like one of those villains from the stories she still wrote when she had the time.

She wanted to run away, but she puked on his feet instead.

“Fuck, Tabitha.” He kicked her, his foot connecting with her jaw, and she fell backward, but she didn’t feel it. “I’m gonna make you sorry for that.”

She blinked up at the ceiling that was still swirling in the darkness, making her feel like she was falling into an endless black hole. The door clicked shut. She heard the lock flip, and then someone was pulling her up, forcing her onto the bed.

Even as sick as she was, she still managed to scream when Vaughn’s face swam into view. She tried to push him off her, but her arms weren’t working the way she wanted them too.

She felt Vaughn’s heavy weight over her, and another scream burst out of her, this one pure and terrified. She said one word, the only word she could think of that would stop this from happening.

“Wyatt!”

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Wyatt.”

He stared at the police radio, stunned to hear his name come across it. Usually they used call signs. Already having a terrible night, he picked up the mic with a sense of dread and said, “Yeah.”

“You have to come back to the station,” Jules said slowly. “Right now.”

“What’s going on?”

“Just come back.” The quiver of fear was noticeable in his sister’s voice.

“Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?” Wyatt’s breathing fell shallow in fear. “Is it Dad?”

“What the hell?” His father’s voice broke in. “This is a police radio, not a telephone.”

“Both of you come back.”

“Okay, fifty-six me at the station,” his father said before Wyatt could find the ability. “Boy, you gonna answer her?”

“I’m ten fifty-one,” Wyatt said numbly and then dropped the mic on his lap.

If his father was okay, there wasn’t anything that could really end him, unless it was Clay. He’d been training late. What if—

Wyatt tore out of the parking lot he’d been sitting in to do paperwork. He turned on his lights and siren and pulled into the station five minutes later behind his father, whose siren was blaring too. He leaped out his car and left the door open as he ran to the front doors.

“Do you know what it is?” Wyatt barked at his father.

“Not a clue.” His father opened the doors and burst into the sheriff’s office like a bull. “What the hell is going on?”

Jules was sitting at dispatch, shaking, with tears rolling down her face.

The fear forced all the air out of Wyatt’s lungs when he met his sister’s horrified gaze. She was looking at Wyatt, not his father, and he didn’t know why he knew it, but he did.

“Oh God!” he shouted. “It’s Tabitha!”

“It was a drug overdose. I put in the call for the ambulance on the phone. I didn’t want you to hear it over the radio,” Jules said in a wild, sobbing rush of panic. “She was unconscious, and her mama called it in. I’m sorry, Wy Wy. I got them out there as fast as I could.”

“Is she dead?” Wyatt choked on the words.

Jules shook her head. “No, but it wasn’t a good call.”

“Oh shit.” He looked to his father desperately, feeling young and afraid, hoping he somehow had a way to fix it when Wyatt couldn’t. “What’d I do?”

“We get you to the hospital.” His father grabbed his arm, jerking Wyatt so hard he stumbled. “Jules, call in someone to cover us and then work the board.”

“What?” Jules jumped up. “I’m going with you. I have to go with him!”

“Not this time.” His father pointed to the board. “You sit there and do your job. He’ll never get there if you’re driving him. With that twin vibe y’all got going on, you’ll wreck for sure.”

“I have to go!”

“Nope.” His father was already opening the door and dragging Wyatt with him because his legs had stopped working. “Boy, you got fifteen minutes to pull your shit together before we get there.”

“It takes half an hour to get to Mercy!”

“Not when I’m driving.” His father jumped into his police jeep. He flipped on his sirens and lights and then using his loudest, most intimidating sheriff’s voice growled, “Get in, Wyatt! Now!”

Wyatt got in and slammed the door.

Then he crumpled. He leaned his forehead against his knees and did something he hadn’t done since the day his grandfather died. He started crying. “Fuck,” he choked out between sobs. “Oh God, Dad. It’s my fault.”

“It ain’t your fault.”

“No, it is. We had a fight. I left her there. I just left her in the road. I ain’t never done something like that to her before. I drove her to it. I know I did.”

“Jesus Christ, Wyatt.”

“Oh God, if she dies, I’ll die with her. I said the worst things to her. That can’t be the last thing she heard from me.”

“I’ll get you there. It won’t be the last thing she heard from you. I promise.”

He nodded, hoping to God this wasn’t going be the first promise his father broke to him. “Okay.”

“Sweetheart, I need you try and stay with us. Look at me.”

Tabitha blinked at the bright lights, trying to do what the doctor was telling her. “I’m sick.”

“I know. We’re helping you.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, because help sounded like something she was in desperate need of.

She closed her eyes again.

“Oh no.” A hand grabbed her face. “We’re staying awake.”

Tabitha blinked again. “Okay.”

“Do you know who did this to you?”

“Did what?”

“Do you remember anything?”

Tabitha fought to focus, and when she did, flashes of Vaughn over her flitted through her fogged mind. She lashed out, trying to push him away.

“Honey, no, you’re in the hospital. Calm down.” The voice was anxious but kind.

Nothing like Vaughn.

Tabitha stopped fighting. She didn’t know how long she drifted on the wake of semiconsciousness before she heard the same voice say, “I need a rape kit, Carla. Someone needs to put a call into the police. This isn’t just an overdose. That’s crap. This girl was drugged.”

“No,” Tabitha rasped past the burn in her throat, because she understood that if nothing else. “You can’t call the police.”

“Honey, we have to call the police. You don’t know how badly hurt you are.”

“No.” Tabitha blinked and fought for clarity, but it was as if her mind was stuffed with cotton, and her tongue felt leaden. “Wyatt’s the police.”

“What?” The face of a middle-aged woman with soft eyes swam into view before she turned back to whoever she was talking to. “Where’s the rape kit? Tell Daniel to get the call in to Garnet. That’s where she came in from, right?”

“No!” She tried to sit up.

“Calm down. I want you to take long, easy breaths. We’re here for you.”

“Wyatt’s the police,” she repeated and then reached out for the lady’s hand. There were all sorts of tubes in the way, and she couldn’t get it. “You can’t tell him.”

“Who’s Wyatt? Is he the one who did this to you?”

Tabitha shook her head, but it made her stomach lurch, and she started gagging instead. They turned her when she started throwing up. It was horrible and tasted like a dirty fire.

“We had to pump your stomach while you were out. You’re gonna be throwing up for a while, I’m afraid.”

“I’m dying,” Tabitha whispered when she looked down and saw she was throwing up black.

“No, you’re not dying. We’re here to make sure of that.”

It wasn’t such a horrible concept, dying. She had the thought of just giving in and embracing it rather than fighting for a life that had never been that kind to her, but there had been a few highlights. Wyatt. She had to make sure they didn’t tell him.

“Dr. Swartz, the police are here.”

“Already?”

“He said he was her husband. It’s Sheriff Conner’s son. Wyatt.”

There was a stunned silence in the room before the woman who had been helping Tabitha whispered, “Oh shit.”

“Wyatt’s the police,” Tabitha said frantically, hoping to convey all the horrors telling him would create. “He’s the police. Wyatt is.”

She wanted to say more, but she started throwing up instead.

“Okay, don’t worry about it. I got you.” The woman held her head, her gloved hands gentle on Tabitha’s head. “You tell him to sit in the waiting room, and when I get her stabilized, I’ll speak with them.”

“They weren’t so keen on waiting. He’s got the sheriff with him.”

“Well, this ain’t a sheriff’s office. It’s my emergency room, and I say they got to wait.”

“You can’t tell him,” Tabitha whispered when she stopped throwing up. “You can’t tell Wyatt.”

“Let’s focus on you. Don’t worry about it right now.”

“No.” Tabitha started crying when she thought of what Wyatt would do if he found out. “I love him.”

The doctor stroked Tabitha’s hair. “I know.”

“He’ll ruin his life.”

“Okay.”

“Save him for me,” Tabitha whispered with a desperate sob. “Please save him for me. I know you don’t know me, but please save him for me.”

“Oh honey, you’re breaking my heart.”

“He says dumb things, but he doesn’t mean them.” Tabitha whispered the last part for herself and then somehow managed to grab the woman’s hand. She squeezed it tightly and fought to keep her in focus for Wyatt’s sake. She willed the wires in her brain to start working and made a deliberate attempt to speak slowly and clearly. “If you tell him, he will do something that will put him in prison. You cannot tell him.”

“Isn’t he the fighter?” someone else in the room asked. “One of those cage fighters?”

“Yes.” Tabitha was still trying to keep her words even, but her stomach was lurching, and all she managed to get out was, “Fighter.”

“We got it. We know what you’re saying. I’ll take care of it.” She stroked her face again. “I got your back, darlin’.”

Somehow, Tabitha knew she wasn’t lying, and the next time she threw up, it wasn’t quite so violent. She just let the poison come up, willing it to take all the horrible, hazy memories with it.

“Is her family out there?”

“They left.”

“They left?” The woman’s voice was completely incredulous.

“When they saw the sheriff pull up, they just got up and walked out.”

There was another stunned silence in the room before the doctor sighed. “Yeah, I bet they did.”

“Save Wyatt,” Tabitha whispered one more time before she felt her eyes getting heavy again. “Okay?”

“Okay,” the doctor whispered bitterly. “We couldn’t save you, but we’ll save Wyatt tonight. That’s fair.”

“How hard is it to get a status update?”

“Sheriff—”

“No,” Wyatt’s father barked. “He’s her husband. That means he’s got legal rights to know what the hell is going on with his wife. You go find a doctor who knows what’s going on, and then drag their ass out here to give us a real status. We’ve been waiting for almost two hours. I’m done.”

“They know you’re waiting.”

“Listen to me, darlin’.” His father leaned in closer to the lady behind the desk, his voice shaking in anger. “I promised my son I would get him to see his wife. Now either you’re gonna make it happen, or I’m gonna go back there and do it for you. Got it?”

She stood up from behind the desk. “Fine, I’ll go check on her.”

“Thank you.” He leaned back against the desk and folded his arms over his chest as he looked to Wyatt. “You okay?”

Wyatt shook his head silently. He had moved past tears and was into raw shock and horror. He’d thrown up twice since getting to the hospital, and his stomach was still churning. Until this moment, he wouldn’t have been able to comprehend something destroying him this intensely.

As long as Tabitha lived through this, Wyatt told himself, he could survive everything.

Please, God, let her live.

He dropped his head back into hands and stayed there, wishing he had Jules with him. Going through this without his twin made it worse, as if that was possible.

“Sheriff Conner.”

Wyatt jerked his head up, looking to the doctor who walked around the corner. She had short dark hair and a wan smile for them when Wyatt jumped to his feet.

“Wyatt,” she said as she tilted her head back to look up at him. She appeared to be studying him with a keen eye before she shook her head. “I see what she’s talking ’bout.”

“Was she asking for me?” Wyatt asked quickly. “Is she okay? You need to let me go see her.”

She held up her hand. “We have a room where we can discuss this. Follow me.”

Wyatt saw his father pale, but he recovered quickly. His father grabbed his arm when something in Wyatt wanted to stop. What if she told him Tabitha was gone in that room?

“Is she dead?” Wyatt asked quickly. “If she is, just—”

“She’s not dead,” she interrupted him. “I believe she’ll recover. Now would you like to follow me?”

“O-okay,” Wyatt stuttered and then followed the doctor when she turned without another word.

Once she had ushered Wyatt and his father into a private room with a couch and some chairs, she gestured for them to sit. That didn’t bode well, but they both sat because this woman had a way about her that demanded attention.

“Your wife had an unfortunate incident with taking too much medication. It happens sometimes when people don’t read the medicine boxes properly,” she went on in a very calm, conscientious voice. “We pumped her stomach and are giving her drugs to counteract the negative effects to her body.”

“What drugs?”

“I’m afraid it’s a private matter, and the patient has asked that it not be shared.”

“That’s bullshit!” his father shouted. “If he’s her husband, he has a right to know. She’s not in any condition to make medical decisions for herself.”

“She has a mother, doesn’t she?”

“Her mother?” Wyatt barked. “You’re going to turn her medical care over to her instead of me?”

“Yeah, this is all kinds of illegal!” his father agreed. “And trust me, I know her mother. She ain’t fit to take care of herself, let alone her daughter. Either you start giving us real answers, or we’re gonna get a lawyer in here faster than you can say lawsuit.”

“How long have you been married to her, Wyatt?” the doctor asked curiously. “Because none of the forms her family filled out had your name on them.”

“F-four days,” Wyatt said, wishing he had a better answer.

“I believe she would be within her legal rights to get that marriage annulled if you start stomping all over her medical wishes,” the doctor countered. “I would give the very real and honest advice to both of you that pushing this is going to create a whole lot of complications you don’t want. Your best hope for saving your marriage is to drop it. Step back for a little while. Let your wife heal, and then go from there.”

“Why doesn’t she want me to know?” Wyatt scowled at her. “What is it? If she just took something, that’s not—”

“Go home, Wyatt.”

“No!” Wyatt shouted. “I’m not leaving until I see her!”

“She doesn’t want to see you.” The doctor held up her hands. “I’m sorry. She was very adamant about it. I’m not going to force a patient who is in a fragile medical state into a situation that would cause her stress. If you have to sue me, then so be it.”

“It was just a fight! People fight!” Wyatt yelled, his voice echoing off the stark, white walls. “Tell her I’m sorry. Sometimes I say dumb shit, but she knows I don’t mean it. She knows that about me!”

“I believe she does.” The doctor smiled, and Wyatt could have sworn he saw tears in her eyes, but then she turned away and ran a hand through her hair. “I’ll tell her what you said.”

“This can’t happen,” Wyatt said frantically. “I love that girl in there more than air. She can’t be sick, and I can’t be out here while she’s in there. I’m supposed to be with her.”

The doctor opened up the door and gestured to it. “Let her be for now. Give her a night to heal. In the morning things may be better.”

“Come on, Wy.” His father nudged his arm. “We’ll go home. I’ll call my lawyer first thing in the morning. This ain’t over.”

Wyatt stayed on the couch stubbornly. “I can wait for her in the waiting room, right? I can stay there until she’s released. I can stay there for a week if I have to. I need to see her.”

“Wyatt,” the doctor said softly. “What you don’t know is that you have an angel looking out for you. Why not make all her effort worthwhile and go home for tonight?”

“What?” Wyatt frowned, feeling like this doctor was speaking another language.

“Someone loves you. Be thankful.”

“Did Tabitha say she loves me?” Wyatt pressed.

“Yes, Wyatt, she did.” The doctor nodded. “But she wants you to go home.”

Wyatt threw up his hands in defeat and then stood because he didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize Tabitha’s health. “I guess.”

“Okay.” She smiled, and again, her eyes appeared watery as she opened the door wider.

Wyatt walked out behind his father, but then he turned back and grabbed the doctor’s arm. “Listen to me, Doc. You tell Tabitha I love her. Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her that I will spend the rest of my life making this up to her. All she needs to do is come back to me.”

She nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

It was the first time in Wyatt’s life his father broke a promise to him.

He didn’t get to see her again.

Tabitha never came back to him.

Two days after her overdose, Terry showed up at their doorstep. He looked tired and worn thin, but Wyatt didn’t have any sympathy for him. He had been sick with grief for days.

“Is she with you?” Wyatt barked, wondering why he hadn’t thought of Terry in the first place. “I went to her house because the hospital told me they’d discharged her, but her brother said she left and—”

“She was with me,” Terry said hesitantly. “I picked her up from the hospital last night.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you call me?” Wyatt yelled at him. “I’ve been puking my guts up for two days. What the hell is wrong with you? Is she okay? Where is she?”

“She—” Terry sighed and looked past Wyatt to Jules and Clay standing behind him. “She left, Wyatt. I took her to the airport. She wanted to leave.”

“Over an argument?” A crazed laugh burst out of Wyatt. “One fight in all this time, and she leaves me. This is bullshit! Something ain’t right. I don’t buy it. Where was she going?”

“She wouldn’t tell me.” Terry shrugged. “She said I’d tell you.”

“We can track plane records,” Jules cut in. “We can find a way. We ain’t even certain she’s medically sound. That hospital is looking at a big lawsuit.”

“She wanted me to give you this.” Terry handed him an envelope. “I’m sorry, Wyatt.”

Wyatt looked at the envelope in his hand, already knowing he didn’t want to open it. “This ain’t happening,” he whispered as he flipped it over, seeing his name written in Tabitha’s neat handwriting. “This is a breakup letter.”

Terry shrugged again as tears welled up in his eyes. He wiped at his cheeks hastily and said, “Yeah, Wyatt, it probably is. I really am sorry. You have no idea how much.”

Wyatt turned away from the door before his emotions got the better of him and he punched the messenger. He let his sister say good-bye to Terry. He just sat numbly on the couch and stared at the letter in his hand. Clay sat beside him, and it was one of the nice things about his best friend. He didn’t press anything. He simply let Wyatt digest that his life had just been shattered.

He was still staring at the letter an hour later when Jules spoke from her seat on the other side of him. “Are you gonna open it?”

He shook his head. “If I open it, that’ll mean it’s over.”

“I’m sorry, Wy Wy.” Jules wrapped an arm around him and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. She cried the tears he felt too dead inside to cry and then reached over and took it from him. “Do you want me to open it for you?”

“No, burn it instead.”

“Wyatt, you need to know what it says,” Clay finally broke his silence to say somberly. “If you don’t know, it’ll drive you crazy. We all need to know why she would do this. It’s like she betrayed all of us by turning to that crap. We need a good reason. There has to be one.”

He took it back from his sister, knowing Clay was probably right. He could hear the hurt in Clay’s voice, the absolute denial that this was happening. There was some clue in this envelope about why the girl he had loved for as long as he could remember would leave him over one fight.

It was a terrible fight, but still.

He stood and stuffed the envelope into his back pocket. “I’m going outside.”

“You want me to go with you?” Jules asked him and then wiped at her cheeks. “We’ll both go with you.”

“I know.” He nodded and gave her a weak smile. “But I think I should be by myself when I read it.”

“Okay.” She reached out to poke his side in a way that would have been playful any other day but today. “We’ll be here.”

He went out to the lake in back, remembering all the times he walked Tabitha from her car in the dead of night to get her up to his bedroom so they could laugh and love each other without anyone else in the world getting in the way. He sat down heavily on a rock by the embankment and used care to open the envelope when usually he would tear one open.

He pulled out the letter and stared down at it, willing some sort of peace for himself.

Wyatt,

Please be happy.

Love life like only you can.

Be amazing at everything you do.

Never stop being silly. I always loved you for it, even when I said I didn’t.

Letting me stay gone is your last gift to me, and I know in my heart you’ll give it to me. You said I could have anything. This is what I want.

I’m sorry. I know the moon would’ve been easier.

I will never, not until the day I stop breathing air, regret what we had together.

My childhood was beautiful because of you.

Thank you for staying a perfect memory,

Tabitha

Wyatt stared down at the letter until the words started to run. He realized he was crying again when he thought the tears had dried up days ago. He hated this letter. He abhorred it for containing the one thing that would keep him from going after her. He wanted to ball it up and throw it in the lake, but he couldn’t. This letter told him something happened. He could see through the lines, could read the intensity of it. The wild desperation on Tabitha’s part not to be found. What if it was something Wyatt couldn’t face? Worse, what if seeing him somehow reminded her of what she was trying to escape and pushed her to do something rash again? Jules said Tabitha made him stupid, and he knew his sister was usually right about most things. He just never expected that blind love and stupidity to damage Tabitha, but it had. He’d broken his own rule in life.

He didn’t want to hurt her. Not again. He would do anything to prevent it.

He folded it up and stuck it in the envelope instead. Then he slid his wedding ring off his finger and threw it into the lake in its place.

That was his final gift to Tabitha.

He never could say no to his girl.

Chapter Twenty-Six

August, 2000

New York City

“My brother could take that guy, you know? Just ’cause he got a technical knockout in the first round don’t mean nothing.”

Tabitha looked over at the kid sitting next to her in the bar. He was obviously Italian, with the New York accent to match. She instantly liked him. Her little nook of New York was mostly Italian, which was the reason she’d settled here after shopping for apartments for such a long time. They had a brassiness to them she appreciated.

It sort of reminded her of Wyatt.

“Oh yeah?” Tabitha turned in her stool and arched a skeptical eyebrow at him. “You sure ’bout that? He’s pretty badass. I saw him do a roundhouse off the cage once that’d knock your socks off.”

“Hell, my brother’s bigger than him.” He gestured to the television hanging over the bar that was broadcasting the UFC fight. “And he’s got a whole shitload of black belts. He could kick his ass blindfolded.”

“Your brother sounds like a scary guy. Does he know you’re hanging out in a bar?”

“Nah, what my brother doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He shrugged with a mischievous grin. “Besides, I got a reason for being here.”

“What’s your reason?”

“I’m taking care of business.”

Tabitha laughed, which was nice. She hadn’t laughed much since she’d left Wyatt.

“Nova, stop busting my customers’ balls,” the bartender said. “Shoo. Your brother will tan your hide if he finds out you’re hanging around here.”

“What, I can’t have a fucking conversation?” Nova held up his hands indignantly.

“He’s not bothering me,” Tabitha told the bartender. “He’s fine.”

“I like you, lady.” Nova nudged her arm. “What’s your name?”

“Tabitha.”

“Okay, Tabitha, so what’re you doing sitting here watching this bum win another fight?”

“I dunno.” Tabitha smiled up at the television, watching the after-fight footage from the UFC fight. She had been sitting there most of the afternoon, and now it was just replays and locker-room interviews, but she still enjoyed it. “Just remembering a dream, I guess. I’m a big fan.”

“Him.” Nova pointed at the TV once more. “The Deputy?”

“Yeah.” Tabitha nodded. “He’s amazing.”

“You gotta get out more.” Nova snorted. “He’s cheesy as hell.”

“He is,” Tabitha agreed with another laugh. “He’s silly. Totally crazy, but that’s always what I liked ’bout him. You want me to buy you a Coke?”

Nova shrugged. “Sure. My game doesn’t start for another hour.”

“What game you playing?”

“Poker.”

“Poker?” she repeated in disbelief. “What happened to football?”

“My ma’s sick. What kinda money do you think I’d make playing football? Unless I was betting on it, but you and me know that’s never a good bet. I like games I can win.”

“I’m sorry your mother’s sick,” Tabitha whispered softly.

“She’s gonna get better,” Nova said confidently. “I’m gonna pay for good doctors. Not these crackpot state doctors she’s forced to go to now. I’ve been researching her cancer. They got these new drugs that have a really high success rate. They’re testing them at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I’m gonna get her there ’cause the doctors she’s got now are saying she’s only got a ten percent chance. That just can’t be right.”

“No,” Tabitha agreed and had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from welling up. “It ain’t right at all.”

“But enough money, and I’ll get her the medicine she needs.” Nova sounded so determined Tabitha almost believed him.

“I’ll tell you what.” Tabitha reached down and picked up her purse. She opened it and pulled out her wallet. “I’m gonna give you something else besides buying you a Coke.”

“Like what?” Nova frowned, as if the idea was foreign to him.

Tabitha pulled out a hundred-dollar bill she had in an envelope for rent, knowing she really couldn’t afford to part with it now that she was living in New York. She had a job, but she didn’t make much. Her savings was almost gone, but some things were more important than security.

She handed it to Nova. “This is for you.”

“What the hell?” Nova took the money and looked at it in shock. “You’re just giving it to me for nothing?”

“Yup.” Tabitha nodded. “It’s yours. I want you to have it.”

“There’s gotta be a catch. There’s always a catch.”

“Not always,” she assured him. “There are heroes in the world, Nova. You just have to know how to look out for them.”

“I don’t believe in heroes,” Nova said with absolute conviction.

“But you should.” Tabitha smiled and looked up at the TV once more, seeing Wyatt being interviewed. “All children should believe in heroes. Even ones whose mamas are sick.”

“Man, this is really incredible.” Nova stared at the hundred-dollar bill in his hand with total awe. “Thank you. I’ll find a way to pay you back. If you give me your address, I can mail it to you once I find more poker games. You can just tell me. I’ll remember it.”

“You don’t have to.” She reached out and ruffled his dark hair. “It’s a gift.”

Nova nodded. “Okay.”

“Have fun playing poker.” Tabitha hopped off the stool and put her purse on her shoulder. “Stay out of trouble.”

“Lady, you don’t even know,” the bartender said as she started toward the door. “Trouble is Nova Moretti’s middle name.”

“Not from where I’m standing. He’s taking care of business. I get it.” Tabitha leaned into Nova and said, “I hope you win a million dollars playing poker.”

Then she walked up the street to her apartment and sat behind the old computer she’d bought because she thought the Internet was the easiest way to keep track of Wyatt and Clay’s fighting now that they were making national names for themselves.

Tabitha searched through the files until she found a word-processing program. She brought it up and stared at the screen for a little while. Writers needed good names, and Tabitha Conner wouldn’t work. If she did, that the whole world would know there was a real-life hero planted in Garnet. He was already famous, and that might be more exposure than he wanted if by some chance a publisher actually bought the book. Then, in a moment of brilliance, she simply reversed the spelling of Conner to be Rennoc so he’d still be there with her on the journey.

The Beginning, A Heroes of Sapphire County Novel by T.C. Rennoc

Tabitha sort of liked the sound of it. She liked the title too, and once she had those down, the first book was easy. She’d lived most of it. It was wild and fanciful, full of intimidating villains and even more powerful heroes, but it wasn’t fantasy to her. That was always how she saw Wyatt. He’d been a hero from the very beginning, and it made losing him less painful by reliving it again.

Her hopes weren’t high. Luck had never been her friend, but hell, at this point she would give the stories away if she had to. Like she’d told Nova down in the bar, all kids should believe in heroes.