Badland Bride (Book 2 - Dakota Hearts) (8 page)

“Yeah.”

“Wade melted it down and made into this. If you noticed, there are only markings on one side of the medallion. He always wore it, too.”

“How did you get it?”

Keith drew in a deep breath, expanding his chest. She felt the rise and fall of it and the heavy thump of his heartbeat against her ear as she lay there.

“Wade was leaving for the Peace Corps. He’d been gone for a while and was back for a visit before heading out again. As you can imagine, my mother wasn’t too pleased.”

“She likes having her boys around.”

“Could you tell?”

Regis chuckled.

“Anyway, Wade called all of us who were still stateside and wanted to meet for a drink before he left. Ethan was overseas in the military. Sam was in Arizona, I think, fighting some monster fire that had broken out there. Logan, well, he was dealing with his life back then, which was…difficult.”

“And you?”

“I was doing my residency in Sioux City. Wade was in Aberdeen, just a few hours from Sioux City.”

Keith was quiet and just rolled the medallion between his fingers.

“Logan went to have a drink with Wade, and I didn’t. Next time I saw Logan he gave me the chain with the medallion and this cross and told me Wade wanted me to hold onto it until he came back. I put it around my neck and the next day we found out about the tsunami that hit the island he was working on. They never found him.”

She gasped and lifted her head to look at Keith. The unshed tears in his eyes were illuminated by the dying fire.

“I’ve never taken this off since,” he said, looking directly at her. “I’ve never told anyone else that story.”

She sat up and touched his chest in an effort to comfort him. She didn’t care that she was naked and her breasts were fully exposed in probably the most unflattering position.

“What about the cross?” she asked.

“That’s the odd thing. I don’t know anything about this cross. I knew so much about my brother. Of all my brothers, I was closest to Wade. But I don’t know how he got it or why he wore it. He used to only have the medallion on the chain. But this is the way Wade gave it to Logan, so I kept it that way. It makes me feel like…he’s close by somehow.”

She lay back down against Keith and he pulled her close to him.

“Like a part of him is always with you,” she added.

Keith lifted his head a fraction and looked down at her, but said nothing. Then he lay back again.

“I have my mother’s hairbrush,” she finally said. “It’s nothing special. It’s just a big silver brush. I don’t even know if it’s real silver or just plated. She couldn’t take living on bases and moving all around the world.”

“With your dad gone so much, I’m surprised she didn’t take you with her.”

“Yeah, well, she didn’t like family life so much either, and having a six-year-old in tow didn’t fit into the next phase of her life.”

He cursed quietly and shook his head. “Sorry,” he said.

“Why? Because of my mother or your foul mouth?” she said chuckling. “Remember, I lived on Army bases. You couldn’t possibly say something I haven’t already heard.”

Keith chuckled too and then became quiet again.

“It doesn’t really matter though. It’s just a hairbrush,” she said. “I just…with all the moving, I was never able to let it go.”

He squeezed her harder until she thought they couldn’t get closer. And still she wanted more. She wanted to feel that connection she’d felt when they’d made love.

She lifted up on her side and put her arm around him. “Keith?”

“Hmm?” he said, his voice groggy.

“The fire is dying.”

“Do you want another blanket?”

She smiled and kissed him slowly. “I had something else in mind.”

She felt his smile against her lips and felt the thundering of his heartbeat beneath her palm. Then he said, “I like the way you think.”

* * *

The next few weeks had been the happiest Regis had ever known. She spent the mornings working in the senior center with a long line of people filing in to ask questions and fill out paperwork. Some afternoons she’d go on the road with Keith and visit properties. She’d listen to the stories about the people she’d meet and at night, the two of them would lock themselves in his log home and make love.

Soon the number of people needing help grew shorter and somewhere in the back of Regis’s mind, she knew her time in Rudolph was close to coming to an end. But she’d decided to relish each and every moment she had with Keith for as long as she possibly could.

And then came the afternoon when she knew all that love and beauty was in jeopardy. She answered her cell phone call from her manager as she stepped into the motel room, wondering why she even bothered to keep it since she’d been spending every night for the past two weeks with Keith.

“Is there a problem?” she asked Mike.

He hesitated a fraction. “You’re doing great there. I’m just wondering why you’ve sent this claim for the Buxton Mills through with a recommendation for full replacement when it’s clear it was flood damage.”

She dropped her briefcase on the bed and sat down next to it. “The roof and siding show that the ice storm did some damage to the property. I have pictures to support that.”

“I see them, and I don’t dispute that. But I also see the water line on the inside of the property showing that there was a flood.”

She bit her bottom lip. “There was. The property is on the river. But the ice and rain did the damage to the structure.”

Mike’s heavy sigh sounded distorted through the phone. “You’re one of the most thorough adjusters I have, Regis. But this one is cut and dry. They have flood insurance so the most we can approve for this is what is listed in their policy. We can repair the roof, although I have my doubts it was the storm that damaged that and the siding. My records show this property has been empty for quite some time.”

“The amount of the payout for those won’t be enough to cover the structural damage.”

“You need a vacation, Regis. You’re getting attached again. I’m sorry but I can’t approve the full amount of this claim. If you’d prefer it, I’ll send the letter.”

She closed her eyes to the disappointment filling her. “No, I’ll do it.”

“Fine. Regis?”

“Yes?”

“Why don’t you pack up? I’m sure you’re tired and could use a break. I’m not kidding about the vacation.”

“I’m not done here.”

“End of the week you are. I’ll bring in someone else to give you a break.”

“But—” she started to argue, but he’d already hung up.

She was leaving. But before she could do that, she had to break the bad news to some people who’d counted on her.

* * *

“Are you all right?” Keith's voice brought Regis out of her reverie as she sat at the kitchen table and cradled her morning coffee in her hand. She tried not to read too much into the concern in his voice. Things were complicated enough as it was. She decided it was probably a good idea to keep things simple. There was no reason to bring up the reasons for her insomnia.

“I didn't sleep well last night.”

“I noticed.”

“I’m sorry. Did I keep you awake?”

“No, but clearly something kept you awake. What was it?”

She shrugged. She hadn’t written up the letter to the town yet about the outcome of the claim for the Buxton Mill. She wanted to write it and then tell Ian McKinnon personally. He’d worked hard on plans to develop the property for the town that he deserved to hear it from her first.

“You're awfully quiet,” Keith finally broke the silence, bringing his empty coffee cup to the sink. “Something is bothering you.”

Regis glanced over at Keith’s handsome face. When had she become this attached to seeing it, having it bring her comfort.

“I have a lot of work to do before I leave.”

His expression fell. “You’re leaving?”

“End of the week. I got the call from my supervisor yesterday.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped.

“I knew last night,” she said, answering the question he didn’t put into words. “I just didn’t know…how to tell you. I didn’t want to talk about it.” She abruptly got up from the table and dumped the rest of her coffee in the sink, and turned on the faucet to rinse the sink and her cup.

“Stop,” Keith said.

She didn’t look at him. “I don’t want to leave these dishes in the sink.”

“Stop,” he said again, turning off the water and pulling her around to face him.

“We knew this day was going to come eventually,” she said, looking up at him. The light in his blue eyes had faded with his disappointment.

“Did we?

A cynical laugh escaped her lips. “How could you not know that I’d be leaving?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t really think much about it. I just thought about how I was feeling. How I thought we were both feeling.”

She fought tears as he pulled her into his arms. “Right now I’m feeling rotten. To make matters worse, my boss is insisting on my taking a vacation.”

With raised eyebrows, Keith said, “Well, there’s an excuse for you to stay longer.”

She pulled out of his arms and went back to the sink. “I can’t even think that far. There is still so much for me to do this week.”

“Okay, here’s a radical idea.”

She stopped washing a coffee cup and glanced at him.

“Stay.”

“What?”

“Finish out your week and then just stay. You said you have vacation. So take a vacation right here. You don’t have to run off to another town, do you?”

“Well, no.”

“Where do you go when you leave a town you’ve been working in?”

“I have a simple apartment in Chicago. By simple, I mean utilitarian. It looks a lot like my motel room except it has a small kitchen. I’m not there very often. I’m sure once I get home Mike will find another town for me to go to. He usually keeps me busy.”

Keith leaned against the counter as she finished rinsing the last dish and put it in the strainer to dry. She turned off the water and dried her hands before looking at Keith again.

When she did, she saw emotion in his eyes that she’d never seen. Not even when they’d made love. A thump of emotion formed in her throat that she couldn’t swallow down.

“Stay,” he said in a soft voice that was almost pleading. Her bottom lip began to quiver and she clamped it down with her teeth to keep it steady.

“This isn’t something we should talk about this morning.”

He looked at her for a lingering moment as if studying the lines on her face.

“Okay, we’ll talk about it tonight then.”

She nodded and reached up to kiss him. He tasted of coffee and smelled like the cinnamon bagels they’d had for breakfast. His tongue brushed against her lips and she gasped. The hand at the small of her back flexed, pressing her closer to him as he tilted his head, deepening the kiss until she was lost in him again.

Everything that had been circling in her head since last night vanished. All she thought about was the way it felt when this incredible man kissed her. He’d turned her world inside out. And yet all that disappeared when she was in Keith’s arms. There was absolutely no confusion about the way his mouth felt against hers, the way his lips moved, how his tongue teased at the seam of her mouth. She had no doubts about whether or not she wanted him to keep kissing her, about how right it felt to have him holding her.

When they finally broke apart, their breath was coming in pants and she could feel Keith's heart beating as furiously as her own. He kept his arms around her and looked down at her.

“I’ll see you tonight,” he said with a smile.

And for the first time in the past two weeks, Regis dreaded it.

# # #

“This is the second time I’ve caught you daydreaming,” Nancy said, standing in the doorway to Hawk’s office.

“I’m not daydreaming,” he said.

“Yeah? Well whatever it is, if you don’t snap out of it, I’ll be forced to do something drastic.”

“Like what?”

“Call your mother.” She chuckled at the look he gave her, and then tapped her fingers on the doorjamb. “Seriously, you’ve got a patient in examining room one who is waiting for you.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Ever since Regis left his house yesterday morning, he knew she was pulling away from him. She told him she was going to be finished with her work in Rudolph by the end of the week. But Hawk didn’t think she’d avoid him before she had to leave. But then, just as he was expecting her to come to his house last night after work, she’d called and said she had too much paperwork, and thought it was better for her to stay at the motel.

He’d spent many nights alone in that big log cabin since he’d come back to Rudolph after med school. But last night was the first night in over two weeks that he’d spent the night without Regis snuggled up, warm, and naked next to him. And he didn’t like it one bit.

He got up from behind his desk and walked the few strides to the examining room, pulling the folder from the wall file and checking the contents. Concerned, he knocked on the door and went inside.

Ian McKinnon sat in a chair by the window instead of the examining table. And he didn’t look happy, which was great concern to Hawk.

“I didn’t expect to see you here today.”

“I didn’t plan on coming.” He turned his hand. That’s when Hawk saw the white rag stained with red. “I slammed the glass on the counter and cut myself.”

“On purpose?”

“The slamming of the glass was on purpose. The glass breaking was just Murphy’s Law.”

Hawk washed his hands and dried them quickly before putting on latex gloves. Ian sat in the same chair by the window. Hawk sat in his seat and rolled it closer to his cousin to examine the wound.

“You may need a stitch or two,” he said.

“Terrific,” Ian said.

“What set this off?”

“The phone call I got last night from your girlfriend.”

Hawk stopped examining the wound and looked at Ian. Dark circles were evident under his eyes.

“Regis called you? What for?”

“The claim for the mill wasn’t fully approved. What they’re giving us is a joke. We can forget getting the mill rehabbed for the center. There isn’t enough money to fix what needs to be repaired. The engineer said the flood water caused structural damage to the foundation of the building and needs to be completely repaired or the building will have to be torn down. Except, the insurance company is only giving us cleanup cost for the building.”