Concealed Attractions (Cedar Island Tales) (32 page)

She
peer
ed
at
Ben
, his face
so close, his eyes on hers
,
and
her insides heated
at
the look in his eyes
.
If only you could stay here
with me. F
or the night.
The thought flitted in and out of her brain so quickly, it almost didn’t register, except that her whole body warmed at the thought.
But he wouldn’t do that. He’s just my friend, nothing more.

“What’s that
bruise on your forehead?”
She brushed
her fingers lightly near his hairline
.
“
How’d that happen?”

“I ran into something.
”
He
glanc
ed
down
at the paper again
and sat up straighter
.
“Actually
, I have a confession to make.
In fact, I think
I
should
call the
cops
.”
He sucked in his breath.
“
It was me.”

“
Huh
?”

“
I
was the one
who
beat
that guy
up. I saw him when I stopped for gas
.
He looked like he was trying to pull this girl into his car
. Against her will
.
I went after him and—
Danni
—I could have killed him. I was so mad and I couldn’t stop hitting him, thinking about what he
might have
tried to do to you
—if you’d been there
.
My sister
told me to
go to the police and confess. I think I need to do that.”
He
pulled his phone out of his pocket
.

“But they might put you in jail,
”
she
said, one hand on his arm, a cluster of butterflies rioting in her stomach at the thought
.

“
I know
,
but
I
have to hope they don’t.” 

Minutes after Ben’s phone call,
a
police sergeant
arrived at
Danni’s
ap
artment. Ben introduced himself.

The officer
gave Happy a cursory glance. “That your dog?”

“He’s friendly.”
At a signal from Ben, the dog offered a paw to the officer, who took it, nodded solemnly, and then turned back to Ben.

“Are you the one who
called in
a
description of the perp?”

He
nodded,
stood up and held out his hands to the policeman.
“
A
fter
I beat him up. If y
ou n
eed to arrest me, go ahead. I called you to turn
myself in.”

“
Aren’t you
getting
a little ahead of yourself
?
I don’t have a complaint against you. For all I know, that man fell over
the
bluff
and got banged up on the rocks going down
the side
. In fact,
that’s where we found him—
on
the beach. He must have taken a pretty serious tumble to get so
broke
n up.”

Ben gulped.
“
That’s why
I asked
th
e
guy at the convenience store
to call
9-1-1
after
I saw that he wasn’t moving.
Probably should have checked myself, but I wasn’t thinking
very clearly
,
”
he added.
Only about what happened to
Julie
and
what
could have happened to Danni.

The policeman
said nothing
as he glanced from Ben to
Danni
and back again
.

Ben sat
back
down
and
Danni
grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

The officer stared at Ben for a
nother long
moment, pulled out a notebook and made some
quick
jottings.
“
Give me your address and
a
number where we can reach you.”

Ben gave him the number to the vet clinic as well as his own.
“Are you going to haul me in?
If so,
I’ll need to call my boss.”

“
T
hat w
on’t
be necessary.
I
f you ask me, a little
case of what we like to call
‘
street justice
’
is what happened here
,
”
the officer
continued
.
“
We might not have caught him without your description
, which you
gave us
. Remember?”

Ben
shrugged
his least sore shoulder
and
Danni
nodded
vigorously
.

“
So,
I’m thinking
we didn’t ha
ve this conversation.”
The
ser
geant
stood,
picked up his hat
,
and
glanc
ed
at Ben’s hands. “
Look
s to me like you ne
ed to watch where you’re going
—when you’re walking in the woods and such
.” He smiled. “S
o you don’t fall
and scrape up your hands again.”

“You’re not going to arrest him?”
Danni asked.

“If it’s all the
sam
e, I think
that
man
got what he deserved, don’t you?” The
officer
moved toward the door
as he
looked
back at
the dog, now sprawled on the floor in front of Ben’s and Danni’s feet
.
“
And
the women in this town ought to
be
thank
ing
you
for giving us
a
description
and taking him out
.
We’d
never
have found him otherwise.
H
ow
do you think
w
e w
ould
look
if we put the hero
, a good citizen,
in cuffs and tossed him in a cell?”

Ben
and Danni
each
looked
at him.

She was the first to smile.
“I’ll
let you out.” S
he opened the door
for
the
se
rgeant
.
“Thanks for coming.”

Once he was gone, she turned to Ben
and gave him a hug, holding him tightly for a long minute
. H
is heart beg
an
to pound when he wrapped his arms around her
and she seemed in no hurry to step away from him
.

“
I’m
so
glad that’s over. For a while there, I was afraid he was going to take you to jail.” She gave a little giggle. “
But y
ou
need to be more careful
about your hands
, Ben, like the officer said
.
I have a feeling
Joe
l
isn’t going to like that you
still
can’t move your fingers very well.”

He
chuckl
ed. “He wasn’t
very happy
, but I’
ve been working hard
on other things
. W
e’ve had some long days at the clinic, since we’ve been checking the herds
.
Getting
up at four
and do
ing
them before opening
for regular hours.” He yawned
and leaned
back
. “I don’t see how
Joe
l
does it all.  He really
does have
a two-man operation
.” He yawned again and
stretched his hands above his head
.

Danni
detoured
into the bedroom
and
returned
with
a pillow
.
“Here. Put this behind your head.
Why don’t you take a nap so you don’t fall asleep on the way home.
”

“Thanks.”
He was silent for a minute
then
said, “But w
e haven’t had dessert. I thought you said you
made
something special.”

“
Y
ou’re right. Stay where you are.
I’ll get it.”

Danni
went into the kitchen and banged some dishes around. Then she brought out
a
much
elongated gingerbread man.
She handed it to him, and kept the smaller one for herself.

“Would you like some whipped cream on it—so you
can pretend it’s pumpkin pie?
I tried to make the big one
look
like you
—
you know, tall
. I hope it’s
okay
.”

He
took
the plate
from her,
set
it down, and
cradled
her face in his hands
as he gazed at her
, his green eyes darkening, reminding her of swirling smoke
.
Time stood still and h
er breath
caught in her throat
even as her heart speeded up
.
Then
, he brought his lips to hers
for
a
sweet
kiss that
told her how soft his lips were, how warm to the touch.

She couldn’t have moved if she’d wanted to, thrilling to the feel of his hands on either side of her face.
She
felt scorched
all the way
to her toes
.
Then his hands slid slowly from her cheeks to her shoulders, bringing her close enough that they were standing
almost belly to
belly, hers distended with a growing baby, his flat and hard. She couldn’t have said how long that kiss lasted, only that Ben did marvelous things with his lips
. It
was a kiss like she’d never had before, and she wanted it
to last into next year
and beyond
.

When
he finally removed his hands
and stepped back,
she remained w
here she was
for a moment
before
slowly
opening her eyes
.
He was gazing back at her with such
intensity she was sure she’d never take another breath
.

“P
erfect
,” he
murmured
,
and
then
he seemed to remember what they’d been
talking about
before that kiss of a lifetime. “The gingerbread man. It’s perfect.”  H
is green eyes
were
now
a bright emerald and
his voice
had turned
raspy. He
cleared his throat. “A
nd I would
love
some whipped cream to dress him
. If you have some
.”

She
lau
ghed
,
delight
ed
.
Together, they slathered their gingerbread men with whipped cream and ate them in
tiny bites
to make them last longer
.