McIver's Mission (23 page)

Nikki waved a hand dismissively. "We have plenty
of time for that. And I'm not going to have you living at some motel when we
have more than enough room for you here."

"It used to be your room, anyway," Colin
reminded her.

"I appreciate the offer," Arden said,
meaning it. "But—"

"I have more room at my place," Shaun said,
surprising all of them with the statement. Arden especially. She gaped at him.

"I'm
not
moving in with you," she
said. "No matter how temporarily."

"Why not?"

"B-because." She was sure there was a
reason. Probably half a dozen good reasons. But she couldn't think of a single
one when he was looking at her like that.

"Maybe we should let them talk about this
privately," Colin suggested, nudging his wife toward the doorway.

"There's nothing to talk about," Arden said.
"Because I'm not staying at Shaun's."

But Nikki and Colin had already disappeared, leaving
her to face off against Shaun alone.

"Why not?" he asked again.

"It's not a good idea," she said, even
though she wanted to take him up on the offer.

"It's the best idea," he argued. "You
don't want to impose on Nikki and Colin, but you know Nikki will worry about
you if you're on your own."

"I've been living on my own for a while
now," she said dryly.

"She'll still worry," he reminded her.
"Besides, you've been sleeping at my house most nights, anyway."

It was true, but having a toothbrush in his bathroom
wasn't the same as having her clothes in his dresser. She knew his offer was
dictated by circumstances, but moving in with Shaun seemed like such a leap,
and she wasn't sure if she was ready.

"Why don't we at least try it for a few
days?" Shaun suggested. "If you're not comfortable with the
arrangement, I'll help you find someplace else to stay."

"What if
you're
not comfortable with the
arrangement?"

"Then I'll let you know."

She was skeptical. "Promise?"

"Yes, I promise." He slipped his arms around
her waist and drew her closer. "To be honest, I'm kind of looking forward
to having you under my roof for a while. These aren't exactly the circumstances
under which I would have hoped for this to happen, but I'm learning to take
what I can get."

"You're sure you're okay with this?"

"I offered, didn't I?"

"Okay," she agreed finally.

"Have you guys come to any kind of
agreement?" Colin asked, poking his head into the kitchen.

"Yeah. Arden's going to come home with me,"
Shaun said.

"Good," Nikki said.

Arden raised an eyebrow.

"Come on," Nikki said. "I'll let you
raid my closet until you can replace your own things."

"I'd appreciate that," Arden said, following
her cousin up the stairs. "The only clothes I have are those on my
back." She sniffed, inhaled the acrid scent of smoke that had permeated
her attire. "And they don't smell very good."

"Help yourself." Nikki gestured to her
closet. "Nothing fits me right now, anyway."

Arden glanced at her cousin's slightly protruding
belly and smiled. "You look great," she said honestly, enviously.
What would it be like, she wondered, to carry the child of the man you loved?

"I feel great," Nikki admitted. "We're
all so thrilled about the baby.
Carly
can't wait for
her baby sister. No matter how many times we tell her it might be a boy, she
keeps insisting otherwise."

"Are you going to ask about the baby's
gender?" Arden asked.

"I don't think so. Colin wants to be
surprised."

"And you?"

"I just want a healthy baby."

"She will be," Arden said. Then,
"Everything's different this time around, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Nikki's smile was luminous.
"But shouldn't we be talking about your situation now?"

"What's to talk about? My apartment burned down,
and I'm going to stay with Shaun for a few days until I find somewhere else to
live."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?"
Nikki asked. "I was kind of looking forward to having my former roommate
back."

"You have your family together now. You don't
need me underfoot."

"You're family, too," Nikki reminded her.
"And I like having you underfoot."

Arden took a sweater out of the top drawer, tossed it
on the bed. She added a couple of T-shirts, a sweatshirt, and a pair of jeans
before moving to the closet.

"Do you want to stay with Shaun?" Nikki
asked.

Arden sighed. "Yeah, I do."

Nikki smiled. "Those orange blossoms might not be
so far off."

"He offered his spare room, he didn't
propose."

"Spare room," Nikki scoffed.

"The invitation never would have been issued if
my apartment hadn't burned down," Arden said.

Her cousin just smiled. "I guess time will
tell."

Arden turned her attention back to the contents of
Nikki's closet. She didn't know how to respond to her cousin's teasing. She
hadn't allowed herself to think that far ahead. Her relationship with Shaun had
already been so much more than she'd expected, so much more than she'd hoped.
If she allowed her thoughts to wander, she sometimes found herself thinking
that they could have a future together. She wanted to believe they could. But
there was still so much they didn't know about each other. So much he didn't
know about her.

She pulled a navy skirt out of the closet and tossed
it onto the bed. She selected a few more items, blinked back the sudden sting
of tears. "I don't even have a spare pair of underwear."

Nikki pulled open a drawer, but Arden shook her head.
Nikki's taste ran more to satin and lace than she was accustomed to.

"I'll wash out the ones I have on, so I can wear
them again tomorrow. Then I'll have to go shopping."

"Is everything gone?" Nikki asked gently.

Arden shrugged. "I can only assume so," she
said. "It wasn't as if I was allowed to go inside and take
inventory." She didn't tell her cousin that most of the damage seemed to
be focused on her apartment. She didn't want to think about that fact, and
wonder, and worry.

It was possible that she'd been wrong to connect the
fire to the letters she'd been getting. The fire could have started for any
number of reasons—maybe it was faulty wiring or something like that.

And maybe her twisted pen pal had meant it literally
when he'd said she would burn in hell.

* * *

Shaun
had no doubts about why he'd offered to open his home to Arden. When he'd gone
by her apartment and found the street blocked off by police barricades and fire
trucks, he'd experienced a moment of bone-deep, paralyzing fear unlike anything
he could ever have imagined. And in the split second that he'd considered she
might be in that burning house, emptiness had threatened to swallow him whole.

It was then he knew, without any doubt or
qualification, that he loved her.

And he would do anything to keep her with him.

He knew she wasn't ready to hear how he felt. For
whatever reason, he knew she was reluctant to acknowledge the growing emotional
ties between them. The sex was great, they laughed and talked and enjoyed being
together. But whenever he tried to talk to her about the future of their
relationship, she diverted the conversation to other matters.

It intrigued him. Most women he knew were the ones
pushing for commitment, wanting to know what was in the future. Arden was
unwilling to consider anything beyond tomorrow.

He hoped that having her under the same roof might
encourage her to open up to him, to confide in him about whatever it was that
had her running scared. Only when he knew what he was up against would he be
able to consider his course of action. Because he had no doubt that Arden was
the woman he would spend the rest of his life with.

He pulled into the driveway of his home in front of
Arden. When she stepped out of her car and into the light, he noticed how
exhausted she looked. Her usually immaculate hair was tousled, her shoulders
sagged. Her deep-brown eyes were shadowed with fatigue, but she offered him a
weak smile.

He took her hand and led her into the house, then set
the suitcase down and took her in his arms.

"Are you okay?"

She drew in a deep, shuddering breath, nodded.
"Yeah. I think so."

"It's okay to be upset. Everything you owned just
went up in smoke."

"I didn't own very much."

"That's not the point." He couldn't have
said why, but he would have felt better if she'd cried. Generally he hated a
woman's tears; he felt helpless around them. Which was why it still surprised
him that he'd stopped to sit with Arden that day in the park. But he was glad
that he had, because that was the day their relationship had changed. And that
was why her calm determination seemed unnatural to him now, and why he was so
worried about her.

"My bookcases." Her eyes widened with
distress.

"Are probably ashes now," he said gently.

"You did such a beautiful job on them."

"I can build more."

She managed a weak smile. "I have to find
somewhere to live first."

"Don't worry about that right now," Shaun
told her.

If he had his way—and he intended to—Arden wouldn't be
living anywhere but with him. He hoped that being together under the same roof
might be just the thing to convince her that they were meant to be together.

"I have court first thing in the morning,"
she told him, forcing his attention back to more immediate matters. "So, if
you don't mind, I'd just like to take a shower and go to bed."

He nodded.

Arden followed him up the stairs, into the master
bath, watching silently as he got fresh towels out of the cupboard for her.

"Do you have something I could sleep in?"
Arden asked. "I forgot to grab a nightgown from Nikki."

"Sure. I'll get you a T-shirt."

"Thanks." She smiled, but he could see the
strain around her mouth, the shadows under her eyes. She was worried about
something. The fire was the obvious explanation, and he couldn't blame her for
being upset about that. But it went deeper than wariness or loss. There was
fear in her eyes. He didn't understand it and he didn't like it.

Could the fire in her apartment building somehow be
linked to the letters she'd been getting? He didn't want to believe it, but it
wasn't much of a stretch to think that the two events might be connected.

His mind drifted back a few weeks, to the gunshots
that had shattered her kitchen windows. The police were convinced it had been a
random act. Shaun wasn't so sure. And it terrified him to know that Arden's
life could be in real danger.

He poured himself a generous glass of scotch while he
waited for Arden to finish in the shower. She was holding something back, and
that bothered him. He wanted to be there for her. He wanted her to know that
she could count on him. But she was so determined to stand on her own, to prove
that she could. He didn't want to hold her up. He knew she didn't need that.
But he wanted to stand beside her, to offer his support, to have her accept it.

He heard the water shut off, and ten minutes after
that she came down the stairs.

"Where—" she cleared her throat "—where
do you want me to sleep?"

He turned to study her. Her face was scrubbed free of
makeup, her long dark hair still damp from the shower. His T-shirt covered her
adequately, enticingly. The hem rode high on her thighs, the soft cotton hugged
the curve of her breasts. He finished the last of his scotch and set his glass
down on the table. "Where do you want to sleep?"

"With you," she said without hesitation.

Shaun's lips curved into a slow, satisfied smile.
"I didn't invite you to stay just so that I could take advantage of the
situation."

She came into his arms willingly, pressed her lips to
his. "That doesn't mean we can't take advantage of the situation, does
it?"

"I love the way you think," he murmured.

She nipped his earlobe. "I love the way
you…" She whispered an incredibly vivid suggestion in his ear that had all
the blood rushing out of his head.

"Well then," he said, swinging her into his
arms. "We'd better get started."

* * *

Things
did look better in the morning. Arden got up and put on some borrowed clothes,
made her court appearance, then went to the office and buried herself in work.
In fact, she was so preoccupied with preparing court materials she almost
forgot about the fire that had devastated her apartment and left her and
several other tenants homeless. She thought of Greta Dempsey and her dog,
wondered where they would go. Arden knew she'd been lucky. As much as she often
felt alone, she knew she wasn't. She had family, people who cared about her.