Page 66 of Colton in the Wild
His father studied him for a moment before saying quietly, “So, your mother was right. As usual. You two finally got it together.”
He let out a short laugh. “Finally.”
“Then let’s wind this up,” Dad said briskly, taking out his phone. “So we can start making some plans.”
It took Spence a moment to realize what he meant, and when he did, it was as if his entire future had just unrolled before his eyes.
He never in his life figured he’d be grinning while calling for medical help for a wounded hitman.
Chapter 35
“He screamed louder than you did, hit in the same place.”
Hetty laughed, as much at the happy expression on Spence’s face as the words themselves. She was still feeling a little weak, only now it was with relief. The nightmare was over.
They were on the front porch today. She wanted some time to put the memories out of her head. Although she thought she just might hang on to the one of the man who had shot her tumbling down that hillside, and the realization that Spence had done exactly that, shot the hired killer in almost exactly the same place that he had shot her.
“Talked to Officer Reynolds this morning,” Spence went on. “He says the guy calling himself Strauss—George Merrick is his real name, by the way, if you want to cross him off your Christmas card list—is singing like the proverbial canary. Reynolds has been on the phone to Portland, and they already have a warrant out for his employer. And our clients are so grateful about how it worked out, they’ve already rebooked.”
“You mean now that you captured the guy who would have killed them?”
Spence didn’t speak for a moment. When he did, his voice was very quiet. “I never thought of him like that. To me, he was always the guy who hurt you. That’s all I needed to know.”
Hetty couldn’t even describe the feelings that welled up inside her when he said things like that. It was as if he’d had all this bottled up inside him all these years, and now that they’d popped the cork, as one of her brothers jokingly said, it just all came bubbling out.
She thought something of those feelings must have showed in her face—in fact, she figured she was probably glowing with them—because he suddenly took on what she’d taken to calling his Serious Spence Look.
“You’re walking a lot better…” he began.
“Yes. I still need the cane now and then, but Liz says I’m good to go. Keeping up the exercises and stretching, of course.”
“Which you do anyway,” Spence pointed out.
“Yes, but I need to focus on it a bit more then I was.”
“But…you could do the stairs at the apartment now.”
She noticed he’d said “the” and not “your.” She thought about all the times when he’d gone there to get something for her, back when the stairs would have been out of the question. Times that had ended with a large portion of her belongings now being here.
Hetty’s brain did some figuring and she hoped she was right about where this was going. “I could, if I had to.” She met and held his gaze. “Am I going to have to?”
She saw his jaw tense for just a moment and wondered if she was wrong, if she’d misinterpreted where they were in this strangely born relationship.
Then he said, fervently enough that that glow she’d felt earlier came rushing back, “I hope not. I hope you’ll stay. Here. With me. You like the place, don’t you?”
She let out a relieved breath. “I like it a lot. I like the setting—minus hired killers tumbling into the backyard, mind you—the view from all sides. I like the way it’s laid out. I like the wood, the line of the roof…all of it.” She couldn’t help herself, she gave him an impish smile before adding, “And I happen to love the owner.”
“So…does that mean yes? You’ll stay, permanently?”
She wanted to giggle. She hadn’t giggled since she was twelve. To cover the silly urge, she put on her most serious expression.
“Well…there would have to be a big change first.”
He blinked and she saw that jaw muscle twitch again. She wasn’t normally a tease, but it did her heart good to see how nervous he was about this. Because she knew him well enough to know he only got nervous when genuine emotion was involved. Being angry and determined when hunting a killer was one thing, but laying himself open like this was something new to her. And she had to admit, she liked it. And liked even more that it appeared new to him, too.
“What? Tell me, and I’ll get it done.” His mouth twisted. “Unless the change you want is me moving out.”
“Well, that would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?” she said with a laugh. And decided to quit teasing him. “No, the big change I want is…a bathtub.”
