The Midwife And The Lawman

“Miguel.” She slapped playfully at his hand. It was the first time she’d touched him since the night they’d spent in his bed, and he found that it challenged his self-control as much as or more than her beautiful smile.

“Actually, I did ask her which they might prefer. It was a stupid question, because she hasn’t seen them or spoken to them since she was a little girl.”

“But I bet she had an opinion, anyway.”

She grinned. “Yes, she did. She thought we should play it safe and go with the chicken.”

“Two more chicken dinners, it is.”

“You don’t mind that I okayed their coming without consulting you?”

“I think I’ve just been insulted.”

Her eyes widened and her grin vanished. “I didn’t mean—”

He had to be careful how much he teased her. She was still very touchy about her growing relationship with her cousin. “This is Kim and Nolan’s party. I’m happy she’s found the couple that meant so much to her after her mother died. You did exactly what I would have done.” He leaned forward and was saddened that she drew back, even if it was only a fraction of an inch. “Surely you know me better than that after all these years, don’t you, Devon?” He hadn’t meant to take the conversation into personal territory, but the words had refused to stay unspoken.

“I don’t know you at all,” she whispered, and pulled her lower lip between her teeth as though she, too, wished the words unspoken. She put a hand on the floor to push herself to her feet.

He stopped her by wrapping his fingers around her forearm, holding her beside him. “Devon, have you given any thought to why you ended up in my bed that night?”

She drew in her breath sharply, then said, “Shock. Confusion. Sleep deprivation. I was a little out of my mind, I think.”

“Maybe,” he agreed with a small smile. Part of him had wanted her to say it was because she was still madly, passionately in love with him. “I think we both were.”

“I didn’t know if my grandmother was going to live or die. I needed comfort. You offered me that.”

“Devon, it went past the comfort stage five minutes after we left the hospital.” The words came out as a kind of growl and her eyes widened a little.

“I told you, it was an aberration. We were both a little crazy that night.”

Devon had been out of his life for a decade. But the moment she’d walked back into it, he was the same moonstruck teenager he’d been a dozen years before. There was something he had to know. Something he wasn’t sure she herself knew yet. “Are you planning on staying in Enchantment?”

“I haven’t made up my mind. Lydia and I have such differing styles, there are days when we can’t say two words to each other without getting into an argument.” She dropped her head and began tracing circles on the cover of one of the picture books. “My practice and my life are in Albuquerque.”

“Does that life include a man?”

Her head came up. “Do you think I would have slept with you if there was?”

“You might have if you were as frightened and lonely as you said you were.” The question had been nagging at him over the past weeks. He didn’t want to think about another man making love to her. She was his. She had been since she was sixteen and she had let him make love to her for the first time—the first time for both of them, although he’d never told her that, either. Damn, he was losing his mind. He didn’t have a single claim on her. He’d never told her he loved her. Instead, sore in heart and soul when he returned from the mess in Somalia, he’d pushed her away so hard she’d never come back.

Maybe if he’d been older, more mature, he could have handled it better. But he’d been almost as young and green as she was, idealistic and filled with foolish notions of romance and happily-ever-after. He’d expected her to know, without his saying a word, how troubled and disillusioned he was. How the things he’d done or couldn’t do had tarnished his soul. He’d counted on her, and the love he felt for her but had never been able to express, to somehow magically heal him. Of course it hadn’t. So he’d pushed her away and curled into himself in misery. And broken her heart.

He should tell her now about the hurt and horror of that godawful place and what it had done to the naive, gung-ho kid he’d been, how it had torn him up inside for more years than he wanted to remember. Maybe then they could get past it, move on to the beginning of a future together. But it didn’t seem right to talk of death and destruction in this place of hope and beginnings.

She waited so long to respond to his comment that he thought she wasn’t going to. At last she said, “There was someone, but we broke up months ago. At Christmastime.”

She had been in Enchantment for Christmas. It had been the first he’d seen of her in a long time when, decked out in his dress blues, he come by to retrieve the carton of toys the center was donating to Toys for Tots. She’d said hello, that it was good to see him. And her smile had rocked his world just as it had since the first day he’d seen her, a gawky, golden-haired, horse-mad fifteen-year-old. He’d managed some kind of reply and thanked his lucky stars he’d been in uniform. It put a little needed steel in his backbone.

“What was he?” he asked now. “Doctor? Lawyer? Indian chief?”

“You’re the only Indian chief I know. He was a doctor. Third-year cardiology resident.”

“Your idea or his to call it quits?”

She sighed. “Mine. He was a great guy, but not the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.” Who was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with? A small-town cop with a few rough edges?

He had to ask one more question. “Did you love him?”

“No,” she said quietly. “And no more questions from you.”

“Okay, it’s your turn. Ask away.” He found himself holding his breath. Would she ask why he’d broken her heart so long ago? Would she give him the chance to explain?

She didn’t bring up the past. “No need to. Your life’s an open book in this town.”

He gave an exaggerated groan, hiding his disappointment. “Hell, I should have known that.”

“Your mother wants more grandkids, so she’s hoping you’ll find the right girl to marry soon. I heard that from Trish Linden. And rumor over the tea mugs has it Theresa Quiroga left town after you broke her heart.”