13. Hannah
HANNAH
An hour later, I watch the taillights disappear down the driveway. Finally, I’m left alone in the kitchen with Grant and Abby.
The past few hours are a blur. When I saw Grant’s text about someone being on the property, I hustled Abby into the room with the boys and instructed her to lock the door and barricade it. Then I got the shotgun.
When I heard the man at the bottom of the stairs, I knew I had to act. My nephews were asleep in their beds, and I couldn’t let him get any closer.
I’m glad I didn’t have to use the shotgun, but I would have, to protect my family.
I shiver and Grant tightens his hold on me and pulls me closer to him.
He hasn’t left my side since the intruder made off into the night. He got away in the car that was waiting on the old access road.
We’ve had law enforcement here and a bunch of Grant’s veteran friends who turned up decked out in bulletproof vests and headgear.
Grant has a bone bruise on his ankle from where he hit the cabinet. I wanted him to go to the medical center, but he refused. He didn’t want to leave me alone.
The intruder dropped something on the way out, and I made a copy of it on the scanner Rachel keeps in her home office before handing it over to Owen.
I smooth it out now, and we glance over the paper. It’s an aerial map of the disputed parcels of land.
“Is all this over a piece of land?” I can’t fathom how someone can go to such extremes for land. “What is it that we have that they want so much?”
“And what were they searching here for?” Abby asks.
We’ve been over it a dozen times in the past hour, and we’re no closer. We’ve tidied the papers back into the cabinet and none of it is anything worth taking. It’s just insurance documents, warranties, and forty years of Pops’s receipts.
“The deed to the farm, is my guess.” Grant’s voice is quiet. “They want to know what it shows.”
And then I understand, and my skin goes cold.
“The bakery.” I twist in his arms to look at him. “That’s what the bakery was all about.”
He doesn’t look surprised. He’s been sitting on this for days.
“Beth’s copy was the only thing that went missing,” he says.
They thought it was real. Somebody went looking for our deed, found a sixteen-year-old’s art project on tea-stained paper, and came back for the real thing.
“Did they get upstairs?” Abby asks.
“No.” I tell her. “And I checked Pops’s safe. It’s still there, still secure.”
I shudder, thinking about how the intruder might have searched the entire house when they realized the deeds weren’t in the cabinet.
Abby lets out a long sigh. “I’m just glad Pops wasn’t home. He would have used the shotgun.”
I don’t tell her my thoughts, that whoever broke in didn’t get what they came for and might come back.
Abby gets up from her stool by the counter and takes her mug to the sink. “Anyone for more tea?”
She must have made a dozen pots of tea and coffee over the past few hours, making sure everyone was fed and watered. She insisted Pops go to bed an hour ago, especially as he had one too many beers at The Landing.
He and Rachel sped home as soon as they heard, and Rachel raced upstairs to the boys and hasn’t been down since.
Sawyer and Liam slept through the entire thing, thankfully.
Rachel refuses to leave their side and Abby brought up a blanket for her, so she can doze in the big armchair between their beds.
“I might go to bed then.” Abby looks around the kitchen. We’ve swept up the broken glass, and Sam boarded the door up for us. But there are empty mugs and footprints from where everyone traipsed through the house. “We’ll clean all this up in the morning.”
She leaves for bed, and it’s just Grant and me in the kitchen. I’m tucked into his side, like I have been all night.
Now with just the two of us, he peers down at me. “Do you know how to use that shotgun?”
I raise my eyebrows at him. He’s only seen the woman who bakes for the town, but I’m a country girl at heart. “Granny taught me to bake; Pops taught me to shoot.”
He chuckles, and it’s a tired laugh. “I’m glad.”
He runs a hand down his face. “Hannah, I’ve been an ass.”
I want to agree but he looks too forlorn, so I just wait to hear what he has to say, trying not to get my hopes up.
“I shouldn’t have pushed you away. You’re right. That isn’t the way to honor Mason.”
He turns me toward him so we’re facing each other, and I have to tilt my head to see his eyes.
“You’re right about what you said in the orchard; forgiveness is hard, particularly when it’s yourself you have to forgive. I’m not there yet, but I want to be. I want to do the work to forgive myself, because I want to be with you.”
My heart flutters, and I dare to hope. Grant’s palm traces my cheek, and he cups my chin.
“When I thought you were in danger, I panicked. One thing went through my mind. I had been so sure I didn’t deserve happiness, but I was being selfish.
I thought, what if something happened to you and you never got that chance at happiness because of my hang-ups.
I love you, Hannah. I’ve loved you ever since I saw you in the bakery.
I don’t want to punish myself anymore. I want a chance at happiness, and I want you to have that chance too, and I hope that can be with me. Do you think you can be happy with me?”
My chest swells, and tears threaten my eyes. “Grant, I am happy with you. And I love you too.”
I rise on my tiptoes and our lips meet. He pulls me toward him and lets out a long contented sigh.
“I can’t let anything happen to you. Whatever threat this is, it’s not going to go away. They’ll keep pressuring you and the other landowners until you’re worn down or scared.”
“Or until we fight back. They thought we would be a pushover but we’ll fight them, Grant. The entire town will.”
He brushes my cheek with his palm. “Then I’ll stay right here, protecting you and your family until this is resolved.”
“You’re part of this family now, Grant.”
That part was easy, but the next part costs me.
I take a deep breath and think of Granny, in the warmth of the kitchen where she gave me so much silent support, and before her my parents, whose love for each other wrapped itself around all of us so tightly that its traces linger in the closeness of my sisters.
My parents were taken from us, but their love stayed, trickling through the family to hold us together.
They didn’t choose to leave. They were taken too soon, the same as Granny, and there’s a difference.
“Stay to protect us, yes, but stay because this is where you belong.”
He leans back to look at me. “Hannah, I’m not going anywhere.”
He kisses me, slow and certain, and something in my chest that’s been clenched tight for as long as I can remember finally lets go.
I’ve spent a good part of my life terrified that if I let anyone get close, they’d leave like my parents did, and Granny after that.
But for the first time, I’m willing to take that chance and get close to someone who isn’t my family.
Tonight, Grant put himself in harm’s way for me and my family, and now he’s standing in my kitchen telling me he’s not going anywhere.
And for the first time in my life, I believe a person might actually stay.
And I let myself want it, all of it, all of him.
“I’m not going anywhere either,” I whisper against his mouth.
He kisses me and it’s slow and languorous, and after the emotion of the day, it’s exactly the calm I need.
His hands slide around to my backside, and suddenly I’m filled with desire.
“I need you, Grant, all of you this time.” I take his hand and lead him out of the kitchen and toward the downstairs room. It has more privacy than my room, and it’s bigger. If Grant’s going to stay, then I’ll move down here with him. I’ve got a feeling Pops won’t mind at all.
Grant closes the door behind us and kicks it shut with his foot.
“Finally, I get you alone.”
His hand runs up my body and I melt against him. He leads me over to the bed and flicks on the bedside lamp, bathing the room in a soft glow.
His thumbs hook under my sweater, and he pulls it off and then my t-shirt. Cool air prickles my skin and Grant slides his hands up my arms, warming me up.
“Let’s get you warm.”
He pulls back the covers, and before we slide under, he takes off his jeans and t-shirt. When he gets in next to me, his hard muscular abs bump into my soft curves. I trail a finger down his torso and over the hard ridges.
Grant groans at my touch, and I keep going lower until my hand wraps around his erection.
“See what you do to me.” His voice is husky and full of longing.
He pulls off the rest of my clothing until there’s nothing between us. I’m aching for him, and this time I want all of him, everything he’s willing to give me.
Grant rolls onto me, and I part my thighs as he nestles between them. His cock rests at my entrance, the pressure of it against my core making my back arch, wanting more.
Our eyes lock, and I can’t look away. “I need you, Grant.”
“I’m here for you Hannah, in every way you need me. I’m not going anywhere.”
He slides inside me, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I’ve never been this close to anyone, and it feels so good that tears spring to my eyes.
“Hey, don’t cry.”
“They’re happy tears,” I tell him, and he kisses them from my eyes.
We keep our eyes locked as we rock together. A feeling of peace descends over me. I’m safe in his arms, and as we move together, the feeling grows. He kisses me and caresses me, remembering the places I like to be touched.
Then I’m peaking, and a moment later he follows.
We lie together, listening to the quiet of the house. I don’t know what happens next in this wild land grab, but I know I’ll face it with Grant by my side.