Chapter 23
An hour or more later she squeezed his hand and said, “Come on. It’s bedtime. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”
“Of course you are,” he agreed, as he stood up, collected their teacups, and walked into the kitchen.
She locked up the front and back doors and headed upstairs to her bedroom, Jaxon following her. She asked, “Do you think Richard will find whoever did all the calling on our phones?”
Jaxon nodded. “I’m hoping so. I suspect it’s someone from the same group, since we found texts and messages where she gave them my number.”
She stiffened at that. “I didn’t even get to the point of asking her if she was getting those calls too. It’s just awful to find out that she was the one behind it.”
“She had one degree of separation, since she wasn’t doing it herself. She had other people doing it for her.”
“But that also means she knew it was happening.”
“Yes, and what we don’t know is to what extent any of this has gotten to.”
“Meaning?”
“I just don’t know if more has been planned, outside of just phoning us.”
“Why would you even think that?”
“We were threatened, remember?”
“I’m not likely to forget,” she said, with a shudder. “Do you think Kelly knew about that?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t have an answer for that.”
“And it didn’t come up today at all?”
“No, and that’s because Richard is still working on that one,” Jaxon pointed out. “Once threats are made, things start to escalate quickly.”
She groaned. “I just want it to all go away.” As she walked to her bedroom, he stopped at the spare room, one eyebrow raised. She smiled at him. “Like you said, we’re married.”
“I don’t want to push anything.”
“I know that, and I’m far too tired for any hanky-panky tonight, but I am absolutely looking forward to sleeping in your arms.” His delighted smile made her heart ache for all the pain she had caused. The tears came readily to her eyes.
He immediately shook his head, as if understanding exactly what she was feeling. “No, don’t even go there. It’s fine.”
She sniffled slightly and walked into the bedroom, then quickly shed her clothing, tossing them into the laundry hamper, grabbed a soft nightie, and headed to the bed.
He’d already flipped back the covers the way he always did, and she smiled. “There are just some things you get used to when you sleep with somebody,” she noted, “and I have to admit, when I didn’t have you around, and I had to do that myself, it just didn’t have the same feel.”
“Of course not.” He smiled in her direction. “It’s something you do to show someone you love them.”
She felt the tears building up once again. Refusing to let them get away from her, she immediately wiped them away, then crawled into bed, pulled up the covers, and waited for him to join her.
He was a little bit longer in the bathroom, and, when he came back out again, she sighed as she saw his leg.
He nodded. “You never did tell me if it bothered you.”
“Of course it doesn’t bother me,” she said, with a shrug. “It didn’t even occur to me that maybe I could have helped you.”
“Don’t need help,” he stated, “and, if I do, I’ll let you know.”
“Would you though?”
“Absolutely,” he declared, facing her. “Because learning to ask for help is a whole different ball game now, and it’s something I do need every once in a while. I couldn’t even get the damn prosthetic off the other day. I would have loved to have you around to give me a hand.”
She giggled at that. “I can just imagine what that looked like.”
“It wasn’t fun from my side,” he admitted, as he slid under the covers and pulled her up against him, tucking his chin at the top of her head. “Now get some rest. You really need it after today’s events.”
“It is what I need,” she agreed, “but I’m still struggling with the whole concept of Kelly’s involvement in all that fraud.”
“I understand, and again it goes back to her mental state. Trying to hold in the secret of the accident was getting harder, as if it was getting bigger by the day. You can imagine that she was afraid that you would blame her, afraid that you would hate her.”
“So, what then? She sets these people up to threaten me?”
“Yep.” He tightened his arms around her and whispered, “We’ll work it out tomorrow.”
She took several long slow breaths, trying to relax, and muttered, “At least I don’t have clinic hours tomorrow.”
“Good, so maybe we can go back out to the ranch and take a look at those llamas.”
“Oh, I do have special feed for them that I want Timber to try.”
“Good, another reason to go.”
She smiled. “I talked to one of the suppliers too and told him all about the place, and he seemed quite interested in helping out with feed.”
“That’s even better,” he added, with a smile. “We need as much help as we can get.”
“We?” she repeated in a teasing voice.
“Yeah, we,” he confirmed.
She felt the smile of his lips up against her hair. “You really like that place, don’t you?”
“I like the concept, and I like what Timber is doing. I appreciate what he’s doing, both for the animals and for the people,” he explained, rubbing her back. “So, yeah, I kind of love it.”
“Do you see yourself doing something there long-term?”
“I don’t know. I’m not exactly sure what I could even do there. Timber can’t afford to hire us full-time, and I wouldn’t want to put that onus on him anyway.”
“And yet you know he’ll need people full-time soon.”
“It’s not something that we’ve talked openly about, but it is something he has alluded to.
I think he’s still trying to figure out what happened, when so many people showed up and all the buildings went up so quickly.
He’s been really struggling to stay on top of his finances and to figure out where he’s at. ”
“Except for Burke’s partner, Shirley, she’s helping with that, right?”
“Yes, that’s a whole different story,” he said, laughing. “She worked as a project manager before. So, when she needed a safe place to stay and ended up at the Haven, she naturally fell into that role. She was legitimately just helping him get organized, but she’s kind of taken over his life.”
“It seems she’s really helping him get organized.”
“More so than he ever thought possible. Things are running more smoothly, in terms of materials being available when needed, not having to do a job twice because of a missed detail, better allocation of the guys’ skills, and that sort of thing.
Timber’s got some meetings coming up with his financial advisors on investments and stuff. ”
“Does he have a lot of money?” she asked curiously. “Even with all the volunteer labor you all have been providing, it’s still got to be an incredible expense to set up everything needed for big and small animals, especially with all the new land he just acquired.”
“I think he has a lot of debt,” Jaxon clarified.
“I don’t think he thought it would go crazily out of control like it has.
His original plan was to do all the building himself, alone, but, when free help just shows up, you automatically turn around and find things for everybody to do.
I also know that some of his friends who came out initially covered some of the early supply bills.
For example, they covered all the food when he had that huge crew out there that first week or two. That was a huge gift.”
“He has great friends,” she noted, with a smile.
“Indeed, and you might want to remember that they’re Tiffany’s friends now too.”
“Meaning?” she asked, as she yawned.
“That they’re your friends now too.” He nuzzled her neck under one ear.
She felt his warm breath on her skin and lay there with a smile on her face, contemplating just how wonderful it was to be back in his arms, and, with that, all thoughts of sleeping fled. She rolled over slowly, looked up at him, and smiled. “I’m not feeling quite so tired anymore.”
He nuzzled her and shifted down, dropping kisses along her temple, across her cheek, and to her lips. That first kiss reminded her of that same first kiss they had shared so long ago.
With tears in her eyes, she reached up for more, as he tried to withdraw. She whispered, “Please don’t stop. I’m so sorry, just so sorry.”
He immediately shook his head, cutting off her words with a kiss, letting her know that they weren’t required.
Yet, in her heart, she knew she would be spending a long time trying to earn his forgiveness, knowing that she was the one who had broken them up and who had caused so much pain for Jaxon.
Even though her reasons were for her own sanity, it wasn’t something that she’d really wanted to do, and she regretted it terribly.
She wrapped her arms around him and held him close, as their lips made a bond, a seal she had thought she would never experience again. The tears flowed freely, even as he tried to kiss them away, and she just sobbed and sobbed, yet she was smiling with joy.
She finally rolled over, pushing him flat on his back, then spent the next little while slowly memorizing his body, a body she thought for sure she could never forget.
Yet every new discovery gave her great joy, coming at her from all directions, as she realized just how much she had missed this, had missed him, and had missed how good everything had always been between them.
She didn’t know when she’d forgotten it all or when it had all slipped away.
She just remembered the myriad pain and anguish.
But it didn’t matter now because he was here, because he was with her, and because they had worked their way through the difficult times.
She could only hope for good times ahead, but she took comfort in the knowledge that, if more were ahead for them, he would be there for her in a way she had never experienced with anyone else before.