Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
By all appearances, some would definitely receive the gift of hope for Christmas.
Colton did another pass down the line of folks waiting in the hospital corridor to register for the bone marrow donor drive. Once they’d completed the necessary paperwork and signed the authorizations, they would have their cheek swabbed.
Then wait. Like he’d been doing the past four years.
Back in the room where two lab techs administered the test, he found Riley having her cheek swabbed.
She smiled at the tech labeling her packet. “That was easy. Thanks.”
The young woman reached out to hug her. “Thank you. I was a match for my brother two years ago, but there are so many who don’t have a good familial match. This event is going to change lives.”
With a nod, Riley moved away to let the next person take her spot.
Since Tuesday, the girls had launched a major media blitz—radio ads, newspaper ads and articles, broadcast emails, interviews on two separate television stations, and every social media platform there was.
Apparently, many had been listening, reading, or watching.
He followed her back to the post she’d held all morning, handing out cookies and expressing her appreciation as folks left. She relieved Hallie of the platter and her assistant made herself available to the techs to label kits.
His gaze locked on a young man being tested who’d been staring at Riley almost from the moment he walked into the room. Not the creep, he ascertained after checking for any healing scratches on his hand. Just a guy staring down a pretty girl.
With his back to Riley, he stepped into the man’s line of sight and pinned him with a glare. The man’s eyes widened before he thanked the lab tech and left through the other door.
Riley’s brow crinkled. “That was weird. Nobody’s left without a cookie.”
“Probably avoiding sugar.” He stepped back next to her.
“Huh. Maybe.” She held the platter out to a woman exiting the room. “Thank you for coming today.” The woman made her choice, and Riley turned the platter toward him. “Here. You’re not avoiding sugar, are you?”
“Never.” He grabbed a chocolate chip cookie from the tray. “Thanks.”
“’Welcome.” She offered another to a woman with a thank you. “Did you get tested for Theresa?”
“Absolutely. I’ve never been matched, but I hope I get the call someday.”
Hopefully, God would answer that prayer as He had his request that Riley’s event be blessed with good attendance. The numbers so far had surpassed their goal, and extra testing kits had already been brought in.
Riley’s friends had come early, carrying platters upon more platters of cookies, and now sat at the registration table.
Her entire office staff and her family had been there.
Colton’s family made an appearance—for moral support as they were also still in the bone marrow registry—Gemma and even Valerie with little Landon in tow.
When Theresa’s parents, her brother, and his wife arrived first thing that morning in support of the donation drive with Theresa’s name on it, he took a few minutes to catch up with them before taking his post near Riley as potential donors began to arrive.
Trevor and Paul were both tested before taking point on either side of the registration table, since nobody could get past without filling out the formal paperwork to be tested.
Colton had also prayed their guy would show up and fill out the paperwork. Name and address would be a great help.
A commotion in the hall had him rushing out the door. A man stood at the registration table, blocked by a six-foot-three wall named Trevor.
If Graham Harding’s glower could be considered a weapon, it was a good thing Trevor wore a protective vest under his shirt. “You can’t keep me from seeing Riley. She’s not the queen, for crying out loud. You’re all being ridiculous.”
His rant drew some barbed stares from the waiting patrons, and Colton himself had trouble keeping his disdain from showing on his face. What was with this guy? Did he not care at all that somebody out there was hunting Riley? A woman he professed to care about?
Colton approached the table, drawing Graham’s heated glare. “Paxton, let him through. I’ll walk him back.”
Trevor stepped aside, and Graham barreled his way past the table. Without a word to the other man, Colton turned and led him down the hall to the room where Riley still handed out cookies.
“Graham.” Her eyes widened. “I didn’t know you’d planned to come today.”
“I didn’t. But I apparently have to chase you down if I want to see you.”
Colton bristled at the man’s tone of disrespect and fought the urge to take him by the collar and throw him out. Riley deserved so much better.
Her face reddened as she turned to him. “Colton, can you give us a minute, please? I promise not to leave your sight.”
He scanned the large room and pointed to a far corner. “Over there. No windows.”
Harding rolled his eyes. “As if there’s a sniper set up on the roof across the street.”
Ignoring him, Colton held out his hands for the platter. “I’ll handle cookie duty.”
“Thanks.” She handed him the platter, and Graham grabbed her hand. Sorry, she mouthed over her shoulder as her so-called friend pulled her away.
The unhappy couple stood in the designated corner conducting a quiet but apparently intense discussion. Graham left soon after, and Riley returned to her cookie post.
Colton handed her back the half-full platter. “He’s not here to donate?”
“Uh, no. He was wondering if I was free for dinner tonight.”
“Riley, we need—”
“I know, I know. You need forty-eight hours’ notice if I’m going off the estate. I invited him to the house instead, but he declined.”
“He looked upset.”
“He was a little, I guess.”
“Did he have reason to be?”
She offered cookies to two more people exiting the room. “He thinks he can’t see me with you guys around all the time, especially with you staying at the house.”
“Does he understand there’s somebody out there after you?”
“He thinks it’s somebody playing a joke, a hoax, and we’re taking it too seriously.”
Looking away, he shook his head in disgust. “I don’t get that guy. He says he cares about you, wants to be in a relationship with you, but he takes threats against your life as a joke.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “I need to let him know there’s no future for us. But I know he’ll think it’s because of …”
He waited for her to finish. “Because of what?”
“Nothing. I just don’t think he’ll understand. But I need to do it. And I will.”
“Good luck.”
“I’m going to need it. I’m not good at things like this.”
“Because you’re too nice.”
“Oh, you think so?” she replied with a chuckle before swiping a cookie from the tray.
“When you’re not in court, that is. Hallie showed me a video the other day of you going after a guy on the stand during your last trial.”
“Well, he lied. Straight out. At the first trial.” She took a bite of her sugar cookie. “Fingered our guy and the so-called witness wasn’t even in town that day. If it hadn’t been for his testimony, our client wouldn’t have spent a day in jail, much less six years.”
“Forty minutes of jury deliberations. Unbelievable.”
“A new record for me.” She smiled and held out the platter to a man in a business suit leaving the room. “Thank you so much for coming.”
The man took a cookie from the tray with a nod.
“I’m hoping for as good an outcome for Shane. His defense team pretty much phoned it in. Makes me nuts when I see lazy representation. Now I’ve got a guy sitting in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. If we only had an inkling who it might’ve been.”
His gaze took another pass around the room as two more donors walked in. “You feel pretty strongly about him. His innocence, I mean.”
“I do. I know I shouldn’t gamble so much on my gut, but I never felt certain he did it.
Even that day you and I met, the day of the funeral.
Everybody was talking about him, but I couldn’t reconcile it.
Of course, her father being on the bench himself didn’t help.
Probably another reason the defense was so pathetic.
Nobody wants to get on the wrong side of Judge Mulaney. ”
“Except you, apparently.”
She winced but recovered quickly with a smile for the couple leaving.
“You have to speak up for the truth, or why bother? I’m not in this for me, and there’s no reason this really nice guy who had a great life mapped out in front of him should do somebody else’s time.
I’ll take whatever heat comes with it, but you have to stand for something or get out of the way. ”
He smiled down at her. She was beautiful even all fired up. It had been fun, not to mention eye-opening, watching her in lawyer mode on that video. She might be tiny, but she had a fierce will. “You’re good at what you do. Everything you do.”
“So are you.”
Trevor appeared in the doorway. “Hey, guys. No more line at registration. Ri, do you want the ladies out here to wait for any latecomers or pack it up?”
She checked her watch. “Oh, my. We’re an hour over already. I didn’t realize that. Let’s go ahead and call it.” She offered Trevor the cookie tray. “Take this up for you, Paul, and the girls. Thanks for all your help today.”
“A pleasure.” He took the tray. “I’ll let the ladies know we’re shutting it down.”
Back at the estate that afternoon, Colton dismissed the other two after discussing the next day’s schedule. He walked upstairs and peered into Riley’s suite, where she stood with her back to him, leafing through a stack of mail forwarded from her home address.
Leaning against the doorway, he watched her for a moment. It pulled at his heart she would never return to that stunning home she’d made for herself. A sanctuary, she’d called it, now scarred forever with the memory of its decimation.
How he wished he could offer her more than the protection dictated by the parameters of his job. She deserved everything she seemed to believe she hadn’t earned. Is that why she worked so hard? To prove her worth beyond simply being a Hudson?
If so, she’d done that in spades, and then some.
“You did a good thing today, Riley.”
“No. All of those people who showed up did a good thing today.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I just gave them the opportunity to do what was already in their hearts. That’s what charity work is about. Giving those who have a chance to give to those who don’t. I don’t care what it is.”
“You’ll be happy to know I’ve put together my board.
My sister, Theresa’s brother, and her best friend.
Barbara also expressed an interest, so I asked her.
And a couple of others you don’t know. Friends of mine who went through all of that with me.
They were all there today, but I didn’t get a chance to introduce you. ”
“That’s fantastic. I’m excited to hear that.”
“I need to set up a time to meet, once I’m done here, but I’d appreciate it if you could give me some pointers on how to get started. I know you’re busy and we can work—”
“You name it, Cole, and I’ll be there. Any time.”
Taken aback by her use of the nickname, he stared at her. Only one person had ever called him Cole, and he hadn’t heard it for over four years. But somehow it sounded … right.
He cleared his throat. “Maybe when you don’t already have so many irons in the fire.”
She studied her tidy desk before turning to him. “We can do it now, or we can get together tomorrow after we get back from the boat christening. Whatever you’d like to do.”
“You have time now?”
“I have it.”
“Super. I’ll grab my notes. Meet you back here?”
“Sure thing.”
He started to leave but turned back. “Tell me. About that christening. Why are they christening a boat in November? Don’t they usually do these things when it’s actually warm?”
She giggled and put her mail down on her desk. “The Daytons got married three weeks ago and are taking a six-month honeymoon. They leave Sunday to sail down to the Caribbean. They’ll anchor there and island-hop a while before coming back here in May.”
“Ah. I see. A six-month honeymoon. I should have guessed. Doesn’t everybody take a six-month honeymoon?”
She giggled again. “Oh, I don’t know. A six-month honeymoon sounds pretty good.”
He gave her a nod before heading down the hall to his guest room. Yeah, it did, come to think of it. If one were fortunate enough to find that special someone to spend life with, why not?
If one were fortunate enough.