Kitabı oku: «A Wedding Worth Waiting For»

My friends, who try to keep me sane, and my family who love me even when I’m not.

The Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, a very special place doing great work.

And Tara, Luke, Stripes and “Tiny Cat”…my animal inspirations.

And most of all, to coffee.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Usually, the small island town of Paradise lived up to its heavenly name. Today was not one of those days.

Dylan Turner had spent most of the day patching a leaking roof during one of Florida’s notorious summer storms, only to have the skies clear the minute he climbed back down onto solid ground. Soaked to the skin and covered in globs of roofing compound that stuck more to his skin than it did to the shingles, he’d done something completely unprecedented in his time as director of the Paradise Wildlife Rehabilitation Center—leave work early.

Now he was headed home smelling like tar, trying to navigate the water-filled ruts in the gravel road ahead of him. Wrenching the wheel hard to the right, he let the four-wheel drive take him up onto the soft shoulder and around a particularly washed-out section. Damn, he might have been better off staying at work after all. In a few hours, the water would have gone down, and there was always more work to do. More than he’d ever imagined when he’d taken the job over a year ago.

Fresh off an MBA from Harvard and ready to return to his home state, he’d thought the job would be a cakewalk, something politically correct to put on his résumé while leaving him plenty of time to surf and hike. Instead he’d found himself working eighty hours a week, often doing things conveniently left off the job description. Things like scooping panther spoor or chopping hundreds of pounds of vegetables. Or roofing repair. Luckily, he’d grown up on a ranch and wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty.

But the crazy workload wasn’t the biggest surprise. No, what had shocked him to the core was how darned much he’d come to love the job—the challenge and the responsibility. He could have worked at a big firm somewhere, but here what he did made a difference. Every dollar he raised, every penny he wrangled for the budget, meant food or shelter for an animal in need, and that was something he could feel good about at the end of the day.

Most days, anyway.

Scratching at a patch of tar behind his ear, he slowed for another puddle, the dirty gray water splashing his windshield and blinding him. He flipped on the wipers and grabbed a swig of the bottled water in the console. Soon he’d be at the turnoff for his cabin, a small two-bedroom right on the edge of the Paradise National Wildlife Refuge. Just a few minutes more and he could have a cold beer and a hot shower.

The ring of his phone cut into his thoughts. Grabbing it out of his pocket, he clicked on the speaker mode and set it on the dash. He needed both hands on the wheel in these driving conditions. Darting a glance at the screen, he saw the name of one of the rehab center’s volunteers. Probably calling in sick, although they were supposed to use the office line for that kind of stuff.

“What’s up, Jason?”

“I just saw something, something bad, and you were the only person I could think of to call.” The teen’s voice sounded rushed, as if he was trying to catch his breath.

“Okay.” Dylan paused, switching his concentration back to the road as he eased around a fallen branch. “Just tell me what you saw, and I’ll see what I can do.” Jason was levelheaded to a fault; if he was panicking, there was sure to be a reason.

“Right.” There was an audible breath as the kid took a drag on the cigarettes he always had on him. Dylan had been meaning to talk to him about that. “The thing is, it’s not hunting season, right?”

“No, not for any of the game animals.” The deer and turkey season didn’t start until August, and even then there were a lot of rules and regulations as to when, where and how an animal could be taken. Wild boar were always legal, though, and as an introduced species they were a general menace.

“Well, I just saw some guy shoot a deer right out of his truck. I don’t think he saw me, I was parked pretty far back under some oaks... Miranda and I wanted some privacy, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I know.” Teenagers had been making out in the woods for as long as there had been woods. He’d steamed up a few windows himself back in the day.

“Well, anyway, I heard the truck, but didn’t think anything of it, figured it was slowing down just because of all the water on the road. But then I heard it—a gunshot.”

“You sure it wasn’t just a backfire or something?”

“Nah, man. This was a brand-new truck, all tricked out, not the kind you’d expect backfire from. Besides, I saw them load the deer in the bed before they took off.”

Hunting out of season was illegal, and so was taking potshots out of your truck like that. “Sounds like poachers. You were right not to interfere. Some of them can be pretty dangerous. But you need to report what you saw to Fish and Wildlife. If you need the number, I can get it for you once I get back to the house.”

“Yeah, I know. But here’s the thing.” Another long drag. “After they left, I saw another deer run into the bushes. Looked just like freaking Bambi, man.”

Dylan felt his gut tense. “What do you mean, Bambi?”

“I mean, it was a baby. Dude, I think they shot its mom!”

* * *

Dylan bit back a stream of expletives, his jaw so tense his teeth ached. A baby left on its own wouldn’t last long. That’s why deer season wasn’t for another few months, in order to give the fawns enough time to mature. “Are you sure that’s what you saw? It wasn’t a fox or something?”

“No. It was definitely a baby deer. Can you help it?”

“I’ll try.” If he could find it. “Listen, where are you, exactly?”

“Right before the turnoff to the wilderness area, on that road behind the canoe rental place.”

Dylan knew the spot. It was a natural clearing surrounded by thick old oak trees, and one of the party spots for Paradise Isle’s younger crowd. If he took the back road, he could be there in a few minutes. “Listen, Jason, stay put, okay? I’ll be right there.”

Trying to find a fawn in the scrub and pine forest would normally be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But maybe he’d get lucky. A full day of rain would have left the ground soft enough for tracks, giving him half a chance. He had to at least try. They’d taken in several deer lately, all orphaned by car accidents on the main highway. Tragic, but certainly not purposeful. But this...this was a whole different level of awful.

Passing the turn for his own street, he took the next right, following that around until the gas station Jason had mentioned was in his sights. He parked in the gravel lot behind it, grabbing his daypack from behind the passenger seat before climbing down. He had no intention of staying out long, but he’d had enough backpacking experience to know you never went into the woods without emergency supplies.

Jason was waiting for him, pacing in front of a beat-up car, his girlfriend perched on the hood, eyes glued to her cell phone. “I already called Fish and Wildlife. They’re sending an officer out.”

Dylan nodded. “Good, they’ll want a statement from you. Poaching isn’t something they take lightly.” He shaded his eyes against the setting sun. There should be another hour of two of daylight, but with the cloud cover it might get dark sooner. Time was running out. “Which way did the fawn go?”

“Um, that way, away from the road.”

That made sense. “Can you show me exactly where you saw it?”

“I think so. But, uh, Dylan...”

“What?” Impatient to start, he started in the direction Jason had indicated, forcing the younger man to keep up.

“The Fish and Wildlife people—they said not to do anything until they got here. Something about preserving evidence, and jurisdiction or whatever.”

Dylan rolled his shoulders, hiking his pack up more securely. “If I want to find that deer, I need to look now, before it gets any farther away. So you can tell that officer, if they give you any crap, to hurry and catch up. Hell, they can arrest me if they want, but not until after I find that fawn.”

* * *

Samantha Finley eased her department-issued F-150 truck to a stop underneath a sprawling oak. She’d been the closest officer when the call came in, but it had still taken her nearly an hour. Budget cuts had left the department spread thin and Sam’s assigned area stretched from the coast to the outskirts of Orlando, where she’d been responding to a nuisance alligator report. Only the reptile had turned out to be a partially sunken log, and the reporting homeowner had been so drunk she’d felt tipsy just standing next to him.

Hopefully this wasn’t another false alarm. As the newest and youngest officer working in the region, she had a reputation to build, and getting stuck on another wild-goose chase wasn’t the way to do it. But then again, better a waste of time than a truly orphaned fawn.

Stepping down from the four-wheel-drive truck, she waved at a T-shirt and jeans-clad teen—Jason Cunningham, according to her notes. He looked nervous, but nodded in response. In her experience, boys his age were never very comfortable around law enforcement, especially if the one packing a gun was a woman.

“Hey, Jason, right?” She extended a hand, and after a second’s hesitation he shook it.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“I’m Officer Finley. I want to thank you for taking the time to call this in. A lot of people wouldn’t have bothered to get involved.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I was just worried about the baby deer.”

“I bet. You work over at the wildlife center, right?”

“I volunteer there, yeah. I’m hoping for a scholarship and you have to have a certain number of community service hours. I figure it beats picking up trash.”

“I bet. So, can you tell me exactly what you saw?”

She listened carefully, taking down the description of the men and the vehicle. Then she had the girlfriend get out of the car and give her version of events before having Jason walk her to where he’d seen the deer. There were two distinct sets of boot marks, which was consistent with what he’d described. And a long, smooth furrow in the mud where they’d dragged the deer before lifting it up into the truck. Streaks of blood and tufts of tawny fur told the rest of the story. This was the real deal, her first poaching case. She took several photos from different angles, documenting the scene.

“And where was the fawn?”

He pivoted, pointing toward a dense thicket of pines and brush. “It was right there, and then when the truck started it ran back into the woods. I’m really worried about it.”

So was she, but she wasn’t going tell the kid that. “Hopefully it didn’t get far. Either way, thanks for calling it in. I’ll contact you if we need anything else from you.”

For a minute she thought he was going to say something else, but then he just nodded and loped back to his car. A minute later he was gone, leaving her alone in the clearing. There were two vehicles parked by the gas station, but no one had gone in or come out since she’d arrived, and the only sound was the hum of cicadas in the trees overhead.

It was hard to believe that this patch of wilderness was only a few miles from Paradise’s picturesque downtown. But almost half of the island was a dedicated wildlife reserve, a safe haven for an assortment of native wildlife. At least, that was the idea. Today, the reality had been far different. And although logically she couldn’t have prevented this, the weight of responsibility was heavy on her shoulders as she made her way to where the boy had last seen the frightened fawn.

Her boots sank in the soft, waterlogged ground, squishing as she pulled them from the mud. Not exactly the best circumstances for a search attempt. There wasn’t much daylight left, and the damp dusk buzzed with bloodthirsty mosquitoes. She should have stopped to apply a fresh coat of repellent, but time was running out if she wanted to have any chance of tracking the orphaned deer. So she swatted and swore under her breath as she followed the V-shaped tracks of the fawn.

Weaving her way through between the trees, she kept to the higher and dryer ground on the side of the trail to avoid covering the deer tracks with her own footprints. Twenty minutes in, she’d gone in what her GPS said was nearly a full circle, and was edging up to a gravel access road. There the trail stopped, the ground too rough for tracks.

Would the fawn have crossed it, braving the relative open?

Or stuck closer to the trees and run parallel to the road?

Taking a drink from her water bottle, she made her way east, checking the soft shoulder for any tracks. Nothing. Retracing her steps, she then went the other way, but there was no sign of the deer. Later tonight, there would be possum and raccoon tracks, but they were just waking up and the dirt was unmarred, washed clean by the earlier rain. Which meant the deer must have crossed the road. Plucky little thing.

Crossing, she scanned the ground on the far side, spotting the tiny tracks heading into a tangle of kudzu vines and trees. “The Vine That Ate the South” was what they called the invasive plant, growing fast and thick across anything that didn’t move. A bitch to hike through, but the perfect place for a tired and frightened fawn to hide.

She was halfway to the thicket when she spotted the other tracks. Man tracks. Had the poachers returned?

That didn’t make any sense. What would they want with a fawn? Besides, she hadn’t seen any other tracks before now. Of course, someone could have kept to the sides of the trail, as she herself had done. The ground was rougher and dryer there, and if she was honest, she hadn’t been looking for prints. Her attention had been on the deer tracks.

Resting a hand on her sidearm, a Glock 17, she eased forward more cautiously than before. A second-generation wildlife officer, she’d grown up in these woods and knew how to tread quietly. No need to advertise her presence—not until she knew who she was dealing with.

She ducked under the green canopy of leaves, pushing through the outer layer of vines. Ahead, a narrow game path snaked through the press of branches before opening into a clearing a few yards up. Impressions in the ground marked the progress of both deer and man. For a moment, she wondered if the teen who’d called it in could have come back here while waiting for her, but the prints were too large and deep.

A rustle up ahead stopped her in her tracks. It could be the deer she’d been tracking or some other wildlife. Or it could be a poacher. Drawing her weapon, she moved toward the sound.

Chapter Two

Dylan had actually been starting to feel pretty confident. The tracks were easy to read, and the clouds had broken up, offering some extra daylight. Everything had been better than he’d hoped, right up until he’d slipped on a pile of wet leaves and gone crashing into the underbrush like a drunken tourist. Now he was face down in the muck with mud oozing into places mud should never, ever go. Pushing up, he got his hands and knees under him, then froze.

There, not ten feet away, was the fawn, curled up under the fronds of a cabbage palm, hidden well. Dylan might have walked right by him and never seen him. As it was, he was nearly eye level with the little guy. Or girl; too hard to tell from here.

Easing up slowly, he slid one foot toward it, then another. The deer blinked at him, but didn’t move. Most fawns were pretty easy to handle away from their mamas. And this one was too tuckered out to be much of a problem. At least, Dylan hoped so. Holding his breath the last few feet, he eased down into a squat in front of the bedraggled creature. A curious sniff, and then a startled sneeze. “Yeah, I know, I don’t smell very good. But I’m here to help, I promise.”

As if accepting his words or more likely, too tired to protest, the orphan simply sighed.

“Good boy. Now I’m going to get us out of here, okay?” In a move he’d learned on his parents’ ranch, he lifted the deer up onto his shoulders. “There we go. Let’s go get some chow. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“Freeze.” The voice came from directly behind him, feminine but commanding.

Damn it.

He froze, half crouching, half standing. “I can explain...”

“First, put the deer down.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, ma’am.”

“It’s Officer, not ma’am.”

“Excuse me, Officer,” he corrected, his muscles straining at the awkward position he’d been forced to hold. “But I’m guessing you’re here for this fawn, same as I am. And if I set him down he’s liable to take off again.” Probably not, given how tired the little guy seemed, but it could happen. “So if you don’t mind, I’d rather just hold on to him and save all of us the trouble.”

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing out here, and then I’ll decide what happens next.”

“Can I at least stand up, so we can talk face-to-face?”

“Slowly. No sudden moves.”

Taking her at her word, he straightened, his hamstrings protesting at the slow pace. Nothing like a sustained squat before deadlifting a deer to round out the workday. Once upright he turned to find one of the most attractive women he’d ever seen holding a gun on him.

“Think you could put that away?”

She kept the gun steady. “You said you had an explanation.”

Fine. “I’m the director of the Paradise Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. One of my volunteers saw some poachers kill this guy’s mama, and called me to see if I could help.”

Her dark, almond-shaped eyes relaxed a bit. “Do you have any ID on you?”

“In my back pocket.”

She nodded, her ponytail of coffee-colored hair bouncing at the movement. “Get it.”

He complied, grabbing his wallet and holding it out so she could see his license as well as his work ID. “I’m licensed with the state. I’ve got a copy of my permit back in the truck if you need to see it.”

She lowered the gun, holstering it before answering. “I’ll need to see it before letting you leave with the deer, and I’ll need your statement.”

“Yes, ma’am. I mean, Officer.” The fawn squirmed and he tightened his grip. “I just want to get this guy back to the center and then go home, that’s all.”

She nodded curtly, then turned on her heel and headed back out the way they’d come. “If someone had told me you were going to be out here, we could have avoided...any complications.”

“Sorry, I thought Jason would have told you. I know you guys usually want to be first on the scene, but—”

“But you figured the rules don’t apply to you?”

“No, but I thought finding the fawn was more important. I had no idea how long it would take for someone from Fish and Wildlife to get here, and didn’t want to lose the daylight. Playing by the rules could have meant losing the fawn.”

She stopped, her shoulders straightening. “I do get that. Saving the fawn was a priority, for both of us. But next time, let the authorities know if you’re going to be tramping around a crime scene.”

“Trust me, I don’t plan on making a habit of it.” He shifted the deer, his tight back muscles reminding him that he’d spent the day nailing shingles. “Believe it or not, this wasn’t how I planned to spend my evening.”

She looked him over, no doubt taking in the wet and filthy clothes and tar-crusted hair, and for the first time a real smile played on her lips. “What could possibly have been better than this?”

He smiled back. “A beer and a hot shower, in that order.” His stomach grumbled. “And food. Maybe a pizza, maybe some television. Not deer wrangling, and definitely not having a gun pulled on me.”

* * *

Sam felt her cheeks heat. That hadn’t gone the way she’d planned. “Like I said, the rules are there for a reason. Going off on your own, half-cocked, when there are poachers around—”

He held up a hand and grinned, his white teeth in stark contrast to his tanned skin. “Hey, no hard feelings. You did what you had to do.”

“Exactly.”

“And so did I. And hey, it all turned out all right in the end.”

She started to argue, but there was no point in antagonizing him. At least he wasn’t going to give her grief about drawing her weapon. Yes, she’d followed protocol, but a civilian complaint would still look bad on her record. Not to mention the paperwork it would mean. She had enough of that as it was.

Besides, she needed to maintain a good rapport with the locals. She’d been born here on Paradise Isle, but between boarding school and college she’d spent too many years on the mainland to be considered an islander anymore. Time and distance had made her an outsider, and since she relied on tips like the one the volunteer had called in today, gaining the trust of the residents was her top priority. And given that she’d just threatened to shoot one of them, she had her work cut out for her. Time to take it down a notch and try to defuse the situation.

Of course, it would be a bit easier to relax and make nice if he was more normal-looking. Maybe even a bit homely. But no, he had to be drop-dead gorgeous: tall, with broad, athletic shoulders and a lean swimmer’s build. She pegged him for a surfer. He had the sun-bleached shaggy hair and perfect tan that seemed typical of the beach bum crowd, with ocean-blue eyes that crinkled when he smiled. He definitely didn’t look like the director of a nonprofit, and truth be told, his movie-star looks were a bit intimidating.

They came out of the woods behind the gas station just as the sun slipped beneath the horizon. Dylan moved past her in the dim twilight, heading for an old, beat-up pickup parked beside the gas station. There were what looked like dog kennels in the back, the kind used for airline travel, lashed in place with cables. Without a word he lifted the baby deer from his shoulders and tucked it into the largest cage, securing the latch with a sigh. “I’ll take him back to the center, get him fed and settled in for the night.”

She tried to smile around what felt like a dismissal. “I still have some questions for you. For my report.”

He shrugged and raised the tailgate. “Well, then, I guess you’re coming, too—Officer.” He gave a mock salute before climbing in the cab of his truck and driving off.

Sam counted to ten twice as she made her way back to her patrol vehicle. What an arrogant...well, arrogant pretty much summed it up. The man oozed confidence from his pores. She was in full uniform, carried a badge and had even drawn her weapon, but he’d been the one in control of the situation, from start to finish. Even covered in mud, he had a bearing that demanded respect. Meanwhile, she still felt like she was playing dress-up half the time. Maybe her instructor at the academy had been right; maybe she wasn’t cut out for this line of work. But damn it, she’d aced her course work and held her own in the physical tests, as well. She’d even broken the academy record for sharpshooting.

She’d worked hard to prove her instructor wrong, to prove that she had what it took. So why did she still let guys like this get to her? He hadn’t even done anything particularly awful. Yes, he should have waited for law enforcement to get there, but even she could see his motives were good. And he’d stayed calm and relaxed even when she’d been sweating bullets. Maybe because he had the kind of easygoing confidence she’d always envied. The kind that came from really knowing yourself and being comfortable in your own skin. That was something she hoped to find for herself, and one of the reasons she’d come back to the only true home she’d ever had.

Getting in her car, she checked the GPS. The rehab center wasn’t far, and if she hurried she could pick up some food first. An “I’m sorry I almost shot you” gesture. On the other hand, she didn’t want him to think this was something other than professional. Friendly was good, flirting was not.

Shaking her head at her own indecision, she started the engine and rolled down the windows. Maybe some fresh air would clear her head. She’d initially been drawn to law enforcement because of her father’s involvement, but the clear lines between law and order, right and wrong resonated with her. Unlike some of her fellow officers who chafed at following protocol, she found freedom in following the rules. Rules created order out of chaos. Rules made her feel in control. Without rules, anything could happen, which was probably why she’d reacted so badly to him tracking all over her crime scene. That, and her inner teenager’s reaction to a hot guy. Neither was an excuse she felt like sharing.

Letting her stomach do the thinking, she pulled into Lou’s Pizza. She needed to eat dinner at some point anyway—might as well share.

Inside, the tangy aromas of tomato sauce and pepperoni tickled her nose, bringing back memories of Saturday night pizzas with her dad. Once upon a time, they’d made it a weekly tradition, just the two of them. That was before her mother died, before the close relationship she’d had with the man she’d worshipped as a hero had degraded into long-distance phone calls and painfully awkward visits home.

Now that she was back in Paradise, she was going to change that. After all, if she couldn’t win over her own father, what chance did she have with the townspeople?

* * *

Dylan’s hands were kept busy over the next half hour as he dealt with the logistics of caring for an orphan fawn, but his mind was focused on the sexy wildlife officer who’d almost shot him. Shoveling clean shavings into a pen, he wondered what was wrong with him. She’d been armed, rude and way too uptight to be his type. He liked free spirits, women who knew how to let loose and have fun. Women who understood that life was about finding happiness while you could.

He wasn’t sure Officer Finley—he’d seen her name on the badge—even knew what fun was. All work, no play was the vibe she gave, with her perfectly pressed uniform and no-nonsense ponytail. No jewelry, no noticeable makeup. Of course, she hadn’t needed any, not with her looks. She almost had an exotic appeal, like a buttoned-up version of Angelina Jolie. He had a way with animals and women, and something told him there was a vixen hiding behind that badge.