She pressed the third-floor button and waited for the doors to slide closed. Peggy Wilson, one of the nurses and a friend of her family for years, walked by the elevator and smiled broadly before the doors finally shut. A ping signaled her passing the second floor, and another ping announced her arrival on the third floor. The doors slid open, and Cole greeted her.
“I’m so glad you’re here. Landon needs you.” He grabbed her hand, yanking her off the elevator.
“What happened? Is something wrong?” She moved toward Landon’s room.
“No.” Cole tugged her back. “He’s in the pre-op doctors’ consultation room.”
“What? Why?”
“You’ll see when you get there.” Cole pushed her along the corridor.
Panic flared as they rushed past the nurses’ station. Everyone they passed glanced up at her, but she couldn’t read their expressions. Had something gone wrong? Why the consultation room? Was Landon headed back for surgery?
They moved through the final set of double doors.
“Third door on your right,” Cole said, his voice falling farther behind along with his footsteps.
Why was he slowing down? “Aren’t you coming in?” she asked as she reached the door.
“No. I’m going to wait out here.”
“But?”
“Go. He’s waiting.”
Piper entered expecting the worst and found Landon down on the floor, his knee bent, his arm draped around Harvey. Why was his dog there? She rushed toward them. Had he fallen out of the chair? “Are you okay? What happened? Why is Harvey here?”
Landon laughed.
Laughter? Was he delirious?
“I should have known you’d try and help me.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t leave you on the floor.” She knelt beside him, giving Harvey a reassuring pat. The dog had to be worried about his master. She was terrified for him.
“Where is your doctor?”
“My doctor?”
“Yes. Aren’t we supposed to be having some sort of consultation?”
“No. I just asked if I could use the room.”
“To spend time with Harvey? It must be bad news if they let your dog in the hospital to see you.”
He chuckled. “You’re so missing the point.”
“Why are you laughing? Why aren’t you telling me what’s happening?”
“I’m trying to,” he said as she struggled to help him up. “But you kind of need to leave me on my knee for this.”
“What?” She stilled, studying him.
He clasped her hand. “Take a seat.”
“Okay.” She rolled a chair in front of Landon and sat, confusion and worry consuming her.
“Piper, I’m fine. In fact, I’m better than fine.”
“Landon, you’re in the surgery consultation room. You’re obviously not fine.” Tears burned her eyes.
“No.” He shook his head. “I should have considered how this would look.” He cupped his hand over hers. “Let’s start over. I’m fine. Harvey’s fine. Everything is fine.”
“Then why are you and Harvey in here?”
“Because we wanted some privacy. Because we have a very important question to ask you.”
Piper looked at Harvey, who sat proudly at Landon’s side, a bright blue bow tied around his thick neck.
“Harvey was with me at this hospital the first time I wanted to tell you I loved you, but it didn’t work out.”
“What? When?”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is I’m here now, and I thought Harvey should be too. I had to pull a few strings, but I was determined. Just like I’m determined to tell you how very much I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Landon’s smile spread. “You have no idea how phenomenal that is to hear.”
“Yes I do. I just heard it too.”
“But I heard it from you.”
Harvey nudged Landon’s arm, licking it.
“All right, boy. He’s getting impatient.”
“For what?” she asked, still totally at a loss.
“For this.” Landon reached around Harvey’s neck and removed a slender pouch from the ribbon. Shifting again onto one knee, Landon pulled a ring from the pouch.
Piper’s eyes widened as shock and comprehension jolted through her. “Is that my mother’s ring?”
“When I asked Cole for your hand and he gave his blessing, he told me that all of them had agreed long ago you should be the one to wear your mother’s ring when the time came. He’s held on to it until now.” Landon lifted the ring.
“Marr . . .” She swallowed. “You’re proposing to me?” Landon wanted her to be his wife? She’d get to spend the rest of her life married to her best friend. It was too amazing to be true. She fought to keep the sobs of joy at bay—to let him speak before she burst into a blissful frenzy of emotion.
“I’ve loved you as far back as I remember. First as family, then as a dear friend, and now more deeply than I can possibly describe. I know this may seem sudden, but I’ve known you your whole life and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So, Piper Lucy McKenna”—he held the ring out to her—“will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to be my wife?”
Tears flooded Piper’s eyes, gushing down her cheeks, making her vision so blurry she could barely see Landon’s handsome face and his desperate anticipation.
Harvey licked her face, nudging her side with his cold nose.
“He thinks you’re upset,” Landon said, fear tugging at his tone—fear of rejection.
“I’ve never been happier in my life.”
“Really?” Joy filled Landon’s voice.
She nodded, tears streaming down her face, bouncing off her hand as she reached out for him to place the ring on her finger. “Really.”
“That’s a yes?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
He slid the ring on her finger, his hand shaking the entire time, and then he sprang for her. Pulling her to him, his hands splaying through her hair, he kissed her so deeply, so passionately, she never wanted the kiss to end.
The door creaked open behind them.
“Was that a yes?” Cole asked.
Landon pulled back, tears pooling in his eyes. “She said yes.”
Cole, Gage, Reef, Jake, Bailey, Darcy, and Kayden all piled in.
“You all knew?” Piper asked, bewildered.
“I thought it only right to ask Cole’s blessing,” Landon said, running his thumb reverently across the band on her ring finger.
“And I couldn’t help it.” Cole shrugged. “After Landon and I spoke, I had to tell everyone.”
“What if she’d said no?” Landon asked.
“We all saw the way she looked at you,” Kayden said. “No way she was saying no.”
“I can’t believe you all kept this from me.” Piper huffed.
“Yeah, for all of three hours,” Cole said.
“And you . . .” She stared down her big brother. “You let me think something horrible had happened to Landon.”
“I’m sorry. He told me to.”
“Way to throw an already injured man under the bus,” Landon complained.
“I’ve seen that look.” Cole indicated Piper’s stare-down. “You’re the one marrying her; you get to deal with her wrath from now on.”
“As long as she’s mine, I couldn’t care less.”
“Wow.” Kayden leaned against the doorframe. “He’s really got it bad.”
Piper sat back beside Landon, clutching his hand. “No worse than I do.”
“Great.” Kayden rolled her eyes. “You know I’ve got a low tolerance for that lovey-dovey junk.”
Piper smiled. “Then you might want to exit the room quickly because here comes some more.” She pressed her lips to Landon’s and chuckled at her sister’s gagging sounds. She was going to have fun with this.
Darcy watched each of the McKennas in turn thank Harl
and Reeves as he prepared to leave the courthouse and the town of Yancey, now that the case against Reef had officially been dropped. The McKennas would be celebrating with a big family dinner at the girls’ place tonight, and they’d been kind enough to include her. She’d fallen in love with the family, and while she was thrilled Reef’s innocence had been proven, she wasn’t ready for her time in Yancey to end.
“How can we ever thank you?” Piper asked, wrapping the man in a hug.
“No thanks needed.” He patted her back. “I’m just thankful the truth prevailed.”
“Thanks in great part to Darcy.” She turned and smiled at Darcy.
“My part was small. You and Landon discovered the killer.”
“But your investigative work helped lead us there. You believed in my brother when few others did.”
She knew Piper was speaking of Reef, but deep down Darcy believed in Gage too. He was a good man. Hurting, but good, and her heart ached for him. She turned to smile at him and found him gone. Curious . . .
She scanned the lobby and hall. No sign of him. And then it hit her. He’d gone to find Meredith.
She turned back to Piper. “You’re very welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’ve just got . . . something.”
“Sure.” Piper smiled. “Catch up with you later.”
“You got it.”
She headed for the counselors’ lounge, knowing that’s where Meredith would be.
Rounding the hall, she proceeded down the corridor to the third door on the left and paused outside as voices carried from the room.
“Don’t stand here and presume to lecture me,” Meredith said, her voice cold. “We both know you’re not that different from me.”
“I am where it counts,” Kayden replied.
Kayden? Darcy opened the door, just wide enough to peek through.
“You keep telling yourself that,” Meredith said, hand on her hip.
“I can’t believe we used to be friends, that our family used to love you.”
“And I can’t believe that you’ve gone all mushy and sentimental like your siblings.” Her disdain for the McKennas was abundantly clear.
Kayden shook her head. “I feel sorry for you, Meredith. You must lead a very lonely existence.”
Before Meredith could reply, Kayden brushed past her and exited out the opposite door.
Darcy turned at the sound of footsteps behind her and saw Jake walking away. When had Jake arrived? Had he overheard the conversation?
“What are you doing here?”
Darcy turned, startled. Had Meredith spotted her outside the door? Darcy peered through the crack to find Gage standing in front of Meredith.
“Thought I’d say good-bye,” Gage said. “Since I doubted you’d bother.”
Meredith slipped files into her briefcase. “Still hung up on the past, I see.”
Gage stepped closer and lowered his voice, clearly longing for something that was never going to be. “It wasn’t so long ago.”
“That’s your problem, Gage.” She snapped her briefcase shut. “You allow the past to control you. You let one little setback ruin your life. It’s pathetic, really.”
Gage’s hands balled at his sides.
Darcy fought the urge to rush in and let Meredith Blake have it. How could she be so cold? And how could someone as amazing as Gage have ever loved her?
“He wasn’t a setback,” Gage said, his tone turning fierce. “He was our son.”
Meredith slid her briefcase strap over her arm. “I’m sorry you haven’t been able to move on, Gage, but I have. And I won’t be looking back.” She stepped past him and straight out the opposite door without so much as a backward glance.
Shock and anger reverberated through Darcy. How unfeeling could the woman be? Not even the faintest hint of compassion for Gage or sadness over the death of their child.
She knew what she was about to do was probably a mistake, but she couldn’t help herself. She slid out the exterior door and rounded the building toward the parking lot. Meredith Blake wasn’t going to verbally assault Gage and simply get away with it.
Pushing herself into a jog, Darcy darted around the side of the brick building and scanned the wintery lot until she spotted Meredith trudging through the snow and ice patches toward her rental SUV.
“Meredith,” she called, sprinting to catch her. “Meredith Blake.” The cold air burned her lungs.
After a moment, Meredith turned, irritation swarming her pursed face. Clearly she was searching for what annoying creature was delaying her departure. She spotted Darcy and practically groaned. “Yes?”
Anger at Meredith’s mistreatment of Gage was sparking a fire in her. “How can you be so unfeeling?”
“I beg your pardon?” She contemplated Darcy with all the value she’d place on a gnat.
“With Gage . . . ” Darcy pointed to the building they’d just exited. “Back inside there. How could you be so cold?”
Meredith’s eyes narrowed. “Are you and Gage . . . ?”
“Friends,” Darcy said.
“I see. You’re the reporter, right?”
“Yes.”
“Or at least attempting to be one.” Meredith tossed her briefcase on the passenger seat of her vehicle. “Not that it is any of your business, but just for the record, I’m not cold. I’m simply not sentimental.”
“How can you not be sentimental about your child?”
Meredith rolled her eyes. “I am not going to stand here and explain myself to you. And I certainly am not going to apologize for who I am.”
“But Gage is such a wonderful man. How could you just toss him aside?”
Meredith smiled, but there was no warmth in it. Instead it seemed to add an extra chill to the air.
Darcy rubbed her arms.
“I suppose Gage is great for a certain type of woman.”
Darcy squared her shoulders. “And what kind of woman would that be?”
“Someone who is naïve and foolish enough to stand in the middle of a parking lot presuming to lecture someone they know nothing about on something they have no knowledge about.”
“I know what’s important.”
“Of course you do, dear.”
“Wow. Everything that comes out of you is ugly. Guess that makes sense if that’s all that’s inside.”
“I’ve wasted enough time in this dead-end place talking to people who aren’t going anywhere. And that includes you.” Meredith climbed in her SUV and slammed the door.
Darcy stepped back as Meredith reversed out of the spot. “I’d rather not go anywhere than turn into a shrew like you,” she yelled as Meredith drove away.
Good riddance.
Straightening her jacket, Darcy took a moment to compose herself before heading back inside. She wasn’t proud of losing her cool, but she was proud she’d stood up to Meredith.
Epilogue
Careful to avoid the icy patches, Landon hobbled on crutches beside his fiancée. My fiancée. He didn’t think he’d ever cease thanking God for her. God had blessed him abundantly, and he would be eternally grateful.
Piper helped him onto one of the metal folding chairs placed before Karli’s closed coffin. He had wondered at the reasoning behind an outdoor service, but once he was snuggled with Piper under the blanket she’d brought, he approved the decision and began to study the beauty surrounding them—the evergreen tree limbs covered with snow, the freshness of the crisp air, the brilliant red of the poinsettias donning the pearly white casket. It was breathtaking, just like the woman beside him.
Karli’s father, Bryan Evans, stood shivering at the foot of Karli’s casket. He said he’d failed Karli in life and the least he could do was give her a proper burial.
The McKennas were in full attendance, along with Jake; Darcy St. James; the medical examiner, Booth Powell; sheriff’s deputies Tom Murphy and David Thoreau, whom Landon had hope for yet; Megan Whitaker; and her cousin Tess. For a lady who tried to keep others at arm’s length, K
arli’s life and death had had a profound impact on a number of lives.
He studied Bryan Evans, and the genuine remorse evident on the converted Mongol’s sorrowful face made Landon realize true repentance could occur, even in the worst of offenders. Landon finally understood. People really could change through the transforming power of Christ. Maybe even his dad. Hope remained.
As the pastor began the graveside service, Landon clutched Piper’s hand, so utterly grateful for the working of Christ in his life. The journey might not always be easy—actually, he suspected it rarely would be—but he now had confidence it would be a journey filled with purpose and at its end an eternal paradise.
Gage knelt at his son’s grave, clearing the tombstone of the snow and ice covering it.
Tucker McKenna
Beloved Son
Born August 9, 2002
Died August 11, 2002
“I’m sorry I haven’t visited, son.” Gage bit back tears. “I hope Cole and Kayden and Piper are right and you’re in a much better place. That there is a heaven, and you’re in it.”
He looked up at the clouds, trying to picture the possibility in his mind and feeling utterly foolish, despite the childlike yearning to let his mind imagine. “I just hope . . . wherever you are”—he had to believe his son was somewhere—“that you’re happy and that you know I love you.” He clutched his chest, where his son’s tattooed feet were imprinted above his heart. “I carry you with me every day. You’ll never be forgotten.”
A gentle hand rested on his shoulder. Piper.
She knelt beside him, and for once he didn’t fight her tenderness but rather leaned into her, releasing the sadness he’d pent up for so very long.
After Sunday dinner with the McKennas at Cole’s place, Darcy prepped herself for the good-byes. Her last meal with the family she’d come to love so dearly. She’d lingered as long as she could, staying through Karli’s funeral, but now she had no excuse.
She’d watched, tears trailing down her face, as Gage knelt at his son’s grave, and she wondered if she’d brought any healing or goodness to his world, or if she’d only reminded him of the pain. She prayed it was the former and would continue to pray for the man who had somehow managed to burrow into her heart, despite her utmost attempts to dislike him.