It Had to Be Him (6 page)

“You got it.” Meg set Haley up with the game and then gathered the nebulizer and all the tubing before heading to the kitchen to clean the parts out. Casey followed right behind. “So what’s—”

“He’s in town. Josh. He tried to check into the hotel. It was just luck we don’t take walk-ins. He’s at the diner now.”

The air whooshed from Megan’s lungs. “Are you sure it’s him?”

“Had you ever told me his name I would have known for sure, but how about tall, blond, built, killer smile, Haley looks just like him, Josh Granger?”

Crap
!

How had he found them so quickly? Panic rushed through her at the thought of seeing him again. But then determination steeled her spine. She had to protect her daughter. Keep her away from him so Haley would never have to feel the rejection and heartbreak Meg still hadn’t fully recovered from. She might not be in the best of circumstances at the moment, but she’d always been sure Haley had everything she needed. They didn’t need him.

She rushed toward her bedroom to pack, but Casey grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Let go,” Meg said. “We have to leave. I don’t want him to—”

“Isn’t that what the old Meg would have done?” Casey pulled her back into the kitchen. “You said you’ve changed. Time to prove it.”

Meg’s head snapped up at her sister’s words. That’s what she used to do. Run when things got tough. It seemed easier than confronting the people always so quick to judge her. Like her father and the Three Amigos.

But the problem rarely solved itself and running mostly only made it fester and get worse. Best to make a stand right up front and be sure Josh knew no matter what he planned, she’d shield her daughter from him.

Haley appeared in the doorway. “Pie, please!”

Casey lifted Haley up to her eye level. “After my chef met you this morning he made all sorts of treats just for you, my little pie piggy. Let’s go. We’ll eat pie while Mommy does some serious thinking.”

Her sister didn’t know the half of it.

Meg slowly followed behind them down to the sandy shore and toward the hotel. They couldn’t take the road and risk running into Josh.

Maybe he wasn’t going to ask for custody. Maybe he just wanted to meet Haley. Which could be just as bad. Josh would be so busy working, wrapped up in some big project like before, he’d soon forget he had a daughter, but Haley wouldn’t forget him.

Her stomach ached at the thought of seeing him again. She’d finally allowed herself to fall in love for the first time and then Josh had turned around and ripped her heart out. And yet, she didn’t hate the man all the way like she should. She needed to remember the pain he’d caused her and stay strong.

Walking beside the serene water, Meg drew a deep breath, desperately digging for some of the lake’s calm for herself. She
was
going to stick this time. So what she needed to do was figure out what Josh wanted, and then get rid of him.

Josh stared through his truck’s windshield, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Meg’s phone was still just a few feet away, according to his software. The gate was shut, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hop the wall and walk down there. All he wanted was a chance to talk to her. To convince her he wasn’t the jerk she thought he was. Unfortunately that would require another lie, but it’d be the last lie he’d ever tell her.

He wished he could tell her the truth about why he’d left. That he’d had to leave for their safety, not because he’d wanted to. Especially because they’d just found out Meg was pregnant. It had been the happiest day of his life. He looked forward to being part of a family, something he’d always longed for after growing up without parents. But then a week later he’d had to make up a new lie and leave Meg. He still hated himself and the FBI for that.

They hadn’t found anything to make charges stick in the
online gambling investigation against Meg’s father three years ago. Hopefully, for Meg’s sake, the FBI wouldn’t find any new ones. The truth would come out soon, but not until the agency finished tying up loose ends by reinvestigating some of the smaller players in the scheme.

What would Meg’s reaction be when she found out he’d been investigating her and her father when they’d first met? And would it make a difference to her once he explained how he’d opted out of the case as soon as it had become clear she hadn’t had any clue about her father’s activities, so they could pursue a relationship? Hopefully she’d be able to understand that even though he lied about his identity for his job, he hadn’t lied about loving her.

He’d turned in his badge yesterday and now he was ready to do whatever it took to get Meg and Haley back. But when all the facts were finally revealed, would Meg be able to get past the betrayal of being spied on and lied to?

Josh studied the locked gate again, debating if he should wait some more or just jump the damn wall. Meg surely knew he was in town by now. What if she tried to run during the night? Now was the best time to make his move.

He pulled himself up, swung his legs over the stucco wall, and landed softly on the other side. He’d stick to the trees on the side of the gravel drive.

The cop had said his grandmother lived here. Would an older woman really shoot him? They were probably just trying to warn him off.

He hoped.

After a few feet, a break in the pine trees revealed a huge, stunning lake. The lowering sun sent long streaks across the water’s smooth surface, producing prisms of color. A few Jet Skis and a speedboat bobbed serenely alongside a long dock.

Why hadn’t Meg ever mentioned how great her hometown was? Such a contrast to where he’d spent his childhood after he became an orphan at six. That damned boys’ ranch in New Mexico. To think he and Meg had been living only a few hours away from each other all that time when they were kids. It was probably a karma thing that his case had caused their paths to cross . . . if he could shake off the cynic he’d become and convince himself to believe in that kind of stuff.

The FBI had recruited him out of college, promoting the organization as a pseudo-family of men and women all focused on doing good for the world. And it could be at times. It didn’t hurt that orphans made the best agents—no one to miss them if they didn’t come back from a mission.

To live somewhere like Anderson Butte might have made all the crappy things he’d had to do for his job worth it if he’d been able to come home after an assignment to someplace as beautiful as this. And to someone as beautiful as Meg.

What had made her leave? If he’d grown up here, he’d have put down deep roots. Never joined the FBI to move past his unfortunate childhood.

Hopefully he’d be able to stay.

As he moved closer to the lake, a house with a big wraparound porch and a short, yellow picket fence surrounding a garden came into view, but the glint of sunshine off mostly rusty metal made Josh change course. Megan’s car stood beside a shed not too far from a smaller building with its own little front porch.

She was still driving that piece of junk? That would be the first thing he’d do. Buy them a safer car.

Glancing around to be sure the coast was clear, he jogged behind the little house and cupped his hands against a window. There were couches, a couple of stuffed chairs, and a pile of
brightly colored books scattered on the floor. A cell phone lay on the coffee table. But no Meg and Haley.

Just as he pulled away to try the front door, a deafening explosion assaulted his eardrums. Hot, searing pain made him clutch the outside of his left arm. He spun around to find a tall, older woman pointing a rifle at him.

“Get off my land. Now!”

He hated getting shot, dammit. That made three times now.

Lifting the hand on his wounded arm to show he didn’t have any weapons, he said, “I don’t mean you any harm. I was just looking for Megan.”

“I’d say now you best be looking for a doctor to take care of that. Get!”

The pain made him grit his teeth. “I just want to have a conversation with her.”

“Do you have a learning difficulty of some sort?” The old woman raised the rifle higher. “Because I’d hate to shoot a disabled person. If so, tell me now or start running.”

It was like being in the freakin’
Twilight Zone
, but she looked pretty damned serious. He glanced at his wound. Blood trickled steadily down his arm. It was just a flesh wound, but he’d have to find a doctor. He probably couldn’t stitch it up himself.

He backed up. “Okay, I’m leaving.”

Just as he stepped off the porch, the sheriff’s car came barreling down the drive. The older man from the diner got out of the passenger side and called out, “Heard the gunshot and figured Ruthie’d done it again. I tried to warn you, Granger.”

The sheriff appeared by his side and took Josh’s uninjured arm. Without a word, the cop herded Josh into the back of his police car.

The old lady called out, “Might as well give up. We won’t let you take Haley!”

Take Haley? Is that what they all thought he was here to do?

As they drove up the hill, a set of blue eyes met his in the rearview mirror. “You ready to leave town now?”

“No.” Josh closed his eyes, fighting against the pain. “And I’m not here to take Haley. I just need to talk to Megan.”

“Suit yourself. We’re almost there.”

Wherever “there” was. For all he knew, the sheriff would throw him in a ditch and let him bleed to death. “Is that woman senile or something? She could have killed me.”

“Nope. She holds state shooting records. If she’d wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Under our trespassing laws she had every right to shoot you.”

Yeah, he knew that. But he hadn’t counted on a sharpshooting granny with a cane. Now he knew why Megan never talked about her wacky family.

When they pulled up in front of a building with “Anderson Butte Clinic” on the glass doors, relief washed through him. He looked for a handle to open his car door, but there wouldn’t be one because he was in the backseat like a damned criminal. He was usually the one driving.

When the door flew open, he swung his legs out and stood, hating that he was a little lightheaded. Only a few more feet and he’d be good.

The sheriff took his uninjured arm again.

“I don’t need your help.”

The sheriff kept tugging. “Can’t have you running off before I charge you with stalking and trespassing.” He pulled Josh along and then opened the door to the clinic for him.

The cop led him to an examining room and guided him to the table. Just as he got settled, the doctor joined them.

“Hi, I’m Ben Anderson. Hear my grandmother shot you. Any allergies to medications?” The doctor sat on a stool and slid closer.

“No.” Another Anderson? If he’d had the strength to run, he would have. He started to unbutton his shirt, but the doctor saved him the trouble and cut it off.

After the doctor poked around a bit he said, “It’s just a flesh wound.” Then he lifted up a needle.

“That an arsenic injection, Doc?”

“Nah. If I’d wanted to kill you, I’d just leave the air bubbles in the syringe.” He nudged Josh onto his back and went to work. “We’ll have you fixed right up. Hurts like hell though, right?”

“Yeah.” But hell might be better than Anderson Butte. “So how are you related to Megan?”

“I’m her oldest brother. Deputy Dawg over there holding my wall up is her other brother. You’ve met our sister Casey at the hotel. This may sting a bit.”

He hissed as the needle pierced his skin. “Any others of you I should watch out for?”

“Our father,” the doctor and the cop said in unison.

While the doctor filled up another syringe, he said, “I’m going to give you something stronger for the pain and to help you sleep. Where are you staying tonight?”

He had to think about that for a minute. Then he remembered. “In my truck. There were no rooms at the hotel, evidently.”

“Maybe something has opened up. I’ll check for you.”

“Not holding my breath.” Before long the meds kicked in and his mind went to a very happy place.

While Haley dug into a big piece of pie and ice cream for dessert, Meg stacked dishes into the industrial washer in the hotel’s kitchen. “Thanks for dinner, Casey, it was great.”