The Reluctant Hero

“Thank you so much,” she said on a sweet note, her own Southern drawl coming through in spite of all the diction and voice lessons she’d taken in college to get rid of it.

She was rewarded with another grunt.

Then Jonathan came strolling up, his chest puffed out, his hands on his hips, not a hair out of place. “Stephanie, everything okay here?”

“And your name?” the cop asked.

“Jonathan Delmore,” Jonathan stated with his nose in the air. “I was with Ms. Maguire earlier.”

“Then you saw the whole thing, too?”

“No, not really. I…I warned Stephanie to stay away. It wasn’t safe. But she insisted on coming right down here. I…I went back inside the restaurant to get help.”

He said this with a bit of reprimand, which only fueled Stephanie’s already red-hot opinion of him. He had gone back inside the restaurant to stay safe, and they both knew it.

“He’s right,” the cop said, nodding his head. “You could have been hurt, too, Ms. Maguire.”

“I had to stop them from killing that old man,” she replied, her gaze locking with Jonathan’s, and then Derek’s. She refused to let either one of them make her feel guilty or inadequate for helping someone in need.

Derek Kane glanced from Stephanie to Jonathan, then rolled his eyes. The expression on his face told her everything she needed to know. He thought they were both stupid.

Thinking she’d gone from a blind date with a self-centered golden boy to running smack into the original caveman, Stephanie made another pledge to give up on the male species.

“Okay,” the cop said, slapping his notebook shut. “We might need you all down at the station later for a statement. I’ll need your addresses and phone numbers.”

Caveman grunted again, then pulled the officer to the side. In a quiet voice that Stephanie could barely hear, he gave the officer the information he needed, which he obviously didn’t think anyone else needed to know.

But years of eavesdropping on conversations had given Stephanie good information-gathering skills. Straining toward the two men, she heard the words landscaper and lake, but she didn’t get the phone number or the precise address down.

Then Jonathan proudly gave his name and work number, stressing the prestigious address of both his apartment building and his work building.

Satisfied, the officer turned back to Stephanie. “Can I reach you at the station, Ms. Maguire, if I need anything else?”

She handed him a business card from her purse. “Sure. And I might need you all for comments. I think I’d like to do a story on this.” She looked straight at Derek Kane then. “After all, Mr. Kane, you’re a hero. You stepped in to save this man when everyone else around here refused to get involved.” With that comment, she once again glared at Jonathan.

Derek Kane stepped back into the light then, the look on his face catching Stephanie and pinning her to the sidewalk. “No story.”

“What? But…I have to do a story. Crime is a big issue in Atlanta, and few people want to get involved when someone is being brutalized. People need to know that there are still Good Samaritans like you who are willing to help out a fellow human being.”

He stepped closer, his face inches from hers, his eyes such a dark gray, she immediately thought about smoke and fog and the granite that formed Stone Mountain. “I said no story, lady. And I mean that.”

Turning to the police officer, he repeated all of it. “I’d appreciate it if you’d keep me anonymous, understand?”

The officer, although clearly surprised, nodded grudgingly. “If you say so.”

Derek Kane looked straight at Stephanie. “I say so.”

Shaking in her pumps, Stephanie nonetheless stood her ground. “So you’re refusing to cooperate?”

“Yep.”

With that he turned and started walking away, his cowboy boots clicking against the sidewalk with precise measure.

“But it would make such a good story,” Stephanie called after him. “At least take one of my cards, in case you change your mind.”

He didn’t even bother turning around.

Chapter Two

Dawn was coming over Lake Lanier.

The sight never ceased to amaze Derek Kane, which was why, he supposed, he automatically woke up at this time every morning. He liked to see that golden sun coming up through the trees, its rays spreading out over the water. It reaffirmed that at least for a few precious minutes everything was right in God’s world.

Maybe that was why rainy days got to him so much. That and the fact that if it rained, he didn’t get much work done.

But today Derek didn’t have to worry about rain. From the looks of that sunrise, there wouldn’t be a cloud in the sky and he’d be able to get his landscaping and yard work assignments completed.

Taking another sip of the strong coffee he’d brewed earlier, Derek closed his Bible and reached down past the deck chair to rub the nose of his faithful companion, a German shepherd aptly named Lazarus because Derek had literally saved the dog from being put to sleep a few years ago.

“Ready for our run, boy?”

The black-and-tan animal jumped to attention, his big tongue hanging out in a drooling acknowledgment. When that didn’t bring his master to his feet, Lazarus barked and wagged his tail in the air.

“Okay, okay. Sorry I’m moving kinda slow this morning. I had a late night, you know.”

Lazarus tried one more trick. He flopped down on the planks of the big deck, then rolled over for a belly rub, his black eyes filled with what he obviously hoped was sadness and despair.

“You’re pathetic,” Derek said, grinning as he, too, plopped down on the deck next to the dog, then proceeded to rub Lazarus for all he was worth. “How’s that?”

The dog seemed content to stay that way all day.

“Now look who’s lazy,” Derek replied. Bringing his hand up to the dog’s long neck, he absently continued scratching and rubbing the coarse fur.

“I met a woman last night, Laz,” he said, knowing he could tell the dog anything and it wouldn’t get repeated. “A woman I see every night on the evening news.” He shrugged against the deck planks. “Actually, she’s all over the place, everywhere in Atlanta, on billboards, on the sides of buses, in ads in the newspaper, a well-known face. And unfortunately, I had to run upon her near a dark alleyway while she tried to fend off two thugs twice her size.”

To save a helpless, homeless man, Derek silently reminded himself. Stephanie Maguire had been trying to help a stranger. And because of that one brave act, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind.

Not through the long, tiring wait in the emergency room of Grady Hospital, not through the endless paperwork and the necessary questions later at the police station, and certainly not through the long trip back home a couple of hours ago.

She was beautiful. Every man in metro Atlanta and the surrounding counties could see that. And they all got to view her lovely face each night as she reported the news across the airwaves. Her hair was long and wavy, fluffed out around her face and shoulders in a feminine style that somehow didn’t match her hard-hitting attitude when she delivered the news each night. Stephanie Maguire always looked a little windblown, as if she’d just come rushing in off the street to deliver her piece. Which she probably had. But she delivered with precision and accuracy, her stories in-depth, her eyes wide open.

And about those eyes.

Derek knew all about those eyes. Blue green and big, as mysterious as the lake waters, and just as rich and full of depth. As the old saying went, a man could drown in those eyes.

But not this man. No, sir.

Derek pushed himself up off the deck, then whistled to Lazarus. “C’mon, boy. Let’s get that run started. We’ve got lots of work ahead of us today.”