Forever A Hero

Kelly vaguely remembered telling Dr. Draper all about what had happened while she was being examined in the emergency room. A nurse had been present, as well—Mrs. Tom Harper, no doubt.

Mace gave Tom a benign but pointed look. “Must be about quitting time,” he said.

Tom ignored Mace’s annoyance, although he must have noticed. “Good to meet you, Ms. Wright,” he said. “And I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks.” Kelly smiled, liking the guy more with every passing moment. “And it’s Kelly, not Ms. Wright.”

“Guess I’d better run,” Tom said.

“Best idea you’ve had yet,” Mace grumbled.

Tom laughed, said his goodbyes and left the winery through a side door.

“Nice guy,” Kelly said when she and Mace were alone again.

“Yeah,” Mace agreed, finally lightening up a little. “Except for his big mouth.”

Kelly laughed. “Relax. I know you didn’t brag all over town about saving the poor, silly California woman from certain disaster.”

Even though you did save me, like it or not.

Twice.

Mace glanced away, sighed, muttered something to himself.

“Why are you so sensitive about this?” Kelly asked, serious now.

He turned his head, met her eyes. “It was no big deal,” he said.

“It was to me,” Kelly told him, still solemn. And when Mace didn’t reply, she spoke again. “What’s really going on here, Mace? Why are you so touchy about taking any credit for what you did?”

He was silent for a long time, although he never looked away from her face. Then, after another sigh, deeper than the last and more exasperated, he said, “Because I don’t want you thinking you owe me anything in return. You said thanks and that was enough.”

Kelly was at once intrigued and frustrated. “Are you afraid I’m going to follow you around from now on, adoringly, babbling words of gratitude?”

Mace seemed taken aback. “No,” he said.

She wasn’t letting him off the hook. “What, then?”

He rested his hands on her shoulders, his touch light, even tentative. “All right,” he muttered. “It’s just that I think something might be...starting. Between us, I mean. And I’m not talking about any business deal here.” He drew a long breath, released it. “Maybe it’s just my imagination and I’m making a damn fool of myself, but if we have a chance, the two of us, we need to be equal partners from the start.”

Kelly stared at him, momentarily speechless.

When she finally found her voice, it was barely more than a whisper. “It’s not your imagination,” she murmured.

That was when he kissed her.

CHAPTER FIVE (#u55a14d5e-4b5f-50a2-8e95-30ba2ed3acd7)

THE TOUCH OF Mace’s mouth was gentle, warm, more promise than demand.

More question than answer.

It never occurred to Kelly to push him away, or turn her head. No, she rose onto the balls of her feet, became neither giver nor recipient, but part of the kiss itself, part of Mace, as he was part of her.

He didn’t use his tongue, though she would have welcomed that—and a lot more. She felt charged in every cell, as if she were dancing on an arc of lightning.

When Mace broke the connection, Kelly plunged from the heights like a skydiver without a parachute, half expecting to strike hard ground and shatter into pieces.

Mace cupped her right cheek in his hand, thumbed away a tear she hadn’t known was there.

Kelly couldn’t speak. The ordinary world felt thick around her, as though she’d been caught in a mudslide, or quicksand, and might be sucked under at any moment.

Reflex made her grasp Mace’s shoulders, hold on for dear life.

He covered her hands with his own.

“Are you okay?”

“Um, I think so,” Kelly murmured, loosening her grasp on Mace by degrees as she settled back into herself. There were so many questions she wanted to ask—had he felt the power of that kiss, the way she had, or was it just another flirtation to him, soon to be forgotten? And if he had felt it, what did it mean?

“If that was too much, too soon...”

“No,” Kelly said so quickly that heat stained her cheeks. Then, again, more slowly, “No.”

Mace drew Kelly close, kissed the top of her head. “This might be a good time to show you the vineyard,” he said.

Kelly allowed herself to lean into him, just a little. To rest against the hard width of his chest, listen to the steady thud-thud-thud of his heart.

It had been so long since she’d taken shelter in a man’s arms, felt safe there.

“This would be a very good time to see the vineyard,” she said with laugh.

They left the winery then, neither one saying a word, and after Mace had punched in another code to lock the doors, they headed for the leafy rows, the vines rimmed in the last fierce light of the day.

Mace didn’t hold her hand as he had before, but their arms brushed against each other at intervals.

Kelly had that strange, otherworldly feeling again, although it wasn’t urgent, like before, when Mace had kissed her. She wondered if she’d bumped her head, after all, when her rental car went off the road, and done something to her brain, something the scans hadn’t picked up.

They walked along the rows in comfortable silence, and Kelly reveled in the scents of leaves and fertile dirt and ripening fruit. She’d visited so many other vineyards, in so many other places, but, strangely, this one seemed all new.

Maybe, she thought, it wasn’t the vineyard that made her want to put down roots right here in this rich soil and simply grow, like the plants all around her, to blossom in spring, flourish in the summer heat, bear fruit in the fall, stand leafless and vulnerable in the winter snow.

It was a crazy, whimsical idea, completely unlike her.

If this strange mood continued, she decided, she’d follow Dr. Draper’s advice and seek medical help.

In the meantime, though, she intended to savor the experience.