“Interesting,” he said, thinking about that.

“The thing is, so much of my life has been about loss. Oh, don’t think I’m whining—I’m pretty proud of my life, but there’s been a lot of loss. My mother, my father, then my ‘kids’ grew up and left. And more subtle loss that I didn’t realize had affected me—my childhood, my adolescence, those law-school years when so many men and women bonded to get through it and I hurried home to make sure things were taken care of—that Drew got to football, that Marcie made it to cheerleading, that homework was done…And in all those years, right up to this summer…” She ran her hands up and down his arms. “I never fell in love. Not till now.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to let go of it now.” She blinked away a tear. “But if I’m wrong about you, it’s going to really hurt.”

“I won’t let you down, Erin.” He ran the knuckle of his index finger along the line of her jaw and then under her chin, lifting it just slightly so that green eyes met. “Know what I’d like to say now? I’d like to promise you you’ll never face pain, loss or hardship again in your life.” He shook his head slightly. “You know no one can do that. I can make a couple of promises, though. As my wife, you’ll never again face anything difficult alone. Even if something happens to me, both your family and mine will be there for you. The Riordans are pretty scrappy and argumentative, but they never fail to be there for each other, and their families.”

“Wife?”

“Of course, wife. When I get these legal complications settled, which is already in motion, and when you’re ready.” He smiled softly. “You do have to say yes, of course.”

It came out on a breath. “Yes. Of course, yes.”

He kissed her, a kiss that started soft and sweet, deepened, hardened, grew hot and long and wet and left her gasping. He smiled, then chuckled at her near loss of control.

“You said…a couple of promises…”

He grinned and gave her a brief kiss. “Our children will almost certainly have green eyes.”

Aiden felt the bed dip, smelled fresh coffee and opened one eye to see the love of his life holding a mug toward him. He smiled lazily and asked, “Are you sure it’s time to wake up? Because I’m shot.”

“Of course you are,” she said. “Because you’re a sex maniac. I’m pretty tired, too. So tell me, Doctor—is there going to come a time we sleep together and actually get some sleep? Because at this rate we’re going to die young.”

He laughed and wrestled himself to a sitting position, reaching for the mug. He took a sip. “My dad used to say if you put a bean in a jar for every time you have sex during the first year you’re together, then take a bean out for every time you have sex after that first year, you’ll never empty the jar.”

She sipped her coffee. “Hmm, I don’t know if that’s good news or bad….”

“Why are you up so early?”

“Aiden, it’s not that early. It’s eight o’clock. And I’m up because I have a lot on my mind. Like—Sean and Franci will be heading off to Alabama to his next assignment in just a couple of days. Can we have them to dinner here? Can you invite the whole family and help me cook? Is it okay for Luke and Shelby to come and bring the baby? Is he old enough?”

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Yes to all of that—except you can invite them yourself. Come back to Luke’s with me later this morning. Next?”

“I have to go back to Chico before Marcie’s baby comes. What will we do, where will you be?”

He took a thoughtful sip. “I suppose I’ll be wherever you want me to be….”

“Chico?”

He gave a shrug. “Would I be rushing you, crowding you, if I told my headhunter to look around Chico to see if they need a good OB?”

She let out a relieved breath. “Would you? Because my family is there. Except Drew—but he grew up there. He could come back after he finishes his residency.”

He put his cup on the beside table and reached for her. “Details, honey. Easy details, and we have plenty of time.”

“But what if you don’t like Chico?” she asked him, her brow furrowed.

“Will you be there? Because if that’s where you want to be, I’ll find plenty to like.”

“You say that now, but…”

He shook his head and pulled her coffee mug from her hand, put it beside his and said, “Erin, there won’t be that kind of standoff or dissent. I’ve been looking for the right woman for years and you’re the one. Do you hear me? You’re the one. You’ve lived in that town your whole life, built a career there. Do I look like the kind of fool who’d risk losing you over an impasse as silly as where we’re going to live?”

“But what if there’s no practice for you there?”

“God, you are dreaming up problems. If there isn’t there will be one near. If there isn’t one near, maybe I’ll build one.”

“Really?”

“Really…It’s going to be fine. We have a million reasons to make this work.”

“At least a jarful,” she replied with a smile.

“Let’s take a shower and have breakfast at Jack’s on the way back to Luke’s,” he suggested. “We can talk all the way there, all through breakfast, all day if you want to. But first, a shower.” He touched her nose. “No talking during the shower…”

“Are we going to put another bean in the jar…?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised….”

An hour and a half later they walked into Jack’s, holding hands. Rather than sitting up at the bar as usual, Aiden steered her toward a table because she had so much on her mind. She quizzed him about how he saw marriage, exactly. She wanted to discuss things like his religious commitments, because she’d fallen away from her church a long time ago. She wondered if he had strong feelings about how he wanted to be married. When she was young, she admitted, she’d had bride fantasies, but she had been a part of so many big weddings fraught with tension it no longer seemed important. And how about where he thought they’d live? Because she’d lived in her house all her life and wasn’t sure if she’d find it a relief to have something new and different or the kind of change too difficult to make. The only subject that didn’t come up was the most immediate one—Annalee. Erin, being a lawyer, knew that once you set the legal machine to work on an issue like that, there was little to do besides wait for it to work.

Through all of this they managed to order coffee and a couple of omelets, which Jack delivered on steaming plates in just minutes. “Here you go, you two. Say, Aiden—did you catch up with your cousin? Did you have a good visit?”

Aiden looked up in confusion. “Cousin?”

“Little blonde girl—Anna something…She said she’d barely arrived at Luke’s when everyone took off for the hospital.”

Jack shook his head. “Not that I know of. Something wrong?”

Aiden pushed back from the table. “Shit.” He shook his head. “Has she been around since?”

“Not my cousin, Jack. My ex-wife. She showed up unannounced, making waves, causing a few problems. It turns out our divorce papers from eight years ago weren’t filed or recorded properly, so we have to do it all again, and she’s not exactly cooperating. She even showed up out at Erin’s place when I wasn’t there. And I can’t figure out how—”

“Crap,” Jack said. “That was me. I bought into it. When she said she at least wanted to meet your girlfriend, I said Erin’s name. God, I’m sorry, Erin.”

But Erin had a very wide-eyed, startled look on her face. “I know how she found me. I was so rattled by her presence, by the things she said, I completely forgot. A woman called from the post office saying they had a delivery and needed directions.” She swallowed. “There was never a delivery.”

Fourteen

Aiden and Erin left Jack’s and went on to Luke’s, where they told Luke and Shelby, Sean and Franci what they had just learned about “Cousin” Annalee.

Annalee was obviously incredibly clever and yet her objective was still very unclear. “I know it’s not really me she wants, regardless of what she says,” Aiden said. “I’m fairly sure it’s about money—money sure solved all our problems eight years ago. But how she intends to get it out of me is a real mystery.”

Aiden explained that the business card declaring her a fashion consultant was a dead end. “No company affiliation, the cell-phone number isn’t a working number. I can’t get myself into the kind of devious mind-set that would tip me off on what to expect next.”

“Maybe that’s what she’s counting on,” Sean suggested. “That you’ll get tired of looking over your shoulder and sleeping with one eye open and just pay her another ten grand to go away.”

“I know someone who can get in that mind-set,” Erin said. “Call Ron Preston and tell him about this latest. Believe me, he’s handled some of the most notorious divorces on record. And the things people have been known to do to each other just blows the mind.”

Aiden had planned to touch base with him after talking to his brothers anyway. He just wanted his family in the loop and alert.

Ron Preston recommended a temporary restraining order based on the fact that Annalee had visited and harassed Erin. It was impossible to serve such an order of restraint when the whereabouts of the suspect was unknown, however. “We’ll put in a call to the local sheriff’s department and the police departments of towns large enough to have more than a couple of officers and let them know that a TRO is forthcoming as soon as we can locate the suspect. In the meantime, keep your eyes and ears open, document everything that’s at all suspicious and stay in touch. You’ll be hearing from me.”

Aiden made sure that in addition to Erin’s number at the cabin, Ron Preston had Luke’s house number. “There’s almost always someone around Luke’s to answer the phone.”

If there was an upside to all this, it had removed the last microscopic shred of doubt from Erin’s mind about who was lying. With that worry completely eliminated, she was the one to make the announcement to the Riordan clan. “When this is all resolved and Aiden is completely free of any legal complications, we plan to get married. We’re not sure when or how, but that’s what will happen.”

Of course that was met with great happiness and an air of celebration that served as a relief from worries. The Riordan family got about the business of trying to plan out and enjoy their last couple of days with Sean, Franci and Rosie before they had to depart. Erin had felt completely welcome before they announced they’d get married, but now she was immediately pulled in as a member of the family. She felt embraced by them, protected and loved.

“I hate that you’re leaving so soon after I’ve met you,” Erin told Franci. “I’d love it if we had more time.”

“We’re going to have lots of time, don’t you worry. Most of us on both sides of the family have military roots—we’re used to traveling for holidays and vacations to spend time together. I suggest we plan ahead for some big family gatherings. We could find a beach spot for a summer vacation. Virgin River at Christmastime is fantastic and I know we can talk Luke and Shelby into reserving us cabins.”

“I like that idea,” Erin said. And if we can ever get through this mess, I’m going to love this family, she thought.

Luke and Sean managed to wrestle a couple of picnic tables into the back of Luke’s truck to take out to Erin’s cabin for a big family dinner. Aiden bought a new, large gas grill that could be stored in the shed when they weren’t in residence but that he had no doubt would get plenty of use over the years. When clouds gathered in the afternoon, the men put the chaise lounges from the deck into the shed and placed two picnic tables there instead. Aiden grilled salmon under the cover of an umbrella and the entire family ate outside on the covered deck while a summer rain fell.

The next night they met at Luke’s; dinner was a simple buffet because Sean and Franci were trying to pack the car and Maureen wanted to spend every last second with Rosie. Franci’s mom from Eureka was there, as were Walt Booth and Muriel.

The next morning, when Sean’s SUV was packed, the same crowd gathered for goodbyes. The brothers shook hands before embracing; Erin and Shelby hugged Franci close.

But the only one who Rosie cried over was Art. He got down on his knees to hug her and told her to be good in the car. She clung to him and tears came out of her eyes. “Will you bisit me?” she asked him.

Art looked to Luke. “Will I visit her?” he asked.

“Probably. And Rosie will visit you. They’ll be back for visits, for sure.”

So he said to her, “I’ll visit you, Rosie. Be good in the car.”

“I lub you,” she said to him. “I lub you!”

And Art said, “That’s because we’re good friends. Thank you.” And he held her tight for a moment. He added, “No fishing without Sean!”

That just about did in the farewell gathering. When Art finally stood to his full height, Sean stepped toward him with his hand out. “I’m going to miss you, Art. Be sure to watch over that new little guy—Brett Lucas.”

“I will do that, Sean,” he said, nodding.

Luke was not real good at sentiment. He walked over to the driver’s door of the SUV and opened it for Sean. “Let’s not drag this out—the women are all crying. I hate that part.”