“Since Rita’s death, I’ve been frozen inside,” he said quietly. “My heart has been a solid block of ice. I’ve been afraid to live. Afraid to reach out and take all the things life offers. You showed me how to live again. You showed me how all those risks play into the big picture of life. You proved it to me over and over again. You proved to me Steph is young and strong and can lead a full life if I just let go a little. You proved to me that to live, to love, you must first be willing to take chances.”
Fresh tears filled her eyes as she stared at the man she loved more than life itself. “I didn’t ever think I’d hear you say that.”
“Neither did I. And I fought you at every turn. But you’re right.” Slipping his hands to either side of her face, he kissed her.
The gentleness of the kiss devastated her. She closed her eyes against the rush of emotion, the wave of physical sensation, and kissed him back.
“I know you don’t want to hear this,” she murmured. “But I love you, Nick. I love you, and I don’t even care if you’re ready to love me back—”
“I love you, too, McNeal.”
The words stunned her, sent her heart tumbling into bliss like she’d never known.
He kissed her temple. Her nose. The side of her mouth. “I love you so much it scares me. But I’m willing to risk it, honey, if you’re willing to take a chance on me.”
“I’ve never walked away from a risk,” she said.
“Even when walking away is the safe thing to do?”
“Especially when it’s the safe thing to do.”
“Ah, McNeal, I didn’t think I’d ever want to hear you say that, but I’m really glad you did.”
In the distance, the sound the police sirens rose above the din of rain on the roof. Pressing his cheek against her temple, Nick skimmed his hands up and down her back. “There’s no policy against married police officers in the Logan Falls PD. What do you say we make it permanent?”
Erin closed her eyes and let sheer happiness wash over her. “I can probably outshoot you. And I don’t mind jumping into a fray now and again. Are you sure that won’t bother you?”
“I think my ego can handle the shooting part.” He grinned. “And I might just keep you too busy making love for you to be jumping into frays.”
“What about Stephanie? How will she—”
“She’s crazy about you, Erin. Mrs. Thornsberry is crazy about you.” He kissed her again. “I’m so crazy in love with you I can’t stand the thought of being without you.”
Erin smiled up at him through tears of joy, knowing she was the luckiest woman in the world. “Well, Chief, maybe we should go get Stephanie and take her home so we can break the good news to her.”
“Home,” he echoed, and pulled her close. “It’s been a long time since I’ve truly been home.”
“We’re home now, Nick. You’ve brought me home.”
“You showed me the way. I love you.”
Blinking back tears, Erin looked outside. The storm had broken. Hazy tendrils of sunlight broke through the clouds like streams of wet gold. She’d never seen a more beautiful sunrise. And she’d never been happier than at this moment in her life.
Nick reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly, his gaze telling her all the things she already knew in her heart—and felt all the way to her soul.
“I love you, too,” she whispered. “Always.”
Hand in hand, they started toward the entrance where the future waited with a promise of happiness and light and the unending hope for tomorrow.
* * * * *
EPILOGUE
Nick paced the surgical waiting area for what seemed like the hundredth time. A dozen cups of coffee churned in the pit of his stomach, and every nerve in his body snapped like live wires. If one more nurse came through those double doors without any news, he thought he might explode. Stephanie had been in the operating room for nearly two hours, and he’d worried every second with agonizing intensity.
“Chief.”
He jumped at the sound of Mrs. Thornsberry’s voice. “What is it, Em?” he asked irritably.
“I’m going down to the cafeteria for coffee. Do you want me to bring you back a cup?” she asked.
“Only if it’s got a doctor attached to it,” he snapped. “What on earth is taking so long?”
“It’s only been two hours—”
“Is he causing you problems, Em?”
Even through the stress and tension of Stephanie’s surgery, Nick’s heart soared at the sound of Erin’s voice. He turned, and as usual, felt all his blood spiral into a slow, rolling free fall. “McNeal.”
The two women exchanged knowing smiles, then Mrs. Thornsberry started for the elevator down the hall.
Erin walked into the waiting area and faced Nick. “The name is Ryan now, Chief. You’re going to have to stop calling me by my maiden name.”
He looked into the green depths of her gaze and felt the knot in his gut begin to unravel. That was all it took for him these days. A touch. A word. A smile. And the instant he held her in his arms, he knew everything was right with the world.
“She’s going to be fine,” Erin told him.
“Dr. Brooks should have finished by now.”
“Dr. Brooks is the best neurosurgeon in the state.”
Even in uniform, she took his breath away. They’d been married for less than a month, and he still couldn’t get enough of her. Judging by the amount of love jammed into his heart, Nick figured he never would.
The need to feel her in his arms had him reaching for her. “Come here. I need to hold you.”
Smiling tentatively, Erin stepped into his embrace. Nick closed his eyes and held her, felt another knot of tension unravel. “You’re just what the doctor ordered,” he murmured.
“I’m glad I could oblige,” she said. “Maybe we could work in a little physical therapy later….”
“Ah, McNeal, you always know just where to hit a guy.”
Cocooned within his embrace, she sighed. Nick knew the signs, and asked, “What is it?”
“Not now. Not when Stephanie—”
“Erin.” Easing her to arm’s length, Nick put his palm beneath her chin and forced her gaze to his. “Talk to me.”
“For some reason Steph’s operation made me think about Danny. I still can’t believe he was dirty. That he lied to me. Betrayed me…for money. It still hurts.”
“I know, honey. I’m sorry.”
“But even after what he did to me—all the anguish he put me through—I can’t bear the thought of him going to prison.”
“Frank said his lawyer is already working on a deal with the D.A. He probably won’t do prison time. Probation, maybe. Or community service.” Nick wasn’t sure yet how he felt about that, since Danny Perrine had nearly gotten her killed, but he knew it would make Erin happy, so he’d come to terms with it.
The sound of the double doors opening spun them around. Nick’s heart stopped at the sight of Stephanie’s doctor, still clad in his green surgical scrubs.
Erin stepped forward. “How did it go?”
“The operation was successful,” Dr. Brooks said. “We did a preliminary reflex test a few minutes ago, and she moved her right foot. That’s a good sign this early in the game. We’ll know more after she comes around—”
Nick didn’t hear the rest of the sentence. Emotion spiraled through him with such force that he couldn’t speak. He stared at the doctor, grappling for control, vaguely aware of Erin reaching for his hand.
“When can we see her?” he asked after a moment.
“In about ten minutes. We’re taking her down to recovery now. She’ll probably sleep most of the day.”
Feeling the heat of tears behind his eyes, Nick turned away and walked to the window. His heart was doing acrobatics in his chest—flips and spins and dives, all without the benefit of a safety net. If he didn’t know better, he thought he might just break down and cry.
A moment later, he felt Erin’s
hand on his shoulder. “Nick?”
He turned, found her green eyes bright with tears. “She’s going to be okay. She’s going to walk again. She’s going to run again.” A laugh broke from her lips. “If I have anything to do with it, she’s going to ride Bandito again.”
Only then did Nick realize he was crying, but he didn’t care. Male pride and ego melted away as he looked at his bride and saw the same emotions mirrored in her eyes. Raising his hand, he brushed a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. He smiled at her through his own tears as relief and need and a hundred other emotions barreled through him.
“We’re lucky,” he said after a moment.
“And then some,” she agreed.
Cupping her face, he gazed into her eyes. He felt the undeniable connection between them in the deepest reaches of his heart. She was the only woman in the world who could do that to him. Leaning forward, he kissed her gently. “You look really good in that uniform, Mrs. Ryan,” he said.
“You don’t look too bad yourself, Chief.”
“Do you think it’s inappropriate for the chief of police to kiss his deputy?”
“Definitely. But you do inappropriate so well.”
“You always say just the right thing. I love you, Erin.”
“Mrs. Ryan,” she corrected, and shot him a smile from beneath her lashes. “While we’re waiting for Steph to be taken to her room, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind explaining the police department’s policy on maternity leave to me.”
The floor dropped out from under him as the words cascaded over him. “You’re…” Emotion shook him with such force that he couldn’t finish the sentence.
She grinned.
His heart thumped hard against his ribs. “You’re pregnant?”
“I’m not sure. You know how unreliable those tests are.”
“Tests?”
“The home pregnancy test I took this morning.”
Nick held his breath. “What did it say?”
Standing on her tiptoes, Erin brushed her lips against his. “It told me I’m the happiest pregnant woman in the entire state of Indiana,” she whispered.
Joy like he’d never known settled over him like a bright and stunning light. Laughing, he threw his arms around her and swung her in a tight circle, not caring about the tears building in his eyes again. “Just the state?” he managed to ask after a moment.
She smiled at him. “Make that the world.”
“I guess that makes me the happiest man in the world.”
“I love you—”
Her sentence was cut short when his mouth covered hers, sealing the words he cherished between them, and Nick knew he was not only the happiest man in the world, but the luckiest.
* * * * *
Officer Gina Galvan has proven herself as a tough-as-nails cop in Kansas City and now she has every intention of making it onto the elite SWAT team. So when a criminal’s bullet interrupts her plans and she’s forced to undergo physical therapy, only the sure and strong hands of Mike Cutler can make her realize just how much the future has in store…
Read on for a sneak peak of Julie Miller’s KANSAS CITY COP.
CHAPTER ONE
The bright sunlight glaring off the fresh February snow through the police cruiser’s windshield was as blinding as the headache forming behind Officer Gina Galvan’s dark brown eyes.
“No, Tia Mami, I can’t.” She glanced across the front seat to her partner, Derek Johnson, and silently mouthed an apology for yet another family crisis infringing on their shift time with KCPD. “I don’t get off until seven. And that’s if our paperwork’s done. That’s why I left my car at home and took the bus this morning—so Sylvie could drive you and Tio Papi to his doctor’s appointment.”
“Sylvie no come home from school,” her great-aunt Lupe replied quietly, as though apologizing for the news.
“What? Where is she?”
“Javi said he saw her riding with that boyfriend of hers we don’t like.”
“Seriously?” Anger and concern flooded Gina’s cheeks with heat. The boyfriend they didn’t like had too much money to have gotten it in the old neighborhood by any legal means. But Bobby Estes’s flashy cars and devilish good looks were too much for her dreamy, dissatisfied baby sister to resist. And if Bobby was a teenager, as he claimed, then Gina was Santa Claus. Clearly, her last conversation with Sylvie, about the definition of statutory rape and learning to act like an adult if she wanted to be treated like one, had not made a memorable impact. “I’m going to have to ground her. That’s all there is to it.”
But dealing with her sister’s rash choices didn’t get Tio Papi to the doctor’s office. Gina slipped her fingers beneath the base of her wavy brunette pony tail to massage the tension gathering at the nape of her neck.
Derek nudged her with his elbow, “Need a ride home tonight?”
Missing the point! Although, in his defense, Derek was only hearing half the conversation. Gina summoned a smile for the friend she’d been riding a squad car with for almost two years now. “It’s okay. Just a miscommunication at home.”
“Gotta love our families, right?” Derek teased. She knew he had a strained relationship with his father. And there was no love lost for Derek’s mother who’d divorced his father and moved away, leaving her teenage son behind to be raised by an aging hippie who had trouble keeping a job and staying out of jail.
A difficult upbringing was part of the common ground they shared and had helped solidify their working relationship and understanding of each other. Gina gave the sarcasm right back, whispering so her great aunt couldn’t hear. “Do we really have to?”
Derek grinned and directed her back to her phone. “Tell Aunt Lupe hi for me, okay?”
“I will. Tia Mami, Derek says hi.”
“You teach that young man to say hola, and bring him to dinner sometime.”
“I’m working on it." Gina continued the conversation with appropriate responses while her great-aunt rattled on about other concerns she’d have to deal with once she got home. While Lupe talked, Gina concentrated on the scenery as they drove past, partly because it was her job to observe the neighborhood and take note of anything that looked suspicious or unsafe, and partly because she’d already heard the same worried speech too many times before about fast cars and traffic accidents, young men who didn’t come to the door to pick up a date and Uncle Rollo’s deteriorating health.
Now there was something different. Gina lifted her chin for a better look. A tall man in silver and black running gear came around the corner off Pennsylvania Avenue and ran down the narrow side street. A jogger in this neighborhood was unusual. Maybe he was one of those yuppie business owners who’d opened an office in this part of town for a song, or he’d bought a loft in one of the area’s abandoned warehouses, thinking he could revitalize a little part of Kansas City. Not for the first time, she considered the irony of people with money moving into this part of the city, while the natives like her were doing all they could to raise enough money to move out.
But irony quickly gave way to other thoughts. The runner was tall, lean and muscular. Although the stocking cap and wraparound sunglasses he wore masked the top half of his head, the well-trimmed scruff of brown beard on his golden skin was like catnip to her. Plus, she could tell he was fit by the rhythmic clouds of his breath in the cold air. He wasn’t struggling to maintain that pace and, for a woman who worked hard to stay physically fit, she appreciated his athleticism.
As they passed each other, he offered her a polite wave, and Gina nodded in return. Since he already knew she’d been staring, she shifted her gaze to the side mirror to watch him run another block. Long legs and a tight butt. Gina’s lips curved into a smile. They probably had a lot of scenery like that in the suburbs. A relationship was one thing she didn’t have time for at this point in her life. And no way did she want to tie herself to anyone from the neighborhood who might want her to stay. But there was no harm in looking and gettin
g her blood circulating a little faster. After all, it was only twenty-two degrees out, and a woman had to do whatever was necessary to stay warm.
Gina glanced over at her partner. Derek was handsome in his own way. He, too, had brown hair, but his smooth baby face was doing nary a thing for her circulation.
“Do we need to take a detour to your house and have a conversation with your sister? I’d be happy to um, have a word, with that boyfriend of hers.” He took his hands off the steering wheel to make air quotes around have a word, as if he had ideas about roughing up Bobby on her behalf. As if she couldn’t take care of her family’s issues herself.
Since the car was moving, Gina guided one hand back to the steering wheel and changed the subject. She covered the speaker on her phone and whispered, “Hey, since things are quiet right now, why don’t you swing by a coffee shop and get us something hot to drink. I haven’t been able to shake this chill since that first snow back in October.”
Although the remembered impression of Sexy Jogger Guy made that last sentence a lie, her request had the desired effect of diverting Derek’s interest in her family problems.
“That I can do. One skinny mocha latte coming up.”
Distracted with his new mission, Derek turned the squad car onto a cross street, plowing through a dip filled with dirty slush as they continued their daily patrol through the aging neighborhood. With houses and duplexes so close together that a person could barely walk between them, vehicles parked bumper-to-bumper against the curb, and junk piling on porches and spilling into yards, this was a part of the city she knew far too well. Add in the branches of tall, denuded maple trees heavy with three months’ worth of snow arching over the yards and narrow streets, and Gina felt claustrophobic. As much as she loved Kansas City and her job as a police officer, she secretly wondered if she was the reincarnation of some Central American ancestor and was meant for living on the high, arid plains of her people with plenty of blue sky and wide-open space, without a single snowflake in sight.