Texas Bossa Nova (Texas Montgomery Mavericks Book 5) (19 page)

“Reno started to follow you out. But then Norman started following you too. And one of the girls at the other table grabbed Reno’s arm and told him that she thought she saw Norman put something in your drink. Max heard what she said and we all came.”

“T-t-thank you.”

Tears wet Porchia’s cheeks. “I am so sorry. This is all my fault.”

Darren had released Reno and now put his arm around Porchia. “No, it’s not. This was my idea.”

Magda frowned, extremely confused and not able to make sense of what everyone was saying.

And then Reno was there. Holding her. Pulling her against him. With his bloody knuckles and huffing breath, she didn’t think she’d ever seen him look better.

“Reno,” she said. “I love you.”

And then her world went black.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Someone was in Magda’s head with a hammer determined to pound her left eye out of its socket. She moaned and rolled over. That did nothing to help the pounding headache.

She moved her tongue around inside her mouth looking for cotton. There had to be cotton in there soaking up all the liquid. She tried to lick her lips but her tongue stuck to her upper one.

“Here,” a male voice said in a quiet tone. “Drink this.” When she hesitated, he added, “It’s Reno. This is water. Drink.”

Compelling her eyelids to rise, she looked into Reno’s deep blue eyes and began to cry.

“Hey,” he said, sitting on the side of the bed. “You’re okay. Nothing happened. You need to drink some water. I have some aspirin here too.”

She took the water and drank. When she held out her hand, he shook two aspirin tablets into it. She downed those with another gulp of water.

“Good water.” She flinched. Speaking made the chisel in her head work harder. “What happened?”

“Do you remember anything?”

She shook her head…another mistake. She slammed her eyes shut. “Not much.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Reno said. “Can you drink a little more?”

When she opened her eyes, he held the glass up to her lips. Her gaze fell on his knuckles with their cuts and bruises everywhere. She grabbed his hand.

“What did you do?”

He kissed her forehead. “A bastard tried to hurt the woman I love. He won’t be doing that again. Now get some sleep.”

He started to stand but she tightened her hold. “Stay. Don’t leave me. I’m scared. I don’t know why though.”

He nodded and leaned down to pull off his boots. Then he slid onto the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her. “Sleep.”

The next time she woke, the late afternoon sun shone through the window. Her head hurt but not as much. She rolled her head to the side and stared into Reno’s face. He smiled and her heart jumped in excitement.

“Hi.” He brushed the hair off her face. “Feel better?”

“Yeah.” She looked around. “Your house?”

“Yes.”

“You brought me here?”

“I did.”

“What happened? I don’t remember much from last night.”

“Some guy slipped a drug into your drink. One of the girls at the next table saw it but couldn’t stop you in time. She told me, I told Darren and then we were all headed outside.”

Picking up his bruised hand, she brought it to her lips and kissed it. “You beat him up. I kind of remember that.”

“Yeah. I kind of beat him up. And that was before the sheriff’s department hauled his ass off to jail.”

“I’m sorry, Reno.”

“For what? For leaving me last year? For leaving me this year? For making me beat up some guy in Leo’s parking lot while all my friends cheered? For scaring me to death when I saw that asshole pushing you into a truck? For making me so miserable without you that I wanted to die?”

She couldn’t help the smile that twitched at the corners of her lips. “Yeah. All that.”

“I’ve missed you.”

“And yet you never called.”

“The phone lines go both ways, Mags.”

“I was doing what I thought you wanted.”

“You thought I wanted you to rip out my heart and grind it under your heel? Man, I need to work on my communication skills.” He caught her chin between his thumb and finger and lifted her head until their gazes met. “I love you. Didn’t you hear me say that?”

“I heard you but—”

“You didn’t believe me.”

She shook her head. “It’s not that. I knew being married or even tied down to one girl at this point in your life isn’t what you wanted. It wasn’t last year and it isn’t this year. Your focus is getting the D&R up and running, not trying to make a relationship work. It wasn’t fair to either of us to keep on the way we were going.”

Falling in love with Reno, a man who she knew wasn’t in for the long term, was exactly what her mother had done when she’d fallen in love with Zeb. From her perspective, a relationship with Reno was a dead-end road. So she’d done what any sane person would do when on a dead-end road. She’d turned around and gotten off that road.

His chuckle was one of frustration. “Do you know how many years, how many women I told that I wasn’t going to marry or settle down for years? Scads. And you are the only one who believed me. The only one who didn’t try to convince me to change my mind. You took what I said at face value.”

“When I thought I might be pregnant, I hated myself. You didn’t have to tell me that you’d take responsibility. I knew you would. I knew you were that kind of guy, but damn it, Reno. I didn’t want you to have to change your whole life plan because of a mistake. It wasn’t right to you.

“But on the other hand, I didn’t want to have a child who wouldn’t know his or her father. The conflicting sides were tearing me apart. So when the pregnancy tests were all negative, I knew I had to leave. That it was the best thing I could do for you. And when I told you at the wedding that there was no baby, I thought you looked relieved.”

“You’re an idiot.” His words held no fire. “I love you. I loved you last summer when you left. I loved you a month ago when you ran. Do you not understand? I want you with me, in my life, in my bed. Hell, Magda, I had even thought to myself that if you weren’t pregnant I’d do everything in my power to get you pregnant if that’s what it took to keep you.”

“You did not.”

“I did. Scout’s honor.”

“You weren’t a scout, but you are a sexist pig.”

“Guilty on both accounts.” He pulled her into his arms. “I want you here with me. I want you with me for the rest of our lives. Plans are not chiseled into stone like the Ten Commandments. They have to change to accommodate the twists and turns that life throws us. Was I relieved that you weren’t pregnant? A little, but not because I don’t want children with you. I do, someday. But because I am a selfish bastard I wanted you all to myself for a couple of years before I had to share you with our children.”

Hot tears trickled down her cheeks. “So where do we go from here?”

“I’d say to bed, but we’re already there.”

She chuckled, reached up and bopped him on the back of the head. “I’m serious.”

“Are you going to run again? I have to know, Magda. I can’t take you going in and out of my life like a yo-yo.”

“You really want me to stay?”

“No. I want you to want to stay. I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to. You’re smart and independent. You have to decide what you want. I can only tell you how I feel. I’m in love with you. Every part of me loves every part of you. When you’re with me, I know I can take on the world. Without you, I’m not all I can be. You give me strength. Your faith in me gives me faith in me. Tell me what you want.”

Magda paused, trying to find the right words. “I’m only twenty-four years old, but in some ways, I’ve faced more difficult times in my life than women twice my age. Zeb was the first person I trusted to not throw me away. My mother loved me, but I think that sometimes when she looked at me, she saw me as the reason her life was tough. You know when Zeb found me I was living on the streets, right? Doing some drugs, just getting by. You know all that, right?”

“I know what you’ve told me. I thank God every day that Zeb found you and dragged you back.”

“Zeb didn’t like what he saw when he found me, but he didn’t judge me either. He didn’t like what I was doing, but that didn’t stop him from loving me. I knew I could depend on him for whatever I needed. Trust is hard for me, Reno. So many people have promised me things that never happened. I’ve been told that I’m loved before, but the person always had an underlying reason for those words. Sometimes it was a cut of my drugs. Sometimes it was some guy trying to get in my pants. They were full of bullshit. I knew it. I never bought their story.”

She sat up and turned until she could look in his eyes. “When you told me that you loved me, I was walking out the door. Part of me wanted to believe you, but the part of me who remembered all the users from my past scoffed. I was afraid you were saying that just so I’d keep warming your bed and cooking your meals. And the thought of tying myself to another person scares the crap out of me.”

He nodded. “I can see that. I’m not good with words and emotions.”

“You’re doing a great job right now.”

“Right now I’m desperate. The only woman I’ve ever really loved is sitting here with me, judging me, judging the future we might have together. And I don’t know what to say to her. I’ve never been one to say I love you to a lot of women. Well, if you don’t count high school and the getting-into-the-pants deal.”

She snorted. “You’re a guy. What can I say?”

“I hadn’t planned to fall for you. It was supposed to be fun and games and then…”

“Memorial Day and the nookie on the tree.”

“Yeah. I looked at you and I knew. You were somebody special. You weren’t like all the rest. But then you left and I convinced myself that it’d been lust. At least I told myself that.”

“I loved you then.”

His face lit up in a smile. “You did?”

“Yeah. And it scared the crap out of me. I was falling for a cowboy, just like my mother did. A cowboy who wasn’t looking for love, just a good time, exactly like my mother did. I knew if I stayed, I would be headed down the same road my mother took, and I couldn’t do that.”

“Would you have come back if Zeb hadn’t had his heart attack?”

“I don’t know. Would you have come to look for me if I hadn’t?”

“Yes.”

“That simple? Just yes?”

He nodded. “I’d have found some excuse, but yeah, I’d have looked for you.” He paused and then said, “And so we’ve come full circle. I’ve laid my heart out for you. I love you and I want to be with you, but more importantly, I want you to be happy.”

“I love you. I want you to find the success with the D&R that you wanted. I want to be a part of that. I want to stay.”

“And marriage? Will you marry me?”

“Now? Or when you’re thirty-five?”

“We can wait until I’m thirty-five. That’s fine. However, the two or three kids we will have by then might rather their parents be married instead of shacking up.”

She laughed. “You think?”

“I know. I think I might employ the Sarah Jane Mackey plan.”

“Punch holes in the condoms?” She snickered.

“If that’s what it takes.” He took both her hands in his. “I don’t want to wait to marry you. Not a year. Not a month. Not a day. I can’t marry you fast enough. Don’t think of it as tying yourself to me. Think of marriage to me as giving our kids the same last name.”

“Porchia is going to be mad that I’m not going into partnership with her at the bakery. That’s what I proposed to her, but having to be at the bakery at four a.m. makes driving from here every day unthinkable.”

“Wrong, Ms. Smartypants. She knew that’d never work out. She told Darren she’d never seen a sadder person than when you walked in the door that day.”

“Oh Lord.” Magda closed her eyes in embarrassment. “I must have been a total wreck.”

“According to my brother, I’ve been a total horse’s rear since you left. I know for a fact that last night was a complete setup by the two of them. Darren said they’d had all they could take of us both moping around.”

“I don’t know whether to kill them or kiss them.”

“Don’t worry. One day they’ll both fall in love and then we’ll have the fun of sitting back and watching them suffer.”

“Think so?”

“Oh, I know so. Don’t know who each of them will end up with, but you and I will be holding hands and enjoying the show.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“So,” Reno drew out. “Marriage. You going to do this with me?”

“Is that a proposal?”

“It is.”

“Hmm…let me think.”

He tackled her and dragged her down on the bed. “Will you marry me, love of my life?”

She sobered as she realized the implications of her answer. Everything would change between them. But there were no guarantees in life. Life could change on one word, and she had to have faith it was the right word.

And so she gave him her answer. “Yes.”

He covered her face with light kisses. Between the caresses with his mouth, he smiled, his eyes glowing with elation.

Then he placed his lips over her heart and lingered there. “I’m in your heart.”

She nodded. “As deeply as possible.”

“I want us to get tattoos. I want your name over my heart and mine over yours.” He took her hand and laid it over his heart. “This might be moving my blood but it belongs to you. It’s only fair it bear your name.”

“You’ve had my heart for a long time,” she replied. “Be careful with it. It’s the only one I have.”

“Until the day I die.”

They sealed their pact with long kisses and longer touches and strokes.

Once again, c
hange was coming to Magda’s life, and this time, she could hardly wait to see what fate had in store for them.

About the Author

Cynthia D’Alba was born and raised in a small Arkansas town. After being gone for a number of years, she’s thrilled to be making her home back in Arkansas living in a vine-covered cottage on the banks of an eight-thousand acre lake. When she’s not reading or writing or plotting, she’s doorman for her two dogs, cook, housekeeper and chief bottle washer for her husband and slave to a noisy messy parrot. She loves to chat online with friends and fans. You can find her most days at
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