The Lawman's Little Surprise (8 page)

The next thing he knew, someone was pounding on the door to his apartment. Pulled from a dream that didn't promise a happy ending, he was disoriented as fragments of it kept hammering at his conscious mind.

“I'm coming,” he shouted as he threw the covers back and pulled on a pair of jeans.

“Are you okay?” Ernie asked, when Morgan opened the door.

Morgan dragged a hand through his hair as Ernie stepped inside and closed the door. “Yeah. I had…I had a dream.”

Ernie studied him closely. “Must've been a doozy. Want to talk about it?”

Morgan shook his head. “It's pretty much gone from my mind.”

“Well, that's good. Harold woke me. Said your hollerin' woke him and Elaine. It's a miracle nobody else heard you.”

Nodding, Morgan ran both hands down his face. “I'm okay. Go on back to bed. I'll go apologize to Harold and Elaine.”

“You can do it in the morning. I sent them back to bed. Are you sure you're okay?”

“Yeah. Nothing to worry about.”

Ernie continued to scrutinize him, but finally shrugged. “See you in the morning, then.”

“Okay.”

When Ernie was gone, Morgan sank to the sofa, his head in his hands. Instead of the dream being gone, the fragments had come together. In the dream, John had somehow managed to disarm him and held a small child. The gun was pointed at the little boy's head. Morgan's little boy.

Trish, along with Hettie and Aggie, stayed behind Morgan as he cleared a path through the teeming crowd of travelers in the Will Rogers World Airport. By some miracle, they weren't late, even though Aggie had nearly backed out at the last minute. Trish was certain there would be more trouble before boarding and prayed Hettie would be able to keep Aggie calm and get her on the ship the next morning.

“We
would
have to pick the worst day of the year to travel,” Aggie complained.

Morgan turned his head to look back at her. “Aggie, you're getting on that plane. And I don't want to hear that you gave Hettie any trouble at the ship.”

“Or you'll what?” she asked.

“You don't want it to be known in town what a coward you are, do you?”

“Morgan,” Trish warned. She was almost afraid he'd do it. She hadn't seen him since he'd hurried out on a call during the New Year's Eve party two days ago. And today he was far from being in a sunny mood.

“Don't worry, Trish. He wouldn't do that,” Aggie said, continuing her argument with him.

His scowl was proof of his foul mood. “Wouldn't I?”

Aggie slowed her steps and leaned close to Trish as Morgan continued on ahead of them. “What's his problem?”

Trish didn't have a clue, and his attitude was beginning to irritate her. “You know how he is, Aunt Aggie.”

Grunting, Aggie made a face. “It's no wonder you don't want to marry him.”

Trish nearly stumbled. How did her aunt know that? “I don't recall saying anything like that.”

“Didn't have to,” Aggie replied. “You've avoided him like the plague since you've been back.”

“That doesn't mean—” Trish pressed her lips together, hoping her aunt hadn't heard her. Was she actually going to say she
did
want to marry him?

Luckily Aggie didn't notice as she continued. “Except the night before last. Care to share what that was all about?”

“Just being friendly to keep gossip at a minimum,” she answered.

Hettie must have been listening. “More of that will only fuel the fire. Although I will say that it didn't look to me like it was cozy in any way. And just where did the two of you run off to?”

“We had some things to discuss.” Trish tried for her most mulish expression, hoping they wouldn't continue to question her.

“Here we are,” Morgan announced from several feet ahead of them, saving her from having to answer Hettie.

They'd reached the gate where they would part ways for the flight. Trish was relieved she wouldn't have to spend the next nine days under their scrutiny. She
sometimes thought they already suspected something was up. It was the truth, but she'd wait to tell them after they returned home. No sense in giving her aunt an excuse to back out on the verge of their trip.

“Don't forget to call from your hotel tonight,” Trish said as she hugged Hettie first. “And don't stay out all night seeing the sights in Miami. You board early tomorrow.”

“Early to bed, I promise.” Hettie stepped back so Trish could be enveloped in her aunt's familiar motherly embrace.

Tears stung Trish's eyes. She would miss Aunt Aggie almost as much as she missed Kate. “Please, please have a good time,” she whispered.

“Hettie won't let me do otherwise,” Aggie assured her. “Don't you fret about it. I'll behave myself.”

Trish laughed and stepped out of her arms. “That's something I'd like to see.”

Aggie frowned, and then burst out laughing. “If you talk to Kate, tell her thanks. You're right, this is a grand opportunity, and I shouldn't grouse about it. It's just—”

“I know,” Trish said. “You're not used to being away from home, but I also know you'll have a wonderful time if you just relax and let it happen. That's what Kate and I want.”

Morgan approached but kept his distance. “They're calling for passengers to board. You'd better get a move on, Aggie.”

After Aggie had given Morgan a pat on the cheek, she and Hettie headed for the line forming at the gate, tickets and boarding passes in hand.

Trish waved and blew kisses to both women before
they ducked inside the tunnel and disappeared, while Morgan stood next to her. Feeling mixed emotions about the two women who meant the most to her being gone, she turned to Morgan, hoping her voice wouldn't betray her.

“We can leave now.”

He nodded and turned back to go the way they'd come. “Is there anything you need to stop for before we head home?”

Suddenly Trish wished they'd taken two cars to the airport. She'd forgotten she'd have to share the ride home with a man in a sour mood. She longed to tell him that he should be happy. She wasn't going to tie him down to a life with a family he obviously didn't want. But she couldn't form the words.

“No, there's nowhere I need to go, except home.” She could feel him watching her, but she didn't look up.

“You're sure you don't want to stay at the Commune?”

Nodding, she sighed. Were they going to get into it about that, too? “I'm positive. There's no need. I'll be fine at the farm.”

“I never thought you wouldn't be.”

Surprised, she tried for a smile, not completely trusting what he said.

They were well on the road home before either of them spoke again, except for some civil discussion on the traffic. It was as if they were strangers, trying to fill in the silence that separated them.

“About what we were discussing the other night…” Morgan began, and then hesitated.

It was the last thing Trish wanted to talk about. “There's plenty of time to discuss those things.” Before
he could say anything, she continued. “I know it was a shock to you. It certainly was to me. It still hasn't completely sunk in that I'm—that there'll be a baby in my life in only a few months. Now that Kate's wedding is over and the holidays are past, there'll be time to consider everything. Maybe once school is back in session in a few days, life will be closer to normal.” At least that's what she hoped.

“I guess there are a lot of things to consider,” he said, his eyes on the road ahead. He slid a quick look her way. “But you don't have to do it alone.”

“Alone as in pregnant and unmarried? I will be fine.” She stared at her hands folded in her lap. “Times have changed. Single women raise children without a whisper or a raised eyebrow, although it won't be like that in Desperation.”

His fingers tightened on the steering wheel, so tight she could see his knuckles whiten. “Is that what's bothering you the most? What people will think?”

“What I worry the most about is Aunt Aggie. No matter what, there will be gossip.”

“I wouldn't worry about Aggie. She knows how to put a stop to that sort of thing.”

“She's not as tough as you think she is.” Morgan hadn't seen the softer side of Aunt Aggie. How many nights had she rocked either Kate or her in her arms those first months after they'd come to live with her? Aggie's patience with her nieces had no limit. She'd taught Kate to work the farm. On Kate's demand, of course. And Aunt Aggie had done everything to make sure both girls received a college education, something she often said she regretted not having. College hadn't been a priority in her day.

“I just don't want to rush into anything, that's all,” Trish explained. “I don't want either of us to regret anything.”

“I won't let that happen.”

Knowing he meant what he said, but that saying it didn't make it so, she let it drop. “I still have to tell Hettie, too.”

Morgan had that brooding look on his face and refused to look at her. “They may not like that we aren't getting married.”

“It's our decision,” she replied. “They'll accept it, sooner or later.”

They rode the rest of the way in total silence. She thought about asking him where he'd gone when he left the party on New Year's Eve, but knowing it was a call, she was certain he wouldn't tell her. He never had before, and he hadn't changed, except maybe to become even more secretive.

When he dropped her at the farm, she thanked him, and he reminded her to call if she needed anything. She was relieved he hadn't suggested staying at the Commune again. At least at the farm she would have the solitude she needed to think and make plans. Unless Morgan professed a desire to be involved in her life and the baby's, she suspected she was on her own.

 

“I'
LL SEE YOU
F
RIDAY
,” Morgan said, shaking the high school principal's hand.

“We're always glad to see you,” Jeff Ketcham told him. “When you're here, the whole building is as close to quiet as it gets.”

Morgan laughed. “Yeah, the law seems to do that to
some people, especially the younger ones.” He said good bye and left the high school, ready for the next stop.

At the beginning of each semester he made it his job to check in with the principals of all three school buildings, high school, middle school and elementary, to schedule dates in the future to visit. Because the elementary was closer, he chose to go there next to set up the day and time for his second-semester visit.

He knew exactly where Trish's second-grade classroom was. He'd visited it often in the past, and the kids were always excited to see him. Trish always had been, too. He doubted she'd feel the same now.

He parked at the back of the building before he realized there wouldn't be a way for him to get to the office without passing Trish's room. With a shrug, he decided it didn't matter.

And that's exactly where he was when he came to a stop. From the doorway of Trish's classroom, he could see her getting the room ready for the return of her students after their winter holiday vacation. He watched as she hung colorful pictures and cutouts on the walls and remembered what it was like to be a kid returning to school after a long Christmas break. He even remembered his second-grade teacher, Mrs. Thurgood, but she wasn't anything like Trish. Did the kids know how lucky they were to have Trish for their teacher? He doubted it. Maybe they'd realize it when they grew up.

Just watching her made him long for the time before he'd canceled their wedding. Before John had gone on his worst drinking binge. John's wife had called the station that day, and Morgan had gone out to check on things. She'd been scared and crying on the phone, saying John was going to kill her. When Morgan arrived,
John was wielding a pistol and shouting at the top of his lungs. Morgan tried to calm him down, but the next thing he knew, John had him around the neck with the gun pointed at his head. Morgan hadn't been sure he'd make it out alive. And that's when he knew he couldn't marry Trish and subject her to life as a cop's wife. Bad things happened in small towns, too, just not nearly as often as they did in big cities.

While it was true that he was relieved that Trish hadn't insisted they get married, there were times when he wondered if what they were doing was the right thing. The minute he started thinking that, he reminded himself of what could happen. That stopped the wondering.

“Morgan! You scared me to death. What are you doing here?”

He didn't realize Trish had turned and seen him until she spoke. “Sorry, just on my way to set up this semester's visits.”

She looked especially pretty, with a blush of surprise on her cheeks, but he suspected it was being pregnant that was the real difference he saw. She cried easily, too, he'd noticed, but he wouldn't dare point it out to her. He'd seen other changes in her as well, but he didn't think being pregnant had brought them on. She had a more independent attitude, sometimes to the point of being stubborn, since returning from her book tour, and more like her sister and aunt than he ever would have imagined. Not that it was bad, but it wasn't the Trish he knew.

“It looks good,” he said, with a nod of his head toward her classroom.

Smiling, she turned and surveyed her work. “I think so, too. I hope the students like it.”

“They will.” When she turned back as if expecting him to say more, he decided it was time to move on. “Well, I need to check in at the office and see when they have me scheduled.”

She nodded, as if dismissing him, so he turned and made his way to the school's office. “Hi, Sadie,” he greeted the secretary. “Is Lorene available?”

Looking up from a stack of papers on the long counter, she flashed him a bright smile. “Hey, Morgan. Yes, she's in her office. We were just talking about when you might be dropping by.”

“Can I go on in?” he asked, indicating the door to the principal's office to his right.

“Sure, sure. She's on the phone with Bill, but she won't mind.”

He took the few steps to the office door and opened it wide enough to see inside. Lorene Hartman sat behind a desk piled high with papers and folders, the phone receiver at her ear. Looking up, she waved him inside. “No, Bill, get the nondiet soda. I hate that diet stuff. And tell Jenny to go with you to the store. She knows more about buying groceries than you do. Besides, she's sixteen and should be doing something besides running around town with her friends.”

Morgan couldn't stop the chuckle that rumbled through him. Lorene always had a way of saying what needed to be said, no matter who she was talking to. She was straightforward and honest, but some people complained she was too much so. He didn't agree.

She groaned as she set the handset on the cradle. “Teenagers and men, the bane of my existence.” Then
she smiled before saying, “Now you know why I'm an elementary school principal.”

“I know you love your family.”

“Most days,” she said with a sigh. “Today? Not so much. But I'm glad you're here. We need to go over the dates when you'll be visiting and which grades. Go ahead, make yourself comfortable while I pull the file.”