Day Of Reckoning Part 21

Over the days that followed, she thought a lot about what her father had asked her. Could she ever go back to that house? She felt torn between the years of happiness she'd known there and the horror. And yet the house was her last link to her mother.

She had come to grips with her mother's death, now at peace with the knowledge that her mother would never have left them the way she had if she'd had a choice.

The day before her dad was to be released from the hospital, he'd patted the side of his bed for her to sit. "I need to ask you what you want to do with the house. If you still feel the same way, I'll sell it and you'll never have to come back here. I'll go to Seattle and get a place up there closer to you. Just tell me what you want, sweetheart."

"Excuse me," Ford said from the doorway.

Roz turned and gave him an impatient look. Now was not the time to interrupt.

"We need to talk," Ford said. "Now." He looked past her to Liam. "You understand?"

"I don't understand," Roz said as Ford walked her out of the hospital.

"Liam does," he said and opened his pickup door for her.

"Where are we going? I thought you just wanted to talk? Why can't we talk right here?"

"Get in, Roz." It was the first time he'd called her that.

She slid in, her heart hammering so hard she just knew he could hear it. He had been there for her over the days since the attic, but not once had he tried to kiss her, or make love to her, or even say anything about the afternoon they'd spent in a cave in the Cascades.

"I'm hungry," he said as he slid behind the wheel.

She watched in amazement as he drove to Betty's and got out. She followed him, not knowing what else to do. Was this his idea of talking?

Only a few locals were in the cafe. She told herself she wasn't hungry. Her stomach was in knots. She figured Ford just wanted to tell her he was leaving. Why couldn't he just do that in the hospital hallway?

The smell of freshly baked pies drifted through the air. "I'll take a piece of banana cream," she told Betty, surprising herself. But she remembered something Charity had told her about banana cream pie.

Ford lifted a brow, then ordered an omelette. "Banana cream pie for breakfast?" he inquired.

She nodded. "It works for my friend, Charity." Hand trembling, she took a bite of the pie Betty slid in front of her and closed her eyes. Nothing. Just darkness behind her eyelids.

"Rozalyn?"

She opened her eyes, disappointed.

"There is something I didn't tell you."

She held her breath.

"When I was nine, my dad, my biological dad, John Wells, took me back into the Cascades with him on one of his Bigfoot searches. He left me alone while he climbed up to check out a cave. I saw something." He glanced toward the window. She followed his gaze to the dark green of the forest just across the street and beyond, miles and miles of wilderness. "I saw a huge creature covered with hair. It was watching me from the foliage. I have never been so terrified in my life."

He shifted his gaze back to her face. "That is, until I came into that attic and saw that woman holding a gun to your head."

She stared at him, not sure which revelation shocked her the most. "So you have known all along that Bigfoot exists?"

He looked surprised, then laughed. "I'm trying to tell you something here."

"You wanted my father's photographs to prove Bigfoot existed."

He blinked. "Yeah, I guess I did and when they didn't- Listen, I'm having a hard enough time saying this-"

"You came up here hoping for Bigfoot bones. I know how disappointed you must be," she said. "But you wouldn't have sold them to the highest bidder."

He stared at her. "How do you know that?"

She smiled. "I know."

He laughed again and ran a hand over his hair to brush it back from his forehead. "I guess I'll never know but once I met you-"

"That's why you never went with your father again, isn't it?" she said suddenly, excited. "You never told him what you saw! And he never understood why-"

He pushed off the booth, standing to lean over the table and kiss her.

She gasped in surprise.

"That is the only way I've found to shut you up," he said. "I heard what your father said about your mother and the house. I have to know something. Do you think you could live there?"

She was still stunned by the kiss. "What?"

"Let me put it this way. If I told you right now that I love you and don't want to spend a day of my life without you, would you want to stay in Timber Falls?"

She stared at him. "Are you asking me-" She couldn't bring herself to finish. She grabbed her fork, took a bite of her pie and closed her eyes tightly. And there he was. Ford Lancaster dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt sitting on the front steps of the Timber Falls house holding...holding a baby!

"Roz? In my inept way I'm trying to ask you to marry me and tell you that I'd stay here with you, if you'd have me. If it's what you want."

Her eyes flew open. The look on his face made her laugh out loud. He really thought she might turn him down? Were all men fools at heart? "Ford, oh Ford, yes!"

She slid from the booth to throw herself in his arms.

"Say the words, Rozalyn."

And she said the words she thought she would never hear come out of her mouth. "Ford Lancaster, I love you."

OF COURSE, her father was ecstatic. Florie had been coming by every day to see how he was doing, as had Charity, who also had good news. Mitch had finally asked her to marry him and he was recovering nicely from his gunshot wounds.

Jesse had arrested Wade after his wounds had healed enough to leave the hospital. Daisy was filing for divorce. Their daughter Desiree was raising h.e.l.l at the Duck Inn. Nothing new there, Charity said.

The evidence Roz and Ford had collected was turned over to Jesse. The DNA on the cigarette b.u.t.ts were compared to Drew's along with the tread on the boots. Both were a match. Drew had been doing his mother's dirty work since he was a boy so it came as no surprise he'd started the rock slide to kill Roz. Or that he'd staged the fake suicide at Lost Creek Falls.

Once Liam was well enough, he told Roz that a neighbor's dog had been digging in the garden and turned up the bones. That dog, Liam swore, had saved his life. If he hadn't found the old bones, he was certain that Emily, as he knew her, would have poisoned him.

He'd had doubts almost immediately about his hasty marriage. But when he'd found the bones, then later discovered rat poison in a drawer in the kitchen, he'd made that call to Roz. He had planned to get a divorce. But Emily wasn't going to let him leave. He'd confronted her. Of course, she'd denied everything. He had told her he had contacted his lawyer and that if anything should happen to him, like a poisoning, she would be the first person the police would come looking for. He'd tried to leave, but of course, Drew stopped him.

As it was, she drugged him, obviously realizing she had to move fast. He pretended to be out, then got to the phone. When he couldn't reach the sheriff, he'd hit redial since he could barely see. It was John Wells's number. That's why he'd sounded like he was drunk.

Then Drew had hit him with something. It was the last thing he remembered. He wasn't surprised that Emily had come up with the story about him falling off a cliff. She would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for Roz coming to Timber Falls.

"Thank you," her dad had said, taking her hand. "I know how hard it was for you to come back here." He was saddened to hear that his old friend John Wells had died but he had known he was ill. "I'm just glad I got to meet his son," Liam said to Ford. "I owe you a huge debt for saving my daughter."

"It was my honor," Ford said. "I had a lot of practice. By the way, your truck and camper turned up. Some Bigfoot hunters found it hidden a few miles from here." He figured Emily had wanted him in the guest house so she and Drew could keep an eye on him. Her mistake.

The disk Ford had started writing his article on had also turned up in Drew's things. Drew had made a copy of the article and left it in the guest house that morning for Roz to find. As Roz watched, Ford had destroyed the disk and the article. She would never know what he had planned to do before he came to Timber Falls. All she knew was that she loved him and he loved her, and anyone who knew anything knew that love transformed a person. Charity Jenkins would attest to that. Mitch Tanner, too.

Roz and Ford went over to her house later that day. Roz stared at the place. Funny, it looked different now that it was empty. Ford had seen that everything had been cleaned out that would even remind her of her former stepfamily. The house looked a little sad to her. Like a house just crying out for a family that could love it.

Ford took her around to the back. The widow's walk was gone. He'd hired some carpenters with her father's approval to remove it. And the garden was being plowed up. The state investigation lab had been forced to dig up most of it just in case any more bodies were buried there.

Fortunately there weren't.

"I'm thinking a swimming pool," Ford said looking at the torn-up ground.

Roz nodded. She liked that idea. She turned to look back at the house. She knew she would grieve her mother's death wherever she lived, but here, she could hold on to all those years of wonderful memories. Here she could make new memories with her own family, her own children. And Charity's, she thought with a smile. Her mother and father had always thought Roz's and Charity's children would play here just as their mothers had.

Yes, Roz could see that happening-and maybe sooner than anyone thought.

"The first thing is paint, inside and out, bright colors," she said. "And big pots of flowers for the front porch. And we should throw a party. Yes," she said warming to the idea. "This town needs a party after everything that has happened."

Ford smiled over at her. "That's my girl."

She took his hand and they walked back toward the house. She could already hear the animated voices echoing through the old place, and almost hear hers and Ford's children running through the long hallways, laughing and calling to each other. Yes, this house would again ring with laughter. She and Ford would see to it.

It was strange but as Roz entered the house, she felt a warm breeze touch her cheek. She stopped and in that instant, she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder and heard her mother whisper in her ear, "Welcome home, dear."

Books by B.J. Daniels

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE.

312-ODD MAN OUT

353-OUTLAWED!

417-HOTSHOT P.I.

446-UNDERCOVER CHRISTMAS

493-A FATHER FOR HER BABY

533-STOLEN MOMENTS

555-LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

566-INTIMATE SECRETS

585-THE AGENT'S SECRET CHILD

604-MYSTERY BRIDE

617-SECRET BODYGUARD

643-A WOMAN WITH A MYSTERY

654-HOWLING IN THE DARKNESS

687-PREMEDITATED MARRIAGE

716-THE MASKED MAN