“Of course.” Mary felt heartbroken, and it was even worse to know that she had nobody but herself to blame. She was breaking her own heart. And Judy’s.
Suddenly Mary’s cell phone pinged with an incoming text, and she pulled it out of her bag and checked the screen. The text was from Simon, and it read:
Can you come to the hospital? No emergency but ASAP.
Mary rose instantly. “I’d better go,” she said, concerned.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Bennie lowered the car window, traveling the winding roads through the proverbial rolling hills of Pennsylvania, which really existed, dense with woods and underbrush this time of year. She’d texted Declan that she was driving out to see him, and he’d texted her back a heart emoji because he’d turned into a big mushball, which she secretly loved.
Wind blew through the open window, messing up her hair and buffeting her eardrums, a not-entirely-pleasant sensation, but at least it was fresh air. It felt good to be outside in summer, not boxed in, climate-controlled, bounded by concrete and skyscrapers. She realized she hadn’t had a vacation in years, and there were plenty of days at work when she never felt the sun, at either end of the day. Now it warmed the skin of her left forearm, resting on the side of the car, and she had to put down her visor, even with sunglasses.
She inhaled a lungful and smelled the heavy sweetness of wild honeysuckle mounded by the roadside, then brush roses that bordered people’s front yards as she passed through one small town after the next, each with colonial clapboard houses set right at the curbside, having been constructed in an era when the only thing on the road was a horse and buggy.
An hour passed, and Bennie reached Voxburg, a former mining town that held a post office, a middle school, a medium-sized office park, and an enclave of old and new homes, including the converted Victorian in which Declan rented the first floor for his law firm. It was on the far side of town, set at the top of the hill, and she pulled off the road onto its gravel driveway and traveled upward, catching sight of the place, which was lovely.
The house was a true Painted Lady, three stories of crisp white clapboard, navy-blue curlicue trim on its eaves, and a slate roof with a pointed turret in one corner, which Declan took for his own office. Bennie’s favorite feature of the house was its magnificent wraparound porch, with an old-fashioned porch swing. She reached the end of the driveway, parked next to a few other cars belonging to the dental offices on the other floors, then cut the ignition.
“Perfect timing!” Declan came through the screen door with a grin, holding two bottles of Rolling Rock by the necks.
Bennie got out of the car, her mood improving. Declan Mitchell was good-looking in a way that had never attracted her before; clean-cut with conventionally handsome features and dark hair that he kept unfashionably short. He was dressed as casually as he ever got, in a blue Oxford shirt with khakis and loafers with white socks. Declan had been a state trooper with the mounted division when she’d met him, on the other side of a case that had changed her life. They’d lost track of each other, then reconnected after he’d become a lawyer, but he still carried himself like a cop, coming off taller and less fun than he actually was. She’d fallen in love with him the first time she saw him kiss his horse.
Bennie walked to the porch. “Did you see me coming?”
“The advantage of the high ground.” Declan grinned. “I was waiting for you. I sat at the window like a dog, panting and panting.”
“Sure you were.” Bennie crossed the crunchy gravel.
“How good to see you, babe!” Declan opened his arms, wrapped them around her, and gave her a big hug, and even though she felt the cold beer bottles on her back, she wasn’t complaining.
“I missed you. It’s been, what, three weeks?”
“Tell me about it. It’s killing me.” Declan leaned over, kissing her gently, once, then again. “Oh, man. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Bennie reached out and rubbed his back, feeling her world gradually fall back into place.
“Come sit down and have a cold beer. You look like you need it.” Declan kept an arm around her, and they walked together to the porch swing, sitting down.
“I do. I’m glad you were here.” Bennie accepted the Rolling Rock and took a quick sip, which tasted delicious. She scanned the bucolic setting, a hilltop surrounded by woods, and it felt cooler this high, with a gentle breeze. Declan moved his arm around the back of the porch swing, and she felt herself relax against it like a pillow, taking another sip of beer.
“I’m glad I was too. Harrisburg drives me up the wall. I’m glad that deal’s over.”
“How’s the family?” Bennie asked, which used to be a touchy question. They had met on a criminal case, when she defended a man who had been charged with murdering Declan’s ne’er-do-well nephew. Bennie had proved her client innocent, but Declan’s attachment to his sister and her children were part of the reason their romance was long-distance.
“They’re all doing well. My sister’s clean and sober, and the kids are doing great. They’re both at a daytime baseball camp, which is cute. I go to the games.” Declan took a swig of beer. “So tell me what’s going on. I’m happy to see you but I want to hear the deal.”
“It’s a long story.”
“I got time, and the whole left side of my body feels good.” Declan smiled down at her.
“Okay, here we go.” Bennie filled him in, telling him the whole story from yesterday afternoon, since he’d been out of town and they kept missing each other, trying to connect on the phone, but failing.
“I hate to have her leave. It’s been fun, and we all get along so well. It’s actually the best situation.”
“That’s nice. Sorry you have to lose it.”
“Me, too, but that’s not the only problem.”
