Harlequin Heartwarming May 2016 Box Set (23 page)

Mac didn't believe in violence or fighting unless it was in self-defense, but heaven help him, Brice deserved that slap. And then some. They watched as Brice was hauled away.
Scum of the earth.
Mac wished he'd gotten a few punches in for all the emotional manipulation that man had subjected Tessa to. And if somehow Brice
was
being sincere about having loved her, well, then he was one messed-up man with screwy priorities.

Tessa's shoulders sank and her arms hung limp at her sides. She stood, tears streaming down her face and her chest heaving, staring in the direction they'd taken her husband, even after he had disappeared. Mac had her braced against his chest.

“Shh. It's done. You're okay,” Mac said. “Hold your breath a second. Slow your breathing. He's gone.”

She buried her face into his shoulder and another sob escaped.

“I've got you, Tess,” he said. “I've got you.”

* * *

T
ESSA
TRIED
TO
dry her cheeks with her hand and took a slow, deep breath that came out with a shudder. She couldn't find her voice, but she nodded to let Mac know she was okay and she'd heard him. He had her. Crazy Mac had her safe, supported...and he had her heart. But most of all, she had herself. She'd taken control. She'd done it. She'd brought Brice down.

Mentally, she knew his unspeakable crimes justified her actions. Emotionally she felt dirty, guilty, lost and overwhelmed by what she'd just pulled off. Where had her wedding vows gone? What happened to “in good times and bad” and “promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals”? Was she at fault for breaking those vows, or did all of this qualify as “until death do us part”? Brice had caused death. And just like Mac had said with regard to wildlife and carrying a gun, no matter how much he respected animals and did what he could to preserve them, if he was faced with a life-or-death situation, he had a right to defend himself. Brice had crossed the line first. She had a right to defend herself and all the innocents affected by his actions.

Her chest constricted. She tried to inhale but her lungs filled in short spasms. She was mourning all over again. Mourning the loss of Maria and Allan and Katia. Mourning all the elephants tortured and killed because of Brice and others like him. And mourning the loss of life as she knew it. It didn't matter that she also felt relief at finally knowing the truth or that she was freed from spending the rest of her life with the wrong man, a man who controlled her and kept her from stretching or growing. Change was scary and difficult...and unstable. But at this moment, change had never felt so right.

The warmth of Mac's hands against her back and the way her cheek fit in the crook of his neck calmed her breathing. Mac was safe. Her wild and reckless Mac was more loving and caring and safe than anyone she'd ever known. He always had been. Was this why her parents and Maria and Allan had never flinched at the risks inherent in their work? Because they had each other and because they'd found a purpose beyond their own comforts? One that overshadowed fear the way protecting Nick from that hyena or preventing Mac from doing something reckless to protect her from Brice had?

She tightened her arms around Mac and let herself sink into him. She'd never felt so open...so unguarded...so consumed by an energy so pure and alive. An energy strongly reminiscent of how she'd felt when he'd held her at her sister's funeral and how he used to make her feel—as disconcerting as it was—every time he hung around just to bother her when they were teenagers. Had that been love? Was
this
love? She'd never remotely felt this depth of emotion with Brice, even if on some level she must have loved him. Tessa buried her face in Mac's chest and breathed him in. She'd always loved Mac. As much as she resented his choices and confidence because they scared her, he was the one person who knew her sister and his brother like she did, the one person who understood why her parents were the way they were and that when she vented about their choices, it came from a place of love. He was the one person she never had to pretend for because he knew the real Tessa...even if he teased her for it. He knew. He'd been there.

But risking her feelings for him back then...admitting to them...would have meant suffering more pain if something happened to him. She would have hurt more when he left to follow his dreams.

And now...now, even though her marriage was over and she'd be signing divorce papers as soon as humanly possible, if she told Mac how she really felt, he might see himself as a rebound guy. He'd think she was the old Tessa who needed someone to make her feel safe and secure. She had learned that strength and that sense of security could only come from within. She knew she had it in her. She knew now—without a doubt—that Mac Walker had always been her soul mate. She didn't need to rely on him. She needed to love him. She didn't want him to stop taking risks. She wanted him to risk loving her back.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held tight.

“I'm sorry, Mac. I'm sorry for everything.”

“There's nothing to be sorry about, except for maybe giving me a heart attack. I was really upset when I found out you'd left the camp,” he said.

“I'm sorry. I had to do it, Mac. And you wouldn't have let me. I didn't want you hurt because of me. And I didn't want Nick left without either of us if the worst happened.”

“You took a big risk.”

“It was worth it. I understand that now. Some risks are worth it.”

The entire situation was so grim, even with their success, she didn't feel like celebrating or accepting any kind of accolades. She felt nothing but deep fatigue. Utter exhaustion. She couldn't settle the slurry of thoughts and emotions whirring through her. The realization that her life would never be the same was overwhelming.

“You're right, it was. And I wouldn't have let you do it,” he said, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. “But I have to admit that you were quite impressive in there. You've gotten pretty gutsy, haven't you?” Mac teased, tapping her nose. She almost smiled, but the idea that he'd seen and heard everything that had gone on between her and Brice made her uncomfortable.

“Mac, you do realize all of it was an act, right? Everything I said to him. All of it.”

He tipped her chin up and looked into her eyes. Tessa wasn't sure if it was the rush of the situation or her imagination playing tricks, but something in the way his blue eyes took her in while the sun-kissed lines around them relaxed made her feel adored and—she wished—
loved
. But how could he possibly love her back? Friendship, raising Nick together...that was different. That was about caring. She didn't just care for Mac.

“I know it was. I also understand that in spite of everything, you and Brice have a history. I get that. You had a life with him. This must be so tough on you. You've been let down.”

But her life with Brice had been missing something fundamental from the start. With Brice, she'd never really risked her heart because she'd never fully given it to him. Less than a year into her marriage, she'd known she hadn't married her soul mate, but he was kind to her and she'd made her choice and wasn't about to admit to her sister that she'd been right. Maybe it wasn't simply that Maria and Allan didn't like Brice. Maybe they could see there was something between Tessa and Mac that neither was willing to admit.

“We have a history, too, Mac,” Tessa said.

“We do. I hope it's not just history.”

“We'll work as a team. We won't let Maria and Allan down. We'll make sure Nick knows we love him.” They'd always have a future together because of their nephew.

“What about making sure
you're
loved?” Mac said.

Tessa licked her lips. What was he saying? The corner of his mouth turned up and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a coin.

“How about a game of ‘Get Tess to Confess'? You see, back in high school there was one ‘truth' question I never had the guts to ask because I knew I wasn't the kind of guy you wanted.”

Mac hadn't had the guts to do something? She never would have believed that. He used to flirt with girls all the time. But the way he was looking at her right now weakened her knees.

“What question was that?”

He tossed the coin and slapped it on his arm.

“If it's heads, you have to answer the question, ‘Do you love Mac Walker? For richer or for poorer?' and if it's tails, I tell you how much I love you and always have.”

He uncovered the coin. Tails. He seemed nervous. He picked up the coin and put it in her palm, then held her face in his hands.

“I confess that I love you and always have, Tessa. Be with me. I know a Serengeti camp probably isn't your idea of a nice life, but I love you and can only hope you'd give it a chance. Give
me
a chance. We can make it work for us and for Nick. I want nothing more than for us to be together forever.” He kissed her and it was powerful and breathtaking and full of promise. A kiss that wiped away all the years they'd lost and the heartache they'd endured. A kiss that cleared away the storm.

She caught her breath, then moved the coin to her arm with the heads facing up. Mac grinned.

“I confess that I love Mac and always have, for richer or poorer, for all he stands for, for who he is...as he is...wild life and all.” This time she kissed
him
to seal her truth.

“You love me? Huh?” Mac said, his cocky edge back.

“Yeah, I do. And I have another confession.”

“What's that?”

“Living here with you is my idea of the perfect life.”

“Does that mean after you're a free woman, you'd be willing to risk giving up that freedom again?”

“Mac, spending forever with you would
be
freedom. Freedom of the heart.”

“I want nothing more than forever with you too, Tess.” And with that, he kissed her. The kind of kiss she'd only ever experienced in her dreams. The kind only soul mates could share.

And all that mattered now was that they would finally be sharing the rest of their lives together, in Kenya, with love.

EPILOGUE

Five months later...

T
ESSA
LEANED
BACK
against Mac's knees as he sat on the wooden steps of Anna and Jack's house at
Busara watching Nick, Pippa and Haki, along with Ben and Hope's children,
Maddie, who was quite the talker, Chad and Ryan. Ryan, still a toddler, was
safely perched on top of Ben's shoulders. Hope was standing in the courtyard
area closer to the elephant pens, keeping an eye on all the kids. Tessa had also
had the chance to meet more of their friends. Dr. David Alwanga, a colleague of
Jack's who worked in research at the university in Nairobi—who also happened to
be Hope's brother—had come to visit with Hope's best friend, Chuki, his new
fiancée. Everyone who knew him called him Alwanga, except for Hope, who'd been
calling him Simba since they were kids. According to Hope, Chuki had been the
last person on earth that her brother would have imagined falling for, but there
was no arguing with love.

Tessa let Mac weave his fingers between hers and tilted her
head back to smile at him. He kissed her on the nose and rubbed his thumbs
against her skin. She loved visiting Busara almost as much as she loved calling
Camp Jamba Walker home. It wasn't that she didn't love South Africa or miss the
postcard views of beaches or rocky shores and waters that stretched to the
horizon. It was a beautiful country and it would always be a part of her, much
like her new friends, Jack and Anna, felt about America. But Kenya was home now
and she had no doubt in her mind that it was where she wanted to be and where
she was always destined stay. Just like she wholeheartedly believed that she and
Mac had always been destined for each other. They'd taken a rough path getting
there, but the journey made what they had that much sweeter.

“I don't think we've ever had this many people at Busara all at
once,” Anna said, swinging past the screen door carrying a bowl of fresh figs
and mangos for anyone who still had room in their stomachs.

Jack sat cross-legged on the porch across from Sue, waiting for
Noah to take his first steps. Sue slowly let go of Noah's chubby hands and they
waited to see if this time he'd make his way to Daddy or teeter and fall on his
butt again.

“That's true,” Jack said. “We're usually outnumbered by
elephants. They're probably wondering why the humans are multiplying so
rapidly.” He snatched a fig and held it out to Noah as bait. Noah's eyes widened
and he gurgled, reaching and leaning forward at a precarious angle without
moving his feet.

Kamau laughed.

“I'm not so sure. If you don't watch that Pippa of yours, she's
going to have them thinking
they're
human,” he
said.

Pippa was trying to demonstrate that she could teach a baby
elephant to use a spoon to scoop food from her hand.

Nick just stood there shaking his head.

“Kam, you'd better go rescue that poor elephant before he grows
up thinking spoons grow on trees in the wild,” Niara said as she sat in a chair
with a pillow behind her to rest the ache in her lower back. Her hand lay on her
growing belly. Kamau lifted her fingers to his mouth with an exaggerated bow,
gave them a kiss and lumbered off, leaving Niara glowing even more.

“Pippa knows better.” Anna sighed, watching her vivacious
little girl. “She's just showing off, especially to Nick. Have you all noticed?
She loves to challenge anyone older than her. Remember how she used to give Haki
a hard time?” she asked Niara.

“Yes. Nick's presence here is giving Haki a break from her
bossiness.” Niara chuckled. “But have you noticed how Maddie keeps looking at
Nick, too? I wonder if he realizes just how enamored they are of him.”

“A few years from now, if he's still lucky enough to have their
attention, he won't be so clueless,” Mac said.

Tessa loved that blood didn't define family. Nor did species or
race or history. Nothing but love did. All the children were considered cousins,
not just friends, whether blood-related or not. Everyone was family here. Nick
had gotten to know Ben and Hope's kids well because of a class he was taking a
few times a week in Nairobi in the same school Maddie attended. He was actually
adapting really well to virtual school online, with a few extracurricular
activities with kids his age in the area thrown in. So far, so good. The
internet really did open up possibilities. Rustic life with modern conveniences.
But she and Mac were making sure he was living...experiencing things...and not
just hiding behind a computer screen.

“Next time, we'll all have to gather at our place,” Mugi
said.

“Absolutely. We'll have a bonfire and Mugi can tell the
children stories all night,” Kesi added. “There's room for everyone to use a
tent, so plan on an all-night gathering.”

“We could time it with Pippa's birthday. Isn't it Valentine's
Day? That's less than a month away,” Mac said.

“Sounds good to us,” Alwanga said, putting his arm around
Chuki.

“Sounds great, if that doesn't make it too chaotic for you,”
Jack said. “When's the wedding, Chuki? Mugi and Kesi won't allow tent sharing
unless we get invited to one,” Jack teased.

“Well, if they're the only couple still unmarried by the time
we have a bonfire, then they'll automatically have to take on babysitting
duties. We'll divide the children up into girl and boy tents and see which of
these two come out alive in the morning,” Kesi said. “Kind of like being thrown
in a lion's pit during Roman times.”

Everyone laughed.

“Trust me, I'll be the one to win this challenge,” Chuki said.
“This man and a herd of children? Not a chance.”

“That's probably true, but I won you,” Alwanga said with a
cocky grin. “I think I got the better deal.”

“I think I won you, too,” Chuki countered.

“Okay, you two. Enough mushiness. Set a date and get a tent,”
Anna said.

“Young love...” Kesi sighed.

Mac bent over and wrapped his arms around Tessa, pressing his
lips against her hair. Heaven help her, she wanted to get a tent with
him
right now.

“I'm really happy you're here,” he whispered.

“Me, too. I've never been so crazy happy in my life,” Tessa
said. Happy didn't come close to describing how she felt. She'd found the
perfect ending to her story and the perfect beginning for the next one.

“I heard the word
wedding
.” Hope
walked up to them holding her stepson Chad's hand to keep him from escaping like
Bakhari once had. Chad was like a mini marine on caffeine. “I keep telling Simba
and Chuki to set a date. Ben and I are proof that when it's right, it's right,
no matter how long it has been since you've met. Days or years.”

“Yeah, we have a saying in America. ‘In a New York minute.'
That's all the time it takes to know you've found ‘the one,' so I think given
how long it took to find each other again, we couldn't have gotten married soon
enough.” Jack shared a tender look with Anna.

“Well, there's also an African saying that goes, ‘Wood already
touched by fire isn't hard to set alight,'” Hope said.

Jack had mentioned that she and her brother loved seeing who
could slip the best proverb into any given situation. Since Jack and Alwanga
worked together, he'd been sucked into their wisdom challenges. Tessa had heard
so many old chestnuts in the past day, it was amusing to say the least. She
related to that last one, though. Love rekindled. It fit, even if she and Mac
hadn't realized the tension between them had stemmed from a deep-seated caring
for each other. Love in its strongest form.

“Why else do you think Tessa and Mac here already tied the
knot?” Anna grinned. “Kind of like with Jack and me. We came full circle from
being best friends back in school. I suppose sometimes it takes losing what you
have to see just how important it is to you.”

“Only we weren't exactly best friends,” Mac said. “But I'm glad
we are now.”

“Definitely,” Tessa said, though he had been a good friend all
along in an outside-the-box sort of way. But that's what she loved about Mac.
He'd never fit between the lines and never tried to, but he did fit perfectly
with her.

Her parents had even come up for the wedding. That had meant
the world to Tessa. They kept the celebration simple, in the gardens at Hodari
Lodge with everyone here today in attendance. She didn't want Brice's memory
marring any part of her new life in Kenya. Avoiding the lodge just because of
what happened there hadn't seemed right. She wasn't letting anyone control her
life like that. And she wanted to set an example for Nick in terms of not
letting the past tie you down. Thank goodness that given the situation, her
divorce had been expedited.

Brice was currently in jail. He'd been given a two-year
sentence and a fine. As Tessa learned, through the process, that was a pretty
normal sentence. A slap on the wrist considering the pain and suffering he'd
caused. But just like Ben had said, the information she had uncovered had led to
arrests at the art gallery by an undercover buyer. At least it was something.
Every arrest and every tusk confiscated made a difference.

“I saw your latest post,” Ben said. “Great job.”

She was still getting used to getting compliments from Ben.
Since he and Hope worked in Nairobi, she'd only seen him a handful of times
since his grand interrogation. The guy was a little rough around the edges, but
had a great heart. And there was no mistaking that his wife and kids really did
love him, and vice versa.

“Thanks,” Tessa said. “The website has been getting a lot of
traffic lately. I love working on it. Oh, and Anna, I can't thank you enough for
putting me in touch with that environmental postdoc from your alma mater. She
was happy to contribute an article, and I think it was responsible for an influx
of readers. Apparently, Serena Myss has quite a following.”

“I'm glad it worked out. Serena got me a lot of fund-raising
support back when Busara was at a critical point. I'd love to meet her in person
someday,” Anna said.

“Well, since my parents came here last month for Christmas,”
Jack suggested, “we can go visit them next time and let Serena know we'll be in
town. Maybe she'll write you another post in the future.”

“That would be pretty awesome,” Tessa said.

Tessa had put together an online newspaper of sorts. A website
that provided information and links to all the major conservation sites and
campaigns against wildlife trafficking, poaching, trapping or any form of
endangerment. She was using her journalism experience to report on current
events as well as writing a weekly column about life in the Serengeti. In it she
did just that—recounted her personal experiences and encounters with animals and
even plants. Now that the site had gained momentum and a reputation for drawing
in donations to wildlife and environmental organizations, she was getting some
high-profile guest contributors, too. Anna included. As diverse as the site was,
it placed an emphasis on raising public awareness of the blood ivory trade.

“Look, look, look! He's doing it!” Jack crouched down and held
his hands out.

“He's on his own,” Sue said when Noah let go of her and took
four steps toward his dad before tumbling down and bawling.

“That's my boy. Come on, buddy. You can do it,” Jack said. Oh,
the pride on his face.

“I remember Ryan's first steps,” Ben said. “Give him a few days
and you'll be coming up with innovative ways to keep him corralled. You have my
card.”

Hope had told Tessa some hilarious stories about Ben's
marine-influenced parenting tactics when she'd first met him.

Drops of rain pitter-pattered against the roof of the house and
dappled the dry ground. The kids came running up the steps and into the house
and everyone else followed. Tessa grabbed the fruit bowl for Anna and hurried in
from the afternoon shower. She set it on the dining table and stopped to glance
through the window and across the valley to the herds that passed in peace,
moving on to their next grazing area, unfazed by the rain.

Sometimes it takes losing what you have to
see just how important it is to you.

Mac joined her and put his arm around her. She leaned her head
against his shoulder and looped her arm around his waist. Tonight, once they
were alone, she'd be telling him that he'd always be a wonderful uncle, but that
he was going to be a dad, too. They'd talked about it, so she knew he'd be
thrilled. Their family was growing.

Busara and all its children, human and otherwise, was a special
place, as was Camp Jamba Walker. Here, instead of the sands of her past, Tessa
had the rich earth her future would grow on. Instead of vast stretches of waters
so deep she couldn't see what lay beneath, she had an endless view of the
savanna, spotted with trees whose branches reached toward the horizon and
mountains that welcomed clouds as they rolled in and rivers that wove their way
through the landscape with their assurance that new life would come. It was all
here—from snow to sun and desert to forests and death to life—and it was all
intricately and, most of all, beautifully balanced.

This was their Serengeti.

This was where they were destined to live, love and
protect.

This was their home.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
HOME FOR KEEPS
by Lynn Patrick.

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