Hawke's Salvation (12 page)

“Damn, woman. You must have been a cat in another life.” Bran said, dropping to his knees and capturing Destiny’s face in his hands. “You’ve got at least nine lives.”

“I think I’m going to throw up.” Destiny whimpered, right before she spewed all over Bran’s chest.

Hawke might have laughed at the whole situation if Jeanette wasn’t still pale as a ghost and shaking like a leaf. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her in up and carried her into the bedroom away from the madness. Taking a seat on the rich green comforter they’d so recently made love under, he pulled her in tight as her adrenaline and fear took over, and she wept against his shoulder.

“Shhh. You’re alright, darlin’. Destiny is going to be fine, and it’s all over now.” He murmured.

Her sobs were violent, and it took all his focus to maintain his soft tone and outwardly calm appearance. If he were alone he’d likely spill a few adrenaline filled tears himself. He’d been too close to losing her. Too close to losing the one thing that mattered to him.

“It’s fine, love. Let it out. I’m here now, and I won’t let you go.” He heard himself talking, but he really wasn’t processing what he was saying. “I’ll never let you go. I’m going to keep you right here in my arms forever.”

It took several minutes for her sobs to die down enough that she could speak, and when she did it was through heavy breathing and hiccups. “I love you…H-Hawke. I thought I was going…to d-die, and all I could…think about was telling you I l-love you.”

Hawke felt his heart soar, and he kissed her through her tears. “I love you, too, Jeanette. I never thought I’d say that to a woman in my life, but I love you more than life itself. Marry me.”

Her eyes bugged out of her head, and she laughed. “Stop it you silly man. We’ve only known each other a couple of months.”

“That’s long enough to know I’m never letting you go, darlin’. You came here in your fancy designer duds, sitting on that pedestal your degree put you on, and all I saw was a woman who needed a hard man to love her deeply. I can’t live without you in my life Jeanette. Please, say you’ll marry me.”

B
efore Jeanette could respond
, back-up arrived at the cabin in the form of sheriff’s deputies who wanted to get a full statement from her. The same question kept being asked; why didn’t Knox just kill Destiny and her immediately, and she grew frustrated repeating the answer.

“All he said was that he wanted to rip pieces off of Destiny like she’s ripped the pieces of his life away. I tried to get between them at first—that’s when he hit me. After that I did what he said and let him tie me to the chair.” She swallowed hard, clinging to Hawke’s hand as she whispered, “I should have fought back.”

“No, ma’am. You did the right thing.” The new deputy was a handsome man with kind eyes, and she felt better when he patted her shoulder. “I think I have everything I need, but let me double check with Sherriff Bowers.”

The ambulance arrived and she and Hawke were forced to separate so that she could go to the hospital for evaluation. No one seemed to hear her when she insisted she was fine.

“You were hit in the head, which means you could have a concussion.” Bran said, shaking his head as she climbed into the back of the ambulance, “Besides, I have to stay here a little longer to help clean up, and I need you there with Destiny.”

His eyes darted to the woman on the gurney, and Jeanette felt her heart break for him. He seemed to be infatuated with the broken blonde. How he must be hurting now knowing that he couldn’t stop the attack on her.

“I’ll go, but I’m sure they’ll send me home soon.”

Bran nodded, as Hawke walked up behind him, “No worries Sheriff, I’m following in my truck, so I’ll be there with both of them, and Franki is coming along, too.”

“Thank you.” Bran agreed, before heading off to give his statement to one of the deputies. Jeanette leaned down from her bench seat as Hawke stepped closer to the end of the ambulance.

“I’ll be right on your ass, doc. Don’t worry.” He rose up on his toes and kissed her, gently stroking her uninjured cheek before he stepped out of the way for the EMTs to close the door. She watched him as he headed for his truck, silently thinking to herself that she was the luckiest bitch on earth.

“Is that your boyfriend?” the EMT said from beside her. “You did good girlfriend. He’s smoking hot.”

Jeanette grinned, feeling the pain in her temple for the first time as she relaxed against the wall behind her. “Yeah he is, and he’s not my boyfriend, he’s my fiancé.”

“
O
kay let
’s all get settled for the gift exchange. I’m dying to open my present.” Lacy hollered over the din of voices in the living room. Everyone had been released from the hospital in time to enjoy the holiday festivities, so the mood was jovial and warm for the most part.

Destiny and Nolan were the two quietest of the bunch, although Bran did his best to keep Destiny’s spirits up, and Todd gave Nolan his happiest smiles. Even Franki was smiling on this, her first Christmas without her mom and sister. Jeanette felt more love in the room than she’d experienced on any Christmas with her own family, and she snuggled deeper into Hawke’s embrace as they cuddled on the couch sipping wine from fancy crystal glasses.

Marilyn had requested that the boys use the expensive glasses because Sera would have wanted it that way, so they’d carefully removed them from the dining room china hutch and filled them to the brim with delicious red and white wines. Jeanette was on her third glass and feeling good.

“Before we begin that,” Drannon interrupted, drawing everyone’s attention, “Lacy and I have an announcement.” Lacy looked wary, but she remained silent as her husband continued on. “After a lot of soul searching and contemplation, we’ve decided that our children would be luck to have any one of you as their Godparent, so instead of choosing one couple to bestow the honor on, we’re choosing all of you. Hawke, Vin, Romeo, and Nolan, we’d like you all to be the babies Godfathers.”

“And Franki, Marilyn, Lauren, and Jeanette, we’d be honored if you would be their Godmothers.” Lacy said tears of joy in her eyes as every cheered and accepted the generous offer. Jeanette didn’t bother to mention that a child having so many Godparents wasn’t normal, because if she’d learned anything about the Crawley Creek family, it was that they did everything outside the box.

Lacy began passing out packages, and everyone joked and teased each other about what might be in them. A large box was passed to Jeanette, and she watched as the present she’d so carefully selected and wrapped in red glittery paper was handed to Marilyn. She couldn’t wait to see the woman open her gift. She’d spent almost a whole day searching through various antique shops in Montford trying to find just the right thing. The antique cookbook she’d selected was from the thirties and full of recipes that looked delicious. She’d paired it with a pair of soft slippers after she’d heard Marilyn complaining to the nurses in the hospital that her thin socks were leaving her feet cold during her rehab.

Beside her, Hawke got a gift bag that was clearly from one of the guys as it was plain brown and didn’t even hold tissue paper for decoration. They waited patiently for the gifts to be passed out, and then Lacy held up her hand.

“Okay guys, let’s be orderly about this. Two at a time, and we’ll start with the youngest.”

Nolan helped Todd remove the paper from a wooden rocking horse with a red saddle, and Vin looked on proudly as everyone hurried to get pictures of the baby in the saddle. Jeanette had known about the gift already thanks to Vin’s excitement and inability to keep a secret.

Baby Michael got a set of teething toys and several outfits from Franki, and the gift unwrapping continued exuberantly with pauses only for photographs. Jeanette had never really seen anyone get so excited about capturing family memories, but Lacy and Marilyn spent most of their time snapping photos of everyone.

“Your turn Franki.” Romeo set a very large box on the ground in front of his girlfriend and stepped back as she opened it.

“Holy shit! Is this what I think it is?” Franki asked, jumping to her feet and throwing her arms around her man. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“What is it?” Hawke called out. “Another man?”

Franki was too excited to even rise to the bait, as she pulled a pile of leather free from the box. “It’s new riding gear!”

A pair of black leather motorcycle chaps were followed by a leather jacket with a baying stallion printed on the back. A helmet to match was also in the box along with a pair of gloves.

“I think Romeo’s getting some action tonight,” Vin teased.

“No kidding,” Drannon said with a laugh. “Didn’t we have a budget for this gift exchange?”

Romeo gave him a sly wink as Franki hugged him again. “There’s no budget big enough for my lady. I’d give her the moon if I could.”

The room filled with a combination of “Aww,” “How sweet,” and gagging vomit sounds as Franki and Romeo kissed deeply before redirecting the attention.

Jeanette reached for her gift just as Marilyn reached for hers, and together they pulled paper apart. Inside her box Jeanette found a set of wooden shelves that looked to be the perfect size for her office wall.

Lifting her gaze, she grinned at her “secret” Santa. “Thanks Nolan! These are perfect!”

“I sure hope so. Hawke gave me the measurements. I just picked them out,” Nolan said, his hazel eyes filled with pleasure that she liked his gift.

“Oh this is so wonderful!”

Jeanette turned around and was disappointed to find Marilyn had already pulled her gift free from the packaging. Her spirit lifted at the older woman’s excitement.

“I thought you’d enjoy the cookbook, and a little birdie told me you needed some new slippers,” Jeanette said moving to accept the hug Marilyn offered.

“I love it. I can’t wait to dig in and try some of the recipes out. Lauren will have to let me back in the kitchen every so often,” Marilyn teased.

“Any time you want Marilyn, but not until you’re all healed up,” Lauren admonished, wagging her finger at Marilyn.

“And besides, Marilyn, you’ll have your hands full this summer with all the babies around here. You’ve got the most experience out of everyone here. We’ll need you,” Drannon told her, rubbing Lacy’s belly affectionately.

Marilyn nodded. “That I do, and I’m looking forward to it.”

“I know we all drew names, but the guys and I got something special for you,” Drannon continued, nodding in Romeo’s direction. He left the room for a moment and came back with a brightly wrapped box, handing it to Marilyn.

“May this be the first of many,” Romeo said as Marilyn opened the box and pulled out a pale blue sweatshirt. Jeanette heard her start crying before she turned the shift around. Emblazoned across the chest were the words “World’s Best Grandma.”

“I can’t believe how lucky I am.” Marilyn whispered, “Thank you. All of you. For being my family.”

“Love you, Mar!”

The sentiment was repeated around the room several more times, and the men all took turns giving her a hug before she brushed the last of her tears away. “All right, enough of that. Let’s finish this. There’s a ham in the oven, and I’m getting hungry.”

Jeanette watched as person after person opened their gift and raved over it. Everyone seemed to have gotten something they wanted or something that was sentimental. It was a great Christmas.

“Drannon, Vin, can you help Marilyn into the dining room. Jeanette and Franki can help me get the food on the table while Nolan and Lacy get the babies taken care of,” Lauren instructed, leading the march into the kitchen.

Jeanette rose to follow, but Hawke grabbed her hand, holding her back for a moment. “Hey, Lauren needs my help.”

“In a minute. I have something else for you,” Hawke said, standing and facing her. It hit her as he held a small box up that they were in the exact same spot where only a couple of short weeks ago she’d let him seduce her.

“What’s this? You weren’t supposed to get me a gift…” She snapped the small jewelry box open, and her eyes grew misty with tears. “Oh Hawke, it’s beautiful.”

The owl was perfectly created, and as she lifted it out of the jewelry box, she noted the sparkling diamond ring dangling from the chain. Before she could remove it, Hawke dropped to his knee in front of her.

“Oh my God!”

“Jeanette Hall, three months ago you came into my life and you did your damnedest to push me away, but I stuck to you like glue. I’ve already promised you my heart, now I’m promising you my life. Whatever there is of it. I want to spend every waking moment knowing that the woman I love is my wife. Will you marry me?”

Jeanette couldn’t breathe, much less speak. Nodding her head, she let the tears flow, and she tumbled into Hawke’s arms, kissing him with everything she had. That was how the rest of the family found them minutes later, wrapped in each other’s arms, completely and utterly in love.