A Summer Romance (22 page)

“I don’t know what you mean. I don’t have
any file,” Maggie insisted.

“You’re lying! I know you were in the East
wing, I heard you in the next room. I was there! Don’t lie to me.
That’s where you found it wasn’t it?” he asked with a crazed look
in his eyes. Maggie just shook her head in denial.

“I should have just taken care of you right
then, but your mother had to show up at just that moment. I
couldn’t get rid of her too. Too many missing persons.” His words
were coming faster as his eyes darted around the room manically.
“Then Aaron just stormed off and left you all alone. But I needed
to get rid of both of you. I couldn’t avoid it. It had to be done,
but it needed to be at the same time or it would be too suspicious.
So I had to wait, bide my time until you were both together again.
He should be here now. Where is he?!” he demanded as his anger
flared once again.

“I don’t know,” Maggie cried. “He’s gone,
he’s never coming back. You can have the house. I don’t want it.
I’ll leave. I’ll never tell anyone,” she promised.

“You’re lying!” he roared.

“I’m not. I believe you. This house should
belong to you.” She looked up into his eyes and tried to suppress
the revulsion she felt. “I know you don’t want to hurt me. Please,
just let me go.”

She saw the conflicting emotions warring on
his face. She felt his grip loosen and she took her opportunity
while she had it. She pulled her arm from his grasp and spun away
from him, sprinting up the stairs. His momentary shock at her quick
movements gave her a short lead as she leapt up the stairs two at a
time. She just needed to get a locked door between them.

She was fast, but he was faster. He grabbed
her by the hair, wrenching it back so hard she saw stars in front
of her eyes, and then she was flying, tumbling down the stairs head
over heels. She felt several bones crack along the way.

She hit the ground hard. Her head was
swimming, but strangely her body felt mostly numb and tingly, like
that horrible sensation you get when your hand falls asleep. Her
mind was fuzzy and her eyes couldn’t focus.

She felt his weight press down on her and
her ribs screamed in pain. The pain momentarily focused her rattled
brain. She looked up and saw him over her with a feverish look in
his eyes.

He grabbed her by the throat, squeezing
until she could barely pull in a raged breath. Black spots danced
in front of her eyes.

“Why are you making me do this?!” the man
said as he clenched his hands around her neck. “I didn’t want to
hurt you! You made me do this!”

She couldn’t breathe anymore. He was
squeezing too tight, crushing her airway. The black spots were
filling her vision, joining together, and blotting everything else
out. Then everything went black.

Consciousness came slowly and painfully. The
first thing she was aware of was the aching pain that permeated
every inch of her body. Her limbs felt heavy, weighted down
somehow. She couldn’t move. She tried to recede back into
unconsciousness to escape the pain but her mind rebelled, slowly
becoming more and more aware of her surroundings. Something was
beeping nearby and she smelled flowers.

Fear began to set in as bits and pieces of
memory came back to her. She realized with alarm that her arms felt
tied down. She was afraid to open her eyes, afraid to find that
horrible man staring back down at her.

She felt someone squeeze her hand and she
tried to hold perfectly still. She didn’t want to give any sign
that she was awake.

“Maggie?” Aaron’s voice broke through her
nightmare and her eyes flew open at the sound.

“Maggie?! Oh thank God!” Aaron released her
hand and grasped the sides of her face gently, hovering over her
with tears in his eyes.

“Aaron?” Maggie croaked. “How did you get
here?” Her mind still felt sluggish and wasn’t making the
connections.

“You’re in the hospital,” he explained
slowly as he tenderly brushed aside her bangs. “Do you remember
what happened?”

“I think so. A man came into the house...”
Maggie trailed off as she struggled to focus.

“I’m so sorry, Maggie.” Aaron fell to his
knees at the side of her bed and laid his head on her hand. “I
should have been there. I should never have left.”

“Aaron, he’s going to come after you too,”
Maggie said as it all started coming back to her. “He was looking
for you. He’s going to come back!”

The beeping sound started coming faster and
that’s when she realized that it was the sound of her heart
monitor.

“Maggie, please don’t upset yourself. You
need to rest,” Aaron’s said.

“He thinks the house belongs to him,” Maggie
continued as panic began to grip her. “He thinks we are trying to
take it away from him. He’s not going to stop.”

“Maggie, that man is never coming back,” he
promised. “You’re safe. We both are. Please just try to get some
sleep. We can talk more about this when you’re better.”

“I’m not tired,” Maggie lied, but her heavy
eyelids betrayed her. That short burst of energy had drained
her.

“Go to sleep,” Aaron whispered as he
soothingly stroked her head.

“But if I do you’ll leave.” Maggie fought to
keep her eyes open.

“I promise I’ll be here when you wake up.
I’ll never leave your side again.” Maggie smiled softly as she
finally let her heavy lids win the battle and she quickly drifted
off to sleep.

~∞~

Aaron kept his promise. He stayed by her
side night and day while she recovered. He and Andi took turns
sitting by her bed so that she was never alone when she woke. Over
the next several days she became stronger and was able to stay
awake for longer periods.

She learned that she had three broken ribs,
a broken arm, a severe concussion, and countless bruises. As her
mind cleared, all the pieces began to come together. The man had
claimed that his grandfather should have inherited the house when
his brother died. It only stood to reason that his grandfather was
Agnes Devereaux’s uncle. But apparently he believed that Aaron
somehow held a claim to the property that was greater than his own,
and he believed that there was some file that could prove it.

She now felt certain that Ms. Devereaux had
brought her here to meet Aaron. Perhaps she’d watched her as a
child being paraded around as an unwilling debutant and felt a
connection with her. Perhaps she’d seen something in Maggie that
reminded her of herself and that’s why she’d reached out to her,
that’s why she’d left that flyer just outside her dorm room.

Ms. Devereaux had orchestrated this entire
summer to bring them together. She tried several times to talk with
Aaron about her suspicions, but he didn’t want to talk about it and
begged her to leave it alone. He just wanted her to get well so
that they could leave Sweetwater and leave Devereaux Manor behind
them.

“The doctor says your scans look really
good,” Aaron told her, coming in from the hallway carrying a few
cups of coffee. He handed one to her and then sat in his chair
beside her bed. “He said you should be getting out of here in a few
days.”

Maggie smiled at the news. She was ready to
leave and put all of this behind her, but there was one last
question that she needed answered.

“Aaron, can you tell me what happened to the
man who attacked me?” Maggie asked. She’d asked before and he kept
telling her not to worry, that she was safe, but she needed to know
what happened. She knew this was hard for him to talk about, but
she needed answers. Aaron nodded, realizing he couldn’t put her off
any longer.

“I was coming to see you,” Aaron
admitted.

“You were?” She heard the surprise in her
own voice and saw him wince in reaction.

“It was killing me, staying away from you. I
thought it was for the best, thought it would be easier for you to
move on if I wasn’t hanging around,” he explained.

“I could never move on,” she whispered.

“I couldn’t either. I stopped by to see how
the harvest was going. I told myself I was only going to talk with
the foreman and leave, but I needed to see you. I came in through
the kitchen and when I reached the front room I saw him on top of
you.” He had to take a deep breath and clear his throat before he
continued. “I grabbed him and threw him off of you. You looked… I
thought you were… I thought I’d lost you and I was going to kill
him for it. I jumped on him and I just started hitting him, over
and over. I wasn’t going to stop until he was dead.” A tear escaped
and ran down his face.

“Did you?” Maggie asked with a trembling
voice.

Aaron shook his head. “Some of the guys from
outside, they heard the commotion. They came in and stopped me
before it was too late. It almost was.”

“So he’s…?” Maggie couldn’t speak around the
lump in her throat.

“He’s in intensive care,” Aaron stated
flatly. “But as soon as he’s stable enough he’s going to stand
trial for attempted murder.”

Maggie nodded, finally feeling the sense of
closure that she needed.

“I almost lost you, Maggie. I don’t know
what I would have done.” Aaron’s voice was strained with
emotion.

“But you didn’t lose me. I’m here, and I’m
going to be okay,” she assured him. “We’re going to be okay.”

~∞~

Leaving the hospital was quite the
production. It seemed like everyone from Sweetwater had sent
flowers. Maggie’s room had been overflowing with them and it took
several trips to load them all into the back of Aaron’s truck.

“You’re sure you’re ready for this?” Aaron
asked as they pulled into the driveway at Devereaux Manor.

“I’m ready,” Maggie assured him. She’d been
preparing herself for coming back here. Andi had offered to pack up
her things for her, but Maggie needed this final closure.

She wasn’t prepared for the crowd that was
waiting for them. Ms. Brandy was the first to hug Maggie as she
stepped out of the truck.

“We all just wanted to say goodbye before
you head off to Savannah,” she told her. “I sure am gonna miss
having you around the shop.”

“I’m going to miss you too,” Maggie replied,
hugging her with her good arm.

Lacey and Travis Buchannan were next in the
receiving line. Lacey was holding little baby Aaron and Travis was
juggling the other three.

“Promise you’ll come back to visit?” Lacey
asked.

“I wouldn’t miss the Fourth of July
barbeque,” Maggie assured her.

“How about we all head inside so Maggie can
get off her feet?” Aaron suggested, and everyone murmured their
agreement as they made their way into the house.

Andi hung behind the crowd waiting for
everyone to file inside before stepping over to loop her arm
through Maggie’s “You doing okay?” she asked.

“I really am,” Maggie said. “I thought it
might be hard coming back here, but this isn’t a bad place. I spent
an amazing summer here. There are so many more good memories than
bad.”

The impromptu going away party lasted for
several hours, Maggie couldn’t believe how many people had shown up
to say goodbye. Even Shannon, the waitress from the café where she
and Andi had lunch every day, had come to see her off. When the
final guest left Maggie was exhausted.

“I guess I need to go pack,” she said
reluctantly.

“Already done,” Andi told her.

“And everything is loaded into the car,”
Aaron added as he came back into the room. “Andi said she’d follow
behind and drive your Jeep up.”

“Aaron’s going to bring me back in the
morning. Dad really needs me to stick around until we get someone
else hired at the store. It might take a couple weeks,” Andi said
apologetically.

“I’ll be fine,” Maggie assured her.

“I can stay with you if you want,” Aaron
offered. “Until Andi gets there.”

“I’d love it if you stayed even after Andi
gets there.” Maggie glanced over at Andi who nodded her approval.
Maggie turned back to Aaron and he wrapped his arm around her waist
pulling her in for a kiss. Just then Barney came sauntering into
the foyer announcing his presence with a loud meow.

“There you are!” Maggie said. “I was
wondering where you’d run off to.”

“I’ll go put him in the car,” Andi offered
as she scooped up the cat and carried him outside.

“I guess it’s time to go then,” Maggie said,
looking around the room to see if there was anything she’d
forgotten. She was surprised at the sadness she felt.

She would miss this place. She would miss
looking out over the peach orchards while sipping her coffee every
morning. She would miss visiting with everyone in town at Ms.
Brandy’s antique store. But she would come back. Sweetwater was a
part of her now. She hadn’t realized just how much until it was
time to leave.

She looked over at Aaron standing in the
doorway waiting for her and she realized that she was taking the
best part of Sweetwater with her.

“I’ve got to grab one more thing,” she told
him.

“Do you need help?” Aaron asked.

“No, I’ll meet you at the car.”

He nodded and headed out the door. Maggie
went to the kitchen to retrieve Fred and as she carried her fern
back through the big house she stopped to take one last look
around. She set her key on the table.

“Good-bye,” Maggie said to the house and
then she walked out the door.

Maggie hurried down the sidewalk. She hated
meeting like this, in the middle of the day, so close to the
restaurant where she knew Aaron was waiting for her. But it was the
only way to get this done between her shifts at the hospital.

She slipped through the doors of the hotel
and headed straight for the bar. She saw him sitting in a dark
corner. She crossed the room quickly and slipped into the
booth.