Michelle
“What do you mean I can’t see her?” The voice echoes through my dreams. David’s voice. A cruel twist of my sub-conscious.
“Dude. She’s been a wreck since you left and just now finally fell asleep.” Lexi? Bailey? Angry words. “She needs rest more than she needs to see you.”
“I told her I was leaving…” The rest of his statement disappears, too quiet to hear. “…baby … had to go … arson…”
I realize I’m more conscious than asleep and open my eyes. “David?” I turn to find him in the doorway, blocked by Lexi, Bailey, and Liam.
He looks past them. “Michelle.” He tries to take a step but they stop him. “Damn it. Let me through.”
My friends make room for him to enter as I struggle into a seated position and reach for him with my bandaged hands. “I thought you left me.”
“No, darlin’. No.” He perches on the bed beside me. Cradles me as if I might break. “I didn’t trust the police to do a good enough job after the piss-poor way they handled the break in. I knew it was Russell and those damn cigarettes, just like we knew it was Russell who broke in your house.”
My eyes go wide. Russell. Of course it was him, creeping outside my window and dropping his cigarettes in the dry pine needles I should have done something about long ago.
Lexi comes into the room. “And you couldn’t tell her where you were going?” She shakes her head. “I’m not buying it.”
David’s eyes go wide. “I did tell her where I was going. I left last night, just before she fell asleep.” He turns to me. “I kissed you on the forehead and told you I’d be back. Don’t you remember?”
I shake my head and furrow my brow. The last day is a blur.
“If that’s true, then why didn’t you call?” Lexi raises her eyebrows and pushes her hands into her hips.
“Because her phone is a melted pile of plastic, thanks to the fire.” David glares at Lexi and gives his attention to me. “Did you really think I left you?”
I nod, battling tears. “All I knew was that you were gone. And all I could think about was losing the baby…” I don’t want to finish the thought, not in front of my friends. Maggie isn’t my story to tell and how can I explain my fear without explaining her?
His eyes soften and I see he understands. “I’m here.” He touches his hand to my chest, right over my heart. “And you’re here.” He touches his own heart. “There’s no undo on that one. How could I be the kind of man you deserve if I ran away because we had to face something hard?” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry you were afraid.” His eyes fill with love and warmth. He puts a hand on my leg.
“I’m sorry I didn’t remember.”
David takes a breath. “I love you and you can trust me to stand by your side through the hard times. You’re not alone anymore.” He brushes my hair off my face. “Not with me here.”
I smile and glance at Lexi. She rolls her eyes while Bailey leans into Liam.
David stands and paces. Runs his hands through his hair as he talks. “I called Sarah. My sister,” he says, elaborating for my friends’ benefit. “She works for the fire department, remember? She brought some of her firefighter friends out to your house. It’s gone. The house is gone.” He steeples his fingers under his chin. “I showed them where we found the cigarettes. Explained it all.” He stops in his tracks. “They say it has to be the way the fire started. That it had to be because of him. But they don’t understand how things got out of hand so fast. The fire shouldn’t have blazed out of control like it did.” David’s mouth draws a thin line across his face. “They’re looking for accelerants or ignitable liquids.”
“What’s that mean?” Horror leaks into my stomach and the world goes gray. Sleep calls to me but I don’t want to close my eyes. Not now.
“That means they suspect the fire was intentional.”
The room goes quiet and an eternity exists between each second. Why would Russell do something like that? How could he hate me so much that he wants me dead? What about Claire? My brain rejects the idea of a father wishing harm to his child. It can’t be true. Even someone as broken as Russell can’t be that depraved.
“But we don’t have proof it was him.” David crouches beside me. “The fire burned up what little evidence we had and without a witness, we have nothing to tie Russell to the fire.”
“That’s okay.” I wish my hands weren’t bandaged so I could touch David. Even though he’s right beside me, we’re not close enough. “It’s not a big deal. It’s over now.”
Liam steps further into the room. “What’s going on?” Bailey follows him in.
David explains the cigarette butts we found under my window all those months ago. “And they were sitting in a pile of the driest pine needles underneath one giant fire hazard of an overgrown, mostly dead bush.”
“That’s seriously creepy.” Bailey shudders. “Isn’t he seeing someone? Why is he still spying on you?” She turns to David. “Do they really think he started the fire on purpose?”
David nods. “That’s the only way they can explain how quickly the fire spread.”
Lexi grips the back of a chair and leans forward. “I met that man once and that was enough to know he’s crazy.” She grimaces. “He’s not a good person.”
But murder? Arson? He’s not a good man, but is he really capable of evil? I have no love for Russell, but my mind still rejects the idea that he would do something like this. Our entire marriage consisted of me making his life easier at the expense of my own sanity. Right up until the day I left him and he pulled a gun on me…
Dear God, he pulled a gun on me.
In front of our daughter.
My hands start to tremble beneath the thick bandages. Maybe he is the kind of man who would do something like that…
Liam folds his arms across his chest and absently runs a finger along his tattoos. “You have to tell the police.”
My shoulders slump. “What good would that do? Without definitive proof?”
David looks at Liam and nods once. “He’s right. Proof or not, we have to tell them what we found. It’s their job to find the evidence, not ours.”
“But what if they never find the evidence?” The trembling in my hands works its way through my body. “What if they never catch him and he tries something else?”
David sets his jaw. “Time and money, darlin’. We’ve got a lot of both.”
Liam wraps his arm around Bailey and steps forward. “So do we. And you’ve got us.”
Bailey smiles at her fiancé and squeezes my foot through the blanket.
“What I don’t have in money, I make up for through sheer badassery and my ability to get shit done.” Lexi purses her lips. “That asshole has to get through us to get to you.” The corner of her lips twists into a wry smile. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”
* * *
I spend the next couple days resting and David never leaves my side. My mom brings us food and takes Claire to stay with her when she’s given a clean bill of health before the doctors are ready to release me. Lexi and Bailey pop in and out. If they’re not working a shift, they make the drive in to visit. Anabelle, Dean, Colton, and even Sarah check in on me. Anabelle presents me with a plate full of cookies as if they were stronger than any medicine, and I swear I feel better after I eat a few. Dean and Colton look uncomfortable, hats in hand as we chat. Sarah offers me a Carmichael-sized hug and a promise of reconnecting when I feel up to it.
The police take my statement. I tell them everything. From the night Russell pulled a gun on me, to the day he trapped me in the closet at the theater. I tell them about the one time he took Claire and the way she begged never to go back. They listen and nod through the whole thing, sitting like priests in a confessional while I unload my burdens. My soul feels lighter as they scratch my words into their notebooks.
I stop bleeding. The doctors warn me to take it easy, to rest more than I think I should for longer than I want to, but we’re out of the woods. They say I’m going to keep the baby. A few days later, they send me home.
Today, David and I are sitting on the porch, watching Claire play with Pogo. He takes my hand. “She looks cute with the short hair.”
I watch her throw a ball for the dog and then chase after him as he sprints to grab it. “She does.”
“I’ve been thinking.” David shifts in his seat, turning to face me.
“Uh-oh. That sounds serious.” I catch myself picking at my hands. They’re healing and the itching is enough to drive me crazy.
“It is serious.” David nods gravely. “I don’t think you should go back to work.”
I press my hands together to keep from fidgeting. “The doctors want me to wait at least another week before I go back to teaching.”
David nods. “Yeah. But I don’t think you should ever go back.”
“You don’t?” I bite the inside of my bottom lip in order to keep my expression neutral.
“I don’t.” David drapes his arm over the back of his chair. “It’s too strenuous and I already think you’re up and moving too much. Besides, you don’t even like it and your mom can’t afford to pay you. Give me one reason why you should stay.”
“My mom needs me.” I run a hand up into my hair. “Who is she going to get to cover all my classes?”
“She could teach them.” David shrugs. “And maybe she’d have enough money to support herself if she didn’t have your paycheck to worry about.”
“Wow.” I blink. “I don’t know what to say about that.”
“What’s your gut say?”
“My instant reaction is joy. The thought of never having to teach again is like freedom wrapped in sunshine. But reality is what it is. I don’t have any skills outside the dance world. And I can’t just come home and do nothing.”
“You’re about to bring a life into this world. Do you really have time to worry about a job?”
“Sure. In a perfect world I wouldn’t have to worry about working, but…” I blow air past my lips. “If I don’t have a job, I don’t have a way to support myself. To provide for Claire. Not that I’ve been doing a great job of that with the job I have, but at least I’m trying.”
David leans in, smiling as Claire giggles in the distance. “Let me support you. Or hell. Support yourself. There’s more than enough work around the farm. As soon as you’re strong enough, you can start finding things around here that you like to do. Most Carmichaels are happiest when they’re working on the family business, anyway.”
I furrow my brow. “But I’m not a Carmichael.”
Claire and Pogo bound up the steps and stop in front of us, panting. “Did you see how fast I’m getting?” She rises up on tip-toe and then rocks back on her heels, her hands balled into fists and pushed against her hips, chest thrust out.
“I missed it.” I try to smile as my mind whirls around David’s odd statement.
“I’m glad you’re here.” David smiles at Claire and then shifts in his seat to fish in his pocket. “I wanted to ask you something.” He gestures for Claire to lean forward so he can whisper in her ear.
A smile breaks across her face and she’s nodding her head before he finishes talking. When he’s done, she pulls back, still nodding and smiling.
“So what do you think?” he asks her. “Are you cool with that?”
“Yep.” Claire scrunches up her nose and beams at me.
David shifts to the end of his seat. “I planned to do this the day of the fire, but got so caught up trying to make it special that I wasn’t there for you when you needed me most.” He smiles. “I want to marry you, Michelle. And I can’t think of anything more special than the three of us…” He trails off as his eyes drop to my belly. “…the four of us here on this farm together.” He opens his hand to show me two rings nestled in his palm. “Will you marry me?”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course he’s serious, Momma. It’s David. He only says it if he means it.”
David smiles at Claire. “You got that right, little monster.” He turns back to me. “I want to take care of you. I want to give you a life that you want, not one that you fell into trying to please everyone else. If that means you keep your job, then good. If that means you stay home and raise an army of babies, good. If that means you discover you love making pies with my mom and you open a bakery, great. But damn it, you’re going to do it as a Carmichael. Marry me.”
I nod. “I don’t know if an army of babies is in my future, but I do know that you’re all I want for the rest of my life.”
David slides a ring onto my finger and I stare at the diamond gleaming in the sun while he pinches the second ring between his fingers and holds it out for Claire.
“If I marry your mom, that will make me your stepdad, and that’s an honor I don’t take lightly. Will you be my official little monster?”
Claire’s eyes dance with humor. “I’m not a monster.”
“True. You are the least monster-ish monster I know. How about this, will you be my stepdaughter?”
“What’s a stepdaughter?” Claire’s face falls. “Why can’t I be your real daughter?”
“You have a dad…”
“But I like you better.”
“Well good. But in order for you to become my real daughter, your real dad has to say it’s okay.”
Claire stares at her feet. “He won’t do that.”
“Maybe not right away. But we’ve got lots of time. The rest of our lives, even. So maybe your dad will change his mind and let me adopt you and you can be a Carmichael, too.”
He doesn’t tell her that her dad is going to trial for arson and attempted murder. That the evidence they found against him was enough to put him away for a long time. That for the first time since the divorce, we have the law on our side.
Claire looks thoughtful. “I want to be a Carmichael. Then it would be my name on the sign out front and me and mom would really belong here.” She holds out her hand. “You can put my ring on me now.”
David grins and slides the ring into place. He stands, carefully helping me to my feet before he lifts Claire up in one arm. She wraps her arms around his neck and he pulls me close. The three of us lean our heads together while Pogo pants at our feet.