Where the hell did she go? This was the third time he'd gone looking for her, only to discover she was nowhere to be found. These large gaps in her timeline made him anxious. He loved mysteries, loved solving them and figuring out puzzles. But not when it came to Halley. He wanted her by his side, all the time. Yeah, he could track her phone, find out where she was, but no way was he going to invade her privacy like that.
He trusted her. He had to keep telling himself that.
Problem was, he didn't trust whoever was breaking into her house. If he didn't know where she was, how was he supposed to protect her? And why wouldn't she tell him where she was going? Why was she so secretive?
This whole mess was driving him crazy. Yeah, he trusted her. But he also wanted her to trust him. He wanted her to tell him where she was going, what she was doing.
Hell, he wanted her in his life, every second of it.
She wasn't running from him anymore. She'd promised him that much this morning before he'd kissed her goodbye. He was relieved in that way.
Now he just … he had to get her to agree to marry him. Yeah, that's exactly what he wanted. He was startled that he hadn't come up with the idea before now. His mind had only gone to the point of knowing that he wanted her in his life. But marriage? He'd never even contemplated that possibility before. As he drove into Billings and made his way to his sister's house, he tested out the idea. Liking it more and more as he drove through the neatly manicured streets.
Yeah, he would propose to Halley. She would say no initially. But he wouldn't relent. He knew that he loved her. Hell, he was crazy about her. She made him laugh, soothed the raging beast inside of him and then made that beast roar with pleasure when she shared her body with him.
What he was feeling was so much more than sex, he knew.
The moment he pulled up to his sister's house, three little girls burst out of the front door. He jumped out of his SUV just in time to catch all three of them. As he walked into his sister's kitchen, he had one niece on his back and one under each arm. "You missing anything?" he asked.
Sally turned around, not surprised to see her daughters hanging off her brother. "Ladies, is this really how you want to treat your uncle? The man who promised to take us out for ice cream after dinner?"
All three girls fell off and Mike laughed, enjoying every moment in this house. The thought of having this, sharing a family with Halley, made his chest expand with hope and happiness. Yeah, he wanted it all. The house, the kids, the woman … all of Halley.
Halley stepped out of the studio carefully, her feet more tender than normal. She hadn't put her shoes on properly today and so there were a few extra blisters to show for her inattention.
"You okay?"
Halley looked behind her, smiling to Carl, her partner. "Yeah. I'm fine."
He shook his head. "You're not fine. Your feet are all messed up again, aren't they?"
Halley couldn't hide the fact that she was limping, even though she was wearing sneakers instead of her boots today. The boots would have been really painful.
"Yeah. A bit." She sighed and walked gingerly over to her truck. "I'll be fine once I get home and … " she stopped speaking when she casually glanced across the street, her eyes captured by three laughing, blonde little girls. They were all bouncing excitedly as they walked up to the ice cream shop.
The girls were cute, but what had really captured her attention was the tall, muscular man walking behind them. Mike!
And then her eyes shifted ever so slightly to the blond woman next to him. Well, not exactly next to him, but almost climbing up on him. He had his arm around her shoulders, almost around her neck as he pulled her closer, whispering something in her ear.
It was one of those idyllic movie moments. The kids were laughing, the woman was laughing and whatever he was saying made them all look like the perfect, made-for-television family.
The pain stabbing through her heart was like nothing she'd ever felt before. Her eyes continued to watch as the five of them walked into the ice cream store. Except for the blond hair, the girls looked exactly like him. They all had that pointed chin, that wide smile and the long, dark lashes.
Mike was married?
Impossible! He was one of the most honest men she'd ever met in her life. If he was married, he would have said something to her. He would never have pursued her!
Unfortunately, the evidence was right there for her to see. The diamond on the woman's finger glittered in the late day sunshine and the kids were rushing back and forth, leaning their heads up to ask him for one flavor of ice cream or another while the woman laughed and allowed him to control the scene. When they all had their ice cream cones, they moved back to one of the tables. Two of the girls climbed up onto his lap, enjoying their ice cream while hanging onto a muscular arm. The other girl and the woman sat across the table, the woman's arm around the third girl.