Meant To Be (Coming Home To The Grove 2)

I turn and stride toward my police cruiser. I look back at her once, hoping she doesn’t go inside, and she holds her chin high as if she’s trying to stay strong.

I pull Crawford, who is handcuffed in the back seat, out of the car and push him toward Carrie.

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” she demands. “You can’t arrest him for telling the truth.”

“Carrie, you remember me mentioning there was a police officer that I was having trouble with. Do you remember that?”

She looks at the man I have in cuffs, but Crawford won’t even look her in the eye. If I was him, I wouldn’t be able to either. When I found out what he did, I had to be restrained by three other officers. It was only after I calmed down that I realized I needed him to help me fix this.

“He knew details about me, about us that he couldn’t have known unless it came from you,” Carrie says, refusing to be weak and believe more lies.

“I don’t know what he said exactly, but whatever details he had about us he got from listening to me brag about you to my friends, Carrie. He’s under arrest for impersonating an officer after he was stripped of his badge. I recommended he be fired, and he came after you to hurt me. Carrie, if you believe his lies then he’ll have hurt me worse than anyone ever could.”

Carrie inhales deeply. She’s watching me closely, and I try to let down every guard on my face. I want her to see exactly how I feel about her. I want her to know it all. I can’t lose her again.

I can see the question in her eyes. Can she believe me?

“You have to believe me. I would never hurt you. I was trying to hold back from telling you I loved you and wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. I didn’t want to scare you off.”

I can see her mind going a mile a minute. “You can trust me, honey. I’ll never hurt you.”

“I’m so sorry, Scott,” she chokes out when she realizes her mistake.

I push Crawford to his knees and tell him not to move. Donald moves toward him, and I don’t worry at all that the man is going to be able to escape. I leap up the few stairs and pull her into a passionate embrace.

“I’m sorry, lady. I was angry and stupid. Please don’t let him arrest me,” the ex-officer pleads as soon as I release Carrie to let her come up for air.

“That’s up to Scott,” she says to Crawford. “I trust him completely.”

I kiss her again.

I can’t let her go. Another officer pulls in, no doubt worried when he saw me take off with Crawford in the back seat of the cruiser. I hand him over to the other officer with orders to take him to the station.

Once they’re gone, we go into the house so Carrie can get her purse.

I turn to Carrie’s parents. “I’m so sorry for everything that Carrie has gone through these last few days. I want you to know that I’m going to make it up to her, and sir,” I say, looking straight into her father’s eyes, “I’m going to keep my promise to you that I’ll never hurt her.”

Donald doesn’t say much, but he at least holds his hand out for me to shake. I’m sure he’s still trying to keep up with what’s happening.

“Maybe there’ll be a wedding soon,” Suzy comments.

Carrie laughs an embarrassed sound and tells her parents, “No.”

But I can’t resist kissing her forehead and saying, “Maybe.”

We leave, needing to spend some time alone together.

As Carrie gets into the car, she warns me, “My mom won’t back off now. She’ll have a wedding planned before the week’s out.”

“I wasn’t joking.” I say before I shut the door and race around to my side of the car. Once I’m settled into my seat, I turn to her. “I can see forever with you.”

She looks so beautiful sitting next to me, and I can see the hope in her eyes. “Where do you want to go? You pick. Whatever you want to do, we’ll do it.”

She blushes prettily. “Are you sure?”

I tilt my head to the side. Does she want me to go dancing again with her? Or something else? “I’m positive. Whatever you want.”

“I uh,” she starts, and her eyes dart off to the side. “It doesn’t matter. You decide.”

I laugh then because I’m pretty sure she’s not going to be too excited about what I want to do. “I want to take you home with me. Have a repeat of the other night. But I understand if it’s too fast. I would be happy just to have you in my home. We can watch television and hang out. I just want to be with you.”