Self-defense might save her from a physical threat. Grace was strong, but this latest emotional attack had left her battered. Rick didn’t push her to explain; he told her he’d give her time, and he’d give her space. All he wanted was to be able to protect her the only way he was able.
Mathers might think he could use whatever passed between him and Grace in the past to steal whatever future Rick might have with her. Yeah, right. Maybe if that’s what Grace wanted.
He thought of the way she looked so pale, how she warned him against hating her. How Natalie buzzed Sly and said Grace was about to faint. How fearful she was of leaving Hamlet. Her focus when it came to self-defense, and how determined she was to protect herself.
Leaning over, Rick tucked the wrinkled invitation between his mattress and the box spring. He didn’t want Grace to know he held onto it, but he also knew it might come in handy later. Then, shifting in the bed, turning toward where she slept fitfully, he stroked her hair, firming his jaw when she nuzzled into his hand. Her eyes flittered, but she didn’t wake. Because she trusted him. She believed in him. And, now that he knew about Mathers, she confided in him.
She was terrified of this Mathers guy. Rick suspected that she was more terrified for his sake than her own.
She didn’t have to be. And he only hoped he didn’t have to prove that because, with her reaction that night, Rick realized something. He would do whatever he had to to protect Grace.
He just hoped he didn’t lose her himself when he did.
The date on the invitation passed without an incident.
For the first few days after Phil delivered the invitation, Grace didn’t leave Rick’s house. It was a mutual decision. Rick was afraid that Tommy might swoop in and take her, and since Grace realized that that was a distinct possibility now that he knew exactly where she was, she agreed to stay inside. Until she could be sure that he wasn’t waiting to drag her off to a church, she’d happily stay put.
Rick went to see Phil Granger to ask about the outsider who gave him the letter. From the detailed description he gave to the deputy, she figured it was Pope. Better than Tommy doing his own dirty work, but not by much. Pope was friendlier than Boone, she remembered, and that made him more dangerous. No one took him for a real threat until it was too late.
&
nbsp; Whether he heard it from his deputy, his girlfriend, or any of the other Hamlet gossips, Sly knew the truth about Tommy before long. She tried so hard, for so long, taking every precaution she could so that her new friends knew as little about Tommy as possible. It was one thing to be avoiding a stubborn ex. But a relentless, obsessed stalker who had the time, the money, and the means to chase her to the ends of the earth?
Hamlet wasn’t prepared for Tommy Mathers. Now that the cat was out of the bag, Grace tried to make them understand. Nope. Rick and Sly both insisted that she would be safe inside the village’s borders. Between the gulley and the mountains, they could protect her. The narrow strait that led into town was monitored daily. Phil was on his guard. He would recognize Pope if he approached him again, and if there was even a hint of Tommy’s Jaguar driving through the quiet Hamlet streets, either the sheriff or one of his deputies would hear about it.
Rick asked her to stay at his home while they waited for the wedding date to pass. She agreed. The old fears came rushing back the moment she opened that envelope. This time, the only package was the bad one, and she just couldn’t shake it off. Rick cut his hours at the station house, choosing to stay with Grace when he wasn’t out on short patrols, assuring himself that no other outsiders visited Hamlet.
Amazingly, the time they spent together actually brought them closer. Rick didn’t resent her for the way Tommy still chased her; he was adamant that he would help Grace get free of the other man, no matter what. He also didn’t blame her. Though Tommy’s menace hung over their heads like a storm cloud, Rick refused to dwell on it. He took the time to continue getting to know her—the real her, not the idealized ballerina Tommy was fixated on—and shared stories about himself, the man who was and the man he wanted to be.
Whoever that was, Grace was sure of one thing: she was head over heels for Rick Hart. And it sucked that she couldn’t admit that while Tommy was still in the picture.
Two days after the printed date, Rick had to go back out on full-shift patrols. He apologized for it, promising that he would check in as often as he could. He offered to get her her own radio, and she told him no. She hadn’t gotten past her irrational phobia that Tommy might able to hack into it some way. Besides, so long as she stayed inside Hamlet, she would be fine.
Rick wasn’t so sure about that, but since he didn’t want to smother her, he let it go. Besides, he had no choice. After what happened last year, when one of the Johnson twins was abducted the day before Christmas, Sly wanted all four of his deputies on high alert. Add in the threat that Tommy posed because Grace was hiding out in the village, and she understood the need for the whole HSD to be ready.
Christmas was coming up fast. Maria came and picked her up the week before, driving her around town so that Grace could see the way Hamlet was decorated. No snow yet, since the winter was still milder than usual, but the lights and the bows and the candy cane-striping on the lamp posts put her in the holiday spirit.
Rick encouraged her to visit Ophelia while he was on duty. Since Maria was helping Grace work on a heartfelt present to give to Rick for Christmas, she spent most of her days at the bed and breakfast.
Three days before Christmas, Grace was just about done with Rick’s gift. It was part collage, part sketch. Since the extent of her artistic ability was in her dancing, she was all thumbs when it came to a pencil and paper. Maria kindly offered to do the sketching based on Grace’s description.
She asked Maria to draw Rick the way she saw him. Strong and kind and with a jawline that any man would kill for. Her favorite part was the hint of a curl peeking from behind his ear. Bold strokes captured the harsh lines of his face, his crooked nose, the heat in his eyes when he looked down at her.
Grace contributed by filling the white space surrounding the sketch with mementos of their time together. Part of a napkin from Thirsty’s. A sugar packet from the coffeehouse. A lock of her hair that he loved so much. Grass clippings from Ophelia’s backyard for the night he caught her dancing under the moon. And, with Maria’s permission, a few of the plastic petals from the sunflowers in the Sunflower Room.
All that was left to do was use colored pencils to highlight some of Rick’s features. Dark brown for his hair, a warmer shade for his eyes, a soft pink for his kissable lips. Grace did that part herself, grateful when it was done because, holy hell, the stress headache she’d been fighting for weeks finally arrived with a vengeance.
She drove back with a thud pounding against her skull. Thank goodness no one else was on the road since she spent more time trying to ignore the pain than paying attention to where she was going. It was a relief when she pulled into the drive, even if Rick’s truck was still gone. She knew he was pulling a double, with a couple of hours left to his day.
Good. Hopefully, she’d be able to kick this headache before he got home.
She headed straight to their bedroom. In the nightstand drawer that Rick dedicated as hers, Grace found her pill caddy. It was a small one, with two flaps—one that said am, the other pm—that covered a set of separate compartments.
With a flick of her fingernail, she opened the am side, plucking out one of the beige-colored capsules.
Rick had to take a ride out of Hamlet earlier in the week, a favor for Sylvester. Grace wanted to go with him, but even though it had been almost a month since she received the eerie wedding invitation and there had been no other sign of Tommy, she had to agree that leaving the safety of Hamlet wasn’t the brightest idea. So she spent the afternoon with Maria, baking Christmas cookies, drinking cocoa, and working on her secret gift for him. She knew that the bed and breakfast’s locks could keep any and all threats out while Rick was gone.
The security was the only way she could actually get him to head out to the county courthouse.