Emily March - Miracle Road

Pound. Pound. Pound. Rattle. Roxy barked. What in the world?

Her window. Someone was knocking on her window. Fear washed through her, and for a moment, she sat frozen. What should she do?

Call 911. But as she reached for the telephone beside her bed, she heard the voice. “Wake up. Hey, Hope. Wake up!”

Her thoughts came a mile a minute. Zach? Maybe her house was on fire! She grabbed the robe lying at the foot of her bed even as another possibility occurred to her: Lucca. She glanced toward her alarm clock. Red numerals glowed three forty-eight.

Pound. Pound. Rattle. “Hope!”

Not Zach. Lucca. At three forty-eight. He must be drunk.

She moved to the window and wrenched it open. “What in the world are you doing?”

“Finally. You sleep like the dead, woman. Hurry, get dressed. Something warm. I’ll be outside.”

“Um, no. I’ll be in my bed under my covers. Go away, Romano.”

“The next few hours will be the best of the year to see the Perseids. The waxing crescent moon has set. We have dark, clear skies. I know there is a spot up on Sinner’s Prayer Pass that’s perfect for viewing. I wouldn’t want to drive that road in bad weather, but tonight it’s fine. Come with me, Hope.”

Perseids. “A meteor shower.”

“Yes.”

Her gaze trailed back to her clock. She had an early meeting at school and she didn’t function well on too little sleep. She could tell him no—and go back to her bed and to her nightmares. “Give me five minutes.”

Hope dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt and hiking boots, then grabbed a jacket on her way out of the door. Excitement hummed in her blood, and she told herself that it was the prospect of seeing a meteor shower that thrilled her rather than the man.

He had the truck running with the heater on and a steaming cup of coffee waiting for her in the cup holder. “Bless you,” she said, taking a sip. “You make good coffee.”

“It’s from K-Cups. I’m almost as helpless with a regular coffeepot as Gabi is with a frying pan.”

They made the trip up to Sinner’s Prayer Pass in companionable silence. He pulled off the road at a scenic overlook, then grabbed a quilt and a duffel from the backseat of the extended cab. “It’s a five-minute hike to our spot. We want to be away from the road so that our night vision won’t be compromised by any oncoming headlights.”

“I don’t imagine there will be many cars on this road at this time of the morning,” she observed, trailing after him. “Can I help you carry anything?”

“Grab our coffee cups. I have a thermos in my bag.” He pulled out a flashlight equipped with a red filter. “Stay close to me and watch your step.”

After a short hike, they reached the observation spot he had chosen. Lucca spread the quilt on the ground, then said, “After you, Ms. Montgomery.”

“Which direction do I look?”

“Doesn’t matter. The Perseids radiate from a point in the constellation Perseus, the Hero, but you don’t need to watch it because the meteors appear in all parts of the sky. Just fill your field of vision with the stars and sky and you’ll see them.”

“I’m excited,” she said, as she lay on her back and pillowed her head in her hands. “What time are they supposed to … oh! I see one.”

The bright ball with a vivid train streaked across the sky, and Hope felt a rush of delight. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a shooting star.”

“Keep watching. The Perseids strengthen in number as the night goes on. It’s possible we could see as many as fifty an hour.”

“That would be so cool!”

And it was. It was a magical night, like the Fourth of July, only directed by the hand of God. She oohed and aahed and felt silly because of it. She didn’t want to blink for fear of missing something spectacular.

Time ticked by while a truly heavenly show burst across the sky. The night air chilled her, and she hugged herself, running her hands up and down her arms. Lucca must have noticed because he sat up and pulled a wool blanket from the duffel. He spread it over them both, and as the growing warmth chased away the chill, Hope gradually became aware of a different sort of warmth rising within her.

She’d never been on a date with a man as hot as Lucca Romano. Not that this was a date. But it was a … well … she didn’t know what to call it, but whatever it was, lying on a quilt beneath a shooting-star sky with him created an air of intimacy and anticipation. On her side, anyway. Lucca showed no signs of reciprocation. He might as well have been lying next to Roxy as to her. And he never touched her dog if he could avoid it.

For a man who played professional basketball, he’d certainly not demonstrated any ability to throw a pass.

He’s not interested. So what? Let it go.

The man was a head case, and she had enough of that in her life just dealing with herself. He’d been nice to include her tonight; she needed to leave it at that.

“Still cold?” he asked her.

“A little. I’m glad to have the blanket.”

Matter-of-factly, he put his arm around her and tugged her against him. Startled, Hope stiffened for just a moment, then allowed herself to relax against him, absorb his body heat, and wallow in the masculine scent of him.

“Do you know the story of Perseus?” he asked her.

“Actually, I do. Greek mythology intrigued me as a teen. I kinda had a thing for him.”

“Like the Greek god type, hmm?”

She almost asked if he was fishing because heaven knows, he qualified. But that would cross the line to flirtatious, and despite the fact that she was lying beside him, she didn’t think she should go there. “He saved the princess. Gotta love a man who saves the woman in jeopardy.”

“You’re not one of those modern women who expects the princess to save herself?”

“I’m all for gender-neutral heroism. But if I’m a princess about to be eaten by a monster and a hot hero offers his sword, I’m not going to turn down his assistance.”

“That’s reasonable.”

Was he aware that his thumb had begun to stroke up and down her arm?

“When we talked about heroes once before, you mentioned your brother Zach. Who else are your heroes? Your father, maybe?”

“My dad was my superhero. Gabi probably occupies that spot for me and the rest of my family now. You know she saved Zach’s life last year.”

“Yes. She’s amazing.”

“She is. So is … whoa … did you see that?”

“I did! I counted six.”

“Eight. There were two more at ten o’clock.”

“Incredible!”

“Yeah.” After a moment of quiet, he picked up the thread of conversation. “I have a friend who is a firefighter. He lost his sight in an explosion. Still managed to save a little kid’s life. He’s definitely one of my heroes. What about you? Who are your heroes?”

Daniel Garrett came to mind immediately. She never talked about him or shared how important he was to her. Yet, here on this crisp, dark morning as she lay watching the heavens where with no warning, her hopeful anticipation was spectacularly rewarded again and again, it felt proper to mention him. “I have a friend who has quietly devoted his life to helping families who are in the midst of a crisis. Doing so takes him into some dangerous places, and more often than not leads to heartbreak. But he puts himself out there, puts himself through that, because he’s … well … a hero.”

“Sounds like a good guy. What sort of crises?”

Hope had skated as close to her own problems as she intended.

“He looks for missing people,” she replied, knowing he would interpret that as searching for runaways. Ready to lighten things up, she added, “Then, of course, there is Amanda Reed. She’s a real hero of mine.”

“Why is she a hero?”

“Bags. She designs the most spectacular handbags.”

“Through talking about serious stuff, are you?”

“Pretty much, yes. Lucca, why does that one star seem to twinkle more than the others? It’s almost like it’s winking at me.”

“Scintillation.”

“Excuse me?”

He rolled over onto his side and went up on his elbow. Though his form was cloaked in darkness, his gaze upon her was tangible. Hope went still and watchful. Anticipation welled within her.

“Stars appear to twinkle because we see them through the thick layers of moving air that make up the Earth’s atmosphere. Their light beams are refracted many times in random directions as they hit different densities of air. That random refraction results in the star appearing to wink out or twinkle. The scientific name is ‘stellar scintillation.’”

“I see,” Hope breathed.

“Or astronomical scintillation.” He lifted his hand and trailed a finger down her cheek.

Hope shivered, but this time, she wasn’t cold. “Ah.”

He leaned forward, his warm breath whispering across her face. “Irresistible scintillation.”

Then, just as the first rays of dawn stretched into the eastern sky, Lucca Romano touched his lips to hers.

The kiss was just a whisper. Now that he’d finally surrendered to the urge, he wanted to draw the pleasure out. He explored her lips, learning the shape of them, their softness. They were delightfully full and blissfully moist. The taste of her was as fascinating as the stars that had burned across the sky. Fascinating and strangely familiar.

He felt like he had kissed her before, which was crazy. Hope Montgomery wasn’t anything like the women he usually pursued. Not a model or beauty queen or, as he’d liked in his younger days, a sorority girl. She was a homespun schoolteacher, and not just a schoolteacher, but a kindergarten teacher. The flavor of her mouth—not sophisticated French champagne, but hot chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven on a cold winter’s day—stirred his blood.