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“Yes, thank you. It was,” I said. Bill had overnighted the cameras to me. “I owe you.”
Bill chuckled. “I have owed you for saving my life for a long time. This is just something I can do. I’m grateful to do it.”
Bill always felt indebted to me for pulling him out of the firefight after he was hit. Yet I had never seen it that way. I’d considered it a privilege to help. I didn’t need a reward or thanks. I was the commanding officer, and that was my job.
“I wanted to talk to you about something else,” I told him.
Bill sighed. “How come when you want to talk to me, it feels like I’m about to be on a new mission for the government?”
I grunted. “Not something so serious.”
Bill laughed. “Shoot.”
“I’ve fallen in love with her—with having a life with her here in Refuge Falls. I want you to buy out my part of the business.”
For a few seconds, I didn’t get a response. Then Bill barked out a laugh. “Wow. You really don’t hold back.”
I grinned and then proceeded to tell Bill about what had happened the past few days.
When I got to the end of it, Bill let out another whistle. “What do you mean, they haven’t been able to find the person breaking in and cutting her power and putting pictures in her house?” He went into a tirade about the justice system and how I should work this case myself. He asked how he could help me.
“Bill, thank you for your concern. I’m not letting her out of my sight. If there’s another break-in, I will be with her.”
Another beat of silence. “Oh, so it’s like that. You don’t need my help?”
Irritation spiked through me. “I am capable of protecting her. I want to.”
“Okay, so you’re going to marry her?”
“You bet I am.”
Another pause. “Man, when you do things, you don’t go halfway, do you?”
“I have loved this woman for most of my life. I have to do everything all the way with this.”
“So what you’re telling me, partner, is that I really don’t have a choice. I'm going to buy you out.”
I relaxed and sat on a barstool. “I would be grateful if you did and I'd be even more grateful if I had your blessing.”
Bill let out another long sigh. “Of course you have that. You always do. I trust you with my life, so I guess I can trust you to make good life decisions for yourself.”
It was nice to hear that my partner trusted me. “Thank you.”
“I’ll have my attorney draw up some papers, and I’ll get them emailed to you in a day or two. That work?”
“That works. Thanks.”
We ended the call, and I wandered out the back door and onto the deck, looking out at the lake. I could get used to this view…at least until our house was built above my parents’ property. Obviously, I would have to wait a bit to tell Ella about that plan.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ella
It was a busy day at work, but of course I filled Mercy in on all the details about what had happened with Noah. We started talking about it at the beginning of our shift, which led us to talking about everything for the next several hours.
Of course, my best friend was ecstatic that I had finally forgiven myself and Noah. She was delighted to hear that the family dinner and church had been a success, and she loved that Noah had stayed with me to protect me. Already, she was planning our wedding. I told her she was going too fast, but she didn’t think so.
I was jittery and nervous all day. I felt like a teenager waiting to see her boyfriend after work. Which was funny, because teenage me had been in that exact situation.
