Heston (In the Company of Snipers #25)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Heston lay on his back with London gathered under his arm long after she fell asleep. He was wide awake, on guard for no other reason than she might need comforting. Although she hadn’t been sleeping with him, he knew nightmares hounded her every night since she’d come home. He meant to intercept the next one before it got out of hand. That was his job, to protect her from everything, even herself.

Except for the scented plug-in glowing in their bathroom, the house was dark. He’d bought this place as a fixer-upper when he’d first moved to Virginia. Back then, it provided distraction, manual labor, and almost… helped him forget about London. At least, it helped him try to forget. He knew now there was no way he could ever move beyond the love they’d had for each other then. Theirs was a love story for the ages. It would be again. He’d make sure of it.

The way his fact-gathering, very logical, extremely anal mind worked frightened him sometimes. Like now. It kept telling Heston that London would run again, that she’d survived too much neglect as an infant and child at the uncaring hands of her parents. That those years of abuse had a cumulative effect on her, a bow wave of potential dysfunction, so to speak. That everything would catch up with her one day, that she’d fall back on the survival skills she’d been forced to learn as a child, and that everything Heston did wouldn’t be enough to save her. Or them. Obermeyer and his asshole buddies had hurt London more than she realized. Heston worried she’d need more than he could offer. Once bitten, twice shy, and all that.

She moaned in her sleep and splayed her slender fingers over his chest, then up his neck and under his chin. Her hand was damp and sweaty. He needed to tell her Lancaster and his son were dead. That Alex planned to hire her. Maybe then she’d be able to put the incident at Turkey Run River behind her.

Anxious for all the unknowns facing him, Heston eased out from under London and stepped into the bathroom. Closing the door, he settled on the edge of the tub and thumb-dialed the one person in the world he knew would understand.

“Heston?” Mama mumbled when she answered. “Do you know what time it is? Madre de Dios! It’s two in the morning. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Mama. Really, I just… I just…” He ran his fingers through his hair.

Rustling ensued over the connection, which meant his mother was getting out of bed to go somewhere else to talk without his father’s know-it-all comments in the background. “Okay, Heston,” she ordered once she settled, probably at her kitchen table. “Now tell me why you needed to call me so early in the morning. Are you okay? Are you injured?”

“No, Mama, I’m sorry I worried you. I shouldn’t have called so late. I’m still working in Virginia and—”

“And you’re happy there, I know, I know. So you tell me over and over again. That is good. But is that handsome boss of yours still good to you? That’s the question I want answered.” Bellisa Contreras had a crush on Alex since Heston introduced them. She was always hinting he should bring Alex over for dinner sometime, but that was never going to happen.

“Mr. Stewart is good to all his employees.”

“Heston, you called me. Why? What’s wrong?”

“I found London,” he answered. “We were both on the same operation, only we didn’t know it.”

“Great! Then bring her over for dinner the next time you’re in town. Promise me, Heston.”

He nodded to himself. “Of course. Sure. I promise.”

A moment of silence stretched between Arizona and Virginia, until his mother asked, “What’s troubling my boy? Is London hurt?”

“She did get hurt, but she’s going to be okay, and… and that’s why I needed to talk with you.”

“I’m listening.”

Of course she was listening. That was what Mama did best. She kept quiet and she listened and she cared.

“She’s had a tougher life than I ever realized, Mama. I knew her parents were indifferent, but they never hugged her or held her when she was little. Never told her how awesome she was, never gave her a shred of confidence, or attended any of her school activities. They didn’t even see her graduate from college, and she was valedictorian that year. Her mother’s a witch—”

“Shhhhh, Heston, you mustn’t say that. We never know what others have gone through.”

“Exactly. I never knew how hard it was for London to live in her own home, Mama. Can you imagine not wanting to go home after school? Being afraid to show your face because your mother would rip it off? Her childhood was nothing like mine. You made our home a sanctuary, Mama. You made Christmas cookies in July, remember? Just because Roberto broke his arm climbing out his bedroom window when he was running away.”

“Eh, it was nothing. He needed to smile, so I made him smile. What is it you tough guys say, mission accomplished? Well, that is my mission in life, to always make my kids smile. Do I need to make Christmas cookies for you?”

Heston could feel the warmth and encouragement of his mother’s love across the miles between them. Instead of launching into all the ways his love for London wouldn’t be enough to hold her, he told his Mama, “Yes, please. Teach me and London how to make Christmas cookies. We both need to smile.”

“Then bring her home to Arizona, my perfect boy, and I will teach you both how to love each other, and…” He could feel her shrug in that noncommittal way she did when she was reading his mind. Which he was sure she was. Couldn’t all mothers? “…and we’ll make enough cookies to last until Christmas.”

This was what Heston hadn’t known he needed, simply to reach out to his one sure touchstone in life, the woman who loved him unconditionally. “I love you, Mama.”

“And I love London, my perfect son.” Bellisa Contreras had the nerve to chuckle under her breath. Like he couldn’t hear that? “And you, of course. When can you be here?”

“You always did like her better than me,” he teased, going along with his mother’s way of pulling him out of his gloom.

“Well, she’s better looking, what can I say? And she’s so much smarter.”

“She is that. I’ll talk with her first thing in the morning, and we’ll plan a good day to visit.”

“Any day you come home will be a good day to visit. Hurry, talk to London. Tell her I need to see her beautiful face again. I miss her!”

“But not me?” He feigned being offended.

“Ah, but you grew under my heart, my perfect boy. I’ve missed you since the day you were born and decided to leave my body. But it sounds like poor London was born under a cold, hard rock. Let’s spoil her until she forgets how thoughtless her mother and father were. Let’s make sure London knows how very much she’s loved.”

“Yes, Mama.” By the time he disconnected, Heston was grinning. There was no one in the world like his mother. No. One.

He crept quietly back to his bed and into London’s arms. “Mama said to tell you she still loves you best,” he whispered. “And, oh, by the way, we’re going to Arizona first chance we can. Maybe tomorrow. That good with you?”

“Ah huh,” London answered drowsily. “I miss her, too.”

Heston couldn’t resist. She was still mostly asleep. “But you missed me more, right?”

“Oh, yeah… Sure…” London yawned. “But I really miss your mom.”

Heston had to smile. He’d been worried about all the what-ifs that might destroy what he had with London. He’d been focused on the wrong things, on the negatives. Because life didn’t come with guarantees. Hell, the world might end. London might not really be in love with him. They might not make it. It could happen. Couples fell apart after ten, twenty years of living together. Things might still go wrong.

But what if they didn’t?