Hallie's Destiny (The Donovans of the Delta) by Peggy Webb Page A

nothing existed except the two of them, joined together on a bed of red silk and honeysuckle. When their passion was spent, she lay among the crushed honeysuckle, content in the afterglow of love.
    And then, because she was a woman who desperately needed to be in charge of her own destiny this time around, she sat up, inched away from him and hugged her knees while he put on his pants.
    “Josh, I have to know. Why did you come back?”
    He caught a strand of her dark hair and let it twine around his fingers. “For the same reason you couldn’t tell me no.”
    Looking down into his face, she almost said love . She felt such tenderness for him, such longing, such passion. But her freedom had been hard won. She was wary.
    “Obsession?”
    He released her hair, stood to pick up his pants then step into them. “Let’s call it that, Hallie.”
    She stood up too. “Agreed.”
    “You stay on your side of the cove, and I’ll stay there too.”
    She laughed.
    For the first time since he’d entered the apartment, he looked at his surroundings. Flowers were everywhere. The orchids were still fresh, the violets drooping. Dried yellow roses had been plucked off their stems and now adorned the hatband of Hallie’s Stetson. “And I see you got my flowers.”
    “Yes, thank you. You know how I adore flowers.” She paraded across the room, as gloriously naked as the day he’d first seen her in Ray Hubbard Lake. Plucking the hat off the hat rack, she set it on her head.
    “Do you plan to wear that fetching outfit to breakfast?”
    “My Aunt Agnes used to say no outfit was complete without a hat.” She modeled for him, turning back to smile over her shoulder. “Don’t you agree?”
    He chuckled. “That Aunt Agnes is one smart woman.” He was across the room in two strides. With one smooth move he lifted her off her feet and held her against his chest. “Did Aunt Agnes also tell you that hats have been known to drive men crazy?”
    “No. How crazy?”
    “My dear, this requires a demonstration. Which way to the bedroom?”
    She pointed. His pants hit the floor on the threshold; her Stetson landed on the bedpost. Hallie lay back against the sheets and lifted her arms.
    “Show me, Josh.”
    And he did.
     o0o
    They might never have made it to breakfast if it hadn’t been for Hallie’s dogs. Ludwig and Wolfgang—cowards that they were—had stayed on their pallets in the kitchen until hunger drove them out. Ludwig entered the bedroom first, pushing open the door with his big front paw. Wolfgang was close behind. With their plastic bowls caught in their mouths, they marched to the side of the bed and stood there.
    “We have an audience,” Josh said.
    Hallie glanced at her dogs and smiled. “They’re hungry.”
    “So am I. But not for food.”
    “Go to the kitchen, fellows. I’ll be right there.”
    Dropping their dishes on the carpet, they trotted off.
    Josh’s voice was thick as he rolled onto his back, taking her with him. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
    “I’ll keep it.” Hallie smiled. “Eventually.”
     o0o
    Eventually, she did.
    After the hungry Danes and the hungry lovers had eaten, the four of them went for a walk. Hallie wore her Stetson with the dried yellow roses. She wore clothes too—Josh had playfully insisted.
    Summer heat rose from the pavement. A few summer school students, lured away from their studies by the Saturday sunshine, strolled along the sidewalks. Accustomed to Hallie in her cowboy boots and Stetson, they didn’t even lift an eyebrow.
    Arms linked, Josh and Hallie talked.
    “How are your dad and your brother?”
    “Nothing has changed with them, Hallie. After all these years, I tend to take the pessimistic view that nothing ever will.”
    “Maybe someday the right person will come along to help them. Someone they will really respond to. My brother Paul once took a man who had been an alcoholic for fifteen years and turned him completely around.”
    He