Chapter 6: Aftermath
Chapter 6:
Luis walked through the door to Sheridan’s cottage. “Hey Jenkins, where’s Sheridan?”
“She’s sleeping. She’s outside on the patio,” Officer Jenkins answered.
“Did anything happen while I was gone?” Luis asked.
“Well, she was acting kind of strange at first. I tried to say hi and introduce myself but when I tried to shake her hand she backed away like she didn’t want to have anything to do with me and she went back into her room,” Jenkins said.
“Don’t take it personally, she’s just upset about what happened last night.”
“She seemed a lot better after your mom came over. She came out of her room and talked to me. She even gave me one of those cookies your mom made. Man, you are lucky. My mom’s cooking is horrible. Anyway, she said she wanted some fresh air and went I went to check on her she was asleep in the chair.”
“I’m staying, so you can go now,” Luis said and Jenkins left. Luis wandered through the house and onto the patio. Sheridan was sleeping peacefully reclined in a lounge chair. She was no longer plagued by nightmares and a smile played on her lips. Luis sat down next to her on the chair and watched her sleep.
He thought about waking up with her this morning, holding her, kissing her. It felt so right. The way it was meant to be. The way it should be forever. The way it could have been for so long now if only her family hadn’t interfered. They were behind what she heard on the wharf, he was positive. They were the cause of the pain and sadness he had seen in her eyes when she looked at him. He’d thought all this time that she hated him.
That she didn’t want him. But she was hurt thinking that he had used her and never cared about her. That’s why she had pushed him away. But that was far from the truth. As much as he’d denied it and tried to push it away, he was in love with her, he had been for a long time. And now he was going to stop fighting it. After this morning he was sure that she wanted him too and he was going to show her how much he loved her, prove to her that it wasn’t him on the wharf.
A light breeze blew a lock of Sheridan’s hair onto her face. Luis brushed the hair off her face and let his fingers linger across her soft cheek. Sheridan’s eyes slowly opened and she looked up at Luis.
“Are you real?” she asked quietly.
“Yes,” Luis answered, pulling his hand away from her face, “were you dreaming about me?”
The sadness returned to Sheridan’s face. “It doesn’t matter. It isn’t real and it never will be.”
“Sheridan there’s something we need to talk about.”
“There’s nothing you can say Luis. Nothing that I want to hear.”
“Please just listen to me. Ethan came to see me at the station just now. He told me why you are so upset with me.”
“He had no right to do that.”
“He did it because he cares about you and so do I Sheridan. You have to believe that.”
Tears began to flow down her cheeks. “I don’t want to talk to you,” she yelled and ran into the house. She flopped down on the couch and tried to stop the tears.
Luis followed her into the house and sat down next to her. “Please don’t cry Sheridan. It wasn’t me on the phone at the wharf. I would never say those things about you. I would never hurt you.”
“You have no idea how much I want to believe you Luis, but I saw you, I heard you. I know how you really feel about me,” Sheridan yelled, her tears returning uncontrollably.
“No you don’t know how I feel about you.”
“Yes I do. I’m a Crane and you hate the Cranes. I’ve heard you say it many times. I was a fool to think you would ever want anything to do with me.”
“I hate Julian and Alistair. I don’t deny that. But I stopped thinking of you as just one of the Cranes a long time ago. I don’t hate you Sheridan. I could never hate you. I’m in love with you.”
Luis tried to reach out to Sheridan but she turned away form him and looked down at her trembling hands. He had just told her what her heart had been longing to hear for so long. She wanted to believe Luis loved her, to believe he never said those horrible things.
“Sheridan please don’t turn away from me. I promise you I wasn’t the one at the wharf. I think maybe your father and brother had something to do with it,” Luis said and Sheridan looked up at him, “they never wanted us to be together. They tried to bribe me to keep me away from you and when that didn’t work, someone who looks and sounds like me shows up and makes you think I am using you.
I always suspected they were somehow involved with my father’s imposter, and now this happens. I swear to you Sheridan, it wasn’t me. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it to you. I’m sure if you check the records at the at the station they’ll show what time I was there bringing in that drug dealer and that I couldn’t have been at the wharf. Or maybe one of the guys remembers seeing me there. My cell phone! You can check the phone records and you’ll see that the only person I called that night was you. Come on,” Luis said grabbing Sheridan’s hand and pulling her up off the couch.
“No,” Sheridan said pulling back on Luis’ hand.
“Please Sheridan come with me. Let me prove to you that it wasn’t me.”
“We don’t have to go anywhere Luis. I believe you,” Sheridan whispered and she sank back onto the couch and buried her face in her hands. “All of this time I’ve been so mean to you. I’ve said such horrible things. I hit you and you had no idea why I was mad at you.”
“It’s ok Sheridan, it’s not your fault,” Luis said sitting back down next to her and putting his hand on her shoulder.
“But you told me that you would never use me and I should have believed that. You must be so angry that I thought you would do that.”
“I was a little upset at first, but you thought you saw me. My mother couldn’t even tell for sure whether that imposter was my father or not. I just wish you had told me about this then, but I know other men have used you and it must have been really hurt you to think that I did the same thing. But I promise you, I will never use you or hurt you and I’m not going to let anyone else hurt you either. I love you Sheridan.” Luis ran his hand across Sheridan’s cheek. Her tears had stopped and a small smile spread across her lips.
“No matter what I thought about you before, I couldn’t help but wish it wasn’t true. Every time I closed my eyes I would dream of you, telling me you weren’t using me, telling me you love me. No matter how much I tried to stop myself my heart wouldn’t let you go Luis. I love you too.”
Sheridan and Luis looked deeply into each other’s eyes. All the anger, sadness, and pain had faded away and now all that was reflected in their eyes was love. Luis leaned down and kissed Sheridan softly. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. She laid her head on his shoulder and they relaxed into the couch.
“I never thought this would really happen,” Sheridan sighed, “I’m afraid that if I let you go, you’ll disappear and it will all just have been another dream.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Luis said, tightening his hold around Sheridan, “but I still don’t want you to let go of me.” Luis kissed Sheridan again, but when Luis pulled back Sheridan leaned in and continued their kisses, softly, sweetly, lovingly. Sheridan could have continued kissing Luis forever, but finally Luis slowly pulled away.
“Go get some shoes on I want to take you somewhere,” Luis said.
“Why are we leaving? I am enjoying myself here,” Sheridan pouted teasingly.
“There is something I want to do,” Luis told her, “we have a lot of lost time to make up for.”
“I thought that’s what we were doing,” Sheridan said seductively and she pulled Luis into a steamy kiss.
“I promise you’ll like it,” Luis said giving her a sexy wink, “will you please come with me?”
“Oh, all right, I’ll go get my shoes.”
“Why are we at the beach Luis?” Sheridan asked as they walked away from the car.
“I told you, we’re making up for lost time,” Luis said as he took Sheridan’s hand and led her closer to the water’s edge. “Do you remember the second time I called you that night after we kissed on the wharf? I called to ask you to come take a walk with me.”
“And that’s what we’re doing now, finally taking that walk.” “That’s right,” Luis said. He and Sheridan walked hand in hand down the beach and finally they sat down in the sand, resting in each others arms while they watched the ocean waves as the sun began to make it’s descent behind them.
“Whenever your arms are around me I feel so safe, like nothing can ever hurt me,” Sheridan said turning her head back to look at Luis, “remind me to thank Sam for making you my 24 hour bodyguard.”
“So you don’t mind having me around all the time then?”
“Absolutely not. I almost wish they don’t catch Roger and Pierre and then you’ll have to stay with me forever.”
“That could be arranged,” Luis whispered and pulled Sheridan into a long passionate kiss. “Speaking of Roger and Pierre, I think it’s about time we got you back home,” Luis said standing up and helping Sheridan to her feet.
“Switching into bodyguard mode, huh,” Sheridan teased.
“That’s right Miss Crane, now let’s get you back to a safe place,” Luis said in a fake serious tone.
“You know Luis I think it’s about time you started taking you bodyguard duties more seriously.”
“Oh really,” Luis said raising an eyebrow at her.
“Yep,” Sheridan flashed Luis a sexy smile, “I definitely think you should take me home right now. Then you can really start guarding my body.”
The End
