Interesting, if true. “Must have slipped her mind.”
“I can give you a tour,” she offered. “Just let me ask the owners.”
Zack was curious about the place where Jan intended to live. “Sure.” He switched off the engine. “That would be great.”
Maybe he’d get an idea during the tour. He could sure use some inspiration.
Chapter Nineteen
Telling Zack about her decision hadn’t brought the relief Jan expected. Of course, she’d known it would be a difficult discussion. Still, he’d taken it well. If he’d argued and leveled accusations it would have only confirmed her resolve.
Once the girls were settled she discovered he’d gone out. Easy to understand why. The situation was uncomfortable for them both. Jan regretted springing her news on what should have been a night of celebration, but she had to let him know her decision about the rental.
This house was already full of memories: Thanksgiving, playing with the girls, making love with Zack. If only she didn’t feel this underlying anxiety, as if she were a visitor in what should have been her home.
Had a friend asked for advice in such a situation, Jan would have recommended counseling. They could still try that, but only after she left. While she was here the pressure to yield to him in countless ways was too strong.
It comes from inside me. Does that make it my problem? There she went, taking the responsibility on herself. Yet he had changed.
Jan’s footsteps carried her into the living room. As always, the multicolored cushions against the red couch and zebra-striped chairs made her smile. She paused by the photo of Rima.
A warm spirit shone forth. Yet, much as she admired Berry’s mother, Jan couldn’t help speculating. If Rima hadn’t come along would she and Zack have reconciled? Perhaps they’d have matured alongside each other, battling and loving their way to a happy relationship. Or would they have made each other miserable?
Hearing the garage door activate, Jan cut through the dining room into the kitchen. What kind of mood was he in? She knew how easily anger could feed on itself with imagined scenarios and arguments.
The door opened and Zack came through. With a rush she took in the tweed jacket and his dear, woodsy scent. Surprise flickered in his green eyes. “Were you standing here waiting for me?”
Jan chuckled in embarrassment. “I heard the garage open. Guess I just gravitated in this direction.”
Zack shrugged off his coat. “There’s something I’d like to show you.”
“Sure.” Despite her light tone she braced for some new attempt to change her mind.
At the table, he produced his phone. Curious, Jan took a chair to his left.
“Oddly enough, I ran into Caroline while I was out,” Zack remarked as he clicked some buttons. “I hope she’s telling the truth about not gossiping.”
“She seems to mean it.” The conversation puzzled Jan. “Where did you run into her?”
He held up an image of the house she planned to rent. In the floodlights, Caroline stood in front of a Dumpster. “Lovely view, huh?”
“Charming.” Jan waited. Obviously, there must be more.
“I was driving by and saw her talking to the owners. She offered to show me around. Nice place.”
“Nothing fancy.” Especially not with the trash and smelly dog blankets left by the former renters. Did he mean to muster those as an argument against living there?
“I’d like your opinion of these decorations.” He flipped to a shot of a similar house. Green and red lights festooned the eaves and candy canes illuminated the walkway.
“Pretty, I suppose.” She wished he’d get to the point.
“How about this?” The next image showed a two-story home engulfed in white lights that also wrapped around several palm trees.
“Overdone. It lacks focus.” Like this presentation.
“The kids might prefer this one.” A large yard displayed Santa’s workshop, complete with giant teddy bears.
“Zack, what’s this about?”
He set down the phone. “I thought the four of us could decorate both our houses as a family project.” He spoke carefully, watching her reaction. “If we pick out the displays and put them up together, it’ll help Kimmie and Berry feel like we’re still linked. It might bridge the transition.”
Did she understand correctly? “It sounds like you’re accepting that I’m going to move.”
“And offering my assistance, if you want it.”
Was there a catch that she’d missed? Jan longed so hard for this decision to be real she couldn’t trust it. “Why?”
Zack folded his hands on the table. “While Caroline was showing me through the house, she said something that struck a nerve.”
“Caroline did?” The young woman hardly seemed like the type to dazzle one with her insight.
“She said, ‘I listened to Ms. Garcia lecture me about gossiping, but until today I never really heard her.’”
Jan was glad her message had been received. “I guess that’s because for the first time she might be on the receiving end.”
“That made me think about your reasons for leaving. I listened, but I didn’t hear you, either.” Zack’s gaze fixed on hers. “You can’t be yourself as long as I insist on controlling you.”
“I don’t remember using the word control.”
“My interpretation.” He tilted his head. “Am I wrong?”
“No.” While Jan hadn’t thought of his actions in that light, his analysis rang true.
“Years ago, when I lived with my parents, my dad kept trying to make me over,” he said. “The older I got the more it grated. Even after I turned eighteen, he was always evaluating and correcting me, like a principal, with me forever a kid at his school. I wasn’t free to explore my own options. I had to live at home during college to save money and it drove me crazy. When I moved out I experienced this wonderful surge of freedom.”
“That’s right,” Jan said in wonder. “You nailed it.”
Zack touched her hand. The gentle contact exhilarated her. “It’s important that you be happy. I wish you could be happy with me. I love you, Jan. I’d like to be part of your future, but if that means having to co-parent from a distance, then I’ll do my best.”
“You’re letting me go.” Sadness warred with a burst of liberation—just as he’d described.
“I have to.” He swallowed, and she saw he was holding back a shimmer of tears. “Because I love you that much.”
Around her the room sparkled with unusual clarity. Jan noted the buffed golden wood of the cabinets as if for the first time, and the small glass chandelier above the table seemed etched by fairies. “Did the lighting just change in here?”
“Is that a trick question?”
She laughed. “It’s gone.”
“What is?” He looked as confused as she’d been a few moments ago.
“The weight. The heaviness.” She marveled at her sudden buoyancy. “Oh, Zack. That was it.”
“Are we talking about Christmas decorations?” he ventured.
“We’re talking about us. Being partners. Working as a team, as equals. That’s what I couldn’t get through to you. I hadn’t even articulated it clearly to myself.” She supposed he’d always been dominant, in both their perceptions. When she was younger, that had felt natural, but after years of struggle and independence, she’d outgrown her old role.
So, she was thrilled to learn,
had he.
“Mind walking me through this?” Zack asked.
“I’d be delighted. I can be myself around you now. You love me enough to accept my decision to leave, if that’s what I need.”
He touched her cheek. “Dare I hope this means you’ll stay?”
Jan nodded, her heart full. “I only needed for you to understand, to truly see things from my point of view. I’ll call the rental owners and tell them I’m not taking the house.”
He gave her a smile brimming with love. “I hope Caroline won’t be disappointed.”
“Who’d have imagined she’d turn out to be our fairy godmother?” The idea tickled Jan. “We can tell the girls tomorrow that we’re staying. Although I’m not sure exactly how to explain it.”
“I am.”
“What do you mean?”
To her astonishment he slid off the chair onto one knee. “If you’re willing, we can tell them we’re getting married. Miss Garcia, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” With a trace of uncertainty, he amended, “Unless it’s too soon. If this feels like I’m pressuring you...”
“Oh, Zack!” It didn’t. Not at all. “Yes. From the minute I saw you again, the first day of school, I knew I still loved you.”
“And I fell in love with you all over again,” he said.
The next moment she was in his arms, hugging and being hugged. It felt splendidly, magically right.
“And here I thought establishing the grant program was the best thing that could happen to me today,” Zack said as they moved into the den to the luxury of the couch. “Thank goodness I got some sense knocked into me.”
“If we keep it small, we could get married the weekend after Christmas and have the reception here at the house,” Jan mused, her thoughts racing ahead. “If you don’t mind?”
“The sooner the better,” he murmured.
“I saw the perfect dress in a store the other day and wished I had an excuse to buy it. It’s green rather than white. Is that okay?” It was a stunning cocktail-length dress with a short jacket. Exactly the color of his eyes—and Kimmie’s.
“Green for the holidays,” he murmured approvingly. “But I thought you always dreamed of a big, formal wedding.”
That had been a different Jan. “What matters is that everyone we love shares in our special day.”
“Let’s make sure Berry feels as much a part of things as Kimmie,” Zack said.
“Absolutely.” Jan snuggled against him. “How about she gets to be maid of honor in a pretty dress and Kimmie wears a tuxedo as your best...whatever.”
She felt his chest shake with laughter. “If they like the idea, fine. And they probably will.”
“They’ll be adorable.” She added teasingly, “Don’t forget to hire a photographer.”
“An hour ago you were moving out and now we’re planning our wedding.”
“I waited eight years,” Jan responded. “That’s long enough.”
Placing a finger beneath her chin, Zack tipped her face up and kissed her. For several minutes she thought of nothing but him.
When they came up for air, he said, “Let’s go upstairs.”
“The girls...”
“Maybe they’re asleep.”
They went up hand in hand and peeked into the girls’ room. Kimmie sprawled on her back in her bed, while Berry curled on her side beneath the princess-style canopy. Each had a cat nestled beside her. Between them, on a small table, rested the book of fairy tales from which Jan had read aloud earlier.
The story had ended with, “And they lived happily ever after.” But as she and Zack slipped out, she realized their real story was just beginning.
In his bedroom, he withdrew a velvet jeweler’s box from a bureau drawer. “Do you still like these as much as you used to?”
To her astonishment he opened it to reveal a set of elegant rings: the engagement ring she’d thrown at him and the one intended for their wedding day. “You kept them?”
“I guess there was a part of me that never let go.”
She slipped on the sparkler. “It’s beautiful, and it still fits. I can hardly believe it.”
“Start believing.” Zack drew her close. “I’m glad it’s back where it belongs.”
And so, Jan thought, was she. At the start of a wonderful adventure.
Twice upon a time...
* * * * *
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Chapter One
“He’s married. I’m beginning to think this season is cursed.” Maggie Sullivan stared at the wedding picture of Rory McAlister, Devlin Designs’ cowboy model, on the Twin Creeks Ranch website. Tall, dark-haired and built like only a real cowboy could be, he’d have been perfect. Now here she was, two weeks from the start of taping for her reality show, Finding Mrs. Right, and they were short one key component—a bachelor.
Samantha, Maggie’s assistant director, turned from her computer monitor. “Who’s married?”
“Rory McAlister. The man we hoped would be this season’s bachelor.”
“Isn’t it Kate’s job to check into that?”
“She’s got the flu, and since we have to sign a new bachelor ASAP, I get to play casting director.” Maggie frowned. What luck. She’d also get to deliver the bad news about Rory to her boss. Right now having the flu sounded pretty good.
When their quarterback bachelor unretired in midseason, the powers that be had decided to capitalize on the current popularity of cowboys, and hoped to sign Devlin Designs’ gorgeous new model as the next bachelor. The man was featured in every popular fashion magazine, and his rugged good looks were a hot conversation topic among women around office watercoolers all over the country. Maggie had been sent to research the idea, which led her to the unfortunate news of his marriage.
Unfortunate for her, that is, not for Rory.
“What’re we going to do now that our prime candidate is off the market?”
“I’m working on plan B even as we speak.” However, all she’d come up with was an actor dressed up as a cowboy, but they needed authenticity. There was something about real cowboys. No one could define it exactly, but everyone knew when it was missing.
Think. She fingered the sterling-silver frame holding the last picture of her and her mother together. What would her mom think of her only daughter, an upstate New York farm girl, working on a reality sh
ow in L.A.?
I know it’s not what you would’ve wished for me, Mom, but the job will get me what I want out of life.
“How about a rodeo cowboy?” Samantha asked as she rolled her desk chair across Maggie’s pristinely organized office to join her at her computer.
“The National Finals are two months away. Anyone with a name is gearing up for that.” Maggie rubbed the back of her neck, trying to loosen the tension knot.
When she scrolled further down the ranch’s web page, a picture of the wedding party appeared. Beside Maggie, Samantha sighed and pointed at the screen. “Look at the best man. He’s too good for words.”
Slightly taller than Rory, the man had charisma that leaped off the screen. The tux fit him to perfection, emphasizing his broad shoulders. The sun highlighted the golden tones in his hair.
“He’s definitely what great dreams are made of.” Maggie scanned the copy beside the picture. Hope eternal burst through her. “He’s Rory’s brother, Griffin. Could that be more perfect? We can still capitalize on Rory’s popularity if his brother is our bachelor.” She could see the trailer now: Rory McAlister is off the marriage market, but don’t worry. He has a brother. Tune in every week to Finding Mrs. Right, and meet Griffin McAlister!
She frowned as another thought occurred to her. “How could a man this gorgeous be available?”
Samantha clicked her ruby-red fingernail against the monitor. “Look at the wedding photos. Each one shows him dancing or cuddling with a different woman. No way is that guy in a serious relationship.”
“I have to be sure.”
“Then call him and ask.”
Why not, since plan B stunk and plan C failed to materialize? Maggie clicked on the Contact Us page. “What do I have to lose?”
SH Medical 09 - The M.D.'s Secret Daughter Page 20
