She swallowed, pride stiffening her spine. For the rest of her life she’d probably never live that one down. The first and only time she’d ever hyperventilated. “Why would I pass out?”
“Because I’m gonna talk about the F word.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I beg your pardon?”
“The future.”
Her lips parted. Emotion squiggled inside her. Hope. Fear. “What about it?”
He didn’t even glance around at their audience. His gaze was focused only on her. “I want one. With you. I know this is fast. We haven’t…dated. I haven’t romanced you. And I won’t push for more than you’re ready for.” His lips twisted a little. “I’ll try not to push,” he amended, gruffly. “But I know what you make me feel. And I’m done pretending that it’s not happening. And I’m done pretending I don’t like it. I love you. And I want you in my life. As my wife. My lover. My partner. My friend.”
Her eyes flooded. “Cam, you don’t know what you’re taking on.”
“A golden woman who can stand beside me until we’re hunched over in rocking chairs, watching our great-grandchildren sled on the hill behind our house?”
The tears flooded over. Grief sucked hard at her, pulling her under. “That’s just it,” she whispered. And it didn’t matter that she’d planned to talk to him later. The time was now. Avid audience or not. “I can’t give you children.”
His eyes were fiercely soft.
And unsurprised.
He stepped closer. Tilted his head lower toward hers and cupped her cheeks to catch her tears on his thumbs. “We already have Erik. And any more we might be blessed with may not come from our cells, but they’ll come from our hearts. Come on, Faith. There’s a world of children out there needing good parents, if and when we decide to add to our family. But the bottom line is that you are the one I need.”
Oh, how badly she wanted to believe him. “That’s easy for you to say now. But you haven’t had any time to think about it.”
“Your brother told me last night about the reason your marriage ended. And I didn’t need any time then. But I wasn’t going to show up at your door at one in the morning and casually suggest we get married. You think I’m gonna behave like your ex-husband did, but you’re wrong from start to finish. You think you’re not the kind of woman to inspire romantic gestures. And you’re wrong there, too.”
He closed his hands over her shoulder and turned her to face the window again.
The entire basketball team stood there, grinning like darned idiots. And every one of them held out a bouquet of roses. Red ones. White ones. Yellow. It was a veritable garden of them, right there in the middle of winter.
And behind them, the band was still playing that ridiculous song. “You are my sunshine,” she whispered thickly and turned back to Cam.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life romancing you, Faith Taylor. Because you are sunshine in my life.” His voice dropped. Turned fierce. “Do you understand me? You light up the corners. You’re the one who’s helped me see that what I have here in this town isn’t only honoring someone’s memory. It’s a life. And it’s good. And with you, it’ll be all I’ve ever wanted. I’m not saying there won’t be hurdles. Because there always are. But I’m saying we can take them together. You and me. And that terror over there who’s even now spinning around on the office chair—” his voice rose so Erik could hear “—needs you, too.”
“Is it my turn yet, Dad?”
“In a minute.” Cam didn’t look away from Faith’s face. “Just give us a chance, Faith. I’m hoping the fact that I could make you nearly pass out last week means that this is really important to you, too.”
She settled her hands tentatively on his chest. Even through the puffy down vest she felt the charge of his heart. “My brother told you last night?”
He nodded once. “I’d have come for you sooner or later, though. I couldn’t have stayed away much longer. I thought there was only one thing I needed in this life, Faith. The knowledge that my kid was safe and happy. But there’s something else I need now, too. And that’s you.”
“I was…going to come to you, too,” she whispered. “I just…when Jess left it wasn’t so much losing him that hurt. It was losing the dream of this marriage that was supposed to be as long and enduring as my parents’. But I knew if I were to ever lose you…I don’t think I could survive it, Cam.”
His breath hissed through his teeth. He leaned down. Kissed her hard. Briefly. “I’m not going anywhere, Faith. My future is here. With you.”
Her fingers curled into his vest. She reached up and pressed her mouth to his. Softly. Lingeringly. Then she drew away and sucked in a shaking breath. “What’s in the box?”
“What box?” His eyes were gratifyingly glazed.
She smiled a little, loving him so much her heart was cracking wide open with it. “The box that Erik’s clutching.”
“Right.” He slid his palm around her neck, as if he needed to make sure she was going to stay put. He gestured at Erik and the boy gleefully hopped off the chair, only to nearly fall on his nose from all the spinning. But Derek caught him up and set him on the straight course toward them.
When he reached them, Cam flipped back the lid.
Inside was an enormous pink cookie.
“First homemade cookie we ever made,” Erik said proudly. “I kinda blew up the mixer, though. Dad was pretty…um…anyhow, it’s ’cause of Valentine’s Day last week. I never got to tell you happy Valentine’s Day.”
Faith knelt down beside him, as much because her legs were going to give out as anything. She looked at the cookie.
We love Faith had been spelled out in uneven strokes of white frosting.
She ran her hand over Erik’s head. “Nobody but my mom has ever baked a cookie for me before,” she admitted.
He looked at her. “I could bake you a cookie every Valentine’s Day, maybe.”
And that was it. Her heart broke open the rest of the way. And she knew she’d never want to close it again.
Not as long as she had the Stevenson men to love.
“Maybe we’ll bake them together,” she suggested, laughing a little through the tears that clogged her throat. “See if we can not blow up any more mixers.”
He suddenly threw his arms around her neck. Cam barely rescued the boxed cookie in time to save it from flying.
“Thanks for rescuing us,” Erik whispered in her ear.
She hugged him back. “Thanks for rescuing me,” she whispered.
Then she looked up at Cam. He drew her to her feet. “Is this a big enough display for you?” he asked gently.
Outside the window, the players were still standing with the roses. The band still played. Erik had sat down at her desk where Cam stuck the cookie and was busy tearing off a great huge corner of it as his avid eyes roved over the interesting aspects a fire station might hold.
Faith looked from all of it, back to Cameron’s face. “I never needed a display.” She slid her arms around his neck. “I just needed to believe.”
“And do you?”
His eyes were dark. And just as vulnerable as Erik’s.
“Yes,” she said softly. Joyfully. Peacefully. “I believe. My future is with you, Cameron.”
His lashes lowered for a moment. “Thank you.” Then his palms slid behind her and he hauled her close.
His mouth covered hers.
And it was right.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Allison Leigh for her contribution to the MONTANA MAVERICKS: GOLD RUSH GROOMS series.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8756-7
ALL HE EVER WANTED
Copyright © 2005 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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*Men of the Double-C Ranch
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