Before he could say a single word of greeting, she was kissing him.
Kissing him with all the pent-up passion she’d been denying, passion that had been brewing within her for the last few days and was now tottering on the very brink of release.
Jeff kissed her back, relieved that she wasn’t standing on ceremony or telling him that she still wanted him to keep his distance.
Relieved to just be holding her like this again.
And then, just for a moment, he drew back and looked down into her eyes. “I’m sorry, is this what you meant by ‘slow’?”
He’d scared her just now. She’d thought that he’d suddenly changed his mind and realized that he’d rather be without her after all. When she saw he was only teasing, she could have cried.
Instead, she raised herself back up on her toes, her heated body pressed urgently against his. “Shut up and kiss me!”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered dutifully, amusement dancing in his eyes. “But I think we should close the door first before your neighbors start talking about the hot doctor who lives at 2712 Mayfair Circle.”
The very suggestion of that happening made Mikki start to laugh. Laugh so hard at the image he’d created of gossiping neighbors that it caused every drop of tension that had invaded her body to totally dissipate and disappear.
The sound was infectious, and Jeff wound up laughing right along with her.
Mikki relaxed. It felt wonderful to laugh, and even more wonderful to have Jeff standing here, in her house, being part of her life.
Regaining some of her composure, Mikki finally locked the door. Turning back toward Jeff, she asked, “Can I get you anything?”
He shook his head, almost amused by her question. “I just spent an entire day at the restaurant. I didn’t come here to eat, Mikki. I came to find out if I could start seeing you again or if you still wanted me to go slower.”
Since it had been eating away at her, she had to ask. “Is that why you didn’t come with your mother when she came in for her postsurgical checkup?”
He was honest with her. “I thought if I brought her, you’d think I was using my mother’s condition as an excuse to see you.”
Mikki shook her head, reviewing the myriad thoughts that had gone through her head when Sophia came in, accompanied by her daughter rather than Jeff. She couldn’t remember ever being that disappointed before—not even when her parents had divorced.
She debated keeping that to herself, but then she decided if this relationship was going to work, it had to be based on honesty. No more hiding emotionally for self-preservation purposes.
“When your sister brought your mother in instead of you, I thought I was never going to see you again.”
“I was just trying to do what I thought you wanted me to do,” he told her simply. Jeff studied her face now, fighting the strong urge to pull her back into his arms. But he needed to get some things cleared up before he could allow himself to move forward. “What do you want me to do?”
She didn’t want to waste any more precious time. “I want you to forget everything I said before. I want us to go forward.”
This was a complete 180 from the wishes she’d expressed when he’d been here the last time. It sounded too good to be true, and that had him feeling just slightly leery.
“Why the change of heart?” he asked her. “What happened?”
“My mother’s getting married,” Mikki told him bluntly.
He tried to remember what she’d told him when she’d mentioned her mother’s unions the last time. “This is husband number five?”
“Maybe six,” she allowed.
And then he remembered. “Right, the possible annulment.” But why had her mother’s pending marriage made her change her feelings about commitment? “Help me out here. Aren’t all your mother’s marriages the reason why you wanted me to back off?”
Mikki flushed. “Yes.”
He shook his head, still not able to make sense out of the change in her attitude. “I’m confused.”
She tried her best to explain what she was feeling. “When my mother called to tell me she was getting married and to invite me to the wedding, I finally confronted her and asked why she was going through this again, especially since we both know that her track record when it comes to marriage is less than stellar. Why get married if there’s the very real possibility that she’ll just divorce this one, too?”
It was a legitimate question. So far, he followed her. “What was her answer?”
“She said that if she didn’t keep on trying, then she’d never be able to find the happiness she was hoping for. That she knew it wasn’t just going to fall in her lap. And that this latest guy to enter the marital sweepstakes just might be the one. As long as that possibility existed, she was going to go for it.”
Jeff laughed shortly. “You know, in its own way, that makes sense,” he told her. “If you don’t try, you don’t stand a chance of winning.”
She looked up at him, her eyes meeting his. “I know,” she replied.
He ran the back of his hand along her cheek. “You know what else?”
She could feel desire spiking within her. “What?” she asked almost breathlessly.
“You’re not your mother. You haven’t been frantically going through men, trying to find Mr. Right behind every rock and tree. You’ve been much too busy, saving the world one patient at a time.”
It was a wonderful thing to say, but she knew he wasn’t into empty flattery. What was he basing this on? “How would you know?”
“I looked you up,” he told her simply. Seeing the surprised look on her face, he quickly assured her, “I wasn’t trying to spy on you. I just thought that the more I knew about you, the better my chances were of winning you over.”
He touched on a couple of the highlights he’d learned. “You have an awful lot of accolades written about you, not to mention that you’ve gotten a lot of awards for your ‘selfless service,’ I think the wording was.”
She nodded. That was all well and good, and once upon a time, that had been enough.
But not anymore.
Not after she’d met him. “None of that matters when I come home to an empty house night after night.”
“They say pets help fill up the emptiness,” he told her, doing his best to keep a straight face.
Seeing the glimmer in his eye, Mikki doubled up her small fist and punched his arm.
“Wow, you have a violent streak. Who knew?” he teased.
And then he kissed her long and hard. When he drew back, he saw the look of surprise on her face. Jeff wasn’t finished reviewing the ground rules, because this time around, he wanted to get it right.
“So, if I promise to go very, very slow, can we start seeing each other again? Really start seeing each other again?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, and for a moment, he thought he was back on shaky ground again—until he heard her ask, “Just how slow is slow?”
Drawing her into his arms, he smiled at her. “As slow as you want.”
“What if I don’t want to go slow at all?”
“Even better,” he answered, tightening his arms around her.
There was a look he could only describe as mischievous in her eyes as she asked, “Does this mean that you’ll make love with me tonight?”
He was already pressing a kiss to the side of her neck, igniting her. “Twist my arm.”
“Why would I ever do that?” she breathed, tugging at his shirt and unbuttoning it.
“Beats me,” he replied, the words all but burning along her skin.
“Only if you stop,” she warned.
“Then I’d say we’ve got nothing to worry about,” he told her as his lips covered hers again, taking what was already his.
Epilogue
“Well, l
adies,” Theresa Manetti told her two best friends happily, “this is one more in our plus column.”
Theresa slipped into the pew next to Maizie and Cilia after double-checking with her staff to make sure that Mikki and Jeff’s specially designed wedding cake would be arriving at Jeff’s restaurant in plenty of time for the reception. She had put her best pastry chefs on the job.
“You mean two more, don’t you?” Cilia asked. She glanced knowingly in Maizie’s direction.
Totally in the dark, Theresa questioned, “Two? Maizie, what is she talking about?”
This was a topic for future discussion, not in church right before the wedding ceremony was about to begin. Maizie’s expression was one of pure innocence as she said, “I really have no idea.”
Theresa thought otherwise. She turned her attention to Cilia. “Tell me,” she ordered.
“Apparently, our friend has taken it upon herself to freelance without telling us.” Cilia’s smile was triumphant. “You forget,” she told Maizie, “our daughters talk.”
“Well, somebody talk,” Theresa insisted. She hated being kept in the dark.
“All right,” Maizie relented. “My daughter came to me after talking to Mikki to see how things were going. She was afraid Mikki was never going to risk getting married no matter how wonderful Jeff was—not until her mother finally found someone stable she could really settle down with. If that happened, that would encourage Mikki to say yes to Jeff.”
“And so Maizie found someone for her,” Cilia said, taking over the narrative. “Honestly, Maizie, sometimes you just talk too slowly—the wedding’s almost starting.”
“Wait,” Theresa interrupted, still trying to get the story straight. “So you played matchmaker for Mikki’s mother?” she asked Maizie. “Without us?”
Maizie nodded. “I’m afraid I did,” she confessed. “I knew a gentleman who was just perfect for her mother—and Nikki helped,” she added proudly.
“Nikki? Your daughter, Nikki?” Theresa questioned, surprised.
“The apple doesn’t fall all that far from the tree,” Cilia told their friend.
Maizie quickly filled her friends in. “Randolph is a retired army doctor. Kind, intelligent and not the type to be intimidated by a forceful woman. I think he’s just the influence that Veronica needs in her life. Her mother marrying Randolph also showed Mikki that the right one can come along if you don’t give up. And Lord knows, that woman never gave up.”
Theresa laughed softly. “My, the lengths we go to in order to help our unsuspecting clients find happiness,” she marveled.
“Well, it worked,” Maizie said proudly. “The happy couple had their reception at Jeff’s restaurant. And during the celebration, Jeff worked up his nerve to propose to Mikki.” Maizie’s smile went right to her eyes. “I hear tell that she couldn’t say yes fast enough.”
“You are one devious woman, Maizie Sommers,” Cilia told her friend.
Maizie exchanged glances with her two friends. “We all are.” Then, before either one of them could say anything in response to her comment, she said, “Shh. It’s starting.”
A moment later, Cilia looked at her closely. “Maizie, you’re tearing up.”
“Nikki is her matron of honor,” she pointed out. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
“Always,” Theresa and Cilia both agreed, although it wasn’t clear if Maizie was talking about her daughter or the latest young bride.
* * *
Right about now, she’d expected to be nervous—to the point that she would be contemplating bolting from the church. Instead, Mikki realized that she had never felt more confident in her life. Marrying Jeff, committing herself for the rest of her life to this man, was not just the right thing to do, she knew that it was the only thing to do.
And here she was, slowly walking down the aisle toward the man of her dreams.
She couldn’t believe it.
And to think that she had almost thrown it all away out of fear because she didn’t want to emulate her mother’s mistakes.
Mikki glanced over to where her mother was seated with her new husband. Her last new husband, her mother had whispered when she’d introduced Randolph to Mikki, and she’d felt her mother actually meant it. More important, she felt that this man was going to keep her mother happy.
Love was possible in this turbulent world, Mikki thought happily—and she had found her love. Thank goodness he hadn’t given up on her.
As she slowly made her way down the aisle behind her best friend, her eyes were focused on the man at the altar. The man who had been patient enough to wait out her craziness.
The man she was meant to be with forever.
When she finally reached the altar and joined Jeff before the minister, Jeff leaned in and whispered to her, “You came,” as if he had been harboring some doubts.
Mikki smiled warmly at him. “Wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” she whispered back.
And then they both turned to look at the minister, who began to say the words that would, in the end, join them for the rest of their lives.
The way they were meant to be.
* * * * *
Check out other books in Marie Ferrarella’s MATCHMAKING MAMAS miniseries:
A SECOND CHANCE FOR THE SINGLE DAD
MEANT TO BE MINE
TWICE A HERO, ALWAYS HER MAN
DR. FORGET-ME-NOT
Available now from Harlequin Special Edition!
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A Bride for Liam Brand
by Joanna Sims
Chapter One
“Mommy!”
Callie’s scream caused Kate King to drop the heavy Western saddle she was carrying and run toward the sound of her daughter’s voice.
“Mommy!”
“Callie!” Kate ran down the wide, center aisle of her fifty-stall barn. “Callie!”
The mother and daughter nearly collided when Kate rounded a corner at the end of the long, concrete aisle.
“What’s wrong?” Kate put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, giving her face and body a cursory check with her concerned eyes.
Callie’s round face was flushed bright red and drenched with tears and sweat. Her daughter was eighteen-years-old, an adult by any standard, but Callie had been born with Down syndrom
e. Negative emotions, in particular, were difficult for Callie to process.
“Take a minute.” Her daughter was gasping for air, struggling to speak. “Catch your breath.”
Callie leaned forward a bit, closed her eyes, coughed several times and followed her mother’s instructions.
“Visa...” Callie finally got the words out. “He’s hurt, Mommy!”
Kate was, at first, relieved that her daughter wasn’t the one injured, but the last thing a horse owner wanted to hear was that one of the herd was injured. So, the relief she had originally felt was fleeting.
“It’s okay, Callie.” Kate gave her daughter a steady look. “Let’s go see what’s going on with him.”
It was just a fact of life that her daughter didn’t have many friends in their community; Bozeman, Montana, was a small town surrounded by ranches and uninhabited swaths of land. There simply weren’t any other young adults with a similar disability living close by—so every animal on their ranch was Callie’s friend. And she took it hard if any of her friends were injured or sick.
Visa, whose registered name was Expense Account, was a rare member of their horse-breeding ranch. The majority of the horses on the Triple K Ranch were Quarter horses with excellent pedigrees. Visa, on the other hand, was a Dutch Warmblood and Hanoverian mix, and he was Callie’s favorite.
Together, they walked quickly out to the pasture closest to the barn; each horse had its designated pasture and turnout time. Visa, who wasn’t the most assertive horse in the herd, was always turned out with the older, more experienced geldings.
Kate spotted typically social and “in everyone’s business” Visa, standing alone and away from the herd. The owner of the Triple K, her brow furrowed with concern, unlatched the gate to the pasture.
“Wait for me here, please, Callie.”
“I—I want to help.” Her daughter said.
“Callie.” Her tone brooked no argument. “This I need you to wait here, please.”
Callie, in her own right, was a talented horsewoman; she had been raised working with these elegant creatures and had been riding before she could walk. But, in this moment, Kate didn’t want the distraction of watching out for Callie while she tried to figure out what was going on with Visa.
An Engagement for Two Page 17
