‘It can’t be any worse.’ In despair, he said, ‘You know you’re going to take a long time to get over this, don’t you?’
Her face crumpled, but abruptly she turned and, stumbling a little, she began to walk towards the plane.
Jack didn’t follow her. He couldn’t bring himself to meekly step forward, carrying her suitcases, when all he wanted to do was to throw her over his shoulder, and stop this insanity.
How could he let her go?
He thought of wild schemes to stop the plane—ripping its propeller out, tearing off its wings.
Already, Lizzie was halfway across the stretch of red dirt that took her to the plane’s metal steps.
It was happening. Heaven help him, she was determined to walk out of his life, but it was like watching a loved one die, or walk the green mile. How could she do this to herself?
How would he live without her?
Ahead of him, Lizzie stopped and looked back at him as he stood there with a suitcase in each hand.
She looked at the plane, then to Jack again.
She was clearly hesitating and Jack stood his ground and his heart began to hammer. Blood pounded in his ears.
Only a few more steps.
Eyes wide in a bid to stem the tears, Lizzie stared at the little plane as if, somehow, staring could help. But all she could see was a figure, ridiculously dressed in white, stepping down from that cabin, and seeing Jack for the first time. That had been the beginning…
She looked back at Jack again. He hadn’t moved.
Was he going to make her go back to fetch her own bags?
He was standing there, and she knew from the set in his shoulders and the stiff way he held himself that he was hurting. So much.
What am I doing?
Going back to face my responsibilities.
Why?
Good question.
For so long she’d put her career first. Even now, she was turning away from Jack because he wouldn’t fit in with her career.
Like someone drowning, Lizzie saw her life at Savannah flash before her—saw the morning she’d worked on the truck’s brakes with Jack. Saw herself driving the truck to feed the weaner calves. The over-the-top ossobucco meal. Jack jumping the stockyard gate. Tearing outside to kiss him. Making love. Talking with him long into the night about families.
Families.
Oh, help.
Jack wanted to join her and her boys to create a little family. He loved her. He wanted to love her sons, yet here she was, walking away from him, just as Angelo and Alessandro’s mother had walked away from her uncle Luca. Just as her mother had walked from her father…
What-am-I-doing-what-am-I-doing-what-am-I-doing?
How could she do this? To herself? To her boys? Most of all how could she do it to Jack?
How could she pretend that Jack would be happier without her? How many times did he have to tell her that he loved her before she believed him?
As her heart began to break Lizzie turned.
She began to run.
Jack saw Lizzie running.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she was smiling. Laughing.
The bags fell from his hands, tumbling to the ground, and Lizzie, smiling through her tears, ran into his arms.
‘I couldn’t do it,’ she sobbed. ‘I love you.’
‘Of course you do.’
‘I thought I could leave you, but I can’t. I couldn’t take another step. I was leaving for all the wrong reasons. I wanted you to be happy, but it’s not going to work, is it? If I leave we’ll both be unhappy for the rest of our lives.’
‘Darling girl.’
‘This is not a plea for help with the babies, Jack.’ She touched her fingers to his lips. ‘This is just about you, and how I feel about you.’
He kissed her fingers, her nose, her eyelids.
‘We can make it work. I can leave politics.’
‘Not on my account, Senator. Only if you want to.’
‘I’ve done enough. I want to leave. I want you, Jack. I want us to be a family. I promise I’ll make you happy.’
‘You’ve already made me happy.’ He would have swung her around and around, if he weren’t worried about making her dizzy. Instead, he kissed her again, on the chin, on the ear, then said, ‘There’s only one thing that could make me any happier.’
‘I’ll do anything. I love you. What is it?’
‘Marry me.’
A sudden voice called from behind them, ‘Is everything all right, Senator Green?’
The pilot, clearly puzzled, had climbed down from the cockpit.
‘Everything’s fine,’ Lizzie called back to him. ‘Jack’s asked me to marry him and I’m about to give him my answer.’
Turning her back on the plane, she looked joyously into Jack’s eyes. ‘And the answer’s yes. A thousand times yes. I promise we’re going to have the happiest marriage of all time.’
Although the Italian summer was just around the corner, it was cool on Sorella’s terrace when Lizzie took Jack outside to show him her favourite Monta Correnti view.
‘Come here,’ he said, noticing that she’d shivered, and putting his arms around her. ‘Let me keep you warm.’
Lizzie laughed. ‘Any time.’
Snuggling against him, she looked out over the sea of pale terracotta rooftops to the sloping green rows of the vineyards and the neat olive groves, and further on across the valley to the distant purple hills. ‘What do you think of my home town?’
‘Amazing. It’s so beautiful here. I don’t know how you ever left.’
‘Beautiful landscapes can only go so far,’ she said. ‘They can’t actually make you happy.’
Jack kissed her cheek. ‘I won’t argue with that.’
Turning in his arms, Lizzie smiled at him and held out her left hand to admire, yet again, her beautiful green sapphire engagement ring. ‘These last few days have been the happiest days of my life.’
‘And the busiest.’
‘Yes.’ She remembered all the meetings, the press conferences…especially the one with Jack at her side helping to explain about her pregnancy and her choices for the future. It was all behind them now. ‘I’m so glad I’ve resigned. Such bliss. I still haven’t got used to the freedom.’
‘I don’t think you’ll regret it.’
‘I won’t, Jack. I know I won’t. I promise. I just love knowing that we’re both free to make whatever plans we want for our marriage, and our own little family.’
She was rewarded by a warm hug and another kiss, on the lips this time.
When they drew apart, she said, ‘What do you think of my mother’s offer to hold our wedding reception in Romano’s palazzo?’
‘It’s a very generous offer.’
‘She’s trying to make up for all the trouble she’s caused.’
‘A palazzo sounds very grand.’
‘It is rather grand.’
‘Would you like a reception there?’
‘I have to admit it’s a fairy-tale setting. On Lake Adrina.’ Lizzie slipped her arms around Jack. ‘Don’t be alarmed, but I’m thinking it would be wonderful if we had a really big wedding and invited everyone in the family—even my long-lost cousins from New York.’
Jack grinned. ‘I’ll go along with anything as long as we tie the knot.’
‘And I’ll invite my sisters, of course.’ Lizzie was pensive for a moment. ‘There’s been a silly problem between Scarlett and my cousin Isabella ever since they were children. Actually, Scarlett doesn’t get on too well with Jackie either, for that matter. Our wedding can be the perfect excuse to bring the family back together.’
‘Then there’s no question,’ Jack said. ‘Let’s invite the lot.’
‘I’ll ring everyone tonight to warn them to start making plans.’ With a tender smile, Lizzie traced the line of his jaw. ‘Have you noticed, my darling, that you’ve been a huge hit with every member of my family that you’ve met so far?’
‘They’ve been very kind to me.’
‘Kind?’ Lizzie laughed. ‘They’re smitten. They adore you, Jack. You’ve charmed them to pieces. Especially my mother. Even Isabella, and she’s madly in love with her Max.’
Isabella, however, wasn’t quite so charmed when Lizzie rang her later that evening to tell her the latest wedding plans.
‘Romano’s palazzo?’ Isabella was clearly agitated. ‘Why would you want a reception there?’
‘Why not? It’s a gorgeous setting on Lake Adrina. I thought it would be perfect.’
‘Yes, it’s beautiful, but—’
‘But what, Isabella?’ It was hard not to sound annoyed. ‘You’re as bad as Scarlett.’
There was a distinct gasp on the other end of the line. ‘Have you been talking to Scarlett?’
‘Of course. She’s my sister, after all.’
‘Well, yes.’ Isabella’s voice was thin and decidedly anxious. ‘What did Scarlett say when you told her about the palazzo?’
‘Her reaction was almost the same as yours. She wasn’t happy, but when I pressed her she couldn’t give me any proper reason. It didn’t make sense.’
‘I suppose it is silly to be worked up about a venue.’ Isabella sounded distinctly calmer now.
‘It is if neither of you can give me a solid reason why I shouldn’t have the reception there.’
Later, in bed in the best guest room in Lisa’s villa, complete with marble floors and views through arched windows to the diamond-studded sky, Lizzie confided in Jack. ‘I’m beginning to think this wedding of ours will either make or break my family.’
‘You worry too much. It’ll work out fine.’
‘How can you be sure?’
He nuzzled her neck, drawing her in. ‘We’re so in love it’s going to rub off on the others.’
Lizzie wrapped her arms around him. ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you were right?’
‘I am.’ Jack’s lips met hers, the first kiss of the night. ‘You wait and see.’
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5522-1
EXECUTIVE: EXPECTING TINY TWINS
First North American Publication 2010.
Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Barbara Hannay for her contribution to The Brides of Bella Rosa series.
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Executive: Expecting Tiny Twins Page 16
