One Step Away: Once Upon a Proposal

by Sherryl Woods

  Bobbie relaxed a little more. “They’re wonderful, of course. Bright and imaginative and well-mannered.”

  “Would you be able to provide discipline if it were necessary if they weren’t so well-mannered after all, or do you think a stepparent’s position shouldn’t extend into that area?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know how to answer that.” She twisted the ring on her finger. “Todd and Lisette have a mother who loves them. I certainly have no expectations of replacing her. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t love Todd and Lisette as well.” She knew that she already did. She swallowed again, searching carefully for a truthful answer. “If there was some situation where I had to assert my authority, I like to believe that I could.”

  “And as far as you’re concerned, your engagement is not—as Mr. Hayward has implied—manufactured simply to help Mr. Gannon’s case here today?”

  Gabe’s nerves tightened to a screaming pitch.

  He looked across at Bobbie, whose gray eyes were so wide they dominated her pale, heart-shaped face.

  He leaned toward his attorney. “Stop this now,” he whispered harshly.

  Ray shook his head. “I can’t.”

  Gabe looked at Bobbie again and wished to hell and back again that he’d never dragged her into this.

  She was in agony.

  Everyone there could see it.

  Then her gaze dropped to her lap. She moistened her lips, then looked to her side at the judge. “I’m wearing this diamond ring for only one reason,” she said in a low voice that was nevertheless perfectly audible. Perfectly clear. “Because I’m in love with Gabriel Gannon.”

  The room was so silent he could hear his heart pounding in his ears.

  She had always said she wouldn’t lie for him in court.

  And he knew, in that moment, that she hadn’t.

  A pain knotted inside his chest as he willed her to lift her head, to lift her gaze back to him.

  But now, she wouldn’t look at him at all.

  “That’s not exactly an answer to Your Honor’s question.” Stephanie’s lawyer was the first one to speak into the hushed silence that followed Bobbie’s husky admission.

  Gabe saw Bobbie’s lashes flutter as she looked back down at her hands.

  He pushed to his feet. “It’s answer enough,” he said gruffly. “She’s not here to be picked apart just because my ex-wife is still mad that I wasn’t the kind of husband she wanted.”

  Bobbie’s lashes flew up, her gray eyes startled.

  “Counselors, it seems to me that neither one of you can control your clients very well,” the judge commented. He leaned toward Bobbie. “You can step down now, Ms. Fairchild. I know what I need to know.”

  She nodded jerkily and rose from the chair and headed toward Gabe. “I’m sorry,” she whispered thickly.

  “I suppose you’re going to make sure that HuntCom takes this out on Ethan, now,” Stephanie accused curtly. “What a perfect little fiancée Gabe picked. If the court doesn’t rule his way, he can have you ruin my husband’s career. Either way, he wins.”

  The judge huffed, clearly irritated, and picked up his gavel. He slammed it once, hard, on his desk. “Enough!”

  Bobbie just shook her head, looking at the other woman. “There’s no winning here! And you don’t know Gabe as well as you claim if you think he’d stoop to that level. Since you don’t know me at all, I suppose I can’t blame you for thinking I’d be a party to it.” She looked at Ethan. “But you work for HuntCom. And you should know they don’t operate that way either.” Then her gaze skimmed over Gabe as she looked back at the judge. “I’m sorry for speaking out of turn.”

  He grimaced. “Everyone else has.” Then he smacked his gavel again. “Everyone out except Mr. Gannon and Mrs. Walker and their legal representatives.”

  “Come on, kids.” Ethan rose and began scooting Todd and Lisette out of the courtroom.

  Gabe saw Bobbie’s teeth sink into her lip, and then she, too, was heading toward the door, believing what she’d feared.

  That she’d ruined things for him.

  He couldn’t let her go. Not like this.

  He went to follow her.

  “Where are you going?” Ray clamped his hand on his shoulder but Gabe shrugged him off.

  “I have to talk to her.”

  “If you walk out now, you’re just going to piss of Judge Gainer even more. Is that what you want?”

  Gabe looked from his lawyer to the judge, and finally landed on his ex-wife. “You know this is wrong, Steph. I’m sorry I hurt you. That I wasn’t the husband you needed. If you still need to punish me by taking my kids away yet again—even though you now have with Ethan everything you ever used to want—then I guess you’ve got to do what you have to.” His throat felt tight. “But I won’t ever stop fighting for them. They’re the only things you and I did right together. And I wish to God that you could see that we could still do one more thing right together, by raising them jointly.” He looked from Stephanie’s stone-faced expression back to the judge. “Right now my future is walking out that door, and if I let her go, this time I’ll have nobody to blame but myself.”

  * * *

  Bobbie’s heels rang on the tiled corridor outside the courtroom. All she could think of was escape.

  “You’re right about HuntCom.”

  She nearly skidded to a stop when Ethan suddenly spoke. He was the only one who’d maintained his silence inside the courtroom, and now he was looking more than a little pained as he stroked his hand over Lisette’s head. “Everyone who works there does so on their own merit, and that’s all that’s ever mattered. I’ve tried to tell Steph that, but she just can’t see reason when it comes to Gabe.”

  Bobbie lifted her hands, feeling futility in every breath she drew. “I’m sorry.”

  “Bobbie?” Lisette was giving her a worried look. “Is that judge really going to say we don’t get to see Daddy anymore?”

  “That’s not what this is about, honey,” Ethan assured her softly.

  Bobbie pressed her lips together for a moment. “Ethan’s right,” she finally managed. She looked at Todd, too. “You’ll always be able to see your dad. He’ll make certain of it, even if you do move back to Switzerland.” Which, thanks to her miserable performance for the judge, was surely a foregone conclusion.

  She pressed a kiss to Lisette’s forehead, then to Todd’s, who ducked his chin shyly. “He loves you two more than anything, you see? And your dad won’t let anything stand between him and the ones he loves.” And then, because she didn’t think she could hold back her tears a second longer, she straightened.

  And found Gabe standing there.

  She inhaled sharply. “You’re supposed to be in the courtroom.”

  “The judge ordered a recess.” His hands were balled in his pockets and his blue eyes were stark. “You didn’t lie.”

  A tear burned its way from the corner of her eye. “I... I told you I wouldn’t.

  “You couldn’t. Even if you wanted to.”

  Bobbie was vaguely aware of Ethan silently moving Lisette and Todd further down the empty corridor. “I wanted to,” she whispered.

  “To keep me from knowing that you loved me?”

  A fresh ache crept through her. “No.” She twisted her arms around her waist, trying to still her quaking. She jerked her chin toward the courtroom door. “To make them believe we were real.”

  “They believe it,” he said quietly.

  “But I didn’t tell them that.”

  “You didn’t have to.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets and slowly closed the distance between them. And when he lifted his hands to stroke his fingers down her face, she realized they were trembling just as badly as she was. “All you needed to do was be you.” His jaw cocked to
one side for a moment, then centered again. “I knew all along that you were someone remarkable. I just didn’t let myself face how much you meant to me until you were walking out of the courtroom and I was suddenly afraid that you would keep on walking. God knows I’ve given you reason.”

  Bobbie’s vision blurred. Her heart leapt into her throat. She tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was a garbled, “Gabe.”

  His thumbs slowly trailed along her jaw. “I’m sorry you ever had to answer the judge like that, that I put you in a position where you had to justify anything about yourself.”

  “You didn’t know,” she managed thickly.

  “I should have. But whatever happens in that courtroom, I can deal with it, as long as I know I haven’t lost you.” His eyes stared fiercely into hers as if he were trying to see all the way to her soul. “Have I? Lost you?”

  She covered his hands with her own. Drew them away from her face to slowly press a kiss to his palms. And then she looked up at him again, and this time it was she who was seeing through to his soul.

  It was right there, open and bare and just as uncertain of being loved as she’d ever felt herself.

  Her shaking calmed.

  Her heart steadied.

  She stepped closer until their hands were caught between them. Caught between her heart and his. “You haven’t lost me.”

  “Are you sure? You deserve more than a guy like me, Bobbie. You deserve everything.”

  His uncertainty melted her. “Then I deserve you.” She went on her toes, pressing her lips to his. “And I’m more certain of that than I’ve ever been of anything in my life,” she whispered.

  His hands slipped away from hers, but only to draw her against him in a fierce embrace. “I love you, Bobbie Fairchild.” His voice was low and thick. “And I didn’t think I’d ever love anyone again.”

  She twined her arms around his neck, her heart so full it could have burst out of her chest. “I love you, too.” And then she drew in a shaking breath. Let it out in an even shakier sough. “When I told you to make it look good, I never expected this.”

  He laughed then, and slowly set her back onto her feet. “Once upon a time, there was a kiss,” he murmured.

  His gaze roved over her face, full and warmer than any burst of sunlight could ever be. He reached into the inside pocket of his lapel. “And the lucky guy caught a princess.” He held out his hand, and a tiny, jeweled hair clip sat on his palm.

  Bobbie’s chest tightened. “I was wearing them the night of Fiona’s birthday party.”

  “It almost feels like a lifetime ago.” He slowly lifted one of her curls and pinned it back with the clip.

  Fresh tears fell, but Bobbie didn’t care. She stared up into his face. “The lifetime is ahead of us,” she whispered.

  “A brand-new story?” He lifted her hand, kissing the finger that wore his ring. “One with a white dress and a wedding ring to match this?”

  She caught her breath. Then nodded. “Yes. And we’ll be together in every chapter.”

  And when he smiled, so slow and so easy, and drew her into his arms once more, she knew deep in her heart that this time, they’d write their happy ending.

  They’d write it together.

  Epilogue

  “You’ve got someone here to see you, Bobbie.”

  Bobbie glanced up from the budget she was studying to see Fiona’s—no, her—secretary standing there. “Who is it?”

  But Cheryl just lifted her shoulders and disappeared from the doorway of Bobbie’s office.

  Bobbie glanced at her watch, then her appointment book. She didn’t think she had anything scheduled, but then she’d only been running Golden Ability for two weeks, and she was still nervous about missing something important. But her calendar was clear and Fiona had already put in her daily allotment of time with Bobbie. Less than an hour, actually, because she’d insisted that Bobbie was doing fine, and she had a new yoga instructor she was working with...a fine young man named Juan.

  Fiona was clearly throwing herself into her retirement with as much enthusiasm as she did everything else.

  Bobbie left the budget on her desk. She’d already managed to find several thousand extra dollars by transferring it from one cost area to another, but she was perfectly happy not to look at numbers for a few minutes.

  She worked her way out of the office that had grown even more crowded since Fiona’s abrupt retirement, smoothing her hands down the sides of her deep-red sweater dress, and walked out into the administrative area.

  The sight of Gabe still made her heart skitter crazily around in her chest, and she grinned, quickly crossing to him. “This is a nice surprise.” She caught his hands in hers and reached up for his kiss. “I wasn’t expecting you. Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

  “Boss’s perks, remember?” His eyes crinkled. “I brought you something.” He held up a slender box and she laughed and took the box from him.

  “You’re spoiling me.”

  “That’s a fiancé’s prerogative, isn’t it?”

  She just shook her head again, and flipped open the box. Inside, was a delicate silver bracelet with three shining daisies dangling from it. “Another one?”

  “For some reason, I feel a need to fill your life with flowers.” He took the bracelet from her and fastened it around her wrist. “Besides. It matches the necklace.”

  She couldn’t seem to stop smiling. She touched her finger to the diamond pendant that hung around her neck. It, too, was in the shape of a daisy. “And the earrings.” She shook her head a little and she felt the dangling earrings dancing in her ears. She looked at the bracelet. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.” Then she laughed a little. “Little did Georgie know what she was starting when she gave me those hair clips.”

  Gabe was still grinning. “I have something else for you.”

  She huffed a little. “Gabe! I have a necklace, a bracelet and earrings. What else is there left?”

  “This.” He reached into the pocket of his battered suede overcoat, and pulled out a thick sheaf of folded papers. He handed it to her.

  “What is it?”

  “Read.”

  Her hands were suddenly shaking. She unfolded the papers. The top was a handwritten letter on fine parchment paper. Bobbie skimmed through the sloping writing. “It’s from Stephanie.”

  “She’s agreed to send the kids back before Thanksgiving.” His voice went gruff. “And to let them stay until the summer. The rest of the stuff there is a modified visitation agreement, giving me physical custody of Todd and Lissi for the rest of the school year.”

  Bobbie gasped, pressing her hand to her mouth. She set the papers aside before she dropped them. “I... I can’t believe it. When Judge Gainer postponed his ruling and she and Ethan took the children to Switzerland, I was afraid she’d never let them come back here again.” It had been the only thing to mar the perfection of the last two weeks. The parting had been agonizing. But she and Gabe had spoken to—and seen, thanks to the wondrous invention of the webcam—both kids every single day since. It wasn’t the same as being with them, but it made the situation a little more bearable. “Why’d she change her mind?”

  “I told Ray to withdraw my petition.”

  Shocked, Bobbie sank down onto the edge of an empty desk. “When? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Last week. And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you thinking that I’d given up.”

  Bobbie made a soft sound. It never failed to undo her to realize that for all of his secure confidence, Gabe had his fears, too. “I’d never think that.” She touched his hand. “You wouldn’t.”

  His hand turned over, his fingers closing around hers. “I told Ray to let Stephanie know that I wasn’t going to keep yanking the kids into our battle. I lov
e them enough to leave them with her, if that was the best thing for them.”

  Bobbie lifted her eyebrows. “But you’ve never thought that was the best thing for them.”

  He grimaced. “Maybe not. But even I had to start facing the fact that, for all her faults, Stephanie does love them.” He tugged at the ends of her hair, which she’d tied into a ponytail. “A very smart woman opened my eyes to that fact.”

  Bobbie smiled faintly. “I’m still surprised.” She picked up the letter again, then let out another laugh. “Stunned, really.”

  “I guess once I stopped pushing, she could afford to start giving a little.”

  “So it would appear. Personally, I think Ethan might have softened her up.”

  “Ethan?”

  “Well, he’s not a stupid man, or he wouldn’t be working for Uncle Harry’s company, would he?”

  His eyes suddenly narrowed. “You didn’t—”

  She shook her head. “Of course not. But I can’t help it if he’s wanted to know everything about the man I intend to marry. Harry’s very protective sometimes.”

  “And what’d you tell him?”

  “That he can judge you for himself when we see him over Christmas.”

  “That’s all?”

  “That’s all,” she assured softly. “But I’ll warn you that he’s taking credit for our getting together. Seems to think that if he’d never asked me to show Tim Boering around Seattle, you and I would never have met.”

  “Fiona would have made sure we did,” he said, looking amused.

  Then he shook his head and laughed a little.

  “So Steph really did change her own mind.”

  “Evidently.” Bobbie looped her fingers around the lapels of his thick jacket and tugged him closer. “So the kids will be here before Thanksgiving? That gives us about a week and a half.”