by MJ Fredrick
Cam led the way into his apartment. Exhaustion dragged at him, and his defenses were down, but something in him bubbled at the sight of Willow. He’d planned to see her tomorrow, after he got a good night’s sleep, though he hadn’t exactly worked out what he was going to say. Some kind of compromise. Whatever she wanted. He never thought she’d be waiting for him when he got home. How long had she been here anyway?
She looked tired herself, her eyes shadowed, her hair a mess, and she was still shivering. He motioned for her to have a seat on the couch as he dropped his duffel onto a bar stool and ignored the mess from his abrupt departure last week.
Willow crossed into the kitchen for a glass of water. She helped herself and turned to face him over the breakfast bar. “We have to talk about the conversation we didn’t have in Seattle.”
Okay, her tone did not inspire hope. And damn, he was tired. He dropped onto the couch, since she didn’t want to sit there. “The one where I was going to ask you—”
Even now she couldn’t let him say it. “That one,” she interrupted.
He drew in a breath through his nose. He knew he’d been taking a chance by suggesting a future for them—Willow was usually so cautious, Jerry DiNorio aside. He just hadn’t thought her rejection would be so fast, and so painful. He still felt the knot in his chest when he thought about the moment he recognized the panic in her eyes. He should have listened to his head and taken things slower. Maybe if he’d gone with the ring and been traditional, she would have considered before bolting. He’d just been carried away by the moment.
“What about it?”
“Why did you ask me?”
He looked up at her then. “Because I love you, dummy.” And yes, he’d noticed that she hadn’t told him she loved him, not once. He knew she did, though. Willow was just skittish as hell.
She rocked back on her heels and tightened her arms around herself. “Not because you were scared to be alone out there, away from everything.”
“Well, yeah, I’m scared to be alone, away from everything. But you loved what you saw of the city. We could get you a job, we’d be together.”
She drew even further into herself. “But if you’re talking about wedding veils and kids and a dog…”
A grin quirked his lips. “Maybe not a dog, since I know how much you loved Libby. What are you asking me here, Willow? I mean, a marriage proposal means all that, right? Kids and everything. For better and for worse.”
The lines of her face were tight, her brow furrowed as if she was working something out. Willow was too smart to be confused by something so basic, so…maybe she was coming around.
“We went from being friends who hadn’t seen each other in months to sleeping together to a marriage proposal in less than a week.” She pushed her hands through that wild, gorgeous hair. “How is that logical?”
He was too tired to think about logic, too tired to think about scaring her as he pushed to his feet and crossed to the kitchen. “Why does it have to be? Willow, I’ve loved you as long as I can remember.” He captured her hand in his.
She stiffened, her gaze on his hand. “And Laura?”
He released her and leaned against the post of the breakfast bar. “I loved Laura. Although sometimes I’ve wondered, if I love you, will I lose you too?”
She looked down at her folded arms. “And then you propose and I leave.”
And ripped his heart out. He nodded, his lips pressed together, and struggled for the next words. “I had another plan, but I went with my gut.”
“Which you like to do.”
“And which didn’t pay off.” He looked up at her. “Why are you here, Willow?”
She drew in a breath and tears welled in her dark eyes. “Because I made a mistake. A big one. I don’t want to lose you, Cam. I thought about it and thought about it and I realize that the reason I haven’t fallen in love is because I compare every man I meet to you. That’s part of the reason I went with Jerry. Some elements of him reminded me of you—like the way he loved his family. And while this scares me to death—” She circled the counter to where she’d set her purse. She drew out a box and went down on one knee in front of him, holding the box in a death grip. “I don’t want anyone but you, Cameron Trask. If I’m too late, if I screwed this up, I’ll take complete responsibility. But right now I need to know if you’ll marry me.”
He stared at her for a long moment, into those big brown eyes, and saw her lips tremble with emotion—fear or nerves, he wasn’t sure. He slid out of his chair to kneel in front of her, closing his hand around hers.
“You know I will.”
They kissed, soft and sweet, then he pulled back to look into her eyes. “You’ll come to Seattle with me?”
“I’ve talked to Mr. LeFleur, and Gwyn. I’m going to telecommute three weeks, and fly back here one week a month for meetings. I know it’s not ideal, and it might not work but I have to try. Can you deal with that?”
He nodded, and his gaze drifted to the box, his curiosity getting the better of him. “I should have known you’d want to take control. What’s in the box?”
She popped it open with some effort. A silver-and-wooden ring sat inside. “It’s eco-friendly. The design in the metal means—”
“Forever,” he murmured, taking the ring from its nest to look closely.
“I thought I’d make sure it was the right size before I had it engraved, so try it on.”
He did. It was a little tight.
“I used your class ring as a guide. I stole it when I was staying at your mom’s.”
He chuckled at that. “Go get my duffel. I left it by the door.”
Frowning, she got up and crossed the room, then brought the duffel back and set it on the chair beside him. He unzipped it and pawed through his things before coming up with a box of his own. Willow gasped, and he pivoted on one knee.
“I thought I’d do it right this time. Open it.”
She did. There, nestled against the black velvet, was a platinum ring with the same design carved into it as was carved into the band she’d just given him.
“If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is,” he said when she dropped to her knees in front of him and kissed him with all her heart.
About the Author
MJ Fredrick knows about chasing dreams. Twelve years after she completed her first novel, she signed her first publishing contract. Now she divides her days between teaching fourth grade students how to write, and diving into her own writing—traveling everywhere in her mind, from Belize to Honduras to Africa to the past.
She’s a four-time Golden Heart Award finalist, and she won the 2009 Eppie Award with Hot Shot. Her romantic suspense titles include Hot Shot, Breaking Daylight, Beneath the Surface and Don’t Look Back. Her first book was a contemporary romance, Where There’s Smoke.
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-9133-5
Copyright © 2011 by MJ Fredrick
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ve no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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