A Home for the M.D.
Page 19
“I love you more,” she said, her voice a bit shaky now.
He leaned down to brush a kiss over her lips, oblivious to the car passing on the street behind them, to anyone in neighboring yards who might see them. Again unlike her parents, Mitch was open with his emotions, unabashed at having anyone see that he was in love with her.
He had made it clear to his family that he had chosen Jacqui for his life partner. It wasn’t as if this was a decision they’d made overnight, he had added when they had reacted with delighted surprise. He’d been in love with Jacqui for more than a year. He’d just been a little slow to do anything about it, he’d admitted.
Jacqui had been overwhelmed with gratitude by how enthusiastically Mitch’s family had approved his choice. Especially his mother, who was recovering nicely from her health scare under the watchful eyes of her still-guilt-ridden physician children. LaDonna confided that she’d watched Mitch’s behavior around Jacqui for several months with a suspicion that he was smitten, and she couldn’t have been more delighted to have been proved right.
As for Alice, she smugly claimed credit, saying she really should go into the matchmaking business someday rather than orthodontia. She also claimed responsibility for getting her dad and Meagan together.
“I am exactly where I want to be,” Mitch assured Jacqui now. “My family is here, my work is here, but most importantly, you are here. I can’t imagine any other place on this planet having more to offer me.”
After twenty-nine years of protecting herself from disappointment, it was difficult to put so much faith in anyone else. But she was getting there with Mitch. “Just don’t rush into it on my behalf,” she said. “There will always be other houses if you want to keep looking for a while.”
He nodded, squeezing her hands before dropping his own. She noted that he had passed the keys to her. She wrapped her fingers around them, feeling the tug of temptation to use them.
“I was thinking that porch could be taken down and replaced with a sunroom,” Mitch commented, turning to eye the front of the house again. “Maybe brick with lots of glass. And all that stained wood inside? Maybe we could update it a little. You know, paint it white or something.”
She gasped. “You will do no such thing! That porch is perfect. And don’t you even think about getting near that beautiful wood trim with a paintbrush. This house is—”
She fell silent when she saw the grin cross his face.
“Yours,” he finished for her in somewhat smug satisfaction. “This house is yours. It has been from the first moment you saw it. Might as well admit it.”
Her knees went weak as her fingers tightened spasmodically around the keys to her dream house. “Fine,” she managed to say after a moment. “But I’m putting my savings toward the down payment.”
“That isn’t necessary. I—”
She poked his shoulder with one finger as they moved toward the front door. “I haven’t worked and saved for the past ten years just to have someone come along and buy a house for me, Mitchell Baker. I told you, I’m no Cinderella. Maybe this is a nicer house than I could have afforded on my own—okay, it’s definitely more than I could have managed—but that doesn’t mean I won’t be fully invested in owning it. It won’t be all mine—or all yours. It will be ours.”
“Ours,” he repeated. “I like the sound of that.”
“So do I,” she said, her vision misty as she fitted the key into the lock of the house they would make into a home together. “So do I.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0571-0
A HOME FOR THE M.D.
Copyright © 2011 by Gina Wilkins
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‡Family Found
*The McClouds of Mississippi
††Doctors in Training
†Doctors in the Family