Alegra's Homecoming

by Mary Anne Wilson

  He went to the safety railing and leaned with both hands on the cold iron, then bowed his head and exhaled. For a short flash of time he’d thought he’d found something so rare that he never would have guessed it existed until it had existed for him. His love for a woman. But it wasn’t enough—Alegra needed so much more. Why had he thought his love would be enough? He straightened and raked his fingers through his hair, feeling more alone than he ever had.

  He could still hear the sounds of celebration from the mansion, and he hoped that Alegra was getting everything she wanted, everything she needed. He stared out across the sound, over the glimmer of starlight on the black waters, at the halo of light from the city on the mainland, and felt as if he was looking at another world. Alegra’s world.

  “Joe?”

  He thought he’d imagined her saying his name at first, but when it was repeated and sounded nearer, he knew it was real. As real as the woman he turned to face. Alegra.

  He didn’t mean to speak right then, especially words that came out with more than a touch of harshness. “Now you have it all, Alegra.”

  She moved closer and the silver of her dress shimmered in the starlight. Her blond hair was a cloud around her shadowed face, and she looked delicate and vulnerable. “No, I don’t,” she said, stopping within two feet of him.

  “Humiliation and revenge weren’t enough for you?” he asked, motioning with one hand toward the mansion.

  She didn’t answer that, but said softly, “Do you remember the moment when you were in New York and you knew you had to come back here?”

  He couldn’t think about the past now, about anything except how much he loved her. But he nodded. “Yes.”

  “It’s called an epiphany, I think. Of course, you’re the human dictionary. You’d know all about that.”

  “Epiphany,” he repeated, never taking his eyes off of her. “A sudden moment of comprehension or perception of reality from an intuitive realization.”

  “I knew you’d know what it meant,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. “I never really knew about that sort of thing until the moment I had one.”

  “Telling people who you really are was your epiphany?”

  “No, not even close. I think my epiphany happened earlier in the day.” He saw her press her hands together in front of her, almost as if she was praying. “When I got up there and saw everyone, including your mom and dad. They know, don’t they?” He simply nodded.

  She laughed, a shaky sound in the night air. “Stupid, huh? All that time and energy, and it ended up you were right all along.”

  Joe found he could barely breathe waiting for her to say more. “And?” he finally said.

  He heard her inhale as she lifted her face to him. “And? I’m not sure.”

  “What aren’t you sure of?”

  “What I have to do.”

  “About what?” he asked tensely.

  She stared at him. “About you.”

  “What about me?”

  “You aren’t making this easy, are you?” she asked.

  “Life isn’t easy, Alegra,” he said. “But it’s your life, your choices.”

  “You’re right,” she said softly. “It’s my life and my choice is…” Her voice faded off in the cold air, and he saw her tremble. But he didn’t dare touch her. If he did, he wouldn’t let go.

  “What do you choose, Alegra Reynolds?”

  She came closer, and her features were exposed to him. He saw the way her mouth was pressed together, and the fine line between her eyes. “I…I choose you,” she said.

  “For how long?”

  She blinked, then reached out slowly and pressed her hand to his chest right over his heart. He was quite certain she could feel the way it was hammering against his ribs. “For as long as you’ll have me.”

  He wanted to believe her. Desperately. Still, he held back. “My life is here,” he said simply.

  She lifted her hand to touch his lips with the tips of her fingers. “Joe, I no longer blame this island. Yes, some people were cruel to me, but now I can forgive them. I let the anger and resentment I’ve been carrying all these years fill the empty spaces in me. When you touched me, I began to see how wrong that was. Empty spaces need to be filled with love, not hate. Now you fill those spaces. For the first time ever, I feel I’ve come home.”

  He reached for her, pulling her into an embrace. He had another epiphany. Home was where the people he loved were. And it all centered on this woman in his arms. He could leave here, but as long as she and Alex were with him, he’d be home. Really home.

  They stood this way for some time, both reveling in the wondrous moment of discovery. When Joe lowered his head and kissed her, when she circled his neck with her arms and asked him to come back to the cottage with her, the wondrous moment didn’t end. It had just begun.

  Epilogue

  The festival had been over for two weeks before Joe and Alegra told his family about their plans for the future. They’d kept it all to themselves, wanting time without the intrusion of others. They announced their engagement and their desire to marry quickly in a small ceremony. They were voted down, at least on their wish for a small wedding. Christina thought a wedding near Christmas would be perfect. Lots of red velvet and green ribbons. Alegra didn’t care, as long as they were married and were a family before the new year began.

  When Alegra’s cell phone rang, the day they’d announced they were getting married, three pairs of eyes at the dinner table in the Lawrence bungalow turned to her. Alex liked the tone she’d loaded on it, a version of “Home, Sweet Home.” It was Christina who smiled and said, “Tell Roz hi from all of us and we can’t wait to meet her next week.” Joe had gone to the newspaper office just before dinner, saying something about the new printing press acting up, and that he’d be back soon.

  Alegra saw the LED readout and didn’t recognize the number. She flipped it open. “Hello?”

  “It’s me,” Joe said, and the sound of his voice gave her pleasure.

  She smiled. He was actually using his new cell phone. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m coming to get you, but just tell Mom and Dad that I need you to help me out for a bit.”

  “You need my help?”

  His low chuckle came over the line. “Absolutely. I need your help…really need it,” he said, his voice lowering. She felt a thrill go through her.

  “I’d be glad to help,” she said, and he chuckled again. “When?”

  “Come out the front door, walk to the road and I’m waiting in the truck at the end of the driveway. I don’t want them to see me there, or they’ll think of something they want me to do.”

  “Okay, no problem,” she said, more than aware of the others pretending to concentrate on their food while they listened.

  “I love you,” he whispered roughly.

  “Same to you,” she responded softly.

  “Okay, get going,” Joe said, then hung up.

  She flipped the phone shut and laid it on the table by her half-finished dinner of pot roast and carrots. “That was Joe,” she said, looking at no one specifically. “He needs some help with…things.” She got to her feet and smoothed the oversized white shirt she was wearing with jeans. “I’m not sure how long this is going to take.”

  “Anything we can do to help?”

  Joe Senior asked. “Joe,” Christina said, “I’m sure if Joey wanted our help, he would have called us.” She smiled at Alegra. “Go ahead,” she said, making a sweeping motion with her hand. “Go and help Joey and try to get some time to celebrate.” She did all but wink at her knowingly.

  Alegra leaned down to Alex in his high chair. “I’ll be back in time to read you more out of your book,” she said.

  The little boy grinned and unexpectedly kissed her cheek. It stunned her, and she blinked at him. “I love you,” she said, and meant it with all her heart.

  She hurried through the house and out into the night. She jogged down the driveway,
and saw the old truck idling on the road and ran to it. Climbing in, she buckled up and said, “You’ll never guess what happened!” She reached for his hand.

  “What now?”

  “Alex, he…he kissed me when I was leaving.”

  Joe squeezed her fingers. “He’s really taken to you.”

  “I love him,” she whispered, a bit surprised at how unsteady her voice was becoming.

  Joe seemed to understand and pulled her hand to his thigh, resting it there with his. “I’d say that for someone who’s never thought much about kids, you’ve had a real victory.”

  They hadn’t known each other all that long, just a few weeks, but so much had happened in that short amount of time. Kids had barely been spoken of, except for her to assure Joe that she wanted to do the best by Alex that she could. Now she knew that her love for Joe simply spread to his son. It was amazing to her. “I never thought I liked children, actually, but you know, things change.”

  He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Amen to that.”

  “I haven’t thought much about it, but maybe…” She bit her lip, knowing what she wanted to say, but shocking herself with the fact that she really meant it. “A child shouldn’t be an only child.” She was, and Joe was, and he’d mentioned once that, like her, he’d have loved a sibling. “Alex is great, but maybe he should have a brother or sister?”

  Joe was silent as he put the truck in gear and drove off. He turned into a driveway just past the old lighthouse area. Not a word was spoken as they drove under a canopy of pines, then into a place where the ruins of an old stone house had stood when she was a child. She used to play games of make-believe there, pretending the place was her very own house, where she slept and ate and made beautiful things, undisturbed by her drunken father.

  Joe slowed as they broke free of the trees and she saw that a new house had been built on the spot, a comfortable-looking bungalow with a bottom half of stone and a top floor of clapboard. She saw lights on in the lower floor, and in the illumination of the truck’s headlights, she saw smoke curling out of one of two chimneys.

  Joe hadn’t let go of her, and as soon as he stopped by the stone steps that led up to a wraparound porch, he turned to her. “Did you mean that?” he asked. “About a child, another child?”

  She wasn’t sure how to respond. He’d told her he’d never wanted kids, though Alex had come to mean the world to him. But maybe he never wanted more. “I just thought…” she began, “maybe, in the future, we could…” She bit her bottom lip. “Are we getting out?” she asked, suddenly wanting to breathe cold air.

  She opened the door and climbed out. Almost before she was on the ground, Joe was there, right in front of her. She looked around. “Why are we here?” she asked.

  “It’s for sale, and I have the key. The lighthouse is close enough that you can sit on the porch and watch the light at night.” He didn’t touch her. “I thought it sounded like a good idea if we bought it, if you like it.”

  He’d skipped right past the talk of a child, and so she let it go. What made him happy, made her happy. It was that simple. “I like it very much,” she whispered.

  He exhaled, then his hands framed her face and he was so close she thought she could hear the beat of his heart. “And about children,” he started, but she put her forefinger to his lips and spoke quickly.

  “It’s just an idea. If you don’t want to have more kids, that’s okay. Alex is terrific. An only child is okay.”

  He pulled her against him and wrapped her in a hug. “I thought you wouldn’t want children,” he said, his voice muffled against her hair.

  “I want yours,” she said simply.

  “Oh, God,” he whispered. “I was so sure you wouldn’t want more kids.” He kissed her quickly. “I thought…”

  She felt her heart leap in her breast. “And I thought you wouldn’t want more.”

  “There’s so much to learn about you,” he said, tasting her lips again, then pulling back to look at her. “So very much.”

  “And we’ve got a lifetime,” she said.

  Joe picked her up in his arms and carried her to the door. He managed to open it, and then strode with her into the great room, empty of furniture, but with polished wood floors and coved ceilings. He kept walking down a short hallway. He turned into what had to be the master bedroom. It was as empty, except for a stone fireplace to one side with a fire burning in it, and a pallet of pillows and blankets on the floor in front of it.

  He crossed to the pallet and they were on them together, and that’s when she saw the painting propped on the heavy mantel over the fireplace. It was her lighthouse. “Oh, Joe,” she whispered, “I love this place.”

  “I love you,” he uttered and started to undo her clothes. She quickly did the same for him, and soon they were naked in front of the fire, turning into each other’s arms.

  He kissed her neck, nuzzling into her heat. “We’ll buy it,” he murmured as he shifted and poised his body over hers. She thrilled to the moment he entered her, when she felt totally complete and at home. He touched her, kissed her, and moved in her. Their hips matched each other’s actions, and a torrent of sensations flooded through her. She felt every contact of his skin with hers, heard every breath he took, and matched his own breathless gasp in their climax.

  They fell together into a soft place of completion, and held onto each other as she tasted the saltiness of his skin, then ran her hand down his flat stomach.

  “This is wonderful,” she murmured against his chest. “No people, no work, no—”

  “Cell phone?” he asked. “I left mine in the truck.”

  She laughed. “Well, I left mine at your parents’. Do you think your mom’ll answer it if it rings?”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “She’ll answer it and tell Roz how to run the business.”

  Alegra laughed again and felt freer and happier than she ever had. “It will be fun when Roz shows up here later.”

  He pushed up on his elbow, looked down at her, then gently eased a strand of hair off her forehead. “She’s coming here?”

  “Of course,” she murmured, catching his hand to pull it down to her naked breast. “She’ll be here for the wedding, but I also need her to learn more about the business, help me set up an office here. I want her to do more of the day-to-day business, take over a lot of my duties.”

  He cupped her bare breast in his hand. “Leaving you free for…” He gave a crooked smile.

  She trembled at the intensity of her feelings for Joe. “Lovemaking. I want to make love with you forever.”

  He teased her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and said, “I do love your priorities.”

  Homecoming. It rang in her every time they were together, every time she saw him walk into a room, every time she heard his voice on the phone. Every time he made love to her. She was Alegra, and Joe Lawrence loved her. She was home.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-7012-4

  ALEGRA’S HOMECOMING

  Copyright © 2007 by Mary Anne Wilson.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
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