Reckless Promise
Page 21
He tried to imagine Poppy with gray dimming that torch of red curls, with a thickened waist, and smiled. She'd still be a firecracker exploding across his senses. In his imagination, he frosted his own hair with gray, added a few arthritic aches, subtracted some testosterone. He'd still rather be with Poppy than anywhere else in the world. Mountain meadows would be damned lonely without Poppy, pine-scented breezes wouldn't be worth anything without Poppy's spice for contrast, and he could manage a few horses even in a city.
So why make such a fuss? He knew he wanted Poppy all the way. "Congratulations, Professor," he said when the lump in his throat had subsided. "When do you go back to work? Do we have time for a honeymoon?"
She pulled out of his arms and stared at him. "Back to work? What are you talking about?"
"You got tenure. I thought you'd want to start—well, preparing for classes and that kind of stuff. Whatever professors do."
Poppy had gone pale. "You want to move to Boston?"
"As long as you're there, yeah."
"But I thought we'd—" He watched her swallow hard. "Of course," she said. "Classes start in another few weeks, so we'll have to make our plans right away." The radiance leaked out of her as he watched, just as though someone had opened a valve.
Definitely not making sense. "Do we have a communication failure here?"
She looked at him uncertainly.
"Truth time. Were you thinking we'd live on the ranch?" He gripped her shoulders and held her so that he could watch her expression.
She swallowed. "Yes."
"What about your job? Your tenured job, the one you've been fighting for."
"It'll be on my resume that I got tenure. That's all I wanted," she said. "But if you want to move, I can—"
He quit listening and stopped her words with his lips. When he lifted his head, he asked, "So it's the ranch?"
She nodded. "I have some ideas about horse genetics, if I could find someone with a breeding herd that I could use. And with a clean record, I can apply for grants through the university here. People who bring in grant money are generally pretty welcome to use office and lab space."
"Well," Mac said, hoping he didn't sound as breathless as he felt. "Sounds like you have it all planned. I suppose I could let you have one or two of the herd." He touched her cheek, ran his finger down along the side of her neck and watched pleasure ripple in her eyes.
She leaned into him. "I want it all," she said, and looked up at him with love and laughter brimming in her eyes.
He'd give her every horse in the world if she'd keep looking at him like that. "I think we can work a deal here," he said, and accepted a glass of champagne from Jase. "And here I thought you were a city girl."
"And a home wrecker," Tom added.
"And a wicked woman." Alice grinned at Poppy.
Mac lifted his glass to Poppy. And Alice. And Tom. And—he sighed—Jase. "To seeing things the way they really are," he said.
EPILOGUE
"Are you sure you want to spend our honeymoon here?" Mac thumped two suitcases down inside the door of his almost-complete house.
Poppy Grayson MacLean turned a slow circle and surveyed the house. "I can't imagine a better place." She opened the window and drew in a deep breath of sage-scented air. Lush pasture and rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see, backed by majestic mountains, everything gilded by the setting sun. Quiet. So quiet she could hear the little stream rushing over rocks instead of the grind of traffic.
Definitely not Boston, and she couldn't be happier.
Mac came up behind her. She leaned back and covered his hands with hers, admiring the spectacular orange sapphire that glinted like sunset on her finger—the gem they'd found together the day he'd first said he loved her. He'd had it set in an amazing Art Nouveau poppy-shaped swirl of gold, and she'd wear it always as a symbol of their love.
He looked down into her eyes, his expression so tender it almost stopped her heart. "All those promises," he said. "Are you really going to love, honor, and cherish me?"
"Forever. And you know I always keep my promises."
# # # # #
A Word [or several] from Jenny
I hope you've enjoyed your time with Poppy and Mac and will think of them, as I do, living long and happy lives, raising horses, grant money for research, and babies, I don't have another story about the MacLeans in progress, but there will be more stories of horses and dogs and cats and hunky men and the women who can handle them.
About Jenny Andersen
I have always been a day dreamer. I grew up splitting my time between a farm and a big city, always dreaming about horses, working with them, or reading about them. In high school, I worked at a local store—as a soda jerk. How yesterday can you get?—until I saved enough to buy a horse of my very own. Being a typical teen, I never stopped to think how much it would cost to support him. Fortunately, I had nice parents who saved him from starvation.
Reversing the usual pattern, my life was marriage and children, then college and a number of weird jobs [field camp cook, mineral museum curator, geologist, materials analyst] and strange experiences [dropping a student off a dry waterfall, riding a horse that tried to jump a cement truck].
I live in California now with the world's most wonderful husband and a herd of dust bunnies. In addition to writing, I play the Celtic harp, sell antique jewelry, and enjoy needlepoint. In my copious spare time.
Connect with Jenny Andersen
I love to hear from readers!
Email me at jenny@jennysfiction.com
Write to me at P.O. Box 5515, San Jose CA 95150.
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Visit my website, http://www.jennysfiction.com.
Other books by Jenny Andersen
If you've enjoyed Poppy and Mac's story, you might also like to read:
Loving Luke
Luke Stone has spent ten years in prison for someone else’s crime. The last thing he wants when he gets out is to return to the town whose people falsely accused him, but a man with no possessions, no home, and no future has little choice.
Hannah Bluefield has loved Luke all her life, but he doesn’t know it. She knows he's innocent, and his parole is a godsend. Luke needs a job. Her struggling ranch needs a strong back. And Hannah needs to know if she’ll ever mean as much to him as he does to her.
Luke wants desperately to leave Stone’s Crossing, but he can’t resist his attraction to Hannah. Can he put aside his past and let himself care for her, or will the pull of freedom be too much?
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True or False? Allie Wentworth is a small town girl. Zeph Granger is an urban sophisticate. Stone’s Crossing is a quiet country town.
All true.
But that’s not the whole story. Allie’s the town veterinarian. Zeph’s an ambitious private detective. Tiny, friendly Stone’s Crossing hides some dangerous secrets and Zeph’s in town to uncover them. He convinces Allie to help him in spite of their crashed and burned summer almost-romance. He’s undercover as her lover, but when he begins poking around, someone’s upset.
Zeph is in danger, and so is Allie.
He’s ready to save her…but a small mountain town is a far cry from the city jungle he knows so well. Can he do it?
Wallpaper With Roses
On the verge of achieving her long-held dream of starting her own business, Sarah Gault sees her independent life stripped away when she must move back to her childhood home to care for her elderly mother.
Hilda Gault never wanted to be a burden, but after a serious operation, life on her own becomes impossible. Determined to keep Sarah from worrying about her deteriorating condition, she tries to meet each new challenge with dignity and grace.
Stressed by mounting bills and her mother's fragile health, Sarah has all she can handle. But when a neighbor loses her home and a pregnant wo
man in desperate need lands on their doorstep, Sarah opens her home to them both.
Embracing her new life, Sarah learns that sometimes family is a matter of the heart. And amidst the cycle of birth and death she finds the last thing she expected--the promise of romance.