It was entirely possible. Sullivan wondered what sort of extensive damage control would be required this time before things were made right. He wondered if this meant he’d gone up in the world, from cleaning up his brother’s messes to smoothing over his father’s.
Getting out of the car, he hurried to the front door. He didn’t bother ringing the bell; he was too agitated. Instead, he knocked, hard.
When she opened the door, he saw that her eyes were red-rimmed. It was worse than he thought. Damn that old man, thinking he had a right to play God with other people’s lives.
Sullivan took hold of her arms. “What did he say to you? Did he threaten you? Anything he says he can do, Marlene, I swear I’ll—”
He was talking too fast. Marlene laid a finger to his lips before he could continue. “No, he was rather sweet, actually.”
Dazed, he moved her hand aside. “Sweet? My father?” That didn’t sound like an apt description of Oliver Travis even at his best. He eyed her dubiously. “Then why are you crying?”
Marlene threaded her fingers through his and led Sullivan into the living room. There was a black-and-white film playing on the wide-screen TV housed within the ebony entertainment center.
She gestured toward it. “I always cry when I watch It’s A Wonderful Life.” She smiled without embarrassment. “It’s a tradition.”
Sullivan stared dumbly at the picture on the screen. “A movie?”
She shook her head at his choice of words, like a parent listening to her child making an elementary mistake. “Not just a movie, the best movie ever made.”
Sullivan let out a sigh and dragged his hand through his hair. “You had me going for a minute.” He brushed aside the remnant of a tear on her cheek with his thumb. “As a matter of fact, you’ve had me going since I first saw you.”
She raised her face to look up into his eyes. So many things to be thankful for tonight, she thought. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
That depended purely on the outcome of their situation. “You tell me.”
She smiled up at him. “I vote ‘good.”’
Moved beyond words, Sullivan took her into his arms. He felt as if something had been lifted from him. And it was. The last of the indecision he’d been wrestling with all the way over here disintegrated. He saw the rest of his life with clarity now. And he wanted to spend it with Marlene, because if she wasn’t there, then his life had no meaning at all.
Marlene pressed her cheek against his chest. His cologne mingled with the outdoorsy scent of a cold, crisp evening. She breathed it in and felt safe.
He stroked her hair. The familiar feel seeped into his subconscious. Funny how he had gotten accustomed to so many little things so quickly. And what a huge gap not having those things in his life would create.
“You know, holding you like this makes the rest of my life look bleak, if I think of it in terms of going on alone.”
She raised her head to look at his face. One last chasm to leap over, she thought. Mentally she backed up, gaining momentum. “You could always come to visit, along with your father.”
He wanted more than that, much more. He was accustomed to taking risks, but never privately, never where his emotions were concerned. It was time to take a risk now.
“Could I come to stay?” He searched her face, looking for his answer.
Hope rose like a phoenix, full-bodied, with wings raised high. The chasm became smaller. “For as long as you like.”
He kissed her temple. “And if I’d like forever?”
She blinked back a tear. Damn, she wasn’t going to cry, not now. Not when she was happy. “It’s right here, waiting for you.”
Yes, he thought, it was. But he’d been too blind, too safe in his solitary world to see.
But not any more.
He kissed her lips, savoring the taste. He was the luckiest man to walk the face of the earth. And he owed it, at least in part, to Derek.
Sullivan held her against him. “I love you, Marlene. I keep waiting for these feelings I have for you to go away, but they don’t. I can’t seem to reason with myself or talk myself out of them.”
“Why would you want to?” She touched his cheek. “Love is the greatest thing in the world. I know, because I feel it.”
It was too much to hope for. “For Robby.”
“Yes, for Robby. But I wasn’t thinking of him just now.” Some horses you not only led to water, you had to shove their faces into the trough before they drank. “I was thinking of you, you big idiot.”
They were right. This was a time for miracles, Sullivan thought. “Me? You love me?”
The smile spread slowly, splitting her mouth until it encompassed her entire face. “You have been paying attention.”
He laughed and she felt the sound rumble along his chest into hers. “I guess this means that we’re going to have to change Robert’s middle name.”
She drew her brows together, lost. “Why?”
What had she thought he’d meant by “forever”? “Because Robert Travis Travis sounds a little redundant, don’t you think?”
Marlene’s mouth dropped open. “Are you…asking me to marry you?”
“In a clumsy, roundabout fashion, yes.” As far as proposals went, this was a poor one. She deserved better. A romantic restaurant, violins. But he was too impatient to wait. “I don’t have any practice at this.”
If a person was actually capable of bursting with happiness, Marlene knew she would have. “And you’re not going to get any.”
“Then it’s yes?”
“Of course it’s yes,” she cried. She blinked furiously to keep back the tears.
She loved him and she was going to marry him. He played the sentences over in his head, waiting for them to really sink in. “I intend to be a good father to Robby. The kind of father Robby deserves.”
“Robby deserves you.” She rose on her toes and brought her lips to his. “We both do.”
“I don’t know about ‘deserves,’ but you’re getting me whether you like it or not.” His lips met hers, and he lost himself in the deep, tangy flavor of her mouth.
Vaguely, a noise registered. Sullivan lifted his head. It sounded like a tiny bell tinkling in the distance. Doorbell? Telephone? Sullivan tried to place the sound. “What was that?”
Marlene pointed toward the tree without looking. “That’s probably just Clarence, getting his wings. That’s what usually takes place when a miracle happens.” Her eyes held his. “This is the night for miracles.”
Sullivan grinned broadly, his arms tightening around her. He had no idea what she was talking about. All he knew was that he’d never felt so happy in his entire life. And he suspected that he would continue to feel the same way, as long as she was his. “And I’m holding one.”
Marlene slipped her hands around his face and drew it down to her. “Shut up and kiss me again.”
“Yes, ma’am. With pleasure.”
And it was. A great deal of pleasure. For both of them.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7053-8
BABY’S FIRST CHRISTMAS
Copyright © 1995 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
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Baby's First Christmas Page 23
