“Since you didn’t come with an instruction manual, I needed to talk to someone wiser than me because I needed help.” He offered her the container. “She thinks you can use this.”
Taking the container, Kate put it aside on the hall table. “Help you what?” she asked, vacillating between wanting to throw her arms around him and wanting to strangle him. The internal tug of war caused her to remain where she was.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
Kate sighed, opening the door wider. “Sure,” she said with no emotion. “Come in.” She shut the door, struggling to ignore the fact that her heart had just launched into double time. “Help you what?” she repeated.
God, but he had missed her, Jackson thought. Missed the sight of her, the scent of her. He hadn’t lied. At a loss, he’d sought out her mother to enlist her help as to how to get the woman he loved back. Because he’d made a huge mistake, thinking he could just shut down and walk away. It was too late for that. He loved her and he wanted her in his life. Five minutes, five years, five decades, it didn’t matter, he’d take what he could get.
Right now, he wanted to touch her, to hold her, but this needed to be resolved first. “Help to find a way to apologize.”
“Do you have any idea what you’re apologizing for?” He’s here, don’t put him through the Spanish Inquisition. God, that was her mother’s voice in her head. She’d officially gone over the edge.
The corners of his mouth curved just a little. “For pushing you away because I was afraid of how I’d feel, losing you.”
“Maybe it’s because I haven’t had any sleep, but that doesn’t make any sense,” she told him.
“Yes, that’s why I went to your mother. Because I can’t do this.”
She really wasn’t following him. “Do what?”
“Face another day without you in it.”
Oh God. She wasn’t going to melt, she chastised. Not yet, not until she heard him tell her what she needed to hear. “That’s a good start. Go on,” she encouraged.
“I don’t have a speech—”
“I wasn’t asking for one,” she told him softly, then gave him a small hint. “I was asking you to tell me what you were feeling.”
That was easy enough. The hollowness was killing him. “Empty. Lost. Lonely.”
“And?” she coaxed.
“And if you don’t come back, I don’t know what I’m liable to do.”
“Because?”
Frustration momentarily got the better of him, but Theresa had counseled him to be honest. To let his heart do the talking. So he did. “When you told me that you’d gone with those agents, all I could think of was that I could have lost you just like that, in the blink of an eye. That would have killed me.” He took a breath. “I really, really miss you, Kate.”
“And?” she coaxed.
Jackson blew out a breath. “And I love you?”
She pressed her lips together to hold back a grin. “Is that a question?”
“It’s anything you want it to be,” he said in exasperation. “But no, it’s not a question. No matter what you feel, I love you.” He took a breath. “That’s not the easiest phrase for me to say, Kate,” he admitted.
“Yes, I know.” She looked at him for a long moment. He’d “shown her his.” It was time she did the same. “And as for what I feel—” She closed her eyes, seeking courage. Wondering if she was going to regret this. But love did take courage. And maybe, just maybe, a prince frog was really a frog prince after all. “I love you.”
His arms went around her immediately, but she put her hands against his chest, holding him back. There were more questions she needed to resolve. “Do you really mean it, or are you just saying it because you think that’s what I want to hear?”
“Yes. And yes. Yes, I really mean it and yes, I said it because I thought that was what you wanted to hear.”
“Otherwise you wouldn’t say it?” she questioned.
He feathered his fingers through her hair. He’d really missed touching her. “I was raised to believe that actions spoke louder than words.”
“It’s a toss up,” she acknowledged. “Actions are good, but so are words.”
He wanted to prove his point. “That guy you were engaged to, did he say he loved you?”
“Yes,” she admitted reluctantly. “He did.”
“And did he? Did he love you? Did he love you the way you deserved to be loved?” Jackson pressed, then answered his own question. “I don’t think so because, if he did, he wouldn’t have cheated on you.”
Okay, he had a point, but that still didn’t mean she didn’t want to hear Jackson tell her he loved her. A woman needed words. “Look, maybe—”
“Me,” Jackson went on doggedly, “I will never cheat on you. Because it’s wrong to cheat on the mother of your children.”
Kate held up her hand. “Hold it. How did I go from being the person you couldn’t say ‘I love you’ to to the mother of your children?” she asked.
“Gradually, I hope.” His eyes smiled into hers. “I want us to have a couple of years together first before we become a family.”
Had he just glossed over a marriage proposal? “Aren’t you taking a lot for granted here?”
“Nope, not a thing.” Jackson paused to take out a small black velvet box from his pocket. He’d shown it to her mother first, to prove that he was serious before he took her into his confidence and asked for help. Opening the box, he offered the heart-shaped diamond to her. “Katherine Colleen Manetti, will you make me—and your mother—the two happiest people on the face of the earth?”
“And how can I do that?” Kate found she could hardly squeeze out the words. Her throat had all but closed on her.
“Tell me you’ll marry me.”
She took a deep breath in an attempt to steady her pulse. “Not bad,” she murmured. “Still needs work, but you’re getting there.”
His eyes held hers. “Does that mean yes?”
She let him put the ring on her finger, then wove her arms around his neck. Tonight, she thought, she was going to sleep like a baby. Eventually.
“What do you think?” she countered.
His arms closed around her. “I think if I don’t kiss you, I’m going to explode.”
“Can’t have—”
His mouth came down on hers and she didn’t get a chance to get to the last word. But it was okay. Some things were just understood between two people who loved each other.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5515-3
FIXED UP WITH MR. RIGHT?
Copyright © 2010 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
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††The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion
‡The Cameo
‡‡Most Likely To…
‡The Cameo
‡The Cameo
§The Alaskans
°Talk of the Neighborhood
§§The Sons
of Lily Moreau
§§The Sons of Lily Moreau
§§The Sons of Lily Moreau
°°The Wilder Family
~Kate’s Boys
~Kate’s Boys
~Kate’s Boys
††The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion
~Kate’s Boys
§The Alaskans
~Kate’s Boys
¤¤The Baby Chase
¶Matchmaking Mamas
¶Matchmaking Mamas
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
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~~Capturing the Crown
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
†The Doctors Pulaski
†The Doctors Pulaski
**Mission: Impassioned
†The Doctors Pulaski
*Cavanaugh Justice
†The Doctors Pulaski
†The Doctors Pulaski
*Cavanaugh Justice
¶¶The Coltons: Family First
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Fixed Up with Mr. Right? Page 16
