Prince Charming in Dress Blues

by Maureen Child

“Uh-uh.” She shook her head, then pushed her hair out of her eyes with one grubby hand. “When I found out you went to Florida without even saying goodbye…”

  “There wasn’t time,” he said.

  “That’s when I realized something I should have known all along,” she said, interrupting him and not caring. “I love you, John. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want to. And God knows,” she added with a strained laugh, “I’d be a lot less scared if I didn’t love you—”

  “I hear a but coming,” he said, watching her through wary eyes.

  “But,” she said, “I’d be a lot less alive, too.”

  One corner of his mouth quirked into a half smile, but he didn’t say a word. He just waited.

  She couldn’t blame him. He’d already proclaimed himself, and she hadn’t exactly greeted that proclamation with open arms.

  “I love you,” she said again, relishing how the words felt on her tongue, hoping he would believe her. Hear the truth in her voice, see it in her eyes. She’d never thought to say those words again in her life, and the fact that she was being given the opportunity was the greatest gift she’d ever received. “Jordan loves you. We missed you so much when you were gone. I missed you so much. We weren’t complete anymore without you. And we don’t ever want to lose you again. So I guess what I’m saying is, we want to marry you.”

  At last she’d surprised him. She saw it in his expression, and she took heart in the gleam of hope she saw shining in his eyes.

  “You do, huh?”

  “We do,” she said firmly. “We want to marry you and move to Florida and help you with the family business and we want to have more babies. We want to be a family. A real family.”

  “And what if I’m not running the family business?” he asked, reaching out to stroke one hand down the length of her arm.

  “Huh?” She blinked up at him. “But you went to Florida—you said that you were going to leave the Corps and—”

  “I know what I said,” John told her, his voice tight with the want that had brought him here as soon as his plane had touched ground at Orange County Airport. “But I did some thinking, too.”

  “Yeah?” she asked, stepping up closer still, laying her hand on his chest. He felt warm for the first time in weeks.

  “Yeah.” John swallowed hard, laid both hands on her shoulders and promised himself to never let go again. A soft ocean breeze ruffled her hair, stirring the curls into a dance about her dirt-streaked face. She’d never looked more beautiful to him than she did at this moment. “You were right, you know.”

  “About what?” Her gaze moved over his features and he caught the sheen of unshed tears in those lake-blue depths.

  “About me taking my own advice. I told you to follow your heart, but I wasn’t listening to my own.” He shook his head slowly and smiled just a little. “I’m no business man. Not even for my father can I leave the Corps. I have to be who I am—or I’m no good to anyone.”

  She lifted one hand and touched his cheek. “Who you are is plenty. For anyone.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  She grinned. “I asked you to marry me, didn’t I?”

  He smiled back at her. “So you did.”

  “Are you going to answer that question anytime soon, Gunnery Sergeant Paretti?”

  “After you tell me if you’re interested in that job offer I was telling you about.”

  She took a breath and huffed it out again in frustration. “You want to talk about a job? Now? In the middle of my proposal?”

  “Yep.” God, it felt good to be back with her. Where he belonged.

  “Fine,” she said, waving one hand at him. “What job?”

  “Running Paretti Computer Corporation.”

  She staggered backward a step, stared up at him through huge, astonished eyes and gasped, “What?”

  “You heard me,” he said on a laugh and caught her to him when she staggered again. “The old man loved your ideas—”

  “What ideas?”

  “The ones you rattled off at me when you were yelling at me to follow my heart.”

  “You can’t be serious,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Oh, yes, I can,” he said, enjoying the fact that he’d been able to surprise her just as she had him with that proposal. She’d gone and wrecked his carefully rehearsed, romantic-as-hell proposal speech, but, remembering her words to him, he figured it was worth it.

  “But—”

  “No buts,” he cut her off quickly, pulled her tightly to him and wrapped his arms around her, keeping her from escaping, even if she’d wanted to, which she didn’t. “So, you tell me if you want the job, then I’ll tell you if I’ll marry you.”

  “You’re crazy, you know that?” she said, stunned disbelief coloring her tone.

  “That’s been said before.”

  “And will be again, no doubt.”

  “Oh,” he said with a grin, “no doubt.”

  Her arms came around his waist and her palms splayed wide on his back. He felt the warmth of each of her fingers all the way down to his soul, and John knew he’d found his home. His heart.

  “So—” he prodded gently with a little squeeze “—do you want the job?”

  Annie told herself that if John came with the job, she’d sign up to sweep streets on Jupiter. But he hadn’t actually said he came with the job now, had he? “Sure, I guess so, I mean—”

  “Then I guess I’ll have to say yes to your proposal and marry you,” he said with a wink, “since this is a family-run company after all.”

  The last of her reservations drained away, leaving her feeling like an exceptionally lucky woman. “Very sneaky,” she said smiling. “I like that in a man.”

  “I aim to please,” he said, bending his head to plant a kiss on her neck.

  “Mmm…” she moaned, and added, “…then aim a little lower, okay?”

  “Aye-aye, ma’am,” he whispered, sliding his lips down, along her collarbone and then back up to claim a kiss that sealed their promises and blessed their future.

  Epilogue

  Three Years Later…

  Green and white balloons dropped from the netting overhead and spilled down onto the gleaming wooden floor where dozens of couples were dancing to a ballad from the forties. But Annie’s gaze was locked on one couple in particular.

  Her handsome husband and their three-year-old daughter, dancing cheek to cheek. John held Jordan tightly and moved into a series of spins that had the little girl laughing in delight, and Annie’s heart blossomed painfully in her chest.

  So much, she thought, letting her gaze stray just a bit to wander across the faces of the gathered crowd. She’d found so much in three short years. A man who was husband, lover and friend. A career that just kept getting better. And a family.

  The family she’d always wanted and given up hoping to find.

  She smiled to herself as she spotted Sam and Karen, chasing their two-year-old, Anthony, across the floor. Then grinned when she spotted Nick hovering over a very pregnant Gina as if she might explode. And, she told herself as her gaze moved on, in the heart of the family was Dominick and Teresa Paretti, the couple whose fiftieth anniversary they were all here to celebrate.

  They danced together now in the center of the floor, and the crowd parted, making way. Amid the swirling lights, the sea of balloons and their watchful audience, the Parettis had eyes only for each other.

  And Annie sighed.

  “Tired?” John’s voice came from right beside her, and she turned, smiling, to face him.

  “Not a bit,” she said.

  “Mommy, Daddy says I’m the prettiest girl here,” Jordan piped up from her perch on John’s hip.

  “And he’s absolutely right,” Annie told her, leaning in for a kiss.

  “Well,” John amended solemnly, “except for your mommy.”

  The look in his eyes sent a dart of heat shooting through her, and Annie had to marvel at it. Three years married, eight mo
nths pregnant with her second child, and one look from her husband turned her into a puddle of steaming want.

  Jordan nodded, sending her thick, honey-colored braids flying. “’Cept for Mommy.”

  John kept his gaze locked with hers, and after a long minute he set Jordan on her feet and said, “Why don’t you go dance with Uncle Nick? He looks lonely.”

  “’Kay,” the child announced and skipped off toward her next conquest.

  “That was sneaky,” Annie said, moving into his arms and swaying in time with the music.

  “Hey, I needed a minute alone with my best girl….” He shot a look over at Gina who looked relieved when Nick and Jordan moved into the dancing crowd. “And Gina could use a break from my big brother.”

  “He’s worried,” Annie said. “She’s due any day now.”

  “I know,” John told her laughing. “I already told him that it was no problem. If Gina goes into labor, I’m completely ready to deliver their little boy. It’s not like I haven’t done it before.”

  Annie laughed and shook her head. “Gee, and that didn’t make him feel better?”

  He grinned down at her. “Nope.” Then he moved one hand to stroke the mound of her stomach. “But I guess I can’t blame him. When our new little miss decides to make her entrance, I think I’d prefer having a doctor there.”

  “We still don’t have a name for her,” Annie said.

  “I wanted to talk to you about that,” he told her, and guided her into a slow turn, “I’d like to name her Faith, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Faith Paretti,” she murmured, staring straight up into her husband’s eyes. “Has a nice ring to it.”

  “Has a nice sound, too,” he said softly, his gaze moving over her features like the most gentle of caresses. “Faith in us. Faith in the future. Faith in all we have together.”

  Tears stung the backs of her eyes, and Annie blinked them away. Everything about this man touched her heart so deeply. She couldn’t imagine her life without him. And thank heaven, she would never have to. “Faith it is, then,” she said.

  John watched her for a long minute and felt his heart fill to bursting. His wife. The mother of his children. The other half of his heart.

  She was all those things and so much more.

  He’d found a happiness he hadn’t thought possible. And it was all due to this one woman. The woman who made his life complete.

  Absently he noted that the orchestra had stopped playing and that the crowd was beginning to move through the French doors toward the dock. It must be time for the fireworks display, he thought, never taking his gaze from Annie’s.

  “John,” she said softly.

  “Hmm?”

  “We should go and join the family.”

  “Yeah,” he murmured, “I suppose we should.”

  “The fireworks are about to start.”

  John ran one hand up and down her spine, bent to kiss her gently, briefly, then lifted his head and looked at her. “Honey, the fireworks are right here. Trust me.”

  Then he kissed her, and Annie could have sworn she saw the flash of a brightly colored rocket explode behind her closed eyes.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1088-2

  PRINCE CHARMING IN DRESS BLUES

  Copyright © 2001 by Maureen Child

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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  *Bachelor Battalion