Silver Bells

by Val Daniels

  Jillian held her breath.

  "And now I have fixed everything," he assured her gently. "I've fixed it so you fit into my life. I want you to see it all," he added huskily. "I want you to share it with me. Will you think about it?"

  "Oh, Matt." Tears were streaming down her cheeks again.

  "I hope these are happy tears." He smiled wiping one away as she threw her arms around him enthusiastically.

  Waves of happiness washed over her as she kissed the tiny, erratic pulse behind his ear and let her hand slowly verify that he was solid and real.

  He sighed as though the weight of the world had been lifted. "You have to quit doing that if we're going to talk," he said at last, putting her firmly away from him. He set her on the rock and reached for her shoe. "Shall I play Prince Charming?"

  "No." She gently took the shoe from him and put it on her own foot. "I've been expecting fairy-tale endings long enough," she said soberly. "If anything is going to work between us, we both have to be practical."

  He buried his face in her windswept hair. "I wish I could take back all the hurt."

  She couldn't hold down a low bubbling laugh. "I'm healing fast."

  He drew her to her feet, slipping his hands into her back pockets. She gave him a long and thoroughly satisfying kiss.

  "Enough," he said. "We have to make plans like intelligent adults and I can't think when you do that."

  She smiled and started to step away. He tugged her toward him by her back pockets and kissed her till her toes curled. "I love you," he whispered into her parted lips.

  "I've waited forever to hear you say that." She breathed the words against his mouth.

  "Now, we have to decide what we're going to do with the rest of our lives. Starting with Monday," he added, stealing a quick kiss from her. "I know what we're going to do with the rest of the weekend, if you'll agree."

  She grinned in response and felt absolutely, wickedly wonderful.

  "Shall we have a big wedding?"

  The brightness went out of the lovely day. "Don't, Matt," she pleaded softly.

  She kept her gaze on a slender branch that had been a victim of the wind. Its tiny buds once promised a future. Now it was lying on the ground, dry and shriveled. "I wouldn't do that to you." She tried to disguise the hurt in her voice.

  "Do you honestly think I could've got Karen to go along with this abduction if I didn't have marriage in mind?"

  "But I don't want you to feel like I've trapped you or, or…made you marry me." She held his eyes, longing for him to understand that, as far as she was concerned, his love was enough.

  "I want, repeat, want to marry you, my sweet Jillian." His lips were inches from hers. "I don't have the excuse anymore that my life wouldn't accommodate a wife."

  Her eyes glittered with a new crop of tears.

  "Do you want me to go through life as alone as I've always been?"

  She shook her head.

  "If you marry me, will I ever have to lie awake wondering how you're passing the night?"

  A tender smile grew as she shook her head again.

  "I didn't sleep for days after I called you and you were still out at ten-thirty."

  "I wasn't home from class yet," she assured him.

  "I know that now. Karen told me when we cooked up this kidnapping. But at the time, I had visions of old Harry and any number of other guys beating your door down. It was hell."

  "I'm sorry." She glowed, looking up at him and stroking his face.

  "I want you to be my friend, and—"

  "I already am." She was finally convinced that he really wanted to marry her, but she wanted to hear all his reasons. Her smile grew broader.

  "And I want you to be my lover."

  "I'm willing," she sighed contentedly.

  He gently tweaked her nose. "Will you promise forever?"

  Her breathing slowed as her heart rate picked up. She searched frantically for the right words.

  "See? You won't promise, so I'll need some sort of legal guarantee—"

  "You said there are no guarantees," she pointed out.

  "Nevertheless, I want to make it as hard for you to get rid of me as I possibly can. Which brings me back to my previous question: Do you want a big wedding?"

  "No."

  "Good," he said. "I didn't especially want one either. I'm kind of partial to a justice of the peace in the closest place we can find without a waiting period."

  "A minister, maybe?" she asked hopefully.

  He mulled that one over.

  "It'll be much more binding that way, don't you think?" she teased, afraid that if she said it as seriously as she felt it, he'd reject the whole idea.

  "Maybe we'll get two." He held her so tightly she feared she might break. She couldn't think. He kissed her until she didn't want to.

  Later, much later, he held her hand as they sat on the porch steps and watched the moon rise.

  "Matt?"

  "Yes?"

  "Does this plan include any babies?"

  He laughed softly, then broke into the roar of delighted amusement she loved so much. It echoed through the trees, startling the few night creatures who had ventured out of their hiding places early.

  "It's not funny."

  "I know, Jillian," he said lovingly, as he drew her across his lap. "But can we take one step at a time? I'm still trying to figure out what a good husband does."

  "He acts like you." She said adoringly. Smoothing the disbelieving lines away from his forehead with her fingertip, she explained, "He gives love."

  He kissed the tip of her nose reverently. "Thanks, sweetheart. If it's that easy, I've got it made. And if I do all right with this?" In the growing darkness, she felt his shoulders lift in the familiar shrug. "Who knows? Maybe we'll try the other."

  She heard Grandma's contented sigh on a whisper of wind. "Yes," she agreed, raising her face to kiss him. "Who knows?"