by Gina Wilkins
“You should have asked me, Joe.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“And if I hadn’t wanted to come with you?”
He shrugged. “Then you wouldn’t have. I didn’t twist your arm behind your back, Brynn.”
She settled back into her seat, knowing he was right. If she’d been adamantly opposed to coming with him, she would have stuck to her refusal, and there would have been little he could have done about it.
Joe glanced over at her. “Want me to take you back home?”
She sighed. “No. Just don’t get into the habit of planning my evenings for me, will you?”
He nodded. “Shane seemed pleased to have an excuse to spend the evening with Kelly. They’ve become good friends during the past few weeks, I think.”
“Yes. He made a point of visiting her in the hospital several times. Shane’s adopted her as another cousin, I think. They seem to have become great pals.”
“I can understand why. Kelly’s very special. I’ve grown quite fond of her myself. I’ll enjoy having her for my honorary sister-in-law.”
“Joe...” Brynn looked at him warningly. “We weren’t going to talk about things like that yet, remember?”
“You said we couldn’t get married because we hadn’t had a real date,” he reminded her. “I’m counting tonight as a date. Which means we can start planning the wedding tomorrow.”
“You,” she told him with an exhale of exasperation, “are impossible.”
“Nothing, for us, is impossible, Brynn. I’m waiting as patiently as I can for you to figure that out.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
His smile was warm. “I know.”
She had expected him to take her to a restaurant. He took her to an upscale apartment building, instead. “Is, um, this where you live?” she asked as he pulled into a parking space.
“Yes. We’re dining in tonight.”
“You’re cooking?”
He opened his door. “Let’s just say I’m providing the meal.”
Somewhat nervously, she allowed him to escort her into the elevator.
Joe’s apartment was lovely, if a bit sparsely furnished. As Brynn admired the view from the glass wall of his living room, he explained that he’d only lived there a year and hadn’t really had time to decorate yet, since he spent so many hours at work every day.
And then he led her into the dining room, where a beautifully appointed table set for two awaited them. Brynn gasped at the sight of flowers and candles, china, crystal and silver. This room, too, had a glass wall that overlooked the Dallas skyline, the perfect sunset adding just the right backdrop for the setting. “Joe. This is beautiful!”
He nodded in satisfaction. “Looks good, doesn’t it?”
“How...?”
“My cousin Anne Marie’s a caterer,” he confessed. “I called her and asked her to have this waiting for us. The meal is in the kitchen, ready to be eaten.”
Joe lit the candles on the table, flipped a switch that caused soft, romantic music to waft through the room and then held Brynn’s chair for her. “Sit down,” he urged. “Let me serve you tonight.”
Almost unbearably touched, she took her seat.
The meal was exquisite, not that she was fully aware of what she was eating. No one had ever done anything like this for her before. She was so bedazzled she did well to remember how to hold her fork.
They were having tiramisu for dessert when she finally recovered enough to ask, “Is this something you do often?”
Watching her from across the table, Joe shook his head with a faint smile. “I’ve never done this before. To be honest, I’m amazed it all worked out.”
“It’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me,” she told him candidly. “Thank you.”
“I wanted our first real date to be special. I love you, Brynn.”
She swallowed and set her fork on her plate. “It still makes me nervous to hear you say that,” she confessed.
“Why?”
“We’ve known each other such a short time, really. Less than three months. I’m afraid you don’t really know me at wall That you’ve somehow gotten an impression of me that’s different from the way I really am.”
He shook his head. “Would you like me to list everything I know about you? Everything I love about you? Your courage. Your kindness. Your intelligence. Your resilience. Your humor. Your shyness. The passion you keep so well hidden... until we make love and you open yourself to it. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Brynn. I’m not going to change my mind about that, no matter how much longer we wait.”
She blinked back a film of tears. “I don’t know how you can talk about my courage when I feel like such a coward.”
“Because I know the reason for your fears, and I understand them,” he assured her. “But I believe you and I can overcome whatever obstacles might lie ahead of us. Layla believes a benevolent destiny brought you back into her family. Maybe she’s right. I feel the same way about whatever force brought us together that day on the highway. We were meant to be together. And whatever it takes, I won’t give up until you accept that, too.”
Brynn drew a deep, unsteady breath. “I think I’ve loved you since the moment I opened my eyes after the accident and found you leaning over me, asking if I was all right. Maybe it was destiny—or maybe nothing more than coincidence. But I’m ready to admit that we do belong together, Joe. I love you.”
“Marry me.” His tone had grown urgent now, his dark eyes hot.
One tear spilled down her cheek. “Yes.”
His chair teetered precariously as he shoved it back from the table. A moment later, he was at her side, hauling her to her feet and into his arms.
Brynn wrapped her arms around his neck and lost herself in his kiss.
They didn’t bother clearing the dishes before they left the dining room.
“There are still so many things we have to settle,” Brynn murmured a long time later, her voice still husky.
Lying on his back, his eyes closed, his damp hair tousled, Joe tightened his arm around her bare shoulders and grunted. “We’ll talk about them later.”
“We can’t wait too long. It still worries me...my background, I mean. I had so many strikes against me.”
“And you turned out beautifully,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “You aren’t mentally unstable, like your mother or her mother. You aren’t an alcoholic, like your father or his father. There’s no reason to believe your children, if you decide to have any, will inherit those traits, either.”
She sighed faintly. “I have so much baggage from my childhood, Joe. I won’t always be an easy person to live with, I’m afraid.”
“Everyone has baggage from the past, cara. We simply have to learn to stow it in a dark closet somewhere and leave it alone. Fortunately, you’ve come into a family that knows all about childhood scars. Any one of your aunts or uncles would happily talk to you about how they overcame their pasts.”
“I want to get my degree. I want to teach.”
“And you will. In fact, you should register as a full-time student this fall. There’s no need for you to work while you take classes. I make enough to support us both.”
She frowned. “I’m accustomed to supporting myself.”
He chuckled and kissed her again. “Damn, you’re independent. I love that about you, too, but sometimes it can be a pain in the neck. Let me help you with your education, Brynn. Please.”
“We’ll discuss it,” she conceded. “But what about Michelle? I would be leaving her without a nanny again.”
“She’ll find someone else. Whether you’re working for her or not, you will always be her niece and the children’s cousin—her sister-in-law and the children’s aunt, after you and I are married. You will always be a very special member of both families.”
“I love you, Joe.”
“Anch’io ti amo, tesoro. I love you, too. Forever.”
> “Forever” was not a word that had been an integral part of Brynn’s vocabulary in the past. That had changed the day Joe D’Alessandro had entered her life, claiming the heart she’d always protected so carefully.
Love finds even the hidden heart.
, Remembering the fortune cookie message, she smiled against Joe’s shoulder and thought about destiny.
She was beginning to believe in it after all.
Watch for Shane’s story,
THAT FIRST SPECIAL KISS,
coming in September from Gina Wilkins
and Silhouette Special Edition.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6009-2
HER VERY OWN FAMILY
Copyright © 1999 by Gina Wilkins
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