by Peggy Jaeger
“I think that meets with her approval,” Rick said. Turning his attention back to Abby, he asked, “Anything else you…desire…me to do? Assuming, of course, I stick around? Hypothetically.”
“Well.” Abby leaned into him and settled her head down on his chest. From the way his heart was galloping under her ear, her mother might be right after all. “I’ve kind of gotten used to having you close by when I sleep. You’re like a nonelectric warming blanket. I realized it when I was in the hospital bed and you weren’t next to me, stretched out, radiating warmth all over me.”
Rick nodded. “So, to be clear about this. Laundry, cooking, pet care, and sleeping services.”
“That about covers it.” She lifted her head, her gaze automatically going to his mouth, then up to his eyes. “Oh, one more thing.”
“Yes?”
In answer, she shifted and kissed him.
At first, he smiled against her mouth. After a brief moment, though, the smile flew, and he deepened the kiss.
His lips left hers to skim over her cheek, down her jaw. “Abby. Are you sure?”
She shifted her neck to give him full access to the column of her throat. “That I want you to stay and…do laundry?”
She yelped when he poked her gently in the side. “Don’t! Don’t tickle me! Please.”
His smile warmed her.
She cupped his face. “Yes, Rick. I’m sure. I don’t think I’ve ever been more sure of anything in my life.”
He shifted and kissed one of her palms, his gaze staying glued to her hers.
“I know you don’t do relationships, and you don’t think of the future. I get that, I really do. If we only have here and now, it’s enough. As long as my here and now includes you, I’m okay with that.”
He dragged her hands from his face, twined them in his own, and brought them to rest against his chest, directly over his heart.
He cleared his throat, then said, “We need to clarify a few of those hypotheticals.”
“What? You don’t want to do laundry?”
His lips lifted at the corners again, then smoothed. “I didn’t do relationships. That’s true. But it was because I never found a woman who meant enough to me to try. Until now.”
Abby’s entire body calmed.
“That I never believed much in the future was also true. Nothing ever felt permanent enough for me to trust in it. But again, that’s changed now because I can picture a future with you in my life. A future where I’m happy.”
She tugged on one of her hands and, once freed, lifted it to his cheek.
“I want to give this, give us, a chance, Abby. For the first time in my life, I’m willing to try. Are you?”
“If it’s with you, then yes. The only answer is yes.” She sealed the pledge with a kiss.
Rick pulled back and pressed his forehead against hers. On a deep sigh, he opened his eyes and stared at her. “I need to tell you something else, and it’s freaking me out a little.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t do confessions.”
Abby pushed against his chest and sat upright. “Confessions? What, like tell me some sin you’ve committed? Some crime you need to get off your conscience?”
He shook his head, and she could tell he was trying not to roll his eyes at her.
“Typical lawyer,” he said. “Always thinking the worst.”
“Hello?” She pointed to the T-shirt her mother had brought to the hospital. Across the front of it was the sentence Keep Calm and Call an Attorney. “Lawyer, here.”
He reached out and traced a finger over the lettering and, just like that she went blind with desire.
“Um…?”
Rick smiled again, and this time it didn’t only warm her insides, it shot her temperature up fifty degrees.
“Okay, I’m just gonna say this.” While his eyes never left her face, he took a breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. “Abigail June Victoria Laine, I…I love you. I think I’ve loved you since the first time we met at Josh and Kandy’s engagement party.”
Words wouldn’t come. For someone who made her career from carefully chosen words, the irony didn’t escape Abby.
He loved her.
Her!
“Now that’s a sight I never thought I’d live to see. Abigail Laine, speechless.”
He said it with a grin, but she could hear the slight tension in his voice.
She punched him in the arm.
“You hit like a girl,” he said.
“I am a girl.”
“A speechless girl.”
“You want to hear me say something, Bannerman? How about this?”
She yanked his head to hers, slammed her lips against his, and kissed him with all the emotion and desire that had been crushing through her system for years.
She kissed him like she’d never let him go.
She kissed him like it was the last time she’d ever get the chance to.
She kissed him like a woman totally, completely, and uncontrollably in love.
With him.
And when she came up for air, she told him.
When he smirked at her confession, she narrowed her eyes.
“I know,” he said.
Abby tried to punch him again, but he caught her hand and pressed it against his chest. Right before he pressed his mouth to hers again he said, “But it’s a blast hearing you say it.”
Moonlight snuck a quick glance at them over her furry shoulder, yawned and snuggled down on the rug at their feet.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Two months later
She found him, exactly as she had four years ago, on the terrace overlooking Central Park. The last time, he’d been decked out in a body-hugging tuxedo that had her heart galloping at the thick lines of muscle and man underneath it, his attention focused outward on the trees in front of him.
This time, he was garbed in a solid-toned sports jacket and a tailored shirt that fit him as well as the tuxedo had. But now his attention was focused on the baby in his arms. The baby he was smiling down at.
“Kidnapping is illegal, you know,” she said as she approached them.
“It’s not kidnapping.” He glanced up at her, then back down at the baby. “I just wanted to spend some alone-time with my goddaughter.”
“She’s my goddaughter, too, you know.”
“Yeah, and you’ve been, like Gemma is fond of saying, a Sophie Grace baby hog for most of the day. You got to hold her all through the baptism. I wanted equal time.”
Abby swiped a hand along the smiling baby’s head. Jet black curls, twin to her mothers’, sprang up all over her head, the ivory satin baptismal gown covering her tiny body from neck to feet, which Abby knew were shod in designer satin slippers, courtesy of her and Rick.
“She’s got to be the happiest baby I’ve ever seen,” Rick said, swaying gently. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard her cry after that first time in the hospital. She didn’t even let loose today when the priest poured the water over her head.”
“Believe me, she cries,” Abby said and then snorted. “I’ve witnessed it enough times in the past two months to know she has the Laine lungs.”
“Must be the company you’re keeping, sweetie,” he cooed to the baby. “ ’Cause you never cry when your Uncle Rick holds you.”
Abby threw him a pout. “Wait. You’ll get your turn for your eardrums to be shattered.”
“Never gonna happen, right, Sophie baby?”
Despite herself, Abby was charmed. Who knew underneath that annoying—but gorgeous—hulk, beat the heart of a softie?
“I want to hold her,” she said, shoving out her arms.
“Your auntie is so selfish, Sophie.” Abby laughed at his sing-song tone as he gingerly handed her over. “But you won’t grow up to be like that, I know.”
When she had her secured in her arms, Abby started mimicking Rick’s swaying motion.
“You look like a natural, Counselor, with a baby in
your arms.” He folded his hands into his pants pockets and rocked back on his heels while he regarded them.
Abby grinned over Sophie’s head. “That’s quite a sexist remark, Bannerman, whether you mean it to be or not. I could say the same about you, you know. You seemed pretty comfortable holding her.”
He shrugged, but she could tell he was pleased by the compliment.
She’d become quite an expert on Rick Bannerman’s emotional tells over the past eight weeks. Since bringing her home from the hospital, he’d basically moved into her apartment, even though he kept the lease on his own. Every morning while she got ready for work, he greeted her with a kiss and a perfectly made cup of tea, drove her to the office, and then left her there, with another kiss, for the day. Every evening, he picked her up. If she had a late day, he waited for her. She’d questioned him about the change in his work schedule and wondered why he wasn’t going out on surveillance any longer. His reply had been a quick “Josh moved some things around” and left it at that, but she knew deep down, he’d changed the way he worked so he could be with her.
In the evenings, she cooked for them, or if she was too tired, he did. More times than not, it meant something reheated or a quick pizza run, but Abby didn’t mind. Just having someone to share a meal with filled her with happiness.
And at night, when it was time to turn in, she was never alone. Moonlight got the hint pretty quickly that Rick was now a fixture in Abby’s bed. The cat took turns sleeping next to one of them or between their feet. And, as Abby had told him so many times before, he’d gotten used to the cat’s thunderous and throaty noises.
She couldn’t remember a time in her life where she’d been happier than these past few months. And it didn’t skip her notice that the reason could be laid squarely at Rick Bannerman’s door.
“How are you holding up?” he asked her, changing the subject. “You in any pain from standing in those things?” He nodded to the two-inch heels gracing her feet. It was the first time she’d worn any kind of a heel out of the house aside from a flat since the surgery.
“A little twingy, but fine,” she replied. “I don’t have to wear them for too much longer. I wish I’d remembered to toss a pair of flats in my bag, though.”
“I did.”
Abby stopped rocking the baby. “Excuse me?”
He looked down his nose at her. “I knew you’d forget to with everything else you had to remember to bring, so I tossed a pair from the bottom of your closet into my duffle. They’re in the car if you want them.”
“They’re in the car?”
Rick’s brows pulled together in the middle. “Don’t get all”—he dropped his gaze to the baby then lowered his voice—“p-i-s-s-y about it. “
“I’m not pissy.”
“Shhh. Don’t curse in front of the baby.” He cut her off before she could respond again. “I knew you had a lot on your mind today and wouldn’t be thinking about your hip. The only time you’ve worn heels over the past few weeks has been at home. And only for brief periods of time,” he added, nailing her with a knowing glare.
Those times she’d been allowed to wear them recently had been while she’d been in bed with him and wearing nothing else. That little fantasy pulled a grin from deep down inside her.
“I’m not pi—” She looked down at the baby and changed her wording. “—mad you brought the shoes with you.”
“Sounded like you were.”
“I’m not. If anything, I’m touched beyond belief you’d remember to bring something like my shoes. It’s incredibly kind and thoughtful. Thank you, Rick. Really.”
She moved in closer and kissed him, careful not to bump the baby against his chest. Rick reached out a hand and cupped her cheek.
“Remember when I told you to let me take care of you, Abigail?”
She nodded. “I love that you take care of me,” she said. “I love you.” She kissed him again. “And don’t call me Abigail.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say that,” he confessed, on a sigh.
“I tell you all the time not to call me Abigail.”
He kissed the tip of her nose and scowled at her. She bit back her giggle.
When he pulled back, he shoved one of his hands in his pants pocket again. “I was gonna wait a couple more days to do this. Wait for the perfect time. But I guess the perfect time is whenever it feels right. And right now feels right.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Give me your hand,” he said, reaching out with one of his own.
She did, without questioning why. Before, though, she shifted a now-sleeping Sophie Grace securely in one arm.
Rick took her proffered hand and then took a step backward. As he bent one knee and rested it on the ground, Abby gasped, making the baby jump in her sleep.
“Shhhh,” she whispered, alternating between gaping at the baby’s face and Rick’s.
“You okay, there?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Rick?”
“Let me do the talking, Abigail. You just keep Sophie Grace calm. I don’t want her to cry and have everyone and your mother shooting out here to see what’s wrong before I get through this.”
With her free hand in one of his, he swiped at his brow with the sleeve of the other. That he was nervous and sweating with it, charmed her beyond words.
“Okay,” he said, more to himself than to her, and with a nod. “Okay.” When his gaze lifted back to capture hers, it took everything inside Abby not to cry.
“I want to get this right, so bear with me. It’s no secret the way I feel about you, Abby. I love you. Everything about you. I love the way you challenge me and don’t let me get away with anything. I love the way you try to take care of me by cooking me vegetables even though I hate them and refusing to have chips in the house for me to snack on.”
She stifled her laugh and grinned at him, those tears she’d tried to keep contained fighting against her.
“I love the way you opened your heart to a three-legged cat nobody wanted and that you always fight for the people who need a champion the most. And right now, I love the way you look with a baby in your arms, and I’m standing here wishing it were mine. Ours.”
The tears won the battle.
“But most of all, I love the fact that you love me. Despite my shortcomings, or maybe even because of them. Every day I’m with you, every moment we’re together, I’m happy. Really happy for the first time in my life. And I owe that feeling, simply, to you. All to you. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered through the tears.
“Well…” He squeezed the hand he held, and she realized he was having a battle with his own tears. He cleared his throat again and continued. “I think the only thing that could make me even happier is if you said you’d be mine forever. So, for the sake of my future happiness, and in summation”—he grinned at her and she couldn’t help but widen her own smile back at him—“I’m asking you to marry me. Stay with me, for always. Make a life with me, make a family with me. Marry me.”
He pulled his other hand from his pocket and held up the ring nestled between his fingers. “I’ve been carrying this around with me for the past week, waiting for the perfect time. I don’t know who’s had more trouble keeping this a secret, me or Kandy.”
“Kandy?”
“She helped me pick it out, and I made her take a blood oath of secrecy against telling you. She almost blurted it out last night at dinner. Josh tossing her a quick kick under the table was the only thing that stopped her.”
He stood up, the ring between his fingers, her hand still in his. “So, Counselor. What’s the verdict?”
Abby stood, rooted, afraid to breathe. She wanted to jump up and down and scream with joy. She wanted to cry out and throw her arms around the man who had finally done what no man had ever done—claim her heart. She wanted to grab him and hold on for the rest of her life.
T
hrough the tears now streaming down her cheeks, Abby tugged on the hand he held and drew him in closer. With a grin twisted on his lips as he bent to her, she brought her own just within touching them and said, “The only verdict there could be—a life sentence. With you.”
When she finally touched her mouth to his smile, she heard thunderous clapping come from behind her.
For a brief second, Sophie Grace startled, then, surrounded by love, settled back to sleep.
A word about the author…
Peggy Jaeger writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. When she isn’t writing, you can find her cooking or reading.
She loves to hear from readers on her website:
PeggyJaeger.com
and on her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks
~
http://peggyjaeger.com
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Also available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Dearly Beloved
by Peggy Jaeger
Colleen O'Dowd manages a thriving bridal business with her sisters in Heaven, New Hampshire. After fleeing Manhattan and her cheating ex-fiancé, Colleen still believes in happily ever afters. But with a demanding business to run, her sisters to look after, and their 93-year-old grandmother to keep out of trouble, she's worried she'll never find Mr. Right.
Playboy Slade Harrington doesn't believe in marriage. His father's six weddings have taught him life is better as an unencumbered single guy. But Slade loves his little sister. He'll do anything for her, including footing the bill for her dream wedding. He doesn't plan on losing his heart to a smart-mouthed, gorgeous wedding planner, though.
