Bed of Roses (Bride Quartet #2)(93)

He lifted his head, smiled at her. "That's funny. I was thinking the same thing."

"It would be a shame to waste the rest of that champagne, and those lovely chocolate-covered strawberries."

"Criminal. Stay right here. Don't move. I'll get them."

She stretched, sighed. "I'm not going anywhere."





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

FIVE MINUTES AFTER EMMA GOT HOME, MAC CAME THROUGH the door.

"I waited until he left," Mac called out as she climbed the stairs. "That's herculean restraint." She scowled when she walked into Emma's bedroom. "You're unpacking. Putting everything away. I hate this level of efficiency. Why can't at least one of you be a slob like me?"

"You're not a slob. You're just a bit relaxed with your personal space."

"Hey, I like that. Relaxed with my personal space. Okay, enough about me. Tell me all. I left my own lover to his lonely bowl of corn flakes."

With last night's dress in her hands, Emma spun a happy circle. "It was fabulous. Every minute."

"Deets, deets, deets."

"An elegant French restaurant, champagne, a suite at the Waldorf."

"God, that's all so you. Snazzy date wise. Casual date-wise, maybe moonlight picnic at the beach, red wine, candles tucked into little shells."

Emma closed her empty suitcase. "Why aren't I dating you?"

"We'd make a lovely couple, it's true." Draping an arm over Emma's shoulder, Mac turned to the mirror and studied-Emma in her trim jeans and soft shirt, and herself in the cotton pants and T-shirt she'd slept in. "Stunning, really. Well, we can keep it in reserve if things don't work out otherwise."

"Always good to have a backup. Oh, God, Mac, it was the most perfect night." She turned, squeezed Mac into a hug before doing another spin. "We didn't sleep. At all. It's amazing, really, that we have so much to talk about, to find out about each other still. We talked all through dinner, then took a long walk. And he'd had them bring up champagne and light candles, put on music."

"Wow."

"We drank more champagne and we talked, and we made love. It was so romantic." On a humming sound, she closed her eyes, hugged herself. "Then we talked and drank more champagne, and we made love again. We had breakfast by candlelight and-"

"Made love again."

"We did. We drove home through horrible traffic with the top down, and the traffic didn't matter. Nothing did. Nothing could." She gave herself another hug. "Mac? I'm a happy person most of the time."

"Yeah, it can be annoying."

"I know, but too bad. Anyway, I'm a happy person, but I never knew I could be this happy. I didn't know I could feel like this. Like I just want to jump and dance and spin and sing. Like Julie Andrews on a mountaintop."

"Okay, but don't do that because that's seriously annoying."

"I know, so I'm only doing it on the inside. All the times I imagined what it would be like to be crazy in love, I never knew."

She dropped down on the bed, grinned up at the ceiling. "Do you feel this way all the time? With Carter?"



       
         
       
        

Mac flopped down beside her. "I never thought I'd be in love. Not really. I never imagined it the way you always did, or looked for it. In some ways it snuck up on me, and in others it fell on me like a ton of bricks. It's still a shock to the system to realize I have this inside me-not the spinning and singing part, because even inside it would annoy me. But I've got the jumping and dancing going on. And somebody has it inside for me. Talk about shocking."

Emma reached out to take Mac's hand. "I don't know if Jack has it back for me, not the way I do for him. But I know he cares. I know he feels. And I have so much, Mac. I have to believe all this love I have will . . . take root, I guess. I thought I loved him before, but now I think that was a kind of infatuation mixed up inside lust. Because this is different."

"Can you tell him?"

"I would've said no, even a couple of days ago. Don't want to ruin anything, don't want to tip the scales. Actually did say no when Parker and I talked about it. But now I think I can. I think I should. I just have to figure out how and when."

"It scared me, when Carter told me he loved me. Don't be upset if it scares him a little, at least at first."

"I don't think you tell someone you love them because you expect something. I think you tell them because you have something to give."

"You unpack as soon as you get home from a trip. You have a happy nature. And you're wise about love. I'm surprised the three of us haven't ganged up and beaten the hell out of you regularly."