Bedroom Diplomacy(58)
“To be honest, being on my own, being solely responsible for both myself and Dylan, scares the hell out of me. But I love it.
“I love that I have to drive to work, and that I’m paying my own bills and buying my own food. I love that when I take Dylan for a doctor’s appointment, I have to stop to pay the bill on the way out. That I can make decisions about his care without consulting my father first. I like getting stuck in traffic on my way home from work, and pumping my own gas, and a million other things that most people take for granted. It makes me feel…normal.”
“It sounds as if you’re happy.”
“I really truly am.”
“Is there any room left for me?”
“Yes.” She smiled up at him, touched his cheek. “Of course there is.”
“So marry me.”
“No.”
He blinked in surprise. “No?”
“Not no forever, just no right now. I need to be on my own for a while. Besides, where would we live? I’m just getting settled. I can’t leave California.”
“What if I said you wouldn’t have to? My friend I told you about is opening a West Coast office and he wants me to head it up.”
“Where on the West Coast?”
“San Diego.”
She sucked in a breath. “Seriously?”
“I already told him that I would take it. I start at the beginning of June, which should give me plenty of time to shore up the treaty.”
“That’s…perfect.”
“So, now will you marry me?”
She shook her head. “But I will date you. Since we haven’t actually tried that yet. Let’s take it slow, like a normal couple.”
“Would it be weird if our first official date were to pick out wedding rings?”
“A little, yes.”
“But you will marry me eventually?”
“I can’t see why I wouldn’t.”
“And I can adopt Dylan?”
She could feel tears building behind her eyes. “You’ll have to ask Dylan, but I’m sure he’ll say yes.”
“So when can we get this dating thing going? Are you free for lunch today? And every day for the rest of your life?”
She smiled. “Let’s start with today and go from there.”
Their first date was lunch. Their second a movie. Their third was a day trip to San Diego. Their fourth was a trip to Disneyland with Dylan.
It was date number five when they finally looked at wedding rings, and after finding the perfect one, she finally said yes. And when Colin asked to be Dylan’s daddy, he said yes, too.
*
Keep reading for an excerpt from One Winter’s Night by Brenda Jackson
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One
A blistering cold day in early November
It had snowed overnight and a thick white blanket seemed to cover the land as far as the eye could see. The Denver weather report said the temperature would drop to ten below by midday and would stay that way through most of the night. It was the kind of cold you could feel deep in your bones, the kind where your breath practically froze upon exhale.
He loved it.
Riley Westmoreland opened the door to his truck and, before getting inside, paused to take in the land he owned. Riley’s Station was the name he’d given his one-hundred-acre spread seven years ago, on his twenty-fifth birthday. He had designed the ranch house himself and had helped in the building of it, proudly hammering the first nail into the lumber. He was mighty pleased with the massive two-story structure that sat smack in the center of his snow-covered land.
He was probably the only one in his family who welcomed the snowstorms each year. He thought the snow was what made Denver the perfect place to be in the winter and why his home had fireplaces in all five of the bedrooms, as well as in the living room and family room. There was nothing like curling up before a roaring fire or looking out the window to see the snowflakes fall from the sky, something he’d been fascinated with even as a child. He could recall being out in the thick snow with his brothers and cousins building snowmen. These days he enjoyed moving around the mountains on his snowmobile or going skiing in Aspen.