Currant Creek Valley(93)
She had been stupid when she was twenty-five, yes. She wasn’t twenty-five anymore and she wanted to think she had learned a little something along the way.
If she walked away from this, from Sam and Ethan and the chance he was offering her to embrace a future with them, she deserved to spend the rest of her days miserable and alone.
Love, bright and joyful, bloomed in those once-dark corners like the most brilliant flower garden, like a perfect, crisp-on-the-outside, springy-and-light-on-the-inside soufflé.
It was so big, so sweet and lovely as it swelled and burst inside her, she couldn’t contain it. She did the only thing she could. She reached up and kissed the corner of his mouth, this man who had seen beneath her sharp, thorny edges to the woman she wanted to become.
She felt the sharp inhalation of his breath against her cheek but beyond that, he didn’t move for several long moments and then finally his mouth moved on hers and he returned the kiss with dazzling sweetness.
His familiar Sam-smell of laundry soup and cedar shavings filled her senses and she had to fight down a bubble of laughter, of pure happiness. She kissed him fiercely, arms tightly around his neck as if she feared the swing would topple them both to the floor.
When she finally broke the kiss and eased away long moments later, his dazed eyes reflected the starlight.
“Just so you know,” he said, his voice gruff, “I don’t think I will ever understand the way that mind of yours works.”
“You do understand me. Better than anyone ever has.”
He smiled that slow, sexy smile she loved so much and she had to kiss him all over again.
“Does this mean you’re not going to be taking a job in Park City?” he asked sometime later.
She thought of all she had been willing to give up—and, more importantly, what she would gain now if she stayed. But first, she needed to be completely clear.
“What about Charlotte?” she had to ask.
He stared. “Charlotte Caine? There’s a non sequitur for you. What does she have to do with any of this?”
“I saw the two of you. The night of the gala. You were at her house on the porch. She was in your arms.”
He looked shocked first, then his features lit up with as close to a grin as she had ever seen there. “You were jealous!”
“No, I wasn’t....” Her voice trailed off and she sighed. “Okay. Yes, I was. Insanely jealous. But only because I thought she was so perfect for you. I love Charlotte but, right at that moment, I wanted her to choke on some of her own blackberry fudge. Which is fantastic, I must admit.”
He blinked. “Wow.”
“What? I would have done the Heimlich. Eventually.”
He laughed and she didn’t think she had ever heard a more beautiful sound. How could she have moved so abruptly from utter despair to this sweet, bubbling joy?
She thought of Caroline’s advice to her. This was what she meant. Take a chance. Embrace life.
Caroline had been afraid to risk being hurt again so she had spent most of her life alone. Alex was afraid, she would be lying if she didn’t admit that, but she also knew with all her soul that Sam was a man she could count on.
“So,” she said lightly. “Back to Charlotte and the gala.”
“You might have seen us embracing,” Sam said, a little cautiously.
She could be jealous here but she wasn’t. She had complete trust in him, which she found breathtaking.
“That was probably right around the time I told her that I happened to be in love with someone else. You, for the record.”
“You did not.”
“Ask her. She mentioned, by the way, that she thought you just might share those feelings. Something about you being entirely too quick to assure her how wonderful I was.”
She blushed, remembering that scene with Charlotte after they had decorated the ballroom together.
“There’s that ego again,” she teased.
“Was she right? About your feelings?”
She heard a thread of uncertainty in his voice and realized this big, tough soldier could be as vulnerable as she was when it came to laying his heart bare.
She was overwhelmed, consumed, with love for him. He was such a good man and she knew she didn’t deserve him, but in that moment, she didn’t care. She wanted him, whether she deserved him or not.
Maybe that was the very best part of loving someone. Wanting to do anything she could to become the kind of woman who could feel worthy of a man like him.
“Charlotte can be an amazingly astute person,” she finally said, her voice prim.
His laugh held joy and a trace of relief. He kissed her, his mouth warm against the cooling air.
“Say it,” he ordered against her skin. She wanted to respond in some light, teasing way but sensed he needed the words as much as she did.