Alex stirred and nestled in close to the warm woman lying next to him. His hand found her stomach and rubbed it in slow circles. He’d done that a lot while she’d slept, trying to come to terms with a kind of joy he hadn’t known existed in the world.
Cassandra was carrying his child. And she loved him back. And they were going to get married.
From out of the bottomless bliss, he saw his father’s face, and a memory came back, rising to the surface of Alex’s mind. The two of them had been standing on the dock the night before Alex was due to leave for another one of his races.
He’d had no idea that he wasn’t coming back anytime soon. He’d figured it was going to be the same as all the other departures. Four weeks gone, maybe six. He certainly hadn’t planned on it being a final cut of sorts, the break that took him away from his family.
But his father had known. Somehow his father had known.
Alex heard his father’s voice. “You know, son, life takes you a lot of places. Some good, some bad. I’ve always found that having a home somewhere makes the good better and the bad bearable. I hope you’ll remember you can always come back here. No matter how far away you go, we’ll always be here.”
Alex had shrugged off the words with all the arrogance and self-possession of youth.
It was the last time he’d seen his father alive. Four years later the man had been dead. Alex’s mother, too. Both at the hands of the water.
Alex thought of the horrible night on the sea with Reese.
Reese was gone, as well.
As he stroked Cassandra’s belly, he felt a titanic shift in himself.
His woman stirred and lifted her head. “Good morning—Alex, what’s the matter?”
“I’m not going out again,” he said. “I’m not going back out there. I’m staying with you and the baby.”
“What…the sailing? You’re giving up the sailing?”
“Yeah. I am.”
A pained relief hit her face, but then she shook her head. “No, Alex, you love the—”
“I love you,” he said, kissing her. “The winning is cold and irrelevant compared to that. And nothing is worth the time away from you. Nothing.”
There was no way his wife and his child were going to have to fend for themselves and worry about whether he was coming home. And he didn’t want his sisters doing that anymore, either.
He was owning his own life from now on, not letting the need to compete drive him toward an ever-unreachable sunset.
Alex shifted his body to get even closer to Cassandra, feeling her soft skin brush up against his hard places.
One hard place in particular.
As her lids dropped and she started to smile, he laughed deep in his throat. The very male core of him was hungry for her again, in spite of the many times they’d reached for each other in the night.
But before his lips took hers, he pulled back. “Oh, no…”
“What?”
“Oh…hell. I left Spike down on the street.”
Cassandra sat up. “We better—”
Alex’s cell phone rang. Because Cassandra was closer to where his pants had landed, she leaned over and answered it. When she hung up, she was laughing.
“Spike doesn’t want to talk to you, but not because he’s mad. He doesn’t want to disturb us. He’s over at Sean’s and perfectly well. The two of them had a grand time last night, and they want to meet us for lunch. And Sean is thrilled, as he put it, that we came to our senses. He wants to know when the wedding is and where.”
Alex grinned. “You know, I might just warm up to that guy. And lunch sounds good.”
Because he was going to need some help. He had an engagement ring to buy. Between Spike and Sean, he figured the three of them could take on the diamond district.
“Oh, and there’s one other thing,” Cass said as Alex pulled her back against his body, spooning himself around her.
He reached for her breast and nibbled on her shoulder. As she shivered and warmed under his hand, he murmured, “One more thing?”
“Spike said that Sean’s more of a gentleman than you are.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Um, I guess Sean didn’t make fun of his Wookie?”
Alex laughed and swept his palm down her body. “I’ll explain later. Right now, Miracle, it’s all about you.”