Three weeks later, Jake was walking from the barn to his house when the sound of a vehicle had him looking over his shoulder to see Quint’s truck coming up the driveway.
The sight of his friend at this late hour was a bit surprising. Once Quint had gotten a family, he didn’t roam from the Golden Spur after working hours, unless he had to deal with some sort of business outside of the ranch.
Jake waited for his friend to park and climb to the ground before he walked over to join him at the side of the truck.
“Hey, bud, what are you doing over here at this hour? It’s nearly dark.”
“Maura sent me on a mission,” Quint explained, then reached inside the back door and pulled out a long casserole dish covered with aluminum foil. “She thinks you’re starving to death so she made something to tempt you.”
With a wry shake of his head, Jake asked, “What makes her think I’m in need of food?”
Quint shoved the glass dish at him, forcing Jake to accept it before it fell to the ground. “When you came by the Golden Spur yesterday, she said you looked thin and terrible. Her words. Not mine.”
“Well, I should have known my good looks would start to go sooner or later,” Jake tried to joke, then inclined his head toward the house. “Let’s go inside and have a beer.”
“You finished with the evening chores?” Quint asked as they walked through a gate and across the front lawn.
Unlike Quint, who had a roster of hands to deal with the mundane chores of feeding, watering and spreading hay, Jake only had two men to help with the everyday tasks. Sometimes it was long after dark before they were finished and the men headed for home. “Yeah. Before you drove up I was down at the cow lot. I got a problem.”
“What’s wrong?”
“A hell of a lot!”
At the house, the two men entered a side door that led them directly in the kitchen. While Jake set the casserole on the cabinet counter, Quint straddled one of the tall stools at a breakfast bar.
“I’m waiting,” Quint prodded. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing. That’s what’s happened. This morning me and the guys pregnancy tested the herd on the east range. Ten of the cows are empty. And you know what that means—ten less calves this spring!” Jake went to the refrigerator and pulled out two long-necked beers. After shoving one in Quint’s direction, he twisted the top off the one he was holding and downed a third of the contents.
Quint eyed him closely. “So how many cows did you have in that herd? Two hundred? Two-fifty?”
Jake grimaced. “Two hundred and thirty.”
“Well, ten out of that many is not a big enough percentage to raise a ruckus over. This kind of thing happens to every rancher.”
“Yeah, I know. But that doesn’t make it any easier to take,” Jake muttered.
“Have you had the bull tested?”
Jake shook his head. “I don’t see any need for that. The rest of the cows in his herd are all carrying calves. That’s what makes it so bad. I’ll have to sell and replace them. And with the cows being open, I’ll hardly get a decent market price.”
“I doubt it. But that’s part of ranching, too. There will always be ups and downs in the business. This is just one of those downs and if I were you, I’d call it a very minor one.”
Jake shot him a cynical glare. “You would. Ten cows wouldn’t count much to you.”
Quint plopped the beer bottle down on the bar with a heavy thud. “Dammit, Jake, don’t talk to me that way! Every cow on my ranch is important to me. Right now I have twenty that are too old to calve anymore. They’ve not produced in two years and they never will again. But I don’t have the heart to send them to slaughter. So I feed and care for them just like the others. It’s not good business sense, but it makes Maura happy. And I guess, to be honest, it makes me happy, too.”
Heaving a weary breath, Jake walked over to a pine farm table and sank into a chair at one end. He felt awful and spouting off to the man who’d been like a brother since they were very small boys, only made him feel worse.
“Sorry, Quint. I didn’t mean that like it sounded. But you can absorb the loss much easier than I can.”
Quint mouthed a curse word. “You’re not exactly poor, Jake. Not anymore.”
They both knew he was referring to the dividends he received from shares of the Golden Spur Mine. And Quint was basically right in saying Jake wasn’t poor anymore. He owned more valuable assets now than he’d ever dreamed possible. Yet he still couldn’t think of himself as solvent. Maybe that was because he’d never felt confident that he could hang on to all he’d acquired.
“I believe you ought to have the bull checked,” Quint went on. “I don’t see ten cows having a fertility problem. But that’s just my opinion.”
Jake stared at him. “If the bull is the problem that’s even worse! Replacing him would take a hunk of money!”
Quint frowned. “Look, Jake, if you’re so worried about taking losses, then you might as well pack up and sell this place, because every good rancher knows he’s going to take some hammering at times!”
Jake’s gaze slipped to the beer bottle he was gripping with both hands. “I’m thinking about doing just that!”
“What?”
The incredulous tone in Quint’s voice had Jake looking up at his longtime buddy. “You heard me right,” he muttered. “I’m thinking about...doing something else.”
With slow, purposeful movements, Quint climbed down from the stool and walked over to the table. “What are you talking about?”
The censure in Quint’s voice made Jake feel even worse. Like it was possible to feel worse, he thought grimly. His mind, his whole body felt as if he’d been whipped, beaten down by a hand that he couldn’t see or defend himself against.
“I was at the track a couple of days ago and—”
“I should have known,” Quint interrupted with disgust. “You just can’t stay away from that place, can you?”
Angry now, Jake glared at him. “And why the hell should I? Shoeing racehorses, managing the stables, those jobs made me a living for many years, Quint. And I have good friends there. Friends that don’t preach to me because I’m not perfect,” he added hotly.
The caustic remark didn’t send Quint packing out the door. Instead, he eased down in the seat across from Jake and gave his friend a long, troubled look. “All right, Jake,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. I was out of line and I shouldn’t have said anything about you visiting the track. I understand that place will always be a part of you.”
“Damn right it will. And they’ve offered me a huge salary to come back to work.”
Quint stiffened. “Are you considering taking it?”
Jake couldn’t look him square in the face. “Maybe.”
Shaking his head, Quint mouthed a curse word under his breath. “So you’re just going to throw all this away? All you’ve worked for?”
“Look, Quint, I’m not cut out for this. In the end, I’ll probably lose it all, anyway. Better to sell out and get what I can while the getting is good.”
“That’s a hell of a thing to say!” Quint spat. “And I don’t know where this thinking of yours is coming from. You were my ranch foreman for a few years—you know everything about ranching. Your dad—”
“My dad is gone!” Jake interrupted flatly. “So don’t go trying to bring him into this!”
Unfazed by Jake’s anger, Quint said, “The man taught you a lot about horses and cattle.”
And women, Jake thought bitterly. Oh, yes, Lee Rollins had charmed them, loved them and left them. Just like Jake. Until one important woman had come along. Until Rebecca had taught him that giving up his heart was something entirely different.
When Jake didn’t reply, Quint leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “All right, Jake, my father is gone, too. So what do you think we ought to do? Sit here and cry in our beer? Convince ourselves that we’re losers?”
Jake glared at him. “Sometimes you can be a real bastard, Quint, and if we were eight years old again, I’d knock your head off. Or at least try.”
Quint shrugged a shoulder. “If that would make you feel any better, we can go outside and pretend we’re eight years old again.”
Realizing the absurdity of that notion, Jake scrubbed his face with both hands and let out a long, weary breath. “Things were simple back then, weren’t they?” he asked softly. “We both had fathers and I had no idea that mine was going to leave me behind.”
Quint leaned forward and laid a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “I thought you weren’t going to let that—him—hurt you anymore.”
“I believed I’d put it all behind me,” he admitted, “until Rebecca came.”
“Ah.”
The one knowing word from Quint put a rueful twist to Jake’s lips. “Yeah. I guess she reminded me all over again what it’s like to lose someone you care about.”
Quint studied him for long moments. “The racetrack, this ranch, the land, you’re not agonizing over any of those things, Jake. You’re just learning that none of it means a damn thing without someone to love. And someone to love you back.”
Pain smacked the middle of Jake’s chest and he fixed his gaze on the tabletop in hopes that his friend wouldn’t be able to spot the misery.
“Well, she doesn’t. Love me back, that is,” Jake muttered.
“How do you know?” Quint countered. “I doubt you asked her.”
“I didn’t have to. She left. That was the answer she gave me.”
“Did you give her any reason to stay?”
Jake looked dismally up at him. “No. I don’t guess I did.”
* * *
A week later, Rebecca lifted the stainless steel lid covering the main course of her dinner and gave the piece of glazed salmon a disinterested glance. It might have whetted her appetite if she’d gone down to the hotel restaurant instead of ordering room service, she thought. At least she could have sat among the other diners and pretended she wanted to eat. Now the food was growing cold and she had little desire to fork any of it to her mouth.
Across the opulent hotel room, piled upon the bed, were a countless number of flowing ruffled dresses, lightweight spring jackets, handbags, shoes and chunky pieces of jewelry. All of which she’d collected at today’s fashion bazaar. None of those things interested her, either.
With a heavy sigh, she walked over to the outer wall of plate glass and stared out at the dark night. The twinkling lights of the Chicago skyline stretched endlessly in all directions and directly below on the well-lit street, people were entering and exiting cabs as they made their way to some of the nearby nightspots.
There were times when an assistant traveled with Rebecca, but this time she’d made the trip alone to the Midwest Fashion Fair. Yet even if a friend had accompanied her, she wouldn’t have had any desire to go out for a night on the town.
Face it, Rebecca, you’re confused, miserable and missing Jake Rollins something fierce.
The voice going off in her head was suddenly interrupted by the ring of her cell phone.
Turning away from the untouched meal, she walked over to the nightstand where she’d left the phone and immediately frowned. She’d expected the caller to be her boss, Arlene, but the number illuminated on the front of the instrument was totally unfamiliar.
And then it dawned on Rebecca that the area code she was seeing was from New Mexico! Dear God, could it be Jake?
Snatching up the instrument, she fumbled it open and finally managed to slap it next to her ear. “Hello,” she answered in a rush.
“Rebecca? That you?”
Stunned to hear Abe Cantrell’s voice, she sank weakly onto the edge of the bed. Had something happened to Jake and the older man had called to let her know? The mere idea left her hands trembling.
“Yes, this is Rebecca. How are you, Abe?”
“Fine and dandy. Been sittin’ outside watchin’ the sunset and it was mighty pretty. Made me think of you. So I gave you a call to see how you’re doin’.”
A hot, painful lump filled her throat. While she’d lived on her mother’s place, she’d not spent a great deal of time with her elderly neighbor, but enough to get to know and love him. Before she’d left for Houston, she’d told Abe about Gertrude being her mother and how confused and hurt the whole thing had left her. Surprisingly, Abe had understood her distress more than any of her friends in Houston. Perhaps that was because he was much older and wiser. Or maybe she’d simply opened up to him more. Either way, his thoughtful support had bonded her to him in a way she’d not expected.
“Well, right now I’m sitting in a hotel room in Chicago,” she told him.
“You on a vacation?”
Rebecca closed her eyes as images of everything she’d come to love in New Mexico swam to the forefront of her thoughts. “Nothing that pleasant. I’m on a business trip. My job requires a lot of traveling.”
“Went right back to work, did you? Guess that means you haven’t had time to miss much about this place back here.”
“Actually, I—I’ve been missing everything out there.”
He said, “Your mother’s place looks deserted now. I don’t like seeing it that way.”
Before she’d left for Houston, Abe had taken her animals and given them a nice home on Apache Wells. Another reason she was very grateful to the man.
She said, “It would be better if I could find a nice little family to live there and keep the place maintained. Maybe you know of someone?”
“I’d rather see you there.”
She swallowed hard as she struggled to blink back a wall of tears. “Well, you know how it is, Abe, a person has to work to keep their head afloat.” She cleared her throat, then asked, “How is Beau?”
“After you left he moped around for a few days. But he’s okay now. I never was one to have a dog for a buddy, but he can’t seem to shake me and I can’t seem to shake him, so we’re stuck together. The cats are in mouse heaven down at the barn and Starr has made a few friends in the remuda. And I know you didn’t ask me to, but I sent someone to mow your grass. Just in case you decide to come back.”
Beyond the door to her suite, Rebecca could hear a group of people passing in the hallway. From the sound of their laughter, they sounded happy and young. Had she ever been that way? Yes, she’d been happy, but that had been eons ago. Long before she’d grown dissatisfied with her job, before she’d learned Gertrude was her mother, that Gwyn had been harboring secrets, and her father had been unfaithful. And definitely long before she’d met Jake and fallen in love with him.
Tugging her attention back to Abe, she said, “Unfortunately, that won’t be anytime soon. But thank you for the lawn work. It makes me feel better to know the place doesn’t look raggedy.”
“You haven’t asked about Jake,” he said pointedly.
The old man was crafty, Rebecca would give him that much. She breathed deeply, then asked, “How is Jake?”
“He ain’t good. That’s about all I can say.”
Rebecca instantly gripped the phone. “Why? What’s wrong with him?”
“You’d have to ask him to get the answer. All I know is what Quint tells me. And he tells me that Jake is considering taking a job at the track and selling the Rafter R.”
“Selling his ranch?” She was stunned. “But, Abe, that doesn’t make sense! He’s worked so hard on it! And he seemed so proud of the place.”
“Well, Jake never was one to want a pile of material things. To a certain point, Quint’s the same way. Guess that’s why the two boys have always been such good friends. Frankly, I think he needs to get rid of every damn cow on the place and focus on raisin’ his horses. That’s what he loves to do and that’s what he ought to do.”
“Then you should tell him so, Abe! You’re his friend and I know he respects your opinion.”
Abe chuckled. “He wouldn’t appreciate me tellin’ him what to do. Now you, that’s another matter—if you was to tell him that might carry some weight.”
A tear slipped from Rebecca’s eye and fell onto her cheek. At one point during her stay in New Mexico, she’d believed that Jake might actually grow to care for her, maybe even love her. But once she’d met Gwyn in Ruidoso and learned the truth about how she was conceived, something had happened to her. She’d felt sick and desperate and lost.
And when she and Jake had ridden out to the windmill and made love under the open sky it had been so beautiful, so bittersweet, that her heart had ached. She’d desperately longed to hear him say that he loved her. Or at the very least, he wanted her to remain in New Mexico. But while he’d held her for those long minutes, he’d not said anything and his silence had opened her eyes. Suddenly, she could see she was deluding herself in thinking he would ever love her and the longer she stayed, the more her heart was going to break.
Then later, at the house, Rebecca had once again attempted to draw out his feelings, to get any sort of sign from him that he wanted her in a permanent way. When she’d told him she no longer knew where she belonged, she’d done so while hoping and praying he would open his mouth and tell her that she belonged with him. For always. But he’d failed to say anything meaningful, except goodbye.
“I don’t think so, Abe. I’ve not even heard from Jake and I don’t expect to.”
“There ain’t no law written that says you can’t call him, is there?”
Call Jake? What good would that do, except tear her heart wide open again? she wondered miserably. “Jake doesn’t want to hear from me.”
Abe snorted. “And grass don’t grow in the spring.”
Closing her eyes, Rebecca rubbed fingertips against her furrowed brow. “In order for grass to grow it has to be fed sun and rain,” she reminded the old man.
There was a long pause and while she waited for Abe to reply, in the far background she could hear a horse neigh softly. Was it Starr still calling out for Banjo? The notion put a hard lump in Rebecca’s throat.
“Jake is like a son to me,” Abe finally said. “I don’t want to see him mess up. Think about calling him, Rebecca. That’s all I ask.”
“I’ll do that much,” Rebecca conceded.
Abe thanked her and after a quick good-night ended the call.
Rebecca placed the phone back on the nightstand, then dropped her face in her hands and sobbed.
* * *
The next morning Jake was on his way to the Downs to shoe three racehorses when Clara rang his cell phone and asked that he stop by her place before going on about his business.
Jake had agreed to see his mother, although he’d been surprised by her request. Only last night he’d dropped by for a visit, the first one he’d had with her since the day he’d raked her over the coals about his father and how she’d allowed the man to dictate her life. Taking all that in account, Jake had expected to find Clara more than a little frosty, but she’d met him at the door with a welcoming hug. And when he’d told her about Rebecca going back to Texas, he’d braced himself to hear a bunch of I-told-you-sos. Instead, she’d appeared truly sorry for him. He’d been inwardly shocked by the pleasant change in her and though he’d wondered what had brought it about, he’d decided it best not to ask and simply be thankful for it.
Now this morning as he walked onto the porch of his mother’s house, he could only wonder what was going on with her and hope that she’d not had another health setback.
Rapping his knuckles slightly on the storm door, he opened it and stepped inside. “Mom? I’m here.”
Clara immediately hurried through a doorway leading to the back of the house. She smiled at him with a measure of relief.
“Jake, I’m so glad you took the time to come by. I know you’re busy, but I have something important to give you. At least, I think it will be important.”
Walking over to his mother, Jake dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “What is it? You sent plenty of baked things home with me last night. I don’t need any more food.”
She let out a short laugh that sounded strangely nervous to Jake. Which only confused him more. In the past Clara had often complained and whined and accused him of being like his father, but one thing she’d never been with him was nervous.
“It’s nothing like that.” She took him by the hand and led him over to a short couch. “I—uh—I didn’t tell you last night, but I talked to Quint the other day.”
“That’s nothing new. You two have always been friends.”
A sheepish expression stole over her face. “We talked about you.”
Jake grimaced. “Oh. You shouldn’t have done that, Mom.”
“I didn’t. He’s the one who approached me. And frankly, I’m glad that he did. I didn’t know—well, that day we argued—I didn’t understand about Rebecca, not really. I thought she was just another one of your women. I think—well, I’ve been so wrapped up in feeling sorry for myself that I couldn’t really see what was going on with you and the girl from Texas.”
Jake stiffened. “What makes you think she’s any different?”
“Oh, son, don’t try to pretend with me,” she said gently, then attempted to laugh and lighten the moment. “I mean, your mother has finally opened her eyes, don’t try to hide from me now.”
Dropping his head, Jake stared at the scuffed toes of his boots, but all he was really seeing was Rebecca’s face, her sweet smile, the warm shine in her blue eyes. “I miss her,” he mumbled. “So much.”
He felt his mother’s hand rest upon his back and then she said softly, “That’s how it is when you love someone.”
Lifting his head, he looked at her with remorse. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve been hard on you at times. I said things to you that I didn’t know about or understand.”
Smiling faintly, she shook her head. “You had every right to say what you did. I’ve been wallowing in self-pity for far too long. I lost Lee and let the hurt ruin a big chunk of my life. I don’t want that to happen to you.”
She pulled a small piece of paper from a pocket on her blouse and thrust it at him. “Here. I think you need to use this.”
He glanced down to see a phone number scratched across a torn piece of notebook paper. “I don’t need that. I already have Rebecca’s number. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to say to her.”
With a smile of encouragement, Clara pressed the paper into Jake’s hand and folded his fingers around it. “When the time is right you’ll know what to say to her. But before you talk to Rebecca I think you should make this call.”
Bewildered, he asked, “Why?”
“Because it’s a link to your father.”
* * *
Less than a week later, Rebecca was sitting at her desk, sifting through a stack of fashion sketches, when Arlene’s voice came over the intercom.
“Rebecca, I need you on the second floor. We’re having a disagreement that only you can settle.”
“I’ll be right there.”
She walked out of her sumptuous office and took the elevator up to the second floor, a space used exclusively to display Bordeaux’s formal evening wear. At the front entrance of the department, she found Arlene and her young assistant, a guy named Nigel, trying to put the finishing touches to a mannequin dressed in a designer frock fashioned from yards and yards of shiny faille. She considered the dress far too flamboyant for the store, but this was one time Arlene had dismissed Rebecca’s opinion and purchased the garment in several sizes anyway.
Now as she approached the bickering coworkers, Arlene split away from the young man and grabbed Rebecca by the arm. “It’s about time I had some help,” she said with a flustered wave at her assistant. “Please tell Nigel that I’m right and he’s wrong. This dress needs more than a single strand of pearls.”
The young man cast an imploring look at Rebecca. “Arlene thinks the chunky gold and ruby thing would look better. I think it’s too much for all that dress. But what do I know? I only work here.”
Rebecca took the tiny pearls from his hand and draped them around the mannequin’s neck. “He’s right, Arlene. The pearls.”
The other woman gasped, then spluttered, “But, Rebecca, pearls are so—so retro and ho-hum!”
“They’re also classy,” Rebecca pointed out. “And this dress definitely needs something to give it a little elegance.”
Nigel smiled with smug triumph while Arlene jerked on Rebecca’s arm until the two women were standing some distance away from the display.
“Rebecca, I realize you’re still angry with me, but you don’t have to carry it over to our work,” Arlene said under her breath so the women browsing nearby couldn’t overhear.
Arlene had always been a bit of a drama queen, but she’d never taken this sort of tone with Rebecca. “You wanted my opinion and I gave it. That’s what I’m paid to do. Besides, I’ve never been angry with you. Impatient at times, but never angry.”
Arlene’s lips pressed to a thin line. “Well, you were all out of sorts with me when you decided to take that vacation in New Mexico. And from what I can see you’re still not behaving like yourself.”
It had been more than a vacation and they both knew it. The truth was that Arlene had never quite gotten over Rebecca’s challenge for a leave of indefinite absence, but she wasn’t in the mood to have an out-and-out confrontation with the woman. “I have a lot to deal with, Arlene.”
The other woman let out a disgusted huff. “Don’t we all.”
Rebecca stared at her. “Are you finished?”
“No! I just want to say that you need to wake up and look around you. There are other employees here at Bordeaux’s who’ve had a family member die, but they don’t go around taking out their grief on others. They handle it with maturity.”
In other words, they don’t go against your wishes, Rebecca thought. She should have been angry with the other woman for behaving so childishly, but she couldn’t summon up that much energy.
“I’ve lost more than a family member, Arlene.”
The woman frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means that everything that ever mattered to me is gone. That’s what it means.”
She walked away from Arlene and, after an encouraging word to Nigel, took the stairs down to the first floor where the street clothes were displayed, along with fragrance, jewelry, and makeup counters, the facial area and countless dressing rooms. This was the store’s hot spot and since it was a Friday afternoon and shoppers were readying themselves for the weekend, every area was busy.
At one time Rebecca would have been excited to see the throngs of clientele. But that was back when she’d considered Bordeaux’s her second home. Back when she’d been excited about her job and determined to be a success at it. For years now she’d made it her life and along the way, she’d convinced herself that she was happy. She’d even quit dreaming that a man and a family could be in her future. She’d told herself those things were for other women, not her.
Until she met Jake. Dear God, he’d shaken the very depths of her. And try as she might she couldn’t go back to being the old Rebecca, the fashion buyer, the career woman. Arlene had been right on one count. Rebecca hadn’t been behaving like herself. Because she was a different woman now and she needed more than a position at Bordeaux’s. She needed Jake.
Gwyn and Gertrude had wasted their lives trying to hide the truth from each other, Vance, their friends and even Rebecca. She couldn’t allow herself to go down that same path. She had to let Jake know how much she loved him, how much she wanted him in her life.
If he still wasn’t interested, then at least she could tell herself she’d gone down trying rather than hiding.
The decision quickened her steps as she turned toward an exit that would take her back to her office. Once she reached the private spot, she was going to call Jake and tell him they still had things to talk about and she would be flying out to Lincoln County as soon as she could arrange it. And then from somewhere behind her she heard a salesclerk say, “There’s Ms. Hardaway now. If you hurry you might catch her.”
At the sound of her name, Rebecca paused and turned to see who wanted a word with her. And then she saw the object of her thoughts. Jake was standing there as big as life in his boots and Stetson and staring straight at her.
In a daze, she wondered what he was doing here and then she noticed the women customers around him were apparently wondering the same thing. All eyes were on him as he began walking toward Rebecca and the closer he got to her, the faster her heart pounded.
By the time he came to a stop only a few inches separated them and as Rebecca looked into his familiar brown eyes, she feared her knees were going to buckle.
“Jake. What—Why are you here in Houston?” she asked in a voice faint with shock.
The half grin on his lips was a bit sheepish and completely endearing. “Isn’t it obvious? You.”
Rebecca didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until a long gush of air rushed past her parted lips. “I don’t understand. You haven’t called.”
“Neither have you.”
She swallowed as hope tried to bubble up inside her. Surely he was here because he cared, she thought. Why else would he travel all the way to Texas? “I decided today—a few moments ago, to be exact—to call you. But—”
He moved close enough for her to smell the sunshine on his cowboy shirt, see the faint lines at the corners of his eyes. Since they’d been apart, his skin had browned even more from the summer sun, giving him a swarthy appearance and as she looked at him everything inside her melted with longing.
“I was going to call you, too,” he said. “But then I decided that what I had to say needed to be said in person.”
Suddenly the store, the customers and salesclerks all faded into oblivion. The only thing she could see was him.
“And what was that?”
Stepping forward, he wrapped his hands around her upper arms. “Before you left, you told me you didn’t know where you belonged. Well, I’m here to tell you exactly where you belong. With me. Forever.”
Stunned with joy, she tried to find her voice to respond. And then it didn’t matter because he lifted her completely off her feet and planted a long, thorough kiss upon her lips.
Behind them she could hear several oohs and awws and then a spattering of applause. By the time their heads came apart, they’d garnered a gawking audience.
Laughing, Rebecca grabbed him by the hand and hurried him out of sight and down a large corridor to her office. When she shut the door behind them, she turned to see Jake inspecting the room.
“This is where you work?”
She came up behind him. “This is my office.”
He whistled under his breath. “It’s really something.”
Now that they were completely alone Rebecca’s first inclination was to throw herself into his arms and cling with all her might. She was hungry for the taste, the touch, the very scent of him. But she also needed explanations.
“Jake, I’ve got to know why—”
Before she could finish her broken question, he turned and put his arms around her.
“I came to my senses and realized that I love you?” he finished for her.
To hear him say the word love very nearly wilted her and she snatched holds on the front of his shirt to steady herself. “You love me?”
“With all my heart,” he answered. “But I was afraid to admit it to myself and especially to you. I’m not exactly molded out of family-man material, Becca. And I always believed the greatest favor I could do for a woman was walk away from her before I caused her the same sort of pain my father caused my mother. But I can’t walk away from you. So here I am asking you to give me a chance to be something I never thought I could be. A husband. A father.”
Her heart brimming with love, she reached up and brushed her fingers against his dark cheek. “You’re not Lee Rollins. You’re your own man. The man I love.”
His hands splayed against her back and tugged her close against him. “Since you left, I’ve spoken to my stepmother and learned that my father died a couple of years ago. And that I have a half brother and sister,” he told her.
“Oh, my. And how did she react to you contacting her?”
“Surprisingly, she was very warm and understanding. She even insists that my half siblings want to meet me.”
“That’s wonderful. But what about your father—did she have any explanations as to why he left you totally behind?”
“His widow told me that Lee believed I’d be better off without him in my life. He realized he wasn’t exactly the best of role models for a son to follow. Plus, there was so much anger and fighting between him and Mom that he figured the constant warfare would only hurt me more. His way of loving me was to stay away so I’d look to others to learn how a real man should conduct his life, rather than patterning myself after him.”
She carefully studied his face. “And how did that make you feel?”
He let out a long breath. “Very sad. But strangely free. For years I’d thought about searching for him. I had this idea that it would give me some sort of satisfaction to tell him face-to-face just how much he’d hurt me and Mom and what a sorry human being he’d been. But, you know, when his widow told me that he’d passed away, none of that really mattered anymore. I realized there were so many more important things in my life. Mainly you.”
With a sob of relief, she pressed her cheek against his chest. “Oh, Jake, I’m so glad. You and I might not have come from the best of homes, but we’re going to make a good home together.”
Tilting up her chin, Jake motioned to her luxurious office. “Can you give all of this up for me?”
Her eyes shining with love, she smiled at him. “Can you love me for the rest of our lives?”
“Easy,” he whispered.
She slipped her arms around him. “You took the word right out of my mouth. Easy.”