“Travis, what are you doing?”
“You want me to say it again?”
“The window was closed, so I couldn’t hear you. And stop yelling or you’ll wake the guests.”
“I love you, Gena Taylor,” he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Gena jerked her head up, sure she couldn’t have heard him correctly, even if he was yelling. She smashed the back of her head on the bottom of the sash and yelped in pain.
“Travis, what…I’m coming downstairs. And be quiet!”
She was halfway down the stairs before the full impact of what he had said hit her, and she almost stumbled. He had just shouted his love for her to the whole world. Granted, everybody was asleep, but it counted.
She sank down onto a step and rested her head on her knees, biting her lip to keep from crying. She had no idea what to say—what to do—but she knew there was no way her heart could survive another direct hit. And she’d never suspected, even for a second, he was in love with her.
She wasn’t sure when she began to sob, or how long she sat there before Travis entered the house and he found her, still crying on the steps. He knelt on a step below her, trying to peer up into her face.
“Gena? What’s wrong? I thought you were coming outside. Hey, that’s my sweatshirt.”
She lifted her head and swiped at her eyes. “What are you doing to me now, Travis?”
“I love you, Gena. I love you.”
More tears spilled over and she shook her head. “Then why did you go? Why did you leave and not come back for a month?”
“I had to…I owed Kristen an explanation, and I didn’t want to do it here. That’s over. Mutually, actually.”
Gena pulled the sleeves of his sweatshirt down over her hands and scrubbed her eyes and cheeks. “What’s all that in your truck?”
He shifted to sit on the step and rested his hand on her leg. Gena felt its warmth and didn’t pull away. Maybe…
“It’s everything I own in the world.” He laughed nervously. “I’m home, if you’ll have me.”
She pushed her hair back, shaking her head. “Home? You can’t live here, Travis.”
“I know that. I meant home like…here, I guess. I rented an apartment downtown. Close enough for Mia to walk and…for us to walk.”
“Us,” she repeated, feeling the first true spark of hope light in her heart. He wasn’t playing games this time. He loved her, and he wanted to stay.
“I’m sorry, Gena. About…everything, but I’ve smartened up and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
She was sobbing again, but she threw her arms around him, and he had to act fast to keep them both from tumbling down the stairs.
He lifted her in his arms and carried her down to the living room, where he sat her in the rocking chair. He fumbled in his pocket, and Gena’s throat seemed to swell up, until she could barely breathe.
He cleared his throat then knelt in front of her, and Gena started to tremble. “This might sound kind of stupid.”
Gena wanted to reassure him it wouldn’t, but she was unable speak. This couldn’t really be happening to her. She had to be asleep, and any moment she would wake—alone—in her bed.
“I went to the jeweler, and I didn’t…I didn’t want to just trade one ring for another because it seemed…cheap. And I didn’t see anything that was special enough for you.”
He raised his hand with the fingers still clenched, hiding what lay in his palm. “I want to give you this, because I wish I had given it to you so many years ago.”
He opened his hand, and Gena’s heart melted. She ran her fingertip over the huge class ring, feeling the large ruby and the engraved football insignia, his initials, and the year they graduated. That was the year—just barely—that Mia had been born. It was strung on a gold chain.
“Will you marry me again, Gena Taylor?”
Her heart seemed to stop beating for a second, and she had trouble breathing. Tears streamed down her face as she said the hardest words she had ever had to say. “I…I c-can’t.”
He froze, and she watched the emotions play across his face—disbelief, confusion, a little bit of anger. “You can’t? I thought–” he stood and backed away “—I thought you loved me.”
“I do. I love you so much. That’s why you’ve been able to tear my heart to shreds, and I…”
She tried to find the words to explain the fear that was seeping through her—the distrust. “You’ve jerked me around like a yo-yo, Travis, and I can’t—won’t—do it anymore.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets, staring down at his feet. “I’m sorry, Gena. I just couldn’t admit what I was feeling for you. I don’t…I don’t know what else I can say.”
Gena felt as if her life’s blood was pouring out onto the ground and she was helpless to stop it. “We haven’t even been able to have a decent conversation for more than five minutes. We don’t even know each other that well.”
Suddenly he was kneeling at her feet again, looking earnestly up into her eyes. “Then we’ll try. We’ll take as much time as you need.
“And you’re right—maybe we could know each other a little better. But I know I love you. I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Let me prove it to you.”
“I want to…I do love you, Travis. I’m just scared that—”
“Don’t be. There is nobody else now. It’s you and me and our daughter. I know in my heart that we will be happy.”
He reached up and touched her cheek, and she turned her face, pressing against his hand. “I want to.”
“Then marry me. We’ll have the wedding when you’re ready, but promise me now you’ll be my wife.”
When she looked down into his blue eyes, all her doubts fled. He loved her, and she loved him with a strength that took her breath away. It was a chance at happiness that she couldn’t risk throwing away, no matter what the outcome may be.
“Yes,” she whispered, savoring the sound of that one simple word. It sounded so right.
Travis’s grin lit up his entire face. “You will?”
She launched herself at him from the rocker and they tumbled to the ground. “Yes!” she screamed, then kissed him.
His lips devoured hers, and she gloried in the realization that this man wanted her—loved her—and she was going to spend forever with him.
“I love you,” she whispered against his mouth.
“Good, because—”
Whatever he had been about to say was lost in the screech from the top of the stairs. Mia flew down the staircase, her nightgown billowing around her ankles. She threw herself on top of them, kissing them both and leaving her own tears behind.
“I knew it! I knew you guys loved each other.” She wrapped her arms around them and Gena felt a rush of joy, despite the fact she was quickly running out of air.
“Okay, get up,” she gasped. “I can’t breathe.”
“How about me?” Travis said, then laughed. “I’m on the bottom.”
Mia got up and hauled them to their feet. “I’m so happy. I love you guys so much.”
Gena embraced her daughter, their tears mingling. “And we love you so much, too.”
They heard footsteps in the kitchen and Gena shushed them before she went to the door. “Mr. Carson? Did we wake you?”
The still half-asleep man rubbed his face. “Is everything all right down here? It sounds like somebody’s being murdered.”
“No, I’m not being murdered. I’m getting married!”
“Oh.” He turned and started walking back the way he had come. “Well, all right, then.”
Gena barely managed to stifle her laughter until he was out of earshot. “I hope he doesn’t remember this in the morning.”
“Speaking of morning, who’s going to come over and help me unpack?”
Mia looked uncertainly at her mother. “Maybe…well, you guys probably want some time alone, huh?”
Travis ruffled her hair. “There will be plen
ty of time for that after the wedding—” he looked at Gena “—which will be when?”
“Soon,” she whispered, soaking in the love shining in his eyes.
“Definitely,” he growled, and kissed her again.
Epilogue
Gena paused at the top of the front staircase, her gaze sweeping over the formal parlor. Nobody had seen her yet and she basked in the warmth and love that filled her heart.
The Riverside Inn was at its best for Christmas Eve. The Yankee candles lit throughout the room and the festive tree in the corner filled her senses with the familiar and beloved scents of the season.
Twinkling lights framed the large bow window, and reflected on the white landscape beyond. The boughs of the trees outside were heavy with newly fallen snow, their tips bearing shimmering drops of ice which festively mirrored the large lights strung around the outside of the house. A fire blazed in the fireplace and from the dining room she could smell the bounty of home-baked apple pies and the turkey that had just come out of the oven, thanks to her mother.
Everybody she loved was in the room and she let her gaze fall on each of them in turn. Mia sat at the piano, softly playing Gena’s favorite Christmas hymns. Her red dress and bow were accented by the poinsettias resting atop the piano.
Her parents sat on the loveseat, watching their granddaughter play and Gena said a silent prayer, thankful they had arrived in time. Their flight had been delayed—almost cancelled—because of the weather, but Travis had been able to get them at the airport about noon. The night would not have been the same without them.
Travis’s mother sat in the wingback chair, also watching her granddaughter play. In the two months since Travis had proposed she had started warming up to the idea of their marriage, and she actually looked like she was enjoying herself. There hadn’t been any more talk about corruption, at least.
Jill Delaney stood in front of the tree in a red dress that was identical to Mia’s. Travis’s father stood next to her, and it looked like they were managing a lively conversation. Gena smiled as she watched them. Any conversation that included Jill was lively.
Finally she looked at Travis. Her heart seemed to swell with so much love she wasn’t sure how it managed to fit in her chest.
He looked nervous in his tuxedo, and he kept tugging at his waist, adjusting the red cummerbund. His face was slightly flushed and she smiled, thankful he was feeling the same emotions she was.
The thought had hit her the second she opened her eyes that morning and it still hadn’t quite sunk in. Today’s the day I become Mrs. Travis Ryan. Again.
But it would be different this time. Instead of getting the license and marrying immediately, they had decided to wait. The last two months had been full of the joy of learning to be a family, and now they were ready.
Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them away. Tomorrow morning she would wake up beside her husband, and together they would watch Mia’s childish joy when she opened the pile of gifts bearing her name under the tree.
A real family, she thought with a contented sigh. She reached up by habit, her fingers running over the class ring around her neck.
Travis had dragged her to one jeweler after another, but she hadn’t found a ring that could replace the one he had given her the night he returned from Boston. She would wear his class ring around her neck forever, and in a few minutes he would place on her finger the simple band with the Celtic design they had chosen. And he would do the same.
“Mrs. Travis Ryan,” she whispered softly.
* * * * *
Travis pulled at the ridiculous band around his waist again, cursing it under his breath.
It was his own fault, though. Remembering their first wedding ceremony, in a dusty civic office, he had insisted on giving Gena the wedding she wanted. Thus, the tux and the uncomfortable cummerbund.
Jittery and anxious to begin, he made sure the Justice of the Peace was in his place, then smiled at their parents. His father would act as his best man, and Jill was the maid of honor. They were both where they needed to be, so all he could do was wait.
Mia caught his eye and smiled, never missing a note. He winked at her, thanking God for what had to be the thousandth time for giving him this daughter. The rush of emotion was almost too much to bear, so he cleared his throat and looked up at the stairs again.
Gena was there, looking down at him with so much love that his throat seemed to close up on him. She was radiant and no force on earth could have made him look away from her.
Her hand cradled the heavy ring that always rested a little below the hollow of her throat, framed by the sweetheart neckline of the exquisite ivory gown she wore. Her hair was swept up, revealing the graceful arch of her neck and the ruby earrings she had chosen to match the ring. In her free hand she held a bouquet of red roses and baby’s breath.
The music changed, heralding the bride’s arrival, so he knew the others had seen her, but still he couldn’t drag his gaze away from hers. Her hazel eyes never left his as she walked slowly down the stairs and he stretched out his hand.
She took it and a tremor shook his body. What have I ever done to deserve this woman?
“I love you,” he whispered as the Justice of the Peace began to speak.
They repeated their vows and Travis felt a sense of completeness he had never thought possible. Each word he said echoed through his heart, etching itself onto his very soul. He would love her forever. He would forsake all others and he would cherish her for as long as he lived.
Finally they were man and wife, and as he leaned forward to kiss her, she smiled up at him. That smile—the one he had yearned for, for so many years. And this one was just for him.
Shannon Stacey
Shannon Stacey married her Prince Charming in 1993, and is the proud mother of a future Nobel Prize for Science-winning bookworm and an adrenaline junkie with a flair for drama. She lives in New England, where her two favorite activities are trying to stay warm and writing stories of happily ever after.
You can contact Shannon through her website: www.shannonstacey.com
Also available this month…
Nauti Buoy by Lora Leigh
Stud Finders Incorporated by Alexis Fleming
Loup Garou by Mandy M. Roth
Coming in February!
The Huntress by Shiloh Walker
Realm Immortal: King of the Undead by Michelle M. Pillow
The Gripping Beast by Charlene Teglia
Reality Check by Elisa Adams
Just follow the link!
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
It’s all about the story…
Action/Adventure
Fantasy
Historical
Horror
Mainstream
Mystery/Suspense
Non-Fiction
Paranormal
Red Hots!
Romance
Science Fiction
Western
Young Adult
http://www.samhainpublishing.com
Forever Again Page 16