by Annie O'Neil
Marlee was staring at her as if she’d turned into the Abominable Snow Girl. Well, maybe she had. She didn’t have to be cheery and delightful every day of the week, did she?
Fleur crooked her head and gave Maggie a peculiar look. “Aren’t we meant to be meeting in the pool?”
“Yup. Absolutely.” She turned brisk and efficient. And pasted on a smile. “Let’s go down together. What do you think about not using the crutches to get there?”
Fleur gave her a quick You are definitely the new girl scan.
“If you want to find a wheelchair and take me to the pool that way, that’s fine by me.”
It obviously wasn’t what Maggie had meant and Fleur knew it. She expected Alex to jump in and say something. He said nothing.
Maggie maintained her eye contact with Fleur. They were obviously both in dig-your-heels-in moods.
Terrific. Just what she needed.
One boyfriend with secret apartments lying in wait and a patient who had made it more than clear to all the staff that the last place on earth she wanted to be was right here on Maple Island. Her hometown.
Maggie tilted her head and gave Fleur a sidelong look. Something told her a dancer—a person who put themselves through so much physical pain—wasn’t a quitter, so she tried again.
“You can use my arm if you give me one of the crutches.”
Fleur gave her one of those looks intimating she was through answering ridiculous questions.
Maggie shrugged and put out her hand to guide the way, not even bothering to look at Alex as they passed him. See? She could do normal.
Oh, good grief.
As if she knew what normal was.
* * *
“What’s up with you?” Cody was looking at Alex as if he had dyed his hair purple and started wearing sparkly jumpsuits to work.
Cody was a good friend as well as a colleague so he gave his answer some consideration.
He could answer honestly. He could say, “Everything. I think I just drove away the woman I love. My son will probably never speak to me again when he hears.”
Or he could lie. Do what he and Cody always did and say, “Nothing much. Just a bit snowed under.”
What he really wanted to do was drop his head onto his desk and hope the resulting bump made what had just happened in Reception a very, very bad dream.
Why had he been such an idiot? Maggie had obviously thought the worst about him keeping it a secret that the apartment was ready. She’d stormed off looking as miserable as Fleur usually did. Correction. Always did. The woman responded to staying at the clinic the way most people took to being sentenced to life in a high-security prison. He definitely wasn’t going to ask her to post an online review of the clinic anytime soon.
He shook his head. Oh, Maggie.
Why had he just stood there like a lump? All he’d had to do was say he wanted her to stay. It was the truth. That’s why he hadn’t told her the apartment was ready. Every day he’d tried to make himself tell her and then he’d walk in on Jake and her caught up in some joke, or she’d catch his eye and they’d have one of those electrically satisfying smiles. The kind that made him think love could live in his heart again. And after last night? He knew exactly what he wanted to do. Propose. Tell her he loved her. Because, yes, that’s what this was all about. Loving her. Embracing her. Embracing their future together and marrying her. Then they could spend the rest of their lives living life to the full and bickering about whether or not he should’ve told her about the apartment being ready.
He’d been up half the night planning the perfect proposal. The beach was the ideal location. Even in a snowstorm it was magical. He’d woken up Jake before he’d left this morning and asked him if he’d be the ring bearer. He could kick himself now for letting Jake in on the secret before he’d found out if Maggie was interested.
Idiot.
He’d even thought of throwing in a puppy. Jake’s idea. Anything she wanted. Just so long as she said yes. Yes, she’d be his wife. Yes, she’d love Jake as if he were her own. Yes, she wanted to make a family with him. Be together forever.
Cody tapped his pen on the desk. He was waiting. Unusual. Cody usually had the attention span of a gnat unless he was with a patient.
“Nothing.” Alex shrugged as if the question was an odd one. “Nothing at all.”
“Yes, there is. There’s been something funny about you recently.”
Alex looked round him as if whatever it was Cody was noticing would pop up from behind his shoulder. A giraffe maybe? A goat?
Cody leant back in his chair in the office they sometimes shared and stared at him good and hard.
“It’s not just the whistling.”
“What whistling?”
“Oh, come off it, Kirkland. You know you’ve been whistling round the place like you’re getting ready for some sort of audition.” He squinted at him hard. After a couple of awkward rounds of the second hand in which Alex had plenty of time to wonder if this was what Cody’s patients felt like, his business partner said, “I’ve got it. I know what it is.”
“What? What what is?”
“What’s weird about you. You were happy this morning. Now you’re not.”
He watched Cody watching him and felt powerless to do anything beyond give a There you go, then shrug.
A real powerhouse of communication, the pair of them. They’d always had one of those silent agreements that they simply didn’t go there. The main thing they shared was a need to get things right for their kids. Make sure the children never had to go through the chaos of loss again.
That’s when it hit him. He was the only one standing in the way of losing Maggie.
He needed to ask her to marry him. Here. Now. Without the plan. Without the ocean. Or the puppy. Even the ring.
“I think I’m in love,” he blurted out.
If Cody was surprised by this admission he didn’t look it. The man would be hell to play poker with.
“And I’m going to ask Maggie Green to marry me.”
Cody arched a brow. “When you know, you know,” he said.
Alex nodded as if they were simply passing old-timer wisdom back and forth. “Ain’t that the truth.”
“Well...” Cody lifted up a pile of papers he’d printed out, detailing some new research he’d found on the internet, and clonked them into place on the desktop. When he finished he turned in his wheelie chair and faced Alex. “What’re you waiting for? Why don’t you go and ask her?”
“Good question.”
He sat there for a moment longer, staring at Cody but not really seeing him.
Yes, it was fast. Yes, it was intense. But it had been similar with Amy. Fast and furious. He’d met her on day one of boot camp and three days later he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Turned out it had been the rest of her life and nothing more. But they’d had it. And what they’d shared had been that beautiful miracle of love. Now he was lucky enough to experience the miracle a second time. A different miracle. One that made him feel courageous and a bit freaked and proud and excited—excited for the future he would share with Maggie if she said yes.
Amy would’ve been the first one to be up in arms over his resolute bachelorhood. She’d always said to him each time either one of them had gone on tour, “I will always love you, but know that if I am ever taken away, you and Jake should always be loved.”
And they were.
Maggie hadn’t spelled it out, but he knew it in his heart. Had seen it in her eyes. And if he didn’t get his act together, he was going to risk destroying the most beautiful thing he’d ever been a part of.
* * *
“Aren’t you going to help me get out?” Fleur was staring at Maggie with utter disbelief.
“Nope.” From the work they’d done in the pool, Maggie could see Fleur was mo
re than capable of getting out of the pool on her own. Her crutches were just beyond the safety guard. She would stake her career on Fleur’s ability to reach them unharmed.
If she could be bothered.
“This is the only time we’re going to be working together, so I figure this is your one chance to show me what you got.”
“What? I thought you were going to be my physio from now on.”
“Nope. There’s a new physio coming in. You’ll love him.”
“Why? Because he’ll see sense and give me my crutches?”
“Nope again.” Maggie didn’t actually have a clue what the new physio would do. “He’s British. Hearing things you don’t want to hear always goes down better with an accent.”
Fleur glared at her.
Maggie lay back and floated, willing herself not to think of Alex’s soft southern accent. She stared at the ceiling, completely unsurprised to see the bespoke finishing Alex had in place all around the clinic put there, too. At a glance it looked like a standard wooden beamed affair. Maple. Of course. But now that she looked at it more closely, smiling to herself a little as she heard Fleur begin to awkwardly wade to the side of the pool, she realized all of the crossbeams were recovered driftwood.
Oh, Alex. Her heart softened then squeezed so tight she began to sink. Maybe she really had misread things this morning. What had she expected? That he’d throw himself at her feet and declare his undying love for her? The staff were used to Dr. Protocol. Maybe he thought they’d all be weirded out by the funny, passionate, spontaneous man she knew existed behind that stuffed-shirt exterior of his.
The door to the pool room burst open and Alex stood framed in the doorway like a modern-day Clark Kent. Glasses askew. Khakis perfectly creased. An invisible cape just itching to break free from his light blue oxford shirt.
Damn, she wished his outside didn’t make her insides go all gooey. How was she supposed to stay furious and angry with all that sexiness wrapped up in one big nerdy man package?
“Marry me,” he announced.
Her legs stopped working and she went under before she got a grip and came up again, choking on the chlorinated water.
Fleur’s attention had been grabbed. That, or she was hoping that when Alex had finished proposing he might hand her her crutches.
“Marry me,” he said again. Insistently this time.
“But—”
“I messed up.” He crossed to her, his sandy blond hair Einstein crazy, all of his energy focused on her. He was completely oblivious to Fleur, who was now leaning out of the pool and stretching toward her crutches.
Maggie started when water hit her face.
“What the—?”
Alex had jumped in the pool. Clothes. Shoes. Tie. The whole caboodle.
They really needed to stop having these baptismal-style rendezvous. They always led to kissing. And she wasn’t up for kissing a man who wasn’t prepared to acknowledge her in public.
“Marry me,” he said when he surfaced. And he kept repeating it as he waded through the waist-deep water to get to her. “Marry me. Trust me. Have faith in me. Believe in me. Believe in us.”
She stared deep into his eyes, her expression utterly sober. “You know there’s a sign that says no jumping.” She pointed to it.
“Sometimes you have to jump. Take a leap.” His green eyes were blazing with intensity.
Right. He wanted to see this through? They were going to see it through.
“Why didn’t you just tell me about the apartment in the barn?”
He shook his head. “Because I’m an idiot. Because I wanted you to stay—not because I was looking to scratch an itch, I swear to you. Because I couldn’t find a way to tell you I loved you until now. And now that I know I do I’m trying to get my head wrapped round this new reality.” He tipped his head to the side and gave her a sheepish grin. “That...and we’ll probably have to move in there while the house is rejigged for you. I think we should put an elevator in there, too. Which means...” his expression grew playful “...you’ll have to work on curbing that moan of yours with Jake in the room right next door to us. The walls up there are thinner than those in the house.”
Against the odds—well, not really—she felt her heart soften further. Had she let herself fall back on old anxieties because they were more familiar territory? Was she brave enough to do everything he asked of her? Believe in him? Trust him? Believe they could be a family?
She heard the door slam as Fleur heaved herself out of the pool with her arms, snatched up her crutches and made her escape out of the hydrotherapy center.
She looked at Alex and shrugged. “I was hoping she might walk up the steps on her own, but perhaps the new guy will have more luck.”
Alex stared at her as the water sloshed around them. “Marry me,” he urged again in a whisper. “I love you.”
“Even with these?” She pointed at her ultra-high-tech “water legs.”
“Especially with those. I love you. Your heart. Your spirit. Your passion for life.” He closed the space between them and cupped her face in his hands. “I love your lips. Especially when you’re all emotional and they turn that beautiful deep red.”
“They do—” She didn’t finish. She couldn’t. Alex’s mouth descended on hers like those of a man seeking salvation, and who was she to deny a man passage from harm or loss? Especially when they kissed as well as he did.
When they each came up for air, forehead tipped to forehead, she whispered her greatest fear. “Will you ever be ashamed to be associated with me?”
He looked genuinely shocked. “Quite the opposite. I’ll be the proudest man in New England! The world!” He picked her up and wrapped her legs around his hips. “I’ll parade you around the entire clinic right now if you like. Just say yes.”
“Don’t you want to hear whether or not I love you?”
He brushed his fingers against her cheek. “How could you not?”
She laughed. “How very modest of you.” She pulled back and gave him a solid look. “I love you, Alex Kirkland. And I love Jake, too. Not that you didn’t already know that.”
“So you’re good about the fact that I come as a ready-made family?”
“Are you kidding? With you two as the starter kit? Does Jake know? Do you think he’ll be all right with me being there as a mum? I mean, obviously I’m not a replacement mum, I—” Alex pressed a finger to her lips.
“Babbling?” she asked against his finger.
He nodded. “Jake will be ecstatic.” Alex dropped a soft kiss onto her lips then murmured, “When do you think you might get around to saying yes?”
“I haven’t said yes?” She was pretty sure she’d said yes.
“No, ma’am,” he said in that low, slow, sexy drawl of his.
“Well, then... I guess I’d better.”
She tipped back her head and sang it. As loud and as proud as she could.
“Yeeee-ssss!”
She hoped with every fiber in her body Marlee could hear her say it because then the whole rest of Maple Island would be in the know. She was a girl who said yes. Yes to life. Yes to family. Yes to being brave. Yes to taking risks, and most of all? Yes to being the girl who was going to marry Alex Kirkland.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“THIS IS WEIRD.”
“What do you mean, it’s weird? It’s perfectly natural.”
Maggie shot her husband a sidelong look and grinned. “You ever try carrying a bowling ball round in your belly and maintaining good balance?”
He reached out and rubbed her back. “We can always strap a real bowling ball onto my gut if you like.”
“Ha! You don’t have a gut. And what a good idea. Not.” She laughed and turned to face him so she could slip her arms round his waist. “Oof. It’s harder to reach your lips these days.”
H
e leaned forward and gave her a soft kiss. “I think we could probably dream up some ways around that.”
She dropped him a saucy wink. “I daresay you’re probably right, but we’ve got to get to Jakey’s hockey game.”
“I can’t believe you convinced me to sign him up for hockey.”
“Don’t you worry, Mr. Health and Safety. He’ll be fine. I told the coach you’d be team doctor.”
He huffed out a laugh. “I suppose we are going to be at every game.”
“You bet. Jake’s biggest fans!” She smiled and tipped her head onto Alex’s shoulder. Jake actually had quite a few fans now. He’d really come out of his shell in the past year or so since the wedding and become, according to the teachers at his school, a proper leader. Jake had taken the opportunity to suggest that now would be a pretty good time to see if he was up to the challenge of having a puppy.
Which was why they were standing on the docks, waiting for the ferry and the “puppy fairy” to arrive.
“You sure you’re up to this?” Alex swept a stray lock of hair away from Maggie’s face.
“What? A baby and a puppy at the same time? Sure. I took you two on at the same time, didn’t I?”
“What? I thought we were the ones who rescued you from a life of drifting around the world looking like a forlorn supermodel.”
“Ha! I’ll take the supermodel part. I was never forlorn.”
“You were once.”
She looked directly into her husband’s eyes. “Yes. And I learned from it. Just like you learned from your grief. Maybe if we hadn’t been through what we had, we never would’ve met.” She took his hand in hers and gave it a quick kiss and a squeeze. “Meeting you changed everything—and if that means I had to go through a bad time to get there? It was worth every moment of it.”
Alex dropped a kiss on his wife’s forehead. “That’s my silver linings girl.”
“You betcha.” She smiled at him, her heart so full she could hardly imagine fitting anymore love inside it. A little kick reminded her there was a whole lot more love coming soon. A baby girl, if the scan was right. Jake was already preparing to rescue her from any number of “princess perils.”