Gage, Ronna - Paradise Mine (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Ronna Gage

  “Wait for what?”

  “Wait until I knew for sure that you understood it wasn’t just a tactic to win you back.”

  “Oh, God, Rae Anne.” He hugged her harder. “I have never thought you could be malicious. I was angry that you left me when I needed you most.” He sat back with her. “The first night I recall being in the hospital, it scared me to death. I woke up blind due to shrapnel in my eyes and in pain with a closed head trauma and two broken ribs.”

  “I knew you were hurt.” She kissed his ribs, his eyes, and his forehead. “I knew it and I couldn’t find you.”

  “But you did. They gave me a sedative to ease the pain, but my mental awareness stood strong. I relived the accident over and over, unable to break out of it. If not for your voice and touch coming to me, I don’t think I would have gotten through it. I could almost feel you touching me, talking to me, holding me in that bed.”

  He pulled her closer. “When I found the letters, the one you wrote telling me good-bye, I didn’t understand at first. You were dealing with the MIA status. When I read the two letters from your father, or Marcus, I added up the clues and came to the very conclusion your father led me to believe. You lied, cheated, and wanted to be with someone else.”

  Rae Anne shook her head.

  “I read about your wedding to Marcus several years later. I became livid. When Jamie told me about our son, I got angry again. I thought you might have given him away for the very reason my aunt Denise thought. Because he looks like me.”

  Rae Anne’s eyes softened, and she smiled a wet smile of joyful tears. “He does?”

  “Why, he’s the spit outta my mouth!”

  “Too bad that’s not where he came out.”

  Landy chuckled and stroked her hair.

  “Does your aunt realize she can’t keep him?”

  A short pause caused her brows to furrow. “She realized that she wasn’t going to keep him long ago. She has told him all along that he was being cared for until you came and got him.”

  Rae Anne pulled back from him.

  “Your father gave her the impression that once you stopped the grieving process, you would be there to get him.”

  Rae Anne was out of his arms and walking out of the living room. “Let’s go.”

  Landy rushed to catch her. “Rae Anne, Jamie is on a chopper now. He will be the one updating the boy that I am alive and that you had no idea he existed.”

  Rae Anne bowed her head. “So close.”

  The defeat in her voice stung Landy’s heart.

  “What do you plan to do?”

  “I, or we, have a hard job ahead of us. It won’t be easy to convince a ten-year-old boy that his father and mother love him and never would have let him go.” Landy imagined a young Landy waiting for him and Rae Anne in Texas.

  “I can remember you at that age.” She whispered. “A little hell-raiser. Little—” Rae Anne stopped. “I just realized I don’t know my own son’s name. What is it?” Her voice barely a whisper.

  Landy smiled. “Landon Ray.” His eyes brightened. “They call him Landy. Aunt Denise said he is so smart and quiet.” He filled her in on the details he had of their son. “He’s nothing like I used to be.”

  Rae Anne’s gaze turned serious. “Your grandfather didn’t know about him?”

  Landy sighed. “No. He and Aunt Denise don’t talk too much, seeing as how she’s my mother’s sister.”

  “I wanna see him.”

  “First thing tomorrow, we’ll go and see him.” Landy held her close. “We have a few things we need to settle between us.”

  “Like what?”

  “Before we bring Landy into this relationship, we need to find peace between us.” He took her by the hand. “Did you mean what you said at the hospital?”

  “I said so much. What exactly are you talking about?”

  “That you still loved me?”

  “Yes.” She held his hand. “I never stopped. Even when I married Marcus, I still loved you. On my wedding night, it was you I wanted to be with, not him. I told myself that if it didn’t work out, I could get a divorce.”

  “Was he good to you?” Landy didn’t want to hear the gory details of her marriage.

  “He wasn’t mean. In fact, he was probably my best friend.” Rae Anne took a seat at the bar. “He let me rant, rave, and cry on the anniversary of your death. He never held it against me to my face. Marcus had it all. The trophy wife, as he liked to call me. The influential father-in-law with all the appropriate political connections. A mistress at his beck and call, and eventually a son.

  “Where is your son?”

  Surprised, she chuckled. “Landy, he’s in Texas. We will see him tomorrow. Remember?”

  “No, not our son. Yours and Marcus’s son?”

  “Oh, he is with his mother, Pamela, Marcus’s mistress.”

  “Ouch! Do you harbor bad feelings for her?”

  “No, in fact, at this moment, I’m at peace.

  “Oh, baby, I’m sorry you suffered that.” Landy softly cupped the back of her neck. “He’s a bastard who didn’t deserve you.”

  “True, but his mistress bore the one thing I wouldn’t. It doesn’t bother me that Marcus’s son belonged to another woman. If not for the circumstances, she and I may have been friends. The day she told me of her son’s paternity, I realized that I didn’t want Marcus’s son.”

  “Rae Anne, I know I can be a real son of a bitch. I’m opinionated, hard to impress…and hell, you know the rest.”

  “Yes, and I still loved you in spite of it.”

  Landy grinned. “Touché! Here’s the time to let my guard down and face my feelings.” Her wide-eyed gaze gave him courage. “I have always loved you. You came into my life when my parents died and made me want to live.”

  Landy held her hand and let the welled up tears fall. “Then you gave yourself to me, and I was the happiest young man in the world. When I read your letters, they gave me a reason to persevere. In the hospital, I saw the changes in them, but honestly, I didn’t know you were dealing with my missing in action status at the time. But, so you know, I was never missing or taken prisoner of war. The only bad thing that happened to me was the injuries in that accident.”

  “Oh, Landy. I tried so hard to find you.”

  “Rae Anne, all that physical pain was nothing compared to the heartache I felt and endured for the last ten years. I couldn’t get over you. I tried to drink you out of my mind, but that didn’t work. I took every dangerous mission that came along, not caring if I died.”

  “I loved you so much, Landy. Your death was mine.”

  “I’m grateful to Roger for one thing. He is the one with who rigged this whole ordeal to get us on the same yacht. When I gave up the hate, found out about your father’s and Marcus’s dealings in keeping us apart, and knew you had no part of it, I realized you made me whole. I had the answers I needed, and you loved me with all your heart, not seeing the bad in me.”

  “In my eyes and my heart there are only you.” Rae Anne kissed him on the lips. “Only you.”

  “I have found in my travels that there’s no other love like the love I found with you in these last few months.”

  “You’re the love of my life and have been since we were kids.”

  Rae Anne’s whispered declaration thrilled him to his toes.

  “As a man, you are so hot, and you are mine.”

  “Let me hear you say you love me. Whisper in my ear that you want us.”

  “Landy, I love you, and”—she pulled back from him—“I will always want us. Our love is what produced our son. Inside my heart, you have always been there. I didn’t bury you. I mourned you, but no more. Now, I want to live and love you.”

  “My baby.” Landy kissed her deeply, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth.

  She fumbled on his suit jacket, slipped it off his shoulders, and unfastened the buttons of his shirt. “By the way, you clean up very well,”

  “Yeah? I hoped you
like it. That is my business suit.”

  She toyed with the button of his trousers.

  “If we keep this up, the stop to Texas will take much longer.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, we have a long schedule ahead of us anyway.”

  Rae Anne’s hand stilled. “What do you mean?”

  “Make love to one another, fly to Vegas, and go to Texas.”

  “Fly to Vegas? Why?”

  I think we should get married first.”

  “I don’t want to wait that long.”

  “Don’t you want to marry the father of your son before we get him?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes, it does, to me.” Landy knelt down in front of her. “I’m an old-fashioned kind of man. We will go to Las Vegas, get married, and then to Texas to get Landy.”

  Rae Anne’s eyes shone with new tears of joy. “I’m finally going to marry the man I’m supposed to marry and have his son. I like this plan.”

  Her smile came easy, as it had in the months since Landy’s resurrection.

  “I want to get pregnant right away,” Landy informed her.

  “I think that has already been arranged.”

  Landy stared at her, and then suddenly it dawned on him what she wasn’t saying. A smile lightened his eyes. “Seriously?”

  She shrugged. “We’ll see very soon.”

  He picked her up and spun with her. “I am the happiest man.”

  Filled with excitement. “Put me down!” she yelled. The ringing of the telephone shrilled in the ecstatic atmosphere. Rae Anne answered it. “This better be good.” She stared at Landy, saying nothing. The excitement was gone from her eyes. “Okay, thank you.”

  “What is it?”

  “My father. He’s in a coma.”

  Sadness, coldness, and shock engulfed the room.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  “Let’s get a dress and the rings,” Landy suggested when they landed in Las Vegas.

  “All right. Nothing fancy though.”

  “Are you sure?” Landy asked, sporting an expression of disappointment.

  “Yes, I’d rather have a fancy honeymoon in paradise.”

  Elated, he grinned. “I’ll get right on that.”

  They stopped in two small boutiques before she found a suitable wedding gown. “I like this one,” she announced, holding up an ivory-colored dress.

  Landy smiled. “Try it on,” he insisted, a glimmer of mischief in his eyes.

  In a few minutes, she walked out of the dressing room. Landy looked up from the ring case he was standing by and looked twice at her. “You’re beautiful,” he said in a breathy whisper.

  She smiled. “What about the rings?”

  Landy escorted her to the ring case. “I thought about this set.”

  “Simple gold bands?”

  “Yeah, I figure we’ll marry in a church wedding on our first year anniversary if you want.”

  “Honey, it doesn’t matter to me. As long as I have you.”

  “I found a chapel that will marry us at eleven thirty.”

  Rae Anne looked at his watch. Ten thirty. “We’d better get over there so I can change.” She went to the dressing room, changed into her pantsuit, and met Landy by the door. On the way to the chapel, her insides rumbled and tumbled in excitement and happiness.

  By midnight’s last stroke, they were pronounced man and wife. After their rushed wedding and a few meager hours of sleep, they drove to the airport, boarded the plane, and flew to Texas. The wedding nerves were nothing compared to the nerves that mounted as the plane touched down on the runway of SpinksAirport in Fort Worth.

  “I can’t believe it’s only minutes to your Aunt Denise’s house and Landy.”

  “I wonder how he’ll feel about us. I know he knows about his circumstances, but to coming face-to-face with the knowledge…”

  “Rae Anne, stop it. You are the intellectual one here. Let that be your guide.”

  It’s different when she read other people and advised them or monitored animals and planned therapies, but when it came to her own life, Rae Anne fell victim to the same insecurities. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Are you ready, Mommy?” Landy softly stroked her cheek. “You look beautiful.”

  Rae Anne looked down at the pair of black slacks she’d changed into that morning. The sheet-white tunic flattered her waist. “I forgot how hot it can get in Texas.”

  Landy stroked her back. “Are you okay? You look pale.”

  “I feel like I’m going to be sick?”

  “Suck it up!” Landy ordered with a smile. “You’re a Laurent now. You’re tough.”

  “Aye, Aye, Captain Hard-ass.”

  Landy laughed, opened the door to the limousine he rented for the day, and stepped out. He placed his hand down for Rae Anne. “When I feel your hand in mine, I can conquer anything.”

  “I feel the same way.”

  Landy and Rae Anne took one step toward the perfect farmhouse. “I have fond memories of that place. I know Landy has been well taken care of all these years.” He stopped in midstep.

  “What? Landy, what is it?”

  “What if he doesn’t want to come with us? The idea of rejection tears me apart.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.” Rae Anne’s eyes misted.

  Landy looked up at the screen door. “There’s Jamie.”

  Rae Anne looked up. Jamie stood with a reassuring smile. Her hope rose. Seconds later, a tall, small-framed, dark blond boy stepped out onto the porch. The three of them stood in place looking at one another. Rae Anne’s lips quivered at the sight of her son. She squeezed Landy’s hand. “He’s so beautiful,” she whispered.

  Landy smiled at the boy. “You must be Landy?”

  “Mom! Dad!” the boy yelled as he took a running jump off the porch.

  Landy and Rae Anne opened their arms to him. He rushed into them and held on tight. The three hugged one another and cried their joy.

  “I knew you would come for me, Mom. I knew you didn’t give me up.”

  “Oh, Landy, I never would have let you go if I had known you were here.” Rae Anne cried as she held her son close. “You are the best thing I ever done.”

  * * * *

  Landy looked at his family and gathered them close. He was willing to battle if that is what it took to get his son. He looked toward the porch to his Aunt Denise. Her warm smile graced him with a new sense of peace.

  On a fast-forward track of burdened memories, Landy felt as if his life had come full circle, ending the uncertainty and loneliness of the past ten years. In a matter of months, he’d come home, married the woman he loved and always wanted, had a son, and they would all be together. In that realization, one thing came to mind.

  “This is my idea of paradise.”

  THE END

  www.ronnagage.webs.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ronna Gage lives in Texas with her true life alpha, husband, Ron and son, Gage. An avid animal lover, she has one dog, Nina and one cat, Brianne. A storyteller all her life, Ronna just recently chose to share some of her creative tales with the public audience. She writes mostly in the erotic romance genre and insists on a positive happy ending. Using society issues, Ronna spins a tale of hope and love for her audience’s enjoyment.

  When she isn’t working on her next writing project, she teaches as a substitute, and on weekends she supports her son at motocross races.

  Some of her hobbies include: horseback riding with friends, weekends at the track with her family, and shopping with her god daughter, Taryn, and her niece, Seairria.

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

 

 

 
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