by Joanna Shupe
“And,” she said, “I won’t quit my job. I want to keep working.”
The idea seemed to surprise him, if his raised brows were any indication. “That is up for debate. I—”
“It’s not up for debate. You either will let me be my own person or you won’t.”
“Fine, but you’re taking a lengthy vacation first.”
“Only if you take one as well,” she countered, happiness beginning to flutter in her stomach like wings. Marriage. She would be marrying this man. Life could not be sweeter.
“I already have,” he said. “I cabled the office this morning and told them I’m not coming in for the next three weeks.”
“You did? But how did you know I would agree to marry you?”
He gave her an adorable half smile that transformed him into the most handsome man she’d ever seen. “I didn’t, not with any certainty. By my calculations, the odds were 65 percent in my favor. But I had faith in you, Clara.”
She remembered telling him he needed to have faith in others, and learning he’d taken her advice to heart had her flying straight into his chest. Her arms went around his waist just as he wrapped her up and held tight. His familiar scent filled her head, one she’d missed terribly, and she pressed her lips to the bare skin just above his shirt collar.
“Is this a yes?”
She laughed into his throat. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“Thank God,” he breathed. “Now will you please tell me you love me?”
“I love you. You’re the smartest, most generous, handsomest man I’ve ever met.”
“Is that so? What if I told you your family is traveling to New York with us?”
She leaned away and met his gaze. “They are? All of them?”
“Almost all of them. One of your brothers is staying to mind the farm with your cousins, but everyone else is coming East for a vacation—and to attend a wedding.”
Her family . . . in New York. They’d never traveled east of the Mississippi River. “Where will they all stay?”
“Well, my house has seventeen bedrooms. I think we can fit them all in.”
“Seventeen bedrooms! Why in the world would one man buy such a big house with all that space?”
He swept a loose curl behind her ear then slowly drew his thumb down her jaw. “Because I was waiting for you.”