How he’d missed Ella’s laugh, her smile, her kisses….
“I’m sure you’ve heard through the grapevine about Rose having settled in with the Donaldsons?” Ella switched subjects.
Not trusting himself to speak past the gnawing lump in his throat, he nodded.
“It killed me to give her up, but I’m slowly coming around. I visit her a lot, and watch her for Claire whenever she needs a sitter.”
“That’s nice.”
“Speaking of nice,” she said, talking more to the puppy than to him, in a playful tone she’d often used with the baby.
“I got quite a shocker when at the last city board meeting your father strolled up to apologize for essentially kicking me out of his party. He confessed his sciatica had been acting up, and that he hadn’t been feeling good.”
Was it wrong of Jackson to wonder how that explained Walter’s grumpy behavior for the last twenty years?
“You’ll be pleased to know that for the moment anyway, I seem to have conquered my ice cream habit. I’ve even lost three whole pounds.” Grinning, she did one of those high-fashion spins, and that was it. He lost it.
“I—I can’t do this,” Jackson said, reaching for the damned dog.
“Do what?” she asked.
“Stand here, acting as if we’re just casual friends when with every fiber of my being, I want you to be my wife—not Julie. I want to laugh with you and go to our kids’ bingo and baseball games with you and eat ice cream with you till we both gain twenty pounds. I miss you, Ell…” Unmanly tears threatening to spill, he turned his back to her.
“I miss you, too,” she said softly from behind him. He caught a whiff of her light floral perfume and that was his final undoing.
“I can’t go on living this lie,” he admitted, turning to face her. “You once told me I need to be the parent, and that I can’t let Dillon make the decisions for how to run our lives, but in agreeing to remarry Julie, that’s exactly what I’ve done. How long will it be till she grows bored with us? Everything in me tells me her being infatuated with Dillon is only a temporary thing. When she takes off again, who’s going to be here to pick up the pieces? Me and you, Ell, that’s who. Only how much better would it be for my boy if we were already a family when Julie’s news comes?”
“Wh-what are you saying?” Ella asked, nuzzling the puppy’s head as she once had Rose’s. The woman was a natural-born mother. One Jackson very much wanted to help him raise his son.
“I’m saying I love you.” Choppy tears came, but he didn’t care. The sense of freedom bursting through him at having shed this awful burden was too great to contain. “I can’t marry Julie. No matter how badly Dillon wants this, I can’t be a good father to him and keep living a lie. In the short run, he’s going to hate me, but in the long run, he’ll realize me marrying you is for the best.”
Ella cleared her throat. “Aren’t you forgetting one big part of this newfound plan?”
“What’s that?”
“Asking me if I even care to be a part of it?”
“Well?” Easing his hands around her waist felt akin to coming home. “Do you?”
Ella knew the smart thing would be saying no, but when it came to matters of the heart, she’d always let her emotions lead. At the moment, her every instinct screamed to pick up where she’d left off with this wonderful man. Yes, he’d made some mistakes, but hadn’t they all?
They’d take things slow.
Handle Dillon and her boys with kid gloves.
In time, they would all come around.
“You’re killing me here,” Jackson said, giving her a squeeze. “Are you on board with my plan?”
“Since you put it so eloquently,” she said, with her free hand tracing the outline of his brow, his cheek, his dear lips, “yes, Jackson Tate, I will give you a second chance. But only under one condition.”
“Name it.”
She handed the whining puppy off to him. “You get to potty train the newest member of our family.”
Epilogue
“Who wants lemonade?” Ella asked, one hand on the sweating pitcher and the other on her active tummy. Judging by the kicking, her baby was a soccer fan.
“Meee!” Dillon cried, squirming on the picnic table bench.
“Me, too!” Oliver said, trying to out-shout his stepbrother. Though a year had passed since she and Jackson had made their relationship official with a romantic backyard wedding, her eldest and Dillon were still vying for who was going to be King of the Mountain. So far, Oliver seemed to be in the lead, but every so often, Dillon gave him a run for his money when it came to out-eating him or defeating video-game monsters. For the most part, though, they’d become best friends, for which Ella was thankful.
“Owen?” After filling the two boys’ glasses, Ella glanced his way. “Want some?”
“No, thank you.”
“You feeling all right?” Jackson asked Owen while scooping potato salad onto each of the boys’ plates. His parents were across the yard, chatting with his brother and Julie in front of the new water garden. On his off days, Jackson had transformed Ella’s once-drab backyard into a wonderland fit for their nuptials. Julie had surprised them all by remaining true to her word in staying close to Dillon. She’d moved back into the home she’d once shared with Jackson, and now kept Dillon with her most every weekend. Weekdays, she worked hard at the law practice she’d set up downtown. Walter had gradually thawed to the point that he’d actually asked Ella’s opinion in the design of his dealership’s new digs.
Owen shrugged.
“What’s wrong?” Ella asked.
He nodded toward Oliver and Dillon. “They’re always together, and no one plays with me anymore.”
“Honey,” Ella crooned, perching next to him on the end of the bench, “of course they still play with you.”
“Uh-uh.”
“Tell you what,” she said, “when your baby sister gets here, you can be her best friend.”
“But that won’t be the same.”
“I know, honey, but don’t you think she’ll need a best friend and a big brother?”
“I guess,” he said, chin dragging to his chest.
“Poor little guy,” Jackson whispered to her when they were both back at the grill. As usual, Ella was starving and the scent of grilling burgers had her stomach growling and kicking. “Think we should let him invite one of his friends from school over?”
Ella kissed her husband. “I’m so glad I married a smarty-pants. I’ll go call Billy from down the street.”
“Come here, Nosy,” Owen said to the family dog who’d grown from a puppy into a mini-moose. “You’re the only one who loves me.”
Ella and Jackson shared a look.
He took her hand in his for a moment, intertwining their fingers. Reminding her with no more than a touch that with this latest child-rearing crisis, she was no longer on her own, but part of a team. A wonderfully hectic, crazy, happy team she never ceased being thrilled to be part of.
“I love you,” he mouthed.
“Love you, too.”
And she did. Lord, how she did.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1713-7
THREE BOYS AND A BABY
Copyright © 2008 by Laura Marie Altom.
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Three Boys And A Baby (American Romance) Page 19