by Loree Lough
“How do they look?” she said, turning her head left, then right.
“Gorgeous. And so do you. You like ’em?”
“I love them.”
Winking, he said, “You can thank me later.”
“Ditto,” she said, batting her eyelashes.
He reached across the table and grasped her hands. “All joking aside, thank you. For the best ten years of my life. For being the best mom to Alyssa and the twins and little Buddy, and making a wonderful, happy home. You’re my hero. I hope you know that.”
Billie’s eyes filled with tears. Yes, she knew it. And no matter how many times she told him, Noah didn’t feel comfortable when she returned the compliment. Maybe ten years from now, as they celebrated another happy decade together, he’d believe her when she said the past didn’t matter…that it had never mattered. Maybe he’d believe it when she told him that he was living, breathing proof that people really can change.
She’d been a bitter, broken young woman when they met, but he had changed all that.
“When you turned your whole life upside down and inside out all those years ago, you saved Alyssa, but I need you to understand that you saved me, too.”
As expected, he started to protest. Billie shook her head and held up a forefinger.
“Shh,” she said. “Your sherbet is melting.”
Noah picked up his spoon.
“And by the way,” she said, as he sipped it, “if you ever get it into your handsome head to go undercover again, well, don’t. Because I’ll make it my mission in life to hunt you down and drag you home.”
“Nothing like that has ever entered my—”
“Because I love you,” she interrupted. “Understand?”
He nodded. “I’ve understood that from the day you hobbled into the bike shop. You’re stuck with me, Mary Margaret Elizabeth Landon Preston.”
She laughed at the way he sing-songed her name.
“Ditto,” she said.
“Ditto?” Noah rolled his eyes. “You’re a hopeless romantic,” he teased.
“Shh,” she repeated. “You know how much you hate melted sherbet.”
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ISBN: 978 1 472 07432 4
SAVING ALYSSA
© 2014 Loree Lough
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
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