Her eyes widened. He sounded so humble. So sincere. So hopeless.
“I...I’ve tried to forgive you,” she said. “I’ve tried to understand...”
He looked at her, a muscle working in his jaw. “You think I’m like your father, don’t you? That I want to control you. To tell you what to do, who to be. But I want you to know that I never meant to be that way. That I would never do anything like that again, if you gave me a second chance. Or at least,” he added with painful candor, “I would try. It’s very hard to change thirty years of training overnight.”
She twisted the hem of the blue knit pullover she wore with comfortable, matching knit leggings. She wasn’t even aware that she was stretching the fabric out of shape. Fashion was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment.
“You did act a lot like my father,” she agreed, struck by the comparison. “He always called himself acting in my best interest, taking care of me because he didn’t consider me capable of looking out for myself.”
“I know. And I did the same.” He hesitated, then added, “But you forgave your father. You told him you love him despite his flaws.”
She thought she saw the faintest glimmer of hope in his eyes. It gave her the courage to nod. “Yes. I forgave him. But my father met me halfway, Adam. He—he promised to love me, too. Just the way I am.”
Adam’s face softened. His eyes were bright, liquid. His voice husky when he said, “No one could ever love you more than I do, Jenny. And there’s nothing about you that I would ever want to change.”
The words almost rocked her on her heels. “You—you love me?” she repeated in an incredulous whisper.
“More than I’ve ever loved anyone,” he answered simply. “It’s the only reason I wanted so badly for you to be happy. My methods were wrong, but my feelings were genuine. I wanted to help you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do for those I love.”
Jenny was terribly afraid her knees were about to buckle. She put out a trembling hand and steadied herself against the wall. She studied his expression, trying to find any reason not to believe him.
He looked utterly sincere.
Her eyes flooded. “Oh, Adam.”
“Maybe we could start over?” he suggested, diffidently. “If you could give me another chance, let me prove to you that I’m trying to change. That I won’t ever hurt you again. Maybe, eventually, you can forgive me. Learn to love me.”
“I love you so much it hurts,” she said simply. “I have loved you for a very long time. Do you really think you could have hurt me so badly if I didn’t love you?”
He made a choked sound, and moved automatically toward her. He caught himself short, stopping a few inches away from her. His eyes burned with emotion, searching her face with a desperate intensity.
“Can you give me another chance?” he asked, so softly she could hardly hear him. “I’m begging, Jenny.”
The tears escaped her eyes to cascade down her cheeks. “Oh, please. Don’t beg,” she said, throwing herself against him. “I don’t think I can handle that right now.”
His arms closed around her, so tightly she could hardly breathe. She wouldn’t have complained even if she’d been able to speak coherently.
“Jenny. Oh, God, Jenny, I love you. Please don’t send me away.”
His voice was so hoarse, so raw that her eyes overflowed again. But she managed a shaky smile as she looked up at him. “I can’t send you away. Darn it, Adam, you need a keeper. Someone to take care of you—keep you from shooting yourself in your own foot with that overloaded ego of yours. I guess it’s up to me.”
His eyes very bright, he gave a low, unsteady laugh. “I’m not sure there was a compliment anywhere in there, but if it means you’re giving me another chance, I don’t care.”
“I love you, Adam. I don’t want to leave you again.”
He kissed her. Hard. Heatedly.
Lovingly.
And then he kissed her again. And again. And again. Between kisses he muttered broken promises that he would never hurt her again, that he would never again make decisions for her without talking to her first, that he would never again be arrogant, or overbearing, or pompous or insensitive.
Jenny didn’t believe him, of course. As he’d said, it wasn’t easy to change thirty years of training overnight. But she believed that he loved her enough to try.
That was all she could have asked.
His hands swept her body, holding her close. “I’ve missed you,” he murmured, allowing her a moment to breathe as he released her mouth and pressed hot, hungry kisses across her cheek and temple. “I’ve missed you so much I ached. I don’t want to spend another night alone in that house, or in my bed. Come home with me, Jenny. Please.”
There was that word again. Please. It sounded so sweet coming from him. “Yes,” she said.
He swept her into a hug that left her feet dangling above the floor and threatened imminent damage to her rib cage. She locked her arms around his neck and hugged him back as hard as she could.
For once, she thought happily, she’d made exactly the right choice.
He finally set her down, though he wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her close. Almost as though he were afraid to let her go again.
“We’ll get married as soon as I can make the arrangements,” he said, his voice light again, his eyes clear and unshadowed. “It’ll be a small wedding—your family and mine, maybe a few close friends. I’ll call my attorney this afternoon to start proceedings for me to adopt Melissa. I want her to have my name. I want to be her father. I love that kid, Jenny. Surely you know that. I could never love our own children any more than I do her. I’ll never give you or her reason to doubt that. After the wedding, we’ll—”
He paused, looking at her quizzically as she ruefully shook her head. “What is it?” he asked. “What have I said?”
“Adam, you’re doing it again,” she pointed out patiently. “You’re planning our wedding, our future—and you haven’t even asked me if I want to marry you.”
His eyes widened. A tinge of color stained his lean cheeks.
Jenny had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from smiling at his obvious chagrin.
Adam cleared his throat. “I was doing it again, wasn’t I?”
She nodded, not quite trusting her voice.
Anxiously he placed both hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said penitently. “I didn’t mean to break my promises to you, especially not so soon. I got carried away...”
“I know.”
He gave her a sheepish smile. “Will you marry me, Jenny? I love you so very much. I will always love you.”
She reached up to touch his cheek. “I’ll marry you,” she murmured. “I love you, too.”
“And Melissa? You don’t mind if I adopt her?”
“I’m thrilled that you want to adopt her. She already loves you, Adam. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect father for her.”
He smiled and made a production of wiping his brow. “That’s settled, then. Let’s go tell Melissa and Granny Fran.”
She was amused by his eagerness to share their news. “How do you think your mother’s going to take this?” she asked a bit nervously.
He chuckled ruefully. “My mother has spent the past week yelling at me and calling me an idiot for letting you get away,” he confessed. “She’s very fond of you, Jenny, despite the funny way she has of showing it. I don’t think anyone could know you and not love you,” he added sincerely.
She blinked back a wave of fresh tears. She wouldn’t cry again, she vowed, no matter how touched she was by Adam’s words. She was too happy for tears now.
“Let’s go find Granny Fran,” she said, taking his hand.
He grinned and pulled her close. “Yeah. And then I’m taking my family home. To stay, this time.”
Home. Family. Such beautiful words, Jenny thought with a blissful sigh.
She’d been looking for both for such a long time.
<
br /> Epilogue
Frances Carson opened her mail eagerly, delighted to find an envelope of photographs in a cardboard mailer. She looked through them slowly, stopping often to ooh and aah. Melissa was growing so quickly, she thought, studying the smiling baby in the photos. Seven months old now, the child looked happy and healthy and pampered.
One photograph in particular made Frances smile and blink back tears. In it, Melissa rode on Adam’s shoulders, clutching his hair and squealing with delight. Adam steadied the baby with his hands on her legs, his gold wedding band gleaming in the photograph. He wore a broad, happy grin. He looked very much like the young boy in Frances’s most treasured memories.
Frances was so happy for her eldest grandchild. He was such a good boy, she thought proudly. He deserved to be happy, and she knew he was, now that he had a wife, a dear little girl. A real home.
She carried the photographs to her mantel, laying them there so she would remember to show them to her best friend, Lila Twining, later that afternoon.
Her attention turned to a framed photograph of a handsome young man with laughing blue eyes and a heartbreaking smile. Cody, she thought, touching the glass over his dear face.
Poor Cody. It must be so lonely to be the only single adult left in the family, she mused. She wondered if there was anything she could do to help him. Perhaps he’d like to meet the granddaughter of one of her friends, she thought.
She gazed at his photograph, contentedly making her plans.
* * * * *
Don’t miss CODY’S FIANCÉE, the next book in The Family Way series, coming in early l996, from Silhouette Special Edition!
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8820-1
A Home for Adam
Copyright © 1995 by Gina Wilkins
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