Joe. Her heart felt as if it were bleeding it hurt so much. How could she wake, morning after morning, to the agonizing realization that he wasn’t there? Would never be there. Could her body, awakened so gloriously by Joe, ever be satisfied by anyone else?
Allison took a deep, steadying breath and tried to think positively. Work, at least, was going well. She’d decided to accept the offer from one of the visiting bankers, who had been so impressed by her work on her big deal he had poached her. He wanted her to take a big role in his bank’s new operation in Sydney. He’d been prepared to negotiate flexible, child-friendly hours. Bill and Nancy had said they would help her settle Peter’s gambling debts, removing much of that pressure from her. Things were looking good, she should be happy. But how could she be without Joe?
Seagulls wheeled and squawked around her, their harsh cries as mournful as her mood. She stared ahead, steeped in misery, lost to time and place, the sea breeze whipping her hair into a salty tangle.
She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there, when she felt someone sit down on the bench beside her. Automatically, she shuffled away from them. She should go. Must go.
She felt the person next to her moving closer. Panic cut through her trance and she turned, ready to flee.
To see Joe next to her.
His face looked as weary as hers. Shadows darkened his eyes, and it seemed that lines of pain were etched deep into his face. His hair was wild and unkempt and his jaw shadowed.
He gazed at her, as if he’d been starved of the sight of her. He looked deep into her eyes.
“Allison,” he said, in that familiar husky voice that sent her heart singing, “won’t you give me a second chance?”
Joe held his breath a painfully long time for Allison’s answer. But she didn’t say anything. She reached out and tentatively touched his face, as if to assure herself he was real.
Then it was as if a light was illuminating her from within. Her eyes shone and danced with a joyous emotion that made his heart leap and twist.
Then she whispered his name as she moved into his arms.
He pulled her to him and held her as closely as he could. He could feel her breath on his face and her heart beating against his chest. He breathed in the perfume of her hair and rejoiced in her warmth and softness of her. And the overwhelming relief of her return.
He pushed her hair away from her face. Then he kissed her, fiercely, hungrily, caressing her trembling lips with his mouth, to urge her to understand how much he wanted and needed her. He rejoiced in her passionate response; in her joyous murmur that set his heart beating in exultation.
How could he ever have risked losing her?
He kissed her for a time, measured only by the beating of their hearts, until they pulled away and searched each other’s faces.
Joe swallowed hard. Say it. Come on. Say it. Why was it so hard to force a few little words from a suddenly constricted throat?
Then she smiled, and the magic of it made everything seem so easy.
He reached out and traced the delicate outline of her mouth with one finger.
“I love you, Ally,” he said.
“I love you, too,” she replied unhesitatingly, her eyes dancing.
He found he was grinning and he couldn’t stop. “I love you, I love you, I love you!” He wanted to climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and shout it to the world.
But he kissed her again.
She gave a little sigh of joy as her lips parted under his, and he thought the simple sound was surely the most wonderful he’d ever heard.
She wound her arms around his neck and her fingers through his hair. Desire coursed through him as she pressed her curves to him, and he felt her nipples harden through the filmy fabric of her dress.
But, ecstatic as he was that Allison loved him, the problems that had driven them apart remained unresolved.
“What’s happened with Peter?” he asked. He could scarcely say her ex-husband’s name without spitting.
A shadow passed across Allison’s face and she told him about Peter’s visit and her mother-in-law’s phone call. Peter was as heinous as he had suspected, and then some. “But I haven’t closed the door on him,” she concluded. “Maybe he’s the kind of guy who just doesn’t feel comfortable with young children. He might want to see more of Mitchell when Mitchell is older. I won’t do anything to stop that—when all’s said and done, Peter is Mitchell’s father.”
Privately, Joe thought she was kidding herself. But to her he said, “Of course, and I respect your decision.”
Allison smiled. “Mitchell refused to call him Daddy. Said he already had a daddy named Joe.”
She avoided his eyes, seemed afraid she’d said the wrong thing.
He tilted her chin back up to face him. “He’s called me Daddy before, you know.”
“H...has he?” she said in an odd, strangled little voice.
“Yes, the night he was so sick in hospital. The little guy held my hand and called me Daddy. I’ve never felt so honored.”
“What did you say to him?” Her face was flushed, and her eyes didn’t leave his face. He wondered why his reply seemed so important to her.
“I told him I wasn’t his daddy, just Joe. That I couldn’t be his daddy because I wasn’t married to his mommy. I believe you should be honest with children. Then I told him I wanted to be his daddy but I’d have to talk to his mommy about it. I’m not sure he understood or even heard me. Did he say anything to you?”
He couldn’t read the curious expression on her face.
“No, he...he didn’t,” she stammered. “I didn’t know you said that.”
Allison’s heart was thudding so furiously she was sure Joe must hear it. Had Joe just said he wanted to be Mitchell’s father?
Joe cradled her face in his hands. His expression was very serious and his voice grave. “I love you, Ally, and I love Mitchell, too. I want to be the father he deserves. And I want everyone to know we’re a family.” He paused, and she could see uncertainty in his eyes. “Will you marry me?”
Allison couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This was better than any dream she could possibly dream, any fantasy she could possibly imagine. Joe loved her. But he loved Mitchell, too. He wanted them as a package, wanted to be a family.
Her heart swelled with a joy so intense it threatened to choke her voice. It took a few attempts to get the words out. “Yes, oh yes, a thousand times yes,” she breathed, “from me and from Mitchell, too.”
They kissed a long, tender, unbearably sweet kiss.
Then Joe said, “This isn’t how I planned it. I wanted a yacht on the harbor at sunset with champagne, roses, the works.”
Allison willed all the love she felt for this wonderful man who had come so unexpectedly into her life, and changed it so irrevocably, to shine from her eyes.
She entwined her fingers with his. “This is better, Joe,” she whispered. “This is better.”
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About the author
Kandy Shepherd left a fast-paced career as a magazine editor to write award-winning romantic fiction. Kandy lives in a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband, daughter and a menagerie of four-legged friends. She believes in love-at-first-sight and real-life romance—they worked for her!
Author note
Dear Reader
Something About Joe was my first published novel, published by a small, now defunct publisher. It was always special to me, as “first times” often are. It was to readers, too. Years after it was published, readers would tell me how much they’d loved Joe and Allison’s story. When a copy went for a surprising sum at a fundraising auction at a romance reader convention, I began to wonder if the e-publishing revolution might bring Something About Joe to a wider, new audience. The success of The Castaway Bride as an e-book made up my mind for me. Of course, I couldn’t resist some updating and tweaking, but the story remains the same. If you enjoyed reading Something
About Joe, I would so appreciate it if you could post a review at the online retailer where you purchased it. Thank you!
More books by Kandy Shepherd
My romantic comedies, Love is a Four-legged Word, and, Home Is Where the Bark Is, are published by Berkley Sensation and available from online retailers and bookstores.
I love to hear from my readers, please visit me!
My website: http://www.kandyshepherd.com
My blog: http://writingtails.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/KandyShepherd
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/kandyshepherd
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
About the author
Something About Joe Page 17