She lay on the worktable afterward, with Jack slumped over her body, his gasping, panting breaths both reasssuring and pleasing. Her body pulsed one final time and he grunted, jerking against her as his supersensitized flesh registered the sensation. She scratched her nails over his back in the private after-loving ritual they’d established, making random little circles at a leisurely pace, and he sighed, turning his head to kiss the breast that lay beneath his cheek.
Then he pulled himself up on his elbows over her, with a self-satisfied grin flashing over his face as he said, “You’ll never stand at this table again without thinking of me.”
She smiled faintly as the red haze of need receded and the world came back into focus. “I may never stand at this table again, period.”
To her incredulous surprise, his face grew red and he ducked his head. “Sorry. I got a little carried away, I guess.” Then he looked up, and that unreadable intense look was back in his eyes as he said, “You’re the only woman in the world who can do that to me.”
Again she didn’t know how to respond, but he didn’t give her a chance, lifting himself away from her and propping her in a sitting position while he closed his pants. She leaned her head on his chest, exhaustion creeping into all her muscles as he looked down at the back of her neck and carefully opened the fastenings that held her inside the satin casing.
“Will you wear this one?”
“What?” She was drained, dull, her brain sluggishly wrapping itself around the request.
“When we get married, will you wear this one?”
Startled into wakefulness, she shook her head. “This is the most impractical gown—”
“But think of the memories.” He looked into her face with earnest eyes and she remembered suddenly why she needed to be alert around him. With little effort, he probably could charm her into agreeing to swim naked in the Choptank River at high noon in front of a boatload of fishermen. “You and I will say our vows thinking of how you agreed to marry me in this dress. I’ll be thinking about the way your sweet little—”
“Do you realize it will take five people to carry this train?”
“I’ll call a couple of the guys on the team.”
“All right! You win—I’ll wear the dress. Just don’t blame me when this train wraps around your ankles and trips you up,” she said darkly. Then reality slapped her in the face and she realized what they were talking about.
A wedding. A marriage.
“Jack...” She couldn’t disguise the troubled note in her voice. “Maybe we should think about this.”
“I don’t need to think. This wasn’t a snap decision.” His words pierced the air above her head. Beneath her ear, his heart still pumped madly in his chest. “I want to marry you, Frannie. We like each other. We both care about making a good life for Lex. I’d like to have more children, and I think you would, too. We’re great together in bed.” He looked around them and a whimsical smile crossed his face. “And out.”
“I know, but maybe those aren’t good rea—”
“They’re important reasons. They’ll last for a lifetime.”
She looked up into his face, drinking in the sight of his blunt, beloved features, knowing that not one of those was the reason she was saying yes. “If you’re sure you’ve thought about what you’re taking on...I want to marry you.” She took one of his hands in hers and raised it to her lips, kissing the tough pad of flesh at the base of his palm. If she kept things light, pleasant, organized, maybe this would work out. “I wonder what you’ll look like with gray hair.”
His eyes warmed, danced. “About the same as you, baby cakes.” He stepped back and lifted her to the floor. “I’ll check with the justice of the peace, see what’s required for a license, and how long we have to wait.”
“Jack...” She raised her head from unfastening the tight buttons at the wrists of the dress. “I’m not going to back out. We don’t have to plan the entire wedding this minute.”
“Yes, we do.” He tipped her chin up with his index finger and kissed her, a lingering, hungry kiss that left her clinging to him again in limp surrender. “We didn’t use anything tonight, and I’m damn sure you weren’t any more prepared than I was last week. If we’ve made a little brother or sister for Lex, it’s going to be legitimate. Besides—” and he flashed the confident, cocky grin that she so loved “—we already know we’re great parents. Why wait to join forces?”
She knew there was a possibility she could have conceived. She knew she shouldn’t hope so, it would be insane with Alexa barely a year old when their baby would be born, but oh, God! Please. She’d wanted a baby of her own all her life, wanted to be pregnant, to feel a new person growing inside her. Having Jack’s baby would be the culmination of the best thing that had ever happened to her. Ever.
“You’re right,” she said. “So you don’t want a church wedding?”
He shrugged. “Not unless you do. I just want to get married as fast as possible.”
She’d always assumed that when she married—if she married—she would walk down the short, wide aisle in the little country church near her family’s home wearing white. Something she’d made for herself. Something special. Jack didn’t sound as though he had even considered a church wedding. And he wanted her to wear a dress she’d designed for another woman, a dress she would never have chosen unless she’d lost her mind.
But he liked the dress. At least it was white. And he was right. It would hold special memories for them.
And when she thought about planning a wedding, pretending to her family and friends that they were getting married for the normal reasons any other couple did, she realized that she would rather do this quickly and quietly. She’d have enough questions to answer later.
“I don’t care, either,” she said.
Good news—or good gossip—spread like wildfire, and it wasn’t a day before people were congratulating him. It was a good feeling. Especially considering how strange Frannie had been acting.
When he’d suggested she call her family, she’d calmly told him there was no rush, that they could wait until they were married to share the news. He’d disagreed; having had one experience with shocking Donald was enough. He insisted until she finally gave in and called them, first Billy, then Donald and Robert, and after she’d told them her news, he’d asked to speak to them. Billy couldn’t have been more tickled. Donald and Robert were slightly more reserved, though Donald thawed a bit when Jack assured him he would take good care of his sister. Robert, whom he had never met, didn’t beat around the bush.
“Donald tells me Frannie will be stepping right into motherhood,” he said.
“In a manner of speaking.” Jack hoped Frannie couldn’t hear the conversation. Lex had started to holler and she’d walked over to take her out of her infant seat.
“I hope you’re not doing this for free baby-sitting.”
“No more than you were all the years she helped you out.” Robert had to be the most selfish jerk alive. Didn’t he realize how offensive his words were to his sister? “And I didn’t have to marry her to get baby-sitting or anything else,” he said. “I don’t know you, but I expect that when we meet, you’ll be happy for your sister.” He deliberately allowed his tone to express aggression, practically growling out the last word.
After a second of silence, Robert’s voice came back over the line, sounding far more subdued than he had when the conversation started. “Of course I’m happy for Frannie. I just felt that I had to be sure you were—”
“Thank you,” Jack said, smoothly cutting him off. “I’m looking forward to meeting you, too.” And if there was a veiled threat in his tone, he figured Robert deserved to sweat a little bit. Selfish brat.
He put down the phone and turned to Frannie, who was bouncing Lex on her hip and singing to her. “Mission accomplished.”
She smiled, apparently unaware of the conversation that had just passed between her brother and him. “I’m glad we called them
. Now I don’t feel like I’m sneaking around behind their backs. Donald wanted to know when the wedding would be. I told him we’d let him know.”
“And we will.” He grinned. “Afterward.”
Once he got her going, she insisted they tell her two closest friends, Deirdre and Jillian. That led to a dinner invitation for both women the following evening.
Dinner with Frannie’s best friends. He took a deep breath, well aware that this could be even worse than dealing with her brothers. A lot worse.
He liked Deirdre. They’d been neighbors and friends as kids, and she’d always been one of the sweetest women he knew. He wasn’t certain yet how he felt about Jillian. He knew her in passing; they’d done some business together and he’d found her pleasant, with a good sense of humor. But she had a reputation for chewing men up and spitting them out mangled, and he’d always steered clear. Besides, blond ice maidens weren’t his type. He preferred long, leggy brunettes with pouty lips and chocolate eyes.
The evening they came to dinner, he volunteered to barbecue chicken on the grill, figuring that would give the three women some uninterrupted talk time. To his surprise, Frannie had things completely prepared before either of them arrived, and she ushered them right out to the patio behind her house, where he was just starting the chicken.
With her usual timing, Alexa’s waking coos could be heard over the baby monitor from the bedroom where she’d been napping.
“Uh-oh, someone’s awake,” Frannie said. “No, Jack, you entertain. I’ll be back in a minute.” And she vanished.
“Dee.” He moved toward the shortest woman, pulling her into a hug when she held out her hand. He felt her stiffen for a moment, and he mentally cursed the husband who’d dumped her. What else had the guy done to her to make her afraid of a hug?
When he tugged affectionately on her long black braid, she finally relaxed and hugged him back. “Hi, Jack, it’s good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” he told her, assessing the shadows beneath her green eyes. “Where are Heckyl and Jeckyl?”
She laughed at the reference to her preschool-age sons. “The boys went to my mother’s tonight. I hate to inflict them on her, but she was at the house when Frannie called and she insisted on taking them tonight, so I could ‘visit.’ Bless her heart.” Then she sobered. “Jack, I can’t thank you enough for getting me into the farmhouse. It’s perfect, and the boys love it out in the country.”
“Translation,” said Jillian from behind her. “There’s plenty to do, which keeps them out of trouble.” She walked around the table and held out her hand. “Hello, Jack.”
“Jillian.” He took the hand rather than hugging her as he had Dee. He got the feeling no one hugged this woman without receiving permission first.
“So,” she said briskly, “why do you want to marry Frannie?”
“Jill!” Dee shook her finger at her friend. “You promised not to cross-examine him.”
“This isn’t a cross-exam,” the blonde said in a reasonable tone. “Is it, Jack?”
He laughed. “Not yet.”
“So...?” She wasn’t going to let it slide.
He took a deep breath, hoping she wasn’t going to try to pin him down. “Isn’t it obvious? Frannie’s warm and giving, everything I could ever want in a wife. It’s not every woman who would take a man with a three-month-old.”
To his surprise, Jillian’s eyes softened. “You might be surprised.”
Lannette leaped into his mind. “I doubt it.”
“And look who’s here.” They all turned as Frannie came outside, carrying the baby. “It’s your auntie Dee and auntie Jill.”
“And we are going to spoil you rotten, kiddo.” Jillian practically leaped around the table. “Give,” she said to Frannie.
He was surprised even further. He never would have pegged Jillian Kerr for the motherly type. Her friendship with Frannie suddenly made more sense to him. Before, he couldn’t quite imagine someone like her being a good friend to Frannie.
The evening passed pleasantly, with both women offering congratulations before the conversation turned to general topics. Frannie made no effort to speak to either of her friends alone; in fact, she almost—to him, anyway—appeared to want to avoid opportunities for personal moments.
When the evening ended and the door closed, he took her in his arms, rocking her back and forth against his chest. “Have we told all the important people in your life? I’m not sure I can take being examined for flaws many more times.”
Her arms were linked around his neck, and her head tilted back so she could see his face. “What? Jack Ferris worrying about flaws? I thought you were perfect.”
“Not likely.” He speared his fingers through her hair to cradle her skull. “If I was, I’d have married you the first time around.”
“You didn’t know me then,” she pointed out.
“No, but if I were perfect, I’d have found you.” He put his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her and she automatically clasped her legs around his waist. He was already carrying her toward the stairs as he said, “Wanta go to bed?”
Later, as he lay spent and sweating, cuddling her pretty body, he decided he was the luckiest man in the world to have found Frannie. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” he told her.
And even in the darkness, he could hear the happiness in her voice as she said, “I’m glad.”
Ten
He got a license for a Tuesday only a week away. Frannie sent the infamous wedding dress to the cleaner and worried about how she would find time to modify the train enough to make it manageable. They asked Stu, Dee and Jillian to be witnesses and made arrangements for a small lunch afterward.
They talked about how to consolidate their households and decided it made more sense to move into Frannie’s larger house, particularly since her business was there, as well. Half his things had migrated there already, anyhow. She informed him that it made no sense to pursue a day care for Alexa, that it would be cheaper simply to hire someone to help care for the baby in their home, literally only a few steps away from her shop. He informed her that if she wasn’t pregnant already, he wanted to wait a little while, give them a chance to enjoy each other before adding another child to the household.
They started packing up his condo, making decisions on what to keep and what to part with.
“Your dishes match,” he said to her on the Thursday evening before the wedding. “Can’t we just throw mine away?”
“Good try,” she said, wrapping newspaper around a coffee cup. “We’re donating these to the senior center, remember? They don’t care if dishes don’t match.”
“Neither did I,” he said. He rose to his feet as she placed the cup in a box loaded with dishware. “Let me put these in the van. Then you can drive down to the center and get someone to carry them in for you, while Stu and I unhook the CD speakers, the stereo and the VCR and stick them in the other van.”
She nodded. “I’ll leave the baby here since she seems happy.” With a wave she went out the front door, leaving it propped open as it had been all evening. He gazed after her for a moment, fighting the urge to follow and drag her to him for a kiss. She never kissed him before she left him unless he initiated it. In fact, she rarely ever kissed him unless he started it. And it wasn’t that she disliked it. Whenever he reached for her, she came into his arms eagerly, returning his caresses.
So what was holding her back? He sensed that she would like to be more affectionate, that she was holding herself in check. He’d shown her every way he knew how that she was the most important thing in his life, that he needed her and wanted her. Was she holding out on him because he hadn’t declared his undying love?
Love. His lip curled. Just because he hadn’t said some dumb little words didn’t mean he wasn’t committed to her for the rest of his life. What he and Frannie had was better than love, and a hell of a lot less fragile. They hardly ever fought. If they were in love, they’
d probably fight all the time. No sir, they didn’t need love. They were doing great together without anybody’s hearts getting in the way.
“I think I’ve got it.” Stu’s voice floated up from the basement. “Pull on the cable by the TV and see what happens.”
It was the right one, and Stu came up to help him carefully box up his precious electronic equipment. Frannie had a disgraceful excuse for a stereo that was going in the trash, regardless of whom she thought she might donate it to. He wouldn’t give that thing to anybody on purpose.
“The big day is looming on the horizon,” Stu commented. “Are you getting scared?”
“Nope.” Jack set the VCR in the box and started stuffing newspaper around it. “I am ready to tie the knot, my friend. Ready for marital bliss.”
Stu sat back on his heels. “I never thought I’d hear those words from you. I figured you’d never let yourself fall in love again.”
“Fall in love? Love doesn’t have a thing to do with this marriage,” he said. “You know how it is. If I have to get married again, I’m going to do it the smart way. This time I made sure we’re compatible before the question of marriage came up.”
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