"So is Eve." Carla shifted Zach to her shoulder and patted his back. He rewarded her with a loud burp. "That's it, big boy. Get all those bubbles out of there."
Sam watched, his heart filling with love. Love. A small word. One that could bring unbelievable happiness. Or unbearable pain.
He could only pray that his friend found what he had.
* * * *
In her hotel room, Eve put out the pictures she always carried with her. She stared at the one of her mother, its edges slightly bent, its colors muted. Her mother's face, so very like her own, stared back at her. Evelyn Dalton had been a strong woman, one who went after what she wanted with everything she had.
How had her daughter turned out to be such a coward?
The second picture was of her parents, taken at their last wedding anniversary. The love shining from their eyes hadn't dimmed with the years. It was there, bright and bold, for all who cared to look. Their smiles hadn't been for the camera, only for each other. Still, the camera had managed to capture the love that arced between them.
Unbidden, Daniel's voice, teasing and tender, husky and hearty, echoed through her memory. The sound was so real, so powerful that she looked about, as if she'd conjured him up. All she had to do to start the memories coming was simply close her eyes and forget everything but the sound of him whispering her name.
But she was alone. Utterly, totally alone.
She set the picture aside and wandered to her window.
Moonlight silvered the dark, quiet garden below. Shapes appeared, shifted, swayed in the breeze. A tug at the curtains had them opening, and the breeze cooled her heated skin. She inhaled deeply, needing the fresh air, as if it could banish the cobwebs from her mind.
Nothing could expel the memory of the anger in Daniel's eyes, though. That she deserved it only sharpened her pain, deepened her guilt.
But how could she have done anything different? She couldn't ask him to choose between her and what he was. She wouldn't love him as she did if he weren't the man he was.
The following morning, she threw her things into a suitcase. She hadn't known she was on her way to her father's home in Hershey, Pennsylvania until she hit the interstate. When realization came, she chuckled. Whenever she'd been upset as a little girl, she'd turned to her father. It seemed some things never changed.
She smiled as she pulled into the driveway and spotted him repairing the wrap-around porch of the century old farmhouse. He'd bought the house five years ago after retiring from Georgetown University where he'd taught law for thirty years. Slowly, he was renovating the house.
She parked the car and let herself out. "Daddy," she called and ran to him.
He stuck a hammer in the carpenter's apron he wore and opened his arms. After hugging her, he scratched his head. "Did you tell me you were coming?"
The old joke raised the first genuine smile she'd felt in days. At sixty-nine, Willard Dalton still had the sharp mind that had kept law students on their toes for more than three decades, but he liked the image of the absent-minded professor and often played it to the hilt.
Eve played along. "Of course, I did. You just forgot."
After wrapping her in another hug, he opened the door and gestured her inside. "What brings you to see your old man?"
"Can't a girl want to see her favorite father?"
He stood her back and studied her. "What's going on with my Evie?" He used the nickname rarely. That he did so now told her he knew she was hurting. The story poured out, and with it, a bucket of tears. When she'd dried her eyes, her father took her in his arms and rocked her, as he had when she'd been a child.
"You'd like him, Daddy," she whispered. "He's a good man. A decent, caring man who's going all the way to the top. He wants me to be with him."
"And you're afraid. Because of what happened to Evelyn."
She managed a nod.
"Your mother and I were some of the lucky ones."
She pulled back to stare at him, not sure she'd heard him correctly. "Lucky?"
"We had fifteen years together. Fifteen happy years. That's more than a lot of people have. Nothing is as dangerous as loving. Unless it's not loving at all."
She'd never heard her father talk like that before. Maybe she'd never listened.
"Your mother loved us," he said.
"Then why did she have to run for office? If she hadn't, she might still be…” She couldn't complete the sentence, couldn't say the word that hovered on her lips.
"Alive," her father finished the thought for her. "She wanted to make a difference. For you, for your children, for all the children. But she never forgot her most important role." A reminiscent smile touched his lips. "She used to say being a wife and mother was keeper of the present, mother of the future."
"Keeper of the present, mother of the future," she repeated.
"Did she really mean that?"
"What do you think?"
Eve didn't have to wonder. She remembered the love that shimmered between her mother and her father, a love that the years hadn't dimmed. She also recalled the love her mother had lavished upon her. They hadn't had a lot of time together, but what they'd shared was a precious memory.
Something else her father had said snared her attention.
"That's what Daniel says. He wants to make a difference."
"He sounds like a good man."
"He is," she said and knew it was the truth. Daniel was a good man. Perhaps a great one.
"You love him, don't you?" her father asked.
"With all my heart."
"Would it hurt any less if something happened to him and you weren't married to him?"
Something happen to Daniel? The mere suggestion was unbearable, shortening her breath and lengthening her heartache.
"Would it?" he persisted.
Was the answer to all the other questions found in the answer to this one: would the pain be any less if something happened to Daniel and they didn't belong to each other? Because they already did. Whether or not what they had was formalized with a marriage certificate, whether or not they legalized their feelings, whether or not they were together or apart, her heart already belonged to him.
She didn't need to think about it. "No." Whatever happened to Daniel happened to her.
"Then why not take whatever time you have? I wouldn't trade one of those years with your mother for all the safety, all the guarantees in the world. Not one."
Eve pressed her father's hand between her own. "I know how much you loved Mother."
His smile was a gentle rebuke. "No, you don't. Not yet. But you will. If you have enough courage to go to your young man and tell him what's in your heart."
Did she? Have enough courage? She wanted to believe she did. She wanted to believe it more than she'd ever wanted anything in her life.
"I love him."
"Then you know that all that you need to."
"I do, don't I?"
The simplicity of the answer astounded her. Why hadn't she seen it before? She loved Daniel. And he loved her. At least, he had. Had she destroyed his love with her fear?
She hugged him. "Thanks, Daddy."
"Now that we've straightened out your life, stay and have dinner. Tomorrow is soon enough to start home."
The following morning, she was up before sunrise. "I'll call you," she said.
Her father held her close. "Give Daniel my best. And welcome him to the family."
"I will."
She drove with a reckless disregard for the speed limits, her carelessness fed by the pleadings of a desperate heart. Pictures of the two of them together crowded her thoughts. Daniel with a cone of cotton candy in one hand and a foot long hotdog in the other. Daniel choosing a present for Carla. Daniel holding Zach in his arms. The steady gaze from his eyes, the smile that had a hint of seriousness beneath it. A dozen other images, captured in such a short time, flitted through her mind, until they were whittled down to one: Daniel telling her that he loved her and asking h
er to marry him.
Please, she prayed silently. Please don't let it be too late.
She headed home. Home. It wasn't a matter of place but a one of the heart. And her heart belonged to Daniel.
He was everything she'd ever wanted. Love didn't come to order, she'd learned. Not did it come with guarantees. The only certainty she had was that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Daniel. Five years or fifty-five, she wanted every one of them with him.
She didn't have to look far. She found him in front of her shop, his head bowed as he leaned against the door. Her heart broke a little more as she understood that she'd done that.
She pulled into her driveway, uncaring that the car angled onto the lawn. Yanking open the door, she climbed out. Daniel stared at her with an intensity, a longing she thought she'd never see again.
Did he move first, or did she? It didn't matter. Within moments, they were but a scant inch apart.
Each halted.
Each waited.
Each wondered what to say.
Daniel solved the problem by wrapping his arms around her waist, lifting her off her feet, and holding her to him as if he'd never let her go.
He crushed her to him, running his hands over her hair, her face, her shoulders, as if to reassure himself that she was, indeed, here. His lips found hers, hungry and eager, warm and tender.
When, at last, he put her from him, she started to tell him about her conversation with her father, what she'd learned about herself. "I—"
"No. I've got some things to say and you're going to listen."
"You don't under—"
"What I understand is that I love you and you love me." There. He'd said it. "I want to make memories with you. I want to grow old with you and have babies and grandbabies with red hair and golden eyes. I want you to teach them how to weave and for us to weave dreams together. I want the whole nine yards."
"So do I."
The words were delivered so softly that he barely caught them. "Say that again."
"So do I." More loudly. "So do I." Boldly now. "I love you." The words tumbled from her lips.
She caught her hand in his. "I took a look at all the scenarios. You could get killed by a madman's bullet." She put up her other hand to stop him when he would have protested. "I could prick my finger on my spinning wheel and sleep a hundred years." His lips were twitching now. "Or I might get mowed down by a bus. There're no guarantees. No absolutes. Except one."
"What's that?"
"This." She stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips. "I love you. Whatever happens, that won't change. That won't ever change."
"I've been thinking. I could practice law. Or teach. I've always fancied myself a professor at some ivy league school. I can see it now. I'd look very distinguished in jackets with leather patches on the elbows, have a cigar in the corner of my mouth, and lecture on very esoteric subjects."
The image filled him with revulsion, but for Eve, he'd do it. He'd understood during the last weeks that he'd do anything, sacrifice anything, be anything, if it meant having her in his life.
For a moment, she pictured sharing an ordinary life with Daniel, one without the press and the potential dangers. One filled with station wagons, carpools, Saturday nights at the movies, and Sunday dinners with the family. Even as the picture took shape in her mind, she knew it wasn't right.
"Running for president…making a difference to this country, that's your dream, that's what you were meant to do. That's your destiny."
"That was before I knew you." He closed his hands over her shoulders, bringing her closer. "You are my dream. My destiny. You're everything I ever wanted. None of it matters if it means I lose you. If I do nothing but spend the rest of my life loving you, sharing with you, building a life with you, I'll have everything worth having, every dream worth dreaming, every wish worth wishing."
"You've forgotten one very important thing. I fell in love with you, not some hot-shot lawyer or boring professor. You. Just the way you are." She took his hand in hers and pressed it to her lips. "Daniel, you're the most honorable man I know. How can I ask you to be any less?
"I won't promise to be a society leader or serve on committees. All I can promise is to love you."
"That's all I've ever wanted." He tugged her to him and held on tight. "You're all I ever wanted."
"You have me. For now. For always."
About the Author
Jane McBride Choate is a wife of thirty years, a mother of five, and grandmother of two. She currently keeps herself occupied with reading and writing romances accompanied by copious amounts of chocolate. (She is responsible for the rumor circulating that chocolate is, indeed, a vegetable.)
Her love affair with romances began when she was a teenager and read every Harlequin she could get her hands on. At that time, the only legitimate professions for a woman to have were governess and nurse. She knew that women could do more, be more, and grew up with the industry as women and romance heroines invaded the boardroom as well as the bedroom. She has published twenty-four (24) novels with Harlequin, Kensington, and Avalon.
In addition to writing romances, she pens children's stories and has published over two hundred (200) stories and articles.
Welcome to Encore Romance
Encore: A demand by an audience for an additional performance, usually expressed by applause. In the literary community, applause is expressed by sales and reader commitment to an author. The books you will find here at Encore Romance are previously published titles from some of your favorite authors.
Romance never goes out of style, and we don't believe romance books do, either. A romance you read in 1988 can be just as poignant and memorable as one you read in 2008. That's why we've chosen to bring back all your favorite out-of-print or otherwise unavailable books. All of the books published by Encore Romance will be available at familiar e-book distributors and easily accessible.
Encore Romance will allow you to remember each and every book you loved from years past. We are dedicated to reliving the romances, treasuring the memories, and giving our readers something more to love about their favorite authors!
To learn more about Encore Romance and our growing line-up of talented authors, please visit our website at www.encoreromance.com.
Think of Me Page 12