He’d soon know. The pine cone wreath rattled as the door opened. He stopped pushing the swing with his foot and drank in the sight of Meg in her colorful wool jacket and leggings.
When she stepped down on the porch, he stood. “You ran away.”
She blushed. “I realized so much in the midst of everything that happened. I needed time to think about it.”
Where before he’d made a mistake by not telling her his feelings, right now he sensed she needed to talk about hers. “What did you think about?”
She searched his face as if she was looking for something special. “I’m no longer afraid to go back to work. I faced my worst fear today and did it successfully. I have a feeling the nightmares will stop, too.”
His heart did a nosedive and the ring he’d bought a half hour ago became a weight in his pocket. “I see. Does that mean you’ll be moving back to D.C.?”
She looked hesitant but took a step closer to him. “No. It means I won’t be moving back. When our lives were in danger today, I also realized nothing is more important to me than this baby…and you and Travis.”
Hope flared again, and he stepped so close to her they were almost touching. “You trusted me with your life today, but I think you’re still afraid to trust me with your heart. That’s my fault, and I’m sorry. I just hope it’s not too late.”
“Too late for what?” she murmured, her brown eyes wide and soft and maybe just a bit hopeful.
“For me to tell you how much I love you. Yes, I want to marry you for the sake of our child, but also because we’re good together in bed and out. We can talk and kiss and argue. I think that’s because we love each other so completely. Travis was willing to stay in the situation and risk his life for you. You were willing to risk your life for Travis. And I wouldn’t have had a life if anything happened to either of you. I’m asking you to marry me so I can give you the love you deserve—a love that accepts who you are and what you need, a love that will last forever.”
Tears fell down her cheeks. “Lily calls that kind of love a miracle.”
He couldn’t keep from wrapping his arms around Meg and pulling her into his body. Stroking her hair, he asked, “What do you think?”
Meg lifted her head and tenderly traced his jaw. “I think I’m trying to get up the courage to stop running and hiding from you.” Her lower lip quivered as she said, “I love you, Logan. More than I thought it possible to love anyone. Even after this afternoon, a little voice in my head kept saying, ‘He only did his job.’ But my heart knew better. It has all along. That’s why making love with you is a miracle in itself.”
He’d never known a woman more loving or honest or courageous than Margaret Elizabeth Dawson. Taking the ring from his pocket, he clasped her hand and slipped the solitaire diamond on her finger.
She looked at the ring with a radiant smile. “It’s beautiful.”
As her gaze returned to his with so much love it overwhelmed him, there was only one more way he knew how to tell her how much he loved her. He kissed her forehead, her eyes, her cheeks. When she lifted her lips to his, he took her tenderly until their love exploded into passion they couldn’t deny. Sweeping her off her feet, he carried her to the swing, where he held her in his lap. Their eyes sent loving messages, their tongues explored, their hands crept to warm places until finally Logan raised his head.
Surrounding her with his arms, loving her tucked into his body, he said, “You haven’t answered my question. Will you marry me?”
She held his face between her hands, running her fingers along his jaw. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Suddenly she looked worried.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
“Travis. How do you think he’ll feel?”
Logan passed his hand up and down her arm, almost afraid to believe his heart’s desire was within his grasp. “He approves. And he understands that I love you. He understands we’re not getting married just for the sake of the baby.”
“You told him?”
He lifted her chin and smoothed the pad of his thumb over the delicate point. “I’m ready to tell the world.”
With the sweetest smile he’d ever seen, she set her lips on his, traced their outline with her tongue, then pulled away. “There’s a town-council meeting tomorrow night. We can do it then,” she teased.
“I’d rather do ‘it’ right now.”
Her expression was smug and thoroughly seductive at the same time. “Why, Sheriff MacDonald! We’re on the front porch of my aunt and uncle’s house.”
He lowered his lips to her ear and said in a low voice, “I’d remedy that and carry you to the barn if you didn’t have company.”
Bracing her hands on his chest, she promised, “You can carry me to the barn later, after we visit with our company.”
“Do you think Lily and Ned will let us borrow their barn after we’re married?”
“I’m sure of it.”
He looked into her eyes, so full of everything he wanted to see and more. “I love you, Meg. Will you marry me soon? Before the holidays so we can share Christmas with everyone we love as husband and wife?” He couldn’t keep the husky note of possession from his voice.
“Nothing would make me happier than sharing Christmas with you as your wife.”
Logan found her lips again…giving, taking and sharing their love—their miracle.
Epilogue
Meg clapped her hands and tried to keep her tears in check as Travis received his college diploma. “I’m going to miss him,” she murmured to Logan.
“Sweetheart, he’s been gone for four years,” her husband responded reasonably.
Four-and-a-half-year-old Suzanne, sitting on her mother’s lap, clapped her hands, too. “He’s goin’ far away.”
Logan slipped his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “He’s wanted to go back to Spain since he spent half of his senior year there in high school. Only now he’ll have a job. Remember when you used to enjoy traveling?”
Travis had earned a degree in international finance, as well as majoring in Spanish. The two had gotten him an entry-level position with an American corporation based in Spain.
Chun Won slipped from the folding chair and tried to wave at his brother as he came down from the platform set up in the center of the football field. Even from the considerable distance, Meg saw Travis give them a thumbs-up sign.
She smoothed her hand over Chun Won’s coal black hair. After Suzanne was born, Meg had worked part time at Victoria’s agency, taking her daughter along with her. Then one day, two years ago, Chun Won’s file had come across her desk. Meg had read that he’d been abandoned at birth and left at a Korean orphanage. She and Logan adopted him. He’d needed tons of love and affection, something she and Logan had plenty to give. From the day he’d arrived in the United States, she’d decided to stay home full time, although she still helped Victoria when she got into a bind.
Remembering her husband’s question about traveling, she teased, “You and the children are enough of an adventure.” She felt the familiar kick of the newest member of their family residing in her womb.
“When we get home, I have a surprise for you.” Logan’s smile was slightly off center and mysterious.
“What?”
“If I tell you, it won’t be a surprise.”
She laid her hand on his muscled thigh and gave it a squeeze. “Tell me.”
Green passion, deep and exciting, intensified in Logan’s eyes. It was still like that between them. A smile, a touch, and they wanted each other as much as they had the first time they’d made love, whether they were in their own bed or in her aunt and uncle’s barn.
He chuckled. “Are you going to use coercion?”
“If I have to,” she assured him with a coy smile that she knew would raise the stakes a notch or two.
Leaning toward her, he gave her a sound kiss that made the beautiful May day in Connecticut even more memorable.
When Logan pulled away, she a
sked, “Was that supposed to distract me?”
“No. That was supposed to tell you how much I love you.”
He never forgot to tell her or show her…often. The past five years had taught her she could depend on love and believe in its power to solve any problem and forge a bond so strong Logan’s heart and hers communicated without words.
Stroking her cheek, he smiled. “The plans are finished for the new house. We can pick them up from the contractor when we get home.”
That was a surprise. She hadn’t expected them for another two weeks. “Our dream house.”
“And a house to dream in.”
Logan understood her dreams as well as he understood her. Best of all, he shared them.
She remembered back to a day when she was twelve, standing on her aunt’s porch. Then, she’d decided she belonged in Willow Valley. Now she called Willow Valley home, but she knew she belonged with Logan.
Until the end of time.
Suzanne laid her dark head on Meg’s shoulder. Chun Won stationed himself between her and Logan, leaning against his father’s knee. The graduation ceremony complete, Travis walked toward them, his robe flapping in the breeze.
Love blessed her daily with its miracles.
Logan took her hand and held it tightly in his. Their love was the greatest miracle of all.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5717-1
THE SHERIFF’S PROPOSAL
Copyright © 1996 by Karen Rose Smith
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The Sheriff’s Proposal Page 20