A wave of pure emotion hit Annie so hard she had to lock her knees to keep standing.
Jack looked at her then, really looked at her, his eyes clearly inviting her to see what he felt.
“If it weren’t for Annie, Corbin Manufacturing would have already closed its doors. It took her love for this town and its people to make me see the effect that action would have had. How could Macon’s Point have a better mayor than one who thinks its people are its greatest asset?”
J.D. puffed up as if he’d suddenly been injected with hot air. “You know, Annie, this town has always been too small for me. But it’s exactly right for you.” He turned around and stomped off across the parking lot.
“I can’t think of a nicer compliment,” Annie said, turning to face Jack.
“Did I just overstep my bounds?” he asked.
“A lady likes having her honor defended.”
Jack smiled. “I like defending your honor. But you don’t need me riding in on a white horse. You were doing just fine yourself.”
“This would be our cue to leave,” Earnest said, waving for the other two council members to follow.
And suddenly, it was just the two of them, alone, or at least as alone as they could be with half the county on the other side of the parking lot.
Jack took her hand and pulled her around to the other side of the maple tree. She stood with her back against the wide old trunk, unable to say a word.
He kissed her.
Annie sighed and kissed him back, wrapped her arms around his neck. “Jack,” she said, her voice not sounding like her own.
He pulled back and looked down at her.
“Thank you. For everything you said.”
“It was all true, Annie. When my dad married someone else so soon after my mom died, I looked at what he did as proof that he couldn’t have loved her like I’d always thought. I think I was wrong about that. And wrong, too, that there would never be anyone who would make me feel that way.”
Annie’s eyes filled with tears. She reached up, touched a finger to his lips.
“It’s like I had this sensor in my heart,” he said, “and it never made a sound until I met you. You’re the one. It’s been telling me that from the first moment I saw you.”
“Jack.”
He put his arms around her waist, pulled her close to him and kissed her again. “Will you marry me, Annie?”
Not so very long ago, the question would have sent her into a whirlwind of self-doubt. How could she know this was right? How could she be sure this time wouldn’t be like the last time? That Jack was the man he seemed to be? The difference was that she knew it in the deepest part of her, in her heart. That this was the man with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. And that his feelings mirrored her own. She had to believe that this was how a person knew. “You know I come with a seven-year-old son, a very large Saint Bernard and a sister who spends as much time at my house as she does her own?” Her voice broke a little at the end.
“Couldn’t have designed a better package,” he said, smiling and then gathering her against him for the kind of kiss that would have made any answer other than yes impossible.
EPILOGUE
Three months later
IF IT WERE POSSIBLE for two people to die of waiting, both Jack and Annie would be long gone.
They’d gotten married that morning at the First Baptist Church in Macon’s Point. A beautiful, snowy Saturday, it seemed as if most of the town had turned out for the wedding. Tommy served as ring bearer, Clarice as maid of honor and Pete as best man. Essie had sat on the front row with a tear-soaked tissue clutched in one hand.
J.D. had actually sent flowers and a respectful note saying he hoped Annie would allow Tommy to visit him in L.A. soon. He’d dropped the custody suit and surprised Annie the past few months with regular phone calls to their son. Annie was glad. For Tommy’s sake, she wanted there to be peace between them.
For Jack and her, these past three months had felt like three years. But Annie had thought they needed a stretch of time to make sure their feelings for one another didn’t change. And she was now. Sure. Jack loved her. She had seen it in his eyes numerous times these past few months, quiet, anchored love, each glimpse of which deepened her own acceptance of it.
Her husband loved her.
The bathroom door opened, light slicing the darkened room in half. Annie turned around and looked at him. Cliché that it was, he took her breath away. Jack crossed the room, stopped just inches from her, reached out and touched the back of his hand to her face. “Hi, wife.”
“Hi, husband.”
“Sure do like the sound of that.”
“I like it, too.”
“Did you call home?”
Annie nodded. “Everything’s fine. Clarice said Tommy was already asleep. She and Pete were making popcorn.”
“Kind of interesting that he postponed his trip back to London for a few days.”
“Uh-huh. And Clarice happened to mention that she’s always wanted to see Big Ben. I have a feeling she’ll be going over for a visit.”
“You all right with that?”
“Pete’s great.”
Jack put his arms around her, pulled her close. “You are so beautiful, Annie.”
The moon lent the room soft light, and they lay there in bed, smiling at one another, husband and wife. He ran the back of his hand across her cheek and hair and said, “I never knew what this could be like. Belonging to someone and having someone who belongs to me. It changes the way everything feels.”
The sound of the ocean dipped through the room’s open windows. Annie ran her fingers through his hair, cupped her hand at the back of his neck. “If this was all there was, I’d be happy with it.”
“Oh, but there’s more,” he said, smiling down at her. “All right if I show you now?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781460314180
Copyright © 2013 by Inglath Cooper
Originally published as A WOMAN LIKE ANNIE
Copyright © 2003 by Inglath Cooper
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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