"And did it?"
"No. It just proved what an ass I am." Strong fingers swept back a lock of hair from her forehead, sending a tingle through her. Jonas’s voice dropped a note deeper, rough and uneven. "Can you ever forgive me?"
"Maybe." Kate hardly recognized the husky murmur as her own. "On two conditions."
"Name them." Jonas’s fingers tangled in her curls, tugging her head inexorably back, inch by exquisite inch. Kate's gaze lifted from the pulse in his throat to the stubborn chin, lingered on the fullness of his bottom lip, then met glittering blue eyes dark with need. Bright with promise.
"Cancel Saturday night," she said.
"Already done. I called Valerie back as soon as you left."
"And stop trying to be responsible for everyone else's life. Especially mine. If I stay, it's my choice. My decision."
"Your problem, not mine?"
"Exactly."
"I think I can live with that." His mouth hovered a fraction above hers, his breath caressing her lips. "Tell me, though—would you consider it undue influence if I told you I loved you?"
Kate went very still. She stared into velvet eyes, and felt rather than saw him smile. His lips brushed hers once, twice.
"That depends on what you're trying to influence, I suppose," she whispered. Shocking need quivered through her as Jonas’s free hand slid down her spine, curved over her hip, drew her into him.
"Your decision to stay or not. How long you'll stay."
Another kiss, longer this time, made a sensual demand on her very center. The world drifted away from her feet, and for a long moment of utter bliss, Jonas’s hard, muscled length became her only reality.
He pulled back slowly, then rested his forehead against hers. "Forever,” he said. “That’s how long I want you to stay. I love you, Kate Dexter."
Kate smiled with a quiet warmth that started somewhere near her toes, reveling in the sheer nearness of the man holding her. "Consider me influenced,” she replied. “Because I love you, too."
Epilogue
Four years later
Kate caught hold of the little body barreling past her and swung her wriggling daughter into her arms. "Hold on, there, tiger. Where are you off to in such a rush?"
Jessica pushed at her chest. "Want down, Mommy. Jessie down!"
Kate looked past her armload as Jonas came through the living room, stumbling over a collection of play dishes and cursing under his breath. She hid a smile. "Hey, handsome."
"Stop trying to butter me up, lady," he retorted with mock ferocity, joining them. "You're late."
"Sorry. I got tied up in the office and then hit traffic because of an accident. Have you spoken to Mrs. Barr yet?"
He dropped a kiss on her forehead and poked Jessica in the belly, sending the two-year-old into a gale of giggles. Jonas's blue eyes lit up at the sound of little girl laughter, and Kate marveled again at the changes in the man she'd married. From tough, fiercely independent cop to doting, undignified fatherhood. Four years in, and it still didn't seem possible. She set the toddler on the floor and watched her run down the hallway.
"I have," Jonas answered her question. "I talked to the old battle axe after I called you. She's looping the principal in on the meeting this time. It ain't gonna be pretty."
"Did she say exactly what he'd done?" Kate watched her husband anxiously, knowing how close Jonas was to being at his wits' end with their fourteen-year-old foster son. Daniel had been with them now for almost six months, and as far as they could tell, they'd made almost zero progress with him. They were the third foster home the boy had been in during the last year, and Jonas took this one very personally. It was so close to home for him.
"Another fight," he replied. "What else?"
"Do you want me to come with you?"
"Nah. You put your feet up for a while. I can handle her...I mean, it." Jonas paused in his search for his keys on the hall table and narrowed his gaze on her. "You look tired today."
"Nothing that dinner and an early night won't fix."
He shook his head, looking doubtful. "Are you sure you shouldn't be the one at home? I see you like this"—he nodded at her ballooning belly—"and think about you having to work all day, then fight traffic to get back home, and I can't help thinking we made the wrong decision. I shouldn't have let you—"
"Burke." Kate crossed her arms and regarded him.
He paused.
"Remember that taking-too-much-responsibility thing you keep doing?" she asked.
"I'm doing it again?"
"You're doing it again."
He gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry."
"Besides," Kate said, as she ushered him toward the door and his appointment with Daniel's homeroom teacher and the school principal, "how gullible do you think I am? You really expect me to believe that being home all day with the munchkin and all the housework and the animals to look after would be better for me than sitting in air-conditioned comfort and napping through meetings?"
He grinned. "Can't blame a poor househusband for trying."
"Well, you can stop trying, because it’s not going to work. Now, are you picking up Sarah and Nathan as well, or are they taking the bus?" Their other two foster children were at the primary school on the way to the junior high that Daniel attended.
"I'll pick them up. By the way, dinner's already in the oven, but that early night you wanted..." Jonas turned to take her into his arms, trailing tiny kisses down the side of her neck to her collarbone. "I don't suppose we could delay that for an hour or two, could we?"
Kate's fingers tightened on his shirtfront as her knees turned to mush. Three years of marriage, a veritable parade of foster kids, a daughter of their own and another child on the way, and he could still turn her world upside down with just a touch.
Bemused, she stared up at him. "How do you do that?"
"What?" He nibbled on her lower lip.
"That," she said breathlessly. "Turn me into a puddle like that, just by touching me."
"Fair's fair. You can do it to me with just a look, sweetheart."
Kate smiled her satisfaction at the response, and Jonas chuckled. "Now you look like the Cheshire cat."
"And you've been watching too much television with Jess."
"Speaking of whom—"
"I'll find her. Give Mrs. Barr my regards."
"Yeah, right."
Kate watched the minivan drive down the lane until it disappeared behind the trees near the road. Jonas would handle Mrs. Barr just fine, despite his doubts. Just as he handled the million and one other problems that arose almost daily in raising four children, three of whom came with rather a lot of baggage. He had a knack for it, something that went beyond the understanding he'd gained from his own rocky start in life. Kate had known it instinctively, when he'd first suggested the farm and the idea of fostering to her.
It hadn't been a difficult decision to make. Hailing from opposite sides of the border as they did, they'd known from the beginning that only one of them could keep their career, and Jonas’s dream of making a difference had been the deciding factor. And so here they were, living forty minutes from Kate's job in Ottawa, each working in their own way—and together—to make a difference.
As for Daniel, Kate suspected he'd come around eventually. He wasn't a bad kid, just angry and mixed up, betrayed and disappointed. But he'd come to the right place for healing—and found the right man. Just as they all had.
Kate closed the door and, still smiling at the last thought, went in search of their daughter.
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About the Author
Like most romance writers, Linda Poitevin is a firm believer in happy-ever-afters—especially since she's living her own. But she also knows how hard you have
to work at those sometimes, and that's reflected in her stories about people who are as real to her as she hopes they'll be to you. People who live, laugh, cry, and love as hard as they can in this crazy life we all share.
In her other-than-writing life, Linda lives just outside Ottawa, Canada's capital, where she is a wife, mom, friend, avid gardener, walker of a giant dog, and keeper of many (many!) pets.
You can find Linda online at her website and on Facebook (where she posts many pictures of her many pets), and you can get a free story when you sign up to receive updates in her newsletter.
Other Books from Linda Poitevin
The Ever After Series
Gwynneth Ever After
Forever After
Forever Grace
Always and Forever
Abigail Always
Writing as Lydia M. Hawke
Sins of the Angels
Sins of the Son
Shadow of Doubt Page 27