5 Minutes to Marriage

by Carla Cassidy

  He closed his eyes as the sweet sensations of being joined with her swept over him. He was lost in her, and being with her chased the last of the horror away, leaving him sated and at peace.

  The sound of the boys awoke them just after eight. Jack released a small groan and tried to pull Marisa closer against him, but she quickly slid out of bed and pulled her nightgown over her head.

  “Get some more sleep,” she said. “I’ll take care of them.”

  Jack closed his eyes as she left the room. Minutes later he heard the sound of Mick’s and David’s laughter, and there was no way he could stay in bed.

  He wanted to be a part of that merriment. He needed to be surrounded by Mick and David and Marisa. His family, he thought with a proud, protective surge.

  He got out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans, then left the room to join the love and laughter.

  “Harold won’t face any charges,” Rita told Jack and Marisa as they sat in the living room. She had arrived at the ranch just after lunch to check in on her niece and see how everyone was doing.

  “I didn’t figure he would,” Jack replied. “Sure you don’t want some coffee or anything?”

  “Thanks, but no, I’m fine. Besides, I can only stay a few minutes. We’re still sorting through this whole mess.” She looked over to where Mick and David sat on the floor with their trucks. “We found some child liquid pain medication in the room. We believe Paz tried to drug the boys before he left them alone last night, but apparently he didn’t give them enough to keep them asleep.”

  “Thank God,” Jack said.

  “Mick told me they had hamburgers and a drink, then he and David fell asleep on the bed,” Marisa said. “They woke up sometime later and they were alone. That’s when David decided it would be more fun outside the room. He couldn’t manage to twist the door lock, but he could climb up on the dresser just below the window.”

  “This is one time I’m glad he has a fascination with going out windows,” Jack exclaimed.

  He gazed at his sons, his heart filling with joy. His gaze shifted to look at Marisa. She’d been quiet this morning, distant and withdrawn since the moment she’d gotten out of bed.

  “If Harold hadn’t killed Paz, then Paz would have spent the rest of his life behind bars. We know he killed Candace, and we have DNA evidence from Jenna Rothchild’s kidnapping that will probably tie him to that, as well.” Rita raised a hand to the bandage on the side of her head. “He came way too close to killing me, and it still scares me to think that Marisa might have died in that fire.”

  Marisa reached out and grabbed her aunt’s hand. “Thank God that didn’t happen.”

  “The good news is we located a deposit box in a bank where Paz had placed The Tears of the Quetzal. The ring is now back in police custody where it belongs,” Rita said.

  “And you still have your job,” Marisa said teasingly. Rita had explained to them about the missing ring and how desperate she’d been to find it.

  Rita grinned. “Thank goodness my supervisor has a heart. And I’ve promised that I’ll never check out any evidence and bring it home again.”

  “So all’s well that ends well,” Jack said.

  “We still don’t know the extent of Paz’s crimes. It might take us some time to unravel it all,” Rita said.

  “His hatred had years to fester,” Marisa said.

  “Like Kent’s did.” Jack frowned as he thought of the man who had once been his friend. “He was too afraid to leave here and take off on his own, too afraid to risk Los Angeles, but he hated me for having the courage to do it without him.”

  “He’ll have a lot of time to think about it in prison,” Rita said.

  The three talked for a few more minutes, then Rita stood to leave. “Marisa, will you walk me out?”

  Jack said goodbye to the FBI agent, then watched as Rita and Marisa left the house together. He got down on the floor between Mick and David and began to play with them.

  Now perhaps they could all go back to the life they’d been living before the kidnapping. He wanted that. He wanted the comfortable routine. He wanted the boys and laughter in the daytime and Marisa and passion at night.

  For the first time in forever, Jack saw his future before him and he liked what he saw, was eager to live his life—a life filled with love.

  Marisa came back inside and went directly to her bedroom. Jack frowned. Her mood was making him uneasy. What was going on in her head? Today should be a day of joy, but a sense of sadness clung to Marisa, a sadness Jack didn’t understand and one that worried him more than a little bit.

  He thought of the tears he’d seen in her eyes when they’d made love. He’d believed at the time that they had been tears of joy, of relief after the trauma they had suffered. Had he been wrong?

  His worry increased when she poked her head out of her room and called to him. “Jack, could I speak to you for a minute?” she asked.

  “I’ll be right back, boys,” he said as he pulled himself off the floor.

  “Hurry up, Daddy. We’re going to have a truck race,” Mick exclaimed.

  As always the word daddy shot sweet warmth through him. Bad Jack was gone. Even when he reprimanded them now, they still called him Daddy. Marisa had given him back his fatherhood.

  Jack stepped into the guest room, which smelled like her perfume. “What’s up?” he asked.

  “Aunt Rita brought me something that I thought you’d want to have.” She held out a white envelope toward him.

  He frowned. “What’s that?”

  “It’s the results of a paternity test for you and the boys.”

  He looked at her in confusion. “I didn’t take a paternity test.”

  A flash of guilt sparked in her dark brown eyes. “I took swabs from inside the boys’ mouths and a coffee cup that you had used and took them to Rita. I know it wasn’t my place to do it, but I also knew that paternity was a threat that Harold was holding over your head. Anyway, Rita called in a couple of favors and got it done immediately at the FBI lab.”

  Jack stared at the envelope as if it were a poisonous snake. He thought of all the times Candace had hinted that she’d been unfaithful, all the times Harold had told him that there was a strong possibility that at least one of the boys wasn’t his.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he finally said. He shoved his hands into his pockets. “It doesn’t matter what’s written on that paper. Both those boys are mine. They’re my heart, and a stupid test isn’t going to change that.”

  “Open it, Jack. Go on. It will put an end to the question.” She held the envelope closer to him.

  Reluctantly he pulled his hands from his pockets and reached out for the envelope. The paper felt hot between his fingers. His mouth went dry as his heart began to beat a quickened rhythm.

  He’d told her the truth. It didn’t matter to him what the test revealed. Both David and Mick were his sons in every way that counted. Whether or not his blood ran through their veins wouldn’t change his love for them.

  Still, in knowledge was power. Even though Harold had promised not to try to take the boys, there might come a time when paternity became an issue. Wasn’t it better he be armed with the truth now?

  His fingers felt big and clumsy as he fumbled to open the envelope. He pulled out the paper inside and allowed the envelope to flutter to the floor at his feet.

  “Go on, Jack. Look at it,” Marisa said softly. Her eyes shone overly bright and what he wanted to do was throw the paper on the floor and take her to bed. Instead he opened it and looked.

  He released a small cry as he read that in the case of both boys he was their father. There was absolutely no question about it. He looked up to see Marisa’s smile. “You knew,” he said softly.

  She nodded. “I read it before I gave it to you.”

  “What would you have done if the results had been different? Would you have still given it to me?”

  She frowned thoughtfully. “I’m not sure. Thank goodness I didn’t
have to face that particular dilemma.”

  It was only then that Jack glanced over her shoulder and saw her suitcase open on the bed. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  The smile that had lifted the corners of her luscious mouth fell and her eyes darkened. “I’m packing.”

  “Packing?” He looked at her in bewilderment. “Where are we going?”

  “Not we—me.” She averted her gaze from his and took a step backward. “You don’t need me here anymore, Jack. You’re doing fine with the boys, and Harold has promised he won’t fight you for custody. There’s really no reason for me to stay here.”

  A million thoughts flew through Jack’s head, a million reasons that he wanted her to stay. “The boys need you,” he said.

  “They have all they need in you,” she replied, her gaze still not meeting his.

  She walked over to the closet, pulled several blouses from their hangers and laid them on the bed next to her suitcase.

  A crazy sense of panic filled him. It wasn’t alarm over the fact that when she left he’d have nobody to help him with Mick and David. He knew she was right. He’d be fine alone with the boys—he just didn’t want to be.

  The panic came from the fact that he needed her, that he loved her, but it wasn’t fair for him to put that on her. She’d made it clear from the very beginning that she was here for his boys, not for him.

  “I wish you’d reconsider.” His words were woefully inadequate for the pain that filled his heart.

  She shook her head. “It’s for the best.” She walked back to stand in front of him and pulled off the ring he’d given her when they’d exchanged their vows. “This is yours. I just had it out on loan.”

  He shoved his hands back into his pockets, unwilling to take the ring that had once belonged to his mother and now in his mind belonged to Marisa.

  She shrugged and placed the ring on the top of the dresser, where the sunlight sparkled on the little diamond. “I would prefer you not tell the boys I’m leaving for good. I’ll tell them I’m taking a little trip. They’re young. In a couple of weeks they will forget all about me.” Her voice cracked slightly.

  As she began to fold the blouses and place them in her suitcase Mick yelled and Jack left her bedroom to tend to the boys.

  He knew how to make music. He knew now what to do when one of the boys misbehaved. But he didn’t know how to stop the woman he loved from walking away from him.

  Hot tears pressed at Marisa’s eyes as she sat on the edge of the bed. She tried to staunch them, but they came without volition, fast and furiously running down her cheeks.

  She’d awakened that morning with the warmth of Jack’s arms around her, with the scent of him lingering on her skin, and she’d known she had to leave.

  It would be less painful now than it would be later. At least she was leaving of her own volition rather than being asked to leave by Jack.

  Still, that didn’t ease the pain that crashed through her. She’d thought she could do this. She’d believed she could marry Jack for the best interest of the boys and keep herself emotionally distant from Jack.

  She’d been wrong. Jack had stirred a love and passion in her far greater than she’d ever felt before and it terrified her.

  Eventually he wouldn’t be satisfied being married to a woman he’d wed only in an attempt to assure his continued custody of his sons. It was better she leave now than wait until Jack’s unhappiness forced her out.

  She couldn’t stay here knowing she had Jack’s respect, his gratitude and occasionally his desire without his love. It was just too difficult.

  It would have been easier to sneak out like a thief in the night without telling any of them goodbye, but she hadn’t been able to stand the thought of not getting goodbye kisses and hugs.

  She pulled herself up from the bed and continued her packing. She tried to ignore the noise of the boys playing in the living room, the deep melodious sound of Jack’s voice as he spoke to them.

  As she finished her packing she realized there had been a small part of her that had expected this moment to come. It was why she hadn’t done anything about selling her house.

  All too quickly she had her bags packed and was ready to leave. Once again tears pressed hot against her eyes. She didn’t want to leave and yet the depth of her emotions for Jack made her want to run, to hide, before the pain got any greater.

  With a weariness that weighed heavy she stood and grabbed the suitcase that she’d initially arrived with. It felt heavier than it had when she’d carried it into the house, and she knew the additional weight was the emotion she’d packed inside as she prepared to leave.

  When she went into the living room Jack and the boys were in the middle of the floor, a toy truck rally taking place before them.

  “M’ssa, watch!” David said as he ran a truck over a pillow and up Jack’s arm. Those familiar words nearly broke her. But she refused to weep in front of the boys.

  “David, Mick, come sit here with me for a minute.” She sat on the sofa and patted either side of her. The boys clambered up beside her, and she put her arms around them.

  The pain that cascaded through her was unbearable. For a moment she couldn’t breathe. These were the children she was supposed to have, and the man seated on the floor in front of them was the man who would forever own her heart.

  “I have to go away for a little while,” she finally said. “I want you to be good boys for your daddy while I’m gone.”

  Mick stared at her. “You promised,” he said, his little features screwed up in outrage. “You promised you wouldn’t go anywhere.”

  “Yeah, you promised,” David echoed. “Bad M’ssa.”

  She didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. She looked at Jack, but he offered her no support. He remained on the floor, his gray eyes slightly accusing.

  “I know,” she said. “But you don’t need me anymore. You have your daddy, who is going to take care of you forever.”

  “But we want you, too,” Mick said.

  David leaned into Marisa with his sturdy little body and eyed her angrily. “Bad M’ssa,” he repeated.

  They were breaking her heart. She couldn’t stop the tears that escaped, and she looked at Jack for support. “Bad M’ssa,” he said.

  She got up from the sofa, knowing if she didn’t go now she never would. The two little boys were bad enough, but the pained look in Jack’s eyes was killing her.

  “I’ll see you soon,” she said to Mick and David. She grabbed her suitcase and started for the door, which had blurred with a new mist of tears.

  “Marisa, wait.”

  Jack got up from the floor and walked over to her. “Boys, see if you can use those blocks and build a road.”

  As the two went back to their play, Jack took her by the shoulders. His mesmerizing gray eyes held hers, and again her heartbreak shuddered through her.

  “I can’t let you leave here without telling you something,” he said.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, unable to look into his eyes as he told her once again how much he appreciated what she’d done here for him and his sons.

  “Marisa, I love you.”

  Her eyes flew open, and she stared at him in stunned surprise. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” he continued, “because I know that loving me had nothing to do with what you’ve been doing here.”

  “You’re just grateful to me,” she said as thick emotion pressed hard against her chest.

  “You’re right, I am grateful. But that’s just the beginning of what I feel for you. I love you.” He reached up and placed his palm on her cheek. “You excite me, Marisa. You inspire me. I want you to be the woman who is standing beside me as the boys grow from rambunctious little boys into fine young men…and I want us to spend the rest of our lives together.”

  He dropped his hand from her cheek, and his eyes darkened as if in anticipation of pain. “But I don’t want you to stay here because of the boys. I want it to be because you love m
e, and I’ll understand if you have to walk away.”

  “Oh, Jack, I was leaving because I’m in love with you, because I couldn’t stand the idea of staying here with just your gratitude.” She smiled through her tears. “I love you, Jack Cortland, and I would be honored to be the woman standing next to you for the rest of our lives.”

  She barely got the words out of her mouth before he took possession of her lips in a kiss that broke through any fear that might have lingered in her heart, one that electrified her with passion and with the promise of a love to last a lifetime.

  “Get Mommy and Daddy,” Mick yelled, and grabbed Jack around the knees. Jack toppled to the floor, and pulled Marisa along with him and there was laughter and tickles and love and Marisa knew that this was where she belonged forever…with the family of her heart.

  Epilogue

  People milled around the front yard, where tables heavy with food stood next to a three-piece band that filled the air with good old country music.

  It had been two weeks since the kidnapping, and Jack and Marisa had decided a party was in order to celebrate their life together. They had invited all the Rothchilds as well as Marisa’s family.

  The party had begun an hour before and was in full swing as Marisa stood on the front porch and surveyed the scene.

  Her parents stood next to Harold and his second wife, Anna. The four of them chatted with animation. Probably discussing Las Vegas real estate and the current depressed situation in the market.

  Harold had gone home from the police station the morning after the kidnapping and had told his trophy wife he wanted a divorce. She’d moved out with their son, and she and Harold were now hammering out the details of the breakup. In the meantime Harold had been seeing a lot of his previous wife, Anna.

  Conner Rothchild, Harold’s nephew, had arrived with his new wife, Vera LaRue, a sweet, sassy woman who had worked as a dancer, and standing near the food table was Natalie, Candace’s twin sister, and Natalie’s new husband, Matt.