This was it, her chance for happiness with a man she respected and loved. Yet she couldn’t find her voice.
She’d spent too much time weighing her good fortune in her mind without giving her answer, she knew it, but this was her life. No longer worried about making everyone else happy first, she ran a brief future of what life with JT would be like through her mind. Awkwardness settled across the crowd. JT stirred, as if he intended to stand up again.
“No!” she shouted.
Disappointment covered his face.
“I mean, stand up,” she said. “Please.” She shook her hands out, trying to gather her composure. “I want to answer you.” She helped pull him up and held tightly onto his hands. “Give me a second, please.”
Standing before her, a calm smile on his face replacing the doubt. Deep grooves outlined his wonderful grin. His eyes shone brightly with love and vulnerability. She spent a second taking it all in, wanting to hold that vision in her mind’s eye for ever.
“You’ve said some pretty great things about me, and I think I should let them…” she tossed her head in the direction of the ballroom “…know how wonderful you are.”
She smiled through blurred vision.
“You are the most courageous man I’ve ever met, and this crazy idea of a proposal is just another example of how daring you are. The whole time you were sick you blamed no one for your illness. As frightening as everything must have been, you didn’t really quit, you just withdrew deep inside to wait for the worst to pass. I realized early on how special you were. You’re a survivor. Even sick, you gave me happiness I hadn’t experienced in years. And then I made the best discovery I could ever imagine. I couldn’t tell anyone how I felt before tonight at the risk of losing my job.”
She looked out over the audience, wondering if the powers that be got her message.
“I love you, J. T. Prescott, and my answer to your question now and for ever shall be yes!”
He slipped the ring onto her finger. It was too large so he slipped it onto her middle finger. He shrugged for the audience. She laughed along with them. Life wasn’t perfect, but things were definitely looking up.
“I’ll get that fixed next week,” he said.
Next week. Yeah, they had a future together—next week, next year, ten years down the road.
They stood together and he dug his fingers into her hair to draw her near. They kissed and wrapped each other in a tight embrace.
Applause erupted from the crowd, reminding them they weren’t alone. In typical Shakespearian fashion, JT raised a hand and bowed. Giggling like a child, Mallory curtsied, tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn’t care that the most intimate moment of her life had been shared with over two hundred strangers.
Rick stepped up to the microphone. “I think we’ve got something else to celebrate tonight.” He cued the disc jockey, who blasted a fun, triumphant dance song.
JT took Mallory’s hand and led her out to the dance floor. An unmistakable look of adoration, love, and desire glowed in his eyes. He twirled her around and wrapped her in his arms. Her head rested on his shoulder. He kissed her ear and said, “I want you, Mallory Glenn, for the rest of my life.”
He twirled her so she faced him. She beamed with the rich feelings coming to life inside her. She’d thought she’d known how love felt before tonight. But right now, with the special man in her life staring down at her, she realized that until that moment her thoughts about love had only been a dream.
J. T. Prescott was unquestionably real, and most definitely belonged to her.
And, oh, she owed her daughter a cell phone call.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-1776-1
In His Angel’s Arms
Copyright © Lynne Marshall 2007
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