When this is all over, I want you to forget about me, Tess.
He couldn't feel the same way now, could he? Not after everything that had happened. He had every right to be furious with her after what she'd done. But she'd make it up to him. She'd find some way to—
Just then, he turned around and their eyes met: While the other men talked, he watched her over the rim of his coffee cup. Tess tipped up her chin and met his gaze squarely, no longer caring who knew how she felt about him.
Jack tossed his cup away and started toward her. Gil and Dan saw him coming and shared a communicative look. Gil got to his feet. "Dan, I think the lead detective over there is trying to get our attention. You take your time, Tess."
She didn't even look at Gil as she nodded. She was already on her feet, walking toward Jack. They stopped a foot apart and Jack hesitated for a few long seconds before taking her in his arms.
"Oh, Jack," she murmured against his chest.
He pressed his face against her hair. "You okay?"
She loved having his arms around her, even if he felt edgy and tense. "I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you. I almost got you killed. Can you ever forgive me?"
"There's nothing to forgive."
"I don't blame you for being angry."
"I'm not angry."
No, she thought a little desperately. It was worse than that. "It was stupid and thoughtless, leaving the way I did. If I'd only done what you'd told me to—"
"Tess."
"—none of this would have happened. And I haven't even thanked you for saving my—"
He dropped his mouth on hers and kissed her hard and long, putting an end to her babbling apology. She blinked up at him as he lifted his mouth from hers.
"I love you," he said softly, against her mouth.
The words sizzled through her like hot oil. Oddly off balance, Tess held on to him for fear of falling. "W-what?"
He brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and smiled at the shock in her expression. "I said I love you."
"Oh, I-I thought that was what you said." Tears welled in her eyes.
One side of his mouth lifted in a smile. "Listen to me, Tess. I know what I said before, about forgetting what happened between us. But I was lying. I could never forget you. Not if I worked at it for the rest of my life. And more importantly, I don't want to."
"Jack—"
He shook his head. "If I'm on the wrong track here, just … just hear me out before you stop me. I know I was a jerk back at the motel. I know I hurt you. I'm sorry for that. I have nothing to say in my own defense, except that I was totally unprepared for what I was feeling for you. I couldn't believe it could be real. It happened so fast. But I was wrong. As wrong as I could be.
"You know, I've fought beside some of the bravest men in this country, worked under the most brutal conditions, risked my life more times than I could count to complete a mission that somebody else thought was important. And I'd be a liar if I told you those things hadn't scared me. But they were all a cakewalk compared to what I felt when I heard that he'd taken you."
Tess's heart moved to her throat. Jack's eyes were lowered, and he was working hard to keep the emotion from his expression. He failed.
"When Sullivan pressed that gun against your head tonight—" he stopped, swallowing hard "—I found myself making deals with God. If He'd just let you live, I'd give everything up for you. I'd do anything, say anything I had to, to save your life."
"Oh, Jack—"
"'Cause you see, Doc, I can't picture my life without you anymore."
Tess exhaled slowly, hardly daring to believe what he was saying. She'd prepared herself for the worst. And she'd gotten something she couldn't possibly deserve.
"It's not gonna be easy. I'm not pretending it will, but I'm gonna make changes, Tess. I want to be a man you can count on. Not just now and then, but every day. And night." He looked at their hands, linked together, then lifted his gaze to hers. "I talked to Seth. He said there's an opening for me in Naval Intelligence with him. It seems the brass there are already interested in me. It's a real job, Tess. A new challenge. One I'd be good at. One that wouldn't have me living out of a duffel bag eight months of the year."
"But the SEALS—?"
"Hell," he said, rolling his shoulder with a grin, "I'm getting too old for all this 007 stuff."
She arched an eyebrow. "Oh, I don't know. You looked pretty good to me tonight."
"Atta girl. And don't remind me when my hair starts going gray, either, will you?"
"No," she said, reaching up to push it back from his face, "but I wouldn't mind being there to see it."
He smiled slowly. "For a long time now, I've been kind of sleepwalking, too. Like – I don't know – like there should be more. I guess it just took getting shot for me to find it. Marry me, Tess. I know it's fast and we hardly know each other, but—"
Now a tear slid down her cheek and she let it go. She pressed two fingers against his lips. "Shh," she whispered. "Do you know what I was thinking when I saw you tonight, standing there facing that gun for me?"
He shook his head, sliding his hands down her arms to gather her closer.
"I was thinking that you are the bravest, kindest … scariest man I've ever met. And I wouldn't change a thing about you. Oh, Jack, it wouldn't matter to me if you hung wallpaper for a living or … walked steel beams twelve stories up. Or if you stayed in the SEALS and kept jumping out of airplanes into the North Atlantic. I'll settle for you any way I can get you. You taught me so much about myself. You made me want to be a doctor again and helped me to believe in myself. I may not know Ian well, but I know Jack," she said, caressing his stubbled cheek with her thumb. "And I'm absolutely crazy about him. All the rest? That's just geography."
"Is that a yes?" he asked, tilting her head back against the palm of his hand and searching her eyes with his.
A slow smile full of promise curved her lips. "That is most definitely a yes, Lieutenant Colonel McClaine."
Jack grinned happily and swooped her up into his arms, carrying her past all the cops and the investigators and the stares. He took her outside under the canopy of stars, and when he had her all to himself, he kissed her deeply and well, loving the feel of her arms around him. He'd been alone most of his life and had never expected to find what he'd found in her. But he knew, with the instincts of a man who'd been to hell and back, that his time of solitude was over. Because for the first time in his life he understood what it meant to come home.
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I'LL REMEMBER YOU Page 22