“I don’t agree with you,” he told her. “I think the greatest gift is to be loved by someone who sees only the best in other people. Someone good and kind, yet smart and fun to be with.”
Cynthia stared at him. He could tell that she didn’t know what to think about his words.
“If you thought walking away from me was the best for me, not for you,” he said, “would you do it?”
She frowned. “Of course.”
He took a step toward her. “You’ll always be the better person. Because I know that the best thing for me is to walk away from you and there’s no way in hell I’m going to let you go.” He took another step, then shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.
“I’m standing at the crossroads of my life,” he said. “My heart and my soul ache. One of the paths in front of me leads to the autonomy and loneliness I’ve always known. You and Colton are the other path. He’s stuck with me, but you get to make a choice.”
He paused and found he was nervous. He had to clear his throat before speaking. “If you were someone else, I would try to seduce you with my net worth, but if you were that person I wouldn’t be interested, so what’s the point?”
Her hazel-green eyes were huge in her still face, but she didn’t speak. He kind of hoped she would at least give him a hint as to what she was thinking, but when she didn’t, he was forced to go on.
“I don’t have anything to offer you,” he said haltingly. “Nothing really important. I don’t know how to love you or be a good husband. I only know that if you give me another chance, you won’t regret it. I’ll learn how to be the man you deserve. I’ll show you in a thousand different ways how important you are to me, how amazing it is that I can finally understand what it means to love someone.”
She shifted Colton so that she could hold out one of her hands. She rose to her feet and covered the last step that separated them. “You don’t have to do any of that,” she whispered as tears filled her eyes and she touched his arm. “All you have to do is trust me enough to let me love you and try to love me back. Time will take care of the rest.”
He wasn’t sure who reached for whom, but suddenly they were embracing, careful of the happy baby between them. Jonathan touched her and kissed her and stroked her face.
“I love you,” he said. “Both of you. And your family. I want you in my life. All of you. I can’t let you go. I want you to be Colton’s mother and my wife and I want to give you as many babies as you want. Just promise you’ll never leave.” He cupped her face in his hands. “You are my world, Cynthia. I couldn’t survive without you.”
She continued to cry, but he had grown enough to recognize happy tears when he saw them. “Tell me you’ll marry me,” he said.
She laughed. “In a hot minute. I love you. I want to be with you for always.” She pressed her mouth to his. “Oh, and this is where I point out that I’ve always known you were a good and loving man. You’ve fought me on that point, but I was right.”
Some of the tension inside of him eased. She was his. He wasn’t going to have to learn to live without her. Love. Did he really feel it? He searched his full heart and knew that it had been there all along…waiting to be let out.
“Whatever I am, it’s because of you,” he told her.
They kissed again. As he held her Jonathan knew that there was much work yet to be done. He had to make things right with Jenny and the boys. He had to talk to Betsy and convince her that he was good enough for her oldest daughter. Then he had to take Cynthia to bed and make love with her until they were both breathless. Finally there was a wedding to plan.
But he faced the future with a sense of joy and hope he’d never felt before. With Cynthia at his side, he knew he could do anything…even give his heart for a lifetime.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4552-9
CINDERELLA FOR A NIGHT
Copyright © 2000 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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Δ36 Hours
*Hometown Heartbreakers
†Triple Trouble
†Triple Trouble
†Triple Trouble
‡Brides of Bradley House
‡Brides of Bradley House
§Montana Mavericks: Return to Whitehorn
**Desert Rogues
**Desert Rogues
**Desert Rogues
Δ36 Hours
§Montana Mavericks: Return to Whitehorn
§Montana Mavericks: Return to Whitehorn
*Hometown Heartbreakers
*Hometown Heartbreakers
*Hometown Heartbreakers
*Hometown Heartbreakers
*Hometown Heartbreakers
Cinderella for a Night Page 21