“That’s why I’m here,” he explained evenly. “Because I couldn’t look Vi in the eye and tell her that I’m not still in love with you. I’m here because since I left, nothing’s been right. I’m more successful than I ever dreamed possible. I have more money than I can spend. And I’m miserable. I’m here because I want you to marry me.”
When he finally smiled, Gillian blinked slowly as her heart performed a series of crazy acrobatic feats that would have left a cardiac surgeon shaking his head. Her knees failed her, and she sank down next to him on the couch.
The only thing stopping her from smothering him with kisses when he gathered her into his arms and crushed her to his chest was the terrible thought that his proposal might be motivated by news of her pregnancy and not a genuine desire to marry her for herself.
Gillian couldn’t answer him unless she knew the truth. No matter how painful it might be.
“Does this have anything to do with my father spilling the beans?” she demanded. Righteous indignation held her chin up and kept the waver out of her voice.
“Why? Has something happened to John? Or is there some problem with the ranch?” Bryce looked so genuinely worried that her fury lost some, though not all, of its storm.
“I’m not some pathetic charity case in need of pity, and I’d appreciate you telling that to my father and the ever-understanding Vi, too, for that matter.”
Bryce held up both hands in surrender as his concern turned to confusion.
“I haven’t spoken to John since I left here. And, just for the record, Vi wasn’t all that understanding. But she’s not the kind of woman who’d marry a man just to give her son a father. Especially not when he’s in love with someone else.”
If ever sweeter words were uttered, Gillian had yet to hear them. He didn’t know about the baby, and he wasn’t asking her to marry him out of some misplaced sense of obligation.
That wonderful revelation posed another quandary, though. How was she going to break the news to Bryce that he was going to be a father? How would he react to her keeping that a secret from him?
“What does John have to do with my being here anyway?” Bryce asked, looking at her directly.
“Nothing,” she began when the timer went off in the kitchen. Grateful for any excuse to gather her wits about her, Gillian jumped to her feet.
“My brownies!” she said by way of explanation.
Not so easily distracted, Bryce pulled her back into the seat beside him. “Whatever you have in the oven can wait.”
Gillian closed her eyes against the sunshine filtering into the room through the lace curtains. She hoped her omission wouldn’t make him reconsider wanting to put a ring upon her finger. Things were definitely more complicated than that long ago day when she’d come home bursting with news that she was pregnant with Bonnie.
“We’re going to have a baby,” she blurted out in a raspy voice.
Bryce’s stunned reaction confirmed that this was the first he’d heard about it. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees by the time he found his voice.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” he asked.
Gillian nodded her head. “After the third month. Or after you married Vi. Whichever came first.”
Bryce’s hoarse laugh was without humor.
Gillian reached out to cup his face with trembling fingers and did her best to explain herself.
“I didn’t want to force you into a relationship if you wanted to be with someone else. I didn’t want you to feel honor bound to ruin what you have with Vi and that little boy who already thinks of you as a father.”
“I’ll still be his friend,” Bryce said fiercely. “I’ll always be his friend.”
If he thought she was going to be so ignorant as to argue with such pure loyalty, he was mistaken. She certainly wasn’t going to take that away from him. Gillian felt bad for Robbie—and for his mother, too.
Bryce looked so deeply into her eyes that Gillian could actually feel his soul connecting with hers.
“That said, there’s something that you should understand about me. In my whole life I’ve loved only one woman and I never want to lose her again. I can’t think of anything more exciting than starting a new life with you and the new baby on the way.”
He emphasized the point by pulling Gillian to him for a kiss that devoured the sigh on her lips and left her begging for more.
“Do you want me to get down on my knees?” he asked.
Gillian shook her head.
Blissfully happy, she didn’t require such formalities. Or ask for any guarantees. She understood better than most that one day did not automatically entitle a person to another. Yet, in spite of that terrible knowledge, she refused to be a prisoner of fear or blame ever again. Not everyone was lucky enough to get a second chance at love—a chance to make life as perfect as was possible on a crazy, imperfect planet.
“That won’t be necessary,” she said, smiling softly. “I’ll marry you. Next year, next week, tomorrow or right now if you want.”
“It wouldn’t be soon enough.”
Bryce lowered his mouth to kiss her again only to draw away in surprise when a loud voice from the other room interrupted. “What’s burning out there?”
“I hope it’s your ears,” Gillian called out.
Bryce laughed. “I can hardly wait to see the expression on your father’s face when he hears he’s going to be a grandpa again.”
Standing up, Bryce offered a hand to the woman whom he’d never been able to let out of his heart. Just as the past had hurt so many people, the future was certain to fill the emptiness in many more lives than just their own. Gillian slipped her hand into his as they went to tell her father the good news together.
“I hope he has the decency to act surprised,” she said with a wry little laugh.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0542-4
THE MILLIONAIRE’S MIRACLE
Copyright © 2007 by Cathleen Galitz
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