With that Ryder and Joanna left the room, closing the door behind them.
Lexi said nothing, just looked down at her hands. Kiel's gaze followed. Her hands! There it was on her left ring finger, same as it had been since the morning they got married at Judge Moreland's office. She was wearing her wedding band. Was it too much to hope that she wanted to keep on wearing it?
It was Lexi who broke the silence. "Are you going to say anything or are you going to make me do it?"
He found it hard to breathe with his heart right up there in the middle of his throat. "Are you going to keep looking at your hands?"
She lifted her eyes. "No," she said. "I'm not."
"I love you, Alexa Grace." Her chin began to quiver. "You're hot-tempered, spoiled, too damn expensive for my tastes, and the one woman I want to spend the rest of my life with."
"I thought I'd lost you," she whispered as he kicked back his chair and went to her side. "I would have done anything, said anything, to keep you and Kelsey safe."
"Do you love me?"
She rose from her chair and stepped into his embrace. "More than life itself."
He held her an arm's length away. "Say it, Alexa Grace. I want to hear you say it."
"I love you." Simple words whose meaning was anything but simple. All the joy, all the triumph, the very best life had to offer a man and a woman--it was all tied up in those three simple words.
"Do you love me enough to go into hiding with me?"
"Just try and get away without me." She fixed him with a stern look. "Does this mean we're going to have a real marriage?"
"You got it, Alexa Grace. A real marriage. The kind that lasts forever. You've already cost me ten thousand four hundred and fifty dollars. Spread out over the next forty or fifty years it's not such a bad deal."
"Ten thousand?" She swatted him on the arm. "I know about the four hundred fifty. Where did the rest come from?"
"It's a long story," said Kiel. "Let's just say Frank Packer's bank account is looking better these days."
Lexi took a deep breath. "There's something I need to tell you."
He grinned. "You're pregnant."
"Not yet. But I am rich."
"Okay." He paused for a moment. "How rich?"
"Very rich."
"Like in millionaire?"
She nodded. "Forty or fifty times over."
"What the hell are you doing working for PAX?"
A funny smile tilted her mouth. "Like you said, it's a long story."
He listened as she told him. "And what happens four months from now, Alexa Grace? Do you take your money and walk out on Kelsey and me?"
"Never," she said, kissing him long and hard. "And I can prove it. We'll divorce and remarry."
He stared at her. "That means you'll forfeit your inheritance."
She nodded. "I'd rather be poor and happy than--"
"How about rich and happy," he broke in. "Let's not do anything hasty."
She started to laugh. "Are you a gold-digger, Mr. Brown?"
"Just practical, Mrs. Brown. That money's yours. All I want is you by my side." He grinned. "And maybe that initial four hundred fifty dollars I paid to Angus MacDougal the day you arrived." He cupped her face in his hands and memorized the beautiful angles, the lovely planes, memorized the pink fullness of her lips and the blue of her eyes. My wife, he thought. Wife of my heart.
She lifted her chin.
He lowered his head.
Their lips were a whisper away when the doors flew open and a bundle of energy flung herself at their knees. "Daddy, Lexi! They gave me a puppy!"
"How adorable!" cooed Lexi. "A sweet little puppy."
Kiel took one massive paw in his hand and groaned. "A dog," he said. "A big dog." The dog that ate North America, if he didn't miss his guess.
"Every little girl deserves her own puppy," said Lexi.
"Please, Daddy!" Kelsey looked up at him. For a minute he almost swore he saw her bat her eyelashes. His funny little tomboy....
He looked at the puppy closely. "A male," he said. "I guess we have to keep him just to even up the odds around here."
He looked at the woman he loved, at the daughter he cherished...at the puppy chewing on his hand.
They could live in Alaska or Connecticut or on the moon. Rich or poor, successful or struggling. None of it mattered. All that mattered was that they were together.
For now. For always.
"What do you know," he said, drawing them into his embrace. "We're a family."
"One more question," Lexi said, tracing the curve of his mouth with the tip of her index finger. "What would you have done if Frank Packer hadn't shot Imelda when he did? What choice were you going to make?"
He didn't hesitate. The answer was as clear to him as the future which lay before them, theirs for the taking.
"There was no choice," he said, holding her close to his heart. "There was only you."
About the Author
BARBARA BRETTON is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 50 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries and she has received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Many of her titles are also available in audio.
Barbara has been featured in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette, among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.
Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; a RITA nomination from RWA, Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors.
Barbara lives in New Jersey with her husband and a houseful of pets. When she’s not writing, she can be found knitting, cooking, or reading.
For more information
www.barbarabretton.com
[email protected]
Also by Barbara Bretton
Bachelor Fathers
Daddy’s Girl
The Bride Came C.O.D.
Collections - Anthologies
Happily Ever After: Three Complete Romances
Home Front: Three novels of love, war, and family
Happily Ever After 2: Five Complete Romances
Second Time Around: The Wedding Bundle – two novellas
Now and Forever: The Complete Crosse Harbor Trilogy
The Home Front Trilogy
Untamed Hearts: Three Complete Historical Romances
The Wilde Sisters
Operation: Husband
Operation: Baby
Operation: Family (not yet released)
The Crosse Island Harbor Time Travel Trilogy
Somewhere in Time
Tomorrow & Always
Destiny’s Child
Pax Romantic Adventure Series
Playing for Time
Honeymoon Hotel
A Fine Madness
All We Know of Heaven
Sugar Maple Chronicles
Casting Spells
Laced with Magic
Spun by Sorcery
Charmed: A Sugar Maple Short Story
Spells & Stitches
Paradise Point
Shore Lights
Chances Are
Rocky Hill Romances
Mrs. Scrooge
Bundle of Joy
The Year the Cat Saved Christmas
Just in Time
Annie’s Gift (not yet released)
Idle Point
At Last
Someone Like You
Shelter Rock Cove
A Soft Place to Fall
Girls of Summer
Home Front
Where or When
Sentimental Journey
Stranger in Paradise
Historical Romances
Midnight Lover
Fire’s Lady
Reluctant Bride
Novellas
I Do, I Do... Again
The Marrying Man
Jersey Strong Novels
The Day We Met
Once Around
Sleeping Alone
Maybe This Time
Just Like Heaven
Just Desserts
Classic Romances
The Edge of Forever
Promises in the Night
Second Harmony
Shooting Star
Sail Away
Daddy’s Girl
The Billionaires
Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover
The Princess and the Billionaire
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