by Jennie Jones
‘Okay.’ Ali shot forwards.
‘Hey, Ali!’
‘Yeah?’ she asked as she skidded to a halt.
‘I really missed you.’
Ali appeared to understand the depth in his tone and that he didn’t expect an answer. It was a statement. She smiled, then turned, and dashed into the kitchen.
Tom picked up a pickaxe. A new one, its painted metal axe-head still an unscratched iron-red, the long, thick wooden handle still shiny. He held it up to Adele and smiled.
‘You got me a new pickaxe?’ she asked.
‘It’s for me. I got you the flowers, and I’m attaching all my love to those eleven roses.’
He crossed the room and took the flowers off her. ‘Every time I look at you, you have this dewy glow that makes me weak in the chest. I looked at you a lot this last ten days, while I was away.’
‘You don’t have a photo of me.’
‘Yes I do. It’s with me wherever I am. In my head. Always on my mind. I looked at you and wondered why the hell I’d left you. I’m back for good, Adele, and I’m back for you.’
He put the bouquet onto a sofa and rested the pickaxe handle against the seat cushion.
Adele didn’t know what to say. He’d declared his love, she ought to declare hers, but she suddenly felt as shy as Ali had been when Tom had told her he loved her too. ‘What are you going to do with the axe?’ she asked, attempting a grin.
‘I’m glad you asked. See that wall?’ He pointed at his living-room wall. ‘There’s only a metre gap between these two houses. I reckon it’d take me a morning to knock that wall down.’ He looked at Adele. ‘Another morning to knock the wall in your kitchen down. Maybe close to a week to build an extension that joins the two houses.’
‘Tom …’
‘Want to share one big house with me, Adele?’
She needed to tell him how her love for him overwhelmed her, but the words wouldn’t come.
‘The full deal,’ he said.
She nodded, her mouth dry. Which words would express how she felt?
‘You, me and the kid. Always.’
‘I love you, Tom.’ There. They were out. And what other words would express it so clearly?
He seemed to struggle with that. He didn’t appear able to speak, although he obviously wanted to. He took her hands in his and pulled her so close that she had to look up at him.
‘I’ve never asked anyone this question before, Adele Devereux, and I’m not asking it again—ever—so I’m relying on you to give me the right answer. Will you marry me?’
Adele pulled her hands from his and lunged at him, her arms wound around his neck.
He groaned, a half-sigh, a half-moan. His arms came around her and she was pressed against his heartbeat. ‘I take it that’s a yes,’ he said, his voice stifled with emotion.
‘So long as you never—ever—ask anyone else that question.’ Her voice was muffled, her eyes watered and her heart soared with too many emotions to list.
He rubbed his face against the side of her head. ‘First time I’ve asked it. Got the result I craved. Now I get to see that beautiful, dewy glow all day every day.’
The thoughts in her head spiralled. Every day. Every day she’d be with him and he’d be with her. And Ali would have two people around her to love her and help her grow up.
‘I love you, Adele. I love you to the ends of the earth.’
He moved her in his embrace until they were looking at each other. ‘And I need you. You’re my everything. Without you, I’m just a jerk.’
Her mouth moved to a smile seemingly all by itself. ‘You’re the best-looking jerk I’ve ever known. And I love you too—I can’t help loving you.’ To the ends of the earth.
He kissed her again, his mouth open, the pressure on her lips firm and beguiling.
‘I left you twice,’ he said when the kiss ended, emotion still raw in his voice. ‘I’m not doing it again. I’ll never leave you. I’ll never leave Ali.’
‘You’ve got yourself a deal.’ This was the way a woman in love felt when the man of her life proposed marriage; nervous, thrilled, enthralled, and a little giddy. Those feelings didn’t belong to a boring woman. They belonged to a woman who had just paused, not knowing how to ask for what she wanted. A woman who’d tried with all her might to move on, and there was bravery in that. But gratefulness that she hadn’t had to move on without this man in her life was as equally rewarding as knowing that she would have tried.
‘I don’t know what I’m going to end up doing for a living,’ he said. ‘You need to know that.’
‘I don’t care.’ The stars were still in her eyes but she really didn’t care. They’d work it out, as a family.
‘I’m going to start by doing up Imelda’s houses. Hopefully I’ll get more building work. Maybe a business—but not rigging. And I won’t leave you. If I have to travel for a short time, you both come with me.’
‘Okay.’ Her voice sounded wispy, and she felt ethereal and honoured. They wouldn’t be able to travel with him all the time, because of school and Adele’s work commitments once she took up training to become a Teacher’s Assistant. But it didn’t matter. This man would always come home to them. And he’d always know how loved he was on his return.
‘There are plenty of opportunities around this area,’ he continued. ‘I can make something work. Something for both of us. For all of us.’
‘Okay.’
He squeezed her to him, his arms firmly holding her, the rise in his chest as he inhaled squashing her. ‘I’m going to be kissing you in the street, in the pub, in the café and in the damned historic society meetings. I’m going to kiss you in front of the school pick-up mothers. I’m going to kiss you—’
Adele rose to tiptoes and pressed her mouth on his. She kissed him, her mouth open and her lips firm. ‘Okay,’ she said when she released his mouth. ‘Fine by me. Now can we please go and tell Ali?’
His eyes shone but a sudden frown furrowed his brow. ‘Do you think she’ll be all right with it?’
‘Yes, I do. And you can tell her.’
‘So long as you’re by my side and you’re smiling, I think she’ll be happy.’
‘I know she will be.’
‘All right then.’ He squeezed her hand and then led her across the hall to the kitchen, her hand still held in his.
‘Hey, kiddo.’
Ali looked up from a monstrous amount of wrapped parcels on the wooden kitchen table and beamed at him.
Tom hooked an arm around Adele’s shoulders and pulled her into his side. Adele couldn’t have stopped smiling even if she’d wanted to. Her smile came from a well inside her that elevated her; she had to be glowing from it.
‘I’ve been talking to your mum about household business and we reckon we should knock our two houses together and make one big family home. What do you think?’
‘A family home?’ Ali asked, a frown puckering her forehead.
‘You, me and your mum.’ He took a breath. ‘Ali, I asked your mum to marry me.’
Ali dropped the yellow plastic sofa in her hand. It fell to the table top, onto a pile of wrapping and tissue paper. She looked at Adele, questioning. Then back to Tom.
‘She said yes,’ Tom said. ‘So what do you think?’
‘Would you be my daddy?’ she asked, her expression bewildered.
Whatever Tom was feeling—surprise, pride, love—it spread from his body to Adele’s. From his soul maybe. Wherever it came from, it punctured the air around them.
‘I’d be proud to be your dad, kid.’
Ali smiled, and didn’t seem to have any need to look to her mother for further explanations. ‘Okay.’
Tom looked down at Adele. ‘I think I just got myself a family.’ He grinned, looking a lot like a relieved puppy dog that had been brought in out of the cold. ‘You’re smiling,’ he said. The creases around his mouth heightened with his own smile. ‘I think that really made Ali feel comfortable about all this. I was nervous
. I probably still am. But you smiling— that makes my world a very cosy place. Promise not to stop smiling at me, Adele. When you smile, I know who I am. And I feel grateful all over again for what I’ve been given.’
‘Get used to it, Tom Wade,’ Adele said, putting the palm of her hand flat on his chest, over his generous, loving heart. ‘I’ll be smiling for the rest of my life.’
Thanks for reading A Heart Stuck on Hope. I hope you enjoyed it.
If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage jenniejonesromance.com, follow me on Twitter @JennieJRomance or like my Facebook page Jennie Jones, Romance Author.
You can also follow me through my publisher’s page here www.escapepublishing.com.au
Reviews can help readers find books, and I am grateful for all honest reviews. Thank you for taking the time to let others know what you’ve read, and what you thought.
You’ve just read the first book in our A Dollar for a Dream series. The other books in this series are Honey Hill House by Lisa Ireland and The Healing Season by Catherine Evans. All the books in the anthology can be read as stand-alone stories.
If you liked this book, here are the books in my Swallow’s Fall series: The House on Burra Burra Lane, 12 Days At Silver Bells House, The House at the Bottom of the Hill, The Turnaround Treasure Shop, and The House at the End of the Street.
This book was published by Escape Publishing. If you’d like to sample some more great books from my fellow Escape Artists, please turn the page.
BESTSELLING TITLES BY ESCAPE PUBLISHING…
Honey Hill House
Lisa Ireland
Newly divorced Bea Elliot knows what it’s like to fight for her life, so the challenge of restoring a ramshackle old farmhouse to its former glory should be a piece of cake. Revitalising Honey Hill House is her chance to prove to herself, and her family, that she’s strong enough make a go of things on her own.
Local farmer Callum ‘Mitch’ Mitchell predicts that the city girl next door won’t last six months in the country. He’ll be neighbourly, for the sake of the town, but past experience has taught him not to get involved with out-of-towners.
When a shared love of football sparks an unlikely friendship between the neighbours, Mitch and Bea both begin to wonder if the time has come to open their hearts to something more.
But the ghosts from their respective pasts have other ideas.
The Healing Season
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Can two broken people find a way to start again?
Alicia Pearce had her life planned—marry her best friend, manage her home town agricultural store, live in her grandparent’s old house, and fix the troubled relationship with her parents. But life doesn’t follow plans, and Alicia finds herself alone, grieving for what could have been, while struggling to start a business in a dying rural town.
Lachlan Muirhead moved to Dulili for a new start. A farmhouse for a buck, a job at the Ag Store, and a town to call his own seems perfect. But you can’t keep secrets in a small town and as he becomes involved with the community, he’s concerned his past may catch up with him.
Can Lachlan trust enough to accept help from Alicia? Will Alicia overcome her shattered dreams and learn to love again?
The House At The End Of The Street
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Bestselling Australian author Jennie Jones takes us back to Swallow’s Fall for one more story: Gemma has a burning need to stay and make a home. All Josh has ever wanted is to get out. Now he has the chance, and all he needs to do is tie up a few loose ends…
Gemma Munroe loves hard, laughs hard and plays hard. Or at least she did before today. Her dream is finally within her grasp – owning the toy shop in Swallow’s Fall and establishing herself permanently. Only one person has the power to get in her way: Josh Rutherford – the love of her life who kissed her and left her ten years ago is coming home.
Josh will be in town for five days. Only five days. He’ll finally sever the ties to a youth filled with poverty by selling the properties that are now his. He’s returning healthy, wealthy and emotionally stable, and then he’ll leave forever. It’s all in the plan. Everything…except for Gem. He never forgot her, but he definitely forgot the effect she has on him. Now she’s got problems, and he can’t seem to leave without trying to help her solve them.
The town itself also has its own plans: Gemma and Josh are thrown together in Speed-Date fiascos, kissing experiments, bar fights and an issue with the North Star – Josh’s compass and the road to his next adventure. Seven weeks later Josh is still in town. Gem has to get through her best friends’ wedding and Josh has to get over Gem. Because he’s not staying. Is he?
The House on Burra Burra Lane
Jennie Jones
A dilapidated house, a city girl looking for a tree change, and a rugged vet with a past. Just another day in rural Australia…
Just ten days after her fresh start in the isolated Snowy Mountains, Samantha Walker trips over a three hundred pound pig and lands in the arms of Dr. Ethan Granger — and the firing line for gossip. It was hardly a ‘date’ but sparks of the sensual kind are difficult to smother in a community of only 87 people. Now there’s a bet running on how long she’ll stay and what she’ll get up to while she’s in town.
Ethan has his own issues — Sammy’s presence in his childhood home brings with it painful recollections of family scandals and a bad boy youth. When the gossip around them heightens, his life is suddenly a deck of cards spread on the table for all to see. Then Sammy’s past catches up with her… and it looks like all bets are off.
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ISBN: 9781760370404
Title: A Heart Stuck on Hope
Copyright © 2016 by Jennie Jones
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