At the head of the table, the commissioner had an odd expression on his face. He cleared his throat. “Perhaps I should start by telling you that the young Ms. Sorensen has a very firm opinion.”
Matt braced himself.
“She refused to decide whether she’d prefer to live with her aunt or her uncle.” He gazed at both of them in turn. “Hanna,” he continued, “chooses both of you. And that creates a dilemma for me.”
Matt heard the words, but it was Linnea he was watching. She stifled a cry, and looked at him with wide, shocked eyes.
Shelton rose to speak, but Matt didn’t hear a word he said and he suspected Linnea didn’t, either. He couldn’t tear his gaze from her. Color had risen in her cheeks as they stared at each other.
He saw her take a deep, shuddering breath, then she pushed back her chair and rose to her feet.
Shelton stopped midsentence and everyone around the table turned their heads in surprise.
Still, her eyes hadn’t once left Matt’s. “You asked me to marry you,” she said tremulously, “and I thought it was mostly for Hanna’s sake.”
He found he was on his feet, too, without remembering the act of rising.
“But I never did ask you why you wanted to marry me. So now I will.”
He was no more conscious of their stunned audience than she was. Voice guttural, he said, “Because I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He felt as if she was looking deeper inside him than anyone ever had before. When she finally turned away to the commissioner, Matt had to brace his hands on the table to prevent himself from staggering.
Still standing straight and strong, Linnea said, “Then that’s my choice.” She touched her niece’s shoulder and turned a tender smile on her uplifted face. “To give Hanna hers.”
God. The relief and pure need that flooded him would have dropped him to his knees if the table hadn’t held him upright.
It seemed suddenly as if everyone was speaking. Matt and Linnea had gone back to gazing deeply into each other’s eyes. Ebullience rose in his chest and spilled out in a broad grin that probably looked stupid. Her face was pink, but a smile had begun to curve her mouth, too. Hanna was grinning as foolishly as he was. Matt didn’t know what Linnea’s parents thought. Right now, he didn’t give a damn.
She loved him. She had to love him, to have defied her own nature and done this so publicly. He was the luckiest man on earth. He wanted to kiss her. No, damn it, he wanted to hear the words from her, too.
The commissioner banged a gavel. Expression flummoxed but his eyes betraying amusement, too, he said, “I think we should delay this hearing to give Mr. Laughlin and Ms. Sorensen time to be sure they’re making this life-altering decision for the right reasons.”
Shelton cleared his throat and stood beside Matt. “As I started to say earlier, Mr. Laughlin wishes to withdraw his petition for custody of Hanna Sorensen. He has come to the conclusion that his niece, Hanna, is best off living with her aunt, Ms. Sorensen. I don’t believe there’s any reason for a resumption of the hearing.”
“Is that correct, Mr. Laughlin?”
Matt pulled himself together. “Yes, sir. I’m happy with the current visitation schedule, even should Linnea, ah, decide not to accept my proposal after all.”
The commissioner smiled. “Very well. In the absence of objections—” he glanced at Shelton and Margaret Robinson, who both spread their hands in identical gestures of acceptance and bemusement “—then I award custody to Linnea Sorensen, with the issue to be revisited after Hanna’s father serves his sentence.” He raised his eyebrows at Hanna. “Is that satisfactory, Hanna?”
She beamed at him. “Uh-huh.”
Matt heard everybody laughing. He was barely keeping himself anchored in place, when all he wanted was to take Linnea in his arms.
“I believe this is the happiest ending to any hearing over which I’ve ever presided,” the commissioner said, after which he inclined his head. “Good day, folks.”
Matt bumped into chairs and the corner of the table in his haste to circle it. Linnea must have moved as fast; she met him at the foot. He snatched her into his arms and held her close, reveling in the way her arms encircled him in turn and held him as tightly.
“Losing you…” he said in a choked voice. “It’s been hell. Don’t do that to me again.”
“No.” Her head shook hard against his shoulder. “No, never.”
He pulled back a few inches, enough to see her face. “Do you love me?”
Her eyes flashed indignation. “Of course I do! Do you think I could have done that if I didn’t?”
“No. But when you said you couldn’t marry me without love…”
“I thought you didn’t love me. You never said, you know.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I was idiot enough not to have recognized what I felt.”
“We were convenient.”
He grimaced. “Yeah. And, damn, but I wanted you.”
“I noticed,” she said primly. Almost primly. The color of her eyes had deepened, and her cheeks gained new roses.
Matt’s head bent. He had to kiss her…
A cleared throat was an unwelcome reminder that they weren’t alone.
Linnea started guiltily. “Dad!”
Paavo smiled at them. “Didn’t I tell you?” he said to his daughter.
Still encircled by one of Matt’s arms, she rose on tiptoe to kiss her father on the cheek. “You were right, Daddy.”
“Congratulations,” her father said, holding out his hand.
Matt and he shook with a solemnity that made Matt realize he was agreeing to a pact.
Don’t hurt my daughter ever again.
I swear I won’t.
He saw Linnea looking around, and realized it was for her mother, who was nowhere to be seen. She must have hurried out the minute the hearing ended.
Paavo’s expression was sad as he saw his daughter’s grief. “She’ll come around, Linnie. Don’t worry. I promise she’ll be at your wedding.”
Linnea tried to smile. “As long as you are.”
“You know I will be. Your Matt is a good man. And, you,” he said to Matt, “are very lucky.” He smiled down at Hanna, who wormed into their small circle. “Isn’t he, Hanna?”
“Aunt Linnie’s really pretty,” Hanna declared.
“Yeah, she is,” Matt agreed, enjoying Linnea’s embarrassment—and the glow she couldn’t hide.
“Hanna has agreed to come home with her grandma and me,” Paavo said, his hand still on his granddaughter’s shoulder. “If that’s all right with you. We thought you might like some time alone.”
Hanna nodded, watching the two adults she adored with the delight of a child opening the most coveted Christmas present ever.
Matt decided that he liked his father-in-law-to-be. Apparently he’d misjudged Paavo all these years.
“We have things to say to each other,” he agreed.
“You don’t mind?” Linnea asked her niece.
“Uh-uh. Granddad said he’ll play games with me. And he said I could spend the night.”
The man rose another notch in Matt’s estimation.
Linnea hugged her dad again and managed a muffled thank-you. Then both she and Matt swept Hanna Banana up in big hugs and promised to pick her up for school in the morning.
Hanna and her grandfather went ahead. Matt took Linnea’s hand and smiled at her. “Ready to go home?”
THEY’D ARRIVED IN SEPARATE cars, of course, but Matt gave Linnea one quick, hungry kiss and promised to follow her home.
Every time she looked in the rearview mirror during the drive, his car was right behind her. She felt more as if she was floating than anything as mundane as sitting behind the steering wheel. Honestly, she was in such a daze, she probably shouldn’t have been driving.
She couldn’t believe she’d done something so…so brazen, as to stand up right there in a legal hearing and ask a man if he loved her.
When Linnea pulled into her driveway, Matt parked at the curb. Long strides carried him to where she waited at the foot of the steps.
Eyes the color of molten silver swept over her face. “God, I love you. You will marry me this time?”
“Yes. You notice, um, that I didn’t give you back your ring.” She’d kept meaning to—it wasn’t fair to keep it, especially when their engagement had been so brief—but somehow she kept forgetting when she saw him.
“I noticed.” His smile was wolfish. “That gave me hope.”
They made it inside, one step, one kiss at a time. The door had barely closed behind them when he had her backed up against it. His big hands tilted her face up so that his mouth could claim hers with sheer desperation.
He lifted his head once and said hoarsely, “Promise to slap me if I ever again try to rush you into anything like that damn house. Keep me in check.”
Her heart was so full, she didn’t know how much more happiness she could bear. “If I get shy, be patient with me. Won’t you, Matt?”
She felt his muscles lock, as if with remembered pain. The vulnerability in his eyes shook her.
“I’ve learned my lesson. I swear. Before, I was too scared to be patient. I could feel you slipping away. I thought maybe, if I didn’t slow down, you wouldn’t have time for second thoughts. I knew better, but I was stupid enough to think that any way I could get you was okay.”
“This way,” she said, smiling at him with all the love she felt, “is better.”
“Yeah.” Matt bent his head to kiss her again. “This way is a hell of a lot better.”
They’d said all they had to with words. The rest could be said with touch and passion, sighs and groans.
No, she thought later, some words bore repeating. Just as he entered her, his gaze locked with hers, he said again, “I love you, Linnea. Never doubt it.”
And when they lay together in the stunned aftermath, she nuzzled his throat and whispered, “I love you.”
Nothing in her life had ever felt sweeter than the way his arms tightened.
It was a miracle that Hanna had chosen them both, and by so doing gave Linnea the courage to seize the chance to love and be loved.
Her lips curved.
We feel like a family.
They were a family.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5044-8
MATCH MADE IN COURT
Copyright © 2010 by Janice Kay Johnson.
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†Under One Roof
†Under One Roof
†Under One Roof
*Lost…But Not Forgotten
*Lost…But Not Forgotten
*Lost…But Not Forgotten
Match Made in Court Page 21