Uneasy, she moved quietly toward his desk while she listened to him issuing quiet instructions over the phone. She'd forgotten how much she missed the sound of his voice.
Her gaze fell on a pencil near the corner of his desk blotter. The eraser had been chewed off. Abby found her confidence restored in that small piece of evidence, which meant he hadn't completely forgotten her. With a slight smile, she picked up the pencil and began coiling her hair. Ethan finished his conversation.
"Hello, Ethan," she said softly before he had a chance to replace the receiver in its cradle.
He spun, eyes wide, and slammed the phone down on his desk. "Abby."
She still had her arms above her head in an effort to insert the pencil into the coil of her hair. She froze. His eyes registered a sea of turmoil. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
Not exactly the response she'd hoped for, but not a denouncement either. She finished securing her hair, then lowered her arms. "Fighting for you," she said quietly.
He stared at her. Abby gathered her courage. Deirdre was right. Pride made terrible company on lonely nights. She rounded the desk and placed her hands on his chest. "I've had some time to think things over."
"You don't—"
She tugged at his tie. "This long-distance thing isn't working for me. First of all, my phone bill is going to be huge. And now that Harrison has a buyer for MDS, I may not even have a job. The foundation is on solid financial footing, but the buyer may want to bring in his own people."
"Honey—"
She gave him a shove and he toppled into his chair. "So I'm thinking of relocating." Ethan watched her warily as she pushed him farther back in his chair. "I've heard California is a pretty nice place. My sister kind of likes the cuisine."
His eyes glittered. "What are you—"
Abby pulled his tie off. "But I don't know. Do you think I could be happy here?"
"Abby, I can't—"
She pressed her fingers to his lips, her expression turning serious. "I know. And I should have realized that. Ethan, I love you. I didn't think it was possible for me to love anyone as much as I love you. I spent a lot of time thinking that maybe I couldn't let anyone be that important to me."
He looked a little shaken. She smiled and smoothed the crease from his forehead with her fingertips. "I wanted you to do all the work. I wanted you to take all the responsibility away from me by demanding that I be with you." She shook her head. "It wasn't fair to you, and it's not fair to me."
"Honey—"
"No." She quieted him. "Deirdre made me see this. If I'd convinced you to do that, I would have always wondered if you really meant it. Did you really love me because you couldn't help yourself, or did I just manipulate you into it? I never would have known." She took a deep breath. "I don't need you to be wild about me. I'm wild enough for the both of us."
That remark seemed to galvanize him. He captured both her hands and pulled her onto his lap. "Abby, listen to me. I've been going crazy without you."
"You didn't call—"
"I was giving you space."
"I didn't want space."
"My mistake," he admitted. "I've been driving myself and my staff crazy so I could get back to Chicago. My pilot is waiting for me at the airport."
Her heart tripped into double time. "Good thing I turned up, then," she quipped. "I saved you a trip."
"I was kind of hoping I could wrangle a meal out of your sister."
"I could maybe make you a tuna sandwich from what's in the mini-bar in my hotel room. Does that count?"
Ethan's eyes filled with tenderness. He swept a hand over her hip, then jerked open his top desk drawer and took out a small velvet box. "I was going to beg you," he told her and flipped open the box. A diamond winked at her.
She looked deeply into his eyes and framed his face with both hands. Tears stung her eyes. "I don't need that. I just need you to love me."
With a low groan, he crushed her in his arms and covered her lips in a kiss filled with promise. "I do," he whispered. "You can't imagine how much I do."
"Then marry me," Abby said and laid her hand alongside his face. "Marry me and spend the rest of our lives showing me."
Ethan kissed her again. "Are you sure you want to take a chance on a Montgomery?"
"Absolutely sure," she told him. "I've been miserable without you."
"Abby—" He plucked the pencil from her hair so it tumbled over her shoulders. "I can never tell you how much you mean to me. You gave me my life back."
Her eyes started to tear again. He tenderly kissed each one and whispered, "You are the love of my life. I've been waiting for you forever."
epilogue
Ethan gently adjusted Rachel's veil at the back of the church. He had a tightness in his chest he'd grown to recognize over the past eight years as the wellspring of emotion Abby had helped him find. He'd had it at his wedding. He'd experienced it again when each of his three sons were born. He'd felt it countless times just looking at his wife and wondering how in the world he could have deserved her.
And now Rachel was getting married, and the emotion was back. He hoped he didn't embarrass himself when he walked her down the aisle. "You look gorgeous," he told her.
She fidgeted, but smiled. "Thanks. I'm really nervous."
"Don't be. Just enjoy the moment." The man Rachel was marrying was a chef at the restaurant where she now worked. Soon they'd open their own place. Ethan liked him, primarily because the poor guy had survived the rigorous scrutiny he'd endured from Ethan and Harrison.
"Ethan?" Rachel said.
"Hmm?" He finished adjusting the fine lace.
"When you married Abby—how did you know? I mean, that she was the one. The only one."
He heard the slight thread of anxiety and took Rachel's hand in his. He carefully considered his words, not sure he could express what he was just beginning to understand himself. "Being with Abby was magic and humbling at the same time. She makes me feel alive—and sometimes better than alive. It's—" He searched for the right words. "It's like a paradox. I could live without her if I had to, but I'd never want to. She sets me on fire, and she's the place I go when my soul needs refreshing. I never have enough of her, but I'm always right on the verge of feeling too much." He shook his head. "That probably doesn't make any sense."
Rachel had grown teary. "That's exactly how I feel about Mike."
"Then it's love," he assured her. "That's how you know."
"Ready?" Abby asked them from the doorway. Ethan noted the mistiness in his wife's gaze. "Scott's getting ready to walk me down to the front. I'll signal the organist to start the prelude."
Rachel hurried across the room and hugged her. "I love you, Abby." She glanced at Ethan. "I'll go wait for you at the back."
He nodded. The tightness in his throat had increased. He went to Abby and took both her hands in his and raised them to his lips. "I mean it just as much today as I did the first time."
She brushed away a tear from her eyes. "Me too. I love you, Ethan."
"More every day," he told her.
Abby gathered herself together with a slight smile. "And Deirdre said that no Montgomery can commit to a single love for a lifetime."
He grinned at her. "Then I must have gotten it from my mother, because you're my one and only."
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