She blew out a miserable sigh and glanced out over the mountain range. “This is…all new for me. Other than a high-school romance, I’ve never…” She cast him a sidelong glance. “Do you understand?”
Drew hung his head for so long, Lexy worried he might be angry. At last he looked up. “I do. But I want you to know where I’m coming from, too.”
She swallowed thickly. “Okay.”
“I’ve been sleepwalking through life since Gina’s death. Hell, long before that.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “You make me feel alive, Lexy.”
“I feel the same. But…” She shook her head, filled with emotion.
“But what?”
“I can’t provide you with the large family you planned on having, Drew.”
“You don’t want a family?”
“It’s not that. I always planned on having a family…before. But I don’t know that I could provide you with even one child.”
Drew cupped her face in his hands, as if she were a precious thing. “Do you think I care about that? That I’d ask you to become pregnant and compromise your own health?”
“You said you wanted a large family.”
“I said Gina and I had planned on a large family, but you know what? Gina also planned on seeing her thirtieth birthday.”
“Of course,” she whispered.
Drew kissed her and pulled his hands away. “Lex, you know probably better than anyone that life can change in an instant. My life changed the day Ian was born. It changed the day Gina died. And, honey, it changed most dramatically the day I met you.”
Tears came to her eyes, and she bit on the insides of her cheeks to keep steady.
“I love you, Lexy,” he whispered. “I’ve never met a woman like you, and I’ve never wanted someone in my son’s life as much as I want you here.”
Her emotions bubbled over, and a single tear ran down her face. “I may never walk again. And, Drew, I like me for me. I’m okay with that.”
He kissed the tear away. “I’m okay with that, too.”
“And if I can’t have children—”
“Then Ian will be the luckiest only child in the world, with a father who loves him, a mother who’s his guardian angel and an earth mommy who’s the best role model I could possibly want.”
“Drew?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Ian’s asleep?”
“Definitely.”
She swallowed past a shaky throat. “I trust you.”
He smiled. “I’m glad.”
“But I’m still scared.”
“I understand that, too.”
She reached her arms up to him. “Make love to me, Drew. Please.”
He didn’t hesitate for a moment. Bending so Lexy could put her arms around his neck, he lifted her gently and carried her inside, their lips touching, pulling back, touching again.
In the bedroom Drew placed her gently on the bed and followed her down, covering her body with his own. She inhaled the summer-sunshine smell of him and gave as good as she got with her mouth, her whispers, her hands. Drew reached over his shoulder and pulled his polo shirt over his head, then slowly slid Lexy’s sundress up her body and over her head.
For a moment she felt shy.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he said, before kissing his way down to her full breasts. Her nipples tightened with an almost painful sweetness against his tongue, and a sense of fulfillment so effervescent consumed her that she laughed.
Drew peered up at her in the low lamplight and smiled. “Well, that’s not the reaction I expected.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just so happy I met you.”
“And to think you might not have if not for—”
“Smart little Ian, remembering to call 9-1-1,” Lexy said, releasing the past, embracing the future and giving in to the moment. “My precious little matchmaker.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3446-2
LEXY’S LITTLE MATCHMAKER
Copyright © 2009 by Lynda Sandoval
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com
**Logan’s Legacy
*Return to Troublesome Gulch
*Return to Troublesome Gulch
*Return to Troublesome Gulch
†Back in Business
*Return to Troublesome Gulch
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Lexy’s Little Matchmaker Page 13