Justin threaded his hands through her hair and searched her face, still hardly able to believe she was here. Softly, he warned, “I’m not going to be content with an affair, even a long-term one. I want rock-solid commitment. Marriage.” With you, damn it all.
His throat closing, his voice rusty, he pushed on. “I want to be with someone who isn’t afraid to commit to me and our union for the rest of her life. Someone who wants to work by my side during the day and sleep in my arms at night. Someone who is ready and willing to take care of this ranch and all the kids who come to it...and maybe even have a baby or two of our own with me.”
Her eyes glistened with heartfelt emotion. “That’s a tall order,” she allowed finally.
He gave in to the desire assailing him, lifted her face up and brushed his lips across the softness of hers. “Made for a tall woman.”
She moaned with a mixture of humor and pent-up passion. “Are you making fun of my height?”
Knowing no other woman had ever made him this happy, or ever would, he shook his head. He kissed the top of her head. “Your height is one of the things I love best about you.”
She let out a contented mewl and curled against him. “You know, if we did ever have kids they’d likely end up being seven feet tall.”
He stroked his hand through her hair. He had missed her so much. “Then I guess we’d be looking up at them.”
“We might have to raise a ceiling or two.”
“Or just build the ceilings extra tall to begin with,” he joked.
Amanda drew a breath and stepped back, as if needing distance to say what she had to. She flashed a wobbly yet sincere smile. “Before we get too sidetracked...the way you and I always tend to do...I want you to know something.” She paused, her gaze roving his face as if memorizing it for all time. “I came here, first and foremost, to apologize with all my heart.”
“For?”
She met his level look. “Walking out on you and letting you and the ranch and everyone associated with it down.”
He would have forgiven her for that, even without the formal mea culpa. He nodded, hoping this wasn’t the beginning of another kiss-off. “Apology accepted.”
Amanda knitted her hands together. “I also came here hoping you’d take me back.”
Personally? Professionally? Her wary expression gave no clue. “As assistant director?” He tried to keep the question offhand.
Amanda nodded confirmation. She rushed on while his heart was still turning over in his chest. “And girlfriend, and friend, and potential life mate or wife. However you want to say it.” She lifted a staying palm. “I don’t care. I just want to know that we can start over.”
He liked the sound of that. Justin tugged her against him, chest to chest, thigh to thigh. He buried his face in the fragrant silk of her hair. “Or pick up where we left off.”
Amanda clung to him, all artifice gone. She kissed him breathlessly. “And know that we’ll be here for each other, through all the ups and downs of life.”
What do you know? That was exactly what he wanted. Justin smiled. “I think we can handle that.” They indulged in a leisurely kiss. “You know why?”
Her eyes were misty with happiness as she shook her head.
“Because we’re meant to be together.” Knowing it was time to let the rest of the barriers go, he regarded her seriously and confessed all he’d held back. “And because I love you, Amanda, and always will.”
Amanda went up on tiptoe and kissed him. Hotly. Eagerly. “Oh, Justin,” she whispered, trembling all the more, “I love you, too, so very much.”
He pressed his lips to her temple, aware he had everything he had ever wanted, at long last. “So, it’s a deal?”
Amanda looked deep into his eyes. “Absolutely, we have a deal! I’m yours. And you’re mine. From here on out...”
Epilogue
Fifteen months later...
“Do you want to choose what’s for dinner, or shall I?” Amanda asked her husband as they walked into the kitchen of the cozy cottage built just for them.
Justin met her at the refrigerator to survey the contents. “Depends on what we’ve got planned for later,” he teased, appreciating—as did she—the intimacy their new living arrangement offered.
Amanda slid her arms around his neck. “Same thing as always, I expect.” She nestled closer.
Justin grinned and bent his head to demonstrate. “A little kissing.”
Amanda tenderly kissed him back. “A lot of cuddling.”
They sighed in unison. “And everything in between.”
They made out a little more, then, still tingling with anticipation, Amanda shook her head. “I can’t believe it’s December of our second school year already!”
Justin shook his head in wonder. “Or that you and I’ve been married nearly six months.” He paused, reflecting. “The past sixteen months have been quite a ride, haven’t they?”
Yes, they had, from the very beginning. The boys ranch had opened a year ago August, right on schedule, with Lamar, seven other boys and two house parents settling into Bunkhouse One. Amanda, Justin and a teacher specializing in learning disorders had bunked in the lodge.
The carpentry building had been completed in late fall of the initial term. And by spring they’d had the funds to add another bunkhouse, eight more kids, another set of house parents and two more full-time teachers. Now, they were planning a third bunkhouse.
“Your granddad has had a lot of great changes, too.” A.B. had sold his business and his home in San Angelo, and relocated to a condo in the Laramie Gardens senior-living center.
Amanda smiled. “Can you believe he and Miss Mim are getting married on New Year’s Eve?”
Justin sat down on a chair and pulled her down onto his lap. “I knew something was up when they both started volunteering at the ranch so much.” Granddad had helped out, teaching carpentry to the boys. Miss Mim had set up a ranch library, complete with Dewey decimal system and online catalogue.
“And let’s not forget Lamar.” Amanda’s heart brimmed with affection. “Not only has he learned to read, he’s become quite the leader.”
Justin agreed with paternal pride. “There’s no one better when it comes to showing the new kids the ropes.”
Amanda splayed her hands across his chest. “It helps a lot, having specialized teachers and a curriculum designed specifically for dyslexics.”
In fact, they had been so successful the county was talking about starting up a day program for kids with learning disabilities from stable homes, to be paid for by the school district and held in classrooms out at the ranch.
Reveling in the warmth and strength of her handsome husband, Amanda continued, “It also helps to have such a visionary at the helm of the entire ranch.”
Justin stroked a hand through her hair. “And his trusty assistant director and carpentry and culinary whiz...”
They kissed again, even more tenderly. She’d always known she loved working with her hands. Helping kids. But... “I never thought I’d enjoy being a sidekick quite so much.” She chuckled as they broke apart. “But maybe that’s because you do all the paperwork.”
Justin’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction. “We do make a good team.”
“One,” Amanda added mysteriously, her heart beginning to race with excitement, “that may be ready for expansion.”
Justin studied her as the wonder of her words sunk in. “You’re...?”
“Almost three months along,” she admitted, thrilling at the contentment in his blue eyes. “I found out when I went to the doctor today. I wanted to wait until we were alone to tell you.”
Justin threw back his head and laughed in triumph. He brought her close for another heartfelt hug. “This is glorious news, Mrs. McCabe.”
&nb
sp; Amanda couldn’t stop smiling. “I think so, too.”
Happiness engulfed them as their fondest dreams began to take shape. “So what do you think?” Justin brushed the hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Girl or boy?”
Amanda rested a palm on the gentle slope of her tummy. “I don’t know about this one,” she enthused with a playful wink. “But I imagine before we’re done we’ll have both a son and a daughter.” At least she hoped.
Justin thought of his own family. “Or five sons.”
Not to be outdone, Amanda exclaimed, “Or five daughters!”
They stared at each other and laughed. All Amanda knew for sure was that the ranch was a roaring success. She was going to have Justin’s baby. And she had never been happier.
Justin shifted her off his lap, swung her up in his arms and strode toward the rear of the house. “Where are we going?”
“Exactly where you think.” He paused and kissed her, the love flowing freely between them. “To celebrate.”
* * * * *
Watch for the next installment in the McCabe Homecoming miniseries,
THE TEXAS CHRISTMAS GIFT, coming December 2013,
only from Harlequin American Romance!
Keep reading for an excerpt from His Forever Valentine by Marie Ferrarella
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Chapter One
She was gorgeous.
Had he forgotten his tan Stetson at the house, the way he occasionally did, Raphael Rodriguez might have been inclined to believe that he’d gotten sunstroke and was having his very first hallucination.
But his Stetson was firmly planted on his head—he actually reached up to touch the brim to make sure it was there. And, although it was rather warm for the middle of January—winters here in Forever, Texas, were usually mild—it’s wasn’t that hot. At least, not hot enough to produce either heatstroke or mirages. This morning, initially, there’d even been a slight nip in the air to remind him that winter wasn’t quite finished with them yet.
All in all, this had been a more eventful winter than usual, at least for his family. It had been a winter where his twin brother, Gabriel, had found the girl of his dreams. Gabe and the woman he called “Angel” were getting married in April.
Rafe had to admit—although only silently to himself—that he was somewhat envious of his twin. Angel was incredibly sweet and he’d never seen Gabe so happy. At times, the man seemed to be walking five inches off the ground.
The thought of finding someone of his own to settle down with had been on Rafe’s mind a great deal lately.
Was that why he thought he saw this gorgeous vision in the distance now? She couldn’t be real. Not this beautiful redhead with a killer body standing smack dab in the middle of his ranch.
His family’s ranch, Rafe amended. The property belonged to his family in the truest sense of the word since their father, Miguel Sr., had changed the deed to the ranch from listing him as the sole owner to putting down all their names, dividing the property in equal shares between all of them.
That particular action had come about at their father’s insistence because they’d all had a part in keeping the bank from foreclosing on the ranch. Each one of them had gotten at least a part-time job, turning over their meager paychecks to their father so that he could stay abreast of the mortgage and their late mother’s mountain of medical bills. That selfless act, the senior Rodriguez had said, was what entitled them to an equal share of the sprawling ranch.
As he drove his Jeep in closer, Rafe couldn’t take his eyes off her.
A woman like that looked completely out of place in a place like this. She had to be a figment of his imagination. But he’d already figured out that he wasn’t experiencing sunstroke and all he’d had to eat this morning were scrambled eggs and some coffee that could have been labeled as solid. The regular housekeeper was on vacation visiting her sister so it had been Miguel Jr.’s turn to cook, or do whatever it was that his oldest brother felt passed for cooking.
But Mike kept things simple, so it was safe to say that Rafe hadn’t ingested anything that would have caused a hallucination like this in the middle of his morning.
Steadily decreasing the distance between them, Rafe couldn’t help wondering when the woman was going to disappear. He couldn’t get over the feeling that she just might be a mirage created by his brain because he was currently without female companionship and Eli, Alma and Gabe were all either married or spoken for.
Was that why he was having this vision?
He’d driven out here to the northern region of the ranch for a reason. He was looking over the miles of fencing, searching for a hole or a break in it anywhere. At last count, they were short a few head of cattle. Since it was doubtful that anyone in the area would actually bother to rustle a meager five or six head, his father thought that the cattle might have just wandered off because of a break in the fencing, most likely caused by the spate of inclement weather they’d just experienced.
“Either that, or the coyotes around here have learned how to steal and use wire cutters,” Ramon—who preferred being called Ray—had cracked at the table this morning before breakfast.
Rafe had been quick to volunteer to be the one to drive the length of the fence, checking for a break. If he hadn’t he would have been stuck with kitchen cleanup. Given the choice, he would always rather be outdoors, even driving around for hours, than stuck washing and drying dishes. It wasn’t that he viewed that kind of work as “woman’s work,” just “indoor” work. Time out in the open won out every time.
But this vision was inexplicable. And she wasn’t vanishing.
The woman, with her needle-straight hair—hair the color of the sun’s first blush at sunrise—dipping halfway down her slender back, was still there.
Anticipation telegraphed through Rafe’s body, putting his pulse on high alert.
Now that he was getting close enough to discern details more clearly, Rafe saw that she was doing something other than taking in the view. She was preoccupied taking pictures with a camera that appeared way too large and sturdy for a typical tourist. She wasn’t just some outsider who’d lost her way and had decided to pause and take a few pictures of the land she’d wandered onto.
She looked to him to be a woman with a mission.
Part of him would have opted to stop driving and just watch her for a little while. Watch her moving about, looking as close to poetic as the photographs she appeared to be framing.
But just as he was considering shutting off his car engine and silently observing her, the slender woman with the flowing strawberry-red hair turned around to look at him.
She was even more striking from the front than she was from the back.
And she was looking straight at him.
Her smile was infectious. Rather than sound generic, the one-word greeting she offered him somehow seemed incredibly personal. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Rafe echoed. For a moment, he just sat there in his Jeep, looking at her. Unable to make a move.
Maybe she was a hallucination
after all. The woman seemed completely unfazed at being discovered trespassing. There was no uneasiness or discomfort over the fact that he’d discovered her in a place she clearly didn’t belong.
In his experience, the few tourists that drifted through Forever eyed the local population a bit warily, as if they weren’t quite sure just how civilized these “natives” actually were—if they ate with utensils or still used their fingers when they were consuming their meals.
The thought had the corners of his mouth curving.
The woman, he noted, also, wasn’t making any breathless confessions as to why she was trespassing, nor was she launching into any kind of an elaborate explanation as to what she was doing here this far from town.
As a matter of fact, she wasn’t saying anything at all, which struck Rafe as rather unique. In his experience, women usually took charge of the conversation and, on the average, did a hell of a lot more talking than men.
At least his sister Alma made it seem that way.
Rafe turned off his vehicle’s engine as an afterthought and got out of the Jeep.
The woman had lowered her camera and was now watching him much the way he had been watching her. Except that she had what he could only call a bemused expression on her face.
Was there some joke he was missing, or was that just her way of trying to disarm him?
Whatever it was, it was working.
He started the conversation with the obvious by asking her, “You do know that you’re on private land, right?”
Her smile answered him before her words did. It was as if there was some silent communication going on.
Definitely a hallucination, he couldn’t help thinking one final time.
“Yes, I do,” she replied, still wearing that wide, inviting grin, “and I think that this is exactly what my boss is look for.”
So she was a real estate agent? It hardly seemed likely. He’d never seen her before and Forever was not exactly destined to become a thriving metropolis in the next decade or so. Everyone in town had at least a nodding acquaintance with everyone else who lived in or around the area—unless they were strangers, fresh from some other place.
The Long, Hot Texas Summer Page 20