by Sharon Sala
“Oh?”
This time the lilt in her voice made Scott smile.
“Yes, ma’am. As soon as I can get some time off, I’ll bring her home. I think she needs to be with you guys for a few days.”
“I hope you’ll be staying, too.”
“Let me put it this way, ma’am. I’m not letting her out of my sight for at least the next seventy years. After that…we’ll have to talk about it.”
“Oh, Scotty…this is wonderful news. Did you know that I’m finally a grandmother? Loretta and Billy have a new baby boy.”
His grin widened. Something told him that his future mother-in-law had just challenged him to make sure it wasn’t her only grandbaby.
“Yes, ma’am. Kristie told me. She’s pretty anxious to see her nephew.”
“Well, you just tell my girl to call me the minute she wakes up.”
“Yes, ma’am, I will.”
He disconnected, then turned to find Kristie looking at him from the doorway.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Your mother.”
Kristie’s chin jutted. “What were you talking about?”
“You.”
Her eyes widened. “What did you tell her?”
“Just enough.” He set the soup off the heat and held out his arms. “Come here to me.”
She walked into his embrace.
“Kristie Ann?”
“Hmm?”
“Would you like to go home for a while?”
Her shoulders started to shake and Scott knew she was crying again. The way he figured it, after what she’d been through, she was due at least a month of good cries.
“Does that mean yes,” he asked.
“Yes, please,” she mumbled, and held him close. “But only if you come with me.”
“That goes without saying. Of course I’m coming with you.”
“Good.”
There was a brief moment of silence while Scott argued with himself as to the wisdom of saying this now. But after what they’d been through, he had to get it said.
“Kristie?”
“Hmm?”
“I heated some soup. Are you hungry?”
“I guess. What kind is it?”
“Minestrone. It was all you had.”
“Yes, I’ll have some if you will.”
She sat and watched as he dished up the soup. Once they were seated, Scott didn’t eat, but watched her instead.
“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked when she realized he wasn’t eating.
“I have something to say to you.”
She laid down her spoon. “Okay?”
“I’m in love with you all over again.”
A smile started in her heart and spread all the way to her face.
“Oh, Scotty, I love you, too.”
He went limp with relief. “Well, it’s a good thing, because your mother is already planning our babies.”
“She’s what?”
The shock on Kristie’s face made him laugh. “She mentioned Loretta and Billy had a baby and—”
“Good Lord,” Kristie said. “I’m so sorry. I hope you weren’t too embarrassed?”
“No…challenged a bit, but definitely not embarrassed.”
She laughed out loud. “If you come with me to Texas, you know what they’re going to think.”
He took a deep breath. “That’s what I was getting to.”
“What? You don’t want to go now?”
“No, on the contrary. How do you feel about long engagements?”
She grinned. “Don’t like ‘em.”
“I knew there was a reason I still loved you,” he drawled.
“So what are you saying?” she asked.
“That I think we should get married at your parents’ house while we’re in Midland. That I don’t want to spend another night of my life without you in my arms and that I want to live with you and have babies with you and grow old with you, Kristie Ann. That’s what I’m saying.”
She got up from her seat, sat in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“So…this is a proposal, right?”
He nodded.
“And this is the twenty-eighth day of December, right?”
He nodded again.
“So, if we can get to Texas fast enough, we just might be able to get married on New Year’s Day.”
“Oh, honey…no way. How about the day after?”
She frowned. “But why not? It would be so romantic.”
“You know how your family is about football. No one would come to the wedding. They’ll all be watching the games.”
She stared at him a moment, thinking of the lifelong tradition of Texas football, and then threw back her head and laughed. She laughed so hard and so long that, for a moment, Scott feared she was going to get hysterical. Finally she calmed down and managed to agree.
“Oh, God…I’ve been in Chicago too long. I’d completely forgotten about that. You’re right…you’re so right. Can you imagine the look on my daddy’s face if I told him that he was going to have to walk me down the aisle instead of the annual day of eat, shout at the NFL umpires, and sleep?”
He laughed as she added, “We’ll figure it out after we get there.”
He grinned. “Good thinking. In the meantime, did I mention that I love you?”
“Yes, but I’d like to hear it again, if you please.”
“I love you, Kristie Ann. I have loved you since the sixth grade and I love you even more today.”
“That’s because I grew breasts,” she said.
He looked startled for a moment and then it was his turn to laugh. When he could look at her without laughing all over again, he took her hand and put it on his heart.
“I don’t know what the future will bring us, but I do know that whatever it is, we’ll do it together.”
“Together,” she said, and then leaned closer for his kiss.
Epilogue
It was New Year’s Eve and Kristie was in her mother’s kitchen getting glasses out of the cupboard. For as long as she could remember, Blaine Samuels had made a toast on New Year’s Eve, and at the stroke of midnight when the new year was just beginning, they drank to good health and a good year. The fact that they were drinking Uncle John’s homemade wine out of her mother’s jelly glasses was immaterial to the situation. It was the gathering of family and the love that kept them bonded that mattered most.
Just as she started to pick up the tray, her mother came into the kitchen and stopped her with a look.
“I’ll carry that, honey. You go on in with Scotty. He’s looking for you.”
Kristie sighed. She’d waited until she was home and face-to-face with her family before she’d told them what she’d endured. They’d cried with her and then thanked God on their knees that she was still alive to tell the tale. The fact that Scott had saved her life had only endeared him to them even more. They’d always liked him, but right now, in their eyes, he was as close to perfect as he would ever be.
“Mama, I’m okay.”
“You might be,” her mother said, “but I’m not. At least not yet. So you’re going to have to bear with me while I baby you some more.”
Kristie grinned. “You just let me know when I’m no longer delicate, okay?”
Her mother swatted her bottom with the flat of her hand.
“You go find that man of yours and get ready.”
“Ready for what?”
Her mother’s eyebrow arched. “Now I know I raised you smarter than that. For the kiss, Kristie Ann. I’ve kissed your daddy at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve ever since we’ve been married and the magic hasn’t worn off yet.”
Kristie grinned. “Oh…so it was magic was it? And all this time I thought it was about sex.”
Her mother grinned. “I’m not talking to you about my sex life, now get out of my kitchen.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m on my way.”
She was still grinning as she wal
ked into the living room, and almost instantly her gaze centered on Scott. He was leaning against the mantel and laughing at something her father was saying. Breath caught in the back of her throat and then tears momentarily blurred her vision. She knew that there would be tough times ahead for them, just as there would be times of near perfection, but at this very moment, she knew the meaning of bliss.
Scott looked up, caught her staring at him, and lost all train of thought.
“Uh, excuse me,” he muttered, and left Blaine in the middle of the punch line of a joke.
Kristie smiled as he put his arms around her. “I think you just abandoned my father.”
“He’s not as pretty as you,” Scott said softly, and kissed the side of her cheek.
“Here, everyone, get a glass,” her mother called. “It’s almost midnight.”
The room was full of family. Loretta and Billy. Kristie’s mother and father. Her uncle John and aunt Patty. Her brother Justin and his wife, Marcie. Babies were sleeping in the bedrooms, while older children had bedded down on pallets down the hall. There was a strength within this house that had nothing to do with the sturdiness of the structure and everything to do with the family who’d gathered beneath its roof.
The television was on and a local television station began counting down the seconds as everyone turned toward Blaine Samuels and lifted their glasses.
“Here’s to good health for us all and another good year.” And then he looked at Kristie and she saw his eyes fill with tears before his gaze slid to Scott. “And here’s to the man who saved my daughter’s life.”
Scott flushed, but lifted his glass and drank along with everyone else. At that moment the old clock on the mantel began to chime the hour and everyone knew that a new year had just begun.
Scott turned to Kristie and lowered his head for the traditional kiss.
Kristie sighed in satisfaction as Scott took her into his arms, and when she felt the warmth of his mouth on her lips, she knew her mother had been right all along.
It wasn’t just about sex.
Love was magic after all.
New York Times Bestselling Author
SHARON SALA
In book 3 of the Forces of Nature series, the final storm of the season could be their last…
“Skillfully balancing suspense and romance, Sala gives readers a nonstop breath-holding adventure.”
—Publishers Weekly on Going Once
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eISBN: 978-1-4603-4289-3
Sudden Danger
Copyright © 1999 by Sharon Sala
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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.
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