C's Comeuppance: A Bone Cold--Alive novel (39 page)

“Abby would let me have her baby? Charles, the potential for heartbreak is exponential.”

“We’re working on the details. This baby business isn’t all Abby thought it would be. I can’t guarantee she won’t try to pull a fast one on us. But I’m going to get her as committed and locked as I can. And I’m going to prove that I’ve changed. That Eddie C has transformed himself permanently into Edward Charles, mor—mor—” he stumbled over the word “—that I would say this term in relation to myself—moral citizen. Got it!”

She laughed. “The rock world’s number one bad boy getting religion?”

“I didn’t say you’d find me in church.” He shook his head. “One thing at a time.”

“But it’s not on your ‘never’ list?”

“Deleted that list from my files.” He slid to the floor and knelt in front of her. Jemma’s breath caught in her throat. “I love you, Jemma Lovelace. I want a home with you. I want to fight my battles with you by my side. I want you to fight your battles with me by yours. I want to look to the wings at a concert and see you there. I need your smile. I want to share your heart. I want you to share mine. Marry me.”

“Oh, Charles.” She let out a long-held breath, raised her hands to his cheeks and caressed them. “When you first came into the office, your eyes were so cold, emotions just skated off them. Nothing seemed to touch you. But now, they’re warm and caring. How the eyes must mirror the soul.” She let her fingers waffle through what remained of his hair. “You couldn’t have changed on the outside if you hadn’t changed on the in.” She leaned over and kissed him gently. “I love you. Much as I love this house, it’ll never be a home if you’re not in it. I’ll be proud to marry you.”

He rose and kissed her soundly, leaned her back on the couch until his body covered hers.

“There’s really only one way to seal this bargain.” He kissed her earlobe, nuzzled her neck, ground his hips against hers. “And I’ve been sooo good.” He rose over her. “The last time I made love was with you. Here.”

“You’ve been a trouper.”

“Now who’s being sarcastic?”

She circled his neck with her arms, spread her legs to accommodate his body between them. “So you’re suggesting that we spend the rest of the afternoon in bed. Charles, it’s Christmas Eve. I have to be at James Thomas and Doree’s by six. Before then, I have things to do.”

“I’ve been practicing compromising this fall. Tell you what. We’ll make love once—real fast—because I assure you it will be. Then, you just do whatever you need to, and I’ll be ready by six to go with you to the family get-together.”

“That’s mighty generous of you. Mother will be so pleased.”

“I should think so. I’m taking her old-maid daughter off her hands.” He sat up and pulled off his sweater. “How about under the tree? Christen the place so to speak.”

***

“What happened to Norm’s old dinette set?” C ran his fingers over the oak table in the kitchen. “This isn’t your mother’s, is it?”

Jemma turned from the refrigerator. The cool air felt good on her still-flushed skin. He’d already started the relationship off by stretching the truth: they’d made love twice. But it had been real fast. “Norm wanted to take it to his new apartment. That set was out in the old barn. He told me I could have it. It needed a little work, but I did a fair enough job on refinishing the top.”

“Looks nice.” He pushed on it. “It’s sturdy. It’ll hold us. We can christen it, too.”

She pursed her lips. “I can see you’re going to be a problem for a while.”

“I’ll straighten out.” He hugged her from behind and kissed her neck. “So are we still going to build the vacation home over by the pond? I’m a West Coast guy. I need to live there. That hasn’t changed about me.”

“I can adjust. Mother and Carolyn will, too. If you can work out your life for the two of us—no, the three of us, isn’t it?—I can certainly work out mine.” She set milk and eggs on the new countertop. “But that land’s sold to someone else. At least verbally. Norm said I couldn’t afford it, which was true enough. He was vague and stubborn. Try as I have to keep up with the court records and deeds, I’ve not seen it change hands. I don’t know what he’s got up his sleeve.”

C splayed his hands in front of her and pushed up his sleeves. When she didn’t respond, he pushed them higher.

Jemma stopped in mid-crack of the second egg. “You? He’s selling to you?”
“He agreed to in the fall. Old man better not be backing out.”

“You think you’re so clever.”

“I am so clever.” He put his hands in his pockets. “Want to see a magic trick?”

“Didn’t you just amuse me under the tree with one of those?”

“This one’s better.”

“That’s what they all say.” She reached for the whisk, but he grabbed it first and waved it over her head.

“Now you see it.” He put it behind his back and turned slightly away from her but still penned her between himself and the counter. She crossed her arms. “Now you see it better.” He brandished the whisk in front of her, held it by the wires and shook it. A ring rattled on the handle.

“What’s that?”

“What do you think it is?” His left arm snaked around her and he held her close. “Got to make it official.” He tipped the handle so she could slip the ring off.

She examined it. Even in the dim light of the kitchen, the diamond sparkled. “Is it yellow?”

“One perfect canary diamond. For one perfect woman.”

“You’re going to turn my head, Mr. Samuels,” she falsetto-ed with a drawl.

“I don’t see a thing wrong with that.” He took it from her. “Except it’s not on yet.” He slipped it onto her finger. “Damn! That looks wonderful.”

“Bertie’ll say I’m about to supernova.”

“Old gal’s just jealous.” He kissed her neck and ground his hips into hers. “Let’s seal this properly, try the table now.”

She turned in his arms and pushed at him. “You’re not that clever.”

He fell against the refrigerator in a mock-swoon, bumping his shoulder into a magnet and tiny slip of paper, which fell to the floor. He bent to retrieve them. “What’s this?”

“The fortune in the cookie we left on the table last fall. I finally opened it the day I moved in here. Go on, read it. I bet you picked up the wrong one.”

C smoothed it out between his fingers and read it aloud. “You will pass a difficult test that will make you happier.”

“Say the rest of it.”

“In bed.” He stuck it back on the refrigerator. “But that’s a lie. It should be ‘in everywhere.’ Make me happier everywhere.” He grinned. “Like on the table?”

About The Author

Kay Layton Sisk

Native Texan Kay Layton Sisk began writing books in third grade featuring such wonderful creatures as The Rainbow Monster. That opus may be hidden deep in the closet with the
Star Trek
fanfic she didn't know she was writing throughout high school. Then life took over and didn't release her to write again until staring at a computer screen resulted in more words than numbers.

Today she makes her home with one husband and seven demanding cats. Although she is the author of 12 romance novels, After the Thunder Rolls Away is her first foray into women's fiction. As with all the others, it began with "what if?"

You may follow her at

www.kaysisk.com
,
kaysisk.blogspot.com
(Sisker's Lair),

or
kaylaytonsiskauthor
on FaceBook.

After The Thunder Rolls Away

The lives of two families are forever changed when a car accident kills one spouse of each family. But which one? How do the remaining two rebuild their lives? And what if it had been two others?

Mark and Angel O'Shea, Eric and Paulina Eubanks--best friends and business partners are driving home early one summer morning from a country club party when a deer darts out in front of Mark's new car. Paulina's sure driving saves them from the first deer, then the second, but the third is a surprise and they plunge off the narrow Texas highway down a ravine and into a slow-moving river.

There are four outcomes to this horrifying, community-changing event. Four ways the families may have to reconfigure their lives, hopes, and dreams.

But which outcome is it… after Fate steps in.

Available now on Amazon

Once Upon a McLeod

Atlanta caterer Bethann Fox has the opportunity to inherit $20 million from her late husband's uncle for herself and her college age son, but there's a big hitch. She and Joe Tom McLeod never got along and his final revenge is to make her live on his rundown West Texas ranch for a year in order to inherit.

But there’s a secret hidden at Ranch McLeod and someone wants Bethann Fox off the property before she can find it. Fire, vandalism, and theft only strengthen her resolve to stay out her year--and bring out the protective instincts of Sheriff Bry Phillips, feelings he thought he’d buried long ago. She says she's leaving when the year is over. What's he going to do when his heart goes with her?

Can love overcome stubborn pride and a secret two generations old?

Available now on Amazon

T’s Trial

Eddie T Samuels' addiction to music takes him to the top of the rock world, but his addiction to drugs threatens his life and freedom. Sobering up in rehab is a start, but band manager Levi Fletcher wants to seal the deal by hiding him for another three weeks.

Widow Lyla Lee has never rented her house to anyone like her new tenants. Something is not quite right, from Sam's obsession with the grand piano to Fletch's control of every situation. But hearing Sam play challenges her own long-buried artist and when he wants a duet, she can't resist, either the music or the man.

Welcome to Jinks, Texas, where no one's business is quite as private as they want it to be and T is set to face the trial of his life.