Marisa Carroll - Hotel Marchand 09 (20 page)

“I’m in here, Alain.” She stepped into a small pool of moonlight slanting down from one of the high windows.

He moved toward her. “I saw your car parked out front. I was hoping you wouldn’t go back to the B&B right away.”

“I’ve been waiting for you. Is Dana all settled in?”

“She’s in the bathtub now with Mom and Marie hovering over her. She’s ordered up a snack of toast and warm milk, which she promises she won’t throw up. My grandmother is making Casey Jo uncomfortable in the kitchen and Guy, his quest completed, has shut himself into his bedroom with his CD and earphones.”

“He handled himself really well, Alain. I want you to know that.”

“And Casey Jo didn’t.”

“She did the best she could.”

“It won’t be good enough for the kids.”

“I know, and I’m sorry, but it’s not your fault.”

“I’ll try to remember that. I promised to be back in time to tuck Dana in.” A note of regret tinged his words.

“Of course you need to be there to tuck her in. I don’t think it will take us all that long to settle what’s between us.” She smiled but he couldn’t see that. He stayed where he was, just inside the doors.

“You’re still planning to return to Houston tomorrow?”

“I have to go back.”

She saw, or sensed his brows snap together in a frown. “If you’re leaving, what more do we have to say to each other, Sophie?”

“Many things.” Quietly, surely, Sophie moved toward him. For the last few days she had been the one who was undecided, who couldn’t see clearly what she wanted in life. No more. Today she had seen all that she wanted, all that she could have if she only had the courage to open her mouth and speak three small words.

“But I’ll start with just one thing. I love you, Alain. Ever since that first summer. Even when I didn’t want to. Even when I shouldn’t have, part of me has been in love with you.”

“Then why are you leaving?” He was still frowning. She reached up and smoothed her fingertip over the furrows that were etched between his eyes.

“Because I have a life in Houston that I need to deal with. My parents. My job. How I’ll manage them in the future. I thought a lot about it on the trip out to Biloxi. I don’t want to quit what I’m doing, Alain. Big universities have whole departments to do what I do, but not every institution can afford that kind of expenditure. That’s where I come in. I wine and dine and sweet talk. And point out just what a great contribution the prospective donors would be making to the future. I keep it up until I get the endowment for the library or the science lab. Or even the new stadium.” She smiled. “I’m good at it. I do good. But there’s got to be a way to keep doing it from here. With you. I…I just need some time to figure out how.”

“I know you can do it, Sophie. God, I thought you were going to tell me you couldn’t handle everything me and my kids threw at you these past couple of days. I thought you might cut and run like Casey Jo. I’ll never underestimate you like that again.”

“See that you don’t.”

His strong arms closed around her. “It’s going to be a hell of a ride, Sophie. Are you ready for it?”

“More than ready. It’s what I want most in the world. Here. Now. Always.” His mouth came down on hers and she knew that she was destined to stay in Indigo all her life.

“We’ll need a place to live,” he said when the kiss ended, and she was pleased to hear the huskiness in his voice matched the breathlessness of her own. “Would you be willing to sell Maude’s house to the right buyer?”

“It’s too small for a family, Alain,” she said regretfully. They hadn’t spoken of that either, but she knew there would be babies for them, brothers and sisters for Dana and Guy.

“It’s not too small for my mother,” he said, threading his hands through her hair. “I’ve got the feeling she’s ready to get out of the big old house and I’m ready to fill it with more babies. How does that sound to you?”

“Exactly what I was thinking.”

“Good, then that’s settled. Anything else we’ve forgotten?”

“A wedding would be nice,” she said as he began to nuzzle her neck.

“We’ll manage that, too. Just not a big country-club one, okay?”

“Okay. And you could say you love me, too.”

His arms tightened almost painfully. His lips found hers in another breath-stealing kiss. “I’ve been saying it, or trying to, for the past three weeks. I love you, Sophie. I always have. I always will.”

“Then everything’s settled,” she said, resting her forehead against his shoulder.

“Well, maybe one more thing.” He tilted her head back, his breath soft against her mouth. “Would you wear that corset for me now and then?”

Sophie smiled, her answer swallowed up by his next kiss. Softly, very quietly, perhaps only in her head, she heard a woman’s voice begin to sing, sweet and low. Sophie had never thought the opera house haunted, but maybe it was and if not by the spirits of the two lovers who had built it, then by the music that had been made here in the past. Music that would fill this place in the future—if she had anything to do with it.