My Way Back to You (Harlequin Large Print Super Romance) (26 page)

No more chances. No going back.

She took off at a run, beating him to the steps and blocking his way. “I’m not taking you to Benton. I want you to stay here.”

* * *

J
EFF
DID
AN
about-face and ran his hand down his face, swiping it across the back of his neck, which had broken out in a sweat at Maggie’s words. “No. I won’t do that to Russ. It will send the wrong message, and the poor kid’s stressed enough with everything else going on.” He walked a few steps away, then turned to her. The love he saw in Maggie’s eyes gripped his insides and squeezed.

“Maybe it could be the right message—that we’re trying to work things out.”

Jeff’s brain whirred as he tried to figure out exactly what she was saying while still keeping his heart at bay.
Trying to work things out?
What in the hell did that mean? Reconciliation? Back to being exes with benefits? They couldn’t allow themselves to get caught up in the emotion of the moment again. Not with Russ’s trust in them at stake.

“No. I don’t mind telling Russ we still care for each other. That much is true. But leading him to believe we’re trying to reconcile, and that it’s only a matter of time before we’re back together is just setting him up for disappointment. I won’t have it.” He ran his fingers through his hair and scrubbed his face, then settled his hands back on his hips. Despite the cool breeze, he was burning up.

“But maybe we
can
get back together.” She walked toward him, hands on her hips, mirroring his stance.

“Don’t say anything else, Mags. You’re forgetting that I’m overbearing and a control freak—”

“I know. Which means you try your hardest to take care of the people you love and keep them safe.”

“Which
means
,”
he continued what he was going to say before she interrupted, “I’m not willing to try to make a long-distance relationship work. I want you with me—all the time—or not at all.”

Her arms folded across her chest. “You want marriage.”

Damn! This was like walking a freaking tightrope with no safety net. Say the wrong thing and lose her forever. But the only way to keep his balance was to tell her the truth, so he gritted his teeth and laid it out. “Hell, yes, I want marriage! I want a wife...a real family life. Not love that comes around like shiftwork or any of that exes-with-benefits crap.”

She dropped her arms and took a step that brought her up against him. Her eyes were big and luminous as she scanned his face. “Then marry me, Jeff.”

His heart jerked to a stop. “You’re asking me...?”

She caught her upper lip between her teeth and gnawed for a moment before she spoke. “Since you were here last, I’ve been having this recurring dream where you’ve talked me into riding this motorcycle. It’s exhilarating and I’m going fast, but headed toward a canyon. You keep telling me I can make the jump. I go off the cliff, suspended in midair, and then I realize I’m all alone. You’re nowhere around...and that’s when I wake up.”

She reached for his hand and pressed it against her cheek. “Last night, I didn’t wake up in midair. I made it to the other side. You know who was there?” He shook his head. “You,” she said. “You were waiting there to catch me...had been there all along.”

His heartbeat hammered in his ears.

“I want to be your wife,” she said softly. “Become a real family again. So Jeff Wells...will...you...marry...me?” Her expression was dead serious, not even a glimmer of a smile.

Everything he’d dreamed of was being offered in her eyes—everything, that was, except a real solution. He shook his head. “I can’t move to Kentucky, Mags.” The jagged edges of his emotion scraped his throat. “I would love to, but I have too many people depending on me, and I just ca—”

Her finger touched his lips and silenced them. “I want to sell the salon and the house. I want to move to California and be with you. I’ve given this a lot of thought. I can help your mom with Chloe, so your dad can go back to work as much as he wants, and in turn you can have some time off.”

He shook his head again, heart pounding now with wonder and fear. They were so close to happiness, yet still so far away. “I can’t let you do that. It’s not fair for you to give up everything.”

“Well, let’s get one thing straight.” One of her eyebrows rose. “You don’t
let
me do anything. I’m not asking your permission. I do what I want, and this is what I want. I’m not
giving up
everything, Jeff. I’m
getting
everything.”

“Oh, God, Mags...” He gathered her into his arms, and she relaxed against him. Nothing had ever felt more wonderful, more perfect...or more right.

She leaned her head back and his mouth found hers with a kiss he never wanted to end.

But she eventually pulled away and leaned back again, though remaining in the confines of his arms. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He answered her smile with one of his own. “It’s a definite yes.”

* * *

R
OSEMARY
ANSWERED
THE
phone before the first ring was completed. “Hi, sweetheart.”

“Grandma!” Russ’s voice was breathless with excitement. “You won’t believe this, but Mom and Dad are out in the front yard kissing! I looked out my bedroom window, and all of a sudden they were in this lip-lock. Ew! I mean major, movie-like kissing.”

A rush of joy spread through Rosemary, warming her from head to toe, and she danced a few steps of a jig in the middle of her kitchen. “Oh, I’m so glad.”

“You are? Did you know anything was going on between them?”

“I’ve had my suspicions.”

“This is just un-freaking-believable.” His laugh brought a chuckle to her lips, as well. She could picture that beautiful smile of his beaming across his face.

“Now, don’t get your hopes up too high till you’ve talked with them,” she said. “Find out what’s going on.”

“It’s not
getting
my hopes up, Grandma,” he said quietly. “My hopes have been up since I was three.”

Her breath caught on his words.

“Uh-oh, they’re coming in. I’m gonna go talk to them. Love you!”

Rosemary took a deep breath then, feeling the air flow deeper into her lungs than it had since...she couldn’t remember when. She reached into the cabinet and retrieved two glasses and a jar of Emmy’s finest.

If ever there was a fitting time to celebrate with moonshine, tonight was it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“I
DO
.”

Maggie spoke the words calmly and quietly, despite the excited pounding of her heart. Jeff’s face broke out in a smile that was repeated in Russ’s face just beyond his shoulder. She felt herself beaming, never before so full of happiness as she was at that moment.

Jeff raised her hand to his lips and kissed the gold band he had placed there—the same one he’d placed there all those years ago.

Emmy sniffled behind her.

“Then, by the power vested in me by the Almighty Creator and the Commonwealth of Kentucky—” Pastor Sawyer raised his hands over their heads in a gesture of blessing “—I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

“Again,” Maggie added, and Jeff winked at her.

“Still,” he whispered.

“You can kiss your bride on the lips now, Jeff.”

The small gathering in the pastor’s study laughed as Jeff did just that, but Chloe let out a loud “Yay!”

Russ was first to pull them into a three-way hug, and Maggie thought her heart would burst with joy. Next came her parents, then Jeff’s mom and dad, Chloe and Faith.

Emmy was last. “Whooee!” she yelled, livening up the room as she pulled Maggie and Jeff into a hug that rocked back and forth as if they had a musical accompaniment.

And perhaps they did—Maggie certainly heard music flowing from her soul.

“Maggie Russell Wells Gunther Russell Wells!” Emmy shouted the name with exuberance. “You’ve come full circle!”

“And the circle stops here.” Jeff’s arms came around Maggie’s waist from behind, and he nuzzled her ear.

“Yes, it does,” Maggie agreed. She held up her left hand, proudly displaying the gold band. “Maggie Russell Wells Gunther Russell Wells is the only one that has the perfect ring to it.”

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from THOSE CASSABAW DAYS by Cindy Miles.

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PROLOGUE

Island
Cemetery
Cassabaw
Station
August 2000

W
HAT
WAS
IT
about death and rain, anyway? Emily Quinn’s grandma had said it was the angels’ tears falling from Heaven, and they were sad that Mama and Daddy had to leave us behind to join them. She’d also said God was full of euphoria to have two new angels beside Him to do His work. What was euphoria, anyway? And why didn’t God do some of His own work? There were plenty enough angels in Heaven. Emily and her little sister, Reagan, needed Mama and Daddy more than God did. But it didn’t matter to Him. He had them now, and was keeping them. Forever. No take backs.

Emily stood just outside of the cover of her grandpa’s umbrella, staring at the cemetery workers as they turned a metal crank, lowering her father into the grave. She wondered who’d dressed him in that stupid dark gray suit. He looked stuffy and pinched and uncomfortable with that tie yanked up close to his throat. Daddy hated suits. He liked shorts and T-shirts and his favorite old brown leather flip-flops. They’d also brushed his unruly sun-bleached curls to the side. He never, ever wore his hair like that, and it looked dumb. Even now she wanted to fling that lid open and ruffle his hair so it was messy and Daddy. No one had listened to her, though.

Her eyes slid over to her mom’s casket. She didn’t want to think of her mama lying in that stupid shiny container, wearing that new gray dress Grandma had bought for her; it was ugly. Her mom always wore bright, sunny colors. Not drab gray. And, she had too much blush on her cheeks. Too much eye shadow. She would have hated that. Mama was naturally pretty and didn’t need even a stitch of makeup. Tears burned the back of Emily’s throat, and she pressed closer to Reagan, who was two years younger, at ten.

The drone of the preacher’s final words, meant for comfort, Grandma had said, sounded more like a hive of bees, mad and buzzing in Emily’s ears. It made the stitches under the bandage circling her head throb, and the gash burn. Anger boiled inside her at the thought.
Why did I survive while Mama and Daddy didn’t? Why did they leave me behind?

Suddenly, a sob escaped Reagan and she hurried over to stand between their grandma and grandpa. She began to cry pretty hard. Emily squeezed her eyes tightly shut, refusing to set free the tears pushing at her eyelids. Slowly, she lifted her face, breathed and opened her eyes.

The rain fell from a blanket of dreary gray clouds in fat, heavy plops that sank straight through her hair to her scalp. Dull thuds pinged off the umbrellas as the rain fell a little faster, and chorused through the crowd of mourners gathered at the graveside.

The cemetery workers began turning the crank again,
clink clink clink
,
lowering her mama into the ground beside her daddy. Her eyes followed that shiny container, and Emily felt cold and alone, and her body began to shake. She hated that suit. She hated that dress. And she hated those caskets. She couldn’t stop the tremors no matter how hard she tried.

She wanted to run. Run as fast and as far away as she could and just keep going and going. Her heart pounded hard against her ribs, and it hurt. It hurt to breathe, it...just hurt so bad inside—

A hand—warm, a little bigger than hers and stronger, too—slipped into hers and squeezed with a firm gentleness that caught her off guard. Emily didn’t even need to look to see who had eased through the crowd to stand beside her, and her body sagged against his skinny but surprisingly strong frame. Matt Malone’s hand squeezed hers a little tighter, as if trying to take the pain away, and Emily felt his warmth seep straight through his long-sleeved white dress shirt, deep into her skin.

Even though he was a boy, Matt had been her best friend since, well, forever, and his presence eased the hurt a little. Emily breathed, her head resting against Matt’s shoulder, and soon her body stopped shaking so much.

She knew it’d start up again, the shaking. And the tears would not stay inside her eyes for too much longer, either. She was leaving Cassabaw Station. Leaving her best friend. Leaving her dead mama and daddy in the ground in those shiny caskets.

Leaving home.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we return Kate and Alex Quinn to Your servitude, oh Lord,” the preacher droned on. “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.”

Thunder rumbled far in the distance, almost as if God was answering the preacher’s offering. Sniffles rose through the air as mourners sobbed out loud, and Emily blocked them all out, turning her head to look at Matt. He was already staring at her, and she gazed right back into his strange green eyes. Eyes that always held mischief and devilment now looked glassy and sad. Long black lashes fanned out against his wet, bronzed skin. His dark hair sat plastered to his head from the rain, but a long hank flipped out from his cowlick and hung across his forehead. His black tie was crooked and soaked. She fixed her gaze on his eyebrow, the one with the scar slashing through it. The emptiness returned, and a big, swelled-up tear rolled down her cheek.

“I wish you weren’t going,” Matt said, his voice low, steady. He still had her hand in his. “I don’t want you to go. It ain’t fair.”

“I know,” Emily answered. Her voice cracked as the pent-up sobs grabbed her over. “I don’t want to leave.”

Matt leaned closer to her ear, and for once, he smelled clean, like soap. Not salty from the river water. “Jep says it’s horseshit that you and Rea have to move away to Maryland,” he whispered. “Says you should just stay and live with us, on Morgan’s Creek.” He pulled back and stared. “That this is your home.”

Jep was Matt’s grandpa, and Emily felt the very same way. She’d pleaded for her and Reagan not to leave Cassabaw, but Grandma and Grandpa said they had to take care of them, and their home was in Maryland. Right next door to the President of the United States, they’d said. Emily had begged to stay with Daddy’s aunt Cora; that she and Reagan didn’t care one bit about living close to the president, but Grandpa said no, because Aunt Cora was too busy and had the café to run.

It hadn’t taken their grandpa long to pack up all the things from the river house and load them into the U-Haul. They were leaving straight from the funeral, heading to their home in Bethesda. Nine hours away, Grandpa had said.

A sob caught in Emily’s throat as the tears kept rolling down her cheeks. “I’ll come back one day,” she whispered, “right here to Cassabaw, and I won’t ever leave again. We have to fly in our flying machine. Right?” Jep had taught them an old song, “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine,” and they’d sung it together since they were little. It was their song now, and they’d sworn they’d fly in one, someday.

Matt dropped their entwined hands, reached up and gently wiped Emily’s tears away with the rough pads of his fingers. “Yeah, that’s right. So don’t go flyin’ away in one with anyone else, okay? Promise?” he asked, and jerked a pinkie toward her. “Promise, Em. Promise you’ll come back. For good. And never leave again.”

She nodded, and hooked her own pinkie around his. “I promise.”

Matt’s emerald gaze regarded her for a long time before he gave a single nod. “Deal.” He dropped his hand and it disappeared into the pocket of his black dress pants. When he withdrew it, his closed fist hovered in the air. “I got something for you. Hold out your hand.”

Emily held hers out. Matt lowered his fist and opened it. Something small and cool grazed her skin. It was an angel-wing shell. At least, that’s what she and Matt had always called them. Although in the ocean the shells were closed, like little clams, with a little creature inside. Once the shells washed onto the beach, they opened up like a pair of angel wings. Emily looked at Matt.

A slight grin lifted the corner of his mouth, and he reached down with his bony fingers and broke the two wings apart.

“What’d you do that for—” Emily began.

Matt flipped each wing over, and Emily stared. Inside each shell, a name.
Matt
in one, and
Em
in the other. She lifted her gaze to his as he claimed the one with her name.

“This is for you to remember me by,” Matt offered. “Since you like ’em and all. I’ll keep yours, see, and you keep mine.” Then his brows furrowed. “It doesn’t mean boyfriend and girlfriend, or anything stupid like that.” He drew closer, his voice dropping once more to a whisper. “It just means best friends. Forever.” His eyes softened. “No matter what.”

A sob escaped her throat as she flung her arms around Matt’s neck. His skinny arms went around Emily, and he hugged her hard.

“No matter what,” Emily repeated against his damp shoulder. “Forever.”

“Emily, darling, it’s time to go.” Grandpa’s deep voice sounded behind them. They broke apart and, once more, Matt swiped Emily’s tears away with his fingers. Her grandpa gently grasped her hand and led her away.

Emily’s vision blurred as more tears filled her eyes, and even more pain returned. She watched the mossy ground move under her feet as she walked, and she’d kick an occasional pinecone when it got in her way. The rain had eased up, and the salty brine of the Back River wafted through the cemetery. Moss hung from the live oaks like ratty old hair, and puffy dandelions swayed with the breeze. She didn’t once look up, but she knew Matt followed, just a little behind. At her grandparents’ Bronco, she turned and met her best friend’s gaze. Matt stared hard and didn’t say anything, seemed almost angry, and she stared back. In her palm, she squeezed her Matt angel wing shell tightly.

Grandpa opened her door, and Matt mouthed the word
bye
.

Emily, her heart in her throat, mouthed it back.

She climbed in, and as the Bronco began to move away, the U-Haul heavy behind it, Emily kept her eyes trained on Matt Malone, standing there in his white shirt, crooked black tie and dress pants, his hand lifted in goodbye. She raised her hand, too, and didn’t look away until her grandpa turned out of the cemetery’s long driveway, heading toward the interstate.

Then, Emily reached over the seat to grasp little Reagan’s hand, closed her eyes and silently said goodbye to her home.

Copyright © 2015 by Cindy Homberger