The Christmas Wish (6 page)

“More in Billings than anywhere else in Montana,” he teased, quoting her from Monday night.

On the opposite page was a photo of the Montana Zoo logo, with pictures of the animals, and beside it was a photocopy of a HELP WANTED ad. Tess leaned closer to read it. She got to the words Zooschool before looking up at him. His brown eyes were gentle, encouraging, and infinitely loving.

“They…well, they don’t need teachers right now. They need an aide, though, Tess. Someone who can help the little ones put on their snowsuits and use the restroom and help out the teacher. I called and talked to the head, uh, lady there. She was real nice. She said, uh, that they hadn’t found the right person yet.”

The page blurred before Tess as his words sank in.

“You could still go to night school, too,” he hurried to add, “to learn how to be a teacher. You don’t have to settle for this. But you told me if you worked at the Zooschool you’d be happy for the rest of your life. That’s what you told me. And I want you to be happy for the rest of your life, Tess. That’s all I want.”

She bit her lip, speechless, her heart bursting with love for him as he turned the last page. There was a picture of him. Of Lucas Flynn, smiling back at her.

“And one more thing,” he said, as she flicked her swimming eyes up to capture his.

***

“I do want to leave Gardiner, that’s true,” Lucas admitted. “A few weeks. A month tops. I want to move to Billings. But I won’t”—he slid off the couch, dropping to one knee beside her, his heart beating furiously with the enormity of what he was about to do—“unless you agree to come with me.”

He pulled a small box out of his back pocket and opened it. Inside was a silver ring with a sparkling stone on top. “It’s just a crystal,” he said as she stared at it, covering her open mouth, tears coursing down her face. “Someday, when I can, I’ll replace it with something better. I’m a hard worker. I promise.”

He smiled at her, pulling one of her hands away from her mouth to hold it in his own as he poured out his heart to her. “I love you, Tess Branson. I love what’s in your heart. I love what’s in your head. At some point soon, I’m going to love your body, too. But it’ll be because I love you. I love
you
. I’m not going anywhere unless you’re going with me, because you’re my destination. Wherever you are, I’m home.”

One trembling hand still covered her mouth as she flicked her eyes from the ring back to his face. To the ring and back again. Her eyes were wide and shocked, and he swallowed uncomfortably. Maybe he hadn’t been clear?

“Tess, I’m asking you to marry me. I…I know that we haven’t known each other all that long, but I bet lots of folks’ve started out with less’n you and me have got. And I want to do this right.”

Tess kept staring at him, unmoving except for the slight shaking of the hand over her lips and the tears rolling ceaselessly down her cheeks. It was making him nervous that she hadn’t responded. He bit his bottom lip then drew her hand away from her mouth, clasping it gently, captivated by the way it looked, so right, surrounded by his.

“Way I see it, I even think—you and me?—we’re ahead of the pack. You see the good in me and I see the good in you. And I think that’s enough for a start because we’ll trip over ourselves to take care of each other. We’ve got the good and the loving in spades, Tess.”

He searched her eyes, knowing in his heart that she was his best chance at happiness.
A lot of goodness. A lot of loving. A little hard work.

“We’ll build something good. We won’t end up like your folks or mine, because we’ll work at it. I’ll work at it every day of my life.” He stopped talking and swallowed, wishing she would answer. His voice was hushed and wishful as he asked one last time, “What do you say? Take a chance on me?”

He heard a small sound, like a sob, come from the back of her throat.
Oh, my God, could I have possibly misjudged her feelings? Could she possibly say—?

“Yes!” She threw her arms around him, sliding off the couch cushion and falling to her knees beside him. Then she pressed her lips to his.

***

In bed, Lucas’s arms held Tess tucked back snugly against his chest and his bare legs were tangled with hers. He snored softly in her ear. He hadn’t looked away—not for a moment—when he’d made love to her. And when he’d climaxed, he declared his love for her again in a gut-wrenching, visceral growl that had made her tighten around him, arching against him as her world exploded into intense pleasure such that she’d never known. Nothing had existed for her except Lucas and the love they bore for one another. Nothing existed but that now.

She trembled, remembering, and in his sleep Lucas pulled her closer while grateful tears filled her eyes. She had had sex many times before tonight, but tonight was the first time anyone had ever made love to her. Tess felt like a new creation, reborn through the love of Lucas Flynn.

She held out her hand and sighed with amazement as her engagement ring caught the moonlight, its crystal twinkling like a white Christmas light. Out her window she could make out the full moon, and surrounding it, a host of stars. One of them was so bright that it could almost be the Star of Bethlehem—or the star she’d wished on last Friday night, which felt so long ago.

Tess stared at it hard, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Not even a second later she reopened them, smiling with wonder as she snuggled up against her fiancé. There’d been nothing to say. Now that Tess Branson was the sort of girl who wished on stars, she had nothing left to wish for. All of the wishes of her heart had already come true.

THE HEART OF MONTANA Series

For news on upcoming Heart of Montana stories including the Lindstrom siblings and their friends in Gardiner, sign up for Katy Regnery’s newsletter at
www.katyregnery.com
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Don’t miss Katy’s previous book, BY PROXY (Heart of Montana, #1 – Jenny Lindstrom’s story) on sale now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords and iTunes.

Amazon link for BY PROXY, Heart of Montana, #1

And watch for MIDSUMMER SWEETHEART (Heart of Montana, #2 – Erik Lindstrom’s story) coming January 2014.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KATY REGNERY, winner of the 2013 NECRWA First Kiss and 2013 Maine RWA Everything But the Kitchen Sink contests, has always loved telling a good story and credits her mother with making funny, heartwarming tales come alive throughout her childhood. A lifelong devotee of all romance writing from Edwardian to present-day, it was just a matter of time before Katy tried her hand at writing a love story of her own.

As it turned out, one love story turned into a series of six Heart of Montana romances, following the love lives of the Yellowstone-based Lindstrom siblings. In addition to small-town contemporary romance, Katy is presently writing a paranormal romance that takes place in northern New England and the forests north of Quebec.

Speaking of forests, Katy lives in the relative-wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods and her husband, two young children and two dogs create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories of all are the messy and unexpected ones.

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