Trace spoke the first thought that came into his head. “Because, I want it all, and I want it with you. I want a house with a picket fence. I want children, our children, to fill that house with love and laughter...” He paused, momentarily overcome with emotion. After a few struggling moments he apologized, “I'm sorry."
Lynn laid her buttered roll beside her knife. “Why?"
She was one aggravating, inquisitive female and he would probably spend the rest of his life apologizing to her for some trespass, either real or imagined. She was also warm, and witty, and practical, and impossible, and he loved her slightly more than life itself. “Damn it, Lynn I'm trying to ask you to marry me."
"You are? But I thought..."
"Will you answer the question?"
Tears stood in Lynn's eyes. “Yes I will, and yes I will."
At last an answer, and it was the perfect one. Trace jumped to his feet, sending his chair tumbling backward behind him. Coming around the table, he pulled Lynn to her feet and swept her into his arms. “You won't be sorry, I promise. I have such plans. First we get married and then we..."
Standing on tiptoe, Lynn brushed his lips with hers. “First we celebrate our engagement properly.” Taking his hand, she led him toward the bedroom.
Using the pseudonym Barri Bryan, Billie and Herb Houston have been writing as a team since 1990. Billie is a former teacher and educator. She holds an undergraduate degree in history and a graduate degree in educational psychology from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Herb is a former teacher, computer programmer and technical writer for the Air Force. He holds a degree in theology from the Trinity Valley Seminary in Kennedale, Texas.
Billie and Herb write the kind of books they enjoy reading—stories about relationships; stories that explore feelings and probe emotions. The plots revolve around ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances and faced with difficult decisions.
Other works by Barri Bryan:
Starting Over
From the first moment he saw Diane, dancing in another man's arms, Burt Carlisle knew she was the woman for him. The handsome and charismatic attorney swept the young and innocent Diane off her feet. After a fiery romance led to an unplanned pregnancy they married, settling into what seemed like the perfect life.
Now it's twenty years later. Their only child is in college, Burt's career is at an all time high, and he's still as deeply in love with his wife as ever. But he's far from the model husband and after years of feeling second to Burt's career, Diane has become restless. With the passage of time she not only lost her confidence, she lost her sense of self, her independence, and the ardent feelings that she once had for her husband.
When Diane announces that she has to return to their hometown to take care of her elderly aunt, Burt is supportive. But when he hears that she's taken a job there and that her old flame is in town, he suddenly realizes that he could very well lose the woman he adores unless he is willing to fight for her.
Starting Over is a compelling story about a couple lucky enough to have found one another in their youth and smart enough to go in search of themselves as adults. As always, Barri Bryan does a fabulous job of capturing the love and the desire: the desire to rekindle faith in one's self and the passion in one's marriage, the desire to admit what's gone wrong and to make changes, and the desire to simply commit to
Starting Over.