Johnston - Heartbeat (33 page)

Authors: Joan Johnston

She turned in a circle, holding her dress out to the sides and said, “Pretty as a princess.”

When Jack looked up, he found Roman and Lisa Hollander standing arm in arm nearby. He stood and said, “Amy looks great. How is she?”

“Sassy as ever,” Roman said, scooping Amy up in one arm.

“It’s good to see you, Jack,” Lisa said. “Will you join us for supper?”

Jack looked at Maggie and said, “I need to talk with Maggie first.”

“Sure,” Roman said. “We’ll go get the fire started.”

Jack couldn’t resist touching Maggie. He adjusted the collar of her blouse and said, “Busy day?”

She gave him a fleeting smile. “I got named managing partner of the firm.”

“Congratulations.” Jack hadn’t considered that. Maybe now she’d be too busy for him . . . for them. “That’ll probably keep you pretty busy—”

“Not too busy for us, Jack,” she interrupted.

He met her gaze and saw both hope and fear. He realized she was waiting for him to reaffirm his feelings, the ones he’d spoken of a week past. It was harder than he’d thought to say the words because a gigantic lump had lodged in his throat. He forced them out anyway. “I love you, Maggie.”

The smile came slowly, but when her lips were finally fully curved, she looked radiant.

“I don’t want to live any more of my life without you, Maggie,” he said.

“I feel the same way.”

He gave her a quick, hard kiss. “Good. I’ve got something for you.”

Jack felt anxious all of a sudden. From the look on Maggie’s face she was expecting him to give her some traditional sign of commitment, like a ring. But Jack had known exactly what he wanted to give Maggie for a long time, and it wasn’t made of cold metal or glittering stone.

He reached inside his buttoned-up Levi’s jacket and pulled out a bundle of calico fur. “Here,” he said.

“What on earth?”

He saw the confusion on her face, and then the delight as she realized what he’d given her.

“It’s a kitten! Oh, Jack. It’s a kitten!” Tears sprang to her eyes as she rubbed the kitten’s fur against her cheek. “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted a cat!”

Jack smiled. The four fake cats had sort of given it away.

“She’s adorable,” Maggie said. “Where did you find her?”

“My mom’s cat had a litter. Tinkerbell was hiding them in the garage.”

Maggie laughed. “You call a cat that leaps onto people from a tree
Tinkerbell?”

“I didn’t name her,” Jack said. “By the way, there are five more where that one came from,” he said, stroking the kitten’s nose. “I wasn’t sure what color you’d like.”

“Oh, Jack, she’s perfect.”

“What are you going to name her?” he said.

She looked up at him, and Jack watched her face as she realized the significance of the gift. The significance of naming the kitten. The significance of keeping it. She would have to start living again. No more hiding from life. She would have to open the door and let him in, along with the cat.

Give us a chance,
Jack prayed.

The kitten began purring, and Maggie laughed, a throaty, pleased sound. She looked up at him, her heart in her eyes, and Jack felt his insides tumble. He reached for her and drew her protectively into his embrace. She held the kitten close with one hand, while she curled the other around his neck and drew his face down for her kiss.

“I love you, Jack,” she said. “So very much.”

The warmth of her kiss seeped inside him and filled the empty spaces. Jack took Maggie’s face between his hands and looked into her eyes as he said, “Will you marry me, Maggie?”

“I made so many mistakes the first time, I’m not sure how I’ll do the second time around,” she said in a shaky voice.

“We’ll work it all out,” he said. “I don’t need someone perfect. I need you. Say yes, Maggie.”

The kitten meowed.

Maggie laughed and said, “Yes, Jack.”

“I want kids, Maggie. A houseful of them.”

She took a shuddering breath and let it out. “That’s such a big step, Jack.”

“I’ll be there with you, Maggie. We’ll make it together.”

He saw the moment she began to believe in happily ever after. The look on her face was peaceful, accepting, happy. “All right, Jack,” she said with a wobbly smile.

He pulled her close and kissed her hard.

“Maybe the Hollanders wouldn’t mind if we excused ourselves,” Maggie suggested when she came up for air. “After all, we have a hungry kitten here who needs her mother.”

“I like the way your mind works, counselor.”

Maggie smiled. “I’m going to remind you of that, Jack, the first time we have an argument.”

Jack kissed her again. They would argue. And they would disagree. And they would have problems. All couples did. Life was never perfect. There was no perfect. But he would love her anyway. As she would love him. After all, they belonged together. Two imperfect halves that made one absolutely ideal whole.

He tugged his hat down and said, “Come on, Maggie. Let’s go home.”

Author’s Note

Dear Readers,

If you enjoyed
Heartbeat
and
I Promise,
you might like to try some of my Hawk’s Way contemporary novels, including
Hawk’s Way: The Virgin Groom,
which is in bookstores now.

My novella entitled “A Hawk’s Way Christmas” will be in a hardcover gift collection with bestselling author Diana Palmer titled
Lone Star Christmas.
It should be available in bookstores by mid—October, in plenty of time to make a delightful holiday stocking stuffer.

My next historical romance novel, a sequel to
Captive
and
After the Kiss
called
The Bodyguard,
tells the story of an English duke tricked into marriage by a spirited Scottish lass. It’s a March release and will be available in bookstores in mid—February 1998.

I love hearing from you. If you would like to be on my mailing list, please send a postcard to me at P.O. Box 8531, Pembroke Pines, Florida 33084. If you send a letter with comments or questions and would like a reply, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Happy trails,

September 1997

About the Author

JOAN JOHNSTON
is the
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author of 54 novels and novellas, with more than 10 million copies of her books in print. Joan lives in Colorado. You can learn more about her at
www.joanjohnston.com
or reach her on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/joanjohnstonauthor
.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
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Romances by Joan Johnston

T
HE
M
EN
OF
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ITTER
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REEK

I P
ROMISE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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