See Jane Fall (46 page)

She glanced at her phone then smiled up at
him. “I know. I saw.”

Her face was tender as she reached out her
hand, which he took, pulling it to his mouth, pressing his lips to
her palm. He was glad it was dark. He was glad she couldn’t see the
tears filling his eyes.

“How?” he murmured.

She pulled the blanket off her lap and
un-tucked her legs from under her, standing up. He stood up in
front of her, snaking an arm around her waist, suddenly aware of
how dusty and dirty he must be. Inconvenient, that, because he was
going to take off her clothes, take off his, and make love to her.
Really, really slowly. They’d just have to shower together after he
was done.

She tilted her face up to catch his
eyes.

“I couldn’t go. I would have regretted
leaving you.”

“Your uncle?”

“Can’t be mad. I got fired.”

“Fired?”

“Mmmm. Apparently I was too mopey to work
for Samara Amaya.”

He felt like he wasn’t getting the whole
story, but it didn’t matter. He’d get it some other time. Nothing
mattered but having her restored to him. He searched her eyes, just
needing to know…

“Is this temporary or permanent?”

“I told you I loved you, Lars. I’m all in
too. I’m staying.”

His reaction was instantaneous. He pulled
her into his arms and his mouth came down on hers possessively. He
swept his tongue into her mouth and Jane responded with a small
moan of relief and delight, weaving her hands through his blond
hair, then lacing her hands behind his neck. He trailed kisses down
her neck to her ear, taking the lobe between his teeth and biting
gently, loving the way she tensed up against him and moaned deep in
her throat. It made him smile to know her so well. It made him
smile that they had so much time ahead of them for him to learn
everything.

He laid his head on her shoulder then, and
closed his eyes, gratitude coursing through his body, crashing over
him in waves of relief.

“Just try and get rid of me now.”

Oh, man, that warm, honey voice.

“No chance,” he breathed. “I will do
whatever it takes so that you never regret staying, Jane.”

Jane leaned her head back, moving her hands
to his face, holding him in place, as her eyes held his.

“No regrets,” she whispered. “I’m staying
with you.”

“You’re staying with me,” he repeated with
wonder, and his heart thundered in his chest, bursting with love
for her as he finally believed it was true. He smiled so wide that
it turned into laughter, and he held her tightly, knowing this kind
of happiness was only possible when you finally receive the one
thing you wanted more than anything else in the world.

They held each for a while in the quiet of
the dim bedroom, until Jane leaned back, with teasing eyes, and
licked her lips. His eyes sparkled then narrowed, as he watched
her, his body responding to her. He sat down on the edge of the
bed, pulling her between his legs, spanning her waist with his
rough hands, his fingers brushing the satin of bare skin under her
t-shirt.

“Heya, Lars.”

“Heya, Minx.”

“Got anything on the agenda for tonight?”
she asked, little fingers unbuttoning his shirt.

“Could be,” he answered, pushing her shirt
up and over her head.

“Something you want to share with me?”

She smiled, pushing his shirt down his arms,
her fingers trailing lightly over the sensitive skin.

“Yep. Something special just for you.”

He reached for the clasp at her back.

“Is that right?” she asked, shrugging out of
her bra.

“That’s right,” he answered, as he
unbuttoned her jeans, his heart racing with anticipation for the
sweetness that was to come.

“Tell me what you want, Just-Lars,” she
whispered, low and taut.

He pulled her naked body into his arms, then
down on the bed behind them, staring at her beloved face.

“I already got what I wanted,” he breathed,
pulling her left hand to his lips. He kissed the fourth finger,
which he fully intended to decorate with a ring by Thanksgiving. “I
got to see Jane fall…” he said, tilting his head to capture her
lips with his. “…for me.”

THE END

EPILOGUE

Two months ago

Maggie Campbell couldn’t stand it that her
best friend, Paul Johansson, who was one of the finest people she’d
ever met in her entire life, couldn’t catch a break with love.
She’d done all she could do to help, but as she had frequently
heard Paul and Lars Lindstrom lament, there weren’t many eligible
young women in Gardiner. The difference between Paul and Lars,
however, was that Lars didn’t lack for female companionship,
flashing his ice-blue eyes at every pretty park girl who came
through town. Paul, on the other hand, seemed to be waiting for
something special, some
one
special.

She refilled the coffee mugs sitting in
front of them on the copper bar.

“So you’re game?” Lars was asking Paul.
“Lower Slide? Tomorrow morning?”

Paul looked wary. “Who’s coming with
us?”

“Just you and me,” said Lars.

“Right. Last time you said ‘just you and
me,’ we ended up with those girls tagging along.”

“Misty and Mandy? Come on! They were
fun.”

Paul gave his friend a look. “They were
barely eighteen. They could have been seniors at my school. It
matters what folks around here think of me, Lars.”

“Principal Paul,” Lars sighed, rolling his
eyes. “You’ve got to loosen up.”

“I’m as loose as the next man. Trout fishing
sounds great. More Misty and Mandy? Not so much.”

“I miss Erik.”

“I miss him too. When he lived here, you
never tried to get me to go horndogging with you.”

“Okay. No Misty and Mandy.” Lars took his
phone out of his hip pocket and sent a quick text, no doubt
canceling on whatever bimbos were supposed to join them tomorrow.
When he looked up again, his eyes twinkled with amusement.
“Speaking of ladies, I heard you took Mary Phillips out on the town
a few nights back.”

Paul shook his head, giving Maggie a
sideways look and taking a long sip of coffee.

Mary Phillips, the forty-something secretary
from Grace Church didn’t look a whole decade older than Paul when
Maggie had set up the date. And how was Maggie to know she’d spend
most of the evening blathering on about her health problems?

Lars winked at Maggie and she whipped a
dishtowel at him, but he dodged it in time, hopping off the bar
stool and chuckling at her. “Oh, don’t tell me! Maggie, you are the
worst matchmaker in the world!”

“She’s a nice single lady,” Maggie
protested. Paul looked up at Maggie over the rim of his coffee cup
with disgust and she winced. “How was I supposed to know she has
crabs?”

Lars’s mouth fell open in shock.

“Shingles!” Paul blurted out, a mouthful of
coffee spewing onto the bar. “Shingles! Not crabs, for God’s sake,
Maggie!”

“Och, for heaven’s—Shingles, I mean!
Shingles!”

Lars howled with laughter, clutching his
stomach as he headed to the door, waving good-night to both of them
as he swiped at the tears in his eyes. They could still hear him
laughing as he made his way down the street toward home.

“
Really
, Maggie?”

Maggie shrugged. She hadn’t meant to say
crabs. She was so distracted lately with Nils in the park for a
whole month and…

“Let me give you a refill. Sorry, Paul. I
mean, I just…” She shrugged helplessly, turning to grab the coffee
pot. She poured the scalding liquid into his cup, pushing it to
him, then put the pot back on the warmer and wiped the mixture of
coffee and Lars’s spit from the copper bar, shining it until it
gleamed.

“Just promise me something, okay? No more
interfering with my love life, okay?”

“What love life?”

“I’m a happy bachelor, Mags.”

“I don’t buy that for a second.”

“Well, it’s not your problem.”

“But you’re like a brother to me and I just
want—”

“No more, Maggie. I mean it.”

He held her eyes and she made a face, but
nodded.

Paul eased off the barstool. “Early day
tomorrow. How about I bring you a trout?”

She grinned at him. “If you swing in at
seven, I’ll have two hot coffees waitin’.”

“Will do. Thanks.”

She watched him go, the café door slamming
lightly behind him. Besides two old codgers finishing up their tea
and dominoes in the corner, the only sound in the café was the soft
drone of music.

Maggie wiped down the bar and placed Lars’s
and Paul’s cups in the little sink.

Ding!

She looked to her left where her laptop sat
behind the counter. She touched the space bar lightly and her
e-mail program came up. One new message.

Maggie clicked on her inbox, and then on the
message entitled “Meet the One.”

MeetTheOne.com, the Internet’s most proven
dating website!

Under the header was a picture of a pretty
blonde woman. She stood in front of a weeping willow, wearing a
simple white sundress and sunglasses, smiling into the camera. She
was full of life and innocence, her pretty smile fetching without
crossing into come-hither. And without a doubt, Maggie knew that
this girl would be perfect for Paul.

She snapped her laptop shut, remembering her
promise, then reopened it, peeking around the café quickly with
guilty eyes. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right? And
maybe this…

She looked down at the young woman’s face.
The caption beside the picture read “Could Holly Morgan be the girl
for you?”

…Holly Morgan was the very person for her
friend Paul.

Paul Johansson and
Holly
Morgan’s
Zoe Flannigan’s story

Available Summer 2014

Thank you so much for reading

SEE JANE FALL

Heart of Montana, #3

Katy Regnery loves to hear from her
fans!
Connect with her on
www.facebook.com/KatyRegnery

For news on upcoming Heart of Montana
stories, sign up for Katy Regnery’s newsletter at
www.katyregnery.com
.

Don’t miss Katy’s other Heart of Montana
books available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords,
iTunes and Kobo:

BY PROXY (Heart of Montana, #1 – Jenny
Lindstrom’s story)

“The Christmas Wish” (Heart of Montana, #1.5
– Tess Branson’s story)

MIDSUMMER SWEETHEART (Heart of Montana, #2 –
Erik Lindstrom’s story)

Coming soon:

MEETING MISS MYSTIC (Heart of Montana, #4 –
Paul Johansson’s story)

WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING? (Heart of Montana,
#5 – Nils Lindstrom’s story)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KATY REGNERY, winner of several 2013 regional
RWA 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. When Katy’s
fans asked her to turn up the heat, she cheerfully started her
Enchanted Places
series, which offers steamier romance to
her readers. Both series are available on Amazon and other book
retailers.

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.