LITMIR.BIZ

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really see that despite how many of you kept trying to tell me. I guess it’s not easy for a man to admit he’s been a damn coward.”

      “I didn’t say you were a coward.”

      “No,” he agreed, “that’s one thing you didn’t say. But it’s true anyway. Hell, Rita, seeing Kevin again, it shook me. Then the wedding, him and Lisa, you and me... It was like an overload or something. My brain just exploded.”

      “So you told me to leave.”

      “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time—”

      She started to speak but he cut her off for a change.

      “—but it wasn’t. Damn it Rita, I’ve missed you. Your voice, your scent, the taste of you. Hell, I miss that loud laugh of yours so much I keep thinking I hear it echo around me.”

      “Loud?” she repeated.

      He grinned. “Loud. And sexy as hell.”

      Rita took a breath and held it, really hoping this was going to keep going the way she wanted it to.

      “That day in the desert almost finished me and did a hell of a lot more to Kevin.” Jack stopped pacing, stared into her eyes and said, “But he got past it. Moved the hell on, found a life, while I was still stuck in the past, trying to rewrite history.”

      “Oh, Jack.” She was glad to hear that he had done some thinking, but she hated hearing him put himself down like this, too. It was, she thought, the way of family. I can call my sister names but if you do it, we go to war. Well, that’s how she felt here, too.

      “Just let me get all of this out, okay?” He pushed one hand through his hair. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few days and last night, it all sort of came together.”

      “How?” She needed to know. Needed to believe that this was all real and that somehow he wouldn’t go back down that dark road he’d been so determined to stay on.

      “The dream came again.”

      And she hadn’t been there to help him through it. Pain for what he’d been through chimed inside her as she pushed off the couch to go to him. “Jack...”

      “No,” he said, smiling. “It wasn’t the same at all this time. In lots of ways. And it doesn’t matter right now. All that does matter is that I finally figured something out.”

      She looked up into his eyes and for the first time, noticed that he seemed different somehow. There weren’t as many shadows in his eyes. He looked...lighter. As if at least a part of the burden he carried with him had slipped off. And that gave her hope.

      “What, Jack? What did you figure out?”

      “That I was an idiot. Telling you to go when I should have been begging you to stay.” His gaze moved over her face like a touch. “Hell, Rita, I should have been thanking the Fates for bringing you back to me and instead, all I could think about was if I loved you and lost you it would kill me.”

      Tears blurred her vision but she blinked them back. She didn’t want to miss a moment of this. “So,” she said wryly, “to keep from losing me, you lost me.”

      “Yeah.” He sighed. “Like I said. Idiot.”

      “Agreed.”

      He laughed shortly. “Well, thanks.”

      “Hey, who knows you better than me?” She asked and reached up to smooth his hair back from his forehead.

      “Nobody,” he said, voice hardly more than a whisper. He laid both hands on her shoulders and stared directly into her eyes when he said, “Forgive me, Rita. I was too messed up to see what I had. What I lost. I told you once that you had to leave before I loved you.”

      “Yeah,” she said, the memory of that pain filling her. “I remember.”

      “That was a lie, too.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I loved you the minute I saw you on that beach. When you smiled at me, my heart dropped at your feet. I didn’t want to acknowledge it and that’s the idiot part.” He slid his hands up to cup her face and wiped away a single tear with his thumb. “But my heart is yours, Rita. Always has been. I love you.”

      She sucked in a gulp of air and held it. “Say it again.”

      He grinned. “I love you. More than I ever thought possible to love anyone.”

      “Jack...”

      He frowned a little. “Is that an irritated sigh, or a dreamy one?”

      Rita smiled up at him. “Dreamy. With just a little bit of irritation tacked on to the end for what you put us all through.”

      “That’s fair,” he said, nodding. “Rita, I want to stay married to you. I want to raise our daughter and however many more kids we have together. I love you. Always will. I’m sorry I hurt you. Sorry I hurt my family. My friends.”

      She reached up to cover his hands with hers. “I love you, Jack.”

      “Thank God.” He sighed in relief. “You’ll never be sorry, Rita. I swear it.”

      “I never was sorry, you dummy,” she said and went up on her toes to kiss him.

      Jack took her mouth like a drowning man taking his first clear breath. She leaned in to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as he picked her up and swung her in a circle, their mouths still fused together.

      Finally though, breathless, he broke off and grinned down at her. “I love you.”

      “Keep saying it,” Rita told him. “I want to hear it. A lot. In fact, I’m going to send Kevin and Lisa a thank-you card for inviting us to their wedding.”

      “Oh!” Jack let her go long enough to walk to a table, pick something up and come back to her. “Hey, that reminds me. I brought this along for you to see. Kevin sent me an email this morning. I learned my lesson there, too, and opened it right away. Then I printed it.”

      Rita’s eyes blurred again as she looked down at the picture of Kevin and Lisa, standing side by side. The picture was captioned “Got my new legs. I’m an inch taller than I used to be. Thanks again, Jack. For everything. Give us a call sometime.”

      She looked up at Jack. “That’s so great.”

      “Yeah, it is.” He took the picture, tossed it to the table again, then held her hands in his. “And one of these days, I’ll thank him for waking me the hell up in time to save the only thing that matters to me.” He cupped her cheek with one hand. “You, Rita. I love you.”

      “I love you back,” she said and felt her world completely right itself and steady out. He’d been worth the fight. Worth the pain. Worth everything to get to where they were now.

      Bending down, he kissed her baby belly and then stood up to face her. “You know I told you I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last couple of days and I wanted to ask you something. How do you feel about naming our daughter Carla? After my mom.”

      Rita’s heart melted. It was perfect. It was all so perfect. She stepped into his embrace. “I think I love it. You’re back, Jack. Really back, aren’t you?”

      “Yeah.” He gave her a smile. “I’m finally home. You’re my home, Rita. I know that now.” His arms closed around her and she felt the steady thump of his heart beneath her ear. She had Jack. She had her daughter. She had everything.

      The ship’s horn sounded and Rita jumped. “Hey, we’ve got to get off the ship before it sails.”

      He only tightened his hold on her and laughed. “No, we’re not getting off.”

      Confused, she stared up at him. “What do you mean?”

      “Just in case you didn’t kill me,” Jack said, grinning, “I arranged for Gina to come

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