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She shifted from one foot to the other, suddenly chilled. Still, she remained silent, determined to find out what could have incited him to take a plane at the spur of the moment to see her.
“What I meant was, I wish I’d consulted you first. I see now that you’ve put up with a lot of maneuvering from your family in the past and it would have been better to discuss the purchase with you instead of trying to make a big gesture.”
She took in the words, letting them roll through her as she absorbed the sincerity in his eyes. She wanted to tell him she understood that she’d had an idea for fighting through this together, but he cut her off.
“Wait.” His determined look told her he had more to say. “I just want you to know that I understand I screwed up. But I’d like to think I’m smart enough to learn from my mistakes. Can you forgive me?”
“It’s okay.” She tugged her feet out of the damp sand and used the toe of her sneaker to fill in the depression where she’d stood. “I had my heart set on this place, so even if you told me the roof was caving in, I would have found a way to buy it and fix it up. You just… caught me off guard when you bought the place. Sometimes I’ve felt like you were being overprotective and I thought this might be your way of assuring I didn’t fall on my face.”
“I don’t doubt your ability to turn this place around for a minute. I just wanted it to be something you could enjoy instead of something stressful. But I get it… you wanted to accomplish it on your own.”
She nodded, thinking maybe he did understand after all.
Yet his shoulders remained tense. His jaw tight. Clearly he had more to say. She could see him thinking over how to best express himself. Odd to think how well she could read him even after so long apart.
“I had something else in mind too, when I bought the place. But I didn’t know how to tell you at the time since I didn’t think it was right to mix business with pleasure.”
Pleasure?
A frown curved her lips down, indignation burning away common sense. “You wanted booty call privileges?”
He looked horrified.
“No, damn it.” He stopped short in the sand. Gripped her shoulders. “Alicia, I love you and I want to be a part of this. Help you fix up the place. Realize the dream. I want the chance to take you out on dates and convince you that we belong together, and I know I won’t have that in Chatham. So I’d like to be wherever you are. If that means taking an apartment in town because you’re not ready to move in together—”
Her fingers shushed his mouth, her mind racing to try to take in all that he’d said.
She was nothing short of amazed. She had no idea he would – or could – entertain such a huge move for her. That he could love her. By God, she had underestimated him – underestimatedherselftoo - because she hadn’t considered that he could feel this deeply for her.
“You’d move up here with me?” She would start with that much because she couldn’t imagine him ditching such a great family, although she understood better than most that Jack would never want to be a part of his father’s business. The corporate fast track had never been his style.
“I’ve been waiting for inspiration to figure out what I want to do with my life since getting out of the Navy.” He reached for a strand of her hair that had blown across her cheek and smoothed it aside with the rest. “I liked the way it felt to be in the service and now that I’m done, I wouldn’t mind finding other ways to serve. Be a part of a community. Help out some neighbors. I’ve already got a few investments in the works and I’m financially secure. But I like the idea of building something from the ground up.”
“But this isn’t some Habitat for Humanity cause, Jack.” She didn’t want to be another project for him to fix. She wanted nothing less than this man’s whole heart. Forever. “I’ll pull this off with or without you. I’m more interested in how you feel about me. About us. Can you go back to the part about loving me? Or maybe revisit the bit about how we belong together?”
Had her wishful heart just imagined that part? Jack Murphy had never been a demonstrative man. But right now she craved the words. The security. All packaged up with spine-tingling sex with the hottest, most fascinating man she’d ever met.
He took her hands in both of his and folded them to his heart. Moonlight glinted in his dark brown hair, his shadowed eyes focused intently on her.
“Alicia, I want to be with you always. I felt that way four years ago but it seemed like too much to lay on you when you were only twenty years old and a junior in college. It wouldn’t have been fair to ask you to wait for me when I signed the Navy contract, but I needed to be there for Danny. I always knew I’d look you up when I came home. Always.”
The declaration took her breath away. And filled her up all over again with visions of what their future together could be like until she felt lightheaded from the sheer perfection.
“Really?” She remembered he’d said something to that effect on the boat, but she’d been too hurt by his long ago defection to give the statement much credence. “You’d been home for weeks…”
“I didn’t want to come on too strong by barreling into your business the moment I set foot in Chatham. And I’d planned on interrogating those old boyfriends of yours to make sure you weren’t serious about someone else. I had some ground work to do.” The intensity in his green eyes gave way to something more tender. “But yes, I would have come after you if you hadn’t magically appeared in my bed, exactly where I wanted you.”
She felt the world shift under her feet and it didn’t have anything to do with the waves rolling over the damp sands. A crevice inside her stitched together, an old wound closing. Slowly, she tipped her head to his chest and absorbed the feel of him by her side.
“Jack, I love you. I’ve missed you like crazy. The last three days. The four years before that.” The leather of his jacket was warm from the heat of his body and she wanted to burrow beneath it to touch him. “If you mean what you’ve said, then I’m holding you hostage here. Tonight and every night.”
Relinquishing her hands, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and drew her flush to him. It was more than an embrace. It was a homecoming.
“I’m going to make you so happy, Ally,” he vowed, his breath a soft whisper against her hair.
“Let’s go inside and you can make good on that promise sooner rather than later.” Her hands found the opening in the zipper of his jacket and eased under the outer layer to his cotton button down underneath.
“I can do that.” His hands roamed over her back, curving around her bottom and lifting her against him. “I can so do that for you.”
