Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(93)
He wiped the tear rolling down my cheek and gave me a crooked grin. “How could I stay mad at you?”
“I make it kind of easy sometimes.”
“No argument there.”
I punched his arm. “Watch it.” I glanced over my shoulder at the bag on the floor. “I have one other thing for you too.”
“I can’t take anything else. I almost got us fired. It isn’t right. This is more than enough.”
I handed it to him. “Just shut up and open it. The money is to help your mom and dad, but this is for you.”
He sat back down with the bag between his feet, reached inside, and pulled her out. He ran his hand over the plastic window. “Annabelle Lee?”
“I know it’s probably stupid, but I saw your face when your sisters gave you a hard time about this doll, and I had to find her for you. It made me sad that you lost something so special. I thought you could save her and give her to your daughter one day.”
He stared at her, the pretty Annabelle Lee, the Cabbage Patch doll with long, dark brown hair, and said nothing. Doubt weaseled its way into my head. He probably thought it was the dumbest thing ever and was going to laugh at me.
“Say something. You think it’s stupid, don’t you?” I tried to take it from his hands.
He snatched it back. “No. This is, without a doubt, the sweetest thing anyone has ever given me. Thank you.”
I tipped one shoulder to my ear. “You like it? Really?”
He rose to his feet and held my arms. “I love it.”
“Okay good, because there’s one more thing I have to say and I have to get it out before I lose my nerve.”
He set Annabelle Lee down. “All right.”
“I’ve come to a conclusion that I’ve been afraid to say out loud because it might screw some things up.” I gathered up the courage to look in his eyes. “Vance DeLuca, you are the most arrogant man I’ve ever known. You frustrate me to no end and no one on this earth knows how to irritate me more than you.”
He pursed his lips. “You’re really sweet talkin’ me here.”
“Shush and let me finish.” I took one more deep breath, and the last line of my prepared speech came back to me. “You are my past, the meaning to my present, and I can’t imagine my future without you. I… I think I love you.”
He held a blank stare.
My heart pounded. “Please say something.”
He took a step toward me and held my face in his hands. “Say it again.”
I smiled. “I think I love you.”
He shook his head slightly and blinked like he’d seen something he couldn’t believe. “I—”
The doorbell rang, and he grunted. “Damn it.” He let go of me. “Don’t move.”
“Expecting someone?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
He opened his front door, and when I heard her voice, I could have died.
“I did it! I’m choosing to live the life I want to live, and that life includes you.”
I stepped into the foyer, and Cici stood on Vance’s porch with two suitcases at her feet. He glanced back to me and then to her with a look I couldn’t describe.
“Uh, come in.”
THE END…
Page forward for an excerpt from Acts of Desperation
Excerpt from Acts of Desperation
Chapter One
Sarah slumped back on the park bench next to me with a sigh. “So what’s new? How’s the studying going?”
Sarah and I had sought shelter from the oppressive Midwestern heat under a towering oak. In the shade it was five degrees cooler, but when comparing ninety-five to a hundred, five degrees didn’t make much of a difference on how it felt. Anyway I sliced it, it was hot.
A warm gust of wind blew, teasing us, but instead of lending relief, it was as if I’d stuck my head inside a preheated oven; it took my breath away. The wind whipped Sarah’s wavy, light brown hair against her cheek and she reached up, tucking it behind her ear. Mine was pulled back so it wasn’t a nuisance; I knew better than to wear it down in weather like this and have it stick to my skin.
It was odd admiring her thick locks now. Growing up, people always mistook us for twins, even though Sarah had spent her time getting perms and trying to get the waves I had had naturally. But as I grew up, my hair straightened and Sarah’s magically got wavier and wavier.
Hair, makeup, clothes, everything about her was as it should have been, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was different about her. After a few fleeting thoughts, I figured she was probably just tired; she did have two little boys to run after all day long. That could wear anyone out. I turned and smiled out as we kept a watchful eye over my nephews.
“Really well,” I said. I was in the middle of law school, and every waking hour of my life was spent with my nose buried in a book. “But, I have some exciting news.” I was practically bursting out of my skin—nothing ever felt real until I shared it with my big sister.
“Yeah.” She sighed.
“I met someone.” I smiled.
“You did? That’s great.” She smiled back, but it lacked sincerity. I waited for the follow-up questions she would normally ask, but when they didn’t come, I offered up the details.