Angel's Peak (Virgin River #10)(43)

“And the woman who keeps calling you?”

“What woman?” he asked.

“Your phone keeps picking up text messages and voice mails. That has to be a woman.”

He took a deep breath. This didn’t seem like a good time to lie, just as he was trying to close a deal. “I dated this girl a few times back at Beale and I told her I wasn’t getting into a steady thing. When I went on leave, I told her we had to cool it because it wasn’t working for me, but she’s deaf. I thought when I left town for a couple of months she’d let it go, but she’s hounding me. I’m going to call her, Franci, and tell her I’m off the market. That I’m getting married. She won’t call anymore. Now, come on.”

“Poor thing,” Franci said. “She might be as sick in love with you as I was.”

“As you were?” he asked, a little frightened of the answer.

“And I said I’m not marrying you.”

“Okay, let me get this right—I suggested marriage and you said no?”

“How about that? What a shocker, huh?”

“Well, what the hell am I supposed to do? I thought that’s what I should do!”

“Okay, you still don’t get it. We don’t want to because you’re doing what you should. Listen carefully, Sean. I want you to be absolutely sure you want to commit to a life with me and Rosie, because you don’t have to marry me to have time with your daughter. She’s your daughter—I won’t get in the way of that. Though I have to admit, the way you suggested marriage really just knocked me off my feet.”

He would never admit it to anyone, but her refusal gave him an instant feeling of relief. He wasn’t ready to take it all on. But it would sure make things tidier if they could just do it the way it probably should be done.

He slid close to her and, before she could protest, pulled her right up against him. “You wanna get knocked off your feet, sweetheart? Because we both know we do that to each other.” He put a big hand around the back of her neck and ran his thumb from her earlobe to the hollow of her throat. Then he kissed that spot. “I want you with me, Franci. Tonight, and from now on.”

“Sean,” she said gravely, “when you rejected me four years ago, there were times I wondered if I’d lost my mind and my heart. The things we said to each other—I don’t want to risk a marriage like that. After we split and I moved to Santa Rosa, sometimes I grieved so badly I worried that I was hurting the baby with endless crying, sleepless nights, loss of appetite. I just can’t face something like that again.”

He ran a knuckle across her soft cheek. “Baby, I didn’t reject you. I wanted to be with you—I just had a hang-up with marriage.”

“Well, now the shoe’s on the other foot. Suck it up.”

Life would be made a lot simpler, Sean thought, if he could deliver the news to his mother along with a plan for a quick wedding. He made a lot of blunders, but he wasn’t quite stupid enough to admit that to Franci. Instead, he covered her mouth with his and moved over it with passion. He tongued open her lips, pulled her close against him, got hard. It was hell, but he broke away just long enough to say, “I’m gonna show you we need to be together tonight, Franci. When I’m done with you, there won’t be a doubt in your mind.” Then he went after her mouth again.

“Mooommmm-eeeee! What are you dooooo-ing?”

Sean broke away abruptly and turned scarlet. There, at the end of the couch, stood Rosie, her pajama bottoms and panties missing, Harry standing beside her, his tail wagging out of his tutu. Sean grabbed a throw pillow and held it over the bulge in his jeans, although there was no way Rosie would know what was going on with him.

“Kissing Sean,” Franci said very naturally. “Where are your pants?”

“I pooped! I called you to check if I wiped good, but you dint come!” And with that she turned her back on them, bent over at the waist to touch her toes and exposed her butt.

“Arrrggghhh,” Sean groaned, covering his eyes and sliding lower on the couch.

Franci chuckled and stood. “Okey-dokey, looks like you did a good job. I like it when you save the inspection for the bathroom, though,” Franci said. “Let’s get your bottoms on and back to bed.”

Sean collapsed against the couch and thought, I am not ready for this! How does a person get ready for this?

When Franci came back, she was laughing at him.

“Come on, stop it! The learning curve is really high here!” he complained.

“When we get right down to it, marriage would be the least of your adjustments.”

By the time Sean left Franci’s, it was getting late enough that he didn’t want to go back to Luke’s. He decided to head toward Sacramento and stop for the night at a clean, friendly looking motel along the way. He had just pulled into one such motel when his cell phone chimed.

Now, he thought, is as good a time as any to deal with Cindy, and he took the call, saying hello.

“Congratulations, man,” his brother Aiden said. “How about that, huh?”

“Uh, how about what, Aiden?” he asked cautiously.

“A little girl, I hear. Three and a half? Almost four?”

“Who told you?! How do you know that?”

“Who do you think? Luke. He said you caught up with Franci. He told me about the reason she bolted a few years ago. Bet you were surprised, huh?”