Hannah's List (Blossom Street #7)(92)

His hand covered hers, and he brushed the tears from her cheeks. "You are so beautiful."

Somehow she managed to laugh. "Sure I am. My eyes are red and watering and my nose is probably running."

"Beautiful," he insisted.

All of a sudden Leanne sensed someone behind her. She twisted around and saw Denise.

"Do you two lovebirds want me to disappear for a while or is it safe to join you?"

Leanne stood and hugged her sister-in-law.

"She drove me over from Spokane," Mark explained. "I flew in yesterday," he added.

"He would've found a way to get to you, with or without me. I figured it was the least I could do." She looked from one to the other. "I owe you both so much. I wanted to help fix things for you." A slow smile came into play. "Although I have to say you don't seem to need much help."

"Where are the girls?" Leanne asked.

"With Mom and Dad in Spokane."

Leanne sat down, her hand once again holding Mark's. She needed to be close to him, needed to touch him, in order to believe he was really here. With her.

"Did you ask her?" Denise directed the question to Mark. Then, not waiting for a response, she said, "As you might've noticed, it's a bit difficult for him to speak."

"Denise," Mark warned in a low growl.

His sister ignored him. "He wants to ask you to marry him, but first he wants to know if you're interested in that doctor you mentioned. I told him you weren't, but he wants to hear it from you."

"Denise!" This time his growl was louder.

"Oh, hush. If I left this to you, you'd mess it up for sure." Denise winked at Leanne. "You love my brother, don't you?"

"Yes," Leanne said, laughing softly.

"Told you so," Mark's sister said to him in a know-it-all tone. She turned to Leanne. "And you'd remarry him in a heartbeat."

"I would."

"That's what I thought." She exhaled loudly. "Well, then, my work here is done. Oh, just one more thing."

"What?" Mark said impatiently.

"My girls could do with a cousin. Don't keep them waiting too long."

Mark gave a strangled laugh. "We'll get on that."

"Yes, we will," Leanne promised.

Her soon-to-be husband raised her palm to his lips and dropped a kiss there.

Leanne had her husband back, and her world had been set right. This time she wasn't taking anything for granted. This time, when they spoke their vows, it would be forever.

Chapter Thirty-Four

The first week after Macy left town, I went to her house every day. On the weekend, I was there two or three times. When it became apparent that she truly meant what she'd said and would be gone for an extended period, I cut back on my visits.

The second week I came by twice. A man on the neighborhood watch committee questioned me one evening. After that, I figured I'd better make myself scarce.

The third week, I was over only once and then, after a month, I didn't go back. Yes, Macy had meant what she'd said. I tucked the ring in the back of a drawer and tried to forget about it. I should have returned it; sooner or later I would.

My only consolation came from Harvey. I spoke to him every day that first week, although it did little good. The two of us were like wolves howling at the moon, miserable and lost without Macy. I have to admit that by the end of July I was pretty pathetic.

"Has she ever done anything like this before?" I asked her cantankerous next-door neighbor that first week. I recalled that day in mid-June, when she'd taken off and not come home until evening.

"Oh, she'd leave for a few hours when she got upset. She has that place she goes when she needs to think, but she's never been gone this long. My guess is she went somewhere else," Harvey said.

"Where would she go?"

parents' in New Mexico, her mother would likely send her right back."

"If I knew that," he yelled, "I'd go after her myself!" "What about her family?"

Harvey shrugged. "Doubtful. If she did go to her Harvey's suspicions proved correct. When I called her parents, I learned that Macy hadn't been in touch in several weeks. I explained who I was and said I loved Macy. Her mother had never heard of me. That was another big dent to my pride. By then, it had received so many dents I was beginning to feel like a car abandoned at the junkyard. I asked Mrs. Roth to contact me if she talked to her daughter. She didn't call and I could only assume Macy hadn't gone running to her family for solace.

"How's Sammy doing without Macy?" I asked Harvey the second week. She'd taken the three cats with her, wherever she might be.

"He misses her as much as you and I do," the old man said starkly.

The third week, Harvey called me after ten one evening, so excited I had difficulty understanding him. "Turn on channel thirteen," he finally said, enunciating slowly and clearly as if I were some backward pupil.

As it happened, I had my TV on and flipped to the proper channel just in time to catch the end of the grocery-store commercial that had caused Macy such trouble. Seeing her in that 1960s costume again set my heart racing.

"You see her?" Harvey demanded.

"Yes."