An Engagement in Seattle (32 page)

“It was…huge.” The words were strangled-sounding.

“A bear, Mom. Did you see a bear?” Lesley’s eyes widened with fear, but her mother shook her head.

“It must’ve been a moose,” Chase speculated. He recalled the first time he’d come nose to nose with one. It was an experience he’d rather not repeat.

“No.” June shook her head again.

“A wolf?” Lesley pressed.

“No,” his mother-in-law moaned. Lesley led her into the house and urged her down in the rocker while Chase went for a glass of water.

“It was a…a
spider,
” June said, gripping the glass with both hands. “A black one with long legs. I…I’ve never liked spiders.”

Judging by June’s reaction, that was an understatement.

“A spider?” Chase whispered. The woman had sounded as though she’d barely escaped with her life.

His wife shrugged and rolled her eyes.

“Suggest she go to bed and rest,” he said in hushed tones.

Lesley’s lips quivered with the effort it took to suppress a smile.

“Maybe you’d better lie down,” Lesley said in a soothing voice.

“You’re right,” June murmured, clearly shaken by the encounter. “I don’t usually overreact like this. It’s just that this spider was so
big.
I didn’t expect there to be spiders here in Alaska, of all places.”

“We all have a tendency to overreact under certain circumstances,” Chase said, using the opportunity to defend his own behavior earlier in the day. “Later we realize how foolish we must have looked to everyone else. People generally understand and forgive that sort of thing.” As far as sermons went, he felt he’d done well. He was no TV evangelist, but he figured he’d got his point across. He only hoped June had picked up on his message.

“I do feel like I should rest.”

“I’ll check out the room first,” Chase offered, “and make sure there’s nothing there.” All he needed was for June to interrupt him and Lesley. He didn’t know how well his heart would stand up to another bloodcurdling scream.

“Thank you,” June whispered as he hurried out.

When he came back to signal that all was clear, Lesley accompanied her mother to the bedroom. After five minutes Chase was glancing at his watch, wondering how long this was going to take.

Another ten minutes passed before Lesley returned to the living room. “Mom’s resting comfortably. I gave her a couple of aspirin to settle her nerves.”

“I need something to settle my nerves, too,” Chase said, reaching for her and pulling her onto his lap.

“Chase.” She put up a token struggle.

“Kiss me.”

“I…I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Considering what I
really
want, a kiss seems darn little. Don’t be stingy, Lesley, I need you.” If they’d been alone, he’d have had her in bed fifteen seconds after they got home. As it was, he’d been forced to sit through an uncomfortable dinner and then deal with her dragon of a mother before and after the spider attack. A kiss was small compensation.

He nibbled at her ear. He’d settle for kissing her. It was all he wanted right now, just enough to satisfy him until he could tell her all that was in his heart.

He could feel her resistance, the little there was, melt away.

She turned her head until their lips met. The kiss was slow and deep. It demanded every shred of stamina he had to drag his mouth away from hers. By then, Lesley’s arms had circled his neck and she was sighing softly. She laid her head on his shoulder and worked her fingers into his hair.

Now was the time to tell her. He forced his mind from the warmth of her body pressing against his, her moist breath fanning his neck.

“When I spoke to your mother…” The words wouldn’t come. Maybe this would be easier after they’d made love.

“Yes?” Lesley lifted her head, curiosity brightening her eyes.

“I told her something I’ve never told you.” Their eyes met and her mouth widened with an enticing smile.

“I love you, Lesley.” There it was, out in the open for her to accept or reject. His heart was there, too, along with his dreams for their future.

Lesley tensed, her hands on his shoulders. “What did you just say?” Her voice was barely audible.

“I love you.” It sounded so naked, saying it like that. “I realize blurting it out might make you uncomfortable, but I didn’t think it was fair if I told your mother how I felt and said nothing to you.”

She was off his lap in a flash. Tears glazed her eyes as she backed away from him.

“I was sure of it when I thought you’d left me,” he explained. “I’d tried to reach you by phone and when I couldn’t, I had Pete go to the cabin. He told me the truck was gone and that Jim had flown you into Fairbanks. I didn’t know what to think. Now it seems ludicrous to leap to the conclusions I did, but at the time it made perfect sense.”

“I see.” One tear escaped the corner of her eye and rolled down the side of her face.

“Say something,” he pleaded. His heart was precariously perched at the end of his sleeve. The least she could do was let him know if she was about to pluck it off and crush it beneath her feet.

“I knew when we got married that you didn’t love me,” she said, without looking at him. “When we were in Victoria—I knew you didn’t love me then, either.”

“Don’t be so sure,” he returned, frowning. He understood the problem, had always understood it. Tony. She was in love with her former fiancé and that wasn’t likely to change for a long time.

Her head snapped up. “You were in love with me on our honeymoon?”

He shrugged, unwilling to reveal everything quite so soon. He wished she’d express her feelings for him.

“Were you?” she asked again.

Chase stood and rubbed his hand along the back of his neck, walking away from her. “Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

“All right,” he muttered. “As near as I can figure, I loved you when we got married. It just took me a while to…put everything together.” He shoved his hands inside his pockets. This wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped.

“I tried to reassure your mother, but that didn’t work,” he continued. “Tony’s got her convinced you married me on the rebound and that it was a mistake.”

“I didn’t.”

Now it was Chase’s turn to go still. He was afraid to believe what he thought she was saying. “You
aren’t
in love with Tony?” he asked breathlessly.

“That would be impossible when I’m crazy in love with you.” She smiled then, the soft womanly smile that never failed to stir him. Her love shone like a beacon.

Chase closed his eyes to savor her words, to wrap them around his heart and hold on to the feeling. It happened then, a physical need, a craving for her that was so powerful it nearly doubled him over.

They moved toward each other, their kisses fuel to the flames of their desire.

“Chase,” Lesley groaned between kisses, unbuttoning his shirt as she spoke. “We can’t.… Mother’s room is directly down the hall from us. She’ll hear.”

Chase kissed her while trying to decide what to do.

“The cache,” he said, grateful for the inspiration. It wasn’t the ideal solution, but it would serve their purpose.

Lesley’s legs seemed to have given out on her and he lifted her into his arms, pausing only long enough to grab the quilt from the rocking chair.

He gathered her in his arms, holding her close with a fierce possessiveness.

“I love you.” Each time he said it, the words came more easily.

“I know.” She spread a slow series of kisses along his jaw.

“Your mother…”

“Don’t worry about Mom. She’ll come around, especially when she’s got grandchildren to spoil.”

“Children,” Chase said softly.

“Is this a new concept to you?”

“Not entirely.” He grinned and she smiled back.

“Good.” Her teeth caught his lower lip. “Soon I hope,” she said a moment later. “How soon?”

Lesley raised her head and her beautiful dark eyes gazed down at him. “No time like the present, is there?”

Chase sucked in his breath. He’d thought they’d wait a year, possibly longer, to start their family, but he couldn’t refuse Lesley anything.

“Will I ever grow tired of you?” he wondered aloud.

“Never,” she promised.

Chase instinctively knew it was true.

Epilogue

“G
randma, Grandma.” Three-year-old Justin Goodman tore out of Lesley’s grasp as they stepped into the small airport and he ran into the waiting arms of June Campbell-Sterne.

June hugged her grandson and lifted him from the ground. “Oh, my, you’ve gotten so big.”

Justin’s chubby arms circled his grandmother’s neck and he squeezed tightly.

“Justin’s not the only one who’s grown,” Chase said, slipping his arm around Lesley’s thickened waist.

“You would have, too, if you were about to have a baby,” Lesley reminded her husband.

Chase chuckled and shook hands with Ken Sterne.

“Good to see you again,” Ken said. “June’s been cooking for three days. You’d think an army was about to descend on us.”

“Hush now,” June chastised her husband. “How are you feeling?”

Lesley sighed. How did any woman feel two months before her delivery date? Anxious. Nervous. Eager. “I’m okay.”

June put down her grandson and kissed Chase on the cheek.

His eyes met Lesley’s and he gave her a know-it-all look. It had taken time, but Lesley had been right about the effect grandchildren would have on the relationship between her mother and her husband. When they’d first met, four years earlier, her mother had been convinced Chase was some kind of demon. These days he was much closer to sainthood.

“How’s Twin Creeks?” Ken asked, steering the small party toward the baggage area.

“The population has doubled,” Lesley informed him proudly. It had started soon after her arrival. Pete had gotten married the following spring and he and his wife already had two children and another on the way. Even Jim had married, which surprised them all. A widow with four children had found a place in all their hearts.

It seemed there was a baby being born every few months. The community was thriving. Lesley believed Chase was the one who’d put everything in motion; his venture into Seattle to find himself a wife was what had started the process. Soon the other men working at the pump station were willing to open their lives.

Chase, however, was convinced that once the other men saw what a wonderful woman
he’d
found, they’d decided to take their chances, as well.

Whatever the reason, there were fifteen more women residing in Twin Creeks. Ten of them had apparently made it a personal goal to populate Alaska.

She placed one arm around her husband and smiled softly to herself. How different her life would have been without him. Each and every day she thanked God for that crazy billboard she’d seen on her way to the store.

BRIDE WANTED.

Their marriage was meant to be—because he’d chosen her although she hadn’t answered his ad. And he’d let her know in a million ways since that
she
was the bride he wanted.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-8763-5

AN ENGAGEMENT IN SEATTLE

Copyright © 2011 by MIRA Books

The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:

GROOM WANTED
Copyright © 1993 by Debbie Macomber

BRIDE WANTED
Copyright © 1993 by Debbie Macomber

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