My Hero (34 page)
He was tan. He was fit. Holly almost cried because in the eight weeks since she'd seen him, his stride was more secure and he held his head just a little bit higher. He radiated confidence. He wore it like cologne.
And when he dragged his dark glasses down and pierced her with the laser blue light of his eyes, Holly thought she might never breathe again.
“Don't say a word,” he told her, propelling her into her office and closing the door behind them. “Not one word. Just sit and listen to me.”
Holly sat.
Cal paced.
“I know how you feel about Texas, and I know how much this CBS thing means to you…”
“Well, actually—”
“Just listen to me, dammit.”
“All right.”
Ah, God. She loved the stern, granite set of his jaw. The tension she detected in his body as he paced from her file cabinet to her window, and back. The little beads of sweat she could see on his brow. This wasn't a good-bye after all.
Holly settled back in her chair to savor it.
“I love you, goddammit,” he said, bashing his fist into the top drawer of her file cabinet before he turned toward the window again.
“I love you, too,” she said softly, not certain whether he heard her or not.
“And if New York is where you have to be, then I have to be here, too. I can do that. If that's what you want…”
“All I want is you,” she said just in case he was listening.
“But I've got a proposition for you, and I want you to hear me out before you answer. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“I met with President Jennings this morning, and…” He stopped pacing and planted a hip on the corner of her desk. “This isn't for publication, Miss Sixty Minutes, by the way. I guess the man still thinks he owes me for last year. I don't know. But he told me he's not going to accept the nomination next week…”
“Whoa. Hold the phone. That's big news,” Holly exclaimed.
Cal's dark blue glare kept her from springing out of her seat.
“I told you it's confidential,” he said. “The reason Jennings told me is that he wanted to offer me the job of heading up security for him after he leaves office in January.”
“What? In Washington? As his head Secret Service guy?”
“No. As private security. If I accept, he'll decline the service's protection. Basically, the man's throwing me a bone—a pretty big one—out of gratitude.”
“Well, that's good, isn't it?” she asked, wondering why Cal didn't seem happier about what sounded to her like an honor.
“Not exactly.” He sighed. “The hitch is that he won't be staying in Washington. He and the First Lady will be going back to…”
“Texas!” The word sprang forth on a burst of laughter that Holly couldn't stifle. “Oh, God. You're going back to Texas.”
“This isn't funny,” he growled. “I want to be with you, Holly.” He wrenched an envelope from the breast pocket of his jacket and tossed it on her desk. “My divorce papers.”
While Holly was looking at the envelope, Cal tossed something else on top of it. A small square box.
“There's a ring in there,” he said.
“So I gathered.”
He ripped his fingers through his hair, and Holly's heart melted when she saw the indentation above his right temple, just behind the hairline. She remembered how he'd stood in the streetlight, calling out to Hec to distract him. She remembered how she'd called out at the same moment, ready to take a bullet for Cal.
“Here's the thing,” he said. “After the President offered me the job in San Antonio, I told him about you.”
“Me?”
“He's going to be building his library there, in San Antonio, with all the exhibits and whatever it is they put in Presidential libraries. I told him you're a first-rate documentary filmmaker, and that you might be interested in putting together his official biography for the library.”
“Wow.”
Cal obviously mistook her exclamation of awe for sarcasm because he went on, “Okay. It's not CBS. I realize that. But it would be something special, having your name on a production like that, that would be seen by thousands, maybe millions of people, over the next century. It's not CBS, but it's a pretty big deal.”
“It's a very big deal,” Holly said.
“So…so you'll consider it?”
“I'll take it,” she said. “What's in the box?”
He levered off her desk. “What do you mean you'll take it? What about CBS?”
“I turned them down.”
“You got the job?”
“Yes, I got the job and I turned it down because they wanted me to go to London and Paris, and I didn't want to be half a world away from the man I'm half in love with.”
Cal blinked, and for the very first time since Holly had met him, he looked lame brained. Stupid. Completely and gorgeously befuddled.
“What's in the box?” Holly asked again, trying with all her might not to laugh at the man she loved, who was looking absolutely gut punched at the moment.
“Jesus. Holly.” He picked up the little jewelry box and came around to her side of the desk. “Sweetheart.”
He winced, getting down on one knee, and Holly knew it would be even harder for him to get up. The ring was too big and its beautiful pear-shaped diamond immediately slipped to the underside of her finger, but Holly wasn't even looking.
“You'll marry me?” Cal asked.
“Yes. Oh, yes.”
“Even if it means you have to go back to Texas?”
“Yes.”
His blue eyes sparkled. “Even if you don't believe in heroes?”
“Doesn't matter,” Holly said. “I believe in you.”
Mary McBride has been writing romance, both historical and contemporary, for ten years. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and two sons.
She loves to hear from readers, so please visit her Web site at MaryMcBride.net or write to her c/o P.O. Box 411202, St. Louis, MO 63141.
Dear Reader,
P
eople always say home is where the heart is. But no two people ever resisted home as much as Holly Hicks and Leigh Mitchell in our two Warner Forever titles this June.
Susan Andersen said, “I'm hooked on Mary McBride…she's an author headed to the top of the lists with a bullet!” and that statement couldn't be truer in
Mary McBride
's
MY HERO
. Secret Service Agent Cal Griffin took a bullet for the President and became a media sensation. He's just the person to give a jump-start to TV producer Holly Hicks's career. The only catch: she has to return to Texas where she grew up, and a small town world she so desperately wanted to leave behind. And as soon as she arrives, the battle lines are drawn. The last thing Cal needs is a hounding reporter, but Holly is determined to get her story. And soon these two people that rub each other the wrong way find that there's nothing Cupid loves more than a challenge….
Moving from the heart of Texas to a small town in Indiana, we find
Susan Crandall
's
BACK ROADS
which Mary Jo Putney calls a “gripping debut novel that shows a keen eye…for the nuances of the human heart.” Leigh Mitchell has never left home—in fact, she is the town's local sheriff. She has always been sensible and responsible and suddenly, she just can't take it anymore. On the verge of turning thirty, Leigh needs a change. She longs for excitement and romance, so when a sexy and mysterious stranger asks her for a ride on the Ferris wheel one moonlight night, she can't resist. But the longer this stranger is in town, the more upside-down home becomes for Leigh and the more she can't bear it without him.
To find out more about Warner Forever, these June titles, and the authors, visit us at
www.warnerforever.com
.
With warmest wishes,
Karen Kosztolnyik, Senior Editor
P.S. As the summer heats up, crank up the AC and grab a cool glass of lemonade—you're going to need cooling down when you read these upcoming titles:
Sandra Hill
presents a woman escaping her fiancé only to find trouble in the form of a sexy pilot in
TALL, DARK, AND CAJUN
; and in
DON'T TELL
, author
Karen Rose
pens a spine-tingling romantic suspense debut about a woman who risks everything for the chance at a new life.