Sing Me Back Home (16 page)

“Gina, you should have let Carmen’s mother tell her,” Jack said.

“Why? We’re going to be sisters. I’m not keeping a secret like that from my sister.”

“What if she’d said no?” Jack asked her.

Carmen laughed. “No way. Mom must’ve tried on a gazillion outfits before she decided on which one to wear.”

The girls went off and Maya and Jack relaxed on her couch. Maya leaned her head against Jack’s shoulder and held out her hand, admiring her engagement ring. It was a gorgeous ring, she thought, simple and elegant. A single round diamond with smaller diamonds encircling it and set in a platinum band, it was exactly what Maya would have chosen.

“How did you manage to get a ring so quickly? We didn’t even make up until yesterday.”

“I have my ways,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

She laughed. “Seriously, Jack. How did you do it?”

“I’m friends with a jeweler over in Bozeman and he had several. I thought I might give you a placeholder until I saw this one. It looked like you to me.”

“It’s perfect.” A tiny bit loose, but she’d wrapped tape around the bottom of the band and would get it sized tomorrow. “When do you want to get married? Christmas?”

“Christmas? Are you kidding? Too far away.”

“It can’t be Thanksgiving. Carmen’s going to Germany to see her father.”

“Too far away, anyway. How about next weekend?”

She laughed until she saw he was serious. “Next weekend is Homecoming. Our own daughters wouldn’t come if we had it then.”

“Oh, I forgot about that.”

“I don’t know how. Everybody in town’s been talking about Homecoming for weeks.”

“I had other things on my mind.” He swung her legs up over his lap and laid her back on the couch before kissing her soundly. “Such as convincing a beautiful woman named Maya to marry me.”

After more discussion and a lot more kissing, they agreed on a date two weeks after Homecoming. Maya and Jack were kissing when Carmen and Gina came in just then. “Gross,” they said in unison.

Maya started giggling.

“Get used to it,” Jack said, “and go away.”

Which of course, they didn’t. “Mr.—um—Dr. Gal”—Carmen started to say.

“Hold it right there,” Jack said. “We are now Jack and Maya to you two.”

“You want me to call you Jack?” Gina asked.

“Very funny. Carmen, I want you to call me Jack.”

“And I want you to call me Maya,” Maya told Gina.

“We just wanted to know if Dr—I mean, Jack, would play the song for us that he played for my Mom tonight.”

Jack groaned. “No. That would be a big fat no.”

“Dad, come on. We won’t laugh, we promise.”

“No. Once is enough.”

“Never mind, girls,” Maya said with a gurgle of laughter. “I happen to know someone, who caught it on her phone. She just emailed it to me.”

Jack turned pale. “Somebody
videoed
it? And is texting it around? You’re kidding, right?”

“Afraid not. Technically, she’s sending it by email. It’s too long for a text message.” She picked up her cell phone, pulled up the email, punched a few other buttons and handed the phone to the girls. They immediately started giggling and took it with them into the other room.

“You’re a cruel woman, Maya.”

She patted his cheek. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”

The End

If you enjoyed
Sing Me Back Home,
you’ll love the other Homecoming series novellas!

Finding Home
by Roxanne Snopek

Hometown Hero
by Dani Collins

The Long Way Home
by Kathleen O’Brien

Home For Good
by Terri Reed

Eve Gaddy
is the best-selling, award-winning author of more than seventeen novels. Her books have won and been nominated for awards from Romantic Times, Golden Quill, Bookseller’s Best, Holt Medallion, Texas Gold, Daphne Du Maurier and more. She was nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Innovative Series romance as well as winning the 2008 Romantic Times Career Achievement award for Series Storyteller of the year. Eve’s books have sold over a million copies worldwide and been published in many foreign countries.

Eve lives in East Texas with her husband of many years. You can find her at her web site,
www.evegaddy.net
, or
Facebook
or Twitter
@evegaddy
.

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