Sweet Home Carolina (40 page)

Throwing out all his calculated plans for champagne and
diamonds, he did his best to bend his trick knee so he could do one small part
of this right, and ended up pulling Amy down with his attempt. “Marry me,” he
demanded fervently, holding tightly to her hands. “Marry me and we will work
out all the rest.”

She laughed and hugged him, kissing him with equal delirium,
until his knee gave out and he staggered and fell on his rear. He sat down then
to spread his legs out, nestling her in his lap and refusing to release her
until he had kissed her into agreement.

But he had to come up for air sometime, and the moment he
did, he insisted, “You must marry me. I will never find someone as perfect to
love again. You are my night and day. My sun and moon. And I know I sound
insane, but my brain is frozen, and all I know is that the perfect moment may
never arrive and I cannot risk letting you go until you say yes.”

Amy laughed softly and cuddled against his chest, where she
belonged. He would never let her get away again, he vowed. Vaguely aware that
the building was full of people milling around them while they wallowed on the
floor, he didn’t care. Not until he had his answer.

He tipped her chin. “I love you,” he said. “That should
count for something, shouldn’t it?”

“Not always,” she said softly, not tearing her gaze from his
face. “But this time, it will, I swear it. I’m trusting you with my life and my
children. I love you so much it hurts to think of never seeing you again.” She
sniffed and smiled through her tears. “Surely, if we can make a mill work
together, we should be able to make marriage work.”

With joy, Zack saw that her eyes blazed with all the love
and passion she applied to everything she did, and his heart filled to
overflowing.

“Did I ever tell you that I would give half my teeth to see
Europe with someone who knows it?” she asked. “I’m ready to go wherever you
go.”

Knowing Amy could do anything she put her mind to, Zack
cheered and wrapped himself in her warmth. Only then did he recognize that the
circus around them were her family and friends and half the town. The men who
had been with him were surrounded in a sea of relatives hugging and pounding
them on the back, so all the attention wasn’t on him and Amy. He didn’t see the
children, but Jo and Flint were lining up a high school band for another chorus
of some unrecognizable but celebratory tune. Balloons danced on the ceiling in
the warm air. Even the national guardsmen received hugs.

Taking a deep breath, Zack returned his attention to his
cautious Amy. “I love you. You love me. Say yes, and we will try together.”

The smile he received in return was so breathtaking that he
wished he could frame it.

Before she could say anything, a door opened, letting in a
cold wind and a dramatic female cry of “Jacques! Where is my Jackie?”

Zack groaned and buried his face in Amy’s sweet-smelling
hair. “I do not believe this. Tell me a tall red-haired woman is not now
bulldozing through this happy family gathering.”

“No, she has gray hair with blue stripes, actually, and
that’s the most dramatic caftan I think I’ve seen on a white woman. Oops, was
that politically incorrect?”

Zack laughed softly. “That is my mother.” He scrambled to
his feet so he could pull Amy up beside him, but he refused to look toward the
door. He preferred burying his face in Amy’s sweet-smelling hair while she
watched the drama over his shoulder. “Tell me you’ll marry me, and I will help
you escape.”

“Oh, I think it’s far too late for that,” she mused,
following the scene with much too much interest. “Jo has just blockaded her. Jo
likes being the only attention-grabbing diva in the house. Does your father
happen to wear a hairpiece?”

Zack groaned louder. “
Both
of them? In the same country? In the same
room
?
Is there a back way out of here?”

“He’s bowing over Mama’s hand. He doesn’t seem a bad sort.
But I think your mother and Jo may enter into a hair-pulling contest if you
don’t intervene.”

“She is my mother. I love her. But no one can deal with
her.” Zack kissed Amy’s hair and straightened with a sigh of resignation. “You
see why I cherish you? You can kill Porsches and make me laugh. You can save my
mill and scare me to death. But you do not suck all the air out of the room
just by existing. You have made me whole.”

Amy looked astonished, then laughed so hard she almost fell
over. “I fixed you?” she asked, gasping for breath between outbursts.

He nodded firmly. “I am repaired.”

“Amazing!” she cried, before falling into another bout of
laughter that she could fry toasters and fix Zack.

While she was so amused, Zack kept his arm firmly around her
waist so she did not flee in the face of Hurricane Virginia.

Zack’s father saw him first. Smiling, he abandoned his wife
to Jo and strode in their direction. Amy could see where Zack got his good
looks and charm. Mr. Saint-Etienne bowed deeply over her hand.

“You are the heroine of the hour, am I correct?” he asked in
a deep French accent.

“Amy Warren, my father, Aristide Saint-Etienne. And yes, she
is the heroine of the hour,” Zack proclaimed. “But we must return her to her
children shortly. Not that I wish to hurry you away, but have you found a hotel
room yet?”

Before his father could reply to his son’s sardonic
question, Zack’s mother escaped Jo to fly across the room. With her arms
outspread in the caftan, flying was precisely what she appeared to do. Amy
stepped aside and watched in amazement as Zack submitted to his mother’s smothering
embrace, then expertly disentangled himself to return to Amy’s side.

Understanding a man’s family has a lot to do with
understanding the man, Amy reflected. Zack had the patience of a saint for good
reason.

“You are safe!” Virginia Adams Saint-Etienne cried. “You
must come home with us immediately. Come along, let us leave before the
mountains fall on us!”

Amy observed Zack and his father exchange wry glances. She
waited to see how the drama played out. She wasn’t certain of her place in
Zack’s world yet, didn’t even dare think about it. But his parents were real
people, not the exalted icons of her imagination. He had a real family, with
quarrels and problems and intolerance, just like hers.

It might take time to braid the concepts of wealth and reality
together, but Zack’s down-to-earth common sense helped.

“The mountains will not fall, Mother, and I go nowhere until
I have seen my investment safe. It is good to see you, though. May I introduce
the woman I hope to make my wife?”

Amy tried to stand tall against the bulldozer personality of
the famous Virginia Adams, but she thought she might sizzle beneath the laser
beam of her blue eyes while Zack performed the introductions.

“
Hope
to make your
wife?” his mother said icily. “It’s not certain?”

“We have been a trifle busy,” Zack said drily. “She has not
yet had time to turn me down. I am hoping your arrival has not changed her
mind.”

He actually thought she’d run away from his mother? Amy
laughed inwardly. She’d lived with Joella, the Walking Embarrassment, all her
life. No, it was hating to disrupt the world of her children again and again
that would influence her decision, not world-class drama queens.

She clung to Zack’s arm, not yet ready to let the dream of
him go. He could fly back to London and disappear forever if she didn’t do this
right. “Josh and Louisa are the only ones who might change my mind,” she said
quietly.

As if on cue, Josh’s excited voice carried over the clatter
of the high school band and media arrivals. “Zack, Zack! I saw you on TV!”

Spying Josh in the crowd, Zack crouched and held out his
arms for the boy to run into. Amy’s heartstrings tugged as her sleepy son ran
straight to him. She glanced up to see Jo — mischievous gleam in her eye — set
Louisa on the floor and turn her loose.

“I wanta play, too,” Louisa said jealously, rubbing her eyes
and watching Zack and Josh.

“You have children?” Aristide Saint-Etienne exclaimed in
delight, crouching down much as Zack had to hold out his hand to Louisa. “Will
you say hello to me, young lady?”

“You have children!” Virginia said in approval. “And such
beautiful ones! What a splendid family portrait they would make.”

Amy experienced no regret at imagining two dark-haired
parents standing over her fair-haired children — and maybe an infant in her
arms with Zack’s smile. She knew with complete confidence that Zack would become
the father Evan never cared to be, and her insides performed a dizzy spin of
happiness.

She smiled up at Zack’s mother as Louisa happily fell into
Aristide Saint-Etienne’s arms. “Yes, I think Zack will look good standing in as
their father,” she agreed. “But persuading him to stand still is more difficult
than persuading the children.”

Ever observant, Zack jerked his head up at this agreement.

Virginia nodded knowingly. “He has been running away for ten
years. But I do not want him settling here. This is not his home.”

“Home is where the heart is,” Amy reminded her. “Zack has a
big heart and many homes. We’ll work it out.”

And for the first time, she trusted Zack to let her do
whatever it took to safeguard their happiness. She’d thought the security Evan
had offered would provide contentment, but it hadn’t worked that way. This
time, it was up to her to know what she needed to be happy, and to stand up for
herself if Zack started taking her acceptance for granted as Evan had.

And she wouldn’t have to fear losing Zack even if she fought
with him. They had argued, and he had still come for her.

Standing up, with Josh in his arms, Zack circled Amy’s waist
and boldly planted a kiss on her mouth. Amy tingled at the promising flick of
his tongue, but he withdrew quickly so as not to embarrass her.

“The children need to be in bed,” he told his parents. “I am
staying here, for now. We will see you in London in December, as promised. I
have a project in Paris next month, so perhaps we will meet before then. But
right now, we all need rest. Shall I have Luigi take you to a hotel?”

Aristide handed Louisa to Amy. “If you would, please. We
will see both of you in the morning?”

“Very definitely,” Amy answered for both of them, as if they
truly were a couple. “And if you’re up to it, we can introduce you to the rest
of my family. I believe you may have already met Joella.”

“Ah, yes, the singer and her songwriter husband.” Aristide glanced
back, and Joella wiggled her fingers at them. “I think you and Jacques may have
much in common with your families.” He tilted his head obliquely in his wife’s
direction, then caught Virginia’s elbow. “Come along,
ma chère
, it has been a long day.” He steered her toward Luigi.

To Amy’s amazement, Zack’s mother complied, trailing a list
of complaints, and with a last, lingering look to her son holding Josh.

“That went well, no?” Zack said with a heavy hint of irony.

“That went well, yes,” Amy agreed.

Amy felt the intensity of Zack’s gaze while she watched his
parents head for the door. She breathed a sigh of relief as the Saint-Etiennes
walked out in Luigi’s care. Only then did she feel free to look up at Zack with
the adoration she was feeling.

“Tell me I’m not crazy,” she murmured for his ears alone.

He grinned from ear to ear. “As the song says, you’re just a
little impaired. But that is the only way to survive,
n’est-ce pas
?”

“Messy pa,” Louisa echoed sleepily. “My messy pa.” She
reached over from Amy’s arms to pat Zack’s cheek.

Amy laughed until tears ran down her cheeks while Zack
grinned proudly, waiting expectantly until she caught her breath.

She knew that look. It was the look of confidence he gave
the world, but she understood the shadows underneath it now. His heart was in
his eyes.

“Yes, Zack,” she whispered. She smiled as his brows arched
while he continued to wait with his head tilted toward her as if he couldn’t
quite hear her.

“
Yes
,” she
shouted, “Yes, yes, yes, I’ll marry you!”

The activity around them faded to nothing as the world
shrank to the small cocoon they occupied, and Amy knew it would always be so,
no matter how glamorous their surroundings.

“Astonishing!” Amy swirled happily in the newly refurbished
master bedroom of her dream cottage. “It’s exactly as I envisioned it. The blue
bouquets on the wallpaper are perfect! Can’t you see vases of blue salvia and
pink carnations and lavender in here?”

“My designers might.” Zack chuckled, watching her dance
around the house to which they’d just returned from their December journey to
London. “But they have much to learn from your American experts if they are to
put together the Smithsonian project this spring.”

“With
our
fabrics,” Amy sighed in delight, patting a crocheted pillow on the four-poster
bed. “You are a genius.”

“I know,” he said immodestly. “The magazine article alone
should enhance our reputation. The museum tableau will cap it. We will have
work to last a long, long time.”

Amy stopped her happy dance in front of him, wrapping her
arms around his neck and lavishly covering his face with kisses. She adored
being able to do this any time she liked. She loved even better that this
independent man did not push her away and tell her he was too busy for her
expressions of affection. She loved that a man as strong as Zack needed her as
much as she needed him. She had more blessings than she could count.

He held her closely against the wide chest she’d come to
know so intimately these past months. Zack’s open emotions did not lessen his
strength of character. She had watched him handle his termagant mother with
amusement, set predatory old girlfriends straight, and handle delicate
financial negotiations with assurance. She was the only one who could distract
the arrogant prince into lingering caresses.