Kate hadn’t known where to begin. “His name is Collin. He has his own company. He owns numerous small businesses. He’s...enterprising.”
Mia had rolled her eyes. “Really, Mother?”
Danielle had laughed. “It doesn’t matter exactly what he does. Does he make you happy?”
“He makes me laugh,” she’d said and had found herself smiling.
“Good for you, Mom. You deserve this.” Her youngest had taken her hand. “I just want you to be happy. You deserve to enjoy the rest of your life.”
Mia had chimed in. “Just be...careful.”
When the girls had met Collin, she could tell that they’d both been surprised. “He’s so handsome,” Danielle had said with a kind of awe. “Not that we didn’t expect he would be,” she’d added quickly. Even Mia seemed to grudgingly like him. And he had fallen for them as well.
So, now here she was, moving on, she thought as she went upstairs and, taking the well-worn wedding band from the hollow of her palm, placed it gently in her jewelry box. It looked so insignificant and yet just the sight of it made her heart ache for what had been lost.
“Goodbye, my love,” she whispered and closed the jewelry box. Danny would have wanted her to move on years ago. It had taken Collin coming into her life. She felt a bubble of excitement. She could hear him downstairs on the phone. It sounded as if he was making arrangements for their trip before he left for his apartment in the city.
She felt herself smiling again. Collin loved her. And she loved him. Not like she had loved Daniel. But she’d only been a girl when she’d met Danny and fallen in love. She was now a mature woman, and yet she still felt giddy at the thought of what their future held. It was definitely time.
Whatever the surprise, it required warm clothing? She could only imagine, she thought with a smile as she went to the closet to pull out her suitcase and begin to pack.
“Good, you’re packing,” Collin said from her bedroom doorway. “I’ve got everything arranged. I’ll see you in the morning.” He moved to her. “This trip is going to seal the deal.” He chuckled at her expression. “You’re going to be crazy about me when it’s over.”
“Who says I’m not already crazy about you? Or maybe just crazy.”
He drew her into his arms for a kiss. She felt desire warm her inside and almost wished that she’d let him move in months ago. But she’d been so used to having her own space. Still, she wouldn’t have minded if he stayed tonight. She was about to suggest it.
“I have a lot to do before I pick you up in the morning,” he said before she could. He kissed her again, his mouth lingering over hers. She thought for a moment that he might change his mind. Then he gave her a light swat on her behind, saying he’d better leave while he could.
As she listened to him go, she felt jubilant. Glancing down at the ring on her finger, she reminded herself that she was engaged. She couldn’t quit smiling. Now the two of them were taking their first trip together. She hadn’t been anywhere in so long. A trip was exactly what she needed. The timing was perfect. She didn’t have another book due for a year.
She was only a little uneasy about where they were going. Collin had always been full of surprises from the moment she’d met him six months ago. He was probably right about her needing him and the adventures he promised. Had it been fate, their meeting? It certainly felt like it.
* * *
COLLIN COULDN’T BELIEVE his luck when he woke the next morning. Kate had accepted his proposal. He felt like pinching himself. He showered and packed quickly, feeling as if things were finally going to work out for him. He still had to get her to the altar, but at least they were engaged. It was the first step. He couldn’t stop grinning. He didn’t want to rush her, but once they got back from this trip, he would talk her into a small, private wedding—if he couldn’t talk her into one on the trip itself.
The trip had come together as if destined. He’d recalled her saying that she’d never seen snow. Not real snow, the kind that puts down more than a few inches and doesn’t melt in a few hours. She said she’d always wanted to make a snow angel. It was one of the few times that she’d let her guard down and actually opened up to him.
He could understand her reluctance to get involved with another man after losing her first husband the way she had. But hell’s bells, it had been almost twenty years. He couldn’t imagine mourning anyone for two decades.
Just as a few years ago, he had no plans to be married. Marriage? He’d always thought it would never be him. Until Kate.
He laughed to himself, thinking of that old adage about never finding the right woman. Kate was more than the right woman. A pretty brunette with the greenest eyes. She had it all, from the looks to the elegance to the financial independence. With her, he would have everything he ever wanted and with style.
It did bother him, though, how long it had taken her to agree to marry him. He’d never had a problem when it came to charming women. He had charisma to burn, his mother used to say, his father quickly adding, “That’s about all he has going for him.”
He pushed even the thought of his father away. His old man was the last person he wanted in his thoughts this morning. He was about to take off with his beautiful fiancée for the trip of a lifetime. He laughed. Well, at least it would be the trip of a lifetime for him.
Still, Kate’s hesitancy from the first day they met nagged at him. Even when he’d seen that she wasn’t ready for marriage, he’d hoped they would at least move in together, but Kate wasn’t having that, claiming it was about her independence and space.
He worried it was more about not trusting him. But he’d told her he thought it was quaint that she wanted to wait until marriage. Ridiculous, but so Kate. The one thing he’d always been able to do was get a woman into his bed. Now he was even questioning his prowess at that, given how long it had taken with her.
Kate was different. It wasn’t like she’d played hard to get. She just hadn’t been ready, she’d said, and he believed her. Also, he suspected the difference in their ages bothered her more than she wanted to admit. Wait until she learned that he’d fibbed about his real age. He wasn’t quite thirty-four. But what did a couple years matter? It wasn’t like she was robbing the cradle.
He finished packing and thought about the surprise trip. If everything went the way he’d planned it, his future was so bright he was going to have to wear sunglasses day and night. He grinned. “You’ve got this,” he whispered to himself as he went downstairs to load his suitcase into the back of his sports car. Once they were on the plane, Kate was all his.
Still, as he drove to her house, he worried she might have gotten cold feet overnight. It was that dead husband of hers. Daniel “Danny” Jackson. He’d heard all about her childhood sweetheart to the point where he’d wanted to puke. The man had apparently been a saint, worked two jobs to support her and her two babies—up until the day he was blown up and ended up in a mass grave since identifying the bodies had been impossible. Collin was no head doctor, but he suspected it was one reason she’d held on to the fantasy of her dead husband for so long. She’d never gotten to bury him.