Epilogue
One year later
Alexandria, Virginia
Laura opened the front door of her house, plunked down her keys on the little bowl in the small foyer and headed toward the sound of voices and laughter coming from the kitchen.
No one there, but her son’s laughter and a deep male voice filtered in from the back yard. She sighed around a smile. They’d left the door open again.
Tony and Mark.
The sound of a ball bouncing off the side of the house reached her at the same time her son’s, “Uh, oh,” did. Before the crash of something breaking.
Uh oh, what? What did they break this time?
She hurried to the door and peeked out. There they were, solemnly staring at the potted geranium she’d bought only yesterday, or what was left of it. Tony wore his ever-present knee socks and soccer cleats. Mark, who’d resigned from the CIA shortly after his return from San Mateo, hadn’t changed from the windbreaker, T-shirt and cargo pants he wore as he finished the FBI’s Basic Field Training Course at nearby Quantico.
“Don’t tell Mom,” Tony said.
“We agreed, no secrets,” Mark replied, his hand on Tony’s shoulder.
Her seven-year-old looked at the scattered flower petals and broken pottery, then up at Mark. “Do you think she’ll be mad?”
“Was she last time?”
“She wasn’t happy.” Tony sighed. “She made me clean it up.” With a quick grin, he added, “She made us clean it up.”
“First step is to tell her. We’ll go to the park to practice from now on.”
Her son’s face brightened into a beautiful smile. “Can we?”
“I’m sure your mom would be happy with that. Let’s start the clean-up. She should be home any minute now.”
“I’m here.” Laura walked onto the patio.
“I’m sorry about your plant, Mom. Mark said we’ll go to the park to practice from now on.”
Mark.
He’d been scrupulous in his dealings with Tony, slowly developing a relationship. Slowly waiting for him to realize he could be a part of their lives.
After the initial two weeks when trainees couldn’t leave Quantico, Mark spent all possible weekends with her and Tony, either here or at his apartment.
And he’d continued to insist on that year of getting to know him no matter how many times she made it clear she didn’t need more time to know she felt. He was kind and patient with Tony and with her. According to his sister, he was more at ease with himself than he’d ever been.
During one of their late night conversations, he’d told her a little more about the standoff. She knew he held some things back—things she didn’t need or want to know. A piece of her heart would always belong to José Antonio. Tony would always be a part of him. But her future was with Mark.
Today, Laura had decided, she would make it clear that she loved him. The past wasn’t going to cast a shadow on their life together.
“Why don’t you get a trash bag and start cleaning up?” Laura gave Tony a hug. “Before Alex and his parents come to pick you up.”
“Okay.” Tony raced through the back door to the garage.
Mark pulled her close for a quick kiss. “How was your day?”
“The usual. Lots of paperwork. A few fires I had to tamp down.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “Yours?”
“Good. We’ve got things to talk about.”
“What things?”
“I’ll tell you later.” He kissed the top of her head.
“You’re going to make me drag it out of you?”
“I like it when you drag it out.” He winked and patted her bottom.
“Mom!” Tony yelled from the garage. “They’re here!”
“Tell them we’re coming. I’ll save the plant. You’ll help clean this up when you get back tomorrow. Go get your bag.”
She and Mark walked through the garage to the front where Mark’s sister, Mary Beth, and her husband Nick Romero, waited. They lived north of Washington. Nick’s son Alex, from a previous marriage, and Tony spent a lot of time together. The boys ran into the house.
After initial greetings, Nick said, “Just heard something interesting from a mutual acquaintance.”
Mark cut him off with a hand signal.
Laura saw it. “What?”
The boys dashed out with Tony’s bag and soccer ball and jumped into the back seat of the car.
“Buckle up, boys,” Mary Beth said. “We’ll get him home tomorrow.” She winked at her brother before driving away.
Laura smiled. Mary Beth liked to give them alone time. It helped that Tony and Alex, nearly the same age, had become fast friends who loved soccer, or fútbol, as the boys with their Latin heritage called it.
“Before you tell me what Nick knows that I don’t, we need to talk.” Laura walked back into the garage and used the remote to close the garage door behind them.
“What’s wrong?” Mark’s tone reflected caution.
“It’s been almost one year,” Laura said.
“Tomorrow.” He hesitated. “I know.”
“Let’s go inside.”
“Why not right here?”
She took his hand and led him through the kitchen, down the hall, to her bedroom. The one they shared only when Tony spent the night away.
“Laura, I have one more day.”
She released his hand, reached into her pants pocket, and pulled out a small box.
His eyes widened. “What’s that?”
She knelt on one knee, opened the lid to reveal a simple gold wedding band, and looked up at him. “I love you, Mark Williams. Will you marry me?”
He said nothing for a moment, then his face lit up in one of those smiles that made her melt inside. He laughed. “Holy hell, you scared me!”
“What did you think was in the box?”
“I don’t know. Not a ring, though.” He pulled her to her feet.
“Well, yes or no?” She steadied herself by placing her hands on his chest.
“I’m supposed to propose,” he said, “not you. I had it all planned. And where’s your band?”
“I didn’t want to presume.”
He laughed at that.
“If you say yes, you can buy mine. About who proposes… I thought we needed one more not so normal thing so you would know, without any doubt, that I love you. These past three hundred sixty-four days have proven what I should have known from the moment I met you.” She slid her hands around his neck.
“What did you know?”
“If we’d run into each other anywhere, the outcome would have been the same. You’re the one for me So, I need an answer. Yes or no?”
“Well, since we’re jumping the gun…” He pulled her close. “I have something for you in my right pocket.”
“I feel something but it’s not in your pocket.”
“That’s something else.” He gave her one of his devilish grins before turning serious. “Reach inside my pocket.”
She reached in and felt a small felt box. Her heart quickened as she pulled it out.
“Now, open it.”
She did. A simple diamond ring on a gold band.
“Will you marry me, Laura Iglesias?”
She looked from the ring to him then back at the ring. “Oh, Mark.”
“If you don’t like it—”
“I love it. It’s beautiful, perfect.” She met his gaze. “Like you.”
“Despite your broken pot?” He grinned. “So, yes or no?” He echoed her question.
“Can I wear it?”
He pulled the ring from the box and placed it on her finger. She held out her hand. “Perfect.”
“Just like you,” he said.
She laughed. “Oh, that’s something I’ll need to remember. You still haven’t answered.”
“You haven’t either.” He shrugged out of his jacket, tossed it on a chair, and pulled her close. “Tony won’t be back until tomorrow. That gives us lots of time for lots of things.” He gave her neck a quick kiss before sitting on the chair.
“What did you stop Nick from saying? Did you tell him about the ring?” She watched as he unlaced his boots and took them and his socks off.
“No, he doesn’t know. Let me…” He stood and pulled off his shirt. “Get this off.”
“Mark. What. Happened?”
He unbuckled his belt. “A couple of things. I got my first field office assignment.”
“Well? Where?”
“D.C.,” he said.
She squealed with delight and jumped into his arms. He caught her easily, as he always did. “Why didn’t you say so when you walked in?” They’d been hoping they wouldn’t have to move.
“Well, I expected a kiss, instead there was the broken pot and—”
She kissed him before pulling back. “You said a couple of things. What else?”
He held her loosely around the waist. “J.P. Blackmon, you remember him?”
She nodded. “He served with you in Afghanistan. Ethridge was somehow involved with him.”
“That’s J.P. He was at Quantico today. He wants me to do my time as a Special Agent and put in for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team.”
“Isn’t that something like their SWAT team?”
“It is their SWAT team. I can apply after two years because of my military service. We’d still be based in D.C. What do you think? Is that something you could live with? I’d be gone sometimes, maybe a lot.”
He’d be good at something like that. She considered what it would mean to her and Tony. For only a moment. “Yes. Do it.” Then she kissed him lightly on the lips. “It’s the right thing to do.” The same thing she’d said to Victor Fuentes when the intelligence officer thought she was his wife and asked if she understood why he did what he did. Mark would always do the right thing. She loved him and wanted what he wanted.
“You’re sure? Because I’m perfectly happy—”
She cut off his words with a kiss. A long one which, as usual, he returned tenfold. He broke the kiss and buried his face at the juncture of her neck. Little nips along the tendon there made her gasp and squirm against him.
“You still haven’t answered. Yes or no?” She pulled back to rest her forehead against his.
“You haven’t either,” he sighed melodramatically. “I’m feeling very insecure.” He swooped her up and dropped her onto the bed, then pulled off his pants.
She loved his body. Strong and beautiful. Despite the scars of his past. “You don’t look at all insecure.”
“Tell you what,” he said. “Why don’t we put my ring on the bedside table. It can be an incentive.”
She let her gaze roam down his body. “You don’t look like you need an incentive.”
“Oh, not for that. I’m always up for that.”
“Ha ha,” she replied.
“The incentive is for you to agree to marry me.” He climbed on the bed, straddled her hips, unbuttoned her blouse and gave her one of his wicked smiles. “I like what I see.”
“Your answer first, Mark.”
“Pushy woman,” he said with a grin. “How about we make a deal?”
“What kind of deal?”
“A compromise. Since you asked first, a day early, I might add, you have to answer first. I love you, I love your son. Please marry me.”
“Only if you promise to believe me.”
He nodded.
“I love you, John Mark Williams. Loving you is not gratitude. I wish we’d met some other way, but we didn’t. My love for you is unconditional, it’s real and it’s forever.”
“Is that a yes?”
She laughed. “Yes!”
“Why don’t we quit talking?”
THE END
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Sam Mackenzie’s sister has her own story in the Florida Romantic Suspense series. Her book is called Take a Chance on Me.
Turn the page to read the beginning of Against the Wind, the first book in my Florida Romantic Suspense series.