CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Alec Sullivan was a changed man.
Cordelia knew it the moment he walked out of his father’s hospital room. Whatever decision he’d made was so powerful, so big, that it almost felt as though it had caused a seismic shift in the earth’s plates.
She smiled at the thought as she finished slicing a perfectly ripe tomato. She’d driven Alec back to her cottage and convinced him to sit in the garden with a glass of wine while she made him something to eat. Though it was morning now, heat was already rising up from the ground, and the air was scented with flowers. After so many hours inside the hospital, he needed to listen to the sounds of the ducks calling to each other in the nearby pond and to enjoy the light breeze rustling through the leaves of the maple tree beside her cottage.
She knew they had a lot to talk about, but she wanted to wait until both of them were able to think clearly again. Her mother had taught her that fresh food always helped, and she smiled at the sight of Alec in her garden as she walked out with a lantern and a plate of tomatoes drizzled with olive oil.
He speared a bite, then groaned with pleasure as he swallowed—the sound close enough to the ones he made in bed for her skin to heat up. “Swear to God, you must sprinkle some sort of magic potion over your plants, Cordelia. No tomato ever tasted this sweet. Here.”
He held out the fork for her, and when their eyes locked as she bit into the tomato flesh, she wished it were his skin she was tasting instead. “It’s good.”
“Better than good.” But he put the plate down and took her hands in his. “I don’t know what I would have done without you. Thank you for being here. For being with me.”
“You don’t have to thank me for anything.” Still, his appreciation made her warm all over. “I’m just glad William is going to be okay.”
“When he woke up, we talked.” She loved seeing the smile on Alec’s face as he told her, “We talked about forgiving each other. About letting go of the past and starting over with each other. And we talked about you too.”
“Me?” She was stunned. “Why?”
“He likes you. A lot.” Alec grinned. “In fact, when you were at his house at Summer Lake, he was tempted to drag out his paints for the first time in thirty years, because he wanted to paint you.”
“Me?” she said again, unable to get out more than that, even though she sounded like a broken record.
“He said he wanted to paint the look in your eyes.”
“Which look?”
“Love.”
She felt her skin flush, knew her eyes had widened, knew she was giving everything away. But she couldn’t stop herself, couldn’t pretend to be just his friend. Not this morning, not after everything that had happened. But before she could say anything, Alec spoke again.
“That morning when the press were outside your cottage door and I suggested that we make the world think we were together to keep the fortune hunters away, you said you didn’t want me to lie about my feelings for you. But the only person I was lying to was myself, Cordelia. Because I was already in love with you.” He lifted his hands to her face and held her so gently, so sweetly. “I fell in love with you the first time I ever set eyes on you, standing outside my office building, so beautiful and brave.” He lowered his forehead to hers. “You’re the most magnificent, loving, sweet, and sexy woman I’ve ever known. And I love you. With all my heart.”
She was so stunned, so choked up, so overwhelmed, that she couldn’t do anything but press her lips to his in a kiss of pure, raw emotion. Finally, she found her voice. “I love you too. I fell in love with you when you were so kind, and then I fell even more in love with you when you took care of me in a way no one else could have. And when you touch me, when you kiss me, when you make love to me…” She had to kiss him again. “I never knew such pleasure was possible. Or that it can get even better and better every time.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I deserve your love,” he confessed in a hoarse voice. “But I’m going to work like hell to earn it, every second of every day that we’re together.”
“You don’t have to earn anything, Alec. I love you for all the things that you are—dark and light. Rough and gentle. And most of all, because you’re a man who would do anything for his family, for his friends, even for a stranger who showed up in his office owning half of his company.” She laughed softly. “Gordon must have known you were my other half. That’s why he sent me to you.”
“He almost told me about you, I realize that now.” She was stunned silent as Alec told her, “We were drunk one night after a deal had gone bad, and he said he didn’t regret losing the business. He said losing a few dollars was nothing compared to his biggest regret. Compared to his wasted chances. Compared to dreams and hopes that were lost forever. He asked me what my dreams were then, if planes were what I really wanted to do, if there was anything I was hiding from. Anything I was afraid of. I thought he was trying to get me to talk about my father, so I shut him down. Laughed off his talk of dreams and hopes and happiness, even though those were the very things I’d been hiding from for so long. But I don’t want to hide anymore. When I’m with you, I know I don’t have to.”
And then, before she realized what was happening, he was down on one knee in the middle of her garden.
“I love you, Cordelia. I want to share all of your hopes, your dreams, your happiness—and I want to share all of mine with you too. With the family we’re going to make together.” He plucked a pink cosmos from the bed beside them and held it out to her. “Marry me and I promise I’ll make you the happiest woman alive.”
She dropped to her knees in the dirt and threw herself into his arms. “I already am.”