he needed to do and leave Ted alone. Because she’d asked him to. And if she hadn’t already been halfway in love with him, well, that he had made that promise kind of sealed the deal as far as she was concerned.
“Thank you,” she whispered, taking his big hand, turning it over and smoothing his beefy fingers open. “Thank you...” She bent close and pressed a kiss in the center of his rough, hot palm.
“Let’s just hope we’ve seen the last of him,” Quinn muttered gruffly.
She couldn’t agree more. And not only because she wanted nothing to do with her ex. Now there was Quinn to worry about. If Ted made another move on her, convincing Quinn to stay out of it was going to be exponentially tougher.
But they’d spent altogether too much of their evening on unhappy subjects. She forced a brighter tone. “First my mother, then Ted. Let’s forget about both of them for now, huh?” She reached up and smoothed the thick brown hair off his forehead. “Now I want it to be just you and me, here on the sofa, doing whatever comes naturally.”
He studied her face for a moment, his head tipped to the side. And then he kicked off his shoes. She followed suit, sliding off her sandals and pushing them under the coffee table.
“Come here.” He took her by the shoulders, turned her and settled her with her head in his lap.
Chloe stared up at him, feeling better already. The hard things had been said. And now it was just her and Quinn, alone for the evening. He traced the curves of her eyebrows with a slow finger and then caught a lock of her hair and wrapped it around his hand the way he liked to do.
She said, “I hope I didn’t drag you away from anything important at home...”
He shook his head. “Annabelle’s all tucked in bed. Manny and I were just having a beer on the deck.”
“Do you still want to marry me?” The words kind of popped out. She’d hardly known she would say them—until she did.
He gave her his bad-boy half smile. “Oh, yeah. But I’m not pushing. You decide what you want and you do it in your own time.”
“Even after all the grim stuff I told you tonight? I’m not sure I’m such a good bet, Quinn.”
He unwrapped her hair from around his fingers—and then twined it right back again. “You’re not your mother and it’s not your fault that your ex is a psycho dog. You are a good bet, angel. You’re a fine woman with a big heart, the best there is.”
His generous words warmed her, made a glow down inside her that all the trials of the afternoon and evening couldn’t dim.
I think I’m falling in love with you, Quinn.
It sounded so right inside her head. But she wasn’t quite ready to say it out loud yet. Talk of love still had some taint for her. It still held ugly echoes of the past.
She shut her eyes and drifted, cradled, safe, with her head in Quinn’s lap.
Marriage. To Quinn.
Was she ready for that? They’d been together such a short time and she’d messed up so badly before. How could she be certain?
She opened her eyes.
And he was gazing down at her, steady. Sure. Not having to say anything, just being there with her.
When she looked in his eyes, her doubts about herself and her future and her iffy judgment just melted away. When she looked in Quinn’s eyes, she was sure.
And come on. She’d dated Ted for a year before she said yes to him. And then it was another year until their lavish wedding. She’d given herself plenty of time to really know Ted. She’d done everything right.
And still, it all went wrong. Ted was the man her mother wanted for her.
And Quinn?
It was so simple. Quinn was the one she wanted for herself. He was her choice, her second chance to get it right. She trusted him. She knew he would be good to her, that she would be good for him—and for Annabelle and Manny, too.
Together, they could make a full, rich life, the life she’d always wanted. The life she’d given up hope that she would ever find.
Until now. Until Quinn.
He unwound her hair again. And she sat up and took his arm and wrapped it across her shoulders. He gathered her closer. She drew her legs up onto the sofa and folded them to the side so she was facing him. Looking right into those wonderful eyes, she said, “Well, I’ve decided, then. And my decision is...” She stretched up enough to nip his scruffy jaw with her teeth. “Yes.”
For once, he actually looked taken completely off guard. “What did you say?”
“I said yes, Quinn. I will marry you. I want it to be a small, simple wedding, just family and close friends. And I want it to be soon.”
“Chloe.” He took her face between those big hands. “Seriously? You’re sure?” He looked so vulnerable right then, as if he couldn’t quite believe she really meant it.
She did mean it. “Yes, I am very sure.”
“Damn,” he whispered prayerfully.
He kissed her, a kiss that curled her bare toes and created that incomparable heavy, hot yearning down in the core of her. And then he scooped her up in those big arms of his and carried her to her bedroom.
Late into the night, he showed her exactly how happy her decision had made him.
Dawn was breaking when he left her. She stood out on her front porch in a robe and slippers, watching him walk across the street to his temporary home, knowing her hair needed combing and her eyes were low and lazy. She was fully aware that she had the look of a woman thoroughly and repeatedly satisfied—and she didn’t care in the least who saw her.
She’d made her decision. She was marrying Quinn and finally getting the life she’d always dreamed of.
At the showroom a few hours later, Chloe called Tai and asked her to come in early.
At ten, Quinn picked her up. They drove to Denver, where they had lunch and he bought her a beautiful engagement ring and a platinum wedding ring to match. She bought him a ring, too, a thick platinum band that she couldn’t wait to slip on his finger when the big day came. She was back at her showroom by four.
That evening, just as she was letting herself in the front door, the house phone rang. She saw it was her parents’ number and let it go to the machine.
A few minutes later, she checked to see what her mother had said. But it turned out it was her dad. He’d left a two-sentence message: “Chloe, this is your dad. Please call me.”
She did, right then.
He asked her if she was all right and Chloe told him that she would be
