to be easy. He didn’t promise you some sort of lavish gift, did he?”
“Are you asking me if Jack tried to bribe us?”
“Pretty much.”
“I’m totally telling him you said that.”
Caroline laughed. “Don’t do that.”
Marguerite grasped her mother’s fingers the best she could, given the encumbrance of the cast. “It will be different,” she said. “But that can be good. Last year was no fun. And daddy would want you to be happy. I can tell that Jack loves you. Sophie and I want you to be happy too. Right, Soph?”
Sophie leaned in closer. “Right. I like Jack, mommy. He’s funny. He makes you laugh. I miss hearing you laugh.”
Caroline blinked back tears. “How did you both get to be so mature?”
Marguerite wrapped her arm around her mother, no longer concerned about the cast. “Maybe we were raised properly.”
“I knew that expensive camp in the Adirondacks would eventually pay off.”
“No, it was mostly daddy’s influence.” Marguerite gave her mother an impish look.
Caroline laughed. “Your father was a good man. He gave you two so much. God knows what I ever did to deserve him. I know Jack will try to do the same for you, but he and I don’t ever want to do anything to hurt you or make you think that your father isn’t important anymore.”
“We know,” Marguerite said. “So, long story short, he asked us if it was okay and we said yes. He was very nice.”
Sophie giggled. “He gave us hugs. He asked me if I wanted a pony but I said no.”
“You still want a puppy, don’t you?”
“Yup.”
Caroline smiled as she saw Jack coming back outside with a tray of sandwiches. “Maybe we can work that one out.”
Chapter Eight
The Past
Caroline stretched her good arm and sprawled out on the couch in the family room. She was enjoying the space while she could, since they were heading back to Maryland in a few days. It would be nice to go home. Nice to get her cast off. It would be even nicer to go back to work. Getting back in a routine might make her feel like she was a normal person again, though she’d been warned that she was going to have a media spotlight on her for the foreseeable future.
She stared at the gas fireplace. A late August fire. It didn’t give off that much heat, and it was a bit cold in the room anyway. There was something peaceful about gazing into it.
“There you are.” Jack’s voice was at the entryway. “I figured you’d be in the library.”
Nine times out of ten, he found her there. “I was for a while,” she said. “It’s hard reading antique books with only one hand. I don’t want to ruin them.”
Jack had a pair of tweezers he used on some of the older first editions he had. Caroline was certain that several of his books were worth more than her house, though they were pretty to look at. She was almost afraid to touch them.
He sat down on the couch and put his arm around her. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”
“Today was a good day.” She lifted up her left arm. “I’m ready to get this blasted thing off.”
“Soon enough.” He sounded apprehensive.
“Is everything okay?” Caroline’s recovery had gone relatively smoothly, but she’d lost her temper a few times and Marguerite and Sophie were expending a lot of pent up energy from missing the last few weeks of camp. Maybe it was all becoming too much for Jack.
“It’s fine.” He turned to her and smiled. “More than fine. I have something I want to talk to you about.”
“Okay.”
Jack cleared his throat. “I was hoping, if you weren’t too busy during the next few decades, if you’d maybe like to spend them with me.”
Should she be glib, knowing how nervous he was? She went with a verbal shrug anyway, since it was easier than getting emotional. “Sure.”
He frowned. Her nonchalant reaction must have thrown him off. “Wait, that’s no good. I practiced this in my head a million times and it never came out right. That clearly was the worst one of them all.”
“Want to try again? Maybe the third time’s the charm, if you count our little heart-to-heart at the hospital.”
Jack took a jewelry box out of his pocket and stared down at it. “I love you, Caroline. It would give me no greater pleasure than to spend the rest of my life with you. To grow old with you. Feel your arms curled around me at