“Ouch.” Thomas winced. “That guy was a condescending asshole.”
“And a Nazi,” she agreed. “Luckily, I was born canny and careful. And in your defense, I had to nearly wrestle you to the ground to get you to write upon my empty page.”
He was laughing now. “Oh, my God, that song. I know those lyrics too damn well. How many times did you make me watch that movie?”
“Make you?” she said, laughing, too. “You always wanted to watch it. How about Sound of Music, Tash? you’d say. Why don’t we watch Sound of Music, Tash.”
“Because I preferred Doe a deer to Bridges of Madison County, which was, like, four hours of sex scenes—which is some kind of amazing feat of physics, because the movie’s two hours and fifteen endless minutes long.”
And now they were both smiling at each other, their fingers tightly entwined.
“I love you,” Thomas said softly. “I promise I’ll try to be less of a condescending douche. Please forgive me, because you’re it, Tash. I want you in my life, forever. Without you...” He shook his head. “Nah, I can’t even imagine that. First time ever, in my entire life, I’ve got no plan B.”
Tasha’s heart leapt as she looked into the eyes of the man she’d loved for as long as she could remember. “Forever’s a long time.”
“It can be.” He paused then, and said it. “Tasha, will you marry me?”
And there it was. The life she’d always dreamed of, with Thomas King by her side. Filled with laughter and sunlight and limitless joy to balance out life’s inevitable hardship, sorrow, and pain.
“Rio and Dave are leaving tomorrow instead of tonight,” Thomas told her. “Air traffic’s still shut down—the world’s on fire. We’re gonna fix it, we’re gonna win, but it’s gonna take time. I need to get back to San Diego as quickly as I can—I really should go with them in the SUV. Will you come, too? I know I can talk ’em into stopping in Vegas, so we can get married right away. We can plan a party for later—as big as you want, with Alan and Mia and the girls—”
“And all of Team Ten,” Tasha said.
“And all of Team Ten,” Thomas agreed. “After we get back to Coronado, things’ll move pretty fast. I expect to go wheels up right away. I don’t know where I’ll be sent or how long I’ll be gone. That’s why I wanna do it in Vegas. I don’t want to wait another second to start my life with you.”
Tasha kissed him, melting into his arms.
But he pulled back. “Is that a yes?”
“It’s a yes to everything,” she told him.
He double-checked, searching her eyes. “It’s not too soon?”
Too soon. He thought it might be too soon for the woman who’d loved him for nearly twenty years. Tasha laughed as she stood up, picked up her bags, and looked around the lobby for the hotel elevators. Ah, there they were, back behind the breakfast area.
“If we’re leaving in the morning, we should go to bed.” She looked at Thomas and smiled. “Follow me.”
He smiled back at her as he pulled her into her arms to kiss her soundly. “Always,” he told her, “and forever.”
Author’s Note
King’s Ransom
Dear Reader,
Frisco’s Kid, the third book in my popular Tall, Dark & Dangerous series, the book in which Thomas King and Tasha Francisco first appeared, was originally released as a Silhouette Intimate Moments category romance in January, 1997.
I started getting emails from readers almost immediately: “You’re gonna write Thomas and Tasha’s book, right…?” For nearly all of my thirty-year career, this has been my most frequently asked question.
Um… Yes? But Tasha and I both needed a little time. Cause she was, like, five…?
Still, I thought, “Sure, someday!” My original plan with the TDD books was to write an ongoing and opened-ended series about U.S. Navy SEAL Team Ten. (I think if you’d approached 1997-me with the idea that I’d still be writing this series in 2020, I would’ve said, “Hooyah…?”)
Oh! Here’s some fun trivia! Back when I outlined the first TDD book, Prince Joe, there was no real-life SEAL Team Ten. There was one, two, three and six, with six being the most elite. So I skipped a few numbers, too, and created my fictional elite Team Ten.
More fun trivia! Prince Joe (TDD #1, published June, 1996) features the original Prince Tedric (Uncle Prince Tedric, as Thomas calls him).
See, when I sat down to finally outline Thomas and Tasha’s book, I thought it would be