My fingers dug into the muscles of his back like I was afraid at any minute he might be yanked away from me. He groaned, the sound delicious and thrilling, as his kiss slowly gentled.
Finally, he released me to press his forehead to mine. “Greer got my message to you then?”
Confused, I shook my head. “What message?”
“It took a bit of doing but I managed to track down her number. You wouldn’t answer my calls so . . . I called her yesterday. Asked her for your address in Chicago. She wouldn’t give it, but said she’d let you know I called.”
“But I was already on my way here . . . didn’t she tell you?”
Roane exhaled slowly. “No, she didn’t.”
Knowing Greer, she’d kept it from him to surprise him, even if it meant leaving him hanging in misery for a few more hours. I sighed, a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob following in its wake.
“Do you forgive me then, angel?”
“I do. Does the call to Greer mean you forgive me?”
Roane lifted his head to cup my face in his hand. Those beautiful eyes of his shimmered as he gazed at me with all the love I’d missed so much these last few weeks. “I think I’d forgive you anything, Evie Starling.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but his next actions stopped me.
He tugged on the neckline of his T-shirt and pulled out a chain. At the end of the chain was my engagement ring.
My vision got watery as emotion thickened my throat.
He’d kept it with him.
Seeing my expression, Roane gave me a chiding smile. “Don’t you realize yet how much I love you?”
“I do,” I promised on a choked whisper. “And I love you. You’re my home.”
“I know it.” He unclasped the chain behind his neck and gently guided the ring down until it landed in his palm. “It devastated me to watch you leave, but I had to believe you’d come back. I had to. There was no other choice for me.” Roane took hold of my hand and placed the ring back on my finger, where it belonged. “There’s no escaping me now, angel.”
“Only you could make stalker talk sexy, Robson,” I cracked to ease the tension.
He chuckled, pulling me back into his arms and burying his head in my neck. We held each other, breathing each other in.
“Meter’s still running, pet,” the cabdriver’s voice called to us.
Roane lifted his head while I buried my face deeper into his chest. “Bobby, can you help the man with Evie’s luggage?”
“I need to pay him,” I mumbled.
“Bobby will get him. We’ll pay him back later.”
I didn’t know how much time passed as we stood in the middle of the yard just holding on.
It wasn’t until a happy bark sounded seconds before a weight slammed into our sides that we stumbled apart to find Shadow jumping up on his hindquarters to get to me.
Laughing as he found purchase on my shoulders and his tongue found my cheek, I hugged the Dane in return. “Missed you, boy,” I whispered, refusing to cry even though it was really hard not to.
“Down,” Roane said gently, pulling on Shadow’s collar after a while. “You’ve had your turn with the bonny lass.” He rubbed Shadow’s head affectionately before grinning at me. “Now it’s my turn again.”
I looked down at the hand he held out to me and took it with my left, the engagement ring glittering even on a cloudy day like today.
“Bobby,” Roane called over his shoulder.
“Aye?” I heard him shout from one of the hoop houses.
“I’m taking the rest of the day off.”
I could hear laughter in Bobby’s voice as he called back, “Aye, tell me something I didn’t already know!”
Giggling a little hysterically with the biggest relief I’d ever felt in my life, I followed Roane into the house and upstairs. As he reached for me, I complained I smelled like I’d traveled all day and didn’t want him enduring that.
In answer he changed direction and guided me to the bathroom. Minutes later I found myself naked in the shower with my fiancé as he moved inside me, not caring that our reunion was hampered by a slippery bathtub or that our kisses were interrupted with muffled curses as we tried to steady ourselves.
All I cared about was that I was home.
And it was real.
Epilogue
Four months later . . .
Christmas songs played softly in the background, barely heard over the noise of