Headed for Trouble - By Suzanne Brockmann Page 0,51

frustration. “He told me you were happy and I …” He held her gaze, imploring her to believe him. “I wanted you to be happy, Leen, so I stayed away.”

That shut her up. In fact, she shut the open door, too, coming back to stand in the middle of the living room. But now her arms were folded across her chest—he was far from winning.

“So when you found out that Peter was a thing of the past,” she finally said, “you immediately emailed me …? Except, wait, you didn’t.”

“I found out that Peter was a thing of the past,” he told her, a touch testily himself, “when Maggie emailed me, asking if I was interested in knocking you up.” He glanced at his watch. “She’s going to call, in about two minutes, to tell you to have dinner without her—that her rehearsal’s going to run late.”

Arlene was horrified. “You didn’t actually tell her that you’d—”

“Yeah, right.”

She was apparently unable to process sarcasm right at that moment, so he clarified. “Of course I didn’t. But I did tell her I was going to come here and …” The ring he’d bought was burning a hole in his inside pocket, but he wasn’t supposed to throw the damn thing at her. He was supposed to go heavy on the romance, get down on his knees. No, there was a time and place for everything, and that ring box was staying deep in his pocket. At least for now. “Talk to you,” he finished, since she was waiting, impatiently for the end of his sentence.

“Hey, how are you. It’s been a while. Let’s have sex so I can get you pregnant, because a thirteen-year-old thought that would be a good idea.”

Okay. Apparently he was wrong. Arlene was completely capable of dishing out the sarcasm, even if she wasn’t able to take it.

“No, actually, my plan was to say, Hey, how are you? It’s been a while. I’m still as crazy about you as I’ve always been and for the first time in what feels like forever we’re both single at the same time, so what do you say we put a new spin on the relationship thing and see if we can’t get it to work by getting married—to each other this time.”

And that had done it—Jack had completely stunned her. He’d managed to stun himself, too, having all but resolved, mere seconds ago, not to mention the M-word.

But now that he had, he might as well go big. He reached into his jacket pocket for the ring box, opened it, and set it on the coffee table, in front of her.

She slowly lowered herself into Will’s ugly-ass Barca-Lounger, her eyes huge in her too-thin but still-beautiful face. She didn’t say anything, she just stared at him.

And okay. If he were going to be rejected, he might as well make his humiliation complete. He got down on his knees on the carpeting in front of her and took her hand. Her fingers were cold as he interlaced them with his own. “Marry me, Arlene,” he whispered.

“That’s crazy,” she breathed, but she didn’t look away. And he knew, just from gazing into her beautiful eyes, that she was still as attracted to him as he was to her. That spark they’d flamed to an inferno on that amazing, unforgettable night was still ready to ignite. “You’re crazy.”

Jack shook his head. “All these years, our timing’s been off—”

“And you don’t think it’s a little off now?”

“No,” he said. “I think it’s perfect.”

“In less than four weeks, I’m going back to Iraq.”

“Maybe not,” he pointed out.

“No,” she argued. “I am. I definitely am.”

“Arlene—”

“Jack.” She was holding tightly to his hands now as if trying to squeeze some sense into him. She was gazing into his eyes, too, to make him understand. “I have to. If I don’t go back, they’ll send someone else. Someone who hasn’t been as well trained, someone who hasn’t learned how to keep the kids in my unit safe. And even if that didn’t matter to me …? God, I’m not sure I even want to have another baby. And I’m certainly not having one unless I’m married to someone I know is going to be there for the next twenty years.”

He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off again. “I’m not going to have a baby just to … have a baby. So, nice try. Good attempt. I don’t know what Will is blackmailing you with, but you