Headed for Trouble - By Suzanne Brockmann Page 0,59
they …” He had to clear his throat, and even then the word came out on a croak. “Love.”
“You asked her to marry you, but you didn’t tell her you love her?” Maggie was deeply unimpressed. “What are you, an idiot?”
“Apparently,” Jack said.
Maggie turned to her mother. “He loves you. Madly. He told me. I asked him how he knew it was really love, and he told me he knows because he’s felt it forever and it won’t go away. He said he dreams about you, and that’s the only time he’s ever really happy and—”
“Maggie.” Jack cut her off. “That doesn’t change anything. Except it maybe makes me feel like even more of a loser—”
“Because you love my mom?” Maggie asked. “Why?”
“Because I’m nearly forty years old,” he told her, a tad impatiently, “and I should know when it’s time to give up and go home.” He met Arlene’s eyes again. “But every time I look at you,” he whispered, “I find myself thinking, How can I leave when I’m already home?” He took a deep breath, and said it. “I love you, Leenie. I always have, and I always will.”
CHAPTER NINE
Arlene Schroeder had gotten pregnant when she was nineteen, and had married her college boyfriend, Ted, even though she knew it would never—could never—work out.
But he was Maggie’s father, and she’d tried, for years, to make it work.
Tried and failed.
But she’d learned a lot from the experience. First and foremost, she’d learned that one person, working alone, couldn’t possibly make a relationship succeed. It needed, she suspected, to be a joint effort, a combined endeavor.
And she’d learned that there needed to be a whole hell of a lot more than sexual attraction to make a romance last. Respect, honesty, and friendship were key ingredients to a deep, abiding love.
But here she was, standing in the apartment her brother shared with her daughter, gazing into the eyes of a man who claimed he loved her, a man she’d loved for damn near forever, too. Loved, but didn’t really respect or trust.
But as she stood there, with Maggie watching, wide-eyed, Jack got back on his knees.
“Marry me,” he begged her. “Not because I want to get you pregnant—although that’s definitely on my wanna-do list. But marry me because I love you, because I’ve always loved you. Marry me because I just can’t shake the sense that you’ve always loved me, too. If you really, truly feel that you’ve got to go back to Iraq, well, okay. I don’t agree with you. I don’t think we should’ve gone there in the first place, and I think the sooner everyone comes home, the better. But if you think otherwise, for whatever reason? I respect you, and I respect your choices. I’m going to be scared shitless until you come home, and you goddamn better email me every freaking day, but don’t not marry me, Leen, just because you’re doing something hard. If I’m wrong, and you don’t love me, not even a little? That’s why you shouldn’t marry me, but on the other hand, I’ve been here on my knees more than once tonight. Obviously pride’s not a big thing for me, so feel free to marry me out of pity. I’d be good with that.”
As Arlene gazed into Jack Lloyd’s whiskey-colored eyes, she could feel Maggie slipping back, out of the room, into the kitchen.
“Don’t go far,” she called to her daughter. “You and I have a lot more to talk about before this day is behind us.”
“I know,” Maggie called back, resignation in her voice. “I thought maybe it would be a good idea if we all had dinner. I’m starting the rice and setting the table.”
The hope radiating off of Jack was so palpable Arlene could practically smell it. Or maybe that was Maggie’s hope she was getting a whiff of.
“Get up,” Arlene told him.
He shook his head. “I’m fine down here.”
“Hey, Jack,” Maggie called from the kitchen. “Do you like ranch or Italian on your salad?”
“Jack can’t stay,” Arlene called. “He’s got an article he needs to finish writing tonight because we’re going to drive up to the North Shore to have lunch tomorrow.”
Jack’s smile was like sunshine. “So no to a lifetime, but yes to lunch.” He nodded. “Okay. I’m going to call it a victory. A small one, yes, but that’s good enough for me—for now.”
Arlene held out her hand to pull him to his feet, but once he was up, he didn’t let her go.