Jonquils for Jax (Blueberry Lane 3 - The Rousseaus #1) - Katy Regnery Page 0,77
in jeans, a white button-down shirt, and a navy-blue blazer, his thick dark-blond hair was wavy and tousled, and a few days of beard growth covered his strong jaw. She braced herself to hear his voice—to hear the richness of his lightly accented baritone when he greeted her.
“Jax?” he said, looking up at her from several feet away.
“C’est moi,” she answered softly, thinking that her heart really hadn’t broken today after all. It still beat inside her chest, as strong and solid as ever. There was a difference between a sad heart and a broken one. Losing Le Chateau had made her sad. Losing Gard would break her.
In fact, if this was the end for them, she didn’t care about Le Chateau anymore. She didn’t care about Philadelphia Vice or staying near her family. If she never got to see him exit a car headed for her arms again, frankly, she didn’t care about anything. Everything—every last thing in her life—would feel meaningless if this was the end of her time with him.
She gulped, drawing her hands into fists by her sides. “How was your trip?”
“What’s between you and me?” he asked, letting his duffel bag slide from his shoulder onto the gravel of the driveway as he squinted to see.
She flinched, the double meaning of the question striking profoundly at her heart. “Umm…”
“Cher,” he said, “are you okay?”
“What do you want to talk to me about?” she asked in a rush.
“Let’s go inside and sit down,” he suggested.
She clenched her teeth together and closed her eyes. “No.”
“Why not?”
She worked hard not to sob. “Please. Please just say it.”
He squinted up at her again. “What’s between you and me?”
“Nothing. Some gravel. A few flagstones. Three steps.”
Carefully making his way from the driveway to where she stood, she could tell when she came into focus for him, because his eyes softened with such tenderness, it made her want to weep. And for the first time, she wondered if maybe he didn’t want to break up…if maybe there was something else on his mind.
He reached for her, drawing her into his strong arms and burying his face in her hair. “I missed you. I missed you. Lord, how I missed you, cher.”
And then, because she was so relieved, the dam broke loose, and all the tears she’d been swallowing started to fall as she threw her arms around his neck, clutching him to her, her fingers digging into the skin at the back of his neck. He found her lips with his, kissing her madly as he pulled her impossibly closer. When she was breathless and boneless, he leaned back and kissed her cheeks, her nose, and each eyelid.
“Don’t cry, Duchess.”
“It’s been a terrible week,” she said, leaning against the solid strength of his body. “How was your visit?”
“Next time, you come with me,” he said.
“Where?” she asked, smiling through her tears. “Nawlins?”
“Anywhere. Everywhere. Three nights was an eternity.”
Standing in his arms, she searched his face. “You scared me. I thought maybe—”
“What?” he asked, his forehead creasing.
“When you said we needed to talk, I thought you wanted to break up.”
His head jerked back and forth. “What? Why? Why would you think that?”
“Your sudden trip. It kept getting extended. You wouldn’t tell me what was going on.”
“Oh, mon coeur. I didn’t want to get your hopes up,” he said, reaching up to caress her face. “I didn’t want to say anythin’ until I was sure.”
“Sure of what?”
“Do you love me?” he asked, his eyes searching hers.
“More than anything,” she answered.
“I love you too. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” She clutched him tighter. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“I only want to be with you,” he said, “forever, to be exact, but you don’t have to say yes to forever today. Today I just need…well, thirty years or so.”
“Thirty years?” she asked, searching his face as an excited giggle bubbled up inside of her. “What do you mean?”
He took a deep breath, holding her a little closer. “I couldn’t bear to see you so sad, cher. Not when it was within my power to make you happy again.”
“Within your power…?”
“My father was successful. Very successful and very rich when he died. He left substantial trusts for me and my sisters. A trust that I have mostly ignored up until now.” Suddenly, he leaned down and kissed her—tenderly, lovingly—and when he drew back, his eyes were conflicted: intense, excited, just on the brink of troubled. “But my duchess needed her castle.”