world, but mostly from myself. Woodworking had kept me sane, but I had other skills, other plans now.
“You’re not a handyman, are you, Mark?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“No.”
“You’d never be happy living with me and working at the inn. That’s not who you are any longer. Maybe it’s not who you ever were.”
“Jo Marie,” I whispered. Seeing her cry was breaking my heart. “I’d be happy with you no matter where we lived. Don’t you realize how much I love you; how important you are to me?”
I tossed aside the sheet. If she wouldn’t come to me, then I was going to her even if it meant falling flat on my face, which, unfortunately, was a distinct possibility. Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I started to slide off the mattress.
“Mark,” she cried, “are you crazy? What are you doing?” In a flash she was at my side.
“Coming to you.”
“Stop.”
Wrapping my arms around her waist, I brought her into my embrace. “Don’t you understand,” I said, kissing the sensitive area behind her ear. Her scent was heady enough to make me lose my train of thought. “I want to marry you, Jo Marie. And God willing, I hope one day that we’ll have children together.”
Her shoulders shook with tears as she wrapped her arms around my neck and clung to me.
“I know I’m weak now, and I don’t have a lot to offer you…”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll get strong and I’ll fatten you up,” she promised. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. Don’t you dare say you have nothing to offer me.”
“Fatten me up with your cookies?” I asked hopefully.
She sniffled and leaned back to study me, her eyes and nose red, tears running unrestrained down her cheeks. “I swear you fell in love with me because of my cookies.”
I kissed the moisture from her face. “I’m pleading the fifth.”
She smiled and her lips slid to mine, her mouth opening to my exploration. A man could get drunk on kisses like this. The entire time I’d been at Madigan we’d shared far too few such kisses. I needed her to know how much I yearned for her, how my body cried out to be one with her, to love her, plant children inside her and watch them grow there and give life to the future. The kiss we shared now was one of passion, desire, need. It involved all my senses. The scent, the feel, the taste of this woman was the most potent aphrodisiac I’d ever experienced. If we weren’t inside a hospital; if I wasn’t physically weak to the point I could barely stand, I knew exactly where this kiss would lead.
We were both panting and shaking by the time we broke apart.
“Wow,” Jo Marie whispered, her voice low and trembling.
“Just a small taste of the future,” I promised, as I brushed the hair away from her forehead, and then, because I couldn’t resist, I kissed her again.
Although the timing wasn’t great, I had to tell her. “I need to remind you I haven’t made my final decision.”
She lowered her head and then nodded. “I can’t fight you on this any longer, Mark. You make the decision, do what you know in your heart is right.”
“Will you accept whatever it is I do?” From the pain in her eyes I knew I was asking a lot of her.
“Do I have a choice?”
I exhaled slowly and brought her back into the protective circle of my arms, resting my head on top of hers. “What about this other man?” It was killing me, thinking about Jo Marie dating Greg.
She went still, stiff in my arms. “What about him?”
“I can’t bear knowing you’re still seeing him. It’s eating me alive.”
She smiled and kissed the underside of my jaw. “Are you jealous, Mark?”
“Hell yes, I’m jealous. How would you feel if you learned there was another woman in my life? Wouldn’t you lie awake nights wondering what I was thinking, if I still loved you, especially when this other woman made it known she wanted me?”
My question was met with silence and then she said, “There is someone else in your life.” She extracted herself from my arms and took a step back.
“No way, Jo Marie,” I argued. “You’re the only one for me. From the moment we met there’s never been anyone but you.”
She shook her head and a sad smile came over her. “Her name is Iraq.”
My eyes slammed shut. I’d been blinded by own stupidity.
“I love