Authors: Jill Sorenson
Freefall (28 page)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
H
OPE
DIDN
’
T
USUALLY
look forward to Christmas.
During the holidays, she felt lonely and restless. She was more aware of the empty place inside her. The Sierras were quiet and still, the mountain peaks softened by a blanket of snow. It was a season of long, cold nights.
Not this year. With Sam, everything was different.
They were going to Ojai in a few days to visit her family. She couldn’t wait to see Faith, who’d recently reunited with Javier. According to her sister, they were “taking things slow.” Hope had laughed at Faith’s coy tone, delighted for her. She sounded like herself, with a hint of new maturity. Her baby sister was All Grown Up.
She wasn’t the only one. There was another reason this holiday season was extra special: Hope got her first letter from Grace.
Sam had pointed it out to her as soon as she came home from work. She’d been living with him for several months, so all of her mail got forwarded to his address. Heart racing, she tore the envelope open.
It was a basic Christmas card with a pair of red mittens on the front. Inside, there was a warm holiday greeting, signed by her adoptive parents. Hope was more interested in the folded, handwritten note. Her hands shook as she read it:
Hello.
My name is Grace. My mom says your name is Hope. I will call you by your first name if that’s okay.
My parents said I could email you from their account. I don’t have my own email or Facebook page yet, so I decided to write a real letter. They said they wouldn’t read it if I didn’t want them to.
I am eleven years old. You know that, I guess. I’m in the fifth grade. We have a dog named Buster. I like gymnastics and volleyball. My dad coaches my volleyball team. What I like most is reading. My favorite book is
Vampire Academy.
I wonder what you liked to do when you were eleven.
My parents said you were in high school when you had me. I think that would be hard. I watch the show
Teen Mom
sometimes. I wonder what you look like. I will send you a picture. Can you send me one?
I’m not sure what else to say. I want to know everything about you. I worry that my mom might be sad to read that. I love my mom a lot. She says we can meet in person this summer. I would like to see you.
Your daughter
Grace
P.S. Do you have any other kids? I’ve always wanted a brother or sister.
Hope read the letter five times, tears pouring down her face. When she handed it to Sam, he accepted with reverence, smiling at her sentimental reaction.
They spent the next hour going through her digital photos. Hope wanted to print and send the perfect one. She also planned to raid the box of extra pictures at her parents’ house. Maybe Grace would enjoy some shots of her and Faith as kids.
She decided to wait until the following day to pen her response. There were so many ideas and stories bouncing around in her head. She didn’t want to overwhelm Grace with too much information.
Instead of rushing ahead or worrying about the future, she settled in next to Sam on the couch in front of the fire. Enjoying the moment.
“Cheers,” he said, touching his glass to hers.
She sipped her white wine while he enjoyed a whiskey on the rocks. The days were short, but they’d been taking advantage of the long, cold nights. Spending cozy evenings with him was no hardship.
“It’s our anniversary,” he announced.
“It is?”
“We met a year ago tonight.”
Smiling, she set her wineglass aside. “I know how I’d like to celebrate,” she said, snuggling closer. She dipped her finger into his tumbler and touched it to her lips, flavoring her mouth with whiskey.
“How?” he asked, tasting her with a light kiss.
“By taking off your clothes,” she said, nibbling her way down his neck, “licking every inch of your body...” She reached into his tumbler again. Distracting him with kisses, she slipped an ice cube down the back of his shirt. “And locking you outside, naked!”
He jumped off the couch in surprise, shaking the ice free.
Hope laughed at his disgruntled expression. She never played pranks on him, but she was in high spirits. Everything seemed hilarious. When she stopped giggling, she noticed that he was just staring at her.
She wiped the tears from her eyes, taking a calming breath. “It was a joke.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t think it was funny.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, raking a hand through his hair. He looked nervous, as if he had some bad news to share.
Her stomach sank. She’d felt so blessed lately, so ecstatic. Faith’s phone call, and the letter from Grace, had pushed her into the stratosphere. But life couldn’t be an embarrassment of riches for long. “What is it?”
“I have something to ask you. I’ve been planning it all week, and I wanted the moment to be perfect. Now I feel like I already screwed it up by mentioning our anniversary. You’d probably rather forget that night.”
She didn’t know what he was agonizing over, but he sounded so forlorn that she stood, lifting her hand to his cheek. “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t make light of it if I was still upset.”
Some of the tension in his face eased. “I’ll stand outside naked anytime you like.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
His lips curved into a smile. They’d stripped off their clothes in a number of remote settings. “Okay,” he said, going down on one knee. While her heart fluttered with a pleasant sort of unease, he removed a black box from his pocket. “I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
Hope snatched the box from his upturned palm and opened it, her pulse racing. “What an obscene diamond,” she gasped.
“I can buy a smaller one.”
She tried the ring on for size. The slim white gold band fit her finger, and the diamond was beautifully clear. It wasn’t quite a doorknob. “Yes.”
“Yes, to a smaller stone?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
He leaped up, wrapping her in a tight embrace and lifting her off her feet. She’d never thought she could be this happy, not in a million years. Not in her wildest dreams. “I love you so much,” he said against her hair, his voice hoarse.
“I love you, too.” The words came easy now, floating right off her tongue.
She was his. He was hers. Forever.
* * * * *
Don’t miss Jill Sorenson’s
next exciting romantic suspense,
BADLANDS.
Available January 2014!
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ISBN: 9781460313237
FREEFALL
Copyright © 2013 by Jill Sorenson
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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