Love at First Flight (39 page)

Sitting in stunned silence trying to
absorb it all, Juliana suddenly thought of Michael's proposal.

Don't
forget who asked first.

CHAPTER 33

“JULE?”

“I, uh, I just don't know what to say.”

“'Yes' would work for me.”

Juliana tugged her hands free from his
and stood up. She looked around the huge room and struggled to comprehend the
magnitude of his grand gesture. He'd made it all but impossible for her to say
no to him. “When did you do all this?”

He turned to sit on the hearth. “I
bought the house the weekend I was home when I couldn't find you, and I closed
on it yesterday. I was hoping I'd chosen the right one. We looked at quite a
few that day, but I thought this was the one you liked best.”

“It was.” Chilled, she crossed her arms
and went to look out the window. There was just enough moonlight to make out
the large backyard and the wooded area behind the property. It now seemed so
unimaginable that she had expected to just walk away from Jeremy after
everything they'd been through together. How could she have ever thought he
would step aside when she told him she had outgrown their relationship? Of
course that hardly mattered since he had made sure she'd never get the chance
to say any such thing. “How can you afford all this? My mother's mortgage? This
house?”

“We'll have to sell the place in the
city—pretty quickly,” he said with a grin. “But I told you, I made a bundle
when I was in Florida, and I was working so much that I hardly spent a dime of
it. Your mother's mortgage wasn't much really. There was just a year or so left
on it, but I knew it would give you peace of mind to have that taken care of.”

Juliana turned away from the window to
face him. “I just can't get over you doing that.”

When he stood up and walked over to her
she knew she couldn't stall any longer.

“Are you going to marry me, Jule? Are we
going to live here together and fill this big house with kids? Are we going to
have what we were always meant to have, from the time we were seventeen?”

She bit her lip and ventured a glance up
at him. “What if, in a year or two...”

“What?”

“What if you get itchy feet again?” she
asked, using Mrs. R's words.

He took a step back as if she had struck
him. “I can't believe you'd ask me that.”

“
Why
can't you believe it?
What if you do all this to win me back only to
discover down the road that you still have wild oats to sow? What if I'm
pregnant with our first child, or even our second, and you begin taking me for
granted again and start wishing for
anything
but the life you have with me?
What will
I do then?
”

A muscle in his cheek twitching with
tension, he fixed his eyes on the window behind her. “That's not going to
happen. I've learned a big lesson in the last two months, and it's one I'm
never, ever going to forget.” He shifted his eyes back to her. “All I can do is
tell you I love you. I've always loved you, and I always will. I'm asking you
to marry me. If you want me to beg, I will. I have absolutely no pride left
when it comes to you.” His eyes filled, and the helpless despair she saw on his
face finally did her in.

She took a deep breath and blocked all
thoughts of Michael. “Okay.”

Jeremy's face went slack with shock. “Yes?”

It was inevitable. It always had been,
and for her to deny that was to deny what he had meant to her for the most
important years of her life—the years when no one else had loved her or cared
about her or been there for her. He was right. He was her family, and she was
his. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Yes.”

He let out a whoop and swept her off her
feet and into his arms. His tears of joy left damp spots on her face. “You
won't be sorry, Jule. I'll spend every day making you happy. I promise I'll
never let you down.” He reached into his pocket for the ring and slipped it on
her finger. “
Oh, no,
” he groaned. “It's
too big.”

Juliana tried not to think about how
perfectly Michael's ring fit her. If she allowed herself to think of him for
even one second, she would never make it through this. “That's okay. We can get
it sized down. It's a beautiful ring.” Smaller diamonds framed a large,
square-cut diamond.

His face fell with disappointment. “I
took that ruby in your jewelry box to get the size right.”

She smiled. “That was my grandmother's.
She had much bigger hands than I do.”

“Sorry.”

Taking it off, she handed it to him. “You'd
better hold on to it until we get it sized. I don't want to lose it.”

“I wanted it to be perfect.”

“It's a beautiful ring, Jer,” she said,
reaching up to kiss him.

He looked at her with his heart in his
eyes. “Do you still love me, Jule? After everything that's happened, do you
still love me?”

“Yes.”

“Will you tell me? I need to hear it.”

“I love you, Jeremy.”

“You're really going to marry me?”

“Yes,” she whispered as his lips took
fierce possession of hers in a hot kiss filled with the promise of things to
come.

“Let's go home, to our current home,” he
said in a voice hoarse with desire and emotion. “I want to make love to my
future wife.”

“Urn, about that, Jer...”

He pulled back to look at her. “What?”

“Two things. First, I don't want a long
engagement. I want us to go somewhere and get married. No big deal, okay?”

“I don't want to just sneak off and get
married like we've got something to hide. I want to do it up. I know the deal
with your family, and we don't have to make it a big production.”

“No production, Jer. I mean it. I don't
want it.”

He thought about that for a moment. “A
guy I met in Florida told me he and his wife went to St. John with a couple of
friends and got married over a weekend. How about something like that in the
next few weeks? We could take Pam and David and my mom and Gary,” he said,
referring to his stepfather. “Would that work?”

“That'd be great. I could tell my family
after the fact that we eloped.”

“Okay, so that takes care of one of your
two things. What's the other?”

“I won't sleep with you until we're
married.”

He snorted. “You're kidding me, right?”

“No.”

Realizing she was serious, he said, “Why?
We've been having sex for ten years, Juliana. I don't get it.”

“I feel like we let sex become too
important in our relationship. I want us to stay focused on what really matters
over the next few weeks. Please?”

“I've been
dreaming
of making love with you for two months already.”

“Then a couple more weeks won't kill
you.”

“I really think it might.”

“You can do it.”

“You drive a tough bargain, babe, but
okay. If it means that much to you, we can wait.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for saying yes.” He hugged
her again. “You've made me the happiest guy in the world.”

As Juliana remembered Michael telling
her that she made him happier than he had ever been in his life, the numbness
wore off and she began to ache.

***

After Jeremy served Juliana breakfast in
bed in the guestroom the next morning, they called his mother and stepfather to
share the news of their engagement. His mother cried tears of joy and promised
to be there for the big day. They also called Pam and David, who were equally thrilled
to be included and agreed to serve as their matron of honor and best man.
Jeremy got busy on the Internet, and an hour later he booked their wedding at a
resort on St. John.

He came downstairs to find Juliana when
he finished. “We got really lucky. They had a cancellation on New Year's
weekend just this morning.” Embracing her, he sighed with contentment. “Three
weeks, babe. I can't believe we'll be married in
three weeks
.”

Drawn in by his contagious delight, she
smiled up at him.

He slid his hand around her neck and
kissed her. After he spent several minutes letting her know just how badly he
wanted her, his breathing was heavy and labored. “You're really sure about this
no sex thing?”

“Think about how great the wedding night
will be.”

“I can't. If I think about it, I'll need
another cold shower.” He had already told her all about the one he took the
night before after their hot make-out session at the guest room door.

She laughed. “You're pathetic.”

“Babe? Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“When we were apart, did you, you
know...” She struggled out of his embrace. “We're not talking about that.”

“
I
need to know, Jule
. It makes me crazy to think about you with someone else.
Tell me I don't need to be worried about that, and I'll never mention it again.”

“I'm only going to say this once, and I
really want you to listen, okay?”

He nodded.

“I'm never going to talk to you about
the two months we spent apart. We said we wouldn't do that. I've agreed to
marry you. If you're going to badger me about this then we've got a problem.”

He studied her for a long time before he
answered. “Okay. I'll let it go.”

“Good.”

***

Late on Sunday afternoon she told Jeremy
she needed to do a few errands and left him unpacking the boxes and suitcases
he brought home from Florida.

“Hurry back, babe,” he said, kissing her
good-bye. “I miss you already.”

Juliana went to her mother's house for
the first time in three weeks.

“Well, look at what the cat dragged in,”
Paullina said.

Stunned to see her mother up, dressed,
and sitting at the table eating an early dinner, Juliana noticed that both her
mother and the house were immaculate. There were even fresh flowers on the
table.

“You must be Juliana.” A young blonde
woman extended her hand. “I'm Allison, the home health aide.”

“No, you're Allison, the miracle worker,”
Juliana said with amazement.

“I told you she was a brat,” Paullina
said to Allison but without the usual edge to her voice.

Juliana was startled to realize her
mother was also sober. She couldn't remember the last time she saw her that
way.

“I'm sorry it's been so long since I was
here, Ma. You look wonderful.”

“Well, Florence Nightingale over there
is on my ass day and night,” she said, but Juliana noticed the affection in her
mother's eyes.

Paullina took a close look at her
daughter. “The bruise is just about gone, huh?”

“Yes, finally. Juliana's Salon has shut
down. It's back to Panache on Tuesday.”

“It'll be good for you to get back to
normal.”

Normal,
Juliana
thought, not sure what that was anymore. She sat down at the table. “So, Ma,
Jeremy and I got engaged last night.”

Paullina seemed stunned as she put down
her fork and wiped her mouth. “Did you now? Where's the ring?”

“It was too big, so we're having it
sized. It's gorgeous though.”

“Congratulations, Juliana. You've
certainly waited long enough for that.”

“We're going to St. John in three weeks,
just Jeremy and me.” Juliana told the tiniest of lies to protect her mother's
feelings since she had been unprepared to find her sober and rational. “We
don't want a big wedding.”

“It sounds lovely. I hope you'll be very
happy.”

Juliana's chest tightened with emotion
as she caught a glimpse of the mother she remembered from before life and
alcohol took their toll on her. She leaned in to hug her mother. “Thank you.
Well, I need to keep moving. I've got a million things to do.” She couldn't
even think about the unimaginable thing she had to do next.

“Don't be a stranger,” Paullina said.

“I won't. Nice to meet you, Allison.”

“You, too,” the aide called from the
living room.

Juliana drove down Eastern Avenue still
amazed by what she had just witnessed at her mother's house. Now that Jeremy
had paid off the mortgage, Juliana would put her money toward keeping Allison
around. That would certainly lift a big weight off her shoulders.

Turning onto Chester Street, her heart
began to pound with anxiety and dread. She had come early, so she could get her
stuff out of there before Michael got home from Florida. The palms of her hands
were damp, and her mouth went dry as she used her key to let herself in. She
deactivated the alarm and was assaulted by a flood of memories and emotions and
despair—utter despair over what she was about to do to this man who so totally
didn't deserve it.