The Marriage Profile (22 page)

Joy hit him first, pumped through him like an oil-well gusher. He felt like a man who'd been facing the firing squad and had just been granted a reprieve. A new life. A life with Angela. “No, no. Not the part about the baby,” he said. “Although I'm thrilled about that part, too. I want you to repeat the other part, the part about you loving me. Tell me again, Angel. Tell me that you love me as much as I love you.”

Her eyes lit up, the tears stopped. “I love you, Justin Wainwright,” she said solemnly. “I always have.”

“Then why did you leave me? If you loved me, why did you go?”

“Because I thought I'd failed you.”

“Failed me how?” he asked, wanting to clear the problems of the past so that they would never impede their
future. “Is this about your being psychic? Because if it is, I've already told you that I loved you because of who you are.”

“It wasn't just that. It was knowing how badly you wanted children and knowing that I couldn't have them. It's the one basic thing a woman is supposed to be able to do, only I couldn't do it. So I knew I had to let you go. I had to let you find someone who could be a real wife to you, give you what you wanted most.”

Justin kissed her hard. “You're an idiot, Angela Mason. Sure, I wanted kids, but I could live without kids. The one thing I wanted most, the one thing I didn't want to live without, don't want to live without is you.”

“Oh, Justin,” she said, laughing. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “We've both been such fools. All those years we've wasted. All that time we've lost.”

When her smile dimmed and that worried look came back into her eyes, he asked, “What's wrong?”

“I was thinking of Haley Mercado and all the time she's lost with her little girl. And just when she was within reach, we lost her again to Del Brio.”

Justin pressed a kiss to her lips. He, too, had been plagued by the idea of the little girl with Del Brio. But he was a firm believer that good eventually won out over evil. He believed it in this case, and he intended to do whatever he could to help make sure it did. “Haley's going to get her daughter back,” Justin assured her. “I've already made plans to go see Luke.”

“What about Agent Collins? You said he wanted you to back off.”

“Tough,” Justin said. “Between Luke and us and the FBI, we'll get Lena back. I feel it in my gut.”

“Careful, Sheriff. You're beginning to sound like a man who could be psychic,” she teased.

“Maybe I am. Or maybe it's the psychic I love rubbing off on me.”

“I love you, Justin Wainwright.”

“And I love you, Angela Mason.” He picked her up and began spinning her around and around.

“Justin, stop, you're making me dizzy,” she said, laughing.

He stopped spinning and kissed her deeply, thoroughly, with all the love in his heart. After all those lost years, they had found their way back to each other, he realized. He thought about the circle of life and fate. How Haley Mercado's night with Luke Callaghan had led to the birth of Lena. And how the little girl had led him and Angela back to each other. He and Angela were fated to be together, Justin reasoned. Just as Rose and Matt Carson had been fated to find each other. Just as Hawk and Jenny had found each other. The same way that Susan and Michael had found their way to each other. The way his father and mother were finding their way back to each other now.

Angela was his destiny, his life, Justin realized. He'd foolishly lost five years of the life he was meant to share with her. He didn't intend to waste another minute of that life ever again. Lifting his head, he looked into her dreamy eyes and smiled, then he headed for the stairs that led to her bedroom.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“To make up for lost time.”