Welcome Home (5 page)

She was waiting on the porch for him with a
cup of coffee.

“It’s so late,” she said, “I thought we’d
just make lunch in a few minutes. How’d you do?”

Tommy shrugged. “Everybody’s fed.” He started
to add something about helping her from inside the truck after
today, but he stopped when he saw her expression.

She handed him the coffee she’d brought him
and sipped some of her own. “Tommy, we need to talk.”

Here it comes
, Tommy
thought, and his heart dropped into his feet. She was going to tell
him that they were over, that she wanted a man in her bed that
could make
real
love to her and not a pale
imitation of it.

“I know, and I’m really sorry,” he mumbled.
“I’m sorry it wasn’t any better for you.” He cursed the tears he
felt forming in his eyes, because he’d be damned if he would cry in
front of her again.

“Uh, what?” Christi asked, sounding genuinely
baffled. “You’re sorry about what?”

“Last night,” Tommy said. “I’m sorry the
lovemaking wasn’t any better. That’s what you wanted to talk about,
isn’t it?”

“No, I wanted to talk about where to get the
money to put hand controls on the vehicles so you can get back out
on the road. We’re going to have to borrow it. Tommy, why in the
hell are you apologizing for the lovemaking last night? Last night
was wonderful! Or…” She looked at him anxiously. “Was it lousy for
you?”

“God, no, it wasn’t lousy for me!” Tommy
sputtered. “Good God, to have you back in my arms again, to feel
you against me, to hear those little noises you make in the back of
your throat when you’re coming…. You don’t know how happy that made
me.” He reached out and took her hand. “I just wish it had been
better for you.”

“Tommy, were we in the same bed last night?
Because I thought it was pretty damned excellent. You didn’t know
if you could even do it, and you
did,
Tommy. You made love to me. For the first time in so very
long.”

Tommy was surprised to see tears glistening
in her eyes.

“How could it have been wonderful?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure, I ‘made love to you.’” Frustrated, he shoved his
fingers through his hair. “I got it up
once
, Christi, and then it took forever before I could
come. Pretty lame, since I used to be able to do it two or three
times. Hell yeah, it felt great, and I’m so relieved I can at least
do something, but it had to have disappointed you. I mean, compared
to what I could do before. I tried… I feel… Jesus, Christi, what’s
so damn funny?” he asked indignantly when Christi started to
laugh.

“Oh, Tommy, you have to be something else,”
she giggled as she put down her coffee, took his away and climbed
into his lap. “Let’s see. Last night I went to bed with this cowboy
who not only went down on me and got me there three—no,
four
—times with the best I’ve ever had in
my life, then made long, slow delicious love to me during which I
had two more Earth-shakers. And then he apologizes the next morning
because he doesn’t think that was good enough? Well, cowboy, if
you’re disappointed in your performance last night, we can go after
it again…like, maybe tonight and tomorrow night and every night
after that, at least until we get it down to
your
satisfaction. Because believe me, Tommy, my
satisfaction’s not in question.”

“But I’m not the same as I was before,” Tommy
protested. “It’s different.”

“Yes, it is different,” Christi said quietly.
“But it’s no less wonderful. And we’ve just started exploring the
possibilities, Tommy. There are pills, there are toys, there are
lots of things out there we can experiment with. In fact, our sex
life might just be the simplest of your concerns we have to face.
But the important thing is that I love you, Tommy, and—even if it
could somehow be better—I would rather have what I had with you
last night and whatever I’ll have with you in the future than the
wildest hot monkey-sex out there with anyone else. Because I love
you, Tommy. I love you so much.”

Tommy looked into his beloved’s eyes and felt
something blossom within him. “You really mean that, don’t
you?”

“I’ve never meant anything more,” Christi
said. “And we’ll work on your other concerns together. Tommy, you
can
run this place from the wheelchair.
You have to run it. You’re the heart and soul of this ranch, and
that will never change. Maybe it won’t be the same as it was
before, but there’s lot you can still do, like feeding the animals
this morning. You managed that just fine, and there will be other
things you can manage just fine also. The two of us just need to
quit being lazy and scared and figure it all out.”

“Okay,” Tommy said as he reached out with his
big hand and pulled Christi close for a long, warm kiss. “We can
work on that. But what about marrying me? Do you still want to? Do
you really think I can be the husband you need and deserve?”

His soon-to-be-wife wrapped her arms around
his neck. “Of course I do,” she said as she captured his lips in
another long, sweet kiss. “Tommy, you’re everything to me, and you
always will be. You’re the one I want by my side, and the one I
want in my bed, and the one I want to give me little redheaded
babies to raise out here. You most certainly can be the husband I
need and deserve, and I most heartily hope you will.” She gestured
at the wheelchair. “Tommy, that is nothing compared to all we have
going for us.”

Tommy let out a whoop at the explosion of joy
that enveloped him from his head to his toes. “Damn, Christi, I
love you!” he hollered as he whirled the wheelchair in a circle.
“You have just made me the happiest son of a bitch in Verde
County.”

He drew her face down to his and met her
mouth in a long, hard, passionate kiss full of renewed expectation
and promise. “Say, why don’t we get cleaned up, go get a couple of
hamburgers from Gus and Lisa and drive into Austin for the
afternoon? We can see about getting a loan and some hand controls
installed, and then we can go look at rings. Aw, Christi, why are
you crying?”

He put his arms around her, and she sobbed as
she held him tight. “I-I’m just so happy. You’re home. You’ve
finally come home to me.”

Tommy Joe thought a minute. Then he said,
“Yes, Christi, I guess I finally have.”

She smiled radiantly and tenderly kissed his
lips before saying, “Took you long enough. Welcome home, cowboy.
I’m mighty glad you’re finally here.”

So was Tommy.

The author of
twenty romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with
a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write
full time. The mother of two sons, she and her husband Charles now
split their time between central Texas and eastern Tennessee. For
relaxation she plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele. She
says, “I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance
happened to me and it can happen to any woman—if she’ll just let
it.”

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