Angels Everywhere - Debbie Macomber [71]
Being here with Chet like this forced her to acknowledge how incredibly lonely she’d been in the last few years. Her mother had died, and her friends, the only two she considered good friends, had both married and moved away. Funny she hadn’t realized how empty and pointless her life had become. Nor had she realized what poor company she was to herself and others.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
Their eyes met and she found him openly studying her. She quickly averted her gaze. “I didn’t realize how downright good a man could feel.”
He laughed softly and kissed the tip of her nose. “That’s very honest of you.”
“I couldn’t very well deny it.”
“You could, and have,” he said. His fingertips grazed her temple, softly caressing her face. “I’ll be honest too. You feel damn good in my arms. Tonight,” he whispered, “while you were with Michael, I was like a caged animal.”
“He doesn’t mean anything to me,” she rushed to explain.
He closed his eyes and nodded. “I know, but it didn’t make any difference. There was this band around my chest that tightened every time I thought about the two of you together. Yet I know in my heart Michael’s a hell of a better man than I’ll ever be.”
“Don’t say that,” she pleaded, feeling the panic rising in her voice. His next suggestion might be that they not see each other again and she couldn’t bear that.
“Monica, listen—”
“No. No, don’t say it. I have an idea.” The words rushed out on top of each other.
“An idea for us?”
She nodded and bent forward and kissed him, using her tongue in all the ways he’d taught her until they were both panting and clinging to each other.
“As you said,” she whispered, her chest heaving, “we seem to get along fabulously well on the physical level.”
He chuckled and buried his face in the lush fullness of her breasts, kissing each upturned nipple. “That, my dear, is putting it mildly.”
“It seems to me that we could learn to communicate on other levels as well.”
He went still and raised his gaze to hers. She swallowed and forced herself to smile. His eyes narrowed.
“I was thinking that, well, if we feel so strongly about one another then we should . . .”
“Should what?” he prodded.
Monica gathered her courage and blurted it all out at once. “That we should get married.”
“Leah,” Andrew whispered in the darkened theater.
Leah’s gaze reluctantly left the screen, where a Walt Disney animation film was playing.
Her husband pointed to Scotty, who was curled up in his lap. The toddler was sound asleep. Husband and wife shared a meaningful smile. Andrew reached over and stole a handful of popcorn from her box.
“Do you want to leave?”
She shook her head, surprised he’d ask. “This is the very best part. Besides, Scotty will want to know what he missed.”
The older grandmotherly type in the row in front of them turned around and glared pointedly at Andrew.
“My husband apologizes for disrupting the show,” Leah whispered.
“So does my wife,” Andrew added.
The woman huffily turned around and Leah smothered her laughter as best she could. Her husband certainly wasn’t helping matters any. He was making faces at the old biddy, which caused Leah to giggle all the more.
The woman turned around once again and Leah nearly choked in her effort to keep from laughing outright. Once she’d composed herself, she scooted down in her seat and leaned her head against Andrew’s shoulder. She hadn’t laughed this much in one day since . . . she couldn’t remember when. It didn’t matter, she was laughing now and it felt incredible. When had she allowed her life to become so cheerless? Time had slipped between her fingers with barely a notice.
Scotty was a delight, and she loved him until her heart felt as if it would burst. He would be about the same age as the baby they’d wanted to adopt. In some unexplainable way, Leah had transferred to