The Proposal & Solid Soul - Brenda Jackson [103]
“Well, I’ll let you go now. I’m sure the shopping trip tired you out.”
“Yes, it did somewhat. I appreciate you calling.”
“I told you I would. I just hope my doing so hasn’t raised Tiffany’s suspicions. I know how much you don’t want the kids to think anything is going on between us.”
“No, I don’t think your call did. In fact, she said she thought it was very considerate of you to call and make sure we were all set for this weekend.”
“And are you all set for this weekend, Kylie?”
More than I need to be, she thought, thinking of all the new outfits she had purchased with the hopes that he’d like each and every one of them. “Yes, I found all the items on the list, including the snake bite kit.”
“Good girl. Now do something tonight when you go to sleep.”
“What?”
“Think of me.”
CHANCE SETTLED BACK IN the bed after placing the phone back in the cradle. He hadn’t been able to concentrate on the summit all week because Kylie was on his mind. Hell, for the past couple of nights, he hadn’t been able to sleep a wink.
It had been during Horace Doubletree’s speech that day when he’d suddenly came to the realization that it was a waste of time trying to fool himself any longer and that things for him had moved past him trying to get to know Kylie better. The truth of the matter was that he knew all he wanted to know. His heart had decided. He had fallen in love with her.
How such a thing was possible he wasn’t sure; especially when the woman had been sending out conflicting signals since the day they met. She was attracted to him, although she was determined to fight that attraction every step of the way. Her independence, while a turn-on, had ironically become a major obstacle to the relationship. That meant he needed to probe deeper and somehow break through her defenses. He also needed to take one day at a time and wipe away the fifteen years of hurt and pain she’d endured and prove that with him there would only be happier days. Even without her realizing she’d been doing so, for the past couple of weeks she had been extracting an unusual type of strength from him.
A strength of will.
He’d been fighting an intense longing, a deep-rooted desire for her since that day he’d walked into her florist shop. He could now admit that the first time their eyes had connected his heart had slammed into fifth gear. No wonder lunch at the Racetrack Café had seemed fitting as a place for their first date. Even then he’d known that something special was within his grasp.
After Cyndi died he’d actually thought that he could never love another woman again. And even with the few affairs he’d indulged in over the years, he’d never allowed his emotions to go any deeper than affection or desire. Yet here he had fallen hard for a woman whom he had never actually taken out on a real date, had never slept with and had never really spent more than a few hours with at a given time. His brothers would say such a thing was utterly insane. They would call in the shrink to have his head examined, or they would take him out somewhere and beat some sense into him. But then they would one day realize that some things in life were not meant to be understood, just accepted. Today he had accepted the fact that he had fallen in love.
And he knew he had his work cut out for him.
There was more than gentle pride in every bone in Kylie’s body. He knew just from the time he’d spent with her that she could be stubborn, willful and defiant. That was all well and good if she was dealing with any other man than him. But he refused to wait around for her to bolster her courage to take a chance and fall in love again—this time with a man who wouldn’t let her down. He still wouldn’t rush her into doing anything, but he definitely planned to show her how good things could be between them. He planned to jar her emotions, jump-start her heart and make her stare the truth in the face.
There were chances in life worth taking and he was one “Chance” she should definitely take. In high school he and his brothers had been