“I'm late for school,” she said, for lack of something better to say, and he appeared not to hear her.
“Will you come with me?” He had come six thousand miles to ask her that question. Farther than that. He had come from the bowels of death and across his entire lifetime. But the one thing he had found in the storm was all he needed. In the jaws of death, he had found forgiveness. He knew that if he had been saved, then he deserved her. It was why he had seen her face that night, as though she had been a vision and a promise. He had found what he'd been looking for, not only forgiveness, but freedom. He had paid his dues to the utmost farthing. And the final dream of Jane had set him free at last.
“Are you serious?” She stared at him as though she didn't believe he meant it.
“I am. Are you? Do you want to come with me?” She hesitated for what seemed like an eternity to him, and then finally, she nodded.
“I do. Do you still want me?” she whispered, and he laughed this time.
“I damn near went down with the boat, and God knows why we were saved, me most of all. And I came from Africa to Holland to New York to here. Yes, Maggie, I want you. More than that, I am the biggest fool that ever lived, I used to be the biggest sonofabitch that ever breathed. And I promise you, I'll never leave you again. Oh yes, I will, but not the way I did in October. I guess I needed to damn near die to figure out what I really wanted.” He got down on bended knee in the rain and she laughed at him. “Now, will you come with me?”
“Okay, okay. But I have to give them notice at school. And I have to grade papers. How soon are you leaving?”
“I'm not leaving till you come with me. The boat will be in Holland for at least two months, maybe three. Can I stay with you?” he asked, as she smiled up at him. He had never looked better to her. And she looked every bit as good to him, and just as soaking wet, as she had the day he met her. “Do you want me to drive you to school?” She smiled up at him and nodded. “How soon can you give them notice?” he asked as she handed him her car keys. This was all so wonderful and so crazy, just as he was. He had come halfway around the world to ask her to leave with him, and he had to nearly die to do it. But if that was what it took, it was worth it.
“I'll give them notice today. Will that work for you?” she asked as he started the car and backed out of the driveway. They were both wet to the bone as he stopped the car again and looked at her.
“Did I tell you I love you?”
“I can't remember. But I figured it out anyway. If you came all this way, I thought you probably did. I love you too. Now get me to school, I'm late. You scared the hell out of me. I thought you were trying to attack me.”
“I was just glad to see you.” He grinned at her, backed the car the rest of the way out of the driveway, and drove the car down Vallejo. She agreed with him as he told her about the storm they'd been in. It was a miracle. It had taken a miracle to bring him back to her. And she reminded him, as she leaned over and kissed him, that it had been a storm that brought them together in the first place.
He dropped her off at school, and she waved at him, as he sat and watched her run through the rain. She was the miracle that had come into his life, and brought forgiveness. And love was the miracle that had healed him.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIELLE STEEL has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 550 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include The House, Toxic Bachelors, ImPossible, Echoes, Second Chance, Ransom, Safe Harbour, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death.
Visit the Danielle Steel Web Site
at www.daniellesteel.com.
a cognizant original v5 release october 14 2010
WATCH FOR THE NEW NOVEL
FROM
DANIELLE STEEL
On Sale in Hardcover
June 27, 2006
COMING OUT
Olympia Crawford Rubinstein has a way of managing her thriving family with grace and humor. With twin daughters finishing high school, a son at Dartmouth, and a kindergartener from her second marriage, there seems to be nothing Olympia can't handle … until one sunny day in May, when she opens an invitation for her daughters to attend the most exclusive coming out ball in New York—and chaos erupts all around her….
From a son's crisis to a daughter's heartbreak, from a case of the chickenpox to a political debate raging in her household, Olympia is on the verge of surrender … until a series of startling choices and changes of heart, family and friends turn a night of calamity into an evening of magic. As old wounds are healed, barriers are shattered and new traditions are born, and a debutante ball becomes a catalyst for change, revelation, acceptance, and love.
Please turn the page for a special advance preview.
COMING OUT
on sale June 27, 2006
Chapter 1