Mary shook her head. “I doubt it. He’s never seen your car, so far as I know, only that fancy sports car. Anyway, the boy’s been working himself so hard, he’ll be too tired to notice much of anything.”
Mary opened the back door and Rorie stepped inside the kitchen. As she did, the house seemed to fold its arms around her in welcome. She paused, breathing in the scent of roast beef and homemade biscuits. It might not be sourdough and Golden Gate Park roses, but it felt right. More than right.
“Do you need me to do anything?” Rorie asked.
Mary frowned, then nodded. “There’s just one thing I want you to do—make Clay happy.”
“Oh, Mary, I intend to start doing that the second he walks through that door.”
An hour later, almost to the minute, Rorie heard Skip and Clay come into the kitchen.
“What’s for dinner?” Skip asked immediately.
“It’s on the table. Now wash your hands.”
Rorie heard the teenager grumble as he headed down the hallway to the bathroom.
“How’d the trip go?” Mary asked Clay.
He mumbled something Rorie couldn’t hear.
“The new librarian stopped by to say hello. Old man Logan and Kate sent her over—thought you might like to meet her.”
“I don’t. I hope you got rid of her. I’m in no mood for company.”
“Nope,” Mary said. “Fact is, I invited her to stay for dinner. The least you can do is wipe that frown off your face and go introduce yourself.”
Rorie stood just inside the dining room, her heart ready to explode. By the time Clay stepped into the room, tears had blurred her vision and she could hardly make out the tall, familiar figure that blocked the doorway.
She heard his swift intake of breath, and the next thing she knew she was crushed in Clay’s loving arms.
Seventeen
Rorie was locked so securely in Clay’s arms that for a moment she couldn’t draw a breath. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was being hugged by the man she loved and he was holding on to her as though he didn’t plan to ever let her go.
Clay kissed her again and again, the way a starving man took his first bites of food, initially hesitant, then eager. The palms of Rorie’s hands were pressed against his chest and she felt the quick surge of his heart. His own hand was gentle on her hair, caressing it, running his fingers through it.
“Rorie...Rorie, I can’t believe you’re here.”
Rorie felt the power of his emotions, and they were strong enough to rock her, body and soul. This man loved her. He was honest and hardworking, she knew all that, but even more, Clay Franklin was good, with an unselfishness and a loyalty that had touched her profoundly. In an age of ambitious, hardhearted, vain men, she had inadvertently stumbled on this rare man of character. Her life would never be the same.
Clay exhaled a deep sigh, and his hands framed her face as he pulled his head back to gaze into her eyes. The lines that marked his face seemed more deeply incised now, and she felt another pang of sorrow for the pain he’d endured.
“Mary wasn’t teasing me, was she? You are the new librarian?”
Rorie nodded, smiling up at him, her happiness shining from her eyes. “There’s no going back for me. I’ve moved out of my apartment, packed everything I own and quit my job with barely a week’s notice.”
Rorie had fallen in love with Clay, caught in the magic of one special night when a foal had been born. But her feelings stretched far beyond the events of a single evening and the few short days they’d spent together. Her love for Clay had become an essential part of her. Rorie adored him and would feel that way for as long as her heart continued to beat.
Clay’s frown deepened and his features tightened briefly. “What about Dan? I thought you were going to marry him.”
“I couldn’t,” she said, then smiled tenderly, tracing his face with her hands, loving the feel of him beneath her fingertips.
“But—”
“Clay,” she interrupted, “why didn’t you tell me when I saw you in San Francisco that you’d broken your engagement to Kate?” Her eyes clouded with anguish at the memory, at the anxiety they’d caused each other. It had been such senseless heartache, and they’d wasted precious time. “Couldn’t you see how miserable I was?”
A grimace of pain moved across his features. “All I noticed was how right you and that stockbroker looked together. You both kept telling me what a bright future he had. I couldn’t begin to offer you the things he could. And if that wasn’t enough, it was all too apparent that Dan was in love with you.” Gently Clay smoothed her hair away from her temple. “I could understand what it meant to love you, and, between the two of us, he seemed the better man.”