She tried to keep her voice steady. “Biggest mistake of my life.”
“Laurel, I’m begging you to listen.” He loosened his hold. “I was an ass. I admit it. I think I was in shock after that night at the Bosque Club. It took me a while to process everything, but I finally got it all together when we were in San Antonio. It’s like what I told Lolly—your father, my father—good or bad—they don’t matter. You and I are what matter. Love is enough—that’s what it’s all about, and I’m lucky enough to love the most wonderful person on the face of the earth.”
“Look, folks,” the cabdriver called out. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m charging you for every minute that car’s blocking the driveway.”
Jase turned on him. “You’ll get your money! I’m not done yet!”
His eyes clouded as he turned back to Laurel. “I apologize for not keeping in touch, but it’s been a hard couple of days. Lolly held out till we got home, then went to pieces. She’s going through some pretty intensive therapy right now, and I have to be part of it. The next afternoon, Marguerite died, and I grabbed a red-eye to San Antonio to help Nyquist with the funeral arrangements—he was a basket case. When I got home the next day, Maxie was sick with the flu. The office hasn’t seen me in four days, and I may be contagious even now.”
Laurel gasped. “Is Maxie okay?”
He nodded. “Her fever is down, and Lolly is mother-henning her under the supervision of a nurse who must have been an army general in her past life.”
He took her hands in his. “I love you, Laurel, and I want you to be my wife and Lolly’s mother, to make a home together. I was hoping to roll down the highway in a gilded coach pulled by eight white horses to claim the hand of the princess of Bosque Bend, but I had Craig keeping an eye on you for me, and when he told me you were heading out, I realized I’d waited too long. Instead of Prince Charming, you’ve got Jase Redlander, who drove down I-35 like a bat outa hell because he didn’t want to lose his last chance with you—although, to tell the truth, I would never have given up. If you’d made it to Brownsville, I’d have been right behind you.”
The cabdriver stepped forward. “Hey guys, I’m behind schedule.”
Sarah and Hugo advanced toward him across the yard. The cabbie scrambled into his car and locked the doors.
Laurel gave Jase a considering look. Her voice was quiet. “Jase, I’ve signed a contract with the Brownsville School District. Besides, now that everything is on the table, I think you and I need to get reacquainted with each other. For now, pay off the cabbie, drive me to the airport, wish me well, then visit me in Brownsville when you can. We’ll take it from there.”
After a long, appraising look, he raised her hand to his lips and pressed his lips against her palm. “Agreed.”
Epilogue
She’d accepted his ring at Christmas. Now, a full year after Jase had shown up at her front door searching for his missing daughter, she stood inside the glass patio door of his sprawling, single-story home in North Plano, bouquet at the ready, waiting for her cue to walk out onto the patio and down the crushed granite path across the lawn to the pavilion Maxie had arranged to be erected beside the pool.
Jase’s house was full of modern luxury—the ultrahigh ceilings, the newness of everything—and she reveled in it. No stern grandparents governed her from the stairway walls. No heavy mahogany furniture demanded its monthly polish. She was free, free, free…
And what she chose to do with that freedom was love Jason Redlander with her whole heart.
She reached up a hand to be sure that the strong-scented lilies Lolly had woven into her elaborate chignon were still secure, then smoothed the skirt of her gown. The lustrous silk was gathered at each shoulder, then crossed down to an intricate inset waistband, below which it had been wrapped and draped to the side to continue the Grecian-style line of the bodice. Gramma’s pearl necklace was looped four times around her neck, and long, ornate pearl earrings dangled from her lobes. They’d belonged to one of her wild great-aunts, she seemed to remember.
Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. The earrings were old, the dress new, the necklace borrowed, and the “blue” was her lacy garter, supplied by Sarah, who’d driven up from Austin that morning.
She glanced over at her honor attendants. Sarah was stunning in a brilliant green creation with an asymmetrical neckline, while Maxie had chosen an aqua-beaded outfit, and Lolly was prancing around on frighteningly high heels in a purple minidress she’d picked up in a high-priced teen boutique. It was cute, stylish, and very short. Jase disapproved of it, which was probably why Lolly had chosen it.