By Proxy (30 page)

When his lips brushed against hers, her eyes filled with tears again and fluttered closed, and she ran her hands up to his neck, longing for the warmth of his skin under her fingers. He moved his lips softly over hers and that heavenly heat bubbled up from the depths of her body, radiating out from her middle until a wave of requited love fell over her, and the terrible, aching loneliness of the past few weeks faded away like the darkness of a nightmare when you wake up in the bright light of a brand new day.

He leaned back, breathless, like he was still in the throes of a dream, then leaned his forehead against hers.

“How?” he murmured.

“Ingrid.”

He loosened his grip around her body, but found her hand, clasping it uncompromisingly, and pulled her down on the small settee across from the easy chair where he had been sitting in front of the fire.

“Tell me.” He seemed to drink in her face, searching her eyes, using his knuckle to brush away her last errant tear.

“She wrote to me two days ago. She didn’t say a lot. She knew something had ‘happened’ between us and told me you were going to be up here for New Year’s.” She tilted her head to the side, smiling at him as another wave of love made her cheeks warm. “I was already packing for Chicago, so—”

“Chicago? Are you going to Chicago?”

She nodded at him, taking a deep breath. “I’m going wherever you are, Sam.” She released his hand and opened her palms, gesturing to the lodge. “Isn’t that obvious?”

He breathed in, biting his lower lip and stroking his chin with the thumb and forefinger of his free hand. “Hmm. It’s too bad, though…”

She wrinkled her forehead in confusion and her face turned pink, flushing hot.
This was too forward. He’s back with Pepper, or he’s moved on, or—

“…because I’m moving to Great Falls.”

Her head snapped up and it was her turn to be shocked. He was grinning at her. Her eyes widened in confusion, and her heart started pounding. “W-what? What are you talking about?”

“I figure if the woman I love needs to be in Montana, then I need to be in Montana, too.” He smiled at her, shaking his head slowly as his eyes brightened again. “Jenny, I love you so much.”

She gasped and closed her eyes, bowing her head as her tears burst forth in torrents.

He pulled her into his arms and she rested her wet cheek on his shoulder, sobs racking her body. He rubbed his hands up and down her back whispering, “It’s okay, Jenny. It’s going to be okay now, Pretty Girl.”

She took a deep breath and her tears ebbed away, leaving her exhausted and happy, processing this news.
Was it possible that she could have Sam in her life but not have to live in a big city so far away from her family? That would be her heart’s only wish coming true. Was that possible?

“You’re really moving to Montana?”

“I am. I interviewed for a job here yesterday, and it’s mine if I want it. I was going to drive down to Gardiner tomorrow to see if there’s any way you could forgive me for being so awful to you at the courthouse, and see if…see if…”

She leaned back and looked at him, smiling at him with love overflowing in her heart. She put her palm on his cheek and he turned slightly to press his lips into her palm.

“See if what?” she whispered, loving the sight of his bowed head kissing her hand.

He looked up at her and his eyes were serious, searching hers, looking for the answer to an unasked question. Finally he smiled at her and spoke in a gravelly whisper. “Come up to my room.”

She swallowed, eyes widening.
This is it, Jenny. This is the man you love asking you to come up to his hotel room.

She swallowed again and looked down at her lap, her heart racing with unease: the last vestiges of the discomfort she used to feel around men, worries of maintaining propriety, sheer nerves at the thought of giving herself to him. She closed her eyes and bit her top lip, severing those old worries from her current train of thought with a single, unforgiving blow.

He loves you and you love him.

She looked up at him and smiled as confidently as her nerves would allow. “Okay.”

“Jenny.”

He smiled at her with heartbreaking tenderness, seeming to understand, with perfect clarity, everything in her head and in her heart. He took her face between his hands and kissed her lips gently.

“You take my breath away,” he murmured against her lips; then he kissed her again, this time more deeply. Any lingering unease dissolved as she melted into him, wanting him, needing him, desperate for his hands on her body, the heavy warmth of him pressing into her.

“Trust me,” he whispered close to her ear. “I promised your Dad my intentions were pure.”

Her voice was breathy and ragged against his cheek. “So you’re
not
going to try to seduce me?”

He leaned back, looking surprised for a moment, then chuckled, nodding. “Oh. Oh, yeah. That too.”

That
too
? What was he up to?

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the elevator with him. Lacing his fingers through hers, she could have sworn she felt his tremble before their palms were finally flush. The elevator doors opened and he pulled her toward his room. He took a keycard out of his back pocket and slipped it into the reader, which flashed green, then opened the door, letting her precede him into the room.

It was beautiful, decorated in creams and tans, with a large, log cabin-style bed dominating the room, and a small sitting area in front of a fire. The fire must have been recently lit, and it glowed cheerfully behind glass, casting the whole room in a warm, golden, dreamy glow. She noticed a sliding door on the other side of the room that led outside onto a rustic balcony. She gestured to it. “Do you mind if I…”

“Oh, no. Go check it out. I have to get something.”

Jenny crossed the room, taking a deep breath as she passed the big, plush bed. She slid the door open and stepped onto the small balcony. It was ink dark, but she knew there would be snow-covered mountains in the distance in the morning when she woke up next to him: three peaks to be exact. She leaned her arms on the railing and breathed in the cold Montana air, closing her eyes, feeling full, feeling grateful.

“Jen.”

When she turned around, Sam was on one knee on the floor in front of her.

“Sam!” she gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, fresh tears stinging her eyes.

In one palm, outstretched to her, was a small open box and inside the little box was a ring with a light-blue star-shaped gem. She still had her hands over her mouth, but her eyes flicked up, slamming into his.

“Jenny.” He swallowed nervously but held her eyes with enduring love and tenderness. “
Noen elsker deg nå. Og han er velsignet. Someone loves you
now,
Jen. And
he
is blessed.
I love you. Will you marry me?”

She dropped her hands and started laughing and crying at the same time, standing in front of him. He took her left hand and held it in his free one, staring up at her, his question still waiting for an answer. He raised an eyebrow and she started nodding frantically.

“Yes!” She laughed, shaking her head back and forth in disbelief and wonder as he slipped the ring on the fourth finger and kissed it. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

He stood up and she put her hands on either side of his face, tilting her head to the side like all of the Lindstroms, admiring her ring. “It looks like a star.”

He smiled at her the way he would smile at her forever, like no woman walking on the earth had ever been, or would ever be, loved as much as Jenny Lindstrom Kelley.

“‘An ever-fixed mark.’”

“Shakespeare,” she murmured with wonder. Then she smiled. “I love you, Sam. I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”

He smiled and put his arms around her, lifting her off the ground and lightly swinging her around before leaning back to look at her beloved face. As he lowered his head to kiss her, Jenny had one final thought before she gave herself totally to Sam, and it was the same one she had the first time she ever saw him, on the day he walked into the courthouse four weeks ago:

Finally, here was Sam, the man she was going to marry.

Epilogue

Two years later

Erik Lindstrom carefully taped up the last box and carried it out to his car, squeezed it into the last remaining bit of space on the backseat and slammed the door shut. The trunk was already full to bursting so he’d have to return to Jenny and Sam’s place in a few weeks to pick up the rest of his stuff. He probably should have rented a U-Haul as Jenny suggested.

Speaking of Jenny, he looked up to see her walking down the flagstone steps of her Great Falls house with Sam beside her, his fingers laced through hers. Erik appreciated their devotion to each other, but at the same time it made him uncomfortable for one simple, irrefutable reason: He didn’t have any faith in love.

Heck, he liked a pretty girl just as much as the next guy and had no problem with short-lived flings and mutual pleasure. Physical relationships he could do just fine. It was love he didn’t trust. He didn’t want any part of it. No little house with a little white, picket fence. No, sir, nohow.

“You’re going to drive carefully,
Minste
?” Jenny’s feet crunched over the gravel driveway as she approached her brother, dropping Sam’s hand to wrap her arms around Erik. He was grateful for the warmth of her embrace. While he might not believe in romantic love, he had plenty of space in his heart for his family. In fact, he’d do anything for them.

“Of course, Jen.” Erik glanced down at her still-flat belly with brotherly concern. “I don’t want you worrying about me.”

Sam put his arm around Jenny as she stepped back. “Don’t worry, Erik. I’ll take care of her.”

Erik rolled his eyes as Sam leaned down to kiss Jenny gently on the lips. Since his sister found out she was pregnant, their usual PDA had practically tripled.

Jenny smiled lingeringly at Sam before turning back to him. “Kalispell feels like a long way away after having you around all year. We’re going to miss you.”

“You know I’ll be back, Jen. Lots. At
Midsommardagen
, for sure.”

Jenny grinned, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back into Sam. Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead. “I almost forgot!” She smiled at Erik cajolingly, pushing a strand of blonde hair behind one ear. “I need you to do me a favor. Can you stop in Choteau for me? On your way north? I need you to pick up something from Ingrid. It’s important.”

Ingrid, who happened to be Jenny’s best friend, and her husband Kristian, who happened to be Sam’s cousin, lived between Great Falls and Kalispell.

“Aw, Jen,” protested Erik, giving her a sour look. “Is this really necessary? I’m anxious to get up there. I meet with my supervisor at five so I can start work tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t.” Jenny glanced at her watch, then back at Erik, giving him her best no-nonsense glare. “You’d best get moving,
Minste
.”

Why couldn’t Erik say no to her? There was something about his sister—and Ingrid too, for that matter. His heart had a veritable wall of ice around it when it came to any other girl in the world, but those two always managed to get around it, the pair of them. Like a couple of human blowtorches.

He nodded grudgingly and kissed Jenny on the cheek before shaking Sam’s hand good-bye.

As he pulled out of their driveway, he looked in the rearview mirror in time to catch his sister kissing her husband again before Sam turned and pulled her back toward the house. Erik rolled his eyes again, by rote, but a quiet voice in the back of his mind wondered what it would be like to love someone as much as Sam loved Jenny.

He grimaced, annoyed with the direction of his thoughts. There was no doubt as to the answer. He knew it as surely as he knew his name, as surely as the sky was blue: Like hell. That’s what it would be like.

He sighed, shaking his head to clear it, and rolled down his window. Then, turning up the music, he pulled out of Jenny’s driveway and headed north, smiling at the long stretch of open road ahead and ready to start his life’s next chapter.

Don’t miss
Midsummer Sweetheart
, Erik Lindstrom’s story,
 coming in January 2014!

About the Author

KATY REGNERY, winner of multiple regional contests including the 2013 NECRWA First Kiss Contest and 2013 Maine RWA Everything But The Kitchen Sink Contest, has always loved telling a good story and credits her mother with making funny, heartwarming tales come alive throughout her childhood. A lifelong devotee of all romance writing from Edwardian to present-day, it was just a matter of time before she tried her hand at writing a love story of her own.
By Proxy
is her debut.

In addition to small-town contemporary romance, Katy also writes paranormal romance under the pseudonym K.P. Kelley. She lives in the relative-wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out on the woods, and she’s delighted to share that her husband, two young children and two dogs create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories of all are the messy and unexpected ones.

A Holiday Surprise

Stubbornly small-town Jenny Lindstrom has misgivings when she promises to stand proxy in her best friend’s wedding—misgivings that are fulfilled when tall, handsome Sam Kelley walks into the courthouse an hour late. In order to keep her promise, an afternoon favor turns into a weekend of startling but undeniable attraction, threatening the well-ordered world that keeps her heart at arm’s length from any more pain.

Sam’s plan is to fly to Livingston, Montana, take vows for his favorite cousin, and return to Chicago as quickly as possible. But his plan is turned upside-down when he must spend a weekend with Jenny in Gardiner to keep his word. He doesn’t want to fall for the prim, proper schoolteacher whose small-town life seems to him like selling out, but the more time he spends with her, the harder it is to say good-bye.