Exclusively Yours (25 page)

“You gonna stand there all day?”

She hadn’t even seen him, sitting on the picnic table in the shade. With his elbows rested on his knees, hands hanging between his legs, he looked totally relaxed. Forcing her feet to move, she continued toward the cabin.

“I see somebody finally ratted me out,” she said, trying to keep her tone light.

“They were worried about you being here alone.” He pushed himself off the bench and met her at the cabin door. “They didn’t know what else to do for you, so they called Pop. Said you looked sad.”

She went through the door first and dropped into a chair. “I’ve been happier.”

Like last week and the week before when she and Joe had stayed in this same cabin together. Sometimes it seemed like it had been a dream, so separated was it from her usual day-to-day life, but it had been a really good dream.

He dragged the other chair close to hers and turned it around to sit on it backwards, like guys usually did. “What happened, babe?”

She managed a one-shoulder shrug. “I guess Tina was right. I don’t have the balls for the job anymore.”

“While the mere mention of you having balls gives me a serious case of the heebie jeebies, I think it takes more nut to walk away from everything you’ve worked for rather than hurt people you care about.”

“Well, me and my impressive nut are currently unemployed.”

“Why didn’t you call me? I’d have come up and stayed with you.”

“I didn’t know what to do. But I was happier here than I’ve been in years, so I came here to figure it out.” It didn’t sound any more logical now than it had when she packed a bag and headed for the airport. “I wasn’t sure if it was being here with you that made me happy or if it was just being totally out of the rat race—no phones, no email, no meetings—for two weeks.”

He folded his arms across the back of the chair so he could rest his chin on them. “The owner said you’ve been here a few days.”

“Yup, with no phone, no email, no meetings.”

“And?”

She sighed. “I think it’s you.”

Joe laughed. “You don’t have to say it like that—like I’m the plague. I think it’s a good thing you were happy with me.”

“That’s because you don’t have to sacrifice anything to be with me.”

“You’re right. I don’t have to change jobs in exchange for spending the rest of my life with the person I love.”

“Don’t do that, Joe. It’s not like I’m exchanging one fast food hat for another. I’ve dedicated years to—”

“I’m sorry. You’re right about that.” He got up off the chair and paced a tight circuit for a few seconds. “But don’t downplay what I’ve had to ante up, either. You left me once and it almost ruined me. Do you know hard it was for me to ask you to stay? And then you left me for the second time. Yet here I am
again
, pride checked at the door.”

“But, Joe—”

“And if you’d answered your freakin’ phone before leaving California I could have told you I was willing to come to you. It’s not like I can’t afford to fly across country a few times a year. But by the time I got desperate enough to call Tina, you were gone.”

She didn’t know what to say. He was willing to leave his family and move to the opposite end of the country to be with her, but was that what she really wanted? Even without the promise of Joe, she’d breathed a sigh of relief when she disembarked at Logan.

“So you’d go back with me?” she asked, just because she could barely believe it. “There are a half-dozen L.A.-based magazines who’d be interested in me.”

His jaw tightened, but he nodded. “If that’s what it takes.”

“It took me a few days to realize why I was so miserable after I got home. Part of it was missing you, but part of me felt like I’d put a costume back on and it no longer fit right. It’s like I was being who I thought I wanted to be, but when I was here I was who I really am.”

“I’m confused.”

“So was I.”

“No, I mean about us. Is there an us? Are you going back to California? Did that costume include black fishnet stockings?”

“Yes, no, and they chafed too much so I took them off.”

It took him a second to match the answers to the questions, then he grinned. “Did you take them off slowly, unrolling them a little bit at a time?”

“Focus, Joe.”

“Oh, I am, babe. Believe me.”

She had to look away from his dimples before her train of thought jumped the tracks to follow his. “On our future.”

“Does our future include black fishnet stockings?”

“At the rate we’re going, our future includes support hose.”

Joe withdrew a clenched fist from his jeans pocket and after giving her a highly dramatic rolling of the eyes, got down on one knee.

She thought the little squeaking sound she heard might have been the strangled panic rising in her throat. This was a big leap from maybe having a future. “I didn’t mean you had to hit the warp drive button.”

“You said this shit was romantic.”

“Well, yeah, but—”

He unfolded his fingers to reveal his bulky class ring, a not-so-delicate gold chain already strung through it. “Keri Daniels, will you go steady with me?”

The relief—and okay, maybe just a tinge of disappointment—made her laugh. “Tell me you didn’t drive here in a Ford Grenada.”

“I almost got one on eBay, but some guy snuck in a high bid at the last second.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Yes, and you’re not answering my question.”

“I was going to slip a note through your locker vent later.”

With a grunt he tried to hide from her, he pushed himself back to his feet. “You’re killing me, babe.”

“Yes, Kowalski, I’ll go steady with you. Does that still mean making out in the back seat and watching really dumb action movies?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Good. And my dad gave up golf, so you’re safe there.”

“Oh, well going steady also now means living in sin with me until I find the perfect ring and propose properly.”

She snorted. “Keri Kowalski?”

“At least Terry’s last name is Porter now, so you won’t be
too
ridiculous out in public together.”

“She sent me an email about her and Evan. That’s really great. And Bobby sent me about sixty pictures of his Wii, including close-ups of the control buttons, which would have been a lot more fun to look at if I wasn’t up here in the land of dial-up. Plus I get about six emails an hour updating his high scores.”

Joe arched an eyebrow. “Emails?”

“Okay, so I cheated. Charlie lets me use his computer when I go down to the store for my daily chocolate fix. And Danny and I have exchanged a few emails about short story markets.”

“You’re just going steady with me for my nephews.”

She smiled and shrugged. “Don’t forget Steph. She sent me some pictures, too.”

“Any other secrets?”

“I’ve also been in touch with a former colleague who relocated to New York. She set me up with a job freelance editing from home—or wherever my computer access may be. It’s not a lot of money—
really
not a lot of money, but it sounds less stressful than trying to rebuild my career out here. I don’t want to commute to Boston.” Saying it out loud helped cement how right her decision was.

“I’m sure Kowalski Inc. could throw a little freelance work your way, too. And if you’re good in bed, the boss will give you nice bonuses.”

“I don’t care about Kowalski Inc. I want you. Just Joe.”

He stuck a finger through the belt loop on either side of her waist and hauled her into his arms. “I can’t wait to be married to you.”

“I’d suggest we elope, but the idea of your mother stalking around Las Vegas with her wooden spoon looking for us scares me.”

“Plus that would deny me the satisfaction of giving any magazine but
Spotlight
exclusive photos of the Daniels-Kowalski wedding.”

“The Daniels-Kowalski Wedding of Doom,” she corrected him, making him laugh.

“I suppose,” he said, sliding his hands down to cup her ass, “that with both of us being writers, you’ll expect me to write my own vows.”

“Um, you write sick, twisted horror, so probably not.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and gazed into the face of the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with. “Just promise to love me forever.”

“This is one story that’s going to have a happy ending,” he told her, and he lowered his mouth to hers.

Keri Daniels-Kowalski, she thought as she surrendered to his kiss.
Joe’s wife.
Had a nice ring to it.

When she’s not writing, she’s indulging in her other passion—four wheeling! From May to November, the Stacey family spends their weekends on their ATVs, making loads of muddy laundry to keep Shannon busy when she’s not at her computer.

You can contact Shannon through her Web site, http://shannonstacey.com, where she has maintained an almost daily blog since 2005, when she sold her first book. You can also visit her Facebook page, http://facebook.com/shannonstacey.authorpage, or e-mail her at [email protected].

Copyright © 2010 by Shannon Stacey

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