Home in Carolina (25 page)

When it came to his rehab, she’d never known anyone to work harder or with more grit and determination. When it came to trying to win her back, he was no slouch, either. Her resolve had been wavering for a while now, though she was doing her best not to let him figure that out.

She was reminding herself yet again that she had to be strong, when her cell phone rang.

“Where are you?” she asked when she heard Ty’s voice. “Here I was just thinking about how dedicated you’ve been, and you don’t show up tonight.”

“I’m here,” he said. “Upstairs.”

She glanced overhead, as if she could spot him through the ceiling. “What are you doing up there?”

“Come up and find out.”

The spa’s hot tub and private massage rooms were upstairs. She wasn’t sure she had any business going close to either one with Ty, not when it was getting harder and harder to remember all the reasons why she needed to stay clear of him.

“I think you’d better get back down here, so you can work with the weights.”

“Later,” he insisted. “After you come up here.”

“I am not climbing into the hot tub with you,” she warned him.

“Okay.”

“Or giving you a massage. You’ll need to talk to Jeanette to schedule that.”

“Not an issue.”

She snapped her phone shut, then climbed the stairs…and walked into a candlelit, flower-filled fantasy. The armloads of daisies he’d brought her were nothing compared to this sea of flowers in every color of the rainbow.

“Oh,” she whispered on a gasp. “Ty, what have you done?”

“I knew I’d never talk you into a romantic dinner in Charleston. You still seem to be under the misguided impression that you and I aren’t meant to be together. I decided it was time to prove you wrong.”

Tall tapers, chunky white candles and tea lights were everywhere. Bouquets of flowers filled every kind of vase or container imaginable. And it all surrounded a table set for two.

“I suppose my mother provided dinner,” she said with a sense of wonder.

He nodded. “It’s your favorite. Chateaubriand for two.”

She blinked hard. “I haven’t had that since…”

“Since we had dinner in Atlanta right after I signed with the Braves.”

It was also the night they’d made love for the first time after years of waiting for it to be just right, to be sure it was going to last forever. The frenzied lovemaking on the beach had followed, along with too many other places to count.

She nodded, suddenly speechless.

“There’s apple pie with Erik’s homemade cinnamon ice cream for dessert,” Ty added.

He crossed the room and hit a switch on a CD player. Soft music filled the room.

“Are you trying to charm the socks off me?” she asked, looking into his eyes. The love she saw there nearly staggered her. She wondered how she could ever have questioned it.

“Socks, shoes, anything else you’d care to shed,” he said, drawing her into his arms. “I love you, Annie Sullivan. I could live with never again walking onto a ball field, but I can’t live without you. Please don’t ask me to do that.”

She swallowed hard. “What are you saying?”

“The same thing I’ve been saying over and over. Marry me, Annie. Be a mom to Trevor. Have more babies with me. I can’t change the past, but I can promise to make the future everything you deserve.”

“And Dee-Dee?”

“You’ll never have to see her. I’ll make sure Trevor visits her as scheduled, but she won’t set foot in our home ever again.”

“That may not be entirely practical,” she admitted. “I suppose I could tolerate seeing her once in a while.” Especially if she had Ty’s ring on her finger and her house filled with their kids.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to make you comfortable with the situation. Let’s not forget she’s marrying Jim next week.”

Annie was surprised. She’d feared they would drag it out, maybe never marry. “That soon?”

Ty grinned as if he’d read her mind. “The church is booked, the wedding cost a fortune. She won’t be backing out.”

The news was reassuring, but she tried to cling to one last shred of sanity. How could they possibly make it work, make it last, if he was going back to Atlanta any
day now, and she wanted to stay right here in Serenity? She didn’t want to be one of those baseball wives who followed their husbands from city to city during the season. Nor did she like the idea of waiting patiently in Atlanta, when her life was here.

He grinned at her. “I can practically hear those wheels grinding away in your head. You’re overthinking it. You’re worrying about me being in Atlanta, when you want to make Serenity your home.”

“It’s not a ridiculous consideration,” she told him.

“Of course it’s not. We can live here. When the team’s on the road, it hardly matters where home is. We can keep my place in Atlanta for the rest of the time. We’ll work it out. It doesn’t have to be either one or the other. We can do it all, Annie. This is the way it was always supposed to be.”

He touched her cheek, then kissed her until she could almost believe in the future he was describing. “You’re sure,” she whispered when she could gather her thoughts again. “This is really what you want, that
I’m
the one you want, because I won’t share you, Ty. I can’t do it. I love you too much.”

“You and me,” he swore. “Not just husband and wife, but best friends…forever.”

1. Annie’s sense of betrayal over Ty’s cheating is magnified because she’d always thought they were not only lovers, but best friends. Have you ever been betrayed by someone? How did you get past the betrayal? Were you able to forgive them?
   
2. Do you think there’s a difference between dealing with children from someone’s prior marriage and a child who resulted from a betrayal? How would you cope?
   
3. When Dee-Dee finally wins Ty’s approval for taking their son to Ohio for a visit, she uses the opportunity to file for visitation. Do you think she deserves to have Trevor in her life after everything she’s done? Was there any justification for what she did when he was an infant, leaving him on Ty’s hotel doorstep, believing then that Ty would be better able to provide for him?
   
4. Helen is part of the “sandwich” generation, caught between her mother, her child and her own career. Have you experienced that kind of situation? Did it leave you feeling overwhelmed? How have you dealt with it? What sacrifices did you have to make?
   
5. Sarah has been caught up in a marriage with a man who’s demeaned her ability to cope with raising their kids, managing their household or even keeping
   herself in shape. Do you recognize this as a form of abuse? How would you handle it, if faced with the same attitude?
   
6. When Raylene arrives in Serenity, she’s clearly been abused by her husband, yet she talks about going home again. Do you know women who are in this situation, who make excuses for the men who’ve hurt them and who keep thinking things will change? What advice would you give them?