The Hang Up (First Impressions) (17 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Miriam bent forward to wring the mud from her hair, conscious of the fact that it was a futile effort.

Her shirt was covered in mud. Her shorts were covered in mud. Her face was covered in mud. Did a little mud in her hair really matter that much?

What she needed right now was a shower. She scowled at her front door and sighed. Okay, so she couldn’t unlock her house at the moment. She’d lost her keys and phone when she’d rolled her new kayak in the pond a few miles south of town. Thank God for the magnetic hide-a-key on her car or she’d be out there still, sitting on a log and wondering what the hell she’d been thinking taking up this silly new pastime.

Before she knew it, she was grinning.

Okay, so it was crazy. A dedicated city girl buying a kayak and teaching herself to paddle with YouTube videos and a lot of trial and error? That was nuts.

It was also a lot of fun.

She’d definitely been enjoying herself, even after she’d rolled at the edge of the muddy bank. Her paddle had gotten away from her, so she’d had to drag the kayak through a knee-deep mud bog trying to reach the shore. She might have fallen in once or twice, losing any hope that her white Donna Karan T-shirt would ever be white again.

But she’d gotten the damn paddle back, and she’d even had a little fun doing it. Out there on that pond, she’d thought about her dad a lot. She’d remembered his laughter, the way his cheeks would glow pink and dimpled after a long bike ride. She remembered the way he used to come in with snow in his beard and light in his eyes and a big hug for his only daughter.

This is living, baby girl.

She got it now.

Which still didn’t get her into her house.

She sighed and stared at her front door. All this standing around grinning like an idiot wasn’t getting her any closer to a shower. She could just knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to borrow a phone. Holly had an extra key to her house, so that might work.

Of course, she hadn’t checked the windows yet on the other side of the house. She turned and jogged that way, rounding the corner into the backyard as she tried to recall if she’d locked the back door. She always did, but maybe she’d forgotten. Or maybe she’d left the bathroom window cracked. Or maybe—

“Hello there.”

Miriam jumped at the sound of his voice. And at the sight of three vases of flowers and endless platters of food spread out on her picnic table. She froze in her tracks, gaping at Jason standing there in the middle of it all wearing a three-piece suit and a hopeful smile.

“Holy shit!” she gasped.

“Now now,” he said, grinning as he pulled the cork out of a bottle of wine. “Profanity at the dinner table is unprofessional. Of course, I’m not here for professional reasons, so swear all you want.”

Miriam stared, dumbfounded. Her table was covered with a white linen cloth and more plates than she could count, each one topped with a silver cloche. There were polished sterling utensils that looked like the real deal, maybe antique.

“They belonged to my grandparents,” he said, reading her mind. “Ellie helped me get them out of storage. Then she went with me to a wine-tasting class so I could learn to stop slaughtering the names of the varietals and start ordering wine like a grown-up.” He grinned and picked up a red wine glass. “Can I interest you in a glass of 2012 Viña Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley Alto Gran Reserva? It’s rich and well-spiced with ninety-one points from
Wine Spectator
, but also very affordable at under fifteen dollars a bottle. I’m a CEO on a budget, after all.”

“What the—” She stopped, not sure which question she should be asking first. “How did you—” She shook her head. “Wait, how did you and Ellie go to a class together? I thought you wouldn’t ever leave Henry with a sitter?”

“That’s the thing.” He looked down as he poured the wine carefully into two glasses. “It turns out the nurse babysitter is really great, and I was being an overprotective dumbass.” He set the bottle down and looked at her. “As a matter of fact, I was being a dumbass about a lot of things.”

She glanced down at the mud puddle pooling around her feet. Her legs were streaked with mud. Her arms were streaked with mud. Hell, she had mud in her underwear.

And to think she used to worry about running into an ex on a bad hair day.

She looked back up and met his eyes again. “How were you being a dumbass?”

“I thought I couldn’t do it all,” he said. “I couldn’t be a good CEO and a good uncle and a good brother and still have anything left over for a relationship. For you.” He gave her a sheepish look. “I was wrong.”

I was wrong
. God, what was it about those three words? So much harder to utter than “I love you” or “I want you.” It took a damn big man to say them.

Jason Sanders was a big man. A
really
big man.

Still, he
had
given up on her.

“You think I’m just going to nod and smile and everything will go back to the way it was?” she asked.

“Hell, no. I think you’re going to bust my balls over this. You have every right to.”

“You kinda broke my heart.” It sounded a little cheesy when she said it out loud, but it was true, dammit. The memory of him telling her good-bye at urgent care made her chest ache even now.

“I don’t take that lightly,” he said. “But I plan to do my best to piece it all back together. Duct tape works wonders.”

This time, she couldn’t fight the smile. “I’m sorry, too,” she said as she brushed a muddy curl from her eye. “For rushing things. For not giving you space to ease into the idea of a relationship.”

“Please,” he muttered. “You don’t owe me an apology for that. I don’t want any space. I just want to be with you. Smother me all you want, woman.”

Miriam smiled as her heart begin to melt in her chest. “You should probably take a rain check on the smothering,” she said, then took a few steps closer to peer at the perfectly set table and the perfectly dressed man standing beside it. “At least until I can break into my house to take a shower. I can’t believe you haven’t commented yet on my appearance.”

“A wise woman once told me it’s not polite to ask a lady personal questions about her age or relationship status,” he said as a blob of mud dripped off the hem of her shirt and spattered the tip of his polished shoe. Jason didn’t flinch. “I figured maybe that extended to asking whether she’s started a career as a professional mud wrestler.”

“Close,” she said, wiping her hands on her shorts before she remembered those were mud-soaked, too. “If your survival skills happen to extend to picking a lock, maybe you can get me into my house?”

“I’m not much of a lock picker, but I met a great locksmith a few weeks ago. If I call him, I can have you inside in a matter of minutes.”

“In that case, maybe I’ll wait and tell you all about this in the shower.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Is that an invitation?”

She smiled and nodded, not sure whether she felt giddier at the prospect of having Jason polished and professional at her dinner table or wet and soapy in her shower. The knowledge that she could have both was exhilarating.

She gestured toward the table. “I don’t want all this to go to waste. Will dinner keep for a little bit?”

“Not a problem. It’s all reheatable. I made chicken breasts braised in white wine with artichoke hearts and a side of kale and shallots sautéed with lemon juice. I might have burned the kale a little, but if we just—”

“Wait, did you say you
made
it?”

He nodded. “That’s what I’m telling you. I learned to eat and cook nice food. I learned to pronounce and appreciate the wine that goes with it. I learned to let go of some of my overprotective bullshit and trust that my family’s going to be okay without me supervising their every breath. And I learned to beat corporate executives at their own damn game. But you want to know the most important thing I learned?”

“What?” Miriam breathed, almost afraid to ask. Almost certain her heart was going to burst right out of her chest.

“None of that would have been possible without you.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “I love you, Miriam. And I’m a better man when I’m with you. Give me a chance to prove it.”

“You already have.” She took a step closer, closing the gap between them. She reached for his hand and smiled up into those blue, blue eyes. “I love you, too.”

“Awesome.” He grinned, squeezing her hand so hard the mud squished between her fingers. “Now about that shower…”

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go get dirty.”

Epilogue

Jason spotted the finish line up ahead, but instead of speeding up, he slowed his pace just a little. He wasn’t waiting for Miriam. Hell, she was trucking along beside him like she had energy left to burn, which she probably did. The woman was a powerhouse, not just in the boardroom and bedroom, but also in competitive sports.

“There he is!” Miriam grinned and pointed to the edge of the racecourse, barely seeming to notice they were running through ankle-deep mud.

Jason felt himself grinning, too, at the sight of Henry scrambling out onto the course. The boy wore red track shorts and a superman cape, and his little prescription goggles shielded his eyes from flying mud.

Miriam beamed at Henry as he scurried over, and Jason felt his heart surge the way it always did when he watched her interact with his family.

“Hey, buddy!” She high-fived Henry, spattering mud and making him giggle like a maniac. “You ready to do this?”

“Uh-huh.” The kid fell into step beside them, stomping extra hard in a puddle as he ran. “Mommy says I’m gonna get mud everywhere. In my ears and in my nose. Probably even on my wiener.”

“Probably so,” Jason acknowledged as he ruffled his nephew’s hair. “That’s half the fun of a Tough Mudder.”

“Getting dirty has its advantages,” Miriam agreed, and Jason had to fight the urge to send her a knowing look.

Henry stomped in another puddle, whooping with joy as he ran. Miriam followed suit, laughing as the mud sloshed up her spectacular calves. Then she jumped with expert precision through a field of mud-covered tires.

Jason’s heart felt ready to burst, and it had nothing to do with the fact that they’d just run ten miles through a mud-slick obstacle course. It had everything to do with the woman running beside him, the one brushing a glob of mud off her face as she grabbed hold of his hand, then Henry’s.

“Let’s go, boys! Almost there!”

With hands linked, the three of them ducked under one of the last obstacles in the course. Jason’s lungs worked overtime as he maneuvered through the slippery terrain, laughing as Henry stopped to roll around in an extra-deep puddle.

The little boy was quick to break free on the other side, and he let go of their hands to scurry ahead toward the finish line, where Ellie stood with her arms outstretched and a big grin on her face.

Miriam squeezed Jason’s hand. “I still can’t believe you got the officials to agree to let him run the last quarter-mile with us.”

“As soon as I told them it was his one wish to celebrate being cancer-free, they were all over it.” Jason watched with pride as Henry crossed the finish line with his mud-covered legs pumping as fast as they could go.

“Wooohooo!” Ellie shouted as she clicked off a photo on her iPhone, then dropped to her knees in the mud to wrap her son in a sloppy, wet hug. “I’m so proud of you, baby!”

“I’m not a baby. I’m a Tough Mudder.” But the little boy seemed to relish his mother’s embrace anyway, and Jason clutched Miriam’s hand tighter as the two of them rushed across the finish line together.

They stood panting for a moment while other competitors moved past them, but they were off to the side now, out of the way of traffic. Ellie and Henry were still hugging in the mud while Henry chattered excitedly about the race. Jason took a slug of water from the bottle he’d stashed in Ellie’s day pack, watching as Miriam did likewise. They were sweaty and filthy and breathing hard, and Jason couldn’t imagine a moment more perfect for what he had planned.

He set down his water bottle, then reached out and tousled Ellie’s hair before rumpling Henry’s. “Good job, champ!”

The little boy squealed as Jason lifted him up and gave his nephew a fierce hug. He shifted him to one arm and reached down to help his sister to her feet. “You have to get up now.”

“Bossy jerk,” she muttered without any real venom as she took his hand and let him hoist her up.

Jason set her son back on the ground beside her, then ruffled her hair again. “You know it.” He turned to Miriam and grinned. “I figure only one Sanders at a time should be on their knees in the mud.”

With that, he knelt in front of Miriam and reached for her hand. She gasped as he picked up his water bottle again and used it to rinse off her fingers. He set it down and held out his palm to his sister.

As Ellie placed their grandmother’s diamond ring in his hand, he looked up at the beautiful dirt-streaked face of the woman he loved.

“Miriam Elena Ashley,” he began as he wriggled the band onto her gritty finger. “Will you make me the happiest guy on earth and marry me?”

Tears pooled in her green eyes, spilled down her cheeks, and made wet rivulets through the mud covering her face. She was breathing hard, and Jason felt pretty sure it wasn’t just the exertion of the race.

He felt it, too.

“Say yes, Miriam,” Henry urged. “Then you can come over and play anytime and I can teach Phuzeei more tricks and also we can do Legos together.”

“That’s a pretty good proposal,” Ellie added. “I mean, Jason’s okay, but Legos? That’s a no-brainer.”

“Do you guys mind?” Jason said, though he really didn’t mind at all. Having his family be part of this moment was the best thing he could possibly imagine. “I believe the lady still needs to answer for herself.” He looked up at her again and smiled. “So what’ll it be, Miriam? Will you marry me?”

She swiped at the tear streaks on her face and grinned so broadly he couldn’t believe she didn’t have a mouthful of dirt. “Yes,” she choked out, laughing a little as she looked down at the ring and wiggled her fingers. “Oh my God,
yes
!”

She pulled him to his feet and Jason went willingly, then wrapped her in a warm, muddy embrace. He kissed her hard, not caring about the dirt or the sweat or the cheers from the sidelines, or even the fact that Holly seemed to be zooming in on his ass with the video camera he’d handed her at the start of the race.

Leave it to Miriam’s best friend to know exactly what sort of footage she’d want captured at this special moment in her life.

“Come on,” Jason said as he broke the kiss and turned to his sister. “This should be a family affair. Besides, you’re the only one not covered in mud here.”

“Ugh,” Ellie grunted as he pulled her into their grimy little huddle. Henry twined himself around the grown-ups’ legs and giggled.

“Congratulations,” Ellie said. “Since I’m definitely never getting married again, I suppose it’s only fair that I get to be part of your filthy marriage proposal.”

“That’s the spirit.” Jason looked at Miriam, who had a funny gleam in her eye. She grinned, then wrapped a mud-caked arm around her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

“Never say never,” Miriam said, and she gave Jason a wink.

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