He stroked her hair and looked her in the eyes. “If you don’t find a job here or you don’t like this town, I’ll go anywhere in the world you want to live.”
She put her head down, smiling. This is what she’d wanted. She needed him to love her before she told him of their child she was carrying. She didn’t want to go through life wondering if he was with her because he’d felt honor bound to stay with her.
“I need to tell you something,” she said as she ran her hand over his bare chest.
He kissed her fingertips. “Anything.”
“I—” She broke off because his cell phone rang, but Colin didn’t reach for it. “Shouldn’t you answer that? It might be important.”
“I’d rather hear what you have to say.”
“It’ll hold,” she said as the phone kept ringing.
Colin bent over the side of the bed and rummaged in his trousers to retrieve his cell phone. “It’s Roy.” He clicked the button to hear her, listened, and said he’d be right there.
“It’s one of the newcomers. Their fifteen-year-old daughter isn’t in her bed.”
“Go!” Gemma said, pulling the sheet around her as she sat up. “Right now. Go find the child.”
“You and I . . .”
“Can wait,” she said as she reached out and put her hand on his shoulder.
He kissed the palm. “Do you know that I love you?” he asked softly.
“I think I realized it when I saw how unhappy you were in that sandwich shop.”
He was still holding her hand. “And you?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “I do love you.”
“Me too,” he said as he bent to kiss her.
But Gemma pulled aw
ay. “We still need to talk about Tris and every other man in my life, in the future and the present. I don’t like jealousy.”
“It’s a new emotion to me. Never felt it before,” he said.
“Not even with Jean?”
“Most certainly not,” Colin said. He started to kiss her, but his phone went off again, this time with a ring that sounded like blaring trumpets.
Gemma drew back from him.
He looked at his phone. “It’s Roy again and she’s already there. I better go.” He pulled her to him. “Gemma, I love you. You’re what I’ve wanted in a woman for as long as I can remember. Will you think I’m crazy if I say that I feel that I’ve been waiting for you?”
“No,” she whispered, so very glad to yet again be in his arms. “I know exactly what you mean.”
“I think I needed Jean to . . . to occupy myself until you showed up.” He kissed her forehead. “I wished for True Love and I found it.” Again his phone went off, this time with car horns blowing. “It’s Dad.”
“You must go,” she said. “We can talk more later.”
He kissed her with all the longing he felt. “I love you. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t,” she said, then he got into his Jeep and left.
Gemma watched him drive away, then locked the door behind her. When she was in school, she’d often stayed up all night to study. But now that she was pregnant, she seemed to need twelve hours a night. Earlier, she’d only just fallen asleep when Mrs. Frazier rang her to ask if she knew where Shamus was. Gemma had checked to make sure the boy wasn’t sleeping on her couch, then told Mrs. Frazier that she didn’t know where he was.