Flowers on Main (43 page)

“Bree will have her audiences here. Her works will be applauded.”

“By whom? Just some unsophisticated folks who have only high-school musicals to compare her works to?”

Jake stared at him, awed by his total insensitivity. “Does she have any idea how little you think of her world, her family and friends? Are you aware that her father, who built this town, is a world-renowned architect, that her mother works in a prestigious art gallery in New York, that her sister made a name for herself on Wall Street? Every weekend this town fills up with lawyers, doctors, national politicians and other people from Baltimore and Washington who like the peace and solitude down here. Maybe your definition of sophistication is different from mine, but I think she’ll have a very appreciative, worldly audience right here.”

Jake leveled a hard look into the other man’s eyes. “Go home, Demming. Bree doesn’t want you here. No one does.”

His words didn’t seem to shake Marty’s confidence in the slightest. In fact, he stepped closer to Jake to make his point. “If you’re so sure of that, why are you here? Is it because you know that Bree and I are finding our way back to each other, that with enough time she’ll be in my bed again?”

Jake’s temper reached a boil. Despite his vow to keep the conversation civil, the man’s assumption that he could seduce Bree made Jake see red. Before he could think about the consequences, he hauled off and slugged him, knocking him off
his feet and back into the chair. This time his pose didn’t look quite so studied.

“You can forget trying to seduce Bree because it’s never going to happen,” Jake told him fiercely.

But because Marty had managed to plant an insidious seed of doubt in his mind, he turned and walked away. The last thing he heard as he left the room was Marty’s mocking laughter.

Jake couldn’t shut off Marty’s words or the image of him back in bed with Bree. Maybe it was only the other man’s arrogance talking, but it had been enough to fill him with doubts. He was going to lose her again. He wasn’t a complete dolt. The handwriting was on the wall.

Because he didn’t think he could stand to be all alone at home with his thoughts, he drove to the nursery and went into the greenhouse to check on the poinsettias he was growing for the holiday season. He’d actually had some kind of insane idea that he might ask Bree to marry him on Christmas morning. Even crazier, he’d been sure she would say yes. Instead, she probably wouldn’t even be here in a few weeks.

Filled with anger, frustration and self-loathing for his stupidity, he picked up one of the pots and heaved it across the greenhouse. Dirt, greenery and plastic littered the floor. He picked up another one, but a gentle touch had him sighing and setting it down. He assumed it was Connie, but when he turned, Bree was staring up at him.

“I can’t let you murder any more poinsettias. It’ll ruin the holidays around here. I’m counting on making a lot of money selling those plants.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for her. “I figured you’d be gone by then.”

She stared at him incredulously. “Why on earth would you think that?”

“I just had an illuminating conversation with Marty. He’s pretty confident you’ll wind up back in Chicago with him. His performance was fairly convincing.”

“Apparently so was yours. Word has spread that you can throw quite a punch when you’re riled up.” She seemed amused, but sobered at once. “Not that I approve of violence to settle an argument.”

“Duly noted,” he said. “But he deserved it.”

“Oh, I’m sure of that.” She studied him intently. “I’ll say this one last time, Jake. I’m not going anywhere with Marty. I’m not leaving you again, and certainly not for the likes of Martin Demming.”

“But your play?”

“They’ll produce it without me, or they won’t,” she said with a shrug.

“Come on, Bree. Getting another play produced in a major city is a big deal.”

“It is,” she agreed. “And it was exciting, but I think it will be even more exciting to start my own theater right here and build a life with you. You can freeze me out if you want, put up all those protective shields, but I’m not leaving, Jake. I can’t. Everything I want or need is here. You are everything I want or need.”

Jake desperately wanted to believe her, wanted to believe that this time he came first. “Why?” he asked.

“Because I love you, you idiot. I always have.”

“You left before,” he reminded her.

“I just needed to be a hundred percent sure of who I am. And I had to go to Chicago to find that out.”

Relief flowed through him, but he knew there was some
thing more that had to be decided if they were to make this work. “I can’t ask you to give up your dream. If that’s in Chicago or New York, we can make it work.”

“You didn’t ask. I made the decision to stay weeks ago. I’ve told you that. Now I’m telling you that
you
are my dream. All the rest, it’s what I do. The theater, my plays, the shop—if any of it matters enough, I’ll find a way to fit it into my life with you. I’ll never choose my work over you again.”

He studied her intently, needing to be sure, but there wasn’t so much as a hint of hesitation in her voice, not a doubt in her clear eyes.

“I love you,” she said, as if he might need to hear it again.

Jake drew in a deep breath and took what for him was that last gigantic leap of faith. He supposed now was as good a time as Christmas morning. “Then I only have one more question.”

“Which is?”

“Will you marry me?”

A smile broke across her face and she moved into his arms. “You know, for a man who’s smart enough for me to love, you sure were slow about this. I didn’t think you’d ever ask.”

“For a long while, I wasn’t so sure I would. Now I can’t think why I wasted all this time.”

And then his lips were on hers, and the only timing that mattered was here and now.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-3210-9

FLOWERS ON MAIN

Copyright © 2009 by Sherryl Woods.

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