After Dark (43 page)

BOOK: After Dark

8.34Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

"It sounds wonderful."

Johnny Mack opened his arms, and Lane
flew into his embrace. He lifted her off her feet and twirled her around
and around until he fell over on the bed and took her with him.

"I promise that you'll never
regret-"

She laid her index finger over
his lips. "The only tiling I regret is that we've lost so many years
when we could have been together."

"We'll make up for lost time,"
he told her, then covered her mouth with his.

Epilogue

Lane rested in the big wooden rocker
on the porch, two-year-old Cathy Sue Cahill sleeping peacefully in her
lap. Four-year-old Michael Cahill wrestled on the floor with the family's
black lab, Bailey. A cool autumn breeze floated across the wide ranch house
porch. She had loved Johnny Mack's Hill Country home the moment she laid
eyes on it, five years ago when he had brought her here for their honeymoon.
Since then they had spent more and more time here, until finally last
year when Will had left to attend the University of Alabama, her father's
old alma mater, Johnny Mack had sold their house in Houston and moved
the family to the ranch permanently.

"Got them chocolate chip cookies
ready." Lillie Mae came outside and peered into the distance.
"I thought Will and Johnny Mack would be home by now." m 'I think
Will is having girl trouble," Lane said. "He's asking his father
for advice."

"Lord help us all if he's asking
that rascal for advice on his love life."

Lane laughed. "Johnny Mack
may be a rascal, but he's my rascal. And who better to give Will sound advice
than a man who made more than his share of mistakes and knows it."

"Here they come!" Michael
jumped up and down. "I see their horses."

"Quiet down before you wake
your sister."

Lane shushed her exuberant son.
He always got excited when his big brother came home for a weekend visit.
Will adored his younger siblings and they him.

"Michael's right," Lillie
Mae said. "I can make out Johnny Mack's big Appaloosa." She reached
down and lifted Cathy Sue out of Lane's lap. "I'll go put her down for
her nap before I start supper."

Lane stood, stretched and grabbed
Michael's hand. Together they raced toward the stables. The minute
Johnny Mack dismounted, he dragged Lane into his arms and gave her a passionate
kiss. Will reached down and lifted Michael up on his shoulders.

"They're always kissing,"
Michael said. "If they're not kissing each other, they're kissing me
and Cathy Sue."

"Don't you like to be kissed?"
Will asked teasingly, then pulled Michael off his neck. Swooping his little
brother down to the ground, he goosed him in the ribs. "Maybe you like
tickling better than kissing."

Michael giggled as he squirmed
away from Will. who immediately began chasing his little brother. As the
boys ran toward the house, Johnny Mack grabbed Lane around the waist and
pulled her back into his arms.

"Mrs. Cahill, have I thanked
you lately?"

"Thanked me for what?" she
asked, her tone ever so innocent.

"For making me the happiest
man in the world."

"Oh, that." She lifted
her arms, draped them around his neck and nuzzled his nose with hers.
"Words are nice, but I prefer action. Tonight when the kids are all
tucked in, how about showing me your appreciation."

"There's nothing I'd like better."

Arm-in-arm, smiling happily, Lane
and Johnny Mack headed for home. Although the past would be a part of
them always, they lived in the present, within the security of their love,
united forever by the bonds of the family they had created together.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed reading as
much as I enjoyed writing it. Johnny Mack Cahill's story is one that had been
developing in my mind for several years and during that time I fell
madly in love with him. I love writing about redeemable bad boys and
Johnny Mack was definitely that-and more!

My second romantic suspense for
Zebra, EVERY MOVE SHE MAKES, is now in stores and it also has a terrific
bad boy hero. Once again, the setting is a small Alabama town, with residents
who have deadly secrets. Fifteen yeas ago, eighteen-year-old Reed
Conway was wrongfully convicted of murdering his abusive stepfather
and has only recently been released on parole. Reed is determined to
unearth the truth and discover the identity of the real killer, who is
just as determined to frame Reed again and have him returned to prison.
When only days after Reed's release, local circuit court judge, Ella
Porter, begins receiving harassing letters and phone calls, Reed becomes
the chief suspect because he had once threatened revenge against her
father, who had been the prosecuting district attorney in his murder
trial. But the killer's plan to use Ella against Reed runs into a snag
when the ex-convict and the judge are unable to resist a powerful physical
attraction to each other. EVERYMOVE SHE MAKES is high drama, a story
of wild passion set against a backdrop of the steamy, smoldering summertime
South. If you liked you'll love EVERYMOVE SHE MAKES.