His fierce passion had been a little scary. But he’d whispered “I love you” a thousand times, and finally, as dawn reddened the sky, she’d fallen asleep feeling safe and sheltered in his warm, strong arms.
Just thinking about the night made her body thrill. She sat up in bed, letting the sheet fall behind her. Looking over her shoulder at him, she smiled. “You sure you’re ready to get up?”
He made a low, growling sound in his throat, threw the sketchpad aside and dove into bed with her.
Afterward, she lay in the crook of his arm while his fingers brushed lightly through her hair.
“Paige?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do?”
Her hazy glow faded a bit. “What do you mean?”
He kissed her cheek. “It’s been over three months since your mother died. What are you planning? Can you afford to go back to school in September?”
His question sent her heart hammering against her chest. Claws of panic began to tear at her insides, just like they had each week since her mother had succumbed to ovarian cancer as she counted her waitressing tips, praying there was enough money to pay the rent one more time. She sat up, pulling the sheet protectively against her.
“I thought we…” she started, but as soon as she said the words, as soon as she brought her gaze up to meet his, she knew.
“You’re leaving.” Her voice cracked on the last word.
“Paige, no. Wait.” Johnny sat up too, and grabbed her arms. “Listen to me.”
But she was already withdrawing into her protective shell. It had always just been her and her mother. Then when her mother died, her whole focus had been on survival.
But that was before Johnny had seen her in Jackson Square and asked if he could sketch her. Before he’d brought love and sunshine back into her life.
She’d believed Johnny’s words of love, just like her mother had believed her father. But when her mother had gotten pregnant, her father had revealed that he already had a wife and family. He had abandoned her mother when she needed him most. And now Johnny was leaving her.
Her breath caught in a sob.
“Paige!” He shook her, gently but firmly. “I love you. Weren’t you listening last night? I love you. Wait a minute.” He jumped up, his naked body pale and beautifully lit by the sunlight shining through the apartment windows. He got something from his backpack and came back to the bed.
“Give me your left hand.”
Hesitantly, Paige held out her hand, which shook. Don’t leave me, her heart screamed. I love you.
She watched his face as he took her hand in his.
“God, you’re shaking,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I did it all wrong.”
She felt something cool slip onto her finger.
“What…”
Johnny pulled her hand to his chest and placed his hand over it. She felt his heart beating fast, felt the warm familiar comfort of his hand over hers. “This was my mother’s ring. Father had it made especially for her. She wore it till the day she died. I want you to wear it.”
He looked at her solemnly. “I love you. I will love you forever. Will you marry me?”
A sharp pain pierced her breast. “M-marry?”
He nodded, and a lock of hair fell over his forehead. “I have to go back to school too, now that summer’s over. Come with me to Boston. We can live together. Be married. You could go to school up there.”
“M-married?”
Johnny laughed and kissed her. “M-m-m-married. Now stop stuttering and say yes.”
Paige’s eyes burned with tears. When her mother had died, she’d been left to face a world she wasn’t prepared for. In the weeks that followed, she had learned the meaning of the word alone.
“Oh, Johnny. I thought you were leaving me.”
A shadow crossed Johnny’s face. “I’m never going to leave you. I love you. I just have to take care of one thing. My father’s not going to be very happy about this.” His mouth twisted. “He’s never happy about anything I do these days.”
He jumped up and pulled on his jeans. “So I just need to run home and talk to him. I want him to meet you. He’ll love you once he meets you.”
Paige felt as if she were on a merry-go-round that had gone out of control. Her head was spinning. She put her hand over her fluttering heart.
He wanted to marry her. Marry! She was seventeen and all alone in the world. He was probably twenty and…. She suddenly realized she didn’t know much about him, except that he wanted to be an artist, but his father disapproved.
But he loved her. He wanted to marry her.
“How long have you been thinking about this?” she asked, grabbing one of his white monogrammed shirts and pulling it on, pushing the long sleeves back so she could fasten the buttons.
Johnny was gathering up stuff and throwing it in his backpack. He shrugged. “From the first time I saw you in Jackson Square. You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I knew I had to draw that classic face.”
He turned and threw his arms wide. “Then you smiled and stole my heart.”
She giggled. “I didn’t know you were in school. Where’d you say?”
Johnny shot her a sharp glance. “Harvard.”
Paige flopped down on the bed. Harvard? They’d been together six weeks and she’d never known he went to Harvard. A tiny hummingbird of fear began to flutter in her breast. “Harvard? Are you rich or something?”
He shook his head as he slid his sketchpad into a pocket of his backpack. “Something,” he muttered.
He was avoiding her eyes. She wanted to stop him, make him look at her. She wanted him to promise her everything was going to be perfect. That he would love her forever and never leave her.
After spending a few seconds adjusting the zippers on his pack, he came over and cupped her face in his two hands.
“Come on, Tiger, don’t look so scared. We’re going to have a wonderful life, I promise.” He kissed her, then murmured something and pulled her tightly to him and deepened the kiss, his warm body hard against her. Her body molded to his and her insides grew liquid with yearning.
Oh, she loved him.
Moaning in frustration, he pulled away reluctantly. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
Paige bit her lip and tried to think clearly. He was leaving, and that scared her, but then he was coming back. “Where does your father live?”
“Up the Mississippi Coast,” he said as he set his backpack near the door. “Not far.”
Paige still felt like that merry-go-round was out of control. “Johnny, stop for a minute and talk to me. How will you get there?”
“My car.”
“You have a car?”
He turned around, smiling wryly. “Sure. A Mustang Cobra. Now listen. I’ll spend the night at home, and then by tomorrow I’ll have the old man convinced. He’ll be dying to meet you. So wait for me here.”
That hummingbird’s wings sped up in her breast, stirring up the memories of her mother alone in her room, night after night, crying over a man who had never