Lucky Break

or emotional ties, but that wasn’t enough for you, was it?” In the end he’d stolen her heart.

“How could it be enough?” he asked. “I wanted you. All of you. And I wanted you to give yourself to me freely.” His deep eyes bored into hers.

“Yet when I finally did, you tossed it back in my face. Just like-”

“Just like your parents. Just like your sister. I made you feel like everything you offered wasn’t enough.” His voice was gruff as he admitted to understanding her heart and her soul.

In his eyes, she viewed the warmth and love she’d been searching for all her life. “Why are you here now? What changed? Other than the fact that you realize you’re an idiot?” she asked, tears finally flowing. “Why did you push me away?”

He cupped her cheek in his hand. “Because I thought you deserved someone better. Someone who hadn’t lost everything and who was happy with his life. Who could be your equal.”

“So what changed your mind?” she asked, because if she didn’t understand, she’d never trust him not to do a one-eighty again and abandon her.

“That’s easy.” A wry smile twisted his lips. “You left me. And I discovered what it meant to really be alone. Then Mike and Derek asked me what getting back into snowboarding would mean if I’d lost you, and that’s when I knew. Nothing has any meaning without you.”

His voice cracked and Lauren leaned forward and kissed him, sealing her lips over his, savoring his taste and his warmth. His familiar scent wrapped around her, giving her comfort and arousing her at the same time. Suddenly life had color again.

She never wanted to let him go.

“Flight six thirty-nine to Paris, France, is ready to board.” The announcement penetrated the cocoon they’d wrapped themselves in, but she still didn’t want to release him.

Jason had dug out his passport, packed quickly, flown to New York and finally tracked Lauren down. He didn’t want to break this long-awaited kiss, but he had no choice. “They’re boarding.” He unwrapped her arms from his neck, separating them with difficulty.

Lauren groaned. “Do you really think I’m getting on that flight without you?”

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his ticket. “Why do you think I was so out of breath? I got to your apartment only to have your neighbor tell me you’d left an hour before. Luckily for me, you’d given her your flight information and she believed I wasn’t a stalker. I had to hightail it to the airport, buy my ticket and make it to the gate in time.”

“And I’m glad you did. But you still haven’t told me what happens after Paris.”

He drew a deep breath, still in shock himself by everything that had happened in the short time since she’d been gone. “Well, I’d put a call into some snowboard companies, asking if they’d be interested in having me test their boards. I saw it as a way to get back into the sport in some small way.” Just the thought had given him a renewed sense of purpose.

“And?”

“When they finally called back, not only did they agree, but apparently my notoriety doesn’t bother them anymore. Get this. They’re currently bidding against one another to get me to endorse their product.”

“That’s fantastic!” she said, genuinely pleased for him.

“My former agent’s on top of things while I’m out of the country. And my family is convinced they have you to thank.”

“For God’s sake, why?”

“They think you broke the curse when you gave them the diamonds.”

“Come on.” She raised an eyebrow, obviously not a believer.

“I’m serious! Look at the evidence, at least from their perspective. First Rusty gets nailed doing steroids…”

“I just saw the news on television. How was he dumb enough to get caught, knowing what happened to you?” she asked.

“Ready for this? I got a call from Kristina. She sweet-talked Rusty into getting back together just so she could set him up. She used the same tricks he’d put her up to for me. Then she called the IOC and tipped them off.” He shook his head. “She’s now off sunbathing on a secluded island waiting for the scandal to blow over.”

“I’m stunned.”

“Never underestimate a woman scorned.”

“Exactly.” Lauren gave him a pointed look.

“So back to why they think I ended the curse?” she prompted.

“Right. There are plenty of other reasons. For one thing, Uncle Edward proposed to Clara-”

“He what!” Lauren blinked. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

Jason shook his head. “Then the sponsorship opportunities came up-this after I’d been banned from boarding and dropped by every company known to sports.”

Lauren took one look at his pleased expression and couldn’t help but smile herself. “I guess the tides are turning.”

“Final boarding, flight six thirty-nine to Paris, France,” a voice said over the intercom.

Somehow they’d missed the row-by-row boarding announcements.

Jason stood. “So, are we going?”

She rose to her feet beside him. “I’m going. As for you…”

Uncertain of what to expect, Jason held his breath.

“You still haven’t told me your post-Paris plan.” She tapped her foot on the floor, glancing back and forth between Jason and the boarding gate.

He knew it was the time to lay it all on the line. “I was hoping we could take our share from the sale of the diamonds and use it as a down payment on a house,” he said, speaking quickly. “Somewhere close enough to the city so you can commute to Galliano or whatever smart label snatches you up.” As he spoke, he grabbed her bag along with his and started walking to the gate. “But also someplace where we can hop a flight or drive to the nearest ski lodge,” he said as he handed his ticket to the agent.

“Four C,” the woman said, scanning his paper and handing it back to him.

Lauren blinked in surprise, then slid her ticket across the counter.

“Four B,” the attendant said. “Have a nice flight.”

They started down the gateway and she turned to him. “How did you manage adjoining seats?”

He grinned. “I told you, ever since you handed over the diamonds, it’s been one lucky break after another.” And then he played his final hand.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a velvet box. He bent down on one knee and opened the box to reveal an emerald-cut diamond ring. “Marry me,” he said, rather than asked. “That’s my post- Paris plan.”

Lauren squealed and nodded, tears flowing. He placed the ring on her finger, grabbed her hand and together they made a mad dash for the plane.

ON TAKEOFF, Jason recalled Clara’s tarot reading, back when he’d been skeptical of ever finding happiness again.

“Ace of Cups reversed,” she’d said, telling him he had no hope of finding love. Informing him he feared being alone forever. She’d been right. She’d gone on to explain that he needed to stop hiding from his past. She’d been more right than she knew. He grasped Lauren’s hand, knowing that he now had everything Clara had dangled in front of him-the white picket fence and the happily ever after. With the woman he’d always loved.

Talk about a lucky break, he thought, happier than he’d ever been.

EPILOGUE

In the early twenty-first century, in the small village of Stewart, Massachusetts, 1.5 miles west of Salem, site of the now infamous Witch Trials, a brave, smart Perkins female broke the infamous Corwin Curse. And in case anyone dared to suggest otherwise, for good measure, she married the remaining young single Corwin man, uniting their