“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Gently Summer cupped his rugged face in her hands. “It’s okay. I understand. I do.”
“To ever think you weren’t worth whatever it costs to make our life together was the second biggest mistake of my life. The first was that I should have stood by you fifteen years ago instead of blaming you for not standing by me. I’ve always been a selfish, egotistical bastard.”
“I should have done better by you, too.”
“We can’t go back,” he said. “Or control the events of the past. We can only control how we view them.”
“And the press? You really think you’ll be able to stand all the fuss?”
“I don’t care what the world thinks about me or you. Whatever we have together is true. It is the strongest force in my life… Stronger even than my ambition, stronger than any lie the vicious press can write or say. I haven’t given a damn about work since we’ve been apart. Nothing matters to me as much as you and our child. Nothing. I can’t change the past, but together we can change our future.”
She’d waited so long to hear such words from him, to feel loved by him so completely. Happiness overflowed in her heart.
“Will you marry me, then, Summer Wallace? Will you honor me by becoming Mrs. Zach Torr?”
“What? And give up my stage name?” she teased.
He pulled a black-velvet box out of his hand and opened it.
The diamond sparkled with a vengeance.
But her eyes shone even brighter as she stared down at him. “Oh, my! You could persuade a lot of girls with a rock that size.”
“You’re the only one I want, and you didn’t answer the question.”
“That’s because I’m still in shock. But, yes. Yes!” she cried as he slid the ring onto her finger. “Yes!”
“Then kiss me, Summer. This time I won’t complain about an Oscar performance.”
She laughed as she pulled his face up to hers and pressed her lips to his and did just as he commanded, for a very long time. Only it wasn’t a performance, it was true and real.
She’d always been true and real. He would never doubt her again.
“Mrs. Zach Torr,” she breathed in an awed tone when he finally released her.
A single tear traced down her cheek. Only this time it was a tear of joy.
Summer had never had more fun at a cast party than she was having tonight with Zach beside her and his ring glimmering on her left hand. At the same time she couldn’t wait to steal away from the lavish affair, so she could spend the rest of the night with her fiance.
But they had forever, didn’t they? Or at least as long as they both should live.
Because they’d known the reviews would be good, the producers were out to impress. They’d rented a fabulous ballroom at the top of one of New York’s most prestigious hotels. The food was excellent; the champagne vintage. She had to stay awhile because she was the star.
When Hugh crashed the party unexpectedly and began garnering more press than anybody else, she tensed, whispering to Zach that she’d tell the show’s producers to make him leave.
Zach pressed a fingertip to her lips. “Let him stay, sweetheart. I don’t care. The press can write whatever they want about the three of us.”
“You really don’t care?”
“I swear it. Don’t worry about me. Introduce me to the bastard. I’ll even pose with him. Go do what you have to do. Work the crowd. Let the photographers take the appropriate pictures of you with your cast and producers. Because the sooner you do, the sooner we can leave and have the rest of the night for each other.”
She listened to his sure, calm voice, which didn’t hold the faintest trace of jealousy, and felt as if she’d come home. At last.
Happiness filled her. So much happiness, she couldn’t speak.
“Oh, Zach.”
He pulled her into his arms. For a long moment, as he held her close, she realized that this was her new life, their shared life. He was part of all she was, just as she would be part of all he was. No more scandals stood between them.
They would be together forever.
Epilogue
The stairs creaked as Summer carried Terri, who was bundled in pink blankets and asleep, up to the nursery. But she couldn’t put her beautiful, dark-haired little girl in the crib. The baby was too soft and warm and cuddly, and every minute Summer held her was too precious.
The joy-filled days passed so fast. Summer had given herself a year off for maternity leave, and already four months of it were gone. So she sat in the rocker and began to sing to her little girl while she stared out at the pines that fringed the house that had belonged to her family for more than a hundred years.
Summer loved the time she and Zach spent in this old house, the time when they left their nannies and servants in their larger residences in Houston and New York, and they could be together with Gram and Tuck.
Downstairs Gram was cooking a dinner for all of them, so the house was fragrant with the rich aroma of Cajun spices. Nick had supplied Gram with shrimp, and she’d promised them all, including Nick, a big pot of gumbo.
Nick, who adored Terri so much he’d even made a place in his heart for Summer, would be joining them.
Summer heard Zach’s Mercedes in the drive. Then the screen door banged behind him. Would that man ever learn to shut a door quietly when it was nap time?
“Summer!” Zach hollered.
“Up here,” she called down to him softly and was relieved when he didn’t yell again. Much as she adored Terri, like any other new mother, she counted on having a breather when her little darling snoozed.
Zach strode silently into the room and knelt beside them. Reaching out his hand he touched Terri’s cheek. In her sleep, the baby smiled. Then she grabbed on to his little finger, and he gasped.
The baby’s pale fingers with their little fingernails were so tiny and perfect; his tanned ones so large and blunt.
“Can I hold her?” he whispered.
Summer nodded, lifting their daughter into his arms. She got up so he could have the rocker.
“She’s got me. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to be stern and say no to her,” he whispered. “I’ll spoil her rotten.”
“Well, we won’t have to discipline her for a while.”
Summer’s eyes pooled with tears of happiness as she watched her two raven-haired darlings-her rugged husband and their trusting and innocent baby daughter.
She wished she could hold on to this moment.
The past would always be a part of them, especially the loss of their first daughter. But love filled Summer’s days now with all its richly rewarding experiences. Marriage. Motherhood.
Life was so wonderful, she was determined to savor every sparkling moment of her shared happiness with Zach.
“Come here,” he whispered as he got up to put their baby in her crib.
Turning to Summer, he took her in his arms and pressed her tightly against him.
“I love you,” he said.
He told her that every day, and she never tired of hearing it.
She was glad that love was no longer a four-letter word he equated with hell. She was glad their love had become the guiding force in his life.
As it was in hers.
