She touched her fingers to his lips. 'We'll find out together.'
'Yes.' Reaching up, he took her hands again. 'I'll still have to travel some, but I hope you'll agree to come with me whenever you can.'
'Just try to stop me.'
'And you'll be there to make certain I don't forget that marriage and family come first.'
She turned her face into his throat. 'You can count on it.'
'I'm doing this backward. I do thata lot since I met you.' He ran his hands down her arms, then drew her away. 'I wanted to tell you that since I found you everything changed for me. Losing you would be worse than losing my eyes or my arms, because without you I can't see or touch anything. I need you in my life, I want you to share it all with me. We can learn from each other, make mistakes together, and I love you more than I know how to say.'
'I think you said it very nicely.' She sniffled, then shook her head. 'I don't want to cry. I look really awful when I cry, and I want to be beautiful tonight. Let me have my present, will you, before I start babbling?'
'I like it when you babble.' He pressed a kiss to her brow, to her temple, to the dimple at the corner of her mouth. 'Oh, God, I do owe cousin Fred.'
Jackie gave a watery laugh. 'He's trying to find a buyer for twenty-five acres of swampland.'
'Sold.' He caught her face in his hands again, just to look, just to touch what was more real to him than his own heart. 'I do love you, Jack.'
'I know, but you can repeat yourself all you want.'
'I intend to, but first I think you should have this.' He picked up the package and offered it to her. 'I wanted you to have something that would show you, if I couldn't make myself clear, how I felt about you. How you'd given me hope for a future I never believed in.'
She dragged the heels of her hands under her eyes. 'Well, let's see. Diamonds are forever, but I've always had a fondness for colored stones.' She ripped at the paper ruthlessly, then pulled out her gift.
For a moment she was speechless, standing in the moonlight, her cheeks still gleaming with tears. In her hands was a shell-covered pelican. When she looked at him again, her eyes were drenched. 'Nobody understands me the way you do.'
'Don't change,' he murmured, holding her close again with the tacky bird between them. 'Let's go home, Jack.'
