He stood in the kitchen listening to the voice message.
“Gage, it’s Janet. Are you there? If you’re there, please pick up; we’ve got to talk.”
His heart bumped crazily against his chest at the sound of her voice, but he didn’t pick up the phone. He didn’t want to argue with her about quitting his job. Last night he’d realized that he wouldn’t be able to keep working with her. Seeing her every day, remembering what they’d shared, wanting her but not being able to have her. Best he packs up and leave now, before he’d really gotten his practice established.
For the first time in his life, he’d been thinking of his own needs and not those of someone else, and it felt good. He loved Janet, yes, but if she couldn’t love him back, then there was no point hanging around.
“I took your advice,” she said. “I confronted my father.”
He held his breath and waited.
“You were right. Once I found out why he acted the way he did toward me all these years, he lost all power over me. I feel like someone plucked the Empire State Building off my chest.”
“Good for you,” he murmured under his breath. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I’ve got to see you. I’ve got to talk to you in person. This is a monumental breakthrough, and I want to share it with you. I’m coming over after I get off work. If you’re interested, be there. If you’re not, then I’ll know it’s over between us.”
He reached for the phone, but something held him back.
“Gage,” she said. “I love you.”
She loved him!
And he loved her, with a calm certainty that didn’t scare him in the least. He loved her with the same unshakable sureness that he loved his parents. This feeling wasn’t ever going away.
He didn’t have much time until she got home, but he knew what he must do to prove it.
16
There was a tuxedoed man on her terrace.
Dr. Janet Hunter froze in mid-stride, her medical bag and a small flat briefcase tucked underneath one arm. Keys in hand, she’d just returned home from work.
She blinked in disbelief.
Yep. No mirage. A handsome man, resplendent in a black tuxedo with a white cummerbund and red bow tie stood proudly among her wrought iron furniture.
Her table lay covered with a white linen cloth. In the middle of the table sat a vase of red roses, two flickering red candles, and silver-domed serving dishes for two. From a boom box perched on the terrace wall came the strains of Barbra Streisand singing ‘People Who Need People.’
Okay, Janet thought with a huge grin breaking across her face, two could play this game.
She tossed her briefcase and medical bag on the counter, walked across the floor, threw open the door, and hollered, “Hey, buddy.”
“You talking to me?” he asked, returning her grin.
Her heart was flying, flying, flying. Swooping and dipping, catching the updrafts of her expanding emotions.
“Do you see any other good-looking physicians hanging around here?”
“Yes.” His eyes never left her face. “And I’m looking right at her.” He held out his arms.
She was across the terrace in nothing flat. Gage wrapped his arm around her and kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks, her nose. He kissed her as if he hadn’t seen her in fifty years and might not see her for another fifty if he dared let her go.
“How did you get in?”
“A little help from Gracie,” he murmured, his lips warm against her skin.
“That’s what I get for giving her a spare key. Men in tuxedoes turning up unannounced on my terrace.”
“What can I say? The woman’s crazy about me.”
“I can’t blame her,” she whispered, looking him straight in the eyes as she captured his lips in hers. Enough of that face kissing, her mouth was getting jealous of her nose.
She pulled away after a few of his tongue tricks had her panting. “So, I’m assuming you got my message.”
His grin widened. “I did. You said you loved me.”
“Did I?” Her stomach tightened. Her knees went weak. She felt so perfectly wonderful, so perfectly beautiful, so perfectly right. She thought she was going to burst.
“Oh yes, you did. No backing out of it. I saved the tape.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did. I’m going to play it for our kids when they ask about the first time Mommy told Daddy that she loved him.”
“What are you saying, Dr. Gregory?” She leaned into him, relishing his scent, relishing the wonderful glow of the moment.
“That depends. Are you admitting that you were wrong, that there is such a thing as true love?” His hands, holding hers, were so warm and welcoming, like a snuggly blanket on a cold winter day.
“I might have been mistaken.”
“I’ve got to tell you the truth, Janet. Now don’t get scared or anything, but I knew you were the one for me from the moment I met you right here on this very terrace.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Liar.”
“Nonbeliever.”
They grinned at each other. He drew her close again and nuzzled her ear. “You’re exactly what I need. A woman who knows her own mind and stands up for herself.”
“That’s me.”
“A woman who’s not afraid to face her fears.”
“Well, it took me a while.” She told him then about what had happened with her father, about Niles’ other family. When she finished, he didn’t say a word. He just squeezed her tightly.
“I discovered something else.”
“Oh?”
“I realized that you’ve been there for me from the moment I met you. Not because you considered me a pet project, but because you simply cared. You’ve taught me the real meaning of love. That’s a very precious gift.”
They swayed in the twilight, their bodies pressed together.
“So,” she said after a long moment of luxuriating in the comfort of his arms. “What’s this nonsense about you quitting your job?”
“Well,” he said, “that was before you admitted that you loved me.”
“You were just going to run off, abandon the position you’d worked so hard to achieve for me?”
“Actually, no. This time I was being
