He nodded. “Yep, you did exactly that.”
She regarded him with astonishment. “Me? I’m not the one who asked for a divorce.”
“No, but you didn’t say no. You barely even blinked, then offered to help me pack my things.”
She was confused by his reaction. “Did you want me to try to stop you?”
“I was hoping for exactly that, as a matter of fact. I was hoping you’d wake up and take a good long look at me and really see me for the first time, maybe appreciate the life we had. I always knew you loved Ronnie, but I loved you enough to overlook that. I thought I loved you enough to give us a real chance at happiness, but the truth was, after a few years when nothing changed, I got tired of being second best. I knew as long as I stayed I was going to have to swallow my pride and pretend it didn’t matter. I couldn’t do that any longer.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, seeing their life from his perspective for the first time. It wasn’t as if she’d ever cheated on him, but she hadn’t given him her heart. She’d been content, if not happy, with the way things were and thought he had been, too. How had she lied to herself for so long? “I am so very sorry.”
“Me, too.”
“I’d like to try to change that, if you’ll let me,” she said, taking on the risk of another humiliating rejection. “I’m not saying we should jump into anything, just keep seeing each other, see if we can have a fresh start. If it’ll help, I know I was a fool back then.”
Sonny’s expression wasn’t encouraging. “I don’t know, Mary Vaughn. It’s taken me a long time to get over you. I don’t know that I want to get back on that emotional roller coaster.”
“Not back to anything,” she insisted. “Forward, to something new. Build on what was good about the two of us and not repeat the rest.”
He looked skeptical. “It’s not that easy to forget about the past.”
“No, of course not. In fact, it’s important to remember, so we won’t repeat it.” She met his gaze and did something she’d vowed never to do. She begged for this chance she didn’t deserve, but wanted desperately. “Please, Sonny. All I’m asking for is another chance. Let me prove I’ve changed, that I can love you the way you ought to be loved. I think I’m finally mature enough to appreciate the man you are, the man you’ve always been.”
“I don’t know,” he said, regarding her with wariness.
“Are you hesitating because you’re seeing someone else?”
“Dammit, it’s not about anyone else, Mary Vaughn. You’ve always been the only woman for me, more’s the pity.”
She covered his hand with hers. “Then take this chance,” she said, then added simply, “Please.”
He turned her hand over, twined his fingers through hers, staring at their interlocked fingers, then at her with a troubled expression. “It would have to be different this time,” he said quietly.
She seized on the tiny opening. “It will be. I promise.”
“Let me finish,” he said. “I won’t settle again, Mary Vaughn. I just won’t do it.”
With that simple declaration, that refusal to settle for anything less than what he deserved, he won not only her respect, but the heart she’d once withheld from him.
Unfortunately, with so many mistakes behind them—most of them hers—proving that she loved him with all her heart wasn’t going to be easy. Fortunately, years of clawing and scratching to get what she wanted had made her tough. She would win him back. She was as sure of that as she was that the battle would be worth it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
If Howard barged into his office one more time to ask if everything was ready for the festival kickoff tonight, Tom was going to shove his head in a vat of eggnog. He wouldn’t even have to go far to find it, since a supply had arrived in front of Town Hall a few hours ago courtesy of the mayor, who seemed oblivious to how inappropriate it was for the town to be serving an alcoholic beverage even if extra care was being taken not to serve it to minors. His attempt to explain that had fallen on deaf ears.
“It’s tradition,” Howard had told him. “Get with it. Besides, there’s not enough alcohol in that stuff to hardly count. Ask the sheriff. Nobody in this town has ever driven drunk after one toast with a little eggnog. Look at the size of those cups. They don’t hold but a thimbleful.”
Jeanette walked in just as Howard walked out, took one look at Tom’s expression and asked, “What’s our illustrious mayor done now?”
“Eggnog,” Tom told her succinctly.
She grinned. “Yeah, it’s a tradition.”
“So he said. It’s a bad one. There’s no telling what kind of lawsuit we could be setting ourselves up for if someone got into an accident on the way home.”
“That’s been discussed. The supplier barely waves the bottle of liquor over the eggnog. Nobody’s gotten drunk on it yet. They’d have to drink gallons of it, and personally I think it’s way too disgusting for anyone to even consider doing that. Nobody serves it to the kids. You’re getting worked up over nothing.”
“It’s my job to protect the town,” he reminded her.
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “And we appreciate your efforts.” She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his.
His bad mood was rapidly disintegrating. When she traced his lips with her tongue, he forgot what they’d been talking about.
“You taste good,” he said.
“I ate a candy cane before I came inside,” she said.
He winced. “Someone’s giving away candy canes? Are they individually wrapped? Did I know about that?”
“Molly Flint has been giving away candy canes
