‘Was it only revenge?’ she asked barely audibly.
He turned his head to her at last. ‘Did it feel like it?’
‘Not until you sent me away,’ she whispered.
His hand tightened on hers until she made a small sound.
‘Sorry.’ He released her and sat up. ‘She then explained that to turn up out of the blue and propose marriage because there was a baby on the way was the height of arrogance even if I still wanted you. And the promise she extracted was that I would stand by you in every other way until, if ever, you discovered I was the one you wanted.’
‘Oh my,’ Maggie breathed. ‘Does that mean to say you did still want me? I thought so once, but that was just before Trent was born and it was only once…’
‘Maggie—’ he rubbed his jaw almost savagely ‘—I never stopped wanting you. I couldn’t get you out of my mind even if I couldn’t reconcile—I honestly didn’t think I could bring the commitment to a marriage that was needed. There has always been a small part of me that—I don’t know—was closed off to that particular traffic. The last nine months have changed all that,’ he added.
She was silent, her lips parted, her eyes huge.
‘You see,’ he went on, ‘yes, I cared about my adopted family and Sylvia will always be special to me, but no one has ever walked into my heart and taken it over the way you have.
‘No one,’ he said quietly, ‘brings me the joy and pleasure just in their company you do. And that’s one of the reasons I took what turned out to be an increasingly long, hard road these past months. Then there was what you did for Trent. I have never seen anyone battle such painful odds as you did for our son. So you not only have my whole-hearted love, but my utmost admiration, Maggie Trent.’
She wiped her eyes. ‘If only you’d told me this sooner—’
He took her hand again, gently this time, but shook his head. ‘If there was one thing that finally made me see how much I loved you, it was when your welfare became more important than mine.
‘Maggie…’ he paused ‘… sometimes, often, your first love turns out not to be what you think it is at the time. It can be powerful but fleeting, a crush maybe. Also, I had no way of knowing—you possibly had no way of knowing yourself—if you could ever forgive me, or—’
‘If it hadn’t all been a Maggie Trent, heat-of-the-moment whim?’ she suggested gravely.
‘I wasn’t going to say that.’
‘I couldn’t blame you if you did.’ She gestured.
‘What I was going to say was,’ he continued, ‘there were so many complications it would have been perfectly natural for you to feel dreadfully confused. All I could hope for was that.. time might be on my side. But if it’s Trent that’s made you come to this decision—’
She put her hand to his lips. ‘Jack, I’ve had my own revelations. I’m a lot more like my father than I dreamt. I’m an all-or-nothing kind of person and that’s why I thought it wouldn’t work for me with you.’
She hesitated as he kissed her fingers. ‘Yes, I thought I was asking you to marry me for Trent’s sake because I didn’t know how you felt. But the truth is there’s a plus side to the all-or-nothing person I am. I fell in love with you overnight. I will always love you—it may even be a bit of a trial to you at times, but that’s me, and it was always you, for me.’
‘A bit of a trial?’ He pulled her into his arms and held her extremely hard as he buried his face in her hair. ‘If you only knew how many times I’ve wanted to do this,’ he said on an edge of desperation. ‘If you knew how close I came to lowering my guard the night Sylvia rang.’
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes.
She placed a fingertip on the little scar on his eyebrow. ‘If you knew what that did to me. Suddenly I was on cloud nine; nothing else mattered!’
‘Then…’ He hesitated. ‘Your back?’
‘It’s fine, if I take care. Why don’t you unplug the phone?’
‘Good idea.’
But they didn’t go straight to bed. They finished their drinks, he with his arm around her, and they talked.