You Made Me Love You Page 27
That made him smile slightly. “You need to ask me that?”
“Eli—”
He held up a hand. “No, please let me finish. Here’s the thing, Liza. I’ve had almost three weeks to think this through. And I know I haven’t always been what you wanted. I know there were times—especially when it came to facing your memories of Joshua—that I was too wrapped up in myself to give you what you needed.”
“I told you I understood.”
“But you didn’t,” he said sadly. “And you shouldn’t have had to.” He paused. “I screwed up, just like I did with Mara.”
“You had problems of your own to deal with. I know that.”
His eyes drifted shut. “You did, too. But you made time for me.”
“It’s not the same,” she said quietly.
He looked at her once more. “No, it’s not. But that doesn’t change what I came here to say.” He crossed the final few steps to where she stood. It felt intoxicatingly good to be this close to her again. He had to fight the urge to take her in his arms. “I know I don’t deserve it. And I know there are a thousand reasons why you should throw me out of your life, but my God, Liza, I love you. Doesn’t that count for something?”
She studied his face with an inscrutable expression. “Everything’s changing, Eli. The board has asked me to take on the administration of the summer program.”
“Rachel told me.”
“Without Anna,” she shrugged, “it’s a big job.”
“You’ll be great at it.”
She fixed him with a pointed look. “I can’t do it from Manhattan.”
It took him a moment to absorb the fact that she hadn’t said she couldn’t do it with him, or with the responsibilities of a marriage or a family. She’d said she couldn’t do it from New York. He wet his lips. “No. I’m sure you couldn’t,” he said carefully. “So I was thinking maybe Grace might like to live in Terrance. Permanently.”
A tiny smile played on her lips. “You’d be bored stiff. What are you going to do, teach chemistry for the rest of your life?”
“If that’s what it takes.” He nodded his head. “If that’s what I have to do to be with you, then yes, I will.”
Liza shook her head. Amusement sparkled in her eyes, and Eli’s ears were starting to ring. “I don’t think it’ll work,” she said.
“It has to.” He took a step closer. “Because I’m going to marry you, and this is where you belong. So if you’re here, that means I’m here. For good.”
“Who said anything about marriage?” she asked.
That made him frown. “Liza—”
“Though I suppose the board wouldn’t really approve of their summer program director living in sin with one of their guest lecturers. It might not look good.”
Eli wrapped his fingers around her shoulders. “Say, yes, Liza,” he urged. “We’ll work the rest out. I swear to you, we’ll find a way to work it out.”
“You’ll stay here and teach?”
He thought of his research, of the groundbreaking strides they were making at the lab, of the very real possibility that within a year, two at most, he could play a role in finding a cure for cancer. Taking a deep breath, he nodded. “Yes.”
Liza laid a hand against his face. “Oh, Eli. For a smart man, you can be a real idiot.” He stared at her. She leaned forward to kiss the corner of his mouth. “The summer program only runs from May to August. I was thinking that, maybe, the rest of the year, I might like to give private lessons. In Manhattan. That is, of course, if you know someplace I can stay in the city. Teachers don’t make much money, and the cost of living up there—”
He didn’t let her finish. With a soft groan, he pulled her into his arms. “My God, I love you.”
Liza sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I love you, too, Eli. Enough to know you’re worth a few risks.”
He kissed her then, long and thoroughly, and didn’t raise his head until they were both straining for breath. Liza dropped her head against his chest. “And while we’re on the subject,” she said quietly, “I think you should know that if you ever tell me again that you can’t be what I need, I’m going to kick you in the shins.”
Stroking her back, he put his chin on the top her head. “Really?”
“Yes, you dolt. I’m not a complete moron, you know. If I picked you to fall in love with, I’ll thank you to credit me with enough insight to know what I was doing.”
He choked out a laugh. “Just tell me you’re going to marry me and I’ll shut up.”
“It’s marriage or nothing?”
“It’s marriage or nothing,” he answered. “I want to make sure you wake up with me every morning. I want to go to sleep next to you, and share your dreams and your sorrows and your triumphs. I want to know that I have a home. I want us to have children—and if you don’t want to, or you can’t, or it doesn’t work out—then I want us to lavish everything we have on Grace. Just let me love you.” He swept her hair off her face. “You can’t imagine how much I want that.”
She smoothed her fingers over his shoulder. “Summers in Terrance, and the rest of the year in Manhattan?”
“Hell,” he muttered, “the rest of the year in Timbuktu if that’s what you want.”
“No way. I’m marrying a Nobel prize nominee, I expect to at least have the trophy on my mantel.” She tilted her head. “Do you get a trophy when you win one of those?”
He choked back a laugh. “Money. You get money.”
“Oh, well, even better, although I think one of those big gaudy brass things would be nice. You know, like they give for Softball tournaments.”
“Liza.” God, he was laughing again. How did she do this to him?
“Well, you have to admit, Eli. It’s a real conversation starter. I mean, you can just sort of glance around in surprise and say, ‘That old thing? That’s from the Nobel Prize Committee.’”
He kissed her because he couldn’t help himself. “If it’ll make you happy, I’ll tattoo it on my forehead.”
“Well, maybe someplace where no one can see it but me—”
“I love you,” he said again.
“And I love you. And that’s why if we’re going anywhere, it’s someplace where you can keep saving the world.” Her expression turned serious. “It’s part of who you are, Eli. And I love that part, too.”
He could almost feel the blood filling his veins again. She’d finally done it—she’d managed to bring him back to life. What a fool he’d been not to realize that what he’d needed all along was to love and be loved. He kissed her again, more gently this time. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Liza nodded. “How does Grace feel about this?”
With a smile, he reached into his pocket and produced a flat ring box. “She was keeping this for me.” He flipped it open so she could see the diamond solitaire. “On the off chance that her old man might manage to finally get it right.”
Liza laughed. The sound set off sparks inside him. He took the ring from the box and would have slid it on her finger, except that the door burst open and Grace, flanked by Martin, Rachel, Anna, and Bill came streaming into the already crowded room.
“For God’s sake, man,” Martin said. “What did she say?”
Grace flew across the room and wrapped her arms around the two of them. “You have to do it, Liza. You have to. Even if Daddy didn’t say it exactly like I told him to, you have to say yes.”
Rachel looked at Eli, then at Liza. “Did we give you enough time?”
“Barely.” He couldn’t keep the surly note from his voice. If they’d given him just a few more minutes, he’d have had her right where he wanted her.
Anna laughed. “I have a feeling if we’d given you any more time, you might have created another Breeland scandal.”
“And I,” Bill said, “would have been stuck dealing with it.” He looked at Liza. “Well, did you say yes, or not? Don’t keep us in suspense.”
Liza placed one hand on Gra
ce’s shoulder. She looked at Eli, pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, then faced the rest of the group. “You’ll be happy to know that I can, on occasion, be smart enough to do the right thing. I said yes.”
Grace squealed and hugged Liza fiercely. “Oh, good.”
Eli slid the ring on her ringer. “My thoughts exactly.”
The other four occupants of the room rushed forward to offer their congratulations. Anna kissed him lightly on the cheek. “I’m so pleased, Eli. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”
Liza gave her a mocking frown. “What are you talking about? You did plan it.”
Everyone laughed. Rachel hugged them both, then started pushing Martin, Bill and Anna toward the door. “Let’s go,” she told them. “They can meet us at the reception.”
“Five minutes,” Martin warned as Rachel propelled him through the door, or I’m coming in after you.”
When the door shut once more, Liza looked at Grace. “Are you sure you’re all right with this?”
Grace nodded happily. “Oh, yes. I was the one who told Daddy to quit being such a jerk and do something about it. You should have seen the way he was acting, Liza. He was making me nuts.”
“Pouting?”
“Cranky,” Grace assured her. “Ever since you left him in New York he’s been impossible.”
“So you told him you thought we should get married?”
“Yes,” Grace assured her. “I told him exactly what to say.”
Liza gave Eli an amused look. “And what was that?”
“I told him to make sure he said that he knew he didn’t want anyone else ever again.”
“I don’t,” Eli said quietly. “I couldn’t.” He held Liza’s gaze for a long second. “You’re everything to me.”
Liza’s eyes misted. “I love you so much,” she told him, then turned to Grace. “I love you, too.”
Grace smiled at her. “I know. And that was why.”
“Why what?” Liza asked.
“Why Daddy has to marry you.” Grace slipped her hand into Eli’s. “You made us love you, Liza. It had to be you.”
Liza blinked back tears as she pressed a soft kiss to Eli’s mouth. “I assure you, the feeling is mutual.”
About the Author
NEESA HART, who writes contemporary romance under her own name and historical romance as Mandalyn Kaye, lives outside Washington, D.C., where she says “truth really is stranger than fiction.”
An avid romance fan for years, she got hooked while majoring in international affairs and geography in college. “Romances,” she said, “were always more fun, more informative, and more relaxing than anything I was supposed to be reading for class.” After a brief political career, including a Senate confirmed appointment to the President’s Council on Women’s Educational Programs, Neesa abandoned the hectic world of politics to pursue her dream as a full-time author. “Nothing,” she says, “could be better than telling stories for a living.”
Her interests, other than writing and reading, include volunteering at her church, collecting Barbie dolls, watching professional hockey, and playing the banjo. One day, she hopes to learn to pick “Oh, Susannah.”
Neesa loves to hear from her readers. You can write to her at: 101 E. Holly Avenue, St. 3, Sterling, VA 20164 or email neesa@fls.infi.net
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Also by Neesa Hart
HALFWAY TO PARADISE
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU. Copyright © 2000 by Neesa Hart. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ISBN 0-380-80789-0
EPub Edition June 2013 ISBN 9780062303370
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First Avon Books paperback printing: December 2000
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