"You mean that despite your success you feel inside like you're still back on the reservation."

His eyes opened and met hers.

"Yes," he said flatly.

"I've already gathered that much, Jack. You can't use that as an excuse for treating me so badly."

"Marisa, when it seemed you had manipulated me it just played right into a whole lifetime of doubt and suspicion. I didn't a.n.a.lyze it then, I was too furious, but after I drove you away I had time to think about all of it and came to some tough conclusions."

Marisa was silent.

"All right, so I've never been in love before and I don't know how to act!" he said heatedly.

"What do you mean, you've never been in love before?" Marisa demanded.

"Just what I said. It's not a difficult concept." He sat next to her on the sofa and she inched backward.

"Will you stop doing that?" he said in exasperation.

"What?"

"Every time I come near you a silent alarm goes off and you put distance between us."

"I'm trying to think clearly."

"And you can't think clearly when I touch you?"

"Right."

"Doesn't that tell you something?"

"It tells me that you're trying to confuse me!" she said, almost in tears, rising and going to the window.

He followed, standing just behind her and looking out at the silently falling snow.

"n.o.body will ever love you as much as I do," he said softly, touching her shoulder.

"I know that," she whispered.

"n.o.body will ever be as good for you as I am," he added.

She nodded.

"Then why not give me another chance?" he said.

She turned blindly into his arms.

"You hurt me so badly," she sobbed.

"I know, and I'm so sorry. I'll try to be better in the future." He held her tightly, his lips moving in her hair.

"I thought you would never come around. I thought I had lost you forever," she went on.

"I felt like a prize jerk once I got the truth out of Block. I came here as quickly as I could," he murmured.

"Just hold me. I missed you so."

They stood together for a long moment, and then he led her by the hand back to the sofa.

"I have something for you," he said, sitting next to her again, closer this time.

"Something else?" she said.

He withdrew a small square box from his pants pocket and placed it in her hand.

Marisa looked up at him.

"Open it."

Marisa sprung the catch. An emerald cut diamond set in gleaming white gold sparkled against a bed of deep blue velvet.

"Where did you get this?" she gasped.

"Faber's Jewelers, corner of Main and Grand."

"Not from Mr. Faber!"

"It wouldn't surprise me. Old guy about seventy, on the short side, thinning white hair, eastern European accent?"

"You didn't tell him it was for me," Marisa groaned.

"Sure, why not?"

"Mr. Faber was my grandfather's poker buddy, not to mention that they grew up together, practically slept in the same ba.s.sinet. He's the worst gossip in the town, in the world. Everybody will know by tomorrow morning."

"Good. Then you'll have to marry me."

"Jack..."

"Yes?"

"I'll marry you."

He pulled her into his arms almost roughly, knocking the ring box to the floor.

"I have to ask you a question," he said in her ear.

"What?"

"Have you got any money?"

She drew back to look at him.

"I exhausted my credit card limit buying that ring," he said, laughing helplessly.

"I have twenty-three dollars in my purse," she said.

"That will have to last until day after tomorrow."

The scent of burning food wafted down the hall.

"There goes dinner," Jack said.

"I have some tuna in the pantry." She disentangled herself from his arms and stood, straightening her clothes. "Let me go turn off the oven and I'll see if I can put together a ca.s.serole..."

"Turn off the oven and then come to the bedroom," he said quietly. "Where is it?"

"Right at the end of the hall," Marisa said. She went to the kitchen and fumbled with the k.n.o.b on the stove, her fingers trembling. Then she made a feeble pa.s.s at straightening her hair as she followed Jack into the bedroom.

He was waiting and handed her a gla.s.s of champagne.

"To us," he said, toasting her.

"To us," she repeated.

They touched gla.s.ses and drank. Then he put his down and took her gla.s.s from her hand.

"Now come here," he said.

She was only too happy to obey.

Epilogue.

"So now I have to start planning a baby shower?" Tracy said. "I haven't recovered from the wedding yet."

"It's not definite," Marisa replied, pouring coffee into Tracy's cup. "I haven't seen a doctor."

They were sitting in Marisa's kitchen on a Sat.u.r.day morning in late March, with the first spring thaw melting the icicles on the roofline outside the window.

"Didn't you take one of those home tests?"

"Yes, but they're not always accurate."

"Come on. Was it positive?"

Marisa grinned.

"You didn't have to say it," Tracy said, smiling conspiratorially. "You've got the glow."

"I've got the nausea, I can tell you that. I can't contemplate food until about three in the afternoon."

"You must be so excited."

"I think I'm just in a daze. If anyone had told me when I left Florida that three months later I would be married to Jack, and pregnant, I would have laughed. Derisively."

"Have you told Jack?"

Marisa shook her head. "I just found out this morning, and I didn't want to tell him over the phone."

"When is he due back from his trip?"

"About eight."

"Big doings tonight, then. What will you say? How are you going to tell him?"

"Well, once he starts seeing me turn green at the sight of his breakfast, he'll know. He's been in j.a.pan for two weeks promoting Renegade."

"Is that his new book?"

Marisa nodded, taking a sip of her milk. "A thinly disguised account of our romance, I'm afraid. He was already writing it during the trial in Florida. Do you believe that?"

Tracy giggled. "You're kidding."

"Nope. His hero falls for a lady lawyer, a New Englander who goes up against him in a complicated legal case. Sound familiar?"

"Am I in it?" Tracy asked eagerly.

"Well, the lady lawyer has a pal named Cindy who works as her researcher ."

"A beautiful, seductive, brilliant pal named Cindy," Tracy corrected archly.

"Of course."

"Who is responsible for bringing the lovers together in an act of friendship and generosity unparalleled in human history."

"Right."

"I still can't get used to having Jack here all the time. Has he sold his condo in Oklahoma yet?"

"The real estate agent thinks she has a buyer but she isn't sure if he'll qualify for the mortgage," Marisa said.

"I don't think this town has recovered yet from the idea of Jack as a full time resident. Did you see the ad Mr. Faber ran in the newspaper, describing the ring Jack bought for you in his store?"