Her tour manager looked between Nicola and Marcus, then nodded her approval. “Just as long as you have her back for her interview at noon in Dallas in two days.”
Grinning, Nicola said, “You guys can work out the schedule while I go get my stuff.” She was halfway out the door when she looked over her shoulder to see Katie and Marcus with their heads together over their smart phones.
But as she walked down the hall toward her tour bus, she knew that kissing Marcus in front of her crew had been the easy part.
He’d told her that her circus life didn’t scare him.
Now he was actually showing her that he meant it.
Unfortunately, the bigger question remained: What would his world think of her? Would they welcome her with open arms the way she was sure her crew was already welcoming Marcus?
Or would her youth and bad reputation hurt Marcus in just the way she feared?
* * *
There were so many things that Nicola knew needed to be said between them as she boarded the private jet, but when Marcus wrapped his arms around her and strapped his seatbelt over them both, she gave in to the warmth of his arms, curling into him the way she always had, with his heart beating against her ear, the feeling of being perfectly safe easing her into a deeper sleep than she’d had in weeks.
* * *
Finally, as Nicola fell asleep against his chest, Marcus let the breath he’d been holding go.
Nicola was back where she belonged. In his arms.
Now all he needed to do was convince her to stay.
This time, by any means necessary...
Chapter Twenty-four
“My God, this is beautiful.”
The sun was rising over the Sullivan Winery and the birds were just coming awake. Nicola laughed softly as a baby blue jay peeked its head up out of its nest to greet them. As they stood on his porch and looked out over the rolling grapevines, Marcus silently thanked his property for putting on its finest show for Nicola.
They’d both slept on the plane and even though it hadn’t been a full night’s rest, he felt more refreshed and alert than he had since Nicola had left San Francisco almost three weeks ago.
“This winery is where you came to heal, isn’t it?”
No one had ever laid it out so clearly to him...or had hit it so directly on the head.
Pulling her closer, he told her, “The first time I ever saw this land was on a high school field trip. It was crazy, but I swore I saw a man who looked like my father working the vines. As soon as I got my driver’s license, I drove up here to look for him again.”
“You weren’t alone, were you?”
“Nope.” He smiled at the woman he loved. “Most of my brothers and sisters crammed into the car with me. I didn’t tell them about what I thought I’d seen, but I knew right then that one day this land would be mine. And that I’d make him proud.”
He watched her swallow, saw her eyes glitter at his story. Her voice was raw, husky, as she asked, “How can you even think of leaving this for days and weeks on end?”
He knew what she was asking, that she didn’t understand why he would want to be with her on the road.
“It’s been twenty-two years since my father died and until you, I never told anyone how hard it was on me to take his place in the family. I never wanted to admit it to myself. And no one dared push me up against the wall on it. I’m sure others saw it. They had to. But I managed to keep them all away."
She had turned to him and he didn’t know if she realized it, but she’d taken his hands and was holding them both over her heart.
“But not you, Nicola. You were shoving your way in from that first moment in the club and no matter how hard I tried to push you away, you never let me keep you out.”
“I’m annoying like that,” she said in a soft voice. “Always pushing in where I don’t belong.”
“I love that you push, that you decide what you want and don’t let anyone get in your way. No wonder your career is shooting through the stratosphere and they want you to come play shows in Timbuktu."
He was glad to see her smile at that, to see the dark shadow begin to slide from her pretty eyes.
“I didn’t completely lose my youth, but there were big chunks of it that just disappeared.” He shook his head, trying to put words to his feelings even as he finally registered what they were. “I don’t regret spending so much time with my brothers and sisters to help my mother. They were worth it."
“So are you, Marcus.”
He pressed a soft kiss to her lips and then said, “Do you know what my mother said to me that Sunday at lunch?”
“What the hell are you thinking, getting involved with a girl like her?” she guessed, but her mouth was quirking up on one side and he knew she was teasing.
“She told me she’d been waiting for me to find someone I could love more than I loved them.”
“I told you before, in that old playground behind your mother’s house, that I don’t want to get in the way of your relationship with your family.”
“Not in the way. You’ve shown me it’s time to finally cut the strings, to let them live their lives. And that it’s finally time for me to live mine. All this time, it was easier for me to focus on my brothers and sisters and helping my mother and running this winery than it was for me to focus on my own heart.” He tugged her even closer. “You once told me people believe what’s easiest to believe. Both you and I believed so strongly that we couldn’t make this relationship work, that we were too different…didn’t we?”