“I was only gone two weeks.”
“That’s about thirteen days too long!”
“How has he been?”
Sam rolled his eyes. “Impossible!”
Judy glanced around to see that several of the other employees were nodding their heads, agreeing with Sam’s assessment.
“He’s fired me three times in the last week alone,” Wilson volunteered.
“Moi aussi,” the chef added, ceremoniously crossing his arms over his chest, greatly insulted. “He had ze nerve to suggest I return to cooking school.”
“Everything will be better now that Ms. Lovin’s here,” Sam assured the irate staff. “Next time you leave, though,” he warned Judy, “we’ll all be on that boat with you.”
Ms. Reinholt, who’d stayed to work at the new medical clinic, gave a decisive nod.
“I won’t be leaving,” Judy told them confidently.
A small cheer arose and when she entered the house, she was met by a red-faced Avery.
“Ms. Lovin!” He looked stunned, flustered, then relieved. “Oh, thank God you’re back.”
“Where is he?” she asked, resisting the urge to hug her friend.
“The library.” He pointed in the direction of the closed doors as though he expected her to have forgotten. “I tried to take care of him like you wanted,” Avery said, his words coming out in a rush. “Only, Mr. McFarland, well, he didn’t take kindly to my concern.”
“I can imagine,” Judy said, grateful for such loyal friends.
Summoning her courage, she stood in front of the library doors. She found it fitting that he would be there. The last time she’d confronted him had been in the same room. Only this time, she planned to do all the talking.
She didn’t knock, but opened the doors and stepped inside.
“I said I wasn’t to be disturbed!” John shouted.
Judy’s heart constricted at the sight he made, hunched behind a desk. He looked hard, his blue eyes devoid of any emotion except anger and regret. She noted the lines of fatigue around his eyes and the flatness of his mouth.
“John, it’s me,” she said softly, loving him so much that only strength of will prevented her from walking into his arms.
His head snapped up. His eyes went wide with questioning disbelief and he half rose from his chair. “Beauty.” He froze as though he couldn’t decide what to do.
“Don’t, John.”
“Don’t?” he repeated, puzzled.
“Don’t ask me to leave. I won’t, you know.”
McFarland heard the catch in her voice and sank back into the leather chair. How well she knew him; the words had dangled on the tip of his tongue. He’d been about to demand that she go right back where she came from. It wasn’t what he wanted, but he had to protect her from himself.
Judy moved farther into the room. “David’s wedding was beautiful, and ours is going to be just as special.”
“Ours?” he mocked.
“Yes, ours! You’re marrying me, John McFarland.”
“You’re sure taking a lot for granted.”
“Perhaps.”
“Judy, no.” He wiped his face and wondered if he was dreaming. He wasn’t. “Don’t do this. You’re making it difficult to send you away.”
She met his eyes boldly. “I plan on making it impossible.”
He said nothing for the longest moment. “Judy, there’s someone better for you in New York. Some man who’ll give you the kind of life you deserve. Some man your father will approve of. He’s right—I am a beast.”
She planted her hands on his desktop, remembering everything Marie had gone through for David. “I only want you.”
“Forcing you to come here, to live on the island, was a mistake.”
His face revealed nothing, but she felt the powerful undertow of his emotions.
“It’s not a mistake for me to love you, John.”
He flinched as though she’d struck him.
“I’m not good enough for you,” he told her in a hard, implacable voice. “The things I did to your family…the things I did to you.”
“Coming to this island was right for me. You’re right for me. I love you. All I ask is that you love me in return.”
Again he flinched, and his jaw tensed. He reached out to stroke her cheek. “I’ve loved you from the moment you showed me how you’d tamed Midnight.”
Her gaze holding his, Judy walked around the desk.
McFarland stood.
She slipped her arms around his neck and leaned into him. “Oh, John, life doesn’t make sense without you. I had to leave you to learn that. There’s no one else for me, no other place I want to be but here.”
“Judy.” His fingers plowed through her hair as he slanted his mouth over hers. He kissed her again and again, as though it would take a hundred years to make up for these past two weeks.
“I live in a tropical paradise and it was winter without you,” he breathed into her hair.
“It’s summer now,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he said, his voice raw. His hand was gentle on her hair. “I love you, Beauty. But I don’t know why you’d want to marry a beast.”
“I have my reasons,” she said as she lovingly pushed him back into his chair. “There’s a small wager I need to tell you about.”
“Oh?” He pulled her into his lap and she leaned forward and whispered it in his ear.
The sound of McFarland’s laughter drifted through the library doors and the seven who’d gathered there sighed contentedly.
Winter had left the island, never to return.
From that moment, the people of St. Steven’s liked to tell how the Beast was gone forever.
Beauty had tamed him.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4421-8
FAIRY TALE WEDDINGS
Copyright © 2009 by MIRA Books.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:
CINDY AND THE PRINCE
Copyright © 1987 by Debbie Macomber.
SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL
Copyright © 1988 by Debbie Macomber.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, MIRA Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Debbie Macomber, Fairy Tale Weddings
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