“We, huh?”
He grinned at her. “You want your own lizard? I’m of the what’s-mine-is-yours school. If I get Leonardo Pascarelli and your daffy family, you get my lizard.”
Her stomach fluttered, her head spun. It was the heat, the trauma of the past days, the proximity of this man she’d loved too hard, too long. Yet she didn’t give away her turmoil of feelings. “What about your family?”
“My mother died when I was twelve. My father never remarried and never will. I used to see that as depressing, as an unwillingness to move on with his life, but now I don’t. He’s happy. He’s grateful for the years they had.”
“But his experience made you afraid to commit yourself to anyone.”
“But I did anyway,” he said, his mouth meeting hers briefly, a promise. “I love you, Mollie. I’ve loved you for a long, long time. I was just too stupid to see it until now. I’m like my father, Mollie. There’s only one woman for me. When you know that, in your gut, and yet when you’ve seen life’s unfairness-” He paused, and she could see him searching for the right words. “Ten years ago I just thought I was a romantic fool.”
“You still are, Tabak, and you’re the one for me.” She kissed him softly. “You always have been.”
“Even when you were telling me to rot in hell?”
“Even then.”
He smiled. “Shall we go tell your family?”
“They won’t be surprised.”
“They see it coming, do they?”
“No. They’re just never surprised. They’ll just say, ‘Oh, wonderful, then come, sit, and sing along with us.’ ”
“I can’t sing.”
“You can’t?” She grinned, tucked her hand into his. “Now that will surprise them.”
Carla Neggers
