Escapade (9781301744510) Read online

  Rory gazed up at him, her heart full of pride. "I know you could. I would help you. If you did run for mayor, I could drop pamphlets for you from my balloon."

  He grimaced a little at that, but laughed and said, "I hope I can keep your feet on the ground for a little while. At least until I take you home to meet my family. I have strict orders from Caddie to bring you to dinner. I only wish that my mother could be there as well. Maybe Cynthia Van Hallsburg gave me life, but it was Sadie that made it worth living. There's so much I regret now, so much I wish I could have made Sadie understand, how grateful I was, how much I loved her."

  Rory reached up to touch his cheek. "I have a feeling she understood more than you imagined, and wherever she is now, I am sure she knows."

  Zeke pressed a kiss against her palm. "I'll have to take your word for that. My faith has always been shaky. I guess until it grows stronger, I'll just have to borrow some of yours."

  "I'd gladly lend it all to you," Rory said, wanting to share everything with him—her faith, her dreams, the rest of her life.

  Zeke tightened his arms about her, straining her hard against him. "That's one mistake I'll never make again with you, Aurora Rose, keeping my feelings all dammed up inside. You're always going to know how much I love you, never be left to doubt it a single day of your life."

  Her heart too full to answer, Rory could only show him how much his words meant to her by upturning her face to receive his kiss. From a great distance, she could hear Finn McCool barking, the creak of Miss Flanagan's front door as it opened. Swept up in the heady sweetness of Zeke's embrace, Rory tightened her arms about him, determined to give her inquisitive neighbor something well worth craning her neck to see.

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