He would never forget that moment six months ago when they’d found themselves alone at a business conference in Juneau. He’d looked at her. She’d looked at him.
And the world had changed.
He’d felt it. Seen it echoed in her eyes. He’d asked her to have a drink with him. She’d said yes…and here they were. Together. Committed.
Clearing his throat with a breath of icy air, he returned his attention to the present. To the ride. His first with Jeannie. He could envision many more such outings in their future.
Once they settled the controversy between their children.
Damn it all. He scrubbed his gloved hand under the lamb’s wool collar of his coat. He and Jeannie were adults, for God’s sake. Their spouses had died years ago. He wasn’t ready to crawl in the grave, not by a longshot.
Maybe if he’d found someone else, someone without the surname Mikkelson… But life had always thrown him curve balls, and apparently, his love life wasn’t any different. Knowing how precious happiness was made him all the more determined to enjoy what he’d found.
He glanced at Jeannie as she swayed alongside him, so regally beautiful she threatened to steal his breath all over again. “Thank you for coming today, to my home.”
She smiled back at him. “Our home, soon.”
“That it will be.” He still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to leave her own home for his. “We could build a place of our own, if you wish, or if you think it would make things easier for your children.”
She scanned the stretch of land from his sprawling mansion to the seaplane bobbing on the lake. “This place is lovely. I promise I’ll be slow in putting my own stamp on things so as not to upset the Steele applecart.”
“It’s your home, too,” he said firmly. “Your choices are mine.”
Her exhalations puffed a cloud of white into the afternoon air. “If only it could be that simple. Are you sure you’re prepared for this fight? For what it could cost us?”
“Nothing in life has come easily for me or mine. My children are made of tougher stuff. Once they get past the surprise—”
“Shock,” Jeannie corrected.
“Well, that’s one way of putting it.” He couldn’t hold back his chuckle at the memory of Broderick’s and Glenna’s faces when they’d opened that bathroom door. “They certainly didn’t learn in the gradual way we’d planned.”
Jeannie laughed along with him, the sound of their voices floating together on the wind. Damn, he was getting downright poetic these days.
Love did that to a man.
He reached for the reins to Jeannie’s horse and guided both animals to a stop. He reached out to stroke back Jeannie’s hair and tuck it into her hood, then cupped her neck. “What we’ve found together is a gift.”
Her blue eyes glistened with tears and she touched his wrist, squeezing. “One I didn’t expect to have again.”
“And one I’m not giving up,” he said without hesitation.
“Even if it threatens your business?”
“Even if it threatens yours?”
“Ours,” she answered with a smile. “Like the houses.”
“Exactly.” He slid his hand down to grip her waist, then lifted her from the horse and onto his lap.
“We are a team now.” She looped her arms around his neck, leaning against him. “This is real.”
“Yes, my dear, it is very real.” As real as his growing need to have her right now. But this was more than an affair. He loved her. “Our families need to get on board with our engagement. No more separate explanations, separate family meetings. They have to learn how to be together if the business merger stands a chance at working.”
“You’re right.” She kissed him once, twice, enticing as hell. “And the sooner the better. For them as well as for us, because I love you, Jack Steele.”
“I know you do. I love you, too, lady.” He hugged her closer, securing both sets of reins in his fist. “And you know what else?”
“Do tell?”
“I want you. Right now.”
And lucky for them, the plane hangar was very, very close.
* * *
Glenna clutched the edge of her chair. She was in the glassed-in sunroom at the Steele family lodge for their first big co-family gathering. It was so surreal.
Not that it was a completely blended family get-together. The women sat on different sides of the room, based on family affiliation. Glenna and Alayna stayed closer to their mother, along with their sister-in-law, Shana. Whereas the two Steele hostesses, Naomi and Delaney, stood like bookends near the wet bar, so alike in appearance even if opposite in temperament, Naomi being a partying wild spirit, Delaney an intensely serious green-issues crusader.