He took a long drink from the cup and passed it back to her.

She shook her head and handed it back. She needed to keep a clear head. “You said you had a proposal for me?”

Mason rolled to the right and reached into the pocket of his jeans. He turned toward Annajane, opened his fist and revealed a ring on the flattened palm of his hand. It was the engagement ring he’d given her their first time together. He waited for her reaction.

Nothing.

“I want,” he swallowed hard. Mason didn’t think of himself as a big talker. He wasn’t really effusive. That was his brother’s gift. He’d never had a problem talking to Annajane before. But tonight the words stubbornly resisted being formed into sentences. He’d been thinking about this moment off and on for five years, since the day she’d left. He’d rehearsed the scene in his mind, trying to make it perfect.

She slapped at a bug on her neck and waited. He couldn’t read what she was thinking. That had changed, too. Once, her face had been an open book, vulnerable, patient, expectant. Now, she was a mystery to him. Somehow it was frightening and sexy at the same time.

He took a deep breath. “I want to ask you for a do-over. I know I don’t deserve it. And I have no right to ask for it. But I love you, Annajane. I can’t lose you again. I just can’t. And I know I’m doing this all wrong, blurting out stupid stuff, and it’s crazy to think you’d take me back, after everything I put you through, but I can’t help it. I’m going nuts here.”

Annajane was still staring at him.

“Anything?” he asked.

“I’d like for you to kiss me,” Annajane said quietly.

He carefully put the ring in the ashtray, then pitched the rest of the drink out the open window and tossed the cup into the backseat. Mason held her face between his hands. He rubbed his thumb across her lower lip, and then he lowered his face to hers.

Annajane’s lips were warm and full and sweet, reminding him of ripened cherries. He teased his tongue into her, and laced his fingers in her long, thick hair. Her arms went around his neck, and he slid out from beneath the steering wheel, drawing her closer, letting his hand trail down the smooth skin of her bare arms. She smelled different than he remembered, not the girlish floral scent she’d worn during their marriage; this perfume was spicy, citrus, even exotic. He kissed her earlobes, and her throat, and the hollow of her neck, and his hands drifted downward; slipping one strap of her sundress from her shoulder, he nudged it the rest of his way with his chin, kissing her breast while she raked her fingers through his hair and down his back.

There were buttons on the straps of her dress, and he fumbled, trying to unbutton one, hoping she’d help him out, but instead, she sat back and assessed him with cool green eyes, before catching his hand in hers. She kissed him deeply, then drew back.

“What was the question again?” she whispered.

“I want you to marry me,” Mason said urgently, his hands going to her other shoulder, tugging uselessly at the buttons. “But first, could we take this dress off?”

She kissed him, and nipped his lower lip with her teeth. “I’m afraid not. Not tonight anyway.”

46

Mason wasn’t used to being told no. He wasn’t even used to maybe. He grinned that lazy grin of his, knowing full well the effect it had always had on her. “No, we can’t take this dress off, or no, you won’t marry me?”

She slapped at another mosquito that had landed on her arm and kissed him lightly. “Hmm. As much as I love this place, I really don’t love getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. In case you haven’t noticed, they are currently feasting on my flesh.”

He looked stricken. “I’m sorry. I didn’t stop to think. I mean, you always loved it out here at the lake. It was our special place. I just wanted to be out here with you, again, when I, you know…”

“Asked me to marry you?”

“You’re really not going to make this easy on me, are you?”

“Not this time.” She kissed him again, this time, slipping her tongue into his mouth, pressing herself against him, flattening her breasts against his chest.

He groaned and tried to pull her onto his lap, but she laughed again and moved away. She curled her arms around his neck. “I want you, Mason. I really do. I guess I never stopped wanting you, even after I should have known better.”

“Annajane,” he started, but this time she was the one doing the shushing.

“I’ll give you a do-over. But this time, I need to feel wanted. I want to be courted and flirted with. I need to believe I’m the only woman in the world you want to be with.”

He gripped her arm. “You are. You always were. I was just too stupid to realize it, and to realize that you needed to hear it from me. And you will. I swear, I will never take your love for granted again. I’ll spend the rest of my life reminding you what you mean to me.”

Annajane propped one elbow on the seat back and sighed contentedly. “God, I’ve missed you.”

He took her left hand and tenderly kissed each finger, and then he slid the engagement band onto her ring finger. She cupped his chin in her hands and kissed him deeply, and then handed the ring back.

“I haven’t finished,” she said sweetly. “If I marry you…”

Mason frowned. “You mean, when. Right?”

“If,” she said, lifting her chin. “I definitely mean if. If I marry you, we can’t go back to the way things were. I won’t be the little woman back at the house waiting for your phone call that never comes.”

“Annajane, I’ve changed,” Mason said.

“Good, because I’ve changed, too,” she said. “At least the divorce did that for me. I’m good at what I do, Mason. I mean, really good. If you’ll let me, I think I can help save Quixie. This summer promotion, if we can get the production started on the ads and commercials and Facebook campaign right away, I think it might really work. And I don’t care what Davis says; I know you’re right about adding the new Quixie flavors. We’ve got to expand the brand, not retrench. But you’re going to have to really trust in me and believe in my professional abilities. The way you trusted Celia.”

He looked shame-faced. “You’re right. I totally bought into her vision for the company. Until the shine began to wear off, and I saw what was beneath.”

“It was a pretty beguiling package,” Annajane said.

“All of it was sham,” Mason said. “Me, the company, we were just a commodity to her, something she could pluck, polish, and then peddle.”

“Was that pluck, or fuck?” Annajane asked, laughing at the shocked look on Mason’s face. “See? I told you you’ve been underestimating me.”

“Never again,” he pulled her into his arms. “Are we done here?”

“Not quite,” Annajane said, trying to sound stern, which was difficult while he was nuzzling her neck. “Do you get what all this means, Mason? I want us to be full partners. In everything. I won’t be like your mama. I’m not interested in bridge or in running the altar guild. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but they’re not me.”

He was kissing her again. “I am not marrying my mother. And you are not marrying a man like my father.” He tipped her chin up. “I love you, and only you. I will never cheat on you, Annajane. You are the only partner I will ever want, or need.”

She kissed him back. “I’ve been trying not to think about it, but what happens after next week? You’ll find out how your father divided up the company. What if Davis gets his way? What if you have to sell the company after all?”

“Worrying about that now won’t change whatever is in my dad’s will,” Mason said firmly. “And if we have to sell the company, at least I’ll have a kick-ass partner to help me start a new one. Right?”

“Right,” she said. She held out her hand and held her breath while he replaced the ring. She held it up to the moonlight to admire it. “I’d forgotten how much I loved this thing,” she said.