Twice the Chance, page 22
Moisture filled her eyes. Jazz blinked to clear her vision, and the face of the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with came into focus.
“I love you, too.” The words seemed to burst straight from her heart, too insistent to hold back.
Matt hauled her into his arms, claiming her mouth with a sweet familiarity that sent the blood pulsing through her veins. Jazz kissed him back with all her pent-up longing, savoring the sensations because she’d thought she’d never feel them again.
“Wow,” Matt said when they broke for air. “I might not be able to take things slow if you keep kissing me like that.”
“Why would you go slow?” Jazz asked.
Matt pointed to his chest. “Pushy. Remember? If you don’t keep me in check, I might even ask you to marry me.”
Because he was a family man.
Jazz drew back from Matt’s arms as a realization spread through her with sickening clarity. A quality she loved about Matt could very well keep them apart.
“What’s wrong?” Matt asked.
“We’ve got to tell your family, Matt,” she said. “We especially have to tell Kevin and Terry.”
“Tell us what?” Terry asked.
MATT’S SISTER WAS within a few feet of them, approaching from the back of the tent. Jazz had been so intent on Matt she hadn’t paid attention to anything but him. Her stomach felt like it was going into a free fall.
“You’re back together, aren’t you?” Terry grinned. Without waiting for an answer, she called over her shoulder to her trailing husband. “Kevin, didn’t I tell you Matt and Jazz would get back together?”
Kevin stopped at his wife’s side. “Terry did tell me that.”
“We want to hear all the details,” Terry said, oblivious to what they had been discussing. “But first I’m supposed to tell you it’s almost time to announce the winner of the bake-off. Sadie sent me out here to give you a ten-minute warning.”
“That’s not why I’m here,” Kevin said. “I came to ask if Matt knew whether anybody at this festival was selling beer.”
“Forget about beer,” Terry admonished. “We should bring out champagne to celebrate!”
Jazz summoned the strength to break in to the one-sided conversation. “Champagne’s premature. I was just about to tell Matt I won’t be with him if it will cause problems with his family.”
Terry stopped smiling and tilted her head quizzically. “What problems? We all like you, Jazz. Even Dad likes you.”
The moment Jazz had been trying to avoid since Robbie had told her his birth date had arrived. But before she could come up with the words to answer Terry, Matt gathered Jazz to his side with one arm. Even the warmth of his body couldn’t chase away the chill of anxiety running through Jazz.
“Before this goes any further, I want you both to know I love Jazz. I’d like to have your approval, but I don’t need it.” Matt sounded sure of his position but Jazz couldn’t bear for it to come to that.
Terry placed her hands on her hips. “Why wouldn’t we approve?”
Jazz could have let Matt answer for her, but she was the one who’d put them all into this situation. It was time she faced the consequences.
“Brooke and Robbie are my biological children.” Jazz was surprised that her voice sounded strong and clear. Terry gasped and Kevin’s mouth hung open. Matt’s arm tightened around Jazz, empowering her to continue. She quickly and succinctly went over the circumstances that had led them to this point. By the end of her story, Terry and Kevin stood with their shoulders touching, a vivid reminder that they were united.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Terry’s voice trembled but didn’t crack. “Don’t you think we had a right to know?”
“I never thought it would get this far,” Jazz said.
“I can vouch for that.” Matt’s arm was still secure around Jazz. “I know it’s a lot to swallow but everything Jazz told you is true. She put the children first every step of the way. That’s why she dumped me.”
“What about now?” Terry asked, her voice wavering more than before. “What’s going to happen now?”
The realization struck Jazz that Terry was afraid Jazz would try to take the twins from her. Jazz left Matt’s side and laid a hand on Terry’s arm, which felt stiff.
“Please believe I’d never do anything to hurt the twins or you,” Jazz implored. “You’ve given them a wonderful life, much better than I could have. If you don’t want them to know who I am, I’ll go along with that. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll even leave Charleston.”
“Then I’ll leave, too,” Matt said.
Abruptly, Jazz turned around. Matt was steely-eyed, his lips set in a flat line. He would really leave his beloved hometown to be with her, she realized.
“That is, if Jazz will have me,” Matt amended.
“Wait a minute!” Terry exclaimed. “Who said we wanted either of you to move away?”
“What we want you to do, Jazz, is take a DNA test.” Kevin spoke like the lawyer he was. “We want to control when and how we let the children know who you are. That could be next week, next month, next year or not until they’re eighteen.”
Jazz nodded. Since meeting with Bill Smith, Jazz had changed her stance about keeping her identity secret from the twins. One day Brooke and Robbie would be curious about their birth parents, just as Jazz longed to know if Smith was her father.
“Like I said, I’ll go along with whatever you decide,” Jazz stated with as much sincerity as she could muster.
Terry looked at Jazz long and hard. “I believe you.”
Kevin nodded once, signifying his agreement.
“Thank you for believing me,” Jazz said. “I swear, I’ll never undermine your role as parents or get in the way of your family.”
“But aren’t you going to be part of our family?” Terry asked. “Didn’t Matt ask for our approval because he just proposed to you?”
“I can’t propose yet.” Matt gave Jazz a wry smile. “I have to let enough time go by for Jazz to know I’m not pushing her.”
Jazz didn’t give herself time to reconsider the question that popped into her mind. “What if I proposed to you?”
Matt’s eyes widened. Jazz wasn’t sure why she glanced over at Terry until the other woman’s head moved in a barely perceptible nod. Only then did Jazz let herself dare to believe that everything might work out.
Jazz took Matt’s hand in hers and the certainty that she was doing the right thing grew. Nothing had ever felt so right.
Before Jazz could speak, joyful shouts rang out.
Two red-haired children wearing blue jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts rushed toward them at a frenetic pace, then stopped dead. Color stained their cheeks. As always, Brooke and Robbie appeared to be happy, well-adjusted children. They also seemed a little perplexed.
“Why is Jazz holding Uncle Matt’s hand like that?” Robbie asked, slightly breathless.
“Shhhh,” Matt told his nephew. “Jazz is about to ask me to marry her.”
“That’s not the way it’s supposed to be!” Brooke shouted. “Boys propose to girls!”
“What are you going to say, Uncle Matt?” Robbie asked.
“You heard your uncle, children!” Terry put a finger to her lips. “Shhhh.”
Jazz gazed from Matt to his sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. Brooke and Robbie were beaming, their small faces alive with excitement. Terry and Kevin wore smiles that were more reserved.
“I guess there’s no chance we can do this without an audience?” Jazz asked.
“No chance,” Brooke answered.
“No chance,” Robbie echoed.
“Okay, then,” Jazz said. “Here goes.”
She gazed into Matt’s eyes, which had turned soft and serious. She took a mental snapshot, aware this was an occasion that would live forever in her memory. “I love you, Matt Caminetti. Will you marry me?”
“Say yes, Uncle Matt!” Robbie said.
“Yes!” Brooke added.
It seemed incredible that the most wrenching decision Jazz had ever made had brought her to this wonderful man and this incredible moment.
“Yes,” Matt said.
EPILOGUE
Twenty months later
THE BABY GIRL had red hair.
Wispy tufts of it that appeared brown until the sunlight streamed through the hospital window and showed her true color.
“She’s as lovely as her mother.” Matt sat on the edge of the bed where Jazz lay propped against the pillows, their newborn daughter cradled in his arms.
After just over a year of marriage, Jazz was used to flattering comments from Matt. This was the most lavish compliment yet because Jazz had never gazed upon anything more beautiful than Ashley Lenox Caminetti. They’d named her after Ashley Greens Park, the place they’d met.
“Ashley does look like my side of the family.” Jazz should have felt exhausted after fourteen hours of labor, but nothing compared to the high of bringing a new life into the world with the man you loved. She ran a light hand over the sleeping baby’s head and breathed in her new-baby smell. “When Brooke and Robbie were born, they had the same thin red hair.”
Matt traced the curve of the baby’s cheek with a forefinger that looked disproportionately huge. Ashley’s pale eyelashes fluttered and her mouth puckered before she settled back into a deep sleep.
“She’s their cousin and their sister.” Matt spoke in a soft voice. “Brooke and Robbie are two lucky kids.”
“I’m the lucky one, marrying into a family as wonderful as yours,” Jazz said.
Terry and Kevin had never restricted Jazz from spending time with the twins, even arranging for Jazz to take Brooke to dance class Monday nights and to pick Robbie up from soccer practice Tuesday afternoons.
By the time they’d sat the twins down a few months ago and told them Jazz was their birth mother, Brooke and Robbie had treated the revelation as no big deal. They already considered Jazz to be part of the family.
“You think my father is wonderful?” Matt asked with a raised eyebrow.
Jazz smothered her laugh so she wouldn’t wake Ashley. Len Caminetti had more rough spots than an emery board.
“Your dad came to a Charleston Kicks game last month, didn’t he?” Jazz didn’t mention that it was the first game Len had attended since the pro soccer organization hired Matt two seasons ago. Matt’s job was mainly administrative but he also trained the Kicks goalkeepers and still had time to coach youth soccer on the side. “I think Len is really trying to support you.”
“He’s trying to get us to invite him over to dinner more often.” Matt winked at her. “My mom told me he brags to all his friends that his daughter-in-law is going to be a famous chef one day.”
“I need to finish culinary arts school first.” With another nine months left before she earned her associate’s degree, enrolling in the program had already netted Jazz fabulous rewards. So far it didn’t even matter that she was an ex-con. One of her professors had vouched for her at a downtown restaurant, helping Jazz get a part-time job as a kitchen’s helper where she had gained valuable experience.
Jazz had no plans to do anything in the immediate future except care for Ashley and go to class, but her professional future looked bright. Everything, it seemed, was finally going her way. But only because she’d taken some chances. Maybe it was time to take another one, she decided.
“I’m going to call Bill Smith and ask him to reconsider taking the DNA test,” Jazz announced. Voicing her plans cemented the fact that it was the right move. “You remember that Bill’s a twin, right? When we talked to him in Beaufort, I never mentioned I’d given birth to twins. That might make a difference to him.”
“It might not,” Matt pointed out.
Jazz cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you advising me not to take a chance?”
Matt shook his head. “Never. I’m the guy who goes after what he wants. That’s why I have a gorgeous wife and a beautiful baby.”
Ashley shifted in her sleep and let out a soft, sweet sigh. Matt and Jazz smiled at each other.
“Is it almost time for visiting hours?” Jazz asked him.
Matt checked his watch. “Only a few minutes until the invasion.”
“I told you Sadie and Carl were coming, right?” Jazz asked. “Sadie’s dying to see the baby but she reminded me you haven’t seen her engagement ring yet.”
“I’ll ooh and aah,” Matt promised. “And did I tell you that Danny’s coming with my mom and dad? And that Terry and Kevin are bringing Brooke and Robbie?”
As if on cue, laughter and loud conversation drifted down the hall. A whoop sounded followed by what sounded like two pairs of pounding footsteps.
“Brooke! Robbie!” Len Caminetti’s voice carried into the room. “No running in the hospital!”
“Are you ready?” Matt asked in a singsong voice. “Because the gang’s almost here.”
Before Jazz had fallen in love with Matt and he convinced her to forgive herself for the past, Jazz had been alone. No more. In the crook of Matt’s arms, their infant daughter opened green eyes that went well with her red hair.
I’ve come a long way, baby, Jazz thought.
“I’m ready,” she said aloud.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0615-1
TWICE THE CHANCE
Copyright © 2011 by Darlene Hrobak Gardner
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, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 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.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For questions and comments about the quality of this book please contact us at Customer_eCare@Harlequin.ca.
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
*Return to Indigo Springs
Darlene Gardner, Twice the Chance
