22

THERE SHE STOOD BEHIND the freshly varnished front desk of the Josephine. A burst of color in Drew’s gray world. The last two torturous weeks between the time she’d left him standing on the street and this moment disappeared as if they had never existed.

Josie…

The two women she stood with-he absently recognized one as Anne-Marie-became aware of his presence and disappeared back into the kitchen.

That left him and Josie alone, staring at each other.

Drew picked up his suitcase and stepped inside the lobby, much as he had on that fateful day just over three weeks ago. Had it really only been that long? How quickly Josie had become an important part of his life, of his heart. So much so that he couldn’t remember what life had been like without her.

What he had been like without her.

Drew couldn’t begin to reconcile the old him with the one who wanted to be a better man for Josie. His entire philosophy had changed as a result of her love. And while he felt a healthy portion of trepidation about the shift in his life’s direction, he also knew that it was for the better. And no matter what happened in these next few moments, the changes were permanent.

Whatever transpired, he was glad to be here now, rather than at an unspecified time down the road. In a roundabout way, Carol had done him a bigger favor than he’d done her. By agreeing to close up his office and handle any on-site details in Kansas City, she had freed him up to return home.

He put his suitcase down before the front desk. “Do you have any rooms available?” he asked with a hesitant smile.

Josie’s heart was beating so loudly she nearly didn’t hear Drew’s quietly spoken question.

Truthfully, she hadn’t expected to see him again. She’d been convinced that what they’d had, what they’d shared, would be forever relegated to a special corner of the past. Never once had she allowed herself to indulge in the fantasy of his returning. To New Orleans. To her.

She removed her hand from where it lay against her belly as if protecting the precious life growing within her. But protecting it from what, she couldn’t be sure. From pain? From future hurt when Drew left again?

He placed a flyer that Sabine had distributed at the airport on the desk, much like the flyer he’d used the first time around. Josie didn’t have to read it. The pink paper was enough to identify it.

“How long will you be needing the room?” she asked, her throat so tight she nearly couldn’t speak as she turned toward the keys.

“Indefinitely.”

She swiveled to stare at him.

He smiled, seeming more unsure of himself than she’d ever seen him. “Or at least until I can make, um, other arrangements.”

“Other arrangements?”

A man she recognized as a taxi driver lugged in a couple of additional suitcases.

“Just put them over there,” Drew said, indicating a spot near the bottom of the stairs.

The driver mopped his brow with a handkerchief, then tucked the white material back into his pocket. “I’ll go get the rest.”

The rest? Drew had more luggage?

Josie felt as if the floor had just shifted under her feet as the driver left them alone again.

“You didn’t cash the check,” Drew said quietly.

She was so stunned, there was a time delay between when words were said and when they actually registered in her mind.

“Are you really that surprised to see me?”

She nodded, feeling ridiculously close to tears.

Before she could blink them back, he rounded the desk and folded her into his arms. His wonderfully strong arms. A place she’d never thought she’d find herself again.

A place she never wanted to leave.

He smelled of fresh starch and a woodsy aftershave and Drew.

“Jesus,” he murmured, seeming mesmerized as he looked over her face and into her eyes. “You really have no clue how I feel about you.”

She shook her head. No, she knew. But she’d come to learn that feelings and actions were often two different things.

Until now…

He seemed to have forgotten something. While holding her close with one hand, he fished around inside his jacket.

“I would have been here sooner-hell, I would never have left at all-except I had some things to clean up first. Doors to close. Windows to open.” He pulled out a packet of papers in a leather holder and handed them to her. “I know it’s not an engagement ring, but I figured this would mean more to you. Jewelry we can go shopping for together tomorrow.”

Jewelry?

Josie tried to make sense out of what he was saying.

“Take them,” he urged.

“If it’s another check…”

He smiled, skimming his thumb over her cheek then leaning in to kiss her.

Josie melted into him and her mind stopped working at all. Coherent thought gave over to pure instinct.

Oh, how she loved this man.

After long moments, he drew back. “Mmm.” His eyes were dark, his breathing ragged. “We’re going to have to stop doing that in public.” He tugged at his collar. “Go on, read them.”

Josie didn’t think she’d be able to make out a single word, but she opened the envelope anyway and took out the papers. She made out one word at the top of the first page of many: Deed.

She blinked at him.

“Essentially that says you are now owner of the land surrounding the Josephine. Free and clear.”

“What?”

He nodded. “That door I needed to close? It was with my former client, who also employed Philippe.”

She stared at him.

“No, I didn’t know. I suspected there was someone else working the case, but I had no idea who. Needless to say, my client found himself between a rock and a hard place when Philippe was arrested for murder. News like that has been known to bring down the biggest of men.”

She held the papers out to him. “I don’t want these.”

He chuckled softly. “Doesn’t matter, Josie. They’re yours to do with what you want.” He looked around the lobby. “I thought you might want to expand the Josephine.”

She remained silent for a minute, remembering all she’d gone through, all she continued to go through and what the Josephine represented for her. “No. The people who owned these businesses were probably forced into selling, much the same way they wanted to get me to sell.”

He scanned her face. “Then give it back to them.”

Josie’s heart soared so high, she was afraid she’d never be able to cram it back into her chest.

His voice lowered. “Whatever you do, it’s completely your decision.”

The driver appeared in the doorway again, hauling additional bags even larger than the ones before. He was huffing and puffing and didn’t look too happy.

“I’ll…just…go…get…the last…bag,” he said.

Josie couldn’t help giggling.

Giggling! She couldn’t remember when-if-she’d ever indulged in the carefree act, no matter how young, no matter how long ago.

“I hope you tipped him well.”

“I did.”

And she knew he had.

While Drew’s actions in the beginning had been highly questionable, she knew in her bones that the man standing before her was a man of integrity, strength, goodness and love.

And she didn’t know how she’d survived her life so far without him in it.

He slid his hand into his pants pocket. “I may not have been able to decide on a proper engagement ring, but…well…I hope you’ll accept this until we can get you one you like.”

Josie blinked at the band of tiny white shells that matched her anklet. They were so perfect, so small and so her that the tears that had threatened before stated rolling over her lashes.

“Uh-oh,” he murmured, swiping the dampness from her right cheek with his thumb. “I’m not very savvy on the meaning of women’s tears. You’ll have to tell me-are these good or bad?”

She nodded, then shook her head. “It’s…they are…I mean…oh, I don’t know what I mean.” She swallowed hard. “It’s good.”

“May I?”

She held up her trembling left hand so that he could slip the shell ring onto her finger.

“Will you marry me, Josie?” he whispered, seeming to look beyond the years of independence, of trying times, of lonely nights, into the very depths of her soul.

“Yes,” she breathed.

There were hoots and hollers from around the corner. But Josie couldn’t acknowledge them. All she could do was marvel at the difference one man could make.

Granme’s words snaked through her mind as Drew held her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. “Sha b'eb'e, you must always listen to the little voice inside your head. While your heart may lead you astray, your head never will.”

In that one moment, her heart and head were in complete agreement.

And just like that, the curse that had shadowed the Villefranche women for over two centuries was broken.

She smiled as she kissed Drew again and again. She couldn’t wait to share her own little surprise with him. And for some reason she couldn’t explain, she was convinced the life growing within her, the life they had created, would be a little boy.