Embraced by Love by Suzanne Brockmann

earlier that morning.
    As she climbed out of the taxi, she could see Cooper. He’d gotten out of his car, and was standing in the driveway, staring at her as if she were Elvis stepping out of a UFO. There was so much amazement and surprise on his face, Josie felt her heart clench in pain.
    He truly hadn’t expected her to come after him.
    How could he have thought she wouldn’t come?
    As the cab backed out of the driveway, Josie slowly walked toward Cooper. He smiled at her, but his smile was shaky, and she could see tears in his eyes.
    He apologized as he pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered as he held her close. “God, I’m so sorry.”
    She dropped her bag on the gravel and wrapped her arms around his waist. She could hear his heart beating, strong and steady, as she pressed her head against his chest.
    “I’m sorry, too,” she said.
    “I was on my way home,” he said, kissing her. His smile still wasn’t up to its full wattage. “Another few minutes, and you would’ve missed me.”
    “Oh, Lord,” Josie said.
    “I can’t believe you’re here,” Cooper said. “I’m not usually so insecure, but I was starting to have some doubts and—”
    “Oh Cooper, you know that I love you,” she said. Tears escaped from her eyes, rolling down her checks.
    “Yeah,” he said. “I guess I just didn’t know how much.”
    Gently he caught the tears that were falling with his knuckles, brushing them away. Cupping her face with his hands, he kissed her deeply.
    Damn, he was tired. He hadn’t slept at all last night. He hadn’t even tried. He’d sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and trying to come up with a solution to their problems. For a while, he’d contemplated a permanent, final solution—separation or even divorce. But as the night wore on, he realized the bittersweet truth. Josie owned him, heart and soul. Without her, he’d be empty, a mere shell of a man. No matter how difficult living with her was going to be over the next thirteen months, and even though there was no guarantee that things would ever change, he knew he would be far happier with her than without her.
    As he’d focused his attention on finding ways to make the next thirteen months easier for both of them, he’d been running on caffeine and adrenaline. And a healthy dose of fear had added more fuel to his energy source. What if, he had wondered, what if now that he’d walked out she wouldn’t take him back?
    But she’d come after him. She loved him enough to skip work and follow him.
    Cooper’s relief was total. And right on the heels of that relief came a wave of fatigue so intense he felt himself sway and nearly fall over.
    “Let’s go inside,” he heard Josie say. “If we’re going to talk, I’m going to need some coffee. I didn’t sleep a wink last night.” She chuckled. “You didn’t either, from the looks of things.”
    As she picked up her bag, he pulled his from the backseat of his car, along with a tube of drawings that he’d done. Holding tightly to each other’s hand, they walked up the hill to the house.
    Cooper had designed this house. Josie was still surprised every time she saw it. She’d seen work of his that had been bold or quirky, with an underlying hint of his humor, but this house was all softness and grace. Cooper had envisioned it as a place to relax, to unwind, and everything about the house, from the beautiful wraparound porch to the faintly Victorian tower, was soothing to the eye.
    They went up onto the porch and Cooper unlocked the front door.
    Josie set her bag down by the stairs leading up to the second floor and followed Cooper into the kitchen.
    The kitchen was her favorite room in the entire house. It was a big, spacious room, with huge windows on each side to let in the cool breezes in the summer and the sunshine in the winter. Large squares of warm, earth-colored Mexican tile covered the floor, and the cabinets and counter tops were a bright, clean white.
    As