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"Does she know about me?" Vanni asked

"She does," he said "God, I hope she and I can work together on this Most of all, I hope you’re notsacrifice because of o any more than you could"

"Vanni, I want to htly "Wait aelse you should tell me before you propose? Any other little secret stuffed in the back of your closet?"

"Honest to God, that’s it Until very recently, I had thelife in Grants Pass!"

"You’re sure about that? Because until last week, I thought I knew everything about you I mean, I’ve known you for years, lived with you for …"

"That’s it Jesus, isn’t that enough? I want to et the lay of the land, I’d like to have ether I’d give anything for that, Vanni"

She smiled "Let’s see how many you have so far before we make those kinds of plans, huh?"

"Then you’llthe hair away frouy, Paul It takes you years to tell me you love me, and minutes to ask me to marry you"

"I’ll wait till you’re ready, but I want us to be together forever"

The corner of her"Don’t you think we should see hoork out sexually? See if we’re good together?" she asked, grinning playfully

"Vanessa, we’ll be good together Well, you’ll be perfect and I’ain "Are you going to say yes or ?"

"Do you think I want to live with my father and have a weekend boyfriend forever? Yes," she said "I’ toher to hiain "Is to on the Grants Pass baby, remember? It won’t make a difference, but I think we should knointo this faht away That’s perfectly reasonable," he said, grinning Then he shook his head in sheer wonder "You’ve been wonderful about this I didn’t really expect you to co to drive me crazy…"

"Well, I’ve turned it over in my mind for a while now When it happened, we didn’t knohere we stood with each other It’s not as if we said the I love you’s and you went to bed with another woman"

"Yet you insisted I try to see if I could love her?"

"I had to be sure I don’t want another woman’s man, even if it’s you"

"You’re remarkable, you know that? In fact, your whole family is remarkable Your dad was pretty civil about it, too"

She was quiet for a moment, a startled look on her face "My dad?" she asked

"Yeah He just wanted to be sure I wasn’t playing with your feelings And he seee, financially I told hi to be a--"

"You toldhi at her for a second "No," he finally said "You told your dad Because he askedabout whether I had commitments in Grants--" He leaned over her shoulder and let his forehead bang against the tree "And I said, ‘Absolutely, sir--I’ll support the wo, pushed hihter shaking her

Paul grimaced "You didn’t tell hiht and her se "That’s a little personal, don’t you think? Plus, you said you still had to be sure it was for real"

"Oh God"

"Paul," she said, "what did you do?"

"I thought you’d told him What did you tell hihing too hard to speak for a while "I told him we shouldn’t be surprised to learn you’d actually had woin River That there was a woainst her onceher back to the tree "It isn’t that funny"

"Are you kidding? It’s hilarious!" She laughed a little ator You walked right into it!"

"I don’t see the humor…"

"Well, if you don’t have a sense of humor, I don’t know if I can--"

She was cut off by hisfor a long ti her with his body They kissed and held on to each other Finally he released her lips and asked, "You done laughing?"

"I am I think you worked it out of ers "Do you think your father will shoot"But if you hear a rifle cock, you ain

"I think I have whisker burn," she told hiood on you, too"

"We have to go back I have a baby to take care of"

"I don’t want to go back…He’s going to be waiting for hed again "We’ve been out here a long tih," he said, and kept her just a few ainst his "Paul, it’s pretty obvious, pinningold tree turns you on"