Dream Kisses

Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Declaration

Six Months Later

Sprawled across her bed, Julie devoured the pages of the book Tooty had secreted to her the previous day. She read the last word and closed it. Smoothing her hand over the cover, she reached and set it on the bedside table before rolling onto her back and placing her hands behind her head. After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, she grabbed the book back up. She was on a mission. Checking the barn first, she found her dad brushing Jackal.

He paused and said, "Hey, Julie, what have you been doing all day? You usually spend Saturdays riding or hanging out with Tooty."

She stopped a few feet from him with her hand behind her back. "Dad, I'm going to ask you to do something and you have to promise you'll say yes."

"How can I say yes to a request like that?"

"You can say yes because you trust me."

Her father studied her face. "Okay, since you put it like that. What do I have to do?"

She pulled her hand from behind her back and shoved the book Dream Kisses at him. "You have to read this."

He took one look at his picture on the cover and went back to brushing Jackal. "I don't want to read it. It wasn't right the way she just up and left."

"Dad, you promised. And I promise you won't be disappointed. You probably don't know this, but Sarah named her characters Tarah and Gage." She let that tidbit of information sink in. "And besides, the way you've been moping around since she left, maybe reading the story will give you closure." Julie thought about how brilliantly she'd worded her request. Now he'd have to read it. She grinned inwardly when he reluctantly accepted the paperback.

* * *

Sage watched Julie walk away and grimaced when he looked at the book. Crap. Now he was curious. Giving Jackal a final pat, he tucked the novel in the waistband of his jeans, grabbed his hat, and headed toward the house.

Dawn's light peeked through his curtains when he read the last page. He finally understood Sarah. At precisely nine o'clock, he was in town and waiting for the library to open. Heading to the bank of computers, he called up the internet and found Mims Murphy's website. He searched her site until he found her schedule.

Two weeks later, he entered the Annual Romance Writers' Convention in San Francisco. According to Mim's website she and several other authors were speaking at the gathering. He located the intricately carved double doors of the auditorium and, inhaling deeply, stepped inside. He was about to turn heads, and he knew it.

The woman at the podium stopped speaking. Behind her, another woman sitting beside Sarah, pointed, and heads in the audience turned. Sage stepped forward until he was in the aisle. A middle aged redhead in an aisle seat shouted, "Oh, my God!" The young blonde beside her gasped and covered her mouth. An elderly lady on the opposite aisle stood and squealed, "It's Gage Garrett from Dream Kisses!" By then, the entire audience had turned to look at him.

Dressed as he had been for the cover of Dream Kisses, he slowly stepped forward, purpose accentuating every footfall. Several women began fanning themselves with their program sheets. He reached the first row and stopped again. Glancing down, he winked at a lady rapidly fanning her pink face with her purple program, and she fell backward against her neighbor.

Returning his gaze to a stunned Mims Murphy alias Sarah Carter alias Tarah Casey, his silence charged the atmosphere. The only sound was the squeak of a chair. Finally, he started to speak and someone shoved a microphone in his hand. He looked at it and shrugged. Lifting it, he said in a deep timbre,

"Tarah Casey what were you thinking to leave me? I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't live without you. I'm wasting away, day by day. I no longer possess my heart; it has been stolen by you. I, Gage Garrett, am but a shell of a man without you. I am begging you to return to Liberty Ranch...Lazy M Ranch...and make me whole."

Silence reigned when he finished his memorization of Gage's words from the last chapter of Dream Kisses, with the words, "Lazy M Ranch," added. He now said, "Sarah Carter, because I'm on the cover of your book, I once jokingly asked what I was doing in those pages. I read Dream Kisses and now I know. I was falling in love with you. Will you marry me and have my babies?"

At his words, several women swooned and the convention turned into pandemonium. Sage vaulted onto the stage and Sarah jumped from her chair, running and launching herself into his arms. Sissy Johansen grabbed a microphone and said, "Sarah, I told you he gave you that look." The audience went wild.

(Don't miss the epilogue.)