Welcome to Mills & Boon. Jennifer Rae

was just a sort of joke, really.’

      ‘No, it wasn’t,’ Flynn said, and tried not to focus on how long it had been since he’d seen her, and how much he had hurt her. ‘It told me everything you felt and wanted. It let me know you, see you clearer than I ever had. That and finally hearing the full story about what happened to you.’

      She looked away and Flynn reached out to rest his palm against her cheek, to keep her eyes on him. ‘Why didn’t you tell me in Tuscany?’

      ‘Because it wouldn’t have made any difference,’ Helena said, and her mouth twisted up into an almost smile. ‘Everything you said was still true.’

      ‘No,’ Flynn said, as firmly as he could. He had to make her believe this. ‘I judged you as the person I thought you were, without even thinking about you as the woman I’d fallen in love with. I...before I read what you’d written, I was angry with myself for falling in love with you. For loving someone who had done something I considered unforgivable. But now...now I feel I know you better. And I know, even if you don’t, that the woman who wrote this doesn’t have it in her not to love. You think you wouldn’t have loved that child? You’re wrong.’

      ‘In which case, I still did the wrong thing by giving her away.’ Helena pulled away. ‘So nothing changes.’

      ‘I changed,’ Flynn said quietly. ‘You changed me. I thought...I thought I had to follow a plan, my rules, my schedule. That anything outside of them was wrong. By my rules, what you did was wrong, yes. But you don’t live by my rules—or anyone else’s. You made the decision you had to make at the time, with the best information you had. And that decision had a big part in shaping who you are today, in making you the woman I love.’

      ‘So...you’re saying you forgive me?’ Helena chewed on her lower lip as she looked up at him with those big bluebell eyes.

      ‘I’m saying that you don’t need my forgiveness. You need to forgive yourself.’

      * * *

      She couldn’t stop the tears, didn’t even want to. And, as Flynn pulled her into his arms and held her against his chest, she knew she’d come home again, at last.

      ‘Do you forgive me?’ Flynn asked against her hair. ‘The things I said...they were unforgivable, I know. But do you think...?’

      ‘Yes,’ Helena said. ‘I forgive you.’ But if forgiveness was the start for them, she knew it wouldn’t be everything. They had a long way to go yet.

      ‘But, Flynn,’ she said, leaning back to see his face, ‘I can’t just forget—any of it. You, or what happened to me. That’s going to take time.’

      ‘I have all the time in the world for you.’ Flynn set his cheek against her hair and Helena sighed. It felt right. She wanted it to be right. And yet...

      ‘I can’t promise you anything,’ she said. ‘Well, nothing beyond the fact that I’m apparently always going to love you. Can’t seem to shake that one.’

      ‘Good.’

      ‘But I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to have children.’ It hurt to say the words, hurt to think it. She’d been happy, imagining her life without kids, until she’d married Flynn. Now, it stung—not just because she couldn’t give him what she knew he wanted, but because for the first time she wondered if she might want it too.

      Flynn loosened his arms from around her waist and took her hands in his instead, rubbing his thumb over the knuckles of the fingers, still wrapped around the object he’d placed in her palm.

      ‘I promise you this,’ he said, his expression solemn. ‘There is no schedule for our life together, no plan. Not any more. If it happens one day that you turn to me and tell me you’re ready to try for a baby, I’ll be the happiest man on earth. And if it doesn’t?’ He shrugged. ‘I’ll still be the happiest man on earth because I’ll be married to you.’

      Slowly, he dropped to his knees and Helena bit back a sob. Could he really be giving her everything she’d ever wanted? And could she forgive herself enough to accept?

      Peeling back her fingers, he took her engagement ring from her hand and placed it at the tip of her ring finger. ‘Helena Juliette Ashton. Will you do me the honour of being my wife?’

      Through her tears, Helena giggled. ‘Isn’t this where we came in?’ she asked as he slid the ring home.

      ‘It’s the only place I want to be,’ Flynn said, and tugged her down for a kiss.

       EPILOGUE

      THE TUSCAN SUN shone down as bright as ever, and Helena pulled the brim of her straw hat down to shade her eyes as she watched her niece and nephew chase each other through the grapevines, racing after their new friend Casper.

      It had been five years since she and Flynn had first visited Gia’s vineyard, but Helena still felt exactly the same sense of home as she had the first time.

      Up ahead, Thea and Zeke quizzed Gia about her growing methods, about how the wine was made, and Gia answered patiently the questions she must have been asked a thousand times before.

      Helena tuned them out and focused instead on the warm sun on her shoulders, the buzz of summer insects in the air, and her husband’s hand in her own.

      ‘This is a wonderful place for a family, don’t you think?’ she asked, and Flynn murmured his agreement.

      ‘I’m so glad we got to bring Thea and the kids here,’ she went on. ‘It’s good to share this place with them.’

      ‘It’s been a great holiday,’ Flynn agreed, but Helena knew he was barely listening—too languid and lazy in the sun.

      ‘Maybe we’ll come back again next year with our own child,’ she said as casually as she could.

      Flynn stopped walking and Helena grinned, ducking her head so he couldn’t see.

      ‘Helena. Are you saying...? Do you think you might be ready to maybe...?’ It wasn’t often Flynn fell over his words. It was kind of nice to hear.

      She beamed up at him, loving the amazed wonder on his face. ‘I’m saying it’s a little late for that conversation.’

      His eyes widened further. ‘You mean you’re already...? And you’re okay? Do you want to talk about it?’

      ‘I’m fine,’ Helena assured him, taking his hand and placing it on her still flat stomach. ‘We’re fine.’

      ‘We said we’d talk about this if you ever changed your mind. I don’t want you to feel—’

      ‘All I feel is happy—’ Helena interrupted ‘—happy and grateful and loved.’

      Flynn let out a long breath. ‘You’re sure?’

      ‘I’m sure.’ She grinned. ‘And you did say you wanted to be more spontaneous.’

      ‘I couldn’t have planned this any better,’ Flynn said, and kissed her.

      * * * * *

      Read on for an extract from THE HEIR’S UNEXPECTED RETURN by Jackie Braun.

      CHAPTER ONE

      FAT THUNDERCLOUDS ROLLED overhead and spat rain like machine gun fire as wave after wave battered Hadley Island’s sandy beachfront. As it was on one of the barrier islands off the South Carolina coast, the sixteen-mile-long stretch of pristine shoreline was used to the abuse. Mother Nature’s fury, however, was no match for the emotions roiling inside Brigit Wright.

      Unmindful of the worsening storm, she continued to walk. In the pocket of the yellow rain slicker she wore, she fisted her hand around the already-crumpled piece of paper. Printing out the email hadn’t