She had no idea when she lost the blindfold. She didn’t know whether it had fallen off or one of them had removed it. She was only aware of the roar of blood in her ears, the ecstasy of being joined with this man she loved so very much, the fierce passion of his love words as he thrust so deeply into her body.

“All my life . . .”

“I know. My sweet . . .”

“Forever . . .”

“Oh, yes. Forever.”

They pledged themselves with word and body, then cried out together as their love flowed warm and rich from one heart into the other.

When it was over, he held her against him as if he’d never let her go. His voice was thick with emotion. “I love you so much. I’ve been lonesome for you all my life.”

Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. “You’re the most wonderful man in the entire world.”

She could feel him smile against her forehead. “You’re not mad?”

“Why would I be?”

“I wanted to drive out the bad memory, honey. I wanted to put a good one in its place.”

She had no idea what he was talking about, and she was too lethargic to question him. Sighing with contentment, she snuggled her cheek into his neck and opened her eyes. She was aware of the gentle beating of his heart, the stars twinkling in the sky above, the soaring gridwork of steel. . . .

Her head shot up.

“Something wrong, sweetheart?”

“Oh, my God!”

They were lying naked on the fifty yard line in the very center of the Midwest Sports Dome.

EPILOGUE

Dan walked down the quiet lane and breathed in the fragrant evening air of late May. He caught the scent of rich, damp earth, along with the faint hint of lilacs from the bushes he and Phoebe had planted not long after they were married. Contentment seeped through every pore of his body even though his wife was in a snit, and he knew he was going to hear about it the minute she got him alone.

She got upset about the strangest things. Just because he’d asked a few perfectly innocent questions about that raging hormone who was taking Molly to her high school senior prom was no reason to accuse him of being overly protective. It had been odd starting out his marriage as a stand-in father for a teenage girl, but he knew he’d done a lot better job of it than Bert Somerville. He and Phoebe had secretly rejoiced when Molly had decided to go to Northwestern instead of one of the Ivy League schools. They didn’t want her too far from home.

So much had happened these past three years. Ray Hardesty had suffered a fatal heart attack before he could go to trial. Reed Chandler had taken the hint about leaving town, and the last anybody’d heard, he was selling cheap condos on a run-down Florida golf course. There had been weddings: Ron and Sharon, Darnell and Charmaine. He’d be surprised if Valerie and Jason Keane ever got married, but they certainly made an interesting couple. There had been a wrenching funeral when his friend Tully Archer had died of pneumonia. The Stars had lost their first two Super Bowls and failed to qualify the third year. This year, however, they’d finally won it, and the Lombardi trophy was sitting in the lobby of the Stars Complex to prove it. Best of all, he’d become a family man.