“No, not on a regular basis. If I’d had a drive to do it, I’d have done it long before this.” She shifted into a more comfortable position. “But I’ve decided to take C.J.’s advice and do the title song for Heat Dance. It’s a compromise, a recording rather than a performance. And I do feel rather personally toward that song.”

“You decided this tonight?”

“I’ve been leaning toward it for quite a while. It seems foolish to live by rules so strict you can’t do something you really want to do. I really want to do that song.” As her head began to droop, she noticed they were turning into her lane.

“It’ll mean flying back to L.A. for a few days for the taping, which’ll thrill C.J.” She gave a sleepy laugh. “He’ll pull out every trick in the book to keep me from coming back.”

Cliff felt the panic in his chest. He pulled the truck up at the end of the drive and set the brake. “I want you to marry me.”

“What?” Half asleep, Maggie shook her head, certain she’d misunderstood.

“I want you to marry me,” Cliff repeated, but this time he took her shoulders so that she wasn’t slumped down in the seat any longer. “I don’t care if you record a dozen songs. You’re going to marry me before you go back to California.”

To say she was stunned would’ve been an immeasurable understatement. Maggie stared at him as if one of them had lost his mind. “I must be a little foggy at the moment,” she said slowly. “Are you saying you want to marry me?”

“You know damn well what I’m saying.” It was too much to know the fear of losing her just when he’d realized he couldn’t live without her. He couldn’t be calm; he couldn’t be rational; he couldn’t let her go without a pledge that she’d come back. “You’re not going to California until you marry me.”

Trying to clear her mind, Maggie drew back. “Are you talking about my doing a recording, or are we talking marriage? One has to do with my business, the other with my life.”

Frustrated that she was calm when he couldn’t be, Cliff dragged her back. “From now on, your life is my business.”

“No.” That sounded too familiar. “No, I don’t want someone looking out for me, if that’s what you mean. I won’t take that kind of responsibility again, or that kind of guilt.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Cliff exploded. “I’m telling you you’re going to marry me.”