Local Hero

life
trying
to make it work. Before you came in today with all of this, I’d decided to ask you if you still wanted to marry me.”
    “The answer to that is yes, with a couple of stipulations.”
    She’d already started to move into his arms, but drew back. “Stipulations?”
    “Yeah, you’re a banker, you know about stipulations, right?”
    “Yes, but I don’t look at this as a transaction.”
    “You better hear me out, because it’s a big one.” He ran his hands up her arms, then dropped them to his side. “I want to be Rad’s father.”
    “If we were married, you would be.”
    “I believe stepfather’s the term used in that case. Rad and I agreed we didn’t go for it.”
    “Agreed?” She spoke carefully, on guard again. “You discussed this with Rad?”
    “Yeah, I discussed it with Rad. He brought it up, but I’d have wanted to talk to him, anyway. He asked me this afternoon if I was going to marry you. Did you want me to lie to him?”
    “No.” She paused a moment, then shook her head. “No, of course not. What did he say?”
    “Basically he wanted to know if I’d still be his friend, because he’d heard sometimes stepfathers change a bit once their foot’s in the door. Once we’d gotten past that hurdle, he told me he didn’t want me as a stepfather.”
    “Oh, Mitch.” She sank down on the edge of the desk.
    “He wants a real father, Hester, because real fathers don’t go away.” Her eyes darkened very slowly before she closed them.
    “I see.”
    “The way I look at it, you’ve got another decision to make. Are you going to let me adopt him?” Her eyes shot open again with quick surprise. “You’ve decided to share yourself. I want to know if you’re going to share Rad, all the way. I don’t see a problem with me being his father emotionally. I just want you to know that I want it legally. I don’t think there’d be a problem with your ex-husband.”
    “No, I’m sure there wouldn’t be.”
    “And I don’t think there’d be a problem with Rad. So is there a problem with you?”
    Hester rose from the desk to pace a few steps away. “I don’t know what to say to you. I can’t come up with the right words.”
    “Pick some.”
    She turned back with a deep breath. “I guess the best I can come up with is that Radley’s going to have a terrific father, in every way. And I love you very, very much.”
    “Those’ll do.” He caught her to him with relief. “Those’ll do just fine.” Then he was kissing her again, fast and desperate. With her arms around him, she laughed. “Does this mean you’re going to approve the loan?”
    “I’m sorry, I have to turn you down.”
    “What?”
    “I would, however, approve a joint application from you and your wife.” She caught his face in her hands. “Our house, our commitment.”
    “Those are terms I can live with”—he touched her lips with his—“for the next hundred years or so.” He swung her around in one quick circle. “Let’s go tell Rad.” With their hands linked, they started out. “Say, Hester, how do you feel about honeymooning in Disneyland?”
    She laughed and walked through the door with him. “I’d love it. I’d absolutely love it.”

Keep reading for an excerpt from
    the third book in the Inn BoonsBoro trilogy
    by Nora Roberts
    THE PERFECT HOPE
    Available November 2012 from Berkley Books

With a few groans and sighs, the old building settled down for the night. Under the star-washed sky its stone walls glowed, rising up over Boonsboro’s square as they had for more than two centuries. Even the crossroads held quiet now, stretching out in pools of shadows and light. All the windows and storefronts along Main Street seemed to sleep, content to doze away in the balm of the summer night.
    She should do the same, Hope thought. Settle down, stretch out. Sleep.
    That would be the sensible thing to do, and she considered herself a sensible woman. But the long day left her restless and, she reminded herself, Carolee would arrive bright and early to start breakfast.
    The innkeeper could sleep in.
    In any case, it was barely midnight. When she’d lived and worked in Georgetown, she’d rarely managed to settle in for the night this early. Of course, then she’d been managing the Wickham, and if she hadn’t been dealing with some small crisis or handling a guest request, she’d been enjoying the nightlife.
    The town of Boonsboro, tucked into the foothills of Maryland’s Blue Ridge