The Private Eye

to her feet. “Will it tell me if you love me. Josh? Will it tell me that? Because that's the only question that you haven't answered for me. I already know everything else I need to know about you.”
    “Maggie...” Josh started to get to his feet, obviously taken aback by her reaction.
    “I don't need data on you. Josh.” Maggie picked up the pile of forms and papers and hurled them into the air. “I just need to know if you can love me as much as I love you, damn it! A real simple question. Josh.”
    “You love me?” Josh stared at her, a slow smile warming his cold eyes. “You love me, Maggie Gladstone?”
    Maggie was battling tears now. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. “Of course I love you, you big idiot.”
    “I was sure you did, sweetheart, but you never said it. You kept saying you needed time.”
    “I said you needed time. Time to figure out that you loved me. You kept giving me all sorts of stupid reasons for letting our engagement stand. You said it was a good cover story. And then you said you thought maybe things would work between us, so we might as well give the engagement a chance. And then you agreed to stay on here for another month or two while you recuperated from burnout. But you never once said you loved me.”
    “Maybe that's because I've never said those words to “anyone else in my life and I wasn't sure how to say them “to you.”
    “Oh, Josh.” She wiped her eyes again.
    “I love you, Maggie.” Josh shoved his chair back and moved around the table to take her into his arms. He folded her close, heedless of the smiles on the faces of the Colonel, Odessa and Shirley. “I fell in love with you that first night when you opened the door and told me I didn't look like what you'd ordered up in the way of a private investigator.”
    “Josh.”
    “I'll be staying on for a lot longer than a month or two, sweetheart. I've decided I need more than a vacation. I need a career change.”
    “Oh, Josh.” Maggie wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and squeezed.
    Josh sucked in his breath. “Easy, honey. The ribs took a beating last night when I was rolling around on the basement floor.”
    “Oh, dear. I knew you should have stayed in bed today.” Maggie stepped back and examined him from head to toe. “I really think we should take you to the Peregrine Point Clinic for a thorough check, Josh.”
    “No. I am not going to another doctor,” he stated, “All I need is plenty of rest and relaxation. I came out here to recuperate—if you will recall, So far, I've had very little opportunity to do so, but I intend to start working on it immediately. I'd like to be in reasonably good shape for my wedding.”
    Maggie raised her head, smiling brilliantly. “When is that?”
    “How about the end of the month?” Josh suggested.
    “The end of the month?” Maggie was instantly horrified. “I can't possibly get ready for a wedding by the end of the month.”
    “I think we can manage.” Josh grinned at the faces of the three people who were still sitting at the table. “We'll have lots of help.”
    “Might as well make it a double wedding,” the Colonel announced cheerfully. He beamed at Odessa. “No sense going to all the expense of two receptions in a short period of time.”
    “You're right,” Josh agreed. “We're going to have to watch the budget around here until the manor is taking paying guests again.”
    “Spoken like a born innkeeper,” Maggie said. “I think you'll go far in the business, Josh,”

    IN SPITE OF the short notice, most of Peregrine Point showed up for the double wedding celebration at the manor. The cars filled the small parking lot and stretched in a line all the way down the driveway to the road. The guests swarmed through the first floor of the big house, filling the beautiful rooms with laughter and chatter.
    Midway through the reception, Josh finally found himself alone for a moment. He stepped out onto the front porch and glanced down at his watch. He frowned. McCray was rarely late. Just as that thought flickered through his mind. Josh heard the sound of a car coming up the driveway. He grasped the porch railing and leaned forward to watch as a familiar blue Oldsmobile came to a halt in front of the manor. There were two men in the front seat.
    McCray got out first and came around the hood of the car.
    “Well, hell, January. Don't you look spiffy.” McCray cast a perusing eye over Josh's black-and white formal attire.