Sparks Fly

to start painting again.”
    Joyce pumped her fist by her side, like a pro basketball player after swishing a three-pointer.
    “Yes!”
    Will grinned crookedly. “Glad to have your support, Mom.”
    Joyce pointed a finger at him. “Only if you have some other good news to tell me, young man.”
    “First you need to tell me where she is.”
    “She’s renting your cottage on the lake with an option to buy.”
    “You can’t be serious.” Will couldn’t figure out why Angelina would have picked up, left California, and rented his house within a span of just a few days.
    “But she, uh ...” Joyce said, stopping to clear her throat. “She doesn’t exactly know that it’s your cottage, or that I was the person who leased it to her.” At Will’s confused look, she added, “Her friend Krista arranged all the details with me directly.”

    Standing in his grandparents’ summer home, where he had spent so many perfect summers as a kid, he was more excited and nervous about seeing Angelina than he had ever been about anything else, his whole life. He patted the box in his pocket and took a deep breath.
    “Everything is going to be just fine, honey,” his mother said, and then, “Now get out of here.
    You’ve done enough worrying and thinking already. It’s time to win over a very important woman.”

    * * *
    Taking off at a blazing clip down the beach, Will headed towards the Ferris wheel that was just barely poking up through the trees on the other side of the lake. He was sure he’d find her there, in the special place where his heart had always been.
    Winding past the food booths and the roller coaster, he caught sight of her silky hair blowing in the breeze as she handed her ticket to the man running the Ferris wheel. Increasing his pace to a run, he pushed past the teenagers in line and handed the man a twenty.
    He barely had time to slide in next to Angelina before the gate for her seat shut.
    “Will?” She put a hand over her heart in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
    “Angelina. You’re beautiful.” He brushed his hand over her cheek. “I’m sorry I let my work take me away from you. But that won’t ever happen again. I’m officially unemployed.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I stepped down from my company this morning.”
    “Are you joking?”
    Will made a lightning-quick move and managed to catch both of her cold hands between his warm ones. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my whole life.”
    Angelina closed her eyes and shook her head. “This can’t be happening.”
    Will felt like a piece of him had just died. “I want to be with you. I thought you wanted to be with me too.”
    “I do, but once I tell you my secret you’re going to hate me forever and then you won’t even have a company to go back to and then you’re going to hate me even more.”
    Tucking his hand gently under her chin, he lifted her face to his. “Nothing you could say would ever make me hate you. I love you, Angelina, don’t you know that?”
    Whatever impact Will thought his words of love would have on Angelina, it wasn’t the new explosion of tears that slipped down her cheeks and onto their hands. He had no idea what to say to her, sensing somehow that it would be wiser to wait for her to tell him about the horrible thing that was eating her up inside.
    She looked at him, her beautiful hazel eyes full of emotion. “I’m pregnant.”
    “Say that again?” He was unable to comprehend her words.
    “I’m pregnant and I know you don’t want to have a baby and I’m not asking you to act like a father, but I’m going to keep it and love it, and I hope you know I don’t ever want any of your money.”
    “We’re going to have a baby,” Will whispered reverently, gazing at Angelina with sincere love in his eyes.
    “You’re not mad?”
    “How could I be mad about the best news I’ve ever heard?”
    “But Joyce said you had decided never to have—” she began, only to be cut off by an earth-shattering kiss.
    Will captured Angelina’s mouth in his and drank his fill of her. When they came up for air, he said, “I love you, Angelina, and I want to marry you and have lots and lots of babies together.”
    Angelina gaped at him, her mouth a tiny circle. “But what about your father?”
    “It’s taken me nearly thirty years to put that pain to rest. But with your love, I think I’m most of the way there.” She was still staring at him like she could hardly believe