The Man You'll Marry by Debbie Macomber Page B

Something inside, some reservoir of emotion, had burst wide-open. “You fool,” she shouted. “You idiot!” Her eyes brimmed with tears, and deep in her heart she felt the stirrings of glad excitement. “That was the worst thing you could’ve done!”
    “No,” he said. “It was the smartest.”
    “How can you say that?” she wailed.
    “Shelly?”
    He reached for her as though to offer comfort, but Shelly jerked away and stepped back, freeing herself from his grasp. “Janice was perfect for you,” she lamented.
    “How do you know that?” he asked calmly and much too reasonably to suit Shelly. “You never met her.”
    “I didn’t need to. I know she was right for you. You’d never have asked her to marry you if she wasn’t.”
    “Janice is a wonderful woman and she’ll make some man a good wife, but it won’t be me.”
    “You’re crazy to break off your engagement. Crazy!”
    “No, I’m not,” Mark returned confidently. “I’m absolutely certain I did the right thing. Do you know why?”
    Shelly could only shake her head, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand. She was ecstatic—and yet she was so frightened. She loved him; she was sure of it. Then why had everything become so difficult and confused?
    “What you said about love the other day changed my mind.”
    “You listened to me?” she cried in real horror. “Do I look like an expert on love? I’ve never been in love in my life!” Not counting what she felt for him, of course. She’d always thought love would clarify her life, not make it more complicated.
    Mark paid no attention to her outburst. “You helped me understand that I was marrying Janice for the wrong reasons. I’d decided it was time to settle down. Janice had come to the same conclusion. She’s thirty and figured if she was going to marry and have a family, the time was now. It wasn’t a love match, and we both knew it.”
    “This is none of my business,” Shelly said, frantically shaking her head as if to chase the words away. “I don’t want to hear it.”
    “You are going to hear it,” Mark insisted, clasping her elbows and gently drawing her closer. “You claimed people shouldn’t plan love. It should take them by surprise, you said, and you were right. Janice and I are fond of each other, but—”
    “There’s nothing wrong with fond!”
    His eyes widened. “No, there isn’t,” he agreed, “but Janice isn’t a zany producer. I like spending time with you. I’ve come to realize there’s a certain thrill in expecting the unexpected. Every minute with you is an adventure.”
    “A relationship between us would never last,” Shelly insisted, drawing on the most sensible argument. “It would be fine for a while, but then we’d drift apart. We’d have to. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re nothing alike.”
    “Why wouldn’t a relationship last?” Mark asked patiently.
    “For all the reasons I listed before!” Mark was so endearing, and he was saying all the words she’d secretly longed to hear, but nothing could change the fundamental differences between them.
    “So you aren’t as adept in the kitchen as some women. I’m a fair cook.”
    “It’s more than that.”
    “Of course it is,” he concurred. “But there’s nothing we can’t overcome if we’re willing to work together.”
    “You know what I think it is?” she said desperately, running her splayed fingers through her hair. “You’re beginning to believe there’s magic in Aunt Milly’s wedding dress.”
    “Don’t you?”
    “No,” she cried. “Not anymore. I did when I was a little girl…I loved the story of how Aunt Milly met Uncle John, but I’m not a child anymore, and what seemed so romantic then just seems unrealistic now.”
    “Shelly,” Mark said in exasperation. “We don’t need to do anything right away. All I’m suggesting is we give this thing between us a chance.”
    “There’s nothing between us,” she denied vehemently.
    Mark’s