“This better be good,” Julia answers with an annoyed tone.
“Who the hell is calling us on our honeymoon?” Bram asks in the background.
The phone is tossed onto what I’m assuming is their bed. “It’s your boyfriend.”
“Rath?” Bram asks and then scrambles for the phone. His tanned face comes onto the screen and oddly, I start to feel a little bit at ease. “Dude, please tell me you’re calling me to tell me you’re back together with Charlee.”
I hated telling Bram what was going on, but Sunday morning after the wedding, during brunch, he called me out on my mood and I had to explain to him what happened. He was beside himself to say the least. We didn’t get too much into it though, because they had to catch a plane. I told him not to worry about me and everything was going to be okay.
Well, it’s not okay and I need his advice.
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Seriously?” He flops back on his pillow. “What the fuck is going on?”
I lean back as well. “She went to her parents’ place all last week. Wouldn’t answer any of my texts. I wasn’t even sure she was going to come in today, but I prepared myself if she did. I brought in pastries.”
“Smooth.” Bram nods.
“I thought so, but when I saw her, it’s as if a robot replaced the fun, bubbly girl I’ve come to love. And then, the kick to the crotch, she sat down and asked if we could set some ground rules.”
“Nooooo.” Bram covers his eyes. “Not fucking ground rules.”
“Yeah, good old G-R.”
“Ground rules are the death to any relationship.”
“Tell me about it. I told her to write down her ideas and we would go over them tomorrow.”
“Smart, avoidance, I like it. So, what’s next?”
“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “I need to come up with some way to show her just how much I care about her. I was hoping you could help me.”
“You’ve come to the right person.” His eyes widen. “I know, fill the office with rose petals and candles. Girls love that stuff.”
“Yeah? Where do I get rose petals from?”
“A florist? I don’t know, you’re rich, make some calls. Oh, and get more pastries. Make a pastry tower. Girls love sweets too. And play some music, some of that . . . oh shit, you know, you should get Josh Groban to come and sing a love song, or Michael Bublé, isn’t he in town? I’m sure you could easily buy him for an hour. No girl can say no to Michael. And then just for the hell of it, hold a puppy when you say sorry.”
“A puppy?”
“Yes, girls love puppies, impossible to say no to them. Believe me, it—”
The phone is snatched from his grasp and Julia comes into picture. “That is some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard. You better hope you never make me mad because those tactics don’t work on me.”
“You’re right,” Bram says. “You’re easy. I just rub my dick on your leg and you’re like goo in my hand.”
“What is wrong with you? Congratulations, you just earned yourself a sexless night on your honeymoon.”
“Why? Because you like dick on your leg? Rath already knew that.”
“I really didn’t.” I pinch my brow together. “And if we can stop repeating that, that would be great.”
“If you want to make things right with Charlee, you need to get to the root of the problem. Throwing superficial shit at her is never going to solve the problem. You want to show her you’re sorry; think about your relationship and what you lacked in, what she wanted more from you.”
And just like that, an idea pops in my head.
Shit, I should have talked to my sister first; she’s the professional matchmaker, after all.
“Julia, that’s brilliant.”
“Yeah, what are you thinking?”
“My plan was brilliant too,” Bram says, sounding insulted in the background.
Ignoring him, I say, “She always wanted me to open up more, to show more of my true self, my fears, and the reasons I am the way I am.”
“That’s a valid thing for a girl to want to know about the guy she’s going to marry.”
“Yeah, it is, but when it came down to it, I was too scared to open up for fear that she was going to run like Vanessa did. That’s why I was so adamant about not using the ring as a threat. But now that I know I can’t live without her in my life, and that I’m willing to do anything to win her back, it looks like I’ll be opening up with a grand gesture.”
“Did someone say grand gesture?” Bram asks, coming up behind Julia. “I can help with doves, tell me where to send them.”
Feeling lighter for the first time in a while, I shake my head. “No doves, but I do have a lot of work to get done. You guys enjoy the rest of your honeymoon; sorry for disturbing it.”
“Any time, big guy,” Bram says. “Let us know how it all pans out.”
Julia blows a kiss at me. “We’re rooting for you.”
I say my thank yous and hang up. Tomorrow morning is not that far away, and if I’m going to make this work, I need to get moving . . . now.
Chapter Thirty-Two
CHARLEE
Watching those old-time movies, I’ve always wondered why they used walking the plank as a punishment. Yeah, you can get eaten by sharks or drown or possibly make friends with sea mammals and live a prosperous life. But when I was young, I never really understood the fear with that movement, until today.
Riding the elevator with a list of ground rules in my purse, I feel like I’m walking the plank.
I showed up at work yesterday with a semi-open heart. I wanted to see where Rath stood and then go from there. But when I saw how standoffish he was acting, I knew right away, there was no possibility of reconciling what we had. If he was open to talking, he would have. But instead, he shoved me out the door with a list of things that kept me away from the office, and then his comment about letting me go, saying it’s something we can talk about.
That was the nail in the coffin.
So, riding up this elevator, I’m not expecting much today other than a massive amount of heartbreak and a cold boss.
Resigning to my new life, I lean against the side of the elevator and watch the numbers count up until they reach eighty-eight where the car slows and the doors open. Head down, I walk into the empty office and accidentally bump into something.
“Oh shit,” I say, catching it before it falls on the ground. An easel with a poster board is attached to it. What the hell is this? When I straighten the easel, I take a quick glance at the picture of a child and then notice the few sentences below it.
The picture is of a young boy wearing baggy jeans and sporting a bowl cut. He’s missing some teeth and he’s cheesing it big time despite the many gaps in his smile. I take a closer look, the face so familiar, and that’s when I realize it’s Rath.
What the hell is going on?
I look past the easel and farther onto the floor where I see popped-up poster boards lined up all the way to his office, each with a picture and description.
With a shaky hand, I cover my mouth in awe and read what it says.
In second grade, they called me hillbilly Westin because my teeth came in all weird and diagonal. I passed it off as just friends joking around with me at the time, but I know it’s why I’m so crazy about dental hygiene now.
I move to the next picture. It’s Rath in a baseball uniform too big for his little body. His hat falls over his brow and once again, he’s smiling brightly at the camera.
I read the text.
I thought I was going to be a baseball player one day. Professional. I had it all planned out in my head, wrote tons of books about Rath Westin, major league baseball player. Too bad I sucked at it and couldn’t get past little league.
I chuckle and move on to the next.
Poster board after poster board provide snippets of Rath’s life. I learn that he’s afraid of swimming, because he almost drowned once with Julia. He lo
st one of his best friends in fifth grade, because the boy’s father was drinking and driving with him in the car. It was the first loss of his life, and he still hasn’t recovered from it. Once he realized he wasn’t bound for the field as a professional, he wanted to go to ASU where he could party and get an education, but his parents wouldn’t let him settle for anything but Yale, and he’s glad they held him to a high standard. He never would have met Bram and Roark.
In college, he peed in hampers—as I already knew—but something I didn’t know, was that he actually helped raise over one hundred thousand dollars with his fraternity for their Big Brother charity, and that’s where he gained the love for philanthropic work.
He had a pregnancy scare in college with a girl named Suzie, and he was deathly terrified he was going to have to marry her and her hideous personality. She was the girl who tried to get knocked up by a future millionaire. Luckily, she wasn’t pregnant, and he kept her at a very safe distance.
He has always been protective of Julia, but especially in college where guys tried to take advantage of her all the time. She once was assaulted on campus, but he didn’t find out about it until later, once Bram had taken care of the guy for them. That’s when he realized if Bram ever fell in love with his sister, he’d be the first one to sign off on the relationship.
He once lost a multi-million-dollar deal because he fell asleep at his desk from working so hard on the proposal he forgot to send it. I chuckle over that one, because that’s so not the vigilant Rath I know now. Looks like he learned his lesson.
He hired a girl named Vanessa. There’s a picture of them together. She was his assistant and over time, he realized he liked her. He swore he wouldn’t get involved, but then he decided he’d give it a shot. Their relationship morphed into something different as the company grew and demanded more of Rath’s time. He ignored her; she got mad and left. They were both in the wrong, and they both claim to be at fault. In small font at the bottom, it says they’re on good terms but by no means remotely interested in each other anymore. That ship has sailed.
The next poster board doesn’t have a picture, but instead it says he’s never been in love. For a second, he thought he was in love with Vanessa, but that thought was completely debunked . . .
There’s an arrow pointing to his office, and my heart slams into my chest rapidly as I reach for the handle. I pull the door open and am greeted by a poster board. The picture he took of me is front and center and below it, it says, I never knew what love was until this moment right here. An excited, bubbly girl, gushing over office supplies, crashed into my life with incredible force and sass, and a part of me knew something extraordinary happened in that very moment and I captured it on her phone. This girl was going to rock my world in the best way possible.
Turn around.
Confused, I turn around and Rath is standing behind me. He’s dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a navy long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves pushed to his elbows. His hair is disheveled and it looks like he didn’t get one ounce of sleep last night.
He hands me a single piece of paper; it’s folded, and I take it despite my unsteady hands.
“Before you open that,” he says, his voice rough, “I need to tell you something.” On a deep breath, hands in his pockets, he says, “I didn’t hire you because I trusted Linus impeccably and would hire a pencil if he told me. I hired you because despite my unruly attitude, you stuck up for yourself, and your confidence made you absolutely stunning in my eyes. I knew I had to have you in my life somehow. I wasn’t sure at the time that it was going to be more than my executive assistant. I had no idea my feelings for you would become so strong and so deep, so I shied away from them. I tried to deny myself, but when I realized that wasn’t working, I used the first excuse I could find to grow closer to you. And that was where my proposal came in. I told myself, convinced myself, that it was going to be a good trade, but deep down, I knew what I was doing. I was covering up the opportunity I wanted to get closer to you.”
He takes a deep breath, rocks on his heels, and then meets my gaze. “I was desperate to be close to you, and I did just about anything to make that happen, even if it meant possibly hurting you. I was selfish, I went about it all the wrong way, and instead of trusting my instincts about you, every time I got close and scared that you’d take off, I pulled away. I held back a piece of myself, which I realize now, only pushed you farther away.” He grips the back of his neck and says, “I’m not saying I’m perfect in any way. I think we can agree that’s the truth from what’s happened between us. But I will say this. I know when something is right in my life and I’ve always trusted my gut. And my gut is telling me I would be committing my greatest failure if I let you walk out that door without this on your finger.”
From his front pocket, he holds out the engagement ring.
“I am desperately, hopelessly, crazy in love with you, Charlee Bag of Dicks. There’s no denying it, and there’s no stopping it. I was born with a piece of your soul inside me, and I want to claim it. Right here, right now.” He takes a step forward and takes my hand in his as hot tears stream down my face. “I love you, Charlee. I think I’ve loved you ever since you tried to kick me out of an office supply convention. I just didn’t know it at the time. And that’s because I’d never fallen in love before. I’m sorry for everything I put you through, but I won’t ever apologize for trying to get closer to you, because that was one of the best decisions I ever made; it brought me you, all of you.”
Kneeling down, he holds my hand and says, “Please tell me you’ll do me the honor of being my real fiancée, my forever bride, my one and only girl.”
Unable to see through my blurry eyes, I nod my head.
“Fucking hell,” he says, standing abruptly and taking me into his arms. He doesn’t kiss me. Instead, he holds on to me with a death grip, as if he let go, I’d float away. “Are you serious?” he asks, in disbelief.
I nod against his chest and gently push away so I can look him in the eyes. “I . . . I can’t imagine . . .” I sniff and pull myself together. “I can’t imagine what it would be like moving on without you. I thought about it all last week, convincing myself that moving on would be the right move, but every time I thought about having to say goodbye to you, to never seeing your handsome face again”—I shake my head—“I couldn’t even get through the thought without crying, which told me one thing. Even if I was hurting, you were still the cure to help me heal.”
I run my hand up to his strong jaw and cup it, reveling in the coarse hair that caresses it. “You’re all I want in life, Rath, just you. You’re the love of my life. I tried to convince myself you weren’t, but I knew it was all a lie. I knew there was no way I could deny my feelings anymore. I love you, Rath. I love you with all of my heart.”
A lonely tear falls down his cheek and I quickly catch it on my finger. He leans down, takes my head in his hand, and gently presses a kiss across my lips, testing it out before he dives deeper, demanding more, taking everything I’m giving him. Our tongues clash, our bodies cling to each other, and our breaths mix as we search for each other and air.
“I can’t tell you how fucking happy I am right now,” he says between kisses and then pulls away and takes my hand in his. “Come on, we’re taking the day off.”
“Wait,” I stop him. “What does the note say?”
Smiling, he nods at it. “Open it up.”
Feeling oddly nervous, I open the note and read it.
Charlee’s to-do list:
Forgive Rath and let him love you.
Smiling up at him, I reach into my purse, take out a pen and check off the box that’s next to the task and hand it back to him.
“All complete, boss man bridegroom. Now what?”
Pulling me in close, he kisses me again and says, “Now we get ready for the wedding.”
Epilogue
RATH
“It’s not a competition,” I say, annoyed with Bram.
�
��I know, but seriously, way to show us up with your romantic and intimate wedding. I can’t stop thinking about the candles and twinkle lights. I’ve never been in more of a dreamy atmosphere.”
It’s the morning after our wedding, my wife is tucked under my arm, and we’re enjoying brunch with our friends at our apartment.
Since we were in no hurry to get married—you know, because Grandma wasn’t really sick—we held off our plans for a year so we could get to know each other more deeply. Tuesday quickly became tell-all Tuesday, thanks to my office confessional I lined up for Charlee. So, every Tuesday night, we eat tapas and tell each other stories about our past. We’ve learned a lot about each other, maybe too much at times—Charlee getting her first period at her boyfriend’s house and having to use his underwear as a backup. But it was all worth it, because when I saw her walk down the aisle last night, in her grandma’s dress, I knew everything about the woman walking toward me.
I knew there was no way I could ever let her go.
I knew that despite her quirks and love for office supplies, I couldn’t live without her.
I knew that, because of her incredible eye for detail and talent, Westin Enterprises was about to unveil its own Westin Internal Planner. Color-coded. With a Spotify list for Fridays.
I knew after watching her delight my parents—who love her like she was their own daughter—that she was my future. I was a fool for not introducing them earlier on and it was one of the ways I was holding back from her, but then again, Vanessa was the only girl I had ever introduced to my parents, and everything turned to shit between us. Almost felt like a bad omen. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to Charlee. Looks like I went through the heartache anyway.
And I knew that even though she knew almost everything about my past, she still loved me for me, making me the luckiest guy on the planet.
We kept our original plans—a small wedding, super intimate, and we also kept crab cakes off the menu—don’t even get me thinking about them. I still become nauseous from the thought of that day. And even though the wedding was simple and small, it was perfect because it was all we needed.
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