by Karen Booth
Her eyes drifted halfway, then suddenly popped open. The look of surprise on her face made him wonder if he’d scared her. “Oh, my God. You’re here.”
He sat back as she pushed herself to sitting then lunged for him. They landed in a heap on the floor. She kissed him at least ten times. Maybe more. All he could think was that if this was his reward for all of the pain and misery he’d been through, it was absolutely worth it.
“You’re back. You’re here. I was so worried.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call. My phone died and it took some time to get a new one in Costa Rica.”
“That’s where you went?”
He nodded but held his finger to his lips. “Yes. But we can’t tell anyone. That’s where Sandy is. I got her relocated. It took some doing with setting up offshore accounts and getting her into the country in the first place. But she’s good. She should be safe. From Victor.”
“Sterling got the Seaport contract. Tara called me earlier today.”
“I heard.”
“Does that mean Victor is gone? For good?” Andrew was going to spare Miranda the details, but it was safe to say that Victor would not be coming back. Andrew had hours of audio of Victor detailing his various schemes, most of which were illegal. Andrew’s only ask for not handing them over to some of Victor’s more notorious partners was that Victor disappear.
“He is. He’s gone, darling. Nobody has to worry about him anymore.”
Miranda sat up, her legs curled up under her body. “Darling? You’ve never called me a pet name before.”
Andrew pushed himself to sitting. “Huh. I guess I haven’t.”
She smiled wide. “I like it a lot.”
His heart began to hammer again. “Good. Because I need to ask you something.”
She shook her head. “No. Hold on. There’s one thing I need to tell you first. If that’s okay.”
He laughed quietly. She was so adorable when she was being pushy. “Of course. Whatever you want.”
“I realized when you were gone how much I need you. And how many things I left unsaid while you were here. About what you mean to me. About the void you’ve filled in my—”
He shook his head wildly. “Hold on. I feel the same way, Miranda.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “Can I finish? Please? I’ve got this all rehearsed in my head and I don’t want to forget a word of it.”
“Yes. Of course.” How could he say no when she was crying?
“I can’t lose another person in my life, Andrew. I can’t lose you.”
“I love you,” he blurted. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t wait anymore.”
Now the tears were rolling down her cheeks even faster. “You do? Because I love you, too. Please tell me you won’t leave.”
“Please tell me I can stay.”
She nodded and he slipped his hands into her silky hair, pulling her face to his. They drifted into the kiss and Andrew let fanciful thoughts swirl in his head, even when he was normally not inclined to give in to such things. This felt like the start. A fresh one. Full of bright promise. Even with everything that had gone wrong in his life, he still felt lucky. He had love and good fortune. He was about to have a family if she answered his question the way he hoped she would.
He reared back his head and pulled the box out of his pocket, opening it for Miranda. “Will you marry me, Miranda? Will you be my wife?”
He wasn’t sure exactly what her reaction would be, but he hadn’t expected how eagerly she would wipe away her tears and thrust her left hand forward. “Oh, my God. Yes. I would love to marry you.”
Andrew removed the ring from its safe spot and slipped it onto Miranda’s finger. “It was my mom’s, and it belonged to my dad’s mom before that. It’s quite literally the only Sterling family heirloom that exists. I had Pietro get it from Seattle while I was getting Sandy settled.”
“You did that? For me?” She admired the ring with a flutter of her lovely fingers.
“Do you like it? Be honest. You can tell me if you don’t.”
“I love it. I absolutely love it. It’s beautiful. It has so much character.”
“Good. Because the other person I tried to give it to thought it was ugly and wanted something else.”
“That should’ve been your first sign.”
She might be right. “Probably.”
Her gaze returned to his face. “I know this couldn’t have been easy. Proposing a second time in your life.”
A breathy laugh escaped his lips. “You want to know what’s funny? I never even thought about that. I was nervous, but only because it was you. I wasn’t anxious about the actual question.”
“Why would I make you nervous? We’ve grown so close. You can tell me anything at all. I will not judge you.”
“It’s precisely that. You always believe in me. Even when you had reason to not feel that way. I worry a bit that I’m not worthy, but I think that’s normal. You are pretty amazing.”
“You’re the one who’s amazing.” She leaned closer and gave him a soft kiss that warmed him from head to toe.
He couldn’t wait to get her upstairs. He got up from the floor and reached down for her hand. “Come on. Time for bed.”
“Sleeping or bed?”
He laughed and gently pulled her along toward the stairs. “Bed, if that’s okay with you. I want to make love to my fiancée.”
Miranda stopped before they started their ascent. “I’m so excited you made it back in time for Christmas.”
“I told you I’d be back. I wouldn’t have missed it for the whole world.”
“I can’t wait to subject you to all of my favorite Christmas Eve traditions tomorrow. Baking cookies. Lighting a fire. Listening to Christmas music.”
He wasn’t sure what to say. What sort of words match the moment when you realize you have it all?
“I’m sure it sounds like a lot,” she said.
He didn’t hesitate. He swept her into his arms and started up the stairs. “Honestly, it sounds like all I ever wanted.”
Epilogue
Four months later
Baby Chloe was crying. Miranda knew it was just a ploy, but she watched as Andrew totally fell for it.
“Shh. Shh. It’s okay.” He scooped her up out of the baby carrier and gently placed her over his shoulder. “There’s no need to cry.”
“You don’t have to pick her up every time she cries, you know.” Miranda walked up behind him and lowered her head to get the baby’s attention. Chloe’s eyes lit up and she unleashed her new, toothless grin when she spotted her mom. Miranda’s heart swelled to twice its size. This was a regular occurrence. It happened several hundred times a day, especially since Chloe started to smile a few weeks ago.
“It kills me when she cries. I can’t help it.” Andrew turned so he could look Miranda in the eye. Damn, he was sexy with a baby in his arms. “You can tell me to stop it, but I doubt I ever will.”
“I forgive you. I just don’t want her to get spoiled.” Miranda glanced at the clock on the wall. “Oh, shoot. We’d better pack up the car or we’re going to be late.”
Andrew grabbed the diaper bag from the kitchen counter and began sifting through it with Chloe still in his arms. “Plenty of diapers. Change of clothes. Wipes. Pacifier. Oh, no.” He turned to Miranda. “Where’s her inchworm?”
Chloe had a stuffed inchworm sewn of soft fabric in a rainbow of colors. It was small enough for her to wrap her tiny fingers around and hold on to it. “I think it’s on the sofa.”
“I’ll get it.”
“I can do it,” she said. “You can put her in her carrier.”
“I’d rather wait until the last second. She’s just going to start crying.”
Miranda shook her head, grabbed the diaper bag and walked around to the other side of the couch, findi
ng the inchworm. “This is the last second. Tara will be furious if we’re late.”
“So much buildup to this thing. You’d think someone was getting married or having a baby.” He nestled Chloe into her seat, and sure enough, she started to wail the second he had her strapped in. “We’d better hurry up.”
They hustled out to the car and Andrew clicked the carrier into its base in the back seat of Miranda’s SUV. He rushed to start the car. As soon as the engine rumbled to life, Chloe stopped crying. He was visibly relieved. “Next stop, Seaport Promenade?”
“Hard to believe the day has finally come to break ground on this thing. I don’t know about you, but I’m relieved. And ready to stop hearing about it.”
“I swear it’s all anyone talks about lately,” Andrew said.
Of course, Miranda knew very well that Andrew was relieved. In many ways, today was about him facing Johnathon one more time, but this time, he was armed with vindication and the knowledge that he’d done right by everyone, even himself. Johnathon’s legacy would be sealed, but Andrew had a life ahead of him with Miranda and Chloe. It didn’t need to be said that Andrew knew he was the lucky one, after a lifetime of feeling like he’d been on the losing end of that relationship.
They arrived downtown a few minutes later and Andrew found a spot near the convention center, which meant a short walk to the promenade. He unloaded Chloe’s stroller and tossed the diaper bag into the storage basket while Miranda put in her seat. They were a well-oiled machine by now, nearly two months after Chloe’s arrival, but it hadn’t always been like this. The first three or four weeks were rocky, all three of them operating on too little sleep because Chloe had been colicky. She’d arrived on February fourth, so at that point, Miranda and Andrew were still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, even though they hadn’t yet tied the knot. There was nothing like sleepless nights and too few showers to test a partnership. But they got through it and Andrew took to parenthood like a fish to water. He might be strong, and sometimes stolid, but he’d been putty in Chloe’s hand from the minute he laid eyes on her in the delivery room, and they both cried their eyes out at the miracle before them. It still felt like a dream some days. A beautiful, perfect dream.
They strolled down the sidewalk, enjoying the warmth of this sunny April day. They reached a break in the city buildings, one of the walkways to the place where the old Seaport development had once been. The demolition began in January, right after Sterling landed the project, and was completed in short order. Included in that was the destruction of the wedding pavilion, the one where Andrew would’ve gotten married if his fiancée hadn’t left him. Andrew had a bit of an epiphany that day, wondering aloud if perhaps Johnathon hadn’t had nefarious intent when he’d wanted to pursue the Seaport. Maybe he’d wanted to see it erased and brought back to life in a new form, one that wouldn’t have to cause Andrew so much pain. It was a lovely thought, and although no one had any way of knowing, he and Miranda had decided that would be the story they would tell the baby. For Johnathon’s many faults and missteps, he had been a good man with a big heart. And he’d been part of bringing the two most important people in Miranda’s life, Chloe and Andrew, to her.
When they emerged on the other side of the buildings, they spotted the construction site, ringed in chain-link fence with an enormous sign that read Sterling and Singleton Enterprises. That was another development since Christmas—in February, soon after the baby was born, Grant invited Andrew to merge his development firm with Sterling Enterprises. It was a natural pairing, plus Andrew wasn’t going anywhere and it seemed foolish of him to branch out into San Diego development and attempt to compete with the company his brother had started.
In turn, Andrew felt it was only right that Grant’s last name finally go on the company letterhead. Andrew kept the Seattle office open, but only went up once a month or so, and only overnight. He never wanted to be far away from San Diego or Miranda and the baby. I need my family, he’d say whenever he decided that he couldn’t bring himself to be gone for more than twenty-four hours.
There was a small crowd assembled, upwards of fifty people, most of them Sterling-Singleton employees or the press. To the far side stood Astrid and Clay. They were in the midst of planning their wedding, which was set for June on the beach in Coronado. They’d wanted to wait until Delia was out of school so they could take her to Norway for a month and introduce her to Astrid’s homeland. Miranda had never seen her brother happier, and that, in turn, made her own happiness that much brighter and more complete.
“Hey there,” Clay said, when Andrew and Miranda rolled up with the stroller. “Where’s my beautiful niece?”
Andrew pulled back the sunshade a fraction of an inch and peered inside. “She’s sleeping.”
“Well, can I see her?” Clay asked.
Miranda and Astrid laughed, hugging each other. “They’re so funny,” Astrid said.
“That’s one word for it,” Miranda added.
“Folks, we’re ready to start,” Tara’s voice announced over a loudspeaker. She and Grant were both standing with hardhats on and shovels in their hands. Alongside them were the mayor and several members of the city council. Andrew had been invited to participate in this part of things, but he’d decided against it. Andrew said it didn’t matter that he was the Sterling part of the company name now. He’d rather stand with his family.
“We’ll keep this short so everyone can enjoy this beautiful day,” Tara continued. “With that, I’ll turn it over to Grant Singleton to make the dedication.”
Grant took the microphone from his wife and kissed her on the cheek. “Sterling Enterprises has been fortunate to be a part of this community for more than fifteen years, but it’s always been in the private sector. Yes, we’ve built some beautiful, state-of-the-art buildings in this city, but this project is the one that will ultimately mean the most. It is my sincere hope that this will be a place for the citizens who live here, and those who travel to visit our amazing city, to gather for years to come. And with that, let us break ground.”
Grant, Tara and several members of the city council poised their shovels in the artfully arranged mound of dirt at the entrance to the construction site. After a count to three, they all dug in, officially breaking ground on the redevelopment of the Seaport Promenade.
The crowd erupted in applause, which noticeably put Andrew on edge. He peeked inside Chloe’s stroller to check on her. “Okay. Good. She’s still asleep.”
Miranda laughed quietly, then leaned in for a kiss. “I love you, Andrew.”
“I love you, too.”
They both looked on as Grant, Tara and the other local dignitaries shook hands. “You know, I’ve been thinking,” Andrew said. “What if we got married here? When it’s all done?”
That was the one piece of their happy ending that hadn’t happened yet. Miranda hadn’t wanted to walk down the aisle at eight or nine months pregnant, and they were still adjusting to Chloe’s arrival. Ahead of them was Clay and Astrid’s wedding. Perhaps Christmas would work well. It was Miranda’s favorite time of year.
“Really? You want to do that?” she asked. “This place holds some bad memories, doesn’t it?”
He shook his head and looked over at her, shielding his eyes. “Miranda, darling, you need to know something.”
“What’s that?”
“With you in my life, there are no more bad memories. Only happy ones.”
* * *
Don’t miss the other two romances in
Karen Booth’s exciting miniseries,
The Sterling Wives:
Once Forbidden, Twice Tempted
High Society Secrets
Available from Harlequin Desire!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Claiming the Rancher’s Heir by Maisey Yates
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Claiming the Rancher’s Heir
by Maisey Yates
One
Creed Cooper was a cowboy. A rich, successful cowboy from one of the most well-regarded families in Logan County. He also happened to be tall, muscular and in possession of the kind of good looks a lot of women liked.
As a result, nearly nothing—or no one—was off-limits to him.
No one except Wren Maxfield.
Maybe that was why every time he looked at her his hands itched.
To unwind that tight bun from her hair. To make that mouth, which was always flattened in disapproval—at least around him—get soft and sexy and get all over his body.
And he had that itch a lot, considering he and Wren were the representatives for their respective families’ vineyards. Rivals, in fact.
And she hated him.
She hated him so much that when she saw him her eyes flared with a particular kind of fire.
Fair enough, since he couldn’t really stand her either.
But somehow, years ago, a piece of that dislike inside him had twisted and caught hard in his gut and turned into an intensity of another kind entirely.
He was obsessed.
Obsessed with the idea he might be able to use that fire in her eyes to burn up the sheets between them.
Instead, he had to listen to her heels clicking on the floor as she paced around the showroom of Cowboy Wines, looking like a smug cat, making him wait to hear whatever plan it was she’d come to tell him about.