“I started thinking about you and what you said—that I don’t get to tell you how you feel. You’re right. That wasn’t fair to you. You know what else? Your producer was wrong. You are actually the most romantic man I’ve ever met.”
That got a reaction. He scoffed a little.
But I continued on, dogged and determined. “Rooftop dinners are for guys out to impress. You know what’s romantic? Getting up at 3 a.m. to help me with a crying baby that isn’t yours. Romantic is making me a cauliflower pizza that you think smells like socks. Romantic is having silent sex so we don’t wake the baby. It’s dancing with me at Chelsea Pier with your suit jacket wrapped around me because I have stains on my dress.” I splayed my hands across his strong chest. “It’s your amazing ability to always put me and Sully ahead of yourself and how you stay calm and reassuring when I’m neurotic. That’s romantic, Maddox Malone. You can’t tell me otherwise.”
He was softening. He touched my hair, my cheek. “Why do you look like you’ve fallen in the river?” he murmured.
“It’s pouring.” I was wet and my clothes were uncomfortable and I was cold but I wasn’t leaving until he gave me some kind of answer. “And I ran twenty blocks to tell you that I love you and you’ve said exactly nothing about that.”
Drastic action was required. I always talked about a grand gesture. Time to stand by my convictions. Wobbling a little, I went down on a knee and took his hand. “Will you be my fifth first date?”
His jaw worked. “Savannah. Get off the floor.” He tugged my hand, and pulled me up. He cupped my cheeks and kissed me, a sweet, yet sensual kiss. “I love you too,” he said. “I will be your fifth and final first date. I am one hundred percent in. Forever.”
Relief and happiness flooded through me.
“That was always my plan, you know,” he said. “When I said I was picking out a fifth date for you I always meant it to be me.”
“So much for friends with benefits,” I said, gleefully, throwing my arms around his neck. “Whoops.”
“Now let’s really give you the ending you want,” he said.
I let out a startled laugh when he wrapped an arm under my butt and lifted me up. I found myself tossed over his shoulder. He held me with exactly zero effort on his part like I weighed nothing. I shrieked and held on for dear life, loving every single second of it.
“I’m taking you home.” Maddox carried me down the platform. “Roll the credits.”
Giddy, bouncing on him, I looked around me at everyone. A few people were watching, most looked unconcerned or disinterested. I couldn’t have cared less what anyone thought.
I’d gotten my perfect happily ever after and I was never letting it go.
Epilogue
“Jana sent me the link,” I told Savannah as we stood on the platform overlooking the skating rink. “Let’s look at it together.” I held my phone in front of us and made the video bigger. Then I hit play.
It was the trailer for Rebel Ink, which was due to debut in April.
The music was pounding and rapid, which quick shots of the shop, then they showed Travis doing a tattoo, then Jana and Stella snarking at each other. Samuel and Stella yelling. They’d clearly gone for the drama. Maybe I was on the cutting room floor. That kind of sucked.
But then there was a shot of me and Savannah sitting next to each other.
“Who doesn’t love a hot guy with some great tats?” she said.
Then it ended with the date it was being dropped, eight episodes available all at once to binge watch. I wasn’t exactly the star of that trailer, but I could have cared less.
“Wow, that’s so good!” she said, trying for perky. “This is exciting!”
She almost convinced me. Savannah was the world’s best cheerleader.
“That clip of me is ridiculous,” I said. “But I honestly don’t care. Filming a second season already is making it a hell of a lot easier to stay here.” I would have found a way no matter what, but having a steady job helped.
“I’m so proud of you,” she said.
I stuck my phone back in my pocket and smiled at her. “Thanks for going ice skating with me.”
It was almost Valentine’s Day. We hadn’t made it skating before Jana’s deadline but hey, at least I’d gotten her there.
“Unlike when I was a bitchy teen, I am planning to have fun.” She smiled at me. “Because you make me so very, very happy.”
“I feel the same way.”
My sister Kyle popped up between us. “Are we skating? Are we skating?”
Savannah laughed. “Yes, we are.” She put her hand on Kyle’s head and gave me an amused smile. “I’m so happy our families are here for the weekend.”
I nodded. She had no idea.
Her parents had been a little startled but actually thrilled with our relationship. I’d spent so much time with them over the years they were very confident in my character. Her mother had cried and her father had choked up when I’d asked him permission to marry Savannah.
Steve hadn’t been as thrilled, but he was getting over it. He just didn’t want details about our relationship and that was fair.
My family was ecstatic. Everyone liked Savannah and my parents didn’t think I needed to spend the next ten years screwing around. They knew that wasn’t my personality. They were over by the concession area with her parents and Sully.
I held my hand out for Savannah and we stepped into the rink as Kyle ran back to my parents.
Savannah wobbled a little and laughed but then found her footing. Then she stopped. “Wait, is that Mark? Over there?” She pointed to her right. She waved.
Shit. He and the crew were not supposed to be visible.
Mark pretended like he didn’t see her.
“We should go hi,” she said, because that was Savannah.
I held her back when she would have skated off in that direction. “Maybe in a minute. First, I want to ask you something.”
She turned back. “What?”
Something on my face must have given it away because her mouth dropped open. “Mad…”
Going down on one knee on the ice I pulled the ring box out and lifted the lid. “Savannah, I told you forever and I meant that. I know it’s soon, but I don’t see any reason to wait when we both know that we’re best friends who can trust each other. You’re my everything and I am never going to let you go. Will you be my wife?”
She nodded. “Yes! Are you kidding? Yes!” She bounced up and down in excitement.
I knew a grand gesture would get her.
I realized about a heartbeat too late though she was going down from her enthusiasm on skates. I couldn’t have stopped her fall anyway since I was on one knee. She screamed and I shifted so that she would land on me instead of the ice. Her elbow went straight into my gut.
“You meant to do that,” I told her. “Right?”
Savannah laughed breathlessly. “Exactly.”
We kissed, and I breathed in the crisp cold air and what it felt like to be in love with Savannah and about to be her husband.
“Did she say yes?” a loud voice called from the side of the rink.
It was Steve, looking begrudgingly happy for us.
“Yes. She said yes.”
Our families standing together erupted into cheers and applause.
“Was this Jana’s idea?” Savannah laughed, when we saw her suddenly jump out from behind a couple.
Jana was jumping up and down and cheering. I’d had to let her be a part of the proposal given how invested she’d been from day one in our relationship.
“No. This was all me. And for the record, the fire escape was all me too.”
She threw her arms around me. We were surrounded by tons of people and yet it felt like no one else existed but the two of us.
“That’s because you’re Mr. Romance.”
“Don’t ever call me that again,” I said wryly.
“Maddy?” she teased.
“Stop.”
&nb
sp; “Number five?”
Now she was really enjoying herself. “You’re getting colder.”
“Prince Charming?”
I grimaced. “Anything but that.”
Savannah gave me a smile and a kiss. “I think I’ll just call you mine. Now get me off this ice.”
Thank you for reading Five First Dates!
Want more rom com?
One-click below for a sexy read with a Happily Ever After! See what happens when Felicia needs a green card…
* * *
FORTY DAY FIANCÉ
* * *
Admittedly, my first plan was a little crazy.
* * *
I had forty days to execute it. Find a fake fiancé, move in with him, and convince the powers-that-be that we’re madly in love.
* * *
Surely this British girl can sweet-talk a few American officials.
* * *
Step One: the sexy, wealthy doctor I’ve been chatting up agrees to my plan--with a demand of his own. A baby. An actual ring. A for-real marriage and family. Turns out, there’s someone more bonkers than me.
* * *
Step Two: I now have forty days to convince my fake fiancé that we can’t be real.
* * *
Because there’s no such thing as love at first sight--right?
About the Author
USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author Erin McCarthy sold her first book in 2002 and has since written almost eighty novels and novellas in the romance and mystery genres. Erin has a special weakness for tattoos, high-heeled boots, and martinis. She lives with her renovation-addicted husband and their blended family of kids and rescue dogs.
* * *
Want to be the first to know about new releases and fun giveaways? Sign up HERE.
And to have fun on Facebook, join Erin’s reader group!
Also by Erin McCarthy
Weekend Wife
Forty Day Fiancé
Who’s the Boss?
Holiday Husband
Halftime Husband
Five First Dates Page 19