I smoothed my hand over the soft leather of the seat and looked around, touched and amazed that Chance had gone through all of this trouble for me.
“You know, we have time, we should drive around a little and enjoy it, finish our cider,” Emma suggested.
I nodded. “Okay, sounds perfect.” I breathed a happy sigh and took another sip of the sweet beverage.
“Don’t we have to tell the driver?” I asked. “Chance probably told him to drive us to the school.”
Emma looked confused for a second. “Um, how about we drive through the center of town? We can do like they do in the movies and wave to everyone.”
I laughed. “That works for me.”
She leaned forward and knocked on the glass partition separating the front and back seats.
The glass slid open. “May I help you?” The driver asked.
She looked at me, trying not to giggle. “Oh! Um, yes. Could you please drive us to the park at the center of town?”
He tipped his hat. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Thank you.”
The window closed again.
Emma looked as impressed as I felt. She pointed to a button on the side of the vehicle’s interior. “What do you think that does?”
“I don’t know.” I looked around for directions.
“Should we do it?”
We giggled like schoolgirls, pressing buttons to try them all out. As much as I was having fun with Emma, I wished Chance were with us, too.
Soon we came up on the town square, where Chance and I first went on our walk together for our getting-to-know-you date.
The driver pulled into a space on the side of the road for parking. Well, it was more like two spaces.
“Do you think we have time to stop? What if the guys are on their way? Maybe we should try to check and see.” I reached for my clutch bag to find my phone, but she stopped me.
“Let’s just stop for a minute. Think how fun it will be to get out and feel like a movie star when everyone sees us all dressed up.” She paused. “Besides, they were only headed home when we left, and if they still have to shower and change and drive to the school, I’m sure we have plenty of time.” She begged me with her eyes. “And I know Chance would want you to enjoy yourself with it.”
She was right, he would. I smiled. “Okay, let’s do it.”
“Here, we can both get out on this side,” she said. “That way you won’t have to step out into the street.”
Emma stepped out first and stood a few steps back from the limo, twirling her skirt like she was in a movie.
“You look like a princess,” I said, laughing. I stepped out then, too, and when I did she moved aside, and for the second time that night I couldn’t believe my eyes.
White twinkle lights formed a path leading from the edge of the sidewalk all the way to the large gazebo where Chance and I sat and talked on our first date. But what really made me catch my breath were the flowers. There had to be hundreds of daisies—spilling out of clear bowls along either side of the lit walkway. And on the bottom step of the gazebo, looking more handsome than I’d ever seen him, stood Chance, waiting for me.
I could barely breathe. Tears filled my eyes.
Emma danced next to me, clapping.
“Did you know about this?” I whispered to her.
“Of course I did. Now, Eli and I will be waiting in the car.” I spotted Eli off to the side; I hadn’t noticed him before. “Now go meet your prince, he’s waiting for you.”
I nodded.
I didn’t have the words. I truly felt like a fairy-tale princess as I walked toward Chance, who waited for me with a huge smile on his face. I brushed a tear from my eye and hoped my mascara wasn’t running. After all he’d done, I didn’t want to look gross when he finally saw me.
He stepped forward as I got closer. I shouldn’t have worried about my mascara, because the look in his eyes as I approached made me feel like the most beautiful girl on the planet.
“You are absolutely stunning.” He smiled, his familiar smile with the dimple that I’d grown to love. He leaned in and kissed me, a feather-soft kiss that touched me everywhere. I didn’t know what I’d ever done to deserve someone like him.
“Chance, I can’t believe you did all of this. It’s…it’s…”
“Close your eyes.” He grinned.
I smiled back. It seemed like that had become our thing somehow. I shook my head, still smiling, and closed my eyes.
“Okay, now open them.”
I opened them to find Chance holding out a small printed photo book. Our Story was written in a scrolling script across the cover.
“Oh, Chance.” I opened the book. Each page contained photos of the two of us. The first was the night at the auction. In so many ways, that seemed so long ago. There was Chance and me splashing in mud at the petting zoo, skateboarding, sharing dessert at the fancy Italian restaurant, kissing in the library. They went on and on, so many amazing memories. I turned each page slowly, relishing every piece of the story that had brought us to where we were now.
I’d given up trying not to cry.
Chance softly brushed the tears from my face. “Sarah, I know you didn’t bid on me, and that’s okay. Because those daisies out there?” He gestured toward the beautiful walkway. “There are three hundred of them. And they represent me choosing you.” He smiled and brushed another escaped tear from my cheek. “I’m the real winner here, because the auction led me to you.”
I couldn’t form words. I couldn’t even imagine him doing all of this for me.
He took my hands and looked me in the eye. “I’m here, and I’m not leaving. I love you, Sarah. I am completely overwhelmingly in love with you.”
I couldn’t believe it. Everything I’d wished for, everything I’d been too afraid to even hope for, I had, in Chance. I couldn’t stop crying happy tears. I didn’t even care about my mascara now.
“I’m sorry that I pushed you away for so long. And I love you, too, so much,” I whispered.
The smile that slid across his face took my breath away.
“Would you just kiss her already?”
We turned. Eli and Emma both stood inside the limo, their upper bodies sticking out of the sunroof. They grinned and waved.
Chance and I looked at each other and laughed.
“Gladly,” Chance called back. And then he swept me into his arms and kissed me, a kiss that left no doubt in my mind that he loved me with his whole heart.
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Author’s Note
Treatments invented at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since it opened more than fifty years ago.
If you would like to donate to St. Jude, there are several ways you can show your support. Check out their website at www.stjude.org/give.
If you or a loved one would like more information about physician or patient referral services with St. Jude, call the Physician / Patient Referral Office: (888) 226-4343.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the support and guidance of my entire Entangled team—first and foremost, huge thanks go to my amazing editor Stacy Abrams. Thanks for putting up with all my questions and bouts of writer’s block. Also, a giant thank-you to Curtis Svehlak and to Hannah Lindsey, copy editor extraordinaire! You slogged through all my nonsense and made it so much better. Thanks to my publicity team, Riki Cleveland and Holly Bryant-Simpson. To Bree Archer, thank you for the awesome cover design! I couldn’t have done this without you all.
As always, I want to thank my family for all your love and support. Each and every one of you means the world to me. I love you.
A heartfelt thank-you also goes out to each and every person associated with St. Jude Children’s Research Ho
spital. What you do every day to make a difference in the lives of children in need is awe-inspiring and humbling.
About the Author
Jodie Andrefski has been passionate about reading ever since she was a little girl, when she used to climb trees to escape with a favorite book. She lives and writes in a New Bern, North Carolina, and has a grown son and daughter.
Andrefski often draws on her background in education and mental health counseling to bring real world experience to her writing. She is a firm believer in the magic of a first kiss, and insists that you should never, ever give up on your dreams.
Find her online at:
jandrefski.com
Twitter @jodieandrefski
https://www.facebook.com/JodieAndrefskiWrites
https://entangledpublishing.com/author/jodie-andrefski
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