by Britney Bell
She frets with me for another hour, and before I know it, there’s a knock at my door. My heart skips a little, and I have to take a deep breath to get a hold of myself. As Harper answers the door, I grab my purse and jacket to meet Tyler in the living room.
One step into the room and I’m halted by a wide sexy as hell smile greeting me. I follow his eyes as they slowly peruse my body from head to toe and back up again to meet mine. “You look gorgeous, peaches,” he says with a wink, and I’m still frozen to the same spot, not believing this is my life.
“Well… Alrighty then, you kids have fun tonight, and don’t do anything that I would do. Actually, no, that’s not right, do everything that I would do,” Harper instructs as she’s literally pushing us out of the door.
Tyler’s fingers intertwine with mine, and he bring my knuckles up to kiss them. “Are you ready?”
My answer flows easily as I look up to see the sweet look on his face and the desire in his eyes. “Yes, I’m excited to see what you have planned.”
He leans down kissing my cheek and whispers in my ear, “You’re going to love it,” and tugs me forward with our hands locked together.
The ride to the unknown location for dinner relaxes me and the comfortable feeling of being with Tyler sets in, yet the excitement and anticipation of what surprise is to come sizzles the air between us. I stare out of the window watching the city lights shine in the evening darkness as they fly by. We began to cross over a bridge and the lights reflect off the water creating a beautiful picture of midnight blue ripples. Tyler must hear my breath hitch at the sight and reaches over the car’s console to gently hold my hand in my lap.
“Are you going to tell me where we are going now?” I ask, trying to drag the secret out of him.
“We are almost there,” he replies bringing our hands up to his lips and kissing the back of my hand. Oh God, I am so into this man.
I tear my gaze from Tyler as he turns the car into a parking lot just past the bridge. It’s a sailboat marina, and my excitement kicks up a notch. I love to eat at restaurants overlooking the water. Is that what we are going to do?
He parks and we walk in the opposite direction from the marina shops. Now, I’m really confused, but I let him guide me, until we come to a stop right in front of a huge gorgeous sailboat. I can’t quite make out all the details through the dark, but I can tell that it has a large sitting deck and cabin.
A man dressed all in white with a captain’s hat emerges from the cabin and welcomes us aboard. “Good evening, Mr. Beckett, Miss Shipman. Welcome to ‘Lady Fairlane’, I am your captain this evening, Joe. Everything you requested, Mr. Beckett, is set up for you on the bow. If you should need anything else, I will be at the helm. Enjoy your night.” He politely nods to us both and turns to walk off.
Our hands are still connected, and Tyler pulls me to the front of the boat where my eyes land on a lamp that aluminates the beautiful set up. A thick soft blanket is laid out on the deck with another blanket atop and two pillows at the head. It looks like a bed on top of a sailboat, with a picnic basket set just to the side. I gasp in awe at the sight before me.
“Tyler…” My words fail me as I am speechless. He pulls me in closer and wraps his arms around me for a hug, kissing my forehead sweetly.
He says with a little chuckle, “I guess that means you like it.”
“Oh, yes. It’s amazing.”
“Just wait until we set sail in just a bit.” His cute little smirk lights up his face with mischief and seems to love how this date is playing out as much as I am. He’s obviously put a lot of time and effort into carefully planning tonight out, and it tells me everything I need to know about the type of man he is, kind-hearted, sincere and caring. “Come on, let’s sit down, so Captain Joe can get us moving.”
Lady Fairlane slowly makes her way out of port, and the new view before me is another breathtaking one. Houses line the lake with beautiful bright colored Christmas lights on full display. Knowing Tyler is right behind me, I lean back into him, relaxing and taking in everything. No words need to be spoken, just being here with him is enough.
Lost to the comfort and sight before me, I lose sense of time. Tyler has to remind me he has dinner in the basket beside us. So, we move around a little, still tucked in our blankets, and open the basket. It’s filled with fancy sandwiches, chips, strawberries and a bottle of Champagne.
He pops the cork, and fills our flutes to make a to-the-point toast, “To us.”
“To us,” I counter staring deeply into his eyes, seeing our complete future within the depths, and we clink glasses and take a swig to signify the beginning.
It’s simple and elegant – perfect.
We go through the winter months celebrating Christmas with our families, and for New Years Tyler flies us to a cabin in Colorado so we can celebrate the new year as a new couple.
After several months of Tyler repeatedly asking me to move in with him, he finally convinces me because I know that once the upcoming football season begins, our time together will be limited, and if we lived apart, it will be even worse.
So, right as training camp for Tyler began I start to move my stuff over. He wants to hire movers to come in and move everything, but I’m not comfortable with strangers packing everything I own up. I want to do it myself. Luckily for me, Tyler relented because Harper is now available to help. Unfortunately for her, she’s here to help because she found out that her boyfriend in a lying, cheating sack of shit. I always had a feeling that he was, just couldn’t put my finger on it. Well, it became apparent when she walked in his office and found him standing behind the desk between spread naked legs with red high heels flailing in the air while he pounded into the lady who was oblivious to Harper interrupting them.
A week ago Harper walked out of her ex’s office and came straight to my apartment, and she’s been here ever since. I know she is hurting, they were together two years and had lived together the last year, but in true Harper fashion she tries not to show her feelings. She hasn’t gone home and wanted to deal with it yet, she’s even been wearing my clothes. We made arrangements for her to take over my lease, so she is setup with a place to live, and I will be leaving all the furniture for her. It really was perfect timing, even though it sucks that she has to be going through this.
We’ve all decided that Tyler and I will both go with her to pull all of her belongings out of the asshole’s apartment when we finish moving my stuff into Tyler’s house. When it’s moving day, Tyler ends up bringing a few of the players with him, so it only takes us a matter of minutes to clear her things and say good-riddens to that jerk.
Everyone gets settled into their new living quarters, and my work schedule begins again. I keep all my current clients, but am not currently taking on anymore. I want to have the freedom to go to Tyler’s games and be at his side to support him with his career also.
After a lot of boxes moved, a crazy month of training camp for Tyler, and loads of massages to help him get through the tough workouts, another Texas Tornados season kicks off.
THE END
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Want More Of Britney Bell
Sports Romance: Professional Football
Texas Tornados Series
Perfect Form, Novella 1
Personal Foul, Novella 2
Outside Blitz, 0.5
Trick Play, Novella 3 – Coming Soon
Fourth Down, Novella 4 – Coming Soon
Sports Romance: Professional Soccer
Game On, 0.5
Contemporary Romance
Cockpit Series
Cockpit Christmas, Prequel
Take Me Away, Book 1
Take Me Anywhere, Book 2
Take Me Completely, Book 3 – Coming Soon
My True Heart Series
Wild Heart, Book 1
Fake Hear
t, Book 2 – Coming Soon
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About Britney Bell
I’m a Texas girl... Yes, I can ride horses, but I prefer fast cars. Yet, I prefer country music to hard rock.
Raising two boys, life can get really manly with all that testosterone floating around. The spare time I do get between ball games and outdoor activities, I absolutely love the mental escape that reading romance brings, even if it’s in small increments. During the other ounce of my spare time, I write about what’s in my head as I’m sitting through all those sports events.
My passion is to bring you that escape. The one where you get lost so deep in the story that you lose all sense of time and actually do get to have a mental break.
XOXO
Britney Bell
...writing your escape
Acknowledgments
There are a lot of people to thank for making this debut Novella happen, and my appreciation for them is so much that words cannot even do it justice.
Reader, THANK YOU for reading and reviewing. Your support means the world to me, and I will always work hard to bring you an escape through words.
Clare Lesbirel, thank you for always being my rock and sharing your wisdom on this journey. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Autumn Archer, thank you for all of your encouragement to push me to keep putting the words on paper and for this beautiful formatting.
Jo Brown, ALAREON MEDIA LLC., thank you for keeping me on track, and holding me accountable to my timelines. Without you, this little story would still be half finished and sitting on my computer somewhere.
Britney Bell Beta Team, thank you for reading the first draft and taking the dedicated time to critique and answer questions to help Jordan and Tyler’s story flourish.
Allison @Allison Literary Services and Kellie Hart, thank you for all of your Content Editing genius-ness. You ladies taught me so much, and I’m excited to see my writing grow throughout this Novella Series and on.
6th Street Book Club, thank you for your attention to detail on the Copy Editing.
Shaun Walsh, PA extraordinaire, thank you for keeping me straight and always promoting me. You are amazing!
Love2ReadRomance, thank you for everything! Your hand has a huge imprint on Perfect Form: Book cover, teasers, cover reveal, ARC release, release blitz, formatting, proofreading, and your constant support is amazing.